Toronto Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said Thursday that his team’s weekend series in Philadelphia was suspended due to concerns about the coronavirus after two Phillies employees tested positive.
“Our plans right now are to stay and let Major League Baseball figure out whatever they are working on,” Montoyo said before his club played the last of the four games in Washington. “We will not go to Philadelphia. Those games have been postponed. “
It is the latest in a series of programming changes, as Major League Baseball tries to play a 60-game season in the midst of a pandemic that’s emerging in parts of the United States.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE AT FOXNEWS.COM
Earlier Thursday, word spread that another player with the Miami Marlins, who recently played in Philadelphia, tested positive for COVID-19, bringing his total outbreak to 17 players, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The Phillies said there were no positive results among the players in their team’s Wednesday tests. But there were two positives: one from a coaching staff member and one from a clubhouse staff member.
All activity at Citizens Bank Park was canceled Thursday until further notice.
The Blue Jays are stuck on the road because the Canadian government did not allow them to use their Toronto stadium this season due to fear that the teams will travel back and forth to the United States. Eventually, the Blue Jays are supposed to play at home at a minor league ballpark in Buffalo, but it’s not ready. So Montoyo’s team played their “opening game” in Washington on Wednesday.
The Blue Jays were supposed to start a three-game series in the Phillies on Friday. First, MLB changed Friday’s game to part of a double game on Saturday, with the series finale on Sunday, and now all three games were scrapped, leaving Toronto in limbo.
“We are going to talk to the Nationals to see if we can exercise here,” Montoyo said. “If they say yes, we will stay and exercise until MLB tells us where to go next.”
Blue Jays reliever Jordan Romano says the long break shouldn’t be a big deal.
“I consider it a lesser challenge,” he said. “I think we can still practice, hopefully the pitchers throw bullpens. I think we’d still be ready to roll after this four-day break, if that’s what they’re going to do. “
The Miami team remains in quarantine in Philadelphia, where the Marlins’ outbreak was discovered during a weekend series against the Phillies.
Two Marlins staff members also tested positive.
The person who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday about the Marlins did so on condition of anonymity because the test results were not announced.
The Miami season has been suspended until at least Sunday, and it appears that the schedule will also change next week.
Milwaukee Brewers general manager David Stearns says it’s crucial for the league to understand what’s going on in Miami.
“The volume of positives we’ve seen on a team now is alarming,” he said. “And I think everyone feels that way. We have a very robust set of protocols implemented for the explicit reason of preventing something like this from happening. ”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
After Thursday’s game, the Nationals will be stuck in Washington because their three-game series in Miami scheduled for Friday and Sunday was postponed due to the Marlins outbreak.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez joked that the team’s next four-day layoff (Monday was already a scheduled day off, so World Series champions don’t play next until Tuesday against the Mets. from New York) is like a “mini All-Star Jump.
