Chicago White Sox: How long should new spring training be?

The Chicago White Sox and the other 29 teams could restart spring training in the near future and it needs to be determined exactly how long players will need to get conditioned enough for the regular season.

Chicago White Sox fans would be thrilled to watch their team, even from their homes, playing regular season baseball at U.S. Cellular Field sooner rather and it appears that could be on the horizon.

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported this week that MLB is finalizing a plan to return to playing that they will submit to the MLB Players Association for approval in short order.

According to him, the plan could possibly involve a return to spring training as early as June 10, with a regular season start date of July 1.

While it hasn’t been discussed too heavily, the way in which the league decides to have a second spring training could actually be very important for many players.

Pitchers, in particular, will need to get stretched out again so that they can handle the stress of pitching every fifth day throughout the entire season.

Hitters will also need some time to get ready, though, as Edwin Encarnacion noted (detailed by Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago).

“I’d just like to see pitches,” Encarnacion said. “It isn’t going to take more than three weeks. If they give us three weeks, I think I’d be grateful.”

Is three weeks enough for everyone?

It certainly isn’t too far off from what it would likely take for most players after stopping pay for almost three months by June 10, if that is indeed the return date.

I think it would really take four weeks to get this done for pitchers’ health sake, but three weeks could be done in theory.

That scenario would require stretching out pitchers quicker than normally required with possible rushed progression.

If that were to happen, the Chicago White Sox would possibly be at an advantage as Dallas Keuchel dealt with a similar situation in 2019 after signing with the Atlanta Braves in June.

Whatever the case, teams will have to make it work given the unprecedented circumstances of this time.

Four weeks would probably be preferable for pitchers, but they can certainly make this situation work if they believe this plan is safe for everyone involved.

It appears baseball could be seen in the South Side sooner rather than later.