Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Coronavirus

“Small Number” Of Mariners Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

By | at

A “small number” of players have been held out of Mariners’ camp after testing positive for COVID-19, manager Scott Servais confirmed to reporters (including Greg Johns of MLB.com). The organization declined to divulge any further information about the identities or current conditions of those player(s).

Per MLB protocols, any player who tests positive must be asymptomatic and twice test negative, with the tests administered at least 24 hours apart, before returning to the team. The Seattle organization originally invited 60 players to Summer Camp, utilizing all of the available player pool space.

 

Two White Sox Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

By | at

The White Sox announced today that two players have tested positive for COVID-19 (h/t to James Fegan of the Athletic). Fortunately, both players are currently asymptomatic. Per the announcement, they are in isolation in Chicago and are being monitored by team medical staff. As is their right, each player has chosen to remain anonymous.

Those positive tests took place during the intake process, meaning that those two players did not participate in any team activities during the beginning of camp.

The players will undergo follow-up testing in the coming days, the club announced. As per MLB’s COVID-19 protocols, neither will be allowed to return to action unless and until they are free of symptoms (as these two players currently are) and twice test negative for the virus, with the tests to be administered at least 24 hours apart.

Royals Notes: Matheny, COVID-19, Kuntz

By | at

With positive coronavirus tests dominating the news from training camps around baseball, Mike Matheny told reporters (including MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan) Saturday that he also contracted COVID-19 “about a month ago.”  The Royals manager said he has recovered fully, though not without first experiencing some symptoms.

“We had a family member test positive, so we knew even before the test because we had exposure, so my wife and I took off and we quarantined just the two of us,” Matheny said.  “And it was just the way they said it might happen, about three days [after exposure], I started feeling it.  But we laid low and quarantined and stayed away from people and it ran its course.  Fortunately I’ve been tested with the right antibody and looking forward now to donating some plasma to help out however we can.”

Owing to the unpredictable nature of the virus, Matheny said his wife Kristin “never had any symptoms and never tested positive,” even though the couple stayed together during the quarantine period.  Now, Matheny is at the Royals’ training camp in preparation (after several months of delay) for his first season as Kansas City’s skipper.

While it’s certainly good news that the Mathenys have a clean bill of health, the specter of COVID-19 continues to linger over every team in the league, the Royals included.  News broke yesterday that Salvador Perez was quarantining after a positive coronavirus test, and the club announced Friday that longtime coach Rusty Kuntz wouldn’t be coaching first base in the coming season.

The 65-year-old Kuntz is at a greater risk for COVID-19 due to his age, and GM Dayton Moore noted the large amount of travel associated with being part of a baseball team also presented an additional danger.  Instead, Kuntz will remain based out of Kansas City, still able to offer coaching and advisory tips to Matheny from the safer distance of a Kauffman Stadium suite.

Damon Hollins will move from his minor league outfield/baserunning coordinator role to take over as first base coach for Kuntz, who returned to the position just this past offseason.  Kuntz previously worked as the Royals’ first base coach from 2008-10 and 2012-17, spending the last two seasons as a special assistant to Moore.

4 Marlins Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

By | at

Four Marlins players have tested positive for COVID-19, president of baseball operations Michael Hill told reporters (including the Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson) today.  The players’ identities aren’t known since they didn’t consent to having their names publicly released, as per league COVID-19 protocols, though all four are members of the Marlins’ 60-man player pool.

Three of the players are already “nearing the end of their quarantine,” Hill said, as the trio tested positive within the last two weeks and prior to their arrival in Miami for the start of the Marlins’ training camp.  The fourth player produced a positive test on Wednesday during the intake screening that all players must pass before taking part in Summer Camp, and that player is now in quarantine himself.  Any positive test requires a mandatory two-week isolation period, and if a player is then symptom-free, he must deliver negative results on two different COVID-19 tests before being allowed back into team activities.

“We’ve very pleased that a majority of our players made it through intake without it, but this is a daily battle, the disease is still out there,” Hill said.  “The pandemic is still out there.  Florida’s recording record highs and daily reports of the virus.  We have to continue to be mindful.  We have to continue to be smart.”

