Category: Sports News

A funny thing blocked the path to another Andrew Friedman midsummer triumph.

An Andrew Friedman midsummer failure.

The Dodgers and their renowned baseball boss came to bat at baseball’s trade deadline Thursday poised to knock another fat midseason pitch out of the park en route to a second consecutive World Series championship.

They never took the bat off their shoulder.

Strike out, staring.

The Dodgers needed a proven closer. Six teams picked up proven closers. The Dodgers weren’t one of them.

Read more:Dodgers pass MLB trade deadline quietly, add Brock Stewart and Alex Call

Mason Miller went to the San Diego Padres, Camilo Doval to the New York Yankees, Griffin Jax to the Tampa Bay Rays, Ryan Helsley to the New York Mets, Jhoan Duran to the Philadelphia Phillies and David Bednar to the New York Yankees.

Some other reliever went to the Dodgers. I think his name was Brock Stewart or something.

How does this make sense? Are they watching what we’re watching?

So you’re telling me they must forge ahead through the rest of the season hoping that Tanner Scott gets healthy or Kirby Yates gets consistent or Blake Treinen gets younger or, heck, maybe the Boston Red Sox cut Walker Buehler and he comes back for one more ninth inning! That’s crazy, but this entire situation is crazy, a $400-million roster with nobody to pitch the last out.

The Dodger also entered Thursday needing a defensive-minded outfielder. Four teams found one. The Dodgers did not.

Harrison Bader went to the Phillies, Mike Yastrzemski and Randal Grichuk to the Kansas City Royals, Austin Slater to the Yankees and Cedric Mullins to the Mets.

The Dodgers picked up an outfielder named Alex…is it Call?

So now Dodger fans are haunted with the fear that Michael Conforto will lose a fly ball down the left-field line on Halloween with the season on the line.

This is all so weird. This is all so, well, arrogant.

Granted, the Dodgers have baseball’s best team on paper, but they’ve had its best team for several years and that hasn’t stopped Friedman from dominating the last week in July.

One could argue that Friedman actually won last year’s championship by brilliantly acquiring Jack Flaherty and Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech at the deadline.

This has always been Friedman’s strength, humbly adding talent to a group already possessing riches of talent.

Remember, this is the time of year he also once traded for Rich Hill, Yu Darvish, Manny Machado, Max Scherzer, Trea Turner and Evan Phillips, all of whom led them deep into the playoffs.

The only two years during which Friedman has fumbled the deadline? He failed to acquire pitching in 2022 and they were beaten by the Padres. He brought in only Lance Lynn in 2023 and they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

This suddenly feels like one of those years.

“We felt like this is an incredibly talented group that, as we get healthy and these guys hit their stride, we feel like we're in a great position for another deep run into October,” general manager Brandon Gomes said on a conference call with reporters.

In other words, they think they’re good enough that they don’t need to trade any top prospects for win-now talent.

But are they? And even if they are, why take a chance?

If there’s anything the first 109 games of this season has taught us is that the Dodgers' greatness, like all greatness in a sport that hasn’t had consecutive champions in a quarter of a decade, can be fleeting.

The window suddenly seems to be slowly closing on the Hall of Fame careers of Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. Shohei Ohtani has been so physically stressed that he’s leaving games with cramps.

Teoscar Hernández doesn’t look like last year’s revelation. Max Muncy can’t stay on the field. And Edman is batting aches that may last all season.

The rotation is also shaky, with fragile Tyler Glasnow and aging Clayton Kershaw and underwhelming Roki Sasaki and injured Blake Snell and, really, just one sure-fire starter is Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“Obviously there was a lot of action today throughout the game, and a lot of teams improved, but we feel really good about this group,” Gomes said. “Coming into the year, felt like this was as talented of a roster as we've ever had. We're in a position where we're in first place, and I don't even think we've played our best baseball yet. So as we continue to get some of our starters back, and then adding these pieces, and our guys just kind of playing up to their potential, we feel like it’s still a really, really strong team, and we don't feel any differently about our aspirations than we did at the beginning of the year.”

Read more:Shohei Ohtani leaves pitching start because of cramping, Dodgers go on to lose to Reds

Through their stunning inaction Thursday, the Dodger clearly made the statement that they’re good enough to a championship without any more help.

All those teams that greatly improved don’t agree.

