Ferd Lewis: Major League Baseball needs serious approach to player safety

When Miami produced one positive COVID-19 test on Friday and three more on Saturday and it was up in the air whether it would play Sunday’s baseball game against the Phillies, who did the Marlins turn to for a decision?

Dr. Anthony Fauci?

The Center for Disease Control?

The World Health Organization?

Dr. Josh Green?

No, they relied on the counsel of their shortstop, Miguel Rojas, and a group chat.

So, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that at least 14 members of the Marlins (including two coaches) were reported to have tested positive, forcing the postponement of at least three games and laying a crisis at the clubhouse door of Major League Baseball less than a week into its season.

The Marlins’ Monday home opener and today’s game against the Orioles as well as the Phillies’ Monday contest with the Yankees in Philadelphia were postponed while further tests were ordered.

Once again it called into question, from the commissioner’s office to the dugout, how seriously Major League Baseball is taking the issues of the pandemic and player safety. Having a voluminous manual is fine, but common sense comes in handy, too, when you are the first major pro sports league in the country trying to resume a season while flying outside the bubble.

Now, Rojas is a fine shortstop and, as the senior member of the team and union representative, somebody the Marlins naturally look up to. But he isn’t an epidemiologist, a medical professional or even team official.

“He’s kind of an unofficial team captain of our club,” Miami manager Don Mattingly told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He’s always texting the group and getting the feelings of the group. So when we’re dealing with situations or things, that’s usually who we’re working through.”

“We made the decision that we’re going to continue to do this and we’re going to continue to be responsible and just play the game as hard as we can,” Rojas told the Inquirer.

In this truncated 60-game season, players want to play so they can get paid and team owners want them to play so they can keep raking in all the TV money.

But somebody in a position of authority has to stand up and make the responsible calls. When you have four members who have already tested positive, immediately sending the rest of the team out to play a 3-hour, 44-minute game is asking for trouble. Hopefully, that isn’t what the Phillies got as well when the test results come in.

Does anybody wonder now why the Canadian government wouldn’t allow the Toronto Blue Jays or MLB back in Canada after prolonged stays in Florida?

When Dodgers pitcher David Price earlier this month announced his decision to sit out the 2020 season citing concerns about health, he took some heat. But Monday Price tweeted, “Now we really get to see if MLB is going to put players health first. Remember when (commissioner Rob) Manfred said players health was paramount?! Part of the reason I’m at home right now is because players health wasn’t being put first. I can see that hasn’t changed.”

Earlier this month, Manfred said in a Dan Patrick radio interview, “If we have a team or two that’s really decimated with a number of people who had the virus and can’t play for any significant period of time, it could have a real impact on the competition. And we’d have to think very, very hard about what we’re doing.”

This looks to be one of those times, a screeching wake-up call less than a week into the season, the MLB has been served notice that it needs to get serious about what it is trying to do and how it goes about it.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.