CHICAGO -- Given the opportunity Friday to refute the controversial comments made by Hunter Renfroe during a radio appearance Thursday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora refused to confirm or deny what the outfielder had said a day earlier.
Appearing on WEEI’s “Merloni & Fauria” on Thursday afternoon, Renfroe said that Major League Baseball “basically told (the Red Sox) to stop testing and just treat the symptoms” at one point during their recent COVID-19 outbreak. Both the Red Sox and MLB issued statements refuting the claim, with a league spokesperson telling Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe that Renfroe was “completely wrong and inaccurate.”
Asked before Friday’s game, Cora said he saw the comments but would not say much more.
“I can tell you from personal experience, I feel very comfortable with the way we’re doing things,” Cora said. “I think we’ve been in constant communication with MLB and obviously our situation is probably different than 27 other teams. But, I can tell you from my personal experience, I feel very safe with the way we do things here -- since Day 1 in spring training all the way until today when they went to my house to take care of my family.”
Cora was then asked point-blank if the league had ever asked the Red Sox to stop testing for COVID-19. He deflected again.
“The last time I talked to (commissioner Rob Manfred), it was about other stuff,” Cora said. “So I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the case. I read and I just feel like, from my end, everything I have lived here... you get tested whenever you can. A an organization, we do an outstanding job.
“I get tested whenever I feel like it,” Cora added. “The families do the same thing. I’ll leave it at that.”
In an interview with McWilliams, Renfroe stuck to his guns.
“I’m not taking back what I said. I can tell you that,” Renfroe told the Globe. “What I said was true. I’m not going to lie about anything.”
Interestingly, while the Red Sox have continued their testing program and MLB reported that they had administered 1,884 tests on Red Sox personnel between Aug. 26 and Sept. 9, no one has gone on the record either in support of Renfroe’s claim or against it. Multiple high-level Red Sox officials were caught off guard by the comments Thursday afternoon. At least some in the organization theorized that the confusion was caused by the fact vaccinated individuals no longer needed to be tested unless they are symptomatic while unvaccinated individuals are still tested regularly.
Cora noted that the Red Sox -- one of just a few teams not to reach the 85% threshold of vaccinated individuals required for restrictions to be eased -- have to follow stricter guidelines than the clubs who are over that number.
“I’m not saying we get treated different than other teams,” Cora said. “I can tell you the way we get treated is the same way we’ve gotten treated since Feb. 9.”
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