The 2025 NBA Draft will be held on Wednesday, June 25, and Thursday, June 26, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Live coverage begins at 8 PM ET on both nights. This year marks the 79th edition of the event.
See below for everything you need to know about the 2025 NBA Draft, including the full draft order, how to watch information, and more.
A new NBA champion will be crowned this Sunday, June 22, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder go head-to-head with Tyrese Haliburton andthe Indiana Pacers at Paycom Center. It all comes down to Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals. Tip-off is at 8:00 PM ET on ABC.
The Indiana Pacers forced Game 7 with an aggressive 108-91 win on home court on Thursday night. Obi Toppin led the way for Indiana with 20 points, Andrew Nembhard added 17, and Pascal Siakam scored 16 points with a team-high 13 rebounds.
Haliburton, playing through a strained calf injury, contributed 14 points.
"We did our job to take care of home court and we've got to be ready to compete in Game 7," said Haliburton.
The Pacers' defense forced 21 Thunder turnovers, including 8 from Gilgeous-Alexander, who finished with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
“It was collective. It wasn’t one guy. We were not where we needed to be on either end of the floor for much of the game. We have to be a lot better before Game 7," said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault.
“The way I see it is, we sucked [in Game 6]. We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything — for everything we’ve worked for — and so do they,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “The better team Sunday will win.”
The Thunder vs Pacers series will take place on ABC.
Thunder vs Pacers Series Scores and Schedule:
*All times listed are ET
Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110
Game 2:Thunder 123, Pacers 107
Game 3:Pacers 116, Thunder 107
Game 4: Thunder 111, Pacers 104
Game 5: Thunder 120, Pacers 109
Game 6:Pacers 108, Thunder 91
Game 7: Pacers at Thunder - Sun, June 22, 8 PM on ABC
Want even more NBA best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert NBA Predictions page from NBC Sports for money line, spread and over/under picks for each game of the Thunder vs Pacers series!
Oklahoma City Thunder’s Path to the NBA Finals:
The Thunder are seeking their first NBA title since relocating to Oklahoma City in 2008. The last time the franchise reached the Finals was in 2012, dropping their series against LeBron James' Miami Heat in 5. Here is how they advanced to the NBA Finals:
Oklahoma City swept the No. 8 Memphis Grizzlies in the First Round, eliminated the No. 4 Denver Nuggets in 7 in the Conference Semifinals, and defeated the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves in 5 in the Western Conference Finals.
The Indiana Pacers are seeking their first NBA title. The team's last Finals appearance was in 2000, when they lost to the Lakers in 6. Here is the team's path to the Finals:
Indiana eliminated the No. 5 Milwaukee Bucks and the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers in 5 games, before knocking out the No. 6 New York Knicks in 6 to advance to the Finals.
BALTIMORE – Nobody in the Baltimore Orioles organization is happy about how the season opened in the second year of David Rubenstein’s ownership.
“We just had an incredibly frustrating and disappointing start,” Mike Elias, the team’s executive vice president and general manager of baseball operations, said in an interview this week. “It was a Murphy’s Law kind of start.”
Everything went wrong as the O’s lost 32 of their first 47 games. Elias cited injuries, underperformance and players pressing for the face-plant that followed last year’s 91-win season.
“You name it,” he said. “It was all a contributing factor.”
The perception by fans as the season began was that the Orioles didn’t spend enough this offseason to improve the team. However their player payroll increased by $57.5 million. The issue? How they spent that money.
Of MLB.com’s top 25 free agents, Baltimore signed just one: outfielder Tyler O’Neill. And in an offseason where several high-profile starting pitchers were on the market—like Corbin Burnes, Max Fried, Blake Snell and Jack Flaherty—the O’s filled their rotation holes with 41-year-old journeyman Charlie Morton and Japanese rookie Tomoyuki Sugano. Of their seven MLB signings, only O’Neill’s deal was for more than one year.
“Ownership made a lot of payroll investment this past winter,” said Elias. “Unfortunately, the first few weeks it didn’t bear fruit, but in their first offseason they showed a willingness to spend, and we were among the highest payroll escalations.”
