Astros Reopen Alternate Training Site

AUG. 25: The Astros have reopened their site, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic tweets.

AUG. 22: The Astros’ alternate training site in Corpus Christi was recently shut down due to a positive COVID-19 test, GM James Click told reporters (including MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome).  “As the result of a single positive test, we have shut down the facility out of an abundance of caution while we go through the Major League Baseball-managed contact tracing and testing protocols,” Astros GM James Click said.

For now, the issue seems restricted to that lone positive result.  Contact tracing efforts didn’t reveal any link between the person who tested positive and anyone on either the Astros’ active roster or traveling party, so “based on the protocols, the big league team is currently unaffected,” Click said.

It isn’t yet known when the alternate site will re-open, leaving the 23 non-MLB members of the Astros’ current player pool in limbo until they are cleared to resume workouts.  It would also seem that the Astros wouldn’t be able to call any of these players up to the big league roster unless they pass testing protocols (usually two negative results on consecutive days, and likely some type of brief quarantine period will be required in this case).  However the process plays out, the Astros will surely be hampered by the loss of their training site, particularly given that a swath of injuries has already forced the team to reach further into its organizational depth chart.