LAS VEGAS — The tempting comparison, given the Golden Knights’ unexpected run to the Stanley Cup Final, would be to the team that shocked the NHL in 2018 by playing for the championship as a first-year franchise.
But the more apt comparison might be to three years ago when Vegas — in not nearly as much of a surprise — won the Stanley Cup.
Carolina or Montreal, who are playing in the Eastern Conference Final, will have a lot to say whether the Golden Knights complete the task and win another Cup.
But Vegas is back for the third time in its nine seasons to cement itself as potentially the greatest expansion franchise in North American sports history. The Golden Knights got there by beating Colorado 2-1 for a stunning sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche.
This team, like the one in 2023, has won with depth scoring, bruising defense and a hot goalie.
“I think we’ve always built our teams with good depth at the forward position, defensive position and goaltending position,” captain Mark Stone said. “I guess the similarities are that’s just the way we build our teams.”
On the 2023 team, 18 players scored goals in the playoffs and 12 had at least 10 points over 22 games. So far through 16 games this postseason, 15 players have scored goals and six have produced 10 or more points.
The depth showed itself in the clincher against the Avalanche when both goals came from the third and fourth lines, with Cole Smith scoring the decisive goal with 5:45 left.
“The third and fourth lines, the five- and six-D, that’s how you continue to move in the playoffs,” coach John Tortorella said. “Those are very important pieces as you go through these series. I’m happy for Smitty. I was going to kill him; he’s taking so many penalties.
“But I’m happy for him and (Dylan Coghlan and Kaedan Korczak). I mean, how well did they play. Playing against that team with the amount of speed that they bring, they weren’t intimidated by a thing.”
Coghlan and Korczak form the third pairing on the Golden Knights’ defense, which shut down an Avalanche offense that averaged a league-high 3.63 goals per game during the regular season and in the first two rounds upped that to 4.11. It was 1.75 against Vegas.
Colorado went the final 14:23 of the second period in Game 4 without a shot on goal and more than 25 minutes with just one shot.
The Golden Knights spent the series blocking one Avalanche shot after another, and for the postseason, four of the top nine players in blocked shots play for Vegas, topped by Shea Theodore’s 46. Four of the top five in 2023 were Golden Knights, including leader Alec Martinez with 57.
And then there’s the goalie play.
Adin Hill shined in 2023, coming off the bench in the second round and then going 11-4 with a .932 save percentage and 2.17 goals-against average. Hill remains on the team, but has been watching from the bench as Carter Hart has taken hold of the position. Hart is 12-4 with a .924 percentage and 2.22 GAA during the postseason.
“Hartsy’s been amazing this whole series, whole playoffs really,” Mitch Marner said. “Made some massive saves throughout all these games and again tonight. Made some massive ones for us to keep the game where it was. Hell of a game by Hartsy again.”
LOS ANGELES — Kiké Hernández likely is headed to the injured list with a strained left oblique just two days into his season debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 34-year-old utility man homered in his first at-bat, then doubled in his second before leaving a 15-6 win over the Colorado Rockies after his at-bat in the fourth inning.
“It’s not a season-ending thing, so that’s something to be hopeful with,” manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “But yeah, it’s just a bummer.”
Hernández was off to a hot start after missing the first 53 games of the season while rehabbing from left elbow surgery during the offseason. He went 4 for 4 with two doubles and the homer in his first two games.
A chastened Hernández admitted he tweaked his oblique during batting practice, shortly before telling the media that he was pain-free.
“I was embarrassed because it didn’t even happen in the game,” he said. “I thought it was just weird tightness. Never done an oblique before, so I didn’t really know what I was feeling. Compared to some of the things I’ve played through in the past, it was nothing.”
He received treatment and believed he could start and bat ninth in the lineup.
“The homer swing felt awful. The next at-bat I went out there, I swung and missed on the first pitch and didn’t feel great,” Hernández said. “After that I went into survival mode.”
Roberts talked to him in the dugout during the game, urging him to keep his head up.
“Honestly, at that point I was kind of not there, so I’m not necessarily sure everything that he said to me,” Hernández said. “I feel pretty defeated right now. Hopefully, we get somewhat good news tomorrow.”
Initially, he said he only felt pain when he was swinging.
“That’s kind of why I thought I could play,” Hernández said. “When I hit the double, it didn’t just hurt to swing, it also hurt to run, so I knew that it was time to stop.”
Teammate Mookie Betts sustained a right oblique strain in early April while running the bases. The 33-year-old shortstop missed 36 days before being activated on May 11.
“It sucks,” Betts said. “We saw as soon as he came he brought life to us, but we’ll just see how the rehab and whatnot goes. He’ll be back.”
The Vegas Golden Knights have officially become the first team to advance to the 2026 Stanley Cup Final.
After taking down both the Utah Mammoth and the Anaheim Ducks in six games, Vegas swept the President’s Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final to bring themselves four wins away from lifting the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history.
