Marlins, Phillies resume play next week

The Miami Marlins and the Philadelphia Phillies are expected to be playing next week, MLB has announced. The Phillies are expected to play a four game series against the New York Yankees beginning on Monday, and the Marlins are expected to resume play against the Baltimore Orioles in Baltimore on Tuesday.

The Phillies and Marlins have not played since Sunday, when they played each other in the final game of a series in Philadelphia. Several Marlins had tested positive by Sunday, and more positives came in for the Marlins subsequently, with around half the active roster ultimately testing positive. The Phillies were put on hold and isolated out of an abundance of caution, but no Phillies players have tested positive, and while three staffers have tested positive, two of those are thought to be false positives, and the third may be unconnected to the Marlins series.

The Marlins are currently scrambling to fill out their potential active roster — they claimed multiple pitchers this week and have signed Logan Forsythe, and today traded for former Texas Rangers draft pick Richard Bleier, getting him from Baltimore for a player to be named later.

The St. Louis Cardinals are still on hold after rapid result saliva tests showed a player and several staffers as potentially positive. Those tests are less reliable and more prone to false positives, but more will be known on their situation after the more reliable tests come back tomorrow.

While there have been rumors that Rob Manfred told Tony Clark he was prepared to cancel the season, Manfred came out today and said he is committed to playing the season safely and isn’t planning on pulling the plug. The extent to which that is spin to keep players from packing it in prematurely versus the extent to which it is genuine is to be determined.