Major League Baseball has postponed all of the Miami Marlins‘ games through Sunday after the team’s recent coronavirus outbreak.
MLB announced that Miami’s next six games, starting with Tuesday night’s home game against the Baltimore Orioles, have been postponed, citing the belief that “it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week.”
The postponements were announced Tuesday among a series of scheduling changes involving four other teams.
The Orioles, who were scheduled to host the Marlins in a two-game series starting Wednesday, instead will host the New York Yankees for games Wednesday and Thursday.
The Yankees were scheduled to play the Phillies in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, but that game officially was postponed “out of an abundance of caution,” according to MLB. The Phillies also were scheduled to play games Wednesday and Thursday in New York against the Yankees, who now will be traveling to Baltimore instead.
Also impacted by Tuesday’s announcement are the Washington Nationals, who were slated to play a three-game series starting Friday in Miami against the Marlins. A majority of Nationals players voted against playing the Marlins earlier Tuesday, according to ESPN and multiple reports.
Four additional members of the Marlins tested positive Tuesday for COVID-19, according to ESPN and multiple reports, bringing the total to 17 members of their traveling party.
“The health and safety protocols were designed with a challenging circumstance like the one facing the Marlins in mind,” MLB said as part of its announcement. “The response outlined in the joint MLB-MLBPA Operations Manual was triggered immediately upon learning of the cluster of positive cases, including contact tracing and the quarantining and testing of all of the identified close contacts. The Marlins’ personnel who tested positive remain in isolation and are receiving care.”
MLB also announced that it has conducted over 6,400 tests since this past Friday, and there have been no new positive results for COVID-19 among on-field personnel from the other 29 teams besides the Marlins.
“The difficult circumstances of one Club reinforce the vital need to be diligent with the protocols in all ways, both on and off the field,” MLB said. “We will continue to bolster our protocols and make any necessary adjustments. The realities of the virus still loom large, and we must operate with that in mind every day. We are confident that Clubs and players will act appropriately, for themselves and for others, and the data provides reason to believe that the protocols can work effectively.”
Additional schedule changes will be announced later this week.