Miami Marlins season on hold after 15 players, 2 coaches test positive for coronavirus

(Image credit: Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

published 28 July 2020

Major League Baseball appears to have at least a temporary plan to handle the fallout from the Miami Marlins' coronavirus outbreak, which now includes 15 players and two coaches.

The Marlins' season will be put on hold at least through Sunday in an effort to regroup and bring in replacement players by early next week. Their previous opponent, the Philadelphia Phillies, will also take a few days off out of caution, and the Marlins' and Phillies' opponents, the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, will instead play each other Wednesday and Thursday after a bit of reshuffling.

It's a bit complicated but seems to make sense for now, especially since the unique season has a balanced schedule in which teams play only their divisional opponents and teams in the other league's correlating geographical division. That should make rescheduling easier, but the league also reportedly won't try to force every team to play all 60 games. Instead, if there's no way to make up games, winning percentage could determine playoff seeding.

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The Marlins' situation is worrisome for reasons that go beyond baseball, but there are some encouraging signs from the rest of the league — MLB said Tuesday it has conducted more than 6,400 tests of on-field personnel since Friday and there have been no new positives among any of the other 29 clubs, including the Phillies. Cases could still show up in subsequent tests since the virus' lengthy incubation period means some people could be carrying it while testing negative, but — for the time being — the Marlins appear to be the only squad facing an outbreak. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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