Major League Baseball rocked by COVID-19 outbreak

A fresh 14-person coronavirus outbreak has sparked backlash and major concerns over the inadequacy of the MLB’s safety precautions.

An outbreak of COVID-19 has rocked Major League Baseball (MLB), forcing the postponement of two games less than a week after the sport launched its season following a four-month coronavirus delay.

Major League Baseball confirmed in a statement that games between the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles in Florida, and the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees in Pennsylvania, had been scrapped.

The decision followed reports that 10 more members of the Marlins — eight players and two coaches — had tested positive for the coronavirus following Monday’s game against the Phillies in Philadelphia.

Four Marlins players — pitcher Jose Urena, first baseman Garrett Cooper, outfielder Harold Ramirez and catcher Jorge Alfaro — had already tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total to 14. It saw questions asked about why the Marlins — rather than the league — were even allowed to decide they wanted to play on Monday against the Phillies.

Major League Baseball said in a statement the games had been postponed in order to allow for additional testing.

“The members of the Marlins’ travelling party are self-quarantining in place while awaiting the outcome of those results,” the MLB statement said.

The Yankees were due to use the same locker room at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park that the Marlins had used over the weekend.

Marlins chief executive Derek Jeter said postponing the game against the Orioles in Florida was the “correct decision”.

“The health of our players and staff has been and will continue to be our primary focus as we navigate through these uncharted waters,” Jeter said.

“Postponing tonight’s home opener was the correct decision to ensure we take a collective pause and try to properly grasp the totality of this situation.”

Garrett Cooper is one of many Marlins who contracted the virus.

Jeter said the Marlins had remained in Philadelphia to undergo further testing. Major League Baseball’s commissioner Rob Manfred meanwhile reportedly held an emergency meeting to discuss the outbreak, but there was no talk between team owners of cancelling the season.

The postponed games came with Major League Baseball less than a week into its abbreviated 2020 season. The season finally got under way last Thursday four months after it had been due to open in March.

Games are taking place without fans, while players are subject to a range of strict health and safety protocols designed to prevent outbreaks of COVID-19.

Players are tested for the disease every 48 hours, while masks will be mandatory for all players not on the field of play.

Unlike other sports leagues, such as Major League Soccer and the NBA, which are restarting their seasons with all the teams based at a single location, baseball has opted to leave clubs at their home ballparks, meaning they must travel throughout the United States during the season.

That decision has been criticised as risky by health experts as swathes of the US are battling skyrocketing coronavirus cases.

One positive test shut down the NBA in March. The Marlins have 13 positives and MLB still wants teams flying around the country to play some sham 60-game season. This is insane !!!!!!!

— Rohan Nadkarni (@RohanNadkarni) July 27, 2020

These are all great points. Think the simplest deduction is that baseball wasn't prepared for this instance and I have no idea why it wasn't prepared when this was one of the likelier problematic scenarios. https://t.co/ktSLIOtGA0

— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) July 27, 2020

...this is absolutely insane.

This is, if possible, the literal stupidest possible plan.

You have a raging outbreak, anyone in the Marlins traveling party could be infected regardless of how their tests come back. So by all means, just bring that on the road to Baltimore! https://t.co/WFY6jUSTWx

— Zachary Binney, PhD (@zbinney_NFLinj) July 27, 2020

MLB put together a 113-page handbook on how to react to the Coronavirus and somehow didn’t mandate that it has to be the call of the league office when multiple players test positive as to whether a game is played.

That’s why the Marlins played yesterday. THEY chose to play.

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 27, 2020

Several star players had also expressed misgivings about attempting to start the season while the pandemic raged, with some opting out of the 2020 season altogether.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher David Price was among those who elected to skip the season citing concerns over safety protocols.

Price said the Marlins’ outbreak would be a test of MLB’s commitment to player safety.

“Now we REALLY get to see if MLB is going to put players health first,” Price wrote on Twitter.

“Remember when Manfred said players health was PARAMOUNT?! Part of the reason I’m at home right now is because players health wasn’t being put first.

“I can see that hasn’t changed.”

In light of the Marlins’ outbreak, Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez said: “I’m going to be honest with you, I’m scared.”

— AFP