Category: Baseball

The All-Star Game is over and the true second half of the MLB season begins Thursday night, when the Mets visit the Phillies in a stand-alone game on ESPN in a matchup that probably seemed bigger when it was scheduled. Here’s a look at some of the top storylines the rest of the way as teams battle to get to October:

Judge-ment Day in the Bronx 

Perhaps no development will be bigger in the second half than the status of Aaron Judge. 

Out since June with a fractured right rib, Judge was expected to get imaging of the injury during the All-Star break, with the Yankees hoping it showed enough healing in the area for him to start working out.

There’s still no timeline for Judge’s return, other than general manager Brian Cashman saying: “The time frame that it would take to heal should allow him to be back with us this season.”

That uncertainty could doom the Yankees.

They entered the break atop the AL wild-card race, but they talked extensively this spring about the importance of not just making the postseason, but of winning the AL East. 

They came up a game short last season and then lost to the Blue Jays in the ALDS.

Their best chance of getting past the first-place Rays, who have a three-game lead on the Yankees (four in the loss column), is to get Judge back in the lineup.

They’ve proven to be as good as any team in the American League with him and simply mediocre without their superstar.

Three years ago, the Yankees missed the playoffs when Judge was affected by the torn ligament in his toe, and their lineup has mostly gone in the tank without him this time around, although they did sweep Washington heading into the break.

Getting Judge back isn’t the only thing the Yankees are waiting on, as they will try to upgrade the catching position and bullpen before the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

Besides that, there’s the George Lombard Jr. watch, which figures to move into high gear in the coming weeks, as the team’s top prospect comes back from a hand injury. The Yankees clearly need help at shortstop, where José Caballero and Anthony Volpe have underwhelmed.

Trade deadline 

The Aug. 3 trade deadline is the next major date on the schedule and Tarik Skubal will be at the center of it — unless the Tigers, who played better heading into the break, opt against moving him and instead make a run at the postseason.

Back and healthy following elbow surgery, Skubal would be far and away the top trade target if Detroit decides to trade him.

He’s a free agent at the end of the season. While the Yankees and Dodgers appear to be long shots to acquire the left-hander, they can’t be ruled out. The Cubs, Braves and Rays are among the teams that could make a play for the Cy Young Award winner.

Whoever lands him will change their potential postseason fortunes immediately.

Skubal won’t be the only big-name player to keep an eye on, as Sonny Gray could go if the resurgent Red Sox don’t decide to keep him.

There’s also closer Mason Miller with the inconsistent Padres, as well as the top contact hitter of his generation, Luis Arraez, excelling again on a bad team with the Giants.

Can the Dodgers do it again? 

Death, taxes and the Dodgers winning the NL West. 

Los Angeles is well on its way to a fifth straight division title and have finished first in the division every year since 2013 outside of 2021.

And that success has come even with high-priced free agent signing Kyle Tucker having a subpar season, Tyler Glasnow (back) appearing in just seven games and Blake Snell (elbow) only one. Both pitchers are expected back at some point next month, making a fearsome rotation even tougher.

And they’ve also been without Edwin Díaz (elbow), who is expected to return. 

Then there’s the status of Shohei Ohtani, who has been dealing with left knee irritation and didn’t participate in the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

He had fluid drained from the knee before the break and manager Dave Roberts said he is expected to be the DH when the Dodgers open a series against the Yankees in The Bronx on Friday.

Who are these guys? 

While teams like the Dodgers and Rangers were expected to be near or at the top of their divisions, you could be forgiven if you had to look twice to make sense of the standings at the break.

Are the White Sox really leading the AL Central?

And are the Rays really outdoing the Yankees and the rest of the high-payroll AL East again?

The Twins and Guardians, both seemingly playing for the future, are right in the mix for the postseason.

The other question: Are any of these AL teams really that good?

The competition has been underwhelming, with the majority of the best teams residing in the National League.

Still, there are surprises there, as well, as the Marlins enter the second half in a wild-card spot, with the Cardinals and Pirates right on their heels. 

Meanwhile, teams like the Giants, Diamondbacks and Padres — and especially the Mets — have been colossal disappointments.

Can the upstarts in both leagues continue their strong performances all the way to the playoffs?

Much will depend on how some of them handle the trade deadline.

As Minnesota’s Joe Ryan said, he wants to remain with the Twins and give the front office a reason to not sell at the deadline, as they did a year ago.

Many of his contemporaries agree, and their play over the next two-plus weeks could determine how their organizations handle those decisions.

How bad will it get in Queens? 

