MLB Trade Rumors and News: Nick Senzel injures ankle as the season is just days away

The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we’re running here at MLBDD that rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be the shared? Hit us up at @mlbdailydish on Twitter or @MLBDailyDish on Instagram.

• On the eve of the season, the Reds will now have one of their top prospect’s debut delayed as Nick Senzel injured his ankle. Senzel was expected to play a role in the major leagues this year, potentially in center field after he got some more reps there in the minor leagues. Unfortunately, the injury bug has bitten him quite a bit in the past and now his timeline is getting pushed back even more.
• Our friends over at MLB.com came up with a list of bold predictions for each team in the league. One can only assume that no matter how well thought out these predictions are, they will still make people #madonline
• The Astros are next to this extension parade, signing a two-year, $66 million extension with Justin Verlander. This fresh new deal will usher in Verlander as the fifth-highest overall paid player per year after factoring in Mike Trout and Nolan Arenado and their massive extensions. RIP Free Agency?
• Chris Sale agrees to a five-year, $145 million extension with the Red Sox, because this is just what’s gonna keep happening in baseball now. Blanket apology to all other teams in the AL East. The deal will cover the 2020-2024 seasons.
• The Blue Jays, presumably just waking up from their winter nap, have agreed to a one-year deal with reliever Daniel Hudson, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Hudson was released from his minor league deal with the Angels last week. He’ll stand to make $1.5M this season with the chance to double that with incentives.
• Blake Snell had himself quite the 2018 season on his way to his first Cy Young Award with the Rays. As a result, he wasn’t particularly happy when he did not receive much of a raise, at least at first, for the 2019 season from the Rays. He is likely to be a bit happier now that he signed a 5 year, $50 million extension with the team, the largest deal ever given to a player with two years of service time.
• Cleveland has signed infielder Brad Miller to a one year, $1M deal, Jon Heyman tweets. The 29-year-old opted out of his minor league deal with the Dodgers earlier this month, sowing his wild oats on the free agent landscape.
• Not to be outdone, the Cardinals have wasted no time in making sure the newly acquired Paul Goldschmidt doesn’t go anywhere for a while as he also signed a five year extension. Goldschmidt’s situation isn’t quite the same as many of these young stars signing extensions given that he is 31 and was on the last year of his deal, but it is fascinating the sheer number of extensions we have seen lately.
• Highly touted outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez and the White Sox have agreed on a six-year, $43 million contract extension that contains two club options.
• Hopefully the Guinness Book of World Records didn’t go to publication at any time in the past three weeks, because just 19 days after Bryce Harper signed the largest contract in the history of professional sports, Mike Trout broke his record by nearly $100 million — and ruined the highly-publicized recruiting pitch Harper had been planning to bring his buddy to the Phillies — as the seven-time All-Star outfielder agreed to a new 12-year, $426.5 million deal with the Angels. This deal will almost certainly keep Trout in Anaheim through the end of his career and eliminates the possibility of what could have been a thrilling free-agent process in the offseason after next.
• Even though Trout received nearly half a billion dollars and will end up as the most highly-compensated athlete in the history of pro sports, our Stephen Tolbert argues that the contract is still a steal for the Angels.
• Just one nine-figure contract extension on Tuesday for one of baseball’s most talented young players clearly wasn’t enough, so the Astros added to the fun on Tuesday night by inking infielder Alex Bregman to a six-year, $100 million deal. The deal buys out Bregman’s first two free-agent years, but it’ll pay him much more for now than he’d otherwise receive as a pre-arbitration-eligible player — and likely much more than he’d receive over the new few years through the arbitration process.
• Though they’ll unfortunately miss out on their moments in the spotlight, seeing as they were the third and fourth-most notable players to receive long-term extensions on Tuesday, Astros reliever Ryan Pressly and Rays utility man Brandon Lowe have also secured the bag, as the kids say. Pressly gets a two-year, $17.5 million extension — the largest extension ever for a reliever who is not a closer — as the Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome reported. And The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported late Tuesday night that Lowe is getting a six-year, $24 million deal from Tampa Bay.
• It’s been a sharp fall for 2016 AL Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, and the bearded right-hander’s bad luck continues, as he’s received recomendations to have Tommy John surgery from both the Tigers’ medical staff and Dr. James Andrews. He’s reportedly expected to seek a third opinion, but obviously the odds of him hearing anything different seem to be extremely slim.
• The pay of minor leaguers has been a hot topic of late with the reporting by Emily Waldon of The Athletic plus the Blue Jays proactively increasing what they pay their minor leaguers. Now, it looks like MLB is looking at finding ways to increase MiLB pay in recent discussions. Long overdue given how many players have had to live on basically nothing, but a welcome development nonetheless.
• Not only is MLB implementing some rule changes over the next couple of years, but they are also workshopping other changes in the independent Atlantic League to see how things work or don’t work. Stephen Tolbert took a look at these potential changes to see what impacts they could have on games.
• How Billy Eppler has been quietly constructing a winning ball club.
• While it seems like a clear-cut, no-brainer deal for almost any team in need of a pitcher, our Stephen Tolbert breaks down the tricky part about signing Dallas Keuchel.
• Let’s take a moment to be shocked and surprised: MLB’s revised roster rules could end up punishing the players. That’s thanks to a new limit on pitchers — while it’s yet to be confirmed, multiple reports have stated that come 2020, teams will only be allowed to carry 13 pitchers on their big-league roster — and a significant reduction on September call-ups.
• Major League Baseball announced several big rules changes, some of which will take effect this season and some that will not take effect until 2020. The highlights include a three batter minimum for pitchers, having just one trade deadline, and the winner of the Home Run Derby getting a whole bunch of Benjamins.
• Our own Stephen Tolbert broke down the various new MLB rules and the various repercussions that they could have as they are implemented. Short version: some are good, some won’t do a ton, some are pretty weird.
• The 2019 season will feature some of the best and worst divisions, and it’s going to be as glorious as it is messy.
• The effect of the new three-batter minimum that each pitcher will be forced to face under the rule change is being underrated.
• The Mets have hired ESPN Sunday Night Baseball analyst Jessica Mendoza as a special advisor to the baseball operations department. While this position may help prepare her for a full-time front office role down the road if she so desires, she’ll also remain in her existing role at ESPN for the foreseeable future.
• Do free agents lose value when they remain on the market deep into the offseason? We took a look at the data, and let’s just say it usually helps them to sign sooner than later.