LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - MAY 13: Roki Sasaki #11 of the Los Angeles Dodgers warms up on the mound prior to the game against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium on May 13, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Dodgers finish off their weekend series against the Angels on Sunday afternoon at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, with Roki Sasaki on the mound for the series finale.
This will be the first career game against the Angels for Sasaki.
Grayson Rodriguez is expected to be activated from the injured list to make his Angels debut on Sunday, after missing the first seven-plus weeks of the season with right shoulder inflammation. Rodriguez struck out 11 last Sunday in 4 2/3 innings in a rehab start for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga against the Dodgers’ affiliate Ontario.
Boots discarded by alleged illegal miners are seen at Porto do Arame, located on the banks of the Uraricoera river, the main access point for people trying to leave illegal mining sites inside Yanomami indigenous land in Roraima state, Brazil on February 7, 2023. (Photo by MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL DANTAS/AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
The Texas Rangers scored one while the Houston Astros scored four home runs.
The Rangers had five more hits tonight than last night! Six hits! That’s pretty good. That’s one more hit than Houston! They also walked eight times. That’s a ton of baserunners!
The bad news is none of Texas’ hits went for extra bases and only one of them produced a run — a run that scored when the game was 4-0 — which means Texas has now scored one run in 18 innings against the team that has allowed by far the most runs in the big leagues this year.
Meanwhile, the Astros hit the most home runs that Jacob deGrom has ever allowed in a start. I guess on the bright side, they were all solo shots.
The Rangers have not gotten off on a good foot in their quest for the Silver Boot, I dare say.
Player of the Game: Joc Pederson singled in the Rangers’ first and only run of the series in the top of the seventh.
Up Next: The Rangers will try to avoid getting swept tomorrow afternoon with RHP Nathan Eovaldi expected back on the mound for Texas opposite RHP Peter Lambert for Houston.
The Sunday matinee first pitch from Daikin Park is scheduled for 1:10 pm CDT and will be carried on the Rangers Sports Network.
May 16, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Connor Prielipp (61) throws to the Milwaukee Brewers in the first inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images | Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images
The Twins got a career-best start from Connor Prielipp, who struck out eight Brewers and held them to three hits in a six-inning start, but could only prop up a single run despite outhitting the visiting Milwaukee victors.
After squandering a second-inning opportunity with two men in scoring position and nobody out — then a one-out, bases loaded situation — the Twins were able to touch Logan Henderson in the third, when Trevor Larnach welcomed himself back to the batting order by smacking a homer just over the right-field wall.
The lead, unfortunately, proved short-lived. After a single and a walk set up a scoring chance for the Crew, it was a left-side bouncer getting past Royce Lewis that allowed Brice Turang to rush home and tie the game. But it was an unearned run, and the hit that put Turang on the basepaths was the only knock allowed by rookie Connor Prielipp through the first five innings of another rock-solid start.
At right around 70 pitches, Prielipp was trusted with entering the sixth inning for the first time in his big-league career. Jackson Chourio decided to call that decision into question immediately, blasting his first dinger of the year into left-center field, and putting Milwaukee up 2-1 on only their second hit of the ballgame.
Prielipp stayed locked in through the rest of his start, striking out two more batters in the sixth to bring his line up to eight on the evening. So far, he’s done what it says on the tin; a strong xBA and an ability to generrate chase and swing-and-miss has rewarded him with a 2.88 ERA to open up his Baseball Reference table.
With the bullpen able to hold the score tonight, the Twins’ best chance to tie the game came in the seventh, when James Outman’s one-out triple put him 90 feet away from home; unfortunately for him, a bloop flyout snagged by Chourio and a 3-1 groundout that saw reliever Chad Patrick beat Brooks Lee to the bag ended the threat.
So, with the game improbably held by a combination of Eric Orze and Yoendrys Gomez, Minnesota remained down by a 2-1 score heading into the bottom of the ninth. For Milwaukee, Chad Patrick effectively piggybacked with Henderson, taking over in the sixth and going the distance in a 50-pitch relief appearance. A pop-out from Kody Clemens and a rather rough swinging strikeout by Royce Lewis set the stage for Tristan Gray to line out softly to short, and send the mostly-Wisconsinite crowd home happy.
As has been the case in far too many Twins games in 2026, there were some inspiring takeaways from some of the young starting pitching, but the rest of the team failed to put together a complete effort.
Minnesota plays to avoid the sweep tomorrow. See you then!
Blake Snell is the latest pitcher headed for elbow surgery, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. Snell is having loose bodies removed from his left elbow and is out indefinitely.
