#What MLB can learn from this coronavirus catastrophe: Sherman

The MLB press release began with the moving parts. The Marlins will not be playing before Monday. The Phillies will not be playing before Friday. The Yankees and Orioles will suddenly be playing in Baltimore on Wednesday and Thursday.

MLB is Second City now, improvising through a season; postpone here, dry-dock there, reschedule on the fly.

But there in paragraph 4 of MLB’s Tuesday statement was this: “In over 6,400 tests conducted since Friday, July 24th, there have been no new positives of on-field personnel from any of the other 29 Clubs.”

Read between the lines of paragraph 4 and MLB is saying, “We don’t have a sport-wide problem right now, we have a Marlins problem.” Twenty-nine teams played the first weekend of the season with zero positive results (to date). One team had 17, including 15 players.

MLB is hardly clear of the problem. The Phillies shared a field all weekend with the Marlins. The first batch of test results Monday showed no Phillie tested positive. Sometimes, though, it takes days for the virus to register on a test, which is why the Phillies’ Tuesday-Thursday games against the Yankees were postponed (as the one Monday had been). The Yankees were redirected to Baltimore, which was supposed to be hosting Miami on Wednesday and Thursday.

We should know over the next few days whether this was one team. But even if that is the case, this could be serial, one team every few weeks being infested and made noncompetitive.

Dodgers president Stan Kasten said this to MLB Network Radio on Monday: “Hopefully this is the worst outbreak we have for the rest of the season because it will teach us some things. … Maybe getting it out of the way early will help teach us things that will avoid repetitions of these things going forward.”

What are the teachable elements toward better outcomes?

1. Rumors abound about what was ground zero for the Marlins. This will not be about the shame game — even if people were careless, no one was trying to get themselves or anyone else sick. Nevertheless, it should be a reminder that clubhouses with veteran gravitas and deep, experienced front offices probably have better chances to demand accountability — notably when tough-love leadership is necessary.

MLB can probably deduce the half-dozen-ish teams that could use a boost in leadership or were trying to cut costs at a time when that is just dangerous. Embed an infectious disease expert with those clubs to better spot problems in real time, so that transgressions are challenged and fixed immediately. Give those teams more monitors — I hate to use the word “security” and make it sound like a police state. But there must be discipline for 100-ish days, especially on the road. If you can’t endure that discipline, then opt out.

Marlins CEO Derek Jeter, in a Tuesday statement, revealed his club will now test every day (as many clubs were already doing with their own point-of-care testing besides MLB’s every-other-day testing of on-field personnel). Jeter also said there would be “additional preventive procedures with our traveling party. We look forward to safely returning to Miami where we conducted a successful and healthy Spring 2.0 before departing on the road and experiencing challenges.”

How to deal with, um, “challenges?” One veteran agent said, “I think [commissioner Rob] Manfred also has to fine and suspend those [violating 2020 road protocols]. I think a lot of players will understand that best.”

2. I am big on privacy, especially when it comes to health issues. But I would ask the union to implore the players to allow it to be revealed why players are unavailable for COVID-19 reasons. The silence stirs the worst theories and feels like information is being hidden. At present a player must give permission for it to be revealed if he is absent for reasons related to COVID.

“Related” is key. It is assumed every player who is mysteriously absent has the virus. That is not always true. Players who have colds or flu-like symptoms are being removed to assure they are not incubating COVID-19. That is actually a sign of the protocols working.

3. On Monday, Nationals players voted they did not want to play the weekend games in Miami, an epicenter for the virus. It turned out those games were postponed with the Marlins docked until at least Monday. But it underscored that there are some places safer than others to contest games and the biggest home-field edge now is erased without fans in the stands. It is unfair to ask, say, the Marlins to play all of their games on the road. But at moments where legitimate questions arise about the safety of a facility, in particular, games should be moved to the safest option.

4. MLB’s press release also said: “The difficult circumstances of one Club reinforce the vital need to be diligent with the protocols in all ways, both on and off the field.” If it turns out Phillies players did not get ill from being in proximity for three days with the Marlins, it suggests that playing outdoors in a sport with minimal physical contact will make it hard for the virus to spread on the field.

Still, this is about minimizing exposure to the greatest degree possible. So as hard as it is to break the habits of spitting, high-fiving and huddling close in the dugout are, efforts need to be redoubled because there is still plenty of spitting, high-fiving and huddling. I will throw in another not in the protocols. I am watching managers come out to remove a pitcher, stand with the catcher, then hand the ball pretty much wordlessly to a reliever. Why? Just signal from the dugout that a reliever is needed.

Again, this is the improv season. There needs to be the pliability to do a lot of ad-libbing with The Show already begun.