10:54am: It appears the same is true of fellow young outfielder Victor Robles, according to a report on Twitter from the Talk Nats blog.
10:19am: Star Nationals outfielder Juan Soto is not presently participating in Summer Camp, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (via Twitter). He is isolating after having contact with a teammate that tested positive for COVID-19.
There’s no indication to this point that Soto has contracted the disease. Hopefully, he’ll ultimately prove not to have an infection. Establishing that will require multiple rounds of testing after a period of isolation.
Specifics on the timeline are impossible to pin down without knowing more about the date of the contact and the specific plan for assessing Soto. As Aaron Nola of the Phillies recently explained, even potential exposure may require an absence of a week or more under the protocols that teams are utilizing to prevent the spread of the virus.
It is not presently known which Nationals players have tested positive for COVID-19. The team revealed that it had documented two cases, but those individuals have not identified themselves to this point.
Soto has been an excellent performer since sprinting up the farm system and reaching the majors as a teenager. The gregarious 21-year-old established himself as one of the game brightest stars as he helped lead the Nats to a 2019 World Series title.
Health is obviously far and away the primary concern here. But the protocols in place will also have many logistical impacts. After a delay in intake testing prevented the Nationals from working out yesterday, the club is back on the field today. But Soto and several others are obviously not present with just over two weeks to go until the start of the 2020 season.
I think you contract the virus, not the disease, but regardless.
I still have no idea how long a player will be on the the IL if the gets the virus. Five days, two weeks, a month or any of the above?
Halo11 – I think the protocol is 14 days and they have to test negative twice before coming off the IL. The Red Baron tested positive and I think that’s what they said was the protocol.
2 consecutive negative tests which yea with this virus seems like “any of the above”, but 2-3 weeks seems to be the max
RootedInOakland
Unless they actually get sick.
Two to three weeks for an asymptomatic player seems about right.
You are totally correct. So let’s try and get it right because misinformation like the one in the article is part of the problem. Someone who has COVID-19 is a case and someone who has come in contact with someone who has COVID-19 but they themselves are symptom free/no infection/test negative is a contact. More importantly, there is a huge difference between someone who is isolating and someone who is in quarantine. Isolation = case (person who has COVID-19) Quarantine = contact (contact with a known COVID-19 person but no symptoms). So according to Jeff Todd’s article, Juan Soto has COVID-19 because he is isolating, but I think Todd meant Soto is in quarantine. If at some point Soto develops symptoms, then he becomes a case and will then go into isolation.
I haven’t heard of any of these guys being symptomatic to any extent. I assume their fitness level helps.
Freddie Freeman is sick as crap…he’s feeling so bad it convinced Markakis to opt out apparently
But how sick? I’m assuming the normal flu has hit everyone like a ton of bricks at one point or another.
Keep me informed on “how sick”.
hit him like a ton of bricks is exactly how his wife updated how he was doing…so not ICU sick but not exactly asymptomatic either
I don’t think this poses a serious health risk to players, and the ones that it does should opt out.
But from a baseball perspective, not a humanitarian perspective, I wonder how much time an asymptomatic player can expect to miss.
Two or three weeks sounds right.
Well, most these players are human like the rest of us and might have a family/friend in the high risk group. Despite being in peak physical condition themselves, they may chose to opt out so they don’t asymptomatically infect loved ones after possibly contracting a virus on the road.
UsmcCardsnBars
ABSOLUTELY!!!!! Who they can give it too is a huge issue.
Since I can’t control my environment, if I were a player, I would self quarantine until after the season. I wouldn’t want to give it to anyone. If I prevent someone from getting this, there is a very real chance that I’ve saved a life.
Or at least do your best to stay away from those who are high risk in your circle. That would be hard if they are immediately family i.e. the pregnant Mrs. Trout.
High risk or not, it doesn’t matter.
Because you, and virtually every person in American are two degrees of separation from someone who is high risk. I think this is what people are not getting.
Everyone you know may be safe, but I highly doubt every they know is safe. And so on.
If you pass this on to someone, you don’t know who they infect. You could EASILY indirectly infect a person in the high risk group.
Right. It would take intentional behaviors by the players and the people who are high risk. Both play a role.
In a nutshell, everyone.
I’ve used this analogy before. If the roads are icy and dangerous, your driving impacts me.
If you are wreckless, even though I’m driving safely, you are putting my life at risk. Two
That’s a better example than the one I’ve been using. Gonna have to steal that and give myself credit for it. >=}
Wow. If the Nationals lose these two for a while (I realise we don’t even know if they have anything yet) then we just need the Mets to bench deGrom and we just might have a pretty even NL East again.
Earlier today there was a post that contained a quote from Aaron Nola, “If you don’t have symptoms and you come in contact with somebody who ends up testing positive, you’re out for probably at least seven days,”
The “probably” seems odd to me. The CDC still advises 14 days of quarantine after potential exposure to someone else (cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/quar…), so I’m wondering if teams are allowed to make their own timelines, or if that has been standardized by MLB or MLBPA? Does anyone know if the full policy has been made public? I’ve only seen snipets about some of the rule changes, but nothing comprehensive. Recent comments by Posey, Bryant, Trout make it sound like players can opt out at any time as well.
With an already shortened season, the difference of 7 or 14 days is significant. And for players like Soto and Robles, they obviously miss out on certain opportunities to ramp up during an even shorter Summer Camp. Interested to see more whenever someone smarter than me figures it out.