Marlins “hit the pause button,” shut down team complex

Three days ago, the Marlins were playing their regularly scheduled Grapefruit League Spring Training game. Now, there aren’t even enough people at their Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex in Jupiter to field a team.

According to Joe Frisaro of MLB.com, CEO Derek Jeter met on Sunday with players, coaches and other personnel to announce that the facilities were closing. This is, of course, a preventive measure to mitigate the risk of catching and spreading coronavirus.

Additionally, he advocates for more “social distancing,” as recommended by many health professionals:

Just as Jeter called for this meeting, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported that an unidentified Yankees minor leaguer tested positive for coronavirus. The Marlins had been scheduled to travel to Yankees camp in Tampa for an exhibition game this coming Friday.

Major League Baseball sent out a memo to each team (see below) to clarify where various types of players should go for the time being—MLB previously announced that Spring Training was suspended and Opening Day would be pushed back at least two weeks, with multiple reports since then suggesting that regular season baseball is unlikely to take place until May (at the earliest).

h/t Evan Drellich/The Athletic

h/t Evan Drellich/The Athletic

h/t Evan Drellich/The Athletic

Several non-roster players, including third baseman Nic Ready, have confirmed that they already boarded flights to return to their offseason homes to wait out this pandemic.

Bookmark FishStripes.com/coronavirus for more updates on how the Marlins organization is being affected by coronavirus.