MLB Trade Rumors and News: Reds announcer caught using homophobic slur, Bregman leaves game with leg injury

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• When Reds fans tuned into their game against the Royals last night, they definitely got more than they bargained for when announcer Thom Brennaman got caught on a hot mic calling some city ‘one of the fag capitals of the world’ before diving right into his pregame analysis. The fallout was swift as later in the broadcast, Brennaman apologized while simultaneously calling a home run and then was pulled from the air. We assume his job is in serious jeopardy and frankly....good riddance.
• The Astros are not having the best of seasons when it comes to injuries and, well, a lot of other things that are entirely their fault. Justin Verlander’s season is in question and it was reported that Yordan Alvarez was going to need season ending knee surgery. Now, Alex Bregman is hurt as he had to leave Wednesday’s game with some sort of leg injury.
• Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez will have season-ending surgery to replace a partial patellar tendon tear in his right knee. The 2019 AL Rookie of the Year didn’t debut until August 14 this season as he worked his way back from a COVID-19 diagnosis, and now an injury will keep him out until 2021. More rough news in what has been a really bad year for the Astros.
• Rangers manager Chris Woodward and reliever Ian Gibaut were suspended following their ridiculous attempt to enforce the “unwritten rules” against Fernando Tatis Jr. after he hit a grand slam on a 3-0 count.
• Rays lefty (and occasional DH) Brendan McKay will miss the rest of the 2020 season after having shoulder surgery.
• Ronald Acuña Jr. has been placed on the IL with left wrist inflammation. While it’s set up to be a ten day stint, we can’t be 100% sure that this injury is minor. It’s no surprise that Braves fans want this to be over as soon as possible. The young phenom is hitting .258/.372/.515 with four homers this season, and after the Soroka injury they can use any silver lining they can get.
• We’ve updated our MLB Power Rankings, and yes, they are as weird and out there as the ramifications of this season have led them to be.
• Aaron Judge will be taking his talents to the IL for at least ten days, Newsday’s Roger Rubin reports. The slugger is currently recovering from a minor calf strain and while he’s told the media he “feels 100%”, he’s not eligible for play until Saturday. He was taken out of the game in the sixth inning against the Braves last Tuesday due to what the team was reporting as “lower body tightness”, subsequently missing Wednesday to have a follow up MRI. While the 28-year old chalks the strain up to playing on turf, citing that the discomfort began while the team was away at Tampa Bay, the Yankees are taking the cautious route and giving him the full time on the IL.
• Players getting ejected from games for arguing balls and strikes is a fairly common occurrence and normally wouldn’t warrant much attention. However, Stephen Strasburg somehow managed to get ejected from a game while sitting in the stands last week which is delightfully weirder. Strasburg was watching the game from the stands as he tries to get healthy and apparently his heckling of the umpire was enough to get kicked out despite the fact that he wasn’t even in a dugout. What a time to be alive.
• Jeff McNeil made a truly fantastic play in the same game that Strasburg was ejected from to save a few runs, but afterwards he had to be carted off the field as he could not walk off under his own power. Fortunately for McNeil and the Mets, his X-rays seem to be have come back clean and he is being considered day-to-day, but he also took quite a shot and may take a couple games at least to heal up.
• Indians starters Zach Plesac and Mike Clevinger were sent home and placed on the restricted list after it was discovered that they violated league safety protocols and went out in Chicago. On Tuesday, Plesac and Clevinger released apologies that could be viewed by some as less than sincere, and teammates Francisco Lindor and Adam Plutko spoke on the pitchers’ decisions, with Plutko being the most critical of his rotation mates, saying that the starters “hurt us bad,” “lied to us,” and “sat here in front of (the media) and publicly said things that they didn’t follow through on.”
• Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron was suspended 20 games after instigating a brawl with the Athletics on Sunday. Seems like an appropriate punishment for someone who was blatantly trying to start a fight when social distancing is so important.
• Marcus Stroman’s return this season was already looking pretty sketchy due to a muscle tear in his calf. Given the apparent severity of the injury and the shortened season, the logistics of getting him back on the field were a bit daunting. However, Stroman took the guesswork out of the situation by opting out of the rest of the season and potentially playing his last game with the Mets.
• Madison Bumgarner got himself a five year deal, somehow, from the Diamondbacks this past offseason and the early returns are...well, not great. Bumgarner got shelled in a recent start and saw a big drop-off in the quality of his stuff. After the DBacks medical team got a look at him, they put him on the IL with a strain in his back. For Arizona’s sake, lets hope that is all that is wrong with him.
• The Angels have been dealing with the fallout of Shohei Ohtani being injured again, but in more positive news, they called up one of the top prospects in all of baseball in Jo Adell.
• It’s been a rough year for 2018 All-Star Miles Mikolas. After being sidelined during spring training with a flexor tendon injury, it looked as if the Cardinals right-hander was back to full health when summer camp got underway. But apparently he didn’t fully recover from his injury, and now the flexor tendon will need to be surgically repaired, keeping him out for the entire 2020 season.

Justin Verlander is not having a great year, but if you’re going to get injured, then he picked the right time to do that. The veteran pitcher will be sidelined with a forearm strain for at least his next few starts, he confirmed on his personal Twitter. His timeline on recovery is unknown, but Verlander per his tweet seemed to be optimistic that this was not a season-ending or hysteria inducing issue. Fingers crossed.