Could Marlins resume play on Wednesday despite coronavirus outbreak?
The Miami Marlins could be back in action as early as Wednesday.
On the same day that Miami's home opener versus the Baltimore Orioles was called off due to a coronavirus outbreak within the Marlins organization, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred appeared on MLB Network and said that the Marlins could begin a scheduled two-game series in Baltimore on Wednesday if Miami's latest coronavirus test results are deemed "acceptable."
Additionally, MLB canceled Monday's game between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies because the Phillies hosted the Marlins over the weekend. Per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, Manfred said that the league will offer updates on the Marlins and Phillies tomorrow:
As of Monday night, the Marlins, Phillies, Yankees, and Orioles face "to be determined" scenarios. The Orioles returned to Baltimore from Miami on Monday.
During an appearance on the "Starkville" podcast, epidemiologist Dr. Zachary Binney explained that both the Marlins and Phillies should be shut down for at least five days to prevent the further spread of the virus among MLB personnel:
"And you need to wait because you could have ongoing transmission from cases that are newly discovered tomorrow or the next day. You could still have more come from chains of transmission from those people after that. So there’s no cure but time here, unfortunately.
“I don’t think MLB necessarily needs to scrap the season just yet. I think that would be a little bit of an overreaction. But they need to think very seriously about the results of the investigation in Miami and (decide) if this can be fixed, or if this is likely to be a one-off, or if it’s likely to happen again and again.
“I think that if you saw the situation in Miami repeated for another team, that’s when you’d have to think very seriously about suspending the season.”
More must-reads: