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Avila, Gardenhire ready to resume season

Posted at 12:57 PM, Jun 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-06-24 12:57:43-04

WXYZ — Baseball will be back in Detroit on July 1st.

Spring Training 2.0, if you will, starts as games are expected to begin in late July.

The excitement that baseball is back, but hesitation comes along with it, as the Coronavirus still has a heavy presence in the country.

"Once you get it taken away from you by COVID-19, we had to stop spring training, it was just gone, it's a fellowship in baseball, you play so many games and are around each other so, you miss those things," Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said.

General Manager Al Avila is prepping for all 60 participants to come and train at Comerica Park. The use of the home, visitor and auxiliary clubhouses will allow for players to be spaced out appropriately.

The biggest concern beyond the health and safety of players and personnel, is how the team is going to use some of the young players in the pipeline, who are on the fringe of playing in the majors, while not sacrificing a season to play during this shortened one.

Avila and Gardenhire plan to continue those conversations, while evaluating them as training camp gets back underway.