MLB trade rumors and news: Carlos Carrasco to return to Indians Sunday

The veteran right-hander will make his inspirational return on Sunday after missing most of the season while battling leukemia.

The MLB Daily Dish is a daily feature we’re running here at MLBDD that rounds up roster-impacting news, rumors, and analysis. Have feedback or have something that should be the shared? Hit us up at @mlbdailydish on Twitter or @MLBDailyDish on Instagram.

• The Indians announced some fantastic news — not just from a baseball perspective, but from a human interest standpoint — as manager Terry Francona revealed that right-hander Carlos Carrasco will be activated from the injured list when rosters expand Sunday. Carrasco continues to battle leukemia, but the fact that he’s healthy enough to pitch out of Cleveland’s bullpen appears to be great news for his recovery.
• As the season nears a close, our Andersen Pickard has been making the cases for players and teams to either pick up or decline options for 2020. Vote here on whether Aroldis Chapman will exercise his player option and whether the Nationals will pick up Ryan Zimmerman’s club option for next year.
• Less than a month after acquiring him from the Reds for a player to be named later or cash at the trade deadline, the Giants released second baseman Scooter Gennett on Tuesday. The decision to part ways with Gennett, a 2018 All-Star, coincided with the call-up of Mauricio Dubon (their No. 8 prospect according to MLB Pipeline), who was acquired from the Brewers at last month’s deadline.
• Per a report from The Athletic on Tuesday, Royals owner David Glass is in negotiations to sell the team to John Sherman — a local businessman who is currently part of the Indians’ ownership group but was a longtime Royals season-ticket holder — for more than $1 billion.
• Is the home run barrage throughout baseball bad for the game? Our Patrick Karraker explores the possibility that baseball has too many dingers for its own good and what that means for the future of the game.
• Cleveland has placed José Ramírez on injured list with a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. He’ll stay on the 10-day IL for now until a better timeline is fleshed out for his return. The team’s #11 prospect, Yu Chang, was recalled to take Ramírez’s roster spot on a Cleveland team that’s full speed ahead towards October baseball.
• The injured list always claims some big names during the course of the season because that is just the nature of the beast. As we approach the homestretch of the 2019 season, we are seeing a bit of a spike in well-known guys landing on the IL as Carlos Correa, Brian McCann, and Chris Archer are all going to miss some time.
• The Braves have signed Francisco Cervelli to a major-league deal, the team has announced. The 33-year old was recently released by the Pirates. The 12-year major-league veteran is the final piece in Atlanta’s contending puzzle, bringing some stabilization to what was a very unpredictable backstop situation. Current Braves catcher Tyler Flowers slashed an anemic .188/.257/.359. While that isn’t far behind Cervelli’s .193/.279/.248, the Venezuelan put up a 125 wRC+, 2.6 fWAR line just last year, alluding that there’s so much more for him to offer to a team. Could this be one of our favorite comeback stories this year?
• Just over three years after taking him sixth overall in the 2016 MLB Draft, the Athletics purchased the contract of lefty A.J. Puk — ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the organization, the No. 43 prospect in all of baseball, and the No. 5 left-handed pitching prospect in the sport by MLB Pipeline — last week. The 24-year-old lefty, who had Tommy John surgery last April, is pitching out of the Athletics’ bullpen to start.
• Our Matt Powers has all the details on the short-season debut of Indians first-rounder Daniel Espino.
• The Braves continued to make small improvements to their roster, as they claimed Billy Hamilton off of waivers from the Royals. Hamilton can’t hit really at all, but for a team that just lost Ender Inciarte to a hamstring injury... getting a Gold Glove finalist who is also arguably the best base stealer in the game to be a late-inning defensive replacement and pinch runner is a pretty decent backup plan.
• Chris Davis met the 9-year-old whose letter told him ‘Don’t give up.’ It was wonderful. We’re all crying, we can’t even pretend that we’re not.
• While this news would have been more exciting a few years ago, the Athletics made a move to bolster their pitching depth as they signed Matt Harvey to a minor league deal. Harvey’s fall from grace has been pretty dramatic going from a potential ace for the Mets to getting unceremoniously booted from there to struggling to stay in the league at all.
• Yu Darvish is one of the big names to watch as the season begins to wind down. The Chicago Cub has a choice to make: opt out of his contract or be under team control for four more years. He’s due to make $22M in both 2020 and 2021, $19M in 2022, and $18M in 2023. And with an ERA over 4.00 and very obvious struggles this past season and a half with Chicago, it’d seem logical for him to opt in. Do you think Darvish will exercise his 2020 option?
• Due to make $25M but only see $15M of that due to deferment (ah yes, the best friend of Major League Baseball owners), Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg has a big decision this offseason. Will he exercise his 2020 option?