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Braves Clippings Tuesday, April 21, 2020 Braves.com

Watch these 10 fun Braves games right now

By Mark Bowman @mlbbowman

While the 2020 season is on , fans still have plenty of opportunities to satisfy their cravings.

Every MLB game from the past two seasons is available, for free, on MLB.TV. That equates to more than 4,800 games, including regular season and postseason, from 2018 and ‘19.

This dive into the archives is free to all users, on any supported device, with zero blackout restrictions. Simply visit MLB.TV for details or download the MLB App on your favorite device.

There is no shortage of viewing options, whether you prefer to relive the ups and downs of your favorite team’s season or discover something you might have missed the first time around. There are fantastic individual performances, dramatic October classics, and much more. There's also a large collection of classic games available on YouTube.

To help fans find a place to start amid those two seasons' worth of baseball, we’ve curated the top 10 games for each of the 30 teams. Here is a recommended viewing guide for the Braves.

May 20, 2018: Braves 10, Marlins 9: A six- ninth Facing a 9-4 deficit entering the bottom of the ninth, the Braves staged a six-run rally that Dansby Swanson capped with an RBI single after fouling a couple of 99-mph .

July 29, 2018: Braves 4, Dodgers 1: A near no-no As was being inducted in Cooperstown, Sean Newcomb was flirting with history in Atlanta. The lefty came within one strike of no- hitting the Dodgers during this masterpiece.

Aug. 14, 2018: Braves 10, Marlins 6: Acuña Again Ronald Acuña Jr. began the first two-homer game of his career with a third straight leadoff homer. This marked the end of the stretch during which he homered eight times over eight games.

Sept. 9, 2018: Braves 9, D-backs 5: Swanson’s Swanson ended a key 10-inning thriller in Arizona by denying Nick Ahmed’s attempt to score from second base on a bouncer the Braves’ shortstop unexpectedly snared behind second base.

April 20, 2019: Braves 8, Indians 7: Cleveland comeback Down 7-1 through six innings, the Braves drew up two more runs in the seventh before constructing a memorable five-run ninth at the end of a long, cold in Cleveland.

June 14, 2019: Braves 9, Phillies 8: McCann caps comeback The Braves tallied five runs over the final two innings, including three with two outs in the ninth. Brian McCann ended this thriller in celebratory fashion.

June 1, 2018: Braves 4, Nationals 0: Folty’s gem Mike Foltynewicz produced a two- shutout and the Braves halted a ' duel by erupting against in the seventh.

Sept. 5, 2019: Braves 4, Nationals 2: Max effort Given a 2-0 first-inning lead against Strasburg, Max Fried began a key four-game series by limiting the Nationals to one hit over seven innings

June 12, 2019: Braves 8, Pirates 7: Riley’s big night Austin Riley tripled during a three-run first and hit a game-tying, ninth-inning homer that set the stage for Ozzie Albies' walk-off in the 11th. May 29, 2018: Braves 7, Mets 6: Another walk-off One day after had doomed the Mets with a walk-off homer in the first game of a doubleheader, Johan Camargo delivered his own game-ending blast to complete a late three-run rally.

And here are some other games from around the league you might like:

Aug. 17, 2019: Brewers 15, Nationals 14 homered -- No. 40 -- as part of a three-homer, four-run ninth inning for a 12-11 Brewers lead, only to see the Nationals come back to tie it up against Josh Hader. Yelich homered again in the 13th for a 13-12 lead, only to see the Nats come back again. Finally, in the 14th, the Brewers scored twice and this time held off another Nats surge.

June 27, 2019: Dodgers 12, Rockies 8 The Dodgers overcame a shaky start from Walker Buehler (seven runs) with a six-homer onslaught -- two by Max Muncy -- for their 12th consecutive win over .

July 25, 2019: Orioles 10, Angels 8 The Orioles and Angels had been engaged in a marathon, 6-hour, 16-inning, back-and-forth affair when things went from simply weird to historic. That's because of who closed the game -- Stevie Wilkerson, who recorded a 1-2-3 bottom of the 16th throwing nothing but mid-50 mph floaters to record the first save by a position player in MLB history.

July 12, 2019: Rangers 9, Astros 8 The Rangers scored five runs in the last three innings to erase the Astros' 8-4 lead. The Rangers hit five home runs in this game, including three off Astros starter Gerrit Cole.

