Less than a week into Major League Baseball’s long-delayed season, its schedule was thrown into turmoil on Tuesday in response to the Miami Marlins’ continuing outbreak of positive coronavirus tests.
The Marlins now have 17 positive cases within their traveling party — including 15 players — and will not play again until Monday at the earliest. The Philadelphia Phillies, who hosted the Marlins for three games last weekend, will not play again until Friday.
The Marlins were scheduled to play four games against the Baltimore Orioles this week, and the Phillies were scheduled to play four against the Yankees. Instead, the Yankees will play the Orioles in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday. The Washington Nationals, who were scheduled to play in Miami this weekend, will instead be off.
M.L.B. announced the schedule changes Tuesday afternoon.
“Given the current circumstances, M.L.B. believes 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 league said in a statement.
No other teams have had a new confirmed case since Friday, the league said.
The Marlins played the Phillies on Sunday after learning that four players had tested positive. Nine more members of their traveling party were found to have tested positive on Monday, and four more cases were confirmed on Tuesday. The Phillies have not registered any new positives, but were undergoing more tests on Tuesday.
For now, the league still hopes to have all teams play 60 games this season. The Phillies and the Marlins could conceivably reach that number by playing doubleheaders or playing on mutual off days.