Athletics Rumors & News

NBC Sports "Major League Baseball longs for the days (as do the rest of us) when its biggest problem was a cheating scandal that just wouldn’t go away. Baseball was caught flat-footed with the coronavirus pandemic during spring training, with its Opening Day just a couple of weeks..." April 04

MLB.com "To browse the list of Rookie of the Year winners is to experience a roll call of greatness: Frank Robinson and Tony Oliva, Willie Mays and Johnny Bench, Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. It’s also to be reminded of the greatness of..." April 04

Hardball Talk "Super-agent Rich Paul’s Klutch Sports has bought Tidal Sports Group, an agency run by Brodie Scoffield. Tidal’s clients include Alex Bregman, Marcus Stroman, Keston Hiura, and Mariners top prospect Jarred Kelenic. Tidal will become Klutch’s baseball..." April 03

The Score "The Major League Baseball Players Association established a program to support non-roster players who are not covered by MLB's payments to minor leaguers, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Over 300 players will be eligible for the new program. The non-roster..." April 03

Bleacher Report "Something was indeed amiss with the ball during last year's Major League Baseball playoffs, though that shouldn't be construed as a bad thing. Before we carry on, anyone who's already forgotten about October 2019 is forgiven. The baseball headlines have long since been..." April 03

The Score "Major League Baseball is trying to return to action as soon as possible, but doing so in empty stadiums might be a last resort. The league has "little to no appetite" for staging games in empty ballparks and also doesn't want to extend a potential postseason into..." April 02

12 Up "With government officials and medical professionals scrambling to find effective solutions for turning the tide against the coronavirus pandemic, super-agent Scott Boras has been hard at work concocting his own plans to end the suspension of Major League Baseball. He's now proposing..." April 02

Larry Brown Sports "Uncertainly still surrounds the 2020 MLB season, but the business of baseball will inevitably march on no matter what. Numerous top players will be entering the final season of their contracts in 2020, and most of them should get significant contracts once the season ends as long as they..." April 02

Arizona Central "Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed came across a photo from a recent professional baseball game in Asia. The picture was of a runner on first base, with the first baseman and the first-base coach also in the frame. All three were wearing masks. “I’ll be up for anything at..." April 02

Bleacher Report "Baseball could see its first-ever Mr. December in 2020. ESPN's Jeff Passan reported Monday on SportsCenter that MLB teams and players both want to play as many games as they can during the 2020 season, which has been suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19..." April 01

USA Today "They are playing catch in the backyard with their wives, like New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. They are building makeshift gyms, like Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed. There is so much free time, but no place to go, no place to even work out. Major League..." April 01

The Score "Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association agreed to a deal for the 2020 season that will afford players a full year of service time even if the campaign is canceled entirely. Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black said Monday that "all of us, and I'm..." April 01

CBS Sports "The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic has delayed the start of the 2020 MLB season indefinitely and forced a temporary restructuring of the game off the field. MLB and the players' union (MLBPA) recently agreed to a framework of how to proceed with that..." April 01

MLB Trade Rumors "Every Major League Baseball team is facing some sort of impact from the coronavirus, which has delayed the start of the regular season and could wipe it out completely. Before the 2020 campaign begins (if it does), MLBTR will break down the ways that the pushed back campaign could affect each..." April 01

Larry Brown Sports "If all is right in the world by then, we could have baseball to go along with our backyard barbecues and fireworks shows on Independence Day this year. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that July 4 has been one of the options floated as a possibility in..." March 31

USA Today "Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred told minor-league clubs and its players Tuesday that they are officially suspending the season, but agreed to pay minor-leaguers $400 per week through May. Manfred said he still expects the minor-league season to resume this season,..." March 31

The Province "Webster Garrison, the former Major League Baseball infielder who managed the Vancouver Canadians in their second season in single-A baseball, is fighting for his life in Louisiana. According to various news reports, the 54-year-old Garrison is on a ventilator. His fiancée,..." March 31

MLB Trade Rumors "5:08pm: Although NPB had been pushing for an April 24 start, Sports Nippon in Japan reports that league officials are now questioning whether that’s a viable target date (English-language link via Tokyo-based baseball journalist Jim Allen). Half of the league’s team presidents..." March 31

Yardbarker "It was just this past week that MLB Opening Day was supposed to take place. That obviously did not happen due to the COVID-19 pandemic plaguing the United States and the rest of the world. Once MLB announced that it would suspend the start of the 2020 season, hopes were that it..." March 31

101 Great Goals "On March 13, a recommendation came from the American College of Surgeons: Minimize, postpone, or cancel all elective surgery amid the spread of coronavirus. This instruction was shared the next day by the U.S. Surgeon General, and in the two weeks that have followed, it’s been echoed in..." March 31

12 Up "Only two MLB teams averaged fewer than one home run per game in 2019. The Minnesota Twins and New York Yankees each finished with over 300 for the year, and the league average was a robust 226. The final dinger total for the entire league was 6,776. That number shot up from..." March 31

Bleacher Report "Major League Baseball is increasing the minimum salary for players in the minor leagues starting with the 2021 season.   Per Jake Seiner and Ben Walker of the Associated Press, minor leaguers will receive a salary increase between 38 and 72 percent depending on the..." March 31

SI "Surgeon James Andrews will not perform Tommy John surgeries at his Florida office during the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesperson for the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Florida—the facility where Andrews performs his procedures—confirmed his..." March 31

Yardbarker "While Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have officially reached a deal on a temporary re-working of the collective bargaining agreement, the details are still filtering out. One key element of the coronavirus alteration is the role of the competitive balance..." March 30

