12:33 PM ET Phil Niekro, a pitcher who used his signature knuckleball to fool generations of hitters as well as craft a Hall of Fame career, died Saturday night in his sleep after a long battle with cancer, the Atlanta Braves announced Sunday. He was 81. Niekro, inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997,
MLB
8:00 AM ET The last time a team other than the Los Angeles Dodgers won the NL West, LeBron James had just won his first NBA title, in 2012. Since then, L.A. has dominated the division, and won the 2020 World Series two months ago. And if the Dodgers are the best team in the
10:47 PM ET Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Gregory Polanco broke a bone in his right wrist playing winter ball in the Dominican Republic. The Pirates said Saturday that Polanco has a small nondisplaced fracture of the triquetrum bone and that the wrist will be immobilized for a short time. The team did
5:38 PM ET Associated Press WASHINGTON — – Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo says the team isn’t ruling out a reunion with Ryan Zimmerman after acquiring slugger Josh Bell to play first base this week. The Nationals acquired Bell, a 2019 All-Star, from the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday for two pitching prospects, and Bell
10:24 PM ET Japanese right-hander Kohei Arihara and the Texas Rangers are in agreement on a two-year contract in the $6 million to $7 million range, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Arihara, 28, has a 3.74 ERA in six seasons with Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters. He went 8-9 in 20 appearances for the team
2:07 PM ET First baseman Josh Bell has been traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Washington Nationals, it was announced Thursday. In return, the Pirates will get young pitchers Wil Crowe, who made his debut with the Nats in 2020, and Eddy Yean. “We are thrilled to be adding a player of Josh Bell’s
4:15 PM ET If 2015 feels like a long time ago, it must feel like an entire lifetime to Pittsburgh Pirates fans. Pittsburgh won 98 games that season and made the playoffs for a third straight time, the Pirates were Baseball America’s organization of the year, Travis Sawchik was writing a book called “Big Data
6:30 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” The planned opening of MLB’s spring camp is less than two months away, and nobody in baseball — not the players, not the owners, not the commissioner — has any clue whether
7:00 AM ET The unknown, the uncertainty, the unseen surrounded Freddie Freeman in his isolation, haunting him, as we’ve all been haunted in this awful year, his fear germinating after he was informed in the middle of the summer that he had tested positive for COVID-19. Freddie and Chelsea, his wife, had been very careful,
8:07 PM ET Associated Press DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers signed right-hander José Ureña to a $3.25 million, one-year deal Wednesday. Ureña can earn $250,000 in performance bonuses based on starts, $50,000 each for 15, 18, 21, 24 and 27. The 29-year-old starter has spent the past six season with the Miami Marlins, compiling a