Writers Bloc
The Blue Jays will have a ball when they get on the field at Rogers Centre
July 02 2020
Sports
What to expect from the Blue Jays’ training camp in Toronto – Sportsnet.ca
At last, the Toronto Blue Jays know where the club will be holding training camp. Great. Now all that’s left to determine is who will be at Rogers Centre next week, what an abbreviated three-week camp will entail, where the club will play its home games this season, what its schedule looks like, and how it’ll handle any COVID-19 related absences.
As was always going to be the case when trying to play baseball during a global pandemic, there are more questions than answers. But we do have some information as to how the Blue Jays will proceed from here. And what the build-up to the strangest season anyone has ever seen will look like.
When will training camp start? What will it entail?
Toronto’s training camp has technically already begun. A small group of Blue Jays players who have cleared MLB’s intake protocol and produced two negative COVID-19 tests are currently free to use club facilities in Dunedin, Fla, where the team has gathered.
But many of their teammates are still waiting for clearance. While MLB only requires one negative COVID-19 test as part of its intake protocol, all Blue Jays players must pass two before they’re permitted to enter training camp. That extra step was necessary in order to satisfy public health concerns from the Canadian government. And all that testing takes time.
But the club expects the majority of tests to be returned by the weekend, at which point the club will fly to Toronto on a private charter. That plane will arrive at a private extension of Pearson International Airport, where players and staff will disembark and travel directly to Rogers Centre on private buses that have been cleaned to standards set forth by the Public Health Agency of Canada.
Once players are on-site at Rogers Centre, more formal, organized workouts will begin. Those will be staggered throughout the day in order to encourage physical distancing, with players broken up into groups.
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High-touch surfaces — door knobs, faucets, dials, handles — will be disinfected hourly, and all areas will be thoroughly cleaned daily. The club will utilize four different locker rooms in order to distance players, with every other washroom sink taped off and communal toiletries removed.
Hitters will have access to both the home and visitors batting cages, while pitchers will be spread across five different mounds — the game mound plus the pair in each outfield bullpen. The Blue Jays have explored the possibility of adding temporary mounds, but club President Mark Shapiro said the team was leaning against it.
“I think we’ll have the capability of getting our work in,” he said. “Particularly looking at us not working out as one group of 60 players, but as two groups of 25-30 players.”
Throughout training camp, all players and personnel will live at the hotel connected to Rogers Centre within a dedicated room block isolated from the general public. Hotel staff will wear masks and undergo daily health assessments and temperature screenings prior to their shifts.
Players and staff will not be permitted to leave the premises during training camp, travelling between their rooms and the ballpark within the stadium’s boundary. This will obviously require a high degree of discretion and discipline. But if someone was caught leaving the stadium, they could potentially be punished under Canada’s Quarantine Act, which can carry six-figure fines or imprisonment.
That alone ought to be dissuasion enough to ensure no one within the Blue Jays party violates training camp rules. And Shapiro says he and Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins have been encouraged by the feedback they’ve received from players during consultations as they worked to move training camp north of the border.
“They were part of the process. We did not unilaterally make the decision. We made the decision with them,” Shapiro said of Blue Jays players. “It was collaborative and cooperative from the start. They’ve been educated. There are clear penalties in place beyond anything we would do for a violation of a quarantine — which have been communicated to them. But I don’t expect those to be an issue because we’ve been talking to them from day one and they understand their responsibility and the expectations coming in.
Will the Blue Jays play any exhibition games against other MLB clubs?
MLB has permitted clubs to play up to three exhibition games towards the end of training camps against nearby teams or its first opponent of the regular season. But Shapiro said the Blue Jays will forego that option, instead relying on intrasquad games played within Toronto’s player pool. There is no limit on the number of intrasquad games a team can play during training camp.
Shaprio also said MLB is closing in on setting its schedule for the 2020 season, and that the Blue Jays would adhere to it regardless of where the club’s home is. Toronto’s primary options for its home games remain the Rogers Centre in Toronto and TD Ballpark in Dunedin, two facilities the club owns, eliminating the possibility of any scheduling conflicts. But as of now, the location of Toronto’s home schedule is TBD.
Will any Blue Jays player or staff opt-out?
So far, five MLB players have chosen to opt-out of the 2020 season: Mike Leake, Ryan Zimmerman, Joe Ross, Tyson Ross, and Ian Desmond. Last week, Shapiro indicated he didn’t expect any Blue Jays to exercise their right to do so, and on Thursday he said that expectation remains the same.
