‘A few of us are (ticked)’: Some Royals unhappy with unvaccinated teammates’ decision

The smoke trail from a cloud that has hovered over the Royals organization privately for months is now the root of a very public humiliation.

While the embarrassment of the league’s worst COVID-19 vaccination rate has gone national, drawing headlines on ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the like, its internal effects will apparently still reverberate loudest.

And perhaps longest.

Ten players, more than any other team in baseball, have skipped the Royals’ trip to Toronto this week because of their refusal to comply with a Canadian mandate that they must receive a COVID-19 vaccination before they arrive.

It’s a personal choice, said four of the seven who answered questions about it Wednesday — as if we needed confirmation that a decision to stiff-arm the world’s best option to slow a virus that has killed millions was made for anyone other than themselves.

Beyond that, on a less important but still notable scale, those who made that decision will leave the Royals extraordinarily short-handed, even as one of the unvaccinated, starting pitcher Brad Keller, says he would love to be in Toronto fighting for the team this weekend.

That’s not the way it’s being received by some in the clubhouse — you know, the remaining 16 players who got the shot and lived to tell about it.

“(A) few of us,” one player wrote in a text message, “are (ticked).”

As the unvaccinated players say their teammates have been understanding of their decision, a handful of vaccinated players have voiced complaints about the situation to members of the coaching staff in recent weeks.

They’re reasonably annoyed by the situation and struck by a feeling of abandonment that’s only heightened by the fact that the 10 are skipping a weekend series as the Royals occupy last place in the American League Central. Some have concluded that their teammates simply don’t care, or at least don’t care enough.

It didn’t help that unvaccinated Whit Merrifield implied he would consider receiving the vaccine if traded to a contending team, a comment he likely already regrets but one that caught the eye of many. His words, which are all we have to go on here, made it appear as though his line in the sand is somewhere between last and first place.

It’s factual to say nothing else has provided sufficient motivation. For more than a year now, the Royals’ medical and training staff, led by Nick Kenney, and front office have encouraged players to receive a vaccine that health experts have deemed both safe and effective in preventing serious illness. While nodding along to their injury and rehab advice, some Royals players have turned a cold shoulder to that health-preservation education, a contradiction that defies logic.

Which offers the Royals’ front office a chance to learn a valuable piece of information in the midst of all of this.

Who’s in?

And who’s out?

The Royals are now acutely aware who is committed to the greater cause of a rebuild that will require some decisions about veteran players, a large contingent of which litters the list of unvaccinated players: Keller, Merrifield, Andrew Benintendi, Cam Gallagher, Dylan Coleman, Hunter Dozier, Kyle Isbel, M.J. Melendez, Brady Singer and Michael A. Taylor.

“I’m very disappointed we don’t have many of our everyday players with us in Toronto,” Royals president of baseball operations Dayton Moore said. “That’s disappointing to our organization; that’s disappointing to our clubhouse; and that’s disappointing our fans. At the end of the day, we can’t make anybody get a vaccination.

“We did our share of talking. We did our share of education. But at the end of the day, all of our leaders at upper levels made a decision to be vaccinated. That was our choice. Our families are vaccinated. That was their choice.

“I’m not going to judge another man or woman who chooses to think differently. There’s a reason they feel the way they feel. However, the players have known for a long time, since we left spring training, that this would be a consequence of that choice.”

Indeed, the Royals had forecast this day for nearly a year. Those 10 players refused to comply despite being permitted to drop certain restrictions if the team reached the 85% vaccination threshold. We shouldn’t be surprised this day is finally here, but the absence of surprise does not subtract the disappointment. It’s their right, to be sure. They should not be forced into this option.

But it’s our right to balk in response.

Players bypassed the chance to receive the shots at the stadium, even as some of them stayed up to date with other vaccines, such as tetanus boosters. How do you make sense of that? How do you persuade someone who doesn’t to make sense of that?

In meetings, some of the unvaccinated cited a worry about infertility, a supposed side effect that has been debunked by studies. Others said the shot had been rushed to market and subsequently worried about long-term effects. Still others refused to provide a reason for remaining unvaccinated, other than personal choice.

The holes in some of these theories were poked, and poked often. But eventually, sensing a brick wall, the Royals backed away from the topic, fearing the notorious Group of Ten had become even more entrenched in their stance as they repeatedly voiced their arguments.

Three weeks ago, ahead of the Canadian travel deadline, general manager J.J. Picollo, assistant GM Scott Sharp and members of the training staff launched a last-ditch effort to rekindle the conversation. While some players had relented since spring training, alas, the Group of Ten remained steadfast in their refusal.

And thus, here they are, with the Royals the subject of not just a local story but a broader one: self over team, politics over science.

What’s especially vexing are the people involved here — a large portion of this group is among the most welcoming and influential in the clubhouse. This is not intended to be a takedown of those involved — it’s a dismissal of the notion that this particular decision has only personal ramifications.

Athletes who have worked their you-know-whats off to get the most of their ability and reach the top level in their sport — some with distinctly underdog routes to get here — have voluntarily relinquished their greatest ability of all: their availability to compete.

It’s a personal choice.

But it’s a personal choice with an unfortunate effect on those they value dearly — their teammates.