Yankees, Mets' Unvaccinated Players Eligible for Home Games Under Exemption

Unvaccinated members of the New York Yankees and New York Mets organizations will be allowed to take part in home games. 

During a press conference at the Mets' Citi Field on Thursday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced he was expanding the vaccine mandate exemption to enable unvaccinated New York City-based athletes to play in home games. 

Under the previous rule, unvaccinated players were ineligible to play home games in New York City. 

It was unclear Adams was going to expand the the exemption mandate before the start of the Major League Baseball regular season on April 7. 

Speaking to Matthew Chayes of Newsday, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan, said on March 18 the ruling was "indefinite at this point." 

"You know, people who have tried to predict what's going to happen in the future for this pandemic have repeatedly found egg on their face," Vasan added. 

There has been no indication of how many players for the Yankees and Mets are unvaccinated against COVID-19. 

Per Stefan Bondy and Dennis Young of the New York Daily News, the Mets were "one of the least-vaccinated teams" in MLB last season. They never hit the 85 percent threshold required by MLB to loosen COVID protocols. 

Brendan Kuty and Bob Klapisch of NJ Advanced Media reported March 15 that two Yankees players are still unvaccinated. 

If the previous rule had remained in effect for the entire 2022 season, unvaccinated Yankees players would have had to sit out a total of 92 games. They play 81 games at home, four games against the Mets (two at Yankee Stadium, two at Citi Field) and nine games in Toronto against the Blue Jays. 

Unvaccinated athletes remain ineligible to play games in Toronto. The Yankees' first series at Rogers Centre is from May 2 to 4. The Mets don't play the Blue Jays in 2022. 

The Yankees open the regular season at home against the Boston Red Sox on April 7. The Mets play their first home game on April 15 against the Arizona Diamondbacks.