NEW YORK — Major League Baseball postponed this weekend’s Subway Series to allow time for more testing and contact tracing after two members of the New York Mets tested positive for the coronavirus.
The Mets had their game Thursday night at Miami as well as Friday’s opener against the Yankees postponed on Thursday after the results were reported. MLB postponed the rest of the weekend series between the New York teams on Friday "out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing and contact tracing."
The Mets flew home Thursday night and are in New York, and the team said in a statement the travelling party was tested at Citi Field on Friday morning before being sent home to quarantine. The team does not plan to work out this weekend.
The team said those who tested positive or were identified as close contacts remained in Miami. It did not specify how many close contacts had been identified.
The league has now postponed 36 games this season because of positive tests with the Miami Marlins, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Cincinnati Reds and the Mets. The Yankees have twice had their schedule interrupted despite reporting no positive tests since opening day.
The positive tests are the first confirmed within the Mets organization since the season began. Right-hander Brad Brach missed preseason camp and confirmed he tested positive for the coronavirus.
MLB said Friday that seven of 12,485 samples collected over the past week from players and coaches returned positive COVID-19 results, a positive rate of 0.05%.
Three of the positives were players and four were staff members. Of all the samples collected by MLB this season, 0.1% have returned positive, and 19 teams have had a player or staff member test positive.
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