Indians’ Ramirez, Reyes isolate after COVID-19 violations
Cleveland Indians third baseman José Ramírez and slugger Franmil Reyes have been isolated from their teammates at spring training after breaking COVID-19 protocols.
Manager Terry Francona said Sunday that the two players have been sent to their temporary homes in Arizona as the Indians await word from the league as to when they can rejoin the team.
Francona said Reyes drove to the Indians’ exhibition game on Friday in Mesa and went to get a haircut following the 10-4 win.
Reyes, who had a similar misstep last year when spring training resumed after the coronavirus-caused shutdown, told the Indians that he and Ramirez then went out to dinner and were indoors, which violates COVID-19 guidelines established by Major League Baseball and the players’ union.
Francona said Reyes and Ramirez came to the team’s complex on Saturday and were immediately sent home. They did not have contact with any other players or team personnel.
“We’re pretty fortunate here,” Francona said. “We have some medical people who are right on top of things and they came right to me and they said: ‘Look, this is what we’re doing. We’re informing the league.’ The players themselves actually self-reported that they had made a mistake.
“So we told them: ‘This is not our rules. These are the rules that the players’ association and Major League Baseball came up with. We have to enforce them.’ ”
Cubs’ Strop violates COVID-19 rules
Chicago Cubs reliever Pedro Strop is away from the team after he violated baseball’s COVID-19 protocols.
The 35-year-old Strop is in camp on a minor league deal. The Cubs said Major League Baseball will decide when Strop is allowed to rejoin the team.
Nats release Jeffress for ‘personnel reasons’
Jeremy Jeffress was released by the Washington Nationals on Sunday for what general manager Mike Rizzo called unspecified “personnel reasons,” less than two weeks after the reliever agreed to terms on a minor league deal.
The team sent out a sixword tweet announcing the move.
The Washington Post first reported that the Nationals were parting ways with Jeffress, who was expected to add to the back end of the Nationals bullpen.