Chris Bassitt Regrets Telling New York Mets About Positive Covid Test

Chris Bassitt regrets telling New York Mets about positive Covid test.

NEW YORK - This Mets' starting pitcher is not pleased with the system.

Chris Bassitt is set to return from the COVID IL on Friday against the Marlins after missing a week due to a positive test result. But Bassitt, who missed a total of one start, is not happy with how things played out. 

“It’s ridiculous we’re still doing it,” Bassitt said of MLB's COVID protocols. “Stop testing it. Stop acting like COVID is far worse than a lot of other things. I’m not trying to get too much into it, but I was never sick, never had a symptom. So, sitting out for two weeks or a week for zero symptoms, I don’t know.”

"I was never sick. Never had a symptom."

Chris Bassitt talks about his non-injury related IL stint: pic.twitter.com/d9NTgYOPYs

— SNY (@SNYtv) July 7, 2022

Bassitt last pitched on June 25, in which he went seven innings, allowing one run to the Miami Marlins. After feeling sluggish during the Mets' two-game series against the Houston Astros, Bassitt decided to test himself, which revealed a positive result. 

“I tested myself just because the only symptom, so-called, that I had was the second game vs. Houston I was just way more sluggish, tired than I usually have [been], and having a little girl at home and stuff like that, If I can somewhat be safe, I will,” Bassitt said. “I tested myself and it was positive, so I basically had the choice to tell them so I could kind of protect my teammates or not say anything and put my teammates at risk a little bit.

“But, I mean, I never had a symptom. I woke up fine, the next day fine, haven’t had a symptom since, so I don’t know if I made the right decision of saying something or not. I don’t know.”

Bassitt was forced to miss his scheduled start against the Texas Rangers on July 1. But while he was away from the team, he was still able to run, workout and throw makeshift bullpen sessions against a park fence in the city. 

According to Bassitt, he regrets the way he handled learning of his positive result, and may keep it to himself moving forward. 

“Now they’re coming out and saying we possibly could get tested, we could possibly come back positive multiple times in a month,” he added, “so we’ve got to miss multiple times – I guess the answer is I should never have said anything. I should never have said that I tested positive, and I probably won’t the rest of my career. There’s no way, there’s no reason.”

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