No More Positive COVID-19 Tests for Athletics, Who Await Word on What's Next

The Oakland Athletics learned Monday morning that the number of positive COVID-19 teams on the team's traveling party was limited to one, which was the best-case scenario. What happens next, however, is up in the air, and it's not clear if the club will leave Houston to play in Seattle Tuesday or if one or more of the games with the Mariners will be postponed.

The Oakland A’s got word Monday that the number of positive COVID-19 tests that led to the postponement of Sunday’s series finale in Houston, was limited to the one member of the traveling party previously identified.

A tweet from USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, later confirmed, was the first with the news that all remaining players, coaches and staff had tested negative for the virus.

Oakland had the traveling party self-isolate in their Houston-area hotel Sunday night, and indications are that while they would like to head to Seattle, the next and final stop on this road trip, they don’t know if they will be cleared to play, so they may stay put for the moment as Major League Baseball’s task force on handling positive tests decides what happens next.

The A’s, who have not released the name of the person who tested positive, were scheduled for an off-day Monday before the series-opener in Seattle.

The positive result came from tests conducted Friday, general manager David Forst said Sunday. He went on to say that the entire traveling party was retested on Sunday after the team learned of the positive test – the retest was on the schedule anyway as the A’s are tested every other day – and after the tests were shipped to the Salt Lake City-area laboratory that does the work, an expedited process got the new back to the A’s and to Major League Baseball in less than 24 hours.

About a dozen big league teams have had COVID-19 positive tests in the five weeks of Major League Baseball’s abbreviated 60-game season. The Cincinnati Reds and the New York Mets have both had positive testing recently, and have gotten through it to continue playing. The A’s hope to follow that model.

The A’s had starting pitcher Jesús Luzardo test positive for COVID-19 at the beginning of the resumption of training the first week of July, but hadn’t had a positive test since until this weekend.

Before that, minor league coach Webster Garrison had contracted the disease shortly after baseball went on hiatus in early March and spent more than a month on a ventilator in a Louisiana hospital before getting to the point where he could come off it. He continues to progress.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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