Will the COVID Shot Cost Teams Their Shot at the World Series?

The 2021 postseason is heading back to its traditional format after last year’s COVID-induced extended playoffs. However, COVID is still impacting the teams in Major League Baseball, which sent out a requirement that all personnel must be vaccinated or have gotten at least one shot by October 4th. Personnel includes managers, coaches, athletic trainers, and any non-athletic personnel. 

Many teams have already anticipated this switch, like the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals. In fact, the Astros’ field staff have all met the new COVID guidelines. Guess they were really hoping they would make it to the postseason. Those two teams also were the first in the league to impose a vaccine mandate. 

Other teams, though, are continuing to struggle. The Boston Red Sox, battling in a 4-way-tie for the American League Wildcard game, just replaced their first base coach Tom Goodwin due to a lack of vaccination. Earlier this year, the Red Sox missed almost a dozen staff and players due to positive COVID tests. I’m no staff member, but you would think that after everything this year, the last thing you would want to screw up your playoff chances would be someone not getting the vaccine. 
Compared to the Red Sox, their rival — the New York Yankees — reached 85% immunity back in April. This proves to set up an interesting scenario, as the Yankees are also one of the four teams vying for the AL Wildcard game. The 85% threshold was advised to teams earlier this year as a checkpoint goal for them to reach a certain standard with COVID protocols. 

While most teams that fall under the 85% threshold have been eliminated from playoff contention, the Seattle Mariners are still in the four-way for the AL Wildcard. While they have yet to have an interruption of multiple players or staff testing positive for COVID, with the craziness of the postseason, it is never safe to say something like that still couldn’t be in the cards.

Speaking of crazy, nothing seemed crazier to me at the start of the season than the Toronto Blue Jays playing in Dunedin, FL, and then Buffalo, NY, due to COVID restrictions. It’s got to be insanely tricky not to play at home at all, especially when players thrive on fans’ energy so much in big games. It was announced back in mid-July that the Blue Jays could return home after the Canadian government felt it was in ‘national interest’ to bring them back. I actually love how the Canadian government delivered that statement and gave so much support to this team considering they’re the last surviving Canadian baseball team in MLB. 

The Blue Jays have enforced rigorous rules and testing and have also reached the 85% threshold. For their season, many of the players have avoided any stints on the bench due to positive COVID tests, even though they play against under 85% vaccination threshold teams like the Red Sox and Mariners. 

This year also marks the return of fans back in the stands for these big games. Many stadiums have enforced vaccination protocols in which you need to show proof of vaccination to enter. Once in the stadium, the wearing of masks has become a suggestion, not an enforced rule. With how jam-packed these games will be, it will be interesting to see if teams begin to implement masks a little bit more. 

With the AL Wildcard just one day away, there were four teams in the running — the Yankees, Red Sox, Mariners, and Toronto. Man, this race for the AL Wildcard has really given fans something to be excited for after how rough the past two years have been with COVID. But where do we stand now?

Well, Sunday marked the last day of regular-season games and going into it, the Red Sox and Yankees both sat at a 91-70 record, with the Red Sox taking the first wildcard position following a big win on Saturday. The Mariners and Blue Jays sat just one game out at 90-71 and grabbed crucial victories against the Los Angeles Angels and the Baltimore Orioles. 

On Sunday, the four teams faced their last-ditch attempt to force a tiebreaker or run away with the coveted wild card slot. The Red Sox clinched their number one spot after a home run from 3B Rafael Devers cemented their lead 7-5. The Red Sox plan to start P Nathan Eovaldi against their AL Wildcard matchup team, The New York Yankees. After a long 0-0 game, RF Aaron Judge sent the Yankees to the postseason with a ground ball walk-off single. 

Unfortunately, even after the Blue Jays blew the Orioles out of the water in their must-win game, the final standings all came down to if the Red Sox could pull out the win. For the Mariners, they struggled in their game against the Angels, 7-3. I can’t imagine how rough it is to be a Mariners fan whose team now holds the longest active playoff drought in not only baseball but in all 4 major sports in the US (twenty years and counting). 

Tomorrow features one of the best rivalries in baseball for the AL Wildcard game — the Red Sox vs. the Yankees at Fenway. With the wild, crazy ride this season has been, this game is sure to be an action-packed, can’t miss event for all fans across this great sport to enjoy.

Cover image by Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports