MLB suspends Marlins’ season through Sunday

15 players have tested positive for virus since Friday

Miami Marlins games will be postponed through Sunday to deal with the spread of COVID-19 through the team, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday afternoon.

As of Tuesday morning, 15 Marlins players have tested positive for coronavirus since the start of the team’s season on Friday, according to a league source.

The announcement officially postpones four games against the Baltimore Orioles and three games against the Washington Nationals.

MLB did not confirm any specifics, including the number of the team’s positive test results, though it did say there have been no new positive test results from “any of the other 29 Clubs” and that the Marlins personnel who tested positive “remain in isolation and are receiving care.”

“Given the current circumstances,” the statement reads, “MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week.”

Over the weekend, more than a dozen players, coaches and staff

tested positive, according to the league source, and on Tuesday, the source said four more players tested positive. Now, the future of this 60-game season — if there is one still to play — is murkier than ever.

The team has yet to confirm any positive test results or talk with the media since Monday’s slew of positive results. Four players — Jose Urena, Garrett Cooper, Jorge Alfaro and Harold Ramirez — are officially on the injured list, though the organization has not specified a reason or injury. Shortstop Miguel Rojas, a leader on the team, was among those 15 players to test positive, according to multiple reports on Tuesday.

On a 30-man roster, the loss of 15 players effectively handicaps the team from playing, even with a rush to sign players and shepherd players in from the alternate training facility in Jupiter. Taking time off will ideally allow a number of those players to secure the two negative tests, 24 hours apart, needed in order to get back on the diamond.

In a statement later Tuesday, team CEO Derek Jeter said the team would move to a daily testing schedule along with “additional preventative procedures” as the team remains in Philadelphia.

“We continue to take this entire situation very seriously,” Jeter said. “All of our players, coaches and staff are, understandably, having a difficult time enduring this experience.”

But as the Marlins sort through an unprecedented situation, the rest of the league will continue on, at least for now.

The Phillies, who hosted the Marlins over for the team’s first three games of the season, postponed games Monday-Thursday against the New York Yankees. Instead, the Yankees are heading to Baltimore to start a series against the Orioles on Wednesday — to replace the games the Marlins were supposed to play in Baltimore.

“We don’t want any player to get exposed. It’s not a positive thing, but I don’t see it as a nightmare,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said on MLB Network on Monday evening. “We built the protocols to allow us to continue to play.”

The decision to pause the season for just one team, though, raises a slew of questions about the feasibility and legitimacy of the season. What happens if the Marlins can’t complete 60 games? How will the league handle a schedule that’s a moving target? Can teams opt out of playing against Miami?

Concern league-wide about those questions and more has been rising steadily since the news of Miami’s outbreak started trickling out late Sunday and early Monday. Before the Marlins games were postponed, The Athletic reported that Washington

Nationals players took a vote, with the majority opposed to traveling to Miami for weekend games.

If the Marlins resume after the current postponements, they would be slated to play the Phillies on Tuesday in Miami. Neither Washington’s nor Baltimore’s games against Miami have been rescheduled yet.

MLB left open the possibility of “additional rescheduling,” to be announced later this week.

The MLB health guidelines, agreed upon with the MLB Players Association in late June, include granular details — players must bring their own rosin bags and pine tar, avoid using public transit, halt use of communal food spreads. Managers can’t continue the ritualistic pregame swapping of lineup cards.

But the guidelines did not offer a path for the predicament the Miami Marlins and the league now face: What happens if nearly half the team is suddenly out of commission?

“This could put [the season] in danger,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, on “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, before the Marlins’ four additional tests were known. “I don’t believe they need to stop, but we just need to follow this and see what happens with other teams on a day-by-day basis.”