Salt Lake City doesn’t have an MLB team, but it’s now the league’s most important city
The first significant task for the Texas Rangers ahead of spring training 2.0 and the 2020 MLB season is under way.
Many of the 55 members of the club’s player pool have started what the 2020 operating manual calls intake testing, which is fancy talk for administering COVID-19 tests and taking blood samples for antibody tests.
All on-field personnel and those who will come in contact with on-field personnel — baseball calls them covered individuals — must report for testing no later than Wednesday.
That’s a lot of tests, between 1,600-1,800 just for players, who then must wait in quarantine 24-48 hours until the results are back.
The first full-squad workout is scheduled for Friday, but, depending on the test results, it might not feature the full squad.
“I’m hoping that we’re OK,” manager Chris Woodward said. “But I think throughout baseball, we’re going to see, obviously, a few positives. We’re going to have to deal with that when it happens.”
But there’s much more to the testing than that meets the eye.
For instance, the samples are sent via overnight mail to Salt Lake City. Yes, the one in Utah.
That goes for all tests across baseball, not just the Rangers’ samples.
Why Salt Lake City? That’s the home of the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), which is converting a portion of its anti-doping lab to handle COVID-19 testing for the league.
MLB wanted only one lab to do the majority of the testing so as to not take away from local facilities handling cases of the general public around the rest of the country.
Not every test during spring training or the season will go to Utah, but most will. A smaller number of other cities throughout the league will also be used.
So, which test will be used? MLB has opted for the Spectrum Solutions saliva collect kit, though covered individuals might be subjected to the horrific-looking nasal test in which a long swab is pushed through a nostril into the sinuses. Deep into the sinuses.
Spectrum Solutions is the manufacturer and supplier of the first FDA-approved saliva test. A covered individual will drop a fairly hefty supply of saliva into a tube. The tube is then sealed, which releases a stabilizing solution, and shaken for five seconds to get the sufficient saliva-solution mixture.
Any guess as to where Spectrum Solutions is based? In Draper, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.
SMRTL is just up the road.
SMRTL, by the way, is also going to handle all private health information, in accordance with local laws and the federal biggie, HIPAA.
That leads to another question: Will MLB or its teams reveal if a player tests positive?
“That’s a great question,” a Rangers official said.
Teams reveal injuries during the season, either in discussing why a player will be out of the lineup a few days or the reason a player has hit the injury list.
Clubs will also update media on injuries at spring training, where there isn’t an IL. Some are small, but some are not — take Willie Calhoun’s broken jaw of a few months ago, for instance.
But MLB might have to consult with the MLB Players Association on how to reveal the results of players who test positive, especially for spring training. The union could convince players to waive their HIPAA rights.
Media will have limited access and won’t be able to tell if all players take part in the workout. There will be a COVID-19 injury list during the season, though the media might only be told an infected player is on the IL.
However, absent players will be easier to track.
An infected player, or any covered individual, will be in quarantine somewhere. If a Rangers player tests positive while on a road trip to, say, Colorado, he will stay in Colorado — where he should try Pietra’s (take out, of course) in Wheat Ridge for a delicious pizza or sausage pie — until declared COVID-free.
As Woodward said, players are going to test positive for COVID-19, whether on the Rangers or one of the other 29 teams.
Salt Lake City will be a busy place.
