Derek Jeter: Some Marlins broke MLB’s protocols because of ‘false sense of security’
Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter did not deny it. Some players broke the league’s protocol while they were in Atlanta for a pair of exhibition games before traveling to Philadelphia to start the season.
A couple players left their hotel to get coffee and clothes, Jeter said Monday. Another had dinner at an old teammate’s house. They congregated in rooms, sometimes not wearing masks and sometimes not properly following social distancing protocols.
Small infractions, nothing to the scale of what some reports had suggested the team did (“There was no salacious activity,” Jeter said).
But enough to cause a COVID-19 outbreak among the club that ultimately swelled to 20 people, including 18 players, of their almost 60-person traveling party. All 20 are either asymptomatic or experiencing minor symptoms at worst, Jeter said.
“Some of our traveling party had a false sense of security and comfort at how they handled themselves when they left Miami,” Jeter said. “... Guys were around each other, they were relaxed and they let their guard down.”
And while Jeter claimed the team’s internal investigation found “no way to identity how this got into our clubhouse,” he acknowledged the Marlins have to take responsibility for their actions, ones that caused them to quarantine in their team hotel in Philadelphia for a week, have seven games of an already shortened season postponed and impacted at least the schedules of at least five other teams.
“Hopefully,” Jeter said, “this has been a wake-up call for everybody.”
There was already little room for error. Major League Baseball is trying to fit a 60-game season into 66 days underneath the shadow of a global pandemic. Teams are traveling, albeit with a regionalized schedule.
But all it takes is one team to potentially put the entire season at risk.
The Marlins have received that message loud and clear, Jeter said.
“We haven’t been perfect,” Jeter said. “We have to be perfect moving forward.”
According to two sources, the Marlins and at least one player were forthright with MLB investigators in admitting that two Marlins went out in Atlanta to visit with a former teammate. But that former teammate tested negative for COVID-19, so there’s no evidence it would have contributed to the Marlins outbreak.
Now, the team has to transition its focus to getting back on the field after being limited to their hotel rooms for a week.
Weather permitting, the three-day, four-game series will begin at 7:35 p.m. Tuesday. A doubleheader is slated for Wednesday, with the first game starting at 5:05 p.m. and the second game taking place a half hour after the first game ends. The series finale is at 7:35 p.m. Thursday.
The Marlins will serve as the home team for the second game of the doubleheader Wednesday and Thursday’s series finale.
The series opener, however, is likely tentative as the Baltimore area is expected to get between 2 and 3 inches of rain from Monday night through Tuesday afternoon as Tropical Storm Isaias makes its way up the East Coast. MLB and the Orioles are monitoring the storm’s path and potential impact.
From there, they stay on the road to play the New York Mets at Citi Field from Friday to Sunday and then play the Blue Jays in Buffalo on Aug. 11 and 12 before finally playing their home opener on Aug. 14 against the Braves.
For those keeping count, that’s 23 days on the road dating to when they flew into Atlanta on July 21 for exhibition games.
“We’re in no position to make any objections,” Jeter said. “We just look at it as another challenge for us.”
They’ll have challenges on the field, too. The Marlins will have at least 16 new faces on their active roster. Marlins manager Don Mattingly said there are a few players the Marlins picked up this week that he still hasn’t met in person.
But the Marlins, who went 2-1 in their series against the Phillies before their season was put on an impromptu hold, still believe they will be competitive despite the massive roster turnover.
“I know our guys,” Mattingly said. “I can hear it in their tone. This is a great group that we have. Obviously missing a lot of that group and some different guys are coming into that from outside our organization. That will be a little bit of a learning curve for all of us.”
This and that
▪ Mattingly said Pablo Lopez will start Tuesday and Elieser Hernandez is slated to throw one game of the doubleheader but was noncommittal about any other starting pitchers .Jordan Yamamoto is another possibility. The pitching staff has been hit hard by COVID-19.
▪ Jeter, on second baseman Isan Diaz’s decision to opt out of playing this season: “Every player has the right to opt out. He has our support. We look forward to him coming back next season.”
Mattingly said he had conversations with Diaz in Philadelphia and called it “a tough situation and tough decision for a young player.”
“We’ll support him through that,” Mattingly said.
▪ Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill said the Marlins would not replace the two coaches who remain in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19.
▪ The Marlins can carry 30 players for the game on Tuesday and the doubleheader on Wednesday. Rosters have to be reduced to 28 players by noon Thursday.
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 6:10 PM.
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