‘I’m a navigational system’: How Deion Sanders is changing the direction of Colorado
BOULDER, Colo. — On a sunny February morning, Deion Sanders walked into Colorado’s recruiting lounge, overlooking snow-covered Folsom Field, and sat in a tan leather recliner. He wore a shirt that read: “Ain’t Hard 2 Find.”
A spotlight has followed Sanders his entire adult life, beginning at Florida State before moving on to the NFL, Major League Baseball and, in 2011, the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A distinct blend of athletic skill and an outsized personality has magnified his words and actions.
Sanders, who goes by Coach Prime, stepped off a jet at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport near Boulder on the night of Dec. 4 to take over the Colorado program, and he’s been easy to spot in the months since. His life is constantly documented, cameras following at all hours, from the Super Bowl to Boulder restaurants.
He can’t hide, but he never really wanted to either.
The attention is nothing new for Sanders. He went 27-6 in three years as the head coach of Jackson State, winning two conference championships at a school that had gone 18-37 in the five years before his arrival. That success combined with his persona led to his final season being chronicled in a four-part docuseries, “Coach Prime.”
The buzz is decidedly new for the Buffaloes.
“All you see is him in Colorado, Colorado on TV, Colorado on social media, all eyes on Colorado,” said Darian Hagan, the quarterback for Colorado’s national championship team in 1990 and a member of the school’s football staff since 2005. “That’s what [I remember] this place being, under the microscope, top of the mountain, everybody’s wanting to knock us off. In the last 10 years, it’s been easy to knock us off. We’ve been bad.”
Colorado’s struggles led the school to Sanders this offseason. Through his first four months on the job, Sanders has shown what made his hire both unconventional and rewarding.
He made headlines for his fiery introductory team meeting, where he invited players to “jump in that [transfer] portal,” and for comments last month about what he looks for in recruits that some interpreted as playing into racist stereotypes.
Colorado also has renewed energy, as evidenced by surging ticket demand, booming merch sales and a skyrocketing social media presence. After blue-chip players largely ignored Colorado for decades, Sanders quickly made Boulder a destination for elite talent, bringing in sought-after transfers and a top-25 recruiting class.
The surge has followed a 1-11 campaign and a prolonged stretch that includes only two winning seasons and a 69-134 overall record since 2006.
Colorado’s bottoming out, though, helped create an unlikely union.
“I’m a need-to-be-needed type person,” Sanders told ESPN. “If you show me a need, then I’m there, but if there’s no need, I don’t really have a place. That’s what I do, that’s what I’ve done, I’ve always been that type of guy. There’s a tremendous need [at Colorado], and I don’t just think it’s all about football. It far surpasses football on the field.”
“LET ME SEE if I can find this one thing,” Hagan said, before digging through his desk.
Hagan has logged two stints as Colorado’s running backs coach, the latter of which ended in 2022. He also served as director of player personnel and director of player development, and currently works as executive director for community engagement and outreach, and football ambassador, under Sanders.
His roots with Colorado stretch to 1988, when he arrived as a quarterback from Los Angeles. He went 28-5-2 as CU’s starter, winning three consecutive Big Eight titles and a national championship. From 1989 to 1996, Colorado had five AP top-eight finishes and never ended up outside the top 20 thanks to talents such as Hagan, Eric Bieniemy, Rashaan Salaam, Kordell Stewart and Michael Westbrook.
After unsuccessfully rummaging through his desk, Hagan did a Google image search. A picture of rapper and actor Ice Cube wearing a Colorado hat appeared on the screen.
“When we started dominating college football, I’ll never forget this right here,” Hagan said, smiling. “This made a whole lot of sense to me and made me understand that Colorado was special. When you see celebrities and they’re supporting a program like Colorado, that lets you know you’re being talked about.”
A celebrity is now coaching Colorado, and other celebrities are talking about the Buffs. Last month, Sanders hosted rapper Lil Wayne, who toured the team’s facility while cameras rolled. He marveled, “That’s the f—ing locker room?” upon seeing where the players suited up.
