MLB Teams to Add COVID-19 Protocol Compliance Staff

The league wants to prevent another team from becoming the Miami Marlins

MLB Teams to Add COVID-19 Protocol Compliance Staff
Members of the Miami Marlins react after a three-run home run. (Mitchell Leff/Getty)
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Two days ago, Major League Baseball revealed that, of the more than 6,400 coronavirus tests the league conducted since July 24, the Miami Marlins were the only team with positive cases. 

The Marlins, as we know, have had 18 members of their traveling party — 16 players and two staffers — test positive for coronavirus and MLB has put the team’s season on hold.

Though the Marlins’ outbreak occurred in Philadelphia, where the club remains quarantined, it is believed members of the team contracted the virus while behaving irresponsibly when the club was in Atlanta.

“I think a couple of guys went out in Atlanta,” USA Today columnist Nightengale said on 93.7 The Fan’s (Pittsburgh) earlier this week. “So, that’s what happened. I don’t think it was any kind of fluke from the bus driver, pilot or something like that. I believe some guys got careless… at least one guy did, for sure. He went out, and I think he came back positive, spread it around.”

In order to prevent this sort of season-threatening outbreak from happening again, MLB is now requiring every team to travel with a compliance officer who will ensure that players and staff properly follow the league’s safety protocol, sources told ESPN. The league is also encouraging players not to leave their hotels in road cities except to go to games and will require the use of surgical masks instead of cloth masks during travel.

If the Marlins have enough players to field a team, their season may be allowed to restart on Tuesday at home against Philadelphia.

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