Philadelphia Phillies

The Harper family is growing.  

Philadelphia Phillies star outfielder Bryce Harper and his wife Kayla announced Monday that they are expecting their second child, a baby girl. 

Krew Aron Harper, the pair's son, was born in August 2019. 

It's been quite the two years for the Harper family, from the slugger signing a 13-year, $330 million contract with the Phillies before the 2019 campaign to this season's postponed—and potentially canceled, if the players and owners can't come to terms on a labor agreement—season. 

Along the way, Bryce and Kayla have also doubled the size of their family. 

Eight people with the Philadelphia Phillies have tested positive for the coronavirus at the team's spring training complex in Clearwater, Florida.

On Friday, the team confirmed five players and three staff members tested positive for the virus and said the first positive test occurred Tuesday:

The names of those who tested positive are unknown, and none of them have been hospitalized, according to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia.

The Phillies are the first team known to have a COVID-19 outbreak. The Associated Press reported Monday that it had obtained an MLB letter that said "several players and staff" have tested positive for the virus, though no organizations were specified.

MLB owners and the MLB Players Association continue to negotiate a deal to play a shortened regular season in 2020. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Thursday that commissioner Rob Manfred rejected the players' proposal for a 70-game schedule and expanded postseason.

Per Sarah Hollenbeck of Tampa's ABC Action News, Florida reported a single-day record of more than 3,200 positive coronavirus cases Wednesday.

Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.

Pitching prospect Mick Abel, who was selected No. 15 overall by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2020 MLB draft on Wednesday, received a pretty cool introduction to the organization: a call from superstar outfielder Bryce Harper.   

According to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, Harper FaceTimed Abel, who didn't recognize the number but answered anyway. 

"I see his face pop up," Abel said. "I'm like, oh, that's Bryce Harper. What the heck?"

That's not a bad way to begin your professional career. Now the Phillies and Abel will be hoping that he someday joins Harper in the big leagues. 

Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Bryce Harper surprised Jared Kelley by presenting him with the 2019-20 Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year Award in a video posted Thursday. 

"I'm shocked and just excited. I know I've worked hard, and I've sacrificed a lot for this baseball. I never thought that this Gatorade Player of the Year...I'm just totally blessed," Kelley said.

Kelley is slated to attend the University of Texas but is also viewed as the No. 1 overall prospect for the 2020 MLB draft. The righty posted a 32-3 record with an 0.43 ERA during his high school career, and he was the winning pitcher at the 2019 Under Armour All-America Game.

"I thought I was just doing a call and they were going to talk about what I've been doing through this whole process and what I've been doing," Kelley told reporters on a conference call Thursday. "I had no idea they were talking to me about giving me this award. I got on the call and I was looking at Bryce Harper and I didn't know what was happening."

Kelley is the second straight Texas player to win the national honor, joining Bobby Witt Jr., who won last year. Witt was the second overall selection in the 2019 MLB draft and plays for the Kansas City Royals organization.

Like many other people, Philadelphia Phillies right fielder Bryce Harper has been playing video games while social distancing after stay-at-home orders became a reality during the COVID-19 pandemic.

His esports adventures have landed him a deal with gaming management company Loaded.

"Baseball will always be my No. 1 priority, but gaming gives me a fun competitive outlet to uniquely connect with friends, peers and fans," Harper said in a statement. "This partnership will help further fuel my passion for gaming, allowing for opportunities to grow my community and streaming presence."

Adam Stern reported the news for Sports Business Daily and The Esports Observer, saying the deal intends to "build out … Harper's game presence" through additional platforms, streaming techniques, sponsorships and collaborations. Stern noted the deal was in the works before the pandemic began.

Loaded also represents Fortnite star Tyler "Ninja" Blevins. Harper has consistently streamed himself playing Fortnite with Major League Baseball's 2020 season on hold.

According to Adam Hermann of NBC Sports Philadelphia, "Harper has been streaming himself playing Fortnite on Twitch almost daily during May."