The Mets were the laughingstock of the sport in the first half, as even the most skeptical of observers couldn’t have predicted how badly their offseason makeover would go. It’s already cost Carlos Mendoza his job in the dugout, even though he was one of the least responsible for the disaster. 

Now it’s up to president of baseball operations David Stearns to try to fix his own mess.

Despite Juan Soto saying this week he expects “a turnaround” this season at Citi Field, it’s just about inconceivable that will happen.

More likely is a sell-off of a few bullpen arms, like A.J. Minter and perhaps Luke Weaver. As things figure to get worse before they get better, all eyes will be on Stearns to see how he steers the team forward while key offseason acquisitions like Jorge Polanco, Luis Robert Jr. and Devin Williams continue to struggle with health, production — or both.

Manager carousel 

Alex Cora and Rob Thomson had excellent résumés and plenty of respect around the league, but both were fired when the Red Sox and Phillies, respectively, got off to poor starts. The moves made waves in both cities, but unlike with the Mets — who were already too far gone when Andy Green replaced Mendoza in the dugout — Boston and Philadelphia have both responded well to the changes.

In Boston, first-year manager Chad Tracy has the Red Sox back in the hunt, as they took a nine-game winning streak into the break and Don Mattingly, in his third stop, has the Phillies firmly in the wild-card mix, thanks in no small part to the return of Zack Wheeler.

Award season 

Milwaukee’s Jacob Misiorowski is having one of the best seasons on the mound in recent memory — not just with his results, but also his record-setting velocity. If that continues, the 24-year-old will run away with the NL Cy Young, but he didn’t pitch in the All-Star Game due to arm fatigue. If that remains an issue, it could open the door for someone like Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez.

In the American League, Judge has been unstoppable unless injuries get in the way. Since that’s happened again, Houston’s Yordan Alvarez is currently the favorite, with Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero trailing.

It’s another Wednesday evening here at BCB After Dark: the coolest night spot for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in and cool off with us for a while. There’s no cover charge. We have a few good tables available. The show will start shorty. Bring your own beverage.

BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.

Last night I asked you for your predictions of where the Cubs would finish the season. There was a pretty solid bell curve in the votes at 41 percent of you thought that the Cubs would get the first Wild Card and thus, home field advantage in the Wild Card round. Another thirty percent thought that they’d get a Wild Card spot but on the road and 18 percent of you think the Cubs will win the Division but not get a bye. I don’t know. I think if the Cubs catch the Brewers, they get a bye, but it’s certainly possible Milwaukee crashes to earth but the Braves take off, so I’m not going to disagree too strongly with that position.

Here’s the part with the music and the movies. You can do with it what you will. We’re here to please.

Tonight we’re featuring drummer Jeff Hamilton and the Jeff Hamilton Trio at the Jazz Port Townsend Festival in Washington in 2022. This is also a broadcast on KNKX Public Radio in Seattle-Tacoma.

Joining Hamilton are Tamir Hendelman and Jon Hamar on bass.

I haven’t had much time to watch films over the past week or so, but I wanted to give you something. So tonight we’re featuring Canadian director Guy Maddin’s six-minute silent film The Heart of the World (2000).

Maddin is one of the greatest iconoclastic and experimental filmmakers around. I’ll recommend his surrealist mockumentary My Winnipeg (2007) for the way it weaves a fictional history of the city of Winnipeg around a fictional history of his own family. What drew me to it in the first place is that he found an 86-year-old Ann Savage, the femme fatale of the all-time great 1945 film noirDetour, to play his mother. But what kept me in was the terrific black-and-white imagery as well as the bone-dry absurdist humor. Maybe I’ll write more about My Winnipeg another day.

But The Heart of the World is a rapid-fire, surrealist silent film shot in the style of the early Soviet filmmakers like Sergei Eisenstein. The plot, such as it is, is about Anna, a scientist who studies the earth’s core, where a beating heart exists. Literally. Anna looks down a tube and there is a diseased heart at the center of the earth’s core.

Anna has two men in love with her. The first in Nikolai, a young mortician. The second is Osip, an actor playing Christ in a passion play and who stays in character the entire film. Nikolai tries to impress Anna with his embalming skills and Osip tries to impress her with all the suffering he does as Christ.

A third man, an industrialist, comes into Anna’s life, and he’s a caricature of how the Soviets portrayed rich capitalists. But that relationship is interrupted by the Earth suffering a fatal heart attack. Anna must then slide down to the earth’s core to prevent the end of the world.

