MLB trade rumors and news: Touki Toussaint shines in return to mound

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• While he’s still just 25 years old, Touki Toussaint has had somewhat of a disappointing career. The 2014 first-rounder posted a combined 5.97 ERA over his first three major league seasons and had been sidelined through all of 2021 due to a shoulder strain. He made his season debut on Tuesday night, though, and he was very impressive, allowing one earned run on three hits and two walks over 6.2 innings. He’s very much still an unknown, but if Toussaint can consistently perform at that level, he’ll provide a major boost to a Braves rotation that has largely disappointed this season.
• The Giants are “one of the key teams to watch” if Marlins center fielder Starling Marte is dealt before the deadline, per Craig Mish and Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Marte’s numbers are roughly equivalent to those of Giants center fielder Steven Duggar, so he wouldn’t appear to provide a transformative upgrade. But if the asking price for the pending free agent is mild enough that San Francisco can acquire him as a right-handed hitting platoon option, perhaps there will be interest.
• While the Marlins weren’t going anywhere this season, they clearly have formed an exciting young core of players that should be competitive in the National League East in the coming years who are fun to watch even now. Unfortunately, a chunk of that young core appear to be set to miss some time as Jazz Chisholm and Garrett Cooper hit the injured list after getting hurt in the exact same game.
• Mets fans, don’t look: Jacob deGrom has hit the injured list with forearm tightness. New York has made it very clear that the time table on this injury is flexible, and deGrom won’t throw until that tightness has subsided. I don’t think I need to tell you how devastating this is for the Mets. Doctors are still doing tests to get to the root of what’s causing this.
• The White Sox have signed Lance Lynn to a two-year, $38 million extension with a club option for 2024. In ten seasons, Lynn has been a solid rotation staple, but this season feels like the comeback most players only dream of. So far in 2021, the veteran is hurling a 1.99 ERA with 105 strikeouts, and only 31 walks over 90.2 innings. Talk about getting your money’s worth.
• The Braves’ outfield has been ravaged by injuries and/or legal issues this season. With prospects Drew Waters and Cristian Pache still getting work in the minor leagues, the Braves decided to make a move to shore that unit up as they acquired Joc Pederson from the Cubs for 1B prospect Bryce Ball.
• But the Braves weren’t done wheeling and dealing quite yet. They then acquired Stephen Vogt from the Diamondbacks, securing another strong leadership presence in the dugout. In return, Atlanta will send 25-year old first base prospect Mason Berne to Arizona.
• In a reminder that COVID-19 is an ever-present threat especially with new variants emerging, the Yankees have themselves a bit of an outbreak on their roster despite multiple players involved being vaccinated. Thursday’s Yankees-Red Sox game was postponed as they had three players test positive and three more were placed in health protocols.
• Shohei Ohtani threw a perfect first inning to earn the win and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit an absolute moonshot in the third inning as the American League earned its eight straight All-Star victory in last week’s Midsummer Classic. The 22-year-old Guerrero, who had two RBI, became the youngest player ever to earn All-Star MVP honors.
• Encouraging news for baseball fans who don’t like the major rule changes instituted over the last two seasons: Rob Manfred says that seven-inning doubleheaders and the runner-on-second rule in extra innings are unlikely to survive beyond the 2021 season, with Manfred saying those changes were instituted for the purpose of limiting time at the ballpark during the COVID-19 pandemic — something that isn’t expected to be a factor in future seasons.
• In what turned out to be a really great Home Run Derby with multiple mini-storylines, the final came down to Trey Mancini vs. reigning champ Pete Alonso. When Mancini put up an astonishing 22 home runs in the final round, it looked like it very possible that the cancer survivor would take home the hardware in an upset. However, Alonso flipped a switch and took home the win with 23 home runs (despite his BP pitcher hitting him with a pitch).
• Amidst the draft still going on and the All-Star festivities, MLB announced that over the course of the next decade, they are going to donate up to $150 million to the Players’ Alliance. The Players’ Alliance is an organization that seeks to increase the amount of representation and access for Black people to the sport of baseball. Count us among those that say well done, MLB...but there is a lot of work to do.
• The 2021 MLB Draft started up on Sunday, and to say that it was a wild round one may be a bit of any understatement as mock drafts were blown up within the first five picks. That started with the number one overall pick as Henry Davis was chosen by the Pittsburgh Pirates in a bit of an upset.
