The Miami Marlins recent coronavirus outbreak has already had massive ripple effects on the 2020 Major League Baseball season. The Philadelphia Phillies were included in the fallout since the club recently played the Marlins at their home ballpark the weekend before Miami's test results yielded positive on Monday. However, it appears that the club is in good health as COVID-19 tests for players and staff members came back negative for the second consecutive day, according to ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Players have been told that if they were exposed to COVID-19 from facing the Marlins, positive tests would show up between Thursday and Saturday, according to The Athletic's Jayson Stark. According to the CDC, the incubation period (the time from exposure to development of symptoms) of the coronavirus ranges from 2–14 days. Given that, the Phillies Friday game against the Blue Jays at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia has been postponed, per Ken Rosenthal.
The league announced that the Phillies will resume play on Saturday with a traditional doubleheader against the Blue Jays. Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 3:07 p.m. ET and Sunday's series finale will remain at the originally scheduled start time of 3:07 p.m. ET. Toronto will play as the home team during the three-game series while the club prepares Sahlen Field, its Triple-A affiliate ballpark in Buffalo, New York, as its home venue for the 2020 season.
The Phillies quarantined their visiting clubhouse staff following the Marlins outbreak. ESPN's Marly Rivera reports a Phillies visiting clubhouse attendance did test positive for COVID-19 during a round of testing over the weekend.
The Phillies had been scheduled for four-game series (in Philly then New York) this week against the New York Yankees. All four of those games were postponed and the Yankees instead have been scheduled to play the Orioles in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday. You can view all of the scheduling changes (as of July 29) to the 2020 season due to the Marlins' COVID-19 outbreak here.
MLB's latest round of coronavirus (COVID-19) testing was promising, showing a new positive COVID-19 rate of 0.05 percent. But, various clubs across the league have experienced testing delays. It's also unclear how reliable the testing is right now, given some of the discrepancies experienced in some cases, like what we saw with Texas Rangers' Joey Gallo and Washington Nationals' Juan Soto.
Here's a full, comprehensive timeline of how the global coronavirus pandemic has impacted the 2020 MLB season. CBS Sports has also created a tracker of the positive cases in the league as well players who have opted out of the abbreviated season.
Although coronavirus is considered a respiratory illness, the disease can impact a number of systems and organs. That includes possible effects on the heart. On Monday, Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez confirmed that he's dealing with a heart issue stemming from his COVID-19 infection.
