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Fox Sports
5 days ago
- Sport
- Fox Sports
2025 MLB trade grades: Giants win the Devers trade, but at what cost?
With the July 31 trade deadline on the horizon, it's officially silly season in Major League Baseball. Fans can expect plenty of movement throughout the league, whether it's World Series hopefuls going all-in or bottom-feeders trying to position themselves for a brighter future. FOX Sports MLB reporters Rowan Kavner and Deesha Thosar will be grading the biggest trades in the league through the July 31 trade deadline. Here's how every team has done so far: Giants acquire 3B/DH Rafael Devers from Red Sox Key stats: Devers: .272/.401/.504, 15 HR, 47 R, 48 RBI Who else is involved: The Red Sox received LHP Kyle Harrison, RHP Jordan Hicks and two prospects, OF James Tibbs III and RHP Jose Bello What it means: The tension and bad blood building between Devers and Boston's front office was San Francisco's gain, as the Giants swooped six weeks before the trade deadline to acquire one of the sport's best hitters. There was drama all year in Boston, but it was nonetheless stunning to see the Red Sox move on from Devers just two seasons into a 10-year, $313.5 million extension. The timing — in the middle of June, coming off a sweep of the Yankees, with the Red Sox now a half-game back of a wild-card spot, in a year in which Boston has made a series of moves to try to end a three-year playoff drought, and with Alex Bregman capable of opting out at season's end — was even more staggering. The relationship between Devers and the Red Sox brass started to deteriorate shortly after Boston traded for Bregman in February. The Red Sox told Devers they wanted him to move off third base, where the three-time All-Star had played since 2017, and become the full-time DH. Devers initially declined but eventually acquiesced. After a slow start at the plate, Devers took off in his new role. His 149 OPS+ is the best mark of his career and makes him a top-15 hitter in MLB. But when Triston Casas went down for the year, the drama picked up. Devers was the most obvious replacement at first base, and the Red Sox asked him to move. Devers not only refused but was also unhappy the front office put him in that spot, creating a contentious enough situation that owner John Henry flew to Kansas City after Devers' public criticisms in an attempt to ease the tensions. Clearly, friction remained. The Red Sox looked bad for not communicating well with their star. Devers looked bad for not being a team player. There were no winners in the feud, save for the Giants. Devers, the last remaining star from Boston's 2018 championship team, provides a San Francisco club that needed another offensive linchpin to seriously contend. The Giants are second in the NL West and would be a wild-card team if the season ended today, but that's because of a pitching staff with the third-best ERA — and specifically a bullpen with the best ERA — in the majors. Their offense is 22nd in OPS and 20th in wRC+. Heliot Ramos and Matt Chapman, who is currently injured, were the only qualified hitters on the team with an OPS over .800 — at least, until Devers, who has a .905 OPS this year and immediately becomes their top offensive player. He also arguably makes the Giants the biggest threat to the Dodgers in the division. It's a risky commitment to a 28-year-old who already grades out poorly defensively and is signed through 2033, but this is a Giants team that hasn't had a 30-homer hitter since Barry Bonds and is guided by a new president of baseball operations in Buster Posey who wants to compete now. The start of the Willy Adames era has not gone well; Devers, who has three 30-homer seasons in his career, can alleviate some of that pressure. For the Giants, the biggest risk is financial. Their pitching staff should be able to handle the departures. Kyle Harrison was a recent top prospect, but he has a 4.48 ERA in 39 career appearances. Jordan Hicks has a 6.47 ERA this year. Tibbs was a first-round pick last year, but none of the players they lost are guaranteed to be difference-making talents. Devers, whether at DH or corner infield, is that. For the Red Sox, Devers' defensive limitations make it highly unlikely that this turns into the cataclysmic disaster that was the Mookie Betts trade. It's possible Harrison or Tibbs develop into productive pieces, and maybe the savings can be put to better use. Still, it's hard to see this being a positive for Boston or its playoff-hungry fans in the short-term, especially in a year in which many expected the Red Sox to win the division. If not for some poor communication, this all might've been avoidable. -Kavner Giants: A- Red Sox: D+ Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on X at @RowanKavner . recommended Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Fox Sports
13-06-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
2025 MLB odds: Bettors backing Detroit Tigers to win AL Pennant
