TORONTO – Like everyone in these unprecedented times, life is in limbo for Phillippe Aumont.
The Canadian right-hander, a non-roster invitee on a minor-league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays, is still checking in at the club’s complex in Dunedin, Fla., amid the COVID-19 outbreak, but his bags are packed so he’s ready to leave for home in Gatineau, Que., as soon as possible.
When/if he gets paid, what he’s entitled to, what he should be doing – all that is up in the air, both for him and the hundreds of non-roster and minor-league players across professional baseball. Major League Baseball instructed teams to tell non-roster players that they should return home.
“I haven’t heard anything. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Those questions are yet to be answered,” Aumont said over the phone Monday. “I’m relying on some guys I know that we’ll keep in contact here and there, try to see if we hear anything, if there’s some sort of direction we need to go. But so far, I don’t have any answers — just trying to follow what everyone else is doing. Hopefully, I can be with my family in a couple of days.”
The 31-year-old is hoping that happens before an expected border closing, which will only add to the uncertainty. Fiancee Frederique and daughter Gabrielle left Florida for home last Wednesday, the day before the MLB shut down spring training camps, and are self-isolating with family right now.
Had they waited another day, Aumont said they would have waited out the shutdown in Florida. Now, he’s left eagerly awaiting a reunion, while also preparing to follow Canadian government guidelines for returning travellers.
“I’ll be 14 days in the house by myself with my dogs,” he said. “The fiancee and the baby are with the grandmother, they’re quarantined together. I’m going to follow the quarantine. It’s important so we can get rid of this as fast as possible. Try to be a good citizen and do my part.”
Doing so is crucial and if players remain at their spring sites, they’re too predisposed to keep working out to observe necessary social-distancing measures. That’s why the MLB and the players union need to reach an understanding quickly, as players are reluctant to leave out of fear teams will stop paying them.
For minor-league players, the uncertainty is more acute since they haven’t been paid yet. The Blue Jays issued a memo Friday instructing their minor-league players to return home, while non-roster invites to big-league camp have received similar instruction.
But the prevailing mentality is that, “If you stay here, they’re responsible for us, when we’re home, the team isn’t responsible for us as soon we head home,” said Aumont.
“In some ways it makes sense, it’s understandable. They take care of the guys on the roster and the non-roster guys …” he continued before trailing off.
“I’m just going to go back, I’m going to keep doing what I’ve been doing. Obviously, I’m going to have to modify a bit, try to stay as close to game-ready shape as possible if we get a phone call or email to report if everything starts to come back. But I have no idea what’s going to happen.”
Still, Aumont also knows his life could be even more upside down right now had he signed in Asia, something he considered doing. In fact, he secured assurances that the Blue Jays would free him from his minor-league contract if there was interest from a team there before signing.
“I thought about that,” said Aumont. “I told her, ‘Can you imagine if we would have gone all the way across the world where (coronavirus) is prime time? Oh man, it would have been chaos.”
As it is, everything is a lot. A season on hold. Careers in the grey zone. Salaries in limbo. Society on the verge of a collective shutdown.
“It is what it is, right? It’s not just us. All sports,” said Aumont. “There are plenty of people in this situation right now. I don’t have to go home and bang my head that I picked the wrong job. Everybody is shut down, not knowing what’s going on. We’ll see.
“This is worldwide. People’s health is at risk.”
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