Further testing delays push back start of Cubs’ Tuesday workouts

Maybe it’s nothing. Could be it’s merely the slightest blip, here one moment and gone from the radar screen the next. For all we know, it won’t impede the Cubs’ progress in the slightest.

“This isn’t a huge deal,” manager David Ross said.

But late is late. And Tuesday at Wrigley Field, the latest round of COVID-19 test results was late. Again.

MLB is having a problem staying on top of testing. Some — namely, the league itself — would say it’s a shrinking problem, that the Fourth of July weekend gummed up the shipping-and-delivery works on merely a temporary basis.

“It kind of threw things for a loop,” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said.

Others might be more skeptical and see a growing problem, with players around the game voicing concern and frustration at tests coming less frequently than expected and results repeatedly delayed.

Take Cubs star Kris Bryant, who sounded off Monday about the state of things at Cubs camp, where no player has yet tested positive, an extreme rarity in the league. But players were not being tested every other day, as agreed to in 11th-hour negotiations with the league before the opening of camps, and results were, in some cases, several days late.

In comments that echoed around the sport like a home run hit into empty bleachers, Bryant said he didn’t feel safe at work and wouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised if the season were canceled.

A day later, Ross met the media via video conference and announced that — due to a delay in receiving results from tests taken on Sunday — scheduled workouts had been pushed back a couple of hours. A three-inning intrasquad game originally scheduled for 4:25 p.m. was pushed back to 6:15.

Not a huge problem in and of itself, obviously. But potentially part of a festering one for baseball.

The Cubs’ problem wasn’t as stark as those faced in other big-league cities where daily workouts have been called off and plans severely altered, to say nothing of the positive tests and player opt-outs that have hit home with many teams. In San Francisco on Tuesday — adding to a leaguewide fiasco involving the Nationals, Astros, Cardinals, A’s and others — the Giants suspended workouts at Oracle Park because of delayed testing results, and star catcher Buster Posey wondered aloud about opting out.

But, still, the Cubs had a stressful situation on their hands at a time when all anyone wants is for things to feel semi-normal.

“I think it seems a little bit bigger with what’s been going on with some teams the last day or so,” Ross said. “I think, in everybody’s world, we have to have a little bit of patience. We can’t just crush MLB, because this is new to them, too. . . .

“I just urge patience on everybody. I know we’ve talked about [it]. They’ve assured me that things are getting on the right track and this is just a couple-hour pushback.”

More than anything, this is about the health and safety of those on the field. Ross said no players have indicated they’re considering opting out, but he added, “That could change within a day.”

“I just want the players to feel good about coming in,” he said. “And I think once we get on this track and adjust a little bit to what happened last week, it’ll put us in a better place.”