5:01pm: The Blue Jays have asked the Canadian government to allow them to play their season in Toronto, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets (1, 2). Doing so would also enable them to conduct their spring training there. The government should provide an answer within the next two days, per Rosenthal. If it’s a no, the Jays would hold spring training in Dunedin, Fla., with Buffalo as an alternate site.
2:44pm: Multiple Blue Jays players and staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports (Twitter thread). The positive tests are tied to the circumstances that led to the shutdown of the Jays’ spring complex in Dunedin, Fla. last week. The closure of the facility was brought about by a 40-man player displaying symptoms after interacting with Phillies players who eventually tested positive. The exact number of positive tests isn’t publicly known, though The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath tweets that “several” members of the organization tested positive.
The Blue Jays’ circumstances are particularly unique. As MLB’s only Canadian team, it’s not yet clear just where the Jays will host their games. Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau recently extended the U.S./Canada border closure for non-essential travel until July 21. That means that while players can travel into the United States, they wouldn’t be able to travel back into Canada without going through a 14-day quarantine process. If those restrictions are relaxed after July 21, the Jays could conceivably still host games at the Rogers Centre (dependent on additional regulations of course), but they’d surely need more notice than a mere two to three days’ advance notice. MLB currently hopes to start the season on July 23 or 24.
However, while most would assume that the league has been in contact with the city of Toronto or the province of Ontario about the possibility of staging games there, that doesn’t appear to be the case. Dr. David Williams, the chief medical officer of Ontario, told TSN’s Scott Mitchell just yesterday (Twitter link):
The Major League Baseball proposal, I’ve seen it and read it. It deals with a lot of aspects there. It doesn’t mention anything about travel to Canada at this time, so if there was some interest in that we’d have to get a proposal from them to see how they would undertake the uniqueness of bringing the team, and if they’ve thought about bringing other teams (to Toronto), how they would work with that up until such time the federal government reduces or eliminates their quarantine law. But that’s still in place at this time. We have ways that we worked with the NHL to consider that. I have not seen anything specific with Major League Baseball at this time.
Perhaps that’s telling, then, that the league’s ultimate plan for the Jays is for games to be staged in the United States — at least in the season’s early stages. Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal has previously suggested that sharing Tropicana Field with the Rays could be a possibility, and Davidi reported recently that there’s been work at TD Ballpark, the Jays’ Dunedin stadium, to bring the lighting up to MLB’s standards for night games. Of course, the recent positive tests in Dunedin aren’t a good first step toward staging regular-season games there.
Meanwhile, agent Rafa Nieves, who represents Jays outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, tells Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes that Hernandez has been told by the team that playing games at the Blue Jays’ Triple-A site in Buffalo, N.Y., is also an option (Twitter link). Both Davidi and Rojas (via Nieves) indicate that the Blue Jays’ hope is understandably to play home games at the Rogers Centre, although at this point it’s clear that there’s no logistical plan in place just yet.
Does anyone have any idea how long it will take a player who tests positive for this virus to get back on the field? A typical flu is one to three games.
It seems like that question is never asked or answered.
It will take 2 negative tests per the agreement. COVID quarantine after a positive test is minimum 2 weeks usually. So… I wouldn’t assume less than that. Almost certainly longer.
I recall seeing a 10-day minimum …with two clean tests at least 24 hours apart
dan_plays_drums
That’s my take on it. If a player gets this virus, my guess is he misses 30 to 50 percent of the season.
And that’s if everything goes well. But it’s just a guess.
Many won’t show any symptoms because healthy people don’t.
They may have the sniffles. Like everything from China, it doesn’t last long, it’s already fizzled out in terms of severity.
Well in some cases yet but many people will also show symptoms. Healthy people are still at risk of contracting it and even dying but less likely.
