With minor-league coach Webster Garrison still in intensive care and on a ventilator after being diagnosed as having COVID-19, the A’s might be leerier than most teams about the prospect of playing baseball as early as next month.

“I know our organization would likely be opposed to anything that has risk,” manager Bob Melvin said in a text to The Chronicle, emphasizing the A’s focus on employees’ health. “Not only because of Webster, but in general.”

ESPN and other outlets reported that Major League Baseball officials have contemplated a scenario in which clubs would stay in isolation in Arizona and play in empty stadiums there beginning in May. MLB clarified Tuesday that nothing has progressed past the discussion stage, saying in a statement, “While we have discussed the idea of staging games at one location as one potential option, we have not settled on that option or developed a detailed plan.”

Shortstop Marcus Semien, the A’s player representative, emphasized the exploratory nature of talks, saying, “A lot of the media wants to write about this idea already, but it’s such a rough draft. There is no plan yet. It’s just an idea.

“It’s not fair to jump all over it yet and be all for it or all against it. Everyone should slow it down and know there’s a world in which we might be able to do this.”

Melvin noted that when concerns about the coronavirus surfaced in pro sports leagues in early March, the A’s took it seriously from the get-go.

“We didn’t encourage our guys to come into our complex immediately after. In fact, we tried to discourage it, and as it turns out, it was the right thing to do,” he said. “We also haven’t laid out any guidelines on how to stay ready. We aren’t going to tell a player to go throw a bullpen or whatever, and they end up getting the virus.”

A’s outfielder Mark Canha said via text that were the sport to return, he hopes MLB and the union do so “with a mindset of striving to be socially responsible and altruistic. ... This is all really preliminary. That’s their job, to come up with potentially good ideas for when we are able to play.”

Longtime team physician Dr. Allan Pont said that he could see the sport getting under way under certain conditions, particularly if and when there are early treatments that prove effective. A vaccine might not be available for a year and a half, and even then, he cautioned, vaccines typically are not 100% effective against seasonal viruses.

Pont believes if all players, their families and support staff who come into direct contact with them are tested, quarantined for two weeks and then remained in isolation for the duration of the season, baseball could return to, at least initially, empty stadiums, but the proposition would not be risk-free, particularly for older staff members and employees.

“If you set frequent testing, everyone who plays the game is negative and then you do fever checks and exposure would be limited to just the games for everyone — the umpires, the groundskeepers, anyone involved — then you go back to your hotel or condo complex where you can all hang around, it could work,” he said. “Provided all the hotel staff, waiters, everyone else in a supportive role, can do the same thing. You have to be sure everyone around them doesn’t have the disease.”

Easier said than done for a sport that, even with the most bare-bones staff, including clubhouse and stadium personnel, security and catering workers and a skeleton TV crew, would include more than 200 people between two teams. Pont noted that testing can include false negatives, complicating things. And what happens the first time there is a positive test?

“If someone gets sick, you have to stop and say, ‘Where the hell are we?’” Pont said. “If one person gets it, you have problems on many levels, because you’ve got so many surfaces, so much equipment.”

If MLB and the union are in favor of moving ahead with federal, state and local support, though, Pont said it might be feasible, though he believes participation at any level should be voluntary.

“The reality is that it would be extremely complex, a lot of work and extremely expensive, but you could create a system with daily testing, if the players want to play — well, losing a full year is a big deal for them,” Pont said. “It is a risk, but everything we do right now is a risk. Going to the grocery store is a risk. You have police and nurses and grocery workers and street cleaners who are going to work every day.

“There’s no 100% safety guarantee, but baseball players would be a lot safer than most people. They’re young, healthy guys, but the risks are not zero. They’re significant.”

Semien would be in favor of thorough testing to launch the sport again, but only if mass testing is available to the general public, too. If quick, accurate testing is ubiquitous, he believes the season could be played.

“If everyone is negative, we could do this safely, and I think getting baseball back up and running would be great for people,” Semien said. “We would definitely be helping people if we could get a product back out there on television. It’s just not a good time right now for everyone, so we’ll see if baseball can do its part while being as safe as we can.”

Susan Slusser covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser