The Chicago White Sox say two players have tested positive for the coronavirus and are in isolation.
The team said Sunday that the two unidentified players are asymptomatic and that contact tracing for both was conducted. They are being monitored by team medical staff and will receive follow-up testing in the coming days.
The White Sox said both players requested privacy, meaning the team isn’t able to comment further.
Also Sunday, Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez said two players out of 60 tested turned up positive for the coronavirus.
Martinez said the two players took their tests Wednesday before reporting to Nationals Park and that some are still awaiting their results. Reliever Sean Doolittle minutes earlier lamented not having his COVID-19 test results back from Friday and implored baseball to “clean this up.”
Doolittle, who was part of Washington’s World Series-winning team last season, said he is still debating whether to play this season, weighing safety concerns and physical and mental health. The 33-year-old said the Nationals still haven’t received the respirator masks they were told were coming and expressed concerns about the situation.
Doolittle followed up his comments with a series of tweets:
But we need help to make this work. Faster test results, PPE for high risk individuals and players/staff with high risk family members. The individual efforts have been great so far but we can’t rely solely on individuals. The efforts have to be structural as well.
— Obi-Sean Kenobi Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) July 5, 2020
St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Elehuris Montero has tested positive for COVID-19 but is asymptomatic, according to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. On Saturday, Mozeliak announced that left-handers Ricardo Sanchez and Genesis Cabrera had tested positive.
A few test results are still pending, according to Mozeliak.
Players who test positive will be allowed to return to baseball activities after they test negative twice and pass other appropriate COVID-19 protocols.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.