9:42AM: Yesterday’s testing of Phillies personnel revealed no new positive cases, according to a team press release.
TODAY, 9:04AM: For the second straight day, the group of Marlins players currently in Philadelphia haven’t had any positive COVID-19 test results, the Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson reports (Twitter link). The team is planning to head to Baltimore today in advance of Tuesday’s series opener.
AUGUST 1: Major League Baseball released a statement this afternoon providing updates on a number of clubs, including the Marlins, who have been out of action for the last week after a COVID-19 outbreak within the organization. As of now, Miami is set to resume its season on Tuesday with a four-game series against the Orioles in Baltimore, which will take place over three days and include a doubleheader. The Marlins will be the designated “home” team for two of those games.
MLB’s announcements, which also include the latest on the Cardinals and Phillies, can be found in their entirety here, courtesy of MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
For a second consecutive day, the scheduled Brewers-Cardinals matchup has been postponed. The decision comes after this morning yielded news that the Cardinals have several more positive tests on their hands. As of now, there’s no word on when the Cardinals can be expected to take the field again.
Meanwhile, the Phillies and Yankees will begin a four-game home-and-home series on Monday. The Phils were also sidelined this week after potential exposure to the coronavirus during last weekend’s series against the Marlins. However, it appears that Philadelphia has avoided the worst-case scenario, with MLB revealing that two of the three positive tests in the Phillies organization appear to have been false positives. No players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the team’s last contact with the Marlins on Sunday.
The proliferation of the virus within the Marlins organization has posed an early threat to MLB’s plans to conduct a baseball season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and the developing outbreak within the Cardinals could be similarly crucial to the outlook for the remaining two months of play.
These intra-team infections mean that the MLB schedule is fluid and evolving, with postponements forcing on-the-fly adjustments to the schedule. This can have a ripple effect throughout the league, as several other teams in MLB’s East division have been forced into schedule alterations despite maintaining comparatively good health. Health concerns notwithstanding, teams like the Phillies and Marlins might be faced with especially demanding schedules as they attempt to squeeze more games into a shorter time period for the remainder of the season.
Additionally, extended “break” periods like those endured by the Phillies and Marlins over the last week could interrupt players’ mojo during an already irregular season; whereas daily games allow players to establish a rhythm, a “stop-and-start” schedule means that players will be expected to jump right back into competitive games after several days off, perhaps akin to a team awaiting an opponent after handily winning a playoff series. We’ll have to see whether that produces any noticeable effects, and even then it will be an imprecise science, but it’s one of many difficult circumstances unique to the 2020 season.
Play ball!
Its just like playing in the 1920-40’s 100 years later except instead of randomly losing players to the draft you lose them to covid 1984. Gotta thank our world leaders for the yellow coded curfue. Makes me so sad, faith no more
Cough, Cough
How though? If they’ve had 18-players test positive as recently as last week aren’t they supposed to isolate for
14 days? How are they going to field a team?
They’ve picked up like five guys via trade/waivers plus that’s the point of the 60 player pool. If they test negative twice they’d be eligible to return too
So what about the competitive balance of the Marlins being a AAA team for two weeks?
Queue: They already were…
When Manfred was talking about the need to shutdown if COVID19 impacts compettive balance I think he was talking about teams with better than average odds of making the playoffs. That’s certainly not the Marlins but likely includes the Cards. Even with far fewer cases, their disruption is more problematic than the Fish.
I like the idea of teams playing 7in games on double header days.
60 man player pool, that’s how. Where have you been the last month? Why do you think there was all this talk of 60 players and alternative squads?
That’s why this is going to work
Of course it will work. Just because a lot of people are rooting for it to fail does not mean that it will.
False positives? Imagine that!
So 2 of the 3 Phillies results were false positives. Why am I not surprised?
On a good note, Bryce Harper is actually NOT pregnant after all.
I beg to differ. I am almost certain that I knocked her up
She likes it when you pull her hair.
False positives in Pennsylvania, huh.
No surprise here. The state of Pennsylvania is about as corrupt as one can get.
I believe nothing reported by corporate media in Pennsylvania.
Since Thursday, Cleveland has used the visitor’s clubhouse in Minnesota, and they are scheduled to do so through Sunday. That’s the clubhouse the Cardinals used this past Wednesday, when the first two – at a minimum – of their players’ positive covid tests were taken. And not a peep of concern from the Indians, or the Twins, or MLB? What am I missing here?
Lysol and cleaning crews.
