Update, July 28, 3:15 p.m.:

With more Miami Marlin players reportedly testing positive, meaning essentially half of their team has coronavirus, the team’s season is now being paused, Major League Baseball confirms.

This means that Nats will not be going to Miami for their planned weekend series, nor will the Marlins come to D.C.

The teams’ series will be postponed until a later date. For the moment, the Washington Nationals will not be playing baseball this weekend.

Original: 

Only days after starting, the Major League Baseball season is already seemingly teetering on the edge of being canceled due to a teamwide coronavirus outbreak.

With ESPN reporting that 17 Miami Marlins’ players and staff have tested positive for coronavirus, several media outlets are now saying that a wide majority of the Washington Nationals’ players have voted against going to Florida to take on the team this upcoming weekend. This comes a day after the Marlins already had their Monday and Tuesday games canceled against the Baltimore Orioles, along with games against the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies.

Before their game against the Toronto Blue Jays in D.C. on Monday (and when it was reported that only 11 Marlins had tested positive, as opposed to 17), Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez did not mince words about his concern.

“I’m going to be honest with you. I’m scared. … You don’t know, because of my heart condition what happens to me if I do get it. I have to be extra careful,” Martinez said in a Zoom call with reporters. “My level of concern went from about an 8 to a 12. This thing really hits home now seeing half a team get infected and go from one city to another.”

Martinez, a 55-year-old former baseball player, had a heart procedure last September.

When asked on Monday about the weekend series against the Marlins in Miami, he said that he hopes the league “does the right thing” about whether or not the team will have to travel to Florida.

Also on Monday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released a list of 27 states that requires a mandatory two-week self-quarantine for those nonessential travelers who are arriving back to D.C. from. Although Florida is on that list, the Washington Nationals’ were provided a waiver in June and are defined as “essential,” allowing them to skirt this edict.

Although the players have voted against traveling to Miami, it’s possible MLB will force them to go — though that could cause a standoff with the players’ union. What’s more likely to happen is that MLB will have the Marlins come to D.C. to play the games at Nats Park and designate Miami as the “home team.”

Another possibility, of course, is that they cancel the games altogether. But that would mean an entire week’s worth of games would be canceled and the season would all but be over before it hardly got started. Even Dr. Anthony Fauci — noted Nats’ fan and first pitch thrower — didn’t seem overly optimistic in an interview today on ABC’s Good Morning America about baseball being able to continue.

“This could put it in danger,” said Fauci of the baseball season. “I don’t believe they need to stop, but we just need to follow this and see what happens with other teams on a day-by-day basis.”

Last week, Juan Soto, the Nats 21-year-old superstar, also tested positive for coronavirus, but remains asymptotic and maybe on the verge of being able to return to the field.

Despite all of this, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred seemed to indicate on Monday night that this will all be fine. “Obviously, we don’t want any player to get exposed. It’s not a positive thing,” Manfred said on the league-owned MLB Network. “But I don’t see it as a nightmare. … We think we can keep people safe and continue to play.”

“I remain optimistic that the protocols are strong enough that it will allow us to continue to play — even through an outbreak like this — and complete our season,” he said.