They all get tested frequently. A positive means mandatory quarantine. Regardless if the player feels good enough to play.
agentp
For safety reasons, a players is not going to return to the field until the virus is completely out of their system. And since they have to pass two tests, that’s another 2 or 3 days after it’s out of their system
So how long does it take the virus to leave their system? I don’t believe it inhabits a human being and quickly dies.
agentp The US has had 3 of the 4 highest days in terms of new cases and hospitalizations in the last 4 days. 8 states are seeing record numbers of both new cases and hospitalizations. It is far from “fizzled out.” But then since we know you get your news from Fox and Facebook we can cut you some slack for being so totally ignorant of what is actually going on.
That is just not true. There are many factors that determine how seriously your symptoms are. Garbage post.
They will be test regularly, symptoms of not.
“Healthy people don’t “ show symptoms? Where do you find this nonsense?
A minimum of 14 days after they have not had a fever for 72 straight hours.
Koamalu
You are talking about timelines that don’t involve daily testing.
Fever is irrelevant.
Buffalo
Rob Manfred: “Let them drink Lysol”.
Tony Clark: “They shouldn’t drink Lysol. They should drink Clorox.”
Neither side is showing any sign of common sense.
Do it, sport.
Fun Fact: We already use UV light as a way to kill various types of bacteria and foreign bodies as a disinfectant.
The practice is called “ultraviolet blood irradiation” and was used as a cure for many different things until the invention of antibiotics. The practice was nicknamed “the cure that time forgot.”
Twas you invalids whom asserted Lysol and bleach, not anyone important. But facts aren’t important to invalids, sadly.
What’s an invalid?
A feeble, weak-minded person, in the context I used it.
Yeah an invalid is a sick person or injured person who is feeble due to being sick or injured. Probably needed to come up with a better derogatory epithet
Oh, we have many of those in high places in DC. ;-)
Like you.
Can we get some moderation on this guy? He’s spouting dangerous faslehoods and insults.
Mlb Trade Rumors gave up moderating years ago. Now they just close the whole comment section.
The Orange Snowflake
Didn’t you already use that line yesterday and the day before? Maybe try some new ones out?
But it’s one of my favorites.
But it’s one of my favorites. A 7th grade insult towards a man-child who deals in 7th grade insults.
Don’t hate me ‘cause I’m beautiful wildbill.
“ultraviolet blood irradiation” has not been used by anyone since the early 1950’s requires a blood transfusion like they do with dialysis. It is not approved by the FDA as a treatment. If you are going to quote treatments, at least know what they are. Don’t just quote some garbage talking point you got from a YouTube video..
In his defense, agentp graduated Some Cum Loudly from Deep State University, TrUmP School of Medicine.
Unfortunately, Kuamalu, that is outright disinformation. agentp is essentially correct.
Extracorporeal photopheresis is currently FDA approved for T-ccell lymphoma. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6119964/
It has also been shown to be effective for many other diseases: emedicine.medscape.com/article/1131176-overview
But that is beside the point, the intracorporeal method Cedars-Sinai is developing with Aytu BioScience is pre-clinical for SARS-CoV-2. And has nothing to do with blood transfusions or dialysis-like activity.
It’s a real technology that serious medical professionals are exploring.
Don’t let your irrational hate of politicians cloud your ability to recognize the good exploratory work people are doing out there.
Play in Dunedin! Coming from someone who loves the Jays and lives in Toronto!
Home games are gonna be in Dunedin, that’s the most obvious choice.
they are not exactly local with the other al east teams then
Buffalo maybe?
Las Vegas if their Triple-A team was still their? Orlando Cracker Jack Stadium? City that has an NFL team but no MLB Team?
How does Manfred propose to control the virus? It is present in multiple MLB organizations. The owners are living in a fantasy world if they think they can manage a full-blown schedule.
It’s not a full-blown schedule. It’s 60 games. ;-)
Teams with the most key players avoiding the virus win more games. If administering the tests is left up to team personnel, there may be some number fudging, especially late in a playoff push or in the playoffs.
Also known as, The sniffles.
Oh shut up you moron. 121,000 dead
4.5 million dead from the flu this year.. so 121,000 is bit smaller lol
While ignorant Americans spend their time online pretending they know more than everyone else, people continue to die.
