DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Toronto slugger Josh Donaldson has missed the team's first full-squad workout because of a calf injury.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said Saturday that the third baseman tweaked his right calf while running sprints a day earlier. He was scheduled for an MRI and further evaluation. Donaldson injured the same calf last April but did not miss any significant time.
Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP, batted .284 with 37 home runs and 99 RBIs last season. He was an All-Star for a third straight season and helped lead Toronto to the ALCS.
Also, catcher Russell Martin was given the day off because of a fever.
Bryce Harper thinks he had a bad 2016
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper says he knows "exactly why" his production dipped last season from his MVP-winning performance a year earlier -- but he did not elaborate.
Harper met with reporters Saturday, the day before Washington's first official full-squad workout of spring training.
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After saying he did know what happened to make him go from the youngest unanimous MVP in baseball history in 2015, to a .243 hitter in 2016, Harper evaded questions that tried to pin him down on the reasons.
He spoke about "staying in the lineup" last season as if it were a chore, but did not say that he was injured.
Asked what he thought of the Nationals' offseason transactions, Harper said the team's switch to a new training complex in Florida was the "biggest move I'm excited about."
Kershaw to start opening day for 7th straight time
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Clayton Kershaw will make his seventh straight opening-day start for the Dodgers, tying Don Sutton's franchise record.
The announcement was no surprise. It took Manager Dave Roberts four days into spring training to say Kershaw will start April 3 at home against the San Diego Padres.
Roberts calls this an "obvious" decision. He spoke Saturday before his club began an abbreviated workout schedule on a rainy day in the desert.
Sutton made seven straight starts from 1972 through 1978. Don Drysdale had seven opening-day starts, but not in successive years. Fernando Valenzuela made six.
Kershaw is 4-0 with two no-decisions on opening day.
Yankees beat reliever Betances in final arbitration case
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The New York Yankees beat Dellin Betances in the year's final salary arbitration case, and the relief pitcher will be paid $3 million rather than his $5 million request.
The decision gave teams an 8-7 edge in decisions this year, the most hearings since clubs won 10 of 16 decisions in 1994. Players won three of four cases last year.
Arbitrators Steven Wolf, Dan Brent and Sylvia Skratek issued their decision Saturday, a day after hearing arguments.
New York renewed Betances at the major league minimum $507,500 last year. A setup man for the first four months, he took over as closer after the trades of Aroldis Chapman to the Chicago Cubs and Andrew Miller to Cleveland.
