Utah Jazz star Donovan Mitchell has tested positive for the coronavirus, league sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Mitchell becomes the second Jazz player to test positive for contracting the virus, along with Rudy Gobert, sources told Wojnarowski. Gobert's diagnosis led to the postponement of Wednesday's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The Jazz announced Thursday that a second player has tested positive but did not identify Mitchell.

"We are working closely with the CDC, Oklahoma and Utah state officials, and the NBA to monitor their health and determine the best path moving forward," the Jazz said in a statement.

Jazz players are privately saying that Gobert showed a cavalier attitude toward the virus in the locker room, touching teammates and their belongings.

At Monday's media availability, Gobert was seen touching all the microphones and tape recorders at the end of his session with reporters.

Mitchell addressed the situation in an Instagram post, thanking everyone who reached out after his positive test.

"We are all learning more about the seriousness of this situation and hopefully people can continue to educate themselves and realize that they need to behave responsibly both for their own health and for the well being of those around them," Mitchell wrote, without specifically mentioning the coronavirus.

View this post on Instagram

Thanks to everyone who has been reaching out since hearing the news about my positive test. We are all learning more about the seriousness of this situation and hopefully people can continue to educate themselves and realize that they need to behave responsibly both for their own health and for the well being of those around them. I appreciate the authorities in Oklahoma who were helpful with the testing process and everyone from the @utahjazz who have been so supportive. I am going to keep following the advice of our medical staff and hope that we can all come together and be there for each other and our neighbors who need our help❤️?

A post shared by Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) on Mar 12, 2020 at 10:20am PDT

Players the Jazz have faced within the past 10 days are being told to self-isolate, a source told ESPN's Brian Windhorst. In those 10 days, Utah has played the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors.

A Thunder spokesperson told ESPN's Royce Young on Thursday that players and staff who were potentially exposed will be administered COVID-19 tests.

The Raptors announced Thursday that members of the team's traveling party have been tested for the coronavirus and that they are awaiting the results. The Celtics and Pistons both released statements saying players and staff will self-isolate for the time being.

Mitchell's father, Donovan Mitchell Sr., is the New York Mets' director of player relations and community engagement. The Mets said in a statement Thursday that the elder Mitchell had been asked not to report to the team facility and that he will undergo coronavirus testing.

The NBA announced Wednesday night that it was suspending the season following the Jazz's announcement of a positive coronavirus test.

"The NBA will use this hiatus to determine next steps for moving forward in regard to the coronavirus pandemic," the league said in a statement.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

The vast majority of people recover from the virus. According to the World Health Organization, which labeled the coronavirus a pandemic on Wednesday, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

The NBA is expected to address next steps with teams when it conducts a call with the board of governors Thursday. The originally scheduled 12:30 p.m. ET call has been moved back to 3:30 p.m. ET, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

There are 259 games, roughly 21% of the schedule, left to play this season.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer was pleased with his first bullpen session after being scratched from a scheduled start.

"It was good, was able to throw all pitches," Scherzer said Thursday.

The 35-year-old right-hander missed Tuesday's game because of fatigue in the muscles on the right side of his body, in the area of the latissimus dorsi, serratus and oblique muscles. Scherzer is to pitch next in an intrasquad scrimmage.

"We just want him to go down there and get his work in and be in a controlled environment," Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. "We're just going to try to get him his five or six innings."

Scherzer has made three spring training starts. He last pitched on March 3, allowing two runs in 3⅓ innings.

A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer was 11-7 with a 2.92 ERA last year, when he pitched 172⅓ innings during the regular season and 30 more in the postseason. He endured two separate stints on the injured list last season, the first time with inflammation under his right shoulder and the second, after making one return start, with a rhomboid strain.

Baltimore Orioles outfielder Trey Mancini underwent successful surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon, the team announced Thursday.

The tumor was discovered last week during a colonoscopy.

Lab results and the timetable for Mancini's recovery will not be known until next week.

