For Pete’s Sake

As MLB plans to suspend play, Max Scherzer says it’s naive to think no player has virus

By Pete Grathoff

Updated March 12, 2020 12:45 PM

ESPN’s Jeff Passan and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported Thursday that Major League Baseball likely would halt spring-training games because of the coronavirus.

One player believes the virus is likely in at least one big-league clubhouse.

Nationals star Max Scherzer, the former Mizzou pitcher, told reporters in Florida that it’s “naive” to believe the coronavirus hasn’t affected a player.

This is from Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com:

Most striking thing Scherzer said, when asked if NBA players testing positive makes it hit home that this could happen to MLB players, too: "It's going to. We'd be naive to think that one player across every MLB camp doesn't have it yet."
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) March 12, 2020

Passan tweeted this about Major League Baseball’s plans:

After a conference call among owners this afternoon, Major League Baseball is expected to suspend spring training. The league likely will delay the beginning of the regular season as well. At this point, it's a formality that ownership-level sources expect to happen.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 12, 2020

Pirates pitcher Chris Archer told reporters he and his teammates are fine with whatever plans there are to pause play.

This is from Adam Berry of MLB.com:

More from Archer: "We know that [COVID-19] doesn’t affect younger people as much, but we all have parents. We all have people who are our elders that we come in contact with every day. The last thing we want to do is be a carrier and cause something fatal.”
— Adam Berry (@adamdberry) March 12, 2020

Scherzer’s comments came after two Utah Jazz players tested positive for the virus and the NBA suspended play.

Two players in Italy’s top soccer league also have the coronavirus.