[Ed. – MLB has suspended Spring Training and delayed the start of the regular season by at least two weeks . Original post follows.]

The writing was on the wall last night with the NBA’s decision, and it was only a matter of time before MLB joined the national efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 by preventing large groups of people from spreading the disease more rapidly than our health care system can handle.

The first step is going to be suspending Spring Training:

Hearing from folks in Grapefruit League that spring training is expected to be suspended here. — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 12, 2020

There is a feeling of inevitability among executives that Major League Baseball will be suspending spring training as soon as today, sources tell ESPN. — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 12, 2020

Official announcements are coming, and it could include an initial wave of postponements for the start of the season:

Baseball officials have been meeting all day on its coronavirus plan. The expectation is that there will be some sort of announcement today. — Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) March 12, 2020

Nothing official from central baseball yet. Every exec/personnel I talk to today expects an MLB announcement that will impact the playing of spring games and probably regular season start as well. But AGAIN nothing official from MLB office. — Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) March 12, 2020

We’ll keep tracking as things change by the hour. Jason Heyward understands why it matters that even young and healthy ballplayers join the process:

Jason Heyward: “I’m more worried about going and saying hello to my parents. They’re 62, 63 years old. I got teammates with kids. Relatives. I’m just more worried about that – the safety of everyone else that may not be able to fight it off.” — Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) March 12, 2020

UPDATE: Today’s Cubs-Dodgers game has been cancelled, but not necessarily because a league-wide suspension is coming. For now, it’s just the weather: