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Justin Turner Tests Positive For COVID-19

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TODAY: Turner joined his teammates on the field after the game, celebrating with the Commissioner’s Trophy and taking part in the team photo.  According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, “league officials, league security personnel and some Dodgers officials spoke with Turner, asking him to remain in isolation” in the wake of his positive COVID-19 test, but Turner “was adamant about wanting to join the celebration.”

Speaking about Turner after the game, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told reporters “I think the people who were around him were the people that would be in the contact tracing web anyway, which is how closely a lot of us have been around each other.  Now I think subsequent tests we’re going to take are really important to figure out what we do and to make sure any of us that are potentially positive do not spread it to other people.”

In regards to Turner’s positive result, his Monday test was inconclusive, which the league didn’t learn until the second inning of Game 6 due to a delay in receiving the results.  The league then asked for a quick turn-around for Turner’s test from yesterday, and when that test showed COVID-19 positive, the Dodgers were informed and Turner was taken out of the game.  Since “inconclusive results are not uncommon,” Rosenthal said league officials were hesitant to immediately remove Turner from the game without confirmation.

OCTOBER 27: The Dodgers just knocked off the Rays to win their first World Series since 1988, but the victory did come with some bad news. Third baseman Justin Turner exited the Dodgers’ Game 6 win early because of a positive COVID-19 test, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report. The Dodgers replaced Turner with Edwin Rios in the eighth inning.

First and foremost, the hope is that Turner will overcome the illness. The 35-year-old had another great regular season for the Dodgers, batting .307/.400/.460 with four home runs in 175 plate appearances, before totaling three playoff HRs and hitting .320/.346/.720 in the World Series.

As we head into the offseason, it’s unclear whether Turner will play for the Dodgers again. He’s set to enter the winter as one of the top infielders available in free agency, so there should be plenty of interest in him if he’s healthy.

Minor MLB Transactions: 10/27/20

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The latest minor moves from around the game…

  • The Yankees announced that they have outrighted catcher Wynston Sawyer to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The team selected Sawyer’s contract in the middle of September, but he didn’t end up seeing any major league time in 2020. In his most recent professional action in 2019, Sawyer – an eighth-round pick of the Orioles in 2010 – batted .260/.333/.409 with two home runs in 171 plate appearances with the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate. The 28-year-old joined the Yankees on a minor league contract in February.
  • The Mariners have re-signed outfielder Connor Lien to a minors deal, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets. Lien, 26, was a 12th-round pick of the Braves in 2012 who, to this point, has played his entire professional career with the franchise. He divided the most recent minor league season in 2019 between Double-A and Triple-A, where he combined to hit .211/.314/.441 with 11 homers over 246 trips to the plate.

Latest On Tigers’ Matt Manning

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The Tigers received unwelcome news in late August when they had to shut down right-handed pitching prospect Matt Manning for the season because of a forearm strain. Fortunately, though, it looks as if Manning dodged a serious injury. Manning said Tuesday (via Jason Beck of MLB.com) that he suffered a mild injury and added that he’s at 100 percent right now.

Manning, now 22 years old, was the ninth overall pick of the Tigers in 2016. He has since been highly impressive in the minors, including during a 2019 campaign spent in Double-A ball. Manning made 24 starts that year, threw 133 2/3 innings and recorded a 2.56 ERA/2.53 FIP with 9.97 K/9 against 2.56 BB/9. He now ranks as a top-tier prospect at FanGraphs (No. 12), Baseball America (No. 15) and MLB.com (No. 20), among other outlets.

Assuming he is indeed healthy, Manning could debut for the Tigers at some point next year. The team’s rebuilding, but Manning is one of the reasons its pitching staff has plenty of reasons for hope going forward. BA ranks Manning and fellow young pitchers Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal right behind this year’s No. 1 pick, Spencer Torkelson, in its list of Tigers prospects.

Latest On Dee Strange-Gordon

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It’s no surprise, but it appears the Mariners are set to part with infielder/outfielder Dee Strange-Gordon. They’ll move on from his $14MM club option for 2021 in favor of a $1MM buyout, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports.

