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MLB pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz charged with taking bribes to rig pitches originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls in the dirt instead of strikes, to ensure successful bets.

According to the indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, the highly paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches.

Clase, the Guardians’ former closer, and Ortiz, a starter, have been on non-disciplinary paid leave since July, when MLB started investigating what it said was unusually high in-game betting activity when they pitched. Some of the games in question were in April, May and June.

Ortiz, 26, was arrested Sunday by the FBI at Boston Logan International Airport. He is expected to appear in federal court in Boston on Monday. Clase, 27, was not in custody, officials said.

Ortiz and Clase “betrayed America’s pastime,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said. “Integrity, honesty and fair play are part of the DNA of professional sports. When corruption infiltrates the sport, it brings disgrace not only to the participants but damages the public trust in an institution that is vital and dear to all of us.”

Ortiz’s lawyer, Chris Georgalis, said in a statement that his client was innocent and “has never, and would never, improperly influence a game — not for anyone and not for anything.”

Georgalis said Ortiz’s defense team had previously documented for prosecutors that the payments and money transfers between him and individuals in the Dominican Republic were for lawful activities.

“There is no credible evidence Luis knowingly did anything other than try to win games, with every pitch and in every inning. Luis looks forward to fighting these charges in court,” Georgalis said.

A lawyer for Clase, Michael J. Ferrara, said his client “has devoted his life to baseball and doing everything in his power to help his team win. Emmanuel is innocent of all charges and looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

The Major League Baseball Players Association had no comment.

Unusual betting activity prompted investigation

MLB said it contacted federal law enforcement when it began investigating unusual betting activity and has fully cooperated with authorities. “We are aware of the indictment and today’s arrest, and our investigation is ongoing,” a league statement said.

In a statement, the Guardians said: “We are aware of the recent law enforcement action. We will continue to fully cooperate with both law enforcement and Major League Baseball as their investigations continue.”

Clase and Ortiz are both charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery. The top charges carry a potential punishment of up to 20 years in prison.

In one example cited in the indictment, Clase allegedly invited a bettor to a game against the Boston Red Sox in April and spoke with him by phone just before taking the mound. Four minutes later, the indictment said, the bettor and his associates won $11,000 on a wager that Clase would toss a certain pitch slower than 97.95 mph.

In May, the indictment said, Clase agreed to throw a ball at a certain point in a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but the batter swung, resulting in a strike, costing the bettors $4,000 in wagers. After the game, which the Guardians won, Clase sent text messages to one of the bettors with images of a man hanging himself with toilet paper and a sad puppy dog face, the indictment said.

Clase, a three-time All-Star and two-time American League Reliever of the Year, had a $4.5 million salary in 2025, the fourth season of a five-year, $20 million contract. The three-time AL save leader began providing the bettors with information about his pitches in 2023 but didn’t ask for payoffs until this year, prosecutors said.

The indictment cited specific pitches Clase allegedly rigged — all of them first pitches when he entered to start an inning: a 98.5 mph cutter low and inside to the New York Mets’ Starling Marte on May 19, 2023; an 89.4 mph slider to Minnesota’s Ryan Jeffers that bounced well short of home plate on June 3, 2023; an 89.4 mph slider to Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. that bounced on April 12; a 99.1 mph cutter in the dirt to Philadelphia’s Max Kepler on May 11; a bounced 89.1 mph (143.4) slider to Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers on May 13; and a bounced 87.5 mph slider to Cincinnati’s Santiago Espinal on May 17.

Prosecutors said Ortiz, who had a $782,600 salary this year, got in on the scheme in June and is accused of rigging pitches in games against the Seattle Mariners and the St. Louis Cardinals.

Ortiz was cited for bouncing a first-pitch 86.7 mph slider to Seattle’s Randy Arozarena starting the second inning on June 15 and bouncing a first-pitch 86.7 mph slider to St. Louis’ Pedro Pagés that went to the backstop opening the third inning on June 27.

Dozens of pro athletes have been charged in gambling sweeps

The charges are the latest bombshell developments in a federal crackdown on betting in professional sports.

Last month, more than 30 people, including prominent basketball figures such as Portland Trail Blazers head coach and Basketball Hall of Famer Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, were arrested in a gambling sweep that rocked the NBA.

Sports betting scandals have long been a concern, but a May 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling led to a wave of gambling incidents involving athletes and officials. The ruling struck down a federal ban on sports betting in most states and opened the doors for online sportsbooks to take a prominent space in the sports ecosystem.

Major League Baseball suspended five players in June 2024, including a lifetime ban for San Diego infielder Tucupita Marcano for allegedly placing 387 baseball bets with a legal sportsbook totaling more than $150,000.

___

Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker in Washington and Ron Blum in New York contributed to this report.

The Mets took a chance on righty Adbert Alzolay last offseason, bringing him in on a two-year minor league deal. 

Alzolay was coming off a frustrating injury-plagued campaign with the Chicago Cubs that ended with him having to undergo Tommy John surgery on his right elbow. 

The 29-year-old spent all of this season continuing his rehab and recovery following the procedure. 

He was throwing bullpen session towards the end of this season, and now appears ready to return to game action. 

Alzolay is reportedly expected to play in the Venezuelan Winter League later this month. 

That’s certainly encouraging news for the reliever as he looks to shake off the rust ahead of a big spring training. 

The former Cubs closer will have to show he is healthy and productive again as he competes for a spot in Mets camp. 

Alzolay pitched to a terrific 2.67 ERA while locking down 22 saves prior to his injury-filled 2024 season.

If he could regain that form it would be a nice boost as the Mets look to revamp their bullpen over the winter. 

The road to becoming the first repeat World Series champion in 25 years was not a smooth one for the Dodgers, who captured their ninth championship in franchise history when they knocked off the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in 11 innings of a Game 7 for the ages.

After winning nine of their first 10 postseason contests, the Dodgers had to slog through a seven-game World Series that included two extra-inning wins — one in 18 innings — and consecutive losses at home that put their season on the brink.

Read more:Complete coverage: How the Dodgers won the 2025 World Series

But in the end, the Dodgers emerged with their second consecutive championship and third in six seasons. How did they make it happen? Here are some moments that galvanized the Dodgers' run to another World Series triumph.

A great escape, with a wheel man

Mookie Betts broached the idea of running the wheel play as the Dodgers tried to hang on for dear life in Game 2 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Ballpark. In a tribute to executing the fundamentals, Max Muncy pounced on a bunt and Betts tagged out the lead runner at third base to help the Dodgers survive the ninth inning and grab a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Ohtani's iconic performance

Based on the first inning alone, Shohei Ohtani would've produced an unforgettable performance in Game 4 of the NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers, striking out three in a row following a leadoff walk as the Dodgers' starting pitcher and then homering as his team's leadoff batter to stake himself to an early lead. But Ohtani homered twice more — including a 469-foot blast over the right-field pavilion — and went on to strike out 10 in six innings to help the Dodgers secure their second consecutive NL pennant.

Another complete game by Yamamoto

Yoshinobu Yamamoto had already thrown a complete game in Game 2 of the NLCS, the first one by a Dodgers pitcher since José Lima in 2004. But Yamamoto went into more rarefied air when he threw another one in Game 2 of the World Series in a 5-1 win over the Blue Jays — becoming the first Dodger to throw consecutive postseason complete games since Orel Hershiser in 1988.

Kershaw's moment

The anguish and heartbreak of Clayton Kershaw's postseason history is well known, and the Dodger Stadium crowd braced itself when he entered Game 3 of the World Series with the bases loaded and two outs in the 12th inning. In an eight-pitch battle with the Jays' Nathan Lukes, Kershaw induced a soft grounder to second baseman Tommy Edman that he had to charge and scoop over with his glove to first baseman Freddie Freeman to escape the jam.

The Will Klein Game

As Game 3 of the World Series dragged into the 15th inning, the Dodgers turned to Will Klein, the last reliever in their bullpen — though Yamamoto was later warming for a potential 19th inning. Klein, acquired by the Dodgers in a minor trade on June 2, threw 72 pitches — the most he's thrown as a professional — over four scoreless innings to keep the Dodgers in it.

Freeman, the walkoff sequel

In a World Series Game 3 that featured 19 pitchers, 25 position players, 609 pitches thrown and 153 trips to the plate, it was something familiar that won it for the Dodgers in the 18th inning: a Freeman walk-off home run. One year and two days after his iconic walk-off grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, Freeman smashed a solo shot to center field to lift the Dodgers to a 6-5 win and a 2-1 series lead.

Kiké Hernández, October hero

Left fielder Kiké Hernández added another chapter to his October legacy in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 with the Dodgers trying to hang on to a 3-1 lead and keep their season alive. With runners on second and third and one out, Hernández played shallow and was in good position to catch a sinking line drive by Andrés Giménez before firing a throw to second baseman Miguel Rojas, who caught it on a bounce to double off the runner at second and force a Game 7.

Miguel Rojas ninth-inning hero

Rojas became the ninth-inning focal point in Game 7 as he came up to bat with the Dodgers trailing 4-3 and two outs away from losing the World Series. Rojas, who had one homer since the All-Star break, worked the count full before hammering a game-tying shot to left. In the bottom of the inning, with the bases loaded and the infield in with one out, Rojas fielded a grounder cleanly and came up firing to force the runner out at home and preserve the tie.

The Catch

One batter later and with the bases still loaded, it was Andy Pages' turn to be the defensive hero. Inserted mid-inning at center field for his strong arm, Pages found himself using his legs to cover a lot of ground on a deep fly ball to left-center that Hernández was trying to catch over his shoulder before colliding with Pages as the center fielder secured the ball to carry the game into extra innings.

