On March 13th, the Major League Baseball season was delayed four weeks. Now as of April 30, MLB players are facing a harsh reality; there may not be a 2020 MLB season. Still, many MLB players have hope for a season later down the line.

According to Sports Illustrated as of early April, MLB has said that they will most likely start the season once the quarantine is lifted. The idea is that since tickets have already been sold, the season would keep all the game dates that it possibly could. This means that the missed games that were originally scheduled during the quarantine, would be tacked on at the end of the original season. If this plan goes through, MLB fans may have a chance to see a full 162-game schedule.

In the past couple months of social distancing, many MLB players have been quite vocal on social media about their take on the current, hectic state of the world.

 One such player is San Francisco Giants Right Fielder Hunter Pence. He has been doing self-quarantine vlogs on Twitter to emphasize that, as Pence puts it, “Sports and events are being suspended but love, kindness, and humanity aren’t taking a break.”

This mentality was further exemplified when hundreds of MLB employees signed up to take part in a nearly 10,000 person antibody study. 

According to the New York Times, this study is an amalgamation of research from Stanford University and the University of Southern California. The goal is to test each MLB employee for covid-19 antibodies to see who has actually had the virus, regardless of previous symptoms.

A professor of medicine at Stanford, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, is leading the study involving MLB. 

“This kind of study would have taken years to organize outside of this setting,” said Bhattacharya 

According to the Times. “We’ve managed to do this in a matter of weeks.”

With all the hopeful ways MLB players have been contributing to our well-being during this worldwide pandemic, it would sure be nice to see them back on the diamond sometime soon.