Miami Marlins: The team that might shut down MLB for good in 2020

Will the Miami Marlins now be known for the MLB team that shuts down professional sports in 2020?

This is not how the MLB season or the Miami Marlins wanted things to happen in the first week of the 2020 season.

Despite protocols and the belief that a baseball season could be successful amid the potential spread of COVID-19, the Miami Marlins are the team everyone is now talking about as the organization that has put the game and the season in potential peril.

"“For all the world to see, the Miami Marlins just became Exhibit A for all that can go wrong when you try to play games in a pandemic,” writes Greg Cote of The Miami Herald.“It is this baseball club, situated in one of America’s continuing coronavirus/COVID-19 hotpots, that you look to now when you wonder if this whole sports restart — for our entertainment and so leagues can make money, not necessarily in that order — is worth the risk.”"

It might not be worth the risk. And now it affects the NFL. NHL and NBA – the three other major sports looking to take off in the next few weeks to keep the hope of entertainment alive as a product of “normalcy” in America.

Maybe this is the pivot point where commissioners from all major sports stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and exhale long enough to see we as fans might have to live with the idea of the rest of the calendar year without something that makes us feel whole.

For some reason, I keep feeling like this virus is Lucy Van Pelt and the fans and players are Charlie Brown. Different situations with the same results. I know there is a word for that, but I refuse to use it. What happens now, after the Marlins decided to cancel their game tonight with Baltimore and the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees have done the same thing is one of the biggest moments in sports this year and potentially in some time.

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Will we all look back on this, take a look at our Marlins and say the effort was there, but due to uncontrollable circumstances, they could not overcome something greater than baseball to produce a winning season?

It’s quite possible.

Should the season be stopped? Possibly? Should MLB have put a halt to the season before it started? That’s the $64,000 question no one wants to answer for fear of saying what we are all thinking at the moment.

Miami Marlins CEO Derek Jeter has already spoken on this topic. And while more players outside the organization are placed on the I.L. with non-specific ailments, we are going to sit and wonder what is going on. It’s a time and place in baseball history that is unprecedented. And it’s a time in our world where health and safety matter more than balls and strikes.

The other question that is presented is what happens to the Marlin organization as players fall ill to this virus and the roster and taxi squad are turned upside down. Players who may not be ready for the Big Leagues may be forced into action. It’s exciting and scary in one gulp.

Cote agrees.

"“If only we had the luxury to be talkin’ baseball, to be excited about Miguel Rojas’ 7-for-10 start. “We don’t have that luxury. Not now,” he adds. “Not after starting pitcher Jose Urena, catcher Jorge Alfaro, infielder/outfielder Garrett Cooper and outfielder Harold Ramirez all missed Sunday’s game after testing positive. Not after eight more unnamed players and two coaches also have now tested positive, meaning at least 14 in total.”"

It’s hard to think the Marlins will get past this. Even if there is a completed season, the promise of a 2-1 start now looks to be hollow. How can this franchise – the one I have pumped up as a darkhorse playoff contender and many other analysts have written how impressed they are with talent in the minors and promise on the 30-man roster – move forward with success.

Even with 58 games remaining on the schedule, it feels like the Miami Marlins have been punched in the gut once more, the fan base potentially having to wait patiently after being asked to buy into the system. And again, the small-budget team with promising aspirations for the future has to wait their turn to find success.

I don’t know how this all plays out for the Miami Marlins. I do know I would not be surprised if the MLB season once again is placed on hold. But if that is the case, then end things until next spring. Make this an end to a story that is quickly becoming a nightmare.

Hopefully, MLB will take all of this into account and when the league comes back in the Spring of 2021, things will be different. And the talk about the Marlins won’t be about how this organization crashed the 2020 party. Rather it will be how they have enough talent to make a serious run at a winning season and potential playoff berth next year.