The Royals made some headlines on Wednesday night when the team announced that 10 players would miss this upcoming weekend series in Toronto because they didn't receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The announcement had ripple effects beyond just the team's road series in Canada, and while speaking to 610's Cody and Gold on Thursday afternoon, Royals Insider Josh Vernier explained why the news didn't come as much of a shock to him.
"Not to sound arrogant ... but I'm not surprised by any of it, including the number," he said. "Last year, the Royals were one of the most unvaccinated teams – the most unvaccinated team – in Major League Baseball. And conversations in the offseason about that how that did place a wedge in that clubhouse. You have one half of the clubhouse is going to get vaccinated. And maybe not always happy about it, but they're going to do it for the team. And the other half is being told, 'Don't do it.' So it's very much like the rest of our country. So not surprised by that, not surprised by the number."
You can listen to Vernier's entire conversation in the embedded player below:
