Tony Batista reported to the Expos' team trainer with itchy red spots on Thursday. He's been diagnosed with the chicken pox and quarantined to his hotel room, where he will remain at least until next week. Luckily, while adults sometimes suffer more severely from the disease than those who contract it as children, the 30-year-old currently doesn't appear to be much more than inconvenienced by the illness.

People with the chicken pox are highly contagious for the two days before spots appear. Anyone who has not had the disease or been otherwise immunized is at risk, especially if they spent more than an hour indoors with Batista. Symptoms take two and sometimes even three weeks to appear after the disease is contracted, so we won't know if other players have been affected until much closer to Opening Day. Montreal reportedly informed those who might have been exposed and made plans to have them vaccinated. Receiving the vaccine within three days after exposure may prevent those exposed from experiencing the illness, though it also may result in a mild case of the disease. I'll be surprised if at least one other player isn't affected.

Batista will remain contagious until his spots crust over, so the Expos will keep him away from others until he's recovered. If he's not back by the end of next week, a shortage of spring training at bats may lead to a slow start. However, he supposedly was in shape for the season prior to this distraction, so unless we hear of complications, I don't expect this to substantially impact his 2004 performance.