Two key Rockies exited Friday’s game against Arizona in the span of two innings, leaving Colorado without its top power bat and its starting shortstop. First baseman C.J. Cron, who has appeared in all 84 of Colorado’s games this year and leads the team with 20 homers, left in the fifth inning after getting hit on the wrist. Then shortstop […]

Covers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995 In? Shohei Ohtani. Out? Yordan Alvarez. At least in the American League starting lineup at designated hitter for the July 19 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. Alvarez, the left-handed slugger for the Astros, leads the major leagues in OPS and slugging percentage, batting .312/.410/.665 with […]

The San Diego Padres said Friday that left fielder Jurickson Profar has been diagnosed with a concussion and a neck strain suffered in a collision with teammate C.J. Abrams the previous night. Profar was discharged overnight from UC San Diego Health, and the team said he is resting. Profar and Abrams both went after a fly ball hit by Tommy […]

NEW YORK — New York Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt said Thursday he “probably won’t” inform team and Major League Baseball officials if he feels COVID-19 symptoms in the future and that MLB should “just stop testing.” Bassitt was placed on the COVID-19 list on July 1 after complaining about sluggishness to team officials. The right-hander missed his scheduled start against […]

ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” The executive director of Advocates for Minor Leaguers blistered Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption Thursday in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leadership, calling on Congress to give minor leaguers the same protections already extended to major leaguers, according to a copy […]

WORCESTER, Mass. — Chris Sale struggled to calm himself down on Wednesday night in what was expected to be his last rehab start before he rejoins his teammates in Boston. Now the Red Sox brass will have to decide whether to pump the brakes on their erstwhile ace’s return. Sale struck out five Triple-A batters before leaving when he walked […]

ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” ALEK MANOAH IS a man of many opinions, and one of those is that with a gilded right arm and 6-foot-6 and 285 pounds of mass to buttress it, he should throw the baseball as much as he can. But during spring […]

LOS ANGELES — Albert Einstein once said failure is success in progress. The Rockies are hoping the genius physicist was correct. Because as the club hit the statistical midpoint of the season Tuesday night, their progress is harder to understand than the theory of relativity. The Rockies entered the game against the Dodgers in last place in the National League […]

OAKLAND, Calif. — Four baseball fans were injured by bullet fragments from outside the Coliseum while attending a postgame July 4 fireworks show, Oakland police and the Athletics said Tuesday. None of the injuries were life-threatening, police and the A’s said. Because the A’s 5-1 victory over the Blue Jays lasted just 2 hours, 27 minutes, it wasn’t yet dark […]

Covers MLB for ESPN.com Former deputy editor of Page 2 Been with ESPN.com since 1995 The Aug. 2 MLB trade deadline is now less than a month away, and the biggest unknown is what the long shot-but-not-out-of-it teams — Texas, Anaheim, Seattle, Miami — will end up doing. Their approach to the deadline could add a little more depth to […]