After a second straight day of negative COVID-19 test results, the Marlins have been cleared to leave Philadelphia on Sunday and resume their season on Tuesday at Baltimore.
Miami’s players and staff have been in quarantine in Philadelphia since July 26. On Sunday afternoon, they made plans to travel to Baltimore, where they will work out on Monday prior to opening a four-game series over three days.
As an organization, the Marlins have been hit hard by the coronavirus, with 21 positive cases, according to information released by MLB and the MLB Players Association on Friday. Of that group, 18 are players.
In the past 24 hours, the infected Marlins players and staff members went back to South Florida by bus. They have arrived there, and they continue to be in quarantine away from their families.
The Marlins are scheduled to face the Orioles beginning on Tuesday night with a 7:35 p.m. ET contest. They will play a doubleheader on Wednesday beginning at 5:05 p.m. Miami will be the visiting team on Tuesday and for the first game on Wednesday, but will be the home team for the other two games. Both games of the doubleheader will be seven innings.
With so many players headed to the injured list in the past couple of days, the Marlins have been scrambling to fill out their roster.
The club on Sunday added another reliever, claiming left-hander Brian Moran off waivers from the Blue Jays. Moran pitched for Miami last year.
In the past week, Miami has added seven new pitchers -- Moran, Pat Venditte, Richard Bleier, Mike Morin, Justin Shafer, Josh D. Smith and James Hoyt. The club also signed catcher Wilkin Castillo and infielder Logan Forsythe.
To help fill out the rest of the 30-man roster, the Marlins are expected to bring up several players from their alternate training site. Right-hander Jordan Yamamoto is expected to join the rotation, and Miami is strongly considering promoting prospect Humberto Mejia, the club's No. 23 prospect, per MLB Pipeline.
Mejia, 23, is already on the 40-man roster, which makes him an easy candidate to promote and start his big league service time clock. He has not pitched higher than Class A Advanced Jupiter, where he logged a 2.28 ERA in 23 2/3 innings in 2019.
Jorge Guzman, the No. 19 prospect, is also on the 40-man roster, and he could be a bullpen or starting candidate.
Top prospect Sixto Sánchez, who is No. 22 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list, is not expected to be called up at this time. Sánchez, who was eased up more slowly than other starters in Spring Training, is still being built up. Once the organization is confident that he's ready, he will become a candidate to make his big league debut this season.
Right-hander Edward Cabrera, Miami’s No. 5 prospect, is not an option at this point, because he was dealing with some minor arm issues. Cabrera is currently throwing, however. The Marlins also do not intend to bring up left-handers Braxton Garrett and Trevor Rogers. Both are part of the 60-man player pool, but they aren’t on the 40-man roster.
Infielder Eddy Alvarez is a likely callup to add middle-infield depth after second baseman Isan Díaz announced he is electing not to play the remainder of the 2020 season.
All MLB rosters are at 30 players until Thursday, when they are scheduled to drop to 28.