Fully vaccinated New York Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin has tested positive for Covid-19. This is what is known as a “breakthough positive” case. While the vaccines all have a very high efficacy rate, they’re not 100%, so these things do happen.
Nevin, who began his professional baseball career as the first overall pick in the 1992 MLB Draft, is currently in isolation while the team continues contact tracing. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said the tracing doesn’t involve any players, and he expects the game tonight at the Tampa Bay Rays to go on as scheduled.
First Pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. It will be televised on YES/ESPN, with the radio broadcast on WFAN (English) and WADO (Spanish). According to BetQL, the Yankees are favored, to the tune of (-125). Meanwhile the Sharp Picks on the website show the Tampa Bay Rays priced at (+105).
Bench coach Carlos Mendoza will handle third base coaching duties. As this situation conveys, Major League Baseball is certainly nowhere near out of the woods when it comes to this pandemic.
“Hopefully the fact that we are vaccinated in a pretty large mass … will blunt this and allow a number of us to not get anything and keep the symptoms at a minimum if it does get through,” Boone said in a pregame media availability.
At least five Yanks coaches have tested positive for COVID, according to ESPN. For what it’s worth the Yankees have really been ahead of the curve when it comes to the pandemic, as they helped to make Yankee Stadium a mass vaccination site early on in the vaccine rollout.
The full club statement on the Nevin and COVID situation reads:
“We have a breakthrough positive involving 3B Coach Phil Nevin, who is fully vaccinated. He is currently under quarantine protocol in Tampa. Under Major League Baseball’s guidance and advice, and with its assistance, additional testing and contact tracing are ongoing.”
Nevin isn’t the only member of the Yankees squad, who we found out on Tuesday will not be a part of this game.
Outfielder Aaron Hicks is a late scratch from tonight’s game with the Rays due to a right shin bruise that he had suffered in Sunday’s game.
The Yankees are 18-16, 7-7 on the road thus far. Hicks is hitting .198 on the season, with 4 home runs and 13 RBIs on the young season.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.