MLB trade rumors and news: Justin Verlander undergoes groin surgery

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• Astros ace Justin Verlander underwent groin surgery Tuesday that is projected to keep him out for roughly six weeks. On the semi-bright side for Verlander, MLB’s indefinite suspension of the season means that he should be ready to go by Opening Day 2020 — if there even is one.
• It’d be fair to say that MLB hasn’t gotten too many things right this offseason, but they definitely nailed it Tuesday as each team pledged $1 million to help stadium workers missing out on wages due to the postponement of games across the league. While some teams have already committed to doing so, the league is now faced with developing a more uniform plan to support minor-leaguers who haven’t been paid since the end of last season.
• We were already aware that Opening Day was going to be delayed by at least two weeks given that MLB had already made that decision. However, as the days have gone by, it had become clear that even that timeline was optimistic given the other moves made around the country and around the world. Those suspicions became reality yesterday as MLB announced that it will follow the CDC’s recommendation and not play games for the next eight weeks. At this point, one has to start entertaining the possibility of the 2020 season getting cancelled altogether.
• COVID-19 has officially hit major league baseball. A minor leaguer for the Yankees has tested positive for coronavirus, resulting in other minor leaguers being quarantined two weeks, per report. While most details are unclear, this minor leaguer had no contact with the other half of Yankees camp, leaving the 40-man and all major leaguers unscathed.
• The White Sox have, for lack of a better term, not been good over the last several years. The product of that futility has been that they have had lots of international money and high draft picks to help turn their fortunes around. Now, with an exciting young core in the major leagues and more help coming from the minors (looking at you, Luis Robert), it seems like Chicago is a team on the rise. In order to make sure it stays that way, the team has been locking up its core pieces and continued that trend with a contract extension for Yoan Moncada that bought out two free agent years worth an estimated $70 million with a chance for more if a club option is exercised down the road.
• The Red Sox announced that have signed free-agent right-hander Collin McHugh to a one-year deal. McHugh had some very good stretches while spending the last six seasons with the Astros, contributing out of the rotation and the bullpen, but he was held back by an elbow issue for most of 2019. That injury required surgery, so he just began throwing again and likely won’t be ready for Opening Day. With David Price gone and Chris Sale’s status uncertain, McHugh should provide a bit of stability to the back of the Red Sox’s rotation whenever he’s healthy.
• If we ever actually get to the season, here’s all of the new MLB stadium food in 2020, ranked.
• Christian Yelich appears primed to follow Mike Trout and Nolan Arenado as superstars who have recently passed up chances at free agency to sign long-term extensions with their current teams. The 2018 NL MVP has signed a new nine-year deal worth $215 million guaranteed that will keep him under Brewers control through 2028 with a mutual option for 2029.
• The hits just keep on coming for the Yankees. With key contributors Aaron Hicks, James Paxton, Luis Severino, and Giancarlo Stanton already sidelined for Opening Day — and in the case of everyone except Stanton, far beyond — manager Aaron Boone announced last week that right fielder Aaron Judge will likely begin the season on the injured list. This comes as he undergoes further testing to determine the reason for his nagging pectoral and shoulder soreness.
• Coronavirus distract you long enough to forget that this season is laden with dirty workings and controversy? Well, break is over. The Angels have fired a longtime employee for allegedly tampering with baseballs.
• When you’ve seen a major-leaguer spend well over a decade with one team, you usually expect him to ride into the sunset and finish his career with that club. That won’t be the case for Félix Hernández, who was competing for a rotation spot with the Braves at the time of the suspension of the season following 15 years with the Mariners. It likewise wasn’t so for these 20 MLB greats who ended their careers in unfamiliar destinations.
• The Yankees were besieged by injuries throughout the 2019 season and the team still managed to put up an impressive season. It looks like they will have to do the same thing again as they are going to be without Giancarlo Stanton for a while due to a calf injury.
• The Braves’ public financial info is a welcome break from taking MLB owners’ claims at face value.
• It is never too early to start looking at how MLB teams stack up against each other in power ranking form. Well, okay....maybe there is such a thing as doing so too early since “for real” baseball games haven’t even started yet, but our own Andersen Pickard did get that conversation started in the first of what should be a series of rankings of the teams throughout the league.
• The Yankees announced some news that severely complicates their bid to get back to the World Series in 2020: Starter Luis Severino will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire season. While he’s still young, this development is just as bad for the 26-year-old Severino as it is for the team, as he’ll return next season having pitched in just three games over the previous two years.
• After eight major-league seasons, Lonnie Chisenhall is calling it a career, reports J.J. Smith of the Carteret County News-Times. The 31-year old has a pretty decent career to look back on, averaging .268/.320/.427 with 64 home runs across 2,360 career plate appearances. A chronic calf issue significantly held Chisenhall back in recent years, and he played in just 29 games over his final two big-league seasons.
• It is pretty much par for the course at this point that the Astros simply lack the self-awareness and competence to handle the public relations surrounding, well, just about anything. However, MLB’s mishandling of the Astros scandal highlights what has been a truly terrible offseason for commissioner Rob Manfred. The sad part: a lot of it is his fault.
• Hunter Pence wants to be a ‘Magic: The Gathering’ champion. Let’s build him a deck. I mean, if Madison Bumgarner can be a rodeo champion and David Price can be a Fortnite master, what makes Pence any different? Minus the fact that he’s universally and unequivocally loved, that is.
• The Cubs’ brazen use of MLB’s service time rules in order to gain an extra year of control over Kris Bryant was about as obvious of a case of service time manipulation as a team can do without outright saying that they were holding him down in the minors for that purpose. As a result, a decision on Bryant’s grievance regarding the matter took longer than expected, but he still came out on the losing side.