TAMPA, FL – MARCH 13: A general view of Steinbrenner Field on March 13, 2020 in Tampa, Florida. Major League Baseball is suspending Spring Training and delaying the start of the regular season by at least two weeks due to the ongoing threat of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. (Photo by Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
A second New York Yankees minor leaguer has reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus as MLB remains on hold before even opening the 2020 season.
A second player in the New York Yankees minor league camp has reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus. It’s the second confirmed positive case in the organization and in baseball as a whole thus far.
The Athletic’s Lindsey Adler and ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke the news on Tuesday morning that the Yankees had informed their minor league players of the second positive case.
The Yankees had the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in baseball last week with an unnamed minor leaguer and subsequently quarantined their minor league player in a Tampa hotel. The first player reportedly had not been at the major league facility, and it’s not yet known who the second player came in contact with.
There has yet to be a confirmed case of the coronavirus among major leaguers, but all MLB teams have shut down camp for now.
The start of the 2020 MLB season has already been delayed due to the pandemic that has put the entire world of sports on hold. Initially, MLB announced that spring training was suspended and Opening Day would be pushed back two weeks. But after a more recent recommendation from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of no events with 50 or more attendees for the next eight weeks, MLB announced that Opening Day would be pushed back further in accordance with that guideline.
For more information about COVID-19, visit the CDC’s website or the website for your state’s Department of Health.