Category: MLB

Baseball fans mourn death of Rickey Henderson, MLB’s Man of Steal

Rickey Henderson was 65.

Rickey Henderson died on Friday at age 65, leaving a towering legacy on and off the field as one of Major League Baseball’s most iconic players. Henderson had been in the hospital battling pneumonia, according to the Bay Area News Group.

At the conclusion of an astonishing 24-year career, Henderson led MLB in stolen bases (1,406), stolen bases in a single season (130), runs scored (2,295), leadoff home runs (81) and unintentional walks (2,129). A 10-time All-Star, Henderson won the 1990 American League MVP and was a two-time World Series champion with the 1989 Oakland A’s and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays.

He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first ballot in 2009 with 94.8 percent of the vote.

In addition to his four stints with Oakland, Henderson played for the Yankees, Mariners, Padres, Angels, Mets, Red Sox and Dodgers. He returned to the dugout in 2007 as an assistant coach for the Mets.

Tributes from heartbroken fans poured in across social media as news of Henderson’s death became public.

 

 

Sammy Sosa welcomed back by Cubs as slugger apologizes for past ‘mistakes’

Sammy Sosa hasn’t been back to Wrigley Field since 2007.

Sammy Sosa hasn’t been back to Wrigley Field since his iconic 13-year career on the North Side ended with a trade to the Baltimore Orioles in 2007. That streak seems like it’s about to end in 2025.

On Thursday, Sosa took the first step towards rebuilding a relationship with the franchise he’s most closely associated with, releasing an apology for his actions during the height of the era of performance enhancing drugs — albeit one short on specifics — that seems to have satisfied Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts enough to finally invite him back.

The Cubs released a statement shortly after, thanking Sosa for his comments and inviting him to the team’s annual Cubs Convention this winter.

Sosa and the Cubs haven’t had any legitimate relationship since 2007. He was not part of the team’s 100th anniversary celebration in 2014, nor the World Series celebrations in 2016. Despite remaining a fan favorite on the North Side, Ricketts was steadfast in his belief Sosa could not be welcomed back until he came clean about any performance-enhancing drug use and apologized.

Asked by a fan at Cubs Convention 2018 when Sosa would return to Wrigley, Ricketts spelled out his position pretty clearly, per the Chicago Sun-Times:

“I really believe all the players from that era who were in that kind of steroid era … I think we owe them a lot of understanding,” Ricketts said. “We have to put ourselves in their shoes and be very, very sympathetic to everything, all the decisions they had to make, and certainly as it turned out after testing had begun in 2002, a large number of players test positive. Players of that era owe us a little bit of honesty, too. I feel like the only way to turn this page is just to put everything on the table. That’s the way I feel.”

If this all seems a bit trite, it’s because it is. We’ll likely never know the final tally of who was or wasn’t using PEDs from the 1980s to the early aughts, and it’s not like there’s been much derision from Cubs fans over the years regarding Sosa’s alleged use. We’re not talking about the Hall of Fame or any accolades here, either. Merely an opportunity for Cubs fans to show Sosa just how much he meant to them — something fans have been begging for years to do. Your mileage may vary on the scandal at this point with all this *gestures at the world* going on, but it never made much sense to punish one player and a generation of fans who came to love the game because of him.

Still, Ricketts — who was still years away from purchasing the Cubs when Sosa left — arbitrarily decided on the conditions of Sosa’s return. While noted alleged dopers like Mark McGuire served as hitting coach for multiple MLB clubs and Alex Rodriguez serves as an analyst for national broadcasts on Fox, Sosa was effectively banished from baseball entirely until Thursday.

It appears those conditions have been met. The right fielder who hit 545 home runs for the Cubs and battled McGuire in the epic 1998 chase to break Roger Maris’ single season home run record will be back at Wrigley Field sooner than later.

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Cody Bellinger is married to Giancarlo Stanton’s ex. Will Yankees teammates be awkward?

Well, this could be awkward.

Hey, here’s quite the story that comes with a big MLB trade: Cody Bellinger is now a New York Yankee. He’s married to model Chase Carter, who used to date Giancarlo Stanton, who happens to be Bellinger’s new teammate on the Bronx Bombers.

Will it be awkward? I’m honestly not sure. But from a distance, it feels like that’s a bit in the past given that Carter reportedly dated Stanton in 2019 and Bellinger is now married to her, and the two of them have kids together.