Sportsnet "Surely, we are past the point now where we need to throw in a caveat in every sports story, explaining: “I know this doesn’t matter when people are dying, but…” And at our place, at least, we have emerged from a 14-day period of my self-isolation with an understanding..." March 30

Hardball Talk "MLB commissioner Rob Manfred recently expressed his optimistic outlook, saying that he hoped the league would begin “gearing back up” in May. That would put a regular season return potentially at the end of June or at some point in July. He expressed that the league may have to..." March 30

ESPN "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 in responsibilities in which the title "major league..." March 30

CBS Sports "Major League Baseball has its sights set on playing games in 2020, and if and when games are played, we're probably headed toward a shortened season. And in an effort to get in as many games as possible, the season is sure to be a condensed one. Off days will be more limited, and..." March 30

12 Up "Spring Training records don't matter one bit when it comes to what a team is going to look like come the regular season, but the eye test can tell you something. Player performances in Spring Training can help guide the outlook on what's to come in the regular season, and even..." March 30

MLB Trade Rumors "Agent Rafa Nieves’ newly-founded Republik Sports agency will represent several players formerly represented by Nieves at Wasserman.  A video published earlier today on Republik’s official Twitter feed reveals the names of 11 players who will continue to be represented..." March 30

ESPN "Following round-the-clock negotiations since the coronavirus outbreak postponed the beginning of the season, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association struck a deal Friday that outlined how the sport would proceed in the coming months. The players gained certainty that..." March 30

12 Up "This week, Major League Baseball and its players' union came to terms on a series of spending cuts considered necessary to make up for lost revenue caused by postponements and inevitable cancellations of official league activities due to the coronavirus outbreak. Included on this list of..." March 29

The Score "Longtime Oakland Athletics minor-league coach/manager Webster Garrison is battling COVID-19 and has been placed on a ventilator in Louisiana, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. When the A's learned Garrison had been diagnosed with..." March 29

Total Pro Sports "Even though it was Mike Fiers who set off the entire investigation into the Houston Astros who somewhat got punished for their actions in a major sign-stealing scandal that rocked baseball, none of the players have elected to go after their former teammate for running his mouth to the..." March 28

CBS Sports "Major League Baseball, like many sports leagues around the world, has been shut down indefinitely because of the growing threat that is the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Spring training has been suspended and Opening Day has been pushed back to at least mid May, and that remains subject to..." March 28

ESPN "Agent Scott Boras believes the agreement reached between Major League Baseball and the players' union "sends the wrong message" when it comes to possibly shortening the draft and limiting the financial pool for amateur players. Under terms of the agreement, MLB..." March 28

The Score "Implement universal DH I'm sorry, Dad, but National League baseball is plainly inferior, and it's only a matter of time before MLB tacitly acknowledges that fact and implements the long-overdue universal designated hitter. As a group, pitchers hit .128/.160/.162 in..." March 28

Hardball Talk "Today’s question is about those guys we thought would be the next big thing but, for whatever reason, weren’t. The players we thought would be stars but ended up average Joes. Or, perhaps, somewhat less-than-average Joes. In this I’m not looking for the tragic cases..." March 28

MLB Trade Rumors "We’ve been learning quite a bit about Major League Baseball’s coronavirus plans involving players, whose relationships with the league are conditioned upon a collective bargaining agreement. But teams also employ quite a few other personnel under rather different terms. It..." March 28

The Score "Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark shed some more light on Friday's deal with the league that addresses issues the 2020 season may face due to the coronavirus pandemic. Clark said the luxury tax won't be enforced if the season is..." March 27

The Union Journal "We simply concluded a collection of articles concerning possible extension prospects, with component of the property being that the recurring MLB time out can manage chances for settlements. But that will not be feasible under the regards to the Bob Nightengale of UNITED STATES Today..." March 27

Yardbarker "As anticipated, an agreement regarding the coronavirus-driven suspension of the 2020 season has resulted in a freezing of MLB rosters, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. A date for the resumption of transactions will be set in the future. As part of their..." March 27

CBS Sports "Major League Baseball, like many sports leagues around the world, has been shut down indefinitely because of the growing threat that is the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Spring training has been suspended and Opening Day has been pushed back to at least mid-May, and that remains subject to..." March 27

Bleacher Report "Official details of the agreement between Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association that pave the way for a shortened 2020 season to be played if and when the coronavirus pandemic ends have been revealed.  Per ESPN's Jeff Passan, this season..." March 27

Larry Brown Sports "Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached an agreement for how to proceed with a season that has been postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. Players and owners settled some potential issues over salaries and service time, with the main..." March 27

MLB.com "Baseball jersey fabric is going to the front lines of the fight against coronavirus. In an effort to help mitigate the national shortage of personal protective equipment that has become a pressing issue for healthcare workers and emergency personnel battling the COVID-19 outbreak,..." March 27

Sportsnaut "Major League Baseball and its players’ union came to an agreement on Thursday outlining what a shortened 2020 season might look like. It came at the same time that the sport was scheduled to enjoy opening day. By now, it’s well known that MLB joined other professional..." March 27

USA Today "Major League Baseball and its players agreed to make the best out of the COVID-19 pandemic, compromising to play the most games possible -- even playing into November -- providing the deadly virus subsides to enable a baseball season. But while their deal on service time and..." March 27

Hardball Talk "ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have reached an agreement on a deal pertaining to issues including service time, pay, and the amateur draft. The deal is expected to be ratified by the owners on Friday. A report indicated..." March 26

CNBC "They were supposed to be celebrating Opening Day, but instead Major League Baseball and Fanatics are teaming up for a very different cause: the fight against COVID-19. Sports apparel maker Fanatics’ 360,000 square-foot plant in Easton, Pennsylvania is usually rolling out MLB..." March 26