David Price focusing on being ‘100% ready to go in 2021’

Dodgers pitcher David Price was one of four players who opted out of the 2020 season who talked to Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic about watching their teams from afar.

Among other things, Price revealed that his plan was to stay in Los Angeles during the season, but grew worried that a spike in COVID-19 cases in the area could prevent him from seeing his family, which informed his decision not to play this year. Price also said he watches all the Dodgers’ games and communicates with the team often.

Both Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts said the same last week, that they have talked with Price at various times this season. Though it is technically possible for Price to play this season if he wanted, with commissioner approval, both Friedman and Roberts said Price never brought up the idea of returning in any of their discussions.

“I’ve talked to him a decent amount and texted during games,” Friedman said last week. “We’ve talked about our games and our players and some of his observations, but that has not come up.”

Price confirmed to Rosenthal he has no plans to comeback this season:

“To try and get back out there, the negatives would definitely outweigh the positives,” Price said. “I don’t want to make a couple of appearances and throw the ball just fine, then something happens and I have to shut down — I don’t want that to make me miss 2021. My focus right now is to be 100 percent ready to go in 2021 for the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

Links

For Roberto Clemente Day Wednesday, Jorge Castillo at the Los Angeles Times explored Clemente’s role as a Black player who was an activist against racial injustice during his career.

Jesse Sanchez at MLB.com captured the legacy of Vera and Roberto Clemente.

Bill Shaikin at the Los Angeles Times reported that the not-yet-finalized MLB postseason plan could have teams playing home games in the wild card round before moving into bubble situations. For the Dodgers, should they advance, they would play in Texas.

Charley Steiner talked with Bob Nightengale at USA Today about broadcasting games from home, and shared pictures of his living room setup. “You heard during this pandemic that people are learning to work from home, but I never thought it would be humanely possible that I could,” Steiner said.

In case you missed this earlier in the week, Jonas Never painted a mural of Joe Kelly in Silver Lake.

Here’s another shot of the mural, from Getty Images:

Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Vin Scully on Wednesday shared a story from Sandy Koufax’s perfect game: