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Major League Baseball issued a strong statement Thursday, condemning a proposal that would impose salary limits for minor league baseball. 

SB Nation’s Grant Brisbee provided a look: 

It is a response to the Save America’s Pastime Act being pushed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

The MLBPA also issued a statement:

The bill would alter the Fair Labor Standards Act to lock in current wages and keep minor league baseball players from receiving guaranteed minimum wages or overtime pay. The season runs for roughly five months, and players would only be subject to earnings during this time period.

Several in the media lashed out at MLB for its aggressive statement, including CBS Sports’ Mike Axisa and the Boston Herald‘s Jason Mastrodonato:

Tyler Palmer, who played for the Los Angeles Angels’ Single-A affiliate Inland Empire 66ers last season, also criticized the statement:

Hardball Talk’s Bill Baer noted the league does not treat its minor leaguers well enough to justify this type of an outburst.

“Because minor league players aren’t protected by a union, they’re not guaranteed a safety net when they lose their jobs,” Baer wrote. “No pension, no healthcare, no nothing. MLB’s stance on paying minor leaguers, which it calls ‘impractical,’ is unconscionable.”

Baer cited Adam Dembowitz of Crashburn Alley, a site Baer is a member of, who pointed out MLB’s lack of wages aimed toward the minor leagues:

According to ESPN.com’s Tony Blengino, a minor league player makes roughly $1,000 per month in wages.

It appears this bill is losing steam, as Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos withdrew her support after initially sponsoring it. 

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Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Matt Imhof lost his right eye in a training accident last Saturday.

Imhof explained the situation in an Instagram post:

As many of you know on Friday June 25th I had an accident. A large price of metal hit me in the head/eye resulting in a fractured nose, 2 fractured orbital bones, and most significantly, the loss of vision in my right eye. I was immediately taken to the ER and then transferred to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the #1 eye hospital in the world. That night, the doctors informed me that the damage to my eye was extreme and essentially that my eye had been crushed like a grape. The doctors told me they were going to do everything possible to reconstruct it but in all likelihood I would never regain sight in my right eye. The first surgery was somewhat a success but overall nothing had changed, so after discussions with my family and my doctors, it was decided that the best chance I had to live a normal life was to have my right eye removed and have a prosthetic one put in. This decision was not an easy one to make but to me it seemed like the right one so on Tuesday afternoon I went forward with the surgery. I’m currently still in Miami recovering from surgery but I’m doing well. This has been the hardest week of my life but I’ve had amazing support from my family and friends to help me get through it. For those who have been wishing me well, your support has not gone unnoticed and I appreciate everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I had the best doctors in the world doing their best work on me and for that I am grateful as well. Although this injury has been tough it could have been much worse…I’m lucky to still have vision in my left eye…I’m lucky that i didn’t have brain damage…and I’m lucky to be surrounded my the most loving and understanding people in the world. I just wanted to write this message to let everyone know that even though I suffered some bad luck, I’m not dead. I’m gonna be alright, I’m gonna persevere, and I’m gonna succeed. It takes more than this to bring me down. Again thanks to everyone for the support .

CSNPhilly.com noted the accident occurred during a “postgame stretching routine.”

The 22-year-old Imhof was in his second full season of professional baseball after being a second-round pick in 2014. He was pitching in High-A Clearwater before his injury, posting a 3.91 ERA with 48 strikeouts and 43 walks in 53 innings.

Even though Imhof’s stock had dropped off in the last year because of his command struggles, he was regarded as a potential back-end starter who could move quickly as recently as 2015.

Here is what MLB.com said about Imhof in 2015, when he ranked as the Phillies’ 19th-best prospect:

Imhof has a solid three-pitch mix and a good feel for pitching. He throws his fastball in the upper 80s to low 90s. The pitch plays up, thanks to its natural cutting action and the downhill angle he throws from. His breaking ball can be an out pitch, and he also mixes in a changeup.

Though Imhof doesn’t have premium stuff, he was one of the top strikeout pitchers in the country as a junior at Cal Poly. If he can rediscover that success in the Minor Leagues, he could start advancing quickly.

This doesn’t necessarily spell the end of his pitching career. Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Julio Urias has vision problems in his left eye, yet he is doing OK for himself.

Hopefully things work out for Imhof in the future, whatever he decides to do.

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The San Diego Padres reportedly traded relief pitcher Fernando Rodney to the Miami Marlins on Thursday, according to Jon Heyman of the MLB Network and Chris Cotillo of SB Nation.   

According to Heyman, the Padres are receiving minor league right-handed pitcher Chris Paddack in the deal:

Rodney, 39, has been superb this season, going 0-1 with 17 saves, a 0.31 ERA, a 0.87 WHIP and 33 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched. A.J. Ramos has also been excellent as the team’s closer, with 24 saves in 24 opportunities and a 1.74 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. So the Marlins now have two strong options in the eighth and ninth innings.

That means Rodney will either slot into the team’s closer role or become the team’s setup man, as the 41-37 Marlins are both in the hunt for the National League East (5.5 games behind the Washington Nationals at the time of publication) and a wild-card berth.

With the Marlins in the postseason picture, Rodney wasn’t the only player the team considered to bolster the bullpen, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com:

Carter Capps was expected to compete for the closer’s role this season, but he required Tommy John surgery in March and is done for this campaign. 

Rodney is an excellent option in the meantime. The two-time All-Star has been borderline unhittable this season and is due to make just $2 million next season on a 2017 club option that includes a $400,000 buyout, per Spotrac.

Giving up Paddack wasn’t cheap, but Rodney’s ability to serve as the team’s closer this season and his reasonable contract for next year made the move a smart addition for the Marlins. 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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The Los Angeles Dodgers announced Thursday that they have acquired starting pitcher Bud Norris along with outfielder Dian Toscano, “a player to be named later and cash considerations” from the Atlanta Braves for minor league pitchers Philip Pfeifer and Caleb Dirks. 

Norris, who was in his first year with the Braves, is 3-7 with a 4.22 ERA in 22 appearances this season. 

The deal comes just hours after the Dodgers placed ace Clayton Kershaw on the 15-day disabled list because of a lower-back issue, per ESPN.com. 

It’s just the latest injury to hit the Dodgers’ pitching staff, which was already dealing with an Alex Wood triceps injury that landed him on the 60-day DL. L.A. has also been without Hyun-Jin Ryu for the past two seasons because of a shoulder issue. 

The Dodgers have already had nine different pitchers start through the first 81 games of the season, and without the 11-2 Kershaw, the starting rotation has been nothing more than mediocre, per ESPN Stats & Info:

While Norris isn’t a top-end starter, he can eat up innings and add some depth to Los Angeles’ rotation. 

In five of his first seven major league seasons, Norris compiled a losing record and never posted an ERA better than 3.65. In fact, he put up a career-worst 6.72 ERA last season with the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres. 

That being said, Norris has been pitching well lately, per Fox Sports 1’s C.J. Nitkowski:

Arriving with Norris is Dian Toscano, a light-hitting outfielder who’s batting .226 in Double-A this season. 

In Dirks, the Braves are getting the Dodgers’ 30th-ranked prospect, according to MLB.com. The reliever was 3-2 with a 1.44 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 31.1 innings while playing in Double-A with the Tulsa Drillers. Pfeifer did not make MLB.com’s top-30 list, but he was 3-1 with a 2.67 ERA in Single-A ball. 

This is the kind of deal the Dodgers needed to keep their healthy arms fresh as the dog days of summer approach. For the Braves, getting anything for Norris was a positive as they continue to try to collect prospects and pieces in an attempt to rebuild. 

Minor league stats courtesy of MiLB.com. Major league stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Attention big league shoppers: You have four weeks left to find the piece—or pieces—you need for the stretch run. That might seem like a long time, but it’s not. The Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline will be here before you know it.

As a result, the rumor mill has been buzzing. It’s not spinning as fast as an Aroldis Chapman fastball, but it’s certainly moving faster than what passes for a heater from Jered Weaver these days.

Is a forgotten-about veteran starter on more than one contender’s radar? Could a pair of currently employed veteran sluggers become free agents before the season ends? Have general managers learned from the past mistakes one of their counterparts has made?

We’ll hit on all that and more in this week’s pitching-heavy round of fact or fiction.

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Let’s hold off on scheduling an MLB rookie-sophomore game during All-Star weekend.