So yeah, if that sounds nuts, it is. Maddin has the images going a mile a minute, all accompanied by the frenetic beat of the Time Forward! March by Soviet composer Georgy Svirdov.Maddin packs around 100 shots per minute into the six-minute film, which gives the film a feel like it’s a one-hour movie sped up into six minutes. The imagery, while absurd, is also fascinating. It’s at once familiar to anyone who has seen silent movies (especially Soviet silent films) but also fresh in the way Maddin throws it all in together into one big stew. In this way, The Heart of the World is both a a loving tribute to silent film and a silly parody. But in the end, Maddin reaffirms the power of cinema to change the world. Unless that’s just a joke too.

I could go on about The Heart of the World, but it would be better for you to just watch it and decide for yourself. At six minutes, it’s shorter and probably more enlightening than any podcast your listening to right now.

Here’s the whole short film.

Welcome back to whomever skips the music and movies.

I don’t think I have to tell any of you the Cubs are going to have to add pitching before the Trade Deadline. The Cubs have stayed afloat in the playoff hunt with all the pitching injuries they’ve had. But if they want to make some noise in the postseason, they will have to get some good, healthy arms.

Jon Heyman made a little noise by writing that the Braves, Rays and Cubs are expected to be the most aggressive teams going after Tarik Skubal. Now Heyman gave himself a little wiggle room there by saying “expected” and not claiming that he’s talked to Jed Hoyer about it, but it is one of the first indicators that the Cubs are interested in the two-time defending American League Cy Young Award winner. Heyman is probably repeating the scuttlebutt that the front office executives are passing around, but they generally have a good idea what the market for players is.

I’m not going to directly ask you about Skubal tonight because I’ve done that fairly recently. Three weeks ago, you weren’t so keen to give up a lot for a two-month rental in Skubal. But there is another pitcher who has been linked to the Cubs lately and that’s Twins right-hander Joe Ryan.

Ryan is a very good pitcher, but he certainly doesn’t have the track record of Skubal. He’s a two-time All-Star but he’s never gotten a single Cy Young Award vote, for example. You can argue that Ryan has been the better pitcher than Skubal this year, because he has been. Ryan has a 2.85 ERA and a 2.77 FIP compared to 3.09 ERA and 3.06 FIP. But it should be noted that Ryan had a similarly excellent first half of 2025 and then fell off a cliff after the All-Star Break. Skubal was also hurt for a part of this season. He struggled in his first three games off of the IL, giving up nine runs over 16.1 innings. But in his last three starts, he’s only allowed four runs over 16 innings, which is a 2.25 ERA. He’s also struck out 23 and walked just three in those 16 innings. In other words, it looks like the old Tarik Skubal is back.

Skubal is a hard-throwing lefty whose fastball averages around 97 miles per hour. He’s also got a sinker that also comes in around 96, an upper-80s slider and a change. All four of those pitches rate from above average to plus. The Cubs don’t have anyone on their staff with anything like Skubal’s arsenal.

Ryan, on the other hand, is a right-hander who gets by on movement rather than velocity. His fastball is a pretty average 93 mph, but it has very good movement and “rise.” Yes, I know pitches don’t really rise. It’s the illusion of rise. It’s what scouts call an “invisiball” because it’s so hard for hitters to get a read on it. It’s a plus pitch despite the lack of pure velocity.

But Ryan also has a splitter, a sinker and a sweeping slider, all of which are at least average or better. This year he also seems to have junked his changeup for a better knuckle-curve. All-in-all, Ryan may not be a Cy Young Award candidate in most years, but he’s a very good pitcher who could anchor almost any rotation in the majors.

All things being equal, I would still go with the pure stuff and track record of Skubal over Ryan. But there are two big factors that might push the discussion towards Ryan. For one, Skubal makes $32 million this year and Ryan only makes $6.2 million. You might say that’s Tom Ricketts’ money and I don’t care and I’d say I agree with you. But Ryan might leave more money in the payroll for a second player acquisition at the deadline that Skubal doesn’t.

But the other factor is that Skubal becomes a free agent at the end of this season and Ryan doesn’t become one until the end of next year. So a trade for Skubal is just for the final two months of the season and the playoffs. With Ryan, you get the end of this year and all of next. Yes, Ryan will be in line for a big raise next year, but he’s not getting $32 million like Skubal did.

Neither pitcher will be cheap in terms of the quality of players the Cubs would have to surrender to get them. Matt Shaw, Jefferson Rojas, Jaxon Wiggins, Kane Kepley and maybe even Josiah Hartshorn are the types of players that would have to headline a deal to get one of those two pitchers. In other words, at least one and maybe more of the Cubs top-four prospects or Matt Shaw would have to go in a deal. Before someone misunderstands me, no. The Cubs aren’t trading all five of those players for a pitcher. At least one of those five would have to go along with maybe two more solid prospects from farther down the rankings.

