The postponements are mounting daily.
Already, the Phillies and Miami Marlins will be off for at least a week after as many as 20 Marlins players and staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past week. That began ever since the two teams played last Sunday, despite knowing that four Marlins players had tested positive at that time.
Since then, the Phillies have undergone daily testing, which until now has revealed two positive tests among staff members – an assistant coach and a home clubhouse employee – but no players.
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The Cardinals became the latest team affected by the coronavirus as two players tested positive on Friday, after they had played in Minneapolis on Wednesday night. That led to the Cardinals-Brewers game in Milwaukee being postponed on Friday, with the possibility of more to come based on the results of testing.
It's becoming a familiar refrain.
The Blue Jays have the weekend off because they're now not playing the Phillies. And the Nationals are also off this weekend because they're now not playing the Marlins.
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To sum up, six of the 30 teams, or 20%, didn't play Friday because of COVID-19. The schedule for the coming week is being updated as we go, it seems.
Then on Friday evening, ESPN's Jeff Passan reported that MLB commissioner Rob Manfred told players association head Tony Clark that if the sport doesn't do a better job of managing the coronavirus, it could shut down for the season, perhaps as soon as Monday.
Let's put aside, for the moment, the commissioner not taking responsibility for this mess, to realize that baseball is at a critical juncture.
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But there is a way to finish the season without having to cancel it, provided that everyone involved is committed to making the necessary adjustments that include behavior, scheduling and flexibility.
"Nobody said this season was going to be easy," Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said Wednesday. "I think, quite the opposite. Everyone seemed to recognize from the very beginning that there were going to be challenges.
"Identifying ahead of time what those challenges would be, that’s not easy to do. But as you go through it, we’re seeing in the first week of the season, some of these challenges manifested themselves.
"There’s no right or wrong way to view the world here. It’s just reality. That extends to all walks of life right now."
As of now, the regular season is scheduled to end Sept. 27, followed by four rounds of playoffs through the end of October.
Sure, MLB wants the season to end before the start of November, when COVID-19 cases are expected to rise again due to the onset of the flu season.
But the schedule would have to be adjusted to preserve the integrity of a 60-game season, or as close to it as possible.
The first way would be to add an extra week at the end of the regular season for teams to make up as many games as possible.
At this rate, it's a given that multiple teams will have at least a few games to make up, and that could have a bearing on the teams reaching the playoffs. So an extra week of games, with doubleheaders if necessary (those doubleheader games were shortened to seven innings each, beginning Saturday), should make up for a good number of those missed games.
The Phillies and Marlins, for example, could play the three games lost this past week in two days. Then the Phillies can play three more games that were postponed against the Jays in two days.
There would still be room to add in a few other games that will inevitably get postponed.
Then, move the playoff start date to October 18 while moving the 16 playoff teams into two bubbles – one for the eight American League playoff teams, another for the eight National League playoff teams.
That would give teams a two-week buffer to test and quarantine the players, coaches and staff, while allowing for some practice time.
The eight AL teams could sequester at the Rays' home in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the eight NL teams at the Diamondbacks' home in Phoenix, Arizona.
Both of those stadiums are either dome or retractable roof stadiums, so weather won't be a factor. MLB can set a schedule and stick to it.
There should be enough hotel space in each city to accommodate eight teams, with staggered times throughout the day to play as many as three games in a day.
The postseason would last for about a month, which isn't an exorbitant amount of time to be sequestered.
Sure, plenty can still go wrong between now and the end of the season.
But the way things are going now, this seems like the only way to get a season in that's quickly careening out of control.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
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