Let’s get the obvious out of the way. 2020 is weird and the 2020 MLB season is weird. Opening Day is in late July. The season is 60 games long. Players are opting out of playing this season for health and safety reasons tied to the risk of COVID-19. Players and fans alike are reassessing how important baseball is in an uncertain pandemic, and the answers arrived at are varied.
Every day, we hear new reports of players being put on the IL for undisclosed reasons. But every reason that isn’t COVID-19 related has to be disclosed, so when a reason isn’t disclosed we are left to assume that it is because of coronavirus.