Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Quick Hits: Schedule, Twins, A’s, Minor League Pay

By | at

The Nationals and Yankees are tentatively scheduled to play on July 23, according to Joel Sherman and Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, which would make for a big Max Scherzer vs. Gerrit Cole pitching matchup to highlight Opening Day.  It might still be at least a week or two before the 2020 schedule is officially finalized, however, as the league is still considering a number of factors, chief among them coronavirus outbreaks around the United States.  “Better, the league believes, to take its time, see how the [COVID-19] testing of personnel goes this week and the preferences expressed in feedback from clubs,” Sherman and Marchand write.  “So the current schedule can change drastically and, if it does, the union will have to provide its blessing again.”

More from around baseball…

  • Tomorrow is the deadline for teams to submit their initial 60-man player pool, and details are already beginning to emerge about which players may or may not be included.  The Twins’ taxi squad will include top prospects Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff, and Brent Rooker,  SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson tweets.  Caleb Thielbar, who rejoined Minnesota on a minors contract last winter, is also expected to be on taxi squad duty.
  • The Athletics will initially split their player pool into two groups, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports, with much of the big league roster training in Oakland and the taxi squad potentially training in nearby Stockton — the home of the Athletics’ Class-A affiliate — if a deal can be finalized with Stockton city officials.  Offseason minor league signings Ryan Goins, Carlos Perez, Jordan Weems, and Lucas Luetge will all be in Oakland, while taxi squad players include such notable prospects as Tyler Soderstrom, Daulton Jefferies, Nick Allen, Dustin Fowler and (as per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez) Robert Puason.
  • Slusser also provides updates on some Athletics players who were battling injuries during the spring but are now on track to be ready for Opening Day.  A.J. Puk “has been throwing bullpen sessions for months” following a shoulder strain in the spring, and looks to be ready to begin the season in Oakland’s rotation.  Right-hander Daniel Mengden is also ready to be part of the pitching mix after recovering from arthroscopic elbow surgery in February.  After being sidelined with an intercostal strain during Spring Training, Stephen Piscotty said he is now “100 percent with no limitations.”
  • The Rays and Rangers are the latest teams to commit to paying their minor leaguers through the end of July, as respectively reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times and Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  Minor leaguers in each organization will continue to receive their $400 weekly stipends for at least another month.

Orioles Sign Two Draft Picks

By | at

5:36PM: Both players signed for their exact slot price, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links).

5:05PM: The Orioles have signed two of their picks from the amateur draft, announcing that Competitive Balance Round A pick Jordan Westburg and second-rounder Hudson Haskin have agreed to deals with the club.

Financial terms weren’t announced, though the 30th overall selection (Westburg) has a $2,365,500 slot value and the 39th overall pick (Haskin) has a $1,906,800 slot price.  The O’s have already gone notably over slot with two of their other draft signings, though some type of below-slot deal is expected with second overall pick Heston Kjerstad, as Baltimore’s slight reach in taking Kjerstad at that selection was seen as a way to free up more pool money for signings in the rest of the team’s draft class.

Westburg was a consensus top-40 pick among pundits, with Fangraphs being the highest on him as the 32rd-ranked player on their draft board.  A 21-year-old shortstop, Westburg has been a big part of Mississippi State’s consecutive appearances in the College World Series, and he also performed well in the Cape Cod League last summer.  While seen as something of an inconsistent or raw hitter, Westburg has cut down on his strikeouts over his last three NCAA seasons, and could develop more power as he continues to build on his 6’3″, 203-pound frame.  That size could make Westburg a candidate to eventually move to third base, though he is considered to have the athleticism and throwing arm required to earn a look at shortstop.

Haskin, an outfielder out of Tulane, has drawn some comparison to Hunter Pence for, to quote, Baseball America’s scouting report, a swing that “works despite being ugly.”  Haskin’s lengthy swing has nonetheless delivered impressive results at the plate, and he could also potentially work as a big league center fielder given his plus speed and solid defense.  The Orioles were clearly higher on Haskin than most pundits — the 21-year-old was ranked 51st on Keith Law’s board, 74th by MLB Pipeline, 76th by Fangraphs, and only 211st by Baseball America.

