Worldwide Sports News

Not news we wanted to hear.

Anthony Santander will miss 5 to 6 months after labrum surgery (a ring of cartilage around the should socket). I was hoping he could make up for last season, but that’s not going to be happening. We really could have used his power.

Also Shane Bieber will not be ready for opening day, he’s still dealing with forarm fatigue.

And Francis Bowden will be out for the season after surgery for a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow.

You know that line about ‘you can never have too much pitching’? Seems like you can never have too many outfielders either. I don’t know why the Jays can’t spread the bad news out a bit. Tell us about one day, one on Friday and another next Monday.

They should be ok in the starting rotation for a few turns without Bieber. And it looks like Nathan Lukes, Addison Barger, Joey Loperfido and Davis Schneider will get some time to prove their value to the team. I still have high hopes for Loperfido, and I’d like to see Barger build on what he did last year. But…..having Santander’s power would have been handy. Maybe next year?

Isiah Kiner-Falefa stoked tensions in the heated American League East by taking a shot at his former team.

A week after signing a one-year deal with the Red Sox, the ex-Yankees utilityman said he and his former Blue Jays teammates were rooting for New York to beat Boston in last year’s wild-card round to receive an “easier matchup” in the Division Series, according to the Boston Globe’s Tim Healey. 

“We thought it was a better matchup for us the other way [facing the Yankees],” Kiner-Falefa told reporters Tuesday.

Kiner-Falefa, 30, spent two polarizing seasons in New York — particularly his first in 2022, when he served as the team’s everyday shortstop before transitioning to a super-utility role behind Anthony Volpe.

After spending parts of the 2024 and 2025 campaigns with the Blue Jays and Pirates, he returned to Toronto ahead of its first push to the World Series since 1993.

While Toronto and New York tied for the top record in the American League in 2025, the Blue Jays owned the tiebreaker after wiping the floor with their division rival during the regular season.

They wanted a chance to go back to the well, which is exactly what they got after the Bronx Bombers stormed back from a Game 1 loss to beat the arch-rival Red Sox in three games. 

The Jays laughed off the popular notion — “be careful what you wish for” — and completed a gentleman’s sweep of the Yankees, outscoring them 34-19 in the ALDS. 

Kiner-Falefa, who hit .162 with a pair of RBIs across 15 postseason games, is the latest ex-Yankee to send an errant shot at the team after joining their greatest foe.

In December, newly acquired starting pitcher Sonny Gray explained that he was happy to be in “a place where it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”

Not long before, reigning AL Reliever of the Year Aroldis Chapman emphasized that he would never return to The Bronx — “Not even dead.”

Tension between the two rivals continues to escalate before Opening Day, with the Yankees and Red Sox slated to meet for the first time this season from April 21-23 at Fenway Park.

Earlier today, the Nationals held a virtual press conference with Paul Toboni and Blake Butera before pitchers and catchers officially report tomorrow. I was actually able to participate in the presser, and asked a question to Blake Butera. Unfortunately, time ran out before I could ask my question to Toboni, but there is always next time. For the full presser, here is the link.

It was a lot of fun to be a part of this, and I was truly honored. We have come a long way as a site in the past year or so, and hopefully this is the first of many press conferences for us. 

Toboni actually shouted out the Washington Post Nats team which was recently laid off. I thought that was a cool touch. He seemed genuinely shocked and horrified by the decision. I feel the same way about it too. It was a very classy move from him and something I appreciated.

On to the questions themselves, I asked Butera about which player he thinks will surprise people this season. If you want to watch along, my question is at the 11:30 mark. Butera said that Robert Hassell III is the player that could surprise people.

He told me that when discussing the Nats deep group of outfielders, “Sometimes people forget about Robert Hassell”. Butera noted that Hassell was motivated to get bigger and stronger this offseason. He told me that he was impressed with how hard Hassell worked this offseason. As one of the players that got down to Florida early, Butera got to see Hassell put in that work.

Hassell’s focus on getting bigger and stronger this offseason has already become a storyline heading into camp. At a fan event a couple weeks ago, Butera said that Hassell put on 25 pounds of bulk this offseason. That is a big change and will be something to follow as we head into the season.

