ESPN MLB insider Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”
MIAMI — The two best baseball players in the world’s eyes locked for a split second, long enough to acknowledge each other and the sheer improbability of what was happening.
Top of the ninth. Two outs. A one-run game. In the batter’s box stood Mike Trout, and on the pitcher’s mound was Shohei Ohtani. When this was over, they would again be Los Angeles Angels teammates, but in this moment, this perfect moment, they were foes.
Three minutes later, when the at-bat of a lifetime ended, Ohtani was mobbed by his Samurai Japan teammates, the new World Baseball Classic champions, and Trout was skulking back to the Team USA dugout, having swung through a frisbee slider on a full count that cemented Japan’s 3-2 victory Tuesday night.
In a tournament that had everything, a three-week sprint that brought the intensity and stakes of October baseball to March, it was only fitting that the dream scenario played out in the most dramatic of fashions.
“I believe this is the best moment in my life,” said Ohtani, the 28-year-old two-way player who by sheer force wrested away the title of best player alive from Trout, whose grip on it seemed unbreakable.
The two aren’t just generational players. They are all-timers, the best of the best, and the crowd of 36,058 at LoanDepot Park, accompanied by tens of millions of viewers around the globe, witnessed the mathematically improbable turn real then metamorphose into something even better.
The possibility of the moment emerged immediately after Samurai Japan, as the No. 1-ranked team in international baseball is nicknamed, clinched a WBC final spot Monday night with a breathtaking walk-off win against Mexico. The reigning Olympic gold medalists arrived ran roughshod through pool play and the quarterfinals, hopeful they would meet the powerful Team USA, with its countless All-Stars and billion-dollar lineup, in the final. When they did, a great baseball game broke out, full of matchups between elite hitters and pitchers, featuring mistake-free defense, ever ready to tilt in either team’s favor.
At the beginning of the night, Ohtani led his team down the third-base line holding the Japanese flag, while Trout did the same along the first-base line with the Stars and Stripes. Though they stopped short of the plate, it was as though they were presaged to meet there eventually.
“As a baseball fan, everybody wanted to see it,” Trout said. “He won Round 1.”
Ultimately, it was by knockout, with Ohtani dispatching Trout from the box and Team USA from a tournament that nearly chewed it up in pool play. The mighty Dominican Republic had lost before the knockout round, the WBC far from a chalk affair, so to see Japan vs. USA, and to imagine Ohtani vs. Trout like the tiniest nesting doll inside of it, tantalized baseball fans old and new.
And then it happened at 10:40 p.m. ET, after Ohtani, pitching in relief for the first time since clinching a Japan Series appearance for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2016, induced a double play from Mookie Betts, erasing his leadoff walk to Jeff McNeil. Ohtani had entered the game after warming up between at-bats as a designated hitter, and his slow, calculated walk to the mound — the product of him awaiting a replay review — nevertheless looked straight out of a Western, the big, strong man with his hat pulled down sauntering toward trouble.
Trout, walking off the field, looked over his shoulder and stole a glance, fully aware that he was due up third. By the time he made it into the batter’s box, they saw each other and the unspoken was obvious: This was the biggest at-bat of their careers, seeing as Ohtani’s five seasons with the Angels have produced zero playoff appearances and Trout’s one postseason, in 2014, ended with a sweep at the hands of the Kansas City Royals. Trout took a deep breath, settled himself and readied for what was to come: power vs. power, skill vs. skill, greatness vs. greatness.
“I thought it was like a manga,” Japan outfielder Kazuma Okamoto said, “like a comic book.”
Trout stared at an 88 mph slider just below the zone for ball one, and the battle was on. In July, when Trout was named the captain for Team USA, he pledged to recruit the sort of team that could help the Americans repeat as WBC champions. He had never played in the tournament before, and as it went along — as his friendship with Betts deepened, as he remembered what it was like to play in games that felt like they mattered — the meaning of the WBC sharpened in his mind.
