MLB trade rumors and news: Cardinals-Pirates series postponed, Bumgarner to be evaluated by doctors

In shocking news, this was not the best weekend in the baseball world.

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• The Cards-Pirates series has been cancelled presumably due to the large number of Cards’ positive COVID-19 test results. Outfielder Lane Thomas is the latest case to be reported. This leaves the Cardinals at a whomping total of five games played all season. It’s unclear when the team will resume playing after missing 13 consecutive games and if it will somehow come into play with the new playoff model.
• The Astros and Athletics have an all out brawl after Ramón Laureano was hit with a pitch.
• Madison Bumgarner was removed from yesterday’s game due to back spasms, reports The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan. The marquee free agent is having a disappoint start to his new career outside of the bay. So far in this banana republic of a season, the former ace is pitching 7.04 ERA/6.03 FIP, going 0-2 over three starts. Bumgarner signed a four-year, $72M contract with the Diamondbacks this offseason. He’ll head to see team doctors in Phoenix regarding his condition. Hopefully they can revive the velocity on his fastball too. Personally, I blame the rodeo.
• Six of the seven Cardinals players to test positive for COVID-19 publicly disclosed their diagnoses on Monday, with former All-Stars Yadier Molina and Paul DeJong headlining a list of sidelined players that also includes infielders Rangel Ravelo and Edmundo Sosa and relievers Junior Fernández and Kodi Whitley. In what may or may not be a coincidence, the team also placed former All-Star starter Carlos Martínez on the injured list for an undisclosed reason. On the bright side, the Cardinals did not have any new positive tests and appear on track to return this weekend.
• The Athletics made weak excuses for their coach who made a Nazi salute twice.
• With numerous teams likely needing to play a bunch of doubleheaders in order to complete their 60-game schedules by the end of the regular season, MLB made the wise decision to keep rosters at 28 players for the rest of the season, with taxi squads expanding from three to five players, following this week’s cutdown from the 30-man limit. Teams previously were set to cut down to 26 players in two weeks and remain at that limit for the rest of the season.
• Last Monday night was not a good night for Braves fans. Not only did they lose their series finale to the Mets, but in doing so, they also lost young pitching phenom Mike Soroka for the season with a torn Achilles. Soroka was injured after trying to make the turn on the mound to go help cover first and had to be helped off the field afterwards. Just gut-wrenching for a great young pitcher and for a club that already had issues in its rotation.
• 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. With Mike Trout already poised to rejoin the team after his wife had their first baby, the Angels offense should be a lot of fun to watch.
• Yes, we could possibly have more bad news this season, thank you for asking. Shohei Ohtani has undergone an MRI on his pitching arm after expressing discomfort following a recent start against the Astros. The 26-year old has had some control issues since coming back post Tommy John surgery and pitching at Spring Training 2.0. His ERA so far this season is pretty much infinite. Why Joe Maddon had him throw 42 pitches in a single inning a year out from that surgery is also yet to be determined as the pitcher racked up exactly zero outs and should hav been pulled eons before he actually was. Fingers crossed the MRI comes back normal.
• Yoenis Cespedes was nowhere to be found last Sunday morning, allowing the Mets to scapegoat him into a negligent and disrespectful player when in reality he’s a man who did not feel the team could and would be able to protect him from COVID-19. He’s opted out for the rest of the season, and honestly, good for him. What a fantastically dramatic exit.
• Brewers center fielder Lorenzo Cain has opted out for the remainder of 2020 season.
• In weirder news, Nick Markakis surprised, well, just about everyone when he opted out early in July. Now, we are seeing what happens when a players changes their mind as he applied for and presumably got reinstatement from the league and will rejoin the Braves.
• 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.
• It wasn’t that long ago that Corey Kluber was one of the best pitchers on planet Earth, but unfortunately injuries and Father Time seem to be catching up with him. Now with the Rangers, the team announced that Kluber has a muscle tear in his shoulder and will miss at least four weeks before being evaluated again. The team also announced that if Kluberdoes come back this year, he will most likely be coming out of the bullpen.
• 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.
• The big news on the eve of the 2020 season finally getting underway was that Mookie Betts, who was going to be in line to get a huge free agent deal after this season, decided instead to sign a huge 12 year, $365 million contract extension with the Dodgers. The Dodgers are probably feeling a bit better about the trade from this offseason that brought Mookie to LA in the first place now.
• So pretty much baseball began without the Blue Jays even having a legitimate place to call their home turf and was like, “Lol good luck with that one.” But they are a wondering baseball team no more! The Blue Jays will be playing in their Triple-A stadium in Buffalo for their home games this year. Their first home game is scheduled for August 11th.
• Need to scratch a baseball itch you quite can’t reach? Check out our MLB Power Rankings, except this time it’s for the second round of spring training and everything is insane.
• In order to play baseball, you have to have umpires and this could prove to be a bit more difficult now after last week, when at least 10 umpires had opted out of the 2020 season, with more possibly joining them.
• Astros reliever Joe Smith is one of a growing number of players to opt out of the 2020 season. His decision was expected for a while as he cited health concerns for his family as to why he wasn’t in camp yet, but this is yet another reminder that players are constantly thinking about whether or not playing this season is worth it.
• There have been two types of players who have been opting out of the 2020 season, those who are at-risk and those who are not. While we completely understand the rationales for both camps, the latest play who decided to opt out is at-risk as Jordan Hicks made the difficult decision. Not only is he recovering from injury, but he is also a diabetic. We hope for nothing but the best for all of these guys.
• More and more players are starting to pop up as positive with coronavirus as tests are being processed which, in itself, has been an ordeal. To help you keep track of all of the public information on COVID-19 in MLB, you should check out the tracker we put together.
• Rob Manfred and MLB’s owners had done a truly bad job of hiding the fact that they were negotiating in bad faith with the players, but at least they weren’t saying it out loud...until now. Few were confused by the fact that while the owners gave out proposals with differing percentages and numbers of games, the owners never appreciably offered to pay for more than about 60 games’ worth of fully prorated salary which is EXACTLY what we ended up with. Unfortunately, Manfred said the quiet part out loud when he said that MLB was never going to play more than 60 games regardless of how the negotiations were going. Not only does that comment diminish the league’s/owners’ chances in the inevitable grievance that players bring, but it also gives the appearance to fans that Manfred and co. dragged the entire sport through the mud over the last few months for nothing.
• In tragic, unsettling news, MLB teams have released hundreds of minor league players,with more players likely to be released in the coming weeks. As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds across the country, billionaires are making the choices to cut menial, insignificant costs in the form of the people who make them money. If you’re looking to help during this difficult times, tweet us at @mlbdailydish while we work with Adopt A Minor Leaguer to help find sponsors for MiLB players struggling.
• MLB and Minor League Baseball are reportedly close to an agreement that would cause 42 minor-league teams to lose their big-league affiliations. While there are perhaps a few positives to be taken from this deal — every club will have the same number of minor-league affiliates, travel will be more efficient, and minor-leaguers will get paid more — it’s extremely rough news for employees and fans in the affected markets and the players whose dreams will be crushed as more than 1,000 jobs are eliminated.