MLB trade rumors and news: Yankees’ injury bug continues to spread after Troy Tulowitzki injury

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• The Yankees have been hit with the injury bug big time, as shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is likely to head to injured list after suffering a low grade strain of his left calf. The Yankees currently have 10 players on the IL.

• The Braves reached a deal with their 21-year-old franchise cornerstone that could keep him Atlanta for the next decade, announcing a new eight-year, $100 million contract for Ronald Acuna Jr. on Tuesday that contains two club options. If the Earth is still spinning by that point and the Braves pick up both of those options, he has the chance to remain in ATL through the 2028 season.

• The Rockies locked up a key member of their rotation for the long term, signing German Marquez to a new five-year deal that will pay him $43 million from this season through 2023. The contract includes a club option for 2024 that becomes a mutual option if he finishes among the top three in Cy Young voting multiple times.
• Randal Grichuk became arguably the most unlikely player yet to receive a lucrative long-term extension this spring, agreeing to a new five-year, $52 million deal with the Blue Jays.
• In hopes of fixing their absolute mess of an outfield situation, the Giants acquired Kevin Pillar from Toronto in exchange for a three-player package that included recently-DFA’d infielder Alen Hanson and reliever Derek Law plus pitching prospect Juan De Paula.
• The Yankees are currently the walking wounded, as they found out Monday that not only will Giancarlo Stanton be out with a biceps injury, but that Miguel Andujar is going to miss some time due to a shoulder injury and could have to undergo season-ending surgery.
• The Reds also got some bad news on Monday when Hunter Greene, one of their top prospects, found out he is going to need Tommy John surgery after experiencing a setback during his rehab. Why can’t we have nice things?
• Oh, did you think just because baseball was back that these mega contracts were done for now? Think again. The Red Sox and Xander Bogaerts have agreed to a seven-year, $132 million contract. Can you say yowza, but also kiss free agency goodbye at the same time?
• The season couldn’t begin without some form of heartbreak: the Brewers’ Corey Knebel will undergo Tommy John surgery, missing the entire season and then some. In the distance, you can hear the sound of Craig Kimbrel running to Milwaukee.
• The Phillie Phanatic wore cleats with Bryce Harper’s face on them, because we’re here for another great bromance in baseball.
• Just before the Blue Jays and Athletics began their seasons, Toronto dealt first baseman Kendry Morales to Oakland. Morales will fill in at first for Matt Olson, who is recovering from surgery on his broken right hand.
• Despite the fact that recent rumors suggested the Mets and Jacob deGrom were at somewhat of an impasse in contract negotiations, New York ended up reaching an agreement on an extension with the 2018 NL Cy Young winner. He’ll receive $137.5 million over the length of the deal, which runs from 2019-23 with a club option for ‘24. That’s good news for Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen — DeGrom’s former agent — who said last summer that the team should either extend his then-client or trade him.
• On the same day that DeGrom signed, the Cubs agreed to a lucrative long-term deal with their own lanky right-hander. Kyle Hendricks’ new deal is a bit complicated in its structure — it guarantees him $55.5 million from 2020-23, includes a vesting option for 2024 based on 2020 NL Cy Young voting, and maxes out at $79.8 million with that option and the available incentives. Hendricks joins Yu Darvish as one of two Cubs starters now locked up through the 2023 season.
• The Astros took part in Extension Palooza 2019, adding two years and $66 million onto Justin Verlander’s current deal. RIP Free Agency?
• Chris Sale agreed 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.
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• 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 Tampa didn’t give him much of a raise, at least at first, for the 2019 season. He is likely to be a bit happier now that he signed a five-year, $50 million extension with the team.
• 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 the sheer number of extensions we have seen lately is fascinating.
• Highly-touted outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez and the White Sox have agreed to a six-year, $43 million contract extension that contains two club options.
• 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.
• 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. Our own Stephen Tolbert took a look at these potential changes to see what impacts they could have on games.
• While it seems like a clear-cut, no-brainer deal for almost any team in need of a pitcher, 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.