After an effective run with the Marlins, with whom he posted 9.3 fWAR in three seasons, the Mariners acquired Strange-Gordon heading into 2018. The speedy Strange-Gordon didn’t offer the type of production the Mariners were hoping for, though, as he batted a meek .266/.293/.343 with seven home runs, 55 stolen bases and just 0.2 fWAR over 1,091 plate appearances as a member of the team. The 32-year-old did see time at both middle infield spots and in multiple outfield positions along the way, but he didn’t grade out especially well at any of them.

Assuming the Mariners do say goodbye to Strange-Gordon, he’ll become part of a second base class of free agents that’s low on great options after DJ LeMahieu. The Mariners, meanwhile, could stick with a combination of Dylan Moore, J.P. Crawford and Shed Long in their middle infield in 2021.

Diamondbacks Outright Silvino Bracho, Bo Takahashi

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The Diamondbacks announced that they have outrighted righties Silvino Bracho and Bo Takahashi to Triple-A Reno. They now have 38 players on their 40-man roster.

The 28-year-old Bracho was an effective part of the Diamondbacks’ bullpen in 2018, when he pitched to a 3.19 ERA/3.26 FIP with 9.87 K/9 and 3.48 BB/9 over 31 innings. But Bracho underwent Tommy John surgery before 2019, costing him that entire season, and he only threw one frame this year after testing positive for COVID-19.

Takahashi, 23, has been part of the D-backs’ minor league system since 2014. He reached Double-A ball in both the 2018 and ’19 seasons, when he combined for a 4.09 ERA and logged 8.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 in 191 2/3 innings.

Latest On Steve Cohen, Mets

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OCT. 27: MLB owners are likely to vote on Cohen’s potential ownership Friday, per Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. It appears they’ll approve Cohen. However, there’s concern on Cohen’s part that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio won’t approve of the ownership switch by Friday. If he doesn’t, a source told Thosar: “The worst-case scenario is if this drags on long enough, the Mets miss out on all major free agents, miss out on potential trades and they go into next season effectively in the same place they are this season. And that would really be not good. If that happens, they’re effectively crippled for next season.”

OCT. 20: Prospective owner Steve Cohen is getting closer to taking over the Mets from the beleaguered Fred Wilpon-Jeff Wilpon tandem. Major League Baseball’s eight-person Ownership Committee recently voted in favor of Cohen, 7-1, Scott Soshnick and Barry M. Bloom of Sportico report. Cohen still has to receive approval from 22 of the league’s other 29 owners in order to assume the Mets’ reins, but Soshnick and Bloom suggest that’s a formality.

As someone who currently owns 8 percent of the Mets, Cohen’s already known around the league. He agreed in mid-September to purchase 95 percent of the club for around $2.475 billion, which came after a potential agreement between Cohen and the Wilpons fell through last winter. Since then, though, the Wilpons have endured substantial losses as a result of the coronavirus-shortened season with no fans in attendance, so they became more eager to part with the franchise.

Considering his net worth comes in north of $14 billion, Mets fans are understandably excited to see Cohen on the verge of leading the organization. And if Cohen does receive the necessary approval to succeed the Wilpons in the coming weeks, it won’t be a surprise to see the team make some splashy moves in the offseason after missing the playoffs for the fourth year in a row in 2020. Any of the game’s best pending free agents (Trevor Bauer, J.T. Realmuto and DJ LeMahieu, to name a few) could conceivably wind up on the Cohen-led Mets’ radar over the winter.

East Notes: Phillies, Andujar, Marlins

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Let’s check in on a few East Coast clubs…

