White Sox keep pushing safety message to players

On the surface, major league baseball is likely pleased with the early results from COVID-19 testing.

Out of 3,185 samples taken from players and staff, there were 38 positive results. That amounts to a rate of 1.2%.

Saturday still brought some unwelcome news, as 31 players tested positive for coronavirus. One of them, Braves star Freddy Freeman, reportedly has a concerning fever.

“He's not feeling great,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker told reporters. “It will be a while before we can get him back.”

The White Sox have thus far avoided any positive cases, and manager Rick Renteria is keeping his fingers crossed.

“Hopefully, we won't be doing anything different other than making sure that we're consistent with our messaging to our players, that we're consistent while we're out there with them in terms of following the protocol that's in place,” Renteria said. “We've talked to our players in terms of being mindful as to what they're doing away from the ballpark, what they're exposing themselves to. The protocol is to try to mitigate, obviously, infection. It'd be truly foolish for me to say that it won't happen, but we're going to try and help it not happen.

“That's all we can do. In terms of the (MLB) news, it's discouraging but we've got to continue to move forward. And I'm hoping that those guys are healthy and recover well. But we're going to continue to measure what we do and use the protocol in place to try to mitigate it.”

Playing ball:

The Sox had their second morning/afternoon workout of summer camp Saturday at Guaranteed Rate Field.

With the short 60-game season starting on July 23, they'll soon be shifting to intrasquad games.

“I'm looking at Wednesday as being a pivotal point,” manager Rick Renteria said. “We'll change the workout schedule and try to have both squads together, get that situated so that possibly we start on Thursday with some intrasquad games.”

After a layoff of over three months due to COVID-19, expect some sloppy baseball when play does start.

“You're going to have to be ready,” Renteria said. “In talking to most guys, we have no choice, right? We're going to try to give everybody the opportunities they need to put themselves in the best position possible to start the season, but it is what it is.”