Major League Baseball has announced that beginning August 5th, the season will be put on hold citing concerns of the recent monkeypox outbreak and the concern over impact on its games, its business and its extended family of players, coaches and fans.
This comes as the Biden administration declared the outbreak a national emergency, part of a growing number of jurisdictions declaring the outbreak an emergency, such as the World Health Orginization (WHO), as well as several cities and states.
The scheduled games for the remainder of Thursday, August 4th, and the remainder of the 2022 season will be postponed indefinitely.
So far, MLB has not confirmed any cases of monkeypox in their players.
MLB made the same move prior to the start of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, following the lead of the NBA, who indefinitely postponed the remainder of their 2019-20 regualr season on March 11, 2020 after a player on the Utah Jazz had tested positive. This lead would be followed by the NHL one day later.
The NHL and NBA are currently in meetings discussing what impact the current monkeypox outbreak will have on their 2022-23 campaigns and have not come forward with decisions to cancel/postpone their seasons.
“It’s really not about basbeball or money,” said MLB commisioner Rob Manfred in an ESPN interview. “This thing is just exploding to the point where all of a sudden, players and owners alike, you think about your family. You want to really make sure you’re doing this the right way. Because now it’s much more personal.
“We haven’t recorded cases among the league, but COVID-19 cases are already an undercount and have been. Knowing players could have monkeypox and not knowing it really raises concern, and the outbreak has been exploding around the world, so we have to make this decision.”
MLB narrowly avoided a shortened season this year when on March 10, the MLB Players Association signed a new CBA, ending a lockout that had started in December 2021.
This story will be updated as new details come in.