Sports Time Radio

Even though it doesn’t lead every newscast Covid-19 is still something we’re dealing with. Now every business handles it differently and there are still places were you still have to wear a mask. The same goes for countries as they all have their own rules. This is where sports and politics intersect.

If you remember during the NBA season when Kyrie Irving decided that he actually wanted to play he wasn’t allowed to play home games because of the Covid-19 rules in the state of New York. Irving also wasn’t allowed to enter the country of Canada either.

For Americans entering Canada they have to be fully vaccinated and this rule seems to have become more prevalent during baseball season.

Now earlier in the season there was a lot of talk about which New York Yankees would and wouldn’t be able to make the road trip to Toronto to play the Blue Jays, but with the season the Yankees have had that talk died down quickly. The Philadelphia Phillies just made a trip to Toronto, but their catcher J.T. Realmuto didn’t accompany the team as he is unvaccinated. Realmuto commented on how he wouldn’t be told what to put into his body, but this week the rules for entering Canada really stuck out.

This time it was the Kansas City Royals turn to take a road trip to Toronto to face the Blue Jays in a four-game series. As it turned out the Royals had 10 players that wouldn’t be allowed to enter Canada due to their vaccination status.

Catchers Cam Gallagher and M.J. Melendez, reliever Dylan Coleman, starting pitchers Brad Keller and Brady Singer, 1st baseman/outfielder Hunter Dozier, infielder Whit Merrifield and outfielders Michael A. Taylor and the Royals lone All-Star Andrew Benintendi won’t make the trip to Canada.

Now this has caused the Royals to place these 10 players on the restricted list and call up reinforcements from their Double-A and Triple-A teams. Now by being placed on the restricted list these players will have to forfeit service time and salary for the four-game series against the Blue Jays.

Unfortunately, I believe it was Merrifield who ended up not coming off well when he commented about not being vaccinated. Merrifield more or less mentioned that if he was playing for a contender, he probably would’ve gotten vaccinated. As you can guess that type of a comment didn’t sit well with a lot of people. While this doesn’t seem like the type of thing that will follow Merrifield around it just made him look bad.

Now the only player that this might have an effect on is Benintendi. As the trade deadline approaches Benintendi’s name has come up quite a bit in trade talks, but it appears as though with him being unvaccinated there’s one team that was linked to him that is no longer interested in dealing for him.

It’s been reported that the Yankees are in the market for an outfielder and Benintendi’s name has been associated with them. It came out this week that the Yankees would no longer pursue a deal for Benintendi because he isn’t vaccinated and wouldn’t be allowed to enter Canada for any series against the Blue Jays.

You’d have to think that any American League East team would back away from any deal involving Benintendi or any of the other unvaccinated Royals. Obviously, since Toronto plays in the American League East the other teams in that division make more trips to Canada than any other teams do. Plus, the Blue Jays are a playoff contender and would probably host at least one playoff game if they make the playoffs.

I’m sure there are plenty of teams that will still have interest in Benintendi as the trade deadline approaches, but you have to wonder if the news of his vaccination status has lowered his value on the trade market.

Player’s vaccination statuses aren’t revealed to the general public and they only way we can find out if they’re vaccinated or not is if their team has to play in Toronto. I know that teams have to exchange medical information any time a trade is made, but is a players vaccination status part of that? You’d have to think that any team interested in acquiring a player especially an American League East team would want to know if that player would be allowed to enter Canada if they had to play there.

Now on Thursday night the Royals with the reinforced lineup picked up a 3-1 win in Toronto. Last night the Blue Jays bounced back and beat the Royals 8-1. Who knows how the final two games of the series will go, but you’d have to think that Toronto will be the favortie to win both of those games. I’m sure there were a lot of people who didn’t think Kansas City would manage one win against the Blue Jays, but they actaully did that, so maybe they’ll find a way to win oine of the final two games and split this series.

Remember to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.