June 23, 2019: Pirates 11, Padres 10 Former Clint Hurdle called this “one of the best wins that I’ve watched in nine years here,” and it was a wild one. Down three in the ninth against a who hadn’t blown a save all season, the Pirates rallied to force . Down three again in the 11th, they battled back -- and then all of a sudden rookie shortstop Kevin Newman was at the plate, working a walk-off walk to cap the Bucs’ fourth straight win.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Braves’ ‘nuttiest’ night: A by Rick Camp and 4 a.m. fireworks

By Tim Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editor’s note: At a time when sports are shut down, we are taking a look (in no particular order) at some of the bizarre moments from sports history.

John Sterling, still wide awake in the Braves’ broadcast booth at 3:22 a.m., set the scene perfectly and prophetically.

“Ernie, if he hits a home run to tie this game, this game will be certified as absolutely the nuttiest in the history of baseball,” Sterling said to his TBS partner Ernie Johnson Sr. as Braves relief Rick Camp batted in the bottom of the 18th inning in a legendary game 35 years ago.

The Braves trailed the Mets, 11-10. The game had been twice delayed by rain. The calendar had turned from July 4, 1985, to July 5. Camp was with two out and no one on base because Braves manager Eddie Haas had run out of pinch-hitters. Mets waved in his team’s , imploring them to play shallow against Camp, a career .060 hitter at the time.

Long kidded by teammates about his helpless hitting, Camp fouled off the first and took a called strike on the second. Then, on an 0-2 count, he inexplicably homered over the left-field fence at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, tying and prolonging the already wild game. It was the first and last home run of Camp’s nine-year big-league career, all spent with the Braves.

“Holy cow, oh my goodness! I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!” said Sterling, exuding the same enthusiasm that late night that he has shown for the past 31 years as a broadcaster. “Rick Camp! Rick Camp! I don’t believe it!

“Remember what I just said: If he hits a home run, that certifies this game as the wackiest, wildest, most improbable game in history.”

Consider it so certified.

Consider its place secure in any compilation of bizarre moments in Atlanta sports history.

Perhaps no single home run in Braves history – other than ’s 715th on April 8, 1974, and ’s in Game 6 of the 1995 – has been more talked-about or more cherished through the years. As soon as Camp’s homer left the bat, Mets threw up his hands in exasperation. As the ball cleared the fence, Mets Danny Heep put his hands on his head in disbelief. dropped to his knees. Up in the broadcast booth, Johnson said: “We’ve got to look at this (replay) another 50 times.”

"The whole thing was incredible," said , who played center field and went 1-for-8 with two walks that night. "I'll never forget it.

“I’ll never forget that home run. I’ll never forget that game.”

The Braves ultimately lost the game, 16-13, in 19 innings, one of their 96 losses in 1985. The Mets scored five runs against Camp in the top of the 19th. The Braves scored two runs in the bottom of the inning before Camp again came to the plate with two out. This time, he struck out with two runners on base to end the game.

It was 3:55 a.m.

And the long night at the ballpark still wasn’t over.

The Braves had promised post-game fireworks, as they always do on the Fourth of July. So, four hours into the fifth of July, they decided not to disappoint the 8,000 or so folks who remained from the night’s original crowd of 44,947. The fireworks show began at 4:01 a.m., and phone calls immediately poured in to Atlanta police headquarters from stadium neighbors awakened and alarmed by the noise.

The prevailing reaction, a police spokesman said at the time, was that fireworks at that hour were “inappropriate and ill-advised.” Some folks reported that, when awakened by the noise, they thought Atlanta was being bombed.

Chris Mortensen, then an Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports writer, covered the game. (Yes, the same Chris Mortensen who would become nationally known as an NFL reporter on ESPN.) His story, published on the front page of the afternoon Atlanta Journal on July 5, 1985, began: “In what was the longest, the latest, and maybe the greatest game ever played in Atlanta, the beat the Braves 16-13 in a 19-inning marathon that ended at 3:55 this morning.”

Accounts of the game quoted Camp as saying: "I'll always remember the homer, but it was a hard thing for me to do that and then go out and suck up a loss. I'd rather have the luck on the mound. I'm supposed to get them out, not hit 'em out."