“It was probably the funnest 10 days I’ve ever had,” Trout said, later continuing: “I can’t really express what’s different about it. You can just feel it in your veins. It’s a special, special feeling.”
The second pitch, a fastball, blew by Trout’s mighty swing at 100 mph. It was Ohtani announcing his presence in a fashion few pitchers can. He had thrown another 100 mph heater earlier in the day, delivering a pregame speech to Samurai Japan that urged the team to regard itself on the same plane as its superstar-laden opponent.
“Let’s stop admiring them,” Ohtani said. “If you admire them, you can’t surpass them. We came here to surpass them, to reach the top. For one day, let’s throw away our admiration for them and just think about winning.”
Ohtani returned to the fastball on the third pitch and yanked it outside to move the count to 2-1. The at-bat could have ended here with a weak grounder or a soft single or a gap double or any of an infinite number of permutations, but the game was not yet done with Ohtani vs. Trout.
“With Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout ending that game the way they did, I think baseball won again,” said Lars Nootbaar, the Los Angeles-born-and-raised St. Louis Cardinals outfielder who had become a cult hero leading off for Samurai Japan. “I just think this WBC as a whole kind of elevated the game, and I hope the exposure that it got creates baseball fans all over the world.”
Ohtani also elevated, throwing a high fastball at 100 mph past a swinging Trout again on the fourth pitch. The at-bat was turning into something bigger, something memorable, something that helped inspire Ohtani to play in the tournament despite the vagaries of two-way play making a normal 162-game season a marathon.
“I’ve seen Japan winning, and I just wanted to be part of it,” Ohtani said. “I really appreciate that I was able to have the great experience. As I say, the next generation, the kids who are playing baseball, I was hoping that those people would like to play baseball. That would make me happy.”
The fifth pitch, another fastball, this one at 101.6 mph, spiked into the ground, because if Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are going to face each other for the first time ever, it had to be epic.
“With Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout ending that game the way they did, I think baseball won again. I just think this WBC as a whole kind of elevated the game, and I hope the exposure that it got creates baseball fans all over the world.”
Lars Nootbaar, Cardinals outfielder and leadoff hitter for Team Japan
“He’s got nasty stuff,” Trout said. “He’s throwing 101, 102. He threw me a good pitch at the end.”
The best pitch of all was the sixth, an 87 mph slider, the sweepy sort that starts on the inside corner and ends up outside the strike zone. Trout swung and missed. Japan exulted, destiny fulfilled. Team USA sulked, opportunity blown. The Americans had gone 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, didn’t cash in on Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber home runs and couldn’t keep Japan’s offense in check long enough — and it made them vulnerable to one of the best sliders in the world inducing the rare three-swing-and-misses strikeout by Trout.
“That slider was nasty,” Team USA third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “It was a great pitch. If Mike Trout’s not hitting it, I don’t think anybody else is.”
Trout took no solace in that. He wanted so badly to win, and he didn’t. Ohtani was the one on the field taking celebratory pictures with the WBC gold medal hanging from his neck — with Roki Sasaki, the 21-year-old fireballer who will eventually join Ohtani in MLB, and another with Yu Darvish, now the elder statesman of Japanese pitchers.
On the opposite side of the stadium, Trout spoke to the media, hooked a left and walked down the tunnel, fidgeting with his phone and thinking about 2026. He’ll be back in that WBC, he said, and he plans on bringing an even better team with him, one that can beat Japan.
“Next time,” Trout said, “I want to make sure everybody buys in.”
For anyone who watched the championship on Tuesday, how couldn’t they? More than eight innings of high-level baseball gave way to the highest-level matchup imaginable, and it exceeded expectations. The at-bat personified the tournament itself, great from start to finish — particularly finish. When Trout returns in 2026, he’ll have company. In the aftermath of his greatest victory, Shohei Ohtani said he’ll be back too. And if the baseball gods are still smiling on the WBC, it will include Round 2.
The first race in the quest for the 2025 Triple Crown is nearly upon us. The post draw for the 151st Kentucky Derby was Saturday night, as we found out where the horses will line up, trained by Michael McCarthy, Journalism opened as the 3-1 favorite as he enters on a four-race winning streak. Meanwhile, Bob Baffert will have two horses in the race, Citizen Bull and Rodriguez.
The Kentucky Derby will be held Saturday, May 3 with post time at 6:57 p.m. ET from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. Last year’s winner was Mystik Dan at 18-1 odds.
Best bet: Exacta box (4, 8, and 9)
Burnham Square (12-1 to win) got a very good draw at the No. 9 post. The son of Liam’s Map won the Holy Bull Stakes, was fourth in the Fountain of Youth, and was impressive in the Blue Grass Stakes. He is peaking at right time, and I’m expecting a massive effort on Saturday.
Journalism (3-1) is the best horse in the field, and got a great draw at No. 8. The son of Curlin hasn’t lost a race yet (4-0). The No. 8 post has produced nine winners since 1930, and he will have speed to his inside and outside, which will benefit him. He was bred for this distance.
Rodriguez (12-1) is one of Bob Baffert’s horses. He has a lot of speed, and should fly out of the gate at the No. 4 post. I’m expecting him to have a clear lead early. Taking off the blinkers was a great move by Baffert, hence him winning the Wood Memorial. This is Baffert’s best chance of walking away with roses.
Note: An Exacta box bet is when you pick at least two horses to finish in the top two. It differs from an Exacta bet by not having to specify the correct order of the top two.
FOUR MONTHS BEFORENico Iamaleava shocked the college football world by leaving Tennessee for UCLA, signs of his discontent were apparent.
On Dec. 28, hours before the winter transfer portal window closed, Tennessee sources say Iamaleava’s representatives, including his father, Nic, reached out to the Tennessee NIL collective, Spyre Sports Group, and were looking to increase Iamaleava’s pay for 2025 to around $4 million. Hitting that target would put him closer to the amount eventually procured by transfer quarterbacks Carson Beck (Miami) and Darian Mensah (Duke) during the winter portal. Iamaleava was set to make around $2.4 million at Tennessee this year, sources said.
Sources close to the quarterback deny they were seeking $4 million.
Iamaleava wasn’t returning phone calls from coaches at this point. Sources close to the quarterback said he needed to take a “mental break” following the Vols’ 42-17 loss to eventual national champion Ohio State in the first round of the College Football Playoff, but they acknowledged that they did seriously consider entering his name in the portal.
Tennessee sources say they believe the Iamaleavas reached out to several schools, including Miami, Ole Miss and Oregon, to gauge interest. Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was seemingly able to smooth things over and keep Nico on board for 2025, but the quarterback did not receive a new deal or more money.
But while the deterioration of the relationship between Iamaleava and Tennessee was months in the making, the whirlwind that followed his decision to skip practice on April 11 — a day ahead of Tennessee’s spring game — and enter the transfer portal was dizzying.
Coaches and teammates attempted to reach him that day, a Friday, but were met with silence.
“As the day went on, it started to become obvious. He was gone and wasn’t coming back,” a Tennessee source said.
A little more than a week later, Iamaleava had signed with UCLA. A source described Iamaleava’s UCLA agreement as paying him less than what he was earning at Tennessee but more than the $1.5 million that some have reported. A day after UCLA announced Iamaleava’s signing, the Bruins’ expected starting quarterback, Joey Aguilar, left and reportedly joined … Tennessee.
It became the crystallization of college football in 2025 in which million-dollar quarterbacks can become free agents every season and Power 4 starters can essentially be swapped for each other. The ripple effects will be felt far into next season, when the fortunes of a Tennessee team with playoff aspirations and a UCLA squad under pressure to turn things around quickly hang in the balance.
How did a once-promising relationship between school and QB fall apart so swiftly? What does Iamaleava’s big move mean for UCLA? And what comes next for both sides after the most prominent college football breakup in recent memory?
