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.’ ”
Francona said he has spoken to both players, who understand they could have put others in jeopardy.
“They were both upfront and honest with us about what happened,” Francona said. “We’re not trying to put guys in the penalty box. We try to talk to guys almost every day. ‘Hey, this is gonna happen if — it doesn’t matter if you agree with it or not. These are the protocols that are in place and you have to live by it.’ ”
Last season, the Indians were forced to isolate starting pitchers Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac when they broke COVID-19 protocols by going out to eat while the team was in Chicago. Clevinger was traded to San Diego a few weeks later.
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.
Strop is trying to make it back to the majors after a tough season last year.
The veteran right-hander signed a $1,825,000, one-year deal with Cincinnati after the 2019 season. He was let go by the Reds last August and then signed a minor league contract with the Cubs. But he didn’t appear in a big league game for the rest of the year.
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.
Rizzo released a statement about the right-hander via a team spokesman that did not offer an explanation, saying only: “He was released for personnel reasons.”
The 33-year-old Jeffress was taken by Milwaukee in the first round pick of the 2006 amateur draft and has pitched for five teams over 11 years in the majors. He was an NL All-Star in 2018 for the Brewers.
Last season, Jeffress went 4-1 with a 1.54 ERA and eight saves in 10 chances for the Chicago Cubs.