MLB Trade Rumors and News: Red Sox fire Dombrowski, Cubs lose Baez to thumb injury

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It’s that time of year folks, and I’m not talking about pumpkin spice. Follow along with us in tracking the 2019 September call-ups and keep tabs on your team’s potential postseason hero.

• The Red Sox have been a pretty significant disappointment this season as the defending World Series champions currently eight games back from making the playoffs at all 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 reportedly 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.
• The Cubs have had a rough go of it of late as not only did they lose Craig Kimbrel to injury (see below) after he has struggled mightily in a Cubs uniform, but now they are going to be without one of their best players as they try to hang on to a playoff spot as Javier Baez was diagnosed with a hairline fracture in his thumb and will see a specialist today.
• 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 over the weekend 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.
• The Cubs were aggressive after the 2019 MLB Draft in securing one of the better relievers of the last decade in Craig Kimbrel who, until that point, had trouble finding a deal to his liking. As soon as there was no draft pick compensation attached to him, Kimbrel was able to get a deal that pays him handsomely through 2022. Unfortunately, this has not worked out well for Chicago so far as Kimbrel already missed time earlier this season and now it looks he will be on the injured list for a while with elbow inflammation which is not ever what you want to hear about a pitcher.
• It hasn’t been an especially exciting season for the Reds, but Michael Lorenzen lightened things up a bit by making history in Wednesday night’s win over the Phillies. The 27-year-old Lorenzen — who got the W while allowing one run over two innings of relief, provided Cincinnati with some much-needed insurance by hitting a two-run homer in the eighth, then stayed in the game and played center field for the ninth inning — became the first major-leaguer since Babe Ruth in 1921 to get the pitcher win, hit a home run, and play in the field in the same game. While he’s probably never going to be Shohei Ohtani, Lorenzen has really turned himself into a multi-faceted weapon who may represent the future as teams try to develop players who can effectively do as many different things as possible.
• In what has been a surprising deep and talented 2019 rookie class, we are starting to get a sense as to who the frontrunners for the Rookie of the Year Award are as the season winds down. Yordan Álvarez from the AL and Pete Alonso from the NL are heavy favorites to win based on a poll done by MLB.com recently. Álvarez received all of the first place votes in this straw poll while Alonso received all but four with Braves rookie pitcher Mike Sorokareceiving the other four.
• The Indians announced some fantastic news — not just from a baseball perspective, but from a human interest standpoint — as right-hander Carlos Carrasco was activated from the injured list when rosters expanded Sunday. Carrasco continues to battle leukemia, but the fact that he’s healthy enough to pitch out of Cleveland’s bullpen appears to be great news for his recovery.
• Less than a month after acquiring him from the Reds for a player to be named later or cash at the trade deadline, the Giants released second baseman Scooter Gennett last week. The decision to part ways with Gennett, a 2018 All-Star, coincided with the call-up of Mauricio Dubón (their No. 8 prospect according to MLB Pipeline), who was acquired from the Brewersat last month’s deadline.
• Royals owner David Glass is finalizing a sale of the team to John Sherman — a local businessman who is currently part of the Indians’ ownership group but was a longtime Royals season-ticket holder — for more than $1 billion.
• Is the home run barrage throughout baseball bad for the game? Our Patrick Karraker explores the possibility that baseball has too many dingers for its own good and what that means for the future of the game.
• Cleveland has placed José Ramírez on injured list with a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. He’ll stay on the 10-day IL for now until a better timeline is fleshed out for his return. The team’s #11 prospect, Yu Chang, was recalled to take Ramírez’s roster spot on a Cleveland team that’s full speed ahead towards October baseball.
• While this news would have been more exciting a few years ago, the Athletics made a move to bolster their pitching depth as they signed Matt Harvey to a minor league deal. Harvey’s fall from grace has been pretty dramatic going from a potential ace for the Mets to getting unceremoniously booted from there to struggling to stay in the league at all.