So tonight’s question is, all things being equal, which pitcher would you rather the Cubs have? Skubal or Ryan? That is, if both the Tigers and Twins would accept the same package for their pitcher, which deal would you pull the trigger on? I’ll let you vote “neither” if you want. Spoilsport.

Thank you for stopping by tonight. We’re so glad to see a friendly face. Get home safely. Call a ride if you need to. Don’t forget any personal items. Recycle any cans and bottles. Tip your waitstaff. And join us again next week for more BCB After Dark.

Usually, making predictions is a great way for us to make fools of ourselves. Even speculating on the future can do the job, as the Purple Row community will see as the staff revisits and updates our State of the Position series this week from preseason prognosticating to midseason reflection and projection. 

That being said, making predictions is still fun. 

With that in mind, what are your predictions for the post-All-Star portion of the 2026 season. While we’d love to hear all your predictions — big and small — here are four categories for a guide if you want them. 

Category 1: What are your predictions for the final record? 

Some will measure this in wins and others in losses. For my pick, I am hoping and believing the Rockies will finish with fewer than 100 losses — even if it’s just by one or two games. So maybe 63-99?

Category 2: What player will have the best second half? 

It could be a pitcher or a position player. He could end the season with the Rockies or not. My prediction is that Kyle Karros continues to tear it up and finishes with 20 home runs and a batting average over .275. 

Category 3: Who gets traded?

Same deal — this could be a position player or a pitcher. I am leaning toward Antonio Senzatela, who could be a valuable arm for a contender in exchange for some future bullpen arms.

Category 4: Outside-of-the-box predictions

What’s something wild that will happen in the second half? This could be a single-game performance, a final stat total or anything you can think of. 

I think Jake McCarthy hits another inside-the-park home run, bringing his total on the year to three. I am also predicting Hunter Goodman finishes with 50 homers, making his Home Run Derby omission embarrassing for MLB.

What do you all think? Feel free to expand the categories!

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

Carson Wiggins has taken his first steps to Citi Field.

The Mets signed their top selection (27th overall) in this year’s draft on Wednesday in Queens, agreeing to a $3,466,500 signing bonus (the full slot value) with the 6-foot-5 flamethrower from Arkansas.

Wiggins, 21, has been touted by Mets officials as a potential “front-line” starter in the future, featuring a fastball that has touched 102 mph.

But the right-hander threw only 14 innings in college (3.21 ERA) after undergoing elbow surgery last year and missed his entire sophomore season with the Razorbacks.

After being selected by the Mets, Wiggins said he is done with his rehab and ready to pitch again.

The best is yet to come.

That’s the warning MLB insider Buster Olney issued to the rest of the league as the Dodgers chase a third consecutive World Series title.

On “First Take,” Olney chose the Dodgers to go all the way in 2026.

“I would definitely take the Dodgers. Look, they’re on a 101-win pace and think about what hasn’t gone well for them. Blake Snell hasn’t pitched. Tyler Glasnow is on the injured list. Kyle Tucker, who they spent so much money on in the offseason, he hasn’t played that well. And yet here they are, again,” Olney said.

“The team to beat. I think the best of the Dodgers is yet to come. After slow-playing these injuries, get Edwin Díaz and other guys back. They’re going to be a great team by the time we get to October.”

Olney is right, a lot of things have gone wrong for the Dodgers in 2026.

Injuries appear to be a staple story for LA in recent seasons, but the Dodgers have pressed forward even without key roster pieces. The struggles of Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki could have also derailed the starting rotation’s success, but the right-hander’s 5.33 ERA hasn’t prevented the Dodgers from taking an 11 ½-game lead in the National League West.

The Dodgers stand tall with the NL’s best record (61-36) heading into the second half of the season, when reinforcements are poised to return imminently.

The Dodgers became the first team to win back-to-back championships in a quarter century but are looking to take the dynasty a step further by completing the three-peat. With the trade deadline only a few weeks away, the front office has the ability to make the roster even scarier by adding Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal.

While it’s no guarantee a trade happens, the fact the Dodgers can realistically acquire Skubal is simply infuriating for every other MLB team.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

At 36 years old, Freddie Freeman is coming off his 10th career All-Star selection.

In the 2026 MLB All-Star Game, the Dodgers first baseman batted third for the National League in what was his sixth straight appearance in the Midsummer Classic.

Freeman has spent the last five seasons in LA, helping the Dodgers win back-to-back World Series titles over the past two years. The star cemented himself in Dodgers lore when he hit a walk-off home run against the Yankees in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series.

As the Dodgers chase a third consecutive championship, Freeman’s retirement timeline remains uncertain. But the 2020 NL MVP shared his goals amid the twilight of an incredible career.

