Yasiel Puig Tests Positive For Coronavirus; Deal With Braves Reportedly Off
Outfielder Yasiel Puig will not be signing with the Braves after all, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. Puig reportedly agreed to a contract with the Braves earlier this week, but he announced Friday on Twitter that he has tested positive for the coronavirus. That was enough to scuttle the deal for Atlanta, which Rosenthal writes never actually reached an agreement with Puig.
Of course, this is a stunning turn of events for the Braves and Puig. First and foremost, though, is the 29-year-old’s health. Fortunately, he tweeted that he’s asymptomatic and feeling fine. Puig will need two negative tests before he’s eligible to return to action, which suddenly looks in jeopardy of happening at all in 2020 now that his pact with the Braves won’t go through. It’s unclear whether the Braves will circle back to the righty-swinging Puig in the near future. For now, they’re looking for a left-handed-hitting bench option to supplement their offense, according to Rosenthal.
Even before this development, Puig went through a surprisingly difficult few months. While he has been a solid contributor for most of his career, which began with the Dodgers in 2013, a down 2019 between Cincinnati and Cleveland led to a tepid market in free agency. The months-long COVID-19 shutdown that prevented teams from making transactions also didn’t help Puig’s cause. Once he regains his health, he’ll surely try yet again to land a contract with a major league team. Even if he does, he probably won’t be able to debut this season until at least sometime in August.
The Braves received great news Friday when first baseman and lineup linchpin Freddie Freeman was cleared to return to action, but their outfield depth has taken multiple hits of late. Before the failed Puig deal, veteran Nick Markakis opted out of the season over health concerns. They do currently have Ronald Acuna Jr., Marcell Ozuna and Ender Inciarte as starters in the grass, though, and their track records indicate they should make for a quality trio. Prospects Cristian Pache and Drew Waters may not be far off, but Pache is dealing with an ankle injury at the moment. Otherwise, Austin Riley, Adam Duvall and Charlie Culberson could be the team’s top reserves in the outfield.
DJ LeMahieu Rejoins Yankees
JULY 17: LeMahieu is back on the field, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News tweets.
JULY 15: Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu has been on the shelf since July 4 because of a positive COVID-19 test, but he’s nearing a return to the club. LeMahieu is expected to rejoin the Yankees this week, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.
It’s obviously a relief that LeMahieu has gotten past the virus in a relatively short amount of time. Considering the time LeMahieu missed, it’s unknown if he’ll be ready for the Yankees’ opener on July 23. Nevertheless, he’ll play a key role when he does make his 2020 debut.
LeMahieu, a former Rockie and Cub, signed a two-year, $24MM contract with the Yankees before 2019 and unexpectedly produced like one of the majors’ elite players. Along with hitting an exemplary .327/.375/.518 (136 wRC+) with 26 home runs and 5.4 fWAR in 655 plate appearances, he added great value as a defender, appearing in 40 or more games at second, third and first. LeMahieu will be the Yankees’ primary second baseman this year, joining shorstop Gleyber Torres to comprise their double-play tandem.
It’s in question what the future will hold for the 32-year-old LeMahieu after 2020, as he’s due to re-enter free agency in a few months. Before spring training shut down in March, LeMahieu told Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News he and the Yankees hadn’t engaged in serious extension talks. Nothing has changed on that front, per Ackert (though the league did halt all extension discussions during the shutdown).
Freddie Freeman, Touki Toussaint Cleared To Rejoin Braves
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman and right-hander Touki Toussaint have been cleared to rejoin the club, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Both players have been out since July 4 because of positive coronavirus tests. Reliever Will Smith landed on the shelf when Freeman and Toussaint did, but he hasn’t been cleared yet, per David O’Brien of The Athletic.
It’s not known how long it will take for either Freeman or Toussaint to ramp up, though manager Brian Snitker said Thursday that the Braves hadn’t yet ruled out Freeman for the Braves’ season opener on July 24. Whether or not he plays then, it’s clear Freeman’s season debut should come sooner than later, which no doubt comes as an enormous relief for the team. After all, Freeman’s a four-time All-Star who continued his reign as one of the game’s most feared hitters last season.
Toussaint doesn’t carry that type of prestigious track record, having thrown 70 2/3 innings with a 4.97 ERA/4.49 FIP and 9.81 K/9 against 5.99 BB/9 since he first reached the majors in 2018. But the 24-year-old’s a former high-end prospect whose return is a welcome one considering the need for pitching in a pandemic-shortened season. And the Braves could use the depth with Smith’s status up in the air, injured lefty Cole Hamels unlikely to be available for the start of the season, and righty Felix Hernandez having opted out of the campaign.
Justin Anderson To Undergo Tommy John Surgery
The Angels announced Friday that right-hander Justin Anderson has a tear in his ulnar collateral ligament. He’ll undergo Tommy John surgery as a result.
