ARLINGTON, Texas _ Fifty-six of the 58 players on the Texas Rangers' roster for summer camp have been cleared to participate after testing negative for COVID-19 in the pre-camp screening process.
One of the final stragglers, though for reasons unknown, was Ronald Guzman, who was in the lineup Wednesday in a simulated game at Globe Life Field.
The problem is that one of the two players who tested positive for COVID-19 is Joey Gallo, the Rangers' best player. Left-handed reliever Brett Martin is the other player.
Complicating the Gallo situation is that he is asymptomatic, feels great, and, oh, by the way, has tested negative twice in private testing outside of the 2020 MLB operations manual.
MLB's system uses saliva tests, which produced two Gallo positives, and it is that system that must produce two negatives before he can return. Adding to the frustration is that the private tests that produced the negatives were conducted with nasal swabbing, a procedure that MLB does not use.
Furthermore, the Salt Lake City site _ the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory _ uses an extra layer of testing to guard against a false-positive result.
"One of those tests is lying," left fielder Willie Calhoun tweeted.
MLB sees the positive results as the truth, and so there's nothing Gallo and the Rangers can do.
The good news is that Gallo's first positive test was taken June 27, so he's been quarantined for nearly two weeks and should be testing negative soon.
But the MLB system is the system, and it must be standardized for every player on all 30 teams.
MLB can't make exceptions. To do so would compromise the supposed sanctity of the safety protocols and open a pathway for COVID-19 to spread.
MLB had SMRTL teed up in mid-May, and believes the lab and the saliva tests are among the best in the world. MLB has also said that it is open to changing its testing method if a better one comes along.
The lab that produced the Gallo negatives isn't in some back alley and nasal swabbing is a common testing method, but MLB can't change its protocols based on one player's predicament.
Perhaps there are more players out there experiencing the same conundrum as Gallo, though it figures their cases would have gone public, too. But if there are more, there would need to be dozens more to effect change.
Granted, the pre-camp screening/intake testing process came with glitches that shouldn't have occurred. Multiple teams saw extensive delays in getting their test results during the Fourth of July weekend. Some teams conducted the tests on their own, and clubs were forced to cancel workouts until results came back.
One player reportedly sat in purgatory because his sample was never tested.
But the majority of the league did not have issues. The vast majority of players were cleared without incident, and many in the last batch to be cleared came from Latin American players who were tested well into the intake process.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward has said multiple times that the process has been better than he expected.
The bad news for the Rangers is that their best player tested positive in the system and negative outside of it.
Unfortunately for them and Gallo, there's nothing they can do.
