The Mets’ new era will have to wait a bit to get started. Thursday night’s scheduled opener in D.C. has been postponed because of positive coronavirus tests on the Nationals, MLB announced. The game won’t be played on Friday’s scheduled off day either.
“Out of an abundance of caution, the game will not be made up on Friday,” the league said in a statement that pinned the postponement on “ongoing contact tracing involving members of the Nationals organization.”
A Nationals player tested positive on Wednesday, knocking out four other players due to contact tracing. Another Washington player may have tested positive on Thursday.
The episode underscores the importance of rapidly getting all players and staff vaccinated. If 85% of a team’s players and “tier 1″ staff get the vaccine, players don’t have to quarantine after a close contact, and they’ll be tested less often.
The Cardinals became the first team to hit the 85% threshold on Wednesday.
According to multiple reports, the Mets are COVID-19-free and the game could be played as early as Saturday, but nothing is set in stone.
Jacob deGrom was scheduled to face off against Max Scherzer in a nationally televised game on Thursday night, the first game after the Mets extended Francisco Lindor and officially announced themselves as a financial juggernaut.
“We had done so well in spring training, everyone across the game,” Scherzer said after the news of the first case broke on Wednesday. “We had seen so few positive cases across spring training as a whole. It just shows how quickly that can turn.”
It’s not clear how exactly MLB plans to make up the opener, but the early weeks of the season typically have a couple extra off days baked in for weather postponements, even before COVID-19.
MLB is bringing back 2020′s seven-inning doubleheaders; if the Nationals were cleared to play by Saturday, the teams could pay three games in two days.