5:09 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — The New York Mets are sending minor league right-hander Ryder Ryan to the Texas Rangers as the player to be named in a trade for infielder Todd Frazier on Aug. 31. Ryan is a 25-year-old reliever who last pitched at Double-A Binghamton in 2019 because the coronavirus
MLB
4:48 PM ET Associated Press TORONTO — Each time Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo has made a pitch to free agents this offseason, there’s one topic he has known will come up. “The No. 1 question is if we’re going to play in Toronto,” Montoyo said Friday. “That’s rightly so. Our answer is, ‘Yeah, we’re
10:00 AM ET ESPN News Services The Tampa Bay Rays have signed right-hander Michael Wacha to a one-year, $3 million contract, the team announced Friday. Wacha spent the 2020 season with the New York Mets, going 1-4 with a 6.62 ERA in eight appearances (seven starts). The 29-year-old Wacha shined as a rookie for the
9:00 AM ET Major League Baseball’s decision to alter the status of the Negro Leagues to major league and incorporate Negro Leagues statistics into a historical record in which they did not participate is consistent with two opposing but defining forces of our time. One is the racial reckoning that has defined America post-George Floyd’s
7:00 AM ET Pedro GomezMLB Close ESPN’s Pedro Gomez covered the Oakland A’s home and away nearly every day from 1992-97 for the San Jose Mercury News and Sacramento Bee and then became the national baseball writer and later a general columnist at the Arizona Republic before becoming an ESPN bureau reporter in 2003. There
2:52 AM ET Associated Press ESPN will open its Sunday Night Baseball schedule on April 4 when the Los Angeles Angels host the Chicago White Sox. The game will feature the past two American League MVPs, with the Angels’ Mike Trout facing reigning MVP and White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu at 8:30 p.m. ET.
8:03 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — Brewers manager Craig Counsell is confident former MVP Christian Yelich‘s 2020 hitting struggles won’t carry over to next season. After winning consecutive National League batting titles in 2018 and 2019 during his first two years with the Brewers, Yelich hit just .205 with 12 homers and 22 RBIs
5:47 PM ET Associated Press BOSTON — Alex Cora is expecting to see the J.D. Martinez of old again in 2021. And the Red Sox manager wouldn’t be surprised if Andrew Benintendi and Eduardo Rodríguez bounce back with him. Cora predicted better things from some of the Boston players who had an off year during
4:12 PM ET Add Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly to the growing list of voices who think Major League Baseball needs more action. If that means continuing to change the playing rules, the reigning National League Manager of the Year is all for it. “As far as rules go in general, we have to continue
11:49 AM ET Throughout the summer, each completed game signified hope that pandemic baseball could succeed, and each COVID-19 positive, seven-inning doubleheader and protocol breach reflected institutional recklessness. At a safe distance from the clamor, the referendum on the 2020 Major League Baseball season was not whether it was a success or an abomination —
9:25 AM ET Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander hopes to pitch at some point during the 2021 season despite his recent Tommy John surgery, according to general manager James Click. Click said during an interview Wednesday with MLB Network that Verlander “has every intention of trying to come back next year” but admitted he thinks
7:00 AM ET Free agents on the whole tend to be a little older than the average player. The requirement of six or nearly seven big league seasons after some time in the minors puts most free agents around 30 years old or older. With most teams already slowing down the past few seasons when
5:24 PM ET ESPN News Services The San Francisco Giants added a veteran option for the rotation alongside ace Johnny Cueto by signing right-handed pitcher Anthony DeSclafani to a one-year contract, the team announced Wednesday. The deal is worth $6 million in salary, a source told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The Giants still will look to
8:25 PM ET Associated Press ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Big league managers say Major League Baseball instructed them to prepare for spring training to start on time in mid-February despite uncertainty around the coronavirus. Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash said Wednesday that commissioner Rob Manfred had a meeting with managers Tuesday and expressed optimism
8:32 PM ET Associated Press DENVER — Bud Black hears the Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story trade rumors, and he is entertained. It’s just that time of year, the Colorado Rockies manager contended Wednesday in a Zoom call. “My expectation is that they’ll be with us come Opening Day,” Black said of his star players.
2:21 PM ET The decision by Kevin Cash to take out Blake Snell in a 1-0 game in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series against the Dodgers sparked controversy around baseball regarding the balance of analytics and traditional baseball savvy. More than a month after the final out, the Rays manager
1:56 PM ET Veteran catcher Mike Zunino is returning to the Tampa Bay Rays on a one-year deal worth $3 million guaranteed, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The deal includes a club option for 2022 worth up to $7 million based on playing time, the sources said. Zunino will make $2 million in salary for
12:49 PM ET ESPN News Services Major League Baseball has reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league and will count the statistics and records of its 3,400 players as part of MLB history. MLB said Wednesday it was “correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history” by elevating the Negro Leagues on the centennial