Athletics

Major League Baseball reportedly reduced Oakland Athletics outfield Ramon Laureano's suspension from six games to four on Friday. 

According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, Laureano will now drop his appeal and serve his suspension from Friday through Monday.

Laureano was suspended for charging the Houston Astros' dugout Sunday after getting hit by a pitch for the third time in the series. Per ESPN, Laureano said he charged the dugout after Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron "said in Spanish something you don't say about my mother."

MLB suspended Cintron 20 games for his role in the incident.

Cintron accepted his suspension and said his "actions were inappropriate," but he denied saying anything about Laureano's mother.

The 26-year-old Laureano is in the midst of his third season as a member of the A's. Through 19 games this season, Laureano is hitting .262 with three home runs, 12 RBI and 11 runs scored.

Last season was a career year for the Dominican Republic native, as he hit .288 with 24 homers, 67 RBI, 79 runs scored and 13 stolen bases.

Laureano is also known for playing quality defense in center field. He possesses one of the best outfield arms in baseball with nine assists in 2018 and eight last season, and he has a Defensive Runs Saved of 6 so far this season, per Fangraphs.

While Laureano is a big loss for the A's, they can afford to be without him for four games, as they are 13-6 and own a four-game lead over the Texas Rangers for first place in the American League West.

Until Laureano returns, Tony Kemp is a top candidate to see action in center field with Chad Pinder possibly sliding into the second base spot vacated by Kemp should he replace Laureano in center. Designated hitter Mark Canha can play some center field as well.

Laureano will miss three games against the San Francisco Giants and one against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but he will be eligible to return for Tuesday's game at Arizona.

Oakland Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano said Houston Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron "said in Spanish something you don't say about my mother," per Jeff Passan of ESPN, prompting Laureano to charge Houston's dugout on Sunday, leading to a benches-clearing confrontation between the teams.  

The incident started after Laureano was hit by a pitch for the third time in the series and gestured toward pitcher Humberto Castellanos how he should be gripping and snapping his wrist while pitching. Castellanos clearly didn't appreciate the gesture and words were exchanged, which continued as Laureano walked to first base until Houston's dugout and Cintron apparently chimed in:

Laureano said he regretted the decision to charge the dugout:                    

"I regret charging him because he's a loser. [A suspension] is understandable, but I hope it's not that many games. At the end of the day, I'm here to win a World Series with the Oakland Athletics—this wonderful group of guys. I don't want to be a distraction. Obviously, I am right now. Hey, I've already moved on. I'm facing Julio Teheran today, and that's all I'm thinking right now."

The Athletics have supported Laureano in the aftermatch. Manager Bob Melvin said Cintron's comments were "completely offensive," per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. 

"Ramon is the type of guy with a lot of energy—for him to do that, someone's got to say something," Athletics pitcher Frankie Montas added. "I saw the replays and I saw one of the coaches kind of challenging him like, 'Hey come here.' Hey, you don't want a coach trying to provoke you. For him to do that ... I don't know."

Laureano, who was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United States as a teenager, explained why Cintron's insult angered him enough to charge the dugout:

"Every day I wake up with the motivation to be with them. They sacrificed their life for me. They made the tough decision to let their own kid go to the States by himself and follow his own dreams. I've been away from my family for 10 years. It's tough to be away from them. Any chance I have to be with them, I feel like I'm in heaven. So for him to say that to me about my mom, it doesn't sit well. I've got a fire inside me right away in that second."

A suspension is surely coming for Laureano and others involved in the scuffle. One of baseball's priorities for its 60-game shortened season amid the COVID-19 pandemic was to enact as much social distancing between opposing players as possible. Sunday's melee threw any social distancing out the window.

The 26-year-old Laureano has become a key player for the Athletics, hitting .278 this season with three homers and 10 RBI. His loss would be a major blow for an A's team that has raced out to an impressive 12-4 start and has legitimate postseason aspirations. 

Oakland Athletics center fielder Ramon Laureano was not pleased the Houston Astros hit him with a pitch not once, but twice, during Sunday's American League West showdown.

Brandon Bailey hit him with a pitch in the fifth inning, but tensions escalated when Humberto Castellanos hit him in the seventh.

