When the Los Angeles Dodgers reported to Dodger Stadium for the start of Summer Camp earlier this month, there were some notable absences. The group included Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez, Tony Gonsolin, Kenley Jansen, Gavin Lux, AJ Pollock and Keibert Ruiz.
All but Ruiz have since joined their teammates in L.A. for workouts and intrasquad games. For Jansen, he revealed his absence was due to previously testing positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). “It is real. It is,” Jansen began in his first time speaking with media.
“Just want to tell everyone in the world just take it seriously. Just wear your masks at all times if you can. Trust me, it happens so fast and once I started having it I saw how fast the virus spread. We tried to do everything but we all had it in the house, so it happened so fast.”
Jansen explained it was his son, Kaden, who first contracted the virus. Jansen and his wife, Gianni, noticed Kaden had a fever in the middle of the night and sought a COVID-19 test out of precaution.
The virus unfortunately spread to the rest of the household, but everyone has luckily made a full recovery. “We all recovered now so we’re all clear,” Jansen said.
“We all recovered but we all still care because we just don’t know, we don’t have a lot of information about this if we can get reinfected or whatever so we’re just trying to stay at home, just trying to not go anywhere.
“My family is doing much better and they feel great, everything’s good. We’re all excited to get back and do something that I love a lot which is play baseball.”
Jansen never considered opting out of 2020 season
Jansen is considered a high-risk individual having twice undergone heart surgery. Despite that, he never once considered sitting out the 2020 season.
To this point, only one Dodgers player in David Price has opted out of the season. Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Ross Stripling are considered the leading candidates to assume his spot in the starting rotation.
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