Top News:
Evan Grant / Dallas Morning News:
Shin-Soo Choo donates $1,000 to each Rangers minor league player — Donation of at least $190,000 will help players with expenses during coronavirus shutdown. — Shin-Soo Choo has often talked with reverence about wanting to help the next generation of players the way veterans did for him in his early years.
Discussion:
Cincinnati.com, MLB Trade Rumors, MLB Baseball News …, Sports Illustrated and Denver Post
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Jeff Todd / MLB Trade Rumors:
2020 Season Increasingly Likely To Begin Without Crowds — What began as a backup plan has increasingly turned into an apparent inevitability as the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow. If MLB is able to get a 2020 season off the ground at all, it's likely to be played initially in empty stadiums …
Jeff Todd / MLB Trade Rumors:
MLB Announces Minor-League Financial Support — Major League Baseball has announced a plan to continue financial support and medical benefits to all minor-league baseball players. Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reported that a deal was pending (Twitter links), while Baseball America's JJ Cooper …
Discussion:
MLB Baseball News …, Lone Star Ball, South Side Sox, Lookout Landing, McCovey Chronicles, Halos Heaven and True Blue LA
Joel Sherman / New York Post:
MLB season likely to start without fans in quest for most games — Two items are becoming more and more probable if there is going to be a major league season this year: — 1. It is going to begin without crowds. — 2. It is going to begin without a standard minor league feeder system.
Discussion:
NBCSports.com, Forbes, Baltimore Sun, Purple Row, Phillies Nation and MLB Daily Dish
The Boston Globe:
Dr. James Andrews suspends Tommy John surgeries at his offices — With questions being raised as to whether athletes should have orthopedic operations such as Tommy John surgery at a time when the coronavirus pandemic is ongoing, the best-known practitioner of the procedure has stopped performing …
Discussion:
NBCSports.com, Twinkie Town, Purple Row, New York Daily News, New York Post, Sports Illustrated, ProFootballTalk and MLB Trade Rumors
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Scott Lauber / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Phillies' Seranthony Dominguez facing decision after doctors recommend Tommy John surgery — No matter how long it takes for the 2020 baseball season to begin, it might be much longer before Seranthony Dominguez pitches again. — It has been suggested to Dominguez that he undergo …
Discussion:
NBCSports.com, Phillies Nation, The Good Phight, Lookout Landing and MLB Trade Rumors
Jeff Todd / MLB Trade Rumors:
Chris Sale Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Chris Sale Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
Discussion:
Sports Illustrated and MLB Baseball News …
ESPN:
AJ Hinch, Jeff Luhnow suspensions fulfilled in 2020 even if MLB season canceled — Former Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch and ex-Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow will fulfill their one-season suspensions for the team's sign-stealing scandal even if no baseball is played in 2020, sources told ESPN's Buster Olney on Thursday.
Discussion:
USA Today, New York Daily News, MLB Baseball News … and Union-News
Brendan Kuty / New Jersey Online:
Yankees' Masahiro Tanaka leaves to Japan as coronavirus hammers U.S., says he was in dangerous situation — Yankees starting pitcher Masahiro Tanaka has retreated to his native Japan as the coronavirus continues to devastate the U.S. — Tanaka said he left in late March, but didn't give an exact date.
Discussion:
MLB Trade Rumors and New York Post
Howard Cole / Sports Illustrated:
Dodgers' New TV Deal Ends 7-Year Blackout — No joke. This is not an April Fool's Day prank. The Dodgers seven-year cable television nightmare is over. — What started with the club signing a 20-year, $8 billion TV deal with what was then Time Warner Cable in 2013 has ended …
Bradford William Davis / New York Daily News:
New study says 2019 playoff balls were de-juiced, but MLB still has no answers — Baseball has enough problems to deal with. For one thing, it's nearly April and there's no baseball. Still, a problem found does not resolve a problem left for later, and there is at least one major unresolved issue …
Walmart Inc.:
Additional Steps We're Taking for the Health and Safety of Our Associates — As our company and country continue to deal with the spread of COVID-19, we remain focused on the health and safety of our associates. — We continue to follow and communicate the CDC's recommended guidance …
Discussion:
New York Post
Chandler Rome / Houston Chronicle:
A.J. Reed's retirement underscores Astros' tepid 2014 draft class — Drawing scant attention with the announcement, A.J. Reed retired on March 4 — about one week into spring training games — when concern about the coronavirus grew around the country. — Reed told a Terre Haute, Ind., television station of his situation.
Discussion:
MLB Trade Rumors and Lone Star Ball
Marly Rivera / ESPN:
MLB managers on how they're helping team, family deal with pandemic — Dealing with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is not only changing the fabric of Major League Baseball, but it's also redefining the role of major league managers. This global public health crisis has led to a shift …
Discussion:
ESPN Press Room U.S., Halos Heaven, New York Post and AZ Snake Pit
Associated Press:
As MLB ponders post-virus season, players worry about health — MLB, Cincinnati Reds, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers — As Major League Baseball and the players' union contemplate various ways to create a schedule for whenever the coronavirus pandemic subsides …
Discussion:
baseballmusings.com