Tag: MLB

Pete Alonso returning to the Mets gives New York a huge break after ‘exhausting’ negotiations

Breathe, Mets fans. Pete Alonso is back.

The New York Mets have spent a lot of money this offseason, which made re-signing first baseman Pete Alonso a bit of an uphill climb.

Well, Mets fans can take a deep sigh of relief. Alonso is officially back.

News broke on Wednesday night that the franchise had re-signed its beloved first baseman to a two-year contract worth $54 million, per the New York Post‘s Jon Heyman. There will be an opt-out after the first year, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

After New York owner Steve Cohen gave a brutally honest assessment of where the “exhausting” negotiations were with Alonso’s camp last month, things worked out in the end between the Mets and their franchise star.

As the MLB sure looks like the Los Angeles Dodgers and everyone else right now, the Mets re-signing Alonso ensures they’ll at least be in the title conversation in 2025. The contract exhaustion was well worth it.

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Two former Tigers sign with the same MLB team

Two Tigers land with the Rockies.

Two former Clemson baseball players have officially joined the professional ranks, as Jacob Hinderleider and Jimmy Obertop signed free-agent contracts with the Colorado Rockies, Clemson Baseball announced this weekend.

Hinderleider, a Kaneohe, Hawaii, native, spent four years at Davidson before transferring to Clemson for the 2024 season. Known for his versatility, he stepped in as Clemson’s first baseman before transitioning to shortstop after Andrew Ciufo’s injury. A co-winner of Clemson’s Defensive MVP Award, Hinderleider had an impressive 2024 campaign, hitting .336 with 13 home runs, 17 doubles, 60 RBIs, and a .580 slugging percentage in 59 games. Over his collegiate career, he was a consistent performer, tallying a .291 average, 38 homers, and 193 RBIs across 229 games.

Obertop, a Saint Louis, Mo., native, joined Clemson as a graduate transfer from Michigan for the 2024 season. The Tigers’ Offensive MVP, he shined in his final college campaign, posting a .303 batting average with 22 home runs, 11 doubles, and 56 RBIs in 57 games. Primarily a catcher, Obertop also played at first base and as a designated hitter. Over his college career, he recorded 51 home runs, 153 RBIs, and a .544 slugging percentage in 191 games.

Mets’ Steve Cohen gives ‘brutally honest’ Pete Alonso update on the ‘exhausting’ negotiations

Steve Cohen isn’t ruling out an Alonso reunion, but he’s not budging, either.

Pete Alonso remains one of the biggest free agents remaining this winter and Saturday gave New York Mets fans an opportunity to voice their concern that the team let him hit the market at all.

That led to a refreshingly candid moment from chairman Steve Cohen over his desire to bring the first baseman back to Queens — up to a certain price.

Mets fans got some face time with the owner during a panel session at the team’s Amazin’ Day fanfest at Citi Field. During the session, fans began chanting “we want Pete”, leading Cohen to provide an update on where things stand.

We’ve made a significant offer to Pete. And what David [Stearns] said is correct, he’s entitled to go out and explore his market, and that’s what he’s doing. Personally, this has been an exhausting conversation and negotiation. Soto was tough, this is worse. A lot of it is, we made a significant offer. I don’t like the structures that are being presented back to us. I think it is highly asymmetric against us. I feel strongly about it.

“I will never say, no. There is always a possibility. The reality is, we’re moving forward. We continue to bring in players. As we continue to bring in players, the reality is, it becomes harder to fit Pete into a very expensive group of players we already have. That’s where we are.

“I’m being brutally honest. I don’t like the negotiations. I don’t like what’s been presented to us. Listen, maybe that changes. I’ll always stay flexible. If it stays this way, we may have to go forward with the existing players we have.”

Cohen said the disconnect between the Mets and Alonso is over contract structures that are “highly asymmetric against us” and that it’s getting harder and harder to justify fitting Alonso back on the roster as the team keeps building elsewhere.

Whether you agree with Cohen’s response or not, it’s always nice to see an owner forced to respond to fans. It’s also easy to believe Cohen when he says these talks have been tougher than the Juan Soto negotiations. There’s a years-long personal relationship with Alonso, who endeared himself to fans and delivered eyeballs when the team was in the dumps.

Of course, the subtext here is that Cohen was willing to spend more than the GDP of Sweden and get hit with a huge luxury tax to sign Soto while playing hardball with Alonso.

That can’t feel great for the Alonso camp to hear — even if deep down they already knew it.

Alonso has reportedly been in talks with the Toronto Blue Jays while the Mets are looking at internal options to replace the first baseman.

Chase Utley missed the Hall of Fame this year but has better odds for the future

Chase Utley didn’t make the Baseball Hall of Fame this year, but his percentage of votes increased, which points to a likely selection in the future.

