Dodgers News: Dave Roberts Talks Issues Getting Out of Country Players Back into the US

Yes, baseball is back but there’s a key element to a successful MLB season. Players. The Dodgers and all clubs have until 4 pm ET on Sunday to submit their extended 60-man rosters/player pool ahead of the July 1 report date for spring training 2.0.

A greater majority of Dodger players expected to be on the original 26-man roster for the season seem to have already made the pilgrimage out west to Los Angeles and have been working out at Dodger Stadium. However, there is still an unreported number of players scattered across the country making the trek to LA next week. Manager Dave Roberts talked about it on the latest episode of the Off Air with Joe and Orel podcast.

For our guys — if you’re talking about the potential 60 [man roster] — for both sites, I think it’s less than a handful.

Moreover, according to Roberts, the several players that are out of the country looking to get expedited work Visas as they make their way to the US.

With passports and Visas and things like that, Scott Akasaki our travelling secretary kind of handles that… but from what I understand it’s not a problem as far as getting the guys that we do need to get back into the states.

As play-by-play man Joe Davis mentioned, MLB is working closely with the US government to get flights chartered from particular countries in an effort to alleviate the struggles clubs may endure in setting up travel.

So it seems that the club should be at full strength before the scheduled first team workout set for July 3rd. …provided COVID-19 testing doesn’t turn up too many positive cases.

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