After each COVID-19 test they take, Miguel Sano and Willians Astudillo call in with the same question.
“They make the phone call every day after they get a new test and they want to know, ‘Is it negative yet?’ Can I come back?’ ” Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “And that’s been a little bit challenging and frustrating for them.”
Sano and Astudillo, who tested positive for COVID-19 during their intake testing, are staying engaged with their teammates and coaches while they’re in quarantine but still have not been cleared to return to the Twins, though they are asymptomatic and are feeling well. To return, they must test negative twice on consecutive tests.
The Twins are operating without a timeline on both because they’re not sure when they will be cleared to return. Once they are, they must then assess where they are at in the ramp-up process before making any determinations on their readiness.
“We always talk about fluidity and we talk about staying nimble in decision-making and not committing too early — I mean, this is really a situation where we’re going to have to see these guys when they come out of it and how they come out of it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.
The Twins will have an expanded roster — they can have 30 players to begin the season — when Opening Day rolls around on July 24, which means that if the pair are cleared, Falvey said it might be possible to have them on the roster at that point.
“If they’re behind, we’ll just have to deal with that,” Falvey said. “If not and they’re ready to go, especially with an expanded roster, there could be a scenario where you see them working their way into the games at the outset even if they have limited time and runway to get ready for the regular season.”
In addition to that pair, minor leaguers Nick Gordon and Edwar Colina had both tested positive before reporting to Minnesota. Gordon still has not been cleared, Falvey said, and Colina has, but the Twins are keeping him at their complex in Fort Myers, Fla., for the time being to build him up before flying him up to Minnesota soon.
The Twins also registered a fifth positive test recently — infielder Wilfredo Tovar, who is training with the group in St. Paul. Tovar is asymptomatic and doing fine, Falvey said. He had tested negative upon intake but then subsequently tested positive.
“We went through the contract tracing,” Falvey said. “Everyone else has been tested over there and at present, we do not have any issues or concerns.”
UMPS TO JOIN INTRASQUADS
The Twins have had one intrasquad game with “bells and whistles,” but as they move closer to the start of the regular season, those games are going to start looking more like real games.
And that means that they’ll have real umpires — who have cleared intake testing, Falvey said — instead of relying on TrackMan. Falvey said he would expect that to happen within the next few days.
“We’re intending to have a much more full-scale game production intrasquad here in the next couple of days again,” Falvey said. “Like we did the other day, but maybe even more. Some piped in crowd noise, some things that have been reported on across the league, some things that Major League Baseball is testing.”
"still" - Google News
July 13, 2020 at 09:20AM
https://ift.tt/3erF92O
Twins’ Sano, Astudillo still not cleared to return; one more player tests positive - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
"still" - Google News
https://ift.tt/35pEmfO
https://ift.tt/2YsogAP
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Twins’ Sano, Astudillo still not cleared to return; one more player tests positive - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press"
Post a Comment