THE DAY OF Iamaleava’s no-show at Tennessee, UCLA coach DeShaun Foster spoke with ESPN about the start to the Bruins’ spring practice session. Foster had completed his first full offseason leading the program and had made key changes to the coaching staff and to the roster, including the additions of offensive coordinator Tino Sunseri and Aguilar, a transfer from Appalachian State.
Foster was complimentary of Aguilar during the interview. UCLA was prepared to “lean on” Aguilar’s experience, especially with Sunseri coming in from Indiana and installing a new offense.
“I don’t want to say he’s just a pocket passer, but he does a good job of getting the ball out of his hand, anticipating some throws,” Foster said. “Being that this is a new system for him, I just like the way he’s approaching each practice. You can just tell that he’s getting more vocal, he’s getting more comfortable, and he’s been able to assert his leadership a little bit more.”
But by the end of the day, UCLA’s quarterback situation seemed foggier because of what was happening more than 2,000 miles away in Knoxville. Once Iamaleava was officially in the transfer portal, the Bruins emerged as the front-runners for the Southern California native practically by default.
Sources close to Iamaleava were confident he could secure a deal for more than $4 million at his next school, but he was working with little leverage. SEC players cannot transfer to another SEC program in the spring and immediately play in the fall, so those schools weren’t involved. Iamaleava’s absence from the Friday practice also created a perception among coaches that he had attempted a holdout.
High-profile players and their reps seeking offseason pay raises is nothing new in the era of NIL and the portal, especially this year with the imminent arrival of revenue sharing. But rarely do these discussions devolve into a public feud.
“It’s been going on in a lot of programs for a while,” a Power 4 personnel director said. “You just don’t hear about it. It’s happening more than people think. It’s just public because it’s Tennessee and it’s Nico.”
Sources at USC, Notre Dame, North Carolina, Texas Tech and several other Power 4 programs told ESPN they weren’t getting involved with Iamaleava. Some had quarterbacks locked in; others were hesitant to deal with Iamaleava’s representatives. The Bruins, meanwhile, were debating whether to move forward but would be interested if the price was right.
Although UCLA had been pleased with Aguilar as a good fit for Sunseri’s offense, it also viewed Iamaleava as a clear upgrade. He had started a full season for an SEC team that went to the CFP. UCLA recognized some of the drama in Iamaleava’s orbit, but the player himself was well-liked by those inside the Tennessee program until his no-show and was fairly productive on the field while staying healthy. Iamaleava passed for 2,616 yards and 19 touchdowns, but in his eight SEC games and the playoff game against Ohio State, he passed for more than 200 yards only twice.
“If it wasn’t a local kid, it would’ve been a little bit more difficult. But being able to see him play in high school and evaluating that film at Tennessee wasn’t hard to do,” Foster said. “A lot of the kids on the team know him and have played with him.”
IAMALEAVA’S ATTEMPTED NIL renegotiation was just the start of a tumultuous offseason. It soon became increasingly evident to those at Tennessee that Iamaleava’s camp was looking into options elsewhere.
Multiple sources at Tennessee told ESPN that Iamaleava missed two offseason workouts in February and that his father told Tennessee coaches that Iamaleava’s attorney advised him to skip workouts until he worked things out with Spyre. Iamaleava’s camp contends the absence was over a payment issue with Spyre. A Spyre representative told ESPN that there were no missed payments. Nic Iamaleava could not be reached for comment. The quarterback returned to workouts the next week, but his NIL deal remained unchanged.
Before Tennessee’s spring practices began in March, school officials were alerted by Oregon’s staff that Iamaleava’s camp had contacted the Ducks inquiring about their interest, according to sources at Oregon and Tennessee. Oregon told the Iamaleava camp it wasn’t interested.
