St. Louis Cardinals Catcher Yadier Molina Admits He Tested Positive For The Coronavirus

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina admitted on Instagram on Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, KTVI reported.

On Monday, it was reported that seven Cards players and six other employees of the team, all unnamed, had been diagnosed with the virus that is currently causing a worldwide pandemic.

However, the most prominent of those individuals has admitted that he’s one of them.

In an Instagram post in Spanish, the Puerto Rican slugger said that he intends to hit the field again as soon as he’s cleared to do so.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDePdqmjYsj/?utm_source=ig_embed

According to a Google translation of the caption, which was originally in Spanish, Molina said that he was saddened by the news that he had tested positive for COVID-19 despite how he had taken the necessary precautions. He promised that he would do what he could to return as soon as possible to the Cardinals and requested that fans respect his privacy and that of his family while he recovers from his illness.

Meanwhile, according to a Cardinals press release, the other players to have contracted COVID-19 include Paul DeJong, Edmundo Sosa, Rangel Ravelo, Junior Fernandez, and Kodi Whitley.

This past weekend, the Cards’ entire series against the Milwaukee Brewers was postponed due to the multiple positive results, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on Friday. Further, the club’s scheduled four-game series against the Tigers in Detroit has been postponed until further notice while they remain quarantined in Milwaukee.

Tentatively, the club will resume play on Friday, hosting the Chicago Cubs for a home series at Busch Stadium.

It remains unclear how long Molina and his other coronavirus-positive teammates will be out of action.

The fact that multiple games have been rescheduled due to players contracting the novel coronavirus is indicative of how Major League Baseball and its athletes are failing to handle playing during the pandemic, USA Today sportswriter Bob Nightengale opined, noting that another organization, the Miami Marlins, are also dealing with an outbreak in their clubhouse and had to postpone some of their games.

“The St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins became baseball’s poster boys Monday on how careless, but not necessarily reckless, behavior can put a Major League season into utter chaos,” he wrote.

Nightengale also noted that it’s unclear how the virus made its way into either team, although the Cards were compelled to deny rumors that someone on the club had visited a casino.