The more misinformation y’all spread, and the more y’all pretend COVID-19 isn’t a problem, the worse the problem will get.
It used to be the USA was a laughing stock to the rest of the world – now it’s not funny..just sad.
average about 6 million deaths to flu a year and we never put up a red flag. play ball
californiaangels
About 30,000 Americans die each year… YEAR… because of the flu. On a bad flu season, it’s 50,000.
With this flu, we have taken draconian measures to prevent the spread, and in about 3 months it has killed 123,000 Americans.
So, three months vs one year. Draconian measures vs little to no measures and it still has killed four times more than the average flu.
Please don’t compare this to the normal flu.
How many of those 120,000 would have died anyway
According to some certain states were adding to the number to make the president look bad
And how many of those 30,000 would have died anyway?
Last I checked excess deaths above the 5 year average in the US were actually higher than the COVID-19 death totals, so its reasonable to say not many.
Is anyone else reminded of the conversation the Mayor of Amytiville had with Chief Brody in “Jaws” when they were arguing about opening the beaches for July 4?
Except this time Sherrif Brody is ok with opening as long as he gets paid.
That’s a conversation that is always worth having.
Do you destroy the livelihood of most every resident in your city for a possible threat of unknown severity.
That’s a debate that should take place every time and there is no right answer until you know the answer.
The audience knew the answer. No one else did.
This reads like MLB sorta forgot they had a team in another country. lol
There’s just no way this season is played. They can’t keep golfers from getting it. You would think they would have had this figured out by now. What exactly have they been doing?
Not worrying about a virus that has a death rate of .005% among healthy individuals. High risk people should be cautious.
It’s got nothing to do with the death rate. Seriously, stop with the death rate argument.
So the over 99% recovery rate doesn’t matter?
Not sure where you got that garbage number. As of today the CFR is 10.7%. That means more than 1 in 10 die.
Going off the 0.05%. But can you please make up more fake friends of yours who got hit with the virus? Thanks K.
If you don’t believe the CDC then I cannot help you. The numbers are 1.153 million closed cases. 124,839 deaths. You figure out the math.
1 in 10 die of closed cases.
Your numbers are way off. First of all, there are millions of people worldwide who have contracted COVID and have not been tested. For known cases and deaths, there are 9.3M positive cases worldwide, with 477K deaths. That is a 5.1% death rate with an average age of death around 79 years old. The death rate in ‘healthy’ people from age 20-40 is well below 1% for known positive patients. Am I saying it’s safe to play baseball? No I am not, but I can certainly say that 1 out of every 10 players who catch COVID will not die from it.
High risk people are involved.
So what are the percentages of Americans who are not completely healthy? Ninety Percent?
Completely healthy people are dying too.
Obese, diabetic, asthmatic. More than half are at least one of just those. 10% completely healthy is probably pretty accurate. Some of those 10% could still suffer lifetime complications from covid.
luckyh, what do you propose? If positive tests mean that sports, education, commerce and recreation be stopped or severely limited, we may as well not even try.
And don’t tell me nothing can happen until we have a vaccine. We can’t effectively control colds or the flu, we won’t ever control this virus well enough for everyone to be 100% safe.
I am just saying it will be impossible to get a season even 60 games off this year. We still don’t know the long term effects of this. There will be random people who will become critically ill within organizations. I have a neighbor that has been in ICU for weeks with it. Does Jon Lester play, Mike Trout? The players are young, coaches and staff are not. It is crazy contagious, and because of the newness of it there is an abundance of caution with it, as their should be. We’ll see, but I don’t think they finish, even if they start.
It is clearly possible to play the 60 games and the postseason. It may turn out to be inadvisable and some will decide the risk outweighs the rewards, but it is nowhere near impossible.
If a few players decide not to play, that’s fine.. It means something to their teams, but players miss games all the time. Coaches miss time or retire due to health concerns all the time. To suggest that games cannot be played because some cannot participate is senseless.