For two former members of the Vancouver Canucks organization, Vegas’ playoff run this season is not the first time they have advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.
Ex-Canuck and now-Golden Knight Ben Hutton won the Stanley Cup with Vegas back in 2023, with this being the team’s first time winning the championship and second time advancing to the Finals. The defenceman missed the first bit of the Golden Knights’ current playoff run, but skated in all six games of the team’s series against the Ducks. He played in one game against Colorado and tallied one assist.
Former Canucks head coach John Tortorella has made it to the Stanley Cup Finals once in his coaching career — when he won the championship with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004. Prior to this year, since that cup run in 2004, Tortorella had only made it as far as the Conference Finals. The ex-Canucks bench boss infamously joined Vegas at the end of March, taking the place of former Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy.
May 26, 2026; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Nicolas Roy (10) and center Brock Nelson (11) congratulate Vegas Golden Knights center William Karlsson (71) and center Nic Dowd (26) after the loss in game four of the Western Conference Final of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images
Unlike his fellow former Canucks on Vegas, Nic Dowd will be taking part in his first Stanley Cup Final with the Golden Knights’ series win. Prior to this year, his entire post-season career was spent with the Washington Capitals, with his longest playoff run being last year’s 10-game run against the Montréal Canadiens and the Carolina Hurricanes. This year, he has put up four points in 16 playoff games, including two against the Avalanche.
Vegas will face the winner of the Eastern Conference Final — one of Montréal or Carolina — for the Stanley Cup. As it stands, the Hurricanes currently lead the series 2–1.
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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - MAY 25: econd baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. #13 of the New York Yankees reacts after hitting a double during the 9th inning of the game against the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium on May 25, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Coming into the 2026 season, it felt like this was the year that Jazz Chisholm Jr. would leap into superstardom. After a tantalizing 2024 that saw him post 2.3 WAR with the Yankees in just 46 games, he posted a 30-30 season to go with a 126 wRC+ in 2025, solidifying his status as one of the best second basemen in the game. With better health and a bit more consistency, it really felt like Chisholm would challenge Ketel Marte for the title of the best 2B in MLB.
So far, that hasn’t happened. Through Monday’s action, Jazz’s seasonal batting line sits at .247/.324/.389, good for a 104 wRC+. That’s far from disastrous – see Wells, Austin and McMahon, Ryan if you want a really bad time – but it’s a clear step down from last year. The defensive metrics like him enough to prop his WAR up to 1.3, but it feels like he’s had more than his fair share of foibles in the field too. I mean, who could forget this game-costing play from April against the Rays?
Given the high expectations and underwhelming results to date, it’s hard not to feel frustrated with Chisholm. However, I would advise fans to not lose sight of the bigger picture with him. Even the current version of Jazz is a solid player and a worthy regular. He doesn’t need to be a superstar to be a perfectly useful piece for the Yankees.
First, about Chisholm’s performance to date. There’s no denying that his bat has been underwhelming so far, but it’s important to keep in mind that despite his struggles he’s managed to maintain a league-average line. The lack of power and hard contact is concerning, yes, but Chisholm draws just enough walks to keep his bat from completely cratering even when the homers aren’t coming.
Will the homers ever come, though? Given that Chisholm hit 55 homers over his past two seasons, it seems easy to say yes, but his lackluster contact quality metrics for this year – a paltry .276 xwOBA and (excluding 2020) a career-low 28.5% hard hit rate – do give me pause. But Statcast tells us he still has above average bat speed, and his swing path has actually followed the ideal attack angle more often than in previous years. All of this suggests to me that Chisholm’s power shortage has more to do with timing and swing decision issues rather than erosion of his core skills. While the latter is irreversible, the former issues are definitely fixable through coaching, although it might take time. I fully expect that Chisholm will be able to regain his power eventually.
On the other side of the ball, Chisholm’s defense is certainly a polarizing topic, with proponents pointing to his stellar metrics, and detractors pointing to his mistakes and misplays. This is to be expected; there’s less certainty with defensive metrics as with offensive stats, leading to the eye test occupying an outsized role in conversations. And while the eye test, especially when the scouting is done by an experienced professional, can be invaluable, it is also easily sullied by cognitive biases, chief among them our tendency to latch on to negative experiences rather than positive ones. This complicates things, especially when evaluating a player like Chisholm, who is capable of both sparkling web gems and boneheaded miscues.
I’m not here to definitively declare whether Jazz is defensively Good or Bad. What I will try to do is provide some perspective. If you’re of the opinion that Chisholm is a liability in the field, maybe you’re only remembering the bad stuff. But for every lowlight, there is a highlight.
Here’s an example of Chisholm’s nice lateral range:
Again, my point isn’t that Chisholm is good just because of these three plays. It’s that Chisholm has demonstrated the capacity to be great defensively as shown by these plays, and that these should factor into the discussion just as much as his mistakes. You have to take the good with the bad, and in my humble opinion, Jazz provides enough in the first category to live with the times when he delivers something in the second one.
