‘We’ve got to be careful’: Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak impacting more than just Miami
Under normal circumstances in this already abnormal 60-game season, the Miami Marlins would be playing the Washington Nationals at Marlins Park this weekend while the Philadelphia Phillies would have been the road team at their own ballpark against the Toronto Blue Jays.
This would have come after the Marlins played four games against the Baltimore Orioles (two at home, two on the road) and the Phillies played four against the New York Yankees (two at home, two on the road).
Instead, the Marlins and Phillies had an impromptu week off following the Marlins’ coronavirus outbreak that has resulted in 18 players and two coaches testing positive for COVID-19 since the hours before Opening Day.
MLB put the Marlins’ season on pause through at least Sunday so the team could have “time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week.”
The Phillies’ season was also put on hold, first through Thursday and then through Sunday out of “an abundance of caution.” The Phillies announced Thursday they had a coach and home clubhouse staffer test positive for COVID-19 and that all activities at Citizens Bank Park would be canceled “until further notice.”
No one else on the Phillies has tested positive over multiple rounds of testing, according to the team.
(The St. Louis Cardinals also had two positive cases surface Friday, resulting in their series opener against the Milwaukee Brewers being postponed.)
The result: MLB frantically having to adapt its schedule barely a week into a two-month schedule to keep its season afloat and teams tangentially being impacted by one team.
“There’s obviously a lot of concerns,” Nationals manager Davey Martinez said Tuesday. “Not only do we have to compete on the field, we have to compete off the field, too, to make sure we follow all the protocols. We’re trying to play through a pandemic. What happened to the Marlins, I don’t wish that on anybody, but it happened and it’s real. We’ve got to be careful.”
That extra sense of caution, at least specifically with the Nationals, resulted in the team voting Tuesday before MLB’s announcement that they didn’t want to travel to Miami for their three-game series at Marlins Park that would have started Friday.
Martinez said he heard “rumblings” that players had concerns, which sparked the team meeting and the vote that had all but one player wanting to skip the Miami trip. While he’s unsure how much that impacted MLB’s decision later that day to put the Marlins’ season on hold, Martinez said he believes MLB made the right choice and that “it’s all about keeping us safe.”
“I feel awful for what’s going on with the Marlins. I really do,” Martinez said. “I hope all those guys get better soon and they’re able to come back and play. If we’re going to go through this thing, they’re a big part of our division and our league. We’d love to see those guys back on the field.”
But with that decision comes a potential headache for MLB as it tries to get as many of its 30 teams to play all 60 games on their schedule as possible.
The league has yet to announce official changes to next week’s schedule, but changes are coming.
The Marlins, according to a source, will most likely not be starting their season back up against the Phillies at home as originally scheduled should they be cleared to start playing again on Monday.
That is, of course, if the season is being played beyond this weekend at all. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported Friday that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told MLB Players Association executive director Tony Clark that the season is in jeopardy if management of the coronavirus among teams isn’t improved. That could come as early as Monday, according to ESPN, “if positive tests jump or if players continue not to strictly abide by the league’s protocols.”
The tentative plan for now is for the Marlins to stay on the road and face the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, the New York Mets at Citi Field and then Blue Jays in Buffalo.
If the dates for the Mets and Blue Jays remain as they were on the original schedule — Marlins-Mets from Aug. 7-9 and Marlins-Blue Jays on Aug. 11 and 12 — this would have the Marlins on the road for 23 days, dating back to their exhibition games against the Atlanta Braves on July 21 and 22.
The Yankees, meanwhile, ended up playing two games against the Orioles in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday to make up for two of the four games lost to the Phillies this week and are hosting the Boston Red Sox for a three-game series starting Friday as scheduled.
From there?
“I’m under the impression that we’ll be playing the Phillies next week,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Wednesday.
The key words: Under the impression. This year, everything is official until it’s not. Everything is set in stone until something needs to be altered. Games normally penned in to certain dates are now better off being scheduled in pencil, easier to erase and re-write and re-calculate on last-second notice.
MLB is used to quick adjustments in a normal season. Weather delays are a normal occurrence, especially during the summer months.
But things get a lot trickier with only six off days per team, an already shortened schedule and the unpredictability of a global pandemic.
Take the Orioles, for example. They flew into Miami on Sunday night with the anticipation of playing the Marlins on Monday and Tuesday. And then, Monday morning, the Marlins had seven new positive tests to bring the team total at that point to eleven. The Orioles flew back to Baltimore Monday night and didn’t play again until hosting the Yankees on Wednesday and Thursday for an impromptu series.
“It was a little unnerving to sit there and just to see everything that was unfolding and how quickly it was being reported,” Orioles first baseman Chris Davis said Tuesday. “Going into this, there was a good possibility that something like this was going to happen. I think we all, in the back of our minds, knew that there was a possibility of something like this happening. But you hope for the best. If anything, it should serve as a reminder how important it is that we follow these health and safety protocols.”
Just one example of how one team can directly or indirectly impact so many others this year.
“Nobody has control of what’s going on,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoya said Thursday, shortly after finding out the Blue Jays’ series against the Phillies was postponed. “... We’ve got to deal with it. It is what it is. Hopefully, MLB works through it.”
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 12:56 PM.
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