The procedure has become an unwelcome trend across the sport. New York Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon had a delayed start to the 2026 season after having the surgery to remove loose bodies and a bone spur shaved down.
Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner like Snell, underwent arthroscopic surgery to remove loose bodies after a flare-up earlier this month.
The typical recovery time for this surgery is two to three months. But Skubal’s surgeon, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, used a device called the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0, which could significantly shorten that timeline. Nine days after the procedure, Skubal had already started playing catch.
Snell, 33, shares the same agent as Skubal, Scott Boras, so there has been speculation he could use the same procedure. Roberts said he was not sure what surgery Snell would have.
This would be the second time Snell has had loose bodies removed from his elbow. He also had surgery in July 2019 when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. He returned two months later.
Snell has a long history with injuries.
Snell had just made his season debut a week before after missing the first six weeks with shoulder fatigue and inflammation. In his lone start of 2026, Snell gave up five runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out five over three innings.
A 2018 and 2023 Cy Young Award winner, Snell signed a five-year $182 million deal with the Dodgers in November 2024. He missed two months last season with shoulder inflammation before returning to go 4-4 with a 2.41 ERA in nine regular season starts. He pitched 34 postseason innings, posting a 3.18 ERA as the Dodgers won the 2025 World Series. He cited that workload as a reason for the shoulder issues this spring.
Will Vancouver Canucks prospect Danila Klimovich be heading to the KHL?
According to his agent, Dan Milstein, the forward will not be.
With both Vancouver and the Abbotsford Canucks’s 2025–26 seasons wrapped-up, and Klimovich waiting for a new contract with the Canucks, rumours have floated of the forward signing in the KHL, which would end his five-year tenure with the AHL team.
Earlier today, Milstein clarified the rumours for a second time, confirming that Klimovich would not be going to the KHL at this moment.
“Fake news,” he wrote on X in a response to an article claiming that his client would be heading to the KHL.
Milstein also confirmed this to David Quadrelli of CanucksArmy earlier in the week, writing that the “KHL is not being considered at this time at all.”
Klimovich was drafted 41st overall in the 2021 NHL Draft but has yet to make his NHL debut. The forward has played on Abbotsford since the 2021–22 season, reaching career-highs in 2024–25 with 25 goals and 13 assists in 65 games played. He is currently tied with Linus Karlsson for Abbotsford’s franchise-high in all-time goals-scored with 70.
Klimovich is one of four players currently in the Canucks organization who are represented by Milstein, with the others being Evander Kane, Max Sasson, and Kirill Kudryavtsev. Milstein also represents Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov, Montréal Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov, and former Canucks forward Ilya Mikheyev.
Klimovich’s current contract will expire come the 2026 off-season, making him a restricted free-agent if the Canucks opt not to re-sign him.
Sep 26, 2025; Vancouver, British Columbia, CAN; Vancouver Canucks forward Danila Klimovich (9) reaches for the loose puck against the Seattle Kraken in the third period at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Frid-Imagn Images
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ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 11: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers at bat in the first inning against the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on August 11, 2025 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
After four losses in a row, the Dodgers try for their fourth win in a row on Saturday night in Orange County. The day-off carousel lands on Kyle Tucker for this one, with Alex Call starting in right field.
Sky Blues claim semi-final on penalties and will face Auckland FC in decider
Coach Patrick Kisnorbo hails ‘mental toughness’ of Sydney side
Sydney FC’s head coach Patrick Kisnorbo has hailed the “resilience and mental toughness” of his side as they punched their ticket to the A-League Men grand final, winning a pulsating semi-final against premiers Newcastle on penalties.
The Sky Blues opened the scoring on Saturday night through Piero Quispe’s 64th-minute goal, before a relentless Eli Adams made it 1-1 with a thunderous strike late in injury time to send the game into extra time at McDonald Jones Stadium.
LOS ANGELES, CA - MAY 11: Trevor McDonald #72 of the San Francisco Giants pitches during the game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium on Monday, May 11, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Nicole Vasquez/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
It’s time for game two of the series between the San Francisco Giants and their former neighbors, the one-named Athletics.
At the time of me writing this, a few days in advance, the scheduled matchup is right-handers Trevor McDonald and Luis Severino. McDonald has made two starts on the season, and is 1-0 with a 2.92 ERA, a 4.00 FIP, and 12 strikeouts against two walks in 12.1 innings. Severino has made nine starts, and is 2-4 with a 4.07 ERA, a 4.42 FIP, and 47 strikeouts against an MLB-worst 29 walks in 48.2 innings.
Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell is set to undergo surgery next Tuesday to remove loose bodies from his elbow, according to manager Dave Roberts, but there is optimism he could return sooner than the 2-3 months such procedures typically require.
While the exact nature of the operation Snell will have next week is still being determined, multiple sources told The California Post that there is hope he will be able to utilize a new medical technology called the NanoNeedle Scope 2.0 — which is a smaller version of a typical arthroscope that allows for less invasive procedures and a potentially faster recovery time.
The Dodgers’ Blake Snell hopes to return sooner than expected after having surgery next week. AP
On May 6, two-time reigning American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal became the first known major-league pitcher to have such a procedure, which was performed by renowned sports surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache (who is the Dodgers’ head team physician and will also perform Snell’s surgery).
Already, Skubal is back to playing catch. And according to The Post’s Jon Heyman, he could return in as little as six weeks.
Snell’s exact timeline won’t be clear until his surgery is completed, according to sources. But Roberts said “it’s supposed to be a lot quicker recovery,” citing the surgical options that would be available for the 33-year-old pitcher.
Snell had a more traditional loose-body removal to address the same elbow problem in 2019 while he was playing with the Rays. That year, he missed two months before returning to the mound.
Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz also had loose bodies removed from his elbow last month. He is expected to be sidelined until the second half of the year.
The reason Snell’s current situation makes him a candidate for the NanoNeedle procedure, one source said, is because of where the loose bodies in his elbow are located.
As ElAttrache explained in an interview with The Athletic while discussing Skubal’s recent surgery, the NanoNeedle method also has little downside. If it’s unable to remedy the problem, a traditional arthroscope can still be used instead.
Snell will certainly be hoping to return as fast as possible.
Already this year, he had missed more than a month to begin the campaign while recovering from offseason shoulder fatigue, which stemmed from a shoulder injury that cost him four months during his debut campaign with the Dodgers in 2025.
He only made his season debut last weekend, pitching three innings in a loss to the Atlanta Braves.
While the Dodgers had Snell take his time with his build-up process this year –– hoping to avoid another elongated absence like he experienced last year –– the left-hander ultimately returned to the active roster a week sooner than expected, skipping a final scheduled minor-league rehab outing after Tyler Glasnow went on the injured list with back spasms.
Snell and Tyler Glasnow’s injuries have caused a pitching crunch for the Dodgers, who are down to five healthy starters. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Now that they are without both Snell and Glasnow, the Dodgers are facing their first true pitching crunch of the season, down to just five healthy starters.
They are hopeful of getting Glasnow back in the somewhat near future, though he has been limited to only flat-ground catch play in recent days and likely remains at least a couple weeks away from returning.
Former top prospect River Ryan is their best option to call up from Triple-A. But he recently missed a month on the minor-league injured list with a hamstring problem and has made just three outings this year in his return from a Tommy John surgery.
Thus, the Dodgers might have to roll with just a five-man rotation for now — which presents complications as they work around the roughly one-start-per-week schedule of their three Japanese pitchers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki and Shohei Ohtani.
It could result in an added short-term strain on their bullpen, which had to cover all nine innings of Friday’s game after Snell was scratched.
But if things go as the Dodgers hope, Snell might not be out as long as initially feared, raising the possibility of their pitching staff getting back to full strength at some point this summer.
“He said he was just excited to have a date on the calendar [for the surgery],” Roberts said of Snell, whom he has communicated with via text, “to get it taken care of, get back to playing catch and getting back to joining us.”
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MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MAY 15: Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs and Rudy Gobert #27 of the Minnesota Timberwolves lock arms after the game during Round Two Game Six of the 2026 NBA Playoffs on May 15, 2026 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
I was seven years old when my father first taught me how to play blackjack.
Whether that is a particularly normal thing to teach a child of that age is perhaps a conversation for another time, but it is, for me, a formative and happy childhood memory.
Having spent the better part of a week vacationing at my father’s boss’s coastal vacation home, we were beginning to run out of card games to play. Old Maid, Go Fish, Kings In the Corner, Spades, Cheat, Spoons, and Uno had all been played ad nauseam, and the beach-house (very purposely) lacked a television set, much less a VCR.
We had only ourselves, and our diversions, and the ocean at the shore. It was, in retrospect, a remarkably lo-fi moment in our lives, preceding the technological onslaught to come.
We read books out loud, and wrestled on the living room floor, and spent time on the beach until our burgeoning sunburns drove us back inside like vampires fleeing the dawn. We marinated in the scent of spices and fresh crustacean boiling in the cavernous kitchen, and sprawled about the dining room table telling all the jokes we knew, and making up worse ones. And then, after the meal, it was down to business.
