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The San Francisco Giants are back in action on Wednesday after a coronavirus-inspired Tuesday off day. The team cancelled the scheduled Tuesday workouts since they had yet to receive the results of their Saturday coronavirus tests.
Rather than wait for the test results and hope for a workout later in the day, manager Gabe Kapler gave everyone the day off, telling reporters, “We think that a mental recovery day, after three days of going really hard, there’s some benefit to that ... We really don’t believe it will hurt our camp or development to miss a day and will be a nice mental blow for our players.”
The results did eventually come in, and they brought good news: no more Giants have tested positive for the coronavirus. And with that, the team is back to full workouts.
OFFICIAL: #SFGiants received test results from July 4th and all are negative among players and staff. Workouts at Oracle Park will resume today.
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) July 8, 2020
MLB’s safety protocol states that teams must undergo full coronavirus testing every other day. That means the Giants are awaiting results from Monday’s tests, and will also administer tests today.
Now that the delayed weekend tests are in, hopefully the league can start to get the process under control. All MLB coronavirus tests go through an independent laboratory in Utah, but delays in results over the weekend led to at least five teams canceling workouts on Monday or Tuesday.
The season is scheduled to begin in 15 days, with an ESPN doubleheader: the New York Yankees at the Washington Nationals, followed by the Giants at the Los Angeles Dodgers. This week will likely show us if MLB is on the right track when it comes to getting test results back in a timely fashion.