• In devastating news for Braves fans, Ronald Acuña Jr. was injured when trying to make a play on a fly ball. None of the aftermath looked good as Acuña was unable to finish leaving the field and had to be carted off with an apparent knee injury. Sadly, he did not escape major injury this time as it was confirmed that he completely tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season.
• Trevor Bauer remains under investigation after being accused of sexual assault, and to allow time for that investigation to complete, his administrative leave was extended by another seven days. If the investigation is not completed by then, the notion of an indefinite suspension is most definitely on the table.
• White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal will miss the next 4-6 weeks with a torn tendon in his left knee. That’s rough news for a team that is already missing Nick Madrigal, Eloy Jiménez, and Luis Robert, though Chicago still has a lot of breathing room in a bad AL Central.
• Whether it’s Prince Fielder, Jesús Aguilar, and Daniel Vogelbach, the Brewers love themselves a hefty slugging first baseman, and they added another one on Tuesday, acquiring Rowdy Tellez from the Blue Jays in exchange for reliever Trevor Richards. The 26-year-old Tellez had an up-and-down four-year tenure with Toronto but proved he could succeed at the major league level, hitting 21 homers in 2019 and posting a 140 OPS+ last year. Tellez struggled to a .610 OPS this season and had twice been demoted to Triple-A, but it appears he’ll initially join Milwaukee’s major league club.
• Sixto Sanchez came into the 2021 season as a guy who was on most people’s shortlists of guys that could win National League Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, the injury bug bit him and instead of trying to help the Marlins climb out of the cellar of the NL East, he is going to miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
• The Nationals are having a rough past couple of days, as both Kyle Schwarber and Alex Avila have been placed on the 10-day IL. Schwarber, who thankfully won’t need surgery, will sit after suffering a right calf strain running to first last Friday. The timetable for his return has yet to be set, and the first-time All-Star will almost absolutely miss the game. Gerardo Parra will play left field in his absence. Avila will miss time because of bilateral calf strains.
• Mariners lefty Héctor Santiago is the first pitcher to be disciplined as part of MLB’s foreign substance crackdown after being ejected when umpires believed they found a foreign substance on his glove. Santiago admitted to having rosin on his glove, and while it wasn’t a highly-publicized element of the new policy, pitchers are now strictly prohibited from having rosin on their person, even though they are allowed to obtain it from the bag on the mound. MLB confiscated Santiago’s glove but never examined it, and now they’ve hit him with a 10-game suspension and undisclosed fine.
• The Blue Jays are determined to reach the playoffs for a second straight season, and they boosted their roster by acquiring sidearming reliever Adam Cimber and currently injured outfielder Corey Dickerson from the Marlins in exchange for veteran utility player Joe Panik and relief prospect Andrew McInvale.
• Braves starter Mike Soroka has re-ruptured his Achilles and will not pitch again in 2021. After making three starts in 2020, he tore his Achilles. He hadn’t pitched since then. Soroka looked like he’d be the Braves’ ace for years to come after going 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, and .236 OBA in 2019, but now his future is extremely uncertain.
• The Blue Jays have signed veteran reliever John Axford, reports Jamie Campbell of Sportsnet. The 38-year-old hasn’t seen a major league mound since 2018 and had been working as an analyst on the Jays’ pre and postgame shows before being asked to pitch for them again. The bulk of his career came with the Brewers, as he played in Milwaukee from 2009-13, but now the Ontario native will embark on his third stint with Toronto.
• Rays ace Tyler Glasnow’s season is in jeopardy after he suffered a partially torn UCL and flexor strain in his right arm. He’ll initially try to rehab the injuries rather than immediately opting for Tommy John surgery. In an interesting crossover with the biggest story being discussed around baseball right now, Glasnow said MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances contributed to his injury, as he stopped using a mixture of sunscreen and rosin, and as a result he began gripping the baseball so hard that he injured his elbow.
• A lot has been made in recent weeks about the proliferation of foreign substances used primarily (but certainly not exclusively) by pitchers to get better grip on balls to have better command as well as to generate greater spin. It has been clear that MLB was going to crack down on the practice and now it looks like it has landed on its chosen punishment, as it was announced that players found to be using such substances will receive a 10-game paid suspension.