Will Smith, home run hero

As Game 7 entered the 11th inning, it was catcher Will Smith who was in the right place at the right time. Smith, who'd worked his way back into the lineup after suffering a hairline fracture in his right hand in September, turned on a 2-0 slider for his second home run of the series to put the Dodgers in front for the first time in the game.

Yamamoto with the exclamation point

Entering Game 7 during that ninth-inning jam that Rojas and Pages helped him escape, Yamamoto retired the Jays in order in the 10th and then worked around a leadoff double in the 11th, fiedling a sacrifice bunt and then walking a batter before inducing a double play to seal the Dodgers' repeat championship. For Yamamoto in the World Series, the final tally was three wins, the last coming in relief after throwing 96 pitches the night before in Game 6, and the MVP award.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

I have been a diehard baseball fan for more than 60 years, and this year’s Dodger team is the toughest, gutsiest and most resilient team I have ever seen. Toronto is an absolutely fabulous baseball team, and would’ve beaten anybody else in all of baseball without much stress.

And as for Yoshinobu Yamamoto, that young man ought to be on Mt. Rushmore.

Let’s go for a three-peat in ‘26!

Drew Pomerance
Tarzana

No doubt about it. The best team won the World Series. The Dodgers found ways to win without great hitting. Their pitching and defensive skills exceeded our expectations. Thank you everyone for another amazing baseball season.

Cheryl Creek
Anaheim

How wonderful to see grown men acting like little boys during their victory celebration. While I am not a fan of the gyrations on the bases after a hit (even when way behind), the pure joy emanating from the players at the end was to be cherished. How sports enables us to forget our problems is what has made me a lifelong sports fan.

Mark Kaiserman
Santa Monica

Who would imagine that Games 6 and 7 would both end on double plays while the losing team had men in scoring position? One different swing of the bat would have reversed the outcome of the games and series. How suddenly agonizing and euphoric. How uniquely baseball!

Mel Spitz
Beverly Hills

The Toronto Blue Jay fans taunted Shohei Othani early in the series, "We don't need you!" I guess they did!

Edward Jimenez
Whittier

Consideration should be given to incorporating the Japanese flag into the design of the 2025 World Series ring.

Greg Thompson
Chatsworth

It took until Games 6 and 7, but the 2025 World Series lineup needed to include Miguel Rojas.

Ken Feldman
Tarzana

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts' haters and naysayers can take a seat. Whether it was confidence in the starting rotation, masterful management of the bullpen, being unafraid to tinker with the lineup or making brilliant defensive replacements, every lever Roberts pulled in Games 6 and 7 ultimately resulted in another championship.

Ron Yukelson
San Luis Obispo

As my fellow Monday morning baseball critics always say, "Dave Roberts is a genius. Mookie is great at short. Last year no starting pitchers. This year no bullpen."

So many contributed big plays. Constant tension, excitement, tenacity and, ultimately, exhilaration. Thank you Dodgers for a playoffs and World Series for the ages. Encore!

Rafael Serna
Hacienda Heights

While we bask in the euphoria of the Dodgers' World Series win, let's not overlook but sing the praises to the last man standing! Without the heroics of Will Klein, there might not have been a Game 6 or a Game 7.

Stan Shirai
Torrance

The World Series finished on Dia de los Muertos, but our Dodgers lived to win again. Against all odds in Game 7, the Dodgers solidified a dynasty. What a game. What a series. What a team. So many clutch moments and players. This one will be enjoyed and cherished FOREVER.

Michael Lee Manous
San Dimas

A phrase that will never be used in the same sentence with Yoshinobu Yamamoto: “load management.”

Dave Ring
Manhattan Beach

Orel, meet Yoshi!

Brian Lipson
Beverly Hills

Fanfest next time?

More than four million Dodger fans attended games this season. As a thank you, couldn’t the Dodgers have shown appreciation for the support by providing tickets to the celebration free of charge and offer parking at $10 per car?

Seems like a nice thank you for supporting the team!

Rob Parra
Rowland Heights

On the flip side

I hope the amazing Blue Jays performance doesn't get lost in all the cheers for the Dodgers. I wish there was a place they could have received a silver trophy and basked in the well-earned cheers of the crowd. And I hope our fellow Angelenos and the media will show humility and recognize we just got the lucky flip of the coin toss.

Don McKinney
San Fernando

Hats off to the Toronto Blue Jays for an incredible World Series. They gave the Dodgers a fierce run for the money. It took everything we had to come out on top and it could have gone the other way 100 times. I hope Toronto gave them a fabulous parade. They deserve it.

Sarah Tamor
Santa Monica

Improve the product

UCLA should not relocate to SoFi Stadium. The Rose Bowl is the shrine of college football and a great place to tailgate and celebrate the Bruins.

The venue is not the problem, it’s the product on the field. It’s obviously the results, but also includes the opponents over the last several years — South Alabama, Coastal Carolina, North Carolina Central, Bowling Green and Alabama State.

