Jose Abreu will report late to White Sox camp because of COVID-19 protocols

Jose Abreu

The headlines around White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu today strike me as a little misleading. 

ESPN's story says, "Jose Abreu tests positive for COVID-19, but Chicago White Sox say star 1B is 'completely asymptomatic.'"

Not to pick on ESPN, because if you do a search for "Jose Abreu," there are about a dozen similar headlines out there. The problem with the headline is it leads you to believe Abreu just tested positive for the virus, when that doesn't sound like it's the case.

If you read what Sox GM Rick Hahn said about the situation, Abreu believes he had a mild case of the virus in January. Hahn noted that COVID antibody testing backed up Abreu's story. Later, James Fegan of The Athletic noted that the Sox hope Abreu will report to camp as soon as Monday.

In other words, don't believe the hype. I don't think Abreu has COVID-19, and I don't think he's in danger of infecting anyone. He just has to stay away for now because of MLB's written protocols.

Here's what I think happened: Abreu did have COVID in January -- he just didn't get tested for it at that time. The antibody test revealed there's a strong likelihood that's the case.

Testing Abreu for the virus right now is sort of pointless. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control advises against retesting within 90 days of testing positive -- because of the risk of false positives. That's why the antibody test was performed instead.

From MLB's perspective, there's no record of Abreu testing positive, which he likely would have had he been tested in January. However, there is strong evidence that he had the virus recently, so the league is treating it as a new and active case.

That means Abreu has to spend 10 days in isolation and continue to be asymptomatic during that time. If he remains asymptomatic, and he likely will, he can join the team. That 10-day process has already started, I'm sure, and that's why the Sox are able to pinpoint Monday as a probable report date for Abreu.

I'm not a medical expert, so obviously, my thoughts are not to be taken as gospel. But that's my armchair guess at what's going on here, and well, armchair guesses are what blogging is all about. I would never argue otherwise.