No Canada: Blue Jays barred from Toronto

The Blue Jays won’t play their home games in Toronto this year because Canada’s government doesn’t think it’s safe for players to travel back and forth from the United States, one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

The team had been cleared by city and provincial governments to play at Rogers Centre and was awaiting approval from Canada’s federal government.

Freeman prayed for his life: First baseman Freddie Freeman said he doesn’t know if he’ll be ready for the Atlanta Braves’ opener, but he’s grateful just to have a chance after his battle with COVID-19.

The four-time All-Star revealed he had a high temperature of 104.5 degrees early in his battle with the disease and prayed for his life.

“I said a little prayer that night,” Freeman said in a video conference call. “I’ve never been that hot before. My body was really, really hot. … I said ‘Please don’t take me,’ because I wasn’t ready.”

German not done after all: Suspended Yankees pitcher Domingo German says he’s not retiring from baseball and apologized for suggesting as much in an Instagram post the night before.

German, serving an 81-game ban for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy last summer, said in a Spanish-language post Friday night, “I’ve left baseball. Thanks everyone.”

He wrote Saturday in Spanish and English that he was “very sorry for the unsettling post,” adding that “baseball is my life and I promise I am not walking away.”