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Scott Oberg Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

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Rockies reliever Scott Oberg underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery to help alleviate blood clots earlier this week, Nick Groke of The Athletic reports. The Rockies aren’t yet sure whether Oberg will pitch again.

Thoracic outlet surgery could be a devastating blow to any pitcher’s career, but it’s especially worrying that blood clots continue to serve as a major hindrance to Oberg. The 30-year-old, who hasn’t pitched at all this season, previously underwent three surgeries to address blood clots.

Oberg, of course, was downright excellent out of the Rockies’ bullpen from 2018-19. After combining for 114 2/3 innings of 2.35 ERA ball with 9.03 K/9 and 2.75 BB/9 during that span, Oberg inked a three-year, $13MM extension with Colorado last offseason. Oberg hasn’t taken the mound since then, though, and the hope now is that he’ll return to the mound as soon as possible. However, Oberg’s certainly facing even more of an uphill battle in the wake of such a serious procedure.

Andrew Miller’s 2021 Option Vests

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Andrew Miller made his 14th appearance of the season in yesterday’s Cardinals victory, and in doing so, he triggered a $12MM vesting option for the 2021 season, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold points out.

Miller, 35, signed a two-year, $25MM deal with St. Louis prior to the 2019 campaign — a contract that came with a vesting option which would become guaranteed with 110 games pitched between 2019-20. Miller appeared in a hefty 73 games for the Cards last season, leaving him with an easily attainable 37-game threshold to guarantee himself that salary in 2020. That number was prorated to just 14 games in this year’s shortened schedule, so even though the veteran southpaw missed some time in August due to some shoulder fatigue, he’s had enough time to secure that salary for next year.

The Cards haven’t yet seen the dominant form displayed by Miller during his 2013-17 peak, when he notched a combined 1.82 ERA and 1.96 FIP with 14.5 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9. The lefty has seen his strikeout rate dip from those levels as his control has worsened, and Miller’s fastball velocity has dropped by more than four miles per hour since 2016.

To be fair, Miller still has a sharp 3.09 ERA through 11 2/3 innings this year, to say nothing of a 12-to-4 K/BB and a 60 percent ground-ball rate that would mark a career-best. However, his overall body of work with the Cards — 4.21 ERA, 4.79 FIP, 82-to-31 K/BB ratio, 11 hit batters through 66 1/3 innings — is likely a good bit shy of what the organization had hoped for upon signing him. If Miller can continue at his 2020 pace even with the diminished velocity, next year’s salary won’t seem outlandish. But given the league-wide revenue losses in 2020, the extra $12MM being tacked on for a reliever’s age-36 season also isn’t ideal.

The Cardinals, who had seen their payroll (pre-prorating) rise above $160MM for a second straight season, already have roughly $111MM on the books for the 2021 campaign with Miller’s deal locked in. That doesn’t include arbitration raises for Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Harrison Bader or John Gant, nor does it include the pre-arbitration players who’ll round out the club. The front office will also have some work to do to up and down the roster. Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright are free agents. The outfield has been among the least-productive offensive units in baseball. There’s a $1MM buyout on Kolten Wong’s $12.5MM option for the 2021 season.

It’s not clear just what type of financial latitude the front office will be given by ownership, but we’re only a few months removed from Cards chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. brazenly declaring that the baseball industry “isn’t very profitable” even with fans in attendance. At the very least, Miller’s option further muddies what was already shaping up to be a complicated winter for president of baseball ops John Mozeliak, GM Mike Girsch and the rest of the Cards’ front office.

Tigers Manager Ron Gardenhire Retires

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Ron Gardenhire is retiring as Tigers’ manager, effective immediately, GM Al Avila announced today (via Chris McCosky of the Detroit News). Bench coach Lloyd McClendon will take over the manager’s chair for the remainder of the season, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Gardenhire intended to step away from the sport at the end of the 2020 season, he informed reporters (via Evan Woodbery of MLive), but a recent bout with food poisoning contributed to his decision to make the move a week and a half early.

“This is a bittersweet day for myself and my family,” Gardenhire said in a press release. “I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the countless players and coaches that I’ve had the honor of working alongside for the last 16 seasons as manager. I’d also like to thank the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins for giving me the privilege of leading their clubhouses. While I’m stepping away from managing, I’ll be watching this group of Tigers closely in the next few years. There’s a lot of talent on this team, and a lot coming through the farm system. Tigers fans are going to enjoy the exciting times on the horizon.”

