August 16: As of today, all of the 18 Marlins who landed on the COVID-19 injured list have been cleared to resume baseball activities and have reported to the team’s alternate training site in Jupiter, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Surely, that group will collectively need some time to ramp back up to in-game action, but their impact should be felt in the near future. In particular, FNTSY’s Craig Mish suggests that pitcher Sandy Alcantara, throwing a bullpen session today, could be ready to start as early as next weekend. For that to happen, he (and any other players vying to return) would need to travel with the team to Washington on Thursday; if that doesn’t happen, the aforementioned August 28 home series is the likely target date.
August 15: Several of the 18 Marlins players who tested positive for the coronavirus have been cleared to start baseball activities and workouts. The exact number of clearances isn’t yet known, though the Associated Press described that “most” of the 18 were given the green light. In terms of specific names, Sportsgrid’s Craig Mish tweets that shortstop Miguel Rojas and right-hander Sandy Alcantara were two of the players cleared.
Needless to say, it’s wonderful news that many of these players are healthy and recovered from the COVID-19 outbreak that halted Miami’s season for a week and put the entire baseball world on notice. From an on-field perspective, the Marlins will surely benefit from the return of so many key performers, though the Fish have done well (a 9-5 record) even with a severely short-handed roster.
The AP article notes that August 28 might be a realistic target date for any of these cleared players to actually return to the Major League roster, as they will naturally need some time to get back up to speed after missing so much time. Should the team continue to be in playoff contention, this mass return will add another layer of uncertainty to any potential trade deadline moves the Miami front office could have under consideration. The return of at least 10 players could be enough of an in-house upgrade that the Marlins might prefer to see what they have internally rather than seek out a trade chip on another team.
AUGUST 28th??? Why the hell would position players need 14 days to get back to rhythm? Maaaybe a starter. But hitters and relievers?? No way
Hiring is hard, took a few weeks into the season after a short summer camp before guys started getting their timing down.
Oof, Hitting is hard*
In fairness, hiring is hard too!
Sure man.. after 4 months… not 20 days.
It’s not a linear scale. Once you lose it, it takes time to get back
Marlins seem to be in better shape with their current squad. To be fair, the bar was set super low
And in better health that most NL East teams.
That AP article makes no sense with its timeline of guys returning. Cardinals missed weeks, had 2ish practices and then swept a double header. Markakis went from not playing at all for weeks to hitting a game winning home run his first day back with no practice days. If they showed symptoms they may need some time to get up to par, but even Freeman didn’t need 2 weeks and he has reportedly been the most affected thus far. I would guess that most of the guys, the moment they are cleared to return to the team, they will or will after 1-2 days.
it would take 2 weeks if the guys weren’t practicing while on the IL, but in reality they were all probably working out or throwing from home. MLB protocols may say they cant but i highly doubt any player woulf listen. perhaps players that had symptoms may be disrupted, but those without should be back quicker.
Yeah, I agree. I would be really surprised if the guys that tested positive but were asymptomatic were just hanging out at home. I am there might be a guy or two that will take a week or so to get ready, but I would say most are ready now. I think it was Salvador Perez that was positive earlier and said he kept training everyday so he would be ready day 1 he was given the green light.
and he’s been off to the races. heck, a lot of the guys where sick have been doing great so far.
Another example….DJ LeMahieu missed all of the Yankees summer camp but for maybe about six innings and pretty much bolted out of the gate, hitting over .400 over the first three weeks. He’ll miss more time due to the thumb sprain from yesterday than he did from COVID.
DOn’t you people think they are going a little overboard with COVID? They are sending people to a whole different planet now.
why do they have to be with them in Washington to be
back before the 8th?
Send the B squad to play tomorrow. They have 60 guys. Pick 28, including the guys testing negative since day 1 and begin play tomorrow. If pitchers can’t go more than 3 innings so be it.
Is Sandy Alcantara an ace, a number two, or number 3-5 starter long term?
Ace for sure. He’s just beginning to tap into his potential. On a game-to-game basis, his stuff is right up there with the best.
he has ace stuff for sure, though he may be passed for the #1 spot on the team with some of the good young SP they have
Great, so now Jupiter will have a coronavirus problem too…