Hagan equates Sanders’ presence at Colorado to former coach Bill McCartney, who he played for, in that they both carry “rock star” personalities on campus and in town. Athletic director Rick George, who served as Colorado’s recruiting coordinator and assistant athletic director for football operations under McCartney from 1987 to 1990, also sees similarities in how Sanders and McCartney outlined expectations, standards and discipline.
The difference, George said, is the instant recognition Sanders carries.
“I was here during those glory years,” said university chancellor Phil DiStefano, then a professor in Colorado’s school of education. “People from around the country, they weren’t alumni but they were wearing Colorado apparel, whether it was Rashaan or Kordell Stewart. Now it’s starting with the coach. He’s started this transformation, this excitement.”
Sanders’ early success in attracting players from around the country, both transfers and high school players, could have a McCartney-like effect at Colorado.
At Jackson State, Sanders flipped Travis Hunter, ESPN’s No. 2 overall recruit in the 2022 class, from Florida State. Hunter has followed Sanders to Boulder.
Colorado’s first recruiting class under Sanders features Cormani McClain, ESPN’s No. 1 cornerback and No. 14 overall prospect, who initially had committed to Miami.
Hunter was ESPN’s No. 1 recruit in talent-rich Georgia, while McClain was ESPN’s No. 3 prospect out of Florida. Colorado added two other top-150 prospects in running back Dylan Edwards from Kansas and wide receiver Adam Hopkins from Georgia. The Buffs’ transfer haul is headlined by Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders — Deion’s son — but also features Arkansas State tight end Seydou Traore and linebackers Demouy Kennedy (Alabama) and LaVonta Bentley (Clemson).
“It’s not supposed to look this easy,” Stewart said. “In three months, he’s accomplished a lot. This is just the beginning, and I’m excited.”
At the NFL Honors awards during Super Bowl week, Sanders presented the AP Coach of the Year award to the New York Giants‘ Brian Daboll, while wearing a black suit and a gold pocket square, CU colors. As Sanders exited the stage, Daboll told him about a player he should consider at Colorado. Sanders immediately got Daboll on the phone with his chief of recruiting.
“That doesn’t just mean that he respects me, and he would love for this kid to play for me,” Sanders said. “You know how much noise we’ve got to be making right now, for that gentleman, as we’re walking off the stage, saying, ‘I’ve got a dawg for you.’
“I said, ‘I ain’t hard to find, coach.'”
FOR TWO DECADES, the Buffs haven’t been good, nor have they been interesting. This recipe for irrelevance has made the program — despite its proud history — a college football afterthought.
But Colorado is cool again. That’s the Coach Prime effect.
The season-ticket renewal rate stands at 97%, according to a Colorado spokesperson, by far the best in school history. Colorado expects to sell out of season tickets this month, and the increase outpaces the 2017 season, which came after coach Mike MacIntyre was named the National Coach of the Year. Let that sink in: Hiring Sanders following a terrible season did more to generate ticket interest than winning the Pac-12 South and finishing ranked for the first time since 2002.
The luxury suites are also sold out. Not even Jeremy Bloom, the former Buffs receiver who is the only athlete to have skied in the Olympics and been drafted in the NFL, could procure one for the upcoming season.
“It doesn’t matter who you are,” Bloom said. “I tried to get one. I can’t, and I have some clout. They are all sold out, and there’s a long waiting list.”
The school has discussed plans on how to make suites or sideline space available for Sanders’ celebrity friends when they attend games, according to Alexis Williams, a senior associate athletic director who oversees ticket sales.
Between deposits and interest forms, Colorado fielded inquiries from roughly 20,000 people for season tickets and will sell tickets to the spring game this year for the first time since the 1970s. So far, more than 39,000 tickets have been sold or distributed. That crowd would be roughly double the highest-ever attended spring game in school history (17,800 in 2008), and it’s possible Folsom Field could sell out at just over 50,000 capacity. ESPN will televise Colorado’s spring game on April 22 (3 p.m. ET), the only spring game to air on the flagship network this year.
“Our sales team,” Williams said, “they can’t even make an outgoing call with the calls coming in.”
Sales are up everywhere. During the first two months of 2023, Colorado ranked No. 2 among college team stores on the Fanatics platform, behind only Georgia. Sales of Colorado gear in December were up 505% over the same month in 2022, according to a Colorado spokesperson.
The uptick on Colorado’s social media, where Sanders occupies a near-constant presence — from the practice field to the state Capitol — has been more of the same. Between Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok, Colorado had a combined 226,800 followers before Sanders was hired. That number has now climbed north of 1 million.
“Very few people saw Karl [Dorrell] or our other coaches, whether it was Coach MacIntyre or Coach [Dan] Hawkins, really being out and being visible,” DiStefano said. “With Coach Sanders, he’s very visible. It’s a positive change for us, coming off of a 1-11 season. To have that turned around so much on the social media platforms — ‘Colorado is finished, there’s nothing going on there, four coaches in the last [11] years’ — now, it just changed overnight, and it’s because of his personality, because he gets out there.”
The Prime pull is real, and will continue all the way until the games kick off this fall.
“You know how there’s a chain that’s moving on a sprocket, there’s a certain spot where it fits in at the right time to change those gears?” Stewart asked. “Prime is like that gear-changer that falls in the slot at the right time, when it’s time to have it change.”
Sanders never expected to be living and coaching in Colorado. But it’s not the first time.
“Do you know what was more unlikely than this?” Sanders asked. “Me going to Jackson State. How unlikely was that? And you see what happened.
“This is going to be bigger.”
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Deion Sanders tells his team he’s accepted Colorado HC position
Deion Sanders has a discussion with the Jackson State football team after their win about how he has accepted the Colorado head-coaching job.
SANDERS’ COLLEGE COACHING experience was limited to just three seasons at Jackson State. Although he had interviewed with Power 5 schools — Arkansas and Florida State talked to him in 2019, before he had coached a college game — none hired him.
When he played, Sanders attracted almost as much attention for what he said as what he did. He never filtered his thoughts as a star athlete, and so far, he’s not doing it as the head coach at Colorado.
Last month, he explained his recruiting philosophy on “The Rich Eisen Show,” saying he wants quarterback and offensive line recruits to get good grades and come from two-parent homes, but wants defensive linemen to have a “single momma” and be “on free lunch.”
Colorado declined to comment on Sanders’ remarks.
Sanders’ leadership record isn’t spotless either. Before getting into college coaching, Sanders co-founded Prime Prep Academy, a Texas-based charter school, which collapsed amid significant debt and lawsuits. According to the Dallas Morning News, the school was perceived to focus on athletics at the expense of academics.
Colorado is willing to accept the risk. After forcing out Gary Barnett in 2005, the school tried out different types of coaches: Group of 5 success stories like Hawkins and MacIntyre, an ascending coordinator in Mel Tucker, a notable alum in Jon Embree and a veteran coach with CU roots in Dorrell, who was fired in October. None of them succeeded.
“Our past 15 years led us to the point where we had to be the one to take that chance,” said Alec Roussos, Colorado’s associate athletic director for administration and chief of staff. “You win four or five games last year, maybe in your mind you’re like, ‘Hey, we’re close.’ But when you’re 1-11, you need that total overhaul to be like, ‘We need to change a lot of things.’ Not just people or personnel but processes, the way we do things, the expectation level within our program and within the athletic department.”
Colorado once had the highest expectations. From 1989 to 1996, the Buffaloes were one of the best programs in college football. They finished ranked in the AP top 10 five times — including No. 1 in 1990 — and never lower than No. 20. But after transitioning from McCartney to Rick Neuheisel in 1995, their place near the top of the sport became less secure.
Over nine seasons, beginning in 1997, the program averaged 6.9 wins per year, with a No. 9 AP finish in 2001. The nosedive started in 2005, after Hawkins replaced Barnett, and the Buffs failed to finish with a winning record over the next 10 years. Other than 2016, when a veteran team went 10-4, the team has rarely been competitive.
Last year, the Buffs were outscored 216-67 during an 0-5 start, leading to Dorrell’s firing. Colorado ranked 128th nationally in offense, 130th in defense and 125th in turnover margin.
