PORT ST. LUCIE — Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell’s positive test for coronavirus brought the international crisis much closer to the Mets on Thursday.
The Jazz played the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on March 4, and Donovan Mitchell Sr., the Mets’ director of player relations and community engagement, attended the game and will be tested for the virus, the Mets said.
He returned to Florida the following day and had been regularly at work at the Mets’ spring training complex through Wednesday. No other team employees were scheduled for tests as of Thursday.
“We have been in regular communication with medical professionals and public health authorities over the past several weeks. When news surfaced [Wednesday] night of the situation involving the Utah Jazz, we immediately contacted Donovan Mitchell Sr. to advise him to not report at our facility this morning,” the Mets said in a statement. “Upon learning today that his son, Donovan Mitchell Jr., tested positive for the Coronavirus, we brought that fact to the attention of our medical team, who recommended, as a precautionary measure, that Donovan Sr. be tested, and we are making those arrangements. We will continue to closely monitor the situation and the medical staff will advise us if any additional testing becomes advisable.”
Mitchell Jr. became the second professional U.S. athlete known to have tested positive for the virus. Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert tested positive Wednesday night before a Utah-Oklahoma City was canceled. That was the trigger that led the NBA to suspend operations. MLB and other leagues throughout the country followed suit Thursday.
It is not publicly known when the Jazz players contracted the coronavirus, but the Knicks are among the teams that the Jazz had played in a 10-day period before the revelation about Gobert, and players from those opposing squads have been told to self-quarantine, according to ESPN.
It was part of an unprecedented day in baseball and around sports, as MLB suspended spring training and delayed the start of the regular season.
The Mets had an off day Thursday and no major league players were scheduled to be at their complex, but dozens of minor leaguers worked out.
The team was slated to head to North Port, Fla. on Friday for the first of two games on the state’s Gulf Coast. Instead, they spent much of Thursday in limbo before commissioner Rob Manfred and the 30 team owners had a conference call that resulted in MLB announcing spring training games were canceled as of 4 p.m. Thursday and the start of the regular season would be delayed by at least two weeks in response to the pandemic.
For now, the team expects to stay in Florida and work out.
The Mets had been scheduled to open the regular season at Citi Field on March 26 against the Nationals, with Jacob deGrom on the mound.
After his Grapefruit League start on Wednesday, deGrom was asked about the possibility of Opening Day being in jeopardy.
“It’s unfortunate, all this going on,’’ deGrom said. “As of right now, I’m just preparing as if everything was gonna happen normal. I think that’s the plan. It could change. For me, I just have to prepare for that day.”
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