With their 44-25 record, the Detroit Tigers are currently one of the best teams in Major League Baseball, sitting atop the standings in the AL Central. And with all the success Detroit has had so far this season, bettors have taken note. At BetMGM, the Tigers' odds to win the World Series opened at +4000. So a $10 bet on Opening Day would have pocketed $410 total if the Tigers end up winning the Fall Classic. They're now all the way down to +800, where a $10 bet would only win $90 total. But there's more. In World Series futures at BetMGM, the Tigers have the third-highest ticket at 8.2%, behind the Dodgers (14.1%) and the Phillies (9.3%). In the AL Central, they're the heavy favorites at -600, but also have the highest ticket (32.7%) and the highest handle (39.5%). When it comes to the team with the shortest odds to win the AL pennant, that's the Yankees at +200. But it's the Tigers with the highest ticket (24%), the highest handle (23.6%) and the team that is BetMGM's biggest liability. Let's take a closer look at Detroit's odds at BetMGM as of June 12. Tigers to have most regular-season wins: +450 (bet $10 to win $55 total) World Series: +800 (bet $10 to win $90 total) To win AL: +300 (bet $10 to win $40 total) To win AL Central: -550 (bet $10 to win $11.82 total) AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal: -220 (bet $10 to win $14.55 total) AL MVP winner Tarik Skubal: +10000 (bet $10 to win $1,010 total) So are the Tigers really worth backing, after barely sneaking into the 2024 postseason with an 86-76 record? FOX Sports MLB writer Rowan Kavner is "starting to believe," and that's largely because of Spencer Torkelson. "[He] looks primed for a career year for a team that desperately needed more infield pop from somewhere," Kavner wrote. "I don't think this is a top-five team, but I do think this is a top-10 team and the best club in the AL Central." FOX Sports' Deesha Thosar echoed a similar sentiment. "The Tigers look like the real deal, especially because they're the only team in the AL Central with a positive run differential," she noted. "Detroit's only legitimate threat to win the division is Cleveland, and even then, the way the Tigers are playing right now, I'm expecting them to enjoy another trip to the postseason. "The Tigers have a top-10 offense in baseball in terms of wRC+, and if they can sustain that level of dominance on both sides of the ball, then they might just have a deeper playoff run in their bones." Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, and follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily! recommended Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
Dodgers vs. Mets roundtable: Does Juan Soto make New York favorites in NLCS rematch?
Print Close By , Published May 22, 2025 The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets will go head-to-head this weekend in a highly-anticipated rematch of the 2024 National League Championship Series (Saturday, 7:15 p.m. ET on FOX). Both teams have added talent to their rosters since their last meeting in October, but will that change the outcome of the series? FOX Sports MLB reporters Rowan Kavner and Deesha Thosar preview the marquee matchup at Citi Field: 1. Last year's NLCS went six games, but it still felt like the Dodgers were in control for almost all of it, given they kicked things off with a 9-0 shutout, blanked the Mets again in Game 3, and outscored them 46-26 in the series overall. Has New York closed the talent gap between the two teams enough for this rematch — and any future 2025 meeting — to change that lopsided feeling? Kavner: Right now, with the Dodgers in their current depleted form, this matchup does not feel lopsided. Heading into the year, we were talking about the Dodgers as maybe the best team we'd ever seen assembled. There were serious questions, meanwhile, about whether the Mets had enough pitching to get where they hoped to go despite their reloaded lineup. Two months in, the Mets have the lowest ERA in MLB while the Dodgers, stunningly, rank 22nd. Only two members of L.A.'s Opening Day rotation are still upright, and the Dodgers have needed more innings from their beleaguered bullpen than any team in MLB. You could compile one of the best pitching staffs in baseball using the players on their injured list alone. For that reason, I still think the talent of a full-strength Dodgers team is unparalleled. But for now, their diminished pitching staff is extremely susceptible. And while they've still piled up wins, at no point have they looked like the overpowering team we expected to see. They seem to be treating the start of the season a bit like a dress rehearsal, and it's not always easy to flip a switch, no matter how good a team should be on paper. Thosar: The Mets may have closed the talent gap on paper by signing a generational hitter like Juan Soto to hit between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and by engineering Mark Vientos' breakout season last year (and perhaps Brett Baty's success' this year). But the way the Mets offense is dragging its feet since pretty much the start of May is not indicative of how the lineup hits when its performing at its best. Just like Alonso's transcendent April (.343 batting average, 1.132 OPS) was unsustainable, so is the current lack of production from the Mets' Big Three. That being said, the Mets pitching staff isn't stacked with superstars, but it has boasted the best ERA in the major leagues all season. We've yet to see the 2025 Mets operating as effectively and powerfully as they're capable of, and they still spent six weeks in first place in one of the toughest divisions in baseball. The pieces are there. But the execution, apparently, needs time. 2. In 2024, the Mets' rotation was basically average, but swapping out Luis