31 MLB players test positive for Covid-19

NEW YORK: Thirty-one Major League Baseball players and seven staff members tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 ( Covid19) during intake for the resumption of training, a rate of 1.2 percent.

MLB and the players’ association announced the results on Friday (Saturday in Manila) as teams resumed workouts for the first time since the coronavirus interrupted spring training on March 12, two weeks before the season was to start.

Opening day has been reset for July 23, the latest in baseball history, and the regular season has been reduced to 60 games in the shortest schedule since 1878.

The positive tests occurred among 19 of the 30 teams, according to results of the samples sent to the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in South Jordan, Utah. There were 3,185 samples collected and tested through the first week of intake testing.

Individual players who test positive are not identified by MLB or the union. Cleveland outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. gave the Indians permission to say he tested positive.

MLB and the union established a Covid-19 related injured list (IL) with no specific minimum days. There are three reasons specified for placement on that IL: a positive test, exposure to coronavirus or symptoms that require isolation, or additional assessment. Philadelphia put infielder Scott Kingery and pitchers Hector Neris, Ranger Suarez and Tommy Hunter on the 10-day IL with no specified injuries on Thursday.

The Phillies had seven players test positive for Covid- 19 last month, but manager Joe Girardi couldn’t answer whether any of the players were among them because of medical privacy. New Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said on a Boston call there have been ‘’some positive tests’’ but didn’t give any names.