Justin Turner to receive no discipline for blatantly violating COVID-19 protocols

When the Dodgers won the World Series, the focus should have been on how amazing that Dodgers team truly is and how impressive their performance in the playoffs and, in particular, in the World Series was.

Instead, the focus immediately turned to Justin Turner and his blatant disregard for the safety of others and a complete lack of awareness of the situation around him. Turner was pulled from the final game of the World Series after testing positive for COVID-19 and was placed in isolation and rightly so. However, once the game ended and the celebration began....Turner was somehow allowed to return to the field and was photographed in close proximity to teammates and others on the field with and without a mask on. He was also very prominently holding the World Series trophy that basically everyone got to touch and hold.

There was a lot of discussion about whether he should face discipline for his actions. After some deliberations, MLB has decided not to punish him.

Now lets be clear....no one thinks that Turner was looking to get back on the field to purposefully get other people sick. He got caught up in the moment and was just intent on celebrating a World Series title. However, as someone who tested positive for COVID-19, the onus is on both him and officials both with the team and the league to enforce the rules and protocols agreed upon to keep people healthy and safe. All sides failed in that regard.

That said, it was Turner that decided to take the field knowing that he had COVID-19 and that he was supposed to isolate himself. He knew that there were going to be people on the field that are more at-risk for complications from the disease and he knew that he could possibly infect others, albeit with a certain amount of regret now. He did it anyways. The failures of the security measures not withstanding, if the rules are in place regarding player conduct after a positive test and the league isn’t going to enforce them, then what are we doing here?

Turner will receive no punishment and it appears that a couple of stern talkings-to, everyone is considering the matter closed.