PEORIA, Ariz. — It’s time to start collecting Ryan Sloan cards.

Take it from Sloan, Seattle’s sensational 20-year-old pitching prospect, who collects baseball cards when he’s not bombarding batters. On Sunday, the 2024 second-round draft pick said: “I’m not into the old cards a ton. Mostly newer stuff. I collect a lot of prospects, ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — For Angels fans, these are the worst of times.

Their team is coming off back-to-back last-place finishes for the first time in 50 years. The team 30 miles up the freeway is coming off back-to-back World Series championships, led by a global icon who left Anaheim when the Angels could not deliver a winning team and would not ...Read more

BRADENTON, Fla. — Maybe it was the backstory.

The tale of a nondescript prospect who, in back-to-back years, was the classic “player to be named later” in trades and was already 29 by the time he made his major-league debut.

Maybe it was the way he played.

A mix of intensity and joy that seemed impossible to fabricate. The dirty uniform...Read more

MIAMI — Us against the World is all the rage as the international World Baseball Classic begins with Miami again serving as main host and hub city.

The sixth iteration of the 20-nation, 20-year-old tournament running March 6-17 is a celebration of the power of sports to unite, but it arrives this time shadowed by geopolitical conflict.

U.S. ...Read more

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — How do you improve on the perfect ending?

Clayton Kershaw stood in the desert heat Monday, wearing a far darker shade of blue than the Dodgers do. He does not need a medal, or a chance to fail. His election to the Hall of Fame will be a formality.

In his farewell year, the Dodgers won the World Series, becoming baseball'...Read more

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Team USA manager Mark DeRosa told reporters on Monday afternoon that two-time All-Star Logan Webb will start the United States’ first game of pool play against Team Brazil on Friday.

Following Webb, two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal will start against Great Britain on Saturday, while 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner...Read more

If you are a Los Angeles Angels fan, you have my sympathy.

It has been no secret what fans of that team think of its owner. I’ve received plenty of email complaints about Arte Moreno in recent years, and I’m sure I will receive more as a result of this column. I welcome your input.

But in all of those columns I’ve written about teams ...Read more

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Luis Arraez took to life in Padres Land right away.

He became fast friends with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado during his two seasons in San Diego. He lockered near the two Padres stars he’d admired as an All-Star with the Miami Marlins and Minnesota Twins.

Arraez had come to San Diego in May 2024, via a trade ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The Pohlads would be justified in moving the Minnesota Twins.

At least a few hundred feet.

At least far enough so Target Field no longer stands on an ancient burial ground from which emanates every manner of curse.

This is my annual “Twins are cursed” column. This one might sound a little like last year’s, but there is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have played mostly great baseball in Los Angeles for 68 years. How many position players wear the iconic L.A. cap on a Hall of Fame plaque?

Go on, take a guess.

Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers' star first baseman: "Three?"

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations: "Two?"

The correct answer is ...Read more

PEORIA, Ariz. — The Seattle Mariners’ starting rotation had to do too much for too long. It had to carry a lineup that couldn’t stop striking out and an ownership group that struck out looking every offseason. It had to stack strikeouts and quality starts for six consecutive months, avoiding injury in an era terrorized by Tommy John. It ...Read more

TAMPA, Fla. — Heaven knows, even after they finally re-signed Cody Bellinger, the New York Yankees endured their share of naysayers this winter for bringing back essentially the same 94-win team that tied the Toronto Blue Jays for the most victories in the American League last year.

It never seemed to dawn on their critics that none of the ...Read more

GLENDALE, Ariz. — What does Luisangel Acuña want Chicago White Sox fans to know about him?

“That I play hard,” Acuña said through an interpreter while sitting at his locker and breaking in his outfield glove.

Simple and to the point.

The new addition to the Sox outfield isn’t going to speak boldly or put expectations on himself. He�...Read more

Former Major League Baseball pitcher Dan Serafini was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Friday for the 2021 first-degree murder of his father-in-law and attempted murder of his mother-in-law in Lake Tahoe.

Serafini, who pitched for six MLB teams during a 22-year professional career that ended in 2013, killed Gary ...Read more

NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Red Sox appear to have dodged a huge bullet.

During the bottom of the first inning of Friday’s game against the Atlanta Braves, Red Sox outfielders Roman Anthony and Ceddanne Rafaela collided in left field trying to chase down a fly ball off the bat of Jurickson Profar. The two went down and were immediately attended ...Read more

Daniel Serafini, the ex-MLB pitcher convicted of shooting his in-laws in a 2021 murder-burglary at their Homewood, Calif., residence near Lake Tahoe, was committed to life without parole after his sentencing Friday in Placer Superior Court.

Jurors in July convicted Daniel Serafini, 51, of first-degree murder in the death of his father-in-law, ...Read more

PHOENIX — It is never too early for hyperbole.

No major league team has won more than 116 games. The Dodgers had yet to play an exhibition game last spring when former Los Angeles Times columnist Dylan Hernández declared they could win 120.

Not to be outdone, the Dodgers were one week into the season when Bill Plaschke posted a column with ...Read more

CLEARWATER, Fla. — For 30 minutes Wednesday, on the half-field adjacent to the Phillies’ clubhouse, Larry Bowa flipped baseballs to Bobby Dickerson, who hit one-hoppers and choppers and line drives at Bryce Harper.

Over and over. Again and again.

Ninety feet from Harper, a nine-time Gold Glove-winning first baseman and former captain of ...Read more

FORT MYERS, Fla. — When a reporter approached Liam Hendriks with one of his earliest scouting reports, the veteran relief pitcher offered a prediction about what it would say.

“I’m assuming there is a little bit of short motion with a quick arm, 88-92 mph, with a little bit of arm side run,” Hendriks said. “Good changeup. Breaking ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — No man is an island. Unless that man is Bryce Harper and he has just reached base.

Last season, there wasn’t a lonelier lot in life than to be a Phillies superstar standing on first, second, or third. Only four players in the majors reached base as many times as Harper did and scored fewer runs. The 72 runs he did score were ...Read more