All things considered, even the current, underwhelming version of Jazz provides league average offense with a high defensive ceiling. That’s a valuable player to have on your ballclub! And when you zoom out further, he becomes even more attractive – since joining the Yankees in July 27, 2024, only Nico Hoerner and Ketel Marte have posted more WAR as a 2B. If he can just get his bat back to where it was last year, the title of best second baseman in MLB is still well within Jazz’s reach.
BALTIMORE — Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Griffin Jax is day to day with a bruised lower back after leaving his start in a 6-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles a few batters after being hit by a 107.2 mph line drive in the second inning.
After the game, Jax told reporters he was “100% confident” he would feel good enough to make his next start.
“Arm feels great. Body feels great,” Jax said. “Just going through some basic movements, don’t feel too limited. It’s all in all scary, but I think it was a safe place to be hit.”
With a runner on first base after a fielding error by Jax and the Rays leading 1-0, Leody Taveras hit a liner that struck the pitcher in his back. Jax immediately went down near the mound while the ball bounced to third baseman Junior Caminero, who couldn’t make a diving play. Second baseman Richie Palacios recovered it, but Taveras was safe with a hit.
Meanwhile, Jax grabbed at the right side of his back while on the ground as head athletic trainer Joe Benge and manager Kevin Cash rushed to check on him. After a few moments, Jax was helped back to his feet, he threw a warmup pitch and stayed in the game.
After giving up a single to Jeremiah Jackson to load the bases, Jax struck out Colton Cowser for the first out. Blaze Alexander reached on a fielder’s choice grounder that Palacios bobbled after it took a bad hop off the second base bag, tying it at 1. Jackson Holliday followed with an RBI single and Taylor Ward’s sacrifice fly made it 3-1 before Jax got Gunnar Henderson on a flyout for the final out.
Garrett Cleavinger replaced Jax, who said his back was tightening with every pitch, to start the third inning. Jax (1-3) took the loss after allowing three runs — none earned — and three hits with three strikeouts on 26 pitches in his two innings.
With the first three legs already completed, the user is only two Spurs wins away from their $1.7-million prize. Unfortunately, the likelihood of obtaining that is now much smaller than it was just 24 hours ago.
The Spurs' 127-114 loss Tuesday means they need to win each of the next two games, one at home and one on the road, to advance to the NBA Finals. They are 1-1 at home and 1-2 on the road in the series.
After DraftKings saw their $502,583.66 cashout turned down before Game 5, the offer dropped 41.6% to $293,273.26 for the customer to hand in their wager.
A DraftKings employee told Covers the bettor said they will not accept the offer.
Will the offer improve?
The Thunder have been the NBA championship odds favorites since they won last year’s championship. They’re -450 to beat the Spurs and get their shot at defending their title against the New York Knicks, although they’re expected to lose Game 6 on Thursday.
DraftKings installed the Thunder as +3.5 underdogs with +136 moneyline odds on the road for the elimination game. The Spurs’ -162 moneyline odds suggest they have a 61.8% chance of winning the contest.
Parlay cashout values can fluctuate greatly game to game, as seen by the near $210,000 change between Games 5 and 6. Holding on to the ticket until Game 7, assuming the Spurs win the all-important Game 6, would likely place the parlay’s cashout close to what was offered earlier in the week.
The Spurs have shown they can beat the Thunder, winning at home and on the road in the series after taking four of five regular-season meetings.
However, history is strongly on the side of the series favorite. Teams that win Game 5 in an NBA playoff series tied 2-2 have gone on to win the series more than 82% of the time.
Betting splits posted on DraftKings Network show that 74% of bets and 79% of the handle in the spread market are on Spurs -3.5 ahead of the matchup. Despite that, 54% of bets and 50% of money are on the Thunder moneyline.
Finals odds
The Thunder sat around +110 in odds to win the NBA Finals before Game 5. The win shortened them to -140, while the Spurs lengthened to +550.
The Knicks - who are riding an 11-game winning streak and the most dominant stretch of play in NBA playoff history - are +205.
Hypothetical Finals odds posted on DraftKings have the Spurs as -235 favorites and the Knicks as +190 underdogs. The Thunder would be -280 favorites, and the Knicks would be +225 underdogs in a series between them.
The NBA’s owners are expected to meet Thursday to approve new “anti-tanking draft reform” via a “3-2-1 lottery.” I just know they’re the type of people who love a good board game — one with rules that take a half-hour to explain, by which time their guests’ eyes have glazed over.
Think they’ll get the hint if someone asks, “Y’all got any Clue instead?”
Actually, I’d prefer to turn on the basketball game, that nuanced, ever-evolving sport that’s beautiful for its simplicity: make or miss.