The Baseball Hall of Fame announced its 2025 Class on Tuesday. Former UCLA Bruin Chase Utley did not receive the 75% vote threshold he needed to reach the Hall, but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad news. 

There are very few players who earn the 75% in their opening years on the ballot. It took 2025 inductee Billy Wagner until his tenth year on the ballot to finally get the call. Utley earned 39.8% of votes in his second year on the ballot, up from 28.8% in 2024, placing already over halfway to the threshold. That puts him on a good pace to finally reach Cooperstown. 

Utley, the longtime Philadelphia Phillies second baseman, received the sixth most votes of everyone on the ballot. Utley won the World Series with the Phillies in 2008 and had two more World Series appearances with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017 and 2018. 

ESPN baseball writer Buster Olney expressed his belief that Utley will someday be inducted.

“Advanced metrics help the case for some players who don’t have gaudy counting stats, and after two years of voting, it’s pretty clear that Chase Utley is going to be one of those guys.” Olney wrote. 

While he’s still waiting on the Baseball Hall of Fame, Utley has been in the UCLA Hall of Fame since 2010. Utley set the freshman record for home runs with 15 back in 1998 before being named an All-American his sophomore and junior seasons before getting picked in the first round of the MLB draft by Philadelphia. 

Why NBA and NFL Reddit pages banned Twitter, Facebook and Instagram links, explained

Subreddits are banning Twitter, but not for the reason you think.

Welcome to FTW Explains: A guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world. You may have heard about Reddit banning links from other social media sites and wondering what is going on. That’s OK because we’re here to help.

If you haven’t been on Reddit in a few days and popped over to your favorite sub to see what’s going on, you may have noticed a post at the top of the page declaring a ban on links from Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Many other subreddits are currently voting on the issue.

There are a couple reasons why this is happening and we’re going to try and unpack it all.

Wait, so you can no longer post a link to any of those social media sites to Reddit?

No, Reddit itself is not banning links from Twitter or Meta products.

Individual communities hosted on Reddit — called subreddits — are either collectively deciding to ban the links, or are asking each subreddit’s moderators to declare a ban.

Which subreddits have banned Twitter and Meta products already?

In the sports world, the two big ones are r/NBA and r/NFL. Each community boasts at least 10 million subscribers (though many more sports fans can lurk without subscribing). Both r/NBA and r/NFL are ranked among the top one percent of subreddits based on size.

It’s also important to note these pages are not run by the leagues themselves. They are independent forums where fans can gather to discuss their favorite teams and sports. The NFL and NBA have no say here.

Ok, so why is this happening? Is it because of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg? Is this a politics thing?

That would seem like the obvious answer, right? Well, it is and it isn’t.

Yes, backlash to Elon Musk has played a role in these bans after he made a controversial gesture resembling a Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration. But there is a technical issue at the root of why so many subs are banning Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Simply put: Twitter and Meta product links make for a horrible user experience on Reddit because they force you to log in to view and browse content. That pretty much goes against everything Reddit communities stand for when it comes to openly sharing content from around the web.

While some communities were already discussing a ban because of the technical problems, the movement was joined by those who want to decrease traffic to Twitter following Musk’s recent behavior. The coalition proved more than enough to push the ban through on r/NBA and r/NFL.

Moderators for the NBA subreddit, in particular, were incredibly thorough in explaining their decision to ban those links:

Effective immediately, r/nba will be banning links to Twitter/X, as well as other social media platforms that require logins for their content to be browsed, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

…

In the end, there were three key elements in making this decision:

  • An increase in hate speech and discriminatory language, both on Twitter overall and coming directly from the owner of the platform.
  • A litany of functionality, usability and content quality issues that have existed for a while.
  • Considering the sentiment of our users.

Moderators at r/NFL echoed those sentiments:

Links to X/Twitter will not be allowed on r/NFL with immediate effect. This also includes screenshots.

There has been much discussion in recent days about the platform and actions of its owner. But it has been a point of contention on this subreddit for a long time and for other reasons.

These include the “karma race” to post news first, the inability to edit tweets meaning updates or tangential news must become its own thread, information not being preserved when content is deleted, users not being able to view content without an account and a variety of others.

For most of this subreddit’s history, these downsides have been understood by the userbase as being inconvenient but necessary. However, in light of recent events and the continuing path that platform is taking to make the user experience for Redditors less than ideal, combined with news sources also moving to other sites, X/Twitter links are no longer allowed on r/NFL.

As we do with all policies we will evaluate in the future.

This sounds a lot like censorship. What happened to free speech?

For starters, that’s not at all what free speech means.

