{"id":35319,"date":"2022-06-03T17:54:12","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T17:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/kepler-three-other-unvaccinated-twins-will-miss-weekend-series-in-toronto\/"},"modified":"2022-06-03T17:54:12","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T17:54:12","slug":"kepler-three-other-unvaccinated-twins-will-miss-weekend-series-in-toronto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/kepler-three-other-unvaccinated-twins-will-miss-weekend-series-in-toronto\/","title":{"rendered":"Kepler, three other unvaccinated Twins will miss weekend series in Toronto"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TORONTO – The Twins will be without four players for a weekend series against the Blue Jays. The four were unable to travel to Canada because of their vaccination status.<\/p>\n

Right fielder Max Kepler and relievers Emilio Pagan, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Megill are all on the Restricted List and traveled back to Minnesota after Thursday’s game. Canadian law requires all travelers to be vaccinated for COVID-19 before entering the country. So the Twins will have to call up Class AAA replacements for the three-game series at Rogers Center.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been very upfront with everybody in the organization since the day they traded for me,” Pagan said. “I told them I wasn’t going to hide from it if anybody wanted to ask me any questions. I felt like I had that responsibility having made the decision to not get vaccinated that no one else should have to answer questions for me.”<\/p>\n

Pagan called the situation “unfortunate” and said he went around to every one of his teammates to explain his absence and how he made his decision. Pagan, Kepler and Thielbar all mentioned how the situation was out of their control, as it’s a law from another country and not something MLB dictates.<\/p>\n

Thielbar pointed out that he traveled to Canada last season for the Blue Jays series, before the current law stood.<\/p>\n

“It’s not fun. It’s frustrating,” Thielbar said. “\u2026 Everyone tested last year regardless of vaccination status, and it was fine. The unvaccinated guys, we had to stay in our room the whole time we were up there. It was basically 100 percent certain that we were not bringing COVID into Canada.<\/p>\n

“This year, there’s no testing, and I think everyone’s pretty aware that we have had COVID in our clubhouse for the last month, and it’s almost a certainty that we are bringing it into Canada this year.”<\/p>\n

Shortstop Carlos Correa, starter Joe Ryan and outfielder Gilberto Celestino all recently tested positive for COVID-19, as did several individuals in the team’s traveling party.<\/p>\n

Kepler declined to specifically state his reason for not being vaccinated. Thielbar said he had an adverse reaction to the flu shot in the past that has made him wary. Thielbar had COVID early on in the pandemic, as did Kepler early in the 2021 season.<\/p>\n

All four will work out at Target Field this weekend, while the Twins try to break out of a losing rut, having dropped seven of their past 10 games.<\/p>\n

The players on the restricted list will not be paid, so they’ll lose three days salary, or 1.6 percent of their season’s earnings. Kepler will lose $ 108,289 of his $ 6.7 million salary, Pagan will lose $ 36,898 of his $ 2.3 million, Theilbar will lose $ 20,856 of his $ 1.3 million and Megill, who makes the minimum $ 700,000, would lose $ 11,230.<\/p>\n

“In my opinion, it’s sad that I can’t join the team, especially now where we’ve lost a couple of games,” Kepler said. “Everyone needs to be together. It’s sad.”<\/p>\n

Starter Chris Archer said the team has been preparing for this series since spring training, and everyone has known which players would be unavailable since then. It wasn’t a surprise, but it also isn’t ideal, though Archer said everyone in the clubhouse respects the personal decision the unvaccinated players made and will do their best to soldier on without them.<\/p>\n

Toronto is on an eight-game winning streak, and while losing the coming three games would be tough, the bigger hindrance would come in the playoffs, should the Twins match up with the Blue Jays and be without key players in the biggest moment.<\/p>\n

Pagan said he has already considered that scenario and even thought about “doing something to be able to go this time around.” He said he isn’t “anti-medicine” or 100% against the vaccine.<\/p>\n

“Things can change. Studies change,” Pagan said. “\u2026 When I consider it, I get anxious, and I don’t feel comfortable with the decision right now. I know people are going to get mad at that, but it’s just where I’m at.”<\/p>\n

The CDC has found that vaccines are effective at safeguarding against COVID-19, and side effects from the shot are rare. They are FDA approved and recommended for all people aged 5 and older.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I’m letting the team down,” Pagan said, “by not being able to go.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO – The Twins will be without four players for a weekend series against the Blue Jays. The four were unable to travel to Canada because of their vaccination status. Right fielder Max Kepler and relievers Emilio Pagan, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Megill are all on the Restricted List and traveled back to Minnesota after …<\/p>\n

Kepler, three other unvaccinated Twins will miss weekend series in Toronto<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/chorus.stimg.co\/23367120\/merlin_62658861.jpg?h=630&w=1200&fit=crop&bg=999&crop=faces","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}