William Morris
Pasadena

High expectations

The Times' reporter wrote that the Lakers "stars slogged through" much of their win over the Miami Heat at Crypto this week. Slogged? Luka Doncic recorded a triple-double, Austin Reaves scored 26 and the team finished with 130 points. And I thought expectations for the baseball team in this town are high!

Hank Rosenfeld
Santa Monica

The Los Angeles Times welcomes expressions of all views. Letters should be brief and become the property of The Times. They may be edited and republished in any format. Each must include a valid mailing address and telephone number. Pseudonyms will not be used.

Email: sports@latimes.com

Get the best, most interesting and strangest stories of the day from the L.A. sports scene and beyond from our newsletter The Sports Report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

For Natalia Molina, a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and a third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of baseball’s World Series didn’t come in last Saturday’s nail-biting finale, when her team performed one death-defying escape act after another before prevailing in extra innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came a game earlier, when two of the team’s second-tier players, Kike Hernández, who is from Puerto Rico, and Miguel Rojas, from Venezuela, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning sequence that simultaneously upended the many negative stereotypes Donald Trump has been touting about Latinos since he first ran for president a decade ago.

The play itself was breathtaking: Hernández charged in from left field to snag a ball he initially lost in the stadium lights, then fired it to second base to chalk up another, game-winning out on the same play. Rojas, at second base, received the ball just a split second before a Blue Jays runner barreled into him, knocking him backwards.

This wasn’t just a great sporting moment, perhaps the decisive shift in momentum in the Dodgers’ favor after looking for much of the series like the weaker team. For Molina it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for Latinos, and for Los Angeles, after months of immigration raids, troops patrolling the streets, and a steady drumbeat of negativity from the White House.

“Kike and Miggy put forth this counter-narrative,” said Molina, a professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. “The world saw Latinos showing an infectious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a different kind of masculinity. They’re bombastic, they’re yelling, they’re taking off their shirts.

“It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] raids, Latinos thrown to the ground and chased down. It’s so easy to be demoralized right now.”

Not that it’s exactly simple to be a Dodgers fan these days – for Molina or for the legions of other Latinos who show up faithfully to home games and fill up as many as half of the stadium’s 50,000 seats each time.

When the Trump administration began conducting aggressive immigration raids in Los Angeles in early June and sent national guard troops and marines into the city to respond to the ensuing protests, two of the city’s soccer teams quickly put out statements of solidarity with immigrant families – but not the Dodgers.

The team president, Stan Kasten, has said the Dodgers want to steer clear of politics – a view colored, perhaps, by the fact that a sizable minority of the fans, including Latinos, are Trump supporters. (Under considerable public pressure, the team later pledged $1m in support for families directly affected by the raids but made no public criticism of Trump’s administration.)

Related: If the Dodgers are bad for baseball, why was the World Series so much fun?

Three months earlier, the team did not hesitate in accepting Trump’s invitation to celebrate their 2024 World Series victory at the White House – a move that the Los Angeles Times sports columnist Dylan Hernandez described as “pathetic … spineless … and hypocritical”, given the Dodgers’ pride in having been the first major league team to break the color barrier in the 1940s and the frequentinvocations of that legacy and the values it embodies by executives and present and former players. Several team members including the manager, Dave Roberts, had expressed unwillingness to go to the White House during Trump’s first term but either changed their minds or succumbed to pressure from team management.

A further complication for fans is that the Dodgers are owned by a corporate behemoth, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own published balance sheets, include a stake in the GEO Group, a private prison corporation that operates ICE detention centers. Guggenheim’s leadership has said many times that it wants to stay out of politics, but its critics say the silence – and the GEO investment – are their own form of acquiescence to Trump’s agenda.

All of that adds up to considerable mixed feelings among Latino fans in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this year’s hard-won World Series victory and the ensuing explosion of Dodgers pride across Los Angeles.

“Is it okay to root for the Dodgers?” local columnist Erick Galindo agonized at the start of the playoffs in an elegant essay ruminating on “Dodger blue in our veins, but doubt in our hearts”. Galindo couldn’t ultimately bring himself to watch the World Series, but he still cared deeply, to the point that he decided his one-man boycott must have brought the team the luck it needed to win.

Many fans who share Galindo’s misgivings appear to have decided that they can continue to support the team and its roster of international players, including the Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani, while pouring scorn on the team’s corporate overlords. Nowhere was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the capacity crowd roared in approval of Roberts and his players but booed Kasten and Mark Walter, the chief executive of Guggenheim Partners.

“These men in suits don’t get to take our boys in blue from us,” Molina said. “We’ve been with the Dodgers longer than they have.”

The problem, though, runs deeper than just the team’s current owners. The deal that brought the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in the late 1950s involved the city razing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill above downtown and then selling the land to the team for a fraction of its market value. A song on Ry Cooder’s 2005 album Chavez Ravine, which chronicles the story, has an impoverished parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the home he lost to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California’s most widely followed Mexican American columnist and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the long, dysfunctional relationship between the team and its fanbase. He calls the Dodgers the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos of baseball, “a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy following by too many Latinos” that has been shortchanging its fans for decades.

