Trevor Bauer on MLB Network Radio: 'There's No Roadmap' for Players to Navigate to an Unknown Start Date

There are certainly far bigger issues to be resolved beyond the inconvenience of uncertainty for Major League Baseball players, but the lack of a known start date for the season is among the biggest difficulties for any player attempting to gear up for the 2020 campaign, whenever that might begin.

There are certainly far bigger issues to be resolved beyond the inconvenience of uncertainty for Major League Baseball players -- everyone has been impacted in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic -- but the lack of a known start date for the season is among the biggest difficulties for any player attempting to gear up for the 2020 campaign, whenever that might begin.

“It’s like going to Google Maps," current Reds pitcher and ex-Indians starter Trevor Bauer said on MLB Network Radio, "and putting in, ‘I want to go there, give me directions.’ And Google Maps says, ‘Where is there?’ And you’re like, ‘I don’t know.’ There’s no road map. You can’t get to somewhere when you don’t have a destination. It’s a really odd time.”

Odd is one way to describe things.

As Bauer pointed out, even when it's deemed safe to finally begin the season, ramping back up won't be simple.

"At what other point," Bauer said, "are you not sure when your season starts? Even when you end the season, you know it’s mid-February for big league camp, it’s first or second week of March for Minor League camp. 

"You have a start date. You have a schedule. You can plan this out, ‘OK, this month I’m doing strength, this month I’m doing power, this month I’m doing speed. I start throwing December 2,’ or, ‘I start throwing November 1.’ Whatever your routine is, you have an end date. You’re trying to get ready for a date. We don’t have a date. How do you get ready? We don’t have an end point.”

So, how does a big leaguer manage in the meantime? 

Bauer, like the rest of us, is trying to make the most of a situation that has, at the very least, disrupted everyday life.

“In my own head," Bauer explained, "from the time it started and just seeing what was going on, I kind of set an over-under as June 1. I kind of decided to take the time leading up to June 1 as offseason time, basically, and try to go into skill development mode, try to develop my skills, try to become better, a more capable athlete, a more skillful pitcher. 

"Now, knowing where we’re at, man, June 1 seems like I undershot a little bit. It’s probably going to be a little bit later. I don’t know. I’m optimistic that we’re going to get going before that. That’s kind of how I’m looking at it. I have the rest of this month. You have some March and then April, May, so I have 2 1/2 months, which is borderline an offseason. If you play all the way through the World Series, that is your offseason, you know?”

"I kinda set an over/under as June 1 ... now, knowing where we're at, June 1 seems like I undershot a little bit."@BauerOutage on how players are dealing with an unknown start date: pic.twitter.com/KxOG5XIbAr

— MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (@MLBNetworkRadio) March 18, 2020

It's reasonable to expect that the 2020 season could look much different than a typical MLB campaign, and the unknown start date plays a major role.