Yankees have 2nd minor leaguer test positive for coronavirus, sources say
The New York Yankees have informed their minor league players that a second minor leaguer in the organization has tested positive for coronavirus, sources familiar with the message distributed to players told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Tuesday.
The Yankees have now had two minor league players test positive for coronavirus. The previous player spent time in the minor league portion of the Yankees' spring training facility.
The Yankees were among the teams whose major league players had resolved to stay in camp amid the coronavirus outbreak. On Tuesday, however, manager Aaron Boone left the team's complex in Tampa and said he was driving home to Greenwich, Connecticut.
"Again, it's starting to hit home more every day, it seems like," Yankees pitcher J.A. Happ told ESPN's Marly Rivera on Tuesday. "So we're just preparing and trying to be smart if we can and paying attention to the news."
Major League Baseball sent out a memo on Sunday saying major league players would be allowed to stay in camps "but we anticipate that may change in the coming days as events continue to unfold and players become better educated about current conditions."
On Monday, the MLB announced it has pushed back Opening Day until mid-May at the earliest.
"We don't know how long this delay is going to be," Yankees reliever Zack Britton told reporters Tuesday. "If you're talking about it's going to be the end of May or June or something like that, guys might take a few weeks and go home. There's a give and take a little bit. You don't want to just consistently be training at a really, really high level when we're not going to start action again until another two months or so. You want to be healthy. It's going to be tricky."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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