Negative test for Mitchell's dad `a sigh of relief' to Mets

NEW YORK (AP) — When the father of Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell tested negative for the coronavirus, it was “a sigh of relief” to the New York Mets.

Donovan Mitchell Sr. is a fixture in and around the Mets’ clubhouse in his job as the team’s director of player relations and community outreach. The younger Mitchell confirmed Thursday he tested positive for the virus after Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert became the first NBA player to test positive, with Gobert's result prompting the league to suspend the season.

The elder Mitchell was tested Thursday and it came back negative, the Mets announced Friday night.

“We all were very pleased and happy for Donovan and his family,” general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said Saturday on a conference call with reporters from the team’s spring training home in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “And I know there was a sigh of relief to a degree of our players and staff here.”

Van Wagenen said no other members of the staff in Port St. Lucie or baseball operations had been tested.

With spring training adjourned all around the majors due to the COVID-19 crisis, the club met Saturday morning with players who were still in Port St. Lucie and encouraged them to focus not on baseball right now but on their own health, safety and families.

“Obviously, we had a unique situation in that we were awaiting Donovan Mitchell’s test results, so we shared that information and we shared with them other appropriate information as it relates to their health and safety,” Van Wagenen said. “Players had a number of questions with our staff as well as our performance and medical staff, and players are making a variety of different choices. Some are choosing to travel. Others are still deciding while they’re contemplating the variables with their family and with their friends, and others...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Negative-test-for-Mitchell-s-dad-a-sigh-of-15131732.php