MLB

7:00 AM ET We’ve been heading in this direction over the past decade, but it’s now official: The Most Valuable Player Award has become, to the delight of analytics aficionados across baseball land, the best player in the league award. Traditionally, the writers based MVP honors on some sort of undefined fusion of on-field performance

12:08 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Even Shohei Ohtani, arguably the best player in the major leagues, feels down at times, particularly when his team isn’t winning. And that has been the case during each of the four seasons he’s been with the Los Angeles Angels, all of which have ended with losing records.

9:02 PM ET Associated Press DENVER — Right-hander Jhoulys Chacín is staying with the Colorado Rockies, agreeing Saturday to a guaranteed $1.25 million, one-year contract that allows him to earn an additional $500,000 in performance bonuses. The 33-year-old was 3-2 with a 4.34 ERA in a career-high 45 relief appearances and one start for Colorado,

5:54 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Brewers acquired infielder Mike Brosseau from the Tampa Bay Rays for minor league pitcher Evan Reifert on Saturday in a trade between division winners. Brosseau slumped this season after hitting a huge home run for Tampa Bay in the 2020 playoffs. His tiebreaking drive in the

6:28 PM ET Associated Press LOS ANGELES — Andrew Heaney is eager to bounce back from a rough season. The Los Angeles Dodgers believe he can too, with some adjustments. The free agent left-hander signed an $8.5 million, one-year deal this week that brings him back to Southern California, where he pitched for the Angels

1:31 PM ET Brent Strom is joining the Arizona Diamondbacks as their new pitching coach, he told the Houston Chronicle on Friday. Strom, 73, had served as the Houston Astros‘ pitching coach since 2014 before saying he was leaving the team following its World Series run last season. He told the Chronicle that he wanted

5:51 PM ET Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO — Giants manager Gabe Kapler has been rewarded with a new contract after a record-setting season during which San Francisco won a franchise-best 107 games and the NL West. The extension announced Friday runs through the 2024 season. The 46-year-old Kapler has just completed his second season as

7:00 AM ET Max Scherzer. Clayton Kershaw. Kevin Gausman. There’s no shortage of pitching talent available in 2021-22 MLB free agency, and championships will be made or broken based on what moves are taken. Buster Olney, Jesse Rogers, Bradford Doolittle and Alden Gonzalez are here to break down what’s at stake in the starting pitching

5:56 PM ET Associated Press MILWAUKEE — The Brewers will go with multiple hitting coaches next season after hiring Ozzie Timmons and Connor Dawson to replace the fired Andy Haines. Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns announced Thursday that the NL Central champions had selected Timmons and Dawson to split up responsibilities as part

12:29 PM ET Associated Press KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Longtime baseball scout Art Stewart, who began his career with the New York Yankees in the 1950s before becoming the longest-tenured member of the Kansas City Royals organization, died Thursday. He was 94. The Royals announced the death of Stewart, who had just completed his 52nd

7:52 PM ET Associated Press CARLSBAD, Calif. — Chicago’s Liam Hendriks earned his second straight Mariano Rivera Award as the American League Reliever of the Year on Wednesday, and Milwaukee’s Josh Hader won his third Trevor Hoffman Award as the National League Reliever of the Year. Hendriks had an 8-3 record and 38 saves in

7:43 PM ET Associated Press CARLSBAD, Calif. — Houston Astros center fielder Jake Meyers had surgery Wednesday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, an injury that could delay his 2022 season. The 25-year-old was hurt on Oct. 12 in Game 4 of the AL Division Series at the Chicago White Sox when

4:44 PM ET ESPN News Services CARLSBAD, Calif. — Baseball’s most influential agent said the sport was the victim of a “competitive cancer” caused by teams unloading veterans to accumulate draft picks, and that the Atlanta Braves‘ World Series title was a direct result of tanking. In an outdoor news conference in front of a

11:11 PM ET CARLSBAD, Calif. — The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ decision not to tender a qualifying offer to Clayton Kershaw is not an indication that the team is predisposed to letting him leave. Quite the opposite, it seems. “We’ve made it very clear that if Kershaw wants to come back, he will always have a

9:06 PM ET CARLSBAD, Calif. — The Chicago White Sox are open to moving reliever Craig Kimbrel days after picking up his $16 million contract option for 2022. “We view him as a potentially impactful reliever as he’s been for the vast majority of his career,” White Sox general manager Rick Hahn said Tuesday on

10:30 AM ET HOUSTON — When the final out was recorded in Game 6 of the 2021 World Series, Dusty Baker’s 24th year as a big league manager ended in the same way as the previous 23 — with another team winning the season’s last game. Afterward, the Houston Astros‘ manager sat in the dugout

1:23 PM ET Associated Press CARLSBAD, Calif. — New York Mets president Sandy Alderson says the biggest impediment in the club’s dragging search for a general manager isn’t his presence nor owner Steve Cohen, but the spotlight created by the New York market. “I think it’s mostly about New York, and not about, you know,

9:58 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels is a finalist for American League MVP in voting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. The BBWAA revealed finalists for AL and NL MVPs, Cy Young Awards, Rookies of the Year and Managers of the Year on