“I’ve always wanted to try and play until I’m 40 years old,” Freeman said at All-Star Media Day. “That would be three more years after this.”

Freeman was reluctant to provide a set number as his Dodgers contract expires at the conclusion of the 2027 season.

“I’m not going to put a firm number on it,” Freeman said. “I would have to get another contract, so I’m only worried about this year. But 20 years in the big leagues would be kind of cool and special.”

While Freeman is closer to the end of his career rather than the start, he’s remained an elite player for the Dodgers. This season, Freeman is hitting .290 with 15 home runs, 49 RBIs and an .862 OPS. Defensively, the veteran ranks in the 82nd percentile in Outs Above Average with a plus-2 grade.

Beyond his talent, Freeman plays a leading role in the Dodgers’ clubhouse as a seasoned veteran. There are still questions about his Dodgers future, but the first baseman will certainly end up in Cooperstown.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

The Mets are just two seasons removed from falling two wins short of the World Series, a little more than a year since they held the best record in baseball, and less than four months since being labeled contenders again.

But now the Mets (40-57) are on pace to finish in last place for the first time in 23 years, returning from the All-Star break after posting their worst first-half mark since 1995.

Steve Cohen is spending roughly a half-billion dollars on a roster that ranks 26th in batting average (.234), 29th in on-base percentage (.303), 27th in slugging percentage (.381), 26th in quality starts (23) and tied for the second-most errors (65).

But the Mets may not have hit bottom yet.

Coming off a home sweep by the Red Sox, the Mets resume their seasonlong slog Thursday at Philadelphia, beginning what is MLB’s toughest remaining schedule (.539 opponents win percentage) over the final 65 games.

Following a three-game set against the Phillies, the Mets will play three consecutive series against first-place teams (at Milwaukee, vs. Dodgers, vs. Atlanta), as part of 25 straight games against winning teams. The Mets will not face a team that is currently worse than one game under .500 until the final weekend of August.

“Continue to fight,” Francisco Lindor said after the final game before the break. “At the end of the day, that’s the only thing we can do. And we’re going to try to be better. We’re going to play as hard as we can in the second half, and hopefully we put ourselves in a much better position. Because right now, it’s not where we want to be.

“It’s not to the standard that we have here, and definitely not what we expected … We just have not played up to our potential.”

Whatever potential the Mets appeared to have in March doesn’t matter anymore, sitting 12 games back of the final wild-card spot and behind all but one team in the National League (Rockies).

“It’s a better team than that,” said interim manager Andy Green, who has gone 6-10 since replacing Carlos Mendoza, the first Mets manager to be fired in-season since 2008. “There’s too much talent in the room to be in this spot right now.”

Soon, the room will have even less talent.

After David Stearns whiffed on nearly every offseason move — including moving on from franchise fixtures such as Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil and Edwin Díaz, while bringing in Bo Bichette, Marcus Semien, Freddy Peralta, Devin Williams, Jorge Polanco and Luis Robert Jr. — the Mets president of baseball operations will attempt to recoup some of his losses by the Aug. 3 trade deadline.

The Mets’ first sell-off since 2023 began last month, when they traded David Peterson to the Cubs, and could end with several more players leaving Queens, including Peralta, Williams, Luke Weaver, Clay Holmes, A.J. Minter, Brooks Raley, Huascar Brazobán and others. Earlier this month, Cohen told The Post that he was “extremely worried” about the team’s future because of “regression in [their] farm system.”

There is nothing left to fear this season. It’s hard to imagine how it could get any worse.

But there is still time.

“We have to take a level of ownership of it ourselves,” Green said of the team’s record. “Every single person on this team has a level of responsibility to flip the script going into the second half.”

A native of Alpharetta, Georgia, Marcus Ward attended Kings Ridge Christian High School. A four-year letterman there, playing football as well as baseball, he was a First All-Region Team honoree this past spring, helping lead the Tigers to a 30-4 record and their second-consecutive Georgia High School Association Final Four.

At the plate, the 6’, 175-pound left-hander stands closed, holding his bat high, wrapping it behind his head almost parallel to the ground. He swings with a slight leg lift, shifting his weight forward with a whippy, long levered, planar swing that he is currently able to level out against pitches upstairs. He sprays the ball around the field with gap power, regularly posting exit velocities in the mid-80s in exhibition games and reaching as high as 99 MPH, but his slim, athletic frame is likely to fill in and add some natural muscle mass and power.

In the outfield, Ward has shown the ability to track balls well and take expeditious routes to them. He has a quick first step and his above-average speed gives him plenty of range. Once put outs are made, he has a strong and accurate arm, with throws from the outfield measured as high as 84 MPH.

