Port St. Lucy – The Yankees and Mets’ lack of interest in the New York state for a vaccine for the private sector proved justifiable.
Whether they are vaccinated or not, they will all be able to play at home once the season starts in two weeks.
Mayor Eric Adams On Thursday it is set to announce a relaxation of the workplace vaccine mandateThe Post confirmed, Allow exemption for professional athletes and performers in local venues.
Had the mandate not changed before April 7 in the Bronx or April 15 in Queens, many unprotected Yankees and Mets would have been at risk of missing games on their home soil — as happened with Nets star Kyrie Irving during the NBA season.
The exact number of unvaccinated Yankees and Mets is not publicly known, but a number of Superstars have recently declined to reveal their vaccination status as concern grows about Adams’ insistence that his decisions will not be dictated by baseball’s schedule. The list of players who declined to say if they had been vaccinated included Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, Joey Gallo in the Yankees, Jacob Degrom, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nemo, Dominic Smith and JD Davis on the Mets.
In response to a question about lifting the mandate, the judge said:I’m glad Keri can play some home games. “
He added that he wasn’t worried about the impact on the Yankees.
“As I told you guys, I wasn’t too concerned about that,” the judge said. “I have a lot of things to do here on the field. If the mandate isn’t there, that’s good for Kyrie and helped the Nets a little bit.”
Aaron Boone didn’t want to address the issue until it became official.
“We’ll see,” Boone said. I do not want to comment on any speculation. I hope this won’t be a problem for us.”
Since the vaccine mandate applied to the Yankees and Mets was first announced last week, both teams have taken a wait-and-see approach, hoping the rules will change by opening day. The Yankees also had team boss Randy Levine working with City Hall and other officials on the matter.
“We’ll handle it as it comes,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said Tuesday night when asked about the mandate. “There are people in our city who are being asked to do a certain thing and we don’t expect anything – when they come out and tell us what to do, we will make adjustments. I understand why we are in the place we are and we deeply respect those things that they are trying to put in place to protect people.”
Cases of COVID-19 have risen slightly in recent days in New York City, but not as much as during the winter.
Last season, when New York City’s private sector mandate was not yet in place, more than 85 percent of Yankees’ first-tier personnel (which includes players, coaches, and other personnel with access to players) were vaccinated. The Post previously reported that the Mets had a 77 percent vaccination rate among first-tier personnel, but only about 55 percent of players were vaccinated at one point last season.
The Yankees remain at risk of losing unvaccinated players during their nine games in Toronto this season, unless restrictions at the Canadian border are reversed. Manager Aaron Boone said last week that “at least a few men” remain vulnerable and that the situation in Toronto was “a concern”.
Under the current restrictions, Major League Baseball players who have not received the vaccination will not be allowed to play in Toronto. Teams are expected to instead put these players on the restricted list, using the mandate given in the new collective bargaining agreement to cut pay and service time.
Additional reporting by Dan Martin in Tampa
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