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Until the Marlins and MLB explain what happened, that’s the most likely scenario, although it could also be a result of protocols not being followed, like a test being missed, or a delay in results. Several teams cancelled workout days when results were delayed earlier in training camp, but now that the games count the Marlins might have just decided to suit up anyway.
Whatever the process that led to this point, it is, first, a grim situation for the Marlins. Suddenly a bunch of players have contracted an illness that could have long-term effects on their health. Beyond that, it is hard to overstate how bad this is for Major League Baseball. Somehow the Marlins were allowed to take the field on Sunday despite multiple reported positive tests, which likely means some of those among the new total of 14 cases were playing against the Phillies. How no one in charge realized that a batch of positive tests — even a small batch — on a single team signalled a possible team-wide outbreak is impossible to understand at this point in the pandemic. Is Commissioner Rob Manfred the last person to realize that several sudden COVID positives in a workplace setting will almost always uncover new positive cases among the same group? This is true of grocery stores and factories, hair salons and bars — and those co-workers don’t shower together. Honestly, does Manfred not watch the news? Read a paper?
Major League Baseball will reportedly hold an emergency meeting on Monday, but the path forward is unclear. The Marlins will be unable to field something close to a normal roster for at least a couple of weeks, which from a competitive sense is an extremely long time in this truncated season. (Pause for obvious joke about how the Marlins haven’t fielded a real major-league roster for years.) But if their games are scrubbed, what do their various opponents do for those games? Play each other to make up the lost dates? Can a team with an outbreak just be deleted from the season?
One might think that Manfred and his colleagues in the league offices have planned for just such a scenario. But it is a lack of planning, and an astonishing lack of foresight, that has brought Major League Baseball to this place.
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