MLB News: Baseball Adds More Strict COVID Policies to Protect Teams

With the outbreak experience by the Marlins this past week, MLB had to get together to figure things out. You have to figure that one more outbreak with a team even close to what they experienced would cancel baseball. 

There have now been 16 players and personnel from the Marlins that tested positive. As such, MLB plans to issue a massive update to policies in a memo to teams on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Marlins will not be able to play at least for the remainder of this week. 

Of the changes, MLB has essentially mandated that players traveling on the road must adhere to very strict policies. Players and staff are highly discouraged from going into any sort of common area of the hotel. That is to say, the league wants players to basically be in their rooms when they are not at the stadiums. There will be compliance officers appointed for bus trips to separate players at least six feet.

Players will also not be allowed to leave the hotels when they are on the road. MLB had previously NOT had a mandate for that, but it was sort of being policed by the players themselves. The Marlins are likely to blame for this one with rumors of players spending the night out in Atlanta. 

The second part of the protocol adjusts the use of approved masks. Surgical masks will be provided for all players and personnel in order to move away from the cloth masks. MLB hopes that this will prove more effective in the long term. 

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