A total of eight members of the Philadelphia Phillies organization have tested positive for coronavirus in recent days. Among those infected are five players. The outbreak occurred at the Phillies training camp in Clearwater, Florida. The news was first reported by Jim Salisbury of NBC.Com/Philadelphia.
Due to privacy acts, none of the names of the players or staff has been released.
A substantial number of team personnel are awaiting test results so it’s possible the numbers will increase. As of Friday, none of the eight infected are hospitalized and the virus appears to be under control in all of them.
The Phillies closed their Clearwater facility in mid-March when the sporting world shut down because of the COVID-19 crisis. The facility received a deep and thorough cleansing. Players rehabilitating from injury were allowed to continue their recovery work under the supervision of a few of the team’s athletic trainers and staff.
Over the past few weeks, the team allowed several more players to begin working out at the facility. Strict health and safety precautions were taken and group sizes were limited. Yet, there was still an outbreak.
The outbreak comes as number of cases are spiking in Florida .While it’s possible for teams to supervise players at a ballpark, it’s not possible to fully prevent them from interacting with a community that is considered open. This remains a public problem and baseball is a small piece of that.
The timing isn’t great here as this comes at a time when Major League Baseball and the Players Association are trying to settle a financial dispute that would allow a shortened season to commence in July.
This is the first known outbreak in MLB and the commissioner’s office is aware of it. It is not known if the situation will affect negotiations with the union. Both MLB and the union have consistently stated that matters of health supersede all others as they try to restart the game.
Later on Friday, two more major league camps were shut down due a possible outbreak of coronavirus although nothing has proven substantive as of 9:30 PM. The Toronto Blue Jays closed their facility in Dunedin, FL after a player showed symptoms of Covid-19.
Soon thereafter, the San Francisco Giants closed their facility in Scottsdale, AZ after several people who had been at the facility showed symptoms (additionally, the Houston Astros had a player at their facility test positive for coronavirus in West Palm Beach, FL).
Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted the following after it was known that three camps were closing:
Source: with 3 camps having to close today due to COVID-19, MLB is strongly considering closing all 30 camps again to cleanse and re-establish a system in which players will test regularly when they return. Right now there is not a firm protocol for players using the facilities.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 19, 2020
With spring training likely needing to be 3-4 weeks (likely closer to four weeks of time overall when factoring in players and staff needing to report to camp), the decision to shut down facilities could delay the start of a 2020 MLB season even more.
The COVID-19 cases are surging in Arizona and Florida right now, which are of course the locations for all 30 MLB camps. And with that in mind, the New York Mets are considering having their camp at Citi Field instead of Port St. Lucie FL, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
Mets called staff today to let them know they may switch spring training to Citi Field in the wake of Florida’s recent Covid troubles. They aren’t saying for sure but decision will be announced tomorrow.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) June 19, 2020
Also, later on Friday, the Phillies released a statement .
This is obviously a fluid situation, with news coming to us quickly. Please be assured that MMO will stay abreast of the entire situation and if there is Mets news on Saturday as indicated, it will of course be covered right here.
