Oakland A's will be First Team to face Covid-19 Travel Restrictions in 2022

The Oakland Athletics will be the first team in Major League Baseball to have players placed on the restricted list as a result of noncompliance with the cross-border Covid-19 vaccination policy.

The team will be without A.J. Puk, Austin Allen, and Kirby Snead, who have all been placed on the restricted list, according to the SF Chronicle’s Matt Kawahara.

As the team headed into Toronto for a three-game weekend set, little information had come out regarding the number of players—if any—who would not be allowed to enter Canada for the series.

On Wednesday, when asked, manager Mark Kotsay declined to comment on how many players from the current roster would face those travel restrictions.

Currently, the Canadian government is not allowing unvaccinated travelers to cross borders, barring unique circumstances. Any player who is currently unvaccinated would not be allowed to travel and would not be paid for the games that they missed.

Additionally, players must receive either the single Johnson & Johnson dose or their second Pfizer or Moderna dose at least 14 days in advance of the trip.

That would, in theory, mean that the Oakland A’s would have had an idea of who would be making the trip and who would not be.

However, it would not be until late Friday morning, long after the team had already arrived in Toronto, that reports would come out that the three players would be added to the restricted list.

In an unrelated move, the A’s will also be placing Stephen Piscotty on the Covid-19-related IL.

Prior to the announcement, some fans attempted to comb through the Triple-A lineups to see any inconsistencies that would indicate potential call-ups. Others pointed to the A’s having hit the 85%-vaccination threshold last year as an indication that the A’s would enter Canada relatively unscathed.

It goes without saying that there has been an overhaul since meeting that threshold.

“We’ve focused really hard on making sure we’re doing all the right things and it’s great to have a little bit of relaxation with guys taking it so serious,” Piscotty said last season after hitting the threshold. This series, he will likely remain unavailable.

In a corresponding set of moves, Oakland would recall Christian Bethancourt, Zach Logue, Drew Jackson, and Ryan Castellani from Triple-A Las Vegas.

Zach Logue, LHP and #22 prospect in the A’s farm system, was acquired via the Matt Chapman trade several weeks ago.

The A’s are just the second team to enter into Toronto for a series against the Blue Jays since 2019. As they are not divisional opponents, this will be the only trip where they will have to consider using the restricted list to disallow unvaccinated players from traveling with the team.

It is worth mentioning that the entire Blue Jays lineup is fully vaccinated and have not had to face any travel restrictions coming into the United States.

All A’s players will be required to submit proof of a negative Covid-19 test at the conclusion of this series before the team returns to Oakland for their first home series of the 2022 season.