Major League Baseball’s 2020 season is not even a week old and one team has already experienced a coronavirus outbreak that will sideline a chunk of its roster and has caused multiple games to be postponed. The Miami Marlins are now up to at least 17 reported positive cases of COVID-19 between players and coaches of the traveling team since Opening Day, including four more players testing positive on Tuesday, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic.  

Miami’s traveling party remains quarantined in Philadelphia, and they haven’t been the only team impacted by the outbreak. The Orioles returned to Baltimore on Monday night, and the Philadelphia Phillies, who hosted the Marlins over the weekend at Citizens Bank Park, also had their Monday and Tuesday night games vs. the Yankees postponed. As a result, the league announced that the Marlins and Phillies will temporarily hit the pause button as the schedule was revised on the fly in an effort to minimize disruption to the season while containing the outbreak.

MLB issued the following statement on Tuesday:

“The health and safety protocols were designed with a challenging circumstance like the one facing the Marlins in mind,” MLB said in a statement. “The response outlined in the joint MLB-MLBPA Operations Manual was triggered immediately upon learning of the cluster of positive cases, including contact tracing and the quarantining and testing of all of the identified close contacts. The Marlins’ personnel who tested positive remain in isolation and are receiving care.”  

Marlins CEO Derek Jeter released a statement saying the team is shifting to a daily testing schedule.

“We continue to take this entire situation very seriously. All of our players, coaches and staff are, understandably, having a difficult time enduring this experience. After receiving additional test results on our Major League team this morning, we reached out to the Commissioner’s Office with concern for the health and safety of our team as well as our opponents.

We have moved to a daily testing schedule while we isolate and quarantine appropriately, along with enacting additional preventive procedures with our traveling party. We look forward to safely returning to Miami where we conducted a successful and healthy Spring 2.0 before departing on the road and experiencing challenges. For the time being, we will remain in Philadelphia and gather information in order to make informed decisions and prepare for our return to action next week.”  

Here is a look at the revised schedule.

To recap:

• All Marlins games have been postponed through Sunday (including scheduled series against Baltimore and Nationals)
• Phillies-Yankees home-and-home series has been postponed
• The Yankees will play the Orioles in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday. 

How did the Marlins get here?

The Marlins first had a positive test result on Opening Day, when Jorge Alfaro was placed on the injured list shortly before the team’s season opener in Philadelphia. Here’s a timeline of what happened between then and Monday.  

Friday, July 24 (Opening Day vs. Philadelphia)

• Jorge Alfaro tests positive and misses opener. No other Marlins have positive results.

Sunday, July 26

• Three other players, including scheduled starter Jose Urena reportedly test positive. Urena is scratched from his Sunday start. The rest of the team learns about the positive tests, but decides to play Sunday’s game as scheduled.
• The Marlins do not travel home as scheduled after winning the series finale at Citizens Bank Park. Instead, the team stays in Philly and awaits another round of test results.

Monday, July 27

• Another round of testing shows a full-blown outbreak for the Marlins. Eleven players test positive for COVID-19, and reportedly at least 14 total team members are positive.
• MLB postpones the Marlins’ Monday night home opener vs. the Orioles in Miami, and the team stays quarantined in Philadelphia.

Tuesday, July 28

• Four more players tested positive.
• The Marlins remain quarantined in Philadelphia.
• One player who previously tested positive now tested negative, per Ken Rosenthal.
• The league issued a press release announcing the Marlins aren’t going to play until Monday, Aug. 3.