Category: Sports News

The Dodgers since the All-Star break had a very workmanlike road trip, with three series in three cities in the Eastern time zone, winning two out of three games in each series. That included winning series over the Phillies and Mets last week.

On the road this season the Dodgers are 36-20 (.643), the best away mark in baseball, averaging 5.79 runs per game with a 120 wRC+ on the road, both also tops in the league.

Batter of the week

Freddie Freeman was red hot last week, including three straight games with three hits followed by two hits on Sunday. His 11 hits match Andy Pages in March and April for most by a Dodger over a four-game span this season. Freeman’s barrage got his season batting average over .300 for the first time since April 23, and his career batting average up to .29965.

Freeman on the season is hitting .301/.381/.491 and his 140 wRC+ is tops among qualified National League first baseman and fourth in the majors at the position. He’s tied for the major league lead with 27 doubles, including four this week. Freeman on Sunday hit his 574th career two-bagger, tying Charlie Gehringer and Bobby Abreu for 25th all-time. A staggering 21 of Freeman’s 27 doubles this year have been hit on the road.

Pitcher of the week

Roki Sasaki had one of his best starts of the season with nine strikeouts in seven innings against the Mets. He allowed only one run on three hits and a pair of walks, with 13 of his career-high 21 swinging strikes coming on his splitter.

Week 18 results

4-2 record
29 runs scored (4.83 per game)
29 runs allowed (4.83 per game)
.809 pythagorean win percentage

Year to date

67-39 record
546 runs scored (5.15 per game)
391 runs allowed (3.69 per game)
.648 pythagorean win percentage (69-37)

Miscellany

Cey it ain’t so: On Tuesday in Philadelphia, Max Muncy hit a two-run home run to account for the Dodgers’ only scoring in a win over the Phillies. The next night he homered again, the latter his 229th since joining the Dodgers, surpassing Ron Cey for fifth place in franchise history.

Muncy is now second in Los Angeles Dodgers history in home runs, behind only Eric Karros (270). Muncy this coming week could catch and/or pass Karros on another list. In the 65-year history of Dodger Stadium, Karros holds the ballpark record with 130 regular season home runs. Muncy is one behind him with 129.

Transactions

Monday: After pitching two innings in relief as the 27th player during the doubleheader at Yankee Stadium on July 19, Kyle Hurt was sent back to Oklahoma City.

Monday: The hot stove was officially lit when the Dodgers acquired reliever Seth Halvorsen from the Colorado Rockies for Nick Frasso and minor league outfielder Landyn Vidourek. Halvorsen, who has minor league options, is currently on the injured list with shoulder inflammation and currently on a rehab assignment in Triple-A.

Tuesday: Innings eater Charlie Barnesreturned to the Dodgers, with Landon Knack optioned after pitching two innings the night before. Will Smith was moved to the 60-day injured list, which did nothing to alter his yet-to-be-determined timeline for return.

Game results

• Monday: Phillies 10, Dodgers 7
• Tuesday: Dodgers 2, Phillies 1
• Wednesday: Dodgers 9, Phillies 5
• Friday: Dodgers 4, Mets 2
• Saturday: Dodgers 4, Mets 3
• Sunday: Mets 8, Dodgers 3

Previous reviews: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | no reviews for Weeks 14-15 | Week 16 | Week 17

Up next

After two long weeks away, the Dodgers are back home this week to run the Heathcliff Slocumb interleague gauntlet, hosting the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox. Pitching matchups are a guess, as the Dodgers haven’t announced their probably pitchers for the next series after off days Monday and last Thursday.

In the middle of their worst stretch of the season, the Guardians will now play Terry Francona’s Cincinnati Reds. What could possibly go wrong?

The Reds are last in team wRC+ at 89 wRC+ (it could be worse, Guardians’ fans, we could still employ Reds’ hitting coach Chris Valaika), 17th in baserunning runs above average at -1.4, 19th in Defense at -20.9, 23rd in starting pitcher ERA at 4.46 (4.62 FIP), and 25th in bullpen ERA at 4.64 (5.13 FIP).

