MLB Trade Rumors and News: Astros punishments will be considered served even if season is cancelled

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• There is a lot of potential weirdness surrounding the current COVID-19 situation and what the loss of regular season games or even the whole season could mean for various players and team employees. However, one such area of weirdness has already been ironed out as it has been reported that even if the 2020 season doesn’t happen, the punishments handed down to the Astros’ Jeff Luhnow and AJ Hinch will be considered served. This was likely to be a necessary move given how the league is planning on handling MLB service time even though it doesn’t necessarily feel great.
• According to a report from the New York Post’s Joel Sherman, MLB executives and players are increasingly open to the idea of playing in empty stadiums in an attempt to play as many games as possible in 2020.
• Thanks to the upheval of amateur baseball caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLB Draft will be dramatically shorter for at least the next two seasons — and if that’s a sign of things to come, it could be a really bad thing for the sport.
• While he hasn’t yet written an official report on the matter, Rob Manfred says the investigation into the Red Sox sign-stealing scandal is finished.
• At this point, no one really knows if there will be a 2020 MLB season. But if there is, Noah Syndergaard won’t be part of it. The Mets right-hander has been diagnosed with a torn UCL and will undergo Tommy John surgery.
• There has been and will continue to be not-so-great news surrounding the spread of the coronavirus for the next several weeks and even months. However, there are also going to be reminders that human beings, in the face of a crisis and/or when shown people in need, can be really, really good, too. Pittsburgh Pirates players, for example, got together on their own to buy 400 pizzas from a couple local pizzerias and had them delivered to area hospital staff. Good on them.
• Let’s all take a moment to be disappointed, but not surprised: Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale is set to undergo Tommy John surgery. This comes after a 2019 that started out promising for the ace. A five-year, $145M extension was how Sale started off the season, but rough starts followed by elbow inflammation ended his venture prematurely. Props to him on picking the right timing though, considering there might not even be a season to miss.
• MLB has announced a financial support plan for minor-league players amid (it’s a buzzword so get used to it) the COVID-19 outbreak. But don’t let this incredible testament to peer pressure and public outcry distract you from the fact that writer for The Athletic and angel of baseball Emily Waldon was the first and biggest advocate for minor league players once this crisis hit.
• 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.
• 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 last week 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 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.
• 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.