© Jasen Vinlove | 2020 Jul 5
A minor blip or the beginning of the end?
The Miami Marlins have been exposed to a coronavirus outbreak within the team, just five days into MLB’s return to action. Eight more players and two coaches with the club have tested positive, bringing the total cases in recent days to at least 14, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN.
The outbreak has led to the postponement of the Marlins home opener vs. the Orioles, and the Phillies-Yankees game in New York, both scheduled for Monday. The Marlins played the Phillies in a three game series in Philadelphia over the weekend. The Marlins remain in Philadelphia and continue to undergo testing.
Now the panic is setting in. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has stated that the virus compromising a team’s ability to play, and thus affecting competitive integrity in a 60-game campaign, could lead to the cancelation of the season.
“I think the way that I think about it, Dan, is in the vein of competitive integrity, in a 60-game season,” Manfred said in early July. “If we have a team or two that’s really decimated with a number of people who had the virus and can’t play for any significant period of time, it could have a real impact on the competition and we’d have to think think very, very hard about what we’re doing.”
As of now, the league reportedly has no plans to halt the season, but an emergency meeting will be held later today.
Since the outbreak has been confined to the Marlins thus far, there’s been no serious discussion at this point about pausing/suspending the season. Marlins-Orioles game tonight is canceled and Phillies-Yankees game may well be canceled as well. But that’s it to this point.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 27, 2020
BREAKING: Major League Baseball to hold an emergency meeting today after 14 Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID-19 following their weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies.
— Eric Jackson (@ericjackson) July 27, 2020