The Pirates met with representatives from Major League Baseball and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the home clubhouse at PNC Park this afternoon to discuss Zika virus. The meeting included a question-and-answer session and ran about an hour.
The Pirates and Miami Marlins are scheduled to play a two-game series in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 30-31. The CDC and Puerto Rico health officials reported on Friday the country has 683 confirmed Zika infections.
The CDC also revealed a Puerto Rican man in his 70s died in February from complications related to the virus, the first Zika-related death in a U.S. territory.
Gerrit Cole, the Pirates’ union representative, said the meeting was “about educating everybody,” and he felt it went well. The next step, he explained, is for the league and the player’s association to “get together and continue to figure this out.”
“Player safety is the first priority,” Cole said.
By Stephen J. Nesbitt: snesbitt@post-gazette.com and on Twitter @stephenjnesbitt.
First Published: April 30, 2016, 8:16 p.m.