“Where was our football program? It was at the lowest of lows,” Roussos said. “You can’t argue that last year, the product we were putting on the field was not at a level that we ever wanted to be. … Again, what is the downside of hiring Coach Prime? Because even if it ‘fails,’ 1-11 is still failing.”
Sanders has no interest in incremental improvement. He expects a dramatically different on-field product, even with so many new faces on the roster and a September schedule that includes USC and Oregon, as well as an opener at 2022 national runner-up TCU.
“We will not settle for mediocrity,” Sanders said. “You’re going to get on this program, or you’re gonna get up outta here. We plan on winning, and we don’t have time to procrastinate. We plan on winning right now.”
OF ALL THE on-camera moments Sanders has had since taking the Colorado job, none generated more attention than his first team meeting. “I’m comin’,” he repeated in his speech, a phrase that soon became a team motto. Sanders was direct about why he was there and how far the program had fallen, telling players the decadeslong “mess” Colorado fans, students and even their parents had endured would soon be cleaned up.
He explained how the roster would change, saying some players occupying seats in the room would lose them. His most memorable line: “We’ve got a few positions already taken care of, because I’m bringing my luggage with me, and it’s Louis [Vuitton]. I’m comin’.” He invited players to “jump in that [transfer] portal,” because they’d make room for better ones.
“He put everybody on notice, and I don’t know if that’s a bad thing,” George said. “We all saw that message. In our department, people saw it and said, ‘It’s time to step up.’ It was tough to hear and some people may say, ‘That’s not the way to approach it,’ but it set the tempo on how he’s going to run his program.”
Hagan, who coached and recruited some of the players in the room that night, said he has heard other new CU coaches deliver similar messages in their initial meetings. The difference was those gatherings did not have cameras present, and Sanders wasn’t the one talking.
“A little bit I thought, ‘Dang, that could be construed as rude, disrespectful,’ but at the same time, he wouldn’t be here if we didn’t need him,” Hagan said. “The truth is the truth, and he spoke the truth. The guys that got in the portal, they didn’t deserve to be here, because if you let words convince you to move on and not fight for what you believe in and what you signed up for, you shouldn’t be here.”
Shedeur Sanders, in town for his father’s introduction, attended the meeting. While addressing the team, Deion anointed Shedeur, who had been Jackson State’s starting quarterback, as Colorado’s next QB1.
Shedeur said his father’s message, while direct, was at least honest.
“I don’t like being lied to,” said Shedeur, who passed for 6,963 yards and 70 touchdowns in two seasons at Jackson State. “The players coming in, they’re coming to play, they’re not coming to sit. So if you’ve been here, you’re chilling and you think your spot is good, that’s not the case. You’ve got guys wanting to play with top talent. It’s just realistic. Nowadays, a lot of people are scared of the truth, and they don’t like hearing that.”
Deion Sanders wanted Colorado’s players to see who he is from Day 1. He had similar “no lies told” meetings regularly at Jackson State.
Sanders also doesn’t cater his messages to any player. He’s never going to hold back.
“I’m a navigational system that’s trying to get you to where you want to go,” he said. “It’s up to you if you want to listen or not. You can turn it off in the car and you may drive in circles. But we know where we’re going, we’ve been there and we know exactly how to get there.”
Hard-throwing rookie Jacob Misiorowski is a National League All-Star replacement, giving the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander a chance to break Paul Skenes‘ record for the fewest big league appearances before playing in the Midsummer Classic.
Misiorowski was named Friday night to replace Chicago Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd, who will be unavailable for the All-Star Game on Tuesday night in Atlanta because he is scheduled to start Saturday at the New York Yankees.
The 23-year-old Misiorowski has made just five starts for the Brewers, going 4-1 with a 2.81 ERA while averaging 99.3 mph on his fastball, with 89 pitches that have reached 100 mph.
If he pitches at Truist Park, Misiorowski will make it consecutive years for a player to set the mark for fewest big league games before an All-Star showing.
Skenes, the Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander getting ready for his second All-Star appearance, had made 11 starts in the majors when he was chosen as the NL starter for last year’s All-Star Game at Texas. He pitched a scoreless inning.
“I’m speechless,” said a teary-eyed Misiorowski, who said he was given the news a few minutes before the Brewers’ 8-3 victory over Washington. “It’s awesome. It’s very unexpected and it’s an honor.”
Misiorowski is the 30th first-time All-Star and 16th replacement this year. There are now 80 total All-Stars.
“He’s impressive. He’s got some of the best stuff in the game right now, even though he’s a young pitcher,” said Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who is a starting AL outfielder for his seventh All-Star nod. “He’s going to be a special pitcher in this game for a long time so I think he deserved it and it’s going be pretty cool for him and his family.”
Carlos Rodón, Carlos Estévez and Casey Mize were named replacement pitchers on the AL roster.
The New York Yankees‘ Rodón, an All-Star for the third time in five seasons, will replace teammate Max Fried for Tuesday’s game in Atlanta. Fried will be unavailable because he is scheduled to start Saturday against the Chicago Cubs.
In his final start before the All-Star game, Rodón allowed four hits and struck out eight in eight innings in an 11-0 victory over the Cubs.
“This one’s a little special for me,” said Rodón, an All-Star in 2021 and ’22 who was 3-8 in his first season with the Yankees two years ago before rebounding. “I wasn’t good when I first got here, and I just wanted to prove that I wasn’t to going to give up and just put my best foot forward and try to win as many games as I can.”
The Kansas City Royals‘ Estévez replaces Texas’ Jacob deGrom, who is scheduled to start at Houston on Saturday night. Estévez was a 2023 All-Star when he was with the Los Angeles Angels.
Mize takes the spot held by Boston‘s Garrett Crochet, who is scheduled to start Saturday against Tampa Bay. Mize gives the Tigers six All-Stars, most of any team and tied for the franchise record.
Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia will replace Tampa Bay‘s Brandon Lowe, who went on the injured list with left oblique tightness. The additions of Estévez and Garcia give the Royals four All-Stars, matching their 2024 total.
The Seattle Mariners announced center fielder Julio Rodríguez will not participate, and he was replaced by teammate Randy Arozarena. Rodríguez had been voted onto the AL roster via the players’ ballot. The Mariners, who have five All-Stars, said Rodríguez will use the break to “recuperate, rest and prepare for the second half.”
Arozarena is an All-Star for the second time. He started in left field for the AL two years ago, when he was with Tampa Bay. Arozarena was the runner-up to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 2023 Home Run Derby.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen, a first-time All-Star, is replacing Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, who is scheduled to start Saturday night at Arizona. Rasmussen is 7-5 with a 2.82 ERA in 18 starts.
San Diego added a third NL All-Star reliever in lefty Adrián Morejón, who replaces Philadelphia starter Zack Wheeler. The Phillies’ right-hander is scheduled to start at San Diego on Saturday night. Morejón entered the weekend with a 1.71 ERA in 45 appearances.
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David Schoenfield
We’re past due to hand out some midseason grades, so let’s hand out some midseason grades.
As we pass the 90-game mark in the 2025 MLB season, my team of the first half isn’t the well-rounded Detroit Tigers, who do get our highest grade for owning MLB’s best record, or the explosive Chicago Cubs or Shohei Ohtani‘s Los Angeles Dodgers, but a team most baseball fans love to hate: the Houston Astros. They lost their two best players from last season and their best hitter has been injured — and they’re playing their best baseball since they won the 2022 World Series.
Let’s get to the grades. As always, we’re grading off preseason expectations, factoring in win-loss record and quality of performance, while looking at other positive performances and injuries.
Jump to a team:
AL East: BAL | BOS | NYY | TB | TOR
AL Central: CHW | CLE | DET | KC | MIN
AL West: ATH | HOU | LAA | SEA | TEX
NL East: ATL | MIA | NYM | PHI | WSH
NL Central: CHC | CIN | MIL | PIT | STL
NL West: ARI | COL | LAD | SD | SF
Tarik Skubal is obviously the headline act, but the Tigers are winning with impressive depth across the entire roster.
