Testing issues? Opt-out concerns? No problems yet for the Miami Marlins on those fronts
The news has come out from multiple teams over the past couple days. The Houston Astros and Washington Nationals had to cancel Monday’s practice. The Oakland Athletics didn’t have position players report to practice Sunday.
The culprit: Pending COVID-19 testing results.
According to a statement released by MLB on Monday, the league attributed shipping issues in relation to Independence Day weekend as the reason for some results being delayed.
“Our plan required extensive delivery and shipping services, including proactive special accommodations to account for the holiday weekend,” the statement reads. “The vast majority of those deliveries occurred without incident and allowed the protocols to function as planned. Unfortunately, several situations included unforeseen delays. We have addressed the delays caused by the holiday weekend and do not expect a recurrence.”
As it applies specifically to the Miami Marlins, no testing issues have occurred. The team had one player out of 57 test positive for COVID-19 during their intake screening last week. Three others had previously tested positive. The team also hasn’t had issues with its every-other-day testing that has taken place since. Their most recent tests took place Monday.
“We had everyone test today,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Monday. “We want to make sure everyone felt comfortable. … We have seen the Nationals and the Astros and the A’s and we understand their concerns and their frustrations. Our guys seem to feel pretty good. We’re going to make sure that if our guys aren’t comfortable … we’re going to be flexible. But to this point, I think our guys have felt pretty comfortable with what we’re doing.”
Utility player Jon Berti said testing has “run really smoothly.”
“Obviously we’re in uncharted territory,” Berti said. “Didn’t know what to quite expect, but I think the whole organization and all the players, we’re in this together and we believe that with us not only following what MLB is doing but following what guidelines we’re setting for ourselves as teammates and a coaching staff, I feel very confident that us as the Marlins will be doing the best we can to be ready and have everyone as healthy as possible. Obviously, other teams what they’re doing it’s out of our control. We just hope that they’re taking it as seriously as we are. That’s not to say, God forbid, there’s something that happened, but we’re doing everything we can in our control to make this season happen because we want to play.”
No worries about opt outs
Mattingly also mentioned Monday, as has been the case since practice restarted, that he doesn’t notice any sense of concern about players choose to opt out or elect not to play this season.
A wave of top players around the league — from the Los Angeles Dodgers’ David Price to the Washington Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman (among three Washington players) to the Atlanta Braves’ Nick Markakis — have chosen not to play this season.
“We haven’t had that feel here, haven’t had that vibe that guys are nervous about playing,” Mattingly said. “Maybe it’s just our age or our group of guys. They don’t seem to be overly concerned. We want him to be concerned enough to take care of ourselves and be careful. I think from that standpoint you feel fairly safe. You know you’re coming in, you go through the tests in the morning and you’re sending in your results ... It feels pretty good here right now. I don’t feel an overly concerned vibe with it.”
This and that
▪ Mattingly said the team likely has its Opening Day starter figured out but is not announcing him yet because the team hasn’t been informed of the decision yet. As of right now, the Marlins plan to go with a normal five-man starting pitcher rotation.
▪ Jonathan Villar is still the favorite to bat leadoff for the Marlins. Where he plays in the field could vary by day. The Marlins still want to experiment with him in center field, but he could also go back to his more comfortable infield spots and get days as designated hitter as well.
