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The Yankees were allowed to return to baseball on Friday, but without two of their best players. Aaron Judge and Gio Urshela, along with backup receiver Kyle Higashioka, were placed on the Covid-19 injured list after testing positive for the coronavirus. All should miss at least 10 days.
While many positive tests among Yankees players and staff this season have been so-called breakthrough cases, where a player who has been vaccinated has tested positive, the team said that was not the case for all tests positive on Friday, meaning at least one of the players was not vaccinated. But the Yankees did not identify which players were or were not vaccinated.
Judge, one of the Yankees’ most popular players, was at Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Denver, and was close to several of the game’s biggest stars, sparking concern that the game’s top players may have been exposed. . Five Red Sox All-Stars shared a clubhouse with Judge, but all five were active on Friday. The three position players in that group, Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and JD Martinez, were all part of Boston’s starting lineup.
Officials from other teams, along with Major League Baseball, followed the judge’s close contact during the All-Star festivities and performed tests where appropriate. As of Friday afternoon, no other player besides the six Yankees was placed on the Covid-19 list.
Manager Aaron Boone said some of the Yankee players who tested positive were experiencing symptoms but did not qualify any as serious.
“Nobody really got sick,” he said.
The series between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox was allowed to resume Friday night after Thursday’s game was postponed. The postponement came after three Yankees pitchers – Nestor Cortes Jr., Jonathan Loaisiga and Wandy Peralta – were confirmed positive for the virus, along with the other three suspected cases, which have yet to be confirmed. After Friday’s test run, the MLB determined the streak could continue and the postponed game would be caught on August 17 as part of a doubles schedule.
It was the eighth postponement due to concerns over the coronavirus in the first 2,964 games of this season. Last year, 45 of the 900 games were postponed.
The Yankees have reached the 85 percent vaccination threshold, allowing for more flexible protocols. In baseball as a whole, more than 85% of Level 1 staff – that is, players, coaches and anyone in daily contact with them – have been vaccinated, according to MLB
MLB also performed tests on players and other staff during the All-Star Game, and the league said it did not record any positive tests.
For the Yankees, however, this is the second coronavirus outbreak in two months. In May, nine people, mostly coaches, tested positive. Yankees shortstop Gleyber Torres also tested positive at the time but only missed seven games. But his case was unique as he tested both positive and negative daily, which led MLB experts to determine that he had such a mild case that the threat that he would get rid of the virus and that it spreads was very weak.
Boone said that was not the case for any of the six recent cases.
“I would expect them to be in most cases 10 days, or more than 10 days,” he said.
The judge has 21 homers, 13 doubles and a .901 based percentage plus stroke percentage. Urshela has 11 homers, 14 doubles and a .756 OPS The Yankees, who trailed the Red Sox by eight games in the American League East before Friday’s game, also placed infielder Luke Voit on the roster. of the injured for 10 days, retroactively to July 13, with inflammation of the left knee that originated from a bone bruise, Boone said.
The team called out Chris Gittens, Hoy Park, Greg Allen and minor league wide receiver Rob Brantly.
“That’s our reality right now,” Boone said of the team playing shorthanded against Boston without Judge and Urshela. “We have to go and make the most of it. They are obviously two great players, very important for what we do. We have to make do with what we have. “
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