Wednesday’s news that 10 Kansas City Royals players won’t make the team’s road trip to Toronto due to their vaccination status continued to generate reaction on Thursday.
Following Wednesday’s reports, Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield, one of the 10 players who won’t make the trip, spoke with reporters after their Wednesday game.
Royals’ MLB.com reporter Anne Rogers posted Merrifield’s comments on Twitter.
Whit Merrifield said his decision to not get vaccinated is a personal choice based on research and conversations.
— Anne Rogers (@anne__rogers) July 13, 2022
He has sat the last 4 games with a big toe bone bruise but said it's progressing well and he might have played by the end of the Toronto series if he was going. pic.twitter.com/jUGOpsR3wZ
Merrifield said he reached a personal decision not to get vaccinated, but said if he really needed to get a shot to be able to play in Canada, he would reconsider.
“That’s the only reason that I would think about getting it at this point, is to go to Canada,” Merrifield said. “That might change down the road. Something happens and I happen to get on a team that has a chance to go play in Canada in the postseason, maybe that changes.”
In a radio interview Thursday morning during Pete Mundo’s radio program on 710 KCMO-AM, Royals President of Baseball Operations Dayton Moore said Merrifield regretted the remarks.
Dayton Moore on @kcmotalkradio about these comments: "That's not Whit's heart, that's not who he is. He was caught in a situation where it just didn't come out right... he's very sorry for what was said and how it was said." https://t.co/bOt7GhMHGI
— Pete Mundo (@PeteMundo) July 14, 2022
“This is not Whit’s heart, that’s not who he is,” Moore said. “He was caught in a situation where it just didn’t come out right… he’s very sorry for what was said and how it was said.”
The Royals start a four-game series in Toronto tonight before breaking for the All-Star game next week.
