The first of three games between the Oakland A’s and Minnesota Twins scheduled for Monday will be postponed after multiple members of the Twins organization tested positive for COVID-19, A’s manager Bob Melvin said Sunday.
It is unclear when the game will be made up, though a double-header on Tuesday is a possibility if the Twins are cleared to return to play.
“This is just coming my way in the last few minutes,” Melvin said.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said Saturday that two players and one Twins staff member had tested positive since the team arrived in Anaheim for a three-game series against the Angels, though they only played one of those games due to the development.
In a statement, Major League Baseball said Saturday that the Twins games against the Angeles were postponed “to allow for continued testing and contact tracing involving members of the Twins organization.”
The Twins have reportedly underwent a round of COVID-19 testing on Sunday morning, the results of which will not be clear until at least Sunday evening.
Melvin said the A’s will use Monday as an off-day and will determine their pitching order moving forward when the Twins’ situation crystallizes.
“I think every time you can take an off day, especially if there’s a doubleheader the next day, you’re better off taking off days,” Melvin said. “You don’t get that many over the course of the season.”
MLB and the MLBPA agreed before the season to relax COVID-19-related protocols for clubs where 85 percent of their Tier 1 individuals are fully vaccinated, a number Melvin said his team has not reached but certainly hopes to.
“There would be a lot of relaxation with what we could do and I think everybody wants to and is trying to get back and have some normalcy,” Melvin said. “It’s very difficult, at least in my case, to manage with a mask on. A lot of stuff that you have to be aware of around the clubhouse. Obviously, you do it for safety but we’re not there yet.”
Melvin was rather reserved when asked if he was confident the A’s organization can reach the 85 percent threshold.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I would say we’re fairly close but this is something that’s difficult to try and push on anybody. We’ll see.”