“Remember, the dealer has to take a hit on 16 or lower”, my father reminded me, as I asked for a somewhat inadvisable hit on a 17 of my own.
“What’s a hard 17 again?”
“A 17 with no aces.”
“Oh, I have an ace. What does that mean?”
“That means you have a soft 17. Your ace can be an 11 or a 1.”
“It’s a 1 if I go over, right?”
“Right. But right now I’m showing a 6, which mean I’ll probably have to take a hit unless I have an ace too.”
“Because the dealer has to stand on 17, right?”
“In our game, yes. But not in all games. In our game, if I have an ace, we’ll push. We’ll tie.”
“I don’t wanna tie. I wanna win. I want a card.”
The card came off the deck and revealed itself as a 2.
“Ok, that’s 19. Do you want to stay?”
“The next card will be high, right?”
“Maybe. It’s not looking good for me.”
“Yeah, I’ll stay.”
My father flipped his second card. It was also an ace.
“Well, that’s 17. I have to stay.”
“I win?”
“Yep. But only in our game. In a casino maybe not. I’d get to take another hit.”
“Good thing we’re not at a casino.”
“Mhmm. And that it’s not your money. It’s harder when it’s your money.”
“How is it harder?”
“Well, do you have any money?”
“No. I spent it all.”
“I guess you’ll just have to find out one day.”
We spent the rest of the vacation playing blackjack when we were indoors, until I was certain I’d mastered the game. I knew when to take a hit. I knew when to stand. I’d gotten good at anticipating what might be coming based on what was on the board. It wasn’t card counting per se, but it was the best I’d ever been with numbers.
We ended up playing blackjack on a lot of subsequent vacations, and I was delighted to find in adulthood, in my first encounter with Las Vegas, that I’d retained the knoweldge.
Maybe that shouldn’t have been so surprising considering how I took to compiling and accumulating box scores in the years just after that first brush with Vingt-et-un.
I’d cut them out of newspapers the night after games (when the paper had been fully read) and keep them in my room, sometimes on my walls (like Tim Duncan’s Game 6 masterpiece against the New Jersey Nets), but more often in piles on the top of my dresser, or the tiny square of laminate ‘wood’ with legs that I called a desk.
It felt like there was more information than the information I was getting, as I tracked the ups-and-downs of important Spurs players in my spiral notebooks. Having gone through much of my mother’s storage, I suspect that they are long-lost at this point, but I still fantasize about finding the notebook that I dedicated to Stephen Jackson, Malik Rose, and Speedy Claxton, as I tried to figure out which one the Spurs should make an effort to keep.
I’m not 100% sure why these were the memories that San Antonio’s thrashing of the Minnesota Timberwolves triggered for me. I was certain that the game was over halfway through third quarter, in the midst of the 3rd straight 36+ point frame from the Silver and Black, just on the conscious side of dozing with the comforting weight of my daughter sleeping on my chest.
(Her sole contribution before passing out was to remark that 100 is a big number)
With every closing flicker of my own eyelids came a memory. With every opening, the massacre of reality.
How am I going to write about this? Do I just say that everyone played well?
I mean, they really did. Kelly Olynyk, Jordan McLaughlin, and Lindy Waters III all played two thirds of the fourth quarter. Only one member of the regular rotation played more than 27 minutes.
With eight minutes left in the game and a 30 point deficit, the valiant but ailing Anthony Edwards personally congratulated Spurs players before retiring to rest his banged-up knees for next season, the opposite of the comportment of the extra-physical ‘Jordan Rule’ Pistons that they were sometimes exasperatingly compared to at the start of the series.
In the end they were more paper tigers than the superstar thwarters so many outside the fan-base had hoped they’d be. Whether by dint of injury and/or inferior roster flexibility, they were forced to stand on 17.
The Spurs were playing with house money, deeper and more advantageously capable of adjusting, and lacking a certain weight of expectation due to the seasons preceding this one.
And while I have spent most of this year’s postseason blowouts reminding myself and others not to put the cart before the horse, I couldn’t help but look ahead to the match-up on the horizon, and the reality that expectations are about to really and truly change.
Before the opening of the season, even the most ardent of Spurs supporters and journalists considered the Western Conference Finals to be the absolute and remotest peak on the horizon. Most agreed that avoiding the Play-In and defeating a first round opponent would be an acceptable and reasonable limit.
But now the Spurs are on the doorstep of a Finals appearance in Victor Wembanyama’s 3rd season, and facing a team they went 4-1 against in the regular season.
The rules have changed. All things considered, the Thunder are more flexible and more talented and healthier than the Timberwolves were, and just as (if not more) physical, with a habitually favorable whistle to boot.