  • The Phillies will not retain bullpen coach Jim Gott, per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Gott held the role for three years, but the Phillies elected not to renew the former big league right-hander’s contract. The move comes on the heels of a disastrous season for the Phillies’ bullpen, which posted a bloated 7.06 ERA en route to a last-place finish in the league. The unit’s struggles played a major part in the Phillies’ failure to earn a playoff berth. Now, with Gott gone and pitching coach Bryan Price having retired, that aspect of Philly’s coaching staff is in for a shakeup.
  • After a second straight abbreviated season, Yankees third baseman/outfielder Miguel Andujar will report to the Dominican Winter League, Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes tweets. Andujar looked like a budding star as a rookie in 2018, but he has played just 33 games since then, owing in part to a serious shoulder injury he suffered in his second season. While Andujar did come back this year, he was unable to unseat Gio Urshela as the Yankees’ No. 1 option at third base. Andujar wound up slumping to a .242/.277/.355 line with one home run in 65 plate appearances.
  • The Yankees have lost a pair of minor league coaches to the Marlins, as George A. King III of the New York Post reports that Tommy Phelps and Phil Plantier are headed to Miami. Phelps would have been the Yankees’ Triple-A pitching coach had a minor league season taken place, while Plantier was in line to serve as their hitting coach. Phelps will now work as the Marlins’ assistant pitching coordinator, though Plantier’s role is unclear. These hirings continue a deep Yankees connection for the Marlins, who are co-owned by Derek Jeter, managed by Don Mattingly, and employ Gary Denbo as their director of player development and scouting.

NL Notes: Mets, Giants, Joc, Nationals

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A few items from the National League…

  • With the Mets likely to change hands soon, current owners Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon held a Zoom call Monday “to award employees who had reached milestones for service,” Ken Davidoff of the New York Post writes. Jeff Wilpon, who thanked longstanding employees during that call, plans on leaving the organization when Steve Cohen takes over as the new owner, Andy Martino of SNY tweets.
  • With Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson due to reach free agency shortly, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle wonders if he would be a good fit for the rival Giants. San Francisco’s president of baseball operations, Farhan Zaidi, was previously in LA’s front office, so he’s familiar with Pederson. While Pederson should come at a reasonable price after a down regular season, Giants outfielders did hit well this year. With that in mind, it’s up in the air how much Zaidi & Co. will prioritize that area of the roster during the winter.
  • Nationals right-handed pitching prospect Jake Irvin underwent Tommy John surgery last week, Byron Kerr of MASNsports.com tweets. He’s likely to miss the entirety of the 2021 season as a result. The 23-year-old Irvin, whom MLB.com rates as the Nationals’ 21st-best prospect, threw 128 1/3 innings of 3.79 ERA/4.13 FIP ball during his Single-A debut in 2019.

Marlins Hope To Keep Brandon Kintzler

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The Marlins are interested in retaining right-handed reliever Brandon Kintzler heading into next season, Craig Mish of Sportsgrid tweets. The team has a $4MM option for next year, or it could buy Kintzler out for $250K and see him return to the open market.

The 36-year-old Kintzler isn’t far from his latest trip to free agency, where he signed a $3.25MM with the Marlins last offseason. Kintzler then pitched to a sterling 2.22 ERA, converted 12 of 14 save opportunities and posted 5.18 K/9 against 4.07 BB/9, albeit with a 5.00 FIP, over 24 1/3 innings.

In fairness to Kintzler, fielding-independent pitching metrics have leaned against him throughout his career, though his results have been good, as his sterling 56.2 percent groundball rate has helped him to a 3.31 ERA since he debuted in 2010. Kintzler has teamed that with a 3.80 FIP and 6.28 K/9 and 2.43 BB/9 over 448 2/3 frames during his time in the majors.

Tigers Interview Sal Fasano, Mark Kotsay

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5:44pm: Athletics quality control coach Mark Kotsay has also interviewed for the job in Detroit, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.

5:32pm: The Tigers have discussed their managerial vacancy with Braves catching instructor Sal Fasano, Jason Beck of MLB.com tweets.

Now 49 years old, Fasano played for an array of teams during a major league career that spanned from 1996-2008. He finished his playing career as a .221/.275/.392 hitter before moving into the coaching ranks. Prior to joining the Braves’ staff, Fasano garnered managerial experience at multiple levels in the minors with the Blue Jays and Angels organizations. He earned Manager of the Year honors with the Jays’ Double-A affiliate in 2011.

Now, Fasano is among a slew of candidates who could succeed the retired Ron Gardenhire in Detroit. MLBTR’s 2021 Managerial Search Tracker has the complete list of names.

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