Ross Stripling: Players would lose motivation under proposed Arizona plan

Dodgers reliever Ross Stripling is hoping for a Fourth of July start to the 2020 season, but casts doubt on feasibility of Arizona plan.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ross Stripling feels players wouldn’t be as motivated to play a 2020 season if they were forced to be quarantined in Arizona under 100 degree conditions and without access to their families. The right-hander provided his thoughts on Major League Baseball’s rumored “Arizona plan” during an interview with NBC Los Angeles over the weekend.

“I think it would be a weird product on the field, guys wouldn’t be as motivated, we’d be playing in 100 degrees in the summer of Arizona,” Stripling said in an interview he conducted while driving. “Why don’t we wait a month, get it to more of a safer place, and play a little bit less games.”

Stripling is hopeful a more practical option emerges that would allow the league to start the season on the Fourth of July, an obvious symbolic date to bring baseball back to America.

Under the Arizona option, all thirty teams would play the 2020 season in the Southwestern state, using Spring Training facilities and other venues, such as the Diamondbacks’ home park, to play an abbreviated schedule. In order to keep everyone safe from the spread of the novel coronavirus, players would be restricted in their travel outside of designated hotels and ballparks.

Several prominent players, including Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw, have voiced concerns about a plan that would require players to separate from their families for an extended period of time.

As MLB and the Player’s Association consider every possible option for scheduling a 2020 season amid a public health crisis, new proposals are being considered that would expand on the Arizona plan to include 5-10 additional states where social distancing guidelines are expected to be eased in the coming weeks and months.

Stripling continues to workout with a former college teammate. He recently noted that his training regiment is similar to a normal offseason, just with fewer people involved.

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While everyone hopes for baseball to return soon, there are obviously more important things to consider. As of Friday, Los Angeles County had 19,107 confirmed cases of the virus, leading to 895 deaths. For more information on Covid-19, please reference the CDC website.