Javier Baez is putting together a remarkable comeback season after a couple of abysmal years and will become the first player to start an All-Star Game at both shortstop and in the outfield. Former No. 1 overall picks Casey Mize and Spencer Torkelson have put together their own comeback stories, while Riley Greene has matured into one of the game’s top power hitters.
Given their deep well of prospects and contributors at the MLB level, no team is better positioned than the Tigers to add significant help at the trade deadline.
I heard someone refer to them as the Zombie Astros, which feels apropos. Alex Bregman left as a free agent, they traded Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez has been injured and has just three home runs, and the Jose Altuve experiment in left field predictably fizzled.
But here they are, fighting for the best record in the majors and holding a comfortable lead in the AL West. They’re getting star turns from Hunter Brown, Framber Valdez and Jeremy Pena, while the risky decision to start Cam Smith in the majors with very little minor league experience has paid off, as he has now become their cleanup hitter.
If we ignore the COVID-19 season, the Astros look on their way to an eighth straight division title.
This could be at least a half-grade higher based on everything that has gone right: Pete Crow-Armstrong‘s attention-grabbing breakout, Tucker doing everything expected after the big trade, Seiya Suzuki‘s monster power numbers and Matthew Boyd‘s All-Star turn in the rotation. The Cubs are on pace for their most wins since their World Series title season in 2016.
There have been a few hiccups, however, especially in the rotation with Justin Steele‘s season-ending injury and Ben Brown‘s inconsistency, plus rookie third baseman Matt Shaw has scuffled, and the bench has been weak aside from their backup catchers.
Still, this is a powerhouse lineup, and the Cubs will seek to improve their rotation at the deadline.
They just keep winning of late, going from 25-27 and seven games behind the Yankees on May 25 to taking over first place from the slumping Bronx Bombers, a remarkable turnaround over just 36 games. They went 27-9 over a 36-game stretch ending with their eighth win in a row on Sunday.
George Springer‘s recent surge has been fun to watch, a reminder of how good he was at his peak, and Addison Barger has been mashing over the past two months.
Some of the stats don’t add up to the Blue Jays being this good — they’ve barely outscored their opponents — but there might be more offense in the tank from the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a healthy Anthony Santander, and the bullpen, a soft spot, is the easiest area to upgrade.
Their success is best summed up by the fact that Freddy Peralta is their lone All-Star, but they have a whole bunch of players who have contributed between 1 and 2 WAR.
Brandon Woodruff looked good Sunday in his first start in nearly two years, so that could be a huge boost for the second half.
I’m curious to see how Jackson Chourio performs as well. While his counting stats — extra-base hits, RBIs — are fine, his triple-slash line remains below last season, especially his OBP. He had a huge second half in 2024 (.310/.363/.552), and if he does that again, the Brewers could find themselves back in the postseason for the seventh time in eight seasons.
The Rays started off slow, with a losing record through the end of April, but then went 33-22 in May and June to claw back into the AL East race — as the Rays usually do, last year being the recent exception.
Two key performers have been All-Star third baseman Junior Caminero, who has a chance to become just the third player to hit 40 home runs in his age-21 season, and All-Star first baseman Jonathan Aranda.
Due to the league wanting the Rays to play more home games early in the season, the July and August slate will be very road-heavy, so we’ll see how the Rays adapt to a difficult two-month stretch, especially since their pitching isn’t quite as deep as it has been in other seasons.
No, they’re not going to be the greatest team of all time. But they might win 100 games — even though Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki, their huge offseason acquisitions, have combined for just two wins in 10 starts.
The lineup, of course, has been terrific, with Ohtani leading the NL in several categories and Will Smith leading the batting race. By wRC+, it’s been the best offense in Dodgers history.
If they can get some combo of Snell, Sasaki and Tyler Glasnow healthy, plus Ohtani eventually ramped up to a bigger workload on the mound, the Dodgers still loom as World Series favorites.
They are on pace for 95 wins, mainly on the strength of Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suarez and Cristopher Sanchez, who are a combined 23-7 with 11.8 WAR. Jesus Luzardo‘s ERA is bloated due to that two-start stretch when he allowed 20 runs, but he has otherwise been solid as well.