The team so far hasn’t gotten much bang for its buck. Morton, the third-highest paid player on the team this season at $15 million, entered this week with a 6.05 ERA. O’Neill has been limited to two home runs across 24 games because of injury.
Local fans have responded. Average attendance is down 4,908 to 23,606 a game at Camden Yards, which ranks 22nd in Major League Baseball. The still-beautiful ballpark opened in 1992, leading a revolution of similar baseball stadium construction throughout the U.S., but has never hosted a World Series game.
That streak won’t end this year, barring a miracle turnaround story.
Charlie Morton has posted his highest ERA since 2010. Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images
Baltimore’s dismal start cost incumbent manager Brandon Hyde his job in mid-May. Only two seasons earlier, the O’s won 101 games and the American League East title, and Hyde was named AL Manager of the Year. He was replaced on an interim basis by third base coach Tony Mansolino, who had no MLB managing experience. Mansolino is 42, but looks and sounds much younger.
There was a lot of nervousness when he took over that first day, he said.
“You prepare, deal with the nerves, but then you settle in,” Mansolino said. “You try to do things the best you can … in the end it’s just having confidence in yourself like the players.”
The immediate results were predictable. The Orioles kept losing under Mansolino, hitting their season low of 15-32 on May 20. But what’s happened since then has given Elias hope. They’ve started playing better and winning as key players such as Cedric Mullins and Jordan Westburg have returned from injuries. They are over .500 since that low water mark, including a three-game home sweep last weekend of the Los Angeles Angels.
Still, the same problems they met out of the gates have popped up and hindered momentum. Baltimore’s pitching staff squandered an 8-0 lead to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night to lose, 12-8.
“We’re playing more relaxed,” Elias said. “We’re a healthier team now. We’ve received some stabilization from our pitching staff. And most importantly our young core of hitters has been improving. We haven’t quite dug out of the hole, but the team is very talented. Time is on our side a little bit.”
But time is not really on their side this season, playing in one of the toughest divisions historically in MLB. Making the playoffs is going to be a steep uphill climb, and every multi-run collapse like Wednesday night’s hammers morale.
Everything for the Orioles the rest of the way is going to have to go right, while other AL teams have to fall apart. FanGraphs gives Baltimore a sub-5% chance of making the playoffs. Baseball-Reference has the team at a sub-1% chance.
“I hope there is time,” Westburg said. “I prefer to look at the positives. It’s a long season and there’s a lot of things that can change between now and then.”
That doesn’t seem likely with the Rays, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox above them by a solid distance in the division standings. As far as the three Wild Card berths, there are seven teams between the O’s and the final spot.
The roots of this year’s problems go back to last season. The Orioles were 58-38 at the 2024 All-Star break and boasted what many considered the top farm system in baseball. But the team was widely believed to need to bolster its rotation at the trade deadline, and the club hung onto its top five prospects and dealt for Rays starter Zach Eflin and Marlins starter Trevor Rogers. The latter posted a 7.11 ERA in four starts for the O’s before getting sent down to Triple-A.
“We accomplished our goals,” Elias said on MASN after the deadline. But the O’s faded down the stretch, going .500 in the second half and giving up first place to the Yankees for good on Sept. 6. Their 91-71 record was 10 games worse than 2023, but good enough for second place in the AL East and a Wild-Card berth. They were knocked out by the Kansas City Royals in two games, scoring just one run.
Adding their sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers in a 2023 AL Division Series, the Orioles haven’t won a postseason game or series since 2014.
Following its 2024 exit, Baltimore’s ace, Burnes, departed for the desert, signing a six-year, $210 million deal with his top-choice Arizona Diamondbacks. Without Burnes this year, and with Grayson Rodriguez and Kyle Bradish on the shelf, the starting rotation is near the bottom of MLB with an ERA above 5.20.
For his sake, Burnes just underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and is likely out until the end of the 2026 season at best. Thus, the O’s sidestepped that disaster.
Now, with the clock ticking, the Orioles face another trade deadline decision. Of their young hitting core—Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Jackson Holliday, Colton Cowser and Westburg—only Rutschman is earning more than $800K in 2025. Those bills will eventually become due through arbitration and/or potential extensions, so the franchise has more than just the upcoming second half to consider in its roster-building.
Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson has not matched his 2024 production.Photo by Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
In the meantime, the Orioles’ player payroll ranks 15th in MLB this year at $184.3 million, up from $126.8 million and a No. 26 ranking in 2024. Eight of the 15 AL teams spend less, but of course their AL East brethren in the Yanks, Jays and Red Sox don’t. Only Tampa Bay is way below them with a $101.5 million payroll, but Kevin Cash’s group is well above Baltimore in the standings and prevented the Orioles from gaining ground in this week’s four-game series.
“If you’re a middle-market team in baseball, just throwing money at your payroll over and over is not a particularly sustainable model,” Elias said. “You have to blend that in with good scouting and player development.”
As far as being a mid-market team, the Orioles are valued by Sportico at $1.82 billion with a 2024 revenue of $339 million, 18th in MLB. They must compete with the Yankees, who lead the sport in value at $8.39 billion, and are second in revenue at $799 million.
Rubenstein, who per Forbes has a net worth of $3.8 billion, and his group paid $1.725 million to buy the O’s from the Angelos family in March 2024. But there is a bright side.
The Orioles have a jewel of a ballpark in Camden Yards, which is about to undergo up to $600 million in improvements courtesy of state funds, including this offseason new outfield video boards, a ribbon advertising board circling the stadium and a new press box to replace the old one behind home plate—which to the chagrin of many writers is being converted into a luxury suite.
The club’s office space in the classic warehouse beyond the right field fence is also being renovated. And that’s just a start, as the entire facility is under evaluation. It all needs work, Catie Griggs, the club’s president of business operations, said in a dugout interview.
“The ballpark is iconic. It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s also largely untouched since it was built in 1992, which in some respects is fantastic, but in other places it’s starting to show its age.”
This offseason as well, the owners are spending $27 million of their own funds to upgrade the player facilities at their Sarasota spring training complex in Florida, much like the $30 million of work the Yankees just completed this year at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.
Unlike the Yankees, Red Sox and Blue Jays, the Orioles neither own nor operate their own ballpark, nor do they pay rent to the Maryland Stadium Authority to play there. They have recently signed a lease that commits them to the facility for the next 30 years.
They are a mainstay in the Baltimore area with a huge government subsidy from the state. Elias says ownership has indicated there is “payroll flexibility,” moving forward.
The Orioles may not have the revenue of big-market teams, but they don’t have the expenses, either.
To keep up with the Yankees and Red Sox, they must develop a symbiosis between business and baseball operations under the new ownership.
“I mean, that’s the name of the game,” Elias said. “I wish I could answer that simply. There’s an unevenness between franchises and market sizes in MLB that’s unique relative to other major league sports. Each franchise has to figure out the right formula.”
This season’s formula has not been right at all. The Orioles say they’re working on it.
“I mean, it didn’t take long,” Posey told former Giants pitcher Jake Peavy and former MLB general manager Steve Phillips. “That’s another fascinating part about this job, right, is how quickly stuff leaks out.”
Although the former Giants catcher talked about how quickly the news broke, mentioning he threw on ESPN for their “Sunday Night Baseball” coverage of the Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers game, he followed that up by saying it wasn’t until the agreement was in place that the news broke.
“I am pleased with our group and credit to the Red Sox as well,” Posey said. “We were talking about this for going on a month, so the fact that we were able to get it done before something came out is a credit to both sides.”
It seems good things come to those who wait — and keep quiet — as both teams got what they wanted in the end.
Here's what to know about the game and how to watch...
Mets Notes
Juan Soto is hitting .323/.482/.662 with six homers, four doubles, 19 walks, 12 RBI, and 18 runs scored over his last 19 games
Brandon Nimmo is hitting .302/.368/.523 with five homers, four doubles, 12 RBI, and 15 runs scored over his last 22 games
Blade Tidwell, who is being called up from Triple-A Syracuse, will be making his second career big league start
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How can I watch Mets at Phillies online?
To watch Mets games online via Apple TV+ and MLB's "Friday Night Baseball," you will need a subscription to Apple TV+. This will allow fans to watch the Mets on their computer, tablet, or via the Apple TV app.
INDIANAPOLIS — There is just one game left in the NBA season.
