The White Sox will be all about preparing for three weeks in Chicago for a 60-game season while trying to adhere to 100 pages of health and safety protocols for playing baseball in the midst of a coronavirus pandemic.
They’ll be about getting better. About being ready to pitch, hit and field like a postseason caliber team. They’ll be about “a must-win mindset,” Lucas Giolito said.
“We have a talented team, if we get off to a hot start and guys are playing well, that could put us over the edge into the playoff picture where we want to be,” the All-Star right-hander said.
But there will be some levels of anxiousness and uncertainty.
“I don’t think anyone feels 100 percent comfortable,” Giolito said.
“With Covid kind of back on the rise in [some] states it’s going to be imperative that as players we do everything we can do away from the field. Practice social distancing, stay safe, not exposing ourselves to any risk at all in the sense of going out somewhere or being around a lot of people. We’re all going to have to come together, maybe have a conversation like, ‘Hey if we want to get through this whole season and not worry about this as a team we’re really going to have to hunker down away from the field.’ ’’
Catcher James McCann, following Giolito on a conference call Friday, is the Sox’ player representative. Asked if baseball should be played now, McCann said he would have given a resounding “yes” a week ago, before recent virus spikes in some states. But he knows the season has to start by late July as planned. He also knows things can change in a hurry.
“The virus is going to be here, I don’t think there’s any way around it,” McCann said.
Giolito, meanwhile, has stayed on a throwing program while in Sacramento, California, throwing to high school, junior college and minor league hitters in simulated game type situations, getting up and down three times. From conversations he’s had with other Sox starters, they are on similar paths.
“I’m trying to get my innings in at a 15-20 pitch range, going through my entire warmup routine,” Giolito said. “That’s where I’m at. Communicating with Coop and Has [pitching coaches Don Cooper and Curt Hasler], and we’re going to have a program going forward.”
Giolito is also being mindful of not licking his hands and spitting, in accordance with the new rules.
“It’s very tough because it’s like second nature if you’re that kind of guy when you compete,” he said. “There are definitely things you have to make adjustments for but it’s all for the greater good, so I’m going to have to start practicing for sure and read up on those rules.”
Three weeks “will have to be” enough time to get ready, Giolito said. That said, he envisions being ready to pitch six or seven innings in his first start.
The NBA and NBA Players Association announced Friday that 16 players tested positive for the coronavirus from 302 tests conducted Tuesday, an ominous reminder of the pandemic’s ongoing threat as baseball presses forward. Baseball has had more positive tests than that, but not among Sox players and staff, general manager Rick Hahn said Thursday.
“We are trusting the experts. We are trusting science. We are trusting data,” Hahn said. “And following the lead of experts in the public health arenas.”
Protocols will be adhered to, Hahn said.
“In the end you trust the job that has been done at the league level, the players association level, the use of experts and science and data,” he said. “You put your best foot forward in making this work.”
