USA TODAY NETWORK

The early response around baseball to MLB’s initial COVID-19 intake testing results — positive results were generated from 1.2 percent out of 3,185 samples taken from players and staff around the league — was generally positive.

Confirmed cases were an inevitability considering the high-powered, highly contagious nature of this virus. Now, as camps have officially been open for three days, additional positive results have begun — and will continue — to roll in.

On Friday, Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon acknowledged the unavailability of “nine or 10” Angels players, telling reporters (per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register), “it has nothing to do with opting out”. Not great.

Keep in mind, if players do test positive, no one could divulge that information to the public without the players’ approval, per Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines.

On Saturday morning, Atlanta Braves Freddie Freeman, Touki Toussaint, Will Smith, and taxi squad member Pete Kozma were the latest confirmed positives. There will be more. Again, this was inevitable.

The players and staff who will be placing themselves at the highest level of risk throughout the season are presumably on board with assuming that risk, or else they wouldn’t be here. But what happens in the worst-case scenario?

Let’s say someone gets seriously ill, needs hospitalization, or is affected long-term by this illness? Would we look back on this experiment as wise? Would it have been worth it? I’ve been tossing that argument around in my head for months, and I keep getting hung up right there.

The willingness on the players and staff’s part to go out there and get back to work is commendable, but the risk associated with this is, at times — even from afar — absolutely terrifying.

Mike Trout, the best player of his generation and possibly this century, hasn’t been shy in expressing his concerns regarding the logistics of this plan.

The exact thought that continued crossing his mind as he was preparing for training camps to reopen was, as per ESPN‘s Alden Gonzalez, was, “Why are we doing this?”. Trout’s got more to worry about than playing baseball, as he and his wife, Jessica, are expecting their first child during the season.

Former Mets starter and current Phillies right-hander Zack Wheeler and his wife Dominique are expecting a child later this month, as well.

Wheeler told NBC10 Philadelphia in April he wouldn’t miss the birth of their first child and is intent on following through with that plan, per Phillies GM Matt Klentak last week.

The harmful potential of overlap between those two worlds is harrowing, to say the least. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Under three weeks until Re-Opening Day, friends. Let’s hope for the best.