MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers’ alternate training site in Appleton, Wis., has been locked down since Monday following positive COVID-19 tests for two players and one staffer, representing the first such positives in Milwaukee’s organization since prior to intake testing in early July.
Contact tracing was well underway as of Saturday, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said, and there had been no subsequent positive tests. Stearns said that enough time had passed, and enough subsequent negative tests returned, that the Brewers will be able to bring three members of so-called “Camp Appleton” as a taxi squad when the big league team departs Sunday night for its final road trip of the regular season.
“We’ve been fortunate to get through this season relatively unscathed in this area,” Stearns said. “Unfortunately, we were not able to get all the way there in our alternate site.”
While the infected players did not provide the club permission to identify them, “we do not believe it will have any impact at all on our Major League team,” Stearns said.
Still, the positives came at a tenuous time, since Major League clubs must submit a list of 40 players eligible for a potential postseason pool by Sunday, which includes the active roster, players on the 10-day injured list and additional reserves. The potential reserves not currently with Major League teams will quarantine in clubs’ home cities beginning next week.
The Brewers entered Saturday’s game against the Royals one game back of a playoff position.
“Because of the nature of, frankly, who these individuals were, it’s really not going to affect the quarantine group at all,” Stearns said. “We were very fortunate that the group of players who could potentially be on a postseason roster for us aren’t interacting all that much with the individuals who tested positive. All of them will continue to be tested regularly, but at this point, we do not see this impacting player availability for a potential postseason roster.”
It was unclear, Stearns said, whether there would be any more activity at the Appleton facility, which was scheduled to be shut down Sept. 23.
Once it closes, where would that leave players in the postseason pool who are not currently with the Brewers? They will stay in a hotel in Milwaukee for as long as the team is active, and will take daily trips to Miller Park to work out.
Stearns was asked where this week’s positive tests landed on his concern meter.
“I wish we didn’t have a blip at all,” Stearns said. “I do think our staff and players at the alternate site and here in Milwaukee have really done a very solid job of following protocols. And these are not easy protocols. It’s easy to look at a bench sometimes and see guys not wearing masks, but our guys, in what I would say are the ‘highest-leverage scenarios,’ have been outstanding in following protocols.
“I’m disappointed we couldn’t get through the whole season without a blip, but we have a blip, and we have to make sure we manage it appropriately.”