As Marc Carig of The Athletic pointed out, Laureano "seemed to be triggered by something Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron said from the dugout." He was yelling toward Houston's dugout before the benches cleared.

Laureano was eventually ejected with Oakland holding a 6-2 lead and going for the three-game sweep.

Oakland entered play at 11-4 with a 4.5-game lead over the Astros and Texas Rangers. It still has to play Houston seven more times this year, so there will be plenty of additional opportunities for drama in the race for the AL West crown in this shortened season.

The Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 6-4 on Thursday, and after the game, NBC Sports California cameras appeared to capture A's bench coach Ryan Christenson giving a Nazi salute as the winning team came off the field.

Christenson clarified the gesture and apologized in comments made to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle, who noted the bench coach typically does a "karate chop" postgame celebration.

Christenson and the A's both issued statements Thursday evening:

The 46-year-old has been the A's bench coach since 2018.

Christenson played in the big leagues from 1998-2003 with the A's, Arizona Diamondbacks, Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers as an outfielder. He played one season of minor league ball in 2004 before retiring.

The former Pepperdine ballplayer became a manager in the A's organization in 2013. He started in Single-A before moving up to Double-A and finally Triple-A in 2017 before getting the call to the bigs. Christenson guided the Double-A Midland RockHounds to back-to-back league titles in 2015 and 2016.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea has seen firsthand how good the Houston Astros can be, but he lost respect for the players after the sign-stealing scandal.

Manaea broke down his thoughts Monday on 95.7 The Game:

"Everything they've done, the World Series title, their regular-season stats...to me it doesn't mean anything," he added.

Houston has advanced to the World Series twice in the last three seasons, winning it all in 2017, but an MLB investigation determined the team used illegal technology to steal signs from opposing pitchers. The squad also signaled to players on the field using a garbage can in the dugout.

Manaea, who is just 2-5 with a 3.48 ERA in 12 career starts against Houston, said the team was already "legit" but that the need to cheat ruined their legacy.

Oakland Athletics third baseman Matt Chapman didn't miss an opportunity to zing his own team's fanbase on Thursday.

He told reporters not having fans at games during the 2020 campaign could work in Oakland's favor since the team is not exactly accustomed to selling out its stadium anyway.

"I think it's going to play to our advantage—a lot of our games are pretty quiet in general," Chapman said. "We're used to not having too many fans at the games."

He isn't the first athlete to joke along the same lines, as current Denver Broncos and former Los Angeles Chargers running back Melvin Gordon III featured a similar sentiment when asked about NFL games being played in empty stadiums.

"We didn't have fans anyway," he said of his time on the Chargers:

Chapman isn't exactly wrong when it comes to Athletics fans. Oakland was a mere 24th in the league in average home attendance last year with 20,521 fans per game, which is all the more disappointing considering the team made the postseason.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea said Sunday he is considering wearing a mask while playing during the 2020 season.

"You know, wear something different or find a way to jazz it up, or find a way to rock it, I guess," Manaea told reporters.

It's unclear if Major League Baseball will place any restrictions on mask-wearing while on the field. Pitchers are often not allowed to wear anything that could distract hitters from seeing a pitch.

Manaea is expected to be one of the top arms in the A's rotation this season. He missed all but five starts in the 2019 season after undergoing shoulder surgery, posting a 4-0 record with a 1.21 ERA and 0.78 WHIP.

Few players have openly discussed wearing masks on the field, though their use could go a long way toward quelling any potential spread of COVID-19. Face masks may reduce the spread of the virus by up to 85 percent, according to a study backed by the World Health Organization (h/t Rachael Rettner of Live Science).

Thirty-one MLB players tested positive for COVID-19 during the first round of testing last week. With the season reduced to about one-third of its typical length, an absence for a COVID-positive player could mean the difference between a playoff berth and sitting out the postseason.

Ten days after it was reported Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher would be ending weekly stipends to minor league players in his team's organization while baseball remains on hiatus, the franchise is reversing course. 

“I’ve listened to our fans and others, and there is no question that this is the right thing to do,” Fisher said via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. “We clearly got this decision wrong. These players represent our future and we will immediately begin paying our minor-league players. I take responsibility and I’m making it right.”

Fisher, who Forbes estimates is worth $2.2 billion, received immediate and fierce backlash for his decision to cancel the payments of $400 per week to minor league players.