The baseball world is sensing a Dodger vulnerability, as if there’s blue blood in the water.

Given a chance to dissuade everyone of that notion the Dodgers sighed, shrugged and passed.

A strikeout of a day, a turning point of a season?

Read more:Dodgers Dugout

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

While NASCAR is racing in corn country this weekend at Iowa Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway is on deck to host a Field of Dreams-caliber event of its own.

In a matchup where baseball meets motorsports, the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds will clash inside the confines of the “Last Great Colosseum” this Saturday, Aug. 2, in the MLB Speedway Classic presented by BuildSubmarines.com (7:15 p.m. ET, FOX), the first MLB game ever played in the state of Tennessee.

RELATED: More info on 2025 MLB Speedway Classic

“We love hosting the races that we host, but it’s always fun to showcase our facility in a different light, and we’ve done that with football, and now we’re thrilled to be able to do that with Major League Baseball,” Jerry Caldwell, president of Bristol, told NASCAR.com. “They’ve been great to work with. We’re blessed with a world-class team within Speedway Motorsports and at Bristol Motor Speedway. And then you couple that team with the team that Major League Baseball has assembled, and it’s really putting together something special, and I can’t wait for folks to get here and see it and just be wowed.”

With the event, Bristol continues to expand its non-racing resume. In addition to hosting a National Football League exhibition between Philadelphia and Washington in 1961, the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile” laid the gridiron for the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech during the “Battle at Bristol” in 2016, which drew 156,990 spectators, an NCAA football record.

Bristol’s attendance muscle will again be flexed this weekend, with MLB announcing that more than 85,000 tickets have been sold for the event, surpassing the previous record of 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees.

Any collaboration of this magnitude requires plenty of planning, and the MLB Speedway Classic is no exception. Soft demolition of several walls and buildings began May 27, with the property being turned over to MLB and associated partners and vendors June 23. Roughly 100-150 workers were involved in the demolition process, while a crew of approximately 400 was responsible for building the baseball infield.

Plenty of material went into the effort, too, including 340 tons of infield clay, 450 wall pads (based on MLB’s London Series build), 17,500 tons of rock, 80,000 square feet of backstop netting, 124,000 square feet of Diamond Series AstroTurf (the same turf type utilized by Rogers Centre, home of the Toronto Blue Jays) and much more. The final product? A Bristol diamond with dimensions spanning from 330 feet down both foul lines to 400 feet dead center.

“It’s kind of dreaming up this concept and saying, what if?” Caldwell said regarding the event, which has been years in the making. “Then we get computer renderings of what it could look like, and then now we’re showing pictures of what it really is like, and you’re seeing all that stuff come together. It’s a great sense of accomplishment and fun for me to see and for our team just because our teams work so hard on it, getting everyone to see this kind of work of art, almost, that they’ve created.”

Baseball players have taken notice, with “Talladega Nights”-inspired catching gear, racing-centric uniforms and simulator attempts all the rage. While NASCAR drivers continue their regular-season push at Iowa, they, too, recognize just how significant an event like this can be in getting more eyeballs on Bristol and NASCAR as a whole.

“A lot of baseball fans are going to go to Bristol and be like, man, this is wild. I can’t imagine they race on the banking and stuff like this. And hopefully, they come back for a race,” Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe said. “And even for the players, I know that I was able to do some stuff with the Reds. And even Elly De La Cruz (Reds’ shortstop), right? He was racing around the track, and he was so intrigued by it. So hopefully, we can get some more of those guys to the race track. I think the more we can do that kind of stuff just helps you know push all this in the right direction.”

“Any time you can introduce yourself and expose yourself to new fans and create new opportunities, great, and I think we’ve done a good job of doing that with a lot of different opportunities, whether (Clash at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum), whether it’s street races, whether it’s going to cities, going to different places, engaging in other sports and engaging with other athletes,” Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell said. “I feel like that’s a big part of just overall growing our brand as a NASCAR brand.”

The MLB Speedway Classic isn’t the only major event on Bristol’s docket. After all, the 0.533-mile short track will host all three of NASCAR’s national series in September, headlined by the Bass Pro Shops Night Race as the Round of 16 elimination race in the Cup Series Playoffs (Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m. ET, USA, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). According to Caldwell, the process to transition the facility back to a race track is already in motion. Approximately 200 crew members from MLB, along with 90-100 from Bristol, will aid in the dismantling process of the baseball field.

