The Miami Marlins have been affected greatly by the COVID-19 outbreak, with 21 people (including 18 players) in the team’s traveling party testing positive for the illness. All those infected are said to be doing well, ranging from asymptomatic to mild symptoms.
To that end, Major League Baseball has postponed several of their games in an effort to stop the spread.
Marlins CEO Derek Jeter spoke on a Zoom conference call earlier today, and provided some details on the genesis of the team outbreak:
“Guys were around each other, they got relaxed and they let their guard down,” Jeter said. “They were getting together in groups. They weren’t wearing masks as much as they should have. They weren’t social distancing. The entire traveling party got a little too comfortable.”
However, Jeter made it clear that it was small infractions and not any “salacious activity” that was responsible.
“Our guys were not running all around town in Atlanta,” he said. “We did have a couple of individuals leave the hotel. We had guys leave to get coffee, to get clothes. A guy left to have dinner at a teammate’s house. There were no other guests on site. There was no salacious activity. There was no hanging out at bars, no clubs, no running around Atlanta.”
Jeter is now looking at the situation as a leaerning opportunity for players and teams to take the mandated safety protocols seriously in order to avoid future issues.
“We’ve been given an opportunity to hit the reset button,” Jeter said. “I hope people look at what happened to us and use that as a warning to see how quickly this is able to spread if you’re not following the protocols 100%.”
Miami is scheduled to resume their season tomorrow against Baltimore after more than a week off.
– – Quotes via CBS Miami Link – –
