Category: Sports News

The Mets shared an encouraging update on Kodai Senga's hamstring injury prior to Sunday's series finale with the Phillies, and the star right-hander validated those feelings of optimism less than 24 hours later with his own progress report.

Before their home series opener with the Braves, the Mets' starter told reporters that his strained right hamstring is feeling "great," and that he would be throwing off the mound on Monday with "decent intensity" if cleared by the training staff.

Senga also said he believes a rehab assignment is "on the horizon."

"Daily conversations are very important," Senga said, via a translator. "I know everybody wants to know, 'Hey, when are you going to get off the mound, when are you going to throw a bullpen, when are you going to throw in a game?' That's kind of in the future. I want to take it day by day. Maybe some days I can push it a little bit further, while some days I need to take a step back and take it easy. Those are the conversations I'm having every day."

Senga, who landed on the 15-day injured list with a low-grade hamstring strain on June 13, wasn't instructed to completely shut down from throwing. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said as much just over a week ago, and this past weekend, he said Senga was keeping his arm fresh by playing catch.

It's still unclear when Senga will return to the mound in uniform -- the Mets initially projected to re-evaluate him in two weeks -- but it's possible his recovery timetable is ahead of schedule.

"The good thing is, he kept throwing, even right after the injury," Mendoza said Monday. "The fact he's already getting on the mound and letting the ball go with some intensity, that's a really good sign. We'll see what the next step will be. But not even two weeks, and he's already getting on the mound and playing catch with intensity. That's good."

Senga has produced a stellar 2025 campaign thus far. In 13 starts, he owns a pristine 1.47 ERA -- the league's best mark for pitchers with 70-plus innings logged -- and has struck out 70 batters while holding opposing hitters to a .195 average.

Kodai Senga says he feels "great" and that he's recovering really well from his injury

He hopes to throw off a mound soon if he is cleared by trainers pic.twitter.com/9F9G84Eqoy

— SNY (@SNYtv) June 23, 2025

The 2025 NHL Draft is coming up in just a few days and the New York Rangers still have a significant decision to make regarding their 12th overall pick. 

As part of the J.T. Miller trade with the Vancouver Canucks, the Rangers either have to give up their first-round pick this year or in 2026. 

Speculation has been rising on what route Rangers president and general manager Chris Drury may take. 

One idea that hasn’t been discussed much, but is very well a possibility is the Rangers keeping their first-round pick and using it to move up in the draft. 

“I wonder if the Rangers try to move up,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said. “That’s another one I’m kind of wondering there.”

There are rumors floating around that a couple of teams could be willing to move down and there could be a lot of action in terms of trades before and during the draft.

“I really think this one (draft) has a chance to be crazy,” Friedman said. “I think there are some teams that could really set tones… There are some teams here that could really set the draft on its ears.”

It’s unclear if the Rangers are leaning toward keeping their first-round selection or giving it away. 

If they decide to keep it, they'll have the option to either sit at their current selection and pick the best prospect on the board, trade the pick to move up in the draft, or for an already established player to help give the roster a boost. 

Flyers Trade For Trevor Zegras, Taking A Rangers Target Off Of The MarketTrevor Zegras has been traded from the Anaheim Ducks to the Philadelphia Flyers for Ryan Poehling, the 2025 45th overall pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick. 

On the other side of things, if Drury gives it up and keeps the team’s 2026 first-round pick, the Rangers will have a security blanket if their season goes off the rails and they regress or if the Blueshirts are in playoff contention, he can use that pick at the trade deadline to acquire a win-now player. 

It’s a dilemma with pros and cons on both sides, so Drury has a very difficult yet crucial choice to make that could impact the franchise in a major way.

Mariners star Cal Raleigh names two Giants among pitchers he most wants to catch originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh has had plenty of eyes on him during the 2025 MLB season. 

The 28-year-old has compiled a .276 batting average and cranked 31 home runs in just 75 games played heading into Monday, and also became the first catcher to hit 30-plus homers before July in MLB history.

But, it seems “The Big Dumper” might be paying a bit of attention to the Giants’ starting rotation.

The Gold Glove backstop recently was asked by Chris Henderson to name his active starting rotation that he’d like to catch, and sure enough, a pair of current Giants made the list.

“I’ll go Logan Webb as one of them,” Raleigh said as he named San Francisco’s ace first.

He then followed with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Tyler Glasnow and the Atlanta Braves’ Chris Sale before touching on another Giants pitcher and former ace Justin Verlander.

“I mean, I know he’s a little older but, I think, Verlander still, to me, he’s a tough AB,” said Raleigh.

He rounded out his rotation with a former Giant, now Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Zach Wheeler

“I left a lot of guys out that could easily be on that list, but those are guys that I think would be pretty fun,” said Raleigh.

Raleigh has become one of the best catchers in the majors this season with his powerful bat. Pair that with the Gold Glove he won in 2024, and all five of these pitchers probably would welcome him as their battery mate.

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For so long, the biggest question surrounding Shohei Ohtani’s future as a pitcher was simple.

When, after a second career Tommy John surgery, would he finally get back on the mound? When, after a year and a half of exclusively hitting, would he be able to resume two-way duties?

This past week, that answer finally arrived.