The Guardians are 25th in team wRC+ at 93 wRC+, 7th in baserunning runs above average at 5.2, 10th in Defense at -6.5, seventh in starting pitcher ERA at 3.75 (3.97 FIP), and seventh in bullpen ERA at 3.75 (3.76 FIP).

The Reds are a terrible baseball team by every metric. Of course, the Guardians will face their best pitcher in Chase Burns tonight, so will need to win 1-0. In 10 innings. And Slade Cecconi is on the mound.

Matchups:
Monday, 7:10PM ET: Slade Cecconi, RHP 4.60 ERA (4.48 FIP) vs. Chase Burns, RHP 2.42 ERA (3.34 FIP)
Tuesday, 7:10PM ET: Gavin Williams, RHP 3.78 ERA (3.65 FIP) vs. Brady Singer, RHP 4.53 ERA (5.21 FIP)
Wednesday, 7:10PM ET: Joey Cantillo, LHP 4.02 ERA (4.04 FIP) vs. Rhett Lowder, RHP 6.04 ERA (4.37 FIP)

The Reds are led by Elly De La Cruz at 130 wRC+, JJ Bleday 117 wRC+, Nathaniel Lowe 116 wRC+, Sal Stewart 111 wRC+ and Dane Myers 101 wRC+. The Guardians are led by Chase DeLauter 126 wRC+, Austin Hedges 115 wRC+, Travis Bazzana 109 wRC+, Jose Ramirez 106 wRC+ and Brayan Rocchio 106 wRC+.

Well, tonight could be rough but the Guardians SHOULD be able to win a couple games in this series. Hopefully, the games will allow Jose Ramirez and Angel Martinez to get back in a rhythm and the Guardians will acquire an actual lefty masher in a trade while we watch them.

Kansas City Royals second baseman Michael Massey just had one of the better moments of a disappointing season on Sunday, hitting a go-ahead home run in the top of the eighth inning against the Detroit Tigers. Here’s a clip in case you missed it:

The 28-year-old has put together a really nice bounce-back season, hitting .274/.312/.440 while playing above-average defense at second base. He has also been healthier this year, already surpassing his 2025 plate appearance total. Overall he has been worth 1.5 fWAR and is on pace for the best season of his career.

As I’m sure you are aware, the Royals have had an extremely disappointing season. Even after Sunday’s victory, they are 45-62 and sit 11.5 games behind the division-leading Chicago White Sox. Despite this, I expect the Royals to try and actually compete next year instead of resetting for a future year. The fact that they don’t seem interested in moving either Seth Lugo or Michael Wacha reinforces that belief.

Although Massey will still be under team control and could help the Royals next year, I think this trade deadline is the time to move him. I will admit that I’ve always been a bit of a Massey skeptic; if I was running the Royals I probably would have just cut bait after his difficult 2025 season. He’s been better than I’ve expected this year and I’m happy that he’s put together a positive season. Still, I think this is the right time to see if the Royals can get a good return for Massey, and these are the three biggest reasons why I think that is the case.

This is likely Massey’s ceiling

The second baseman is having a good season, but when I look at his overall numbers and career trajectory, I think we are witnessing the realistic peak of what Massey has to offer. He is hitting 4% above league-average, which is exactly the mark he was at in his previous best season of 2024. Nothing in his .304 BABIP and .166 ISO look particularly flukey; he might be able to tap into a little more power, his career high is .190. Players can grow, change and prove us wrong, but I think this is what Massey at the peak of his hitting powers is going to look like.

The left-handed hitter does not draw very many walks which does limit how effective he can be as a hitter. His 5.7% BB% is the second-lowest mark among Royals hitters with at least 200 plate appearances, only better than Salvador Perez. His free-swinging tendencies seem unlikely to change at this point in his career. Massey has also posted the best defensive numbers of his career this year, which is great to see but hard to project happening again moving forward.

