Oakland Athletics: Jesus Luzardo tests positive for COVID-19

Oakland Athletics pitcher Jesus Luzardo has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.

The Oakland Athletics are preparing for the start of the 2020 MLB season, but they might be doing so without rookie pitcher Jesus Luzardo.

As first reported by Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday, Luzardo has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19. This comes following a delay in testing for the A’s that no doubt frustrated players, coaches, and team officials.

At the time of writing, Luzardo is the only member of the organization to have tested positive, but manager Bob Melvin said that the team would not be making test results public.

Luzardo and fellow pitcher Mike Fiers, who had been training together in the offseason, were reportedly not present at camp on Sunday. But while Luzardo’s results came back positive, Fiers was cleared and rejoined the team soon after.

However, considering the two spent so much time together working out, it will be interesting to see how the A’s handle his situation.

Nonetheless, Luzardo will be forced to quarantine himself for 14 days before taking another test to ensure that he is fully healed. If he tests negative, he will then be required to test negative again in another test within 24 hours to officially be cleared, per MLB protocol.

Luzardo wrote in a text message to The San Francisco Chronicle, “I’m feeling good, just ready to get going once I get 2 negatives; praying for it to be soon. It’s unclear at this time if Luzardo is asymptomatic or not.

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The Oakland Athletics can ill-afford to have Jesus Luzardo miss significant time.

Nonetheless, this is undoubtedly a huge blow to an A’s team that was expected to rely on its young pitching in 2020. Luzardo, the Athletics’ top prospect, made his MLB debut last season and finished with a stellar 1.50 ERA with 16 strikeouts in 12 innings pitching in September.

The expectation was that he would be moved to a full-time starter role in 2020 following his brief bullpen stint last fall. However, that will likely have to be put on hold for now.

Luzardo also looked incredibly impressive in the preseason finishing with a 1.08 ERA in three starts. He also struck out 13 batters in just 8.1 innings pitched.

Here’s to wishing Luzardo a speedy recovery.