So there you go. Quite the connection with this trade! Here are some photos of Bellinger and Carter:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C_n-OGAPVnm/?hl=en&img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/C0WqeCtu_Lr/?hl=en

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Kyle Tucker trade grades: Who won the Astros and Cubs deal?

Who won this deal?

It’s been quite a Friday for MLB trades, and this one involves a true star.

Kyle Tucker, the Houston Astros outfielder coming off of a shorter year due to injury, is off to the Chicago Cubs, who get an elite, young left-handed bat. The Cubs might think they’re contenders in the NL Central given this move between a pretty good rotation and a bolstered lineup.

As for the Astros? They got a decent return, but if they lose Tucker and free agent star Alex Bregman, it’s going to be a really rough offseason.

So who won or lost this trade? As we do all the time, we’re handing out grades for each side:

Astros and Cubs trade details

Astros get: 3B Isaac Paredes, SP Hayden Wesneski, 3B Cam Smith

Cubs get: OF Kyle Tucker

Astros grade

So here’s the thing: Kyle Tucker is on his way to getting PAID next year. And if you’re the Astros and you’re not sure if you can retain a young slugger like Tucker and you just saw Juan Soto sign with a new team, you might not love to lose him for nothing.

That’s why they’re acting now. Paredes has knocked in runs in his young career even if his batting average isn’t great. Wesneski has shown some effectiveness on the mound. And Smith is a top-10 prospect in the Cubs’ organization.

But … could they have done better elsewhere? Is this really the best deal for a name like Tucker? It doesn’t feel like the greatest of returns, even though their leverage was capped by Tucker’s impending free agency.

GRADE: B-minus

Cubs grade

WOW. If the Cubs think they’re contenders in 2025 with this move, then it’s intriguing. Or if they’re grabbing Tucker thinking they could sign him long term, then it’s also intriguing.

That said, I’m not sure Chicago is good enough to do either. But when a superstar of this caliber is available and you don’t have to give up THAT much, you roll the dice.

GRADE: B-plus

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Devin Williams trade grades: Who won the Yankees and Brewers deal?

Who won this deal?

We have ourselves a fairly big MLB trade! On Friday!

The New York Yankees haven’t let losing out on Juan Soto stop them from tinkering with their World Series roster. And the Milwaukee Brewers want to keep the winning going after losing in the Wild Card last season.

Which brings us to this deal involving stud Brewers closer Devin Williams and a Yankees team that desperately needed a bullpen arm to close things out. This is intriguing stuff.

Who won this deal? That’s what we’re here to do, as always. Here are trade grades for both sides with the news breaking on Friday:

Yankees and Brewers trade details:

Yankees get: RHP Devin Williams

Brewers get: LHP Nestor Cortes, infielder Caleb Durbin

Yankees grade

This is fairly straightforward. Williams is an elite closer who is turning 31 next September. The Yankees needed a dependable closer after what we saw last season and postseason, even in the run to the World Series.

So they acquired Williams for a relatively low cost — Cortes wasn’t that great in 2024 after struggles in 2023, and we saw that in the postseason. Durbin isn’t a top prospect, although dude has some speed.

It’s a move you make if you’re a contender. Simple.

GRADE: A-minus

Brewers grade

You read all of that above and think the Brewers got hosed in this deal, right? But, no.

You see, they were never going to sign Williams to a long-term deal, which is a good idea even when you’re talking about an elite bullpen arm like him.

So they got Cortes — who, despite some struggles, has shown flashes of being a solid rotation pitcher — and a prospect. A good return for a player they weren’t going to keep!

That earns a decent grade, especially when we saw the Brewers had some names who could make up for Williams’ absence last season.

GRADE: B

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How to buy Juan Soto New York Mets jersey, t-shirt, more

Grab the newest Juan Soto New York Mets gear:

The New York Mets landed the biggest fish in the Major League Baseball free agent market… the biggest fish ever in any free agent market: Juan Soto.

Through a historic contract, the largest in professional sports ever, Soto inked a 15-year. $765 million deal with the Mets. Soto decided to stay in New York, but he skipped across town and left the Yankees for their Subway Series rival.

Speculation around the 26-year-old has swirled for months with the Mets very much in the picture the whole time.

Not only has it happened, Soto was officially introduced as a new Mets player on Wednesday. Now is the time to welcome Soto home in Queens, personally.

With the ink dry on Soto’s contract, don’t waste any time. Be the first of all the Mets fans in your circle to show your excitement by grabbing some the first New York Mets Juan Soto gear thanks to Fanatics, which can be found below:

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Juan Soto had a ruthless answer when asked if he spoke to any Yankees players before his Mets signing

He couldn’t wait to leave that organization.

