8:00 AM ET Editor’s note: This story initially ran on May 30, 2018 Draft history is fascinating, and maybe the first thing you learn when looking through past drafts is not just how few players make the majors but also how few end up contributing much value beyond replacement level even if they do make
MLB
6:45 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 2008, Chipper Jones hit his 400th home run. Minutes before that game, Jones was playing computer solitaire because
8:18 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Players accused MLB teams of “depriving America of baseball games” as part of a money fight set off by the coronavirus pandemic and raised the possibility baseball commissioner Rob Manfred might push ahead with a shortened season over the union’s objection. Bruce Meyer, the Major League Baseball
8:15 PM ET The Oakland Athletics have reversed course on their controversial decision to cease payments for their minor league players. A’s owner John Fisher said Friday that he “made a mistake” and will pay the organization’s minor leaguers their $400-a-week stipend for the remainder of what would’ve been a typical minor league season. Those
7:00 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” There are simple solutions for baseball’s return. They’re right there, waiting for owners and players to embrace before the parties unleash more damage on the sport. Already they have taken what could
7:00 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email The 2020 MLB draft is less than a week away so we asked our panel of experts some of the burning questions surrounding the event. MLB prospect guru Kiley McDaniel, reporter David Schoenfield and editor Dan Mullen break down some of the best first-round
7:04 AM ET On June 10, the evening of the 56th MLB first-year player draft, some happy amateur baseball star — probably Arizona State first baseman Spencer Torkelson — will become the 55th player to be picked first overall. Yes, there have been more drafts than players picked first. We’ll get to that. Assuming he
7:00 AM ET It’s just about a week from MLB draft day, and that means the picture on how this year’s prospects stack up is really starting to come into focus. Below you’ll find my ranking of the top 150 players for the shortened five-round MLB draft starting June 10. This is not a prediction
2:54 PM ET ESPN News Services Major League Baseball has rejected the players’ offer for a 114-game regular season with no additional salary cuts and told the union it did not plan to make a counterproposal, sources confirmed to ESPN. Players made their proposal Sunday, up from an 82-game regular season in management’s offer last
8:25 AM ET Exactly a year ago, the Washington Nationals started the day seven games under .500, seven games out of first place, with a disastrous bullpen. But some key players came back from injury, and general manager Mike Rizzo made some pivotal deals for bullpen help, adding, among others, Daniel Hudson, who would go
7:00 AM ET In this most abnormal of springs, the Detroit Tigers may make an abnormal pick with the first selection in the 2020 MLB draft: a first baseman. Arizona State slugger Spencer Torkelson is regarded not just as the top talent in the draft, but as the safest pick in a draft with an
7:33 AM ET You love baseball. Tim Kurkjian loves baseball. So while we await its return, every day we’ll provide you with a story or two tied to this date in baseball history. ON THIS DATE IN 1990, Randy Johnson threw his first no-hitter. At the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1999 featuring, among
6:05 PM ET Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts pushed back on the perception that baseball teams are cash cows, telling ESPN on Tuesday that yearly revenues are mostly put right back into the team. “Here’s something I hope baseball fans understand,” Ricketts told ESPN. “Most baseball owners don’t take money out of their team. They
7:00 AM ET Is all of the recent acrimony between MLB players and owners real or the byproduct of the early stages of the 2020 season’s negotiations playing out in the public spotlight? When recently asked that question, one baseball official’s reply was, “Yes.” Yes, as in both things are true. It’s with that backdrop
May 30, 2020 The pitcher many scouts think has the highest upside in the 2020 MLB draft has been seen by most big league organizations for just three innings. And those innings were nearly a year ago, when he was part of the 2021 draft class, so some scouts weren’t even paying attention to him.
9:37 PM ET The seasons of three of the top four American team sports were thrown into uncertain stasis by the coronavirus pandemic, a stunning turn of events that we’ve been dealing with for 2½ months now. As the weeks have passed and the country has ever-so-tentatively begun to reopen, Major League Baseball, the NHL
11:18 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” The Major League Baseball Players Association delivered a return-to-play proposal to MLB on Sunday that includes a 114-game season, deferred salaries in the event of a canceled postseason and the option for
10:00 AM ET Many of the folks inside baseball but outside of the Zoom labor negotiations assume that, eventually, cooler heads will prevail in the talks between the owners and the players’ union. Because they have to — right? Because the alternative — no attempted restart of baseball in 2020 because of a failure of