Massey still has some significant downside potential in his game. He has battled back injuries in the past, which can be a chronic problem for some players. His offensive game also craters if he struggles to make solid contact; Massey had a 57 wRC+ last season. I think 2025 will end up being the worst season of Massey’s career, but the downside of him being a below-average hitter is very much present. I think we are seeing the best of what Massey has to offer, and he’s not likely to make you look foolish by developing into an All-Star second baseman if you move on from him.

Massey is more than a rental

Traditionally, losing MLB teams will trade players in the final year of their contract to teams that are still chasing postseason success. More and more teams, including the Royals, are putting a major emphasis on team control and how many years someone is under contract to determine trade value. We don’t know for sure, but I wonder if the Royals were unimpressed with offers that teams put forward for Lugo last offseason, since he was a rental player at the time, which led to them choosing to re-sign him to a two-year extension.

After this season, Massey is under team control for two more years. He will not be eligible to be a free agent until after the 2028 season is completed. Even if a front office is worried about the possibility of the 2027 season being shortened or lost, Massey still offers more than just a rental because of his remaining team control. He is also still arbitration-eligible, so while his contract will increase, it’s likely to not be as expensive as signing him as a free agent would be.

Massey could have the same season that he is having now in 2028, but the Royals are likely to get more in return if they are willing to trade him now.

Nick Loftin is a good in-house replacement

I have missed watching Maikel Garcia play baseball, but one of the positives is that Nick Loftin has gotten a chance to have regular at-bats. Loftin is hitting .249/.331/.407, which is also good for a 104 wRC+. He gets there a different way than Massey; the right-handed hitter is willing to take a walk. Loftin has a 9.3 walk rate, and he also has a lower strikeout rate than Massey, although both are good at making contact. I think Loftin’s approach at the plate is more sustainable and likely to repeat itself moving forward. I think Loftin is more likely to start hitting for more power than Massey is to draw walks, which makes his ceiling in my mind a tad higher. He is also a right-handed hitter, which the team has been short on at various times.

The 27-year-old has two more years of team control compared to Massey, so the Royals aren’t in danger of needing to find another second baseman if they decide to move on from Massey. Loftin admittedly looks more natural at third base than he has at second base this year; his small sample size second base defensive numbers are dragging his overall defensive numbers down significantly. I think Loftin has looked fine at second base previously and am willing to take the gamble that if you made him the full-time second baseman he would be okay there, but that admittedly could be an issue.

I would also be willing to hear arguments that the Royals should trade Loftin if they really believe in Massey. I felt like the team just needed one of them to do well this season; the fact that both are above-average hitters right now is one of the few success stories this season. If the Royals can trade one, and my preference would be Massey, to get some pieces that will help the team not have one of the worst bullpens in team history next year, then I think that is a trade worth making.

Tacoma Rainiers

Despite a recent injection of much needed talent, the Rainiers dropped their weekly series to a paltry Reno team that’s struggled nearly as much as the Rainiers have this season. The bevy of injuries the Mariners’ big league roster has had to endure this season has severely hampered the Rainiers’ ability to compete at the level they’d like to, and the constant up-and-down for what seems like half their pitching staff is surely not helping things much, either. The prospect promotions make this team a worthwhile watch, but it’s definitely been a tough year on large.

Michael Arroyo continues to be one of the most impressive hitters this system has seen in many, many years. Finally free from the confines of DSP, Arroyo has taken little time to adjust to the elevated level of Triple-A and is already raking, running an OPS north of .930 through his first 15 games. There’s truly nothing he can’t do at the plate; elite contact ability, above-average power, excellent barrel control, and good batted ball distributions indicate he should be one of the better bats this system has produced in the Dipoto era. He’s done nothing but rake throughout his time in the minors, and with a glaring need for a bat of both his handedness and caliber, it wouldn’t come as much of a surprise to see him debut in the bigs sometime later this season.

Not to be outdone by Arroyo, Lazaro Montes has followed suit and has begun clobbering baseballs in the PCL. Stinging the ball with consistency and showing off his tremendous in-game power, Montes popped his third Triple-A homer this week and raised his OPS up to .879 at the level, and excellent mark that’s risen considerably the past week or so. Both he and Arroyo have mashed their way through the minor leagues and look like potential cornerstone players for this franchise; neither comes without their warts, but with definitive big league skills and tremendous youth on their side, the tandem possesses considerable value to this team and makes them a hard inclusion into any would-be trades this upcoming deadline.

