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The Blue Jays organization will have to adhere to a modified quarantine for 14 days upon returning to Toronto from travel to the United States in order to hold training camp in Canada, according to a response given to the team Tuesday by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

A source with knowledge of the issues told the Star the federal government has joined with the city and the province to approve the spring training portion of the Blue Jays application, up to and including intrasquad games. But the federal government source said the Blue Jays must isolate their travelling group within their team hotel under the modified quarantine — a policy which would be problematic for Major League Baseball and the Blue Jays if applied once they begin the regular season, which under MLB plans would include travel to and from the United States. The source was granted anonymity in order to speak freely about the response.

Baseball, under its Operations Manual, requires an exemption to Canada’s COVID-19 guidelines, which state anyone re-entering the country from non-essential travel must self-isolate for 14 days. A ban on non-essential travel remains in effect nationwide until July 21, and is expected to be extended.

Under a modified quarantine, the Jays would be allowed to collectively isolate their roster and essential staff at Rogers Centre. The team had hoped to bring a group of 60 players to Toronto by Friday to open camp in preparation for the resumption of the season July 23 or 24.

Conversations on what would happen beyond spring training continue. Toronto’s options are said to include playing their regular season in Florida, perhaps in concert with the Tampa Bay Rays. Toronto also has its farm team in Buffalo, though the field is not ready for play.

Schad wrote:Four players have opted out thus far: Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman, Mike Leake and Joe Ross. Ross is the most surprising as he's a bubble guy who is relatively early in his career and hasn't exactly made a tonne of money, while the other three are closer to the end of their careers.

His father is a pediatrician and his mother an emergency room nurse in Oakland.

Skin Blues wrote:Can't go back in time and re-write the CBA to allow punishments for stealing signs for the 2017 Astros or 2018 Red Sox (Joe Kelly knows about that team). What's done is done, MLB messed up, it's over.

Kelly threw at Bregman's head on purpose, threw a few fake pickoff attempts at him again while he was at first, and taunted them after the inning. They had to suspend him. I've always thought these types of suspensions should be much longer or else guys are just going to keep doing it. 8 games is more than justified. Some people saying it's really 22 games because of the short season.... well, it's only 8 games worth of money. He's lucky it wasn't more.