"The outpouring of love and support I have received has made an extremely tough week so much better," Mancini said in a statement. "I have the best family, friends, fans, and teammates imaginable. I am also eternally thankful for the Orioles front office, our athletic trainers, and the entire medical staff for everything they have done to help me during this time. Finally, I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words, which have furthered my excitement to get back to playing the game I love."

On Saturday, the Orioles announced Mancini had left the team to undergo what it called a "non-baseball medical procedure."

"We are doing everything in our power to ensure Trey recovers fully, and we can't wait to see him back on the field as soon as possible," said Mike Elias, the team's executive vice president and general manager.

The 27-year-old Mancini, who also saw time at first base and designated hitter last season, hit .291 with 35 home runs and 97 RBIs. He played only five games this spring after earlier dealing with flu-like symptoms.

Mancini, who will turn 28 on Wednesday, last played on March 2, but he left the spring training game after two at-bats.

Mancini was one of few bright spots for the rebuilding Orioles last season. In addition to playing in 154 games and leading the team in homers and RBIs, Mancini played the role of clubhouse leader on a team filled with youthful players.

Though Baltimore has lost more than 100 games in each of the past two years, Mancini has been a standout offensively. In 2018, his second full season, he hit 24 home runs over 156 games.

Mancini made $575,500 last year. After reaching career highs in homers and RBIs, he was given a raise to $4.75 million in 2020.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Major League Baseball is delaying the 2020 regular season by at least two weeks from the scheduled March 26 start in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the league announced Thursday.

Here's what we know about MLB's announcement, what this means for baseball and where things could go from here.

What is the current status of the start of the MLB season?

Official word came down early Thursday afternoon: Spring training games have been canceled and the start of the 2020 season will be delayed by at least two weeks. The situation remains highly fluid, and that's true for everybody, not just for those in baseball.

Is there any significance to the two weeks MLB used as a time frame in Thursday's announcement?

MLB referred to the delay as "at least two weeks," so even that much is only a starting point. Using MLS as an example, its season began on Feb. 9. On Wednesday, it announced that the season was suspended for 30 days, which puts a possible resumption in roughly the same time frame as a possible return for MLB.

While the states that have banned gatherings of more than 250 people (Washington, New York and California thus far) have not apparently issued specific expiration dates for the restrictions, reports say that Washington's could extend through at least the end of April. So even if MLB were able to resume on, say, April 10, that doesn't mean it would be business as usual. I'd term the "at least two weeks" time frame as a jumping-off point.

We've heard talk of everything from playing in empty stadiums to moving games to spring training sites. What are all of the options MLB is weighing right now?

Empty stadiums. Spring training sites. Empty stadiums on spring training sites. One would assume all of those things are on the table beyond the two-week delay that we already know about. There are still too many moving parts for MLB to put out a concrete plan. Just one example of a key unknown: Even if we staged games in venues with no fans, what about infected players? Will we screen everyone essential to putting on a game before allowing them into the ballpark? Will that be possible a month from now without impacting the ability of the public in general to be screened? Right now, the only option is the one MLB selected on Thursday: Shut it down, see how things develop and create contingency plans where you can.

What does the delaying of Opening Day mean for the rest of the regular season?

We simply don't know. We are in uncharted territory here. We don't know how many people are carrying the virus right now, much less in two weeks. We don't know whether players have been exposed, which seems likely, and how many might test positive at some point.

In Illinois on Thursday, governor J.B. Pritzker said, ""I have spoken with the owners of all of our major sports teams and I've asked them to cancel all of their games or play without spectators until May 1. All of the owners that I spoke with told me that they completely understood and were more than willing to comply with this guidance." We will see how many states roll out similar plans. With those comments, Pritzer did leave some wiggle room regarding playing without spectators. At the moment, we don't know how palatable that option is to MLB.