Promising youngsters have arrived in 2016, but these neophytes wouldn’t fare well against the likes of Kris Bryant, Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa with a hopefully healthy Noah Syndergaard on the mound.

In that hypothetical situation, either Lindor or Correa would need to handle another position for a day. This problem occurs yet again in a 2016 rookie class headlined by three National League shortstops.

Is it cheating to move them from their true position? Probably, but when the alternative is starting Cheslor Cuthbert, it’s time to play loose with the rules. Besides, it will make good practice for when they need to learn a new craft in real life.

With some lineup manipulation and red-hot hands joining the fray, this rookie lineup—which is based on numbers from the season’s first half—has the makings of a solid squad. 

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NEW YORK — In the seats behind home plate, scouts from rival teams ogle the relief pitchers the New York Yankees haven’t yet decided to sell. Just the other day, the Chicago Cubs had three scouts at Yankee Stadium, enough so each could have focused in on just one of the late-inning relievers who could change the trade market and perhaps Cubs history.

On the concourses behind the seats, racks full of T-shirts with the “No Runs DMC” logo the Yankees created to market those relievers sit waiting for customers. But instead of buying shirts honoring Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances, the few fans who are shopping seem content with their aging Derek Jeter jerseys.

This is where the Yankees stand at midseason 2016, with players more marketable to other teams than to their own fans. This is what the Yankees have become, a tradition-rich franchise stuck with too few current stars their fans are drawn to.

All-Star voting isn’t always the best indicator of stardom, but it’s worth noting that in 21 of the 22 seasons between 1993 and 2014, the Yankees had at least one player in the American League starting lineup. In 10 of the 11 years between 2002 and 2012, they had two or more starters.

Last year, they had none. That’s almost certain to be the case again this season, with only Brian McCann (a distant fourth among catchers) and Carlos Beltran (10th among outfielders) even making it onto MLB‘s latest voting update.

Just five years ago, four of the nine players voted in for the AL played for the Yankees. Jeter and Alex Rodriguez missed the game because of injuries, but Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano both started.

Five years later, only A-Rod remains, and he can barely make the Yankees lineup. The others have gone. Only their replica jerseys remain.

Walk around Yankee Stadium, and you’re just as likely to see a Cano jersey as one honoring any current Yankee.

No current Yankee made the list of the top 20 baseball jerseys sold last year. Just four years ago, Jeter topped the list, and fellow Yankees Ichiro Suzuki and Cano made the top 10.

You can argue it doesn’t matter. You can argue that the standard of stardom the Yankees set through the first decade of this century was a real anomaly, never possible to match.

Teams go through cycles, and the Yankees themselves have been through them before. They didn’t have an All-Star starter from 1989-92, the only other time in the last 45 years they went consecutive seasons without one.

All-Stars and attendance and jersey sales are byproducts of success, and this year’s Yankees team remains below .500 as the midpoint of the season approaches. The Yankees have played just well enough to stay on the fringes of the race—they began play Wednesday 3.5 games out of a wild-card spot—but they’ve been bad enough that a midseason sell-off remains possible.

Chapman, Miller and Beltran could all be traded if the Yankees determine they’re better off trying to retool for the future. They do have players of value.

“We have stars,” said Betances, who has become one of them.

If fans could vote for All-Star pitchers (who are chosen instead through player vote and managerial selections), the Yankees’ late-inning trio would no doubt get big support. But as the Cincinnati Reds found out when they had Chapman, it’s tough when your biggest star only pitches in the ninth inning when you have a lead.

Now that’s true for the Yankees.

Their drop-off in star power has been drastic, and as much as the Yankees need wins to stay in the pennant race, they need stars to stay in the race for relevancy.

It’s not just about jerseys and All-Star votes. The Yankees need to sell tickets, and they need to attract eyeballs to television sets so the team-owned YES network can sell advertising.

This year, for the first time in the decade both teams have had their own networks, the New York Mets are topping the Yankees in local ratings, according to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News. The New York Post‘s Richard Morgan reported YES ratings are down 10 percent from last year and nearly 50 percent from their peak.

From 2002-11, Morgan noted, the Yankees regularly averaged 400,000 viewers per game. This season, they were down to 233,403.