I understand that you are perhaps joking. Perhaps. But Lysol and cleaning crews didn’t prevent covid-positive Cardinals from using that clubhouse, and their positive tests were not known until Friday, which is 24+ hours after Cleveland came into town and used that same clubhouse. If Lysol and cleaning crews are all it takes for everything to be OK in a clubhouse, then why were all those Phillies games canceled this last week?
I really hope those Indians players have a full understanding of what they have walked into, and what they continue to walk into.
I’m not joking. This is standard protocol in all hospitals. I was down at Houston Methodist about four weeks ago where I had surgery that required a stay from Thursday to Sunday. On my floor, after every patient was discharged (I was required to walk around every hour or so) all I saw were cleaning crews wiping all surfaces down with Lysol and some other spraying agent.
Moreover, I asked on of the younger doctor residents who visited me the most about the cleaning (the Friday of of stay all visitors were prohibited unless a patient was in the end-life stage) and he said its works since they had not had one case in that entire building since the outbreak.
So, yes, I’m serious.
I’m currently working in a bubble and it’s pretty standard practice to disinfect rooms after we’re done working in one, it happens multiple times a day. I would be completely shocked if Mlb clubhouses weren’t disinfecting every night even if it’s the same team playing next
What exactly do you think this virus can do? It’s not even proven as a contact virus anyway.
“What exactly do you think this virus can do?”
Aside from making even healthy young people extremely sick, and sometimes kill them?
Is under 90 considered young to you?
“Aside from making even healthy young people extremely sick, and sometimes kill them?” I might be missing something but the amount of young people dying from the virus is extremely low and most are connected with other health complications. Sorry to break it to you but the only reason this virus is considered so serious is cause the media.
Thanks doctor! Tell that to e rod, he must be faking it. Jansen had it and is immunocompromised and survived, e rod was healthy and can’t play the rest of the season because of enlarged heart he got from covid, so no one really has figured it out, but really happy you both have
I love how people cherry pick the few cases to “prove” their point that this is extremely dangerous for young, healthy people. Heard the other day that people in their 20’s have a better chance of being hit by lightning than dying from this virus.
At my place of work, we’ve had a few potential COVID-19 exposures. Out of an abundance of caution, management immediately hires a third party to sanitize the entire building. Takes less than a few hours to complete and is done after hours. No customer or employee has had a positive case of COVID before or after the potential exposures
That’s terrific for you and your company. I hope your workplace remains safe. But “potential COVID-19 exposures,” as you put it, is hardly the same as confirmed positive tests in several people, as is the case with the Cardinals team/staff. Again, my point is that we did not know about those positive tests until 24+ hours AFTER Cleveland had already started to use that same clubhouse. Additionally, if that clubhouse was rendered so incredibly squeaky clean immediately after the Cardinals’ departure, then how come the Phillies were, apparently, unable or unwilling to accomplish the same feat in their visitor’s clubhouse?
UR missing nothing Toth — too many macho keyboard warriors her w/ limited educations.
Having a traditional education means very little. It just means you were indoctrinated to believe your government and their science. You must step beyond that education to find out the real workings of the world.
Expecting critical thinking by the indoctrinated masses is not logical.
There was concern, apparently particularly from Cleveland players, and it was up in the air whether yesterday’s game was going to be played until well into the afternoon yesterday. But everybody in both organizations got a 20-minute test and they all came back negative, so they decided to play, and the away clubhouse staff was sent home as a precaution.
Totally reasonable not to know this if you’re not a fan of one of those teams, the reporting really wasn’t very broad.
Thanks for the update.
Why hasn’t Mattingly been fired yet for letting his players decide to play in violation of the protocol, and then throwing them under the bus for it?
the players could have voted no. it’s not like he was holding them hostage.
Running a baseball league during a pandemic is like sending your kids to summer camp during a surge in infection rate of said pandemic.
I mean, who does that? Oh wait…
If Joe Kelly gets suspended for 8 games in this 60 game season, the players who went out and partied during this time should be suspended for 20 games. Unacceptable.
This assumes players “went out and partied.” Maybe someone got it from a hotel employee. We don’t know.
did they change the rules for the 40 man? i can’t imagine how they’d be able to field a team, work around the 40 man.
i dont think COVID guys count against the 40
if i were teams i would boycott going to FL right now. i mean i know places like newyork, cali and AZ are bad too but FL the worse and if the marlins are a mess. why would a team wanna go down there
So far the Tampa Rays aren’t complaining. So far we have heard the Marlins did not catch this in Florida. Aside from providing nothing, why boycott Florida and only Florida?
Merv 13 filters, uv lights, adding outside air, and face masks are very effective.
Place someone serious in charge of Covid at MLB, this can be beaten.