The 27-year-old Anderson is a former 14th-round pick of the Angels in 2014 who made his major league debut in 2018. Since then, only three Angels relievers (Noe Ramirez, Cam Bedrosian and Hansel Robles) have thrown more innings than Anderson’s 102 1/3. Unfortunately, though, injuries have been a frequent problem for Anderson dating back to last season. He dealt with a trapezoid issue then, which likely contributed to a 2 mph-plus drop in his average fastball (from 97.3 mph to 94.7), and then battled an oblique problem this past spring.
So far, Anderson has pitched to a 4.75 ERA and posted a bloated 6.33 BB/9 in the majors, though he does own a much better 4.10 FIP and an impressive strikeout rate of 11.17 per nine. He won’t have a chance to add to those numbers until late next year or perhaps in 2022, as TJ procedures typically require 12 to 15 months of rehab. In the meantime, Anderson is scheduled to reach arbitration for the first time during the upcoming offseason.
Gregory Polanco Tests Positive For Coronavirus
Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco has tested positive for the coronavirus, Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic was among those to report.
Polanco has been out of Pirates Summer Camp for almost the entire week, making this an unsurprising development. However, it’s unclear whether he’s dealing with severe symptoms or whether he’ll be able to return in short order. The same goes for two of his teammates, reliever Keone Kela (whom the team placed on the injured list Friday) and third base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes. They’ve also been absent from camp.
From an on-field standpoint, Polanco is one of the Pirates’ most important players. He was a solid producer as recently as the 2018 season, in which he batted .254/.340/.499 with 23 home runs and 12 stolen bases in 535 plate appearances. But Polanco couldn’t build on that during an injury-plagued 2019 that saw him take just 167 PA and bat .242/.301/.425 with six HRs and three steals.
Now, as Jason Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote Thursday, the Polanco-less Pirates could turn to any of Guillermo Heredia, Socrates Brito, Adam Frazier or Jose Osuna in right field. Bryan Reynolds figures to start in left, while Jarrod Dyson should occupy center.
Jesus Luzardo Cleared To Rejoin Athletics
Athletics left-hander Jesus Luzardo has been on the shelf since testing positive for the coronavirus July 7, but he has recovered from the illness. Luzardo has been cleared to practice and will rejoin Athletics Summer Camp on Friday, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com tweets.
One of the game’s absolute best pitching prospects, health issues have beset Luzardo over the past year-plus. The A’s hoped he’d be a significant contributor last season, but he ended up missing a large portion of it because of rotator cuff and lat problems. Luzardo was able to make his much-anticipated major league debut in September, though, and the down-the-stretch results he recorded were spectacular. The flamethrowing 22-year-old made six appearances from Oakland’s bullpen and put up a 1.50 ERA with 12.00 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9 over 12 innings. He added three more frames of scoreless, one-hit ball with four strikeouts and two walks in the A’s wild-card game loss to the Rays.
From a long-term standpoint, a best-case scenario for Oakland would see Luzardo turn into a front-line starter. As far as this season goes, though, it’s unclear how the A’s will utilize him. Because of the time he missed, pitching coach Scott Emerson suggested this week (via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle) Luzardo could fill a short-inning role, at least initially, saying: “It’s just a matter of when we get him on the team, do we start him two innings or do we use him more in a leverage situation and maybe pick his days that he gets to pitch?”
Assuming Luzardo won’t be in their season-opening rotation, it seems likely the A’s will come out of the gates in 2020 with Mike Fiers, Sean Manaea, Frankie Montas, A.J. Puk and Chris Bassitt as their starting five.
MLB, MLBPA Announce Latest COVID-19 Testing Results
Major League Baseball and the MLBPA issued a joint press release Friday to announce the latest COVID-19 test results from around the sport through July 16. For the most part, it’s encouraging news that should further pave the way for the regular season to start as scheduled July 23.
The league collected 10,548 samples over the past week, but just six (0.05 percent) returned as new positives. Five of those came from players, the other from a staff member. There was also a five-day period in which no new positives were reported.
To date, the league has collected 17,949 monitoring samples and 23 new positives (18 players, five staff members), which equals 0.1 percent. When combining ongoing monitoring testing and intake screening that began June 27, there have been 93 positive tests (80 players) among 21,701 samples, which translates to 0.4 percent. Twenty-eight of the league’s 30 teams have had at least one positive.
Alex Rodriguez Discusses MLB Economics
Alex Rodriguez, who’s vying to purchase the Mets, made comments Thursday that could win the favor of Major League Baseball owners. However, they’ve already drawn ire from the players’ side. As the Associated Press writes, the retired 14-time All-Star called for today’s players to accept a revenue-sharing system “tied to a salary cap.”
The MLBPA was able to prevent the league from implementing a salary cap during the 1994-95 strike, but Rodriguez believes the players have lost leverage since then because baseball no longer has “a stranglehold on professional sports.” Rodriguez cited the increased popularity of the NFL and NBA and the rise of various digital media platforms as factors that have hurt baseball over the past two-plus decades. As a result, the owners and players must “really work collaborative” in an effort to return the game to the top.
How can they do that? In Rodriguez’s estimation, “The only way it’s going to happen is if they get to the table and say the No. 1 goal, let’s get from $10 to $15 billion and then we’ll split the economics evenly.”
