The New York Mets are now the latest baseball team to contract the Coronavirus, and as a result they will see the postponement of games for at least a couple of days.
Two members of the organization, one player and one staffer are believed to have tested positive according to Jeff Passon of ESPN.
The Mets game against the Miami Marlins in South Florida was postponed; New York had won the first three games of the series. In a corresponding move, the opener of the Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees at Citi Field, scheduled for Friday, August 21 has also been postponed.
The Mets were expected to fly back to New York, although the two members who have the virus, and anyone who was in close contact with them would stay in Miami.
For now the Yankees-Mets series is expected to resume Saturday, but considering the rash of delays and postponements that have taken place in Major League Baseball this year due to COVID-19, it would not surprise in the least if the entire Subway Series was pushed off to a later date.
To date, 34 games have been postponed by Major League Baeball because of the virus. The Marlins, whom the Mets played this week, were the initial victims of the virus last month, and had eight games pushed back as a result.
The St. Louis Cardinals were shutdown for nearly two weeks and will have to play as many as 12 double-headers the rest of the way just to catch up with everyone else.
The Cincinnati Reds also had three games postponed due to the virus.
The Yankees, ironically have seen their schedule shift around a lot this year due to the virus. Earlier this season they were forced to postpone games against the Phillies after Philadelphia played the same Marlins team that had as many as 17 players contract the virus. Now the Bombers have to move things around again. The Yankees could use the break after getting swept by the Tampa Bay Rays this week and falling out of first in the AL East.
The news comes at a bad time for the Mets who were starting to roll, riding a three-game winning streak into their final game of a four-game series in Miami. The Mets have been one of the more buttoned up operations in the sport while handling the virus, and played the most games of any team, 26, up until tonight.
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