The 2020 season is not even a week old and already MLB has a COVID-19 crisis on its hands. As many as 18 members of the Miami Marlins, including 16 players, have tested positive in recent days. The outbreak forced Monday’s and Tuesday’s games in Miami and Philadelphia, where the Marlins played this past weekend, to be postponed. 

In an effort to minimize disruption to the season while containing the outbreak, MLB has revised the schedule to isolate the Marlins and Phillies for a period of time, the league announced Tuesday afternoon. Both clubs are currently undergoing additional testing following their series at Citizens Bank Park this past weekend.

“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.”

Miami’s season has been halted until Monday, Aug. 3, giving the club time to regroup and adjust their roster as necessary. “MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their baseball operations for a resumption early next week,” said the statement. The Marlins are next scheduled to play Tuesday, Aug. 4 at home against the Phillies, though it’s possible a game could be added the day before on Monday, according to Jon Heyman. 

The Phillies will be shut down until Saturday, as they have already postponed Friday’s restart against Toronto. Philadelphia will instead play a doubleheader on Saturday and one game on Sunday as the designated road team at Citizens Bank Park, according to Ken Rosenthal. The Blue Jays’ 2020 home venue in Buffalo won’t be ready for major-league games until Aug. 11. 

The Yankees and Orioles are bystanders in the outbreak. The Yankees were scheduled to play four games with the Phillies this week (two in Philadelphia and two in New York) while the Orioles were scheduled to play four games with the Marlins (two in Miami and two in Baltimore). The revised schedule has the Yankees and Orioles playing Wednesday and Thursday rather than sit idle.

The Marlins were scheduled to play a three-game series against the Nationals this weekend. The vast majority of Nationals players voted not to travel to Miami for safety reasons. Under the revised schedule, the Nationals will not play this weekend while the Marlins are on hiatus. Here, for the sake of laying it all out, is 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. 

MLB will try to make up all postponed games later in the season via doubleheaders and eliminating off-days. If it’s not possible, MLB is prepared to allow teams to finish the season with an unequal number of games played, and determine the postseason field with winning percentage, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

That would not be ideal but there is precedent. Teams finished with an unequal number of games around the 1981 strike — some teams played as many as 111 games that season while others played as few as 103 — and the standings were based on winning percentage. In these adverse times, a similar strategy would be warranted this year.

As a result of the outbreak, the Marlins are shifting to a daily testing schedule, CEO Derek Jeter announced Tuesday. Players and personnel are currently tested every other day. Here is Jeter’s statement:

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.

COVID-19 carries up to a 14-day incubation period with a median of five days, meaning if any Phillies players and personnel were exposed during the Marlins series over the weekend, it may not show up on Monday’s and Tuesday’s tests. The safest approach would be waiting another few days and retesting before allowing the club to resume play.

MLB’s press release says over 6,400 tests have been conducted since last Friday, July 24, and the Marlins are the only team with positive tests. It adds that the league had a 0.3 percent positive test rate on over 32,000 tests through Opening Day.

“The difficult circumstances of one Club reinforce the vital need to be diligent with the protocols in all ways, both on and off the field,” MLB’s statement says. “We will continue to bolster our protocols and make any necessary adjustments. The realities of the virus still loom large, and we must operate with that in mind every day. We are confident that Clubs and players will act appropriately, for themselves and for others, and the data provides reason to believe that the protocols can work effectively.”

As for player compensation, the March agreement on prorated salaries only applies to how many games each team is able to play. However, players on the Phillies, Orioles and Nationals will get the full 60 games, even if they are unable to play 60 as a team due to the circumstances here, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. There is no word on the Marlins’ players, though. 

Despite the outbreak, commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday the owners have not yet seriously discussed canceling the season. The league believes it has mechanisms in place (60-man roster, taxi squad, etc.) to manage an outbreak and continue play. Now MLB is apparently prepared to revise the schedule on the fly to make it work.