The New York Yankees were a team that had a cloud that would be hanging over them for a good portion of the 2022 season as some of their players were not vaccinated for COVID-19. Without a vaccine, the unvaccinated players and staff members would not be allowed to enter Canada to play the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Yankees face the Blue Jays in a week and a half on May 2 through May 4. In order to travel with the team to Toronto, the players had to have been vaccinated by this past Monday (April 18).
The New York Yankees *shouldn’t* have an issue playing in Toronto against the Toronto Blue Jays
According to Jon Heyman of The New York Post, the New York Yankees should not have multiple players miss their upcoming road trip to Canada to face the Toronto Blue Jays.
Heyman says that the “couple of Yankees who remained unvaccinated into last week have told the team they are now vaccinated.”
The couple Yankees who remained unvaccinated into last week have told the team they are now vaccinated. Which is why manager Aaron Boone was able to say he’s confident all his players will be eligible to play in Toronto.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 20, 2022
According to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, he’s “not expecting anyone to be out” for the series.
Yankees star outfielder Aaron Judge has long been one of the players that has been rumored to not be vaccinated. Back in March, New York City had a mandate that employees of New York City based businesses would have to be vaccinated but since, sports teams, including the New York Yankees and New York Mets, have been granted an exception.
If that would have been in place, unvaccinated players on the Yankees could have missed more than 90 games on the season (81 home games, 9 in Toronto, and 2 games against the Mets).
However, with the mandate exception and, seemingly, all of the Yankees players vaccinated, the Yankees should not have any more issues.
The Oakland A’s were just in Toronto and before the series, they had to make a number of moves to place unvaccinated players on the restricted list. They had to make even more moves when some of their vaccinated players were placed on the COVID-19 IL when leaving Canada.