Of course, things can change as training camp wears on and the pandemic evolves. There is also the potential of staff opting out, as some members of Cleveland’s organization have chosen to do. But Shapiro said he wasn’t currently expecting any opt-outs among Blue Jays staff, either.
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How will positive COVID-19 tests be handled?
MLB’s 2020 Operations Manual introduced a new term into baseball’s large lexicon: the COVID-19 Related Injured List.
A positive test for COVID-19 would obviously necessitate placement on that list — but one is not necessarily required. Players can also be placed on the COVID-19 Related IL due to exhibiting symptoms associated with the virus or having confirmed exposure it.
There is no minimum or maximum length of placement on the list. But in order to be removed from it individuals must produce two consecutive negatives tests at least 24 hours apart, be without fever and respiratory symptoms for 72 hours, complete an antibody test, undergo a cardiac evaluation, and be deemed by a committee of physicians as no longer presenting a risk of infection to others.
With nearly 2,000 players being tested this week during the intake process for training camps across the league, it’s fair to expect a large number of individuals will be placed on the list. Last week, when the NBA tested 344 of its players, 25 returned positive — a 7.3 per cent infection rate. It’s not unreasonable to anticipate a similar number across MLB.
Where things get tricky is in how these cases are reported. As New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman outlined earlier this week, teams have not been permitted to disclose which players are on the COVID-19 Related IL because Infections are not “employment-related” as outlined in MLB’s Basic Agreement. It will be up to individual players who test positive to approve whether that information is made public or not.
Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior writer. Together, they bring you the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast in the league, covering off all the latest news with opinion and analysis, as well as interviews with other insiders and team members.
But the flaw in this design — which surely someone, somewhere identified as MLB was conceptualizing its 2020 Operations Manual — is that clubs are still announcing all players who are placed on an injured list in order to free up roster space. Thursday, the Blue Jays official transactions page showed four players being placed on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 30) without explanation: Jonathan Davis, Brandon Drury, Elvis Luciano, and Hector Perez.
In turn, Toronto added four individuals to its player pool: Bryan Baker, Patrick Kivlehan, Josh Palacios, and Breyvic Valera, who was claimed off waivers from the San Diego Padres. Toronto’s player pool, which is capped at 60, stood at 58 prior to those transactions. So, at least two spots were opened. And aside from placement on the COVID-19 Injured List, the only way to remove a player and create room in the pool — according to the 2020 Operations Manual — is as follows:
For 40-man roster players: trade, waiver claim, return of Rule 5 selection, release, outright assignment, designation for assignment, placement on the 60-day injured list, or placement on one of the suspended, military, voluntarily retired, restricted, disqualified, or ineligible lists.
For non-40-man roster players: trade, release, or placement on the military, voluntarily retired, restricted, disqualified, or ineligible list.
Considering none of the Blue Jays players who went on the injured list Thursday were subject to any of the transactions above, it’s fair to speculate that at least two of them were placed on the COVID-19 Related IL, if not all four. (It’s worth reiterating that placement on the COVID-19 Related IL does not require a positive test.)
A similar scenario played out in Philadelphia on Thursday, in which four players popped up on the Phillies official transactions page as being placed on the 10-day injured without explanation. It was later reported that all four were placed on the COVID-19 Related IL.
One imagines situations like this will continue to arise throughout the season, as some players are placed on the injured list or unavailable to compete for explained reasons such as broken bones or muscle strains and some are not. And that raises the question as to whether MLB’s attempt to protect the privacy of its players is actually doing the complete opposite.
Asked to comment Thursday on the inevitable speculation over unexplained absences, Shapiro pointed to the challenges of operating a professional baseball league during a global pandemic. The club will do everything it can to protect the privacy of its players. But it also has to play by MLB’s roster rules.
“It’s a challenging environment. Not just for the media, not just for our fans, not just for our players, but for us as well,” Shapiro said. “Privacy and respecting the privacy of our players and understanding regulations and laws that exist is going to govern my no comment on that. I think over time players are going to be capable of commenting for themselves.
“Until then, those are going to be things that are going to have to be one more piece of a world that we’re living in that is full of uncertainty — and I can’t help you any more than that. Obviously, I’ve dealt with a sea of uncertainty for the last two-and-a-half months and that’s just one more piece that we’re all dealing with.”
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VANCOUVER – As the Major League Soccer season ticks down, Vanni Sartini wants his Vancouver Whitecaps to make a declaration — the team is ready to compete.
“The time of hiding ourselves, I think it’s over,” the coach said after the ‘Caps earned a 2-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday.
