We knew something was coming down the pipe, and here it is. In an effort to help slow the spread of COVID-19, Major League Baseball is joining virtually every other sport in the country and shutting things down for a period of time.

That means Spring Training is now over, and the regular season is being delayed by at least two weeks:

Statement from Major League Baseball: pic.twitter.com/0bWS5VTRPu — MLB (@MLB) March 12, 2020

There are a lot of unanswered questions right now, largely because I think the answers do not yet exist. Will there still be a full season, just shifted back by two weeks? Does that really work for the schedule? Or will these two weeks – or more – simply be lopped off the season?

Again, I don’t think MLB has an answer right now. Things are shut down, and then there will be a time to re-assess soon and make new scheduling plans. This is uncharted territory for everyone involved. It sucks. Hard. But it has been deemed necessary by experts. I am not an expert, so I defer to them.

We’ll have more soon. Until then, I cannot and will not stop emphasizing this particular point, which is why MLB and other sports leagues are responding so aggressively: