Giants’ COVID-19 outbreak grows
SAN FRANCISCO » First baseman Brandon Belt was among the latest Giants players to test positive for COVID-19 on Friday as a wave of cases sweeps through the clubhouse.
An outbreak that began Sunday with Mike Yastrzemski testing positive has grown to include at least four more players and one staff member after the latest round of results Friday. In addition to Belt, the latest players to test positive were reliever Dominic Leone and outfielder Steven Duggar, joining Yastrzemski and reliever Zack Littell on the COVID IL.
With cases mounting, the Giants started carrying a taxi squad and activated three new players before Friday night’s game: reliever Mauricio Llovera, outfielder Ka’ai Tom and utility man Jason Krizan, who made his long-awaited MLB debut after 1,132 minor-league
games, starting in left field.
The outbreak has strained the roster and moved the organization to take measures to contain the spread, including limiting clubhouse access to “essential personnel” only and emphasizing maskwearing indoors, which has not been common practice in the clubhouse this season, even after Yastrzemski’s
initial positive test.
“We are taking this very seriously,” Kapler said. “We’re encouraging the best practices and we are following Major League Baseball’s protocols … We’ve had discussions around encouraging mask wearing.”
President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi sent out an all-staff email informing employees of the new restrictions and reminding them to mask up and report symptoms, as required under MLB rules whenever a club reports three or more cases. On Friday, an attendant stationed outside the clubhouse had a new pile of medical-grade masks that wasn’t there when the Giants began this home stand.
“We have concerns about the levels of contagiousness in our clubhouse given the string of recent positives,” Zaidi said in a Zoom call Friday afternoon, during which he informed reporters of the decision to close the clubhouse to media, a violation of the collective bargaining agreement that grants access to credentialed media. “We are taking measures to try to mitigate the risk of further spread, both internally and externally.”
With the additions of Belt, Leone and Duggar, the Giants have five players sidelined on the COVID IL, a substantial figure.