Fresh off signing the most lucrative contract in baseball history, Juan Soto was introduced as a member of the New York Mets on Thursday. But he probably shouldn’t expect many congratulatory texts from his now-former Yankees teammates.

Soto — who helped lead the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since 2009 — decided to sign with the crosstown rivals for a 15-year, $765 million deal. Given how crucial Soto was to the Yankees’ success in 2024, one might have expected more of a recruitment effort from players like Aaron Judge or Gerrit Cole. But that wasn’t the case at all.

Speaking to reporters, Soto was asked if he had talked to any Yankees players during the free agency process. And that was when Soto revealed that he hadn’t spoken to any of them since leaving the clubhouse for the final time.

If that didn’t indicate just how unhappy Soto was with the Yankees’ clubhouse atmosphere, I don’t know what does. Typically, team leaders would do what they could to support (or even subtly recruit) a free agent of Soto’s caliber. Yet, in this case, the silence seemed mutual.

He was ready to move on from the Yankees, and he made that clear on Thursday.

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Garrett Crochet trade grades: Who won the White Sox and Red Sox deal?

The Boston Red Sox won the Garrett Crochet Sweepstakes, but who won the trade?

The heat is all the way up on the hot stove at the 2024 MLB Winter Meetings.

Following Juan Soto’s gargantuan 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets and Max Fried’s eight-year, $218 million contract with the New York Yankees, the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox have struck an agreement to send Garrett Crochet, arguably the most coveted pitcher on the trade market, from the Windy City to Beantown.

If this sounds a bit familiar, you’re not mistaken. On December 6, 2016, the Red Sox acquired Chris Sale from the White Sox for Yoán Moncada, Michael Kopech, Luis Alexander Basabe and Víctor Díaz.

The deal worked out better for Boston than Chicago. The Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 with a rotation led by Sale. The White Sox only saw meaningful contributions from Kopech and Moncada in the bigs. However Moncada’s contract option was declined for 2025 after playing just 12 games last season. Kopech was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers at last summer’s deadline and wound up winning a World Series.

Which means the Red Sox unequivocally won the Sale trade. Who won the Crochet trade? Let’s take a look:

The trade, per reports

Red Sox get:  Starting Pitcher Garrett Crochet

White Sox get: Catcher Kyle Teel, Outfielder Braden Montgomery, Infielder Chase Meidroth and RHP Wikelman Gonzalez

Red Sox Grade

Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports

Let’s start with the obvious: After missing out on Soto, Fried and Willy Adames, the Red Sox were under immense pressure to make a big splash this offseason and were running out of opportunities to do so.

That’s motivation enough to go out and overspend on Crochet, who in his age 25 season — and his first as a starter — was a revelation for Chicago. The lefty twirled 146 innings with an ERA of 3.58 and a WHIP of 1.068 to pair with 209 strikeouts, 33 walks and a 2.69 FIP.

But perhaps the most enticing part of Crochet is the fact he is still arbitration eligible for two more seasons before he can become an unrestricted free agent in 2027. That not only gives Boston a frontline starter for two seasons, but allows it to negotiate an extension. It wouldn’t be surprising to see a new deal for Crochet sooner than later, and a White Sox team coming off an all-time MLB-worst 121 losses certainly had no use for that type of financial flexibility beyond Crochet’s trade value.

This will all boil down to whether or not the Red Sox are capable of finishing off their rebuild in the next few years. Boston hasn’t made the postseason since 2021. It finished third in the American League East in 2024 after consecutive fifth-place finishes. The Yankees and Baltimore Orioles’ rosters remain years ahead of Boston’s. The Red Sox, however, did have a stockpile of elite prospects and rather than attempt to finish out a rebuild before spending, the front office decided to speed things up by shipping out some of their best young players for an elite starter.

It’s a risky gamble if Boston is unable to fill out the rest of it’s team with similar talent, but one the Red Sox backed themselves into. Years of middling results have left the team (and fans) restless. This deal has potential to either speed things up or drastically backfire depending on what Boston does next.

GRADE: B-

White Sox Grade

Jul 13, 2024; Arlington, TX, USA; American League Future catcher Kyle Teel (10) hits a double during the fifth inning against the American League Future team during the Major league All-Star Futures game at Globe Life Field. (Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports)

Trading Crochet this offseason was a given. He simply holds too much value on a franchise that has no use for it. After the White Sox held out on trading him at the deadline, the Winter Meetings was the next most-likely timeframe for a deal to get done.