But, overall, it hasn’t always been the smoothest of treks. The bullpen has imploded a few times and the offense has lacked power aside from Kyle Schwarber. Bryce Harper is back after missing three weeks, and they need to get his bat going. Look for some bullpen additions at the trade deadline — and perhaps an outfielder as well.
The Cardinals have been a minor surprise — perhaps even to the Cardinals themselves. St. Louis was viewing this as a rebuilding year of sorts — not that the Cardinals ever hit rock bottom and start completely over. They had a hot May, winning 12 of 13 at one point, but the offense has been fading of late, with those three straight shutout losses to Pittsburgh and six shutout losses since June 25.
The starting rotation doesn’t generate a lot of swing and miss, with both Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas seeing their ERAs starting to climb. Brendan Donovan is the team’s only All-Star rep, and that kind of sums up this team: solid but without any star power. That might foretell a second-half fade.
All-Star starting pitchers Logan Webb and Robbie Ray, plus a dominant bullpen, have led the way, although after starting 12-4, the Giants have basically been a .500 team for close to three months now. Rafael Devers hasn’t yet ignited the offense since coming over from Boston, and the Giants have lost four 1-0 games.
These final three games at home against the Dodgers before the All-Star break will be a crucial series, as Los Angeles has slowly pulled away in the NL West.
This was an “A-plus” through June 12, when the Mets were 45-24 and owned the best record in baseball, even though Juan Soto hadn’t gotten hot. Soto finally got going in June, but the pitching collapsed, and the Mets went through a disastrous 1-10 stretch.
The rotation injuries have piled up, exacerbating the lack of bullpen depth. Recent games have been started by Justin Hagenman (who had a 6.21 ERA in Triple-A), journeyman reliever Chris Devenski, Paul Blackburn (7.71 ERA) and Frankie Montas, who has had to start even though he’s clearly not throwing the ball well. The Mets need to get the rotation healthy, but also could use more offense from Mark Vientos and their catchers (Francisco Alvarez was demoted to Triple-A).
At times it has felt like Cal Raleigh has been a one-man team with his record-breaking first half. But he will be joined on the All-Star squad by starting pitcher Bryan Woo, closer Andres Munoz and center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who made it on the strength of his defense, as his offense has been a disappointment.
The offense has been one of the best in the majors on the road, but the rotation has been nowhere near as effective as the past couple of seasons, with George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller all missing time with injuries. They just shut out the Pirates three games in a row, so maybe that will get the rotation on a roll.
They’re just out of the wild-card picture while hanging around .500, so we give them a decent grade since that exceeds preseason expectations. It feels like a little bit of a mirage given their run differential — their record in one-run games (good) versus their record in blowout games (not good) — and various holes across the lineup and pitching staff.
But they’ve done two things to keep them in the race. One, they hit a lot of home runs. Two, they’re the only team in the majors to use just five starting pitchers. The rotation hasn’t been stellar, but it’s been stable.
The Padres are probably fortunate to be where they are, given some of their issues. As expected, the offensive depth has been a problem.
Not as expected, Dylan Cease has struggled while Michael King‘s injury after a strong start has left them without last year’s dynamic 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation (although Nick Pivetta has been one of the best signings of the offseason). Yu Darvish just made his season debut Monday, so hopefully he’ll provide a lift.
The Padres haven’t played well against the better teams, including a 2-5 record against the Dodgers, but they did clean up against the Athletics, Rockies and Pirates, going 16-2 against those three teams.
For now, the Reds are stuck in neutral. Leave out 2022, when they lost 100 games, and it’s otherwise been a string of .500-ish seasons: 31-29 in 2020, 83-79 in 2021, 82-80 in 2023, 77-85 in 2024 and now a similar record so far in 2025.
The hope was that Terry Francona would be a difference-maker. Maybe that will play out down the stretch, but the best hope is to get the rotation clicking on all cylinders at the same time. That means Andrew Abbott continuing his breakout performance, plus getting Hunter Greene healthy again and rookie Chase Burns to live up to the hype after a couple of shaky outings following an impressive MLB debut.
