Amidst Marlins coronavirus outbreak, the Yankees shouldn’t be playing tonight

It was never going to work. I just thought it would have lasted longer than four days.

Yesterday, reports surfaced that four Marlins players tested positive for COVID-19, including Harold Ramirez, Garrett Cooper, and Jose Urena, all members of the active roster. Instead of postponing or forfeiting their game against the Phillies, the club rallied together and played ball, pandemic be damned.

That turned out to be an exceptionally stupid idea, as Jeff Passan reported this morning that eight (EIGHT!) additional players and two coaches on the Marlins have tested positive for the coronavirus. Ken Rosenthal noted that tonight’s game between Miami and Baltimore Orioles has been cancelled, as the team remains bunkered down in Philadelphia.

The Yankees are expected to play in Philadelphia tonight. I have a hard time believing it’s safe for them to do so. Craig Mish says that the clubhouses followed guidelines, and believed it to be safe. Joel Sherman adds the Yankees will staff the visiting clubhouse tonight themselves, if they play. But that says nothing of the fact that the Marlins were in close contact with the Phillies, and now any of those players could be carrying the virus.

Baseball has a history of transcending crises, leading to spectacles of great human achievement, moments of light, if not glory, emerging from the cracks in a period of darkness.

This is not one of those times. It never could have been. You can’t out-will a pandemic. The virus doesn’t care about the intangibles or winning it for the guys who can’t take the field today. The only concerns it has are replicating and shedding. That’s it.

The Yankees shouldn’t take the field tonight. They shouldn’t even go to the ballpark. It’s irresponsible if they do. An outbreak was the worst-case scenario, and it happened in the first series of the season. This is as big of a disaster as one could imagine.

This is a developing situation. Follow Pinstripe Alley for the latest updates.