On MiLB Opening Day, Poldberg Waits at Home

If not for the coronavirus pandemic, Omaha manager Brian Poldberg would’ve been opening the Pacific Coast League season with his team in Memphis Thursday night. Instead, he has been spending this week tackling a to-do list at home as the metro area continues to social distance due to COVID-19 concerns.

“That’s never been a situation that we’ve dealt with," he said. "Right now, it’s fine. You’re worried about the safety of your family and all the different people that have to deal with this. This, to us, is very minimal compared to the rest of the country.”

Omaha has yet to be affected by the virus to the extent of some of the U.S. hot spots, but the metro area has been social distancing for nearly a month. The Storm Chasers suspended all activity at Werner Park on March 12, immediately after Minor League Baseball announced a delayed start to the season.

Poldberg was in Arizona for Spring Training at the time. After spending a few weeks in the Kansas City camp with the Royals, his minor league group had just gotten together when Major League Baseball announced it was stopping all activity due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Everyone was then sent home.

“We were close to getting going full speed, but we really hadn’t gotten to any point where we were going to have an idea of who we were going to get out of the big-league team,” Poldberg said. “When we got sent down, it rained for two days so we couldn’t even get on the field. Everything hit at once.

“We never even got into a group meeting with our team. Our first day down was Wednesday, and it started raining then. Everything was in the cage Wednesday and Thursday. And they said, as of Friday, that nobody could report to the ballpark. I really didn’t ever have a meeting with the Triple-A team.”

Kansas City hadn’t gotten far enough into Spring Training at that point for the Omaha roster to be set. The Royals had, however, made a few transactions that had some players headed for the Storm Chasers.

Former top pitching prospect Kyle Zimmer, lefty reliever Gabe Speier, third baseman Kelvin Gutierrez and speedy outfielder Nick Heath were among those optioned to Omaha last month. All-PCL starter Foster Griffin, right-hander Scott Blewett and catcher Meibrys Viloria were slated to be Chasers as well.

Whether any of the pitching prospects from Kansas City’s vaunted 2018 draft class will join them had yet to be determined. But Poldberg had a chance to watch some of them compete for the Royals this spring.

“I got to see the young arms in big-league camp,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of things to look forward to. To see how many are going to start with me and how many are going to stay in Double-A is kind of a thing we were starting to talk about. That’s kind of put on hold until we get back and get started again.”

Most of the positions on Kansas City manager Mike Matheny’s initial roster appear to be set, but the battles for the final spots will continue when Spring Training resumes. Poldberg said it was clear that that Royals will prioritize defense under their new skipper, who takes over after Ned Yost’s retirement.

“We did a lot more fundamental-type stuff than we have in the last few years,” Poldberg said. “I think (Matheny) is going to be really meticulous. We’re not a high-potent offense so we can’t give up any. We’re going to try to minimize the things we can do on the defensive side to keep runs to a minimum.

“We’re going to have a younger team than we’ve had in a long time, and it puts the emphasis that this is what we’ve got to do. Whit (Merrifield) has been there for three or four years, and (Alex) Gordon’s got a significant amount of time. And some pitchers do. With a younger team, (Matheny) is a really good fit.”

Matheny will finalize his season-opening roster when his team reconvenes after the public health concerns have subsided. Poldberg will then find out which players will be in Omaha to open 2020.

“The longer it goes, the more it changes probably,” he said. “They said they’re not sure what they’re going to do, (perhaps) an abbreviated Spring Training down in Arizona. There are a lot of different possibilities. But until it gets to a point where you can get a group together, there’s nothing finalized.”