Boston Red Sox

Boston Red Sox

Appointed as Dave Dombrowski's successor as Boston's chief baseball officer in October 2019, one of Bloom's first orders of business with the Red Sox was to determine the future of franchise star Mookie Betts. Bloom and the Red Sox - unable to come to terms on a long-term extension with Betts - ultimately traded him to the Dodgers in February 2020 (along with David Price) in exchange for Alex Verdugo, Jeter Downs, and Connor Wong.

It took a little bit for Bello to get going after a brief IL stint to open the season, but from mid-June though August, he was on a roll. Funny how so many things got better in the middle of June. I wonder what changed? Anyway, over a span of 14 starts Bello had an ERA/FIP split of 2.42/3.80 for 89 innings.

I do not bet on sports, but I was and am in favor of legalization. I admit, though, that I didn't foresee just how corrosive the combination of legalized sports gambling and smart phones would be. As dangerous as alcohol or drug addiction is, at least you don't have an unlimited supply of booze in your pocket, like you do with sports gambling, thanks to predatory apps.

"If you come watch me for a day, you are probably not going to notice that I was on the field. If you come for a month or two, you will probably leave saying I am a pretty good player."

Japanese star Munetaka Murakami was posted by his team in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), Tokyo Yakult Swallows, ESPN reported Friday. The 25-year-old will have 45 days to sign with an MLB team, giving him a Dec. 22 deadline. Murakami has been listed by many analysts as one of the top free-agent hitters this offseason, mostly playing third base. The left-handed hitter also has experience playing first base,

The Red Sox already boast one American League Cy Young Award finalist on their roster in Garrett Crochet. But could Boston have both Crochet and the likely 2026 Cy Young frontrunner in Detroit's Tarik Skubal in their rotation next season? ESPN's Buster Olney believes that the Red Sox have the resources in place to make a legitimate run at the reigning Cy Young Award winner this winter if Detroit dangles him out on the trade market.

The 2026 World Series smashed ratings expectations across the board, and Game 7 was the most-watched baseball game in 34 years. And note that the ratings success was not merely a function of expanded Canadian and Japanese audiences. In the US alone, 16.1 million people watched each game on average, which was an increase over last year's ratings dream of a matchup between the Yankees and Dodgers, and trounced the 2025 NBA Finals average viewership of 10.3 million.

So let's have a little heart-to-heart chat, you, the grieving and traumatized Jays fan, me, a fan who was on the wrong side of what was probably the best and most dramatic World Series until this one. Maybe I can help: You're screwed. You will never get over this. You will never fully recover. The sharp pain may age to a dull ache, but it will never go away.

To the fans, perfection is not only boring, it's useless. It defeats the purpose of caring in the first place. The reason that baseball is interesting at all is because it's hard, because it can never be played perfectly. The value of sports is not in watching perfection, but in watching players try to achieve perfection while inevitably failing, just like the rest of us do in real life every day.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

Muncy's homer capped off the longest game in World Series history, both by time (7 hours, 20 minutes) and number of innings played. The marathon spanned over parts of two separate days as Game 3 began at Dodger Stadium on October 26, only to finish in the early morning hours of Oct. 27. The play was selected by the Los Angeles Sports Council's Media Panel as one of the nominations for the greatest moment of 2018.

In a season that started with infield candidates ranging from Alex Bregman, Trevor Story, Kristian Campbell, Triston Casas, Rafael Devers, and Marcelo Mayer, David Hamilton managed to make it into 91 games. That's way too many! His large presence in box scores is the byproduct of a tumultuous year in the infield. David Hamilton is fast, and actually plays good defense when used at second base. If he's the last guy on your roster, he's not a bad guy to have around.

2025 was a strange year for Nathaniel Lowe. He was coming off 4 straight years averaging 2.8 bWAR per season with a .274/.359./.432 batting line. He was joining a new team - the Washington Nationals - who many believed to be something of a sleeper in the National League with young stars James Wood and CJ Abrams. Lowe was positioned to be a key veteran presence with playoff and World Series experience.