Friday's MLB: Unvaccinated players can't travel to Canada to play Jays

New York — Major League Baseball players who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus won't be allowed to travel into Canada to face the Blue Jays in Canada and won't be paid for those games.

Canada's government requires a person must have received a second vaccine dose — or one dose of Johnson & Johnson — at least 14 days prior to entry.

The provision that they won't be paid is contained in a side letter between MLB and the players' association, and was first reported by Boston television station WCVB.

More: Spring training primer: Tigers have four weeks to solve some tricky roster issues

Toronto opens at home against Texas on April 8.

“It’s a concern,” union head Tony Clark said Friday. “I think as everyone knows — appreciate and respect the decisions that are made, particularly in regard to player health and community health. But that is an issue, as one in the pandemic itself, that we’re navigating domestically, that we’re going to have to continue to try to work through here moving forward.”

Cubs manager David Ross gets extension through 2024

Chicago Cubs manager David Ross and the team agreed Friday to a contract extension through the 2024 season that includes a club option for 2025.

In the two years since he was hired to replace Joe Maddon, Ross is 105-117 with one playoff appearance.

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He helped the team wade through the challenges brought on by the pandemic in 2020, leading Chicago to a 34-26 record and the NL Central championship in a shortened season before getting swept in two games by Miami in the wild-card series. Last season, the Cubs were in first place before going into a slump that led to the dismantling of their core and a 71-91 record.

Chicago went from leading the division at 42-33 after Zach Davies and the bullpen combined to no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 24 to dropping the next 11 games. That convinced president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer to break up the group that helped lead Chicago to a World Series championship in 2016 and its first title in 108 years.