Despite COVID quarantine, Ross staying close to Cubs
Cubs manager David Ross has been away from the team since Friday due to a positive COVID test. Bench coach Andy Green, now the substitute manager, said Ross is making the lineup every day and staying in close contact.
"You miss his personality," Green said. "You hear him before you see him most days, so you're not hearing that loud, booming voice in the clubhouse right now and kind of missing having him around. My conversations with him are very, very consistent.
"We talked a couple of times this morning. We'll talk a couple times after the game. Anything that changes, status of players on a given day, he's being made aware of that and making decisions based on information that the training staff gives him, I give him, (pitching coach) Tommy (Hottovy) gives him."
Green said as far as he knew, there have been no more positive tests besides Ross and team president Jed Hoyer. It's not clear when Ross will return, but Green knows no one in the clubhouse should be letting their guard down. The Cubs remain one the few MLB teams that have not reached an 85% vaccination level.
"We're hopeful, cautiously optimistic at this point, but we're still hopeful," Green said. "The 3-5 day window, we're kind of right in the prime of it when someone could potentially test positive. So we haven't seen it spread.
"I think if we clear (Tuesday), that's approaching the end of our testing window that would come back to us Wednesday morning, the last day before the off day. If we're clear all the way through there, we'll continue to be as cautiously optimistic as all of us can be in the COVID world we live in right now."
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