Oakland Athletics: Bob Melvin says that ‘nobody broke protocol’

Oakland Athletics’ manager Bob Melvin recently told reporters that “nobody broke protocol.”

The Oakland Athletics are still feeling the effects of their positive COVID-19 test as the team remains out of action since their 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers last week.

But on Wednesday, the team finally returned to the diamond in a limited fashion as the players were cleared to work out in groups of three or four at the Oakland Coliseum.

At the time of writing, the A’s are scheduled to return to their normal schedule on Friday against the San Diego Padres where they will kick off a three-game series against their NL West foes.

Manager Bob Melvin indicated that the rotation will remain in order meaning that young phenom Jesus Luzardo is expected to take the mound for the start this Friday.

Melvin spoke to reporters on Wednesday and discussed the team’s positive test and their plan moving forward. And he made sure to insist that the A’s did everything that they could to avoid a positive test.

"“Nobody broke protocol, and we’ve had no positives since. This was kind of a hit for us, but no one went out and did something than what the CDC or MLB considers protocol.”"

As Melvin insists, some things are just out of the team’s control. And the fact that their positive test was an isolated incident and not a complete outbreak as we’ve seen with other teams this year is certainly promising.

What could have been a disaster that caused the A’s to miss weeks of actions could simply be a week-long absence as a result of one lone positive test. That’s a best-case scenario outcome considering the circumstances.

The Oakland Athletics aren’t looking forward to their upcoming schedule.

Nonetheless, the A’s don’t exactly have an easy road ahead of them. The team is set to play 10 games within a seven-day span in a total of three different cities — the most grueling such stretch for the franchise since 1966.

Now, it’s not as if the Athletics should be worried about a playoff spot — they’re near locks at this point. But they are looking to hold off the surging Houston Astros for the AL West crown and this troublesome stretch of games won’t do them any favors.

But Bob Melvin put it best when he said, “it doesn’t matter, you have to be prepared for it.”

And prepared the A’s will be.