Tracking MLB COVID-19 cases for the 2020 season

By Jul 30, 2020, 2:42 PM EDT
tracking MLB COVID-19
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Major League Baseball is currently dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak with the Miami Marlins — and, possibly, the Philadelphia Phillies — that is quickly spiraling out of control. Multiple games have been postponed and more seem inevitable. In light of this, let’s start tracking MLB COVID-19 cases for the 2020 season.

Tracking MLB COVID-19 cases is not necessarily straightforward. Because of healthcare privacy laws players who test positive for COVID-19 cannot be identified without their consent. In some cases players have offered such consent and the team has announced that they have, in fact, tested positive for COVID-19.

In the vast majority of cases, however, players have been placed on the Injured list for “undisclosed reasons” or for an “illness” which is likely, but not necessarily, COVID-19-related. The number of players who have tested positive on a given team, such as the Marlins, has likewise been reported in some cases, even if identities are not known.

With those caveats aside, here is where we stand at present as far as tracking MLB COVID-19 cases and players who are on the injured list for “undisclosed reasons” or “illness.”

 

Miami Marlins

  • Seventeen players and at least two members of the Marlins coaching staff have tested positive and are on the COVID-19 injured list. Those known: Jorge Alfaro, Garrett Cooper, Harold Ramírez, and José Ureña. No Marlins player has yet been reinstated and the team remains in quarantine in Philadelphia.

 

Washington Nationals

 

Atlanta Braves

  • Will Smith is on the injured list for an illness

 

Philadelphia Phillies

  • Ranger Suárez is on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

New York Mets

  • Jared Hughes and Brad Bach are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

Cincinnati Reds

  • Matt Davidson was placed on the COVID-19 injured list due to a positive test.

 

Pittsburgh Pirates

 

Milwaukee Brewers

  • Luis Urías and Angel Perdomo are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

Los Angeles Dodgers

  • Zac Reks is on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

San Diego Padres

  • Jorge Mateo and Breyvic Valera are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

San Francisco Giants

  • Jarlin García is on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

New York Yankees

 

Baltimore Orioles

  • Chris Davis is on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

Tampa Bay Rays

  • Randy Arozarena is on the injured list for undisclosed reasons;
  • Austin Meadows is on the injured list after a positive COVID-19 test

 

Chicago White Sox

  • Jose Ruiz and Nomar Mazara are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

Cleveland Indians

 

Detroit Tigers

 

Kansas City Royals

 

Houston Astros

  • Yordan Álvarez, Cionel Pérez, and José Urquidy are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

Los Angeles Angels

  • Parker Markel, José Suárez Julio Teherán, and José Quijada are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

 

Seattle Mariners

 

Texas Rangers

  • Jonathan Davis, Elvis Luciano, and Héctor Pérez are on the injured list for undisclosed reasons

Royals’ John Sherman optimistic about new ballpark, current team

Associated PressMar 29, 2023, 3:31 PM EDT
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The first thing that Kansas City Royals owner John Sherman thinks about when he wakes up each morning is how the club, stuck in what seems like an interminable rebuild, will play on that particular day.

Not where they will play four or five years down the road.

Yet given the modest expectations for a team that lost nearly 100 games a year ago, it makes sense many Royals fans are just as interested – quite possibly more so – in the plans for a downtown ballpark than whether infielder Bobby Witt Jr. can double down on his brilliant rookie season or pitcher Brady Singer can truly become a staff ace.

That’s why Sherman’s second thought probably moves to the downtown ballpark, too.

“This is a huge decision, and I look at it as maybe the most important decision we’ll make as long as we have the privilege of stewarding this team,” Sherman said before the Royals held a final workout Wednesday ahead of opening day. “I’m probably as anxious as you to get moving on that, but it’s a complicated process.”

The Royals have called Kauffman Stadium home since the sister to Arrowhead Stadium, the home of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, opened 50 years ago next month.

And while most stadiums are replaced because they have become outdated, the unique, space-aged look of Kauffman Stadium – built during an era in which teams trended toward impersonal, multisport concrete donuts for their homes – remains beloved by Royals fans and visitors alike.

The problem is that despite numerous renovations over the years, the very concrete holding the ballpark together has begun to crumble in places. The cost simply to repair and maintain the ballpark has become prohibitive.

So with the decision essentially made for them to build an entirely new stadium, the Royals revealed plans to build an entire development in the same mold of The Battery Atlanta, where the Braves built Truist Park, and the Ballpark Village in St. Louis, where the new Busch Stadium is merely the centerpiece of a whole entertainment district.

No site has been secured, but several of the most promising are in downtown Kansas City, where the Power & Light District along with T-Mobile Center have spearheaded a successful era of urban renewal.

Sherman has said that private funds would cover the majority of the stadium cost and the entire village, each carrying a price tag of about $1 billion.

But if any public funding will be used, as it was to build and maintain Kauffman Stadium, then it would need to be voted upon, and the earliest that it could show up on a ballot would be August.

“You look at Atlanta, they took some raw ground – they started with 85 acres – and that has been a complete home run,” said Sherman, who purchased the Royals in August 2019, shortly before the pandemic wreaked havoc on team finances.

“This is one of the reasons we want to do this: That’s helped the Braves become more competitive,” Sherman said of the vast potential for increased revenue for one of the smallest-market teams in baseball. “They have locked up and extended the core of their future, and the Braves are in a great position from a baseball standpoint.”

So perhaps the first two thoughts Sherman has each day – about performance and the future – are one and the same.

When it comes to the team itself, the Royals were largely quiet throughout the winter, though that was by design.

Rather than spending heavily on free agents that might help them win a few more games, they decided to stay the course with a promising young roster in the hopes that the development of those players would yield better results.

In fact, Sherman said, the club has been discussing extensions for some of the Royals’ foundational pieces – presumably Witt, who was fourth in voting for AL rookie of the year, and Singer, who was 10-5 with a 3.23 ERA last season.

“We’re having conversations about that as we speak,” Sherman said. “We have a number of young players that we’re trying to evaluate and we’re talking to their representatives about what might work.”

Just because the Royals’ roster largely looks the same, that doesn’t mean nothing has changed. The Royals fired longtime general manager Dayton Moore in September and moved J.J. Picollo to the role, then fired manager Mike Matheny in October and replaced him with longtime Indians and Rays coach Matt Quatraro.

Sherman said the new voices created a palpable energy in spring training that he hopes carries into the regular season.

“When we acquired the team, we had three primary objectives,” Sherman said. “One was to win more games; we’re working on that. The second was to secure the future; that’s what (the stadium) is. And the third was to do good in the community.

“But the first priority,” he said, “is really the on-field product. That’s what really lifts everything else up.”