How it plays out could impact other sports — the NFL and college football included.
SALT LAKE CITY — Just three games into the shortened 2020 Major League Baseball season, there is already a novel coronavirus outbreak. How it plays out could impact other sports — the NFL and college football included. ESPN reported Monday morning that a COVID-19 outbreak in the Miami Marlins clubhouse led to a postponement of the team’s home opener Monday night against the Baltimore Orioles. It also led to the postponement of a Monday night game in Philadelphia — where Miami played over the weekend — between the Phillies and the New York Yankees. “The health of our players and staff has been and will continue to be our primary focus as we navigate through these unchartered waters,” Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said in a team statement. “After a successful Spring 2.0, we have now experienced challenges once we went on the road and left Miami. Postponing tonight’s home opener was the correct decision to ensure we take a collective pause and try to properly grasp the totality of this situation. We have conducted another round of testing for our players and staff, and our team will all remain in Philadelphia pending the results of those tests, which we expect later today. We will provide additional information as soon as it becomes available.” Related According to ESPN, four Marlins players tested positive for the coronavirus on Sunday, and additional testing resulted in eight more players and two coaches testing positive. “That Miami had multiple positives before Sunday’s game and the contest went on as scheduled is concerning. Perhaps any time that happens, it should trigger an automatic postponement,” ESPN’s Bradford Dootlittle wrote. “Another red flag here is that even if you test every day, people do not necessarily exhibit symptoms or trigger positive tests right away. Inevitably, infected players will take the field without anyone, including themselves, knowing that they have contracted the virus.” The Washington Post outlined the MLB’s 2020 operations manual, the guide for how this season would operate under coronavirus pandemic. It includes how players or coaches who test positive on the road — like the Marlins, in this case — must remain in that city and quarantine for 14 days. They also must test negative twice at least 24 hours apart before returning to the roster. “This is off-the-charts bad,” Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at Oxford College of Emory University, told The Washington Post.
