Washington Nationals’ series with Miami Marlins this weekend postponed due to Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak...

Shortly before Washington Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez talked to reporters today in the nation’s capital, Major League Baseball announced that in light of the fact that Miami has now had 15 players test positive for COVID-19, all of the Marlins’ games through this Sunday have been postponed.

That, of course, includes the planned three-game set with the Nationals in Marlins Park in Miami this weekend.

Martinez talked about the possibility of this happening before Monday’s series opener with the Toronto Blue Jays in D.C.

Though, as usual, he said his focus was on the night’s matchup with the Jays, Martinez said, “Hopefully they make the right decision, that’s all I’m going to say. Miami is going through a difficult time with this virus. We’ll see what happens in the next day or so, but hopefully they make the right decision.”

“Given the current circumstances,” MLB’s press release on the postponements said, “... MLB believes that it is most prudent to allow the Marlins time to focus on providing care for their players and planning their Baseball Operations for a resumption early next week.”

“I think MLB did the right thing,” Martinez said today when asked about the news. “It’s all about keeping us safe. Myself, the players, our staff, everybody. So as far as the three days, we just heard of it not too long ago, so we’ll come up with some kind of workouts or something, but I haven’t really decided what we’re going to do yet. I’ll meet with the coaches probably after the game tonight and figure out what we’re going to do for three days.”

Martinez, confirming reports from earlier this morning, said that before the announcement, the team had actually voted amongst themselves and decided they didn’t feel safe going to Miami.

“All the decisions made here — basically, we’re really close and we’re very united,” Martinez explained.

“I heard rumblings from the players, and they had some concerns, so I wanted to talk about it. We had a vote. We all decided that it’s probably unsafe to go there.

“It had nothing to do with the Miami Marlins. It’s all about Miami and the state of Florida, this pandemic, that they didn’t feel safe, and I was one of them that felt the same way, so we took a vote and they all voted that they thought it was best that we didn’t go there right now.”

Did their vote impact the decision by MLB to postpone the series with the Fish?

“Honestly, I don’t really know,” Martinez admitted. “I just know that MLB — we feel like they did the right thing, and once again, I feel awful about what’s going on with the Marlins, I really do. And I hope that all those guys get better soon and they’re able to come back and play.

“If we’re going to go through this thing, they’re a big part of this division and this league, so we’d like to see those guys back on the field.”