Worcester Red Sox’ inaugural season delayed

The Worcester Red Sox will have to wait a bit to start their inaugural season and open up Polar Park.

The Triple-A season is being delayed by at least one month, according to an ESPN report, and teams will operate with alternate training sites similar to what was used during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

Worcester was scheduled to begin its first season as the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate on April 6 at Scranton Wilkes-Barre, while the home opener at Polar Park was supposed to be on April 13 vs. Lehigh Valley.

“Teams are hopeful the delay allows for the vaccination of players before they are sent to their minor league affiliates, which came under the management of MLB this winter,” the ESPN report said. “Vaccinated players would allay concerns with teams about players arriving from minor league sites and immediately joining clubs without a quarantine period.”

The hope is that the Triple-A season would begin the first week of May, around the same time that Double-A, High-A and Low-A are expected to start. Triple-A teams are expecting their seasons to run into September, according to the report.

It’s uncertain how many players will be at the alternate sites, but the expectation is that there will be about two dozen, according to ESPN. In 2020, teams had 60-player pools, and those that weren’t on the active major-league roster trained at the alternate training site to stay ready or continue development.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3q7ZKPv