A’s To Begin Negotiations To Fully Purchase Oakland Coliseum Site

By | at

In the latest wrinkle in the Athletics’ quest to build a new ballpark, Oakland’s City Council decided in a “nearly unanimous” vote Thursday to start negotiations about selling the city’s half of the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum site to the team, Phil Matier of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

The A’s already own the other half of the site, having completed the purchase with Alameda County over the winter.  The city of Oakland is looking for a similar version of that sale, which would see the A’s pay the city $85MM over an unspecified time frame.  Those funds would greatly help a city that, like virtually everywhere else in the world, suddenly faces major financial issues in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“After the coronavirus shutdown, we are looking at a very,very serious budget deficit, and they are saying it could cost us $6MM just to maintain the site,” city councilman Noel Gallo said prior to the closed session of council.  “We don’t have that kind of money. This way we can get some badly needed help.”

The deal is based around the A’s ultimately staying in Oakland, and assuming that the Coliseum site deal goes through as planned, the club would now have multiple options towards that end.  The Athletics’ first choice is still to build a new ballpark at the Howard Terminal site in downtown Oakland, and should that ballpark be completed, the A’s would then look to develop the Coliseum site themselves.  As per Sports Illustrated’s John Hickey, the 155-acre property that currently houses both the Coliseum and the Oakland Arena (the former home of the Golden State Warriors) would become “a shopping, cultural and residential area…The Coliseum itself would be razed, although the baseball diamond would become a large park.”

The other possibility is that the site could be used as a backup plan for a new A’s ballpark.  The Athletics would continue to play in the Coliseum until a new stadium was built in what is currently the site’s north parking area.  As Hickey notes, however, that the pandemic could make this scenario more realistic if the A’s aren’t able to borrow the funding necessary to convert the Howard Terminal area.

Earlier this month, A’s president Dave Kaval said Howard Terminal was still the team’s priority, though “we’re just focused on taking it quarter by quarter and seeing how much progress we can make.”  While some obstacles remain in the way of the Howard Terminal project getting a full green light, that endeavor looked to tentatively be on track, with the Athletics originally hoping for an opening by the 2023 season prior to the coronavirus shutdown.

This is purely my speculation, but if financing becomes enough of an issue, the Athletics could theoretically look to sell the 155 acres to another developer in order to generate the money necessary to finalize the Howard Terminal concept.  Such a next step would add another major layer of complication to what has already been a drawn-out process, of course, and obviously the A’s would prefer both their new ballpark and the Coliseum residential area as dual revenue-generators.

It’s fair to say that some fans could be a little perturbed to hear about another potential multi-million-dollar development deal during a time when so many teams are claiming economic strife.  The A’s have long been one of baseball’s lower-spending teams, and their cost-cutting measures have often drawn criticism — even just recently, owner John Fisher had to admit fault and reverse the team’s initial plan to eliminate the $400 weekly stipend given to Athletics minor leaguers.  A’s ownership has insisted for years that a new ballpark is necessary for the team to remain in Oakland, and if nothing else, today’s news should deepen the ties between the club and the city.

40 MLB Players And Staff Test Positive For Coronavirus

By | at

9:33PM: The camps of at least 10 different teams have been “affected” by coronavirus cases since the end of Spring Training, Heyman tweets.

6:47PM: A total of 40 Major League players and staff members had positive COVID-19 tests in the last week, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports.  This total presumably includes the already-reported cases in recent days — members of the Yankees, Angels, Phillies, and Astros organizations are known to have the virus, while the Blue Jays and Giants also closed their training camps after people connected with the teams displayed COVID symptoms.  As a result of this outbreak, the league ordered all spring training facilities to be closed (and thoroughly cleaned) while new health protocols are determined between the MLB and the players union.

The sheer number of people involved at every level of a big league organization makes it inevitable that more positive results beyond these initial 40 cases will emerge as testing continues in the coming days, weeks, and months.  Even after a more concrete set of health and safety protocols are established, the threat of COVID-19 will hang over whatever baseball we see played in 2020, including the open question as to what will happen if a team-wide outbreak (akin to the Phillies’ current situation) occurs during the season.

As MLB Network’s Jon Heyman puts it, COVID-19 is “the common enemy” that both baseball’s owners and players need to battle first and foremost, even beyond the two sides’ protracted negotiations over how to launch the 2020 season.  The health situation has led to a new “sense of urgency” in talks, Nightengale writes, though the rapidly shrinking calendar is also a factor given the players’ desire to play more than 60 games.