According to Slusser, Fisher changed his mind after speaking with team president Dave Kaval, vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane and general manager David Frost. 

Friday's comments marked the first time Fisher addressed the media since he purchased the team 15 years ago. During his remarks, the team owner said he will retroactively pay players for the last week.

“That’s awesome news,” minor league catcher J.J. Schwarz told Slusser. “I have a lot of respect for John Fisher—to admit you’re wrong, you made a mistake, that’s not easy to do. I think the backlash was enough to make him realize that, and the fact that all 29 other teams were committed to paying their players.”

Fisher's decision to halt payments came shortly before Kansas City Royals general manager Dayton Moore was widely praised around the sports world for his commitment to players in the team's pipeline.

Fisher also announced the team was creating an emergency assistance fund for the more than 50 furloughed employees within the baseball operations division.

“We have a lot of employees who have been incredibly loyal for many, many, many years,” Fisher said. “It felt like the right thing to do was to set up a fund to support them.”

Slusser further notes that several agents said the club's handling of minor leaguers would leave it unable to reach contract agreements with top amateur players following next week's truncated MLB draft. 

Fisher noted he wants prospects to feel "positive" about joining the franchise. 

Oakland Athletics prospect Peter Bayer spoke out about the organization's decision to stop paying minor leaguers after May 31. 

Speaking to Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal, Bayer said he's "completely lost respect for everyone" in the A's organization who was involved in the decision and it "will be hard to go back to that team and hear them talk about how they care about their minor league players." 

Bayer also noted "a lot of people feel the same way," but they won't say it publicly. 

In an email to Oakland minor leaguers obtained by Sports Illustrated's Stephanie Apstein, general manager David Forst said the team would stop giving them their weekly $400 stipend at the end of the month:

"Unfortunately, considering all of the circumstances affecting the organization at this time, we have decided not to continue your $400 weekly stipend beyond May 31. This was a difficult decision and it’s one that comes at a time when a number of our full-time employees are also finding themselves either furloughed or facing a reduction in salary for the remainder of the season. For all of this, I am sorry."

Per ESPN's Alden Gonzalez, the A's will also furlough their professional scouts next week, and amateur scouts will be furloughed at some point after the 2020 MLB draft (June 10-11). 

Oakland became the first team to announce it was stopping payments to minor leaguers. The Athletic's Dennis Lin reported Wednesday that the San Diego Padres will continue to pay their minor league players through August. 

Bayer was a ninth-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2016. The right-handed pitcher was traded to Oakland in May 2018 for Wilmer Font. He posted a 3.38 ERA in 37 appearances out of the bullpen for the High-A Stockton Ports. 

The Oakland Athletics will reportedly stop paying their minor league players in June.  

Jeff Passan of ESPN reported the news Tuesday, noting the American League West team will stop providing a weekly stipend of $400 to minor leaguers at the end of May with the season suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Passan noted other teams could make similar decisions in the coming days and suggested this is "a bad sign to start."

Alex Coffey of The Athletic noted the minor league players will still receive benefits, while Stephanie Apstein of Sports Illustrated pointed out the team called this move "a difficult decision" in an email to the players.

In April, Forbes reported the average team in the league increased in value by four percent from 2018. The Athletics are one of the least valuable teams in baseball (26th) according to the report, but they were still listed as worth $1.1 billion. 

Passan put the worth of the team and owner John Fisher into perspective compared to what the Athletics would need to pay their minor leaguers at $400 a week:

This decision comes as Major League Baseball and its players association battle over the financial system that will be in place if the game returns for a shortened 2020 season.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network reported the league shared a financial proposal with the players Tuesday that dropped the idea of splitting revenue 50-50, which did not sit well with the union, and instead suggested players would receive a percentage of their prorated pay with those making more money slated to see bigger reductions.

While it was not the 50-50 revenue split that players were adamantly against, especially since the two sides agreed to prorated salaries in March, Passan and colleague Jesse Rogers reported the highest-paid players in the league would make less than 40 percent of their full salaries under the league's latest proposals.

Passan provided a look at how the proposed salaries would compare to even fully prorated ones:

Evan Drellich and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the players association is "disappointed" in the latest developments and "massive" proposed salary cuts.