What’s wild is that a league that brings together the world’s best shooters keeps missing so badly on draft reform — unless it’s actually their feet that they’re aiming at.
Still, this reported new proposal — which would start next year and expand the lottery from 14 teams to 16 and penalize the three worst teams with poorer draft lottery odds than teams with the fourth- through 10th-worst records — might benefit the … Lakers?
You know those first-round picks they’ve been holding on to so that, come draft night, they’ll have three to offer in a deal? To use as bargaining chips for either a big name like the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo or, better yet, to acquire important foundational pieces to retrofit the roster around Luka Doncic?
Well, those three first-rounders should be much more valuable if other teams are disincentivized to trade their first-rounders, seeing how even middle-of-the-pack teams will have a shot at winning the lottery.
And not only will first-round picks be a rare commodity on the trade market going forward, but also the Lakers’ picks could prove more practically valuable than previously imagined.
Without this reform, no one would expect the Luka Lakers to be a lottery team. But under the new proposal, all it would take would be, say, their star missing 30 games and the Lakers sliding into the eighth seed, which would give the team holding that pick a 2.7% shot at the No. 1 overall selection.
And hold on, wait a minute: Will that give Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and his growing cast of front-office colleagues pause this offseason? Imagine how it would look if they dealt away a pick that turns into one of the top guys in a future draft for a 3-and-D role player on a team that, for whatever reason, slips into eighth? It wouldn’t look good! It wouldn’t feel good.
But would it stop the Lakers from doing what they need to do this offseason? It shouldn’t. But it could! But it shouldn’t! No, really, it shouldn’t: Because after draft night, the Lakers’ next two tradable first-round picks will be in 2031 and 2033 — and, per ESPN, this week’s draft reform proposal will include a sunset provision that would allow it to expire after the 2029 draft.
At that point, if they’re smart, the owners would scrap it. Of course, they’ll probably make it even more onerous so they can feel smart?
No wonder the Lakers went and hired Rohan Ramadas — the guy with an astronautical engineering degree from USC — as an assistant general manager.
But what are we doing here? All this variance and randomness, all these rules on top of regulations, none of it is exactly arbitrary, but neither is it fair. Since the draft lottery odds were flattened in 2019, the team with the worst overall record has not once lucked into the No. 1 overall pick.
The NFL would never! Oh, that plucky little league. With its antiquated worst-picks-first draft system? Seems to be going OK.
The worst thing about what the NBA is up to is how much work it has made it to follow along at home. You’ve heard of fan service? This league trades in fan disservice.
The league already ceded its regular season to the offseason, leaning into free agency drama as a driving source of year-round intrigue, letting team-building trump teamwork.
It already asked fans to bone up on contract law to be able to spell out the differences between the NTMLE (non-taxpayer mid-level salary exception) and RMLE (room mid-level salary exception).
Then the NBA introduced rules that incentivized stars to avoid free agency and to try, instead, to get traded — except then the league added a first and second apron to make it harder for teams to trade.
So the possibility of a dream sign-and-trade that has fans fired up? Odds are it won’t happen because it can’t; sign-and-trades are not permitted if the player acquired keeps a team above the first apron.
Perfectly clear? No?
Well, this won’t help: Let’s slather on another thick layer of basketball bureaucracy. To discourage tanking. (And encourage mere mediocrity! Middling is about to be the NBA’s new sweet spot.)
Let us proclaim that, oh, teams can’t land back-to-back No. 1 picks.
Unless they can. Unless it’s Team A, by virtue of selecting first using Team B’s pick the previous season, that is eligible to pick first in consecutive seasons. Team B, though, it’s out of luck the next year, no matter what goes wrong.
Don’t forget, class, that some picks won’t be able to be protected. No, not the top few picks — there will be no protections on Nos. 12, 13, 14, or 15.
Yes, that appears actually to be a caveat of the proposed new system. Which, yes, is actually designed to sell Advil.
Fans can figure this stuff out, but at some point soon, they’re not going to feel like it. At some point, everyone’s eyes are going to glaze over and it’s going to be 3-2-1, turn the TV off!
LAS VEGAS — Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar’s decision to replace goaltender Scott Wedgewood with Mackenzie Blackwood for Game 4 of the Western Conference Final wasn’t a bad idea, if only the backup netminder had gotten goal support.
The Vegas Golden Knights completed a 4-0 series sweep of the top-seeded Avalanche with a 2-1 win and will return to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in their nine years in the league.
The Avalanche now prepare for a long offseason. They had a dominant regular season, tying for the sixth-highest points by a Presidents’ Trophy winner with 121, going 8-1 in the first two rounds of the postseason while averaging 4.1 goals per game, and then falling flat in the conference final by averaging just 1.75 goals per game.
Though Blackwood dropped to 0-5-1 in six career appearances against the Golden Knights, he said he thought his performance was “good enough to probably get the win” after stopping 24 shots and holding the Knights to just one goal until the third period.
