MLB

Nov 26, 2021 The 2021-22 MLB free-agency hot stove is cooking, with teams already making some major moves in an effort to win a title next season. Below is a running list of notable transactions, along with analysis and grades for the most important ones. Remember: Trades and signings can happen at practically any hour

7:00 AM ET Hours after coming to an agreement with the Major League Baseball Players’ Association on a new collective bargaining agreement, and shortly before the owners ratified the deal with a 30-0 vote, Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred spoke with ESPN’ MLB reporter Jesse Rogers about the process — and where baseball goes

7:00 AM ET Welcome to Fast and Furious 10: Free Agent Frenzy. It’s going to be a wild rush to Opening Day as the remaining free agents find a place to play as spring training camps open — and while there was a wave of signings before the lockout began Dec. 10 of Kiley McDaniel’s

3:20 PM ET The MLB lockout is over. It took more than three months — and multiple deadlines for delaying the regular season — before Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association ended their stalemate and came to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement. So how did finally reaching a deal go down?

3:26 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association reached a tentative agreement on a new collective-bargaining agreement Thursday, ending the league’s 99-day lockout of the players and salvaging a 162-game season, sources

12:06 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Major League Baseball and its locked-out players agreed Thursday to negotiate on an international amateur draft, paving the way for renewed economic talks. Under an agreement reached on the 99th day of a lockout that has delayed the season, the sides agreed to a July 25 deadline

11:10 PM ET Associated Press INCHEON, South Korea — Kim Kwang-hyun has left the St. Louis Cardinals and will return to South Korea on a record four-year contract. The left-handed pitcher will rejoin his old club, which is now known as the SSG Landers, in the Korean Baseball Organization. The club issued a statement Tuesday

11:52 AM ET Major League Baseball wants a 14-second pitch clock with the bases empty and a 19-second timer with runners on, according to sources familiar with the situation. The two numbers were settled on after experiments in the minor leagues, including in Low-A in 2021, where game times were cut by about 20 minutes.

9:20 PM ET One hundred eighty-four games. So far. That’s the number of games that have been lopped off the schedule after MLB’s second announcement of cancellations on Wednesday. Of the 2,430 originally slated contests, 7.6% of them are already gone. We can only hope the number doesn’t go even higher. For now, if an

7:08 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Major League Baseball canceled the second week of the regular season Wednesday after days of discussion with the MLB Players Association failed to generate a new collective-bargaining agreement. The international draft, long

1:57 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Former Boston Red Sox star David Ortiz, perhaps the most prominent voice in Dominican baseball, says he is open to the idea of an international draft but is wary of its implementation

7:54 PM ET MESA, Ariz. — The pop of leather and the crack of wood reverberated through Bell Bank Park, a sprawling sports and entertainment facility outfitted with turf baseball fields and an expansive weight room. Professional baseball players, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 of them, threw bullpen sessions and took batting practice there

3:10 PM ET Associated Press CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple will enter the live sports coverage arena with “Friday Night Baseball.” Apple and Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that Apple TV+ will carry a weekly doubleheader on Friday nights in eight countries when the regular season begins. Games will initially be available without the need for

Mar 8, 2022 Associated Press NEW YORK — Major League Baseball launched a $1 million fund Tuesday to support spring training workers impacted by canceled games, matching the amount of the fund the players’ association announced last week. MLB said the money will be administered by teams to part-time and seasonal workers based on financial

9:25 PM ET There will be no MLB games until at least April 14. After talks between Major League Baseball and the MLBPA broke down on Wednesday, the league canceled the second week of the 2022 regular season. How far apart are the two sides in negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement? How concerned should

7:00 AM ET The MLB lockout is nearly three weeks old, and it seems like not much has come out of the negotiations. So what exactly is going on between the owners and players? Are they moving any closer to a deal? And most importantly: When is it time to worry about the sport’s immediate

5:07 PM ET Associated Press CLEVELAND — Indians manager Terry Francona is confident he’ll return next season after missing most of the past two because of serious health issues. Francona was forced to step away from the club in late July to undergo hip replacement surgery as well as a procedure on a big toe

4:26 PM ET Associated Press Major League Baseball is finalizing a policy that will mandate COVID-19 vaccines for minor league players for the 2022 season. While the league could face legal challenges in requiring vaccination for major leaguers without the cooperation of the players association, minor leaguers are not included in the big league union.