Home-plate umpire Terry Tata had said to Camp when the weak-hitting pitcher came to bat in the 18th inning: “Might as well hit it out and we’ll play all night.” After the home run, Tata would bellow: “I was joking!”

Camp’s big-league career ended when the Braves released him at the end of in 1986. The Trion, Ga., native later worked as a lobbyist at the state Capitol. He spent nearly two years in federal prison after a 2005 conviction as one of five defendants in a conspiracy to defraud an Augusta mental health facility. He died at age 60 in 2013 at his northwest Georgia home.

Camp won 56 games and saved 57 as a Brave from 1976 through 1985, but nothing he did on the mound could top what he did at the plate past 3 a.m. against Mets reliever Tom Gorman’s hanging forkball.

“I thought I was dreaming,” teammate said of Camp’s homer that night.

“I've never pitched at 3 a.m. before,” Gorman said after the game. “But then, I guess they've never hit at 3 in the morning, either."

The game didn’t begin until 9:04 p.m., the start delayed one hour and 24 minutes by rain, and it was stopped for another 41 minutes by more rain in the third inning. The game lasted six hours and 10 minutes, not including the rain delays. The teams combined for 46 hits, 28 by the Mets and 18 by the Braves, on a soggy field. Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez hit for the cycle.

The Mets’ , 20-year-old , who won the that season, was removed after the second rain delay. The Mets played the remainder of the game under protest because of a dispute about an attempted double-switch when Gooden left.

The Braves took an 8-7 lead when a three-run double by Murphy capped a four-run rally in the eighth inning, but gave up the tying run in the ninth, sending the game spiraling into extra innings. The teams traded two-run homers in the 13th, Howard Johnson for the Mets in the top of the inning and Terry Harper for the Braves in the bottom, and kept playing. Harper’s homer, one of his five hits in the game, came against the same pitcher, Gorman, as Camp’s would five innings later.

In the 17th inning, the game still 10-10, Mets manager and were ejected for arguing balls and strikes. Tata, the home plate umpire, reportedly told Johnson: “Davey, at three o’clock in the morning, anything’s a strike.”

After the Mets scored a run against Camp in the top of the 18th, the remaining fans, mostly sticking around for the fireworks, were rewarded with the most improbable home run in Braves history. And even after the Braves lost the game in the 19th, many of the fans still at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium gave the team a standing ovation for its endurance.

Five words from the great Dale Murphy in the Braves’ clubhouse at about 4:15 a.m. summed it all up: “I can’t explain this game.”

INTERVIEW: Kelly Crull, new Fox Sports sideline reporter for the you haven’t seen yet

By Rodney Ho

She only got to spend two days in spring training before the pandemic shut the season down

If these were normal times, the Atlanta Braves will have just wrapped a three-game series in New York playing the Mets. And Kelly Crull would have been there in her fourth week as the new Atlanta Braves sideline reporter for Fox Sports South.

In a phone interview this week from her parents’ home in , Crull said her colleague had an entire itinerary planned with a Broadway show and dinner for the broadcast team while in New York.

That obviously didn’t happen. “Such a shame,” she said.

Instead, Crull is in wait-and-see mode along with everyone involved in Major League Baseball. When will the season start if it will start at all? How will it work?

“Let’s pray we get some baseball in this year,” she said.

She spent six years as the sideline reporter for the with Comcast Sportsnet Chicago, on the field for the the Cubs’ first World Series win in 2016 since 1908.

She flew down fro the first time to the Atlanta Braves spring training facility March 8 to meet her new colleagues in North Point, .

The day after, the team shut the clubhouse down, and she had to do interviews six feet from people. “At that point, we didn’t know what this was leading to,” she said. “But then they shut us down. I ended up going back to Chicago.”

Crull had found a place to live in Atlanta and was ready to move from Chicago when the pandemic hit. Her Chicago apartment was full of boxes. “It’s now servicing as a storage unit,” she said. She postponed her move and was able to delay her move-in date in Atlanta.

She also decided to go back to the suburbs of Indianapolis to help her parents out while the shelter-in-place rules are in order. When she was a kid in the area, she was super athletic, playing and tennis. At the University of Missouri, she fell in love with TV sports journalism as well.

Following college, she covered Purdue sports at a TV station not far from her hometown in West Lafayette, then moved to City, where she landed a gig as a sideline reporter for the Thunder basketball team. At the time, the team had James Harden, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. She then spent a year covering the before joining Comcast in Chicago.

