Fedde, Rainey placed on COVID-19 IL after positive test (updated)

The Nationals had to place pitchers Erick Fedde and Tanner Rainey on the COVID-19 injured list before tonight's game in Chicago after one tested positive for the coronavirus and the other was deemed a close contact to that player.

The club didn't specify which of the two tested positive, but manager Davey Martinez said that player was vaccinated, is asymptomatic and is feeling fine. The player deemed a close contact, however, is unvaccinated and now is subject to quarantine up to 10 days.

"Anytime you lose a player to something like this, it's tough," Martinez said during his delayed pregame Zoom session with reporters, at which point he still couldn't reveal the affected players' names or even his starting lineup. "But the big concern is their health. And like I said, this player's healthy. He feels good. He has no symptoms, which is great."

Following the Nationals' 4-3 victory, right-hander Max Scherzer identified Fedde as the vaccinated player who tested positive and made an impassioned plea for Major League Baseball to alter its protocols to allow a player in such a situation to avoid the IL.

"I talked to Fedde; he's our positive, and he's frustrated, because at the end of the day, he's vaccinated, he's asymptomatic," said Scherzer, a member of the MLB Players Association Executive Council. "We've got to update the rules here. We've got to start following the science, listen to what the CDC says. Whether this is the union or MLB, we've got to update the protocols. Vaccinated players are testing positive, they're asymptomatic. They should be allowed to play, plain and simple."

This is the second time the Nationals have lost players due to COVID-19 protocols through the first two months of the season, though today's news pales in comparison to the outbreak the team suffered just before opening day, when four players tested positive and five others who were supposed to make the opening day roster were placed into quarantine as close contacts.

At that time, in late March, vaccinations were not available to most players. About two weeks later, a significant majority of Nationals players and Tier 1 staffers received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine before a game against the Cardinals in St. Louis.

As a team, the Nats have not yet cleared the 85 percent threshold Major League Baseball established to allow for relaxed protocols, though Martinez again repeated today, "We're getting closer." That the player who tested positive is vaccinated came as something of a surprise, but the fact he's asymptomatic leaves club officials encouraged in the bigger picture.

"I think the most important thing we need to know is that these vaccinations are to help you not get as sick or sick," Martinez said. "This player feels fine, and for me, that's good news. We have to follow MLB protocols. Hopefully he goes through these protocols, he comes back and he's fully healthy and ready to go."

The protocols for a vaccinated player to return from the COVID-19 IL are different than those for unvaccinated players. The Nationals could get Fedde back much sooner, provided he passes multiple tests and is deemed safe. If Rainey is the unvaccinated player, however, he is subject to MLB's full quarantine period, which appears to mean the team will be without him for a week or more.

"The vaccinated players should reap the benefits for doing this," Scherzer said. "This is what we want. We want our players to be vaccinated. The players who have made that choice to do it should reap the benefits. So let's go ahead and let them play baseball."

The test that produced the positive test was taken Monday, the day this four-game series versus the Cubs began. Martinez said Nationals officials have been in touch with the Cubs, who determined none of their players was a close contact. They're also getting in touch with the Diamondbacks, who they faced over the weekend in Arizona.

Needing to scramble to replace the two pitchers on their 26-man roster for tonight's game, the Nationals recalled right-handers Paolo Espino and Kyle McGowin from Triple-A Rochester. The club was fortunate, however, to have both pitchers already in Chicago as part of the five-man taxi squad with them on this cross-country trip. Had the Nationals remained on the East Coast, they likely wouldn't have brought a taxi squad, preferring instead to let potential call-ups play for Rochester and stay in better game shape.

All of this occurred on the same day the Nationals announced relaxed protocols for fans at upcoming home games. The team has been granted permission by the District of Columbia to increase capacity to 36 percent for their nine-game homestand that begins Friday night against the Orioles, and they announced they will increase to full capacity beginning June 10 against the Giants.

In accordance with revised local guidelines, the Nationals will no longer require vaccinated fans to wear masks at games, starting Friday. Unvaccinated fans will still be required to wear masks, though the team did not say how it intends to enforce that policy.

That these changes would be announced within an hour of the club announcing the return of full capacity at Nationals Park made for an awkward one-two news punch. But, as Martinez pointed out with regards to his team's latest positive test, all of these developments can be viewed as encouraging in the larger picture.

"As we go through this, we've got to understand where we're at," the manager said. "We're much better now than we were a year ago today, or a few months ago today. Staying positive, most of our guys are vaccinated. They understand what's going to transpire through all of this. We just have to keep pushing forward."