Marlins top executive: COVID-19 outbreak became 'our rallying cry'

Miami Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill believes his club became stronger as a team after dealing with a COVID-19 outbreak that interrupted their season in late July and early August.

"We talk about the group of players from our original 30 that remained healthy. It was 13 players," Hill said, according to Bill Ladson of MLB.com. "It was one of those things where it became our rallying cry. No matter what was thrown at us, there was nothing that was going to derail us from our ultimate goal."

The Marlins missed over a week of action due to the outbreak that saw 18 players test positive, which forced the club's front office to make an unprecedented amount of roster moves.

"We marvel at ourselves - 171 roster moves to be exact, as of today," Hill said. "It's hard to imagine anything like it. You talk about a season of so many unprecedented things. That's one you never encountered. As a front office, you are planning on a player hurting his arm or pulling a hamstring. You are replacing a player every couple of weeks.

"In a matter of days, it went from one player with the virus to four players to 13 players to 15 players to 18 players."

Miami ended up securing the No. 6 seed in the 2020 playoffs, posting a winning season following a 105-loss campaign last year. Prior to this season, the team hadn't made the postseason since winning the 2003 World Series.