MLB

3:11 PM ET Associated Press Milwaukee Brewers reliever Josh Hader expects to remain more of a traditional ninth-inning closer this season after occasionally working multiple innings earlier in his career. “The closer rule is a good fit, especially with the bullpen arms we have,” Hader, a two-time All-Star, said Tuesday from the Brewers’ spring-training site

7:00 AM ET With Opening Day right around the corner, we wanted to figure out who will be the best players of the 2021 MLB season. To create our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in the sport, we presented a panel of ESPN baseball experts with multiple pairings of the biggest

11:01 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays say right-hander Kirby Yates will miss several weeks because of a strained muscle in his forearm. Yates was expected to be Toronto’s closer after signing a $5.5 million, one-year deal with the team in the offseason. Yates last pitched Saturday against Philadelphia, striking out

8:20 PM ET Kelly CohenESPN When superstar right fielder Mookie Betts helped the Boston Red Sox win a World Series championship in 2018, fans of the team were hopeful he and his talents would be there for years to come. But, in February 2020, Boston traded Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers — the team

5:29 PM ET Associated Press MESA, Ariz. — Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Zac Gallen is being evaluated for soreness in his right forearm and might not be ready for the start of the regular season on April 1. The 25-year-old Gallen said he first felt the injury when he was jammed during batting practice about

1:47 PM ET Associated Press SURPRISE, Ariz. — The Texas Rangers are expecting to be without one-time closer Jose Leclerc for an extended time because of right elbow soreness, the latest setback for a bullpen already missing another key late-inning arm for at least two months. General manager Chris Young said Monday that Leclerc reported

1:07 PM ET Associated Press The Kansas City Royals reassigned four of their top prospects to their minor league camp Monday, including touted shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., whose brilliant spring training nearly caused the club to put him on the Opening Day roster. The Royals also sent outfielder Kyle Isbel and pitchers Jackson Kowar and

7:00 AM ET Who will be the best players of the 2021 MLB season? As the countdown to Opening Day (Thursday, April 1) continues, we gathered ESPN’s baseball experts to determine our annual MLB Rank list of the top 100 players in the sport. To reach our final order, we presented our panel with pairings

7:00 AM ET To coincide with ESPN’s ranking of the top 100 players in baseball for 2021, the exercise here is to predict who will be the next to make our MLB Rank list from each of the 30 clubs among those who did not this year. For the most part, that means either they

5:30 PM ET Associated Press Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto returned to camp Sunday after sitting out with COVID-19, but when he might be able to play again is still uncertain. The 37-year-old Votto left camp after a positive test on March 10 and has been isolated since. After being cleared by Major League

3:11 PM ET ESPN News Services Salvador Pérez still remembers growing up in the coastal Venezuelan city of Valencia, where as a youngster he would take batting practice against his mother with a broomstick and later play organized ball with the likes of José Altuve. He never thought a day like Sunday could be possible.

3:27 PM ET Associated Press SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona Diamondbacks relief pitcher Tyler Clippard has a sprained right shoulder and won’t throw for at least the next six weeks. Clippard said the injury was diagnosed as a “capsule sprain” and his shoulder will be reevaluated at the end of six weeks of rest. The right-hander

3:20 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — The Pirates are taking a flier on knuckleball pitcher Steven Wright. The Pirates signed Wright on Sunday and invited him to big league camp. The right-hander last pitched in the majors in 2019, when he was limited to six appearances with Boston after serving an 80-game suspension following

2:14 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — Óscar Mercado won’t start the season in Cleveland‘s outfield — or even with the Indians. Struggling in exhibition play, Mercado was optioned to the team’s depth camp on Sunday, continuing his slide after a promising rookie season. Mercado entered spring training as the favorite to win the starting

7:28 AM ET Because Nolan Ryan pitched so well for so long, he was, for many years, a working model for what the ultimate pitcher’s body might look like. He had those powerful legs anchoring a compact, fluid delivery. He is thought to have touched 100 mph in an era when hard throwers were the

6:39 PM ET Associated Press SURPRISE, Ariz. — Top prospect Josh Jung of the Texas Rangers is set for surgery on a stress fracture in his left foot, and the third baseman is likely to miss about two months. Jung was the eighth overall pick in the 2019 draft out of Texas Tech and was

3:23 PM ET ESPN News Services VAIL, Colo. — A minor league baseball player is facing drug charges after police in Colorado found 21 pounds of methamphetamine and 1.2 pounds of oxycodone pills in his Chicago Cubs duffel bag. The Vail Daily reports Jesus Camargo-Corrales, 25, of Tempe, Arizona, appeared in Eagle County Court on

3:54 PM ET NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt right-hander Jack Leiter, ESPN’s No. 2 MLB draft prospect, tossed a no-hitter on Saturday in the Commodores’ 5-0 win over South Carolina. Leiter walked a batter in the first inning before recording 27 consecutive outs. He finished with a career-high 16 strikeouts as the No. 2 Commodores improved