Prior positive COVID-19 tests leave Brewers not ‘at full strength’ in first workout

The Milwaukee Brewers are going through their first workouts of Summer Camp on Saturday, though not every player is on the field.

Manager Craig Counsell told reporters that COVID-19 impacted the organization prior to the team reconvening at Miller Park on Wednesday.

“We will not have all 45 (players) working out today,” Counsell said. “I’ll say it this way: We have had COVID positives in recent weeks with players in the organization, but we did not have any at intake. But we will not be at full strength today.”

MLB is not announcing which players test positive but it did put out the testing numbers on Friday. According to a release, 19 organizations had at least one player or staff member test positive, but that was a total of 38 (31 players, seven staff members) out of more than 3,100 tests. The positive test rate was 1.2-percent.

“I think league-wide for sure it is,” Counsell said when asked whether it was encouraging to see the low positive rate. “We were all waiting to see and wondering what that would look like. You feel like you get a chance for all of us to start clean. Now we take the next step.”