Baseball’s Return in Peril After Champs Shut Down Training
(Bloomberg) -- The World Series champion Washington Nationals have shut down their spring training after just three days, and their players and front office are questioning the wisdom of baseball's return to play.
In a statement Monday, General Manager Mike Rizzo said the team canceled its morning workout due to a delay in receiving test results from Major League Baseball's lab. The Houston Astros, the Nationals' opponent in last year's World Series, also canceled workouts on Monday after test delays.
“Per MLB's protocol, all players and staff were tested for Covid-19 on Friday, July 3rd,” the Nationals said in their statement. “Seventy-two hours later, we have yet to receive the results of those tests. We cannot have our players and staff work at risk.”
Two Nationals' players, Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross, have already decided to skip the 2020 season. In a conversation with reporters Sunday, relief pitcher Sean Doolittle complained about the league's slow response time in delivering testing results.
In recent days, several of baseball's top players have started to voice concerns. On Friday, the game's biggest star, Mike Trout, revealed he's worried about playing in the midst of the pandemic with his wife pregnant with their first child. A day later, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and former Cy Young award winner David Price became the highest-profile player to skip the season.
Major League Baseball released a statement Monday afternoon saying the vast majority of testing results were delivered on time.
“Unfortunately, several situations included unforeseen delays. We have addressed the delays caused by the holiday weekend and do not expect a recurrence,” the league said. “We commend the affected clubs that responded properly by canceling workouts.”
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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