Chicago won’t go from 121 losses to a respectable opponent in one offseason without spending like it never has before. Instead, the White Sox are looking at another years-long rebuild with a finish line too far away to even make out at this point.

After trading Sale to Boston in 2016 — signaling the tear down of that White Sox core — it took another four years before Chicago reached the postseason, and even then it took a third-place AL Central finish after the pandemic-shortened 60-game season to get there.

We can probably ballpark just how long the White Sox believe this rebuild will take given the prospects the Red Sox are sending back for Crochet. Here are the estimated time of arrivals in the Major Leagues for all the players coming back to Chicago, per MLB Pipeline:

  • No. 4 Prospect: Kyle Teel (ETA 2025)
  • No. 5 Prospect: Braden Montgomery (ETA 2027)
  • No. 11 Prospect: Chase Meidroth (ETA 2025)
  • No. 14 Prospect: Wikelman Gonzalez (ETA 2025)

Keep in mind, the youngest of these prospects are 22 years old. They will still need time to develop in the big leagues, which is something Chicago hasn’t done all too well recently. The team also has no incentive to rush any of these prospects through the farm system given how bad the major league team is. There is no incentive to start the clock on their MLB service time yet.

Which means we’re in for another round of the White Sox selling its fans on a future that may never materialize, but that’s also nothing new for this organization (or Sox fans).

Without knowing what else the Sox were offered from other teams, it’s hard to fully judge the return. What we do know is that the White Sox got a ton of high-end talent.

Much like with the Sale trade, getting a big return was never going to be a problem. Now the hard part begins.

GRADE: B+

Yankees fans loved Brian Cashman’s blunt response to turning down Juan Soto’s demand for a luxury suite

The Yankees GM had no regrets.

Juan Soto’s decision to sign with the Mets for a record-shattering deal wasn’t much of a surprise within baseball circles. The number was always going to be astronomical, and the Mets had deep pockets to make it happen.

What was surprising, though, was how the Yankees’ bid may have collapsed over refusal to give Soto a free luxury suite at Yankee Stadium.

According to the New York Post, Soto wanted the Yankees to provide his family with a suite for the duration of the contract. The Yankees — having already made Derek Jeter and Aaron Judge pay for their own suites in the past — didn’t want to ignore precedent and give Soto a multimillion-dollar perk. Instead, they offered Soto that suite at a discounted rate.

Mets owner Steve Cohen, on the other hand, was more than willing to give Soto a suite at Citi Field and got the deal done. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked about the suite saga, and he essentially said that a player making that much should be OK paying for his own suite.

Via MLB.com:

“Some high-end players that make a lot of money for us, if they want suites, they buy them.”

Cashman also added that he had no regrets about how the Yankees handled their negotiations. And Yankees fans loved how Cashman implied that Soto could have afforded his own suite because, well, look at that contract.

This was how Twitter/X reacted

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The Yankees’ reported refusal to give Juan Soto a luxury suite may have pushed him to the Mets

Somehow, that was asking too much.

To the surprise of many, the Yankees actually came close to matching the Mets’ record-shattering $765 million contract to Juan Soto. And at face value, 16 years, $760 million seemed like a sweet deal to stay in pinstripes.

But Soto was looking for a suite deal.

According to a report from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, Soto grew discouraged with the Yankees’ unwillingness to provide him with a luxury suite for his family at Yankee Stadium. Instead, the Yankees insisted that Soto pay for the suite himself at a discounted rate. Meanwhile, the Mets were willing to give Soto his suite at Citi Field.

Since the Yankees had made Derek Jeter and Aaron Judge pay for their suites, they didn’t want to set a different precedent with Soto. Via the Post:

The Yankees shouldn’t be faulted for bidding a whopping $760M, but they wouldn’t budge on the suite. The Yankees felt they couldn’t give a suite to Soto when Judge pays for his suite, and even Derek Jeter paid. They were willing to discount a suite but not alter their precedent.

When you think about it, though, that does make some sense — especially when you’re looking at the cost of that request. Suites at Yankee Stadium can go for upwards of $25,000 for a single game. And while the Yankees did offer Soto a discounted rate, you’re looking at around a $20 million perk over the 16 years on top of that $760 million deal.

Mets owner Steve Cohen, on the other hand, didn’t care about the cost effectiveness here. He wanted Soto and was going to do whatever it took.

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