TORONTO — Behind the scenes, the wheels are in motion and baseball is plotting its hopeful near-term return.

As we know all too well these days, everything is tentative in nature, but according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, MLB is gearing up to send a “return-to-play proposal” to the players’ union, a step that will help move the two sides towards attempting to iron out some of the details.

That’s just one part of it.

While the league and MLBPA will have to find common ground on a number of issues — the overall plan, first and foremost, followed by safety and money, not necessarily in that order — before anything can be written in ink, there’s also the obvious fact that there’s still much progress needed on the health side of things that we all have a stake in.

The words that need to be emphasized right now are “ideas” and “targets.”

As MLB officials wait out this pandemic like the rest of us, there’s ample time to brainstorm, Zoom call, and talk about what could or couldn’t happen in the coming weeks.

Some of that has trickled out for public consumption.

Estimated and hopeful target dates are being discussed, as well as contingency plans that tackle worst-case scenarios, such as a virus resurgence that doesn’t allow teams to get back into some type of spring training during the month of June and the prospect of a lost season entirely.

On the team side, clubs are toeing the line between not wanting to jump the gun and trying to give players some sort of timeline that will help them prepare for what’s sure to be an extremely unique ramp-up period.

All of this while attempting to figure out which cities and stadiums are actually going to be available.

Despite some pushback from stars like Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw on a potential quarantine scenario, Toronto Blue Jays major league coach John Schneider is having conversations with players who are eager to get going once the safety concerns can be assuaged.

“Just talking with our guys, and we have a younger team, they want to play,” Schneider said. “They’re kind of going stir crazy. I think that the older, more mature you get and the bigger your family gets, your thoughts and priorities may change a little bit. But at the end of the day, every player in the big leagues is the best of the best and they’re good because they want to compete. 

“I think most players would tell you that — they’re itching and ready to go, within the parameters of staying safe.”

That will be the challenge for the players’ association.

Getting everyone on the same page from various age groups, stages of life, and net worths will be tricky, with some players already floating the idea of opting to sit out the 2020 season.

Red Sox pitcher Collin McHugh, a 32-year-old veteran of eight major league seasons who has earned more than $16 million to date, was outspoken on the subject in a podcast conversation with MassLive in Boston.

“We’re in a situation right now where you can’t make this mandatory,” McHugh said. “You can’t tell a guy, ‘You have to come play or else your roster spot is not going to be here when you come back.’ You can’t tell a guy to risk his life and the life of his family and the lives of anyone he chooses to be around to come play this game. There’s probably going to have to be some waivers signed and whatever else you need to have done to make guys feel comfortable coming back. Then, MLB and the teams are going to have to do everything in their power so that we go about this in the best way possible and don’t just start playing games, but really set an example of how to do this, how to do it well, and how to do it safely.”

You can already imagine the divide between veterans like McHugh and players with significantly less service time still trying to make a mark.

Four different plans, with a couple of variations, emerged early – an all-Arizona quarantine, a similar Arizona/Florida plan, and a couple of different ideas that involved multiple hub cities and states, including Texas – but the current preferred route, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, is to place as many teams as possible in their home cities.

Easier said than done in some states. In Toronto, things get even more complex.

As the only Major League team outside of the U.S., players arriving in Canada would still have to adhere to the federal government’s 14-day quarantine rule.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said this week that the Blue Jays had reached out to discuss a return, but those conversations are best described as preliminary.

The obvious solution would be for the Jays to play at their spring training home in Dunedin if the border restrictions were still in place when baseball is able to return.

It’s likely the only solution outside of playing games in a hub city alongside other teams from COVID-19 ravaged states. 

Not exactly ideal.

Schneider sees TD Ballpark as a realistic option, but smartly cautioned they need to wait out the next few weeks as Florida attempts to re-open.

“I think it can be done,” Schneider said. “I think it can be done anywhere if people are careful and it’s done the right way. It’s just going to be a totally different reality than what we’re all used to.

“Every time something gets floated out of these contingency plans Major League Baseball is going through, you have to understand we’re in an unprecedented time and everyone misses baseball. I think we just have to continue to be open-minded. I think the more you’re open-minded and the more you can kind of take in everything and understand everyone wants to play in some capacity, then you have to make sacrifices.”​