WASHINGTON (AP) — Baseball’s two World Series teams canceled workouts Monday because of coronavirus testing delays that one executive worried could endanger the season.
The defending champion Washington Nationals and reigning American League champion Houston Astros called off training camp practices after not receiving test results from Friday. The St. Louis Cardinals also scrubbed their scheduled workout for similar reasons.
The cancellations come amid delays around Major League Baseball, with some players opting out, and in the aftermath of Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle criticizing slow test results and a lack of some personal protective equipment.
“Without accurate and timely testing, it is simply not safe for us to continue with summer camp,” Washington general manager Mike Rizzo said. “Major League Baseball needs to work quickly to resolve issues with their process and their lab. Otherwise, summer camp and the 2020 season are at risk.”
Astros general manager James Click said the delay in testing results and the contagious nature of the coronavirus led to the decision to cancel a full day of workouts.
“Despite these delays over the holiday weekend, we’re optimistic that this process will be ironed out and we’ll be back on the field and ready to compete for a championship soon,” Click said.
Hours later, the Astros said they had received the delayed test results and would work out Tuesday.
MLB said in a statement that 95% of its intake testing had been completed and the Utah laboratory it’s using had reported 98% of results, a majority of those a day after samples were collected. MLB said it addressed delays caused by the holiday weekend, doesn’t expect them to continue and commended teams for canceling workouts.
But frustration is building around the majors over testing delays.
“We got camps being shut down and people going three and four days without tests. You just don’t know what’s going on,” Los Angeles Dodgers star Mookie Betts said. “And I know it’s hard. I’m not blaming or saying this, that and the other. It’s hard. But somebody’s got to do it. And we have to just figure out the right way to do it.”
The Los Angeles Angels were forced to collect their own saliva samples Sunday when testers didn’t show up at their training complexes in Anaheim or Long Beach. They also delayed their workouts Monday to accommodate the testers, eventually turning their usual morning drills into an optional afternoon session.
Angels manager Joe Maddon believes “this will be a short-lived situation” and pinned the problem on the holiday weekend.
“I want to believe everything will get straightened out relatively soon,” Maddon said. “I think it’s just one of those moments that was hard to foresee coming into it, but I’ve got a lot of confidence that it’s going to be fixed.”
The Oakland Athletics finally got on the field for their first full-squad workout Monday night after awaiting test results for position players and canceling Sunday’s planned session. The start of Monday’s workout at the Coliseum was delayed by more than 90 minutes.
“We are here, everybody who went through the intake process has had their results sent to us and I’m looking down at the field at a bunch of position players. We made it to this point,” said A’s general manager David Forst, who was frustrated by the process.
“I expect it to get better. … I think Major League Baseball understands that the number of teams that had issues this weekend, that everybody expects it to return to a normal schedule going forward.”
