Mariners Moose Tracks, 7/30/20: Austin Nola, Nick Markakis, and Sabrina Ionescu

Good morning everyone! Let’s get you the latest from around baseball as we kick off this Thursday.

In Mariners news...

• Now we have some actual good news on Austin Nola.

Around the league...

• Major League Baseball is taking its lessons from the Marlins outbreak by outlining a new set of health and safety protocols for the league. Better late than never, I suppose.
• Many around baseball were shocked as the league struck Joe Kelly with an eight-game suspension for attempting to peg Alex Bregman in Tuesday’s tilt. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was also handed a one-game suspension.
• Not everyone thought the suspension was too harsh of a punishment. Michael Baumann at The Ringer took the unpopular position that Kelly had it coming.
• More good news for the Phillies here. However, their game on Friday was also postponed. Philly will now face Toronto in a double-header on Saturday.

• In some news that may be of interest to the Mariners, who are starved for catchers: The Red Sox have DFA’d Jonathan Lucroy.
• Without Summer College ball, some players are forced to get creative when it comes to improving their game this year, writes Teddy Cahill at Baseball America.
• Craig Edwards at Fangraphs notes that pitchers have gotten caught up to speed faster than hitters have early in the season.
• That’s certainly an oddly-timed decision by Nick given what’s going on in Miami.

• José Reyes, who hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2018, officially announced his retirement.

Anders’ picks...

• The former Oregon basketball stud hasn’t needed much of an adjustment period.