"One game for everything you ever dreamed of," Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of Game 7 on Sunday. "If you win it, you get everything. If you lose it, you get nothing. It's that simple." After Indiana's blowout win on their home court in Game 6 Thursday, both Pacers and Thunder players were already feeling the weight — and getting excited — about what was to come
"It's so, so, exciting. As a basketball fan, there's nothing like a Game 7," Tyrese Haliburton said. "There's nothing like a Game 7 in the NBA Finals. Dreamed of being in this situation my whole life. So, to be here is really exciting."
"You could ask every team in the NBA. Every team would take this opportunity to take this chance," Chet Holmgren added. "We're no different. It's on us to go out there and make the most of it."
"There's not a lot of Game 7s that happen. So, to have this opportunity to play in a Game 7 with this team is a blessing and wouldn't want to do it with any other team," Obi Toppin said.
What Game 7 brings is not just the drama and finality of one game to win it all, this is also almost pure basketball focused on effort and execution. There is no special adjustment coming, nothing either coach left in their back pocket for this moment.
"We've played each other enough now, where it's like, it's pretty much -- I mean, I don't think there are any secrets out there when we play," Pascal Siakam said. "I think it's just about who wants it more, like just playing hard, and leaving it all out there on the floor and living with the results."
Game 7s are less about adjustments and more about focus.
"The narratives are going to be almost poison…" Haliburton said. "To talk about what this would mean to our city and our organization and legacy talk and we played so well and now the pressure it on. Like, you know what I mean? There's going to be narratives that we can't really pay attention to."
"They're going to go into Game 7 confident, and so are we," Jalen Williams said.
Both teams have earned that confidence. Game 7 will be about which team can execute in the biggest moment of their careers, in the brightest spotlight basketball has.
"The way I see it is, we sucked [in Game 6]. We can learn our lessons. We have one game for everything, for everything we've worked for, and so do they," Gilgeous-Alexander said. "The better team Sunday will win."
"We've got one game. One game," Haliburton added. "It's nothing that's happened before matters, and nothing that's going to happen after matters. It's all about that one game."
Watching the Stanley Cup Final come to an end earlier this week, I couldn’t help but wonder how the Edmonton Oilers could have the best player in the world and not give him decent goaltending to work with. Throughout the playoffs, Stuart Skinner had a 7-7 record, a 2.99 goals-against average, and a .889 save percentage while backup Calvin Pickard was 7-1, with a 2.85 GAA and a .886 SV. Those are not Cup-winning numbers.
Former Montreal Canadiens player turned ESPN analyst P.K. Subban was quite vocal about how nonsensical that is:
“There’s some donkeys [coaches, presidents, and GMs] in control of the money”
While it’s easy to judge the Edmonton management, it’s not the first time a team has failed to strike the right balance. The same happened before our very eyes with the Canadiens. After drafting Carey Price at the 2005 draft, the Habs had arguably the best goaltender in the business, and they proceeded to focus on giving him a good blueline rather than surrounding him with scoring power.
To an extent, Price’s situation was even worse than McDavid’s. The Anahim Lake, BC native only made it to the Cup final once, while the 28-year-old Oilers captain has already won two Cup Finals under his belt. Let’s not get back into the “yes, but what if Chris Kreider never happened?” debate; what happened happened, and Price only came so close to Lord Stanley’s mug once.
It can take time to assemble the right roster, one that has all the ingredients of a championship-winning team. For years, Florida Panthers' Sergei Bobrovsky was considered an overpaid goaltender with his $10 million cap hit. Now, with two Stanley Cup rings and three consecutive Cup Finals appearances, nobody’s calling him overpaid. Over those last three playoffs, he had .915, .906, and .914 SV alongside 2.78, 2.32, and 2.20 GAAs. If you go back to before Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk joined Aleksander Barkov and Aaron Ekblad in Florida, his stats were nowhere near as good.
It takes time to build the perfect roster, and putting all your eggs in one basket is just not going to work. It didn’t work for Price, it didn’t work for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Big Four, and it won’t work for McDavid either.
It’s no wonder the Oilers’ captain is in no rush to sign a contract extension, even though he’ll be entering the last year of his deal next season. Unless the Oilers do some serious retooling, I wouldn’t be surprised to see McDavid take his incredible skills elsewhere, and it won’t be because he wasn’t patient enough. He has been in Edmonton for 10 years already.