Besides the warmer weather down South, Crull is excited to cover the Braves at a time when they are ascendant and expected to seriously compete for a World Series title.

Crull didn’t get to meet all the Braves players during her brief visit to Florida, but she did get to talk to some of the young pitchers and was blown away how mature they are. She covered new veteran Braves pitcher while he was with the Cubs and thinks he will a great mentor for the younger Braves pitchers.

She also met burgeoning superstar Ronald Acuna Jr. and the team glue .

Jason Heyward, former Brave and current Cubbie, vouched for her to Freeman and others, which she says never hurts.

“I’ve seen Freddie at All-Star games,” she said. “Such a pro. I am looking forward to getting to know him better.”

She is also excited to work with producer Gretchen Kaney. “She’s a life-long Braves fan and one of the only female game producers in the league. I can’t wait to get started with her.”

Instead of interviewing players, she has spent time cleaning her parents’ bowling alley, cooking and running to stay in shape.

Crull earlier this year replaced Kelsey Wingert, whose unexplained departure from the Fox Sports broadcasting team roused a lot of negative ire from fans on social media.

“I really can empathize for Kelsey,” she said. “I was in Chicago six years. Someone is taking over there as well. People in Chicago are very loyal. They felt about me the same way fans felt about Kelsey. I respect Kelsey. I liked her a lot. She’s going to land on her feet.”

ESPN

Grading National League GMs on their best and worst MLB trades

Jesse Rogers recaps the best and worst trades and have made while leading the Cubs. (1:58)

General managers of baseball teams are constantly making decisions that will impact the future of their clubs. Grading them on only two decisions might be a bit unfair, but it makes for an interesting exercise. As we did with the earlier this week, now it's the turn of every National League GM to be graded solely on their best and worst trades, with an emphasis on moves made with their current team when possible. Finally, where the GM is not the head decision-maker for baseball operations, the GM is listed in parentheses.

Milwaukee Brewers: David Stearns

Grade: A

Best: Traded , , Isan Diaz and to Marlins for Christian Yelich

Worst: Traded to A's for Jacob Nottingham and Bubba Derby

In the two years since David Stearns traded for Yelich, the outfielder has been the best player in the National League, hitting 80 homers with a batting line 70% better than league average and a 15.4 WAR. Those numbers have come with two playoff berths. Milwaukee gave up a ton of talent that hasn't yet panned out in Miami, but this trade was going to be a huge win for the Brewers regardless. When Stearns traded Davis to Oakland, the slugger looked more like a part-time player with some pop than the guy who would average 44 homers over the next three seasons and lead all of baseball in dingers. Even with subpar defense, he remained an above-average player.

Atlanta Braves:

Grade: B

Best: Traded , , and to the A's for

Worst: Traded , Travis d'Arnaud, and Wuilmer Becerra to the Mets for R.A. Dickey, and

While we try to keep this exercise on the current squads, for Anthopoulos' time with the Braves we'd be limited to a -Adrian Gonzalez cash-swap, bringing in and adding a handful of relievers. That's not really fair to Anthopolous when he made one of the better trades of the decade by getting future MVP Donaldson. On the flip side, he traded away Thor for knuckleballer Dickey, and then watched Syndergaard immediately outpitch the former Cy Young winner he acquired.

Chicago Cubs: Theo Epstein (Jed Hoyer)

Grade: B

Best: Traded Andrew Cashner and Kyung-Min Na to the Padres for and Zach Cates

Worst: Traded Eloy Jimenez, Dylan Cease, Matt Rose and Bryant Flete to the White Sox for Jose Quintana

Epstein once traded away Rizzo in Boston, but he got him back by giving up a high-powered arm in Cashner. Over the past 50 years, only , and Mark Grace have more than Rizzo's 30 WAR as a Cubs position player.

The prevailing opinion seems to be that whatever trades and moves Epstein made before winning the World Series must have been worth it because they finally won. In a strict value sense, Gleyber Torres is likely to be worth much more over the next five years than was in three months for the Cubs. Chapman also blew a save in the deciding game of the season, but the Cubs did go on to win and Chapman played an important role in getting them there.

