MLB

9:00 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” WASHINGTON — THEY PLAYED BASEBALL here Thursday. The defending World Series champion Washington Nationals hosted the New York Yankees at Nationals Park. The attendance was 0. Max Scherzer, the Nationals’ ace, faced

8:00 AM ET The Cincinnati Reds hired Geoff Head last offseason to oversee their health-and-performance team, a group of roughly 50 men and women divided into seven departments. He got the job in December, two months later than normal for that type of role. Three months after that, the sport shut down because of the

2:45 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN We dipped our toes into the waters of the 2020 baseball season with two games on Thursday. On Friday, we dove in headfirst with 14 contests — the first time since the regular season ended on Sept. 29, 2019, that we had coast-to-coast baseball. That was 299 days ago, and

11:26 PM ET ESPN News Services CLEVELAND — From All-Star MVP to ace, and Shane Bieber‘s only getting better. Bieber struck out 14 over six scoreless innings in a historic outing as the Indians beat the Kansas City Royals 2-0 in their delayed home opener on Friday night. The 25-year-old passed Bob Gibson and Lon

12:21 PM ET ESPN News Services The displaced Toronto Blue Jays will play the majority of their home games in Buffalo, New York, this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, the team announced Friday. The Blue Jays will play at Sahlen Field, home of the team’s Triple-A affiliate, the Buffalo Bisons. “We are extremely grateful to

7:00 AM ET Baseball is back. The home runs are back. The blazing fastballs blurring across our TV screens are back. The bat flips, the doubles in the gap, the “how did he do that?” defensive plays, the box scores, the exit velocities, the hot takes, the debates, the hopeful late-game rallies, the walk-off hits,

6:19 PM ET ESPN News Services Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw was put on the 10-day injured list because of stiffness in his back and will not make his scheduled start in Thursday’s Opening Day game against the San Francisco Giants, the team announced. The Dodgers recalled right-hander Dustin May, who will make the

7:00 AM ET Marly RiveraESPN Writer Close Marly Rivera is a writer for ESPNdeportes.com and ESPN.com. NEW YORK — A week before Christmas last year, the New York Yankees held a news conference in the posh Legends Club at Yankee Stadium to introduce Gerrit Cole after signing him to a $324 million deal, the richest

7:00 AM ET ESPN.com staff The 2020 major league baseball season will be like none that has ever come before it. MLB’s 30 teams will have just 60 games to try to streak into the postseason. Players and coaches will need to focus on the field while maintaining strict health and safety protocols off of

11:52 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” Star outfielder Mookie Betts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are finalizing a massive 13-year deal worth more than $380 million that would keep the former American League MVP from reaching free agency

1:50 PM ET MLB InsidersESPN The day before the Los Angeles Dodgers open the 2020 season as heavy favorites to win the World Series, they appear to be deep in talks to lock up Mookie Betts for the next decade. Betts and the Dodgers are deep into negotiations on a long-term contract that is expected

7:00 AM ET Opening Day of the 2020 MLB season is just days away with baseball adapting a 60-game schedule as the sport tries to return amid the coronavirus pandemic. With specific adjustments to make play possible this year and some rule changes that were already in the works for this season, the sport figures

7:15 AM ET In the shortened Major League Baseball season that’s on tap for 2020, which players’ top-tier performances will define the year for baseball? We asked a panel of 32 experts from ESPN’s MLB coverage team to name the star players they think will deliver seasons that merit recognition as baseball’s MVPs, Cy Young

7:15 AM ET After a delay of nearly four months, the 2020 MLB season will begin on Thursday night when the Washington Nationals host the New York Yankees (7 ET, ESPN). It’s time to pin down our expectations for what we expect to happen in the abbreviated 60-game season. Will the Nationals repeat? Is this

12:58 AM ET ESPN News Services Alyssa Nakken, the first female major league coach, coached first base for the San Francisco Giants during Monday night’s exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics. Nakken joined first-year Giants manager Gabe Kapler’s staff in January. She has been with the organization since 2014, when she started as an intern

7:00 AM ET Sam MillerESPN.com Close ESPN baseball columnist/feature writerFormer editor-in-chief of Baseball ProspectusCo-author of “The Only Rule Is It Has To Work” Back in the old days, the 2020 Houston Astros were scheduled to play two Opening Days: one at their park on the first day of the season and one in Anaheim for

7:00 AM ET MLB InsidersESPN The start of baseball season means it’s time for predictions, but we asked our writers to take it a step further heading into Opening Day. The assignment was simple: Find two bets you would make for the 2020 MLB season, with one thing you are certain will happen and a

8:00 PM ET There is baseball in just over four days. Real, live major league baseball, with standings and statistics and strikeouts. Max Scherzer will throw the first pitch of the abbreviated 2020 season when the Washington Nationals host the New York Yankees on Thursday night on ESPN. It’s going to look weird, with no