Morning Briefing: Mets vs. Yankees Exhibition Game Tonight!

Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Good Morning, Mets fans!

The New York Mets will face off against the New York Yankees tonight at 7 p.m. EST at Citi Field and it will be broadcasted on SNY for the first time in four months! There will be pre-game as well, at 6:30 p.m. Rick Porcello will toe the rubber against Michael King and the Yankees. Corey Oswalt will pitch on Sunday against Jordan Montgomery and Jonathan Loaisiga and the Bombers.

Latest Mets News

According to Manager Luis Rojas during his press conference on Friday, Jacob deGrom feels great and if he feels good on Saturday he will throw a live BP session on Sunday at Citifield rather than starting against the Yankees, as reported by Anthony DiComo of MLB.

Latest MLB News

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reported the latest MLB COVID testing results. Out of the 10,548 tests done there were only six new positive tests (0.05% of the total). Of those six, five were players and one was a staff member. These tests were performed this past week, and during the week there was a five-day period where there were no new positive tests. For more information on all of the testing thus far, Feinsand included pictures of the memo he received from the MLB in his Twitter post which includes more details.

Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated discussed why there are so few Black baseball players in her latest article with Preston Wilson entitled, “Why Baseball Is Losing Black America.

Unfortunately, Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic reported that the White Sox have informed a number of their employees in their baseball operations staff that will not get contract renewals when they expire in October.

According to his Instagram post, Domingo German has “left baseball” which is the loose translation from Marly Rivera of ESPN. It is unclear whether this means he has opted out of the 2020 season or is retiring, however, the caption, which was also loosely translated, mentioned, “I think I did my part at Yankee Stadium, if I decide not to come back, I will be very proud of my 11-year professional career.” Rivera translated the caption of the cryptic post. While it is unclear what this means for German going forward after the 2020 season, he would have been serving the rest of his suspension this season for 63 games.

The Chicago Cubs officially have placed Jason Kipnis on their 40-man roster which guarantees him his $1 million base salary, which is worth about $370,370 prorated this season, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Marly Rivera of ESPN posted to Twitter that DJ LeMahieu is back in New York after testing negative, while Luis Cessa, who also tested positive initially for COVID-19, is back in New York but is still awaiting his third negative test.

The Angels announced that Justin Anderson has recently had an MRI that revealed a tear in his UCL in his right elbow. UCL reconstruction surgery, Tommy John Surgery, has been recommended and will be performed on Wednesday July 22nd.

The Pittsburgh Pirates confirmed that Gregory Polanco tested positive for COVID-19 as reported by Rob Biertempfel for The Athletic.

The Colorado Rockies have placed Bryan Shaw on waivers according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. He has a vesting option in his contract for $9M in 2021. This is reflected through the appearances he makes in the season. If he clears waivers a team will be able to pick him up for a prorated minimus but that option would still apply.

The Rockies also have announced that Daniel Bard, whose last major league appearance was back in 2013 on April 27, has been informed that he made the team’s Opening Day roster for the 2020 season, the team posted this to Twitter.

Latest NL East News

After testing positive for COVID-19, Yasiel Puig will not be signing with the Atlanta Braves, thus remaining a free agent, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. He included that once Puig tests negative twice, the Braves can revisit their major league deal with him, however, other potential suitors can still make the effort to sign him.

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported that the, once questionable, opening day matchup in Washington D.C. between the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals has now been cleared. MLB had scheduled the teams to play against one another in Washington D.C., but given the state’s situation with COVID-19, they were debating playing at another location instead. However, as mentioned before, they have been cleared and the two teams will go head-to-head on Opening Day on July 24th at Nationals Park as planned.