Thursday’s Mets-Nationals opener postponed due to COVID-19 concerns

43 MLB games were postponed due to COVID-19 concerns during the shortened 2020 season. It’s Opening Day, but we already have one COVID postponement in 2021. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported Thursday morning that Thursday’s opener between the Mets and Nationals, has been postponed as the Nationals continue to conduct contact tracing following a positive coronavirus test near the end of spring training. According to Olney, the teams will not make the game up on Friday, the date left open in case Thursday’s game was rained out.

As of Wednesday, four Nationals players and a staff member were considered close contacts and were quarantining as further testing occurred. Considering the pair of postponements, it seems likely that more Nationals players have tested positive or entered COVID protocol.

In addition to wiping out the optimism that comes with Opening Day, this news extends fans’ wait to get a regular-season look at Francisco Lindor in a Mets uniform. They’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so moving forward, though, as the 27-year-old shortstop agreed to a 10-year, $341 million extension with the Mets on Wednesday night.