I’m aware that Edmonton’s big guns didn’t produce much in the Final either, but perhaps, if they had a goaltender who could make the first save on the first shot, the confidence level would have gone up and things would have been different…but we’ll never know.
One thing’s for sure: GMs all around the league are taking notes on what to do and what not to do. In Montreal, Kent Hughes has locked up his top line and a defenseman. If everything goes according to plan, he should lock up his number one goaltender in the coming years, but Jacob Fowler will have to be as advertised for that to happen. Careful planning is not necessarily enough; you also need a bit of luck. There’s a reason why the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in professional sports.
Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
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With GM Don Waddell less than two weeks away from free agency, the NHL's hot stove is starting to heat up, and Columbus seems to be in the mix. At least that's what the rumors say.
On Thursday, TheFourthPeriod.com reported that the Columbus Blue Jackets were one of a few teams who have contacted Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams about German forward J.J. Peterka. Peterka is a pending RFA.
"The Vancouver Canucks are believed to have interest in both players, while the likes of the New York Islanders, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning are among the other teams reportedly eyeing Peterka," the Fourth Period reports.
It's also been reported that Peterka is unhappy in Buffalo and wants a change of scenery.
The site also reports that the Sabres aren't interested in picks or futures, but rather players who can step in help the Sabres to the postseason for the first time since 2011.
Peterka is going into his fourth pro season, and has been pretty good so far. Last season, he played in 77 games, had 27 goals and totaled a career high 68 points. He also had 18 power play points and three GWG. For his young career, he has 67 goals, and 150 points in 238 games.
So what would Buffalo want for Peterka?
The Jackets have picks 14 and 20 in the upcoming draft, but knowing the Sabres want players instead of picks, that probably won't work. You have to think that a deal to get Peterka to Columbus would start with Cole Sillinger.
Sillinger is going into fifth year already, which seems crazy to me. The young Columbus-born center has played in 286 NHL games, scored 43 goals, and has totaled 107 points.
Surely it would take more than Sillinger to land Peterka, so what else would they require? Remember who else is in Buffalo - Jarmo Kekäläinen. Kekäläinen rarely misses on trades, and he knows who the Jackets have from top to bottom.
Might Jordan Harris or Luca Del Bel Belluz get added to the deal to get it done?
One things for sure, Don Waddell is not going to sit by and watch all the available players around the league get traded without him doing his due dilligence.
Expect more rumors and speculation during the NHL's silly season.
Let us know what you think below.
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FBS commissioners expect the conversations to continue in the coming weeks. The FCS is expected to soon formalize its own move to permit schools to begin playing on Week Zero.
After re-signing Matthew Duchene to a four-year deal worth $4.5 million annually, the Dallas Stars only have a projected $4.955 million in available cap space. They have five unrestricted free agents – Jamie Benn, Mikael Granlund, Evgenii Dadonov, Brendan Smith, and Cody Ceci – and two restricted free agents – Bourque and Nils Lundqvist.
Assuming one of the depth forwards signs for the league minimum of $775,000, Benn returns on a modest $3 million deal, and Granlund re-signs at $5 million annually, the Stars would be $3.82 million over the cap before signing Bourque.
They won’t be able to sign them all, and Bourque could be the odd-man out given their needs.
Bourque, drafted 30th overall in 2020, recorded 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 73 games this past season, his rookie campaign. He played 12:41 minutes per game, primarily on the club’s third line.
In 2023-24, his final season in the AHL, he recorded 77 points in 71 games (26 goals, 51 assists).
To determine the value of an offer sheet, you divide the salary by either five years or the term of the contract, using whichever is lower.
Here’s a story going more in-depth on the process:
Assuming the Islanders do not risk a future first-round pick in an offer sheet, the only relevant compensation levels in the 2025 offseason are:
Below $1,544,424 AAV (no draft pick compensation)
$1,544,425 – $2,340,037 (2026 third-round pick)
$2,340,038 – $4,680,076 (2026 second-round pick)
As a reminder, a team must forfeit its own draft picks in an offer sheet.
