Jays players, staff test positive for virus,

Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro is expected to announce the team’s plans on Friday. Players, staff test positive as team reconsiders plan for Florida training camp

Multiple players and support staff with the Blue Jays have tested positive for COVID-19, a source confirmed Wednesday, and the team is reconsidering its plans for spring training.

It is believed the Jays were going to prepare for the regular season at their Dunedin, Fla., complex starting next Wednesday, but concerns that led to testing last week also forced them to shut down both of the team’s facilities Friday. There have been no positive tests since then, said the source, who was granted anonymity as the team has not yet made an official announcement.

Jays president Mark Shapiro is expected to hold a news conference on Friday.

The Jays, who were already in discussions with the federal government about playing regular-season games at the Rogers Centre, will also request to host their three-week training camp in Toronto, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported late Wednesday. Every other team in baseball will be hosting their camps in their home cities, starting next Wednesday.

Anyone entering Canada for non-essential reasons must quarantine for 14 days, and the U.S.-Canada border remains closed to non-essential travel until at least July 21.

But the federal government recently granted the NHL an expanded or cohort quarantine process should a Canadian city become a hub city for the resumption of the season. Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver are among the six cities still in the running for the two openings.

Anna Maddison, a spokesperson for the Public Health Agency of Canada, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Jays’ restart plan is being reviewed. “The Public Health Agency of Canada has received, and is currently assessing, a restart plan from Major League Baseball.” The team and the league would also require the support of health authorities in Ontario.

The Blue Jays’ preference for their return was to bring about 60 players to Dunedin, but the number of positive tests in Florida has risen dramatically in recent days. The state reported 5,508 new cases of the virus overnight into Wednesday morning, shattering the previous one-day record of 4,049 from Saturday.

The Philadelphia Phillies, whose spring complex is in Clearwater, minutes from Dunedin, have had a dozen players and staff test positive.

The Jays’ Dunedin facilities are being sanitized during the shutdown and could reopen to players, where some players have remained since baseball was put on hold in mid-March. If the Jays can’t hold camp there or in Toronto, other possibilities could include Buffalo, home of Jays’ Triple-A team, and St. Petersburg, Fla., where they would have to share Tropicana Field with the Tampa Bay Rays. MLB announced Tuesday a 60-game regular season will be played in empty ballparks starting July 23 or 24. But that news was quickly followed by a report from the Denver Post that Charlie Blackmon was one of three Colorado Rockies to test positive for COVID-19. Blackmon is the only big-league player who has been named.