Adam Ottavino 'got pretty annoyed' by Red Sox teammates not taking COVID-19 protocol seriously

A large COVID-19 outbreak hit the Boston Red Sox clubhouse amid the team's final playoff push, and one player was understandably upset after 12 players and two staffers tested positive for the virus. 

In an interview with The Boston Globe's Alex Speier, reliever Adam Ottavino shared how uncomfortable he was being around the team during the start of the outbreak. 

"We had a player that was taken out of our team and he didn't have COVID; it was just because he was deemed a close contact and unvaccinated," Ottavino said. "I got pretty annoyed with that fact — not necessarily individually to the point of having a problem with anybody. I love all my teammates. But I just felt like that's a certain part of the protocol that, like, maybe guys didn't take seriously enough in their decision-making process [about whether to vaccinate].

"I just didn't even want to be around anybody. I was going in the weight room by myself and watching the game. The first game, I didn't go out to the bullpen until the eighth inning. I was like, 'Why do I want to hang out with anybody?'"

Ottavino hasn't tested positive for COVID-19, but four of his fellow relievers had, including Matt Barnes, who is fully vaccinated. 

Barnes told Speier he believes spending time in the Red Sox clubhouse during a three-plus hour rain delay in Cleveland on Aug. 29 could've led to the outbreak. 

Despite the roster shuffling due to the outbreak, the Red Sox have gone 10-9 since Aug. 27 and are hanging onto one of the American League wild-card spots. 

Boston opens a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles on Friday before facing the New York Mets on Tuesday. The regular season ends Oct. 3, so the Sox will be hoping their COVID-19 issues are behind them.