Red beard returns: Turner glad to be back with Dodgers
Justin Turner' s extended flirtation with free agency ended where it began with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Along the way, the third baseman had doubts about whether he would return to his hometown team and wondered if his mask-less appearance on the field to celebrate the Dodgers' World Series championship would hurt him.
Turner got yanked from the clinching Game 6 against the Tampa Bay Rays in the eighth inning last October after testing positive for the coronavirus. He wasn't initially on the field as his teammates celebrated the franchise's first World Series title since 1988.
Instead, Turner was confined to a small room at Globe Life Field in Texas, pained as he watched the hugs and high-fives go on without him. Major League Baseball said he violated COVID-19 protocols by returning to the field, pulling down his mask and posing for photos. After an investigation by MLB, Turner was not disciplined and he issued an apology.
“It was extremely
difficult. I experienced just about every range of emotion that you can possibly have,” he said Friday on a virtual call from spring training in Arizona. “For me, sitting back in that room and watching the guys dogpile, personally, it felt like it was the third time I had to sit and watch a team celebrate winning a World Series. That was tough.”
RANGERS: Tyson Ross has signed a minor league contract with Texas , though the veteran right-hander initially won't be part of their major league camp. The Rangers said Friday that the 33-year-old Ross, whose last big league action was with Detroit in 2019, will participate in
workouts with their rehab group. After three appearances for San Francisco in spring training last year, Ross was released prior to the start of summer camp and decided not to play in 2020. Ross is 44-70 with a 4.04 ERA in 203 career games (142 starts) over 10 big league seasons. He went to Texas as a free agent before the 2017 season and was 3-3 with a 7.71 ERA in 12 games (10 starts) before being released in mid-September.
MARINERS: Seattle finalized a $7 million, two-year contract with reliever Ken Giles on Friday that includes a club option for the 2023 season.