Price will skip season; Freeman has virus

Los Angeles pitcher David Price will not play this season because of concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, delaying his Dodgers debut until next year.

The five-time All-Star became the latest player to opt out, posting Saturday on Twitter that he wouldn’t participate in the 60-game season that is scheduled to begin July 23.

“After considerable thought and discussion with my family and the Dodgers, I have decided it is in the best interest of my health and my family’s health for me to not play this season,” he said.

Price’s announcement came a day after Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout said he wasn’t “comfortable” with the current climate and might not play.

Saturday, San Francisco catcher Buster Posey said “there’s still some reservation on my end” about playing.

The Dodgers got Price and former AL MVP Mookie Betts from Boston in a

February trade for outfielder Alex Verdugo and prospects.

He was set to bolster an already stout pitching staff after the removal of a left wrist cyst that cost him the final three months of the 2019 season.

Braves

Four-time All-Star Freddie Freeman, premier reliever Will Smith and two of their Atlanta teammates have tested positive for the coronavirus, a jarring hit to the National Leaague East Division champions less than three weeks before the start of the delayed season.

“It will be a while before we can get him back,” manager Brian Snitker said Saturday about Freeman.

Snitker said the four players, including right-hander Touki Toussaint and infielder Pete Kozma, agreed to have the team disclose their positive tests.

Freeman is the biggest star in the sport so far to have his positive virus test announced publicly. Snitker said it was important for baseball and society to know one of the game’s biggest stars can test positive.

Snitker added that “it sobers everybody up that this is real ... It shows that this is a real deal and no one is immune to it.”

Snitker also said firstbase coach Eric Young Sr., 53, has opted out for the season because of his concerns about the pandemic.

Yankees

Pitcher Masahiro Tanaka walked out of a New York hospital on his own Saturday night a few hours after after being hit in the head by a line drive off the bat of slugger Giancarlo Stanton in live batting practice, a frightening scene moments into the team’s first official workout. Tanaka had walked off the field with the help of trainers, but manager Aaron Boone said that, while the pitcher had shown concussion-like symptoms at the ballpark, they dissipated at the hospital. A CT scan was negative.

Boone also announced that All-Star infielder DJ LeMahieu and right-hander Luis Cessa tested positive for the coronavirus before traveling to New York and are self-isolating at home.