Arizona star Pollock fractures elbow

A.J. Pollock emerged as one of baseball’s best players a year ago. Now the Arizona Diamondbacks all-star centerfielder is out for the foreseeable future after fracturing his right elbow in a headfirst slide at home plate in an exhibition game Friday night.

His arm in a sling, Pollock put his best face on the situation Saturday. “It almost felt like a nightmare, like it really wasn’t happening,” Pollock said of the moments after the injury. “But today it’s sunk in. Now it’s kind of get prepared for what’s next.”

He said he was bound to dive headfirst at some point this season. It wasn’t the slide that hurt the elbow, Pollock

Pollock said, but pushing himself back to his feet with the arm afterward.

Pollock had missed most of spring training because of a sore elbow and had talked to doctors about what would happen if a more serious injury was to occur.

“It’s frustrating because how amazing I feel like our team is, and they’re still going to be great,” he said. “They didn’t really miss me too much in spring, and hopefully that will carry over.”

Pollock will undergo surgery in the next few days, probably Tuesday, and neither he nor the team put a timetable on his possible return. Jays teeing off later, then a World Series rematch in Kansas City.

Neat way to begin opening day.

The forecast at PNC Park calls for temperatures in the upper 30s on Sunday afternoon when McCutchen and the Pittsburgh Pirates host the first game of the 2016 season, facing the St. Louis Cardinals.

No worries, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. They played an exhibition game in Indianapolis on Saturday with snow flurries, light rain and wind gusts estimated at 40 mph.

“The weather was interesting and challenging,” Hurdle said. “Today may get us ready for tomorrow because I hear we could have conditions like this in Pittsburgh.”

Toronto-Tampa Bay and Mets-Royals are on tap, too, without any climate concerns.