Value-wise, Quintana for Jimenez, Cease et al. seemed like a pretty fair trade and Quintana did play an important role in getting the Cubs to the playoffs in 2017, but Quintana has been inconsistent the past two seasons while Jimenez continued his trajectory toward major league stardom and Cease still has a shot.

Tier 2: Taking big swings, risking big misses

Los Angeles Dodgers:

Grade: B

Best: Traded Matt Kemp and for , Kyle Weiland and

Worst: Traded Yordan Alvarez to Astros for Getting the Padres to take on the vast majority of the contract of a declining Kemp would have put this trade in the solid category. Getting the player who would be neck-and-neck with over the next four years for the title of best catcher in baseball makes the trade a great one. Friedman has given up a few talented players since coming to L.A. from Tampa Bay, including top prospect Oneil Cruz, but giving away Alvarez and his 27 homers in his half-season debut last year looks to be the worst swap of talent in Friedman's tenure.

San Diego Padres: A.J. Preller

Grade: C

Skippers share how they're connecting with their players, missing baseball and enjoying extra family time.Story

Best: Traded to the White Sox for Fernando Tatis Jr. and Erik Johnson

Worst: Traded Yasmani Grandal, Kyle Weiland and Zach Eflin to the Dodgers for Matt Kemp and Tim Federowicz

One of Preller's lesser-known deals at the time has turned into his best. Tatis Jr. hit 50% better than league average in a bit more than a half season last year; he's still just 21 years old with the potential to be a star for years. On the other hand, one of Preller's first big moves might have been his worst. Kemp was coming off a solid offensive 2014 season, but he was a defensive liability, had just turned 30 and likely exited his prime, plus the Padres were taking on $75 million of the more than $100 million left on his deal. He was bad almost immediately while Grandal's 19.7 WAR over the next four years ranked 15th among all position players, right behind Christian Yelich and Jose Ramirez and ahead of Freddie Freeman, and .

Arizona Diamondbacks: Mike Hazen

Grade: B

Best: Traded , and Zac Curtis to the Mariners for and

Worst: Traded , , and Sam McWilliams to Tampa Bay for Steven Souza and

Hazen's best trade could have gone a number of different directions. Segura was a good player when he was sent to Seattle and Haniger broke out in a big way in 2018 while Walker has been hurt since a solid 2017 season. Hazen also ended up with the best player in the deal in Marte, whose .329/.389/.592 batting line was 50% better than league average. Add in baserunning and defense and Marte's 7.1 WAR ranked sixth among all position players. On the other side, though the players he gave up never made an impact, Souza made just 272 plate appearances in two seasons and was below replacement-level after a solid 2017 campaign with the Rays.

Philadelphia Phillies:

Grade: B

Best: Traded Sixto Sanchez, and Will Stewart to Marlins for J.T. Realmuto

Worst: Traded Franklyn Kilome to Mets for Asdrubal Cabrera

While much of the Realmuto trade will hinge on the future development of Sanchez, and the Phillies could miss out a prime Realmuto season if 2020 doesn't get going, the Phillies traded for one of the top 20 players in the game while Sanchez and Alfaro haven't improved their stock since. Though he doesn't have much in the way of bad trades, but when he acquired Cabrera in the middle of the 2018 season to help the Phillies make the playoffs, Klentak was probably hoping for better than the weak .286 on-base percentage as the team faded down the stretch.

St. Louis Cardinals: John Mozeliak (Mike Girsch)

Grade: B

Best: Traded to the Padres for David Freese

Worst: Traded Scott Rolen to the Blue Jays for

In 2007, Edmonds struggled and, heading into his age-38 season, Mozeliak found a taker in San Diego. At the time, Freese was almost too old to be thought a prospect and was blocked by Kevin Kouzmanoff at third base. A St. Louis native, Freese earned playing time in 2010 and was an above- average player throughout his time with the Cardinals, including an All-Star-caliber 2012 season, but he is mostly known for his incredible 2011 postseason where he hit .397/.465/.794 and had one of the most memorable postseason games in baseball history. Less successfully, and Rolen butted heads in the 2007 season and Mozeliak opted to move Rolen rather than force the player and manager to work things out. Glaus was good in 2008, but he was hurt all of 2009 while Rolen averaged four over the next three years.

