The vaccine mandate for athletes in the city of Toronto is pretty self-explanatory.
Athletes in Toronto must be fully vaccinated to participate in sporting events.
This includes players from teams in other cities.
If they are not vaccinated, they are not allowed to play in Toronto or even travel to Canada.
For the Kansas City Royals, a lot of players are going to be left behind on their next road trip due to their vaccination status.
Royals beat writer Alec Lewis tweeted some news regarding those players, and it appears the Royals are going to be without guys such as Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier, Andrew Benintendi, and several others, thanks to them not being vaccinated.
Royals players Whit Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, MJ Melendez, Brady Singer, Brad Keller, Kyle Isbel, Michael A. Taylor and Dylan Coleman will be placed on the restricted list for the four-game series in Toronto, per manager Mike Matheny.
— Alec Lewis (@alec_lewis) July 13, 2022
Royals Head To Toronto Short-Handed
Granted, the Royals are not going anywhere this season, so it’s not like this is the kiss of death.
But with so many players unvaccinated, they’re going to be extremely short-handed and will need to rely heavily on their minor league depth.
This puts them in a very bad position.
Some players on the list are either hurt or not set to pitch in the Toronto series, but that doesn’t make things any easier for the Royals or their manager, Mike Matheny.
Several teams have had to deal with these troubles this season when going to Toronto.
But in the case of trade candidates such as Merrifield and Benintendi, their trade stock might be hurt a little bit by this.
The fact that both of them are unvaccinated, among many others, might turn some teams off who are looking at making a trade for them.
This is not a good spot to be in if you’re the Royals or any other team with players unvaccinated.
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