MLB players not vaccinated against COVID-19 unable to play at Blue Jays

A long national nightmare came to an end Thursday when MLB and the MLB Players Association came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement that erased the word "lockout" from active vocabularies and allowed fans to begin dreaming about Opening Day games hopefully occurring on April 7. 

The work stoppage made it somewhat easy to forget MLB is holding a third consecutive season amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but the topic was back in headlines Friday when Sportsnet and The Associated Press (h/t ESPN) noted players who aren't considered fully vaccinated against the coronavirus won't be permitted to travel to Canada for road games against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. 

Additionally, players who can't participate in contests due to their vaccination statuses won't be paid for games or service time missed. Per the AP, the Canadian government views someone as fully vaccinated if they've had at least a second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 

"It's a concern," MLBPA executive director Tony Clark admitted on 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."

R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports explained it's unclear if MLB requires personnel to have received booster shots to now be considered "fully vaccinated" under its policies.