We saw Jacob Young put on muscle last offseason and it did not have the desired effects. Hopefully, Hassell’s added weight helps his game. When you looked at him last year, it was pretty clear that he had room to add weight. However, 25 pounds in one winter is a big transformation. I am curious to see how he carries that weight and if he can maintain his athleticism. 

As for the press conference as a whole, there was not any groundbreaking news, but it was still interesting. Toboni and Butera got to talk about their process which I found neat. Butera discussed some of his first impressions about the players and how he is settling into the job. 

Toboni talked about his process oriented vision. One part I found interesting was when Toboni said he and the staff will be challenging players on their weaknesses. The example he used was chase rate. If a player is chasing too much, they will show them the specific numbers until they get better. 

This was a cool event for me and a big step for the site as a whole. I am grateful to the Nats for letting me be a part of this. We will be heading down to West Palm Beach for a week in March, so hopefully we get more opportunities to talk with Blake and Paul soon.

The Tampa Bay Rays have announced they will also celebrate former Rays third baseman Evan Longoria with a weekend of events and recognition dubbed, “Longo’s Legacy Weekend.”

The team will honor Longoria by inducting him into the Rays Hall of Fame on Saturday, July 11 and will retire his No. 3 jersey on Sunday, July 12.

During his time with Tampa Bay, Longoria was a three-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner. He was named AL Rookie of the Year in 2008 and was the 2009 AL Silver Slugger recipient at third base, becoming the second player in team history to earn a Silver Slugger.

Longoria’s contributions helped send the Rays to the first four postseason appearances in franchise history, including a World Series run during his rookie season in 2008. He delivered a legendary walk-off home run in “Game 162” against the Yankees in 2011, securing the American League Wild Card. In 2025, Longoria signed a ceremonial one-day contract to retire from the game as a Tampa Bay Ray.

Previous Rays Hall of Fame inductees include former Devil Rays third baseman Wade Boggs (2023), former Rays outfielder Carl Crawford (2023), former Devil Rays first baseman Fred McGriff (2024), Rays Radio broadcaster Dave Wills (2024), and former player, manager and Rays senior advisor Don Zimmer (2023). Both Wills and Zimmer were inducted posthumously.

A lefty masher who finished last season with the Yankees will not return to The Bronx.

Veteran outfielder Austin Slater has agreed to a minor league deal with the Tigers, The Post’s Jon Heyman first reported Tuesday.

The deal, which includes an invitation to major league spring training, is worth $2 million if Slater makes the team, with an additional $500,000 in incentives, per Fansided.

Slater, 33, was acquired from the White Sox at the trade deadline last season to provide some right-handed punch for a lefty-heavy Yankees lineup.

From 2017-23, Slater hit an outstanding .285/.374/.463 with an .837 OPS against lefties.

He suffered a hamstring injury in his second start with the Yankees and missed more than a month of action after hitting the injured list.

The nine-year veteran, who sported an .814 OPS versus lefties at the time of the injury, finished his Yankees stint just 1-for-16 with 11 strikeouts against southpaws. 

In 53 games between New York and Chicago last season, Slater slashed .216/.270/.372 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.

In search of a right-handed outfielder for the bench, the Yankees pursued a reunion with Slater, offering a one-year, $1 million deal, Heyman reported last week.

The sides could not reach an agreement, however, and the Yankees instead reunited with another lefty masher, Paul Goldschmidt.

“[Goldshmidt] wasn’t necessarily the perfect fit, like we’d probably want the right-handed outfielder with more flexibility,” manager Aaron Boone said on MLB Network Radio on Sunday.

“Inevitably, things happen over the course of spring and the course of the season to where having the better player, especially a guy who has performed here and been part of the culture, it was a really good day for us.”

Instead, Slater, who wields a career .248/.336/.384 line with 45 homers and 184 RBIs between the Giants, Reds, Orioles, White Sox and Yankees, has a chance to make more than double what New York offered.

Slater was part of a busy day for the Tigers, who also reunited with legendary pitcher Justin Verlander on a one-year, $13 million deal.