{"id":33716,"date":"2020-06-29T17:22:56","date_gmt":"2020-06-29T21:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/?p=33716"},"modified":"2020-06-29T17:22:56","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T21:22:56","slug":"arizona-diamondbacks-mike-leake-will-not-play-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2020\/06\/29\/arizona-diamondbacks-mike-leake-will-not-play-this-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Diamondbacks Mike Leake Will Not Play This Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/l\/leakemi01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mike Leake<\/a><\/strong> has announced he will sit out this season. The veteran is making the decision based on health concerns surrounding how COVID-19 could affect him and his extended family. Jeff Passan was among the first to report the news early Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Mike Leake is the first known major league player to opt out of the 2020 season, sources tell ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Leake was positioned to be fighting for a spot at the back end of the Diamondbacks&#39; rotation. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SteveGilbertMLB?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@SteveGilbertMLB<\/a> first said Leake was opting out.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JeffPassan\/status\/1277663783008309249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">June 29, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Mike Leake to Opt-Out<\/h2>\n<p>The 32-year-old Leake pitched for both the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/arizona-diamondbacks\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/seattle-mariners\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Seattle Mariners<\/a> in 2019. He pitched a combined 197 innings with a 4.29 ERA, 127 strikeouts and 27 walks. He also won a gold glove for his effort on the field. Leake has slowly declined since he a regular with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/cincinnati-reds\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cincinnati Reds<\/a> but he has been a consistent option for multiple franchises over his 10-year career.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/oakland-athletics\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Oakland Athletics<\/a> originally drafted Leake in the seventh round of the 2006 Draft but he decided to attend Arizona State. His performance in college helped make him the Reds&#8217; first-round selection in the 2009 Draft. Leake has posted a career 4.05 ERA with 1231 strikeouts in 1829 innings across 296 starts. His 105 career wins are second-most wins of any pitcher drafted in 2009. Only <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/strasst01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Stephen Strasburg<\/a><\/strong> has more.<\/p>\n<h3>What This Means for the Future<\/h3>\n<p>Leake would have been fighting for a spot at the back of the DBack&#8217;s rotation during Arizona&#8217;s summer restart. His absence is not a huge factor for Arizona as it has one of the more interesting possible rotations with <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bumgama01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Madison Bumgarner<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/galleza01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zac Gallen<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/w\/weavelu01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Weaver<\/a><\/strong> leading the charge. He will be a free agent after the 2020 season. He can still be a productive fourth or fifth starter but the environment surrounding baseball will be his primary concern going into 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonbaseball.com\/mlb-teams\/washington-nationals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Washington Nationals<\/a> also have two players opting-out to this point. Right-handed pitcher <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rossjo01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joe Ross<\/a><\/strong> and infielder <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=zimmery01,zimmer007rya,zimmer006rya&amp;search=Ryan+Zimmerman&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ryan Zimmerman<\/a><\/strong> are also <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MarkZuckerman\/status\/1277682166437216256?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">deciding<\/a> to sit this season out. The 35-year-old Zimmerman could retire but it is unlikely he leaves after helping Washington win the 2019 World Series. More opt-outs are likely coming in the next weeks before Opening Day in late July.<\/p>\n<p>Main Image<br \/>\n<a id=\"hNU2RMjETVlj-FbLMDnkYg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1177294551\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hNU2RMjETVlj-FbLMDnkYg',sig:'EOEWSVZDQzIn9tNpB6HxU8fwayR0Yq7rXWSHssrkzhU=',w:'463px',h:'594px',items:'1177294551',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pitcher Mike Leake has announced he will sit out this season. The veteran is making the decision based on health concerns surrounding how COVID-19 could affect him and his extended family. Jeff Passan was among the first to report the news early Monday afternoon. Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Mike Leake is the first known major league [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3127,"featured_media":33723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,1071,35,19],"tags":[326,749,1653,322,38],"class_list":["post-33716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diamondbacks","category-mlb","category-news","category-nationals","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-joe-ross","tag-mike-leake","tag-ryan-zimmerman","tag-washington-nationals"],"modified_by":"Jared Cantatore","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}