White Sox physician says safety measures are in place if baseball returns

Play has been halted for over a month, but it's still business as usual for major-league medical and training staffs.

If baseball does resume this season, the White Sox will be as prepared to get back in the game as possible.

"We have a very tiered approach to that," said Dr. Nik Verma, sports medicine surgeon, Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, and head team physician for the Sox. "Our strength and conditioning coaches and our athletic trainers are in contact with (players) every day to every other day. All of the players are being monitored for health and fitness and mental health and any other assistance they may need.

"All of them have their own dedicated programs. Our pitchers are being asked to go out and throw, and I've talked to some of them that are throwing a bullpen in the park down the street.

"They're just trying to find a way to get the work done that they need to get done. Anybody who has either a resolving issue that we left camp with, an active issue or somebody that has developed an issue during their home program, those are the ones I'm connecting with directly through organized care, making an initial assessment, determine if they need to see a doctor locally."

The White Sox have been ravaged by injuries the past few seasons, but they were relatively healthy in spring training before camp was shut down on March 12.

Starting pitcher Lucas Giolito was held back a couple weeks with a strained chest muscle, new catcher Yasmani Grandal was slowed by a strained calf muscle and new starter Gio Gonzalez was dealing with some minor shoulder discomfort.

"If there is a sliver of a silver lining, trying to get guys healthy for Opening Day or the early regular season, those guys have now had an extended period to get back to full health if and when we do start to play again," Verma said.

Camelback Ranch, the Sox's spring home in Glendale, Ariz., is still open and there are still a "handful" of players on the 40-man roster and staff using the facility.

Under COVID-19 guidelines, only one player at a time can be at Camelback Ranch.

"They work with one individual trainer or coach to minimize personal contact," Verma said. "There are ways to make to sure guys are getting work done but still respecting all the requirements for social distancing and mitigation strategies that are ongoing."

The big questions remain - is major-league baseball going to play this season? If so, when?

"I don't want to speculate," Verma said. "MLB asked us not to. But when and if we are ready to play, or decide that there's a season, we're going to have to look at how much downtime elapsed, what the length of the season is going to look like, whether we're going to make modifications such as allowing a 40-man roster instead of the (26) out of the gate.

"I think all those things put together will help us make an educated decision regarding what's necessary. The one thing that makes us all very comfortable is the Players' Association, Major League Baseball, management and ownership and the players themselves, player safety has always been such a big part of baseball and I think baseball has invested heavily in it. So I think we all have that front and center in our mind, in terms of when it's safe to do it, from a COVID standpoint and injury standpoint, how do we make it safe to do it."

Like everyone else involved in the sport, Verma is hoping for the best.

"Speaking just on my own, I'm optimistic that just in the same way we're looking to open the mall in your neighborhood, it's the same way we need to look to open baseball," Verma said. "I think it's going to look markedly different from the way it looked (before), I think there's a high likelihood that if it does return, at least in the short-term, there may be limited or no fans.

"But I think all the same basic principles of having robust access to testing need to be in place for us to do that, because you can't have a situation where if somebody tests positive the entire league shuts down, just like you can't have a process where if somebody walks into my office and tests positive, the entire medical center goes down. We need to be able to test people early, take them out of circulation, test contacts, determine who's safe and then continue with whatever business activity we're doing. And once we get there in general society, I think those same principles will apply to figure out a way to have a safe baseball season."