An outfielder for the Tigers, Ward was drafted as a left-handed pitcher by the Mets. This may be a clerical error, or they may be interested in trying Ward out on the mound, where his fastball has been clocked as high as 89 MPH, complemented by a mid-70s slider, mid-60s curveball, and low-70s changeup.

Ward has a commitment to Western Carolina University.

It did not take long for the Nats to agree on a deal with 11th overall pick Chris Hacopian. The Nats signed the former Texas A&M and Maryland star to a $5.7 million deal. This is notable because it is about $430,000 under the $6.13 million slot value of the 11th pick.

Those savings will be important, especially for the Nats to sign their third and fourth round picks. High schoolers Luke Williams and Cooper Harris are likely to take over slot deals to buy them out of their college commitments. Hacopian taking a bit of a hair cut will help them get those two players.

Do not get it twisted though, Hacopian was not one of those picks where the Nats reached to get an underslot deal. Hacopian’s talent fit in this range, with Baseball America ranking him as the 11th best prospect in the draft and MLB Pipeline ranking him 14th. 

Hacopian is arguably the best pure hitter in the entire draft. He makes a ton of contact while also hitting the ball very hard. The 21 year old also makes good swing decisions, and has walked more than he has struck out at every level. His bat is legit, and could reach an even higher level if he learns to elevate his hard contact more consistently.

We have already broken down Hacopian, and have a cool story about him coming tomorrow, but it is hard to overstate just how good of a hitter he is. Hacopian may not be the fastest or most athletic player around, but he is a true masher who also has great baseball instincts. Hopefully that baseball IQ can help him stick at second base.

As a cherry on top, Hacopian is from the area and grew up as a Nats fan. The Nationals posted a video after he signed where he walked onto the field, and seemed in awe of being down there. Hacopian has been a fan in the stands at Nationals Park many times. Now, he has achieved a dream of his, and is signing with his hometown team to make things even more special.

Hopefully we get more signings in the next few days. The deadline is on July 27th, but ideally we would have things resolved before then. I have my eyes peeled on three high schoolers the Nats drafted in the 15th, 16th and 17th rounds. It is likely at least one of them signs, but hopefully the Nats can land two of the three. Catcher Francisco Rivero seems like the easiest sign of the three.

Landing one of Anthony Murphy or Isaiah Galason would take this draft to the next level. I am not totally sure if the Nats have the funds to pull this off, but we will find out in the next couple weeks.

It is always good to get clarity on your first round pick very quickly, and that is exactly what happened here with Hacopian. Welcome home Chris! It would be awesome to have two DMV kids in the lineup one day with James Wood and Hacopian. That could be a reality sooner rather than later given how advanced Hacopian is offensively.

The Dodgers announced a new giveaway, and it’s bound to be one of the most popular from the 2026 season.

On Wednesday, the Dodgers revealed an Andy Pages and Kiké Hernandez bobblehead from World Series Game 7 labeled “The Catch.”  

Fans will be able to get the iconic bobblehead on Sept. 6, when the Dodgers face the Nationals. The first 50,000 attendees at Dodger Stadium will receive the giveaway item.

The collectible refers to Pages’ iconic grab of Ernie Clement’s deep fly ball in left-center field. With two outs and the tying run on-base for the Blue Jays, Pages collided with Hernandez but reached up to make the catch.

The play sent Game 7 into extra innings, with the Dodgers ultimately emerging victorious in the 11th frame at Rogers Centre.

Pages’ heroics were even more miraculous considering he had been benched for the final two games of the Fall Classic by manager Dave Roberts after hitting .078 in the playoffs. Despite the offensive struggles, Roberts deployed Pages as a defensive replacement late in Game 7.

That decision paid dividends as Pages emerged as a key contributor in keeping the Dodgers’ postseason hopes alive.

Flash forward to the summer of 2026, Pages is coming off his first career appearance in the All-Star Game. The 25-year-old is hitting .270 with 17 home runs, 66 RBIs and an .807 OPS this season.

His rise to Dodgers fame began long before “The Catch,” but Pages certainly cemented himself in franchise history with the title-saving play — a moment fans will now be able to take home.

Don’t plan on Willson Contreras leaving Boston anytime soon. 

The Red Sox slugger, acquired in a trade with the Cardinals in December, affirmed his desire to stay in Boston for the long haul and not waive his no-trade clause while speaking with reporters Tuesday before the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.

“The front office knows the answer [to my future]. I already spoke [to them] about it, but I don’t think I’m interested in going anywhere,” Contreras said. “I didn’t [directly] say, ‘Don’t ask me for a trade.’ But I told them I would trade something to stay here. That’s what I said.”

