8:00 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” POWER IS SOMEONE 10 and a half hours away dropping everything at a moment’s notice to come see you. It is leverage and, even more, the desire to use it. It is
MLB
8:41 PM ET ESPN News Services ORLANDO, Fla. — Hal Steinbrenner has heard the constant criticism in New York: Why haven’t the Yankees tried to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado? “I get hammered every year about something,” the New York owner said Thursday. “If you don’t win the World Series, that’s perfectly justifiable.” After
6:00 PM ET J.T. Realmuto has been stuck in purgatory so long there’s now a terrace there named after him, but he was finally rescued on Thursday by the Philadelphia Phillies, who traded their No. 1 prospect, Sixto Sanchez, as well as their starting catcher Jorge Alfaro and another prospect in Will Stewart to save
9:53 PM ET Five-tool players are exceedingly rare in baseball today, especially ones who play a premium position. In J.T. Realmuto, the Philadelphia Phillies are acquiring a five-tool catcher who may be on the verge of superstardom, now that Citizens Bank Park is home. Realmuto has been suppressed by Marlins Park, which has rated among
7:00 AM ET Change can be good, if the change is a good one. I think Yogi Berra might have said that. At any rate, baseball, a sport that through history has often been accused of being allergic to adaptation, appears to be on the cusp of more than change. It’s more akin to a
4:14 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” The disabled list is going on the permanent DL. Major League Baseball will rename the disabled list as the “injured list,” a source familiar with the plan told ESPN. The league will
7:17 PM ET The Texas Rangers have signed outfielder Hunter Pence and infielder Matt Davidson to minor league contracts with invitations to major league spring training camp, the team announced Thursday. Pence, a three-time All-Star, spent the past six-plus seasons with the San Francisco Giants, where he was a key part of World Series-winning teams
3:13 PM ET Frank Robinson, the first African-American manager in Major League Baseball and the only player to win MVP in both leagues, has died at age 83, MLB said Thursday. An outfielder and first baseman, Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982 in his first year of eligibility. After a
2:47 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” The Phillies and Marlins agreed to a trade that will send All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto to Philadelphia for catcher Jorge Alfaro, pitching prospects Sixto Sanchez and Will Stewart, and an international bonus
4:49 PM ET The Philadelphia Phillies, perhaps growing impatient waiting for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado to choose their landing spots, maybe sensing that neither wants to play in Philadelphia, or possibly even looking to make the team that would surround Harper or Machado that much more attractive, acquired All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto from the