The 62-year-old leaves the sport as one of its most successful managers in recent memory. As he alluded to in his statement, he first broke into managing in Minnesota back in 2002. Those Twins teams immediately rattled off a trio of 90-plus win seasons, winning the AL Central each of those years. Gardenhire’s clubs posted above-average records in eight of his first nine seasons at the helm.

Along the way, Minnesota broke in a handful of the game’s brightest stars. Franchise icon Joe Mauer made his MLB debut in 2004 and was named AL MVP five years later. Johan Santana, meanwhile, blossomed into a perennial Cy Young contender during the mid-2000’s, claiming the award twice.

Bright as things were in the early portion of Gardenhire’s Minnesota tenure, they went off the rails rather quickly. The Twins never won more than 70 games in any season from 2011-14. The club fired Gardenhire after the 2014 season, ending his tenure as the second-winningest manager in franchise history.

Somewhat surprisingly, Gardenhire remerged after a three-year hiatus, getting the Tigers’ managerial job in advance of the 2018 season. Detroit has floundered through a trio of miserable seasons since, although that was always expected with the Tigers amidst a massive rebuild. Much more pressing than wins and losses, Gardenhire was tasked with shepherding Detroit’s young players to the big league level. This season, in particular, has seen the Tigers break a few top young players, including Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal, into the big leagues.

It’s always difficult to tell from the outside precisely how impactful a coach or manager was behind the scenes. Nevertheless, the well-respected Gardenhire drew plaudits in that regard from Avila. “I’d like to congratulate Gardy for having one of the best managerial careers in baseball history,” the GM said. “His leadership and hard work over three seasons with our ballclub has helped move us towards our goal of bringing winning baseball back to Detroit. His positive impact on our young players will be felt for years to come.”

All told, Gardenhire’s clubs compiled a 1200-1280 record. That .484 winning percentage, of course, somewhat reflects the difficult hand he was dealt over the past few seasons in Detroit. His 1200 managerial wins rank 46th in MLB history. MLBTR congratulates Gardenhire on a fantastic career and wishes him well in retirement.

Rockies Designate Wade Davis For Assignment

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The Rockies are designating reliever Wade Davis for assignment, per Nick Groke of the Athletic (via Twitter). This brings to an end a three-year tenure in Denver that was an overwhelming disappointment.

Davis entered free agency on the heels of a four-year run as one of the sport’s most dominant late-inning arms. Between 2014-17, he combined for 241.1 innings of 1.45 ERA/2.23 FIP ball for the Royals and Cubs. He was a vital piece of Kansas City’s 2015 World Series winner.

The Rockies surely envisioned much of the same when they embarked on a bullpen-focused spending spree in the 2017-18 offseason. Colorado brought in Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee on three-year, $27MM deals before finishing with a flourish, inking Davis to a $52MM guarantee over the same term.

There were some warning signs the 32-year-old Davis wasn’t going to be able to sustain his prior levels of production. His walk rate spiked to a lofty 11.6% in his platform season, while his 94.4MPH fastball that year was down a tick from his unhittable peak with the Royals.

That said, it would’ve been impossible to predict Davis’ career going off the rails to the extent it has. His first season as a Rockie was actually solid, as he managed a 4.13 ERA in 65.1 innings. That was a far cry from his prime years, although it was still solidly better than average when adjusting for the hitter-friendly environs of Coors Field.

Last season, though, proved to be an unmitigated disaster. Davis pitched to an 8.65 ERA in 42.2 innings, with a massive spike in walk rate (to 14.1%) and a precipitous drop in strikeout rate (to 20.4%). His attempt at a 2020 bounceback never really got off the ground. He only got into five games, with a shoulder strain knocking him out of action for more than a month. Davis’ fate was sealed after he got tagged for four runs on four hits in just two-thirds of an inning in yesterday’s loss to the Dodgers.

Davis will surely clear waivers, since any claiming team would be on the hook for the remainder of his contract. It’s possible he tries to latch on with another club for the season’s final week, but he’d be ineligible for another team’s postseason roster at this point. To that end, Davis will probably turn his attention to 2021. After back-to-back lost seasons, the 35-year-old may have to settle for minor-league opportunities this offseason.

Justin Verlander To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Justin Verlander announced (via his Instagram page) that he will undergo Tommy John surgery.  As per the normal timeline for TJ recovery, Verlander will miss the entire 2021 season.