“They’ve put one arm around Latino fans while picking their pockets with the other for so long because they have been able to get away with it,” Arellano wrote over the summer, when calls to boycott the team over its lack of response to the ICE raids were upended by the uncomfortable fact that attendance at home games did not dip, even at the height of the protests when downtown LA was subject to a nightly curfew.

Separating the team from its corporate owners is not a simple matter, not least because it was Guggenheim that committed more than a billion dollars last year to bring Ohtani and the dominant pitcher of the World Series, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to Los Angeles. Guggenheim has been in the forefront of internationalizing the sport more generally, finding so many business opportunities through rights and merchandising that, according to some reports, it has already recouped the eye-popping $700m investment it made in Ohtani alone.

Indeed, there was talk across baseball, even before Los Angeles snagged its second World Series in a row, that the Dodgers were ruining the sport with their financial muscle, snapping up so many star players that it was unfair to everyone else. Perhaps the greatest gift of the brilliant, compulsively watchable series with the Blue Jays, though, was how vulnerable the Dodgers looked and how hard they had to scratch and claw to save themselves through both concluding, must-win games.

Karen Bass, LA’s mayor, is not alone in seeing parallels with a singularly rough year in the city’s history, starting with January’s devastating wildfires that destroyed entire neighborhoods and displaced tens of thousands of people. “The city has been on pins and needles,” she told the New York Times. “Given the year we’ve had, we can use this burst of adrenaline, this burst of good will.”

The players themselves, meanwhile, clearly see a connection between their performance on the field and the community at large, and the feeling is mutual. Hernández, the Puerto Rican left fielder who plays multiple other positions, endeared himself to many fans by making his own statement condemning the ICE raids over the summer. “I may not be [an Angeleno] born and raised,” he wrote, “but … I cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart.”

Roki Sasaki, the youngest of the team’s Japanese superstars, won the hearts of Latino fans from the moment he chose a catchy Spanish-language dance number, Báilalo Rocky, as his walk-up music before he pitches. (The song, he explained, was suggested to him by Rojas.)

All this is grist to the conversations that Latino fans have with each other before, during and after games. Many say they would no sooner stop loving the team known in Spanish as “los Doyers” as they would stop loving the mothers and fathers who first brought them to games and gave them their taste for baseball.

“What do you do when you feel something, and it’s complicated?” Molina asked. “For many Latinos, the Dodgers are how they connect to an American identity. It’s the most American institution most immigrants in LA feel connected to.”

The Mets had several minor leaguers elect to hit free agency on Friday, and the most notable are right-handers Matt Allan and Bryce Montes de Oca. 

Allan was once viewed as one of the next big things in the organization. 

The youngster battled numerous injuries over the years, though, and he wasn’t able to return until this past season. 

He threw 20.0 innings between Brooklyn and St. Lucie before being shut back down. 

Montes de Oca was an up-and-coming bullpen arm who shone during his time in big-league camp and then made his debut during the 2022 season. 

He throws extremely hard and possesses big-time swing-and-miss stuff, but struggles at times with his command. 

The 28-year-old underwent Tommy John surgery in 2023, and after making just 13 rehab appearances, he had an additional procedure in August of 2024.

Others to elect free agency include José Azocar, Joey Meneses, Ty Adcock, Joe La Sorsa, Luke Ritter, Omar de los Santos, Jace Beck, and Luis Moreno. 

The Yankees are well-represented in the hitting department in MLB's offseason awards, as Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisholm Jr. were announced as American League Silver Slugger Award winners on Friday.

Judge was a relative lock to win his fifth Silver Slugger Award. The 2024 -- and perhaps 2025 -- AL MVP had a league-best .331 batting average to go along with an OBP of .457, slugging percentage of .688 and an OPS of 1.144. He also hit 53 home runs and drove in 114 RBI. 

The last two times Judge won the Silver Slugger, he also won the MVP (2022,24), which bodes well for his chances this season. The closest competitor to Judge's back-to-back MVP campaign is the Mariners' Cal Raleigh, who was named a Silver Slugger at catcher this season.

Judge joined Byron Buxton of the Twins and Riley Green of the Tigers as outfield Silver Slugger winners this season.

The Yankees outfielder beat a field that included Riley Greene of the Tigers, Julio Rodríguez of the Mariners, George Springer of the Blue Jays and teammate Cody Bellinger.

Bellinger made a great first impression in pinstripes. In his first -- and so far only -- season in the Bronx, Bellinger slashed .272/.334/.480 with an OPS of .813 to go along with 29 homers and 98 runs batted in. He was the perfect second outfielder behind Judge in 2025, giving the Yankees a versatile and dangerous left-handed bat.

