Worldwide Sports News

Newsday | Erik Boland: The Yankees finally added a bat on Sunday, trading away pitchers Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable to the Nationals in exchange for infielder Luis García Jr. The 26-year-old used to play second base, but now he is mostly a 1B/DH. Controllable for one extra year after 2026, he is hitting .283/.313/.560 with 23 home runs, 76 RBI, and a 134 wRC+ this year.

NJ Advance Media | Adam Zagoria: The Yankees were one of the teams engaged in talks with the Detroit Tigers to trade for star left-hander Tarik Skubal. The Dodgers, once again, got the prize, completing a deal for the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner. Reports indicated that the Yanks had a chance to bring in the ace without including George Lombard Jr; maybe Detroit preferred Zyhir Hope as the headliner, or perhaps New York wasn’t aggressive enough. Perhaps we will never know.

New York Post | Greg Joyce Speaking of Skubal, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he wasn’t surprised to see him go to the Dodgers. “Not shocked,” the skipper said at Wrigley Field. “You knew Skubal, it seemed like he was available the last few days. So not shocked, knowing the system the Dodgers had.” The Tigers ended up choosing the Dodgers’ package of Hope and pitchers River Ryan, and Brady Smith.

MLB Trade Rumors | Connor Byrne The San Diego Padres, according to a report from Bob Nightengale, rejected a trade offer from the Yankees in which the Bombers would have acquired top lefty reliever Adrián Morejón and the Friars would have gotten Will Warren. After another dominant relief appearance on Sunday, Morejón dropped his season ERA to 3.00 in 60 innings, with a 2.37 FIP and 70 strikeouts.

The Athletic | Brendan Kuty: The Yankees are expected to remain active in trade talks until Monday, 6 pm ET. Kuty identifies their six most attractive (and realistic) trade chips, and all of them are currently on the major league roster.

The Mets are trading relieverHuascar Brazobán to the Chicago White Sox, according to reports early Monday morning by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and ESPN's Alden Gonzalez.

New York is receiving right-handed pitchers Gabe Davis and Zach Franklin, per the reports. Davis is Chicago's No. 18 overall prospect, as ranked by MLB Pipeline.

Davis, 22, was a fifth-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. The White Sox promoted him to Double-A Birmingham at the end of May after he started his 2026 season with a 2.63 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in eight starts for High-A Winston-Salem. Through 10 Double-A starts, he has an 8.31 ERA and 1.85 WHIP.

Franklin, 27, has spent the year with Triple-A Charlotte. In 33 games, he has a 1.13 WHIP, two holds and five saves in six opportunities.

Acquired by the Mets as part of a 2024 trade with the Miami Marlins, Brazobán carved out a nice role in New York. The 2026 season has been his best as a pro with the right-hander pitching to a 2.61 ERA with 47 strikeouts in 51.2 innings.

Brazobán also proved to be a versatile reliever for the Mets, starting six games this year in an opener role while also pitching in high-leverage spots late in games as well.

The Yankees have scouted outfielder Heliot Ramos "for more than two weeks," according to Sunday's report by the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser, with the outfielder among the San Francisco Giants' potential trade chips entering Monday's 6 p.m. deadline.

Slusser mentioned Ramos, 26, as a player "who could go via trade" with the Giants at 47-65 exiting this weekend.

The Philadelphia Phillies have also scouted Ramos in the same timespan as New York, according to Slusser.

While primarily playing left field, Ramos is slashing .264/.304/.424 with nine home runs and 34 RBI through 74 games this season.

He logged a career-high 157 games in 2025 and slashed .264/.304/.424 with 21 home runs and 69 RBI.

In 121 games for 2024, Ramos slashed .269/.322/.469 with 22 home runs and 72 RBI.

He made his MLB debut April 10, 2022, and played in 34 games with the Giants through the 2023 season.

San Francisco selected Ramos -- a product of Leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico -- with the No. 19 overall pick in the first round of the 2017 MLB Draft.

The Yankees landed a bat with Sunday's trade for infielder Luis Garcia Jr. but could be in the outfield market, among other areas, since All-Stars Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger remain injured.

LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts never feels good after getting swept, but Sunday might have been an exception. How else can you really feel less than 24 hours after finding out the your team just traded for Tarik Skubal?

