In the press conference, Boone described the pandemic mystery that the ball club is currently facing, saying that they’re “trying to kind of get our heads wrapped around it all.” If a team’s traveling party numbers in the several dozen, seven positive cases would be orders of magnitude higher than the breakthrough rate in the non-pinstripe population: According to CDC data from April 15, 5,800 Americans had contracted the coronavirus despite being fully vaccinated, out of a population of 77 million people who had received their full dosage. Major League Baseball has provided incentives for players to get vaccinated, including the relaxing of pandemic restrictions if teams get at least 85 percent of their group of staff and players who travel to away games to get their shots. At least 10 teams, including the Yankees, have reached that mark as of Wednesday, allowing players to take off their masks in the dugout and bullpen; dine indoors; and stop participating in the league’s contact-tracing program.