Through Tuesday, the Yankees’ average home attendance was 38,022. That’s tied with the Los Angeles Angels atop the American League and sixth-best in baseball. But as Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports pointed out, the Yankees are down 1,800 a game from last year and 8,000 a game from 2010.

Some of those drops are to be expected. The Yankees were coming off their 27th World Series title in 2010; this year, they were coming off two straight seasons missing the playoffs followed by 2015’s one-game playoff cameo.

It’s not just at home. From 2001-15, the Yankees ranked first or second in the American League in road attendance. So far this year, they’re fifth, behind the Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, Toronto Blue Jays and (most surprisingly) the Oakland A’s.

The Yankees were first in the majors in road attendance (35,512 average) in 2014, helped by the Jeter farewell tour. They’re 16th in the majors (29,383) so far this season.

Meanwhile, the Mets made the World Series for the first time in 15 years, grabbing much of New York’s baseball spotlight. With their attractive young rotation and with Yoenis Cespedes in the lineup, the Mets have the type of stars the Yankees normally feature.

Go to a Mets game at Citi Field, and you’ll see fans wearing Cespedes jerseys and Matt Harvey jerseys and Noah Syndergaard jerseys.

Go to a Yankees game, and you still see plenty of people wearing shirts from the past.

“Am I drawn to any of the current players? No,” said Jed Dietrich, a fan looking over the items at one of Yankee Stadium’s souvenir stands. “I grew up on [Don] Mattingly. I understand what they’re trying to do—get rid of the bad contracts and get younger. I think eventually guys like Aaron Judge and Greg Bird will be part of the future.”

For now, Judge remains at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, while Bird is injured and out for the season. For now, Dietrich still wears Mariano Rivera’s No. 42, and his five-year-old son Sean wears Jeter’s No. 2.

Oh, and he didn’t buy that No Runs DMC shirt, either. Seems the Yankees will have a lot easier time selling Chapman, Miller and/or Betances than they will convincing fans to buy their shirt.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

Follow Danny on Twitter and talk baseball.

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Boston Red Sox left-hander David Price was not an especially good pitcher Wednesday in a 4-0 loss to his old employer, the Tampa Bay Rays. Just ask him.

“Changeup, that’s probably the worst changeup I’ve had in probably a month,” Price said after the game, per John Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. “Curveball was awful. Can’t get my cutter or my slider where I want to. I’m just bad right now.”

That’s about as candid an assessment as you’ll hear from any player. In a way, Price was a bit too hard on himself.

He lasted 6.1 innings Wednesday, after all, and struck out 10 next to one walk. But he did surrender nine hits and four earned runs. His ERA for the season rose to 4.74, and his record fell to 8-5.

Those are serviceable numbers for a fourth or fifth starter. For a guy who inked a seven-year, $217 million contract over the winter, it’s an unmitigated disappointment.

Really, Price’s 2016 is all about contradictions.

He paces the American League with 120 strikeouts and is third with 108.1 innings pitched. And after watching his ERA balloon to 6.75 on May 7, he pitched into the seventh inning or deeper in his next eight starts and shaved more than two points off his ERA in the process. 

Then came a 12-hit, six-run, 2.1 inning disaster against the Texas Rangers on June 24, followed by Wednesday’s loss. Suddenly, the questions are back like the unkillable villain in a slasher flick.

Here’s the biggest one: How worried should Red Sox fans be about their mercurial ace?

The first place we look in these instances is velocity. And, indeed, Price’s average fastball is down from a career mark of 94.2 mph to 92.3 mph, and opponents are making more hard contact against him than at any point in his career.

On Wednesday, though, his heater reached as high as 97. Instead, as Price indicated in his self-flagellating postgame remarks, the issue seems to be location and off-speed pitch execution.

That could suggest a mechanical issue, though Price dismissed that after his June 24 shellacking.

“I’m fine. You know, I’m fine,” Price said at the time, per ESPN.com’s Scott Lauber. “I just didn’t execute pitches. It’s not mechanics. It’s not pitch selection. It’s executing pitches. That’s all it is.” 

If Price is telling the truth, and if there’s no mystery injury lurking, maybe the problem is simply between his ears. Perhaps the pressure of living up to that gargantuan deal is getting to him.

