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Blue Jays Heading To Toronto For Summer Camp

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The Blue Jays have received authorization to hold Summer Camp in Toronto. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca first reported the news on Twitter; his colleague Ben Nicholson-Smith has further details (Twitter link). They broke things down in a chat with Hazel Mae (video link).

This was the anticipated outcome, but it didn’t come easily. The relevant Canadian authorities waited until the last moment to give the nod of approval to a quarantine plan that the team will utilize.

For the July training period, the Jays will only bring players that have tested negative for COVID-19 infection. The whole team and key personnel is presently gathered at the organization’s spring facility in Dunedin, Florida.

Once the club is brought by charter up to Toronto, it’ll be limited to Rogers Centre grounds. They’ll stay in the adjacent hotel, with food and other necessities brought into the facility. In addition to regular testing of players and personnel, they’ll be isolated even from hotel staff to the extent possible.

 

As the Sportsnet crew discusses, this is in many respects a dry run for the forthcoming regular season. The Jays are hoping to utilize their usual home park to host games, but convincing the relevant authorities that it’s wise could represent a significant challenge. That would require comfort with the idea of the Blue Jays and their competitors criss-crossing the border.

Amateur Draft Signings: 7/2/20

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Let’s round up the latest draft signings …

  • The Reds have inked Christian Roa to an at-slot deal, MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports on Twitter. The Texas A&M righty takes home just over $1.5MM to go pro. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen was rather bullish on his outlook, grading Roa the 34th-best player available. It seems the Reds were also optimistic that Roa’s growing velocity would stick as he enters the Cincinnati system.
  • Two more Giants draft picks have gone under contract, with the team announcing the under-slot signings and Callis covering the bonuses (Twitter links). Supplemental second-rounder Jimmy Glowenke, a middle infielder out of Dallas Baptist, went for $600K ($953,100 slot value). Fifth-rounder Ryan Murphy, a right-hander from Le Moyne, secures $25K ($379K slot value). Glowenke placed 110th on the Baseball America board on the basis of his strong hit tool, reasonable power outlook, and solid defensive chops.
  • The Diamondbacks inked fourth-rounder A.J. Vukovich to a $1.25MM bonus, per Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com (Twitter link). That’s well north of the $483K pool allocation. He had been slated to head to Louisville to play third base, but will instead enter the Arizona system. MLB.com ranked Vukovich as the 86th-best player in the draft pool, explaining that the athletic youngster has existing and projectable power.
  • The Pirates also went over-slot, locking up third-round choice Nick Garcia, Callis reports via Twitter. He lands a $1.2MM bonus after being taken 79th overall ($780,400 slot value), thus completing the Pittsburgh draft business. The Bucs obviously felt the Chapman University lefty was worth a little extra coin. Most draft pundits graded him as a late-second round talent. BA was highest at #56, citing the D-III performer’s “stuff, delivery, youth and fresh arm.”
  • Joining the Angels is David Calabrese, who secured the $744,200 slot value associated with his third-round selection, Callis tweets. The Canadian high-school outfielder will forgo his commitment to University of Arkansas. He could just be the steal of the draft, if the analysis of Keith Law of The Athletic proves correct. Law was far higher on Calabrese than the rest of the draft pundit cohort. Calabrese is quite youthful and exceptionally fast, making for an intriguing blend of baseline characteristics. Law believes that Calabrese has the makings of a quality hitter and could grow into some pop.

Rangers Add Juan Nicasio, Edinson Volquez To 60-Man Player Pool

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The Rangers announced today that they have added right-handed pitchers Juan Nicasio and Edinson Volquez to their 60-man player pool. That leaves the team with three remaining openings to work with at the outset of Summer Camp.

Both of these hurlers had already been inked to minor-league deals with the Texas organization. Their inclusion on the list was expected, but the club had waited to make the formal moves until the veterans had entered the United States and made it through testing protocols.

Nicasio, 33, has topped forty MLB frames in each of the past nine seasons. He hasn’t been terribly effective of late; last year, he finished with a 4.75 ERA in 47 1/3 innings with the Phillies. But Nicasio has had his share of success and carried eye-popping peripherals in the 2018 campaign (despite a substandard 6.00 ERA).

As for Volquez, who turns 37 tomorrow, it once seemed he’d already be retired by this point. But he chose to return last year after undergoing Tommy John surgery and was able to reacquire all of his arm strength. The results weren’t there in his brief 2019 action and he struggled early in camp, but the Rangers obviously feel there could still be some gas in the tank.

