MLB

7:08 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball canceled the second week of the regular season Wednesday after days of discussion with the MLB Players Association failed to generate a new collective-bargaining agreement. The international draft, long

5:18 PM ET Negotiations between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA centered around the potential for an international draft, sources close to ownership told ESPN on Wednesday. The union is not in favor of it, according to those sources, while the league would like to institute it. The league believes the issue is tied to

1:57 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, perhaps the most prominent voice in Dominican baseball, says he is open to the idea of an international draft but is wary of its implementation

3:37 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association plan to pick up talks on a new collective bargaining agreement Wednesday morning after deep-into-the-night discussions produced enough progress toward a potential deal for

7:54 PM ET MESA, Ariz. — The pop of leather and the crack of wood reverberated through Bell Bank Park, a sprawling sports and entertainment facility outfitted with turf baseball fields and an expansive weight room. Professional baseball players, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of them, threw bullpen sessions and took batting practice there

3:10 PM ET Associated Press CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple will enter the live sports coverage arena with “Friday Night Baseball.” Apple and Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that Apple TV+ will carry a weekly doubleheader on Friday nights in eight countries when the regular season begins. Games will initially be available without the need for

Mar 8, 2022 Associated Press NEW YORK — Major League Baseball launched a $1 million fund Tuesday to support spring training workers impacted by canceled games, matching the amount of the fund the players’ association announced last week. MLB said the money will be administered by teams to part-time and seasonal workers based on financial

7:00 AM ET The first questions I get asked about a draft class every year are the same: Who is the best player this year? Is he one of those Bryce Harper-level guys who could be the best prospect in a decade? The 2010 No. 1 overall pick is still a touchpoint for even casual

11:44 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball plans to cancel another week of regular-season games if it can’t agree to a new collective-bargaining agreement with the MLB Players Association by Tuesday night, adding another layer of

11:10 PM ET Associated Press INCHEON, South Korea — Kim Kwang-hyun has left the St. Louis Cardinals and will return to South Korea on a record four-year contract. The left-handed pitcher will rejoin his old club, which is now known as the SSG Landers, in the Korean Baseball Organization. The club issued a statement Tuesday

7:00 AM ET Ninety-one games. So far. That’s the number of games that have been lopped off the schedule after MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s news conference last week. We can only hope that the number doesn’t go up. For now, if an agreement is reached post haste, the plan is for each team to pick

3:00 PM ET The MLB Players Association gave a written collective bargaining agreement proposal to Major League Baseball on Sunday. It included a $5 million reduction to the union’s last offer in a pre-arbitration bonus pool, but it did not include any changes to its competitive balance tax proposal, according to sources familiar with the

11:52 AM ET Major League Baseball wants a 14-second pitch clock with the bases empty and a 19-second timer with runners on, according to sources familiar with the situation. The two numbers were settled on after experiments in the minor leagues, including in Low-A in 2021, where game times were cut by about 20 minutes.

3:56 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Max Scherzer favors a radical reworking of the playoffs, one that would have the higher seed in the first round of a 14-team postseason start off a best-of-five series with a 1-0 lead. Major League Baseball and locked-out players, who resume talks Sunday, both would expand the

8:43 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Officials from the Major League Baseball Players Association are preparing a written response to MLB’s last offer on a new collective bargaining agreement that preceded the league canceling the first week of

7:47 PM ET Kiley McDaniel Close ESPN MLB Insider ESPN MLB Insider Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency. Has worked for four MLB teams. Jeff Passan Close ESPN ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Fallout

11:15 AM ET ESPN News Services Locked-out Major League Baseball players are starting a $1 million fund to support workers impacted by canceled games. In addition, Major League Baseball will also be setting up a fund for impacted workers, a source told ESPN. The players’ association on Friday said the fund will be administered by

8:30 AM ET Hours before the negotiation teams of the players and owners met Thursday, one industry source lamented the state of the game. Each side is entrenched and angry, the source noted. “I don’t even know where we go from here,” he said. “I really don’t. Everybody is painted into a corner.” With the