"That's a silver lining, I guess," Roberts said after the Los Angeles Dodgers' 8-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

Moments after Saturday's 3-2 loss, ESPN's Jeff Passan dropped his biggest bomb of the trade deadline: the Dodgers were acquiring Skubal from the Detroit Tigers in exchange for outfielder Zyhir Hope and right-handed pitchers River Ryan and Brady Smith. The price was steep — Hope and Ryan are MLB Pipeline's No. 25- and 68-ranked prospects, while Smith was No. 17 on the Dodgers' top 30 prospects list — but not one that president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman couldn't afford.

And after spending almost all of July downplaying his pursuit of the reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner, Friedman said negotiations started picking up on Friday before he eventually pulled the trigger on Saturday night, adding the best pitcher in baseball to a rotation that (when healthy) consists of 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Shohei Ohtani.

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Padres fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.

The San Diego Padres came out of the All-Star break and “got their teeth kicked in,” according to second baseman Jake Cronenworth. The Padres dropped two out of three to the lowly Kansas City Royals and then went to Atlanta where they dropped three out of four to the Braves. For a team needing to play well enough to convince team ownership to invest at the Trade Deadline it was not the return to play anyone wanted to see. San Diego then went to Miami and the Padres pulled off a three-game sweep of the Marlins before returning home to host the Colorado Rockies.

In this week’s Padres Reacts Survey, Gaslamp Ball wanted to know if San Diego had done enough to sway the minds of the Friar Faithful about what they should do at the trade deadline. Well… the answer was a resounding “No!” To be fair, we do not know if those who responded wanted to buy, sell or stand pat but whatever their stance was they are unchanged.

The question was asked prior to the results of the homestand so if asked again on the eve of the MLB Trade Deadline the response might be different. The Padres have won eight of their last nine games and have pulled within a game of the final Wild Card spot in the National League. The offense has been much improved from where it was to start the season, and the pitching has been cobbled together with the Pitching Chaos approach. This may or may not be the team to challenge the Los Angeles Dodgers in for the NL crown, but that may be a question for next week depending on what happens by 3 p.m. PST on Monday.

Brought to you by FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sportsbook partner of SB Nation.

One Met who won’t be gone by Monday’s trade deadline is Jorge Polanco, who continues to look lost at the plate.

He went 0-for-3 with a pair of strikeouts and a walk in a 2-0 loss to the Marlins on Sunday and was booed by the Citi Field crowd after his ninth-inning whiff.

Since his return July 7 from a lengthy stint on the injured list, no player with at least 50 plate appearances has been close to as unproductive as Polanco, who is 4-for-51 with a double, three walks and 18 strikeouts in his past 15 games.

“It’s fair to assume, with as much time as he missed, he’s still working back his timing and at the same time, getting to a base where he’s comfortable and confident with his hitting,’’ interim manager Andy Green said. “The results have not materialized.”

The Mets are left with little more than hoping that getting him away from Citi Field will do the trick.

“I’m excited to get him on the road,’’ Green said. “Honestly, just change the environment and maybe getting some early hitting in. We’ll see if we can jump-start him on the next road trip. It’s definitely been a tough stretch for him.”

Robert Stock will “be in the conversation” for another start in the Mets rotation, Green said after the right-hander limited the Marlins to one run in five innings in his first major league start since 2021.

Stock, 36, came back from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery during the spring and was emotional after his outing.

“It felt great,’’ the right-hander said. “To think about where I was a couple months ago, when I couldn’t lift my arm above my head, to be at Citi Field is as much of a dream come true as could be.”

Green managed Stock in the majors in San Diego earlier in their careers and called Stock’s solid 70-pitch performance “really impressive.”

MJ Melendez was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. The 27-year-old signed a one-year deal in the offseason and initially was expected to compete for an outfield spot.

He’s been supplanted by rookies Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing and had been with Triple-A Syracuse since late June.

In two-plus months on the major league roster, the lefty-swinging Melendez put up a .665 OPS in 144 plate appearances. He hit four homers.

The Mets needed to open two spots on the 40-man Sunday for right-hander Stock and righty Bryce Conley.

Right-hander Kevin Herget was also designated for assignment and Jonathan Pintaro was optioned to Syracuse.

The Mets claimed catcher Shawn Ross off waivers from the Pirates. The 26-year-old appeared in two games with Pittsburgh this season before being designated for assignment last week. He split most of the season between Double-A and Triple-A. Joey Gerver was designated for assignment to open a spot for Ross.