Of course, the Islanders sent their 2026 second-round pick to the Chicago Blackhawks on June 29, 2023, alongside Josh Bailey.
However, similar to how the Blues reacquired their own 2025 second by sending a 2026 second and a 2025 third to the Penguins in exchange for their original 2025 second and a 2026 fifth, the Islanders could offer Chicago the 42nd pick in 2025 along with a future late-round pick to get their 2026 second rounder back.
The Bourque Comparison
A Bourque offer sheet would be similar to what Philip Broberg signed with the St. Louis Blues in 2024, which was a two-year deal at the then-maximum AAV within the second-round pick compensation tier – $4,580,917.
For Bourque, this would be a contract worth $4,680,076 annually for any term of five years or less.
The Broberg-Holloway-Bourque Parallel
While offer sheets are rare, the parallels between Dylan Holloway, who was also signed to an offer sheet in 2024 by the Blues, Broberg, and Bourque are uncanny.
Broberg and Holloway were on the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers, stuck behind deep rosters that limited their upside.
They then joined a Blues lineup that offered significantly higher ice time than Edmonton’s while paying them double or triple what they were previously getting offered.
For Bourque, it could be the same story with the Islanders, as New York just traded away center Brock Nelson, and may also move center Jean-Gabriel Pageau. They could use an NHL-ready, young forward.
Potential Fit With the Islanders
While Bourque developed as a center, he would likely start his time with the Islanders on the wing, a position he saw time at with the Stars in 2024–25.
The Islanders lack right-wing talent, especially if Mathew Barzal returns to center, so putting a right-handed Bourque on the second-line wing would make sense.
His back-to-back 20+ goal AHL seasons show he knows how to find the back of the net, but he is better known as a crafty playmaker with speed and aggression, something that would fit well alongside Barzal.
With general manager Mathieu Darche wanting to bring speed and energy to the Islanders' lineup, putting together a second line of Anthony Duclair, Barzal, and Bourque would do just that at an affordable cost while getting younger.
In the long run, Bourque could move back to center or stay on the wing, as the Islanders lack right-wing depth both in the NHL and the prospect pool.
The Granlund Dilemma
While it might seem easy to let Granlund walk, that decision is not so simple.
He posted 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) in 31 regular-season games and added 10 points (five goals, five assists) in 18 playoff games for Dallas in 2024–25.
From the time he was acquired on Feb. 1 through the end of the regular season, Granlund ranked in the top six among Stars skaters in goals, primary assists, and total points. In the playoffs, he ranked in the top three in goals and in the top four in points.
Granlund also has strong personal ties to the team, as he is Finnish and close with fellow countrymen Mikko Rantanen, Miro Heiskanen, Roope Hintz, and Esa Lindell.
While keeping him may put the team in a bind, the Stars are in win-now mode, and letting him leave, especially if he’s willing to sign below market value, is hard to imagine.
Could Dallas Create Cap Space?
Now, let’s say Dallas somehow fully offloads both Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin’s contracts that combine for $7 million against the cap and replace them with league-minimum salaries; they would have just $1.63 million to sign Bourque, still under a 20-player roster.
From there, the only possible salaries the Stars could shed to fit Bourque at $4.68 million would be Wyatt Johnston’s recently signed $8.4 million AAV deal, or Jason Robertson’s $7.75 million AAV, assuming nobody with full trade protection waives.
Robertson’s name has flown around in trade rumors, so it is possible he is moved, but even then, Dallas would be unlikely to find a way to fit Bourque at $4.68 million without sacrificing other areas of the lineup.
While the Stars could move mountains and oceans to ensure they don’t lose Bourque to an offer sheet, it is hard to imagine they prioritize a 23-year-old with 74 career NHL games over another defenseman or two – the team’s biggest weakness.
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Absolutely, and Posey doesn’t need to go digging through the club’s history books all that much.
“I think back in my career when we added a guy by the name of Jake Peavy,” Posey humorously shared with the former Giants pitcher and co-host Steve Phillips on the MLB Network on Friday. “I was pretty excited.”
Is Rafael Devers the biggest Giants trade since Jake Peavy?
Buster Posey makes the comparison and explains his expectations for the slugger in San Francisco.
Peavy and Posey were Giants teammates for three seasons, winning a World Series together in 2014, the same season San Francisco traded for the right-hander.