“We need to really say that we are here to try to be at the ball until the end and trying to shoot for the highest position. That doesn’t mean that we’re going to make it, but we have the quality to do it.”
With seven games left on their regular-season schedule, the ‘Caps (13-8-6) sit in fifth spot in the congested Western Conference, just two points out of fourth.
Saturday’s loss officially eliminated the last-place Earthquakes (5-21-2) from post-season action.
Vancouver has been on a hot streak since returning from the Leagues Cup break and is unbeaten (3-0-1) in its last four outings across all competitions. The team has not allowed a goal in those matches.
“It’s the fact that we play really well,” Sartini said of the clean sheets. “We have the ball a lot, we finish our attack most of the time in their box. So it’s really hard for the other team to attack us. And then when they attack us, in the rare times that they arrive in the final third, we’re very solid.”
Recent additions have bolstered the team’s ranks, including the club’s newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong. The 32-year-old Scottish midfielder scored his first MLS goal Saturday.
Three minutes after coming on as a substitute for Alessandro Schopf, Armstrong gave Vancouver a two-goal cushion in the 87th minute.
Midfielder Pedro Vite dished a short pass to ‘Caps captain Ryan Gauld, who tapped it toward Armstrong. The former Southampton FC player then blasted a shot into the top of the net for his first strike in a Whitecaps’ jersey.
He was mobbed by teammates in the corner of the field.
“I think everyone was happy. Also for the first goal, but also that it was an important three points,” said Armstrong, who signed with the ‘Caps on Sept. 3.
“It kind of felt a little bit like last week, when we had a lot of chances and we didn’t get the three points. So today, I think everyone was just relieved to have that two-goal cushion.”
Vancouver was the dominant team from the outset Saturday and did not relent, outshooting the visitors 19-5 and controlling 54.1 per cent of possession.
Fafa Picault also found the back of the net for Vancouver, while Gauld contributed a pair of assists.
Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka stopped both shots he faced to collect his seventh clean sheet of the year, while Daniel made nine saves for the Quakes.
Gauld and Picault teamed up in the 22nd minute when Gauld curled a cross in and the Haitian striker headed it down toward the net, only to see Daniel catch a piece of the shot with his forearm and redirect it out of harm’s way.
The duo connected again in the 35th minute on a Vancouver corner. Gauld swung a ball in and Picault jumped up from the pack to send a glancing header in past Daniel for his ninth MLS goal of the season.
San Jose briefly appeared to level the score in the 68th minute when an unmarked Ousseni Bouda collected the ball, froze Takaoka and tapped a shot into the Vancouver net. An official quickly raised the offside flag and waved off the tally.
Daniel kept San Jose’s deficit to a single goal with a pair of solid stops in the 82nd minute.
First, the Brazilian ‘keeper dove sideways on his line to tip away a bomb from Alessandro Schopf. He was tested again on the ensuing corner and jumped up to send a header from Picault over the crossbar.
“I think we created a lot of chances again,” Gauld said.
“We probably should have put the game out of their reach sooner. But we’d be more worried if we weren’t creating the chances. Three clean sheets in a row in the league, I think it’s a big thing for us. And it gives us a good platform to go forward.”
NOTES
Vancouver played without leading scorer Brian White for a third consecutive game as the American striker works his way back from a concussion. … Gauld’s second assist marked his 15th goal contribution (six goals, nine assists) in his last 15 Whitecaps games across all competitions. … An announced crowd of 21,309 took in the game at B.C. Place.
UP NEXT
The Whitecaps kick off a two-game road swing Wednesday against the Houston Dynamo. The Earthquakes host the Seattle Sounders the same night.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.
MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Not good enough. That was Arne Slot’s verdict after his first defeat as Liverpool manager on Saturday.
A shock 1-0 loss at home to Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League ended Slot’s perfect record since succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Anfield at the end of last season.
“We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three (or) four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough if you have so much ball possession,” said the Dutchman, who suggested his team should not be losing to the likes of Forest.
“If you lose a home game it’s always a setback, especially if you face a team … we never know, maybe they will go all the way to fight for Champions League tickets, but normally this team is not ending up in the top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment.”
Slot won his first three games in charge, including a memorable 3-0 victory against Manchester United before the international break.
But that run came to an end after Callum Hudson-Odoi struck in the 72nd with a curling effort from the edge of the box and beyond goalkeeper Alisson.
Liverpool’s defeat leaves Manchester City as the only team with a 100% record in the league after a 2-1 win against Brentford kept the defending champion at the top of the table.
United won at Southampton 3-0 to end its two-game losing streak.
