For the 2020 MLB season, players who test positive for COVID-19 could remain anonymous.
One of the many items players and owners have continued to negotiate about, even after a 60-game 2020 MLB season was officially mandated by Rob Manfred, is the issue of player privacy. In accordance with the nation’s HIPAA laws, a patient has the right to keep their health records private. As such, if a player tests positive for COVID-19, according to our laws, he does not have to inform the public of his condition.
This season, according to Lindsey Adler of The Athletic, in an effort to keep a player’s health record private, MLB will define COVID-19 related “injuries” as a “non-employment related” injury.
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Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a player that has tested positive for the virus, though it does include them. It means that a player may have been exposed to someone with the virus or is exhibiting symptoms related to the virus.
Either way, if a player does not want a COVID-related injury revealed to the public, he will not have to in 2020.
For these types of injuries, teams will be allowed to immediately call a player up from the Taxi Squad for any number of days and it will not count against roster maximums or the player pool roster.
This begs the question of just how anonymous COVID-related injuries really will be in 2020? It also makes me wonder how many teams will take advantage of this rule?
First, on the anonymity issue, the press and the fans will most certainly speculate when a player is missing from the lineup or the rotation for a number of days and a Taxi Squad player is called up.
Just imagine, Player A misses five games; no injury is disclosed and he is temporarily replaced by Player B. The conclusion will be that Player A has COVID-19, came in contact with someone who has COVID or is exhibiting symptoms of COVID.
Then, there’s the issue of taking advantage of the rule.
Over the last few years, teams have been known to take full advantage of a 10-day IL. Imagine what teams would be willing to do with another “non-employment related” injury list that has very little limits.
If and when the 2020 MLB season finally kicks off, fans will have to become accustomed to a new version of the game. Tack on more speculation and sinister strategies to the long list of changes.