The Kansas City Royals began summer camp on Friday, starting preparations for a 2020 season shortened to 60 games and slated to begin on Friday, July 24th in Cleveland. However, the team will be without All Star and Gold Glove catcher Salvador Perez, likely for the majority of camp.
Perez, after missing the entire 2019 season due to Tommy John surgery on his elbow, announced on Saturday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. Although he is considered asymptomatic and is reporting “not feeling a thing”, “Salvy” will go under the CDC’s guidelines of 14 days in quarantine, with back-to-back negative tests needed before he can rejoin camp.
Speculating on where he got coronavirus, Perez was unsure, saying he “doesn’t know where he got it, but my family is safe, everyone was negative when they did the test.” Perez was in Miami during the baseball pause, and did note “a lot of cases there”.
On the same day that Perez revealed his diagnosis, Manager Mike Matheny said he had contracted COVID-19 earlier this year, and has since recovered. Matheny said his case was, “about a month ago, and it’s given me real empathy and also the urgency to understand that we can be really careful, and still get it. This thing’s for real!” Matheny did have symptoms, but added his wife Kristen tested negative for COVID-19.
