Blue Jays: David Price, former Jay, opts out of the 2020 season

Another notable MLB player opted out of the 2020 season on Saturday, and this time it was former Blue Jays pitcher David Price, now with the Dodgers.

As teams have been able to gather and resume their spring (summer) training before the 2020 season, there’s a storyline that I’ve been following very closely this week. How many players will decide that playing this year isn’t worth the risk to their personal lives?

There have already been a handful of notable players to make that decision, and on Saturday another high-profile player made the announcement that he won’t play in 2020. Now with the Los Angeles Dodgers, David Price isn’t considered the “ace” that he once was, but don’t kid yourself, the 34-year-old was a big part of the Dodgers’ plans for this season, and now he won’t be available.

The veteran starter joins a list that have publicly opted out that includes Mike Leake, Ian Desmond, and Ryan Zimmerman, and could add one more very significant name to the pile soon as well. After comments to the media earlier this week, there are plenty around baseball who are wondering if Mike Trout will make the same decision, as he mentioned that he wasn’t comfortable with the current climate of how things are going.

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As for the Blue Jays, we’ve yet to see any players make the decision to opt out of this season, but that could always change in the coming weeks. We know there have already been positive tests for the Covid-19 virus within the organization as well, and that could always influence decisions over the next few weeks and months.

When it comes to Price, you can hardly blame him in a lot of ways. Sure, there will always be the argument for loyalty and obligation to your teammates, but family should always come first, and that’s a decision that Price has a right to make. He’s also in a financial position to make that decision, as he’s already made more than 173 million throughout his MLB career, and he’s slated to make 32 million per season in 2021 and 2022 before his current deal runs out.

That separates him from a lot of younger players who don’t have that kind of money in their bank accounts, but at least the veteran is aware of that. In fact, he ponied up the dough to keep paying Dodger minor leaguers earlier this year, so this decision obviously has nothing to do with money.

We’re only a few days in to the second attempt at training camp, and I imagine the next few weeks could have a tremendous impact on the 2020 season, assuming there is one. The more that high profile players like Price, or potentially Trout make this choice, the more others could follow suit. So far it’s been all veterans who have made a lot of money throughout their careers, but that could change in a hurry too.