MLB

8:30 AM ET OK, I’m in. In these days of social distancing, Mets pitcher Marcus Stroman spent Thursday afternoon recruiting players for the 2021 World Baseball Classic via social media. Stroman was one of the stars of the U.S. team that won it all in 2017, starting the championship game against Puerto Rico and pitching

9:58 PM ET ESPN News Services Let’s play two? Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black would be down for doubleheaders. Maybe even a couple a week. That might be a necessity to make up games once a baseball season delayed by the new coronavirus gets under way. “In theory, yeah, I think all of us would

8:46 PM ET Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Giants right-hander Tyler Beede will undergo Tommy John elbow surgery Friday. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi made the announcement Thursday. Beede’s surgery will be performed by Texas Rangers physician Dr. Keith Meister in the Dallas area. Beede joined others having medical procedures, some

8:00 PM ET It’s easy to speculate that Chris Sale‘s decision to have Tommy John surgery was pushed by baseball’s coronavirus shutdown, like a NASCAR driver going to the pits in a race halted by an accident. With the immediate future of the MLB season cloudy, Sale can use the downtime to get fixed. But

9:00 AM ET One of the major hurdles Major League Baseball has dealt with during the social media boom has been its schedule. Because of the daily grind of the season, baseball players have largely maintained less active social media profiles than their counterparts in other sports. With the coronavirus pandemic putting most of the

7:00 AM ET Uncertainty is never easy to deal with, even considering that a built-in amount of it hangs over our heads every waking moment of our lives. Right now, suffice to say, most of us are collectively dealing with more uncertainty than we’ve ever encountered. That’s true not just for those in and around

2:46 PM ET Associated Press CINCINNATI — An employee who works year-round at the Reds‘ spring training complex in Goodyear, Arizona, has tested positive for the coronavirus, but no Cincinnati players have been diagnosed with the illness. The employee was in contact with Reds staff and players from Feb. 29 to March 14 and is

7:00 AM ET Imagination is about all sports fans have going for them at the moment and NFL fans were given a real doozy of a challenge in that realm Tuesday: Suddenly, we are forced to picture Tom Brady in a uniform other than that of the New England Patriots. Among active stars in baseball,

8:00 AM ET The sports world has seen so much change in the past week, as the coronavirus flips human existence on its head. Still, when Tom Brady announced he would not be returning to the New England Patriots, he sent shockwaves through Boston. For the first time in 20 years, Brady will not be

6:27 PM ET Associated Press FORT WORTH, Texas — Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun is back in Texas and will be able to start light workouts soon in his recovery from a broken jaw. The Rangers said Tuesday that Calhoun was examined by Dr. Steven Wiener in Phoenix and cleared to travel before flying back on

11:00 AM ET In retrospect, the conference calls Major League Baseball regularly holds these days must seem like a waste of time to some of the participants. The circumstances to which MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association must react are changing so quickly that what once might have seemed important the day or

10:26 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Second baseman Joe Panik was added to the 40-man major league roster by the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. Toronto selected the contract of the 29-year-old from Triple-A Buffalo and placed right-hander Yennsy Diaz on the 60-day injured list with a right lat strain. Panik gets a one-year

12:01 PM ET When Major League Baseball announced Opening Day would be delayed by at least two weeks, two words stood out: at least. As each day passes, and the coronavirus pandemic continues, it’s clear those two weeks could likely become two months — or more. Here’s the latest on what we’re hearing about a

12:23 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” A New York Yankees minor league player has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the first known baseball player affected by the outbreak, the team confirmed. The player, who did not spend any

7:00 AM ET Last Monday, Major League Baseball closed its clubhouses to media members. By Wednesday, scouts were being pulled off the road. On Thursday, an announcement stated that the regular season would be delayed by at least two weeks. Before Friday came to an end, spring training operations were officially suspended. And on Sunday,

11:00 AM ET When the Major League Baseball season is restarted in 2020 — that is to say, if it’s restarted, because it’s foolhardy to assume anything under the current circumstances — the run-up to the first games could be fast and furious, with everyone pushing to get back on the field and open the

8:50 AM ET Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer played host to a “Sandlot” charity wiffle ball game Saturday night in Arizona. All proceeds were to be donated to support MLB staff members who are out of work while the games have been suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak. Bauer also set up a Gofundme account

7:00 PM ET A group of MLB players led by Cincinnati Reds pitchers Trevor Bauer and David Carpenter are trying to organize a sandlot baseball game in Arizona to pass the time with spring training and the 2020 season on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak. So we decided to give them a little help