Research on how long the virus can live on surfaces and how long infected patients remain contagious with COVID-19 is only now starting to emerge. The trend curve for the spread of the virus in this country continues to point to a dangerously steep trajectory. Until that curve starts to flatten, it's next to impossible to declare a definite start date for the season. My personal opinion is that we'd need to somehow get in a minimum of 110 to 130 games per team to have a truly viable season, which I state knowing that teams played fewer games than that in 1981. But we'll take what we can get.

From David Schoenfield: Remember, we've had shortened seasons before. The 1995 season didn't start until April 25 because of the player strike that rolled over from the 1994 season and teams played a 144-game schedule. Of course, that 1994 season ended abruptly in August. The midseason strike in 1981 resulted in a schedule of about 107 games for every team. The first two weeks of the 1972 season were wiped out by MLB's first players strike, and the 1990 season was delayed by a week (and most of spring training was scrapped) when owners locked the players out. In 1918, the regular season ended on Sept. 2 due to U.S. participation in World War I. (The worldwide influenza epidemic that killed an estimated 50 million to 100 million people, including 675,000 Americans, had started to spread by then, but that's not why the season was cut short.) The 1919 season was also shortened to 140 games as teams waited for players to return from military service.

What are players and teams going to do next now that the season is delayed?

The Cubs' Jason Kipnis probably answered that better than we can with this tweet:

And there it is..... early questions from players: do we go home now? Stay and train? How/when do we start back up? Have another 2 wk spring then start where schedule picks up? Do we still get paid?... this is wild

— Jason Kipnis (@TheJK_Kid) March 12, 2020

"And there it is..... early questions from players: do we go home now? Stay and train? How/when do we start back up? Have another 2 wk spring then start where schedule picks up? Do we still get paid?... this is wild." Wild indeed.

Are individual teams taking steps on their own regarding travel?

From Kiley McDaniel: Teams are recalling their scouts and whittling down travel in general right now. As of Wednesday night/Thursday morning, teams were in one of three camps regarding scout travel: (1) status quo or optional work from home; (2) car-only travel (at least a dozen teams were doing this); and (3) completely grounded (about a half dozen). The SEC told teams that scouts are permitted to attend games as essential personnel as early as this morning but then reversed that stance just before all the major conferences simply suspended games at least for a few weeks. With very few amateur games scheduled in the coming weeks and some seasons totally canceled, it's reasonable to assume MLB scouting staffs will officially be working from home for a while, or see local workouts at most.

Where does the start of the minor league season fit into this?

Not long after MLB's announcement, minor league baseball followed suit, saying in a news release that it would also delay the start of its regular season. MiLB's opening day had been slated for April 9. Their announcement was a bit more open-ended in that no minimum delay was offered. Like the rest of us, they will monitor and react to developments as they occur, staying in contact with MLB and the appropriate officials. It's really all that can be done right now. Everything that MLB is dealing with from a logistics standpoint applies to MiLB, only with many more teams whose presence blankets nearly the entire continental United States. With college baseball also pulling back, ballfields from coast to coast are going to be quiet when winter officially turns into spring.

Major League Baseball is delaying the start of the 2020 regular season by at least two weeks in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the league announced Thursday.

MLB also said in a statement that spring training games have been suspended, starting at 4 p.m. ET Thursday.

Commissioner Rob Manfred and the league's owners held a conference call Thursday afternoon to formalize the plan.

"MLB will announce the effects on the schedule at an appropriate time and will remain flexible as events warrant, with the hope of resuming normal operations as soon as possible," MLB said in its statement.

MLB had been scheduled to open its season March 26, with all 30 teams in action.

Players had been awaiting a decision. On Thursday, before the announcement, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price walked into the team's facility and said: "It's gotta happen. This is so much bigger than sports. I've got two kids."

Multiple teams had already pulled scouts off the road and sent them home because of coronavirus concerns, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan. Others have canceled all travel.