That brand of dime-store psychoanalysis is often a cop-out. All players deal with pressure, and Price has been a premier pitcher for years.

This roller-coaster season, however, has gone on long enough to give the Beantown faithful vertigo. We know Price can still dominate like the man who won American League Cy Young Award honors in 2012. We also know he can be a gas can.

That’s troubling for a club with postseason aspirations that’s expecting Price to anchor its staff.

If the season ended today, Boston would host the AL Wild Card Game. At this point, you can make a convincing case that knuckleballer Steven Wright, who leads Red Sox starters with a 2.18 ERA, would be a safer choice to start that win-or-go-home contest.

Wright is making a shade over $500,000 this season; Price is pulling down $30 million.

Price turns 31 in August, so there’s no reason to assume the decline has arrived. But even if he shines the next time he takes the hill, or the next two times, the doubts will linger.

Price doesn’t deserve all the blame for the Red Sox’s 10-16 June, which dropped them out of first place and 5.5 games back of the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. The rest of the rotation has scuffled, and the formerly world-beating offense has wobbled at times, including in Wednesday’s shutout loss.

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, the unofficial spokesman for Red Sox nation, voiced his unqualified support for Price, which counts for something:

Still, this up-and-down act can only go on for so long. When you’re making roughly a million dollars a start, the expectations of sustained excellence will never go away.

If that’s gnawing at Price and impacting his performance, he’s got to find a solution, whether it’s extra bullpen sessions, studying tape or an appointment with a psychic healer.

Price’s honesty after Wednesday’s dud was admirable. Now, it’s time for his results to consistently follow suit—or Boston’s very valid worries could curdle into a full-blown panic.

All statistics current as of June 29 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted. 

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Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig left Wednesday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers after he collided with the right field fence and suffered a minor knee contusion, per MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick. However, he has been cleared to return.

Continue for updates.

Puig Active vs. Brewers

Thursday, June 30

The Dodgers announced Puig will play against the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday.

Injuries Continue to Surface for Puig

Puig was scratched from the Dodgers lineup on May 31 with a sore left hamstring, and the injury raised some eyebrows since the slugger was limited to just 79 games during the 2015 season due to recurring right hamstring troubles.

Over the course of the truncated campaign, Puig batted just .255 with 11 home runs, 38 RBI, 66 strikeouts and 26 walks.

Entering Wednesday night’s clash, Puig was batting .248 with six home runs and 23 RBI over the course of 60 appearances.

Joc Pederson suffered a shoulder injury on Tuesday night after he collided with the outfield wall while making a spectacular catch, so Puig’s return is a welcomed sight for the Dodgers.

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The Washington Nationals signed pitcher Mat Latos to a minor league contract on Wednesday, manager Dusty Baker confirmed to Dan Kolko of MASN.  

Baker noted that the move was primarily for depth, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN:

Latos, 28, struggled with the Chicago White Sox this year, going 6-2 with a 4.62 ERA, a 1.46 WHIP and 32 strikeouts in 60.1 innings pitched over 11 starts. He was excellent for the team early in the season, allowing just two total runs in his first four starts, but he then gave up four or more earned runs in five of his next seven starts.

The White Sox released him earlier in June. Baker thinks the White Sox might have cut ties with the right-hander a bit soon, however.

“They didn’t give him a whole bunch of time to fall apart,” the Nats manager told Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “Maybe they didn’t believe what they were seeing in the victories that preceded us getting there. I don’t know. I can’t speak for another man, but I thought it was a bit premature to release him at that time.”

Per Janes, “Latos will be a Class AAA starter for the Nationals, who do not view him as a potential bullpen option, according to a person familiar with the situation.”

The move comes after Washington placed Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list with an upper-back strain. The Nationals do have solid pitching depth, however, with top prospect Lucas Giolito making his MLB debut against the New York Mets on Tuesday.

Giolito pitched 4.0 innings, giving up just one hit, two walks and no runs while striking out one batter before a rain delay ended his night. He earned himself a look while Strasburg is sidelined—and perhaps even beyond that.

Latos, meanwhile, will join MLB prospects Reynaldo Lopez and Austin Voth in Syracuse, rounding out a nice stable of arms for the Nationals at the Triple-A level.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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