MORE: Cup Series schedule

“We’ve got to make sure we’re keeping our eye on the ball, and we can do that,” Caldwell said. “There are lots of major facilities that host huge events weeks apart, and we’re going to be able to do that, but it takes a tremendous amount of planning, a tremendous amount of cooperation, and that’s what we’ve done. … From the partners with Major League Baseball, understanding that we have to get ready for the race, and then partners that we’re going to bring in that are from the construction space that will help us execute as we head towards the playoff race, and we’ll be ready, but it’s really just a tremendous amount of planning and making sure we’re all on the same page.”

At a venue with plenty of history, “Thunder Valley” will have another vaulted chapter written in its annals, and whether as a regular or first-timer, the MLB Speedway Classic will be a wonder under the lights for all in attendance.

Batter up.

“It’s one of those places you have to see to believe it,” Caldwell said about Bristol. “It’s a football stadium or baseball stadium on steroids, if you will. But you really want to get in and just take in the magnitude of the place. Enjoy every aspect of it. Walk around the facility. Make sure you see it from different angles. It’s in a beautiful part of the country, but it’s also just an amazing facility to think that this is built in Bristol, Tennessee, and is one of the largest spectator facilities in the country and in the world.”

Cubs set to host 2027 MLB All-Star Game at Wrigley Field originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After decades of waiting and hundreds of millions of dollars in renovations, Wrigley Field will host the 2027 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The game will mark the first time the Chicago Cubs have hosted the All-Star Game since all the way back in 1990, and will mark the first time the game itself will have been played in Chicago since the White Sox hosted at Rate Field (then U.S. Cellular Field) in 2003.

The team announced the news in a press conference Friday, just days after the death of Cubs legend and Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg — a fitting move noted by Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts.

“Fitting because Ryne played in 10 All-Star Games, notably he played in the last All-Star Game that was at Wrigley in 1990,” Ricketts said. “And he won the Home Run Derby that year.”

Surprisingly, despite being the oldest ballpark in the National League, 2027 will mark only the fourth time the Cubs have hosted the game, with previous editions in 1947, 1962 and 1990 all hosted at the stadium.

MLB has been looking to host the All-Star Game at the Friendly Confines since the Cubs launched a massive renovation project of the ballpark and the neighborhood in the 2010s. The “1060 Project” as it was dubbed ultimately overhauled the stadium’s entire infrastructure, including its suites, concourses, restrooms, restaurants and numerous structural repairs and replacements within the ballpark.

The team also built completely new clubhouses and renovated the press box, and added video boards into the iconic bleachers after rebuilding the entire structure before the 2015 season.

Ultimately, the entire project cost more than $550 million, and completely transformed the neighborhood around the ballpark, ushering in the advent of Gallagher Way, Hotel Zachary and more amenities.

The 2026 All-Star Game will be contested at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, celebrating the 250^th birthday of the United States.

There are questions over whether the game could be impacted by a potential work stoppage in Major League Baseball, as the sport’s collective bargaining agreement is set to expire at the end of the 2026 season. Those questions will certainly loom large over the festivities until labor peace is achieved, but for now, the Cubs are preparing to host one of the sport’s flagship events at one of its oldest stadiums.

Perhaps lost in the various trade deadline moves the Mets made was the transfer of Jesse Winker to the 60-day IL.

While this sort of move is a paper one, and this does allow Cedric Mullins to be added to the roster, it also means the Mets won't see Winker back on the team until September at the earliest.

Winker, placed on the IL in mid-July with back inflammation, has seen his 2025 injury-riddled. The veteran slugger has appeared in just 26 games this year, and while there's optimism he will return before the end of the season, president of baseball operations David Stearns provided an update that justified the 60-day designation.

"We still have some hope he’ll be back at some point this season, but clearly this has taken a little bit longer than we originally appreciated," Stearns said during his post-deadline Zoom call. "Wink go an epidural. We’ve seen progress since then, but not at the pace he or we were hoping. So the 60-day IL timeframe lined up. Not closing the door on this season, but it’s not going to be August."