The Spurs can’t count on them to stand on a soft 17. The Thunder are going to take the hit. They’re going to have home-court advantage. They’re the house, and the house has the odds in their favor.
It’s almost guaranteed that the Spurs will have to make the exactly right play at the exactly right time, and this time, they won’t be able to afford the lapses they had against the Trailblazers and the Timberwolves.
They are no longer playing with house money. The cost will be their own, and that of the city that supports them. A loss here might haunt them, and that can go two very different ways. They’re too young to know better, and I sincerely hope that they get to stay that way.
Playing in Vegas with my own cash at stake, I found myself second-guessing moves that I would never have thought about twice in the past. It was money that I had set aside for exactly that purpose, but the brain can have expectations in direct opposition to that of the nervous system in the same way that Spurs fans can intellectually hold reasonable perspectives about how this team has exceeded all expectations and still become unmoored by the not-unreasonable desire for more.
It’s strange to be experiencing this all over again at the age I am now. I’ve seen variations of this story play out before, and I can see most of the plot points before they arrive, and yet it’s somehow a new experience all over again, except that now instead of the youth being soothed by the experience of the adults on the court, I find myself carrying hopefully anxiety for the prosperity of youth. I wonder how much more of my life will become that way.
And yet, I find that the wonderful chaos of this season and postseason has revealed itself as an ace in a soft 17.
Hit me. I’m ready for whatever card is next.
Takeways
We have to talk about the masterclass that Stephon Castle and Devin Vassell put on against Julius Randle in this series. Prior to the series, Randle was the obvious mismatch for a Spurs team that struggles with size at Power-Forward specifically. My thought was that the Spurs should let Randle shoot himself into a hole while the Spurs spent most of their time and energy on Ant Edwards. And there’s a reason that I’m not coaching in the NBA, because Sean Sweeney pulled out his previous playbook against the Wolves, and decided to alternate sending doubles at both of them. This was incredibly affective against Randle, who had lost his favorite passing target in Donte DiVincenzo against Denver, and his inability to anticipate these doubles seemed to shake him somewhat, as he was a turnover machine and forced some very ill-advised shots. But, most tellingly, he seemed to decline taking shots at all over the last two games, as Castle and Vassell smothered him in equal measure. This was, at least to me, a big, big deal, with teams in the Thunder and (potentially) the Knicks also being capable of exploiting what I was previously concerned would be a fatal flaw. Both of those teams are now going to have to figure out a way to deal with that when/if they face the Spurs.
As it turns out, when the Spurs three guards combine for 68 points very efficient points, San Antonio becomes an absolute juggernaut. This game served as yet another perfect example of why all three of these guards are critical to what the Spurs can do, and how they can absolutely unravel defenses with some of the best rim-protectors and perimeter defenders in the league. All previous elaboration and hedging aside, if the Spurs do this regularly, it just will not matter who they’re matched up with. Wemby opens up everything for these guards, and each one is different enough to pose varying challenges for the defense in such a way that it opens it right back up for Wemby and the perimeter snipers. Stephon Castle was absolutely irresistible in this one, but the filthy varieties of perimeter penetration from the other two had Minnesota’s defenders seeing ghosts by the middle of the second quarter, and only a spate of turnovers and defensive mistakes really let the Wolves back in the game at all.
Carter Bryant has this really funny thing going on, where when I see him on the court, he looks amazing even when his shot looks awkward, and then shows confusingly little in the box score, and then looks almost as amazing in the advanced stats. There are some thing about his game right now that don’t easily convey, but he’s been on Luke Kornet’s level when it comes to doing the dirty work and making the effort play, and he gave both Randle and Edwards trouble while gobbling up rebounds like Pac-Man after eating a power-pellet. If that shot comes along in the off-season, I’m willing to go out an a limb and say that he could transform into a reasonable facsimile of another forward who came to the Spurs with an awkward shot and staggering athleticism. The Spurs don’t even need to draft outside of best pick available at the rate that Bryant is improving. He’s overshadowed by the majestic poise and maneuvers of fellow rookie Dylan Harper (who I personally like to refer to as ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’), but he’s doing shocking work in the postseason for someone who got very little playing time comparatively-speaking, and I think this draft could go down as one of the best in Spurs history.
Despite reaching the Western Conference Finals in 2024, the Minnesota Timberwolves front office decided they needed to move on from Karl-Anthony Towns (and his contract) if they were going to make one more step forward. They traded KAT to the Knicks, betting that the combination of Julius Randle with the depth of Donte DiVincenzo would be the upgrade they needed.
