Nationals star Juan Soto tests positive for coronavirus, will miss season opener vs. Yankees

Baseball is back Thursday — but now without one of its brightest young stars.

Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto has tested positive for coronavirus, GM Mike Rizzo has confirmed, and will miss the team’s opening night game Thursday against the New York Yankees. Soto, along the pitching matchup between Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer was to be a long-awaited, star-studded return for MLB. He’ll be sidelined indefinitely, not able to return until he tests negative twice, according to MLB’s protocols.

Who Would You Build an MLB Team Around in the 2020s?

As we’ve written in this space before, baseball is a young man’s game more than ever. Players are coming up from the minors sooner and they’re coming up as better players than the twentysomething (or teenagers) of eras past.

So with a new decade in front of us, which major league player would you want to build you team of the 2020s around?

Note to self: Review the nominees in 2030, to see how the decade went for them.

Juan Soto’s power made him a household name. His plate discipline could make him an all-timer.

No discussion of Soto is complete without mentioning how quickly he processes information, whether it be over the course of a season or in a single at-bat. When he arrived from his native Dominican Republic to play in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League in 2016, he walked roughly once every 13 times he came to the plate. That wasn’t enough. Jorge Mejia, his hitting coach with the Gulf Coast Nationals, had a conversation with him.

“They saw my numbers, and they told me I don’t take too many walks,” Soto said. “They told me to look for one pitch in specific, and if it’s not that pitch, just don’t swing until you have two strikes. I try, and it works. It was easy for me. I just started taking pitches — taking, taking, taking — and then swinging when they’re missing [with their intended location].”

Juan Soto advocates for Gerardo Parra to throw out first pitch Opening Day

When Gerardo Parra signed with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league, one player among those most disappointed he wouldn’t be returning to the Nationals was leftfielder Juan Soto.

At 21 years old, Soto and his jubilant personality attached to Parra’s fun-loving antics like a magnet. The star outfielder embraced the dugout dance parties and “Baby Shark” hit celebrations. But heading into 2020, Soto has been forced to come to terms with playing without Parra in D.C.

“We’re gonna miss him on the Nationals,” Soto told NBC Sports Washington’s Matt Doolin on the Nationals Talk podcast. “I was talking to him at his house…we’re gonna work on the golf…he told me he wants me to get that and help me do that and I’m gonna work on that.”