Chisholm Jr. had his best season in pinstripes in 2025, securing his second-career All-Star selection in the process and now, his first Silver Slugger. The infielder slashed .242/.332/.481 with an OPS of .813, but hit a career-high 31 homers and drove in 80 runs. He also stole 31 bases this season, becoming just the third player (fourth overall) in franchise history to achieve the 30-30 mark in a season.

He beat out fellow second base finalists Brandon Lowe of the Rays and Jorge Polanco of the Mariners.

Ben Rice was also a finalist for the 2025 Silver Slugger as a utility player. The part-time first baseman/catcher enjoyed his best offensive season as a pro, slashing .255/.337/.499 with an OPS of .836 to go along with his 26 home runs and driving in 65 runs in 138 games. He fell to the Tigers' Zach McKinstry. 

Maikel Garcia of the Royals was also a part of the field.

The Yankees, as a team, were also a finalist for the team Silver Slugger Award and beat out the Mariners and Blue Jays.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife, Kayla, announced on Instagram on Friday that their baby daughter, Sterling, died on Oct. 26 — a tragic loss that caused Vesia to miss the Dodgers’ appearance in the World Series last week.

“Our little angel, we love you forever & you’re with us always,” the Vesias wrote. “There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her.”

The Vesias had been expecting the birth of Sterling, their first child, during the Dodgers’ postseason run. Her death came during the World Series, forcing Vesia to step away from the club.

The day before Game 1 of the World Series, the Dodgers publicly announced Vesia was not with the team because of a “deeply personal family matter.” The Dodgers left him off their World Series roster, as well as the family medical emergency list, so as not to pressure him into feeling he needed to return.

“This is so much bigger than baseball,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at the time. “And for us, it was doing whatever small part we could to just 100% be supportive.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen honored Vesia in Game 3 of the World Series, with each reliever writing his No. 51 on the sides of their caps for the rest of the series. The Toronto Blue Jays’ relievers did the same in Games 6 and 7, a gesture several Dodgers publicly recognized and deeply appreciated.

“I think it really speaks to the brotherhood of athletes, major league baseball players,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts ahead of Game 7. “Baseball is what we do, but it's not who we are. And for these guys to recognize Alex and what he and Kayla have gone through — 'heartbreaking' is not even a good enough descriptor.”

“For those guys to do that, it's incredible,” outfielder Kiké Hernández added. “They're trying to win a World Series, but they understand that this is — life is bigger than baseball, and baseball's just a game. For them to do that with the stakes where we’re at, hats off to them, and I want them to know that we appreciate 'em.”

The Vesias also thanked the Dodgers, Blue Jays and baseball fans for their support.

“Our baseball family showed up for us and we wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” they wrote. “We have seen ALL your messages, comments and posts. It’s brought us so much comfort.”

Vesia was a key part of the Dodgers’ bullpen in both the regular season (when he had a 3.02 ERA in a career-high 68 appearances) and the first three rounds of the playoffs (when he allowed just two runs in seven outings).

On Thursday, the Dodgers picked up Vesia’s $3.65-million option for next season, avoiding arbitration before what will be his final year before reaching free agency.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife announce death of their baby daughter originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife Kayla shared a heartbreaking message Friday about the death of their baby daughter.

In a joint Instagram post, the couple said their daughter, Sterling Sol Vesia, died Oct. 26. The 29-year-old relief pitcher was not on the Dodgers’ World Series roster for what the team described as a leave of absence for a personal matter.

“Our little angel we love you forever & you’re with us always,” the post caption read. “Our beautiful daughter went to heaven Sunday October 26th. There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her.

“Thank you to the Dodgers for their understanding and support during this time. Our baseball family showed up for us and we wouldn’t be able to do this without them. Thank you Dodger Nation, Blue Jays organization and all baseball fans for your love and support. We have seen ALL your messages, comments and posts. It’s brought us so much comfort.

“Lastly, we’d like to thank Cedars Sinai and all the medical staff who helped Kayla and Sterling. Every person we came across was truly so incredible.”

The post did not mention a cause of death.

The couple announced in April that they were expecting a baby.

In an Instagram post Oct. 23, the Dodgers said, “It’s with a heavy heart that we share that Alex Vesia is away from the team as he and his wife Kayla navigate a deeply personal family matter. The entire Dodgers organization is sending our thoughts to the Vesia family, and we will provide an update at a later date.”

During Game 3 of the World Series, players from both the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays wore Vesia’s No. 51 on the sides of their caps.

“I think it really speaks tot he brotherhood of athletes, of MLB players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about the Game 3 tribute. “For these guys to recognize Alex and what he and Kayla have gone through, heartbreaking is not even a good enough descriptor.”

Born in Alpine, California, Vesia was drafted by the Miami Marlins in 2018 and made his big league debut in July 2020. He joined the Dodgers in 2021 and posted a 4-2 record this past season with a 3.02 ERA in 68 appearances.

