The Miami Marlins are scheduled to be in Buffalo to open the Toronto Blue Jays' slate of home games in Sahlen Field on Aug. 11-12. "Scheduled" is the key word. The Fish have been battling positive coronavirus tests all weekend in Philadelphia and their season took an even darker turn Tuesday.
The Marlins' schedule has been put on pause through Sunday, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday afternoon, as the team remains quarantined in Philadelphia with 17 players and staff members testing positive.
The Marlins have now lost seven games of their schedule. They were supposed to host Baltimore Monday and Tuesday and play in Camden Yards Wednesday and Thursday. They were then to return home and host the Washington Nationals for games Friday, Saturday and Sunday. According to a report in the Athletic, Nationals players said Tuesday they were not interested in going to South Florida at this time.
It would appear the earliest the Marlins could play is their Aug. 4 home game against the Phillies but Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez says the team should follow a 14-day quarantine whenever it returns to South Florida – and that would put its visit to Buffalo in jeopardy.
"Given the current circumstances, MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week," MLB said in a statement announcing the changes.
"All of our players, coaches and staff are, understandably, having a difficult time enduring this experience," said part of a statement from Marlins CEO Derek Jeter. "After receiving additional test results on our Major League team this morning, we reached out to the Commissioner's Office with concern for the health and safety of our team as well as our opponents.
"We have moved to a daily testing schedule while we isolate and quarantine appropriately, along with enacting additional preventive procedures with our traveling party."
Meanwhile, the Phillies' home games Monday and Tuesday against the New York Yankees were called off while they await their testing. ESPN reported Tuesday the Phillies currently have no positives in the wake of playing the Marlins; the Yankees went to Philadelphia but were concerned about using the same Citizens Bank Park clubhouse where the Marlins had been housed over the weekend.
In addition, MLB postponed the Yankees' home games Wednesday and Thursday against the Phillies and will be instead sending New York to Baltimore for games on the same two nights "in order to create more scheduling flexibility later in the season."
MLB's statement said there have been no new positive cases in over 6,400 tests conducted since last Friday and that the Marlins, in fact, are the only team with any positives.
"The health and safety protocols were designed with a challenging circumstance like the one facing the Marlins in mind," the statement said. "The response outlined in the joint MLB-MLBPA Operations Manual was triggered immediately upon learning of the cluster of positive cases, including contact tracing and the quarantining and testing of all of the identified close contacts. The Marlins’ personnel who tested positive remain in isolation and are receiving care.
"The difficult circumstances of one Club reinforce the vital need to be diligent with the protocols in all ways, both on and off the field. We will continue to bolster our protocols and make any necessary adjustments. The realities of the virus still loom large, and we must operate with that in mind every day. We are confident that Clubs and players will act appropriately, for themselves and for others, and the data provides reason to believe that the protocols can work effectively."
There was no immediate word from MLB how it would be possible for the Marlins to complete a 60-game season in the 66 days of the schedule. There is precedent from the 1981 strike season of teams playing uneven numbers of games and playoff berths being decided on winning percentage, if MLB has the need to go that route.
