MLB Will Have To Figure Out A Worst Case Scenario On Opening Day As Juan Soto Tests Positive For COVID After Practicing With His Team For Days

We are mere hours away from the first pitch of MLB’s long-awaited Opening Day batttle between the World Series Champion Washington Nationals (or Washington Baseball Team if you’re Dan Synder) and the New York Yankees. And while this should be a joyous time for baseball fans, we may already be in baseball’s worst potential scenario after Nats star Juan Soto tested positive for COVID…and it gets worse:

Here are more details from Yahoo’s Hannah Keyser:

In terms of COVID spread, this is quite possibly the worst thing that could happen for MLB and it’s happening immediately. Maybe it’s one of those things where it’s better to get out of the way now to expose any flaws in the process. But Juan Soto could very easily have passed the virus to a number of his teammates. If MLB’s guidelines work, it’ll be a lower probability that the Yankees would get it even if they play today. But if someone is lax with their distancing protocols or even breathes too heavily around the base paths, it could easily lead to the Nationals infecting at least a few Yankees (who could then lead to further spread amongst their teammates).

Logic would probably dictate postponing the game with Washington unable to get test results for the rest of the team in time to play today. But this is MLB’s big debut and it may be hard for them to stop that train. At this point, they might even hope for the possible inclement weather to delay the game so they don’t have to make this call themselves.

Now we wait. And if you’re an MLB fan who has patiently riding out the countless negotiations and stop-starts that have gotten us to Opening Day, now may be the time to pray.