Union chief Tony Clark fired back, stating: “Alex benefited as much as anybody from the battles this union fought against owners’ repeated attempts to get a salary cap. Now that he is attempting to become an owner himself his perspective appears to be different. And that perspective does not reflect the best interests of the players.”
As the highest-paid player in the history of the game, Rodriguez certainly did benefit from the cap-less setup when he was in the league. The former Mariner, Ranger and Yankee earned over $441MM in salaries according to Baseball Reference, which makes his comments especially surprising and, in some quarters, quite unpopular.
Former major league right-hander and current Rangers special assistant Brandon McCarthy was among those to voice vehement opposition to A-Rod’s observations, tweeting Thursday he hopes Rodriguez – now a television analyst – is “shouted out of every clubhouse he attempts to enter in this and future seasons. Call him a self-serving liar and make him explain himself to a room full of his former peers if he wants broadcast content.”
Rodriguez subsequently took to Twitter in the early hours of the morning Friday to issue a statement.
“Yesterday, when I was asked about the CBA expiring in 2021, I answered honestly, but never mentioned the word salary cap,” Rodriguez wrote. “My goal as a broadcaster and more importantly as a fan of the sport is to grow our game. I suggested on the call that both sides – players and owners – work together to make baseball as big as the NFL and the NBA. I’ve been in contact with Tony Clark, the executive director of the MLBPA, to make sure we’re aligned in taking our sport to the next level and showcasing the world’s best athletes.”
Regardless of whether Rodriguez’s star-studded group does land the Mets, the owners and players figure to be in for a contentious showdown when the CBA expires in December 2021. The two sides engaged in an all-too-public, months-long spat over finances during the COVID-19 shutdown, and with no agreement reached on regular-season length, commissioner Rob Manfred unilaterally imposed a 60-game schedule that will begin July 23. The hope is that the two sides’ bitterness toward one another will subside enough in the next year-plus that they’ll be able to peacefully negotiate a new CBA, but that may be unrealistic in light of how the past several months have gone.
Nationals Release Fernando Abad, Add Yasel Antuna To Player Pool
The Nationals announced that they have released veteran left-handed reliever Fernando Abad. The club also added infield prospect Yasel Antuna to its 60-man pool, Mark Zuckerman of MASNSports.com tweets. Washington now has 57 players in that group.
The Nationals signed Abad to a minor league contract in December, but he didn’t participate in their Summer Camp for an undisclosed reason. It turns out that Abad tested positive for COVID-19 when he arrived at camp, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Fortunately, Abad was asymptomatic and has just finished his 14-day quarantine.
The 34-year-old Abad last appeared in the majors a season ago, when he threw 13 innings of 4.15 ERA ball and notched 6.23 K/9 and 2.08 BB/9 as a member of the Giants. He was far better at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 3.07 ERA and logged a tremendous strikeout-walk ratio (10.0 K/9, 0.8 BB/9) in 44 frames.
While Abad hasn’t pitched much in the majors over the past couple seasons (he didn’t at all in 2018), he has been successful with a few teams – including the Nationals in 2013. He’s the owner of a lifetime 3.67 ERA with 7.62 K/9 and 3.16 BB/9 across 330 2/3 innings.
Antuna, now 20 years old, left the Dominican Republic in 2016 to sign with the Nationals for a hefty bonus of $3.9MM. He has since split his time between rookie and Single-A ball. Although he missed all but three games last year because of Tommy John surgery and lower body injuries, Antuna’s still regarded as one of the Nationals’ most promising prospects. Baseball America (No. 9), FanGraphs (12) and MLB.com (12) each place him near the top of Washington’s system.
Nationals To Play Home Games In D.C.
JULY 17: The club has confirmed that it will play its home games at Nationals Park, Dougherty tweets. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Nationals reached a deal with the government. The agreement says players who are exposed to COVID-19 but test negative and are cleared to return will have to quarantine at their residences for 14 days when they’re away from the ballpark. However, they’ll be allowed to play as long as they follow MLB protocols. Those players will also be permitted to play on the road, but they’ll have to stay in their hotel rooms when they’re not at the park.
JULY 16: The reigning World Series champion Nationals are scheduled to start their title defense at home against the Yankees next Thursday, but it’s possible the teams’ series will take part outside of Washington, D.C. Because of coronavirus concerns, the Nationals are exploring alternate sites for the beginning of the season, Jesse Dougherty and Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post report.
According to the health protocols in Washington, any player, coach or staff member who tests positive for COVID-19 would have to quarantine for two weeks. D.C. is not willing to make an exception to the quarantine policy for the Nationals, so the club has begun seeking contingency plans. The Nats’ Single-A stadium in Fredericksburg, Va., as well as their spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., are possibilities, according to Dougherty. Virginia would be the more likely venue, Dougherty suggests.
The coronavirus has had a major impact on the Nationals in recent weeks. Even before this news came about, the club had issues with receiving COVID testing results in a timely manner, and three of their players – Ryan Zimmerman, Joe Ross and Welington Castillo – opted out of the season over health concerns. The problems the Nationals have faced further illustrate how difficult it will be for MLB to pull off a season, even a 60-game version.