Blue Jays Shut Down Spring Training Facility After Player Tests Positive for COVID-19
By Tyler Kemp
With hopes of having a shortened MLB season, teams are starting to get their players back in the building for resumed Spring Training activities. The major downside? The fact that organizations are putting their players at risk of contracting COVID-19, as the pandemic has flared up singificantly in Florida, where half of the league's team make their springtime homes.
The Phillies were the first team to report a flurry of positive tests this week, and Blue Jays were next in line. Following one positive test in the organization, Toronto decided to shut camp down altogether at their headquarters in Dunedin.
The Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday shut down their spring training facility in Dunedin, Fla., after a player exhibited COVID-19 symptoms, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 19, 2020
Dunedin is just up the road from Clearwater, where eight people in the Philadelphia Phillies organization tested positive.
Notably, Dunedin is merely five miles from where the Phillies operate in Clearwater.
Without naming any names, ESPN's Jeff Passan, who first reported the Toronto shutdown, gave additional details about potential next steps for the organization in terms of testing additional players and staff.
Multiple players working out at the Blue Jays facility said they had not yet been tested. If the player is not an isolated case, testing will ramp up. “We are being overly precautious with testing,” Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins told ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) June 19, 2020
With the season already up in the air, this just throws another wrench into the MLB’s plans for starting up the long-delayed 2020 campaign as soon as possible. If players are contracting COVID-19 during Spring Training workouts, then the league has to rethink the risks it's facing.