On Sunday, it was reported that four people with the Marlins were tested positive from their test last Friday. The Marlins and Phillies proceeded to play Sunday after a team vote by the Marlins. The problem now? more people with the Marlins have been reported to have tested positive causing the team to be stuck in a hotel in Philly and suspend play for this week while recovering.
I think the biggest question is why were the Marlins allowed to vote on whether to play on Sunday. This isn’t just one player sick. It was four and there was a good chance more were sick and spreading it during that game. Why didn’t MLB step in? The game should have been postponed for the safety of the Phillies. The Phillies have gotten tested and was reported to have no positive cases but it does not necessarily mean they are good to go. The virus can take a few days to show up as positive so going forward, the Phillies could be another team with an outbreak all because the game was played on Sunday.
How MLB handles this will show how much they really care about players safety. There are players currently playing that are high risk. Didi Gregorius, for example, has chronic kidney disorder. He was exposed to the virus Sunday night because MLB allowed the Marlins to vote on playing or not. This is not acceptable. This is also not mentioning that the Phillies were most likely exposed on Friday and Saturday as well. If MLB wants to continue playing because they think it is good for the country during this pandemic (it’s not), then they need to take this more seriously and not ignore what we do know just to have games played so they can get to October for the TV ratings. Manfred said he didn’t consider this as a nightmare. How many players have to be sick in order for the season to shut down? How sick do the players have to be?
In all of this, what hasn’t been talked about as a major concern is the possible complications after. Red Sox starting pitcher, Eduardo Rodriguez, is dealing with a heart complication after recovering from COVID-19. He has what is called myocradtis which is inflammation of the heart muscle. It affects the heart’s ability to pump and can cause rapid or abnormal heart rhythms. Rodriguez is only 27 years old and he said the symptoms hit him hard making him feeling like a 100 years old during the time he was sick. The Red Sox shut him down for now but who knows how long it will take for him to return to play. This should remind us that not all healthy people are asymptomatic, some take longer to recover and we don’t know what this virus can do someone after.
For now, MLB released a statement about the schedule changes. The Marlins will not play baseball until Sunday which means the Nationals will have the weekend off. The Phillies will not play until Friday to make sure the results are good. They should wait for 14 days but it is asking too much of MLB to follow what us regular people have to follow when we are exposed to someone who tested positive. The Yankees will play the Orioles in Baltimore tonight and tomorrow with their home opener being moved to Friday against the Red Sox.
This was expected but it is also a wake up call to MLB. Protocols may need to be tightened up and taking action on something like this needs to be quicker. It isn’t worth having players sick to play the game when they were safer with their families in their off-season homes.
The Road to October 