Severino (100 ERA+), Sean Manaea (112 ERA+) and Jose Quintana (104 ERA+) for a healthy Kodai Senga (NL-leading 271 ERA+), Clay Holmes (124 ERA+) and Griffin Canning (157 ERA+) has done wonders for them in the early going. Holmes thrived in relief for the Yankees the last few years before the Mets converted him to start, and Canning escaped the gravitational pull of the Angels this offseason — is there any reason to believe this trio can keep pitching above their preseason expectations? Kavner: Can that trio continue to produce better than preseason expectations? Absolutely. Will those three remain at this elite level all year? Probably not. I see some regression ahead, but we're not in April anymore, so you can't just brush off the stunning, MLB-best 2.83 starters ERA that the Mets have amassed before they've even gotten Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas back. Holmes' expanded arsenal has turned him into a legit starter. He has gone six innings in each of his four starts this month, though it remains to be seen how he holds up as the innings pile up. Nothing about Griffin Canning's underlying numbers suggest a 5-1 record and a 2.47 ERA, but he's keeping the ball on the ground better than ever before and attacking the strike zone. Senga's ability to keep the ball in the park is noteworthy — he has allowed one home run all year — and his ghost fork is nasty, but his National League-best 1.43 ERA is nearly two runs lower than his expected ERA. Clearly, general manager David Stearns and the Mets' pitching department know what they're doing and this group is way better than I anticipated, even if I don't expect it to remain the league's best all season. Thosar: If there's one thing I learned not to do after the success of the Mets pitching staff (yet again!) this year, it's to put any expectations on a rotation constructed by David Stearns. Last season, too, baseball analysts widely believed the Mets were in a reset year because of all the one-year deals with pitchers who were trying to bounce back after down years. Then they ended up falling two wins short of a trip to the World Series. With more surprisingly effective performances from starters like Holmes and Canning this season, the Stearns-era Mets are becoming known for signing a bunch of rag-tag arms, playing to their strengths, and squeezing out the most juice from those pitchers. If there was any doubt about Canning, who allowed the most earned runs (99) in the American League last year, much of that was erased after he held the Yankees to two runs over 5.1 innings over the weekend. His start against the Dodgers will be another one to watch. 3. As for the Dodgers' rotation, it's a mess, but that didn't stop them from winning the World Series last October either. What's your expectation for it going forward? Will Roki Sasaki come back healthy and throw strikes? How much can the Dodgers rely on Clayton Kershaw? On Shohei Ohtani, whenever he returns to the mound? Will the bullpen survive its present workload long enough for the answers to matter? Kavner: It's entirely dependent on injury recovery, and if there's any silver lining, it's that none of the injuries to the players they're counting on most appear to be season enders. At this point, I'm not expecting Sasaki to be a difference-maker this year. I view Kershaw as an important inning eater, and seeing him get to 3,000 strikeouts will be fun, but it's hard to view him as someone the team can rely on come October. The Dodgers need some combination of Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Ohtani looking right on the mound in the second half. If that happens, it could still end up one of the best units in baseball. Until then, though, Yoshinobu Yamamoto might be the most important player on the team. The Dodgers need him to be an ace right now, and he is answering that call. As for the bullpen, it's a bleak situation until Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates get back. It's almost unfathomable the Dodgers are already at this point after revamping this offseason specifically so this wouldn't occur, but they're still 31-19 despite the rampant injury issues — it turns out having Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman atop the lineup helps! — and I expect the offense to be good enough to keep the Dodgers at or near the top of the standings as they await pitching reinforcements. Thosar: It's anybody's guess how effective Sasaki will be when he returns, but there's an argument to be made that he'll look more like himself once the shoulder injury is behind him, since it's likely that the pain was impacting him on the mound more than we knew. As far as Kershaw, his drop in velocity, though expected, seems concerning. Opposing hitters can feast on a fastball that averaged 87.5 mph in five rehab starts this year. But there's reason for optimism. A result of the Dodgers' mess is how hard they're pushing Yoshinobu Yamamoto to go the distance, so it's even sweeter when he delivers — like he did on Tuesday night against the Diamondbacks. Yamamoto is the only dependable starter remaining in the Dodgers rotation, and if he can keep being their stopper until Los Angeles is closer to resembling full health, then the club should be able to survive this rotation depletion. the Mets and Dodgers play in competitive divisions full of some of the National League's finest. Which do you