Loaded founder Brandon Freytag weighed in on the deal:

"Bryce is a smart dude and Boras Corp. is a smart company for him, and this is about broadening his audience. In baseball, he's probably captured a good portion of the enthusiasts, whereas in the gaming world, there's not a lot of people that know Bryce especially if they don't watch baseball. Our playbook is to initially get him set up and comfortable with streaming … and certainly working with Boras on endemic sponsorships within the tech world."

Harper, a six-time All-Star, has nearly 14,000 followers on his Twitch account.

With no baseball games going on right now because of the coronavirus pandemic, Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper has been spending his time coming up with ideas for a revised 2020 MLB schedule. 

In an Instagram post, Harper's idea involves an NBA-like split, with east and west leagues replacing the American and National Leagues, a 135-game regular season from July 1-Nov. 15 and a 10-team round-robin playoff format held at a single location leading to the World Series:

"10 teams round robin format College World Series kinda style at the new Texas Stadium or whatever stadium/ stadiums are best. 3 game series. You win the series you move on. You lose you play the other loser in a 1 game wildcard. Winner of that moves on. Other team is out. Or you could play it in Vegas so you have the Strip Hotels and could use one hotel for all the guys and contain possibly? ⠀

"2 teams left 7 game World Series. They get 2 days off before the series. With those 2 days off you do a All Star Game and homerun derby. Could do the MLB awards as well at that time."

In order to accommodate a 135-game season, Harper noted he would have seven-inning doubleheaders on Sundays with every other Monday being used as an off day for all 30 teams. 

Roster size would increase from 26 to 30 players, with teams allowed to use a six-man starting rotation in order to preserve arms if pitchers wanted to do it that way. 

Harper's idea is dramatically different from the reported proposal that MLB currently has on the table. 

Per ESPN's Jeff Passan, team owners this week approved MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's proposal of a return-to-play scenario with the hope of starting an 82-game regular season in July with a schedule featuring teams playing only divisional opponents and interleague opponents in the same division (AL East vs. NL East, etc). 

The MLB Players Association has yet to approve the plan, which includes a 50-50 revenue split with the owners. Ronald Blum of the Associated Press reported the union believes the split is a "salary cap and a framework players will never agree to."

MLB canceled the remainder of spring training and postponed the regular season on March 12. The 2020 season was originally scheduled to being on March 26. 

J.T. Realmuto is a pending free agent after this season, but the two-time All-Star catcher admits to feeling unsure of his future amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking to The Athletic's Matt Gelb, Realmuto explained how the delayed start to this season hasn't allowed him to get a grasp on where things stand with the Phillies on a potential long-term deal. 

"There's a good chance that by this date something ... yeah, I would have known one or the other," he said. "So, there's uncertainty in our household, just not knowing what's going to happen. It has delayed the decision that we're going to have to make. It's really delayed what we know about our future."

MLB continues to formulate a plan for a shortened regular season. Owners approved a proposal for an 82-game regional season that starts in early July and a 14-team postseason. 

The MLB Players Association has yet to sign off on the proposal. 

Philadelphia acquired Realmuto from the Miami Marlins in February 2019 for a package that included catcher Jorge Alfaro and pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and Will Stewart. 

Realmuto lost in arbitration to the Phillies in February after filing for $12.4 million. The team countered with $10 million and won the case. 

The decision came after Realmuto had an inconsistent first season in Philadelphia. He set career-highs with 145 games played and 25 home runs, but his .275 average and .328 on-base percentage were his worst single-season totals since 2015. 

Per FanGraphs, Realmuto's minus-2 strike zone runs saved ranked eighth out of 10 qualified catchers last season. The stat measures a catcher's ability to frame pitches to get more or fewer strikes called. 

Despite that inconsistent play, Realmuto still led all catchers with 4.9 FanGraphs wins above replacement in 2019. He's one of the best all-around players at his position in MLB and has increased his home-run output each year of his career. 

The Philadelphia Phillies have reportedly committed to pay their full-time employees through the end of October amid the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Phillies managing partner John Middleton wrote the following in a letter to team employees that was obtained by NBC Sports Philadelphia: "The Buck and Middleton families have decided that there will be no furloughs or layoffs due to the coronavirus crisis through the end of our fiscal year [October 31, 2020] for regular full-time employees."

