March 2019 - Baseball Wiretap

Bryce Harper Hits 465-Foot Home Run

Apr 1, 2019 12:38 AM

Bryce Harper's first hit as a member of the Phillies was a home run.

Harper hit a 1-1 pitch from Atlanta reliever Jesse Biddle into the right-field seats for a solo homer in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday in Philadelphia, extending the Phillies' lead to 7-4.

ESPN.com

Tags: Philadelphia Phillies, Misc Rumor

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Player's Union Scolds MLB For 'Game' Playing

Apr 1, 2019 9:53 AM

Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark scolded the MLB and its teams for making a game out of the arbitration process by awarding a toy championship belt to the team deemed having done the best to keep salaries down.

"That clubs make sport of trying to suppress salaries in a process designed to produce fair settlements shows a blatant lack of respect for our Players, the game, and the arbitration process itself," Clark said in a statement issued Friday.

ESPN.com

Tags: Legal, Misc Rumor

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Corey Knebel To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

Apr 1, 2019 9:53 AM

Brewers reliever Corey Knebel is done for the season, after deciding to undergo Tommy John surgery to repair a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

"I decided to go with surgery," Knebel said. "It's just going to be better to do it now and come back next year."

ESPN.com

Tags: Milwaukee Brewers, Injury, Misc Rumor

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Dodgers Hit Record 8 HRs On Opening Day

Mar 29, 2019 8:15 AM

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 12-5 on Thursday, crushing an Opening Day-record eight home runs in the process.

The eight home runs tied a franchise record for a single game -- also done May 23, 2002, when Shawn Green hit four -- and marked the first time in the live ball era that six players on any one team went deep on Opening Day.

"It's probably not going to always be like that," Cody Bellinger said, "but it's great to start off the season like that."

Alden Gonzalez/ESPN

Tags: Los Angeles Dodgers, Misc Rumor, Stats

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Max Scherzer Surpasses Mike Trout As Highest Paid Player

Mar 30, 2019 3:11 PM

Max Scherzer has passed Mike Trout as baseball's highest-paid player at $37.4 million.

The average Major League salary dropped for an unprecedented second straight year on Opening Day, falling about $36,000 to approximately $4,375,000.

However, that decline was due to signing bonuses in new deals for several superstars.

Trout was highest paid last season at $34.08 million, but his new deal dropped his salary for this year in exchange for a $20 million signing bonus.

The five highest-paid players are all pitchers, with Arizona's Zack Greinke second at $32.4 million, followed by Boston's David Price and the Los Angeles Dodgers' Kershaw at $31 million each, and Washington's Stephen Strasburg at $30.7 million.

Associated Press

Tags: Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Misc Rumor

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Red Sox Have Highest Opening Day Payroll

Mar 29, 2019 8:04 AM

The Boston Red Sox are baseball's biggest spender for the second-straight year, according to a study of Major League salaries by The Associated Press.

Boston's payroll began the season at just under $222 million. The figure was the lowest for a top payroll since 2012.

The Chicago Cubs were second at $209 million, followed by the New York Yankees at $207 million, the Los Angeles Dodgers at $191 million, Washington at $185 million and San Francisco at $176 million.

Only five teams are under $90 million: Oakland ($88 million), Baltimore ($78 million), Pittsburgh ($77 million), Miami ($71 million) and Tampa Bay ($61 million).

Associated Press

Tags: Boston Red Sox, Misc Rumor

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Deadspin Details Poor Treatment Of MLBAM Employees

Mar 28, 2019 2:20 PM

A report from Deadspin's Laura Wagner outlines workplace issues at MLB Advanced Media.

Deadspin reviewed internal communications from MLB Network and MLBAM and spoke to more than a dozen current and former MLBAM employees from a number of departments within the company.

