St. Louis Cardinals News: Between 8 and 13 positives, no games vs Tigers

The bad news for the St. Louis Cardinals just keeps on coming. After two positive tests on Friday, there are now 4-7 times that.

The St. Louis Cardinals just keep getting bad news. For fans, the wait for more games is going to have to continue.

After two positive tests on Friday prompted the team to test everyone multiple times this weekend, the current count of positive tests sits at 13 after more results came on Monday.

There was some belief that the outbreak could be limited, but after cases rose on Saturday and at least four tests were inconclusive on Sunday, Monday brings concrete bad news.

The team was waiting to hear back about the test results before deciding whether or not to return to St. Louis or to fly to Detroit for their four scheduled games at Comerica Park against the Tigers.

Say goodbye to games until Friday at the earliest.

While only seven players have tested positive, 13 total positive tests out of the 58 people traveling with the team are unacceptable.

Today, Jon Heyman reported that there were, in fact, some Cardinals players that went to a casino, but that report has been confusing and it’s not clear exactly what the source of this outbreak was. The sad thing is that all the players could’ve been responsible and the virus still could’ve found its way in. With no solid report of how the virus found its way in, I’m trying to be patient to judge.

John Mozeliak chimed in on the rumors that the Cardinals had players go to a casino:

Obviously, if players went to a casino, Mozeliak didn’t know about it.

At the end of the day though, if a player broke protocol, that is a huge issue and they should receive punishment. I am not saying public shaming; I don’t want to know the names of those who messed up. The team should take matters into their own hands and handle it internally.

For a player to break protocol in a year like 2020 where baseball is so fragile is inexcusable. The selfishness, the lack of discipline, and the clear overarching fallout of the individual or individuals that broke protocol is shameful.

No fan should be ashamed to be a fan of their team, and right now all I feel towards the Cardinals is disappointment that they are going through this.

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They’ll have to make up these seven games at some point which surely won’t be easy. For now, the focus is on getting everyone healthy again.

The Marlins had 18 positive tests at the peak of their outbreak. For them to get things under control, they stopped play after their game last Sunday and are now scheduled to begin their season again on Tuesday.

For the Cardinals, reopening their season on Friday against the Cubs at Busch is not out of the question as long as they get new positives under control. That is how the timeline would go if they follow the same path as the Marlins. It will all come down to how the tests come out over the next few days.

Fans are calling for the season to be shut down, but I think that is much too pessimistic at this point. The MLB knew there would be positives that popped up, and the Marlins are already over the hump. There is a reason they are going to have seven-inning doubleheaders. Worst-case scenario, they do the playoffs by winning percentage rather than wins.

Making up seven games is not going to be fun, but I guess that is just a consequence of some players’ actions.

It was also announced today that the Field of Dreams game between the White Sox and the Cardinals was canceled. The game was supposed to take place next Thursday in Dyersville, Iowa. The direct reason it was canceled is unknown, but I would assume it was done to limit unnecessary travel

-UPDATE-

On KMOX, John Mozeliak said the following:

That is why you don’t believe every blue check tweet. From everything Mozeliak knows, there was an infected person on the team plane that left St. Louis to go to Minnesota. In this case, nobody did anything wrong. One person just slipped through the cracks and spread it to the team.

The Cardinals will make it through this, and it’s great that so far all the positives were asymptomatic. We still don’t know exactly how the virus reached the Cardinals, so don’t be too quick to judge, even if the news comes from a blue checkmark.