Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is reporting that a Cincinnati Reds player has tested positive for COVID-19. The player hasn’t been named, and we here at Redleg Nation aren’t going to speculate on who it was.

If a report comes out on who it was, we will update this post. For now, we’re leaving that speculation to someone else.

As for the game on Saturday night, or the rest of the series – well – we don’t know about that yet, either. On this front, we will speculate. One positive test has yet to lead to the postponement of any games around Major League Baseball. The sample size of one positive test on a team is rather small, but it’s taken multiple positive tests on one team to put games on hold at this point. Given that it’s currently 12:35am, we probably won’t find out much news until the morning with regards to the game and it’s status.

Will the situations that have taken place with the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals lead to Major League Baseball be pro-active and postponing at least the game on Saturday to test everyone on the two teams before deciding on the status for Sunday? Who knows at this point – but that could be an option that is on the table. The two teams could play a double header on Sunday if things come back clean for everyone else, or they could make up the game in Cincinnati when the Pirates return to town September 14th-16th.

Update: Just as this was about to be published, Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the game on Saturday was likely to be postponed.

As Samuel L. Jackson famously says in Jurassic Park: Hold onto your butts.

20 Responses

  1. RedNat

    This testing process has been weird so far for the reds. All the symptomatic players have tested negative and all the positive tests have been in asymptomatic players

    • jazzmanbbfan

      The challenge with some of the rapid tests seems to be false positives (Davidson at the beginning of the season, Governor DeWine). Guess we’ll see if the next test is still positive. I guess it’s not known if the player was showing any symptoms. I’m guessing not as they get tested every other day regardless.

      • Doug Gray

        If you show symptoms you are supposed to report them and then you aren’t allowed to show up to play. So, in theory, they weren’t showing symptoms.

  2. ClevelandRedsFan

    Doug, good for you for maintaining ethics and not jumping into speculation.

  3. Gonzo Reds

    Well my reverse psychology positive post yesterday worked with getting a win but I didn’t intend for it to trigger a positive covid test!

  4. ClevelandRedsFan

    It sounds like the concern is whomever tested positive may have played or been in the dugout last night. That could lead to the outbreak. I like MLB taking the proactive approach.

  5. VaRedsFan

    How often are symptom free players tested?

    • Doug Gray

      All players/staff are tested every other day.

      • musicclown

        If players and staff are tested every other day how did someone come up positive. Not following protocol? They walked into a stiff breeze that carried Covid? Went out to dinner?

        I’ve been working since Covid started, we get our temps taken before entering the factory, we work at least 6ft apart and all wear masks when leaving our work area and no one has failed a temp check, missed time from work for being sick to even question it’s Covid. Sure we don’t travel and move around and life is boring and then it s*^&s

      • Doug Gray

        There could be a lot of ways one could follow protocol and still wind up with it. This is a group project situation that unfortunately you can’t control all on your own. You need, probably, 5000 people that are connected to the Cincinnati Reds to all do their part (players/coaches/trainers/stadium staffers, their families, the people that live in their buildings, transportation crew, road hotel crews, etc).

  6. seadog

    The season of the unknown continues. We could not make this stuff up.
    60 game season
    An imploding bullpen. Lorenzen with an ERA north of 10
    Christian Colon batting 5th
    Our “#4” in the rotation can’t get thru two innings
    Our “#5” gives up 9 in two innings
    Our multi million add at 2nd has missed almost half the games
    Bell has managed like this is AA
    Etc etc etc

    And yet out Reds are in the playoff hunt!!! Maybe this is the tipping point/. We did not expect all of the above. So maybe—From here on out
    Winker hits 400
    Costellanos leads the league in HR
    Gray wins the Cy Young
    Reds win the National League
    Votto is named World Series MVP as the Reds best the Twins in the World Series

    Ah The unknown. It could happen. At least we can dream!!

    • Randy in Chatt

      to add to one of your lines: “Christian Colon batting 5th”…..and is DFA’d days later.

      What a year!

      • musicclown

        Colon ends up on the Twins and hit’s the game winner to win the Series. Now then it will be what a year!

  7. CFD3000

    Postpone the game(s). Test EVERYBODY on both teams. Keep everyone safe. Isolate anyone positive. Avoid an outbreak. Preserve the chance to play a full 60 game season. This is a bummer, but it doesn’t have to turn into an ongoing awful situation. Oh, and keep everyone safe.

    • Yaboo

      Also be open to the possibility it is yet ANOTHER false positive

      • Matt WI

        If false, than all of the same caution is still worthwhile and they just get back to it sooner. The reward of playing as though it was a false positive doesn’t seem exceed the risk if it isn’t. Minor disruption, even if in hindsight they find it “didn’t need to happen” is the smart play here.

    • Jim Walker

      @cfd3000 Agree they need to error on the side of caution if they error at all.

  8. Mark Moore

    If we postpone, we postpone. I hope that doesn’t stretch into a 2nd day. I really hope we get to play 2 tomorrow. But the decision needs to happen way ahead of any players reporting … and I’m thinking of Bauer especially given his routine and regimen for preparing, especially after a few extra days off.

    #embracetheweird

    • Jim Walker

      Some of the national wags on Twitter are already saying Sunday is on the block awaiting final decision. No way to know if this is solidly sourced or just trying to get ahead of the story.

      • TR

        The dictionary description of wag should be expanded to include the all knowing ones, not only just humorists.