The Cubs return to the field tonight after a coronavirus-induced weekend off, and will face a coronavirus-induced spot starter in Adam Plutko after Mike Clevinger violated Cleveland’s team protocols over the weekend and was placed in quarantine. Plutko’s gotten fine results over his young career, but he’s no Clevinger. This is an advantage for the Cubs. Coupled with the rest produced from the Cardinals outbreak (if rest outweighs rust, in your subjective view), it can be said that the Cubs enter the week with two advantages.
Covid-19 is far too complex to be definitively deemed an advantage or a disadvantage. It’s a “we’ll see” to the utmost degree. The Cardinals, ravaged by the virus, could come back with higher immunity and an easier playoff path. Clevinger, sidelined but not sickened, could come back from quarantine well-rested himself, or avoid any outbreak that starts in the Cleveland clubhouse. Plutko could pull a Lou Gehrig and break out.
Beyond that, the coronavirus needs to be placed in perspective. Wins and losses are not as important as human lives, and the overarching sentiment is concern for those infected, in Major League Baseball and elsewhere.
With those two things established, though, it’s still fair to ask: Could the Cubs, and other teams who successfully avoid infection, turn this pandemic into an advantage?
The virus is mysterious enough and seemingly earnest enough that there’s no reason to be confident an MLB team could completely avoid infection while still playing this season. That said, there’s a lot that can be done to mitigate risk. It’s like making a good pitch—most of the time, it’ll work, even if sometimes, Bryce Harper mashes a walk-off grand slam, further convincing everybody you can’t win on the road and your 2019 season is toast.
So far, the Cubs have avoided infection, and the word—fairly earned or not—has been that they’re doing a diligent job of mitigating risk. Yes, the most significant purpose of this is keeping people healthy and helping slow the spread beyond the clubhouse walls. But keeping the roster intact is a nice collateral benefit, and perhaps a more significant motivator.