“Obviously, (expletive) sucks no matter how you do it,” said Blackwood, when asked if it is harder to accept being swept. “I think losing like that stings a little more. Yeah, that’s going to be pretty frustrating. We are going to have a tough pill to swallow.”
The Avalanche, who were held to one goal for just the third time during the postseason and second time in this series, didn’t get a shot on goal for more than 25 minutes over the second and third periods, as the Golden Knights were deliberate with their checking.
Offensive star and assistant captain Nathan MacKinnon, who led the team with 15 points in the playoffs, finished the series without scoring one goal after netting at least one in six previous playoff games.
Martin Necas, who was second on the team with 12 points during the postseason, just had two assists against Vegas and only one goal during the entire postseason.
Gabriel Landeskog scored for Colorado, cutting Vegas’ lead in half with 2:03 left in the game.
The Avalanche managed just one shot on goal after that, from MacKinnon, but Vegas goaltender Carter Hart continued his brilliant postseason by making his 20th save of the night.
“We run into a buzz saw in Vegas ... it’s a really good hockey team, and they won,” Bednar said. “They deserve the credit, you know. It’s not a knock on our guys. I just think we played hard and didn’t find enough solutions to what they were doing in order to win the series.
“Humility is certainly a word you use for it. I think that’s sports in general. I think you’re going to run into that a lot on any given day on any given year, and especially in the playoffs, right? So, yeah, losing sucks and losing four straight is worse.”
SAN FRANCISCO — Arizona third baseman Nolan Arenado left the Diamondbacks’ 7-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants in the seventh inning because of groin tightness.
Arenado was replaced at third base by Jose Fernandez to start the bottom of the seventh after going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run scored. The Diamondbacks announced Arenado was removed with tightness in his right groin.
“I told (Arenado) let’s be smart about this,” manager Torey Lovullo said after the win. “He’s day to day, so we’ll see how he feels tonight and tomorrow morning. We feel like he’s going to be OK, feel like he’s in a good spot.”
In the locker room, Arenado said he felt his groin tighten in the second inning while running from first to home. He then felt it worsen in the sixth after beating out a grounder to reach first base.
“Obviously, a little tight right now, but I didn’t feel a pull or anything,” Arenado said. “It was more precautionary than anything.”
Arenado will not undergo imaging on his right groin.
The 10-time Gold Glove winner and eight-time All-Star is hitting .271 overall with seven home runs and 27 RBIs in his first season with Arizona. Arenado was acquired from St. Louis along with $31 million in January for right-hander Jack Martinez.
In 2023, during an NBA Today discussion on ESPN about the Knicks being stuck in purgatory, Becky Hammon shared a hot-button take about Brunson's ceiling. Hammon asserted New York didn't have "a dude" or true No. 1 superstar to win a championship. Analyst Kendrick Perkins pushed back, saying the Knicks had Brunson, but Hammon didn't agree.
The Aces coach argued the 6-foot-2 guard was "too small," citing examples such as John Stockton, Steve Nash and Allen Iverson. Hammon mentioned Stephen Curry as the lone exception to the rule. With the Knicks now in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, Hammon's comments have resurfaced. The Las Vegas coach appears to be catching some heat from fans, but remains unfazed.
"The two best teams are probably in the West, but I'm up for being proven wrong," Hammon said. "And that's the other thing. I think Jalen Brunson's a hell of a player. A hell of a player. I'm speaking historically on the NBA with what I said ... I stand by it."
In response to the recent online backlash, Hammon didn't understand why her comments had resurfaced when it's been over two years. A media member said they were giving Hammon a chance to "clear the air," but she didn't subscribe to that notion.
"There's no air to be cleared. I said what I said. (If) he proves me wrong, he proves me wrong," she said. Hammon, who spent time in the NBA from 2014 to 2021 with the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant coach, emphasized again she believes the two best teams in the league were in the Western Conference.
"You know who I'm cheering for," Hammon said, smiling.
RHP Jhony Brito continues his rehab assignment with Double-A San Antonio after getting started with the ACL team. He is working as a starter and threw 3.1 innings on May 23, throwing 68 pitches, giving up three runs and six hits in his second start.
RHP Ryan Och, catcher Brendan Durfee, catcher Blake Hunt, LHP Adler Cecil, and lefty reliever Zack Qin are all on rehab assignments with the ACL Padres to start their return to the season. Och, Durfee and Hunt should end up with El Paso. Qin and Adler will probably go to Single-A Lake Elsinore.
Veteran infielder José Miranda, who had an opt-out in his contract in June, was released by the Padres on May 18. Playing with El Paso since the end of Spring Training, Miranda, 27, was hitting .268/.308/.482 with five home runs and 26 RBI. Two younger players, Samad Taylor and Jase Bowen, have been more productive and there didn’t appear to be a future for Miranda with the Padres.