believe is more likely to be pushed into a wild card spot, rather than a division title, despite their obvious talent? Kavner: The Mets. The Dodgers have seen their pitching crumble again and have played about as mediocre as they can through two months…and they're still first place. The Padres, Giants and D-backs will push them, but when the Dodgers' pitching staff gets healthier, they're clearly the most talented team in their division. I think the Phillies (who have one of the scariest rotations in MLB despite their bullpen issues) and Braves (who are over .500 now as Ronald Acuña Jr. inches closer toward a return) will make the road to a division title much tougher for the Mets. Thosar: The Mets. Though they looked dominant during their six-week stretch in first place this season, they haven't finished the job and actually won the division since 2015, which is the same year they went to the World Series. And even though last year they exorcised some demons by defeating the Braves in a pennant race and eliminating the Phillies in the NLDS, that doesn't remove the years of damage done to their psyche from those division rivals. Unless the Mets are able to pull away from the rest of the NL East in September, I'm expecting the division winner there to come down to the wire. The Dodgers, on the other hand, seem destined to run it back, with tons of recent examples of securing the division title on their side. (They won the NL West in 11 of the last 12 years). 5. This series features MLB's two highest-paid players in Juan Soto (15 years, $765 million) and Shohei Ohtani (10 years, $700 million before accounting for deferrals). You're building a team around one of these superstars, as they are today, with every year and dollar left on their contracts now your responsibility — who are you taking? Kavner: Ohtani. Without question. I expect Soto will eventually look more comfortable than he has through the early portion of his Mets tenure, but I'll still take Ohtani's heavily-deferred deal — which might be the best bargain in sports history — over 15 years of Soto 10 times out of 10. If Ohtani can return to his previous form on the mound, that's a potential Cy Young winner. If he can't, he proved last year he's still an MVP talent as an offensive force alone. I don't see that changing for a long time. Add that ability to the unrivaled revenue streams he creates, and it's a no-brainer for me. That contract will pay for itself. Thosar: Ohtani. He's a better hitter than Soto, and the way his contract is designed allows for more roster flexibility and the freedom to sign more superstars without being saddled by a massive annual average value that impacts other decision making. Plus, Ohtani might just come back and pitch like a Cy Young-caliber ace again. So at best, you're getting two players for the price of one. And the worst-case scenario is that Ohtani is no longer an effective pitcher, and even then, he'll still be a powerful designated hitter. Whereas with Soto, even though he's four years younger than Ohtani, his long-term role with the Mets figures to be at DH, and that might happen sooner than later if his defense becomes a real problem. So I'm taking Ohtani every time. Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner . Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar . Print Close URL
Fox Sports
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
Dodgers vs. Mets roundtable: Does Juan Soto make New York favorites in NLCS rematch?
The Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets will go head-to-head this weekend in a highly-anticipated rematch of the 2024 National League Championship Series (Saturday, 7:15 p.m. ET on FOX). Both teams have added talent to their rosters since their last meeting in October, but will that change the outcome of the series? FOX Sports MLB reporters Rowan Kavner and Deesha Thosar preview the marquee matchup at Citi Field: 1. Last year's NLCS went six games, but it still felt like the Dodgers were in control for almost all of it, given they kicked things off with a 9-0 shutout, blanked the Mets again in Game 3, and outscored them 46-26 in the series overall. Has New York closed the talent gap between the two teams enough for this rematch — and any future 2025 meeting — to change that lopsided feeling? Kavner: Right now, with the Dodgers in their current depleted form, this matchup does not feel lopsided. Heading into the year, we were talking about the Dodgers as maybe the best team we'd ever seen assembled. There were serious questions, meanwhile, about whether the Mets had enough pitching to get where they hoped to go despite their reloaded lineup. Two months in, the Mets have the lowest ERA in MLB while the Dodgers, stunningly, rank 22nd. Only two members of L.A.'s Opening Day rotation are still upright, and the Dodgers have needed more innings from their beleaguered bullpen than any team in MLB. You could compile one of the best pitching staffs in baseball using the players on their injured list alone. For that reason, I still think the talent of a full-strength Dodgers team is unparalleled. But for now, their diminished pitching staff is extremely susceptible. And while they've still piled up wins, at no point have they looked like the overpowering team we expected to see. They seem to be treating the start of the season a bit like a dress rehearsal, and it's not always easy to flip