BT_DreamChaser wrote:
8 players and 2 coaches for the Florida Marlins baseball team have tested positive for Covid-19. Good job Florida! We finally get baseball back and you're gonna ruin it. This is why we can't have nice things...Apparently it’s up to 13 Marlin personnel according to ESPN.
Some baseball analysts’ points made on ESPN:
Does the Marlins' outbreak of positive cases put their season in jeopardy?
Of course, but that's why there's a taxi squad of up to 30 players. If the league is going to continue play, then it's next man up, as hard as that might be to believe. There really is no other choice. If the Marlins' season is in jeopardy, then the entire league's is as well. -- Jesse Rogers
What does the Marlins' outbreak mean for the state of the MLB season as a whole?
We'll only be able to answer this accurately with hindsight -- though it looms as a possibility that Monday's news is an inflection point with ramifications not only across the rest of this season, but across all the major team sports endeavoring to attempt what MLB already is trying to pull off. For now, this is baseball's first big test of its ability to stage the 2020 season, and it is more than a little disheartening that it came with just 92 games in the books. Baseball couldn't get through its first weekend without a possible nightmare scenario emerging.
First, we await test results for the Phillies and their stadium personnel and the weekend's umpiring crews, among others. We will see just how widely spread the breakout is among the Marlins, and once we do, we will determine if they can plausibly -- and safely -- field a viable active roster from their 60-player pool. We will cross our fingers and hope that the players and coaches who have already tested positive either don't experience symptoms, or if they do, they are mild and short-lived.
When we know whether the Marlins can keep playing, we'll know a lot more about the viability of continuing the season. Because what is already a 13-person outbreak is the exact kind of situation MLB's system of protocols was designed to prevent, insofar as anything related to COVID-19 is preventable.
It's also important that MLB be transparent with the decisions it makes in reaction to this situation. If the medical experts tell them it's simply too dangerous for the Marlins to keep going, then baseball's newest moment of truth will be at hand. -- Bradford Doolittle
Could this impact other teams beyond the Marlins?
The Marlins played in Atlanta before going to Philadelphia. They played three games against the Phillies, occupying the visiting clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park, where the Yankees were due to take up residence Monday. The Marlins were slated to play the Orioles, who, presumably, are already in Miami. The Braves just finished a three-game series against the Mets, on the heels of their exhibition games against the Marlins. The Mets, meanwhile, are headed to Boston to begin a series Monday night at Fenway Park.
Hopefully, this outbreak is confined to the Marlins. However, you can easily see how one team's outbreak could cause the whole house of cards to crumble. For now, we already know that the Yankees-Phillies game for Monday has been postponed, so at least those two teams have been tangibly impacted in addition to the Marlins. -- Doolittle
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