NEW YORK — Thursday night’s game between the Yankees and the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium has been postponed in order to allow for continued testing and contact tracing following positive COVID-19 tests within the Yankees organization.
Major League Baseball will continue to provide scheduling updates as available. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said that there have been no decisions made regarding the rest of the weekend, calling it “a very fluid situation right now.” Those decisions rest in the hands of the Commissioner’s Office.
According to Cashman, three Yankees players have been confirmed as positive and have been placed on the COVID-19 injured list: pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta.
Three other players have received multiple positive diagnoses from rapid testing and are awaiting lab results; Cashman said that he anticipates those players will also be placed on the COVID-19 injured list.
Loaisiga tested positive during the Yankees’ series this past weekend in Houston and did not travel with the team following its series at Minute Maid Park. According to the Yankees, Cortes, Loaisiga and Peralta are all fully vaccinated, as are most — but not all — of the six affected players.
Vaccinations prevent severe effects from COVID-19, though they do not prevent infections. The Yankees are one of several Major League teams to have reached the 85 percent vaccination threshold. The Red Sox, however, have not reached that threshold. Cashman said that all of the affected players are “OK” at present.
“We’re thankful that we’re vaccinated in most cases — not all cases, but in most cases,” Cashman said. “Therefore, we’re ultimately protected.”
The Yankees had more than a half-dozen breakthrough positive COVID-19 tests in May, including third-base coach Phil Nevin, who missed nearly three weeks because of a kidney infection. Pitching coach Matt Blake and first-base coach Reggie Willits also tested positive.
Infielder Gleyber Torres is believed to have received a false positive at that time, according to manager Aaron Boone.