While there will be no layoffs for full-time employees, Middleton didn't rule out salary reductions: "While we will likely need to implement other cost-cutting alternatives in the interim to deal with our extraordinary loss of revenue, including possible salary reductions, you can be assured of your job and health insurance for the next five-plus months."

The 2020 MLB regular season had been scheduled to begin in late March, but MLB halted play during spring training as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the Phillies became one of the first teams to guarantee that they would pay their employees through the end of May.

Per Salisbury, the Phillies have more than 460 full-time employees when taking into account their offices in Philadelphia, the Dominican Republic and Clearwater, Florida.

Like most major sports leagues across the world, MLB remains suspended, and there is no concrete plan in place for when or if play will resume in 2020. If it does, it will almost certainly require teams playing fewer than the scheduled 162 games apiece.

A return could also see teams play with no fans in attendance, and they may even have to play all their games at one central location rather than their home ballparks.

Several different plans have reportedly been discussed, including having all teams stay in Arizona and play all of their games in the state. Options that would allow teams to play in their home parks have been talked about as well.

If the 2020 season does get underway at some point, it is possible that MLB will undergo a radical realignment for one season only with teams normally in the American or National League getting put in the same division.

The 2020 campaign would have run through October under normal circumstances, and Phillies employees now know that their jobs are secure through at least that date regardless of what happens with the season.

Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi is aware of the rumors circulating about a potential July 1 start for the 2020 MLB season. 

"I've heard some chatter about that as well," Girardi told WEEI's Angelo Cataldi Tuesday.

Former player Trevor Plouffe tweeted Monday that he's heard spring training will begin on June 10 and the regular season will start July 1.

Girardi said it would be "great if we could be back by then," but noted there are still some holdups.

"We're at the mercy of our federal and state government," the 55-year-old said. "I mean that's what we're at the mercy of. We have to make sure states are open and we have to make sure that there are plenty of tests and we're not endangering anyone, and once we figure those things out I think we'll be back."

Keith Law of The Athletic reported there is no official date set for a return and the July 1 rumor was false. 

The league has been on hiatus since March because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but executives have been considering potential options for a return.

C.J. Anderson of CBS Sports reported on a plan to hold games in Florida, Arizona and Texas to help reduce travel and limit exposure to the disease, but MLB apparently is hoping to produce close to a normal season.

"The preferred plan would be to start play in late June or early July with as many teams as possible playing in home parks," Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reported.

ESPN's Jeff Passan previously noted a July start would allow time for teams to play 80-100 games before holding the playoffs in November.

This could still be a challenge with each state enforcing different directives in response to COVID-19.

The 2020 Major League Baseball season was supposed to begin on March 26.

Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Aaron Nola is ready to start whenever the league determines it's safe enough to play amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It's going to be hot either way," Nola told ESPN's Jesse Rogers on Friday. "It'll be hot here in Florida. It'll be hot in Arizona. I don't mind the humidity more than the dryness. Wherever they want to play, I'll play."

The 26-year-old All-Star also commented on whether MLB could successfully quarantine all 30 clubs:

"I don't know. Only God knows what this is going to come to and when it's going to end. I feel like the first part is staying safe. We all want to play, but safety is first. As time goes on, we're going to get more answers, and hopefully they become more obvious, and this pandemic begins to pass."

Major League Baseball was reportedly considering opening the season "as early as May" by playing in isolation at empty stadiums in Phoenix and its surrounding areas, per ESPN's Jeff Passan on April 6.

CBS Sports' R.J. Anderson reported a different plan that would involve Arizona, Florida and Texas on April 22:

"Ballparks in St. Petersburg (Florida), Phoenix (Arizona), and Arlington (Texas) each have roofs, retractable or otherwise, that would safeguard against rainouts and other extreme weather, allowing for multiple games to be hosted at those sites per day. Theoretically, MLB could also ask teams stationed in Florida and Texas to drive three-plus hours to other MLB parks (Houston's Minute Maid Park and Miami's Marlins Park).

MLB has not confirmed a specific plan to return to play.