MLB Trade Rumors and News: Twins and Brewers clinch playoff spots, Realmuto has season-ending knee surgery

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• We now know the vast majority of the teams that will be competing in the postseason as the Twins clinched the AL Central and the Brewers locked up a playoff spot (whether its the Wild Card or NL Central is still TBD). All there is left to settle now is the AL Wild Card race between the Indians, Rays, and Athletics which may go down to the final day of the season and the NL Central race between the Brewers and Cardinals, the loser of which will play in the Wild Card game.
• The Phillies have had a pretty lousy year considering the high expectations they had coming out of the offseason after all of the wheeling and dealing they did. Seemingly locked into a shocking 4th place finish in the NL East, they will now be without J.T. Realmuto for the rest of the season as he undergoes knee surgery. Realmuto has been a bright spot for the team this season that clearly went wrong for a number of reasons.
• The Nationals overcame a horrid start to the season and officially clinched an NL wild-card spot on Tuesday night. Though the NL Central title is technically still up for grabs, there’s only one NL playoff spot that’s still up for grabs, with the Brewers being the strong favorite to earn that postseason berth.
• In another managerial shake up, Royals manager Ned Yost announced Monday that he would be retiring at the end of the season. For a team that is in the middle of its rebuild, their choice of manager after Yost could have ramifications for a long time, particularly as they look to develop a lot of young players.
• This isn’t some much “news” as it is something insane that happened. We all know that Mookie Betts can play some outfield. However, this throw that he made from the right field corner to nail the runner at third base is actually insane.
• The Padres have fired manager Andy Green after almost four seasons with the club. Despite adding Manny Machado to the roster and developing young phenom Fernando Tatis Jr., Green’s all time 274-366 record was enough for both the fans and upper management to lose faith in him. Stay tuned as we watch for the smoke signals to see who the Padres have elected as their new manager.
• The good news for the Yankees is that they clinched their first AL East title since 2012 on Thursday. The bad news is that earlier in the day, Yankee starter Domingo German was placed on administrative leave after allegations surfaced that he struck his girlfriend.
• The Marlins, coming off back-to-back seasons where they have finished dead last in the NL East, decided to give manager Don Mattingly a two-year contract extension. Some may be puzzled by this move given the Marlins’ lack of success, but it worth noting that the Marlins aren’t going to be winning much of anything over the next two years, which puts less onus on getting the right guy in there at the moment.
• In an extremely disturbing development, Pirates All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez has been arrested and denied bond after being charged with possession of child pornography, providing obscene material to minors, and soliciting a child. He’s been placed on administrative leave by MLB.
• Phillies left fielder Corey Dickerson will miss the rest of the season with a fractured left foot, perhaps bringing an end to the soon-to-be free agent’s brief career in the City of Brotherly Love. While Philadelphia’s outfield depth is solid, this is more unfortunate news for a team that seems to be stumbling towards the finish line.
• Feeling a little void of weird baseball lately? Do we have just the fix. Here’s the story of how the ‘89 Dodgers played 53 innings in 3 days. You’ll be exhausted just reading about it.
• Arguably the best player in all of baseball and across the board AL MVP for the past three years (and pretty much every one to come), Mike Trout has been such a high point for baseball as of late. The Baseball Gods, it seems, are cruel and mighty as more horrible news hits an already mangled Angels team: Trout will have season-ending surgery on his right foot. Trout has what’s called a Morton’s neuroma, an issue he’s been dealing with for some time. Pour one out.
• Shohei Ohtani has been one of the most fascinating stories in baseball over the last couple of years as he is the rare player that has been given the chance to excel on the mound and at the plate (it helps that he has the talent to do so). After Tommy John surgery kept him off of the mound for all of 2019, the Angels announced yesterday that he will miss the remainder of the season at the plate as well, as he will have surgery to correct a congenital knee issue that had been bothering him of late.
• The Red Sox have been a pretty significant disappointment this season as the defending World Series champions currently way back in the wild-card race and about to be eliminated from the AL East playoff chase. Boston’s powers that be are not messing around in showing their displeasure, as they have fired president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. A couple of less-than-stellar contract extensions (in hindsight) this offseason and the team’s performance on the field are the likely reasons, although there is a lot of blame to go around up in Boston right now.
• It has been a little while since we have seen a high-profile PED suspension (which is good news), but sadly we did see one get handed down recently, as Michael Pineda was given a 60-game suspension for taking a banned diuretic that can be used as a masking agent. Pineda successfully got the suspension reduced because he was using the diuretic to lose weight, but the Twins will be without one of the more steady, if unremarkable, pieces of their rotation.