In each case, the MLB opportunity is perhaps greater than might have been expected. The new three-batter minimum rule and shortened second training camp give these veteran pitchers added appeal. Both have experience as starters and historically carry neutral platoon splits. With extra active roster spots to work with early on, the Rangers could well carry and frequently utilize both Nicasio and Volquez.

Steinbrenner: Yankees “Expect” Spectators In 2020

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With COVID-19 infection rates soaring at the outset of baseball’s 2020 relaunch, even a TV-only season seems like a tall order. Nevertheless, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner offered a surprisingly optimistic tone regarding the return of fans to Yankee Stadium this year, as George A. King III of the New York Post reports.

“I do expect to see fans in our stadium at some point to some degree,” says Steinbrenner. There are limitations to the vision, naturally. Even the KBO, which has been playing now for some time, has yet to reintroduce fans and will do so on a limited basis when the time comes. Steinbrenner guesses attendance will “be in the 20-30 percent [capacity] range, hopefully, at first.”

Still not sold on the plausibility of that plan? Steinbrenner says it can be pulled off, claiming “it’s definitely possible in the stadium to keep people at a safe distance, wearing masks at those capacities.” And he says the team has already had plenty of promising interactions with New York governor Andrew Cuomo. The state’s top elected official has “been a big advocate to getting sports back on the field and then eventually, when things are safe, to get fans back in the stadium,” Steinbrenner says.

If and when the Yankees faithful are allowed back in the park, they’ll evidently do so in an unfamiliar formation. As you might expect, in addition to being asked to don masks, fans will be expected to spread out. Steinbrenner says that the team has worked with Ticketmaster at “putting a diagram together which would keep everybody at least 6 feet apart.”

First, the Yanks will need to make it through camp and get games underway. The team is mindful of the need to maintain a healthy roster. Steinbrenner says the org is committed to ensuring “that everybody is safe, everybody is keeping their distances and following the protocols” during the second training period.

Dodgers To Sign AJ Ramos

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The Dodgers have agreed to a minor-league deal with righty AJ Ramos, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Ramos will join the club’s 60-man player pool.

This is great news for Ramos, who hasn’t pitched competitively in quite some time. He has been sidelined by serious shoulder issues since a disappointing half-season with the Mets in 2018.

It emerged only recently that Ramos was on the comeback trail. Once the Dodgers got a look at his form and related pitch tracking info, they obviously decided to jump right on the opportunity.

Now 33 years of age, Ramos looked to have regained his fastball velocity in his recent workout. But he’ll still certainly have a lot to prove once he arrives to Dodgers camp.

Ramos was long a quality late-inning arm for the Marlins, spinning 327 1/3 innings of 2.78 ERA ball over parts of six seasons. He recorded 92 saves over that span before being shipped to the Mets in an off-beat swap between non-contending teams in the summer of 2017.

Tyson Ross Will Not Participate In 2020 Season

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Veteran right-hander Tyson Ross will not participate in the 2020 season owing to concerns over COVID-19, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports on Twitter. His decision mirrors that of his younger brother.

Ross had been released recently by the Giants, a move that was at least a bit surprising with “Summer Camp” about to launch. One might have expected the team to retain its veteran rotation depth at the outset of a quick sprint toward the start of the 2020 season.

It’s certainly possible that the release occurred after Ross advised the Giants that he had chosen not to participate in the campaign. Since he had originally joined the organization on a minor-league pact with the aim of earning his way onto the MLB roster, there wouldn’t have been any reason for either side to maintain a contractual relationship if Ross was not going to play this year.

Ross no longer resembles the high-quality rotation centerpiece he once was with the Padres, as injuries have largely derailed his career. But even in his diminished state, he’s still precisely the sort of depth arm that many teams like to have on hand.

Unless there’s more to the story we don’t know about, it seems the Giants won’t owe any further compensation to Ross. In theory, it would appear that the hurler could still change his mind and re-sign with the Giants or join another organization at some point during the campaign. If indeed he remains committed to laying low in 2020, Ross will presumably weigh whether to attempt a career re-boot next spring.

Phillies Place Four Players On COVID-19 Injured List

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4:03pm: These four players were indeed placed on the COVID-19 injured list, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). That does not necessarily mean that the players have tested positive for the virus; the list also houses players that have shown symptoms consistent with infection or that have had contact with someone else that is infected.

