Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Another player tests positive for COVID
After MLB cancels schedule through Sunday, team scrambles to call up reinforcements
As the Miami Marlins struggle to contain their COVID-19 outbreak, another player tested positive Wednesday, but the team is making moves to replenish the roster a day after Major League Baseball canceled the rest of the
Marlins’ games through Sunday.
According to a league source, one additional player tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total of players with COVID-19 to 16 since the start of the season Friday. That’s more
than half of the active 30-man roster. The Marlins are scheduled to resume play Tuesday in Miami against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Toward that end, the Marlins are working to replenish some depth, hoping to patch together a roster to keep going with their season. Miami claimed relief pitchers Josh Smith and Justin Shafer from the Cincinnati Reds on Monday.
On Wednesday, sports broadcaster Craig Mish tweeted that the Marlins signed infielder Logan Forsythe, who was recently released by the Phillies. Forsythe has played on six teams during his nine years in MLB. He’s coming off a year in which he hit just .227 in 367 plate appearances with the Texas Rangers.
It remains to be seen how many major-league-caliber players the Marlins will add. Miami has 30 additional players, including some top prospects, waiting at its alternate training facility in Jupiter.
The Marlins will undoubtedly tap into that base for some help as their MLB players await the two negative test results, 24 hours apart, required by the league to return to the field.
Per MLB policy, teams do not disclose the names of players who have tested positive for COVID-19 without the permission of the players.
Miami remains in Philadelphia, three days after it finished a series against the Phillies in which it won two of three games.
The team will remain there until it has control over the outbreak.
The resumption of the season will undoubtedly hinge on test results in the coming days.
Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said the team will increase the frequency of its testing schedule, moving to testing each member of the traveling group every day. As such, figuring out possible solutions to filling a 30-man roster depends both on the quantity and positional concentration of positive test results. And that remains a moving target.