MLB denies telling Red Sox to stop COVID testing following Hunter Renfroe’s comments
"He is completely wrong and inaccurate."
As the Red Sox tried desperately to keep a COVID-19 outbreak contained as best they could over the last few weeks, the MLB handed down a mystifying recommendation, according to outfielder Hunter Renfroe.
Renfroe, who appeared on WEEI’s Merloni and Fauria show Thursday following his heroic performance in Wednesday’s win over the Rays, said the league told the Red Sox to stop testing in the middle of their outbreak.
“The MLB basically told us to stop testing and just treat the symptoms,” Renfroe said. “And we’re like, ‘No, we’re going to figure out what’s going on and try to keep this thing under control.’”
The hosts called Renfroe’s attention back to his comments to confirm, which he did twice.
The MLB quickly denied Renfroe’s claims, telling The Boston Globe‘s Julian McWilliams on Thursday afternoon that the Red Sox outfielder “is completely wrong and inaccurate.”
The MLB relaxed guidelines for vaccinated players before the start of the season, allowing them to eat at restaurants and bring family members on the road with less testing. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, those relaxed guidelines may have contributed to the outbreak. Kiké Hernández, who was the first breakthrough case, was vaccinated and went on the team plane unwittingly with the virus (for his part, Hernández said he was glad to be vaccinated as the worst of the symptoms hit him in the first few days).
“He was vaccinated, and the guys that are vaccinated don’t really get tested,” Renfroe said. “He came on the plane, got some other guys sick and kind of moved forward from there.
“Obviously it’s not Kiké’s fault, he can’t do anything about it, but they are moving forward and doing well right now. Just keep going and keep grinding.”
Renfroe added that he appreciated how the players who filled in for sick Red Sox performed.
“The guys we brought up, the guys we claimed off waivers, the guys we have, those guys have stepped up big for us,” Renfroe said. “Every guy that came into the role that they needed to come into has done their job, whether they are here now or came for just a second and left. But hats off to those guys, they did a great job defensively, offensively, the whole nine yards.”