Phillies

The Nationals Cancelled Today’s Workout Because They Don’t Have COVID Test Results from Friday

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Jul 6th, 2020 · 10:24 AM EDT

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We’re off to a flying start!

A bunch of baseball players are COVID-19 positive, some are skipping the season, and now training is being cancelled because of testing issues. First it was Oakland, and now we’ve got the Washington Nationals axing workouts today because they took tests on Friday and still haven’t received the results.

From Jeff Passan at ESPN:

The Washington Nationals canceled workouts today as results from their Friday coronavirus tests still have not shown up, sources tell ESPN.

Comes on the heels of the Oakland A's canceling a workout Sunday because of no results and testers not showing up to Angels camp, either.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 6, 2020

Not something you’d like to hear on the same day that the MLB schedule is dropping. That’s set for 6 p.m. this evening on the MLB network.

More on the Nationals from Passan:

Here is a statement from Nationals GM Mike Rizzo — and it doesn't mince words: "Without accurate and timely testing it is simply not safe for us to continue with Summer Camp. Major League Baseball needs to work quickly to resolve issues with their process and their lab." pic.twitter.com/Ho8DkAw4Tb

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 6, 2020

Hard to disagree with Rizzo there.

If you think about it, every league is having some sort of testing or protocol problem. In NWSL, the Orlando team picked up a bunch of positive results and decided to drop out of their tournament entirely. In MLS, one team already in the bubble had their first match postponed. In the NBA and WNBA, we’ve had a bunch of players opt out, while baseball is now dealing with the various aforementioned struggles.

Thing is, we shouldn’t really be surprised, right? Didn’t we expect problems? Of course this was never going to go 100% according to plan, because we’ve never tried to navigate a global pandemic before. This entire summer was going to be full of asterisks already, we just can’t allow the asterisks to become so big that it results in more… permanent measures.