To the larger point, these subreddits are not banning information or ideas shared on Twitter or Meta products. They are simply banning links to them.

Again, from r/NBA:

Ensuring that we were not limiting or censoring content was one of the primary points of discussion for us. We do not believe that this handicaps or censors content because we are not putting a restriction on specific content or subject matter. We believe that any notable story that takes place in the NBA environment will still find its way to our subreddit through other avenues that are still permitted.

Which other subreddits could ban Twitter, Instagram and Facebook next?

The list is extremely long. It seems like just about every major subreddit has a discussion thread debating whether or not to ban links from those sites.

In the sports world, some of the larger communities still deciding what to do include r/hockey, r/baseball, r/formula1 and r/collegebasketball. But individual team subreddits are also weighing bans.

So if you can’t post links from those sites, what are users going to do?

There is not a clear consensus yet. Some communities are still allowing posts of screenshots from banned sites, some aren’t. Some are encouraging users to flock to BlueSky, others aren’t so sure yet.

This thing is all pretty piecemeal because of the decentralized nature of subreddits.

Has there been a response from Meta or Twitter?

Nothing yet, but stay tuned. We’ll update this post as more information becomes available.

The lone voter who left Ichiro off their Hall of Fame ballot needs to reveal themselves

Bring back public shame.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Ichiro Suzuki is unquestionably one of the best baseball players ever to grace this planet.

His 3,089 hits compiled throughout his career ranks as 25th on Major League Baseball’s all-time list. He was a 10-time All-Star and a 10-time Gold Glove winner through his 19-year career. He won the league’s MVP as a rookie and is one of two players in MLB history to do so.

And he did all that after starting his MLB career at 27 years old, guys. He’d already compiled 1,278 hits as a pro in Japan.

Yet, somehow, this dude isn’t a unanimous first-ballot Hall of Famer. That’s unfathomable to me.

FANS ARE LIVID: We’re all upset after finding out Ichiro was just one vote short of being a unanimous first-ballot HOFer

Ultimately, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Ichiro is a Hall of Famer and we should all be good with that. That’s the point of all of this.

But that’s not enough. Considering his contributions to the game, this man should be living with Mariano Rivera unanimously. Period. The fact that he’s not speaks to how incredibly silly the Baseball Hall of Fame voting process is in the first place.

The fact that Mariano Rivera is the only unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame is ridiculous. He deserves it, obviously. But, like Ichiro, plenty of others do, too. But one voter out of the 393 Baseball Writers Association of America decided he didn’t deserve it today.

The part that makes this all the more infuriating is that we’ll likely never know who this is thanks to the BBWAA.

Members of the association voted in 2016 to make the ballots public, but the BBWAA’s board of directors rejected the proposal. That’s cowardice if you ask me. But, hey. What do I know?  Instead, in a total cop-out, the association allowed voters to make their ballots public if they choose to do so.

Some do it. Some don’t. We almost certainly won’t get one here.

Whoever left Ichiro deserves all of the ire coming their way, but they’ll never get it. It’s just like the lone voter who left Derek Jeter off of their ballot five years ago. We still don’t know who did that and that’s Derek freakin’ Jeter, guys. If we’re not finding out who did it for him, then we’re certainly not finding out for Ichiro.

But, to whoever did this, make no mistake about it. You are unserious. Please take your job more seriously moving forward.

Jimmy Butler is making it awkward

This Jimmy Butler business in Miami hasn’t gone as far as it possibly can yet, but the Heat star is pushing the envelope as hard as he can before things go too far.

It’s no secret that he wants to be traded. In the meantime, until he gets what he wants, he’s constantly sewing seeds of chaos on and off the court.

That includes wearing sneakers that have the colors of the team he actually wants to play for.

https://www.instagram.com/soleretriever/p/DFHRadHpwkR

Those are Phoenix Suns colors, folks. He also has Suns colored hair, too. This dude, man.

Look on the bright side, Heat fans. He hasn’t sabotaged practice! Well, at least, not yet, anyway.

The Bears got their guy

Mandatory Credit: Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

A handful of awfully timed failed trick-plays in the most crucial moments of the Lions season couldn’t keep the Bears away from Ben Johnson.

Chicago hired the former Lions’ OC to be their head coach. Our resident Bears enthusiast, Robert Zeglinski, has more on why Johnson chose Chicago.

The answer is obvious:

“It’s all thanks to Caleb Williams, a quarterback Johnson couldn’t resist attaching himself to for the foreseeable future. An uber-talented player who made joining one of the NFL’s premier laughingstocks so enticing in itself. A poised leader whose locker Johnson literally had his kids pose in front of for a photo during his initial tour at Bears headquarters.”