Unstoppable Haaland
Erling Haaland moved to 99 goals for City after scoring twice against Brentford.
The Norwegian’s double came after Yoane Wissa fired Brentford ahead with just 22 seconds on the clock.
Haaland scored his 98th and 99th goals in his 103rd City appearance in all competitions. And he was the width of the post away from his third consecutive hat trick after trebles against Ipswich and West Ham.
“He’s been really, really good. Yeah, I would say he’s the best (he’s been), but it’s only four fixtures (this season),” City manager Pep Guardiola said.
Haaland, who has been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, has nine goals in four league games. He has topped the league scoring charts in each of his two seasons at City since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022 for $63 million.
Haaland’s first goal after 19 minutes evened the game following Wissa’s opener, which stunned the Etihad Stadium crowd. Haaland turned and swept a shot past goalkeeper Mark Flekken after a slight deflection off Ethan Pinnock.
He was then too strong for Pinnock when shaking off the defender and running through for his second in the 32nd.
He was inches away in the 81st; the shot came back off the post after beating the keeper.
Rashford snaps run
Marcus Rashford snapped a 12-game barren run in front of goal as United beat Southampton.
Rashford doubled United’s lead at Saint Mary’s after Matthijs de Ligt’s scored his first for the club. Substitute Alejandro Garnacho scored a third in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
The win came after back-to-back defeats for United.
Rashford hadn’t scored since March in United’s win over Liverpool in the FA Cup quarterfinals. He curled in a shot from the edge of the area to put Erik ten Hag’s team 2-0 up at Southampton in the 41st minute.
Ten Hag said it could be a turning point for the forward.
“For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list. Once the first is in, more is coming. Like a ketchup bottle, once it’s going, it’s coming more,” he said.
De Ligt, who joined United from Bayern Munich in the offseason, headed in from Bruno Fernandes’ cross in the 35th.
It could have been a different story if Cameron Archer converted a penalty for Southampton in the 33rd. Instead, his effort was saved by goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Newly promoted Southampton was reduced to 10 men when Jack Stephens was sent off in the 79th for a high challenge on Garnacho.
Villa comeback
After three straight defeats to start the league, Everton looked set for its first win when leading Aston Villa 2-0.
Goals from Dwight McNeil and Dominic Calvert-Lewin put Sean Dyche’s team in control until Ollie Watkins struck twice to even the game.
Jhon Duran completed Villa’s comeback and sealed a 3-2 win in the 76th to leave Everton rooted to the bottom of the table and the only top flight team without a point.
Late drama
Jean-Philippe Mateta converted a stoppage time penalty to salvage a 2-2 draw for Crystal Palace against Leicester.
Leicester led 2-0 at Selhurst Park after goals from Jamie Vardy and Stephy Mavididi.
But Mateta sparked Palace’s response with a goal in the 47th, a minute after Mavididi doubled Leicester’s advantage.
Conor Coady fouled Ismaili Sarr in the box right near fulltime and Mateta was cool enough to convert.
West Ham left it even later to salvage a point in a 1-1 draw at Fulham.
Danny Ings struck in the fifth minute of added time after Raul Jimenez’s goal looked like earning Fulham the win.
Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler, the manager of the month for August, was frustrated as his team was held to 0-0 at home by Ipswich.
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James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson
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AP soccer:
Sports
Cavaliers and free agent forward Isaac Okoro agree to 3-year, $38 million deal, AP source says
CLEVELAND (AP) — Restricted free agent forward Isaac Okoro has agreed to re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers on a three-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on Saturday.
Okoro’s new deal is worth $38 million, according to the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the contract has not been signed or announced by the team.
ESPN.com first reported the agreement, citing Okoro’s representation.
The fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, Okoro is Cleveland’s best perimeter defender, often drawing the assignment of guarding the opponent’s top scorer. Okoro also has worked to improve his offensive game.
The 23-year-old averaged 9.4 points and 3.0 rebounds in 69 games — 42 starts — last season for the Cavs, who beat Orlando in the opening round of the playoffs before losing to eventual champion Boston.
Okoro shot a career-best 39% on 3-pointers, forcing teams to come out and guard him.
His agreement caps an extraordinarily busy summer for the Cavs that began with coach J.B. Bickerstaff being fired and replaced by Kenny Atkinson. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell signed a three-year, $150 million extension in July, ending months of speculation that he wanted out of Cleveland.
Also, power forward Evan Mobley signed a five-year, $224 deal and center Jarrett Allen signed a three-year, $91 million extension.
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AP NBA:
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