MLB announces COVID-related schedule changes

MLB has announced schedule changes for this week in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak with the Miami Marlins.

The Marlins, who were slated to play the Baltimore Orioles Monday through Thursday and the Washington Nationals this weekend, have had all of their games for this week postponed. The Marlins have reportedly had around 15 players test positive for COVID-19, as well as two staffers.

The Philadelphia Phillies, who were slated to play a home-and-home series against the New York Yankees from Monday through Thursday of this week, have had all those games postponed. The Phillies played the Marlins this past weekend, and while no positive tests have come back from testing done on Phillies players, out of an abundance of caution, the Phillies will not play while more testing is done, as an individual who is infected may not test positive right away.

The Yankees and Orioles will now play each other at Camden Yards on Wednesday and Thursday, since otherwise, those two teams would be idle.

Any decisions about the Phillies playing this weekend, or the Marlins playing next week, will presumably be addressed as we see how the situation develops. Additional schedule changes resulting from these moves will also be addressed later this week, per MLB.

MLB also says that none of the over 6000 tests administered since Friday have resulted in a positive test for anyone with any of the other 29 teams, which is good news.

This is probably the best that MLB can do right now under the circumstances. If MLB is able to pull off playing the full season, some teams are going to play less than 60 games, and that’s just going to have to be how it is. We are in the middle of a pandemic, and carping about one team playing 55 games and another 60 games is kind of silly.