Arkansas Travelers

The Travs wound up splitting the series against Wichita this week, an undoubtedly disappointing result given the poor state of Wichita’s roster and a healthy injection of talent via Everett this past week. This roster is plenty good enough to be competing with the best teams in the league, but they’ve struggled to secure wins in games that aren’t pitched by Kade Anderson or Ryan Sloan and lack depth in the starting rotation. The lineup should be incredibly good for the final two months and could easily out hit their opponents on a nightly basis, but they’ll have to get things turned around relatively quick if they want a look at postseason play.

It would be remiss to not mention the heartbreak of Friday night’s near-perfect game. Led by Kade Anderson’s five flawless innings with seven punchouts on just 56 pitches, the bullpen managed to keep the good times rolling all the way up until the 27th out, where a tough play at third base ultimately crashed the party and led to an errant throw. A dominant showing regardless, but a brutal finish to a potentially legendary night.

Jonny Farmelo has taken to the Texas League well and has fit right in at the top of the Arkansas lineup. Having already popped two homers and making a solid amount of contact, Farmelo has an OPS eclipsing the 1.000 mark through his first six games and is conquering the tough confines of his home ballpark thus far. The K% is understandably elevated right now, but with the jump in pure stuff and minuscule sample size, it’s hard to read into anything too deliberately right now. He’s an immense talent that will be among the top five in this system by season’s end.

Everett AquaSox

The Frogs dropped this one by a score of 4-2 this week, now featuring a new-look lineup with some of the stalwarts from the 66ers getting the bump up to Hi-A. Despite the loss this week, the AquaSox remain tied for first atop the Northwest League in the second half and have presently positioned themselves for a spot in the championship series against Eugene at the end of the season. There’s still a ton of season left, but it’s been a great bounce back in the second half for this squad.

Replacing the aforementioned Farmelo in centerfield, Korbyn Dickerson has made mincemeat of Hi-A thus far and is clobbering the baseball through his first five games at the level. Already with two homers and an OPS over 1.300, Dickerson has looked plenty comfortable at the plate in his first taste of the Northwest League and remains one of the more interesting prospects in the “middle tier” of this system. He’s got the tools to really pop and turn into a potential big league regular down the line.

Luke Stevenson continued his hot hitting and turned in another stellar week at the plate with his refined approach. Collecting seven hits across four games that included four doubles, Stevenson raised his monthly slash to .365/.444/.730 and has looked like a completely different player offensively. His lengthy rut saw his passivity at the plate bite him in the butt, leading to too many two-strike counts that left him unable to do real damage at the plate and elevated his strikeout rate considerably. Now looking for contact a bit more aggressively, he’s now getting to loads more power and has simultaneously lowered his K% this month, an excellent sign for the future of his game. A strong finish to this season would be a massive sign for Stevenson who’s already had a very strong introductory season to pro ball.

Inland Empire 66ers

The woeful ways of the 66ers continued this week, with Inland Empire dropping all but one game on the series against a Stockton team that entered play 10 games below .500. It’s just been that kind of year for the 66ers; the Mariners’ top picks last season all ended up debuting elsewhere, and with the most recent class yet to make their way to affiliate ball, the state of the team is in pretty rough shape right now. Hopefully the collection of bats the M’s took a few weeks ago can buoy this team and make them a fun watch to close the year out.

Likely more a victim of roster construction than anything else, Grant Jay seemed like the odd man out on the promotion lists this week and deserves some praise for a strong debut season. The hulking slugger has immense raw power and is slugging his way to an .863 OPS on the year, firmly the best mark left on the team. He profiles best as a corner outfielder with a massive arm, but he’ll have to reduce his whiff as he climbs up the minor league ladder; the power makes it work, but a K% a shade under 35% in A-ball just isn’t going to cut it.