Twice in seven days, Ohtani climbed the bump as the Dodgers’ starter, throwing one inning in each outing in his long-awaited return to pitching.

Read more:Max Muncy drives in seven runs off two homers in Dodgers' win over Nationals

Both times, he left his teammates and coaches in astonished amazement, giving them their first up-close glimpse of his dual-role skillset.

“I've seen [him throw] bullpens and lives and simulated games, or whatever,” manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “But to kind of watch it in real time, to go from the mound to the on-deck circle and then go to the batter's box, it’s pretty remarkable. And he's just handling it the right way. He's just unflappable."

What comes next, however, remains shrouded in some uncertainty.

Now that Ohtani is again pitching in live-game action, new questions are lingering about where his build-up will go from here.

"It's going to be a gradual process,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton on Sunday. “I want to see improvements with the quality of the pitches that I'm throwing, and then also increasing the amount of pitches. So it's going to be gradual."

It was no surprise that, in Ohtani’s return to pitching on June 16, he was limited to only one inning. It was a trade-off he and the team made to get him back into a real game sooner, agreeing to give him a live start even if they knew it wouldn’t extend past one inning.

Entering Ohtani’s second start on Sunday afternoon, however, the thinking was that the right-hander could be ready to push into the second — that, to eventually get stretched out for full-length starts, he would begin building up his workload by adding another inning each time out.

Read more:Dodgers can't keep pace with Nationals after giving up five home runs in loss

The way Ohtani pitched Sunday certainly warranted a second inning.

After giving up two hits and one run over a 28-pitch outing against the San Diego Padres six days prior, he collected two strikeouts in a scoreless 18-pitch inning against the Washington Nationals, his only baserunner reaching on a dropped pop fly by shortstop Mookie Betts.

"Overall, I was able to relax much better compared to my last outing,” Ohtani said. "The way my body moves when I pitch, it's something that I worked on with the pitching coaches and I felt a lot better this time."

However, in the top of the second, Ohtani was once again replaced on the rubber. Despite his improved execution and efficiency, it turned out he and the team had made a predetermined decision not to push him for a second inning quite yet.

"That was the original plan,” Ohtani said of being removed after the first.

“Going into today's game,” Roberts added, “we felt really comfortable with one."

It hammered home the reality of what lies ahead for Ohtani; the cautious, methodical and, as Roberts also described it, "gradual" pace with which the team will handle his pitching workload for the time being.

"I think that it's more of just trying to get the foundation, the building blocks as he's [pitching and] taking at-bats,” Roberts said. “[We are] erring on the side of caution … There's no sense in rushing it right now."

As Ohtani returns to pitching, there are new factors the Dodgers will have to monitor in his all-around performance.

Already, the reigning MVP has cut down on his base-stealing while ramping up as a pitcher: After swiping 11 bags in his first 50 games, he hasn’t even attempted a steal since throwing his first live batting practice session on May 25.

His place in the leadoff spot could be altered on days he pitches as well, with Roberts leaving open the possibility of moving him down in the batting order to give him more time to transition from pitcher to hitter (at least in the first inning of home games, when he currently has to hustle from the mound to the plate after the top half of the frame).

Then, there is perhaps the biggest question: Whether the burden of pitching will affect Ohtani’s all-important production with the bat?

That dynamic came under scrutiny this week, after Ohtani went just two for 19 in the five games following his first pitching start.

"I don't think that's a fatigue thing," Roberts insisted Sunday morning. "But we'll manage it. I can only take him at his word, and the swing speed and all the stuff we sort of track is still in line."

Ohtani did snap that slump after his inning on the mound Sunday, finishing the day with a three-run triple in the seventh and two-run home run in the eighth.

“I do feel like I do have to work on some things,” Ohtani said. “But at the same time, I do feel like I can perform better, even better than I used to be able to perform at."

All of this is to say, while Ohtani has mastered his two-way role before (twice winning American League MVP while doing it with the Angels), the Dodgers are taking nothing for granted about his pitching comeback right now.

Before they begin adding to his pitching workload, they want to make sure they’ve accounted for any unintended side effects.

“All these conversations we have with him, obviously,” Roberts said. “He's understanding of where he's at, where we're at, and appreciating the fact that as time goes on, we'll get to a certain point.”

Before Sunday’s game, Roberts didn’t even commit to fully stretching out Ohtani like a traditional starter by the second half of the season.

Read more:Clayton Kershaw continues his march toward 3,000 strikeouts in Dodgers' win

“That’s kind of TBD,” he said when asked when Ohtani might be fully built-up for normal-length starts. “I think we’re always gonna be cautious. So I don’t even know what that’s going to look like, to be ‘fully built-up.’ I don’t think anyone knows what that looks like. Because it’s not a normal starting pitcher. So to say six [innings] and 90 [pitches], I don’t even know if we’ll get to that point.”

Could that mean using Ohtani as only a glorified opener for the rest of this season? Or stretching him out only if a currently shorthanded rotation doesn’t eventually get healthy?

Time will have to tell on those questions, with neither the Dodgers nor Ohtani ready to commit to any answers until they see how he continues to respond to his return to two-way duties.

“As we build more of a foundation, there will be some latitude," Roberts said. "I think that we're still gathering [information]. But again, once we ramp up more, it might be a different conversation."

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.