10:00pm: Meadows offered Topkin an encouraging update via text, writing: “The first couple days I was pretty fatigued and some mild cold symptoms. But feeling ready to go now.” There’s no known timetable for his return, though.
8:01pm: The Rays have placed outfielder Austin Meadows on the injured list as a result of a positive COVID-19 test, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. The club has also added left-handed reliever Aaron Loup to its 40-man roster.
Meadows has been absent from workouts since last week, so this isn’t necessarily a stunning development. Nevertheless, it’s certainly disheartening to see another positive test confirmation. It’s unclear whether Meadows is exhibiting any symptoms at the moment, but he’ll need to show he’s asymptomatic and test negative for the illness twice in a 24-hour span before he’s eligible to return to the Rays.
When he is able to come back, Meadows will try to build on an exemplary first season with the Rays. The 25-year-old emerged as one of the sport’s brightest young talents last season, hitting .291/.364/.558 with 33 home runs and 12 stolen bases en route to an All-Star nod.
Loup, 32, joined the Rays on a minor league contract in February. His 2019 season, which he spent with San Diego, was largely a wash because of elbow problems that limited him to 3 1/3 innings. Loup has typically been reliable throughout his career, though, having recorded a 3.45 ERA with 8.39 K/9, 2.76 BB/9 and a 54.3 percent groundball rate over 326 frames since he debuted with the Blue Jays in 2012.
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We need him for opening day
The Loup is back
Was he at camp already? Obviously the biggest hurdle to completing the season is making sure these are isolated positives and that he didn’t expose his team.
Probably the biggest blow the Rays could have right now. But they still will likely finish the season in 2nd place after the 60 games, with one of the wild cards anyway
I remember some dude on here once called him Austin “next Mike Trout” Meadows, (although he said it sarcastically at the time.)
Are you implying then that you think Meadows is the next Trout?
Not good this puts them behind the 8 ball to start the season. All the hype is about the Rays excelling out of the gate. They have so much depth, they should still be fine with that nasty staff.
Isn’t it weird how 1% of the U.S. population has been diagnosed with COVID-19, but at least 5%-10% of MLB players have been? It is probably a result of all the testing that’s been performed by baseball. But if you can’t isolate 750 or 1,000 ballplayers who have a tremendous financial incentive to stay healthy, how can you expect to significantly alter the movement of 330 million Americans?
No where near 10% have been diagnosed dude. There’s almost 2000 players in this years’ player pool and we have 53 cases. That’s between 2-3%.
On top of these guys being tested 3-4 times a week.
Exactly, I expected far more positives. I expected somewhere between 8-12% positives. I don’t know what to think about the low number of positives, plus the antibody tests that were done on MLB staff and players returning a low positive. If MLB is representative of the population as a whole, we are a long way from herd immunity. Given new information that the antibodies probably only last 6-12 months, and an efficient vaccine being far in the future (if ever), it seems as if Covid will be with us in the same fashion as cold and flu is.
Comment on vaccines: Seems like every few weeks we hear about a “breakthrough” (the latest being a vaccine that activates T-cells), but then no follow-up on any of the so-called “breakthroughs.” This latest breakthrough is at least the fourth I recall since March. One suspects talk of vaccines is more about hype and hope and the stock market than anything based on real science or evidence.
If you were to test every single person in the US it’s going to be a lot more than 1%.
Yeah Pirates will be kicking themselves all over for along time trading Glasnow and Meadows for Archer even though Meadows will never be Mike Trout. Ask yourself: Who will?
Some kid who is about 2 years old right now. He will be the next Mike Trout. Just don’t know his name yet :)
He’ll be back. Pirates immediately regret trading him.
He’s my pick for AL MVP. I also picked the Rays to win the AL West. 40-20.
I’ll give you everything I own if the Rays win the AL West
I’ll give you 10,000 to 1 odds that the Rays will not win the AL West this year. How much would you like to wager?
Don’t sleep on the Rays. Maybe not this year but Meadows is a Future mvp. I’ll wager my house, my dog, and both my cars. Both paid off. In the process of restore a ’69 gt mustang. And one other thing but you’d have to be a fan of Tech N9ne to get the reference
And yes I know my op he was my mvp pick but its hard in a 60 game season to choose.
Dude nobody, I repeat. NOBODY is sleeping on the Rays. Everyone knows they are very good , with a stacked MLB roster and the best farm system in the league. They are telling you the Rays WILL NOT win the AL west…..because they play in the AL EAST!!!!!!!
I will however take your wager about Meadows being a future MVP, don’t get me wrong I think he’s an Allstar and a valuable player but an MVP is no small fete by any means, you not only have to be a superstar but you have to be better then all the other superstars In the league for 162 games. Mike Trout is still only 28 and showing no signs of slowing down.
I know exactly what they’re saying. And I still think they have as real of chance than the other 3 contending teams. Blue Jays need more pitching but their lineup is gonna be stacked for at least 5 years. Unfortunately they won’t be able to keep vlady Jr ,bichette and biggio. They’ll lose at least one of them
I think that went right over his head…
It really didn’t. I understood just fine. Just because they play in the AL East doesn’t mean they can’t or won’t win. You have no clue if Cole will be a bust. Again the Rays still have a great chance of winning. Yankees will bust.
It’s alright man, just accept your L and move on.
It really did. In your original post, you mistakenly said that the Ray’s will win the AL West, which they physically cannot since they play in the AL East. No one has argued with you that they can’t win their division; they’re just harping on the fact that you mistyped which division that happens to be.
I would not bet all of my worldly possessions on the future success of an athlete. So many careers have ended in the blink of an eye. Some for such weird and bizarre reasons. You are basing his future success on his first 1/3 of last season. Never hit for high average or for any power at any level since being drafted. If not for the super hot 1st 1/3 of last year,and the juiced ball he would have had just a pretty decent season. He had an ugly middle 1/2 and a decednt last 1/3 of the season. I like him as a player and wish the Bucs had not traded him but not willing to proclaim guaranteed stardom yet.
Meadows is a superb MVP pick if he can get back by opening day
Their pitching is elite,very possibly the best in MLB.But the offense is too light, especially in 2020’s AL/NO East scheduling. This is a tough one
Rip
“The first couple days I was pretty fatigued and some mild cold symptoms.”
So exactly when were those days? Who was he in contact with for a week prior? Are all those individuals also quarantined? Did he test positive on the intake or AFTER he was in camp?
When is baseball going to figure out that once a player shows symptoms, he may already have been infecting others for 7 days, every day, then those are infecting more and so on.
Not to mention, testing for ‘regular’ American citizens is becoming damn near impossible in many areas, yet the elite athletes can get them whenever they want and as many as they want? This is just WRONG.
I’d really like to know why players, staff, team personnel, equipment handlers, flight crews, etc don’t have to quarantine for two weeks when arriving in cities from the ‘hot spot’ states? Everyone else does. This is why covid-19 is still going to be here and then explode during flu season this fall. Hospitals are already full, but let’s allow athletes and their organizations to have different rules so they can keep spreading this wherever they go and depleting supplies and resources. What happens when the flu season actually STARTS in two and a half months?