Early Monday morning, nearly every national baseball reporter posted on Twitter that eight additional Miami Marlins players and two coaches had tested positive for COVID-19, including several who played on Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia … and then flew back to Miami on a commercial flight.

Uh oh.

Within minutes, the proverbial ‘[Stuff] hit the fan,’ when it was reported that the Baltimore Orioles, who were scheduled to fly into Miami to begin a two-game series with the Marlins on Monday night, had canceled their flight and both games canceled by MLB.

It was also reported that 55-year-old Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez, who has a known heart condition, was “scared” to fly into Miami next weekend for a three-game series against the Marlins at Marlins Park.

“I’m going to be honest with you, I’m scared. I really am,” Martinez told reporters. “I go from here, home, back here every day, that’s all I do. I wash my hands, I went from 47 times a day to probably 99 times a day. Wear my mask everywhere I go. But there’s always that concern, you know.

“You don’t know, because of my heart condition,” Martinez added. “What happens to me if I do get it. I have to be extra careful. With that said, sometimes I tend to put myself aside and worry about other people more than me. I think that’s why I’m here; because I worry about those guys before I put myself first.”

But will two games be enough? Not according to (at least) one medical expert.

It also didn’t take long for several MLB players to voice their dissatisfaction with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred‘s handling of the situation, including recently-signed Dodgers left-hander David Price, who elected to opt-out of the COVID-19-shortened 60-game season out of health concerns for him and his family:

By early afternoon, Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten weighed in on the situation during an interview on MLB Network Radio:

“I don’t believe there’s going to be any panic, just yet. I think we understood there might be occasions like this, which is why we had our player pool as big as it is. My understanding, from talking to other teams, is that it’s supposed to be business as usual.

“Maybe we’ll learn all of those things today. I think this will be an evolving process. Hopefully, this is the worst outbreak we have for the rest of the season because it will teach us some things. But I do think we expected something like this at some point. Maybe getting it out of the way early will help teach us things that will avoid repetitions of these things going forward.”

A short while later, Manfred was also interviewed on the Network:

“We built protocols anticipating that we would have positive tests at some point during the season. The protocols were built to allow us to play through those positives. We believe the protocols are adequate to keep our players safe.

“I don’t put this in the nightmare category. It’s not a positive thing, but I don’t see it as a nightmare. … That’s why we have the expanded rosters. That’s why we have the pool of additional players.

“A team losing a number of players, making it completely non-competitive, would be something we would have to address and have to think about making a change. Our first concern is the health of the players and their families. And making sure we do everything possible to minimize the spread of the virus to our employees.

“I remain optimistic the protocols are strong enough that it will allow us to continue to play, even through an outbreak like this, and complete our season.”

Quite a difference of opinions, wouldn’t you say? Although Kasten doesn’t see a need to panic, he was intuitive enough to add “…just yet.”

The mere fact that MLB’s top executive, who has made one poor decision after another since taking over as the commissioner of baseball on January 25, 2015, does not see this nightmare as a nightmare, is a nightmare in and of itself.

Unfortunately, Manfred is at the beck and call of all 30 MLB team owners who, obviously, would stand to lose a lot more money than they already have if the season were to be canceled right now.

Yes, it’s all about the money, but you already knew that, right? But what’s even more unfortunate is that it will probably take the death of a star player before Manfred and the owners realize just how serious this nightmare really is.

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UPDATE:

As of 8:00 A.M. PT on Tuesday, July 28, four additional Miami Marlins players have tested positive for COVID-19. Thus far, no known Philadelphia Phillies players have tested positive for the virus.

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