Nearly half the Royals to miss series against Blue Jays

Nearly half of the Kansas City Royals will miss the team’s series in Toronto against the Blue Jays this weekend due to Canada’s COVID vaccination policy.

Canada does not allow travelers into the country who have not been vaccinated against COVID. The rule has typically resulted in a few players per visiting team not making the trip to Toronto to face the Blue Jays. Prior to the Royals, the most amount of players a team had miss the trip was four. Twenty-five players in total hadn’t been allowed to make the trip, but the Royals blew everyone out of the water.

We learned on Wednesday that 10 Royals players in total — half the team’s starting lineup and their two best pitchers — won’t be able to make the trip.

The list includes:

– Andrew Benintendi
– Whit Merrifield
– MJ Melendez
– Hunter Dozier
– Michael A. Taylor
– Kyle Isbel
– Cam Gallagher
– Brad Keller
– Brady Singer
– Dylan Coleman

The rule will put the Royals at a serious disadvantage in a four-game series against the Blue Jays. Kansas City may effectively be out of the playoff race already, but they won’t even be close to equal footing against Toronto.