APRIL 18: All four of the Twins’ positive cases (Simmons’, Garlick’s, and the unnamed player’s and staff member’s) are linked to one of the COVID-19 variants, Hayes writes.
APRIL 17, 8:03PM: Sunday’s game will also not take place, according to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter).
ARPIL 17, 7:53PM: Talking to The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya and other reporters, Baldelli confirmed Garlick’s positive test. Another unnamed player has also tested positive, as well as the aforementioned staff member on Friday.
APRIL 17, 7:13PM: Kyle Garlick has tested positive for COVID-19, Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports (Twitter link), and “the Twins have concern there could be additional positives within their group.” At least one Twins player tested positive for COVID-19 today, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. The virus problems don’t seem to be related to Simmons’ case, as The Athletic’s Dan Hayes reports that Simmons hasn’t been around the team since Tuesday, and contact tracing revealed “little crossover” between the shortstop and the currently-affected parties.
APRIL 17, 6:56PM: Tonight’s scheduled game between the Twins and Angels has been postponed due to unspecified issues related to COVID-19, the league announced. According to MLB’s media release, the postponement was made “to allow for continued testing and contact tracing involving members of the Twins organization.”
Minnesota shortstop Andrelton Simmons was placed on the COVID list earlier this week, and manager Rocco Baldelli had a false positive for the virus that almost prevented him from joining the team on their West Coast road trip. Last night’s opening game of the series went ahead as planned (a 10-3 victory for the Angels) even though another Twins staff member did test positive.
Today, Baldelli told reporters (including Megan Ryan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune) that “The details of what’s going on and who it is and who is potentially in contact-tracing and things like that, we’re still working through all of that, and we’re not prepared to discuss it all until we’ve had all of the conversations that we need to. Just more challenges that we have to deal with, and that’s what we have to do. We have to kind of keep our heads up.”
MLB’s statement made no mention of Sunday’s scheduled afternoon tilt in Anaheim, though the league “will continue to provide updates as available.”