Under MLBAM’s vice president of multimedia Mike Siano and MLBAM’s director of multimedia Brett Kaplan, MLBAM fostered an unhealthy and overly demanding culture in which people worked in fear of being berated and insulted for small mistakes and were disastrously managed, resulting in the a wage suppression lawsuit that was settled earlier this year for $1.3 million.

MLBAM, ownership of which is divided equally among MLB’s 30 teams, was founded in 2000 as a way to help individual teams create websites. MLBAM's streaming service began as a way to stream MLB games and has become an industry leader.

“[Kaplan] works really hard but people hate him because he treats people entirely as a commodity without any compromise. So the morale issues ... they started pretty much from day one,” a source said.

“I remember hearing Kaplan and Siano talk down to one supervisor and that it bothered me so much that I was messaging the person next to me, like, ‘Why is this happening?’ Just their tone, talking to someone like they’re stupid,” said a another source.

Kaplan also contributed to a structure in an effort to avoid paying overtime, which is what triggered the $1.3 million settlement.

Like many media companies, MLBAM relies on the desire of people to work in sports and media despite low pay and being treated poorly.

“They have a ton of young candidates lined up at the door. When you get there you realize how disposable you are,” a source said.

The MLB had $10.3 billion in revenues last year and that excludes the sale of BAMTech to Disney.

“Baseball is the only sport I love and the only sport I care about,” said one source, “and on top of what I’ve seen with owners dicking around free agents and how the commissioner’s office isn’t helping players, it’s a bummer to see it happening internally as well.”

 

Laura Wagner/Deadspin

Tags: Legal

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MLB Attempting To Collectively Purchase RSNs From Disney

Mar 28, 2019 12:30 PM

MLB is seeking to gain control of local broadcasting agreements with teams and has placed a bid to purchase regional sports networks from Disney.

Disney acquired 22 RSNs as part of its $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox's entertainment business.

“There’s tremendous revenue disparity in our game, and I think that if we had more of a national model closer to where the NFL is it would solve a lot of those competitive issues for us, kind of level the playing field,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday.

“I think that all of the difficult issues for baseball, if you took that revenue disparity out of the picture, would be easier.”

The New York Yankees have a right of first refusal to buy back control of their YES Network and have arranged partners for their own deal. MLB wants to purchase the remaining networks.

“Strategically, it would be a very interesting move for us,” Manfred said during a breakfast at The Paley Center for Media.

“Our game has always had sort of a national broadcast component that’s come out of New York. But the bulk of our business has been local. And the idea of a central baseball having more control over local rights is one that’s really intriguing to us. If we do the transaction, we’ll do it on the theory that we will try to accumulate more.”

Leagues and teams are worried how the cord-cutting trend will impact this business.

“You’re buying an ongoing RSN business, which generates really significant profits right now,” Manfred said. “I think everybody knows that it’s probably going to degrade over time as the cable model erodes.

“I think for us, we’d be prepared to live with that, run out of profitability and at the end of that runout, assuming it comes to some sort of a hard end, we would be in control of the content, which we fundamentally believe in, and we think that holding it as a lead better positions us to figure out exactly what that next distribution model is going to look like for the benefit of the league, as opposed to having some kind of private equity firm owning the RSNs.”

Ronald Blum/AP

Tags: Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Indians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Legal

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Mets Reportedly Put Pete Alonso On Opening Day Roster

Mar 28, 2019 8:51 AM

The New York Mets will reportedly put top prospect Pete Alonso on their Opening Day roster.

Alonso, 24, hit .285/.395/.579 with 36 homers and 119 RBI in 132 games across Double-A and Triple-A last season.

Anthony DiComo/MLB

Tags: New York Mets, Misc Rumor

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Rays May Tint Roof To Help Track Fly Balls

Mar 28, 2019 8:44 AM

The Tampa Bay Rays are exploring the possibility of using blue lights to tint the roof of Tropicana Field in hopes of making it easier for players to track fly balls during games.

The lights are part of a new LED lighting system installed throughout the team's home park.