The right-hander’s full statement…

After consulting with several of the best doctors, it has become clear that I need Tommy John surgery.  I was hopeful that I would be able to return to competition in 2020, however, during my simulated game unfortunately the injury worsened.  Obviously I’m extremely disappointed, but I will not let this slow down my aspirations for my career.  I will approach this rehab the only way I know, attack and don’t look back.  I’m confident that with a proper rehabilitation program and my unwavering commitment that this surgery will ultimately lengthen my career as opposed to shorten it.  I can’t thank my teammates, coaches, the front office and my fans enough for the support they have given me so far in this process.  I’m eager to get through this recovery and back on the field to continue to do what I love.

Verlander started the Astros’ first game of the season and then was placed on the injured list due to a forearm strain.  After some initial speculation that the injury would be season-ending, there was hope that Verlander was nearing a return to Houston’s rotation before the end of the schedule, and that he would be available for the team in the playoffs.  Unfortunately, it now seems like we won’t see Verlander back on a mound until Opening Day 2022 at the earliest.

Given that Verlander will be 39 years old at that point, there is at least a chance that we have already seen the last pitch of his Hall Of Fame career.  There isn’t a long track record of pitchers rebounding after such a notable surgery at that advanced age, though on the plus side for Verlander, he has been the picture of durability over his career.  Apart from a triceps strain that cost him two months of the 2015 season, Verlander has been virtually free of any major injury, so he could theoretically have a better chance at a full recovery and a return to form than most pitchers in their late 30’s.

Verlander has already done better than most in holding off Father Time, as he is coming off two of his best seasons.  At ages 35 and 36 during the 2018-19 seasons, Verlander posted a cumulative 2.55 ERA, 12.2 K/9, and 7.47 K/BB rate over 437 innings for Houston, leading the league in both K/BB and WHIP in both years.  After finishing second in AL Cy Young voting in 2018, Verlander edged out then-teammate Gerrit Cole to win the award in 2019, eight seasons after Verlander’s initial Cy Young Award triumph (as well as an AL MVP Award) with the Tigers in 2011.

The Astros signed Verlander to a two-year, $66MM extension prior to the 2019 season, and that deal certainly looked all the world like a sound investment in the wake of Verlander’s Cy Young year.  However, both years of that contract have now been wiped out thanks to his forearm problem, and it is possible Verlander’s time in Houston could now be up.

It’s a major blow to an Astros team that already has $115MM committed to the 2021 season in the form of only four players — Verlander, Zack Greinke, Jose Altuve, and Alex Bregman.  With George Springer, Michael Brantley, and Yuli Gurriel all scheduled for free agency this winter, GM James Click faces some significant financial decisions, and the Astros’ overall direction is now severely complicated with the knowledge that Verlander won’t be a factor in 2021.  While Houston has gotten some nice contributions from younger arms like Jose Urquidy, Cristian Javier, and Framber Valdez, obviously the pitching staff is much deeper and stronger with Verlander teaming with Greinke at the top of the rotation.

A.J. Puk Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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SEPT. 18: The A’s are optimistic Puk, who underwent a debridement and cleanout of his shoulder, will be ready for spring training next year, Slusser tweets. He could start throwing again in 10 weeks.

SEPT. 11: Athletics left-hander A.J. Puk will undergo shoulder surgery next week, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

A healthy Puk is regarded as one of the majors’ premier pitching prospects, but he has had a hard time staying off the shelf in recent years. The 2016 first-round pick (No. 6 overall) underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018, forcing him to miss all of that season and most of last year, and hasn’t pitched at all in 2020 as a result of shoulder troubles. Now that he’s going back under the knife, his season’s obviously over.

It’s unclear whether this latest surgery will be serious enough to affect Puk’s availability for 2021, but the hope is that he’ll make it back to the mound in relatively short order and realize his potential. The 25-year-old was terrific during an 11 1/3-inning debut out of the A’s bullpen last year, when he averaged 97 mph on his fastball, gave up four earned runs on 10 hits and five walks, and amassed 13 strikeouts. In the wake of that showing, Puk seemed to be in line for a season-opening rotation spot heading into this year, but the shoulder issues he has battled since the spring prevented that from happening and stopped him from taking the mound at all in 2020.