They say you can only make a first impression once, and former Yankees pitcher Camilo Doval may like another chance at his. 

The new Pirates reliever found himself in a tough spot on Sunday in his first appearance with his new team after being traded by the Bronx Bombers, giving up a home run to Reds player Tyler Stephenson in the bottom of the eighth inning of what would be a 10-2 Pittsburgh loss. 

Doval was behind in the count, 3-1, when his sixth pitch of the appearance was taken into the stands in right field by Stephenson, giving the Reds their 10th run of the day. 

Doval was traded by the Yankees when things didn’t go as planned in The Bronx after he was acquired at the 2025 trade deadline. He fell down the pecking order in the Yankees bullpen and this season he posted a 4.54 ERA in 44 appearances in pinstripes. 

The reliever had a drastic difference in his appearances at Yankee Stadium and road appearances. In The Bronx, his ERA was 7.08 and away from it, he had a 1.86 ERA. 

“I see no difference pitching in PNC Park or Yankee Stadium,” Doval said, per the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It’s the same. I have to do the same job. In my opinion, it’s just a mental thing. You just have to prepare yourself to pitch anywhere at any time in the big leagues.” 

However, it didn’t appear in his first appearance in a Pirates uniform that being out of Yankee Stadium made much difference in this instance. 

Pirates manager Don Kelly did seem happy with what he saw out of Doval despite the home run he gave up. It was the only hit he allowed in the inning.

“Good stuff. First time coming out, I know Stephenson got him there, but I thought the stuff looked good, and we’re excited to have him in the back of the ‘pen,” Kelly said, according to MLB.com.

CHICAGO — On the 47th anniversary of Thurman Munson’s tragic death, Austin Wells paid tribute as a lookalike behind the plate. 

The current Yankees catcher honored the former Yankees catcher in Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Cubs by arranging for special retro-looking gear — a burnt orange chest protector and shin guards, with Thurman’s retired No. 15 on the back and what looked like the back of a baseball card with the former Yankees captain’s year-by-year stats. 

“I just think what he meant to the team, his leadership ability and the fire he had behind the plate, leading his staff — obviously, he was an incredible player and team captain, so hard not to root for that guy,” said Wells, who even trimmed his goatee into a horseshoe mustache that looked like Munson’s. 

Sunday’s tribute has been in the making for a while. Wells met Munson’s widow, Diana, two years ago before the idea came up last year around Old-Timers’ Day. 

This year, Wells worked with EvoShield to create the special catching gear. He sent the company a picture of Munson and asked what they might be able to make for him. 

“They pulled it off, and I thought it looked incredible,” Wells said. 

Gerrit Cole, who threw to Wells on Sunday and is a Yankees history buff, appreciated the gesture. 

“I thought it was great. I’m happy he did it,” Cole said. “Any time we get to honor some of our great players, great leaders and great ambassadors in the organization and in the game in general, it’s really special. It’s great to bring some awareness to how great of a human being he was.” 

Giancarlo Stanton is scheduled to face Carlos Rodón and Clarke Schmidt in live batting practice sessions Monday and Tuesday, though it does not necessarily represent progress in his rehab from a second right calf strain. 

“I think he’s been in position to probably do that now for a little bit,” manager Aaron Boone said. “But always good to go outside and see a live arm.” 

The bigger hurdle for Stanton, who has been hitting “a lot” including off the Trajekt pitching machine, is running. The veteran DH has been continuing his running progression, Boone has said, but has not yet advanced to running the bases — often the final step before a return and where Stanton suffered a setback in mid-June. 

David Bednar recorded a four-out save Sunday, the eighth time in 45 appearances he has worked more than an inning. 

“What a luxury it is to have him,” Cole said. 

Cody Bellinger is just over a week into the four- to six-week timeline that the Yankees gave for his return from a Grade 2 hamstring strain. 

“He’s doing well,” Boone said. “I actually talked to him this morning. He already ran today, he’s hitting and throwing. Did his outside running. So I think he’s pretty pleased with the progress.”

Before Luis García Jr. puts on a Yankees uniform, he said his goodbyes to the city he called home for seven seasons in a post on social media. 

