Phillies Miss Key Players Who Refuse To Vaccinate To Enter Canada

Summary

• Philadelphia Phillies will play two games in Canada
• Phillies will be without key players including J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Gibson
• Realmuto and Gibson refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine to play in Canada

The Philadelphia Phillies are currently in Canada and set to play two games in front of Canadian fans but they will not be at full strength.

Some of their key players including J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Gibson will be missing in action.

Unvaccinated Players To Miss The Toronto Series

Major League Baseball (MLB) fans in Canada would have loved to see the Philadelphia Phillies play at full strength. However, they will not see a number of top players in action because some of they have decided to pull out due to Canada’s stance on the COVID-19 vaccination requirement.

While some countries and major leagues have made exceptions for unvaccinated individuals to enter the country and play in major leagues, Canada is not one of those countries. This is one of the main reasons why J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Gibson have decided to skip the Canadian stop over. Some of the other players that will miss out include Aaron Nola and Alec Bohm.

The Phillies have called for replacements and we expect Rafael Marchán and Nick Duron to step in and play in Canada against the Toronto Jays & Toronto Blue Jays.

Realmuto Will Not Allow Canada To Dictate His Decisions 

J.T. Realmuto did not mince words in the media and made it very clear that he would not let Canada decide and force him to take the COVID-19 vaccine. By missing out on the Canadian stopover, the 31 year old MLB player will lose out on close to $260,000. 

Realmuto said that he had spoken to a few doctors that he trusted and they had advised him to skip the COVID-19 vaccine. He went on to say that he was not willing to take a risk and put something into his body just because he was going to miss out on a small amount of money!

His teammate Gibson also confirmed that is yet to take the COVID-19 vaccine and has no plans on taking them. Gibson said that he suffered from ulcerative colitis, which is severe inflammation to the bowels. He said that his doctors had informed him to skip the COVID-19 vaccine because his medication for ulcerative colitis does not allow him to accumulate antibodies and hence COVID-19 vaccination was not an option for him!