National League Draft Signings: Picks & Bonus Info

By | at

Here is the list of every National League team’s picks over the five rounds (plus the free agent compensation sandwich picks and the two Competitive Balance Rounds) of the 2020 draft.  Slot price information and — if available — the amount of the player’s bonus are listed, as well as each club’s total draft bonus spending pool.  If a player doesn’t sign with the team, the slot price attached to the player’s draft spot is removed from the team’s pool.

Teams are allowed to spend beyond their draft pool limit, though at an increasingly steep penalty.  Exceeding the limit by 10 percent or less of the pool value will cost a team a 75 percent tax on the overage, as well as the forfeiture of a future first-round pick if they exceed the pool by between 5-10 percent.  A 100 percent tax on the overage is levied if a team exceeds its pool by more than 10 percent of the total pool value, with heavier pick penalties — a future first- and second-round pick if a team’s extra spending falls between 10-15 percent of the pool limit, and two future first-round picks if the pool is exceeded by more than 15 percent.  Needless to say, it would be shocking if any team topped the five percent threshold, though going over the pool limit by 0-5 percent isn’t uncommon.

For further reference, here is the rundown of draft signings for American League teams. These lists will be frequently updated as more players sign over the coming weeks, so keep the posts bookmarked for future updates!

Braves ($4,127,800 draft pool)

Brewers ($6,078,300 draft pool)

Cardinals ($7,901,100 draft pool)

Cubs ($6,721,600 draft pool)

Diamondbacks ($7,184,900 draft pool)

Dodgers ($5,928,400 draft pool)

Giants ($9,231,800 draft pool)

Marlins ($12,016,900 draft pool)

Mets ($7,174,700 draft pool)

Nationals ($6,647,700 draft pool)

Padres ($10,674,000 draft pool)

  • Robert Hassell III, 1st round, 8th overall. Slot value: $5,176,900
  • Justin Lange, Competitive Balance Round A, 34th overall. Slot value: $2,148,100
  • Owen Caissie, 2-45. Slot value: $1,650,200
  • Cole Wilcox, 3-80. Slot value: $767.8K
  • Levi Thomas, 4-109. Slot value: $533K (Signed for $80K)
  • Jagger Haynes, 5-139. Slot value: $398K (Signed for $300K)

Phillies ($5,444,200 draft pool)

Pirates ($11,154,500 draft pool)

Reds ($8,552,100 draft pool)

Rockies ($10,339,700 draft pool)

American League Draft Signings: Picks & Bonus Info

By | at

Here is the list of every American League team’s picks over the five rounds (plus the free agent compensation sandwich picks and the two Competitive Balance Rounds) of the 2020 draft.  Slot price information and — if available — the amount of the player’s bonus are listed, as well as each club’s total draft bonus spending pool.  If a player doesn’t sign with the team, the slot price attached to the player’s draft spot is removed from the team’s pool.

Teams are allowed to spend beyond their draft pool limit, though at an increasingly steep penalty.  Exceeding the limit by 10 percent or less of the pool value will cost a team a 75 percent tax on the overage, as well as the forfeiture of a future first-round pick if they exceed the pool by between 5-10 percent.  A 100 percent tax on the overage is levied if a team exceeds its pool by more than 10 percent of the total pool value, with heavier pick penalties — a future first- and second-round pick if a team’s extra spending falls between 10-15 percent of the pool limit, and two future first-round picks if the pool is exceeded by more than 15 percent.  Needless to say, it would be shocking if any team topped the five percent threshold, though going over the pool limit by 0-5 percent isn’t uncommon.

For further reference, here is the rundown of draft signings for National League teams. These lists will be frequently updated as more players sign over the coming weeks, so keep the posts bookmarked for future updates!

Angels ($6,397,100 draft pool)

Athletics ($5,241,500 draft pool)

Astros ($2,202,600 draft pool)

Blue Jays ($9,716,500 draft pool)

Indians ($7,662,800 draft pool)

Mariners ($10,265,500 draft pool)

Orioles ($13,894,300 draft pool)

Rangers ($7,083,900 draft pool)

Rays ($7,474,600 draft pool)

Red Sox ($5,129,900 draft pool)

Royals ($12,521,300 draft pool)

Tigers ($13,325,700 draft pool)

Twins ($4,528,600 draft pool)

White Sox ($7,764,800 draft pool)

Yankees ($3.52MM draft pool)

Manny Banuelos Signs With CPBL’s Fubon Guardians

By | at

Left-hander Manny Banuelos has signed a deal with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, according to several reports out of Mexico (hat tip to the CPBL Stats website).  Banuelos had most recently been a member of the Mariners organization, before Seattle released him from his minor league contract at the start of June.