García was traded to the Yankees on Sunday afternoon in a deal with the Nationals that included pitchers Yovanny Cruz, Jake Bird and prospects Ben Grable and Jack Cebert going to Washington. The move was an emotional one for García, who signed with the Nationals as an international free agent in 2016 and made his MLB debut in 2020. 

In a lengthy post on Instagram, which included a number of photos from his time with the Nationals, he thanked Washington and said that he wanted to “express my heartfelt gratitude” to the organization for “believing in me.” 

“To everyone throughout the organization—from the front office, coaches, trainers, medical staff, clubhouse staff, and all those who work behind the scenes—thank you for your guidance, support, and commitment throughout my journey. I have grown not only as a player but also as a person because of the incredible people I had the privilege of being around every day.

“To my teammates, thank you for the memories, the battles, and the brotherhood we shared on and off the field. Those moments will stay with me forever.

“To the incredible fans, thank you for welcoming me from day one. Your passion, loyalty, and unwavering support meant more than words can ever express. It has truly been an honor to represent you.”

García described Washington as a “second home” and explained that he was departing the nation’s capital “with nothing but gratitude, respect, and appreciation” for everyone he’s met along the way during his time there. 

The infielder joins the Yankees amid a season in which he has a .283 batting average and 23 home runs, while also recording an .873 OPS and a .560 slugging percentage. 

The Yankees made the trade official Sunday evening, and there was excitement about the addition inside the clubhouse. 

“I know he’s a great hitter,” José Caballero said. “Excited to see him here and what he can contribute for the team.”

Some people like their recaps neat and tidy, so this will be the same. Since the Phillies played a shortened game today, this will be a shortened recap.

The starting pitcher? Zack Wheeler. He only went two innings because for some reason, the Orioles saw a window and tried to play through it. In those 2 1/2 innings, the Phillies were lucky that Bryan de la Cruz homered to give them a lead.

Then they delayed the game since the field was garbage.

After the delay was over, the Orioles’ pitching couldn’t throw strikes, leading to the Phillies scoring two more runs in the fourth. Bryce Harper joined the action with a home run in the fifth,

then a bunch of Phillies got hits in the top of the sixth to tack on some more runs.

J.T. Realmuto, Justin Crawford, Trea Turner – they all had hits! de la Cruz and Kyle Schwarber had sacrifice flies. It gave the Phillies an 8-0 lead and everyone was happy (except probably Wheeler since he didn’t get to pitch).

Then it started raining again, which forced the game to be called early. Good, since the Phillies didn’t need to see Orion Kerkering enter the game later after the runs scored.

Guardians of the Wild Card

Following the series victory in the Steel City over another NL Wild Card in the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Dbacks made the last stop on their 4 city road trip, this time facing off against another Wild Card contender in the Cleveland Guardians. While both the Guards and Pirates are trying to make a push for October, they are doing it in entirely different ways as the Snakes would go from facing a top 3 offense OPS wise in all of baseball in the Pirates, to a team that is dead last in the majors in team OPS in the Guardians. Even though the offense in Cleveland is lackluster, they would make up for their lack of offensive production with stellar pitching as their starting staff ranks 6th in baseball in ERA.

The Cleveland staff lived up to their hype in this series, only allowing 3 ER across a combined 17.1 IP and 19 K’s, keeping the Diamondbacks offense quiet for the most part. Thankfully the snakes were able to do their damage against the guardians bullpen and steal 2 very crucial games right before the trade deadline.

The Return of…Paul Meatballs

Speaking of doing damage against a team’s bullpen, that’s exactly what the Guardians did in Saturday’s Game 2 win that saw a combined 20 runs on 30 hits between the 2 teams. Of the 6 runs the Diamondbacks bullpen surrendered this series, 5 of them were in because of Paul Sewald’s continued struggles over his last 30 games (more so his last 11 outings). In those last 30 outings for Sewald he has pitched 26.2 innings to the tune of a 7.43 ERA with an opposing slash line of .262/.302/.569 and 9 HR allowed. After this outing in which he failed to record even one out and allowing 5 ER, his ERA on the season is now up to 6.45, which would be the worst ERA in his entire career and his highest since having a 6.07 ERA across 56.1 IP in 2018 with the Mets (13.50 in just 6 IP in 2020 so im not counting that small of a sample size).