“In all seriousness, Peavy injected an energy into our clubhouse,” Posey added. “There was a leadership element that he brought that I know that [general manager Brian Sabean] targeted those types of guys. I certainly pay attention to that.”
Posey spent plenty of time together with Peavy from 2014 to 2016. Now, as San Francisco’s lead executive, he is hoping Devers’ arrival has a similar impact in San Francisco.
“Ultimately, I believe a big part of this job is, of course, [that] we want to have great players on the field and a roster that is going to help us win a lot of games,” Posey said.
“To me, Rafael Devers is a star. And our fan base, as you know, has been clamoring to have guys like this that can show up to the park and root for daily.”
As it stands, the 28-year-old slugger is owed roughly $255 million over the next eight and a half seasons, signaling a heavy commitment from Posey and Co.
Posey, however, believes it will all be worth it — both for the Giants’ clubhouse and the fan base.
“I think it was pretty evident from the get-go, knowing our fanbase like I know our fanbase, that they would be extremely excited about Rafael being in our lineup,” Posey concluded.
Russell Martin agreed a three-year contract at Rangers in early June [SNS]
Russell Martin will have shown he is the "right man" for Rangers "within the first six months or so", predicts former team-mate Steven Naismith.
The former Southampton manager, 39, begins his Ibrox reign with a Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos next month, while his first Scottish Premiership game is a visit to Motherwell on 2 August.
Naismith played alongside Martin for Norwich City and Scotland and believes he will prosper in Glasgow.
"I fully believe that he will come in and be a real success," Naismith told BBC Scotland.
"I think what has been lacking at Rangers over the years, he ticks most of the boxes. His style of play, he knows how to break down a low block that he'll come up against a lot, in terms of dominating possession.
"His communication and leadership skills are probably the highest things for him. He's shown in the three clubs he's managed before that he can produce, he can make teams better.
"Within the first six months or so, I think he will have shown a lot of those doubting him that he is the right man."
Ex-Hearts head coach Naismith also revealed the pair are in contact regularly and, although he has not spoken to him specifically about the Rangers job, he says he will be on hand if Martin needs him.
"We chat a lot because we're friends and we're similar in terms of what we're going through in terms of coaching and management," the 38-year-old continued.
"I'll give him any help I can. He's pretty straightforward and laser focused on his style, his mindset and what he wants.
"His experience of playing at the club (on loan in 2018) is definitely something that will hold him in good stead going into the start of his managerial career at Rangers.
"He wants his players to do certain things on the pitch that in Scotland get challenged from the stands quickly if it's not going well. Finding that balance of having that clear style and working towards that, but also getting results short-term, is going to be key for him."
Here are five things to watch and predictions as the Mets and Phillies play a three-game series in Philadelphia starting on Friday.
5 things to watch
Can the Mets' offense snap out of it?
New York's offense is in a serious rut, having scored just five runs over the last four games -- all losses. And four of those runs came on Tuesday against the Braves in Atlanta.
A main culprit has been the Mets' bottom of the order (save for Tyrone Taylor's big game on Tuesday), which has not been able to do much.
Lindor is 0-for-14 over his last four games, though he did hit a few balls on the screws on Thursday night in Atlanta.
Alonso has just three hits in his last 16 at-bats and hasn't homered since June 8.
It's easy to envision New York's bats coming alive at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park, but Philadelphia's starting rotation could have something to say about that.
The Phillies' rotation
Zack Wheeler, Mick Abel, and Jesus Luzardo are lined up to start against the Mets, with Wheeler getting Friday's series-opener.
Wheeler is having another Cy Young-caliber season, with a 2.76 ERA and career-best 0.88 WHIP. He's also striking out a career-high 11.3 batters per nine.
Abel has hit the ground running in his rookie season, with a 2.21 ERA and 1.03 WHIP over his first four starts in the majors.
The wild card is Luzardo, who began the season on fire but has struggled badly recently, pitching to a 13.50 ERA in 16.2 innings over his last four starts.
When the Mets were forced to turn to Justin Hagenman on Thursday night in Atlanta, it meant they were going to have to call someone else up to start on Friday.