The Dodgers recently exercised the 2026 contract option of Vesia, who will receive a $3.55 million salary rather than a $50,000 buyout. If the Dodgers had declined, he would have been eligible for arbitration.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife announce death of their baby daughter originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife Kayla shared a heartbreaking message Friday about the death of their baby daughter.

In a joint Instagram post, the couple said their daughter, Sterling Sol Vesia, died Oct. 26. The 29-year-old relief pitcher was not on the Dodgers’ World Series roster for what the team described as a leave of absence for a personal matter.

“Our little angel we love you forever & you’re with us always,” the post caption read. “Our beautiful daughter went to heaven Sunday October 26th. There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her.

“Thank you to the Dodgers for their understanding and support during this time. Our baseball family showed up for us and we wouldn’t be able to do this without them. Thank you Dodger Nation, Blue Jays organization and all baseball fans for your love and support. We have seen ALL your messages, comments and posts. It’s brought us so much comfort.

“Lastly, we’d like to thank Cedars Sinai and all the medical staff who helped Kayla and Sterling. Every person we came across was truly so incredible.”

The post did not mention a cause of death.

The couple announced in April that they were expecting a baby.

In an Instagram post Oct. 23, the Dodgers said, “It’s with a heavy heart that we share that Alex Vesia is away from the team as he and his wife Kayla navigate a deeply personal family matter. The entire Dodgers organization is sending our thoughts to the Vesia family, and we will provide an update at a later date.”

During Game 3 of the World Series, players from both the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays wore Vesia’s No. 51 on the sides of their caps.

“I think it really speaks tot he brotherhood of athletes, of MLB players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about the Game 3 tribute. “For these guys to recognize Alex and what he and Kayla have gone through, heartbreaking is not even a good enough descriptor.”

Born in Alpine, California, Vesia was drafted by the Miami Marlins in 2018 and made his big league debut in July 2020. He joined the Dodgers in 2021 and posted a 4-2 record this past season with a 3.02 ERA in 68 appearances.

The Dodgers recently exercised the 2026 contract option of Vesia, who will receive a $3.55 million salary rather than a $50,000 buyout. If the Dodgers had declined, he would have been eligible for arbitration.

Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife announce death of their baby daughter originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Alex Vesia and his wife Kayla shared a heartbreaking message Friday about the death of their baby daughter.

In a joint Instagram post, the couple said their daughter, Sterling Sol Vesia, died Oct. 26. The 29-year-old relief pitcher was not on the Dodgers’ World Series roster for what the team described as a leave of absence for a personal matter.

“Our little angel we love you forever & you’re with us always,” the post caption read. “Our beautiful daughter went to heaven Sunday October 26th. There are no words to describe the pain we’re going through but we hold her in our hearts and cherish every second we had with her.

“Thank you to the Dodgers for their understanding and support during this time. Our baseball family showed up for us and we wouldn’t be able to do this without them. Thank you Dodger Nation, Blue Jays organization and all baseball fans for your love and support. We have seen ALL your messages, comments and posts. It’s brought us so much comfort.

“Lastly, we’d like to thank Cedars Sinai and all the medical staff who helped Kayla and Sterling. Every person we came across was truly so incredible.”

The post did not mention a cause of death.

The couple announced in April that they were expecting a baby.

In an Instagram post Oct. 23, the Dodgers said, “It’s with a heavy heart that we share that Alex Vesia is away from the team as he and his wife Kayla navigate a deeply personal family matter. The entire Dodgers organization is sending our thoughts to the Vesia family, and we will provide an update at a later date.”

During Game 3 of the World Series, players from both the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays wore Vesia’s No. 51 on the sides of their caps.

“I think it really speaks tot he brotherhood of athletes, of MLB players,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said about the Game 3 tribute. “For these guys to recognize Alex and what he and Kayla have gone through, heartbreaking is not even a good enough descriptor.”

Born in Alpine, California, Vesia was drafted by the Miami Marlins in 2018 and made his big league debut in July 2020. He joined the Dodgers in 2021 and posted a 4-2 record this past season with a 3.02 ERA in 68 appearances.

The Dodgers recently exercised the 2026 contract option of Vesia, who will receive a $3.55 million salary rather than a $50,000 buyout. If the Dodgers had declined, he would have been eligible for arbitration.

Slugging Japanese first baseman/third baseman Munetaka Murakami will be posted by the Yakult Swallows on Friday, per multiple reports.

Murakami's negotiating window for MLB clubs will open on Saturday, meaning he has until Dec. 22 to sign. 

Murakami has been a star for the Swallows over the past eight seasons, taking home a pair of MVP awards while popping 246 home runs, 165 doubles, and 681 RBI.

Twenty-two of those long balls came in an injury-riddled campaign this past season.

His biggest power display came in 2022, when he hit 56 homers and drove in 134 runs. 

The 25-year-old mainly plays the hot corner, but he’s also spent time at first base and DH.

For the Mets, Murakami presents an intriguing option for David Stearns to consider if slugger Pete Alonso were to leave in free agency after opting out of his deal with the club.

