Call to the pen
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New York Mets, Washington Nationals series postponed by COVID

By David Hill

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 24: Trea Turner #7 of the Washington Nationals stands on first base next to Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets in the eighth inning at Nationals Park on September 24, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 24: Trea Turner #7 of the Washington Nationals stands on first base next to Pete Alonso #20 of the New York Mets in the eighth inning at Nationals Park on September 24, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) /
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COVID had already played havoc with the New York Mets series against the Washington Nationals. Major League Baseball had announced on Thursday that the series would be pushed back to Saturday, moving those Opening Day festivities for two days. As the Nationals had several players who needed to quarantine due to COVID, it made sense to be cautious.

As it turned out, starting that series on Saturday was a pipe dream. The Mets and Nationals opening series has been postponed for more follow-up testing and contact tracing.

New York Mets, Washington Nationals remain in limbo

At this point, it is unclear as to when the Nationals season will actually begin. At least three players have tested positive, and a fourth player is suspected to be positive, although none have been named yet.

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At this point, the Nationals have ten players that are in quarantine, severely damaging their depth. Even with the taxi squad, the Nationals would need to bring several players from the alternate site in a scenario similar to the Marlins’ situation last year. MLB is naturally being cautious with this situation, which could lead to Washington having the start of their season moved beyond Monday.

As for the Mets, all signals indicate that their season will begin on Monday. They are slated to head to Philadelphia to face the Phillies, but that all depends on whether or not there are any positives amongst their team. To this point, nothing has been said about the Mets battling a COVID outbreak, but it makes sense to be cautious there as well.

This has to be discouraging for MLB at the very least. The league had done a solid job of controlling any outbreaks over the latter half of the season in 2020, and there had not been any issues in spring training. Postponing the opening series for the Mets and Nationals is the last thing that anyone could have wanted.

Next. Previewing the 2021 Mets. dark

The New York Mets and Washington Nationals series this weekend has been postponed. This may not be the only series that the Nationals impact.

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