The Red Sox are seemingly back to normal.
Alex Cora confirmed the New York Post report Monday that Matt Barnes' positive COVID-19 diagnosis has been classified as non-infectious, with the pitcher coming away with multiple negative tests in recent days. The joint MLB-MLBPA COVID-19 Committee ruled that Barnes -- along with those sidelined due to contact tracing -- could return to normal participation.
"I’m just happy that he’s going to be back with us and it seems like we’re going to be at full strength in a few days," Cora said.
The development allows both Barnes and Matt Andriese to re-enter the mix for Opening Day. Two other pitchers who hadn't been participating since the COVID chaos began were Garrett Whitlock and Garrett Richards.
"Obviously, he stayed at home," Cora said of Richards. "Probably he was throwing something against the wall or whatever, I don't know. You know I haven't talked to him about any specifics but I'm about to find out, you know where we at, where we are physically. It really doesn't matter, right? It does matter but it doesn’t. We’ve got to be patient. We’ll stay the course. We did a good job the last few days staying calm. And now that you know, we know what's going on, where we at, now we will plan for the weekend. And the good thing is, we got options and we're in a good place. I think that Friday off day is going to benefit us. The other off day is going to benefit us right now and we just take advantage of that and make decisions based on who can perform this weekend and then go from there."
