Phils shutter training complex as COVID strikes
Even as Major League Baseball continues to nitpick with the league’s players association for an agreement aimed at resuming play at some point, some Phillies are insufficiently healthy to participate.
That was the message early Friday from the organization, which confirmed that five players and three staff members at the team’s Clearwater, Fla., training facility have tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, the Phillies have temporarily closed the facility.
The Phillies did not reveal the names of those infected. They did, however, get ahead of the curve for closing Baseball’s voluntary workout camps.
One team after another during the course of the day owned up to positive test results for COVID-19, and finally a report late Friday night said all MLB training facilities would be temporarily shutting down “for COVID-19 cleaning.”
The Phillies were theoretically the first club to break out the Lysol.
“The Phillies are committed to the health and welfare of our players, coaches and staff as our highest priority,” managing partner John Middleton said in a statement, “and as a result of these confirmed tests, all facilities in Clearwater have been closed indefinitely to all players, coaches and staff and will remain closed until medical authorities are confident that the virus is under control and our facilities are disinfected.”
The Phillies said they would not comment on how the negative tests would impact the start of their 2020 season, believing, they wrote, “It is too early to know.”
The club said the first negative test was revealed Tuesday. Eight staff members have tested negative for the virus. A total of 20 major-league and minor-league players, and 12 additional staff members, are awaiting test results. Family members of the Phillies players and staff were also tested, according to a report.
The test results come at a time when baseball is moving, even if quite slowly, to a possible July 19 return. The players and owners have indicated a willingness to work toward a shortened season wherein the players would receive full pro-rated salaries regardless of any lost ticket revenue. The impasse continues to be whether the season will be 70 games, as the players are demanding, or the owners’ preference of 60, or even less.
“This needs to be over,” commissioner Rob Manfred was quoted as saying. “Until I speak with the owners, I can’t give you a firm deadline.”
Manfred has rejected the players’ 70-game proposal. However, the sides are reportedly in agreement over the two-year use of the designated hitter in all games, an expanded postseason and other financial concessions. Among the agreed-to twists would be to allow ownership to sell advertising on the players’ uniforms.
It is too early to judge how Baseball’s virus tests will affect any of those agreements. However, according to NBC Sports-Philadelphia, which broke the Phillies’ story, “none of the eight people who have been infected have been hospitalized and the virus appears to be under control in all of them.”
In March, three individuals from the 76ers organization tested positive for the virus. The Sixers’ response was to quarantine those affected for an appropriate recovery time.
“Pursuant to CDC guidelines,” the Sixers said at the time, “the individuals are in self-isolation and will be monitored closely by medical professionals.”
The Sixers have given no indication that those infected required any further treatment. The NBA is planning to resume its regular season and playoffs in a sequestered environment in Orlando, Fla. beginning July 31.
When they resume, majorleague baseball games will be played not at a neutral site but in the usual home ballparks. Fans are not expected to be permitted, and strict hygiene and testing protocols would be in place. Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has advised that baseball should not play too deeply into October as a precaution against the virus.
“Dr. Fauci is out there telling us that football should be played in a quarantine,” Manfred said. “The other two sports (NBA and NHL) are playing in a quarantine. Our guys want nothing to do with that.”
Manfred is using Fauci’s recommendations as reason for a shorter, 60-game regular season.
“Fauci says we shouldn’t be playing in October,” he said. “And (the players’) proposal contemplates lengthening the season.”
Also early Friday, according to ESPN, the Toronto Blue Jays closed their facility in Dunedin, Fla., after one player displayed virus symptoms. Dunedin is in close proximity to Clearwater. Additionally, it was announced that five staff members of the Tampa Bay Lightning had tested positive.
Dunedin and Tampa are in close proximity to the Phillies’ facility.
The Phillies did not venture a guess as to when they would reopen their Clearwater facility.