Washington Nationals:

Grade: B Best: Traded Steven Souza and Travis Ott to the Rays for and (later from Padres)

Worst: Traded Nick Pivetta to the Phillies for Jonathan Papelbon

Rizzo's best moves have come in free agency and on the amateur level, but he does have one big trade that was an unquestionable success. As Tampa Bay was working to move to San Diego, Rizzo got involved and managed to land their shortstop of the future in Trea Turner as well as Joe Ross, who has contributed out of the rotation and . Turner has put up more than eight wins above replacement over the past two seasons and played a huge role in Washington winning the World Series.

Rizzo doesn't have a lot of terrible trades, but bringing in Papelbon to be the closer instead of Drew Storen (who had pitched well in that role) didn't work out. Papelbon also choked in the in an ugly incident caught on camera. Meanwhile, Pivetta looks to be at least a good reliever with a chance to be a solid starter for a division rival.

Pittsburgh Pirates:

Grade: C

Best: Traded to the Orioles for Eduardo Rodriguez

Worst: Traded and Corey Littrell to Cardinals for and

We don't have a Pirates' track record here so we will go back to Boston for Cherington. Miller was a pending free agent, and in giving up two months of Miller's services Cherington netted a solid starter with a minibreakout in Rodriguez. The Red Sox still have two more seasons of team control for Rodriguez as the trade continues to provide dividends.

Lackey had an unusual clause in his contract that would have him pitch for the league minimum if he lost a season to injury in his first five years. Rather than dealing with an unpleasant Lackey, Cherington traded the righty at the deadline to St. Louis. Kelly eventually turned into a decent reliever, but Craig never got over his injuries and the Red Sox paid nearly $30 million for little to no production.

Tier 4: Show us more

Cincinnati Reds: Dick Williams

Grade: C

Best: Traded to the Marlins for , Austin Brice and Zeek White

Worst: Traded , Jeter Downs and Josiah Gray to the Dodgers for Matt Kemp, , and

Getting the ace of a staff for a journeyman is always going to make the GM look good, and that's exactly what Williams did in getting Castillo. After a solid 2018 season, Castillo struck out 29% of batters in 190⅔ innings with a 55% ground-ball rate playing very well in Cincinnati's homer-happy ballpark. Cincinnati attempted to get interesting in 2019 and swapped Bailey's bad contract and a couple prospects for Puig and Wood in the hopes the two Dodgers veterans would help them compete. It didn't work as Wood was injured and Puig was only OK. To make matters worse, Gray and Downs have improved and both are among the top 100 prospects in the game.

Colorado Rockies: Jeff Bridich

Grade: C

Best: Traded and Kevin Padlo to the Rays for German Marquez and Jake McGee

Worst: Traded and LaTroy Hawkins to the Blue Jays for Jose Reyes, , and Jesus Tinoco

What's ahead

What the deal between MLB and the players' union means for the 2020 season and beyond Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel

At the time of Bridich's best trade, it looked like Dickerson for McGee. On those merits, the Rays might have won the deal with Dickerson having a couple solid seasons with Tampa Bay and McGee mixing in a good season with mostly bad ones. But Marquez's development into a top-of-the- rotation starter makes this a big win for Colorado; Marquez has been one of the top 20 pitchers in the game the past two seasons with only Shane Bieber and Walker Buehler accumulating more than Marquez's 7.5 WAR among pitchers under 25 years of age. As for Tulowitzki, the Rockies held onto their star shortstop way too long and when they did finally move him, they had to take a salary dump in Reyes, with Hoffman still fighting for an end-of-rotation role.

Miami Marlins: Mike Hill

Grade: C Best: Traded to the Cardinals for Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen, and

Worst: Traded Christian Yelich to the Brewers for Lewis Brinson, Monte Harrison, Isan Diaz and Jordan Yamamoto

The Marlins have traded for a lot of talent over the past few years, but their best return has come from the Cardinals in the Ozuna trade. While Sierra hasn't advanced, both Gallen and Alcantara already look like at least average starting pitchers. The team has moved Gallen for an intriguing prospect in Jazz Chisolm, who could be the future shortstop.

The biggest influx of talent at the time of a trade came from the Brewers for Yelich. Unfortunately, Brinson has yet to click and Harrison and Diaz have gone through their own struggles. The Marlins needed a home run with the Yelich trade, and that just hasn't happened.