a switch, no matter how good a team should be on paper. Thosar: The Mets may have closed the talent gap on paper by signing a generational hitter like Juan Soto to hit between Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, and by engineering Mark Vientos' breakout season last year (and perhaps Brett Baty's success' this year). But the way the Mets offense is dragging its feet since pretty much the start of May is not indicative of how the lineup hits when its performing at its best. Just like Alonso's transcendent April (.343 batting average, 1.132 OPS) was unsustainable, so is the current lack of production from the Mets' Big Three. That being said, the Mets pitching staff isn't stacked with superstars, but it has boasted the best ERA in the major leagues all season. We've yet to see the 2025 Mets operating as effectively and powerfully as they're capable of, and they still spent six weeks in first place in one of the toughest divisions in baseball. The pieces are there. But the execution, apparently, needs time. 2. In 2024, the Mets' rotation was basically average, but swapping out Luis Severino (100 ERA+), Sean Manaea (112 ERA+) and Jose Quintana (104 ERA+) for a healthy Kodai Senga (NL-leading 271 ERA+), Clay Holmes (124 ERA+) and Griffin Canning (157 ERA+) has done wonders for them in the early going. Holmes thrived in relief for the Yankees the last few years before the Mets converted him to start, and Canning escaped the gravitational pull of the Angels this offseason — is there any reason to believe this trio can keep pitching above their preseason expectations? Kavner: Can that trio continue to produce better than preseason expectations? Absolutely. Will those three remain at this elite level all year? Probably not. I see some regression ahead, but we're not in April anymore, so you can't just brush off the stunning, MLB-best 2.83 starters ERA that the Mets have amassed before they've even gotten Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas back. Holmes' expanded arsenal has turned him into a legit starter. He has gone six innings in each of his four starts this month, though it remains to be seen how he holds up as the innings pile up. Nothing about Griffin Canning's underlying numbers suggest a 5-1 record and a 2.47 ERA, but he's keeping the ball on the ground better than ever before and attacking the strike zone. Senga's ability to keep the ball in the park is noteworthy — he has allowed one home run all year — and his ghost fork is nasty, but his National League-best 1.43 ERA is nearly two runs lower than his expected ERA. Clearly, general manager David Stearns and the Mets' pitching department know what they're doing and this group is way better than I anticipated, even if I don't expect it to remain the league's best all season. Thosar: If there's one thing I learned not to do after the success of the Mets pitching staff (yet again!) this year, it's to put any expectations on a rotation constructed by David Stearns. Last season, too, baseball analysts widely believed the Mets were in a reset year because of all the one-year deals with pitchers who were trying to bounce back after down years. Then they ended up falling two wins short of a trip to the World Series. With more surprisingly effective performances from starters like Holmes and Canning this season, the Stearns-era Mets are becoming known for signing a bunch of rag-tag arms, playing to their strengths, and squeezing out the most juice from those pitchers. If there was any doubt about Canning, who allowed the most earned runs (99) in the American League last year, much of that was erased after he held the Yankees to two runs over 5.1 innings over the weekend. His start against the Dodgers will be another one to watch. 3. As for the Dodgers' rotation, it's a mess, but that didn't stop them from winning the World Series last October either. What's your expectation for it going forward? Will Roki Sasaki come back healthy and throw strikes? How much can the Dodgers rely on Clayton Kershaw? On Shohei Ohtani, whenever he returns to the mound? Will the bullpen survive its present workload long enough for the answers to matter? Kavner: It's entirely dependent on injury recovery, and if there's any silver lining, it's that none of the injuries to the players they're counting on most appear to be season enders. At this point, I'm not expecting Sasaki to be a difference-maker this year. I view Kershaw as an important inning eater, and seeing him get to 3,000 strikeouts will be fun, but it's hard to view him as someone the team can rely on come October. The Dodgers need some combination of Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Ohtani looking right on the mound in the second half. If that happens, it could still end up one of the best units in baseball. Until then, though, Yoshinobu Yamamoto might be the most important player on the team. The Dodgers need him to be an ace right now, and he is answering that call. As for the bullpen, it's a bleak situation until Blake Treinen and Kirby Yates get back. It's almost unfathomable the Dodgers are already at this point after revamping this offseason specifically so this wouldn't occur, but they're still 31-19 despite the rampant injury issues — it turns out having Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman atop the lineup helps! — and I expect the offense to be good enough to keep the