NEWSLETTER
The official update from MLB on all things COVID-19 and scheduling, with the Marlins and Phillies finally scheduled to get back underway after a week+ off, and the Cardinals shut down until further notice.
Here is MLB’s official update on the #Phillies, #Yankees and #Marlins.
It includes the revelation that two of the Phillies’ results appear to be false positives.
The Phillies will now resume play Monday against the Yankees, with the Marlins returning Tuesday in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/6zuijYDtbF
— Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) August 1, 2020
The Cardinals remain the huge question for MLB. Even if just one additional player (three total) was positive, where you’ve got multiple players AND multiple staff testing positive, you have an outbreak. I’m not epidemiologist, but it’s highly implausible that all 5-6-7-however-many people, including players and staff, contracted the virus at the same external source and then did not spread it to anyone else. It’s far more likely that the virus was contracted at an external source, and then started to spread internally. There will be a great deal more testing in the coming days, just like with the Marlins. I wouldn’t expect to see the Cardinals back in action, even if they get back negatives, for several more days. And that’s if baseball is lucky.
As for the Phillies, it seems pretty unlikely at this point that there was direct contraction from the Marlins. That is certainly good news at a human level, and a good data point with respect to our fears about team-to-team spread. But it’s just one data point.
As for the Marlins, the clock is now ticking on them figuring out how to put together a roster while missing 18-19 players from their original 30-man group. Of course, just because they have now finally started to see some negative tests doesn’t mean there won’t be any more positives in the coming days. Thankfully, all have been quarantined since last weekend, so there shouldn’t have been any additional spread.
UPDATE: Just confirming the obvious:
No surprise, but both ends of the scheduled Cardinals-Brewers doubleheader Sunday have officially been postponed, sources tell ESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) August 1, 2020
