Casey Stengel, when asked how important the catcher position was, said, “you have to have a catcher because if you don’t you’re likely to have a lot of passed balls.”
The Braves are about to learn just how important catchers really are, because they announced today that they will be without their top two catchers, Tyler Flowers and Travis d’Arnaud, for tonight’s game against the Mets after both players showed symptoms of the coronavirus.
Manager Brian Snitker said today that Flowers and d’Arnaud have tested negative for COVID-19, but that they did not travel with the team because they had COVID-19 symptoms. Snitker said he did not know what the symptoms were, and he hoped the two just had “a bad cold.”
Getting the start will be third string catcher Alex Jackson. William Contreras will back him up. Both were in the Braves’ 60-man player pool but were not on the team’s active roster. In the meantime Flowers and d’Arnaud will continue to be tested.
As will we all, frankly. In any number of ways.
