MLB

Theo Epstein is stepping down as president of baseball operations for the Chicago Cubs. After winning World Series with the Cubs and Boston Red Sox, Epstein would be right to take some time off to weep if he sees no more worlds to conquer, but in this economy, at just 46 years-old, he needs a job and he can probably have any one he wants in any field. Here are 10 potential destinations for the free agent.

New York Mets President / General Manager

Epstein was making a ton of money running the Cubs and he was worth every penny. For another club to lure him away, they would probably need some very persuasive money and that's exactly what Steve Cohen, the Mets new owner has. If the Mets want to win, Cohen will have to spend and there is no better investment than Epstein if you're trying to build a contending baseball team.

Chicago Bears General Manager

There are reports that Epstein wants a different challenge. So why not go across town and fix the Bears and become a Chicago legend on par with Jordan, Ditka and upside-down pizza? Working with a salary cap alone could be enough of a challenge to entice him to try it.

Chicago Bears Quarterback

Chicago Bears fans would also be on board with this. Mitch Trubisky and Nick Foles are both battling injuries and when they are healthy they haven't been very good either. If one of them doesn't get healthy, Tyler Bray, who has attempted one pass in the NFL since he went undrafted out of Tennessee in 2013, will start their next game against the Packers. Epstein certainly has better options, but do the Bears?

There’s little inevitable about any World Series, but here’s a headline you can probably already write about the 116th Fall Classic pitting the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Tampa Bay Rays:

Hey, it’s nothing against the Dodgers and Rays. It’s just that the ratings game is a tough gig right now for any sport. Same goes for almost any programming not geared toward the upcoming election or the pandemic that has driven this Series away from SoCal and the Gulf Coast and instead to a neutral site residing, literally, in the shadow of the NFL.

The paucity of fans – some 11,000 will be allowed to attend games at brand new Globe Life Field, just a fly ball down the road from ostentatious and overwhelming AT&T Stadium – and the neutral site will certainly dull some of the event’s aesthetics.

And let’s be honest: The Rays aren’t exactly on the lips of anyone at your mythical office water cooler.

They won more games than anyone in the American League, but their penchant for platooning and player churn make them largely unrecognizable beyond the I-4 corridor.

With that, a look at the Rays you truly need to know before they match up with the glitzier, World Series-seasoned, Mookie Betts-having Dodgers:

Randy Arozarena: Breakin’ II

A month ago, Arozarena was known to a small circle of Cardinals and Rays fans, as well as supporters of the Mexican League’s Toros de Tijuana and those who witnessed his power and speed as a youngster in Cuba.

But seven home runs over two playoff series – including a vanquishing of the New York Yankees and the antiheroic Houston Astros – have a funny way of increasing someone’s appeal.

The 2020 MLB season rolls on and it’s already proven to be a wild ride with some teams already a quarter through the 60-game schedule, while the St. Louis Cardinals have only played five games.

A key matchup this week between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays provided us a potential sneak preview of a clash in October. While that series might have drawn the headlines, it’s another AL team that is shooting up the power rankings and claims the No. 2 spot behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

As we look ahead to the upcoming week of MLB games, there’s plenty for baseball fans to get excited about. We’ll see a few top-10 teams clash during the upcoming slate in what should be another exciting week of baseball. Before we dive into the games ahead, though, we must examine where things stand in MLB after the weekend.

Let’s take a look at the latest update to our in-season MLB power rankings.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

The San Francisco Giants seem to be the Dodgers’ kryptonite. Credit it to the wildness of an unusual season or the nature of an epic rivalry, but it’s proven to be true in seven meetings this season. Outside of that, the Dodgers are rolling and they should get even better once Cody Bellinger heats up and Corey Seager is healthy.

2. Oakland Athletics

Since dropping three straight to end July, the Athletics have gone streaking. While the lineup drew most of the attention before the year, the rotation is carrying this club right now. Chris Bassitt (1.08 ERA) and Frankie Montas (1.57 ERA) are dominating, while Jesús Luzardo is making an early case for Rookie of the Year. An eight-game winning streak could reach double digits with an upcoming set against the Los Angeles Angels.

3. New York Yankees

New York skated by with an easy schedule to begin the season and knew a major test was coming against the Tampa Bay Rays. While they lost some close games, dropping three-of-four isn’t a great look, especially with the Atlanta Braves on deck. One thing is for certain, Gleyber Torres (.157 BA) and Gary Sanchez (.103 BA) need to turn things around.

4. Chicago Cubs

The Cubs are one-fifth of the way through the 2020 MLB season and they are riding a wave of confidence, even after their series against the St. Louis Cardinals was wiped out. A 10-3 record is a great place for this club to be, but there is reason for concern. Between their 4.38 team ERA and only a +7 run differential, this team is due for some regression. Fortunately, the hot start means they are an easy bet to make the postseason.

