Jays won’t take trip to Philadelphia

Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said Thursday his team’s weekend series in Philadelphia was called off because of concerns about the coronavirus after two Phillies staffers tested positive.

“Our plans right now are to stay put and let MLB work through whatever they’re working through,” Montoyo said before his club played the last of four games in Washington. “We’re not going to Philadelphia. Those games have been postponed.”

It’s the latest in a series of scheduling changes as Major League Baseball attempts to play a 60-game season amid a pandemic that is surging in parts of the United States.

Earlier Thursday, word emerged that another player with the Marlins — whorecently played in Philadelphia — tested positive for COVID-19, bringing their total outbreak to 17 players, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The Phillies said there were no positive results among players from Wednesday’s testing of their team. But there were two positives: One from a member of the coaching staff and one from a member of the home clubhouse staff.

All activity at Citizens Bank Park was canceled Thursday until further notice.

The Blue Jays are stuck on the road because the Canadian government wouldn’t let them use their stadium in Toronto this season because of fears about teams traveling back and forth to the United States. Eventually, the Blue Jays are supposed to play home games at a minor league ballpark in Buffalo, but it isn’t ready. So Montoyo’s team played its “home opener” in Washington on Wednesday.

The Blue Jays were then supposed to start a three-game series at the Phillies on Friday. First, MLBshifted Friday’s game to part of a doubleheader Saturday, with the series finale Sunday — and now all three games are scrapped, leaving the Blue Jays in limbo.

“We’re going to talk to the Nationals, see if we can work out here,” Montoyo said. “If they say yes, we’ll stay and work out until MLB tells us where to go next.”

Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romano says the long break shouldn’t pose much of a problem.

“I consider it a smaller challenge,” he said. “I think we can still hopefully practice, pitchers thrown bullpens. I think we would still be ready to roll after this four-day break, if that’s what they’re going to do.”

The Marlins remain quarantined in Philadelphia, where the team’s outbreak was discovered during a weekend series against the Phillies.