Tag: tests

Red Sox COVID-19 Updates: Bobby Dalbec Cleared to Play, Will Be at Fenway Park on Sunday

Four days after it was announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, Red Sox power-hitting prospect Bobby Dalbec has been cleared to once again return to baseball activities, manager Ron Roenicke announced Saturday.

Per Roenicke, Dalbec worked out at the club’s alternate training site at Boston College’s Brighton campus on Saturday and the plan is for him to report to Fenway Park on Sunday.

“He hasn’t done much for a couple weeks so we went pretty slow with him,” Roenicke said in regards to what Dalbec has been up to lately. “Just hit some ground balls to him. He threw a little bit and then took some soft toss swings in the cage. He will join us tomorrow.”

Thus far, the Red Sox have announced that four players — Dalbec, Eduardo Rodriguez, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Josh Taylor — have tested positive for coronavirus. Dalbec had been feeling asymptomatic though, so it would appear that he has tested negative for the virus twice within a 24-hour span while also going 72 hours without a fever, as per Major League Baseball’s testing protocols.

Dalbec, who turned 25 last month, is regarded by MLB Pipeline as Boston’s No. 3 prospect behind Jeter Downs and Triston Casas.

The former Arizona Wildcat, selected by the Sox in the fourth round of the 2016 first-year player draft, was included on the club’s initial 47-man Summer Camp player pool.

Capable of playing both corner infield positions, Dalbec’s path to the majors is currenty blocked by the likes of Rafael Devers, Mitch Moreland, and so on. Because of that, he will likely start the 2020 season as a member of the Red Sox taxi squad in Pawtucket.

As for the other three players who have tested positive for COVID-19, Rodriguez remains at his Miami home, Hernandez is currently in Venezuela, and Taylor is self-isolating at a hotel in Boston. In other words, Dalbec is the first of the bunch to be cleared to return to the team.

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Red Sox’ Eduardo Rodriguez, Bobby Dalbec Test Positive for COVID-19

Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez and first/third baseman Bobby Dalbec have tested positive for COVID-19, manager Ron Roenicke announced Tuesday.

Per Roenicke, Rodriguez is feeling better and still believes he can be ready for the start of the 2020 season.

“Rodriguez wants to be ready for Opening Day but we’ll have to see how it goes,” the Sox skipper told reporters via Zoom. “The medical team will follow him, give him instructions.”

For the time being, the 27-year-old will remain at home in Miami, where he was orginally exposed to the virus, before traveling to Boston.

As for Dalbec, Boston’s top power-hitting prospect had yet to work out with the team at Fenway Park for the start of Summer Camp, and now we know why that is.

By testing positive for COVID-19, Rodriguez and Dalbec join left-handers Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor as Red Sox players who have contracted the virus. There could still be additional players who have tested positive, but these four have given permission to the Red Sox for their names to be revealed to the public.

According to MLB’s COVID-19 testing protocols, “Players testing positive must quarantine for two weeks and then must be free of symptoms and test negative twice before rejoining their clubs.”

Red Sox’ Bobby Dalbec Not Yet Working Out With Team at Summer Camp

Power-hitting prospect Bobby Dalbec has yet to participate in Red Sox Summer Camp, according to manager Ron Roenicke.

Per Roenicke, “There is still some intake things [the Red Sox] need to do with him.”

Although Roenicke could not further specify on this, it seems that there are at least two possibilities as to why Dalbec has been absent from Summer Camp thus far. The first of those being that the Sox are still waiting for the 25-year-old’s COVID-19 test results to come back from Salt Lake City; the second being that he tested positive for COVID-19 and did not give the team permission to reveal his name.

I don’t want to speculate on this, but if Dalbec is placed on the 10-day injured list anytime soon, it would seem as though the slugging first/third baseman did indeed test positive for coronavirus.

So far, the Red Sox have revealed that at least two players have tested positive for COVID-19 in left-handers Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor. Hernandez got it while at home in Venezuela, while Taylor is currently self-isolating at a Boston hotel.

In addition to that, Roenicke did tell reporters Monday that the Sox “still have a couple potential COVID cases that are pending.”

Red Sox Players, Employees to Participate in League-Wide Coronavirus Antibody Study

Red Sox players and employees alike will be participating in a league-wide coronavirus antibody study within the next two days, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

Per Passan, up to 10,000 people will be tested for coronavirus antibodies as part of this study, which will give researchers “a better sense of how widespread the disease is in major metropolitan areas across the United States, although doctors caution that the data gathered is not expected to hasten the game’s return.”

How these tests operate is quite simple. By using test kits provided by Stanford University, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), blood can be drawn via pinprick and results will be available within 10 minutes.

These tests will “will detect the prevalence of IgM, an antibody produced relatively early in those who have been infected with COVID-19, and IgG, a second form that doctors said lasts long after the infection happens. A positive test would confirm a person did in fact contract coronavirus, even if he or she was asymptomatic.”

Tests can be done at home or at club-run testing sites, and they “are absolutely not getting redirected from any kind of frontline testing programs,” according to Dr. Daniel Eichner, the president of SMRTL.

While some individuals in baseball have already taken the test, researchers will collect the rest of the results, which will be accompanied by a photo of the actual test for verification purposes, over the next two days.

Passan likens the test in this case to a pregnancy test, as a line will indicate a positive test for antibodies.

The thousands of results these tests will generate by the end of the week could be pivotal in determining just how widespread this pandemic has become. I’m no expert, but it definitely sounds like a step in the right direction.