Giants announce 2 more test positive
‘Individuals’ not named, could be players or others
The Giants announced Monday that two more people involved in their summer camp at Oracle Park have tested positive for coronavirus and been placed in selfisolation.
The club did not identify them, and the news release specifically did not describe the two who tested positive as players. It used the term “individuals,” which means one or both could be coaches or other staff members.
The Giants also said no additional positive tests emerged from the results they received Monday.
“The impacted individuals have been placed in selfisolation and will continue until MLB protocols for discontinuing isolation have been satisfied,” the release said, adding that contact tracing has been done.
In theory, the Giants could ask others who have been close to the infected people to quarantine as well.
“We have several individuals who are responsible for conducting our contact tracing,” manager Gabe Kapler said in his daily Zoom session with reporters. “We’re taking that seriously and ensuring that our camp is as safe as possible.”
Kapler would not answer other questions about the two positive tests, citing privacy.
President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told The Chronicle on Monday that the team was expecting a batch of results later in the day that were conducted Saturday.
These were secondary tests and not the “intake” tests that newly arriving players had to pass to get onto the field. The
Giants completed those earlier.
That is why they have been able to conduct workouts uninterrupted while other teams, including the A’s, got caught in a major testing snafu over the weekend, when the single lab being used by Major League Baseball was shuttered and some results from intake tests were delayed.
When camp began, the Giants announced one positive test among incoming players: pitcher Luis Madero, who then was quarantined. Outfield prospect Hunter Bishop had tested positive before camp began and stayed home.
“Everybody out on the field for us, all those players, have completed intake screening,” Zaidi said before the two positives were announced. “We had everybody report before Friday. It sounds like from what I’ve read that some of the tests from Friday, which were intake tests for some teams, have not come back yet.”
Nevertheless, Kapler said Sunday that the intake process was not complete, suggesting that some players were held back from initial workouts.
With summer training so compact, the Giants’ ability to stay on the field with no significant testing issues might give them a slight competitive advantage over teams hamstrung by testers who did not show up or the lone Utah lab working with baseball being closed over the weekend.
This story is another huge embarrassment for Major League Baseball on the day it chose to reveal the 2020 regularseason schedule on its television network.
The league issued a statement Monday that said the lab processed 98% of 3,740 intake tests conducted between June 27 and Friday, with results of 3,654 reported to teams by Sunday. It expected the other 86 results Monday.
The league also said, “We addressed the delays caused by the holiday weekend and do not expect a recurrence. We commend the affected clubs that responded properly by canceling workouts.”
Though A’s general manager David Forst reportedly ripped the process in an email to players Sunday, Zaidi was more circumspect.
“I think based on what’s happened so far, there’s clearly been a couple of things to work out,” Zaidi said in the interview. “The lab that MLB is running is a huge endeavor, so, yeah, it’s not totally surprising that things aren’t running at 100% efficiency. But I know people are working really hard on it.”