NEWSLETTER
Although I have no doubt that the Cubs are perturbed in the abstract that they suddenly have to sit for four days thanks to the Cardinals series postponement and Monday’s scheduled off-day, I also have no doubt they support the decision MLB made last night. I think we can hold both perspectives – that this is bad luck for the Cubs from a competitive standpoint, but keeping the players and coaches as safe as possible trumps everything else.
As Cubs President Theo Epstein shared in a statement:
“Based on the information MLB has shared with us, postponing this series is a necessary step to protect the health and safety of the Cardinals and the Cubs. Therefore, it is absolutely the right thing to do. While it’s obviously less than ideal, this is 2020 and we will embrace whatever steps are necessary to promote player and staff well-being and increase our chances of completing this season in safe fashion. We will be ready to go on Tuesday in Cleveland. In the meantime, we wish the Cardinals personnel involved a quick and complete recovery.”
With three additional positive tests for the Cardinals yesterday, and with an investigation that apparently led the Cardinals to conclude that some or all of those cases had developed before the team traveled together from Milwaukee on Wednesday, postponement was the only choice.
Not only can you not know for sure whether more undetected positives could pop up today or tomorrow, but you can’t know that these three new cases did not transmit the virus to additional players or personnel while traveling on Wednesday or working out together on Wednesday or Thursday. So, then, even if you were confident there wouldn’t be on-field transmission to a visiting team like the Cubs, you cannot be confident that the Cardinals wouldn’t spread even more among themselves. So forget the idea of just trying to bring in additional players from the Cardinals’ alternate site to cover missing players – you cannot do that, as the Marlins did, until you know for sure the original spread has stopped.
… to that end, what happens now with the Cardinals? Do they have to be shut down for another week to determine whether there was secondary spread? It’s very difficult to imagine there won’t be any, given that you’re talking about three new vectors for spread and a virus that is just so damn easily transmissible. For now, Cardinals President John Mozeliak says they are taking this day by day to see what the testing results bring this weekend. Whatever your feelings about the Cardinals baseball team, we should all be hoping that there are no new positives this weekend – both at a human level, and so that their season can continue as soon as possible.
If the Cardinals are shut down again for more than just this weekend, there’s virtually no way they can play all of their games this season – they have 55 to play in 49 days as of Monday. Shut them down for a week, and it’s like 55 games in 45 days. That probably shouldn’t even be attempted, regardless of 7-inning doubleheaders. It’s possible that this Cubs-Cardinals series is never played, and, no, it wouldn’t be the Cardinals forfeiting the games to the Cubs. The games just wouldn’t have existed, and playoff standings would be determined by winning percentage.