A grueling Sunday afternoon in which the Angels let another late-inning lead slip away in a 6-5, 11-inning loss to the Houston Astros ended with news that could puncture their playoff hopes in a pandemic-shortened season.

Soon after the 4-hour, 37-minute marathon in Angel Stadium ended and long after another disconcerting start by Shohei Ohtani, the two-way star informed the team that he had some discomfort in his surgically repaired pitching arm.

Ohtani, who walked five batters in a 42-pitch second inning that he was unable to complete, was sent out for an MRI test, the results of which were not available Sunday evening.

With 50 games left in a 60-game season and the Angels already in a 3-7 hole, they could very well be without their best starting pitcher for the rest of the season. Ohtani underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2018 and was relegated to hitting last season.

“It’s tough because it’s a short season and every game counts,” said slugger Albert Pujols, who provided the bulk of the Angels’ offense Sunday with a third-inning grand slam.

The 2020 MLB season is underway and we’ve already seen the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically impact the 60-game schedule. With commission Rob Manfred determined to push forward, though, we push forward with our MLB power rankings.

Unsurprisingly, the Los Angeles Dodgers are rolling to begin the summer and the club is living up to its reputation as the best team in MLB. We’ve also seen a few elite teams stumble, largely due to injuries, creating plenty of changes in the standings and our power rankings.

While the 2020 MLB season might feel different without fans in the seats, seeing baseball return with players making stunning plays and crushing balls out of the park keeps everyone entertained. The 60-game schedule is just adding to the intensity and with every at-bat and pitch meaning even more this season, we’re expecting a wild ride the rest of the way.

On Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals had four members of its traveling party test positive for COVID-19, with four more having what the Cardinals have characterized as “inconclusive results.” Could be four Cardinals positive tests? Could be eight? Given the questionable reliability of the “rapid” testing teams do on-site as opposed to the test results from MLB’s Utah lab, it’s hard to say.

But it may not matter, because ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported last night that the latest round of those tests from Utah are, in the words of someone with the team, “not good,” and multiple new Cardinals positive tests are expected today.

Yoenis Cespedes walked.

Is it because money talks?

The Mets announced Sunday afternoon that Cespedes opted out of this season over concerns about COVID-19, and a friend backed up that version.

But multiple sources confirmed that twice in the first nine games of the season, Cespedes confronted Mets officials concerned about playing time and that he would be kept out of lineups to prevent him from reaching lucrative performance bonuses. One of those came Saturday, when Cespedes first talked to Luis Rojas and then Brodie Van Wagenen about his playing status and bonuses. Then Cespedes knew before the buses left for Truist Park on Sunday he was not in the starting lineup and he never showed for the game against the Braves, triggering a bizarre day even for the Mets.

In the early innings of what would be a 4-0 loss to the Braves, Van Wagenen issued a statement revealing Cespedes was absent and the team had been unsuccessful in contacting him.

David Price’s COVID-19 concerns are coming to life.

The Dodgers pitcher became one of the highest-profile players to opt out of MLB’s 60-game season before it began and now is watching to see how commissioner Rob Manfred responds to the first in-season crisis. After just one series there is already an outbreak as the Marlins had 11 players and two coaches test positive for COVID-19 as of Monday morning.

“Now we REALLY get to see if MLB is going to put players health first,” Price tweeted Monday.

The Rockies announced Monday that left-hander Tim Collins has informed the club that he will opt out of the remainder of the 2020 season. He’d been in the team’s 60-man player pool but did not make the Opening Day, 30-man roster.

Colorado has also formally added nine players to its 60-man pool, per the announcement. Joining the group are right-handers Tommy Doyle, Karl Kauffmann and Wes Parsons; infielders Aaron Schunk, Michael Toglia, Ryan Vilade and Colton Welker; lefty Helcris Olivarez; and catcher Willie MacIver.

The Rockies’ announcement comes after two game — the Marlins/Orioles tilt in Miami and the Phillies/Yankees contest in Philadelphia — were postponed due to Covid-19 concerns. However, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that Collins had already informed the team of his decision to opt out prior to today’s news.

The Houston Astros were riding high over the weekend as the only undefeated team in the league, and then they were dealt a serious blow when it was first reported that he would be out for the season with an elbow injury.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed the league will carry on with the 2020 season after the Miami Marlins experienced a COVID-19 outbreak.

ESPN's Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers reported at least 13 members of the Miami Marlins have tested positive for the coronavirus.

The Washington NFL franchise isn’t alone in taking a look at its name. The Cleveland MLB franchise is now doing the same thing.

“We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the team said in a statement. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community.

“We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent social unrest in our community and our country was only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice. With that in mind, we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.

The MLB is gearing up to restart the season after months on hiatus due to the coronavirus, and the league has remained remarkably healthy in the 3.5 months without baseball.

