Outbreak causes screeching halt
Marlins cancel multiple games after 14 players, coaches and staff tested positive for COVID-19
A slew of positive coronavirus test results sent the Miami Marlins and the rest of Major League Baseball spiraling on Monday, mere days into its new season.
A total of 14 Marlins players, staff and coaches have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a league source. The news comes just four days after the MLB began its pandemic-delayed season.
The Marlins quickly canceled their home opener against the Baltimore Orioles scheduled for Monday night, with the Orioles leaving Miami having not played a game. Miami, meanwhile, remained in Philadelphia where it had played three games over the weekend. Later, Tuesday’s home game was canceled, as well.
Ripple effects were quickly around the league.
The Phillies postponed their game against the New York Yankees, who would have occupied the same clubhouse Miami had over the weekend. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred largely remained silent throughout the day other than to announce that addifelt
Marlins run drills during a baseball workout Saturday at Marlins Park in Miami.
tional testing would be conducted. Manfred said on MLB Network Monday evening that the Marlins might be able to resume play on Wednesday in Baltimore, depending on both teams’ test results.
It’s perhaps the biggest setback any major sport has faced in its attempts to return to competition after the COVID-19 pandemic halted all sports in March..
“I’m going to be honest with you: I’m scared,” Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez told reporters Monday. “My level of concern went from about an eight to a 12. I mean, this thing really hits home now. I got guys in our clubhouse that are really concerned, as well.”
He wasn’t the only manager concerned.
“If there was a breach of protocol by any of those players, then it’s more easily explainable, and if not, then it becomes more problematic,” Los Angeles Angels manager Joe Maddon said. “I would just wait and see, let them trace things back, try to figure out why it occurred, and then you start creating your conclusions or drawing your plan up to solve it.”
Two Atlanta Braves players were held out of play starting with Friday’s game against the Mets, as well. The Marlins played an exhibition series at Atlanta before traveling to Philadelphia for the season opener.
Monday’s revelation further underscored the fragility of this shortened 60-game season in a sport that did not implement an insulated “bubble” system like the NBA or even shepherd teams to “hub cities” like the NHL is attempting to do. The MLB owners held a meeting Monday, but did not entertain the notion of suspending the season, according to multiple media reports.
The slew of positive tests also brought into question the Marlins’ decision to play Sunday afternoon, shortly after multiple players were believed to have tested positive.
The team decided to play its game Sunday after holding out three players, including scheduled starting pitcher Jose Urena, presumably due to positive test results. First baseman Garrett Cooper and outfielder Harold Ramirez were out of the lineup Sunday, and catcher Jorge Alfaro had already been placed on the injured list shortly before Friday’s season opener.
“We’re taking risks every day,” manager Don Mattingly said on Sunday of his team’s decision to play. “That’s what the players all around the league are doing. You travel all the time … it’s a risk that we take. We’re going to have to be adjustable, we’re going to have to be flexible, we’re going to have to be patient.”
Cooper, Ramirez and Urena were added to the injured list on Monday. Miami has yet to confirm any positive test results. MLB’s policy is not to name players who tested positive unless the players agree to release the information.
“After a successful Spring 2.0, we have now experienced challenges once we went on the road and left Miami,” said Marlins CEO Derek Jeter in a statement on Monday. “Postponing tonight’s home opener was the correct decision to ensure we take a collective pause and try to properly grasp the totality of this situation.”
Miami had played just three of the 60 scheduled games — winning two out of three in Philadelphia. If the team does resume play, it will likely require bringing in several players among the 30 training at the team’s alternate training facility in Jupiter. The team signed two relief pitchers Monday in an attempt to patch together a healthy roster in the event it can return to competition soon.
It’s possible the roots of this outbreak date back to the Marlins’ Tuesday and Wednesday exhibition games in Atlanta against the Braves last week. Two
Braves catchers, Tyler Flowers and Travis D’Arnaud, have been held out of action after showing symptoms of the coronavirus. The scope of the outbreak, amid a league with thousands of players, staff and personnel traveling around the country, is not yet clear.
The Marlins were reportedly considering busing from Philadelphia to Baltimore for scheduled games there Wednesday and Thursday. So on Monday, instead of playing their home opener against the Orioles, the Marlins were more than 1,000 miles away, awaiting news about a season suddenly in peril.