MLB

7:40 PM ET Associated Press GLENDALE, Ariz. — The rebuild may not be quite over yet but the Chicago White Sox hope the fun is already beginning. Three years of rebuilding and overhauling the roster have brought in young players who are developing into stars. The offseason was highlighted by the additions of All-Star catcher

Feb 11, 2020 Kiley McDaniel Close ESPN MLB Insider Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency. Has worked for three MLB teams. I’ll be doing a good bit of MLB analysis here at ESPN, so it makes sense as I’m walking in the door to do a

11:30 AM ET After Joel Sherman’s report on the revamping of the baseball playoffs was published Monday in the New York Post, the Reds’ Trevor Bauer was among many who reacted strongly on Twitter. No idea who made this new playoff format proposal, but Rob is responsible for releasing it, so I’ll direct this to

7:30 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” IN LATE MARCH 2019, the Orange Coast College baseball team lost two games in a row. For the powerhouse junior college program, this constituted a mini-crisis. As OCC’s coach, John Altobelli, searched

10:48 AM ET Joe Klingele The MLB regular season is just around the corner, and there are plenty of opportunities to make futures bets before the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day. With spring training in full swing, the Dodgers and Yankees are the heavy favorites to reach the Fall Classic. Here are the

2:00 PM ET Everybody loves a big trade involving big names, big stars — and prospects, the human lottery tickets that might pay off big in the end. But nobody loves a big trade more than the big league evaluators who aren’t involved. They love to break down each side, compare their own reports of

1:20 PM ET People tend to lose their heads when an elite player changes teams. In a good way. For fans of the team that acquires the star, it’s a time to dream. A time to anticipate the thrills that you think lie ahead. For fans of the game in general, it’s always interesting to

7:00 AM ET LONG BEACH, Calif. — Joe Maddon settled into a small Italian deli bordering the Pacific coast Friday, only a block from the high-rise condominium that housed him for the past month, and instantly felt regret. He wished he had spotted this place sooner. The next day, on the morning of his 66th

6:01 PM ET Mookie Betts is finally going to Los Angeles. Sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan that a deal has been agreed upon to send the 2018 MVP to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package that includes outfielder Alex Verdugo, shortstop Jeter Downs and catcher Connor Wong going to the Boston Red Sox. A

6:01 PM ET Mookie Betts and David Price are finally going to Los Angeles. Sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan that a deal has been agreed upon to send the 2018 MVP and star pitcher to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package that includes outfielder Alex Verdugo, shortstop Jeter Downs and catcher Connor Wong going

10:24 PM ET The Tampa Bay Rays traded reliever Emilio Pagan to the San Diego Padres for center fielder Manuel Margot and catcher/outfielder prospect Logan Driscoll, the teams announced Saturday. The Rays boasted one of the deepest bullpens in baseball, and now the same can be said of the Padres, who add Pagan to a

9:31 PM ET Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Charlie Morton says he regrets not doing more to stop his teammates from illegally stealing signs when he played for the Astros in 2017. In an interview with the Tampa Bay Times at Rays Fan Fest on Saturday, Morton said he was “aware of the banging” Astros players

7:00 AM ET When spring training kicked off a year ago, Bryce Harper and Manny Machado remained unsigned. The drama this year will center around the Houston Astros: their cheating scandal, reactions from other players about the Astros’ cheating scandal, the possibility of other teams throwing at Astros hitters in spring training, the counter-reaction from

5:38 PM ET Kiley McDaniel Close ESPN MLB Insider Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency. Has worked for three MLB teams. Cuban right-hander Norge Carlos Vera and the Chicago White Sox are in agreement on a deal for a $1.5 million signing bonus that the sides

9:50 PM ET Deposed Houston Astros manager AJ Hinch is currently out of baseball, but he is finally back on the record. Since a completely unenlightening performance at the winter meetings, Hinch made his first public comments during a televised interview with veteran scribe Tom Verducci that aired Friday evening on MLB Network. In the

7:12 PM ET The Houston Astros‘ front office laid the groundwork for the team’s electronic sign-stealing ploys via a program dubbed “Codebreaker” that was introduced by an intern in the organization in September 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday. According to the WSJ, the Excel-based application designed to decode opposing catchers’ signs was used

6:30 PM ET On Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced it had concluded its investigation into the Boston Red Sox for stealing signs during their 2018 World Series title run. MLB’s findings were the basis for suspending Boston’s video replay system operator J.T. Watkins without pay for one year and stripping the team of its second-round

7:05 AM ET You might have noticed that I am asked to rank things from time to time. And who doesn’t love a good ranking? Within that genre, the lowest-hanging fruit would seem to be simply rating the best players in MLB. The results are a matter of preference. How do you define best? What