MLB Media Members Owe Trevor Plouffe Some Acknowledgment For Breaking MLB Return News
On May 4, Trevor Plouffe, former MLB player and current member of Jomboy Media team, reported the following on his Twitter account:
Want some good baseball news??
— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 4, 2020
I just heard from multiple sources that on June 10th, Spring Training 2 will start. July 1st will be Opening Day and all teams will be playing at their home ballparks.
We’ll be discussing it in full on the next @TalkinBaseball_
It was a stunning piece of news. Out of nowhere, a former-player-turned-podcast-host was reporting potentially the biggest news of the MLB offseason on when the season would resume and giving hope to fans everywhere that baseball may be back soon. But because it came from a former-player-turned-podcast-host and no other national or even local reporters were confirming it, many in the media jumped on Plouffe's report, calling it false.
There's no proposed date for the MLB season to start. That rumor running around today is false. Sorry.
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) May 4, 2020
This is fantastic! It’s also untrue! @mlb folk have no idea where @trevorplouffe heard these dates, but ‘tweren’t from them. It could be somebody’s working idea. But there is no way my state, which hosts five teams, is ready to declare any date right now for games, even sans fans https://t.co/ae8J1nIjuE
— Henry Schulman (@hankschulman) May 4, 2020
There were more. Some were deleted.
Then, yesterday, Ken Rosenthal reported that the Indians were looking at a July 1 restart date. Later Wednesday night, Jeff Passan reported, and credited Plouffe, that the MLB was indeed in the works of a proposal that needed MLBPA approval for an early-July start. Rosenthal soon confirmed that report.
Suddenly, Plouffe was vindicated and he justifiably reveled in that fact.
This is not a shot at Ken! He was the only guy to reach out to me about all this. I’ve always respected him immensely. All I’m doing is relaying info to the fans.
— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 6, 2020
— Trevor Plouffe (@trevorplouffe) May 7, 2020
Both Rosenthal and Passan credited Plouffe for being the first to report the news. His initial report was a little rough around the edges because he definitively said June 10 and July 1 were the start dates, and the latest reports indicate early-June and early-July are target start dates that still need to be approved by the MLBPA. Still, Plouffe's reporting was based on credible insider information and those who questioned his sourcing and reporting owe him some acknowledgment for that.
Yes, Plouffe isn't an established MLB breaking news insider. And yes, he doesn't work for a highly-reputed publication. But as an eight-year veteran (he played for four teams from 2010-2018), he clearly still has connections within baseball and calling his reports a "rumor" or "untrue" just because he had inside information they didn't is inappropriate. It also proves his connections run deeper than theirs.
I'm not asking for an apology tour, and I imagine Plouffe isn't either. Some recognition from those who shot his reporting down seems appropriate, however.