Phillies Keep Nola, Haseley, Bethancourt Out Of Camp Due To COVID-19 Protocols

By | at

7:55PM: Updating his initial story, Breen reports that Nola, Haseley, and Bethancourt haven’t been placed on the COVID-19 injured list.  The three players have been kept out of camp due to coronavirus protocols, however, and could end up on the IL at some point.

5:41PM: Right-hander Aaron Nola, outfielder Adam Haseley, and utilityman Christian Bethancourt have been placed on the Phillies’ coronavirus injured list, according to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer.  The team has yet to publicly announce the placements, and aren’t required to specify the reason for each player’s IL stint unless given permission by the players.

Placement on the COVID-19 IL doesn’t necessarily mean a player has the virus, as it could be that any or all of the trio only have symptoms, or came into contact with someone who was positive for coronavirus.  None of the three players have reported to the Phillies’ Summer Camp, as manager Joe Girardi said that Haseley was away “due to a medical condition,” and that in Nola’s case, “we’re trying to work our way through that.”

Nola, Haseley, and Bethancourt join Scott Kingery, Hector Neris, Tommy Hunter, and Ranger Suarez on Philadelphia’s already troublingly-large COVID-19 injured list.  It isn’t known if any of the players were among the dozen positive tests of players and staffers stemming from an outbreak at the Phillies’ Spring Training facility in Clearwater, though the Phils have certainly been the team hardest-hit by the virus to date.  A positive test results in a two-week quarantine, and the player must be symptom-free and have two negatives tests before returning to the field, so it’s possible the Phillies could be missing a significant chunk of their regular roster if even a few of these seven indeed have the virus.

Nola is Philadelphia’s projected Opening Day starter, while Haseley was penciled in for at least a share of center field duties.  Since Kingery was expected to cover the rest of the center field playing time, the Phils could be very short-handed up the middle if both Haseley and Kingery are out of action.

DJ LeMahieu, Luis Cessa Test Positive For COVID-19

By | at

Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu and right-hander Luis Cessa have both tested positive for the coronavirus, manager Aaron Boone told reporters (including ESPN’s Marly Rivera).  Cessa has mild symptoms, while LeMahieu is asymptomatic.  Neither player has arrived at the Yankees’ Summer Camp, as both were tested before making the trip to New York.

As per the league’s COVID-19 policy, LeMahieu and Cessa are under quarantine for a two-week period, and will then have to exhibit no symptoms and test negative twice for the virus before being cleared to play.  With Opening Day tentatively scheduled for July 23, that leaves some time for either player to make the initial 30-man roster, though Cessa might need a bit more time to get his arm in proper shape.

LeMahieu is coming off a superb debut season with the Yankees, as the veteran finished fourth in AL MVP voting and collected Silver Slugger honors after hitting .327/.375/.518 with 26 home runs in 655 plate appearances.  After getting a lot of playing time at first, second, and third base last season, LeMahieu is expected to be New York’s regular second baseman now that Gleyber Torres is taking over at shortstop, though LeMahieu’s versatility will give Boone some valuable flexibility in juggling his lineup.

Cessa has worked as a reliever and occasional starter for the Yankees over his four MLB seasons, and posted a 4.11 ERA, 2.42 K/BB rate, and 8.3 K/9 over 81 innings (all as a reliever) in 2019.  This workhorse-like ability to eat innings is particularly valuable in a short season, where New York’s entire staff will be called upon while the starters get ramped up.

MLB Expected To Release Schedule On Monday

By | at

Major League Baseball is expected to officially release the 2020 regular season schedule on Monday, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

As we know, teams will play 60 regular season games against teams in their division and the geographic counterpart in the opposite league; that is, the AL East will play other AL East teams along with NL East clubs. The regional format of the season will no doubt offer an intriguing twist to an exceedingly abnormal year.

With the release of the schedule, Nightengale says, we’re expected to learn that the year will kick off on July 23 with two nationally-televised games: Yankees at Nationals and Giants at Dodgers, with the other 26 teams opening the season the following day. If those are indeed the first games of the year, it’d be hard to dream up a better way to welcome baseball back, with the matchup between the Yankees and Nats presumably pitting new Yankee Gerrit Cole against Max Scherzer. Not to mention one of the fiercest rivalries in baseball on the West Coast, it’d certainly be an attention-grabbing Opening Day.

