According to Britt Ghiroli of the Athletic, the Washington Nationals today became the first Major League Baseball team to in-directly mandate that their full-time employees get vaccinated.

Ghiroli reported that the “Nationals are planning to cut eight scouts after the season” ends and two are going to be cut due to their “vaccination status.” From the article in The Athletic: “The personnel decisions come on the heels of Washington’s decision last week to require full-time employees to have COVID-19 vaccination, making them one of the first MLB teams to do so. Two of the eight departing personnel were a direct result of that new policy, making the Nats the first known team to part with employees who are not vaccinated. The other six decisions, sources say, were mainly performance-based, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the other half-dozen scouts were fully vaccinated.”

Last week, the Washington Nationals issued a statement about the new policy. Again, from The Athletic: “Like many organizations, the Washington Nationals decided to make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory for all full-time staff… Employees were notified of this policy on Aug. 12 and had until Aug. 26 to either provide proof of full vaccination, proof of first shot or apply for an exemption. As a company, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to keep one another safe and felt that mandating vaccines was the absolute right thing to do for our employees and our community.”

The new policy only applies to full-time employees of the Nationals, not the players as the players union didn’t agree with Major League Baseball on a COVID-19 vaccination mandate policy.

The Latest on the Nats Report

Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post confirmed a report by Washington Examiner reporter Zachary Faria that long-time front office member Bob Boone who is the son of Yankees manager Aaron Boone, told the Washington Nationals he will resign his position instead of complying with the Nationals COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

According to the Nationals website, Boone is the Vice-President, Senior Advisor to the General Manager, and is still listed on the website as of 5:20 pm EDT.

Arron Boone the Yankees Manager has a heart condition and is fully vaccinated.

There have also been reports of a trainer with the Nationals being let go due to the team’s vaccination mandate.

We will update this story with any new developments.