Yankees' Judge has surgery on shoulder
NEW YORK » The New York Yankees say slugger Aaron Judge had arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder and is expected to be ready for spring training.
The operation was performed Monday by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. The Yankees say the procedure involved a loose-body removal and cartilage cleanup.
The 25-year-old Judge hit .284 with 52 homers and 114 RBIs in 155 games this season, helping New York make it to the AL Championship Series, where they lost to the eventual World Series champion Astros.
He was a unanimous selection for AL Rookie of the Year and finished second to Houston infielder Jose Altuve in the AL MVP race.
Braves sanctioned
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred hit the Atlanta Braves with heavy sanc-
heavy sanctions, including the loss of nine players, on Tuesday for rules violations committed by the team in the international player market.
Manfred also placed former Braves general manager John Coppolella on the permanently ineligible list. Former Braves Special Assistant Gordon Blakeley, the team’s international scouting chief, is suspended from performing services for any team for one year.
Manfred says an investigation conducted by Major League Baseball determined the Braves circumvented international signing rules from 2015 through 2017, by moving bonus pool money from one player to boost another player’s contract.
Most notable among the nine players the Braves will lose is Kevin Maitan, an infielder from Venezuela who signed for $4.25 million in 2016.
Other “high-value” players the Braves will lose include Juan Contreras, Yefri del Rosario, Abrahan Gutierrez, Juan Carlos Negret, Yenci Peña, Yunior Severino, Livan Soto and Guillermo Zuniga.
Additionally, the Braves will be prohibited from signing any international player for more than $10,000 during the 2019-20 signing period and their international signing bonus pool for the 2020-21 signing period will be reduced by 50 percent.
Coppolella was forced to resign after the season. Former team president John Hart was moved to a senior adviser role when a new general manager, Alex Anhopoulos, was hired on Nov. 13. Hart left the team on Friday.
“The senior baseball operations officials responsible for the misconduct are no longer employed by the Braves,” Manfred said. He also said the Braves “cooperated throughout the investigation.”
The Braves braced fans for the sanctions when team chairman Terry McGuirk apologized to fans “on behalf of the entire Braves family” for the rules violations at the news conference to introduce Anthopoulos.
The Braves said in a statement released Tuesday they “understand and accept the decision regarding the penalties that have been handed down.