Dodgers Have Abided By COVID-19 Protocols, So Why Quarantine Family During Postseason?
Successful sports teams don't like distractions.
Self-created disruptions, such as Dave Roberts deciding to play Mookie Betts at second base, are one thing. The Dodgers may feel the need to keep things fresh to avoid complacency with less than 20 games remaining before the postseason. This is a good time to try some "Why not?" experimentation as long as it doesn't affect focus on the big goal.
But distractions coming from outside the closed community of a baseball clubhouse are not viewed favorably. That's likely why the Dodgers are objecting so strongly to the possibility that players' families will have to isolate in a seven-day quarantine before joining their loved ones during the postseason.
As reported by The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal, Major League Baseball wants the quarantines to avoid possible COVID-19 infections during the postseason. With a tighter schedule, postponements of multiple days due to positive tests -- or outbreaks -- could prevent the playoffs from finishing and cost MLB a whole lot of money.
But in the Dodgers' view, separating players from their families is an unnecessarily harsh measure for a team that's implemented and followed COVID-19 protocols more strictly than several other MLB teams.
Justin Turner is framing the issue a bit dramatically when asking, "You're asking us to choose between our families and the playoffs?" But it's also understandable why he and the players he speaks for as the team's union representative are opposed to being separated from spouses and children for a week.
The Dodgers haven't had any positive tests since reporting for Summer Camp. And since baseball hasn't been playing in a bubble, they've been at home (or stayed on the road) with the very family members from whom they'd presumably need to be isolated as the postseason begins. With the team at home during the final week of the regular season, players and their families will likely be together. So why separate them after that?
Why cause trouble where there appears to be none? As Turner sees it, don't try to mess with a beautiful thing. The Dodgers' current path toward the best record in baseball and an elusive World Series championship while staying COVID-free shows they've done everything correctly.
Ian Casselberry watchdogs sports media for Awful Announcing. He's covered baseball for SB Nation, Yahoo Sports and MLive, and was one of Bleacher Report's first lead MLB writers. Please follow Ian on Twitter @iancass and give him a listen at The Podcass.
