Newest Yankee Andrew Benintendi plays it coy over getting COVID vaccine
5 min read
NEW YORK — Andrew Benintendi, the latest New York Yankee, was shrewd in his introductory push conference Thursday afternoon, playing it coy, and refusing to develop the definitive answer absolutely everyone wished to hear.
He remains unvaccinated.
He does not know if he’ll get vaccinated.
He didn’t even promise he’ll be vaccinated when the Yankees participate in in Toronto on Sept. 26-28 with Canadian legislation necessitating evidence of vaccination when crossing the border.
“I’m continue to positioned in the exact same location,’’ mentioned Benintendi, the All-Star outfielder who was traded from the Kansas Metropolis Royals on Wednesday for a few minimal-league pitchers. “I’m not in opposition to it. But time will tell.’’
When requested immediately if he would be accessible to perform in the Blue Jay series if the Canadian govt doesn’t change their laws, he all over again sidestepped it.
“Right now, I’m just centered on enjoying ball,’’ Benintendi said. “I’ll cross that bridge when it comes. I’m open up-minded about it.’’
The cold-hearted reality is that Benintendi will get vaccinated delivering the Canadian authorities does not abruptly transform its vaccination constraints.
While it without a doubt is true that Benintendi has not immediately talked to Yankee officers about his vaccination status, he knowledgeable Royals GM Dayton Moore about a 7 days back that he would get vaccinated if traded to an American League contender, two officials with immediate knowledge of trade talks advised Usa Right now Sports activities.
Moore, in turn, allow each individual inquiring team know that Benintendi planned to get vaccinated.
This is why the Blue Jays, of all groups, were intensely included in trade talks for Benintendi.
The Yankees may well have an 11½-activity guide in the American League East, and badly wanted Benintendi to be their daily left fielder, but there was zero possibility they trade for Benintendi if they weren’t informed of his determination to get vaccinated.
Benintendi, of program, could have divulged the identical details Thursday at his press convention, but cleverly declined.
He watched previous Royals teammate Whit Merrifield get certainly ridiculed in social media from coast-to-coastline two months in the past immediately after he was recognized amid the 10 unvaccinated Royals who couldn’t engage in in Toronto.
Whitfield was critical of the vaccine saying, “What’s it’s meant to do, it is not undertaking. If it was carrying out what it was intended to do and halting the spread of COVID (then) I would have a minor extra willingness to take it, but it’s not executing that.”
The damaging response considerably intensified when he intimated that he may possibly get the vaccine if he were traded to a contender. He apologized, but the problems was performed.
“I badly articulated the stage I was making an attempt to say,” Merrifield instructed Kansas Metropolis reporters. “If what was standing in between me and the playoffs was this vaccine, I would contemplate getting it. I didn’t say I would get it for another staff, or wouldn’t get it for this workforce, it was just a stage about demonstrating how much I price playing in the playoffs.”
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Benintendi, who played 5 decades in Boston, appreciates how the media video game will work. He wasn’t about to say something remotely equivalent to Whitfield. Not now. Perhaps never. It’s also incredibly hot of a subject.
If he uncovered Thursday that he was definitely obtaining a shot, he would have been accused of remaining selfish, permitting the status of a workforce in the standings establish his vaccination determination.
Now, he can pretend that he’s still undecided. He nonetheless has two months before his final decision will be disclosed, and by that time, he can just say he grew to become more educated about the vaccine’s benefits.
Oh, yeah, and thinking of the Yankees are a single of the few teams in which everyone is vaccinated, he can appear throughout as the ultimate team participant.
No back-page headlines.
No nationwide ridicule.
Definitely, a hero to Yankee followers.
Best.
Yankees supervisor Aaron Boone stated that he has but to broach the topic with Benintendi, but if he does, you can be confident he will not publicly notify everyone. Why bother to say everything now? The Yankees don’t vacation to Toronto for another two months.
“We’ll cross that bridge,’’ Boone claimed, “when, and if, we have to.’’
Genuinely, Benintendi currently has confirmed to be a staff player to Yankees administration. He was educated immediately after the Royals’ afternoon recreation towards the Los Angeles Angels that he was going to be traded to the Yankees. It was not official, but Royals officials gave him a heads up, permitting him make some calls, acquire his belongs, and waited whilst he was the very last player to board the staff aircraft to New York.
The offer became formal in the 1st inning of the Yankees’ video game versus the Mets, but it wasn’t introduced right up until soon after the recreation. But, when asked Thursday when he was advised he experienced been traded, he stated that supervisor Mike Matheny knowledgeable him immediately after their arrival to New York.
Benintendi spent the rest of the night generating calls, participating in playing cards with his now former teammates at the Royals’ team hotel. He took a car to Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon, turned suitable alternatively of remaining inside the corridor, walked into the Yankees clubhouse, and joined an legendary franchise that has the very best file in baseball.
On Thursday evening, Benintendi was in the starting up lineup and actively playing still left field, where he’ll continue being all season. It permits the Yankees to play Aaron Judge more often now in proper subject in its place of heart field. And it shoves Joey Gallo to the bench, and most likely entirely out of the doorway, with Aaron Hicks participating in heart and Giancarlo Stanton as the most important DH.
“I’m seriously excited to have him,’’ Boone said. “I imagine he’s received a prospect to be a definitely excellent in shape for us.’’
If Benintendi, instrumental in the Purple Sox’s Entire world Collection title in 2018, will help do the exact same for the Yankees this time, he’ll be for good remembered in New York.
You know, for his genuine functionality, not his vaccination position.
Stick to Bob Nightengale on Twitter @Bnightengale.
This write-up initially appeared on Usa These days: Andrew Benintendi coy about receiving vaccinated following trade to Yankees
