MLB COVID News: New results and postseason impact

Today, we received some positive MLB COVID news regarding testing. How will this impact the postseason?

Today, in what seems like the first time all season, we received some positive MLB COVID news. According to a joint announcement between the league and the player’s union, of 12,381 samples taken, only two (0.02%) came back positive.

Both positive tests came from alternate training sites, according to the announcement. NO players or staff tested COVID-positive. Most impressively, however, no player has tested positive in “19 days and in 27 of the last 28 days.”

This announcement could not have come at a better time for the league as it prepares to enter a bubble for the postseason.

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After this weekend, any team in playoff contention will begin quarantining in preparation for October baseball, which is set to begin September 29th. Even though the initial best-of-3 Wild Card series is set to be played in the home parks of the four top-seeded teams in each league, players will not be allowed to return home starting this coming Monday.

That means that for some teams, like the New York Yankees who begin a 3-game set in Boston this weekend, they will have to go from yesterday until the end of the World Series (if they make it that far) without going home. That’s essentially 6-weeks of away baseball, even if they manage to get home-field advantage before the regular season ends.

This will ultimately test a team’s will and could mark the most difficult route to the World Series title ever. Not only will you have to make your way through three series before reaching the World Series – a potential 15 postseason games – but you will also have to do it

without any off-days or minor stints where you could rest in your own bed.

We started the season by questioning its legitimacy, but now, there’s no question that whoever is crowned champion, certainly earned it.