Shortly after MLB announced its decision to delay the start of its regular season, Minor League Baseball followed suit. In a statement, MILB announced that: "After consultation with medical professionals and our partners at Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball will delay the start of the 2020 Championship Season." The minor-league season was scheduled to begin on April 9.

The MILB statement was a bit more open-ended that MLB's announcement in that there was no mention of a minimum delay. However, it said that, "We will continue to monitor the developments and will announce additional information about the 2020 season at a later date. We will work with (MLB) and our community partners to resume play as soon as it is safe to do so."

The major leagues have not had a mass postponement of openers since 1995, when the season was shortened from 162 games to 144 following a 7½-month strike that also wiped out the 1994 World Series. Opening Day was pushed back from April 2 to April 26.

If regular-season games are lost this year, MLB could attempt to reduce salaries by citing Paragraph 11 of the Uniform Player's Contract, which covers national emergencies. The announcement Thursday said the decision was made "due to the national emergency created by the coronavirus pandemic."

"This contract is subject to federal or state legislation, regulations, executive or other official orders or other governmental action, now or hereafter in effect respecting military, naval, air or other governmental service, which may directly or indirectly affect the player, club or the league," every Uniform Player's Contract states.

The provision also states the agreement is "subject also to the right of the commissioner to suspend the operation of this contract during any national emergency during which Major League Baseball is not played."

Player salaries were reduced by 11.1% in 1995 because the games were lost due to a strike.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Changes brought in following Adam Gemili-led challenge to ‘Rule 40’ policy

The British Olympic Association (BOA) has agreed to provide “a greater level of commercial freedom to athletes” following a challenge to the association’s ‘Rule 40’ guidelines.

As reported last year, sprinter Adam Gemili had led an athlete group which had considered taking legal action against the BOA over sponsorship rules during Games time.

The International Olympic Committee’s controversial Rule 40 limits an athlete’s ability to work with their own sponsors during the Olympics. Last year the IOC softened its stance but the BOA had only previously made minor changes to its policy.

The latest updates include an increase in the number of times athletes can send online messages of thanks to their sponsors, now up to three times per sponsor throughout the Games period instead of once, with an overall cap of 10 messages.

Gemili, who was speaking on behalf of the athletes represented by legal firm Brandsmiths, said: “As an athlete group we are pleased to have reached an agreement with the BOA that moves us into line with other Olympic federations and that provides every athlete an equal and fair chance to generate sponsorship revenue in the build-up to and during the Games.

“I would like to say thank you to the BOA for facilitating an open dialogue and recognising and addressing the concerns of the athlete body.

“Most importantly I would like to thank my team-mates who have supported this movement both openly and behind the scenes. Together we have made a real difference and demonstrated the strength of unity.”

Andy Anson, the BOA’s recently-appointed CEO, said: “This agreement allows athletes to further benefit from their personal sponsors whilst balancing the needs of the BOA to raise funds to support all athletes at the Games.

“I’m grateful that Adam [Gemili] and his colleagues took the time to work with us to find a solution.

“We have always been and will continue to be supportive of athletes maximising their earning potential and having sponsors at a national or local level.”

More on the Rule 40 agreement can be found here, while the full Rule 40 summary for Team GB athletes document is here.

Authorised neutral athlete process is reinstated but World Athletics imposes restriction for senior events

The World Athletics Council has reinstated the authorised neutral athlete (ANA) process for Russian athletes, but has capped at 10 the number of ANA participants allowed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and other specified World Athletics and European Athletics senior events.

On Thursday it was also announced that the Russian athletics federation (RusAF) had been fined $10 million for breaching the sport’s anti-doping rules.

The ANA process will be suspended if $5 million of the $10m fine is not paid by July 1, 2020, the sport’s world governing body said.

“The remaining $5 million of the fine will be suspended for two years, to be paid immediately if during that period RusAF commits a further breach of the anti-doping rules or fails to make meaningful progress towards satisfying the reinstatement conditions set by Council,” World Athletics added.

“The ANA application process remains broadly the same, with strengthened criteria to be issued by the Doping Review Board.”

