The Boston Red Sox say they never placed Taiwanese prospect Chih-Jung Liu under quarantine following his arrival to the United States but acknowledged asking him to delay joining the team at spring training.
Red Sox media relations vice president Kevin Gregg said in an email that Liu “has not been quarantined, has not been sick, nor has he had symptoms.”
Reports on Wednesday, including from The Boston Globe and ESPN, had identified Liu as being quarantined amid ongoing worldwide concern about the coronavirus.
“Out of an abundance of caution, in light of evolving events in Asia and globally and the player’s travel here to the US from Asia, he was simply asked not to come to our training complex for a few days,” Gregg wrote.
Liu, a 20-year-old right-hander, is in his hotel room in Fort Myers, Florida, and says he feels fine. Liu wrote on his Facebook page that he is doing some weight training, getting in an occasional run and reading about the team online.
He is scheduled to join the Red Sox on Saturday.
The coronavirus originated in China and has killed more than 2,700 people worldwide. There are now more new cases of the virus outside China than inside the country, according to the World Health Organization, which declared it a global health emergency last month.