ACL Mariners

The Baby M’s wrapped up their season this past week, falling one run short of an ACL crown to the Reds in the championship game. It was a fantastic season for the M’s this season that saw plenty of promise emerge from some of their best prospects, and though we’re yet to see those guys get a promotion up to IE just yet, it seems likely at least a few names from this squad will earn their way up to affiliate ball in the next week or so. Hopefully Yorger Bautista and Nick Becker can light up the California League and continue their excellent play through the end of the year.

DSL Mariners

This team is one of the more exciting things to come out of this season down on the farm. With an absolutely stacked lineup and two superstar performers leading the way, this wave of talent could provide some much needed depth to this system and ultimately produce multiple big leaguers down the line. It’s obviously far too early to make any definite conclusions about any of these players, but the production has been outstanding to see nonetheless.

With the 2026 MLB Trade Deadline just a week away, questions abound about whether or not the Pittsburgh Pirates will be buyers or sellers. The Bucs currently sit at 54-52 and are just a single game out of the Wild Card spot.

There have been rumors that Oneil Cruz is on the market, making the Bucs sellers, but a Ben Cherington quote from Sunday actually leads one to believe that the Bucs are buying. Here’s what BCGM had to say:

“We’re at a point in the season now where it’s a pretty good foundation. We know a lot about the team. It’s hard to imagine that much would happen in the next week to eight days that would really shift it in one way or another,” 

“I think we’re pretty well into it by now. So, I think it’s pretty clear what we’re going to try to do, and I don’t expect that an outcome day to day between now and then is going to change it much.”

“We have the resources to win games and be playing baseball in October. We have to go do our jobs, and I don’t think anything’s changed. We believe this team is capable of doing that. We gotta continue to do the work to actually make that a reality.”

So from the sounds of that, it seems like Cherington is ready to buy for the Bucs playoff chances as we head into this last week before the deadline. The Bucs could certainly use more bullpen help. Another bat could make a difference with all of the injuries the Bucs have had, but the most important piece heading down the stretch is another arm.

So what do you think about Cherington’s comments, BD? Are the Pirates going to be buyers in this last week? Or is that simply lip service by the Bucs GM? Has he painted himself in a corner here? What happens now if the Bucs don’t make major moves?

Tell us your thoughts!

The Angels are reportedly open for business, so let’s talk about a frequently mentioned potential Guardians’ trade target: Jo Adell.

Adell’s role is clear – he is a strictly platoon hitter put on the earth to mash lefty pitching. This season, despite having a 92 wRC+ overall, the 27 year-old right handed hitter has a 164 wRC+ against lefties. For his career, he has a 118 wRC+ against lefties including a .505 slugging percentage, including a 152 wRC+ against LHP from 2024-2026. He’s a below average fielder in the corner outfield positions, but not unplayable out there.

The Red Sox just traded a promising starting pitching prospect in Connelly Early for a right-handed hitter in Curtis Mead… so the price for lefty mashers is high. Now, Mead is under control through 2031 and Adell is only under control through 2027, so the price to acquire Adell should be significantly lower. The Guardians should be able to get Adell without touching a top five prospect in their system. The system is still deep enough to get the Angels an arm or a bat in prospect capital or even both that would make moving Adell the sensible move. And, under the new GM, the Angels may be willing to be senisble! Immediately, the Guardians could then let go of David Fry and get Adell AB’s in left, right and at DH against LHP.

The news this morning is that the Guardians are pursuing hitters, with some potential interest in a reunion with Lane Thomas who is currently on a heater with the Royals. I would much prefer they get a younger version of Thomas’s lefty mashing in Adell and let Stephen Vogt do his best platooning/pinch-hitting to get Adell the maximum amount of at-bats against the southpaws teams keep leveraging against Cleveland.

Let me know what you think about Adell in the comments below!

Texas Rangers lineup for July 27, 2026 against the Seattle Mariners: starting pitchers are Kumar Rocker for the Rangers and George Kirby for the Mariners.

