If there was hope that the Blue Jays would be immune to the MLB chaos of a relentless coronavirus opponent, it ended last month when several players recorded positive tests at their Dunedin, Florida winter base.
And did we mention Florida where the team gathered last week when the Sunshine State’s positive numbers seemed to set new records every day?
Now there’s another positive test with the Jays, causing a setback that left up to a dozen players in Dunedin while the team is working at Rogers Center.
A source confirmed on Monday that several players did not board the charter from Florida to Toronto on Sunday evening after a player tested positive for the virus. The other players were held back because they were in close and regular contact with the person who failed their entrance test.
This is not the least bit surprising. Many of the training camps – minus those that closed on Monday due to poor testing times – add positive results almost every day. And the Jays themselves boldly said they expected more positive results after the June outbreak.
But a dozen? This was the number USA Today baseball columnist Bob Nightengale reported and confirmed the scale of the Jays challenge.
The COVID-19 crisis had already plunged the Toronto club into the uncertainty of not even having a confirmed home stadium for a season that should start in just over two weeks. And then there are border and quarantine issues that the other 29 teams don’t need to add to their own list of issues.
Given all of this, the challenges for the only Canadian baseball team seem to be increasing day by day.
Several players across the MLB have publicly recognized their COVID 19 positive results, but the Jays’ policy is to only reveal the names of the players involved if they are agreed to do so.
Absenteeism can become somewhat apparent once the training is open to the media. Unlike most MLB teams, the Jays closed the Rogers Center to the media on Monday and are expected to do so on Tuesday.
After arriving in downtown Toronto late Sunday and checking into the quarantine area of the Marriott hotel attached to the Rogers Center, the Jays were in the field the next morning. Another training session was held in the afternoon.
Among those we know participated was Nate Pearson, the team’s best pitching expert. The hard-fought right-hander posted a picture on his Instagram account with the headline “We did it”.
It remains to be seen when the rest of the Jays players will join their teammates in an already challenging training camp for the American League club. Since the camps were allowed to start last Friday, the Jays were given permission to cross the Canadian-American border the day before and had to pass the entrance tests before they could put their charter flight plans into effect.
Due to the strict quarantine protocol to get approval from the Canadian government and medical authorities, players who stay in Florida must first record two negative tests. Once this is achieved, the team must charter these players to maintain isolation arrangements.
The Jays weren’t the only MLB team that struggled on Monday as both World Series 2019 participants – incumbent Washington Nationals and Houston Astros – canceled field activities due to a delay in getting test results.
These developments led to a late afternoon statement from the league that despite some delays in getting results from a Utah laboratory, 95% of the first round of testing was completed.
“We appreciate the great cooperation between the players and the hard work of the clubs in these challenging circumstances,” the league said in a statement. “The process was not without unforeseen difficulties, which are discussed with the service providers that are essential for the execution of the protocol.”
These circumstances didn’t go well with some teams, according to Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, told reporters in Washington.
“We will not sacrifice the health and safety of our players, employees, and their families,” said Rizzo. “Without accurate and timely testing, it’s just not safe for us to continue with the summer camp.”
And this is one of the major challenges for the teams around MLB: The need for safety precautions that go hand in hand with the urgency of a short training period that leads to a shortened season.
That brings us back to a Jays team without a real home and possibly with almost a fifth of his 60-man squad who is absent, who knows how long.
The players who are here will continue to work on the field, while the front office will work behind the scenes to secure the Rogers Center for its 30 home dates in the regular season. This process would never be easy.
It is hard to imagine that it will not get any more complicated every day, given the spreading footprint that the COVID crisis is putting on sport.