More on the new set of criteria required for RusAF’s reinstatement can be found here.

“The package of sanctions approved by the Council today reflects the seriousness of RusAF’s wrongdoing and sends a clear message that we take these types of offences by our Member Federations extremely seriously,” said World Athletics president Seb Coe.

“We have consistently tried to separate the clean athletes from a tainted system, which is why we have reinstated the ANA process for athletes from Russia, enabling them to once again compete in international one-day competitions and earn prize money, but we have restricted the number of athletes eligible to compete in senior international and European events, including at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Clearly the previous measures were not enough to change the culture in Russian athletics. We hope this further measure will be sufficient to provoke real change.

“The decision to suspend half of the $10 million fine for a period of two years is predicated on the cultural and behavioural change we want to see across all structures in athletics in Russia. But we need to be clear, if the initial sum of $5 million is not paid by July 1, 2020, then the entire decision made today will be revisited and could result in the ANA status being revoked indefinitely.

“The Council feels severely let down by the previous RusAF administration, which is why it has approved a new set of criteria for reinstatement of the Federation. This requires the new administration to set a clear roadmap for reinstatement, to be approved by Council, and greater oversight of the roadmap process by independent international personnel based in Russia.”

President says global governing body will “stand ready” to help athletes who face challenges due to coronavirus

World Athletics is still planning to be in Tokyo for the Olympic Games this summer, the governing body’s president Seb Coe has said, despite there being continued uncertainty around the athletics calendar due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In January it was announced that the World Indoor Championships, which had been due to take place in Nanjing in China from March 13-15, would be postponed to 2021, while the World Half Marathon Championships, scheduled for March 29 in Gdynia, Poland, has been moved to October.

Many other events, such as the United Airlines NYC Half, have been cancelled, while the latest races to be postponed include the NN Marathon Rotterdam, Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon and OPAP Limassol Marathon GSO.

The NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, which had been set to take place on Friday and Saturday (March 13-14) in Albuquerque, has also been cancelled.

Speaking on Thursday at a press conference in Monaco, where the World Athletics Council is meeting, Coe said: “Our sport is actually in good shape. Yes we have had to deal with some postponements, and those are never easy to deal with, but we have navigated our way through that.

“When it comes to athlete qualification, of course I do remind all of you that we have many, many more opportunities than virtually any other sport for our athletes to be qualified for events and particularly the Olympic Games this year. Many of our athletes are already qualified because that process has been ongoing now for 10 months.

“We have both flexibility in that system, we have more opportunities to compete, and those opportunities have been magnified this year of course because of the creation of the Continental Tour.

“The Continental Tour was really a product that is aimed at breathing life into what in large parts of the world had been challenging times for one-day meetings.

“It is serving a purpose and particularly at the moment it will be coming to the rescue of many of our competitors, adding to those opportunities.”

READ MORE: Continental Tour schedule announced for 2020

He added: “Having said that, where we have any challenges that we will be closely monitoring with our members federations, where there are athletes that have got these particular challenges, we of course will stand ready to help them.”

Asked about the Olympic Games specifically, Coe replied: “As far as Tokyo is concerned, this is a sport that is planning to be in Tokyo.

“That is exactly what our internal teams are working with and that is what we work on a daily basis with the Tokyo organising committee. That is what we are planning to do.”

On whether any contingency plan has been discussed, he added: “We are planning to be in Tokyo. There are no contingencies.”

Coe’s comments came on the same day that the Olympic flame was lit in Olympia, Greece, at a ceremony without spectators.

Meanwhile, Athletics Kenya has announced that athlete travel to international events has been suspended “in a bid to safeguard the athletes and consequently the country from the virus” for at least the next month.

Should the suspension be extended, it could have an impact on the participation of athletes such as world record-holders Eliud Kipchoge and Brigid Kosgei at the Virgin Money London Marathon on April 26, if that event goes ahead as planned.