These struggles of late had Gabe, Brandon and I asking ourselves if this was the last time we would see Paul Sewald pitch for the Diamondbacks in 2026 and if these struggle of late would put any pressure on DBacks GM Mike Hazen to try to add a high leverage arm to the bullpen before the deadline passes. The three of us were in the same boat in saying that we appreciate and acknowledge that Paul did have some early season success and had a stretch where he was as reliable of a closer as one could ask for (outside of Mason Miller obviously), hitters have finally started to readjust to his approach and that’s being shown in not only his career high ERA, but his career high in home runs allowed. It’s one thing to struggle against a top offense like Pittsburgh is one thing, but to fail to even record an out against a team who is dead last in OPS out of all 30 Major League teams shows that Pauls time in the desert just might need to come to an end. 

If this was late April or early May I could see the thought process in keeping Paul and trying to let him work through his struggles and see if he can earn back his closer role, but in a race as tight as the NL Wild Card is this year every single game is critical to the teams playoff chances and if you can’t rely on Paul in low leverage situations against bad offense or high leverage situations against good hitting clubs, then what value does he actually bring to this bullpen going forward?

That’s Bush League Bro!

The only major excitement that the fellas and I would really get to breakdown from this series happened in Sunday’s game 3 finale, where a Tim Tawa’s decision to attempt a bunt not only led to Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey and second baseman Brain Rocchio having some words with Tim, the benches actually cleared and Guardians 3rd base coach Rouglas Odor (Uncle to former Ranger Rougned Odor) had to be held back by his own team. 

One of the many unwritten rules in baseball is that you don’t try to break up a pitchers perfect game or no-hitter with a bunt, as many find it “soft” or even “bush league” and that the hitter should try to get a “real” hit (a hit is a hit in my book) and a bunt in these situations can rub some teams and players the wrong way. The fellas and I all agreed that there are certain scenarios where that it is indeed a weak move to go for the bunt (Erik Aybar bunting in the 8th inning and with 1 out in an attempt to break up Justin Verlander’s No-Hitter) compared to a scenario like Sunday’s game in Cleveland.

Gabe mentioned that if this was similar to Verlander’s No-Hitter attempt back in 2011 where it was late into the 8th inning and the possibility was getting real then there might be some merit to the Guardians reaction to Tawa’s bunt attempt, but this drama occurred in just the 6th inning where there is not only plenty of ball game ahead, Gavin Williams would most likely not even get the chance to go for a PG (if it was still intact late into the game) due to him having a pitch count north of 80 at the time. Brandon and I were also in agreement in saying that due to how much game was still left, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with a hitter trying to get an offensive spark started with some small ball. With the rainy and wet conditions, a bunted ball that gets even slicker after rolling in the wet infield could lead to some chaos and snowball into a big inning. I personally found it very ironic that a team that is known for small ball and even dubbed plays like that as “Guards Ball” would be so upset at another team trying to spark some offense with it.

Pad The Lead Against the Pads

Now that the 4 city road trip has come to end with the team going 6-4, they come back to Chase for a 10 Game home stand that kicks off with a very important 4 game series against the 3rd place San Diego Padres. Brandon, Gabe and I would discuss how this series could play a big part in whether or not both, one or maybe even none of these teams can take a Wild Card spot and sneak into the playoffs.

The Padres and Dbacks come into this 4 game series tied 3-3 on the season series with 7 games left to play against each other. The Padres have turned it up a notch when they needed to most, winning 8 of their last 10 and getting themselves only 1 game behind the Dbacks and the Phillies for the last 2 Wild Card spots. Obviously winning the series or even sweeping the series are the most ideal outcomes for the DIamondbacks, but a series split, loss or even a series sweep at the hands of the Pads could take all the wind out of the Dbacks sails and have them going into a big 3 game set against the Los Angeles Dodgers with their tails between their legs.

Please Sir, Just A Few Trades

The three of us ended the episode having hope that Mike Hazen will start to do his cooking and will address the needs this team has and will give us and the players that boost of reinforcements that we have all been asking and hoping for. With a potential lockout looming (Thank you Dodgers!) the asking price for rentals is even higher than in years past and there are more buyers than sellers, so some teams might have to give up more than they originally wanted to if they want to make improvements that could push them over the edge of contention and into October baseball.

Look out for a special Deadline Dispatch episode tomorrow after the dust has settled and before Monday night’s first pitch!