Johnson’s offensive genius, alone, won’t be enough to get Chicago out of the rut it’s currently in. But this is certainly a fantastic start to revamping a franchise that hasn’t tasted anything close to success in years.

Can’t wait to see how this unfurls.

Quick hits: The rest of the HOF … Landing spots for Britney Griner … and more

— Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more on CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, who are also joining Ichiro in the Hall of Fame. Congrats!

— Meg Hall has five potential landing spots for Britney Griner as she enters free agency.

— Travis Kelce’s ex has some nice things to say about him. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.

— Dan Hurley, please! Kids are watching, my guy.

— Oilers fans protesting Connor McDavid’s suspension are losing the plot, Mary Clarke writes.

— Only Christian D’Andrea could write this profoundly about this kid and his Paul Skenes rookie card worth millions. What a dilemma.

That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading.  Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

2025 Hall of Fame voting results: CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner join Ichiro as latest inductees

Congrats to the Hall of Famers!

The 2025 National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees were officially unveiled and we will have a new class of stars enshrined in Cooperstown.

After votes were collected by the BBWAA, we have learned which players will have their plaques on the walls of the beloved museum in upstate New York.

To no surprise, Ichiro Suzuki headlined the class with the most votes of any player this year. The 2001 AL Rookie of the Year and MVP was a 10-time MLB All-Star before he retired in 2019. Earlier this month, he also became the first MLB player to enter the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ichiro — who received all but one vote — headlined the three-player class. Here are the full results from this year’s Hall of Fame voting tally:

Joining Ichiro were CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner.

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Kid finds rare Paul Skenes card, faces dilemma; sell for millions or endure 3 decades of Pirates games

As a Pirates fan for more than three decades, let me assure you it is a curse.

An 11-year-old collector in Los Angeles has found one of the rarest cards released in recent history. He pulled a one-of-one Paul Skenes autograph along with the patch he wore from his Major League Baseball debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

It’s a card that only gained value as Skenes blew away batters throughout a brilliant rookie season. The former Air Force cadet turned LSU star proved every bit worthy of the hype that followed him to the top of the 2023 MLB Draft. He was an All-Star, finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting and won rookie of the year honors after 170 strikeouts in 133 innings in his pro debut.

That gives the card a value starting in the six figures and likely to rise dramatically from there. The Pirates, however, would like to have it on display in the annals of PNC Park. They’re willing to make a deal; two Skenes autographed jerseys, a chance to take batting practice with the team at spring training and, vitally, 30 (thirty!) years of season tickets behind home plate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DCZqbGXyblZ

Livvy Dunne, the LSU gymnast and social media sensation who dates Skenes, has even offered to share her suite with the lucky kid who pulled the card.

You can’t get a straight answer on Pirates season ticket prices from the team’s website (apparently they’ve gone up in recent years in a non-transparent way, which is a wonderful thing to do when you’re a franchise with three postseason wins in the last three decades and want to alienate your remaining die-hard fans). But NL Central rival Milwaukee prices two seats behind home plate at $214 per game. That’s $520,020 in ticket costs for 81 games across 30 years, not counting for inflation.

That’s before you get into the jerseys, chance to ask Dunne about Arabesques or the 30-person softball game you’d get to stage at PNC Park. Those won’t appreciate in value, however, and season tickets for a kid in California probably isn’t super appealing.

Here’s the other rub; those 2,400-plus baseball tickets? They’re to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates.

That’s the same franchise so poorly run its finest tradition is trading away whatever homegrown stars it creates for cheaper parts. It’s got a cheapskate owner as dedicated to casting malaise over a once-proud franchise as he is dismantling his own newsrooms. Skenes is under contract through 2030, but the moment he looks too expensive to retain — which doesn’t take much when your team hasn’t ranked higher than 28th in payroll in a 30-team league since 2020 — he’ll be shipped out for prospects in hopes Pittsburgh can find someone like, well, Paul Skenes.

The Pirates are an organization that puts cheapness above all else. They wallow in mediocrity because championships may bring pride, but not necessarily profit. They drafted Henry Davis, a catcher batting .192 across a meager major league career to date, first overall in 2021 in part because he’d sign a cheaper bonus than any of the other player considered for the top spot. They cut fan favorite Rowdy Tellez four at-bats shy of a $200,000 bonus.

They perennially waste the backdrop of one of professional sports’ true cathedrals by failing to build meaningfully around the young stars they occasionally create. This is a franchise that births hope, only to let it die of neglect over and over again.

An 11-year-old now has a decision to make. Hold on to a card potentially worth millions of dollars? Or subject himself to three decades of misery watching ambition starve in the nicest prison baseball has to offer?

Tough call.