Francona’s return unknown
CLEVELAND — Indians manager Terry Francona underwent a scheduled medical procedure for a gastrointestinal ailment on Friday and will likely miss the team’s threegame series against the Tigers.
At this point, it’s now known when Francona, a two-time World Series winner, will return.
President of baseball operations Chris Antonetti provided an update on the 61-year-old Francona, who has already missed 11 games this season with health issues. Francona recently revealed he’s had numerous surgeries in the last year for the condition.
Antonetti said Francona was still feeling “really uncomfortable” leading up to the procedure, which was performed at the Cleveland Clinic. The hope is the latest one will help him feel well enough to continue managing in 2020.
Antonetti was asked about the likelihood of Francona making it through the season.
“Tito said it the other day: He wants to do his best to try to manage as much as possible,” Antonetti said. “We don’t know exactly how likely that is. We continue to encourage him and try to remind him every step of the way that the most important thing is his health and well-being.
“We will continue to prioritize those and if that means there will have to be days away from the ballpark, then that’s what we’ll need to do and we’ll continue to do what we always do, which is come together and figure out how to work through things.”
Francona did not travel on the recent trip to Detroit and Pittsburgh.
MLB: Major League Baseball postponed this weekend’s Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees to allow time for more testing and contact tracing after two members of the Mets tested positive for the coronavirus. The Mets had their game Thursday night in Miami as well as Friday’s opener against the Yankees postponed on Thursday after the results were reported. MLB postponed the rest of the weekend series between the New York teams on Friday “out of an abundance of caution and to allow for additional testing and contact tracing.” The Mets flew home Thursday night and are in New York, and the team said in a statement the traveling party was tested at Citi Field on Friday morning before being sent home to quarantine. The team does not plan to work out this weekend.
Nationals: RHP Stephen Strasburg was diagnosed with carpal tunnel neuritis on his throwing hand after seeing a nerve specialist, manager Dave Martinez said. Martinez said surgery could be an option but he has yet to talk with the 2019 World Series MVP. Strasburg was put on the injured list on Aug. 15, a day after he recorded just two outs in Baltimore. It was the 32year-old’s first appearance on the IL since 2018. After going 18-6 with a 3.32 ERA in 33 starts in 2019, the right-hander is 0-1 this season with a 10.80 ERA in two starts.
Yankees: All-Star SS Gleyber Torres and LHP James Paxton have joined the team’s crowded injured list. Torres had an MRI onm Friday that revealed mild strains in his left hamstring and quad, while Paxton had an MRI on Thursday that showed a low-grade strain in his left forearm flexor. Both were added to the IL on Friday. LHP Luis Avilan was also placed on the injured list after an MRI on Thursday revealed left shoulder inflammation. The Yankees are already without star hitters Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu, as well as LHP Zack Britton, RHP Tommy Kahnle and backup C Kyle Higashioka — all on the IL. ... The Yankees also traded RHP David Hale to the Phillies in exchange for righty relief prospect Addison Russ.
Royals: The team placed C Salvador Perez on the injured list with lingering vision problems and recalled LHP Randy Rosario to add bullpen help ahead of their three-game series against the Twins. Perez woke up with vision problems Sunday and called Royals trainer Nick Kenney. He wound up visiting a specialist on Monday and was good enough to return to the lineup, but he’s been out with continued blurry vision the rest of the week.
Orioles: Slumping 1B Chris Davis was placed on the injured list while highly touted OF prospect Ryan Mountcastle was recalled. Mountcastle was in the lineup against the Red Sox, batting sixth and playing left field. Davis headed to IL with a .122 batting average and patellar tendinitis in his left knee. Currently in the fifth season of a sevenyear, $161 million contract, the former two-time home run champion has only six hits — none of them homers — and one RBI.