The Phillies are scheduled to play 3 days after facing coronavirus-infected Marlins players. An expert says it might be too soon.
- The Miami Marlins had 17 members test positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday after playing games against the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend.
- The Phillies had their Monday and Tuesday games postponed and are undergoing daily testing, which has so far not resulted in any positive coronavirus tests.
- The Phillies are scheduled to play the New York Yankees on Wednesday, and Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist, told Insider he believes there needs to be more time to root out any potential cases on the team.
The Philadelphia Phillies on Monday did not have any players or coaches test positive for COVID-19 after playing the Miami Marlins, who are experiencing an outbreak, on Sunday.
The Marlins now have 17 cases of COVID-19. That is up from 14 on Monday, and four over the weekend, when they chose to play the Phillies anyway, despite known infections.
While the Phillies' Monday and Tuesday games against the New York Yankees were postponed, they are scheduled to play on Wednesday. To Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University, that may be too soon.
"The Phillies, I would put them under a probationary quarantine for about five days to see if any cases come up," Binney told Insider. "If they don't at the end of five days, let them play again. If cases do come up, I would consider lengthening that."
The Phillies are reportedly set to undergo further testing to see if cases pop up before they travel to New York to play the Yankees. With the novel coronavirus sometimes taking several days to reveal itself in tests, the Phillies could be risking playing too soon after facing the Marlins.
"If you're going to postpone one game, postpone games for the next five days for the Phillies ... I agree with the decision to cancel the game tonight. If they're being cautious, I would cancel the games for the next four days or so."
Binney added: "We're running kind of a real-time experiment here to see if in Major League Baseball, the virus can spread from one team to their opponent. And we don't know the answer to that yet. We're going to have to wait a few days to see it."
On Monday, the Yankees reportedly expressed concern about playing in Philadelphia, where the Marlins had used the visiting clubhouse. The game was later postponed.
ESPN's Jeff Passan reported on Tuesday that the Washington Nationals voted against going to Miami to play the Marlins.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Monday shot down ideas about canceling the season or shutting down for a while over the outbreak. He told reporters he would consider shutting the league down if an outbreak significantly disadvantaged a specific team, either in the roster or in terms of lost games.
Binney said he was "stunned" to see how quickly the virus had made its way through the Marlins, saying it was "off the charts in terms of my expectations for how bad it is."
"Baseball is a socially distanced sport kind of naturally," Binney said. "So if there's really not a lot of contact between the Marlins and Phillies organizations, it's entirely possible that the Phillies will be fine.
"But if you assume that, you're rolling the dice on being right about that."
- Read more:
- The COVID-19 outbreak in the Miami Marlins clubhouse shows Fauci was right — sports can't return without a bubble
- The Miami Marlins played a game despite a coronavirus outbreak, and now all eyes are on MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred for letting it happen
- The Tokyo Olympics were supposed to be this week. Here's how 7 big names from Team USA are training and spending their free time.
- Lou Williams will lose $150,000 while missing 2 games to quarantine after traveling to a strip club outside of the NBA bubble