Positive tests not only COVID-19 issue impacting Texas Rangers, MLB summer camps
Joey Gallo and Ronald Guzman are hard to miss, at nearly a combined 13 feet in height and 500 pounds, yet it’s easy to tell when one of them is missing.
They were both missing from the Texas Rangers’ first two workouts of summer camp, which led to speculation that they had failed their pre-camp COVID-19 screening and were in quarantine indefinitely.
That isn’t necessarily the case.
Huh?
The impact of COVID-19 is being felt across baseball, and not simply through the positive tests that continue to pop up from team to team.
Players are opting out of playing this season. Others aren’t on the field yet because of a backlog at the testing site in Salt Lake City. Some are delayed because they haven’t cleared all the other safety hurdles.
Gallo and Guzman, as well as several Rangers players who came to camp from Latin America, are still going through the screening process and haven’t worked out yet. Guzman can be at the ballpark, just not on the field, while Gallo apparently can not.
Throw in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, commonly known as HIPAA, and a perfectly clear picture of the prevalence of the coronavirus pandemic inside baseball might never be known.
“Clear as mud,” Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said.
No Rangers players have opted out of the season, and not many have across the league. Among the notables to do so are Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander David Price, Washington Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and Atlanta Braves right-hander Felix Hernandez.
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman is the best player who is known to have tested positive. Lefty reliever Brett Martin is the only Rangers player known to have tested positive, and he is considered high-risk as a Type 1 diabetic.
But more opt-outs and positive tests are coming, it would seem. The world’s best player, Los Angeles Angels center fielder Mike Trout, said that he hasn’t decided if he will play as he and his wife await the birth of their first child.
“I know I talked to my wife about it, I think it was two times,” said Rangers third baseman Todd Frazier, a father of three. “I respect every single person that doesn’t want to play. This is some serious stuff. This is the way the world is in unprecedented times. For guys, it’s a tough decision, but very respectable and commendable because they’re looking out for their family themselves. And, you know, God bless them.”
Like Frazier, Rangers righty Kyle Gibson has three children, but he has also ulcerative colitis.
He feels the risk has been minimized by the safety protocols outlined in the MLB operations manual, but ultimately will listen to the advice of his gastrointerologist.
“I told him that, ‘If something comes up and you think that I shouldn’t be out there and you think that it’s not worth the long-term risk, then we’ll have that conversation.’ And I’ll have a conversation at that point with the team and everybody else,” Gibson said.
“At this point with protocols and what we’re able to do and how our team’s approached it, I think the risk is still there, but it’s working and hopefully we can keep it that way.”
Manager Chris Woodward is prepared in case a Rangers players chooses to opt out. He would try to talk it through with the player, but wouldn’t try to talk him out of anything either.
“They have every right to do that,” Woodward said. “I would fully support them. I would want them here. Hopefully we can kind of take care and trust our protocols that we’ve put in place. But if they’re not comfortable with the way things are being handled, I can’t blame them for that and I’d have to support them through it.”
Gibson allowed one run in four innings of an intrasquad game Sunday at Globe Life Field. The Rangers fielded many of their regulars, including Frazier, designated hitter Shin-Soo Choo, shortstop Elvis Andrus and second baseman Rougned Odor.
Odor collected two doubles, one-hopping the wall in left-center field each time.
The Rangers will be back at it Monday, with Jordan Lyles scheduled for his first outing of summer camp. Maybe Gallo and Guzman will there.
Maybe they won’t.
“I think we’re expecting issues like this,” Woodward said. “Everybody in baseball, all the tests are going to a facility in Salt Lake that probably is a little bit overwhelmed.
“And, listen, no test is perfect. They’re, obviously, going to be protocols for every kind of scenario.”
