MLB 2019-2020 Offseason Thread

[The Buscher]

Ryan Zimmerman and Joe Ross of the Nationals and Mike Leake of the Diamondbacks are the first players to opt out of the 2020 season.

The Nats players aren’t leaving much on the table, prorated salaries would’ve been around $500k-$700k.  Leake is walking away from $5 million.

[The Buscher]

It was a formality at this point but MLB officially announced the cancellation of the Minor League season.  Heading into today the Angels, Diamondbacks, Indians, Rockies, and Yankees were the only five teams that had yet to commit to paying minor leaguers their stipends past today.  The Rockies and Yankees just announced they would be continuing the stipends so hopefully the other three teams follow suit.

Add to that the expected contraction of up to 40 minor league teams next season and a whole lot of guys' careers just ended abruptly.

[The Buscher]

MLB did intake COVID testing on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of teams beginning workouts today.

3.185 samples were taken amongst players, coaches, clubhouse staff, and front office.  Only 38 came back positive.

[The Buscher]

Masahiro Tanaka took a liner off the head from Giancarlo Stanton.

Having pitchers throwing live BP without a screen on the first day of summer camp doesn’t seem very wise.

[Meacon Keaton]

I’ve said it for years that practice, no matter what, should have screens. James Paxton took one off his leg during spring training and I said they needed to use a net and people flipped shit because they never have. Ridiculous.

[SeanDMan]

 

Over/under new infections that can be traced directly to this day?

[The Buscher]

Honestly given that multiple teams had to cancel yesterday's workouts due to still not having their COVID test results, guys like Kris Bryant have said they've only been tested once in the last week when it's meant to be every other day, some star players that have reported to camp and begun workouts are still unsure on whether they'll play, and Freddie Freeman's the biggest name currently sidelined with a positive test result and apparently dealing with some nasty symptoms......still a non-zero chance they don't make it to Opening Day.

Given his comments over the weekend, I could easily see Mike Trout dropping out and that might open the flood gates for anyone else who was on the fence.  Gotta figure most of the arbitration and pre-arb players will want to play (Joe Ross being the lone opt-out from that group so far) but if too many stars drop out I think the league might can the whole thing.

[gunnar hendershow]

I think a lot of guys are in the boat of wanting to play because of course they want to play but very apprehensive. You hear retired players talk about it all the time, they love the 3 hours out on the diamond and they enjoy being with the team and even practice to a degree. But there's a lot of extra BS that grinds on you, the travel, spending every night away from your wife and kids, etc. You add in the pandemic risk and I think a lot of guys are going to be weighed down by the latter even moreso.

Then you of course will have the more adamant players who will just say screw it because they're super concerned about the virus already. But I think a lot are going to really try to make it work because they really love playing baseball, and most who decide not to play will be doing so after long considerations and probably much closer to the start of the season than MLB and their teams would like.

[The Buscher]

5 hours ago, damsher hatfield said:

You hear retired players talk about it all the time, they love the 3 hours out on the diamond and they enjoy being with the team and even practice to a degree. But there's a lot of extra BS that grinds on you, the travel, spending every night away from your wife and kids, etc.

Yeah, you rarely hear players talk about how they wish they had extended their careers or that they'd go back if they could...that daily grind is easier to deal with when you're a single guy in your 20s, but once you get married and have kids you do reach that point where you question whether or not all the time away is worth it.  Even if you keep yourself in shape and your performance remains strong enough that you'll always find work, sometimes enough is enough.

Age and all that plays a factor here too.  Again Joe Ross is the only guy with less than six years experience to opt out so far, and his dad is a doctor and his mom is a nurse so that likely played no small part in his decision to stay away.  Even though Kris Bryant was one of the players who recently expressed his concern, he just spent a year fighting a grievance over his service time and he surely doesn't want to tack another year onto that.  For a lot of these young players, the prospect of knocking off a whole year of service in 66 days is going to be too great to pass up.

[The Buscher]

MLB has vetted provided approval from seven different groups interested in buying the Mets, four of which known ones being A-Rod/J-Lo's group, Josh Harris and David Blitzer (owners of the Sixers and Devils), and the UK-based Reuben Brothers.

The fourth known one?  Steve Cohen, who has supposedly patched up his differences with the Wilpons after their earlier sale to him fell through.  The Wilpons have been in direct discussions with him and the thought is that once everybody's put in their initial bid, the first round of which are due tomorrow, they'll give Cohen the opportunity to top those offers.  Given his wealth, the team is pretty much his if he wants it, but the expectation is the top bid will be far less than the $2.6 billion he was originally going to buy the team for.

So it's possible that Mets fans might still get the owner they wanted while also having the satisfaction of knowing that the Wilpons' idiocy cost them like $600 million.

[gunnar hendershow]

There will be some cheap ass owners who randomly come out against Cohen since, without a doubt, he's going to run the Mets like they're the east coast LA Dodgers.

[The Buscher]

Buster Posey has opted out of the season, citing he and his wife recently adopting prematurely born twins.

Could be the start of the Joey Bart era but it'll come down to whether or not the Giants are keen to burn a year of service for one of the best prospects in baseball on a two-month sprint.

[Meacon Keaton]

I’d be very surprised if they called Bart up for a two month season and no fans in the stands to sell tickets to. He won’t debut until May next year, assuming everything is normal then.

[gunnar hendershow]

I think teams will be keeping those top prospects close but won't be calling them up as long as it can be totally avoided. O's will do the same with Adley.

There's a big need to keep developing top prospects so teams will want to have them working out as often as possible. But you don't want that to cross into them being in the big leagues unless you run out of options.

[The Buscher]

The interesting thing is the Giants only had two catchers on their 40-man roster:  Posey and Aramis Garcia, the latter of whom is recovering from surgery and not expected to be ready until late August.  So the Giants had a couple of random journeyman catchers competing to be the backup spot and now both might make the team.

Giving Russell Martin a call wouldn't be the worst idea.

[The Buscher]

The Blue Jays have already moved Vlad Jr to 1B/DH.

[Your Mom]

Aroldis Chapman tested positive for Covid

[The Buscher]

Dammit, just seeing footage of Cespedes mashing HRs in intrasquad games has me pumped.

I realize there's every chance he hurts himself again. That he can't really be DH'ing every day when they're trying to play 60 games in 67 days and will need to rotate guys into that spot for breathers. And that you can't expect him to pull a 2015 when the Mets got him with 60 games to go and he basically carried the team to the playoffs, especially now that he's five years older and two years removed from seeing opposing pitching.

All I'm saying is man did I miss watching him hit.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

Interesting stuff in Jays camp as Rowdy has been hitting bombs but they've announced Vlad will play DH/1B. Presumably the other would DH most of the time, but it would limit their ability to use the DH as a resting spot, especially with a condensed season.

[The Buscher]

Jordan Hicks and Michael Kopech have opted out of the season, the youngest players to opt out thus far.

Hicks cited being diabetic, but he had TJS only a year ago and the recovery time for some guys has stretched into the 14-16 month range instead of the usual 12, so it's unclear how much he would've been able to pitch anyway.

Kopech also would've been returning from TJS this year.  I can understand a pre-arb pitcher coming off of TJS not wanting to risk blowing your arm out in a season like this before he's had the chance to make any money.  Better to wait for a hopefully normal season in 2021.