White Sox Promote Garrett Crochet

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In an eye-opening promotion, the White Sox have selected the contract of left-hander Garrett Crochet, general manager Rick Hahn announced to reporters today (Twitter link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). Chicago drafted the 21-year-old lefty out of Tennessee with the 11th overall pick of the 2020 draft. Righty Evan Marshall is going on the 10-day injured list with shoulder inflammation, which opens an active roster spot. Right-hander Ian Hamilton was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Garrett Crochet (via Andrew Ferguson/Tennessee Athletics)

It’s obviously of the utmost rarity for a prospect to skip the minor leagues entirely, which Crochet will be doing in the absence of a conventional minor league season. The last player to do so was Mike Leake, although Brandon Finnegan followed a similar arc when he was called by the Royals in September 2014 with just 27 minor league innings under his belt (also a mere three months after being drafted). Of course, the White Sox themselves have done this with a high-profile college lefty as well, rocketing Chris Sale to the big leagues in the same year that he was selected 13th overall (2010).

Crochet might not have the video game-esque numbers that many would expect to see from a top-ranked collegiate pitcher, but he was nevertheless regarded as one of the best prospects in the 2020 draft. Between his sophomore and shortened junior NCAA seasons, Crochet worked to a 3.82 ERA with an 87-to-22 K/BB ratio in 68 1/3 innings. Baseball America was most bullish on Crochet heading into the draft, ranking him as the No. 15 prospect in the class. Kiley McDaniel of ESPN (16th), the team at MLB.com (18th), Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs (22nd) and Keith Law of The Athletic (39th) all had Crochet in their top 40 prospects as well.

There was some risk associated with Crochet after he missed the first three weeks of the 2020 season with what McDaniel tabbed as an issue with a muscle in his shoulder. He returned to make one appearance, punching out six hitters in 3 1/3 frames in what proved to be his only outing prior to the NCAA shutdown. Law calls him one of the best arms in the draft and labeled him a likely first-rounder, attributing the relatively bearish ranking to uncertainty surrounding his early absence. BA notes that there are concerns among some clubs about Crochet’s lack of track record as a starter — he started only 13 games in college while making 23 additional relief appearances — but virtually any scouting report on the 6’6″, 218-pound southpaw will say that he had some of the best pure stuff in the draft.

That arsenal, headlined by a fastball that runs up to 99 mph and a 70-grade slider, will be on full display at the game’s top level in the final week-plus of the season. It’s an aggressive move for a White Sox club that is clearly (forgive the cliche) all-in on pushing for a World Series in its first full, post-rebuild campaign.

The Sox have already clinched a postseason berth, and the Dodgers are the only team in baseball with a better record than their current mark of 33-17. They’ve ridden otherworldly performances from MVP candidates Tim Anderson and Jose Abreu to the top of the AL Central. With a formidable one-two punch of Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel in the rotation, followed by promising young arms like Dane Dunning and Dylan Cease, they look like legitimate contenders for a deep postseason run as well.

Crochet figures to head to the bullpen, where he’ll give skipper Rick Renteria a power arm to mix into the late innings alongside Alex Colome, Matt Foster, Codi Heuer and, if he’s able to return by season’s end, fellow lefty Aaron Bummer. Crochet is no lock to make the postseason bullpen — he’ll need to earn his way into that role — but he makes an already loaded White Sox roster look all the more intriguing in the countdown to the team’s first postseason appearance since way back in 2008.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Ferguson/University of Tennessee Athletics.

Manfred Hopes To Make Expanded Playoff Format Permanent

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The 2020 MLB season looks like nothing we’ve ever seen in the sport’s century-plus history. A 60-game schedule with 28-man rosters, frequent seven-inning doubleheaders, a universal DH and runners magically manifesting on the bases in extra innings have all been chalked up as necessities to get through a pandemic-shortened season that had a limited ramp-up period and was set to take place in a span of just 67 days. This year’s 16-team playoff field was implemented as a means to help curb some of the broad-reaching revenue losses that have hit all 30 clubs.

Unsurprisingly, however, it seems as though MLB is mulling the permanent implementation of some of these aspects. Speaking at an online event hosted by Hofstra University this week, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he hopes to make the expanded postseason format permanent, adding that he believes the opposition to the universal DH is waning and stating that the extra-inning rule has been received better than he anticipated (YouTube link to the entire 71-minute appearance).

“I’m a fan of the expanded playoffs,” Manfred said of this year’s 16-team field. “…I think getting back to that three-game series in the first round is a positive change. I think the initial round could have the kind of appeal you see in the early couple days in the NCAA tournament. It’s going to be crazy — just a lot of baseball in a compressed period of time. We’re going to have a bracket, obviously. People love brackets and love picking who’s going to come through those brackets. I think there’s a lot to commend it. It is one of those changes that I hope becomes a permanent part of our landscape.”

Nothing is set in stone on that front just yet, but the concept of an expanded playoff structure had been discussed and was generally supported by the “overwhelming majority” of owners prior to this year’s implementation, per Manfred.

