Nationals’ Sean Doolittle gives honest thoughts on bringing baseball back during a pandemic

“Sports are like the reward of a functional society,” Sean Doolittle said.

Major League Baseball’s 2020 season is set to begin later this month, but players are, understandably, proceeding with caution as some areas of the United States struggle to contain the coronavirus outbreak.

As of Friday, 31 players tested positive for COVID-19 in the league’s first round of testing, and the list of players who are opting out of the shortened season continues to grow.

Washington Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Sunday that two of 60 Nationals players tested positive so far, but some are still waiting for their results. Pitcher Sean Doolittle also spoke with reporters Sunday and explained that he was tested for COVID-19 on Friday and Sunday, despite still not yet receiving his test results from Friday, The Washington Post‘s Jesse Dougherty reported.

More from USA TODAY Sports‘ Bob Nightengale:

However, just because Doolittle is leaning toward playing for the abbreviated season, he still has some concerns about the safety of players — and fans, should they be able to attend games at some point.

When asked about owners talking about possibly having fans at ballparks later this season, Doolittle offered a thoughtful answer about sports returning during the pandemic and what people can and have a responsibility to do. Simply: “Please wear a mask.”

The left-handed reliever said:

“It does, like, bring to mind kind of where we’re at in our response to this as a country. Like, we’re trying to bring baseball back during a pandemic that’s killed 130,000 people [in the U.S.] We’re way worse off as a country than where we were in March when we shut this thing down. And like, look at where other developed countries are in their response to this. We haven’t done any of the things that other countries have done to bring sports back. Sports are like the reward of a functional society, and we’re trying to just bring it back, even though we’ve taken none of the steps to flatten the curve, whatever you want to say.

“We did flatten the curve for a little bit, but we didn’t use that time to do anything productive. We just opened back up for Memorial Day. We decided we’re done with it. Like, if there aren’t sports, it’s gonna be because people are not wearing masks because the response to this has been so politicized.

“We need help from the general public. If they want to watch baseball, please wear a mask, social distance, keep washing your hands. Like, we can’t just have virus fatigue and think, ‘Well, it’s been four months. We’re over it. This has been enough time, right? We’ve waited long enough, shouldn’t sports come back now?’

“No, there are things we have to do in order to bring this stuff back. And now you want to bring fans back? Is that safe? I mean, I don’t know. I’m not a public health expert. But we should probably defer to them on some of these issues. So I don’t know if it’s safe or not. I really don’t know. But that doesn’t seem like something that — I don’t know if that feels like a good idea or not.”

Afterward, Doolittle expanded on his thoughts about player safety with a short Twitter thread Sunday. As The Athletic‘s Britt Ghiroli reported, Doolittle said the Nationals don’t have the PPE, including masks, that they should.

And on Twitter, he explained he’s sharing his concerns because he wants baseball to return but also wants people to be safe.

Players reported to training camp on July 1, and the 2020 MLB season is expected to being on July 23 or 24. The regular season should have 60 games in 66 days, setting up the postseason for late September or early October.

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