Blue Jays allowed to train at home
TORONTO — All 30 Major League Baseball teams will train at their regular-season ballparks for the pandemic-shortened season after the Toronto Blue Jays received a Canadian federal government exemption Thursday to work out at Rogers Centre.
Toronto will move camp from its spring training complex in Dunedin, Fla., where players reported for intake testing. The Blue Jays will create a quarantine environment at Rogers Centre and the adjoining Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel, which overlooks the field.
This exemption does not cover the regular season and player travel between the U.S. and Canada. Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro said the team hopes to know within 10 days where it will play regular-season games.
“They felt better about being here,” Shapiro said of the players. “Toronto was a more comforting and safe place for them to be.”
COVID-19 cases are surging in Florida as health officials reported a new single-day record total of 10,000 new cases, and before this week several players and staff in Dunedin had tested positive. Ontario reported 153 new cases, and businesses in Toronto are reopening as the number of new cases declines.
Players are to take private charter flights to Toronto this weekend. Each will need two negative tests before getting on the plane, and each will then be tested every day.
MLB required an exemption to a requirement that anyone entering Canada for nonessential reasons must self-isolate for 14 days. The U.S.-Canada border remains closed to nonessential travel until at least July 21, two or three days before opening day. The border is expected to be closed well beyond then.
Cubs’ Quintana has hand surgery
Chicago Cubs lefthander Jose Quintana had surgery to repair nerve damage in his pitching thumb Thursday after he cut himself washing dishes.
Chicago did not have a timetable for his return.
Quintana cut his thumb at his home in Miami on Saturday and needed five stitches, according to the team. He had surgery Thursday morning in Chicago.
The 31-year-old is expected to resume throwing in about two weeks. The Cubs hope to get a better idea then of how much time he will miss in a season that starts July 23 or 24 and has been shortened to 60 games.
Quintana went 13-9 with a 4.68 ERA last year in his second full season with the Cubs. He was an All-Star for the crosstown White Sox in 2016.
Union loads up on investments
The Major League Baseball Players Association more than doubled its liquid investments over two years as the sport heads toward collective bargaining that could lead to a spring training lockout in 2022.
The union had $159.5 million in cash, U.S. Treasury securities and investments on Dec. 31, according to a financial disclosure form filed Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Labor. That was up from $102.4 million at the end of 2018 and $80.1 million at the end of 2017.
The union typically prepares for bargaining by withholding licensing money due to players and keeping it available to disburse during or after a stoppage. Baseball had eight work stoppages from 1972-95 but has not had one since.
Odds and ends
New York Mets hitting coach Chili Davis will keep on working remotely when the team opens summer training camp Friday. Davis, 60, won’t be on site at Citi Field for the beginning of practices because of concerns about the coronavirus. … Righthander Max Meyer has agreed to a $6.7 million signing bonus as part of a minor league contract to join the Miami Marlins, and he’ll take part in training camp starting Friday. The deal was for less than his slot value of $7,221,200 as the No. 3 overall pick in last month’s amateur draft.