ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) Tampa Bay Rays Pitcher Tyler Glasnow strolled to the mound Tuesday at Tropicana Field, ready to pitch in a simulated game.
Only, this was not a mundane preseason appearance. Glasnow was in attendance at Rays summer camp for the first time because he was out of action with coronavirus.
Glasnow, who said before camp that the club was focusing on policing itself to stay healthy, tested positive during the camp intake process. While he has no recollection of where he could have come into contact with the virus, he was fortunate to have a mild case.
“I was totally fine,” Glasnow said. “I lost smell and taste for a little bit. I had really mild cold symptoms maybe for a day but if this wasn’t going on, I probably wouldn’t have even known that I was sick.”
“There was enough back forth between himself (Glasnow) and our staff throughout that we had a pretty good sense of where he was at,” Rays Manager Kevin Cash said.
Glasnow, the first known Rays player to test positive for COVID-19, was well enough to throw a baseball several times during his quarantine, finding a field and pitching into a net.
In Tuesday’s game, Glasnow pitched 3.1 innings and allowed one hit while striking out four batters.
Cash said that Glasnow’s performance is right where he probably would have been during a normal season build-up and that his place in Rays pitching rotation is not in jeopardy.