Stearns went to Japan to watch one of Murakami’s games earlier this year, and he launched a grand slam.  

The Yankees, on the other hand, aren’t exactly a smooth fit at the moment, but Murakami's powerful swing from the left side certainly would be well suited for the short porch in the Bronx. 

The Mets have the longest history of any team in MLB when it comes to adding players from Japan. Whether that is most recently with Kodai Senga or dating back when they made a splash, at the time, in signing Kaz Matsui. In between, they have been stops for names like Hideo Nomo and Daisuke Matsuzaka, among others.

They have been unable, however, to land someone who is considered the "generational" type of player, as they leave Nippon Professional Baseball for MLB. I am talking about the Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Shohei Ohtani,and Yoshinobu Yamamoto types. 

The next potential Japanese star is going to be posted this winter by his NPB team, the Yakult Swallows. That player is 25-year-old third baseman/first baseman Munetaka Murakami.

While not projecting that Murakami is by any means a lock to end up with the types of careers some of the above players had, Murakami will be considered the biggest offensive player to come over from Japan since Ohtani in 2018.

He had an all-time season in 2022. At just 22 years old, Murakami slashed .318/.458/.710 and set the NPB single-season home run record when he hit 56 home runs, passing the legendary Sadaharu Oh.

Projections on a potential contract for Murakami are wide-ranging for various reasons. It would be surprising if the contract wasn’t in the range of six-to-seven years and $100 million or more. 

Here are the pros and cons of signing Murakami…

PROS

One thing the Mets were lacking in 2025 was an additional thumper in the lineup. Once opposing teams got past Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto and Pete Alonso, there wasn’t that same level of threat. Mark Vientos did not repeat his 2024 season, and Brandon Nimmo had a perfectly good 2025 campaign, but he isn’t the best fit as a cleanup hitter on a team looking to win a championship.

A slugger like Murakami could have fit perfectly in that spot. Alonso's Mets future is up in the air, but whether he is here or not, the Mets could use another power hitter in the lineup. 

In 2025, Murakami missed a lot of time due to an oblique injury. When he returned, he hit .286/.392/.659 with 24 home runs in 69 games. One of those 24 home runs was a walk-off shot that happened to have Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns in attendance. 

Murakami has a power grade of at least 70 with elite bat speed that should easily project 30-plus home runs, if not closer to 40. His bat speed and exit velocity numbers all project to be in the class with some of the best in those metrics in MLB. He accompanies his power with the ability to get on base, with a career .394 on-base percentage in Japan.

From a defensive profile, he projects more as a first base/designated hitter type despite playing a lot of third base in Japan. If the Mets were looking for a power-hitting first baseman type to potentially replace Alonso, Murakami might be the closest one-for-one replacement that they could do.

When it comes to signing long-term contracts, Stearns has so far preferred to reserve that for younger players. The Mets, of course, signed Juan Soto last offseason at 25, and in his first year here, they made a substantial push for the then-25-year-old Yamamoto. The 25-year-old Murakami would fit his mold.

CONS

Murakami does possess some elite traits offensively, but there are some concerning red flags in his profile, specifically in the swing-and-miss category.

His in-zone contact rate, which is a baseline barometer of bat-to-ball skills of 73 percent, ranked near the bottom among qualified players in NPB over the last three years. For comparison’s sake, the MLB average for in-zone contact rate in 2025 was nearly 83 percent. 

Murakami’s general strikeout rate over the past three seasons in NPB was all in the 28-29 percent range. The concern is that, in general, expectations are for strikeout rates to rise in the transition from NPB to MLB.

He has also struggled against high-end velocity (considered greater than 93 mph for this metric) over the last couple of years. The average MLB fastball in 2025 was 94.4 mph.

Murakami projects best defensively at first base, but even at that spot, he is not projected to be any better than average, if that.

VERDICT

Murakami fits the mold of a high-risk, high-reward player with a wide range of potential outcomes. The question that teams like the Mets will have to ask is if the power and on-base skills simply outweigh the swing-and-miss issues. 

The reality is that most high-end home run hitters do strike out a lot. Seven of the top 11 leaders in home runs in MLB in 2025 had strikeout rates north of 25 percent. If Murakami is going to crack that range for home runs, then his strikeout rate would be high, but likely not unreasonably so.

At 25 years old, he is still young enough to get into an MLB hitting program and improve his mechanics and plan at the plate to help mitigate some of the flaws.

I personally do not look at Murakami as a potential Alonso replacement. If the Mets were to seriously pursue Murakami, it should be in addition to trying to retain Alonso. That would create a top four of a lineup that could be as impactful as any in baseball. 

The best path might be Murakami spending a lot of time at designated hitter and playing first base and third base when necessary.

If the cost on a contract can stay in the range that is typical for Japanese hitters coming over to MLB in recent years, usually in the range of $18-20 million per season, the Mets should be in on a pursuit of a hitter that you can just see hitting balls to the back of the Coca Cola corner.