Rob Manfred lays out MLB's coronavirus testing plan

One player testing positive for the coronavirus would not require Major League Baseball to shut down its season — or require a team to miss a game — commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday night on CNN.

In discussing the 2020 season, which has been delayed until at least early July, Manfred said every player will be tested more than once per week. If a player’s test comes back positive, he will be quarantined and those who came into contact with him — those who are most at risk of also being infected — immediately will be tested again.

“Nothing is risk-free in this undertaking,” Manfred said.

Those and other details are outlined in MLB’s 80-page document of health and safety protocols that it is submitting to the Players Association for input and approval, part of the parties’ larger talks about how to stage a season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The multiple tests per week will be supplemented by less frequent antibody testing, Manfred said. MLB is teaming up with the Utah-based Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory — which normally handles the sport's minor-league drug testing — to help facilitate the testing regimen.

Manfred said MLB, which paid to help convert the lab into a COVID-19 testing facility, has been “assured” that SMRTL can turn around tests within 24 hours. Players also will be subject to daily temperature checks and symptom analysis.

“We feel comfortable that by doing multiple tests a week and trying to minimize that turnaround time, we're doing everything humanly possible to make sure that the players are safe,” Manfred said.

If someone tests positive, he will be isolated, but the experts MLB has consulted said the 14-day quarantine — widely recommended to the public — is not necessary, Manfred said. Instead, players with COVID-19 will be released when they test negative twice within 24 hours.

“We're trying to mitigate that risk with the repeated point of care testing to make sure that people who have had contact have not been exposed, and by obviously removing those individuals that have a positive test,” Manfred said.

And if all of that doesn’t offer enough comfort for an individual player?

“We'll hope that we'll be able to convince them that it's safe,” Manfred said. “At the end of the day, however, if there's, you know, players with either health conditions or just their own personal doubts, we would never force them or try to force them to come back to work. They can wait until they feel they're ready to come.”

Manfred said he has been in touch with the leaders of all 18 states that MLB plays in and “most governors expressed hope that we would be able to use facilities, initially without fans.”

Then there is the issue of money, which seems to be the biggest obstacle to having a season.

Manfred said if there is no season at all — which is possible if MLB and the players’ union can’t agree or if the coronavirus crisis doesn’t improve enough — team owners would lose a combined $4 billion, which is $133.33 million per team.

“While playing in empty stadiums is not a great deal for us economically, our owners are committed to doing that because they feel it's important that the game be back on the field and that the game be a sign of a beginning to return to normalcy to American life the way we've always enjoyed it,” Manfred said.

Players already have agreed to an approximately 50% pay cut — by virtue of the prorated salaries agreement in late March — but owners want them to take further cuts. MLB’s idea is for a 50-50 revenue-sharing system (though it did not officially present the idea on the first day of negotiations Tuesday), which the union objects to because it views it as a salary cap.

Manfred said he is optimistic that the sides can figure something out.

“Whenever there's a discussion about economics publicly, people tend to characterize it as a fight,” he said. “Me personally, I have great confidence that we'll reach an agreement with the Players Association.”