And while I hope your neighbor recovers, having a neighbor in ICU is meaningless in the context of playing baseball.
I’m not yet convinced it is “crazy contagious.” It may be, but it seems to be much easier to catch a cold or the flu.
My neighbor was healthy as are others I know that have gotten it, and have had it at varying levels of severity. I was just countering his “healthy people don’t need to worry nonsense.” Dismiss all you want, but there will and should be protocols. They don’t seem to have thought this out at all. The seasonal flu knocks guys out during spring training every year for days, Imagine what this will do. “Only” a sixty day season with 14 day quarantines will add up quickly. The NBA and the bubble idea seems the most practical. Having these guys traveling is asking for trouble. I am just looking at what we know so far, and it is not conducive to keeping these guys at as low a risk as possible of contracting it.
Influenza has a 0.1% CFR. 1 in 1000 die. COVID-19 has an 10.7% CFR. More than 1 in 10 die. This is not a cold or a flu. Its a novel virus so the human body has no defense against it.
We have seen the results of people not taking this seriously. States that re-opened prematurely are seeing severe spikes in cases and deaths. The US as a whole has seen 3 of the 4 largest number of new cases and hospitalizations in the last 4 days.
11.7%? Are you really saying out of 100 positive tests nearly 12 people die? The last figure I saw was 0.15.
I’ve also read that testing is far more widespread and that the positive test percentage continues to be in the 5 to 6 percent rage. And each positive does not actually result in a case (media makes this mistake often).
Hospitalizations are up. I’ve read this is due to the elective procedures being done again, and not an indication that people are sick with Covid.
I know details suck, but sometimes one has to read behind the headlines to know what is going on.
You still haven’t figured out basic math Koamalu. Super Joe is correct.
US has over 2.4M confirmed cases of COVID with 121K dead, so a death rate of below 5%, and the average age of people dying is over 80 years old. While this is still very scary, your numbers are way off; not to mention the hundreds of thousands Americans (if not millions) who have already contracted and recovered from COVID and never got tested.
You’re lying. You are trying to do a math problem with only half of the equation.
No one knows what the percentage of covid is.
And of course one size doesn’t fit all.
It’s a very complex issue that people on both sides love simplifying.
You keep spinning the details however you want. Facts, science, and common sense are my details.
Just have a Super Bases Loaded tournament. SNES emulators are even free!
What are they going to do if an entire team gets infected during the season? Automatic forfeits? You’d think if one of these guys do get it, it’s going to go through the players and staff pretty quick.
I’m available. I’m terrible, but I have a mask!
I keep talking about a Dallas Stars vs Providence Bruins Stanley Cup Final or a NY Yankees vs. Oklahoma City Dodgers World Series for this reason.
Entire teams could get taken off the field of play.
In several states they mandate that anyone that comes into contact with a person who had a positive test is quarantined for 14 days. All that has to happen is ONE person on a team tests positive and the entire team may have to be quarantined.
Once in a while–not obviously the norm, but occasionally, medical professionals see a recovered COVID patient with long term lung/internal organ damage. This isn’t only about seniors and those with compromised immune systems, but occasionally, a young and healthy victim recovers but has permanent damage. I see many people dismissing this as the sniffles, and many times, that correct, but it’s not always the reality. The last thing in the world that baseball needs is even a single occurrence of this.
A single occurrence of what? If science could predict who is the unlikely soul that would have serious complications, that person could be quarantined (though for how long?).
Are you suggesting since we can’t tell who the unlucky soul may be, that we should then stop commerce, education, recreation and all sporting events?
I’m going to respond politely to this, despite the hostility of your question. A single occurrence of a COVID-19 case inside the MLB community (players and coaches) that results in serious complications. It’s bad from a human perspective and a PR nightmare for the sport. That was my point, and I think you know it was. You may have a different set of beliefs, and by all means, hold fast to them.
Mikey don’t pretend to know my beliefs.. I am only responding to your comment to better understand it. If a single “serious case” (however defined) means the season stops, it probably shouldn’t begin. And if that is the bar – a single serious case – we may as well keep schools, business and everything else closed.
