Now What?
In case you haven’t heard, 11 Marlins players and 2 coaches have been diagnosed with COVID-19. With a Corona outbreak so early in the season, things are not looking good for the MLB. So, what’s going to happen now?
The Plan:
There’s a reason the MLB gave its teams 60 man rosters this year. If active players test positive, players from the 30 man “taxi squad” can be called upon to fill the holes needed. At the same time, there is no step-by-step plan for an outbreak within a team. So, we’re living in uncharted territory. Will the Marlins suspend their games for the next two weeks? Will the Phillies (who played the Marlins before the diagnoses came to light) have to do the same? What about the teams scheduled to play the both of them? These questions will likely have to be answered in the spur of the moment. Thankfully, with the way the 60 game schedule is organized this only affects the East teams at the moment. So 22 teams will be able to play with absolutely no interruptions from the outbreak. And, for the Red Sox fans that haven’t given up on the season already, we don’t play the Phillies until August 18th and the Marlins until September 14th, so they should be able to play all their games, too.
Can We Fix It?
A lot of people are asking what the MLB should do to prevent future outbreaks. Do we need to move the season into a bubble, like the NBA did? Do we place stricter guidelines on both players, coaches, and umpires? Will masks become mandatory? There’s simply a lot that we don’t know. My best guess is that the MLB is just going to wait for the results from the Phillies and determine what to do from there. If there’s positive tests, there’s a chance we’ve seen all the baseball 2020 will give us, but the MLB might still try to get creative. If the tests come back negative, the Marlins might be playing the next two weeks with their taxi squad (or at least fill the roster with them). Let’s hope the outbreak is contained and we can continue to have the distraction of sports from all this craziness.
P.S. Make your voice heard on this poll from Couch Guy’s own Small State Big Takes Podcast:
What should MLB do?
— Small State Big Takes Podcast (@SmallStateTakes) July 27, 2020
– Pat Shuman (@PShu1996 on Twitter)