Postseason expansion has indeed been floated speculatively in the past, although pushing all the way to 16 teams was an even more radical jump than ownership initially sought in return-to-play negotiations. Back in March, the league was reportedly looking at a 14-team structure, although that presumably would’ve served as a gateway to the 16-team format that is now in place. It’s also odd to tie the three-game Wild Card series to postseason expansion, as the league could simply have pushed the existing, sudden-death Wild Card Game into a three-game series without adding more teams to the field.

The league can spin the reasoning however it chooses, positioning the broadened structure as a win for fans — that surely is the case in many instances — but the ultimate goal is the greatly increased revenue associated with extra postseason play. With or without fans in attendance, adding six teams to the field will cause television revenue to soar. It’s been reported that this year’s expansion could generate $200-300MM in additional television revenue, and the potential for broadened gate revenue in subsequent seasons only creates further incentive for teams to endorse the larger field.

Manfred wasn’t so straightforward with his own personal endorsement of the universal designated hitter, but he strongly implied that he feels the on-field product is enhanced by the DH in the National League.

“I think that playing with the designated hitter every day, the best I could tell you right now, has softened the opposition to the DH in the National League,” said Manfred. “The experience of doing it, the offense that it injects into the game, the way it makes it more exciting — I’m not sure it’s going to last, but I do think it has definitely changed some minds in the National League, which is obviously where the opposition to having a single set of rules has been centered over the years.”

Regarding the most radical rule change in 2020, Manfred suggested that placing a runner on second base in extra innings not only has a chance to stick beyond 2020 but has been well-received to this point. The concept has been polarizing, at best, among fans on social media — MLBTR readers were against it four-to-one back in June, though that was of course before seeing it put into practice — and has also been panned by some players.

“The extra-inning rule has been more positively received than I would have expected,” said the commissioner. “I told people, I said publicly before Covid, that I didn’t see this rule coming to the Major Leagues. I think it has a chance now. It’s been good. People see it as a strategic rule. It’s a whole different thought process that goes into handling the extra innings. I think it’s a good thing.”

Not every rule change is likely to stay in place. Manfred cast doubt on whether seven-inning doubleheaders would remain in place beyond the 2020 season, characterizing the traditional nine-inning length of games as something that isn’t likely to be altered on a permanent basis.

Looking further down the road, Manfred again touched on the topic of expansion to 32 teams. The commissioner has long been a proponent of adding two new teams to the league but acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic — the revenue losses and the time dedicated to navigating a season amid it — have likely pushed expansion down the road a ways.

“Expansion makes great sense for baseball, just based on the math,” said Manfred. “Fours work way better than fives. We have five-team divisions right now, 15 teams in each league. Those fives are rough when you go to make a schedule. … Getting to 32 [teams] is a really appealing idea from a schedule format perspective.”

Manfred didn’t delve into potential sites for new teams, though he did go back to a previously stated belief that international expansion beyond the U.S. and Canada would be good for the game’s growth, citing Mexico’s existing baseball culture as a “great opportunity” for the league to explore at some point.

Eventual changes to the rulebook, the structure of the season and the very composition of the league have long felt inevitable, but it’s certainly notable that the league has implemented this many changes to the 2020 season with the looming expiration of the 2016-21 collective bargaining agreement. The impending negotiations on a new CBA undoubtedly played a role in the MLBPA’s decision to only agree to expanded playoffs in 2020, as the expanded format can now be a point of leverage in future negotiations rather than the status quo heading into those talks.

Even if some of the league’s desired changes for the 2021 season don’t come to fruition on the heels of this year’s experimental campaign, don’t be surprised if (or when) they are once again major talking points as MLB and the MLBPA again come to the negotiating table in a year’s time.

MLB, MLBPA Reach Agreement On Postseason Plan

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3:55pm: Because of concerns over air quality in the West Coast (the Mariners-Giants game in Seattle on Tuesday was postponed for that reason), the Phoenix area has become the league’s top fallback option for postseason games, Jeff Passan of ESPN tweets.

12:52PM: Major League Baseball has officially announced the postseason schedule, which is set to begin on September 29 with the start of the AL wild card series.  One notable aspect of the schedule is that there aren’t any scheduled off-days until the World Series, so teams won’t get any break (or a chance to reset their pitching staffs) unless they win their series in early fashion.

10:25am: Players’ families will have the option of quarantining at the hotel with them in the seven days prior to the postseason, Rosenthal tweets. They’d then be able to join the bubbles for the duration of the playoffs.

