Miami Marlins coronavirus outbreak: four more MLB players test positive


In the past week, ESPN reported, the team had 17 people who tested positive. The delayed season started on Thursday.

CNN has contacted the Marlins and MLB to confirm and update the team’s status.

The team did not travel back to Miami on Sunday after a three-game series in Philadelphia, but stayed overnight for more tests.

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Tuesday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Phillies has been postponed, according to an MLB spokesman. No other details were given. The afternoon game in Philadelphia was postponed as a precaution, ESPN reported.

The Marlins ‘opener against the Baltimore Orioles and the Yankees’ game with the Phillies on Monday night were also postponed.

On Monday, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred asked if there was a point within the league or team to cause the timeline to close: “I think a team that lost a number of players that made it completely non-competitive would be a problem that we would have to tackle and think about making a change, whether part of the season closes, the whole season, that depends on the circumstances. “

“Same thing for the entire league. You get to a certain point throughout the league where it becomes a health threat and we would certainly close at that point.”

Before the Marlins game Sunday against the Phillies, the Marlins discovered that starting pitcher Jose Urena would not be available to play.

On Tuesday, the Marlins told CNN that the team had alerted the league and the Phillies to the team’s “positive tests” before Sunday’s game. The Phillies “agreed to play,” according to the Marlins.

Urena had tested positive for Covid-19, according to various media including ESPN and The Philadelphia Inquirer.

But the players decided in a group chat to play the game anyway, Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas said in a video call with reporters.
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“We made the decision that we are going to continue to do this and we are going to continue to be responsible and just play the game as hard as we can,” Rojas said.

The Marlins won the game, 11-6.

Florida over the weekend became the state with the second-highest number of official coronavirus cases, surpassing New York, the country’s epicenter at the start of the pandemic.

According to Johns Hopkins University data, the return of professional sports could not have come at a worse time, as cases in the United States continue to rise, with more than 4 million cases confirmed.

The 60-game shortened MLB season is free of viewers. It introduces new rules, including a ban on spitting, to prevent the virus from spreading.

Like baseball, the National Football League plans to start its season at the teams’ home stadiums. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in an open letter Monday that the preseason games were canceled.

Other sports leagues are reopening with teams in so-called “bubbles” to try to limit interactions with the outside world.

The WNBA kicked off its season on Saturday at the IMG Academy in Florida. The NBA is slated to restart its season later this week at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, and the NHL plans to restart with two bubbles in Toronto and Edmonton. In Utah, the NWSL Challenge Cup concluded on Sunday, with the Houston Dash winning the title.

CNN’s Jill Martin contributed to this report.

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