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The New York Yankees were scheduled to kick off the second half of Major League Baseball’s regular season Thursday night by hosting the Boston Red Sox. Instead, MLB postponed the game due to the Yankees’ latest round of COVID-19 issues. Here is the official statement from the league:
Following positive tests for COVID-19 within the New York Yankees organization, tonight’s game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium has been postponed to allow further testing and contact tracing. Major League Baseball will continue to provide programming updates as they become available.
MLB has yet to deem it necessary to postpone Friday’s game, although that may change as more information becomes available.
General manager Brian Cashman told reporters Thursday afternoon that the Yankees had three positive cases and three pending. Cashman’s positive figure includes reliever Jonathan Loaisiga who was placed on the COVID-19 list before the all-star break, as well as fellow pitchers Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta, each placed on the COVID-19 list ahead of the competition. from Thursday. Cashman told reporters all three were vaccinated. (The Yankees also reinstated reliever Zack Britton from the 10-day injured list. Britton had been out since late June after suffering hamstring strain.)
The three pending cases involve Judge Aaron, Kyle Higashioka and Gio Urshela, according to ESPN’s Buster Olney. ESPN’s Marly Rivera reports that Red Sox player Rafael Devers was asked not to conduct interviews because one of the Yankees who tested positive was in the All-Star Game, who would be the judge. The five Red Sox All-Stars (Devers, Matt Barnes, Xander Bogaerts, Nathan Eovaldi, JD Martinez) have been urged to take social distancing precautions, reports Pete Abraham from Boston Globe.
Cashman told reporters “most” of the six players have already been vaccinated. Urshela was vaccinated earlier this season (he spent a day on the COVID list with side effects from the vaccine in May). The Yankees would have been one of the first teams to cross the vaccine threshold (85% of level 1 individuals) which allows more flexible adherence to MLB protocols. This is their second case of positive tests since, as several coaches had to run out of time in May following so-called “breakthrough infections”. As experts have since explained, the goal of a vaccination is to reduce the severity of the infection rather than completely eliminating the possibility; From this perspective, the COVID-19 vaccines worked as expected, with almost all of these cases being asymptomatic in nature.
The Yankees were initially forced to give up batting training as they adhered to the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocol following a pair of positive tests.
Thursday was to mark the start of a pivotal streak for the Yankees, who entered the second half stationed in fourth place in the American League East, some eight games away from the Red Sox. The Yankees are set to face the second-placed Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays 11 times before the MLB trade deadline of July 30. The results of those competitions – and keep in mind the Yankees are 5-14 against these teams so far this season – will likely dictate whether New York is aggressive on the deadline.
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