SEATTLE — Deciding it was best to avoid the airports as the COVID-19 outbreak continued to spread, Marco Gonzales and his wife, Monica, packed up their rental car, and their dog Louie, and set out for Seattle.
They listened to podcasts and engaged in thoughtful conversation as they drove through the long, desert stretches of Nevada. They had Red Bulls and cold brew coffee to keep them caffeinated, and Gonzales crushed three bags of sunflower seeds to keep him awake during the 1,400-mile trip.
When they finally made it back to the Seattle area, where they live year-round, it wasn’t to watch Gonzales make his second consecutive Opening Day start for the Mariners in front of 47,000 people at T-Mobile Park, but instead to isolate at home, just as the rest of the community is, to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“We have some family and friends here, so when the social distancing stuff starts to calm down, this is the right place for us to be,” Gonzales said in a conference call with local reporters Tuesday morning. “This is our home.”
In the days leading up to baseball’s shutdown, Gonzales, who signed a four-year, $30 million contract extension in February as a cornerstone of this Seattle rebuild, was ramping up to begin his sixth season in the majors, and third full season with the Mariners.
He had made two Cactus League starts — his most recent on Feb. 29 now seems like ages ago — and an intrasquad start, and was pleased with his progression. He felt sharp, strong and ready to anchor Seattle’s rotation again, after posting career highs in wins (16), starts (34), innings (203) and strikeouts (147) in 2019.
Then, spring training games were canceled, and Opening Day was postponed. The league initially granted clubs continued access to their spring training facilities, but the Mariners shut theirs down less than a week later.
Now, with so much uncertainty surrounding when baseball will return, Gonzales has scaled back his throwing program, and completes most of his workouts in the gym he has set up in his basement.
“We have a full rack of dumbbells, treadmill, water rowers, kettlebells, bands — just a lot of things,” Gonzales said. “You can get enough of a workout in for sure.”
As for throwing, Gonzales is treating this peculiar break as if it were December, and throwing long toss with Mariners offseason pickup Patrick Wisdom.
“Right now, no bullpens, just kind of keeping my arm strength built up,” Gonzales said. “Keep it in this kind of sustainable stage of long toss right now for maybe a few more weeks, and then we’ll kind of work into some mound work.
“Fortunately we built up a lot of strength in camp and right now we’re given a chance to maybe add on a little bit to that, without creating more tension, without creating any injury or anything like that. We’re just trying to stay loose and maintain what we had.”
Gonzales said he hasn’t been to the ballpark, and doesn’t leave the house much. He and Monica take Louie for walks, and stay active outside by going on runs, but building a routine with so many unknowns is difficult to do, he says. Sometimes they find games to play at home, or work on puzzles.
“My wife would say that I need a healthy outlet to compete, so I’m trying to find that,” Gonzales said. “It’s been tough. I would say that we’re still trying to figure out what this year is going to look like in a lot of ways. But, I think once we kind of have a (season-opening) date on the books things will kind of become clearer for us.
“But, right now, just trying to find some outlets, trying to find some things to take up the time. It is an interesting thing for an athlete to go through, to have a start of the season on the books, and then to have that scratched. We don’t know when we’re going to start or if we’re going to start, so it is kind of a confusing time right now.”
Gonzales is the Mariners’ representative for the MLBPA, and has been involved in discussions between the Players Association and the league about how to move forward.
“There are things that are still up in the air, because we don’t know what our timetable looks like, but as for the play resuming, and the service time, the pay and everything that goes with that, I would say that the negotiations were healthy,” Gonzales said. “I think that we reached a great agreement for the players. And I’m excited for hopefully what this brings going forward because I think when we do have this kind of common issue, we did see that we were able to come together on an agreement.”
He said an important point for both parties is to play as close to 162 games as possible when the season begins — which could mean playing games into November or December.
“My primary concern is players’ health and safety,” Gonzales said. “So, if and when that line gets crossed, obviously we need to change what we’re doing. So, there will be a cutoff date where we won’t be playing games too late in the fall. Obviously, the weather is a huge issue for us up here. It’s an issue for other teams we travel to. So, there are concerns in there.
“But, I am in favor of getting in as many games as we can. I think it favors everyone — the fans, the ownership group, the players. I think it’s the right thing to do, and we’re going to probably have to get creative on how to do that. There’s been talks of doubleheaders, skipping off days here and there — there’s going to be a lot of things that we have to get creative with.”
Gonzales said communication with the Mariners has been frequent. Each member of the coaching staff has been assigned a group of players to check in with, and Gonzales said he’s also spoken with trainers about once a week for updates on his health, and to make sure he’s not showing any viral symptoms.
“The level of communication has been really, really good,” Gonzales said. “And, we have a players only group on a messaging service that we’ve been keeping in touch, and sharing the news that we’ve been hearing regarding the season.
“So, as far as communication-wise, it’s been really, really good so far.”