They'll be used this season pending approval by Major League Baseball.

Associated Press

Tags: Tampa Bay Rays, Misc Rumor

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Alex Cora Won't Reveal Red Sox Closer
The Red Sox will use a new closer with Craig Kimbrel lingering in free agency.

ESPN

Francisco Lindor Out Indefinitely With Ankle Injury
An MRI test on Francisco Lindor's ankle found a mild to moderate acute sprain, according to the Indians.

ESPN

A's Acquire Kendrys Morales From Blue Jays
The Blue Jays acquire prospect Jesus Lopez and international signing pool space in the deal with the A's.

ESPN.com

Buster Olney: Giants Could Trade Then Re-Sign Madison Bumgarner
Madison Bumgarner could be the truest definition of a rental this summer.

Buster Olney/ESPN

White Sox To Start Eloy Jimenez In Left Field
Eloy Jimenez will break camp with the White Sox and start in left field against the Royals on Opening Day.

Jesse Sanchez/MLB

Anthony Rendon, Nationals Not Close On Extension Talks
The Nationals and Anthony Rendon are not close to an agreement on a contract extension with Opening Day looming.

Jon Heyman/MLB Network

Fernando Tatis, Jr. Makes San Diego's Opening Day Roster
Fernando Tatis, Jr. is widely regarded as the No. 1 overall prospect in baseball.

ESPN

Longshot Orioles Getting Bets To Win World Series
The Orioles are coming off a 115-loss season and Las Vegas has set their World Series odds at 2,000-1.

David Purdum/ESPN

Kyle Hendricks, Cubs Agree To Four-Year, $55.5M Extension
The extension eliminates Kyle Hendricks' last year of arbitration.

ESPN

Larry Baer Receives Four-Month Suspension By MLB
Larry Baer will be required to undergo an evaluation by an expert to determine an appropriate treatment and counseling plan.

RealGM Staff Report

Mets, Jacob deGrom Agree Upon Five-Year, $137.5M Extension
The Mets have agreed to a contract extension with Jacob deGrom, according to league sources.

Jeff Passan/ESPN

Mike Trout: Harper, Machado Free Agencies 'Drew A Red Flag'
While discussing his recent 12-year, $430 million contract agreement with the Angels, Mike Trout admitted that he was scared off by the lengthy free agencies of Bryce Harper and Manny Machado.

Fabian Ardaya/The Athletic

Average Major League Salary On Track To Drop Again
Nolan Arenado, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado received huge deals this offseason, but the average Major League salary is on track to drop on Opening Day for a second straight season.

Associated Press

Jake Arrieta Has No Doubt Phillies Are Playoff Team
Philadelphia transformed this offseason by adding Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura.

Associated Press

Indians Unlikely To Extend Francisco Lindor On Megadeal
Paul Dolan advises fans of the Indians to enjoy Francisco Lindor now because they're unlikely to sign him to his market rate.

Zack Meisel/The Athletic

Noah Syndergaard Wants Mets To Give Jacob deGrom An Extension
A number of players have signed contract extensions this offseason, including prominent pitchers Chris Sale and Justin Verlander, but reigning National League Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom isn't among

Anthony DiComo/MLB

Greg Holland Will Serve As Closer For Diamondbacks
Greg Holland has a 12.27 ERA in 3 2/3 innings pitched this spring.

ESPN

Mike Trout On Angels: 'I Love It Here'
The Angels saw 3,000 or so fans arrive early for Sunday's exhibition game to celebrate Mike Trout's new 12-year, $426.5 million contract.

Alden Gonzalez/ESPN

Braves Still Interested In Reunion With Craig Kimbrel
The reliever remains unsigned with Opening Day just a few days away.

David O'Brien/The Athletic

Corey Kluber To Make Fifth Opening Day Start For Indians
Corey Kluber will start on Opening Day for the Indians for the fifth-straight season, tying a franchise record.

Associated Press