The Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball are disputing comments that Boston outfielder Hunter Renfroe made about the team’s recent COVID-19 outbreak.
Renfroe said Thursday that the league told the team to halt testing for the coronavirus, but both the league and the club have stepped in to push back on that claim.
“We’ve been going through a lot of things with COVID,” Renfroe told the “Merloni & Fauria” WEEI radio program, “and MLB has basically told us to stop testing and just treat the symptoms. We’re like, ‘No. We’re gonna figure out what’s going on and try to keep this thing under control.’”
In follow-up questions, Renfroe reiterated to the hosts that MLB asked Boston to stop testing.
Later in the day, MLB and the Red Sox issued separate statements saying that wasn’t true.
“We have been following MLB’s COVID-19 protocols all season long,” the Red Sox’s statement said. “We have consulted closely with them on everything we’ve done and continue to test and their medical staff has been very supportive.”
“He is completely wrong and inaccurate,” a league spokesperson told the Boston Globe.
Eleven Red Sox players have spent time on the COVID-19 list since the outbreak began, with nine of them returning positive tests, according to multiple reports. Three coaches have also been affected by the outbreak.
Renfroe was just one day removed from a game-clinching defensive play, in which he threw out Tampa Bay Rays baserunner Joey Wendle at third base from right field for the final out of a 2-1 victory.