Alongside right-handed hitting Starling Marte, Winker was the pairing the Mets were looking to use in the DH spot this season. But with Winker down for most of the season, the team has had to look elsewhere for left-handed at-bats. Mullins fit that profile while also playing elite defense, so he was a natural fit and a target before Winker's diagnosis, but Stearns admitted his slugger's slow recovery pushed him to get a left-handed bat at the deadline.

"[Winker's injury] played into it or was a part of it. We were looking at this segment of the market even before this direction for Wink became clear," Stearns said. "But certainly as it became evident that Wink’s absence was going to be longer, it made us look even harder at this segment, especially left-handed bats."

Now that Mullins is in the fold, and none of the Mets' young infielders (Mark Vientos, Brett Baty, Ronny Mauricio, Luisangel Acuna) were traded, where and how will the lineup be configured?

Jeff McNeil, who was platooning with Tyrone Taylor in center field, will continue to have his bat in the lineup more often than not, but with the addition of Mullins, will not be needed in center as often.

"We’ll work through that. Jeff’s still going to play a lot, he’s swinging the bat very well. There will be outfield opportunities at times, 2B opportunities, probably going to be DH at-bats. For our left-handed hitters, there will be ample opportunity for all of them. It’s just finding where the pieces fit on each day in the lineup."

On that same vein, with McNeil likely playing the bulk of his games at second, that leaves fewer opportunities for those young infielders. Stearns said he's confident that Mendoza will be able to balance the lineup and find ways for all the infielders to get time on the field.

"The good news is, there are a lot of at-bats to go around," he said. "When you talk about a couple of Infield positions, an outfield position, DH at-bats, there’s a lot of bats to go around. All those guys are going to get plenty of time. Is there going to be one or two guys on the bench each day? Yea. And then they’ll probably gonna get a leverage at-bat, or pinch-hit later in the game. Mendy does a great job of figuring out which guys for the lineup based on who we’re facing… We’ll continue to do that."

Update on Jose Siri

While talking about Winker, Stearns was asked about Siri and whether they expect him to return this season.

"With Jose, still possible," Stearns said. "Wouldn’t write it off but we need a little bit more news or an update to see what the timeline is for him to progress."

Siri will get an update on his recovery in 7-10 days and then the Mets will have a better idea.

The first-year Met went down in April with a left tibia fracture and has yet to see the field. He's played in just 10 games this season. 

On the latest episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, recorded live following the 2025 MLB Trade Deadline, Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo recap all the moves made by the Mets!

The guys break down the deals for Cedric Mullins, Tyler Rogers, Ryan Helsley, and Gregory Soto and discuss the strategy and process followed by Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns. The show then goes into Mailbag-mode to answer questions about the best bullpen in the NL East, the immediate future of pitching prospects Nolan McLean and Brandon Sproat, the starting rotation moving forward, and more.

Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In the slang, “mid” means disappointingly mediocre, forgettable, uninspiring. On TikTok, a classic rant starts: “It’s called the Midwest because everything in it is mid! Skyline Chili? Mid! Your Cincinnati Reds, who haven’t won a World Series since 1990? M-M-M-Mid!!!”

Today, the Reds are five games over .500, and one of four teams that appear to be competing for the three National League wild-card spots. They added a starting pitcher, an elite defensive third baseman and a veteran utilityman batting .298 ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.

The Angels are mid.

They are three games under .500, four games out in the American League wild-card race, with four teams to pass, hoping to end baseball’s longest playoff drought at 10 years.

The Seattle Mariners, tied with the Texas Rangers for the final wild-card spot, traded for middle-of-the-lineup corner infielders in third baseman Eugenio Suárez and first baseman Josh Naylor. The Rangers acquired Merrill Kelly to supplement Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi atop the starting rotation.

The Angels made two trades, picking up two veteran setup men and an infielder batting .152 for three lightly regarded minor leaguers.

Read more:Dodgers pass MLB trade deadline quietly, add Brock Stewart and Alex Call

Why lightly bolster a team with a 1.3% chance of making the playoffs, as projected by Baseball Prospectus before Thursday’s trades, when you could start building the 2026 roster in the many areas needing improvement?

“Giving them a chance to play this thing out, relative to what was presented [in trade talks], made a lot of sense,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian said.

In large part, he said, this was about the young players.

“The development of our core is obviously very, very, very important,” Minasian said. “Being competitive in August and September is really, really important for this group, not only for the now but for the future — playing meaningful games, understanding there is an expectation to win, showing up to the ballpark every day feeling like you have a chance to win over a six-month period.