1:54pm: The Phillies appear to have placed four players on the 10-day injured list. While the team has yet to make a formal announcement, the MLB.com transactions page indicates that Scott Kingery, Hector Neris, Tommy Hunter and Ranger Suarez have all been placed on the IL. No reason was listed.

Given the lack of a formal announcement and the lack of specified injuries, there’s bound to be speculation about COVID-19 among these four players. The league has already made clear that teams will not be required to name players who go on the injured list for COVID-19 reasons. In a statement to ESPN’s Marly Rivera yesterday, MLB offered the following:

Because COVID-19 is not considered an employment-related injury, we will respect the privacy of the players who test positive or who are under evaluation, and we will defer to their wishes regarding public updates about their status. Without their voluntary permission, we will not disclose any COVID-19 related information.

It should be emphasized that a player does not need to test positive for the virus to be placed on the IL for COVID-19. Players exhibiting symptoms and those who have come into contact with people who’ve tested positive can also be placed on the IL for precautionary reasons. Once on the IL for a positive COVID-19 test or for symptoms/contact reasons, a player will need to twice test negative in order to be reinstated.

Additional context may eventually come to light, but for now we know that the Phillies have several key players sidelined until at least the end of next week (the IL placements are retroactive to June 30). Kingery is expected to fill an everyday role in the infield this year, although his superlative defensive skills would allow skipper Joe Girardi to plug him virtually anywhere on the diamond while providing solid glovework. Neris entered the season as the clear closer in Philadelphia, and the veteran Hunter would’ve filled a setup role. Suarez gave the Phils 48 2/3 frames of 3.14 ERA out of the bullpen last year and had positioned himself as an important member of the staff as well.

An extended absence for Kingery could conceivably open the door for top third base prospect Alec Bohm (with Jean Segura manning second base). Non-roster veterans like Neil Walker, Logan Forsythe and Josh Harrison are also in the Phillies’ 60-man player pool. Absent the three arms that were placed on the IL, an already injury-plagued bullpen would become even more problematic. It’s not clear who’d step into the ninth inning should Neris be unavailable, but the trio of Neris, Suarez and Hunter could all play vital late-inning roles in 2020, health permitting.

Red Sox Add Jonathan Lucroy To 60-Man Player Pool

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The Red Sox announced Thursday that they’ve formally added catcher Jonathan Lucroy to their 60-man player pool. Lucroy joins the pool as a non-roster player and brings Boston’s total to 48 players (37 members of the 40-man roster and 11 non-roster invitees).

Lucroy, 34, inked a minor league deal with the Red Sox over the winter and reportedly reworked that deal in recent days before being formally added to the player pool. He’ll give the Sox a sixth catcher, joining Christian Vazquez, Kevin Plawecki, Jett Bandy, Juan Centeno and Connor Wong.

The 2019 season marked the third consecutive year of what has been a precipitous decline for Lucroy. Once arguably the game’s best all-around catcher, Lucroy batted just .232/.305/.355 between the Angels and Cubs last season and has posted a tepid .248/.315/.350 slash in 1263 plate appearances since Opening Day 2017. His formerly vaunted pitch-framing skills have taken a nosedive and now rate below the league average, and Lucroy’s caught-stealing rate has dipped since peaking at 39 percent in 2016.

That said, as far as depth options go, there’s plenty of value in bringing a two-time All-Star and 10-year big league veteran into camp to help work with the pitching staff and provide a safety net in the event of injuries elsewhere in the catching corps. Lucroy is also quite familiar with Boston skipper Ron Roenicke, who managed the 2011-15 Brewers when Lucroy was one of the club’s best players.

Pirates Sign Two Draft Picks

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The Pirates have signed supplemental first-round pick Carmen Mlodzinski and second-round selection Jared Jones, according to Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter links). Mlodzinski receives a $2.05MM bonus that comes in a bit shy of his $2.31MM slot value at No. 31, while Jones’ $2.2MM bonus trounces his No. 44 selection’s $1.689MM slot value. Jones’ agreement was initially reported a couple weeks back, but his bonus wasn’t known until today.

Mlodzinski, 21, didn’t post gaudy numbers in his freshman or sophomore year at South Carolina — a broken foot wiped out much of his sophomore campaign —  but he tore through the Cape Cod League last summer. Encouragingly, he continued those gains early in 2020 before the NCAA season was halted. In 54 2/3 innings between the Cape and his early 2020 showing, he posted a combined 2.47 ERA with a 62-to-12 K/BB ratio.