El Paso Chihuahuas (23-28 record, 3rd in Pacific Coast League East)
Infielder Mason McCoy has found power in the 2026 season and leads the Triple-A Chihuahuas with 34 RBI. He has seven doubles, a triple, and six home runs with a .458 slug. Outfielder Jase Bowen continues to lead with 12 homers and has 33 RBI and a .600 slug. IF/OF Samad Taylor leads with a .329 average, and infielder Pablo Reyes has a .422 OBP and .966 OPS.
Bowen and Taylor would be the front-runners to come to the Padres in the event of an injury, although only McCoy and infielder Will Wagner are the ones who remain on the 40-man roster.
Righty starter Evan Fitterer has surprised this season, showing outstanding command with his 93-95 mph fastball and plus-curve to earn a 2.09 ERA in 38.2 innings pitched and nine starts. No other pitcher on the staff has an ERA less than 3.30, even the relievers.
Righty David Morgan is still struggling with his command, despite having quality stuff, and has a 7.56 ERA in 8.1 innings with El Paso.
Righty Garrett Hawkins, on the 40-man roster and the Padres No. 12 prospect, has lost some velocity and command this season. He is carrying a 5.49 ERA in 19.2 relief innings with 15 strikeouts and 19 walks.
San Antonio Missions (17-28 record, last in Texas League South)
Righty starter Miguel Mendez, on the 40-man roster, has struggled since returning from the neck sprain that took him out soon after the start of the season. He has a 5.40 ERA in 19.2 innings with 24 strikeouts and 10 walks. His command/control has not returned to their previous levels, although his stuff remains good.
LHP Omar Cruz has been working out of the bullpen and has a 5.14 ERA in 14 innings with 21 strikeouts to six walks. In his last two appearances, he has piggybacked with Mendez and gone long relief in both his starts.
Righty starter Ian Koenig has an overall ERA of 4.31 in 39.2 innings over eight starts. The 25-year-old has been better over his last two starts with 11.1 innings pitched and a 3.86 ERA.
RHP Francis Peña has 13 relief appearances for 18.1 innings with a 1.47 ERA. His walks are still high with 20 to his 27 strikeouts, but his struggles of last season seem to be behind him.
Righty starter Victor Lizarraga had a difficult start to the season and carries a 5.55 ERA in his 35.2 innings but has been better in May. Over his past two starts, he has a 1.50 ERA in 12.1 innings pitched.
Leandro Cedeño, the 27-year-old free agent sign from the offseason, continues to lead in all hitting averages for San Antonio. Catcher Ethan Salas, who turns 20 on June 1, has the lead in homers with six and RBI with 24. He has cooled slightly from his torrid April but is still hitting .289 in May with an .810 OPS. He also has nine stolen bases in 10 attempts.
Outfielder Kai Roberts has 14 stolen bases without being caught and boasts plus-speed and plus-defense. His hitting has not caught up for the 25-year-old.
First baseman Romeo Sanabria, who impressed during major league spring camp, started slow with the Missions but is heating up in May. He is currently sitting with four home runs, 20 RBI, and a .368 OBP.
Infielder Carson Tucker has also slowed a bit in May but is still hitting .309/.361/.409 with nine doubles, a triple, and 10 RBI.
Fort Wayne TinCaps (22-23 record, 4th in Midwest League East)
Left-handed starter Kash Mayfield started 2025 strong, then had a shoulder injury. When he returned, the organization limited his innings, and he was inconsistent. Starting 2026, Mayfield has been dominant and is easily the best pitcher on the TinCaps. He has a 1.30 ERA in 34.2 innings pitched across eight games. He has 43 strikeouts to 14 walks, which gives him a 34.7% K rate. Hitters are batting .099 against him.
Mayfield had a significant drop in velocity to his fastball last season, even before his shoulder injury. Getting that velocity back this season has been an ongoing goal.
This season, he has topped out at 95.7 mph while hitting 95 mph in his most recent start. The 21-year-old should still have more to come and should be back to the 92-97 mph range he had as an amateur. In a recent interview with Clark Fahrenthold of MadFriars.com, Mayfield speaks to working on his delivery to increase velocity and is seeing the results.
“In my motion, I’m putting in a little more effort instead of just cruising through the motion – kind of going max effort at the finish and driving with my back leg – and since doing that, the velo has slowly started to tick up again.”
His throwing motion features deception, and he hides the ball well. He features his fastball, a killer change-up, and a slider that he is still working on.
Reliever Clay Edmondson, drafted in the 14th round of the 2025 draft, is a sidewinder who doesn’t throw hard but has a 51.4% ground ball rate and a 0.47 ERA in 19 innings over 16 games. He has become the closer for the team and recently earned his 10th save for the season.