Sources close to Iamaleava told ESPN that the family’s primary concern in the offseason was less about his compensation and more about Tennessee’s efforts to build up a better supporting cast on offense. Those close to Iamaleava were concerned about pass protection and his overall health. Iamaleava sat out the second half of the Mississippi State game after a concussion, but he went through the concussion protocol and was cleared the next week by medical personnel and played against Georgia.
Those in Iamaleava’s camp expected Heupel to shore up the offensive line and reload at wide receiver this offseason, with one source saying the coach made “false promises” about those efforts. When asked to respond, Heupel declined to comment through a university spokesperson, saying he was done talking about Iamaleava.
The Vols must replace four starting offensive linemen in 2025 and brought in two transfers who had been starters, Arizona’s Wendell Moe Jr. and Notre Dame’s Sam Pendleton, as well as five-star freshman tackle David Sanders, who was part of a 2025 recruiting class ranked 11th nationally by ESPN. The receiving corps will feature considerable youth in 2025 after Dont’e Thornton Jr. and Bru McCoy graduated and Squirrel White transferred to Florida State.
The lone wideout added via the portal in January, Alabama’s Amari Jefferson, is a redshirt freshman. Former five-star recruit Mike Matthews will be a sophomore next season after catching only seven passes in limited opportunities in 2024. Matthews and fellow freshman Boo Carter, who will play receiver and defensive back next season, both considered entering the winter portal before agreeing to return to Tennessee.
“You kept hearing rumblings all spring that [Iamaleava] one way or the other wouldn’t be here in the fall,” one Tennessee source told ESPN. “A lot of people were surprised he missed that practice, but it wasn’t the first time he missed something he was supposed to be at, so I don’t know if anybody should have really been that surprised.”
According to Tennessee sources, talks continued into the spring between the collective and Iamaleava’s side. There had been opportunities in place for Iamaleava to make “well into the six figures” in additional NIL earnings, one source said, if he agreed to certain appearances and requests, but he declined to do so.
Even though Iamaleava participated in spring practice, sources told ESPN that a general uneasiness still lingered throughout the program and athletic department about whether the quarterback would stick around for the 2025 season.
“We were just hoping we could make it to December [2025], and then we knew he was gone, either to the NFL or transferring somewhere else,” a source within the Tennessee program said.
AS TENNESSEE’S SPRING practice reached its final week, sources said Iamaleava told at least one teammate after the Vols’ Wednesday practice that he planned to enter the transfer portal on the Sunday after the spring game.
“I’m getting in the portal, if you need to handle your business,” Iamaleava said as he was walking off the practice field, according to a Tennessee player who heard him say it.
One of the teammates went to Heupel to alert him. Heupel met with Iamaleava to make sure everything was OK and didn’t mention anything about the information coming from teammates, and Iamaleava assured his coach that everything was good and that it was “all a bunch of rumors.”
The following day, a report from On3 emerged that Iamaleava and Tennessee were in “active negotiations” for a new deal. Iamaleava’s camp tells a wholly different story. Cordell Landers, an adviser who previously worked as assistant director of player personnel at Florida under Dan Mullen, and Iamaleava’s father took to social media to adamantly deny that negotiations were taking place.
Iamaleava does not have an agent. His team of advisers includes his father and Landers, who has been close with Nic since high school, as well as sports attorney Michael Huyghue, the former commissioner of the United Football League.
Sources close to the quarterback insist they’ve had zero conversions with Heupel or Spyre since January regarding his deal and deny they were seeking $4 million, even going so far as to suggest Nico was already making that much. “The family is happy with Tennessee,” a source told ESPN that night, in response to the On3 report. “Nico is happy. We’re good.” But the report itself sowed far more distrust and a suspicion that Tennessee coaches or the NIL collective was responsible for leaking information.
“It was a false narrative and they took that s— and ran with it,” a source close to Iamaleava said. “It became bigger than what it was, when it wasn’t even the case.”
