With a handful of teams expressing frustration in recent days over delays with receiving coronavirus (COVID-19) test results, Major League Baseball released a statement addressing these concerns.
Last week the league said more than 95% of the tests under the intake screening period had been conducted, analyzed and shared with teams. Players then moved on to the phase that will test them every other day.
As for the remaining 5%, MLB explained that these tests were expected to be completed on Monday. The league attributed the delays to the Fourth of July weekend, which slowed up delivery and shipping services.
MLB does not expect a similar recurrence going forward and commended the affected clubs that canceled workouts. Among those that were forced to call off practice while waiting for coronavirus test results include the Oakland Athletics, Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals.
For the Los Angeles Dodgers, receiving coronavirus test results in a timely fashion has not been an issue.
“I’m not totally in tune with what’s going on outside of our organization, but I do know for us, Tier 1 and 2 people, the intake testing all came back and the people who tested negative were allowed into the facility,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“We got our second wave of results [Monday] and I would assume the same protocols — the negative tests — those guys would be allowed in. I think we’ve been fortunate in the sense that the testing has been expedited and fluid.”
While some have been critical of the process, Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten believes MLB deserves praise for their handling of coronavirus testing.
“We’ve had all kinds of thoughts since this began but to be fair, I think we’ve done as good of a job, and I mean all of baseball has done as good of a job at preparing everyone involved in the sport, front office people as well as all the players to give this the best shot,” he said before the trouble.
“I think there is real value in getting back on the field, not just for our players and not just for our organization but for the country as a whole. And so it’s worth taking the shot assuming you can do that with the maximum amount of safety.
“Now, the maximum amount of safety contemplates that there will be people from time to time that test positive because we’re doing so much testing, we have protocols in place to deal with those so that it doesn’t go into an outbreak of any kind.
“As long as we have what I would call an acceptable level of incidents and proper and appropriate treatment of whatever arises, I think we’re going to be OK. But I guess we’re all learning as we go and I feel good about the protocols that we have in place so far.
“They’re elaborate, I think the last count for the last version was 113 pages so we’ve taken this with great seriousness in order to produce a product that I think everyone wants at the end of the day and I think it’s worth all that effort.”
Mookie Betts joined the group of players to express some frustration over the delay, and he went so far as to express doubt whether or not the 2020 season will be completed.
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