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A few days ago, news came out of the Twins camp when Andrelton Simmons hit the IL after testing positive for COVID-19.
The team resumed play uninterrupted, finishing off a homestand and traveling to Los Angeles. Now, however, they’ll take a pause of indeterminate length.
Twins-Angels game postponed due to COVID-19 issues with Twins.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) April 17, 2021
In postgame pressers since Simmons’ positive test, members of the staff noted that the next few days would be a bit up in the air as the organization utilized contact-tracing protocol to isolate any worry spots. The official communication from the Twins tonight reiterated where they were in their process as game time approached:
Tonight’s scheduled game between the Angels and #MNTwins at Angel Stadium has been postponed to allow for continued testing and contact tracing involving members of the Twins organization. Major League Baseball will continue to provide updates as available.
— Dustin Morse (@morsecode) April 17, 2021
However, it’s worth noting that the contact tracing in question was not necessarily finding positive cases tied to Andrelton Simmons’ — the cancellation of this series was in response to a second, unrelated event.
Sources: The #MNTwins are not finding overlap between their current COVID issues and Andrelton Simmons. Contact tracing showing little crossover between affected persons from this incident and Simmons, who hasn't been around since Tuesday.
— danhayesmlb (@DanHayesMLB) April 18, 2021
Near first pitch, Rocco Baldelli elaborated on the new information.
Twins manager Rocco Baldelli says Kyle Garlick has tested positive for COVID-19 and another player had tested positive as well. That is in addition to Andrelton Simmons’ positive earlier this week as well as a staff member. Playing tomorrow’s game, he says, is “up in the air.”
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) April 18, 2021
Angel beat writer Jeff Fletcher has a less up-in-the-air assessment of the Sunday afternoon game:
Source: Tomorrow's #Angels-Twins game is also cancelled.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 18, 2021
To add much of anything else would veer into the “baseless speculation” territory, and as baseball is a game with base- right in the title, venturing into baselessness doesn’t seem like a bright idea. So I’ll leave it at that!
More details to follow as they become available.