Of the 3,185 coronavirus test samples among MLB players and staff, there were only 38 positive tests, giving the league a 1.2 percent positivity rate that is far below the national average. In addition, only 31 players were found to have contracted the virus, while 11 teams reported zero positive tests.

Caden Cole’s arrival on the final day of June supplied a grown-up dose of joy to his father who believes the Yankees can add a World Series trophy to the infant’s crib.

“We liked our chances in February not coming out of the gate 100 percent healthy so I have to say we really like our chances coming out of the gate 100 percent healthy,’’ Cole said Friday on a Zoom call ahead of the Yankees’ first full-squad workout at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. “There is only going to be one coronavirus World Series champion and I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to take that trophy home, especially when you are competing against your peers and there is only going to be one of them. We are excited and bullish and both Aarons [Judge and Hicks] looked great [Thursday] and we are chomping at the bit.’’

First, the Yankees and 29 other teams have to make it through spring training 2.0 without COVID-19 shutting the game down for a second time.

The Washington NFL franchise isn’t alone in taking a look at its name. The Cleveland MLB franchise is now doing the same thing.

“We are committed to making a positive impact in our community and embrace our responsibility to advance social justice and equality,” the team said in a statement. “Our organization fully recognizes our team name is among the most visible ways in which we connect with the community.

“We have had ongoing discussions organizationally on these issues. The recent social unrest in our community and our country was only underscored the need for us to keep improving as an organization on issues of social justice. With that in mind, we are committed to engaging our community and appropriate stakeholders to determine the best path forward with regard to our team name.

The MLB is gearing up to restart the season after months on hiatus due to the coronavirus, and the league has remained remarkably healthy in the 3.5 months without baseball.

Of the 3,185 coronavirus test samples among MLB players and staff, there were only 38 positive tests, giving the league a 1.2 percent positivity rate that is far below the national average. In addition, only 31 players were found to have contracted the virus, while 11 teams reported zero positive tests.

Since 1944, the name of Kenesaw Mountain Landis -- the most power commissioner in the history of Major League Baseball -- has adorned the MVP trophies of both leagues. Now, though, there's a movement afoot to remove Landis' name from those trophies.

That's because Landis, for all he did to get baseball through the Black Sox Scandal fallout, was a proponent of segregation in baseball and was for a time responsible for maintaining the color line in the sport. It was until three years after Landis' death that Jackie Robinson broke that color line with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Not surprisingly, MLB's official historian recently told the Associated Press of "documented racism" during Landis' tenure.

The Philadelphia Phillies are closing their spring training facility in Clearwater, Florida, after five players and three staff members tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced. Sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan that the Toronto Blue Jays also shut down their spring training facility in Dunedin on Thursday after a player exhibited coronavirus symptoms.

The Phillies' facility will remain closed until medical authorities are confident that the virus is under control, the team said in a statement Friday.

The first confirmed case occurred Tuesday. Eight staff members tested negative, while 20 players and 12 other staff members are awaiting test results.

The Blue Jays player exhibiting symptoms is a pitcher on the 40-man roster who recently spent time with players in the Phillies' minor league system, sources told Passan. He has been tested for COVID-19 and is awaiting results.

As if there weren’t enough moving parts already, Major League Baseball is now re-thinking its fundamental approach to putting on the coronavirus-altered 2020 campaign, Jared Diamond and Ben Cohen of the Wall Street Journal reports.

MLB had previously contemplated naming a host city that would house all of the season’s games. There were various permutations of the concept, some involving multiple cities. At base, the idea was to limit travel and keep players (and other key personnel) from interacting with the broader world.

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association (MLBPA) have been negotiating for more than five weeks about a possible return-to-play plan for a 2020 season. While it recently appeared that the two sides may be nearing the finish line, a disagreement on the number of games puts the negotiations back to a stalemate.

Settling at the 65-game midpoint (MLBPA's latest proposal was for 70 games, MLB proposed 60) might not work for either party, according to The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich.

New York Yankees president Randy Levine weighed in on the latest set of negotiations between the two sides, telling The Athletic that he does not see MLB owners stretching their offer any further than 60 games.

Just when it looked like progress was being made for the 2020 MLB season, the saga between MLB owners and the MLB Players Association took another turn on Friday night.

Following the latest proposal from the players’ union for a 70-game season, a counter-offer to the league’s 60-game plan, MLB is apparently prepared to back out of negotiations once again.

After vowing on June 10 that baseball would be played in 2020, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred backtracked a few days later. Then, just after expressing a lack of hope for MLB games being played this year, momentum seemed to be building towards a season.

MLB owners almost instantly rejected the 70-game proposal from the MLBPA, leaving many wondering what the league would counter. Instead, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, it looks like owners are done negotiating.