Red Sox News: COVID scare forces Boston to adjust before Opening Day

Red Sox enter COVID protocol days before Opening Day

It’s not the type of news you want to hear with Opening Day within arms reach but with the world we’re living in now, it feels inevitable. Yesterday morning news broke that Red Sox reliever, and potential closer, Matt Barnes had tested positive for COVID. Luckily, the fireballer has been asymptomatic and has yet to show any signs of being sick. Unluckily, there are eight members of the organization that are now in the protocol through contact tracing efforts.

Red Sox skipper Alex Cora just finished meeting with the press this morning and a big topic of the day was how Boston is handling the COVID scare. From the sounds of things, the team was quick to respond not only with Barnes but with tracking down those who may have been in close contact with the righty. AC spoke to the fact that other than Barnes nobody else has tested positive and everyone is seemingly healthy.

Since he did test positive, Barnes will not be on the Opening Day roster as he has to do a full quarantine before re-joining the team. This opens the door for Adam Ottavino to be Boston’s closer, at least for the time being. Cora has yet to name his closer or fully share how he wants to structure his reliever but he did mention just now that he has a plan for Otto in the eighth and Barnes in the ninth, but that has to get shuffled now.

Yesterday, Cora described the situation as a bit of a fire drill as the team rushed to find anyone and everyone that may have had significant contact with Barnes. Today though, he was much calmer and maybe even a bit relaxed as negative tests have been returning and everyone is feeling good. As thoughts who have been affected continue to pass their COVID tests their time away from the team can decrease. Some may be back in time for Thursday’s home opener at Fenway Park.

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Obviously, the Red Sox are no strangers to COVID as it not only played a big part in their 2020 as they lost Eduardo Rodriguez for the season due to the virus and myocarditis, but they’ve had several players test positive but be asymptomatic. Losing Barnes right as we’re about to hit Opening Day hurts though and it’s something that AC said more than once. Had this happened in June or July it’d be a different story but with it being opening weekend, things are heightened.

Again, Boston dodged a bullet here in the fact that nobody else is turning up positive and so far nobody is showing symptoms. If their adjustment is just that everyone in the bullpen gets pushed back an inning until Barnes can return then they’re pretty damn lucky.

This means for the time being until Matty Backpacks is up and running again we’ll be seeing Ottavino in the closing spot. Throughout spring it felt like the fanbase had been split on who they wanted in the ninth but it seems like Cora is leaning toward Barnes as Otto has primarily been a setup man as of late. We all know that COVID is no joke and even with the scare on Friday the team is still in a good position.

Listening to Alex field questions from the media put me at ease and I think the Red Sox should be more than fine going into Opening Day. His confidence in the process and systems that are in place to ensure everyone remains safe and healthy instills a similar feeling in me. The team was quick to track down those who would have been in contact once Barnes tested positive and removed them from the situation. Now we just have to wait and see.

The Boston Red Sox take on the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, April 1st from Fenway Park for Opening Day. You can watch the game live on NESN and can listen to it via WEEI. First pitch is scheduled for 2:10 pm with Nathan Eovaldi taking on John Means.