Dodgers at or near the top of the standings as they await pitching reinforcements. Thosar: It's anybody's guess how effective Sasaki will be when he returns, but there's an argument to be made that he'll look more like himself once the shoulder injury is behind him, since it's likely that the pain was impacting him on the mound more than we knew. As far as Kershaw, his drop in velocity, though expected, seems concerning. Opposing hitters can feast on a fastball that averaged 87.5 mph in five rehab starts this year. But there's reason for optimism. A result of the Dodgers' mess is how hard they're pushing Yoshinobu Yamamoto to go the distance, so it's even sweeter when he delivers — like he did on Tuesday night against the Diamondbacks. Yamamoto is the only dependable starter remaining in the Dodgers rotation, and if he can keep being their stopper until Los Angeles is closer to resembling full health, then the club should be able to survive this rotation depletion. the Mets and Dodgers play in competitive divisions full of some of the National League's finest. Which do you believe is more likely to be pushed into a wild card spot, rather than a division title, despite their obvious talent? Kavner: The Mets. The Dodgers have seen their pitching crumble again and have played about as mediocre as they can through two months…and they're still first place. The Padres, Giants and D-backs will push them, but when the Dodgers' pitching staff gets healthier, they're clearly the most talented team in their division. I think the Phillies (who have one of the scariest rotations in MLB despite their bullpen issues) and Braves (who are over .500 now as Ronald Acuña Jr. inches closer toward a return) will make the road to a division title much tougher for the Mets. Thosar: The Mets. Though they looked dominant during their six-week stretch in first place this season, they haven't finished the job and actually won the division since 2015, which is the same year they went to the World Series. And even though last year they exorcised some demons by defeating the Braves in a pennant race and eliminating the Phillies in the NLDS, that doesn't remove the years of damage done to their psyche from those division rivals. Unless the Mets are able to pull away from the rest of the NL East in September, I'm expecting the division winner there to come down to the wire. The Dodgers, on the other hand, seem destined to run it back, with tons of recent examples of securing the division title on their side. (They won the NL West in 11 of the last 12 years). 5. This series features MLB's two highest-paid players in Juan Soto (15 years, $765 million) and Shohei Ohtani (10 years, $700 million before accounting for deferrals). You're building a team around one of these superstars, as they are today, with every year and dollar left on their contracts now your responsibility — who are you taking? Kavner: Ohtani. Without question. I expect Soto will eventually look more comfortable than he has through the early portion of his Mets tenure, but I'll still take Ohtani's heavily-deferred deal — which might be the best bargain in sports history — over 15 years of Soto 10 times out of 10. If Ohtani can return to his previous form on the mound, that's a potential Cy Young winner. If he can't, he proved last year he's still an MVP talent as an offensive force alone. I don't see that changing for a long time. Add that ability to the unrivaled revenue streams he creates, and it's a no-brainer for me. That contract will pay for itself. Thosar: Ohtani. He's a better hitter than Soto, and the way his contract is designed allows for more roster flexibility and the freedom to sign more superstars without being saddled by a massive annual average value that impacts other decision making. Plus, Ohtani might just come back and pitch like a Cy Young-caliber ace again. So at best, you're getting two players for the price of one. And the worst-case scenario is that Ohtani is no longer an effective pitcher, and even then, he'll still be a powerful designated hitter. Whereas with Soto, even though he's four years younger than Ohtani, his long-term role with the Mets figures to be at DH, and that might happen sooner than later if his defense becomes a real problem. So I'm taking Ohtani every time. Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner . Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar . recommended Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Mariners vs. Padres Highlights
Can the Astros STILL Dominate the AL West Without Their Top Talent? League Buzz podcast! From the Mariners' hot streak to the Rangers' struggles and the Astros' new look, we break down who's rising, who's falling, and who could steal the division. Will the Sacramento A's shock everyone? Are the Angels doomed? Get this wild MLB season's latest insights, surprises, and predictions! Don't miss out—subscribe and hit the bell for more MLB updates! Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro: AL West Madness 0:28 - Astros' New Era Without Tucker & Bregman 1:08 - Mariners Leading the Charge 1:47 - Rangers' Offensive Woes 3:29 - Mariners' Surprising Offense 4:50 - Astros Still in the Mix 5:36 - Sacramento A's: Can They Hang? 8:06 - Angels' Tough Road Ahead 10:24 - Trade Deadline Moves to Watch 12:21 - Final Thoughts & What's Next Follow Rowan Kavner on X: @RowanKavner Subscribe to Big League Buzz!