We are the dumbest country on the planet. No wonder we are the world’s #1 COVID-19 hotspot. These sports leagues should not be playing. You don’t shut things down after the infections; you do it before. Some of you need to learn what a pandemic is.
Yup.
Dumbest in the world??? agree about not playing, and agree you should move out of the USA if you hate it so much. Unbelievable loser.
Nice job proving his point
says another US hater. Go away Fidel.
Most of us probably would move out of the US if we could, but nobody wants us! And who could blame them? The US is BY FAR the dumbest country in the world, I mean just look at your comments after all…
Why blame the county as a whole? This was a select group of young millionaires who insisted we force a season into this summer or they were going to file a grievance. Unnecessary to be so hyperbolic and divisive.
I’m betting they’re shut down again by Thursday
Sorry, MLB, exactly none of this is encouraging. Zero.
Two teams are infected out of 30 and there is reason to believe it was from breaking protocol, how is that not encouraging??
Kreck: so, does your wifi router penetrate the closet doors and 3 blankets you are hiding in and under? How are you managing to fill your prescribed anti-psychotic medications?
Sooo Many doomsday People .. remember when everyone said philies will be Marlins .. 2 of juts 3 were false positive .. marlins are back in a few days .. the damn media going crazy to get story out 1st and jumping to conclusions .. such bs
and its possible the real positive test was the away clubhouse attendant, who would be around the team. again, no transmission between teams is a great sign that this can work without causing a domino affect. in fact, maybe if this is seen to not transmit between teams, teams can play between divisions to make up games (i.e. one East and one Central team cant pkay their opponents and their division pairing has an odd number or teams, they can play each other to keep the affect to their team on game loss minimal)
It’s the media narrative. The media wants everything shutdown and these people are just playing Simon says with the message.
Idk why anyone is surprised that there was an outbreak and that there have been other positive tests. MLB is not in a bubble so it was bound to happen. That doesn’t mean the league should shut down immediately because of the Marlins and a handful of other players. That’s why they increased the rosters and implemented all of the other rule changes.
People need to stop crying about everything and enjoy the game.
Agreed, but I would have had the next 28 players on the 60-man roster come to play. Provisions should be in-place just for this year so that the league does not have to cram games in later this season. That is the penalty for a team potentially not taking care of themselves. Play should have resumed and the Marlins should have been forced to start the B squad.
exactly
Quit making sense
There should be a Covid chart tracking players, showing positive test date, negative test date, condition, rehabbing, training, out for season, opted out, back on the active roster, etc.
Cards – Brewers Sun double header called off. So many games missed – players out of sync.
As much as we want the sport back the nation needs these control groups.
We need to know what kind of ventilation was present on the buses, planes & the places the Marlins & now Cards have been to.
Can the ventilation be improved with high directional fans designed to push high viral loads of vapor droplets quickly down to the floor? Can technology be used to see large quanities of otherwise invisible to the naked eye pools of such material? Is it enough to simply wipe it up & lay down bleach?
If these kind of procedures on buses, planes, in hotels, & etc. can dramatically reduce high viral load infections & developments in MLB can we apply them to the school system so students can return by Oct 1st?
I can only hope Manfred & others in MLB understand their importance right now.
It’s actually a good thing the MLBPA fought vs the bubble approach & opted for regional travel using existing ball parks. They no doubt were thinking along the lines like the KBO that fans could return.
I think fans can return in time for labor day weekend ONLY if MLB ups both their discipline & procedures to reduce cases of high viral loads.
It looks like we’re back in business!
so which is worse?
astros cheating to win baseball GAMES
or the cardinals disregarding safety and spreading a potentially DEADLY disease?
seems Joe Kelly just added some cards to his hit list…..
If a mortality rate of 0,048% really troubles you then of course the Cards disregarding health and safety rules is more troubling. However, as an alternative argument, consider the mortality rate from heart disease is .197%. In other words heart disease, which is primarily the results of poor heath habits, is four times as deadly as COVID-19.
So, deadly and the disregard for health and safety is all relative. Taking your 85 year-old grandfather to get a greasing burger can prove just as fatal as COVID since many overweight people are one ham sandwich away from a coronary.
Yeah, but [scientific expertise regarding virology gained from reading the titles of articles summarizing other articles online], therefore we’ll all be dead by Halloween.
Okay, so we are about to have all these doubleheader’s.
How many innings does a pitcher have to complete to get the win.
Normally it’s 5 innings. However considering this season, nothing is normal.
Well, if it’s true that you can’t get this thing twice, Marlins are in a great position for the final month of the season.
This season is already a total joke. After tomorrow the Philles will have missed at least 7 games out of 11 . The Marlins franchise should be axed just because, but MLB totally f’d this up.