As COVID-19 vaccines become more readily available and teams look to hit Major League Baseball’s 85-percent threshold to relax protocols, Padres General Manager A.J. Preller said he will not direct his staff to pressure players to get immunized.
The Padres are, however, strategically scheduling shots for players who want them in hopes of spreading out the potential impact of side effects.
Preller did not reveal how many of the Padres’ players and staff have been vaccinated, but said Thursday morning the process began toward the end of spring training.
“Some people won’t have any effects and some will have side effects,” Preller said. “So we’re trying to plan that out in giving them the best chance to prepare. I think that’s something that we’ll continue to look at over the (next) week. But we have had a number of players and staff members in the last few days, really the last couple days of spring training, get vaccinated so they are ready for today.
“I think we’ll look at the schedule as well, off days, pitchers schedules, to try to maximize that so they are not feeling any side effects when they have to go out and play Major League Baseball games.”
Teams learned earlier this week that MLB and the players’ union agreed to relax certain health and safety protocols in the 2021 Operations Manual for fully vaccinated Tier 1 individuals and for teams with at least 85 percent of their Tier 1 individuals fully vaccinated.
Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said Wednesday night that 85 percent of his team’s travel party was able to receive the vaccine and Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said Thursday morning — as news hit that the Nationals had opening day postponed because of at least three positive COVID-19 tests — that his club was approaching that threshold.
“It’s a quick reminder that we cannot let our guard down,” Lovullo said. “Major League Baseball has set up protocols that need to be followed and we’re going to follow those rules. This virus can knock people down. We know that it’s cost a lot of lives. It’s taken a lot of lives. That itself should ring our bell a little bit to make sure we don’t let our guard down. We want to return to normal and we’re at a very critical time in my opinion for what’s happening as we transition and continue to move forward.
“We know we’re at a different level and a different stage and it can still go backwards and we don’t want that to happen.”
Toward that end, Preller said the Padres are using their resources to make sure players and staff are educated when they make their decision, whatever direction they go.
“It’s definitely a personal choice,” Preller said. “… There’s all kinds of information out there. There’s a great medical team at UCSD that obviously has been hands on with the virus and dealing with it day-to-day and has a ton of information from a vaccine standpoint.
“We just try to get that in the hands of our players and our staff and have tried to look at MLB’s rules and protocols and explain that I think the agreement that just came down between the union and the commissioner’s office, here’s the competitive advantage for us as a club, here’s our responsibilities and ultimately put that in the hands of the players.
“And some guys have taken advantage of that in the last few days and when there’s vaccines available have wanted to go ahead and do that and other guys are in the wait-and-see mode. I think from an organization standpoint, we’ll be supportive and just give them as much information as possible to make the best possible decisions and go from there.”