Just when the Cincinnati Reds thought they might be out of the woods with the team’s only COVID-19 outbreak in major league baseball this year, two more Reds tested positive and went on the COVID-19 list on Saturday.
The moves involving outfielder Stuart Fairchild and reliever Alex Young made six Reds in nine days on the COVID list.
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They came a day after reliever Fernando Cruz was activated from COVID IL and a day before Hunter Greene was scheduled to be activated to start Sunday against St. Louis Cardinals.
“I hope we don’t have any more cases,” said manager David Bell, “so that’s a concern. It’s really unpredictable.”
Fairchild was replaced on the active roster by utility man Alejo Lopez, who was added as a substitute player despite not being on the 40-man roster (allowed under the COVID IL rules). Young is on the injured list with a hamstring injury.
Bell said the hope at this point is that everyone on the team who may have been exposed and that the virus has passed through the clubhouse as much as possible, and that Saturday’s moves are more isolated.
“Players who try and get to IL, don’t have a choice,” Bell said. “They just feel hurt. We have to have players to replace them. “
One of them is Greene, who remained in San Francisco after the last day of the most recent road trip when he tried to positively follow, surprisingly, an effective start against the Giants.
“Everybody’s hitting is different, but I’m pretty good,” Greene said. “Fortunately, I was able to return for my last two or three days before I came back here.
“People understand that clearly in the years that have passed (since the worst pandemic in 2020), everyone’s response is different,” he added. “Some people get through it and then others hit them harder. Hopefully, those people can bounce back and get back to it.”
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Left-hander Brandon Williamson is also out with COVID IL and is good enough that he is scheduled to return Tuesday and start against the Tigers in Detroit. The sixth player on the list, pitcher Ben Lively, was already dealing with a long-term pec issue when he tested positive; his timeline is less certain.
Center fielder Harrison Bader, who got the leadoff hit for the Reds Saturday night against his original team, was with the Cardinals in 2020 when they were one of two teams in that shortened season to experience a team outbreak (also the Miami Marlins).
He was claimed on waivers from the New York Yankees the day before the Reds made their first three COVID IL moves this month.
But there was no flashback, he said.
“It’s challenging,” he said of the 2020 experience. “But we still have big league games to play and we still have a chance to win a World Series, even if it’s a shortened season. You still have a chance to play. You still have a paycheck. So you try to minimize the noise as much as you can.”
The Cardinals that year were able to write off their roster deficits with a deep dive into their farm system and ended up making the expanded playoff field.
“That was funny. It’s crazy,” he said. “But what are you going to do?”
No one knows if this is the end of the epidemic. “I have no idea,” Greene said.
Bader, for one, said he knows the value of putting such things aside and keeping priorities straight.
“All that matters is the ball,” he said. “Just take care of the ball, play the game well, respect the game and go out there and help the team win.
“Any emotion or movement of the COVID or movement of the roster – anything that can be derived from that – will only take away from the task that is being prepared, which is helping the team, which is always bigger than the individual.”