If one thing became clear in the six games against San Antonio that ended Minnesota's season (despite the injuries they faced), it's that there is a large gap between the young, improving Spurs and the Timberwolves.
What's next for Minnesota? How does it take that next step forward?
Minnesota to pursue Antetokounmpo
Minnesota was one of the teams in conversation with Milwaukee about Giannis Antetokounmpo at the trade deadline, and the two-time MVP reportedly had interest in pairing with Anthony Edwards. However, at that time, the Bucks were gauging the market more than looking for a deal, league sources told NBC Sports.
That vibe has changed this offseason, with the Bucks sounding serious about a clean break. Expect the Timberwolves to be back in the conversation for Antetokounmpo, reports Jon Krawczynski at The Athletic.
One key question in this: Milwaukee is going to ask for Jaden McDaniels as well as a matching salary (Randle at $33 million or Rudy Gobert at $36.5 million are the most likely fits), plus draft picks. A third team likely has to be involved to add picks and make it work. Would Minnesota be willing to trade McDaniels, who, along with Naz Reid, makes up a core part of the Timberwolves' identity?
Even if they do, will that be enough? Will Antetokounmpo want to play with Edwards badly enough to push for this, or will he decide his best path back to the Finals is to stay in the East and push for a trade to a team there? Everything is still up in the air with Antetokounmpo, but Milwaukee will be in the mix.
If not Antetokounmpo, then what?
About the only thing that feels certain in Minnesota this offseason is that the team will focus on re-signing free agent Ayo Dosunmu, whom the Timberwolves acquired from Chicago at the trade deadline and who has become a key shot-creation option.
Aside from that, look for team president Tim Connelly to go big game hunting, Krawczynski reports.
Nearly every big name that has come available over the last few years, from Durant to Antetokounmpo to Ja Morant and James Harden, has at least been discussed internally. That will only shift into overdrive now.
For his part, Edwards thinks Minnesota's roster can compete with San Antonio and Oklahoma City (when healthy).
"I feel like we good," Edwards said at exit interview day when asked about adding another star.
There are parts of this core that the front office also believes can win, Krawczynski reports.
As disappointing as the finish to this season was, the Timberwolves do feel good about the core of Edwards, McDaniels, Reid and [center Joan] Beringer going forward. They will have some big decisions to make, but were encouraged by how the team did pull together to play for one another in the playoffs.
(Beringer was Minnesota's first-round pick last year and a player the team likes to take a big step forward next season.)
Expect changes, maybe big changes, around that core. Minnesota got an up-close look at where San Antonio is setting the bar in a West where it may not even be the best team. And a conference that still has Luka Doncic with the Lakers and Nikola Jokic with the Nuggets.
Minnesota is a good team, but the next step is the hardest one to take. They are going to try to take that step this summer.
José Berríos’ delayed start to the season could turn into a full missed season.
The Blue Jays’ right-hander, who has been sidelined since elbow inflammation was first detected as he geared up to pitch for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair a stress fracture and loose bodies in his elbow.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said that Dr. Keith Meister will also evaluate Berríos for possible ligament damage.
Berríos is expected to miss at least a couple of months, which could turn into the entire season if worst-case fears are realized or if the Blue Jays are out of the playoff hunt when he could return.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher José Berríos throws a pitch during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on March 25, 2025. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST
“There may be some ligament stuff going on,” Schneider said. “They’re going to figure that out when they’re in there.”
Berríos made four rehab starts at Triple-A but was shut down after experiencing discomfort during his May 3 outing.
“There’s always risk with pitchers,” Schneider said. “Even if they’re healthy as can be, there’s always risk. That’s a risk that both he and we accepted when we said, ‘Keep throwing.’”
It’s essentially a continuation of a frustrating eight months for Berríos, who was 9-5 in 31 appearances for the Blue Jays last season.
But he landed on the injured list in September and missed the playoff run to the World Series due to elbow inflammation.
Berríos has an opt-out clause in his contract that could be exercised after this season.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jose Berrios reacts after giving up a two-run home run to Philadelphia Phillies’ Kody Clemens during the second inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. AP Photo/Matt Slocum
He has two years and $48 million remaining on his contract.
Considering the uncertainty of his health, it seems unlikely that Berríos would opt out even if he does end up making his season debut.
The Blue Jays’ rotation already is without Shane Bieber, Max Scherzer and Cody Ponce.
Berríos, 31, has been a model of stability during an era of heightened arm injuries.
He made at least 30 starts in each of the last seven 162-game seasons and 12 in the shortened 60-game season in 2020.
