COVID-19 Testing Snafus Leave Frustrated Athletics not Knowing When They'll Work Out

The Oakland Athletics position players were supposed to work out Sunday. They didn't when Friday's intake tests didn't get returned. Now Monday's workout is on hold while the club awaits test results.

The transition from non-baseball to baseball was expected to be a little rocky, but so far the Oakland Athletics are finding it the equivalent of climbing K-2.

Sunday’s first day of work by the team’s position players had to be called off because the A’s hadn’t gotten Friday’s COVID-19 intake test results back thanks to the Fourth of July holiday. Then late Sunday the team learned that the tests hadn’t even left the Bay Area, putting Monday’s workout in jeopardy.

The workout was supposed to take place midday. Now it will take place in the evening, if at all.

The health protocols agreed to by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association call for players to be tested every other day and receive results within 24 to 48 hours. Without timely an accurate testing, it will be difficult for those in the sport and outside it to have faith that players, staff and employees’ health concerns are being address in the best way possible.

Amazon packages can be delivered literally 7 days a week but results for Covid testing not so much. 🤷🏼‍♂️ @mlb thoughts? https://t.co/7PHYhMNby0

— Jake Diekman (@JakeDiekman) July 6, 2020

All other clubs seemed to have gotten through Sunday without an issue. On Monday, however, the Nationals and the Astros cancelled workouts and the Angels have postpone theirs.

That’s of little consolation to the A’s who are seeing other club having had hitters facing pitchers in camp since Thursday, the A’s haven’t even gotten a position player on the field to step in the batter’s box.

A copy of a WhatsApp message from general manager David Forst to the team Sunday night was obtained by theathletic.com and USA Today, and it seems that at least some of the players, most notably third baseman Matt Chapman, are riled up.

“Thanks again to you all for your understanding on the need to postpone today’s workout for the position players (he wrote). Unfortunately, that is not the end of this story. MLB has informed me this evening that our test samples from Friday have not arrived at the lab. They were not delivered as intended on Saturday because of the federal holiday and then were not switched to Sunday delivery in time to arrive today. As of this moment, they are sitting at SFO waiting to fly to Salt Lake to be delivered to the lab by 1:30 Mountain Time tomorrow.

‘On top of screwing up the logistics of this whole thing, neither MLB nor CDT (the company that collects the samples) communicated any of this to us until we pressed them for information, at which point all they could do was apologize, which frankly doesn’t really do much for us. Our best shot is to schedule a workout for tomorrow night (Ryan [Christenson, the A’s bench coach] will get you the details) with the hope that the samples arrive at the lab on time tomorrow and they are able to turn around your results in a matter of a few hours.

“I can tell you all what I expressed to Matt (Chapman) earlier today: this has nothing to do with us or our staff. The athletic training and stadium operations staffs here have worked tirelessly to get this incredibly challenging operation up and running. At this point, the blame lies with CDT and MLB and I won’t cover for them like I did earlier today. “

“Despite having our schedule a week ahead of time, they didn’t alert us to the possibility of any complications around July 4th, and once there were issues, they did nothing to communicate that to us or remedy the situation until Nick (Paparesta, the A’s head athletic trainer) and I forced the issue at various times today. If possible, I’m as frustrated and pissed as you are (well, probably not as pissed as Matt is), and I assure you the rest of the staff is as well.”

In a season cut from 162 games to just 60, the margin of error is slimmer than ever, and the A’s are finding themselves falling further behind their competition daily. Hence their level of frustration+

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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