MILWAUKEE _ After two rounds of tests Friday for COVID-19, the Cardinals remained quarantined in their Milwaukee hotel hoping that by Saturday morning the results of those tests would end their isolation and the growing concerns of a viral brush fire through their clubhouse.
The "anxiety" described Friday only grew Saturday.
The Cardinals received word by Saturday morning of four additional positive tests on their 58-person traveling party, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confirmed. They have had six positives test total since arriving in Milwaukee on Thursday. Three are players, including the two players who learned of their positive tests Thursday. They have not been identified.
Players can choose to exercise their medical privacy and will not be identified without their consent.
As of Saturday morning, the team was still trying to understand the scope of the outbreak and had not reviewed or received all of the results from the tests taken Friday, a source confirmed.
Here is the breakdown of what is confirmed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and from officials with the team:
_ Six members of the traveling party have been isolated from the team. They will undergo additional testing Saturday as a result of their positive tests. Four were new as of late Friday night or early Saturday.
_ The entire traveling party underwent more tests Saturday morning.
_ Not all of the results from Friday's exams have been reported or reviewed by the team. Once those are available to the team they'll have a better understanding of the reach of the outbreak, the condition of their roster, and whether they can advance on the next few days of the season.
The Cardinals' game Saturday against the Brewers has been postponed, and a doubleheader scheduled for Sunday is uncertain. One of the reasons for the uncertainty about the doubleheader is the Cardinals are determining if most of their roster remains intact due to several rounds of testing. They will be able to get results from at least two more rounds of testing to confirm negatives for as many as 27 players on the roster.
They have discussed bringing several players, by bus, up from their alternate-site camp in Springfield, Mo.
This is a developing story and will be updated as the reporting continues.
Major League Baseball issued a statement Saturday afternoon that confirmed a lot of the above reporting and added an additional detail. The four new positive tests Saturday were based on the rapid exams given in Milwaukee to the team Friday. The results of the saliva tests sent to MLB's lab were still being reported, reviewed, or delivered, and those will offer confirmation of the positives and a greater understanding of the virus' spread.
If the Marlins' outbreak is any example that the Cardinals can pull from, Miami remained in Philadelphia for most of the next week after they had multiple positive tests in the span of 48 hours. The teams around them had their schedules paused or rewritten as a result. This was necessary in order to continue testing because the incubation period for the virus varies, and a player who tests negative Thursday may not manifest a positive test till a few days later even if the exposure to the virus was Wednesday.
The Marlins had more than half of their active roster test positive within days of the initial alarm.
The Cardinals played their most recent game Wednesday night at Target Field, and then flew in a charter plane to Milwaukee late that evening.
They had an off day, and some players went to Miller Park, while others shared photos from golfing. The news of the two positive tests did not reach the team until late Thursday night, and the quarantine measures were put in place early Friday morning.
The Cardinals expected to get results from their rapid exams Friday night. Those exams were conducted by the Medical College of Wisconsin, and they were organized with the help of the Milwaukee Brewers.
The second test the Cardinals took was Major League Baseball administered and the saliva samples were taken to the MLB lab for testing. The Cardinals expected to get those results Saturday morning.
The team had explored the possibility of playing Saturday night's scheduled game with an undermanned roster if they had enough players cleared through the testing and willing to play.
While some players contacted Friday remained optimistic that they would be able to play and expressed trust in the protocols in place, several acknowledged concern and some anxiety about what was next for the team.