2019 marked Banuelos’ return to the majors, after he hadn’t pitched in the Show since tossing 26 1/3 innings as a rookie for Atlanta in 2015.  Those interim years saw Banuelos bounce from the Braves to the Angels to the Dodgers before being dealt to the White Sox in November 2018.  Banuelos tossed 50 2/3 innings for Chicago last season, starting eight of 16 appearances and posting a 6.93 ERA, 1.33 K/BB rate, and 7.8 K/9.

Once a very highly touted prospect coming up in the Yankees’ farm system, Banuelos’ career has been stalled by injuries (particularly a Tommy John surgery that kept him from pitching in 2013) and a lack of consistency at Triple-A, let alone during his brief Major League career.  Still only 29 years old, Banuelos will now head to the New Taipei City-based Guardians to try and carve out a niche for himself in the CPBL.  Chin-lung Hu, Henry Sosa, and Fu-Te Ni are other former big leaguers also playing on Fubon’s roster.

Quick Hits: Bitsko, Tanaka, Moskos, Draft Prospects

By | at

Nick Bitsko was originally slated to be part of the 2021 draft class, so when the young righty took some extra courses to graduate high school after his junior year and thus become eligible for the 2020 draft, the Rays didn’t have a ton of fresh information available, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes.  The Rays were limited to a three-inning showcase last August, “plus a 50-pitch March bullpen session at a small indoor facility and an hour-long Zoom call last week,” yet were still impressed enough to make Bitsko the 24th overall pick, just days before Bitsko’s 18th birthday.

Working largely off limited video from Bitsko’s high school games, some throwing-session footage posted by Bitsko himself online, and cellphone footage shot by scout Zach Clark during the bullpen session, the Rays became comfortable in the right-hander’s ability.  Clark is still the only Rays employee to speak to Bitsko or his parents in person, as Bitsko’s next meeting with team officials came during the online conversation.  “I think the Zoom call sent it over the top for our guys,” Clark said.  “Listen to Nick talk about pitching, preparation, what he’s done in the past, you’re like, ’Man, it’s really hard to believe you’re talking to a 17-year-old.’ ”

More from around baseball…

  • Of the Yankees’ three veteran impending free agent starters, Masahiro Tanaka is “the favorite to return” to the Bronx in 2021, George A. King III of the New York Post opines.  Tanaka will turn 32 in November, though James Paxton shares almost the exact same birthday and will carry a much more checkered injury history into the open market, while J.A. Happ turns 38 in October and is coming off a rough 2019 season.  Of course, there’s nothing stopping the Yankees from re-signing only one of these hurlers, and there’s also nothing to say that New York couldn’t let all three walk.  The latter scenario seems less likely, however, as that would leave the team with quite a young and unproven rotation mix behind Gerrit Cole, unless the Yankees acquired another veteran starter.
  • Fangraphs’ David Laurila recently caught up with Daniel Moskos, the fourth overall pick of the 2007 draft and currently the pitching coach for the Yankees’ A-ball affiliate in Charleston.  Despite his lofty draft status, Moskos’ MLB career consisted of only 24 1/3 innings for the Pirates in 2011 before elbow problems and a Tommy John surgery took their toll.  After bouncing around the minors, the Mexican League, and independent ball, Moskos followed the lead of several pitchers in recent years by visiting the Driveline facility to try and get his career on track.  As it turned out, it led to a career change entirely, as Moskos retired in order to take a job as coach and trainer at Driveline.  That position led to a lot of interest from other organizations about coaching roles, leading to Moskos being hired by the Yankees last November.
  • While teams are now eligible to begin signing undrafted free agents, some notable players who weren’t selected have opted to go back to school rather than take a $20K offer.  The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino reports (Twitter link) that right-hander Tommy Mace will return to Florida for his senior year, which isn’t surprising given that Mace was a consensus top-75 prospect as per this year’s draft projections.  (The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Mace as the 46th-best player in the class, with Fangraphs not far behind in placing Mace 47th.)  As Tolentino notes, another good year from Mace could make him in the top-15 range for the 2021 draft.
  • Infielder Darren Baker will also forego a free agent contract and return to Cal next season, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle writes.  Baker, the son of Astros manager Dusty Baker, was rated 184th in Baseball America’s draft prospect rankings.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top