Dodgers News: KBO offers glimpse of MLB return

The Korean Baseball Organization is set to return in early May and includes a couple of former Dodgers players.

Los Angeles Dodgers fans, and MLB as a whole, have been clamoring for the return of baseball in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. The league has been working feverishly behind the scenes to determine what sort of season can be salvaged, all while waiting for some indication that it is safe to move forward.

Well, a league on the other side of the Pacific Ocean may provide some glimpse as to how that happens.

According to Jee-Ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency, the Korean Baseball Organization is set to announce on Tuesday their plans to return to play in mid-May. The goal will be for the league to limit its preseason schedule to just four games, with the hopes that the league can fit in as many games of its standard 144-game schedule as possible. That would involve several measures, including scheduled double-headers, limited off days, and limited travel between teams.

Much of this is very similar to what we’ve heard Major League Baseball discussing as well, with the league focused on utilizing Spring Training facilities to limit travel for teams and the use of double-headers to get as large a season as possible. And like the KBO, MLB intends to push its season into November to try and fit in as many regular season games as possible. We’ve already discussed how some players (like Dodgers catcher Will Smith) are amending their offseason plans around a potential late-season finish.

However, there are some interesting notes in the piece by Hoo on the measures that the KBO will take to keep their players safe. Players will be asked to wear masks when moving throughout the stadium and locker rooms (but not while on the field), and there will also be directions about limiting high-fives and hand-shakes, while also banning spitting. Players will also be tested (via temperature and a general health questionnaire) before every game to ensure that players are healthy when exposed to one another. Umpires and non-player personnel will be required to wear masks and gloves throughout the game.

Of course, there will also be contingencies if a player does test positive. A positive test will send a player into a two-week quarantine, along with any other players determined to have come in contact with the said player by a government-appointed epidemiologist. The stadium and facilities that were exposed will also be closed for two-days and undergo a thorough cleaning. The league will then determine whether the extent of the exposure warrants a complete stoppage of the league.

With the United States (and Canada) being several weeks behind South Korea in terms of the spread of the disease and the flattening of the curve, MLB will have ample time to review how the KBO measures work and what can be implemented on this side of the pond. Now, MLB won’t be able to get in a full 162-game season and still finish by November, especially if they can’t get underway until June or July at the earliest, but the similarities in control measures will likely be similar.

Former Dodgers playing on the KBO

In the meantime, Dodgers fans can perhaps look to the KBO to satisfy their need for baseball during these dry months. Of the foreign players that are currently on KBO rosters, two former Los Angeles Dodgers players will suit up in a few weeks.

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Dodgers fans will surely remember Jose Miguel Fernandez. A former star on the Cuban national team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Fernandez signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers on January 11, 2017, after previously defecting from Cuba. Fernandez would spend one season in the Dodgers organization, splitting time between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City and hitting a combined .306/.367/.496 with 16 home runs and 65 RBI as a 29-year-old.

Surprisingly, Fernandez would be released following the season, likely due to an injury that kept him off the field from July 29 of that year. However, he would latch on to the cross-town Angels before the 2018 season. He would receive 36 games and 116 AB with the big club in Anaheim, hitting a respectful .267/.309/.388 with two home runs and 11 RBI. However, the Angels would also release him at the end of the season, as they deemed his production and age were just not worth a 40-man roster spot.

With MLB no longer a possibility, Fernandez opted to go the KBO route and had a tremendous year in 2019. In 144 games for the Doosan Bears, he would hit .344/.409/.483 with 15 home runs, 34 doubles, and 88 RBI, finishing second in the league batting race. He’ll return to Doosan again in 2020.

Another former Dodgers player that is hoping to continue to take advantage of the notoriously hitter-friendly league will be Jamie Romak. The first-baseman has spent the last three seasons with the Sk Wyverns and crafted quite the career for himself there. The 27-year-old has hit a combined .283/.376/.554 with 103 home runs and 266 RBI. He has placed second in the league in home runs in each of the last two seasons and finished fifth in the category in 2017.

Don’t worry if you have trouble recalling Romak’s time in Los Angeles. The journeyman joined the Dodgers organization in 2014 on a minor-league deal. In the midst of a season where he was hitting .280/.335/.538 with 24 home runs and 85 RBI at Albuquerque, Romak got the call to Los Angeles in the wake yet another Carl Crawford injury. However, he would receive just 21 at-bats across 15 games, hitting .048/.130/.095 in his cup of coffee.

While not necessarily the Dodgers baseball we were all hoping for, at least there could be something to keep up occupied for a few weeks more. And if it offers us just a little hope of an MLB season as well, then we have one more thing to root for.