As part of its return-to-play plan, Major League Baseball secured the services of a Utah-based lab to perform the many thousands of tests for COVID-19 that would need to be performed to safely play an abbreviated 2020 season. The ramping up of that testing system has been plagued by shipping-related delays, however, and some teams on occasion have sent players to third-party labs.
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In at least two instances, according to multiple sources, the Diamondbacks sent players to testing sites in the Phoenix area not affiliated with the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Utah that is handling the league’s testing. The Diamondbacks are not the only team to use outside labs, according to MLB, though the other teams have not been identified. In both circumstances with the Diamondbacks, the player being tested was seeking (and ultimately received) the second consecutive negative test required to return to play.
One of those players was prospect Seth Beer, whom the team announced tested positive on July 7 – although it is not known specifically when he received his positive test result – and who was announced to have been cleared to return on July 9. The identity of the other player who went outside MLB’s testing regime has not been made public.
MLB’s testing plan calls for players to be tested every two days, with results available in 24 to 48 hours. Though MLB says the testing delays it experienced over the July 4 weekend have been solved – and though the league has partnered with a second lab connected to Rutgers University in order to prevent further delays – it’s notable that a team would choose to circumvent the league’s testing partners, even with the league’s blessing.
On Friday, the league announced 83 positive tests among the 11,149 it has conducted (0.7 percent) since the beginning of intake screening on June 27. The results of the third-party tests do not count towards the numbers the league is releasing.
The Diamondbacks have had seven players test positive – four on the 40-man roster, two non-roster players in the team’s 60-player pool and one, injured reliever Silvino Bracho, who is not on either roster. Three players have since been cleared to return: Beer, outfielder Kole Calhoun and reliever Junior Guerra. Those three and Bracho are the only players the team has identified as testing positive. Beer, Calhoun and Guerra all were cleared this week.
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In order to return, players must receive two negative test results spaced at least 24 hours apart. They then must be cleared by a four-person committee that includes medical personnel selected from both the league and the Major League Baseball Players Association. In response to an emailed list of questions from The Athletic, the team said that while using a local lab sometimes does allow for faster results, that is not always the motivation for seeking outside testing
Sometimes, the team said, the team or a player would like a confirmation of what SMRTL’s testing suggests. That can be for a player’s peace of mind, but it can also help a player return to the field. According to the team, having more than two negative results can help a player’s case with the joint committee that determines when players or staff can return to work.
The Diamondbacks said they have used a third-party lab roughly 20 times, a number that represents less than one percent of all COVID-19 tests performed on their players and staff. The team also emphasized that every lab they have used — the team has sent players and staff to three different testing sites in the Phoenix area — has assured the Diamondbacks that they are in no way taking tests away from the public. (SMRTL, which has long been the league’s lab for performance-enhancing drug testing, was selected for COVID-19 testing in part because it would add to the number of publicly available tests, rather than subtract from existing resources.)
The Diamondbacks said team doctors and medical professionals determine when to go outside the league’s testing regime, and those same medical professionals choose which site to which a player or staff member is sent. The tests by the third-party labs are conducted in accordance with MLB guidelines. The team declined to specify the criteria by which their medical team selects a testing site in any given instance.
The league’s return-to-play protocols allow for third-party testing for personnel who report to work on a non-testing day with a fever above 100.4, symptoms consistent with COVID-19, or have had suspected contact with someone who has the illness. But the protocols do not list other reasons for third-party testing, neither explicitly approving nor prohibiting it for personnel who already have tested positive and are now trying to show they have passed the virus.
(Top photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)