MLB Trade Rumors and News: Matt Kemp inks minor league deal with Mets, MLB draft coverage, and young players that give us hope

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.

• The Mets are in agreement with Matt Kemp on a minor-league deal. The veteran was released by the Reds earlier this season after starting the year off with a .200 batting average. Can he reinvent himself in Queens and become the Kemp of Dodgers past? (You know, when he slashed .310/.352/.522 in the first half of last season.)
• The Blue Jays calling up Vladdy Jr. already made us few old just a few weeks ago, but now they are apparently going to be fielding an all second generation team before too long as they are reportedly going to call up Cavan Biggio, the son of HOFer Craig Biggio, on Friday.
• We continued our ongoing draft coverage with Cristiana highlighting five high school pitchers in the draft you should keep an eye on.
• How swing changes have Cody Bellinger chasing .400 and bringing a new spark to his mechanics in the box. It almost makes you want to Marie Kondo everything about your life, huh?
• Gleyber Torres had already put himself on the map last year as one of the game’s more promising young players. This season, the bulk of his power production has come against the Orioles who he has dominated in historic fashion with now four multi-homer games against them this season.
• Our draft coverage is cranking up as we preview each division’s farm system needs. Our own Patrick Karraker took a look at the AL Central to see what each team in the division need in their minor league systems.
• Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons has been placed on the 10-day injured list and is expected to miss at least six weeks after suffering a grade three ankle sprain in Monday night’s loss to the Twins.
• Mike Trout is chugging along, in a completely different way, mostly because he’s Mike Trout and doesn’t find a way, he is the way.
• As you get prepared for this year’s draft, read up on some of the best hitters available.
• The Mets have not had the best luck when it comes to wins and losses as well as injuries of late. That luck continued as Yoenis Céspedes, who was already out with heel injuries, broke his ankle at his ranch during non-baseball activities and will out for a while. I need several updates on the animal that did the deed and who paid it to do so. I smell an inside job.
• The Braves and Mariners made a quirky little trade where both sides are hoping for the “change of scenery” good vibes as the Braves received Anthony Swarzak in exchange for Jesse Biddle and the injured Arodys Vizcaíno. The Braves wanted to give a new arm a look and the Mariners have a GM in Jerry Dipoto that apparently is contractually obligated to make a trade at least every six weeks if not more. A match made in heaven.
• Looking ahead to the upcoming draft, our own Andersen Pickard took a look at the AL East’s farm system needs to give us an idea of what to look (and hope) for in the draft.
• The 2019 MLB Draft is very quickly approaching and a new generation of baseball players are ready to take their crack at the show. However, this year the rules are a little different. Here’s now the new CBA affects how the draft operates.
• Sonny Gray has indeed gotten better in Cincinnati, and a change of scenery and the alleviation of the New York City pressure trap aren’t the only factors to look at for that.
• The Yankees have had a LOT of issues with injuries this season and it is frankly impressive that they have been able to perform as well as they have despite those injuries. Unfortunately, they got more bad news, as they learned that Miguel Andujar was going to have season-ending shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder.
• Prepare to be shocked and surprised: The Marlins are even worse than we thought. Now, the next logical question: who, if anyone, is to blame for that?
• We’re just weeks away from the draft, and our Cristiana Caruso kicked off our coverage at MLBDD by putting together a composite mock draft, averaging out the projections from MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and ESPN’s Keith Law.
• With Carter Stewart going to Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan, the MLB talent pool is shrinking and Manfred should be taking these choices to heart. That now makes Stewart the second player to choose an entirely different league over MLB, and not even as a late round pick with better options elsewhere. Stewart went eighth overall, but due to new CBA slot bonus caps, decided to leave America entirely for a baseball league that seemed to quite frankly give more of a damn.
• Our Andersen Pickard examines the early season trends in the AL East...you know, other than literally no one being able to stay healthy.
• There have been a ton of extensions recently around baseball, with many of them given to some of the game’s finest young stars. To keep up with all of the extensions we have seen, here is a tracker our own Cristiana Caruso put together.
• 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.