Today, MLB announced that the entire four-game opening series between the New York Mets and Washington Nationals is postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak on the Nationals, and the ongoing contact-tracing efforts there.
MLB has postponed entire 4-game Nationals-Mets series because of "continued follow-up testing and contact tracing involving members of the Nationals organization."
Nats' outbreak, per GM Mike Rizzo yesterday: 3 players confirmed positive, a fourth presumed positive.
— Bill Shaikin (@BillShaikin) April 2, 2021
In theory, the ability to better trace using devices, as well as more rapid testing, would be able to cut down on individual positive tests leading to outbreaks and week-long postponements of games, but maybe MLB is just being incredibly cautious here. As we saw last year, the worst thing is to think you know the outer bounds of spread, only to find soon after resuming activities that there are additional positives – that’s how things can get really bad as they did with the Cardinals and Marlins.
UPDATE: More positives, more quarantining, more tracing:
Nats announce 4 positive tests in total, 5 more players in quarantine due to contact tracing…team is hoping to play Monday.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) April 2, 2021