SF Giants: First member of the player pool tests positive for COVID-19

The SF Giants had the first member of their player pool test positive for COVID-19 on Friday.

As the SF Giants and the rest of the MLB prepare for the return of baseball, teams are making sure to comply with the league’s testing policies.

And on Friday, the MLB announced that 19 of the 30 MLB franchises had at least one player on their roster test positive for COVID-19. The Giants are evidently among those 19 teams.

Manager Gabe Kapler announced on Friday that 23-year-old pitching prospect Luis Madero had tested positive for the novel coronavirus after undergoing a test on Tuesday. The official positive result came back on Thursday, but it wasn’t announced until the following day.

Madero is the second known member of the Giants’ organization to test positive, but the first on their available player pool. 2019 first-round pick Hunter Bishop was the first Giants player to have a positive test having been announced last Friday.

Bishop was expected to be a part of the team’s 60-man player pool before his diagnosis was revealed. Still, the hope is that he will be added once he’s fully recovered.

As for Madero, the Giants did reveal that he is doing well and that he is currently asymptomatic. But he will have to wait the required amount of time before rejoining the team.

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Who is SF Giants pitcher Luis Madero?

The Giants claimed Madero off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels back in January and the Venezuelan native was expected to compete for a bullpen role in the spring.

In fact, Madero took part in “Spring Training 1.0” back in March as a non-roster invitee allowing no runs in three innings pitched. The young righty has reached as high as Double-A with the Angels posting an ugly 6.52 ERA in 19 starts with the Mobile BayBears last season.

While he wasn’t expected to make much of an impact this year, the Giants clearly believed that Madero could be a depth rotation piece or spot starter if need be.

Now, he’ll be forced to sit on the sidelines for a little while he recovers.

Kapler indicated that the Giants plan to release all results to the public unless that player doesn’t want those resulted to be revealed. He also said that he expects the rest of the results to come in by the end of the weekend.

Here’s to wishing Madero a speedy recovery!