As his phone blew up Thursday with calls and texts, Iamaleava was blindsided. He still attended a dinner along with his fellow Tennessee quarterbacks Thursday night at the home of Joey Halzle, Tennessee’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
But later that night, sources close to Iamaleava say he reached his breaking point. He couldn’t understand why the reports were coming out, where they came from or whom he could trust going forward, and he felt pressured to make a decision about his future. He was ready to leave, sources said, but his father encouraged him to sleep on the decision.
That next morning, Iamaleava didn’t show up for Friday’s practice or meetings and didn’t alert anyone in the program.
Nic Iamaleava urged his son to go in and meet face-to-face with Heupel and his coaches to work things out, but Iamaleava felt betrayed, sources said, and did not speak with Heupel on Friday. Several people within the Vols’ program tried to reach out to the quarterback to no avail.
“He’s hurt and he’s disappointed,” a source close to Iamaleava said Friday morning. “They’re making him look like the villain and the scapegoat.”
On Friday night, Iamaleava called Halzle to inform him that he was completing his paperwork and planned to enter the transfer portal when it opened April 16.
“He was never a troublemaker,” a Tennessee source said, “worked hard and didn’t cause problems in the locker room. He was quiet and kept to himself a lot, sort of had that California cool to him, but it’s unfair to paint him as a bad kid.”
Iamaleava’s locker was cleared out early Saturday morning before Heupel told the team its starting quarterback would no longer be part of the team.
“I want to thank him for everything he’s done since he’s gotten here, as a recruit and who he was as a player and how he competed inside the building,” Heupel said after the spring game. “Obviously, we’re moving forward as a program without him. I said it to the guys today. There’s no one that’s bigger than the Power T. That includes me.”
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UCLA’s Foster talks about landing ‘No. 1 player in portal’ Iamaleava
UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster opens up about how the Bruins were able to land Nico Iamaleava in the transfer portal.
REGARDLESS OF THE drama, UCLA’s ability to land Iamaleava after his surprise departure from Tennessee is considered a major move. And now his brother Madden — the nation’s No. 145 recruit last year — is also transferring to UCLA in a package deal that elevates expectations for the program.
“When’s the last time we had this many people here talking to us?” Foster asked Tuesday. “You guys know what I’m saying, so this is a good buzz for us.”
Arkansas’s NIL collective, Arkansas Edge, is expected to attempt to recoup some of the money it paid to Madden Iamaleava, a source told ESPN, after he had signed a one-year agreement but departed within two months of joining the program. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek announced Tuesday that he’ll support those efforts because “enforcement of these agreements is vital in our new world of college athletics.”
Once it became clear Nico Iamaleava could be on his way to Westwood, representatives for Aguilar began evaluating their options. Aguilar continued to participate in practice with the Bruins last Friday despite reports that a commitment from Iamaleava appeared imminent. UCLA coaches notified the quarterbacks of their decision Sunday. Less than 24 hours later, Aguilar was back in the transfer portal.
Tennessee inquired with the agents of several Big 12, Big Ten and ACC starting quarterbacks about the possibility they would become available in the transfer portal, sources said, a tactic that has become commonplace across the sport as players increasingly seek representation. But it’s not easy to pry one away in the spring with most returning starters already locked into seven-figure deals with their current teams. Illinois’ Luke Altmyer, TCU’s Josh Hoover and Kansas State’s Avery Johnson were all rumored to be interests of Tennessee but couldn’t be flipped, according to sources.
“We got a damned wall built around him,” a Kansas State source told ESPN, referring to Johnson. “They better bring the Tennessee National Guard.”
In the end, Tennessee’s best option ended up being the quarterback who had to leave UCLA.
And now the Iamaleava-Aguilar swap will be closely watched from coast to coast this season.
“You want to be in conversations,” Foster said Tuesday, “you want to play big-time ball, you want to have haters, you want all this stuff because that means that you’re trending in the right direction, so if you want to play big-time ball, you can do that at UCLA.”
ESPN college football writer Paolo Uggetti contributed to this report.