Chicago Cubs: Kris Bryant uneasy over MLB’s COVID-19 testing so far

Chicago Cubs Kris Bryant shared his perspective on the 2020 season and his skepticism involving the MLB’s COVID-19 testing.

Summer Camp has commenced and preseason workouts are finally underway. The 2020 MLB season is approaching and is set to begin at the end of the month, just as long as the league is able to contain COVID-19 outbreaks and straighten out the ongoing issues teams have had with testing. According to the newly released 2020 schedule, the Chicago Cubs will open the long-awaited 60-game season on July 24 at Wrigley Field against the Milwaukee Brewers.

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With the beginning of the season comes lots of questions left unanswered and many of those questions surround Kris Bryant and his future with the North Side ballclub. However, Bryant’s initial concerns surround the pandemic and its impact on both people around the world, and on baseball in general. On Monday, Bryant spoke to the media about issues MLB teams are facing at training camps involving COVID-19 testing.

Bryant, 28, acknowledged all of the uncertainty in the world around him and has made his priorities clear. Considering his family life has changed significantly with the birth of his first son Kyler Lee on April 7, Bryant has made family his number one priority and rightfully so. While baseball is incredibly important to the superstar third baseman, he explained his place in the 2020 season to the media.

In short, yes, Bryant wants to play the game he loves but also acknowledges the risks with doing so. Adding fuel to the fire, there were issues with coronavirus testing at Wrigley FIeld during workouts on Monday. Yet, it should be noted that the Cubs were the only major league team as of Monday afternoon that hadn’t had a confirmed case of the virus among its players which could be attributed to the fact that the league is falling behind on running tests.

"“I don’t want to be insensitive to people who haven’t been able to get tests, but as the country gets access to more of those, it’s appropriate to talk about our situation here,” Bryant said Monday afternoon from Wrigley Field. “What we agreed to was testing every other day, and we’ve had guys who showed up on Sunday [June 28] and hadn’t got tested again [until] seven days later. And you don’t get the results until two days later. That’s nine days without knowing.”"

As a result of the testing issues, many teams have canceled or pushed back workouts and the number of cases among players is rapidly growing. According to Bryant, he dealt with a delay in his testing which pushed both his skepticism and disapproval of how the league is handling testing as well as a safety protocol.

Currently, Bryant is signed with the Cubs through 2021 and he hopes to not be traded at the August deadline. What the future holds for Bryant and baseball, as a whole, is anyone’s guess but hopefully there will be a 2020 season.