New York Mets starting pitcher Chris Bassitt is scheduled to come off the COVID IL and return to the mound on Friday night, but the right-hander could not help but wonder if he did the right thing by self-testing and reporting to the team.
Bassitt, whose self-report caused him to miss a start, vented his frustrations about the COVID-19 guidelines to reporters as he returned to the clubhouse on Thursday.
“Stop testing it,” Bassit said, when asked for a solution. “Stop acting like COVID is far worse than other things. I don’t want to get too much into it, but I was never sick. I never had a symptom. So I’m sitting out for two weeks, possibly a week, for zero symptoms. I don’t know.
“Now they’re coming out saying you could get tested, get a positive test for possibly a month. So we gotta miss multiple times? I guess the answer is I shouldn’t have said anything. … I probably won’t for the rest of my career. There’s no way. There’s no reason.”
Major League Baseball removed its testing for asymptomatic individuals prior to the start of the season and only required testing when showing or reporting symptoms.
Bassitt tested himself, however. And while the right-hander said he did not experience any symptoms, he later clarified that he tested himself because his "only so-called symptom" was that he was felt more sluggish and tired than usual during their series against Houston and wanted to take a precaution to protect his daughter.
“Having a little girl at home, if I can somewhat be safe, I will. I tested myself. It was positive. I basically had the choice to tell them and protect my teammates or not say anything and put my teammates at risk,” Bassitt said. “But, I mean, I never had a symptom. Woke up next day, perfectly fine. Hadn’t had a symptom since. I don’t know if I made the right decision or not.”
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