MLB News: Players Unhappy With Testing Protocols as League Struggles to Catch Up

MLB and the players are not off to a strong start with making play safe again. Players from across the league came out this weekend voicing concerns over their test results, and the lack of testing in general.

The Nationals’ Sean Doolittle said publicly that testing was still a little bit of a mess, and that the team had yet to receive PPE gear. That seemed to start a domino effect of players coming out across the MLB  to express concern over delays in test results. 

The Angels had to push back their workouts today several times because test administrators did now show up on their scheduled day. MLB issued the following statement today in regard to the feedback from players and clubs.

Our plan required extensive delivery and shipping services, including proactive special accommodations to account for the holiday weekend. The vast majority of those deliveries occurred without incident and allowed the protocols to function as planned. Unfortunately, several situations included unforeseen delays. We have addressed the delays caused by the holiday weekend and do not expect a recurrence. We commend the affected clubs that responded properly by labeling workouts.

MLB went on to explain that all players that were supposed to be tested during the intake period were confirmed. The league also noted that they were still missing 2 percent of the results from the Utah testing facility. That means that as of this morning, 86 results had still not been returned to players or coaches.

This all comes on the heels of a few big names choosing to sit the season out. After Mike Leake, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman chose to sit out, a few more guys opted to as well this weekend. Nick Markakis joined that growing list with an announcement today. With how MLB has handled safety protocols thus far, expect a few more big names to be added to that list. 

Dodger Stadium Ranked Way Too Low in Fan Survey