Gerrit Cole will start Wednesday as Yankees make detour to play Orioles
PHILADELPHIA — Gerrit Cole will start Wednesday’s game against the Orioles, Aaron Boone announced Tuesday. After having their schedule scrambled because of the Marlins COVID-19 outbreak, the Yankees will also have to rework their rotation.
Cole, who was scheduled to pitch on Tuesday, will have an extra day of rest. J.A. Happ, who was scheduled to start on Monday in Philadelphia, is now expected to start Thursday, while Jordan Montgomery, who was the scheduled starter for Wednesday’s home opener, has now been pushed back to the weekend. Masahiro Tanaka, scheduled to make his first start after suffering a concussion in training camp, will still start this weekend according to Aaron Boone.
With MLB trying to work through the Marlins coronavirus outbreak, which saw 17 members of the traveling party test positive, the Yankees were held in quarantine and limbo for two days in Philadelphia. The series was canceled in “an abundance of caution,” with the Phillies, who faced the Marlins Sunday, now shut down until Friday. Initial testing on Monday showed no positive tests on the Phillies, which is reassuring, but they will continue to be isolated and tested for a few more days.
While waiting, Boone said the team was able to stay active.
“We’re in a hotel, we’re basically pretty much by ourselves. So there’s gym access,” Boone said. " I know a couple of our pitchers were able to get outside and actually play catch.”
FUTURE IS NOW
After scrambling to reroute from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Yankees GM Brian Cashman was not looking too far ahead of a schedule that has already been significantly altered by the coronavirus pandemic. The Yankees are scheduled to play in Tampa next week. Florida has surpassed New York as one of the states with the biggest outbreak of COVID-19.
“I’m not focused on 10 days from now. Clearly I know what’s going on in Florida right now. We are focused on trying to take care of Wednesday and Thursday and the coming weekend,” Cashman said. “We’re sitting there also dealing with Major League Baseball on how this affects the future schedule so um, first things first.”
Miami is considered by most infectious disease experts to be the epicenter of the American pandemic at the moment. The Marlins had 17 members of the traveling party test positive in the last week and the mayor of Miami declared that they would be required to quarantine for 14 days when they returned home.
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