The Mets became the last coronavirus of Major League Baseball on Thursday, when one player and one staff member tested positive for the disease, which immediately resulted in the postponement of Thursday’s final of the series against the Marlins in Miami, as well as the opening night of the Subway Series night against the Yankees at Citi Field. Although many questions remain unanswered at this early stage, this is what we know:
Q: Let’s start with the superficial goods. What’s the chance that one of this weekend’s planned Subway Series will be played?
A: fairly low. When only 13 members of the Reds tested positive on August 13, Cincinnati was wrapped up for the next four days of not playing because Major League Baseball wanted to prevent the kind of outbursts that happened to the Cardinals and Marlins. Four days of non-play would take the Mets through Sunday.
Q: What would the Yankees do at this time?
A: Probably holding a workout or two at Yankee Stadium. They were scheduled to take off Friday after being passed by the Rays.
Q: Well, now for the serious business. How does this work with the Mets to prevent a spread of the virus?
A: The Mets announced Thursday that the team would fly home with the proper safety measures, except for the two positively diagnosed members, such as “as those who are closely contacted” by those two members, receiving information from contact tracing.
Q: What is “close contact”?
A: According to the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control, which MLB uses, “close contact” means living in the same household as someone, being 15 minutes or longer within 6 feet of someone, or being in direct contact with a sick person’s secrets with COVID-19 (such as coughing). It does not include short interactions like passing someone along. So as long as the Mets were not stupid, there would not be many people left behind.
Q: Were the Mets stupid?
A: A sector in the sector told Mike Puma of The Post that the Mets are not breaking any protocol of the sport.
Q: What will the coming days be like?
A: The Mets said they are testing their entire traveling party, and you can expect this to happen in a few days. Word tends to come out every morning about the results of the previous days. That we need to know every day before noon whether the Mets have good news or bad news to share.
Q: Shall we find out the identities of the two positive cases?
A: It will be up to the individuals, let’s hope. We have not yet learned the Red whose case she closes four days.
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