May 4, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; New York Mets pitcher Blade Tidwell (40) makes his debut pitching appearance against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. / Tim Vizer-Imagn Images
Tidwell struggled earlier this season against the Cardinals in St. Louis during what was his first big league start, allowing six runs on nine hits in 3.2 innings.
And he was hit hard his last time out for Triple-A Syracuse, giving up six runs on seven hits in 3.2 innings.
Before that start, Tidwell had been pitching relatively well, allowing just 12 earned runs over his prior 31.2 innings over six outings.
Baty left last Sunday's game against the Rays early due to right groin tightness, and he hasn't played since.
He made some progress on Thursday, and was viewed as a possible option to contribute off the bench. But he wasn't called upon in the Mets' lopsided loss.
With Baty out, it has opened the door for more playing time for Ronny Mauricio, who homered last Saturday and went 1-for-2 on Sunday after replacing Baty in the seventh inning. But Mauricio didn't do much against the Braves, going 1-for-10.
Baty was scuffling at the plate before injuring his groin, but did smack a homer last Saturday.
On the horizon is Mark Vientos, who is rehabbing with Syracuse and could possibly return to the Mets next week.
Kyle Schwarber has stepped up power-wise with Bryce Harper out
Harper hasn't played since June 5 due to a wrist injury, taking a massive bat out of Philadelphia's lineup.
But Schwarber has filled the power void in Harper's absence, smacking four homers in the 13 games since the first baseman went down.
Schwarber remains very susceptible to the strikeout, though, having fanned 26 times in 64 at-bats this month.
Elsewhere in Philadelphia's lineup, Alec Bohm -- who was the subject of trade fodder earlier this season -- is hitting well.
He has 17 hits in his last 41 at-bats, including a pair of homers and a pair of doubles.
Predictions
Who will the MVP of the series be?
Pete Alonso
The homer drought ends in Philadelphia.
Which Mets pitcher will have the best start?
David Peterson
Peterson carries a 2.60 ERA into Sunday's start.
Which Phillies player will be a thorn in the Mets' side?
Nick Castellanos
Castellanos isn't having the best season, but he's always dangerous.
Reporter Joon Lee provided an example of this dysfunction earlier this week, revealing on NBC Sports Boston’s Arbella Early Editionthat one candidate interviewing for a Red Sox baseball operations job went through five rounds of interviews without speaking to a human being.
“During this interview process, the entire interview was conducted with an AI bot, where you would record the answers to the questions and then the Red Sox would then evaluate them,” Lee said.
“And this wasn’t just one round. It wasn’t just two rounds. It was five rounds of interviews where this person did not talk to another person in the Red Sox organization.”
The Red Sox called Lee’s reporting “unsubstantiated” in a statement Wednesday and insisted they mostly used HireVue — the AI and human resources management company that “conducted” those interviews — to screen a vast number of applications early in the hiring process.
But there’s more evidence that suggests Boston’s HR operation isn’t exactly five-star quality.
The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier spoke to “multiple individuals” who described their interview process with the Red Sox as “discouragingly impersonal,” with “infrequent human interaction relative to other teams.” That impersonality manifested itself in the form of a brutal form letter received by several candidates who didn’t make it to the final stages of interviews.
From Speier:
The sense of the team’s impersonal approach to hiring was amplified last year by the fact that multiple applicants, after completing the problem set and HireVue interview, received the same emailed form letter, with the same unfortunate top-level sentence:
“Thank you for your interest in working for the Boston Red Sox and applying for the {{insert job title}}.”
“I didn’t go further than that line. I kind of laughed and closed out the email,” said one applicant. “That was the part that upset me in the moment. I still look back and laugh on it.”
That’s a tough look for a professional baseball team looking to attract the best front-office talent in the sport.
Speier added that some had better experiences with the Red Sox, with one candidate noting he received a follow-up call from a Boston staffer with feedback about his application. But another candidate described the whole process as “awkward and cold.”
On its face, the Red Sox doing everything they can to leverage AI and analytics isn’t a bad thing. But the reporting of the past week suggests Breslow and his front office have gone too far in embracing data while failing to connect with job candidates — as well as their own staffers and players — on a personal level.
And nothing drives that home like the dreaded form letter typo.
Kurt Helin