What is the end game ? How do we actually move on? Suggesting we can’t move on due to a “single serious case” is not realistic.
Joey, all I was doing was pointing out how bad for the game it would be if a prominent member of the baseball community had serious complications. But, since you seem eager to “move on” what’s the number of cases of other people’s misfortune that you would find acceptable? If one is not enough to bother you, where’s the line? That’s what making public policy decisions is all about–allocating risks vs. rules. So, if I made you “Disease Czar” how many players getting seriously ill is too many?
“How do we move on?”
Aggressive testing by the federal government and a population that follows medical recommendations. That’s how KBO is doing it. But good luck with that here — everyone is entitled to their own reality, so it continues to spread.
I had a friend that was a world class athlete die at 23 from kidney damage as a result of Covid-19. She died less than 1 day after entering the hospital.
Another friend in his 40s who was a professional athlete has been hospitalized for nearly 3 months with Covid.
The CFR is 11.7%. That is more than a 1 in 10 chance of dying.
What is the elite athlete’s first name, last name, and sport? I don’t believe what I see on the internet unless I can fact check it.
Especially “11.7% CFR”
CFR stands for closed case fatality rate. If you don’t believe the CDC about the numbers I can’t help you. Official numbers are 1,153,839 Closed Cases 124,857 Deaths..You do the math. It’s a 10.7% CFR.
Read the news. Her death was on most channels including ESPN.
2.39-million total cases. 123k deaths. Re-do your math.
Hi Wild Bill,
I think the key is that you have to count once the cases are closed, i.e. when you know whether the person is recovered or not. I understand that tracking on closed cases is probably slow also but otherwise you will undercount many of those testing positive now who may die in the future.. The truth is that the true CFR is probably somewhere in between the two rates…it is certainly a lot more serious than the flu though..
Your point is a good one about the mortality rate being lower among younger people but there are still more deaths in that population than you get from flu and many times more complications.
My only point was Koamalu is a large dummy with a math problem. However I do appreciate your comment.
What is the elite athlete’s first name, last name, and sport? I don’t believe what I see on the internet unless I can fact check it.
I was unable to fact check your math.
10.7%.
“I had a friend that was a world class athlete die at 23 from kidney damage as a result of Covid-19. She died less than 1 day after entering the hospital.
Another friend in his 40s who was a professional athlete has been hospitalized for nearly 3 months with Covid.”
I’ll take “Things that didn’t happen” for $500 Alex.
Texas is preparing to re-close the state. What exactly that will mean for MLB is unknown. California is still not allowing gatherings as large as it would take to put on a game, so holding games there is questionable. NY state has not said that they would allow games at all and on Monday de Blasio has said that the possibility of holding games in NYC is questionable at this time.
1 team in Canada that can’t have their games there, 2 in Texas, 5 in California, and 2 in NYC that are questionable as to whether they will be able to have games.
NY announced today that visitors from 5 states that have MLB teams would have to quarantine for 14 days when entering the state.
MLB still has not reached out as far to municipalities involved as far as we have heard in the media. We know they have not spoken to NYC or to the state of California because of statements by de Blasio and Newsom this week.
Now with the season to start in 7 days we have more than a dozen 40 man roster players that have tested positive just on the Jays and Phillies alone. Not including staffers and coaches that are necessary for games.
I am getting very pessimistic about the possibility of having a season at all.
I think spring training starts July 1. They have these guys traveling as well. It just doesn’t seem well thought out or practical.
Koa, sounds like you are pessimistic about everything.
In any case, have a good day.
It goes to how little we know about how COVID operates. And to the constant bickering of officials (usually political but not always) about what the raw data really shows. Not to mention reportability issues, etc., etc.
Lots and lots of bad info out there, usually spouted by folks who have an agenda. In reality, we don’t know where the end of this tunnell is; in fact, we don’t even know where in the tunnel we’re at. A man who has 15 letters after his name indicating his education is as lost in the forest as the 10 year old.