Right-handed starter Carson Montgomery, in his first full season after returning from Tommy John surgery, has a 1.41 ERA in 32 innings pitched over seven starts. Currently ranked the No. 30 prospect on MLB Pipeline, Montgomery features a mid-90’s fastball with a slider/sweeper and a change-up. He has excellent command so far this year, with 29 strikeouts to 13 walks.
Outfielder Alex McCoy continues to show that he has made an adjustment with his swing, giving him better contact than he has shown previously. McCoy leads the team in average (.303), slug (.599), and OPS (.967). His nine home runs and 28 RBI are also tops with the TinCaps. He leads the team in doubles with 16 and has eight stolen bases in 11 attempts.
Outfielder Kasen Wells leads the team in OBP with a .394 average and has 26 walks. He also leads in stolen bases with 11 in 17 tries. Outfielder Jake Cunningham is pushing McCoy with his .303/.379/.560 batting line. He has seven home runs and 20 RBI.
After starting his rehab in Arizona, righty reliever Ty Adcock has joined Fort Wayne.
Lake Elsinore Storm (25-20 record, tied for 1st in California League South)
Catcher Ty Harvey is back with the Storm after his injury rehab. He and catcher Truitt Madonna split time between C/DH/1B and are showing why they are both in the top prospect list. Harvey has played in less games due to his injury but is hitting .340 with a .912 OPS. Madonna started slower but has an .844 OPS in May. He has 11 stolen bases in 15 tries, Harvey has five stolen bases in six tries.
Infielder Kerrington Cross, drafted in the seventh round of the 2025 draft, is not in the top 30 of the prospect list but is pushing for a promotion before mid-summer. The corner infielder is hitting .307/.496/.568 with seven doubles, two triples, four home runs and 20 RBI. He has also stolen six bases in seven tries over his 35 games and 88 at-bats.
Outfielder Ryan Wideman has cooled off a bit in May but is still hitting .295 with an .840 OPS. He has 12 doubles, five triples, three home runs, and 30 RBI with 33 stolen bases in 40 attempts. The centerfielder also plays excellent defense to go with an average arm. His biggest weakness at draft time was his chase tendencies and his strikeout rate. He currently has 37 strikeouts in his 176 at-bats and a 21% K rate.
ACL Padres (8-9 record, 3rd in ACL West)
Infielder Dawson Willis is an undrafted free agent signed in 2025. At 6-feet-4 and 22-years-old, Willis is a defense-first 3B/SS who has just begun his professional career with the Padres. In four games and 14 at-bats he has two doubles, a triple and is hitting .429/.500/.714.
C/1B Jholan Downer and SS Yimy Tovar lead the team with averages of .348 and .345, respectively. Tovar is repeating in the ACL and could be pushing for a promotion to Lake Elsinore soon.
Taiwanese righty Lan-Hong Su has started two games and has four innings pitched. He has eight strikeouts in those four innings pitched and four walks, allowing no runs.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 16: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chuck's Global Stars brings the ball up court against Kyrie Irving #11 of the Dallas Mavericks and Shaq's OGs during the 74th NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center on February 16, 2025 in San Francisco, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Rockets fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
The Houston Rockets are used to this. Pretty much every name that might be available on the trade market has been linked to them. That’s been happening for a while now. Houston has historically been a pretty aggressive team when it comes to trades, and that reputation has remained through GM Rafael Stone’s tenure. The Rockets were linked just yesterday to Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics. They’ve also been linked this offseason to Kyrie Irving, Kawhi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell, and Giannis Antetokuonmpo.
What we want to know is, out of those five players, which one would you most like to see on the Rockets?
Cast your vote, tell us in the comments, and we’ll be back soon with the results.
MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy said antics on the mound by Brewers reliever Abner Uribe after an inning-ending strikeout in a 6-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals were unacceptable.
Uribe got Alec Burleson on a called third strike with two outs and runners on first and second in the eighth, the only inning he pitched. Uribe then made three WWE-style crotch chops while facing the Cardinals dugout.
The Cardinals challenged the call, which was close, but narrowly confirmed to be at the bottom of the strike zone.
“I don’t know what got over him. I mean, he’s been an emotional guy, but that kind of things, that’s just not how we do things,” Murphy said. “I was embarrassed by it. Why are we doing it? It’s a 6-0 game. What are we doing there?”
“I love the kid. Believe me, I love the kid,” Murphy continued. “There’s so much good in this kid. He’s been so great for us in so many ways, but that’s unacceptable. So, whatever’s going on, you can’t tolerate that. For his teammates, and for everything, it’s not going to be tolerated, that’s all there is to it.”
Murphy said he already talked with Uribe. Murphy also realized how close the pitch was to being overturned and the possible ramifications.
“The thing that I think about is if that challenge got overturned, you’ve got to reset and go back out there and pitch,” Murphy said. “This is Major League Baseball. Guys can reset, boom, base hit, dumper, homer, and all of a sudden it’s 6-5.”