9:49am: Sherman further reports that teams will continue operating their alternate training sites during the pre-postseason quarantine, but transfers between the alternate site and big league roster won’t be permitted. As such, all players on the IL and 40-man roster are likely to join in that quarantine setting to allow clubs to continue to make roster moves.

That’s hardly an ideal setup, as those players seem unlikely to be able to participate in simulated games and other standard workouts, but the league is clearly exercising extra caution in order to ensure the postseason is able to take place.

9:37am: Sherman adds that the previously reported quarantine measures leading up to the playoffs will remain in place for players. All members of contending clubs, even those playing at home, will quarantine in hotels for seven days prior to the first round of postseason play. They’ll be tested daily during that period. If a team is eliminated from postseason contention in that seven-day span, of course, those players can leave the hotels early.

9:30am: Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association are in agreement on a plan for the 2020 postseason that includes a “bubble” format hosted at neutral sites for the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). A formal announcement is expected today.

Details of the arrangement remain sparse, although at last check, the plan was to host the ALDS and ALCS at National League stadiums in southern California (Dodger Stadium and San Diego’s Petco Park). The NLDS and NLCS, in turn, would be hosted at a pair of American League sites: the Rangers’ Globe Life Field and the Astros’ Minute Maid Park. The World Series would be staged at Globe Life Field as well. The first round of play would be hosted at the home park of the matchup’s higher seed, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.

Those points seemed largely agreed upon, but there were other details to be hammered out. Notably, players pushed back against the quarantine measures that were to be put in place for their family members before being permitted to join them in the bubble. It also appears that there’s been some discussion of allowing fans in a limited capacity, as commissioner Rob Manfred suggested last night in an online event with Hofstra University’s business school (link via Evan Drellich of The Athletic). Whether that possibility is woven into the agreement is not yet clear.

“I’m hopeful that the World Series and the LCS we will have limited fan capacity,” Manfred said in that appearance. “…Obviously it’ll be limited numbers, socially distanced, protection provided for the fans in terms of temperature checks and the like. Kind of the pods like you saw in some of the NFL games. We’ll probably use that same theory.”

Referring to anything as a “bubble” when family members and fans — even in limited quantities — are permitted to enter the equation seems like a reach, but it’s notable that it’s even under discussion. Limited fan attendance would complicate health and safety protocols but would also soften the financial blow that clubs are facing without gate revenue in 2020. It could also serve as somewhat of a litmus test in advance of the 2021 season, which Manfred acknowledged is not a given to return to normalcy from day one:

“I think the trick in terms of what’s going to happen next year, it’s dependent on the virus,” said Manfred. “The virus controls and it’s ‘do you have a vaccine? Are we still seeing spikes?’ That’s going to drive what local governments are going to allow us to do.”

Yankees Reinstate Giancarlo Stanton, Gio Urshela, Jonathan Loaisiga From Injured List

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The Yankees announced that outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, infielder Gio Urshela and right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga have all been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.  Miguel Andujar and Mike Ford were optioned to the alternate training site in corresponding moves, and the Yankees already had an open roster space since right-hander Clarke Schmidt was optioned after Sunday’s game.

Stanton hit the IL with a left hamstring strain back on August 9, and the Yankees and their fans are hoping that the slugger can finally enjoy a sustained run of healthy play after almost two full seasons of inactivity due to various leg injuries.  Stanton played in only 18 games in 2019 and appeared in 14 games this season before going on the injured list, with this year’s absence being particularly disappointing since Stanton was off to a huge start (hitting .293/.453/.585 with three homers in 54 PA).

However, Stanton’s return gives him time to get ramped up prior to the postseason, as the Yankees are starting to get healthy at perhaps just the right time.  Urshela will back to action after a minimal 10-day placement due to a bone spur in his right elbow, and the third baseman has followed up his breakout 2019 campaign with a strong .272/.358/.515 slash line and six homers in 120 PA this season.  Aaron Judge is also expected to soon return from a calf injury.

Loaisiga’s return is also welcome news for the Yankees, especially considering the rather unusual nature of his IL placement.  On September 4, the Yankees said Loaisiga was suffering from “a medical condition that prevents him from playing and necessitates placement on the injured list,” with manager Aaron Boone later specifying that the right-hander’s absence was not due to COVID-19.  Regardless, it is good to see Loaisiga back in relatively quick fashion.  The 25-year-old has a 3.18 ERA, 5.00 K/BB rate, and 10.6 K/9 over 17 innings this season.

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