The Miami Marlins were hit Monday with the news on a handful of players on their roster had tested positive for the covid-19 virus, basically putting their season on hold. Reports say at least 14 players and two coaches tested positive for the virus, and the team did not travel to Florida Sunday after their game with the Phillies, instead deciding to stay in Philadelphia.
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00:00 Major League Baseball has a difficult situation on its hands.
00:04 The Miami Marlins home opener has been canceled due to an outbreak within the team.
00:10 Confirmed cases reportedly up to at least 14.
00:13 This has also led to the cancellation of Yankees Phillies tonight because the teams would be
00:19 using the same clubhouse the Marlins had been in.
00:21 For more on that, I'm joined by our Emma Bacheleri and Cori Parson.
00:25 Emma, is this a nightmare situation for MLB?
00:28 Yeah, I think it is.
00:30 I mean, these protocols that the league issued before the start of the season were very thorough,
00:35 but there's not one hard line where it says, you know, the team will not play beyond this
00:39 point, the league will not play beyond this point.
00:43 That's something that, for instance, the Korea Baseball Organization did build in, that if
00:46 you have this many cases on one team, everything is going to pause for two weeks.
00:51 MLB did not have a situation like that.
00:54 They don't have the luxury of time here based on how condensed the schedule is.
00:57 So the decision you face now is, do you try to continue playing, recognizing the ripple
01:03 effects of this, that it's not just affecting one team, that for the Marlins, you're looking
01:08 at a real nightmare with how do you preserve the competitive sanctity of that season, given
01:13 how few players you have?
01:16 Or do you shut it all down, which is a really tough call.
01:19 I don't think they're necessarily going to go that way.
01:21 But in continuing to play on, you're facing some really big questions about how you preserve
01:26 the integrity of this and, more importantly, the safety and, you know, kind of are able
01:31 to answer players' concerns about how realistic is it to play an entire season without a bubble.
01:36 Yeah, Corey, I mean, we don't know if it's going to work out for them, but it's given
01:39 me a greater appreciation even for the NBA's plan, right?
01:43 But the logistics of various leagues factor in.
01:45 This is going to come up with football as well.
01:48 How do you expect this to play out?
01:50 Do you expect, you know, leagues to have to stop or to just attempt to power through?
01:55 That's going to be interesting from everything we're hearing with the reports.
01:58 Miami Marlins did have the proper protocols in place, and the players have said through
02:02 some sources that they felt safe, they felt like the proper protocols were handled.
02:05 So like you mentioned at the top, Robin, this is a nightmare situation for Major League
02:09 Baseball.
02:10 Now, as far as the logistics go, really, I can't speak to that.
02:13 But I do know that the satellite, some of the satellite players that are in the Marlins
02:16 organization happen to be some pretty good ballplayers with some Major League talent.
02:20 But listen, we still got to worry about safety in a situation like this.
02:23 Obviously, we see the Yankees game getting canceled.
02:25 And you mentioned the NFL is definitely something that they're going to be paying attention
02:28 to without having this bubble situation.
02:31 So we're hoping for the best right now.
02:33 But honestly, Robin, it doesn't really look good as we speak at this moment.
02:36 Yeah, well, we don't know how it's going to play out, of course.
02:39 We just hope it's not grand opening, grand closing when it comes to sports, at least
02:44 when it comes to baseball.
02:46 Corey, Emma, appreciate your time.
02:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]