Uribe apologized through an interpreter, but also directed some of the blame toward the Cardinals.
“Everyone here knows me and knows who I am, and knows I have a bit of a history of being emotional out there,” Uribe said. “I think first I owe an apology to the Brewers. I owe an apology to my teammates, to my manager, all the bosses of the team. I understand that’s unacceptable, to go out there and react in a way like that.”
“But at the same time, I don’t think it’s unprofessional for their manager to be making signs towards our dugout saying that he’s going to be hitting guys,” Uribe said. “There was an event that occurred during the practice today, too, and I don’t think that was right. So, I have my teammates’ back always.”
Uribe declined to elaborate on the event, and said St. Louis manager Oliver Marmol was making signs during the previous game that led Uribe to believe it was to hit Brewers batters.
Marmol did not comment afterward on Uribe’s antics on the mound.
“It looked like their team and Murph was handling it on their side,” Marmol said. “That’s their player. We’ll handle ours.”
At the time, however, Marmol was not aware of Uribe’s accusation.
Uribe was suspended for six games and fined following a benches-clearing brawl against the Tampa Bay Rays in April 2024.
If you've been watching the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, you know that they are absolutely littered with former
Columbus Blue Jackets players. From Vegas and Colorado to Carolina and Montreal, there is no shortage of former CBJ to watch.
But, with last night's sweep of the Colorado Avalanche, the Vegas Golden Knights will be sending a trio of former players to the Cup final. Oh, and the head coach, John Tortorella.
Brandon Saad - Traded to Columbus in June of 2015. He then played two seasons, totaling 106 points, before being traded back to the Chicago Blackhawks in June of 2017 for Artemi Panarin. He has 2 points in 5 playoff games for Vegas.
William Karlsson - Contrary to popular belief, Karlsson was not drafted by the CBJ. He was traded to Columbus in March of 2015. He played two full seasons and totaled 45 points for Columbus. The CBJ left him unprotected in the 2017 Vegas expansion draft and was snatched up by the VGK. The Vegas original has now played nine seasons for the Golden Knights and totaled 403 points, highlighted by his wacky first season in the desert, where he scored 43 goals and 78 points. He hasn't come anywhere close to the 43 goals and 78 points since that 2018 season. He has 76 points in 116 playoff games for Vegas.
Keegan Kolesar - Ok, I admit, this one is a bit of a stretch since he never actually played for Columbus, but he was chosen 69th overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. He was traded to the VGK on June 24, 2017, in exchange for a pick that would become Alex Texier. The Vegas original has 120 points in 439 games for Vegas. He has 4 goals in 72 playoff games.
John Tortorella - Vegas shocked the NHL world when they fired Bruce Cassidy before the season's end. Since then, he's led the Knights to a division title and has just swept the heavy cup favorite Colorado Avalanche. In Columbus, he led his teams to a 227-166-54 record with four playoff appearances. Included in that is the historic sweep of the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning team, which highly resembled the Avs team he just swept.
The Vegas Golden Knights await the winner of the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens series, which features a couple more former Blue Jackets.
Next Up For Columbus: The NHL Draft is on June 26 and 27 in Buffalo, where the CBJ will own pick #14.
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CLEVELAND, OHIO - MAY 26: Andrés Chaparro #87 and Curtis Mead #45 of the Washington Nationals celebrate after defeating the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on May 26, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Nationals defeated the Guardians 6-3. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After another highly impressive performance, the Nats are now two games over .500. They will finish off their road trip this afternoon in Cleveland, and finally get an off day afterwards. While the Nats have been outstanding this season, they only have one sweep. The boys will look to change that today.
With a righty back on the mound for the Guardians, the Nats are making a few changes. Luis Garcia Jr. will be back in the lineup at first base. Curtis Mead looks to be a full time player now, getting another start at third. Jorbit Vivas will start at second over Nasim Nunez. Jose Tena will be back at DH, which slides Daylen Lile to left and James Wood to right. Dylan Crews will get the day off today. Drew Millas will be doing the catching in this one. PJ Poulin will open again, and Miles Mikolas will follow. It should be all hands on deck with a fresh bullpen and an off day.
The Guardians are changing some things up too. Jose Ramirez will be at DH. That will move Daniel Schneemann from center field to third base. Steven Kwan will go back to center field. Back up catcher Austin Hedges will get his first start of the series. Gavin Williams has been outstanding for the Guardians this year and will hope to give Cleveland length after their first two starters got lit up.
Guardians 5/27
T. Bazzana 2B J. Ramírez DH C. DeLauter RF K. Manzardo 1B A. Martínez LF D. Schneemann 3B S. Kwan CF A. Hedges C B. Rocchio SS
This road trip against two first place teams has already been outstanding. Getting the sweep today would be the cherry on top. The bullpen should be involved heavily today given their lack of usage lately and the off day tomorrow. Blake Butera should go all in for the sweep. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats!
