The Dodgers’ Justin Turner Tested Positive for Covid-19. Then He Returned to the Field to Celebrate.

Oct. 28, 2020 3:12 am ET

Amid the chaos of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrating their first title since 1988 on Tuesday night, third baseman Justin Turner made his way to the middle of the festivities. He wasn’t supposed to be there.

Partway through Game 6 of the World Series, the Dodgers learned that Turner had tested positive for the coronavirus, the first Major League Baseball player to do so in nearly two months. Per MLB’s pandemic protocols, the Dodgers immediately removed Turner from the lineup and instructed him to isolate. His teammates finished off the Tampa Bay Rays without him in the dugout.

As the party raged on, Turner defied orders and returned to the field. He hugged his teammates. He kissed his wife. He sat inches away from manager Dave Roberts—without a mask—to take part in a team photo. In an interview with Fox afterward, Roberts said, “I didn’t touch him.”

When told by MLB security that he had to leave, a person familiar with the matter said, Turner refused. He continued to share space not just with other players who had already been in close contact with him throughout the game, but with his teammates’ spouses, children and other family members who had not been.

Turner didn’t respond to a request for comment and the Dodgers didn’t make him available to reporters after the game. He posted on his Twitter account that he was experiencing no symptoms.


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After the game, on a Zoom call with reporters, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman attempted to explain how Turner wound up on the field after the game in close proximity to others long after finding out of his positive test. He said that the 35-year-old Turner “wanted to come out and take a picture with the trophy” and that “I don’t think there was anyone that was going to stop him from going out.”

“He’s part of the team,” outfielder Mookie Betts said when asked about Turner’s presence on the field. “Forget all that. He’s part of the team. We’re not excluding him from anything.”

Friedman went on to say that he believed Turner was mindful of wearing a mask and keeping his distance, particularly from those he hadn’t already been in close contact with. He claimed that he personally wore a mask the entire time—even though Friedman and Turner were sitting just a few feet apart without any face coverings during the Dodgers’ team photo. In response to that, Friedman said he hadn’t seen the pictures that show Turner interacting with others without masks.

“If there are people around him without masks, that’s not good optics at all,” he said.

Eventually, the Dodgers returned to their hotel, where they all received another round of coronavirus tests. It remains unknown when they will be allowed to return to Los Angeles. Friedman acknowledged that in the MLB bubble, the Dodgers all had frequent close contact with one other, seeming to suggest that further positive tests in the coming days wouldn’t be surprising.


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As baseball sorts through the rubble of what now seems like an embarrassing conclusion to its pandemic season, it will try to find an answer to one key question: How did Covid-19 break the seal of baseball’s playoff bubble—a structure carefully designed to prevent any possibility of the virus sneaking in the first place? The NBA and NHL completed their seasons under similar circumstances, playing in bubbles for nearly three months, without a single case. MLB was unable to last a month.