After suffering the first, and hopefully-by-far-most-massive COVID-19 outbreak of the year, the Miami Marlins are set to resume their season tonight in Baltimore.
The final tally had 2 coaches and 18 players – out of 30 on the roster – test positive for COVID-19, and saw the Marlins go eight days without a game. Now they return to play, somehow trying to make it work without half their roster and having to play more games than there are days left in the season.
Perhaps nothing sums up the absurdity and scope of the situation better than the current NL East standings:
When the Marlins finally resume play today, they will be in first place. And also a game back. pic.twitter.com/DYGW2YYPi5
— Baseball is Fun (@flippingbats) August 4, 2020
Let’s not forget that these are humans with a sickness now, by the way, and while there do not yet appear to be any serious cases, some of the players are actually sick:
A week later, the Marlins return to action as emblems of a fragile 2020 MLB season.@TBrownYahoo's column ➡️ https://t.co/naHNcoSYm4 pic.twitter.com/T5czwhlKnG
— Yahoo Sports MLB (@MLByahoosports) August 4, 2020
From Marlins President Derek Jeter: “These guys are sick, [some more than others]. They’ve been stricken with a virus that has no cure other than to run its course. Our players and coaches went into this knowing that their health was on the line. Unfortunately they have had to endure quite a trying time over the last week plus. We have seen first-hand just how contagious this virus is.”
Hopefully, and most importantly, all affected get better, and no families are seriously impacted. The players can return once they get past their symptoms and test negative twice for the virus.
In the meantime, the Marlins play again tonight. And they’ll play with a 30-man roster that has been massively overhauled over the course of the last week:
The #Marlins re-make roster wirh 15 additions to their 30-man roster: 7 from minor leagues, 3 from waiver wire, 2 from injured list, 2
from from trades, and 1 from free agency.
Says Manager Don Mattingly: ‘Some of the guys, I’ve never met.”— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 4, 2020
Already a young club without a lot of household names, the Marlins will be near unrecognizable as a big league roster tonight against the Orioles (insert your Orioles joke here). It’s something we all knew was possible in this season – hence the 60-man player pools – but clearly it isn’t something MLB actually thought would happen, much less in the first week of the season.
I guess I’m glad that the (eventual) quarantining procedure prevented additional spread in the clubhouse, and I’m definitely glad that there appears to have been no spread to the Phillies from the Marlins’ visit. As for what this season now looks like for the Marlins? What we say about it, and what the fans think about it? I guess we’ll find out.