Yesterday, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported that Major League Baseball gave the ok to teams to play up to three exhibition games before the start of the regular season. With teams trying to limit travel, Rosenthal noted that it’s possible these exhibition games could come against whoever the opening day opponent is. The assumption I’m making here is that the visiting team would just show up to the home team city for opening day 4-5 days in advance of opening day and play a few games leading up to the start of the regular season.
Cincinnati’s closest two teams would be Cleveland and Pittsburgh – both teams that they will be playing in 2020. We do not yet have a schedule, though it has been submitted to teams who will now need to approve it. Evan Drellich of The Athletic says it’s likely we won’t see it until next week. Depending on who the Reds are set to open up against, as well as the Pirates or Indians – it’s possible any of the three teams could try to travel to one of the other cities and play some games.
This option is a lot easier for teams in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, though, given the proximity of those teams to each other. A team like Seattle is likely going to have to either travel, or have a team travel to them that’s the opening day opponent in order to get in exhibition games that aren’t just their 60-man roster split into two teams. Don’t be surprised, though, if that’s what winds up happening for a lot of teams anyways.
How will MLB Trades work in 2020?
The trade deadline has been pushed to August 31st this season. That’s been widely reported for a few days now, and it makes sense given that the season usually has the trade deadline on July 31st, which in 2020 will only be one week into the season. As I’m typing this at 12:15pm ET on Friday, the roster freeze has only been unfrozen for a handful of minutes. Teams have not been able to make moves for three months at this point.
There’s been a lot of speculation on trades, and how teams will go about things. During the negotiations we continuously heard that some teams were going to lose so much money that they didn’t even want to play a season. That led to plenty of speculation that if a season did happen, that some teams would try to move as many contracts as they could as a way to not spend as much money. That makes sense until you start to try and figure out who is going to take on contracts and increase their expenses.
With that said, we have learned a new rule for 2020 with regards to trades. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand had this in his column last night:
Can teams make trades?
Yes, though not every player in an organization can be dealt in 2020. The Trade Deadline this season has been moved from July 31 to Aug. 31, but unlike years past, teams will be limited in which players they can deal.
Only the 60 players in a team’s Player Pool will be eligible to be traded, limiting the number of Minor League players who will be moved this summer.
Players acquired via trade must be assigned to a team’s Player Pool.
Only players on the 60-man can be traded. But, we do need to be sure to note that the 60-man roster is not set in stone all season. Players can be added to it to replace players who are injured, released, etc. Teams can also add players beyond trades via waiver claims and free agency.
Former Reds All-Star Eddie Kasko passes away
On Wednesday, former Cincinnati Reds infielder Eddie Kasko passed away. He would have been 89-years-old tomorrow. He began his big league career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1957, and was also with St. Louis in 1958. But in October of 1958 he was traded to the Reds in a 6-player deal that included Del Ennis, Bob Mabe, George Crowe, Alex Gammas, and Alex Kellner.
From 1959-1963, Eddie Kasko played for the Reds, hitting .277/.329/.353 in that span. In 1961 he made the All-Star team – his lone appearance on the team. That same year the 30-year-old Kasko played in the World Series for the Reds against the New York Yankees, going 7-22 (.318) in five games. His seven hits were the best by any Red in the series.
After the 1963 season, the Reds traded Eddie Kasko to the Houston Colt .45’s for Jim Dickson, Wally Wolf, and your best friend cash. Two years later he was traded to the Boston Red Sox where he played his 10th and final season.
A 10-year big leaguer who made an All-Star team is a heck of a career. But Kasko may have been a better big league employee than he was a big league player, and that’s saying something. After his playing career he took on a few minor league managerial jobs before landing the job as the Boston Red Sox manager in 1970 where he went 345-295 (.539). But following the 1973 season he was moved into a scouting job with the Red Sox before taking over as their director of scouting to run the draft from 1977-1992. He stated with the Boston organization for 1993 and 1994 as their vice president of baseball development. In 2010 he was named to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame.
I wonder if there’s more value simply playing intrasquad games. More pitchers can get work in, hitters more at-bats, 60 man roster guys getting more meaningful reps against better competition.
I’m sure every team will be doing some kind of intrasquad stuff with live at-bats/defense. But seeing “the other guys” could hold some value, too.
Eddie Kasko: a versatile infielder and a solid hitter. Quite a post-playing career with the Red Sox.
Reds have been blessed with some decent shortstps. In an era when SS was known as a defensive position, he had decent offensive numbers.
Spring stats really, really, really won’t matter now folks!
lol