A wise man knows what he does not know and that even that list is only a small portion of it.
While I miss seeing my Jays play, then can play somewhere else. The border is still closed to non-essential travel and a sport definitely isn’t essential. With all of these cases popping in MLB and in Florida, restarting MLB is just silly at this point. If they want to start it they can keep in the US thanks
Don’t confuse “cases” with positive test results. A positive result by itself means almost nothing without additional context. The media’s agenda is to make it seem as if every positive test results in a “case” that requires medical attention above a box of kleenex and Vicks.
In baseball lingo, a positive result means missing 30 to 50 percent of the season.
When a major star gets it bad or a” bad health “mgr gets it( baker,gardenhire,francona),then what will happen..just say by 2020, hello 2021
You mean 2023. Not much will change between now and next season. Cancel 2022 due to the owners trying to break the union. Hello Federal League 2023 (Go Whales!).
I am not sure what MLB is thinking here.
It would be better to play games in FLA than Toronto?
Florida has has 21.5 million people and 5611 new cases today. Ontario has 14.5 million people and 163 new cases today.
All of Canada has 37 million people with about 250 new cases today
Presumably they can fly into Toronto in charter, have a special area of the airport, take a charter bus to the stadium and stay at hotel that is attached to the stadium. The risk of them getting virus would be very limited as would the chance that they would give it to anyone.
Canada has approved the NHL sending players to a hub city in Edmonton, Vancouver or Toronto. Thats 8 teams, although they will not be coming and going.
Doesn’t mean the NHL choose Canada and could go with 2 US Cities and KC should be one but not on list.
Others Teams might have to play in other Stadium or Dome to.
approx 90% of nhl players are not American. Would make more economic sense for the league to force american teams filled with mostly canadian and european players to have two safe hub cities in canada. yall dont care aboot hockey no how….mlb spring 2021 …. maybe. 2020 no chance. I do hope Shapiro can get our Jays out of that dumpster fire that is FLA …. except for the deadbeat Tellez trade him to Philly and ex astros coach who we should fire now with cause instead of waiting for a contract to expire.
Both sides just wanted to start the checks coming in and get their money, still so much that they clearly haven’t sorted out.
“No logical plan in place” -Is the current motto of the commissioners office.
Preferably, it would be nice for them to play it out in States. However, this is the toronto blue jays we are talking about, presumably they play in Toronto for totally obvious reasons. besides the announcement of beisbol these “news” articles are getting tiresome. covid this. covid that. i understand the reason to report such activities and supposed diagnosed players and everything etc. but i dont think anyone ever heard much before about any coaches/personnel/ownership and what type of flu or viral bacteria infections/diseases they had and clearly never died
I wonder if any players, or team personnel were even being tested the past four months since spring training cancelled and now that testing has ramped up to prepare for interaction and game play, we’re seeing more positive results.
I’m pretty certain that if we mass-tested more of society, we’d see large increases in positive tests there too, and I’m sure there are plenty of asymptomatic carriers and people infected that just have never been tested.
Does it even matter where they play their 60 game season? Fans who still support them (!?) or any team after all this, can’t physically go to games anyway, so you’ll only be watching on tv. They could be playing in Mogadishu for all I care as long as it’s local to their opponent teams for travel
Buffalo Blue Jay’s incoming
The Buffalo Blue Jays???
I give the chance of them actually playing a 60 game season about a 25% chance.
And like everything else, that’s a percentage pulled out of your backside. :)
No one knows. I give it 50-50. But that’s also a percentage I pulled out of my backside.
I will tell you one thing, that was a big reason why the players voted no. They wanted the full 60 games whether the season was played or not.
Does anyone else think this whole plan is a charade to protect owners from lawsuits about playing the most games possible per the players union agreement and to save face with the fans? It just seems with many of the baseball cities being hit with increases in COVID cases that a plan that doesn’t involve building a bubble and quarantining teams is likely to fail.
Covid had one other casualty