MLB.com rated Mlodzinski as the No. 21 player in this year’s draft, and Baseball America wasn’t far behind at No. 25. He fell within the top 50 players on the lists from FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and The Athletic’s Keith Law, too. He’s still relatively new to pitching, having played infield until his senior year of high school, Law notes. Mlodzinski sits in the mid-90s with a heavy sinker that induces plenty of grounders, and he reached the upper 90s last summer in the Cape Cod League. Reports on his secondary pitches are more mixed, but he’s seen as a potential mid-rotation arm.

Jones, a high schooler out of California, is a two-way player who’s more highly regarded as a pitcher. Baseball America ranked him 41st in the class and noted that he has an 80-grade arm from the outfield but was a borderline first-round talent as a pitcher. MLB.com writes that his future is “definitely” on the mound, touting a 96-97 mph heater and a slider that looks to be an above-average offering as well. He’d been committed to Texas but will instead turn pro.

Manfred Attempts To Clarify Comments On Length Of Season

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MLB commissioner Rob Manfred came under fire yesterday after saying in an interview on the Dan Patrick Show that a season longer than 60 games was never feasible. “The reality is we weren’t going to play more than 60 games no matter how the negotiations with the players went, or any other factor,” Manfred told Patrick.

The negative response to those comments was substantial, considering the March agreement between the league and players association expressly stipulated that two parties would make their “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” On Thursday, Manfred spoke to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale in an effort to clarify the point he claims to have been making:

My point was that no matter what happened with the union, the way things unfolded with the second spike, we would have ended up with only time for 60 games, anyway. As time went on, it became clearer and clearer that the course of the virus was going to dictate how many games we could play. … If we had started an 82-game season [beginning July 1], we would have had people in Arizona and Florida the time the second spike hit.

Major League Baseball’s initial proposal to the MLB Players Association was indeed for 82 games with an early-July start date, although that proposal came with additional pay cuts beyond the prorated salaries. The union steadfastly rejected further cuts. Their contention was that the March agreement clearly stated prorated salaries would be in place regardless of whether fans attended games, though neither executive director Tony Clark nor anyone else in the MLBPA could ever seem to explain why they then also allowed the inclusion of a clause indicating the two parties would “discuss in good faith the economic feasibility of playing games in the absence of spectators or at appropriate substitute neutral sites.”

Ultimately, MLB and the MLBPA failed to reach an agreement on the length of a season, which led Manfred to impose a season length with prorated salaries. MLB settled on a 60-game schedule — likely in an effort to avoid a grievance by implementing a season longer than ownership’s reportedly preferred 48 to 54 games.

In the days since that season length has been implemented, there’s been widespread speculation that the MLBPA nonetheless plans to file a grievance against the league — challenging the notion that MLB made its “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” Manfred’s Wednesday comments to Patrick were viewed by many as ammunition for said grievance, so it’s hardly a surprise to see him quickly endeavor to contextualize his words and distance himself from the surface-level sentiment.

That said, what Manfred cannot — or at least so far has not — explain is why the league took so long to get a proposal to the union in the first place. The March agreement was ratified on March 26, and there was already considerable discussion about playing games without spectators at that point. The first report that the league would seek additional pay cuts from players emerged way back on April 16, and yet the league didn’t actually put forth a proposal including those cuts until May 26. Even the league’s initial plan — a 50-50 revenue share that was leaked prior to its official proposal and publicly rejected by the union — wasn’t finalized by owners until May 11.

There’s been vocal criticism of both the union and the league throughout these unsightly and unyielding negotiations. One particularly popular (and still speculative) theory has been that the league deliberately prolonged negotiations to the point where the number of games sought by the union simply couldn’t fit into the schedule. The MLBPA’s initial proposal was for a 119-game season. Subsequent counter-offers featured seasons of 89 games and 70 games, all with prorated salaries. The league never gave consideration to any of those — just as the union gave zero consideration to any MLB proposals seeking pay reductions beyond prorated salaries.

The authenticity behind Manfred’s explanation and the motives of both the league and the MLBPA throughout this contentious process can be (and have been) debated ad nauseam. The end result is a 60-game season and a rebooted “Summer Camp” that will see players begin to report tomorrow — at a time when COVID-19 cases are again on the rise throughout much of the country. Given that context, perhaps the most telling quote from Manfred is not his comment on the length of season but rather another statement he provided to Nightengale:

“The reality is that we’re going to be lucky if we [get] 60 games now given the course of the virus.”

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