PITTSBURGH -- Manager Derek Shelton said on Saturday that the Pirates did indeed have a couple people test positive for COVID-19.

A day later, with two players' permission, he divulged who had contracted COVID-19 -- reliever Blake Cederlind and Socrates Brito.

Neither Cederlind nor Brito was expected to begin the 2020 season with the big club,...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- For three months, as Major League Baseball's owners and the players' union snapped public jabs at each other, an uncomfortable reality was again exposed. MLB, above all, is a business, the same as other major professional sports leagues. And before a 2020 season was staged, figuring out how to divide billions of dollars was a ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- For Kansas City Royals All-Star do-it-all defender and MLB hits leader Whit Merrifield, the decision to play this season came quickly and decisively. But it wasn't without thoughtfulness or consideration of the seriousness of COVID-19.

At the end of a week that has seen notable major league players such as Washington ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Miguel Sano, the Twins' All-Star slugger, will miss the beginning of summer training camp after testing positive for the COVID-19 virus, the team has revealed.

Sano is the player that President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey declined to identify Friday in announcing that two Twins major leaguers -- utility player Willians ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Maybe this time will be different, and an Angels pitcher who receives an injection of platelet-rich plasma in his elbow will not only return to action at a high level but avoid surgery that would sideline him for at least a year.

The team's recent track record with the procedure, which is supposed to promote healing in the ulnar ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Zack Wheeler arrived last week to Philadelphia, days before he was scheduled to report to Citizens Bank Park for the start of summer camp. He spent the majority of baseball's three-month shutdown in Georgia, throwing five times a week and facing hitters to make sure his right arm -- the one in which the Phillies invested $118 ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Being Manny Machado means you don't have to always give 100%.

He's so skilled he can sometimes play at a high level without being fully engaged. He's got so much of what the Dominican players call flow that other times it just looks like he's not fully engaged. It's who he is and probably a big part of why he is so productive. He ...Read more

MIAMI -- The Miami Marlins have had four players in their 60-man roster pool test positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said Saturday.

One result stems from Wednesday's mandatory intake screening. Three more had previously tested positive within the past two ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers pitcher David Price, citing his and his family's health during the novel coronavirus outbreak, announced Saturday that he has opted not to participate in the 2020 season.

Price, who turns 35 next month, is the first Dodgers player to publicly declare his intention to not play this season. He posted his announcement on ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Bryce Harper was just beginning to take batting practice Friday morning in South Philadelphia, taking another swing toward an uncertain season, when news spread from 2,700 miles away that could make baseball's return even more challenging.

Mike Trout, a contemporary to Harper as one of the game's superstar players, told ...Read more

ATLANTA -- Braves manager Brian Snitker announced Saturday that the team had four players test positive for COVID-19: first baseman Freddie Freeman, left-hander Will Smith, right-hander Touki Toussaint and utilityman Pete Kozma.

Smith and Toussaint are asymptomatic. Freeman and Kozma have fevers, but Kozma is feeling better, according to ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- First baseman Miguel Sano is the other Twins player who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, the club revealed Saturday.

Sano consented to having his name released.

The former All-Star tested positive during the intake testing phase as players reported to Target Field to the start of training camp. He now will have to test ...Read more

If only baseball had gotten its act together this spring, it could have staged a grand reopening act this summer, a kickoff to a pandemic-shortened season for America's pastime on the most American of holidays -- the Fourth of July.

"Oh, you mean baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?" sports business consultant Andy Dolich, 73, said, ...Read more