Indians: Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes isolated after breaking COVID-19 protocol

Jose Ramirez and Franmil Reyes were immediately sent home from the Cleveland Indians spring training facility.

Ramirez is a first-time offender, while Reyes has dealt with this sort of issue in the past. The two apparently went out for dinner, in which they sat indoors, which violates MLB’s COVID-19 protocol. Reyes also got a haircut the previous day.

The pair will have to isolate and get tested to ensure they don’t spread the virus in team facilities or in games.

“We’re pretty fortunate here,” manager Terry Francona said. “We have some medical people who are right on top of things and they came right to me and they said: ‘Look, this is what we’re doing. We’re informing the league.’ The players themselves actually self-reported that they had made a mistake.”

This isn’t the first time a pair of Cleveland Indians have violated COVID-19 protocol

Just last season, Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac violated protocol, forcing the entire team to isolate as a result. This weekend’s offense is far less serious, and it’s not in the regular season. Hopefully both Reyes and Ramirez will take this as a warning to closely follow the protocol, as any deviation from it can lead to dire consequences.

“They were both upfront and honest with us about what happened,” Francona said. “We’re not trying to put guys in the penalty box. We try to talk to guys almost every day. ‘Hey, this is gonna happen if — it doesn’t matter if you agree with it or not. These are the protocols that are in place and you have to live by it.'”

Francona is right to be up front with his players. However, considering this is Reyes’ second time violating protocol, it’s fair to question his intentions. We can only hope this was an honest mistake and not one either Cleveland player will make again moving forward.