San Francisco Giants: Farhan Zaidi

Grade: C

Best: Traded Tyler Herb to the Orioles for Mike Yastrzemski

Worst: Traded to Braves for Tristan Beck and

We don't have a lot to go on with Zaidi in his time with the Giants. Yastrzemski was 28 years old and maybe a Quad-A player who seemed to have reached his ceiling in the Orioles' system. But the talent-starved Giants got him for next to nothing, gave him playing time last year and got an above-average player for their trouble.

Zaidi seems to have sold low on Melancon to move his salary off the books. He was great for the Braves down the stretch last year and should have a prominent role in the bullpen this season.

New York Mets: Brodie Van Wagenen

Grade: D

Best: Traded Luis Santana, Ross Adolph and Scott Manea to the Astros for J.D. Davis and Cody Bohanek

Worst: Traded , , , and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners for Edwin Diaz and Robinson Cano

Getting J.D. Davis seems like a nice find for Van Wagenen with a solid 2019 season after failing to find meaningful playing time in Houston. That probably doesn't make up for giving up one of the best prospects in baseball (Kelenic) for a reliever and the declining years of Cano as well as having to pay $100 million of the $120 million left on his contract. Seeing both Diaz and Cano immediately perform poorly is a little more salt on the wound, but this trade was the Mets' mistake from the start.

Sources: Majority of MLB teams to pay baseball ops staff through May

By Jeff Passan

On the day Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred told a wide swath of the sport's staffers that "I fully anticipate baseball will return this season," more than half the teams in the league pledged to pay baseball operations staffs through at least the end of May, sources familiar with teams' dealings told ESPN.

Some of the game's biggest-market and highest-revenue teams, including the New York Yankees, , New York Mets and reigning World Series champion , have not yet given employees assurances of payment through May, according to sources.

Amid a financial crunch that has left some front offices fearing layoffs and furloughs, Manfred told managers, coaches and other baseball operations workers that he planned to suspend their Uniform Employee Contracts on May 1, according to a copy of the email he sent that was obtained by ESPN.

The move to suspend the contracts, first reported by The Athletic, was long anticipated, and it allows teams to stop paying employees covered by them. In the email, Manfred pointed to the lack of revenue from tickets, concessions, broadcasting, licensing and sponsorships and said: "In the absence of games, these revenue streams will be lost or substantially reduced, and Clubs will not have sufficient funds to meet their financial obligations."

Nevertheless, 18 teams have told baseball operations employees that they will be paid through May. Some or all of those teams could decide to pay employees beyond May.

Additionally, the San Diego Padres told baseball operations employees that they will be paid through the end of the scheduled season, though a number will take pay cuts that one employee deemed "very reasonable." The teams that informed baseball operations employees that they will receive paychecks through May include the , Atlanta Braves, , Chicago Cubs, , , , , , , , , , , , , St. Louis Cardinals and , according to sources.

Some teams have undertaken cost-cutting measures to ensure the viability of May employment. Marlins CEO has forgone his $5 million salary indefinitely, according to sources, and high-ranking officials took temporary pay cuts in hopes of ensuring others wouldn't lose jobs.

Teams have considered furloughing lower-paid employees, who could seek unemployment benefits that might match or even exceed what they make with the team, sources said. The surge of people seeking unemployment benefits could cause problems for those needing them, potentially prompting teams to offer bridge payments to those furloughed.

The murkiness of baseball's economic future is driving decisions around the sport, from the employment of baseball operations staffers -- many of whom have nothing to do without games being played -- to the return of the game itself. As MLB considers which plan to execute as it looks to fulfill Manfred's sanguine prediction of a return -- in his email, he added: "[I]t is very difficult to predict with any accuracy the timeline for resumption of our season" -- the league could be at odds with the MLB Players Association over player pay, according to sources.

Although an agreement between the sides on return to play exists and includes a section on players receiving prorated sums of their salaries, multiple owners have suggested that it could cost them more to play games than it would not to play them and said they believe the agreement between the sides could allow them to pursue pay cuts from players. Leadership among the players believes the deal explicitly outlines payment parameters for players and has said any discussion is a nonstarter.

Whether these are starting positions in a bargaining situation or intractable postures that could lead to contention as MLB tries to return will be revealed in the coming weeks. So, too, will the positions of some of the highest-profile franchises in sports as they figure out how to handle the futures of their employees.