In a Friday radio appearance, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo acknowledged he chose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Rizzo spoke to ESPN 1000's David Kaplan and Jonathan Hood Friday morning, saying it was a hard decision to not get vaccinated and "a lot went into it."
The Cubs first baseman discussed things further after Friday's 8-5 win over the Cardinals.
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"For me, it's just one of those things where I'm definitely not against getting it," Rizzo said. "I’ve said all along to our doctors I’m just taking some more time to see the data on all of it. There's definitely some personal reasons as well.
"But it's just one of those things where, as we continue to get more data, I'll continue to be more educated on it."
The Cubs are one of only eight teams to not reach the 85-percent vaccination threshold for "Tier 1" personnel that allows clubs to relax protocols — which include eased mask wearing and quarantine exemptions for vaccinated players exposed to COVID-19 unless exhibiting symptoms.
Tier 1 encompasses players, coaches and support staff.
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"Ultimately you have the individual choices of close to 100 people when you factor in all the people in Tier 1 and Tier 2," team president Jed Hoyer said Friday. "There's a lot of individual choices that go into it.
"I wish those individual choices led to us being at 85 percent. They haven't."
Multiple members of the Cubs organization have said in recent days they don't expect to get to the threshold. Hoyer reiterated Friday he isn't optimistic, echoing comments he made last month.
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Cubs manager David Ross said Friday he respects Rizzo's and others' choices.
"That doesn't change my outlook on Rizz," Ross said. "He's one of my best friends, he's one of the big pieces of our team. We've moved forward in a great way this year with everybody's decisions, not just his.
"We move forward and respect that and do our best to try to follow protocols and keep the virus outside of our locker room."