“It’s hard to quantify, but I felt like it was very important for this group to go through that, to see what playing in August demands, what playing in September is like.”

Does he see the 2025 Angels playing meaningful games in October?

“I don’t make predictions,” he said.

Beyond shortstop Zach Neto, no one on the Angels’ current roster was likely to command an elite prospect in return.

Yet the Angels could have traded soon-to-be free agents such as pitchers Kenley Jansen and Tyler Anderson, or infielders Yoan Moncada and Luis Rengifo, to fill 2026 needs: a back-end starter, bullpen help, a utility infielder, a defense-first outfielder, upper-level depth in the minor leagues.

Maybe Oswald Peraza, the once-hyped New York Yankees prospect with the .152 average, starts at third base next year, or secures that utility job. Minasian called him “a classic change-of-scenery guy.”

Read more:MLB trade deadline tracker: All the moves by the Dodgers, Angels and everyone else

To get him, however, the Angels surrendered $73,766 in international bonus pool money that could have been better used to sign Latin American prospects. Minasian said the Angels had used what they needed of their $6,261,600 pool they needed this year — and the better prospects cost much more than $73,766 — but they cannot afford to close any avenues for talent acquisition.

In 2021, the Angels drafted all pitchers and failed to get a collective 1.0 WAR out of them. The Dodgers basically did the same thing: 20 picks, 18 pitchers, same under-1 WAR, although they have gotten some big moments from Ben Casparius, Emmet Sheehan and Justin Wrobleski.

But the Dodgers spend whatever they need, and then some, on deep and talented rosters of players, coaches and executives, and on player development and player acquisition.

It’s not all about money. It’s about creativity too. The Dodgers inserted themselves into a three-team trade Wednesday to bolster their farm system by trading a surplus minor league catcher for two minor league pitchers. The Dodgers last year inserted themselves into another three-team trade to grab reliever Michael Kopech, then-injured Tommy Edman for a depth bat and two minor leaguers.

The last time the Angels were a party to a three-team deal, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman facilitated that too. The Dodgers got four players from the Miami Marlins, then swapped pitcher Andrew Heaney to the Angels for infielder Howie Kendrick. That was in 2014.

The Angels these days do not spend as much, or as well, on free agents. They do not distinguish themselves in scouting, analytics, player development or international signings.

That forces them to narrow their focus to drafting college players who race through the minor leagues. A weak draft class hurts far more in Anaheim than it does in L.A.

The Angels have their kids, but the optimism inherent in their talk of a young core obscures the fact they are about to have to pay the kids — and, money aside, they are running out of time.

Neto, the lone star to emerge so far from the young core, is eligible for salary arbitration this winter. The Angels control him for only three more seasons — maybe less, if some or all of the 2027 season is lost to a collective bargaining war.

Catcher Logan O’Hoppe and pitcher José Soriano also are eligible for arbitration this winter. First baseman Nolan Schanuel is eligible next winter.

In the big picture, nothing much changed Thursday. The plan today is the same as it was in spring training: hope enough young players blossom that, when Anthony Rendon’s contract expires next fall, Minasian can persuade owner Arte Moreno that spending big on one or two players in free agency could make the difference. If playing meaningful games this August makes those young players that much better, perhaps this trade deadline was worth it.

Moreno resists rebuilding, as an advocate for fans he believes deserve to see a competitive team. No one in Orange County has to watch what something akin to what the Colorado Rockies are offering — or what the Houston Astros were offering before their ongoing run of success. Rebuilding could mean 100-loss seasons and an even greater drop in attendance; competing could mean sneaking into the playoffs with 84 victories.

The Angels could do that this year. It could work. However, it has not worked over the last decade, and in the meantime the Angels have become an unwitting poster child for a players’ union fighting against a salary cap to say, “Market size is not destiny. Look at the Angels.”

You can say the game plan is to contend every year, in the interest of the fans, but you should not try to win every year on a wing and a prayer.

Your most dedicated fans — represented by the hundreds that decorated themselves in wings and halos at Wednesday’s game, flapping their arms as angels in the outfield — were not shy about letting their feelings be known.

You could hear them loud and clear, at the game and on the television broadcast, “Sell the team!”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.