The Rangers play the finale of both the series against the Mariners and their seven game homestand in a rare Monday matinee game today. If the Rangers win, they go to 2.5 up on Seattle in the division, and will have won the series and have a winning homestand. If the Rangers lose, they will be just 0.5 up on Seattle in the division, and will have split the series and have a losing homestand.

So let’s try to win this one.

The lineup:

Pederson — DH

Langford — LF

Duran — SS

Nimmo — RF

Carter — CF

Burger — 1B

Lopez — 2B

Smith — 3B

Diaz — C

1:35 p.m. Central start time. Rangers are +111 underdogs.

Should the Detroit Tigers decide to keep Tarik Skubal through the August 3 trade deadline without signing him to a contract extension, they will still face one of the most complicated roster decisions of the Scott Harris era. As discussed previously, should Skubal decline a qualifying offer and sign elsewhere this winter, the Tigers would receive very different compensation depending upon one critical factor: whether they finish the 2026 season above or below the first Competitive Balance Tax threshold.

For a revenue-sharing recipient like Detroit, remaining below the threshold means receiving a supplemental first-round draft pick. Finishing above it drops that compensation all the way to a pick after the fourth round. That makes every dollar matter.

Based on the best publicly available payroll tracking, the Tigers currently project to finish the season with a Competitive Balance Tax payroll between approximately $245.6 million and $246 million. That puts them roughly $2 million above the $244 million threshold. This is according to Cot’s contracts, and MLBR’s payroll tracker. (Note: Roster Resource and Spotrac do not exactly track each roster move during the season).

The luxury tax itself is almost insignificant. The Tigers would owe only about $300,000.

The real penalty is losing one of the most valuable draft picks available under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.

With only 58 days remaining in the regular season, Detroit doesn’t need to eliminate $2 million in annual salary. It needs to remove approximately $6.3 million in annual salary from its books for the remainder of the season to net the prorated salary of $2 million. Any salary acquired before the deadline increases that number.

That’s where the problem begins.

Only eight players besides Skubal earn enough this season to accomplish the task by themselves:

• Javier Baez
• Gleyber Torres
• Framber Valdez
• Jack Flaherty
• Kenley Jansen
• Kyle Finnegan
• Justin Verlander
• Drew Anderson

Even trading Casey Mize would fall just short, despite his $6.15 million salary, because they’d only be clearing his salary over the final 54 days of the season. Trading Anderson who receives $7 million for the season, would clear enough salary, as long as they don’t add any salary back for the rest of the season. As erratic as he’s been, the Tigers do not have any notable relief options in Toledo other than possibly Beau Brieske if he can get it going.

Unfortunately for Scott Harris, identifying contracts isn’t the difficult part.

Finding one he can move without damaging the team and taking them completely out of the wild card and divisional hunts is the problem.

No one is trading for Justin Verlander and he’s currently still injured. Javier Baez is not worth his contract much less any surplus value. Jack Flaherty is really the ideal candidate for a move like this and trading him could both clear enough payroll and return a decent prospect as well. Unfortunately, he too is currently on the injured list. Kenley Jansen and Kyle Finnegan have both experienced uneven stretches this season, but the Tigers also need reliable late-inning relief if they hope to make a deep October run.

That leaves Gleyber Torres.

From a payroll standpoint, Torres is the cleanest solution. His $6.8 million salary would move Detroit comfortably below the CBT threshold, assuming little salary comes back in return. As an impending free agent, he also represents one of the club’s few veterans with meaningful trade value.

The baseball decision is much more difficult.

Torres has been one of Detroit’s best hitters this season, posting a 128 wRC+, one of only four Tigers above league average offensively. The Tigers could replace him internally with a combination of Javier Baez, Colt Keith and Zack McKinstry, but the numbers suggest that would be a downgrade in the lineup during a pennant race.

That’s the Catch-22.

If the Tigers keep Tarik Skubal, they are signaling that 2026 is about winning a championship, not maximizing long-term assets. Yet preserving the supplemental first-round compensation pick for a potential Skubal departure may require subtracting from the very roster they believe can win that championship.

The irony is that Scott Harris may have to act as both buyer and seller.