While the Yankees and Mets faced off in Queens on Saturday night, Gerrit Cole had his own version of a Subway Series matchup in a rehab start for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against Syracuse.
The right-hander looked the best he has in the minors as he nears a return to the major leagues following Tommy John surgery that caused him to miss all of the 2025 season.
Cole allowed just one run on six hits over 86 pitches through 5.1 innings of work. He struck out six and walked one, while averaging a 97.0 mph fastball and topping out at 99.6 mph, per YES Network's Conor Foley.
Manager Aaron Boonehad said Friday that Cole was expected to make two more starts in the minor leagues before he comes back to New York. And based on Saturday's performance, it appears the 35-year-old is feeling ready.
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 05: (EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 24 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME) Prince Louis of Cambridge attends the Platinum Pageant on The Mall on June 5, 2022 in London, England. The Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II is being celebrated from June 2 to June 5, 2022, in the UK and Commonwealth to mark the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. (Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images) | Getty Images
I was pretty excited about this game, after our offense suddenly found itself in the same ballpark as our defense and our pitching last night. Eduardo Rodriguez, my favorite hologram—everybody’s favorite hologram, actually—was going for us after nearly pitching a complete game in his last outing versus the Mets, while the Rockies had Tomoyuki Sugano, a second-tier Japanese import who made his major league debut last year at age 35 as a member of Baltimore’s undistinguished starting rotation, taking the mound for them. Per DBE’s invaluable series preview, this game looked like it would be the toughest of the series, but after last night’s game, I liked our odds.
But baseball is a funny game, and it will disappoint you sometimes.
Things seemed to be starting off on a good note for us, with Ketel Marte seeing five pitches to lead off the game before sending a rocket of a line drive into right where it was, for once, not caught by a defender who was exactly in the right place, but instead dropped for a single! Sadly, however, Corbin Carroll then swung at the first pitch he saw, lining it hard to second base and doubling off Ketel. This was made even more painful when Geraldo Perdomo lined a hard single to center that could have probably scored Marte, had Marte still been on base, which he was not. Gerry stole second base, at least, before Nolan Arenado flied out to left for the third out.
ERod, meanwhile, had a distinctly rough go of it in his first inning of work. He was greeted with a single, a ground rule double that bounced over the left field wall, and an RBI single to center that brought in the first run of the ballgame before he had even recorded his first out. A second RBI single with one out brought in a second run, and while he struck out the next two batters to end the frame, the Rockies had hung 31 pitches on him already and two Colorado runs were already in. 2-0 Colorado
Happily, however, at Coors two runs doesn’t tend to mean a whole lot, as we got one of the runs back right away. Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. went opposite field for a one-out double to left in the top of the second, and Jose Fernandez singled to right to advance Lourdes to third. Brian McCann came to the plate, and Fernandez broke for second. Rockies’ catcher Hunter Goodman threw to second, and as soon as he popped up Lourdes broke for home plate. Jose beat the throw to second for our second stolen base of the game, and Lourdes, somewhat surprisingly, beat the throw back to Goodman for our third stolen base and our first run. Baseball really is crazy sometimes….if you tell me that you had “Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. steals home” on your bingo card, I will know that you are lying:
McCann eventually lined out to center, allowing Fernandez to take third, but Ryan Waldschmidt struck out looking to leave him standing there. 2-1 Colorado
ERod’s rough time continued in the bottom of the second, with a leadoff double to Rockies’ third baseman Kyle Karros, followed immediately by old friend Jake McCarthy singling to left to drive Karros in. Perhaps because he felt bad about it, but more likely because he is still Jake McCarthy and so he will do boneheaded things, Jake tried to stretch his single into a double, and was thrown out easily by Gurriel. The Colorado lineup turned over, and Eddie allowed another single, but then he got his act together and shut that business down. 3-1 Colorado
After that, not much happened for awhile. We got runners on base in the third and fourth, but left them there on base with nothing to show for it. Hologram Eddie finally stabilized, putting up zeroes and actually recording a perfectly clean 12-pitch inning in the fourth. Finally, in the top of the fifth, it seemed like our bats might finally get going in earnest, as the top of our lineup came to the plate for the third time and greeted Sugano with back-to-back doubles by Ketel Marte and Corbin Carroll. Ketel’s was particularly crazy to me, as he hit it to pretty much straightaway center and it bounced over the wall for a ground rule double. Carroll’s sounded like it was maybe a home run off the bat, but wound up hitting maybe two thirds of the way up Coors Field’s tall right field wall:
A one-pitch lineout by Perdomo and an Arenado ground ball to first ended the threat right there, but at least we’d scratched out another run, right? 3-2 Colorado
Well, that was pretty much all she wrote, at least in terms of our offense. The Colorado bullpen got involved after the fifth inning, and an assortment of arms you’ve likely never heard of put up zeroes the rest of the way. ERod wound up getting through five innings for us, and even coming out to record the first out of the sixth, before giving way to our bullpen, which did a comparably good job, with one glaring exception.
