Guardians beset by virus, game postponed

CHICAGO — The Cleveland Guardians are dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that has sidelined manager Terry Francona and several of the team’s coaches, leading to the postponement of Wednesday’s game against the Chicago White Sox.

Shortly after Francona’s positive test became known, Major League Baseball said there were “multiple positive COVID-19 tests” in Cleveland’s organization and called off Wednesday’s series finale to allow for more testing and contact tracing.

It’s the first corona virus related postponement since the season started April 7.

Bench coach DeMarlo Hale, who was slotted to sub for Francona, also tested positive, and Cleveland has “multiple coaches and other team support staff members” infected with the virus, according to team spokesman Bart Swain.

At this point, it’s unclear who will manage the Guardians when they open a threegame series in Minnesota on Friday. It’s likely the team will bring up several minor-league coaches and field coordinators for the series.

First-base coach Sandy Alomar could be an option to manage. He took over those duties during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season after Francona was forced to step away after just 14 games because of a health issue.

The Guardians are off Thursday. The team did set its rotation for the Minnesota series, with Aaron Civale starting on Friday, followed by Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie. Civale had been scheduled to start Wednesday.

Francona, who has dealt with serious health problems the past two seasons, tested positive for the virus a few hours before the scheduled first pitch. The team said the 63-year-old was not showing symptoms.

There are no known current cases among Cleveland’s players. The team recently had an outbreak, with infielders Owen Miller and Yu Chang and pitchers Cal Quantrill (Stanford) and Anthony Castro all being placed on the COVID-19 injury list. All have returned except Chang, who is in the minors.

Also, the team’s TV broadcast crew had several members test positive during the team’s West Coast trip.

Francona had been in good health this season following two challenging years. In 2020, he was hospitalized with gastrointestinal issues. Last year, Francona struggled after undergoing offseason surgery on his foot and left the team in July.

Francona is in his 10th season with Cleveland. He won two World Series titles with the Red Sox.