The ideal trade wouldn’t simply reduce payroll. It would reduce payroll while returning a player capable of helping Detroit win now. Every dollar of salary taken back, however, chips away at the payroll savings, making the balancing act even more difficult.

A supplemental first-round draft pick is hardly insignificant. Kevin McGonigle and Nick Castellanos both entered the organization through compensation selections. If both Skubal and Casey Mize ultimately declined qualifying offers and signed contracts exceeding $50 million elsewhere, Detroit could receive two supplemental first-round picks—but only if it finishes below the CBT threshold.

Payroll calculations themselves remain an inexact science. Cot’s Contracts attempts to track individual player obligations throughout the season and currently places Detroit around $246 million. MLB Trade Rumors maintains a tracker that estimates approximately $245.6 million. Major League Baseball’s official CBT accounting won’t be finalized until after the season and includes estimates for player benefits, bonuses, and other adjustments that aren’t publicly available. That uncertainty alone gives Detroit every reason to create a cushion rather than trying to finish a few thousand dollars below the line.

Payroll for CBT purposes differs from current MLB payroll in three main respects:

CBT payroll uses average annual value of multi year contracts, as well as all the salaries of players on the 40 man roster and those who were on the roster but have since been removed, and the calculation includes an estimated $18 million for the club’s share of player benefits plus their $1.6 million share of the pre arbitration bonus pool.

In case you’re wondering about the impact of the pending lockout of the players as MLB owners or sue a salary cap, don’t expect any changes to this year’s free agent class in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. Even the proposals that both sides have made thus far would leave the current system in place for this winter.

For that reason, don’t be surprised if the Tigers make a move that seems puzzling at first glance. A trade motivated in part by payroll management may not bring back a headline prospect or even equal on-field value. The goal may simply be to thread the needle: stay below the Competitive Balance Tax threshold, preserve a supplemental first-round draft pick, and still field the strongest possible team for what they hope will be a long October. Or, they could make the obvious move and trade Tarik Skubal for pitching help, opening enough payroll space in order to make a trade to fill other needs and try to sneak into the playoffs anyway without their ace.

As many of you know, my dad lives in San Francisco and I visit him often.

Thus I was in San Francisco this past weekend while the Cubs were in Pittsburgh, and I took the opportunity to go to the Giants/Angels game Saturday at Oracle Park. Mainly just because I love baseball — and I must love it a lot to go see two of the worst teams in baseball play — but also to check out Robbie Ray, who started for the Giants on Saturday and who is almost certainly on the trade market.

Ray is 34 and has had an up-and-down career. He threw pretty well for the Diamondbacks for a number of years, then was traded to the Blue Jays during the pandemic season in 2020. Staying in Toronto in 2021, he had a breakout season and won the AL Cy Young Award.

That got him a multi-year deal with the Mariners, where he had one decent year and then got hurt. He had Tommy John surgery and made only one start in 2023, then was traded to the Giants where he made just seven starts in 2024.

Returned to health, Ray had a good year in 2025 and is doing that again this year. And he’s been really good over his last six starts: 1.06 ERA, 1.177 WHIP, only one home run in 43.1 innings.

Ray threw six shutout innings against the Angels Saturday and it looked effortless. Okay, so Angels, they’re not very good. Mike Trout was the only Angel who did anything much against Ray, two singles and a walk.

Ray’s ERA away from Oracle Park is 4.35, which is a bit scary until you notice that it’s skewed by one really bad start at Chase Field (nine earned runs in 4.1 innings). In his nine other road starts he has a 3.07 ERA, so I think he’d be just fine pitching for the Cubs.

Ray is a pending free agent who is making $25 million this year. That would leave somewhere around $8 million or so remaining on his deal. The Cubs can afford to take that on, and if they did they’d likely not have to send much of a prospect to the Giants in return.

I asked Josh to help me out here because I have no idea what the Giants would ask for, or could get, for two months of Robbie Ray. He suggested Will Sanders and Angel Cepeda, and sure, I’d do that.

What would you send to the Giants for Robbie Ray?