Brandyn Garcia came out to start the bottom of the eighth, and I guess the thin air in Denver really did not agree with him, as he utterly failed to record an out. The first three batters to face him went single-walk (of the unsightly four-pitch variety)-single to load the bases, and then he hit Colorado DH Mickey Moniak to bring the Rockies’ fourth run across the plate. So out came Garcia, and in came Kevin Ginkel with nobody outs and the bases loaded.
And that brings us to what has to be the real highlight of this game: Ginkel was masterful in getting out of the mess with no further damage. First he induced a grounder to second from Ezequiel Tovar. Ildemaro Vargas threw home to get the lead runner, Brian McCann threw quickly to first to force Tovar for the unusual 4-2-3 double play. It was actually called that way, too, on the field, but the Rockies challenged and replay clearly showed that McCann’s hurried throw pulled Fernandez off the bag. So Ginkel shrugged, struck some dude out on four pitches, and then got Kyle Karros to ground out for the third out of the inning and keep the score within reach as we went to the top of the ninth. 4-2 Colorado
As you know by the headline, we did not finish things off heroically, as much as I would have liked to see that happen. To their credit, though, we did show some fight in the ninth against former Rockies starter and apparently now Rockies bullpen power arm (?!?) Antonio Senzatela, who apparently can hit 99 on the radar gun now that he’s no longer having to try to pitch 5+ innings at Coors. Ryan Waldschmidt stroked a one-out single to left to bring up Ketel Marte as the tying run. Marte, happily, didn’t try to hit himself a six-run dinger, but instead took what Senzatella gave him, which was a four-pitch walk to bring the winning run to the plate with one out. Sadly Corbin Carroll struck out looking after running the count full, to bring Perdomo to the plate with a chance to be the big damn hero. Gerry, to his credit, fought mightily after falling behind in the count early, fouling off five straight pitches at one point and then, finally, on the tenth pitch of his at bat….flying out lazily to center field.
I mention this, though, because at the risk of offering up another bit of “well, the offense isn’t there yet but they’re showing signs of turning a corner” commentary, this was the first game in awhile in which I’ve seen our hitters, especially those at the top of the order, take patient at bats and see a lot of pitches:
Marte had a six-pitch AB to start the ballgame;
Carroll saw seven in the course of drawing a one-out walk in the third;
Perdomo had pretty short ABs for most of the game, but perhaps made up for it with the ten pitches he saw as he was recording the final out of the game;
Arenado saw six pitches each in two different ABs;
Gurriel hit his second inning double on the sixth pitch of his AB, and hit a two-out single on the eighth pitch of his AB in the top of the eighth;
Ryan Waldschmidt drew a six-pitch walk in the seventh.
My point is that, while the results weren’t there in terms of what you will see in the box score, I feel at least like it’s very good to see our batters not just flailing at the first or second or third pitch, plate appearance after plate appearance. I hope that will continue, and I hope that, if it does, we’ll eventually start seeing better results. Here’s hoping, anyway.
Positive Contributors: None, as no player, pitcher or hitter, managed better than Ketel Marte’s +7% WPA Negative Contributors: The offense (33 AB, 9 H, 2 R, 5 BB, 4 K, -54% WPA)
As dismal as this game was, it was broadly reflected by the attendance and engagement in today’s Gameday Thread, which at time of writing has a whopping 98 comments (and I’m pretty sure half of them were mine, because I needed to do something to entertain myself while watching the game). As above, so below, or something like that. In any event, a handful of comments did manage to go what passes for Sedona Red these days, so by popular acclaim CotG goes to AZNailgal520 for this disappointingly apt assessment of our backup catcher’s recent contributions:
It is sad but true. Anyway.
Tomorrow is the rubber match, as we try to secure what feels like it would be our first series win in awhile. Michael Soroka takes the mound for the Snakes, while Michael Lorenzen goes for Colorado. First pitch is scheduled once again for 12:10pm AZ time. Join us if you feel so inclined.
As always, thanks for reading. As always, go Diamondbacks!
The Buffalo Sabres face the Montreal Canadiens, who are trying to close out the NHL second-round playoff series. The Montreal Canadiens are favored with a -172 moneyline compared to the Buffalo Sabres' +143.
