With COVID-19 outbreak (hopefully) behind them, Marlins ready to resume 2020 season
The wait is just about over, and the Miami Marlins’ chance to be inside a ballpark instead of stuck inside hotel rooms is getting closer.
The Marlins had zero new positive COVID-19 tests for a second consecutive day, a source confirmed Sunday. That’s after seeing 18 players and two coaches return positive tests over an eight-day span starting July 24, hours before their season-opening series against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The healthy members of the traveling party are now set to end their quarantine at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Philadelphia and leave for Baltimore to play four games in three days against the Orioles starting Tuesday. The Marlins will be the home team for two of those games, and a doubleheader will be played at some point during the series. The players who had tested positive have already bused back to South Florida, where they will remain quarantined.
So this week will be a step in the right direction, yes. A chance, too, for the Marlins to attempt their run as a darkhorse for the playoffs (a reminder: The Marlins went 2-1 against the Phillies before getting an impromptu week off to get their coronavirus outbreak under control).
But so much will be different when play finally resumes, and much still remains to be answered as well.
New faces
For starters, the Marlins will look a lot different than they did when they played the Phillies July 24-26 to begin the season.
Having more than half of your roster sidelined will do that.
So expect a few known names to come back. Jordan Yamamoto should be a lock to replace a starting rotation spot while outfielders Matt Joyce and Lewis Brinson could also make their season debuts after opening the year on the injured list for unspecified reasons.
Expect some veterans who under normal circumstances would normally be depth guys for most teams. The Marlins have claimed or traded for 10 such players over the past 10 days in relief pitchers Richard Bleier, James Hoyt, Brian Moran, Mike Morin, Justin Shafer, Josh D. Smith and Pat Venditte; outfielder Travis Snider; infielder Logan Forsythe; and catcher Wilkin Castillo. Deals for Venditte, Forsythe and Castillo are pending physicals.
And expect some, but not many, prospects. A source briefed on the situation said that while the Marlins are planning to promote some prospects (outfielder Monte Harrison, for example), they have given no indication that they intend to promote some of their top prospects. Doing so would start the clock on their service time, and it would create challenges with their 40-man roster. Players who don’t yet need to be put on the 40-man (such as pitcher Max Meyer and outfielder J.J. Bleday) would need to stay on the 40 if promoted to the big league team.
Right now, the Marlins have eight prospects at their alternate training site in Jupiter who are already on the 40-man roster: pitchers Sixto Sanchez, Edward Cabrera, Jorge Guzman and Humberto Mejia; first baseman Lewin Diaz; shortstop Jazz Chisholm; and outfielders Monte Harrison and Jesus Sanchez.
Outside of the six top-30 prospects not on the 40-man roster, the rest of the Marlins’ player pool at this point includes pitchers Daniel Castano, Tommy Eveld, Johan Quezada, Josh A. Smith and Nick Vincent; catchers Santiago Chavez, Ryan Lavarnway and Brian Navaretto; and infielder Eddy Alvarez.
How the outbreak happened
The full picture of how the Marlins’ outbreak occurred is still unclear as MLB’s investigation into the matter is still ongoing. However, some nuggets have begun to surface.
According to a report from The Athletic on Saturday night, lack of mask wearing, a potential “super spreader” and the seating arrangement on their plane from Atlanta to Philadelphia are what the league believes to be the main causes of the outbreak. In essence, a couple small infractions resulted in rapid spread of the virus if this turns out to be correct.
The site also reported that MLB “has assured the players association it will not seek discipline related to COVID-19.”
The Marlins could not provide comment on the report, but a team spokesperson Saturday night said, “We look forward to receiving Major League Baseball’s report and reviewing their findings.”
The Marlins haven’t made public comments regarding the outbreak since Tuesday, when CEO and part-owner Derek Jeter released a statement in which he said, in part, that the team was “experiencing challenges” during their first road trip of the season.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, in a Saturday interview with the Associated Press, referred to the league’s protocols as a series of little things that people need to do” and acknowledged there have been “some problems.”
“In order to be better, it’s another series of little things,” Manfred said. “I think it’s peer pressure. I think it’s players taking personal responsibility. I think it’s the union helping us like [MLBPA executive director] Tony Clark helped us yesterday. And I think it’s us managing more aggressively.”
‘We’re trusting MLB’
As the Marlins’ season resumes, they will be hard pressed to ensure they don’t have another occurrence like what has transpired over the past week, one that ultimately impacted seven teams’ schedules in some way.
Phillies manager Joe Girardi, whose team has been idle for seven days out as a precaution because they faced the Marlins, said Saturday he does not blame the Marlins for the residual effect that their outbreak had on his team.
“I’m not upset with the Marlins,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said Saturday. “I mean, think about how their lives have been turned upside down. Guys are going home on sleeper buses. They can’t go home. The healthy players were stuck in the hotel here in quarantine for basically five or six days. The penalty of having it in your clubhouse is really severe, and it’s not just maybe someone having it but what everyone else has to go through. I feel for those guys because they do have remorse. Some of them feel guilty and I don’t think that’s necessarily fair.”
Meanwhile, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters Saturday that his team is ready to host the Marlins this week and get their schedule back on track.
“We’re trusting MLB,” Hyde said, “and I feel really strongly that we’ve followed the protocols so well here. I know that MLB is on top of it. If they feel like they’re comfortable with them playing here, I’m comfortable as well just because I know how stringent our protocols are and how they’re keeping the players health and safety first for everybody. They feel like it’s the right thing to do, and positive from a standpoint — positive is a bad word right now — if they think it’s safe and healthy for these guys to play, then we’ll be ready.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 10:17 AM.
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