“I like Boston. I think it’s a great place to play, and it’s not easy to get traded again. So, I think I found my family here.” 

Contreras, 34, has two years left on his contract after 2026 and said he’s excited to work with Boston’s young core. 

“I like challenges. I like the team. I love my guys. I love my teammates and I don’t want to leave them,” Contreras added. “They’re great people, and that’s what I appreciate the most. And, like I said, every day they show up to the clubhouse, they’re willing to listen. They’re willing to learn, and that’s why I went ahead and said something [to the front office].” 

While it seemed likely the Red Sox would be sellers at 32-46 just a few weeks ago, they won nine straight games entering the All-Star break and are 46-48, just a 1/2 game out of a playoff spot. 

Trading Contreras may have been a strong possibility then, but it likely isn’t now. Especially with how valuable the slugger has been in 2026. 

The veteran is hitting .285 with 20 home runs, 61 RBIs and a .921 OPS, making his first American League All-Star team. On top of that, he nearly made the finals of the Home Run Derby on Monday, falling short in the semifinals by one blast. 

Prior to joining the Red Sox, Contreras spent three seasons with the Cardinals, hitting 55 homers over 344 games. 

Before that, he won a World Series in 2016 with the Cubs, spending seven years in the Windy City and hitting 117 homers with three National League All-Star nods. 

Cooper Dossett was not only a well-known, high-profile high school prospect during his days playing at Har-Ber High School in Springdale, Arkansas, but he was a record-setting high school prospect; the right-hander set the Perfect Game national record by uncorking a throw from the outfield that was clocked at 100 MPH. A four-year letterman with the Wildcats, Dossett excelled on the mound as well as at the plate, with many scouts considering him one of the best overall players in the 2022 draft class from Arkansas and one of the best high school players nationally. Over the course of his Har-Ber career, he appeared in 79 games and hit .312/.432/.625 with 21 doubles, 2 triples, 10 home runs and 26 walks to 46 strikeouts while making 28 appearances on the mound and posting a 2.13 ERA in 98.2 innings, allowing 43 hits, walking 71, and striking out 188.

The two-way player had a strong commitment to the University of Arkansas and went undrafted in the 2022 MLB Draft, making his way to Fayetteville that fall. He appeared in two games out of the bullpen early in the season, but lost coach Van Horn’s confidence after allowing 4 runs in 1.2 innings and was not used again for the rest of the season during in-game situations. That’s summer, he pitched for the Green Bay Rockers of the Northwoods League to supplement his innings load, appearing in 13 games and posting a 4.83 ERA in 31.2 innings, allowing 29 hits, walking 18, and striking out 43.

In 2024, coach Van Horn gave Dossett a longer leash, but the right-hander failed to cash in on the opportunity, posting a 5.17 ERA in 15.2 innings over 14 relief appearances, allowing 7 hits, walking 7, and striking out 20. As if that were not bad enough, he injured his arm pitching in what ended up a 14-4 blowout loss against the Texas A&M Aggies on the final day of the regular season. He ended up tearing his UCL and requiring Tommy John surgery, which he got that fall. As a result of the recovery process, the right-hander missed the entire 2025 season. Draft eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft, Dossett did not hear his name called.

The right-hander returned to the mound this spring, his redshirt junior year. Appearing in 16 games, he posted a 6.88 ERA in 17.0 innings, allowing 12 hits, walking 12, and striking out 18. Following the end of the Razorbacks season, he played for the Williamsport Crosscutters of the MLB Draft League.

The right-hander throws from a three-quarters arm slot utilizing a full over-the-head wind-up, short-arming the ball. He threw from a low-three-quarters arm slot earlier in his Razorbacks career, and the mechanical changes seem to have been made in an attempt to improve his control and arm health. He utilizes a three-pitch mix consisting of a four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball, and the occasional changeup.

Dossett’s fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s and has been clocked as high as 96 MPH this summer in the MLB Draft League. While that is barely passable velocity for a right-hander, and has an pedestrian four-seam fastball spin rate, Dossett is able to get a seam-shifted wake effect on the pitch so that it produces well above-average induced vertical break numbers, topping out as high as an elite 21.3 inches.

The right-hander’s cutter sits in the high-80s-to-low-90s, topping out at 91 MPH this summer with average horizontal glove-side boring action. His curveball sits in the low-80s and has power 1-7 break thanks to an above-average spin rate hovering close to 3,000 RPM. His changeup sits in the low-80s and is very firm, little more than a change-of-pace pitch to set up something else rather than a legitimate competitive offering.

