MLB Announces 13 Positive COVID-19 Tests Since Spring Training 2.0 Started

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced Friday that the latest round of COVID-19 intake testing resulted in 66 positives, while 13 players have been diagnosed with the coronavirus since they arrived at spring training 2.0.

This round featured the final intake tests as players arrived in their teams' home cities for the resumption of camp and the start of MLB monitoring tests:

Eighty-three members of MLB organizations have tested positive, and 71 of those are players.

San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey announced Friday he is opting out of the 2020 season:

Posey became the 10th MLB player to confirm he wasn't going to take part, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Meanwhile, TSN's Scott Mitchell reported that Toronto Blue Jays players who decide to play face severe consequences if they leave the club's bubble:

MLB has moved forward with plans to start the delayed 2020 campaign July 23 despite a recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said the league plans to restart without any fans in attendance to "get comfortable that we can play games in empty stadiums safely," but it's working on ideas to enhance the television viewing experience, per Ronald Blum of the Associated Press.

"We normally think about our product as two products, the live product and the broadcast product," he said. "Given our current situation, I think that the goal is to make the broadcast product, because it's the only one we have, as entertaining for fans as we possibly can."

The regular season is slated to run through Sept. 27 followed by a standard postseason with five playoff teams (three division winners and two wild cards) from each league.

A World Series champion will be crowned no later than Oct. 28 if the season remains on schedule.