We’ll eagerly await the release of the MLB schedule in the coming days, signaling the hopeful return of (safe) baseball on the horizon, as well as all the excitement, expectation, and intrigue that comes with it.

Two Red Sox Players Test Positive For Coronavirus

By | at

The Red Sox have announced that left-handed pitchers Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor have both tested positive for COVID-19, MLB.com’s Ian Browne was among those to report. Taylor’s positive test came during the intake at Red Sox camp, whereas Hernandez stayed at home. Both players will be quarantined and unable to return to the team until they’ve tested negative twice.

Evidently, both players gave the team permission to reveal their identities as the players who received positive test results. Boston skipper Ron Roenicke wouldn’t say whether Taylor and Hernandez were exhibiting symptoms, which could alter their timeline in returning to the diamond.

Fellow Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who has abstained from reporting to Boston, is awaiting test results after coming into contact with a person who may have contracted the virus.

Both Hernandez and Taylor figure to be important pieces in the Boston bullpen this year, and there’s a considerable chance that the Sox will have to start the season without them. The two lefties each got their first foray into the big leagues last year, with Hernandez tossing more than 30 innings for Boston and Taylor tallying almost 50. Their roles this year might have been amplified, with relatively limited left-handed options in the bullpen mix for the Red Sox. Josh Osich is the other lefty reliever in the Boston 60-man player pool.

Clearly, though, the primary focus will be on the health and recovery of the Red Sox pitchers, and we wish them a quick and orderly return to health. We’ll hope to see Hernandez and Taylor on the mound and in good health at Fenway Park in the near future.

Willians Astudillo, Miguel Sano, Two Other Twins Test Positive For COVID-19

By | at

July 4: The Twins have revealed that Miguel Sano was the fourth player to have tested positive for the coronavirus, as reported by Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer Press. As of yesterday, we were aware that Astudillo, Gordon, and Colina were among those who had received positive test results. Evidently, Sano is the fourth player who will be barred from participating in team activities until recording two negative tests. It’s worth mentioning that two other Twins, Cody Stashak and Byron Buxton, will also be absent from camp, but not for health-related reasons; both are on paternity leave.

July 3: Twins utilityman Willians Astudillo has tested positive for COVID-19, the Twins announced today. Dan Hayes of The Athletic was among those covering the news on Twitter.

Fortunately, it does not appear as if Astudillo has had a worrying reaction to the disease to this point. He’s said to be symptom-free at the moment.

The Twins reported three other players that have active coronavirus infections. Edwar Colina and Nick Gordon are among them, having previously tested positive. Both are in the 60-man player pool; Gordon is on the 40-man. Neither player has to this point debuted in the majors.

It would certainly be unfortunate should the Twins open the season without Astudillo. He’s one of the game’s most offbeat players — and not only because of his barrel-chested figure and high-energy approach to the game. Astudillo is not just bemusing but also legitimately interesting as a player, owing to his blend of positional versatility (including catcher, his primary position) and unusual proclivity to put the ball in play (career 2.3% walk rate, 3.7% strikeout rate). Though he was not as effective last season as in his brief 2018 debut, Astudillo was and is expected to be an important part of the Minnesota roster this year.

Royals’ Salvador Perez Tests Positive For COVID-19

By | at

Royals fans will have to wait just a little longer to see long-time backstop Salvador Perez back in a Royals’ uni. Salvy is the latest player to allow his name to be released after testing positive for coronavirus. Perez is asymptomatic as of right now, and though he personally stressed that people should wear their masks, he feels well enough to play (though he can’t, at least for now), per The Athletic’s Alec Lewis.

After missing all of 2019, the 30-year-old Perez was looking to get back to his role as the Royals’ everyday catcher. The Royals have five other catchers in their 60-man player pool: Nick Dini, Cam Gallagher, MJ Melendez, Sebastian Rivero, and Meibrys Viloria. Gallagher and Viloria would figure to get the gameday starts if Perez isn’t back in time, though Dini could also get a look after appearing in 20 games for the big-league club in 2019.

Perez is a career .266/.297/.442 hitter over eight seasons with the Royals. He’s one of the last remaining members of the back-to-back pennant-winning clubs from 2014 and 2015, along with Alex Gordon and Danny Duffy.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top