The American League All-Stars dominated the National League yet again on Tuesday, July 14, winning 4-0 and earning their 11th victory of the last 13 Midsummer Classics.

With that out of the way, attention turns to the MLB trade deadline on Aug. 3. With less than a month away, the time has come for teams to decide whether they will buyers or sellers.

Some teams have obviously already fallen into one of those categories. The Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels are too far out of contention to be buying at this point, but each of those teams have great players that contenders would love to have for the remainder of the season.

Superstars such as Byron Buxton, back-to-back Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal and All-Star closer Mason Miller have all emerged as likely trade candidates. And of each them would instantly elevate any team they joined.

Here are our rankings of the top 10 MLB trade deadline targets:

How y’all doing? I, personally, am ready for this break to be over.

The All-Star Game and related festivities came to a close last night – Sam’s got a recap on how our Braves represented us in the Midsummer Classic. Was it weirder than normal, or was it just me?

Anyways. The Braves will return to Truist Park to face the Rangers starting Friday. In the meantime, the floor is yours in the comments for any and all topics. Argentina’s inevitability, produce-parasite avoidance tips, or anything else on your mind? Go right on ahead.

On July 28, 2024, the Dodgers beat Houston 6-2, improving their record to 63-44. Miguel Vargas didn’t play in that game and would never play for the Dodgers again. The next day, the Dodgers traded him to the White Sox, who lost in Kansas City, dropping to 27-82. The Dodgers went on to win the World Series, and the White Sox set a modern record for wretchedness. 

Vargas hadn’t played much with the Dodgers, appearing in only 30 games with a 0.2 WAR. But still, he was on a great team, one that was the center of the baseball world. He got to play with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman. He was part of a franchise that was as competent and well-run as it was profligate, and there was arguably no better place to be. 

And then, the next day: the White Sox. The opposite of the Dodgers in practically every way, a team that was in a major city but still seemed somehow cowtown and one-horse and go-nowhere. A joke. His performance reflected and amplified how bad things were: he went on to slash .104/.217/.170, posting a -1.0 WAR and a remarkable OPS+ of 13. Michael Kopech, on the other side of that trade, pitched in the World Series. 

Somehow, the trade seemed to make the worst team in the modern history of baseball even worse. The enduring image of the season was Vargas sitting in the dugout, looking miserable and shell-shocked.

But, I thought at the time…why wouldn’t he be? He was a human being who went from what was probably the best professional situation he could be in to what was almost certainly the worst. It wasn’t just the record and the futility. The White Sox had just slammed their contention window shut with nothing to show for it except a laundry list of failed can’t-miss prospects, all of whom graduated to part-time elsewhere or out of baseball completely. Of course, he was shocked and staggered; of course, he had to wonder if this would destroy his career. Of course, it impacted how he performed. Wouldn’t you wonder the same things? Wouldn’t you be worse at your job? 

That, to me, is what makes Vargas’s mammoth homer in the All-Star Game one of the absolute highlights of the season. The ASG doesn’t matter, and the game itself was made even more absurd by MLB’s insistence that what baseball fans want is less baseball. Still, the fact that Miguel Vargas was there, that he came to play, and that he was grinning from ear to ear when trotting to first, is a perfect symbol of this improbable season. 

His 3.2 WAR puts him just outside the top 10. He’s got 21 dingers. An OPS+ of 135. And he’s clearly having fun playing baseball, something that seemed impossible just two years ago. Hell, even with a few green shoots last year, it still felt like spring would never arrive, and we’d be in a soggy gray March for years to come, looking for a sun that wouldn’t break through. 

Somehow, prospects are clicking. Routine plays are (mostly) being made, and so are plus defensive plays. Scraps from Tampa are All-Stars. High-risk, high-reward signings are all-stars. The ballpark is crowded and loud. An injured veteran is in the dugout every day, waving a magic wand and having the time of his life. I’m focused more on the field than the front office. I can go days of my life without even thinking about Jerry Reinsdorf. 

This is where I’ll clear my throat and say “this isn’t a great team and there are still too many bone-headed plays and Will Venable might be a bit too addicted to lefty-righty matchups and the pitching is still dangerously thin and we’re really only a few games over .500 and everything could crash and be in vain and all human yearning, as the man says, is vanity, vanity, vanity.”

But screw that. We’ve had a first half that no one could have predicted. We’re having fun again. Miguel Vargas is having fun at the All-Star game. The Sox once again matter, and belong. It seemed impossible just over two years ago, when Vargas’s professional life was pushed into a volcano. More than anyone else, he is the symbol of this wild rebirth. More than anyone else, he deserves it.