Throw in Nick Lodolo and solid Nick Martinez and Brady Singer, and this group can be good enough to pitch the Reds to their first full-season playoff appearance since 2013.
The Yankees have hit their annual midseason swoon — which has been subject to much intense analysis from their disgruntled fans — and that opening weekend sweep of the Brewers, when the Yankees’ torpedo bats were the big story in baseball, now seems long ago.
Going from seven up to three back in such a short time is a disaster — but not disastrous. Nonetheless, the Yankees will have to do some hard-core self-evaluation heading to the trade deadline.
The offense wasn’t going to be as good as it was in April, when Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham and Ben Rice were all playing over their heads. So, do they need a hitter? Or with Clarke Schmidt now likely joining Gerrit Cole as a Tommy John casualty, do they need a starting pitcher? Or both?
From the book of “things we didn’t expect,” page 547: The Marlins are averaging more runs per game than the Orioles, Padres, Braves and Rangers, to name a few teams. They’re averaging almost as many runs per game as the Mets, and last time we checked, the Marlins weren’t the team to give Soto $765 million.
An eight-game winning streak at the end of June has the Marlins going toe-to-toe with the Braves for third place in the NL East even though the starting rotation has been a mess, with Sandy Alcantara on track to become just the fourth qualified pitcher with an ERA over 7.00.
Heading into the season, I thought that if any team was going to challenge the Dodgers in the NL West, it would be the Diamondbacks. The offense has once again been one of the best in the majors, but the pitching issues have been painful.
After the aggressive move to sign Corbin Burnes, he went down with Tommy John surgery after 11 starts. Meanwhile, Zac Gallen, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt each have an ERA on the wrong side of 5.00. Rodriguez was better in June before a shellacking on July 4, while Gallen remains homer-prone, so it’s hard to tell if improvement is on the horizon. Their playoff odds are hovering just under 20%, so there’s a chance, but they need to get red-hot like they did last July and August.
It feels like it has been more soap opera than baseball season in Boston, with the Devers drama finally ending with the shocking trade with the Giants.
If you give added weight that this is the Red Sox, a team that should be operating with the big boys in both budget and aspirations and instead seemed to only want to dump Devers’ contract, then feel free to lower this grade a couple of notches, even if the Red Sox are close in the wild-card standings.
On the field, the heralded rookie trio of Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer hasn’t exactly clicked, with Campbell returning to the minors after posting a .902 OPS in April. A big test will come out of the All-Star break, when they play the Cubs, Phillies, Dodgers, Twins and Astros in a tough 15-game stretch.
After last season’s surprise playoff appearance, it’s been a frustrating 2025 — although I’m not sure this result is necessarily a surprise.
There were concerns about the offense heading into the season and those concerns have proven correct. They were getting no production from their outfield, so they rushed Jac Caglianone to the majors to much hype, but he has struggled and might need a reset back in Triple-A. Even Bobby Witt Jr., as good as he has been (on pace for 7.5 WAR), has seen his OPS drop 140 points.
On the bright side, Kris Bubic emerged as an All-Star starter and Noah Cameron has filled in nicely for the injured Cole Ragans, so maybe they trade a starter for some offense.
Coming off a catastrophic 2024 season, nobody was expecting anything from the White Sox. Indeed, another 121-loss season loomed as a possibility. While they’re on pace to lose 100 again, they’ve at least played more competitive baseball thanks to their pitching.
Rookie starters Shane Smith and Sean Burke have shown promise, while rookie position players Kyle Teel, Edgar Quero and now Colson Montgomery are getting their initial taste of the majors.
There has been the mix of calamity: Luis Robert Jr. has been unproductive and is probably now untradable, and former No. 3 overall pick Andrew Vaughn hit .189 and was traded to the Brewers.
The Twins are one organization that might like a do-over of the past five seasons. It feels like they’ve had the most talent in the division, but all they’ve done is squeeze out one soft division title in 2023. Now, the Tigers have passed them in talent and other factors, such as payroll flexibility.
There’s still time for the Twins to turn things around in 2025, but outside of that wonderful 13-game winning streak, they haven’t played winning baseball.
Overall, it’s been yet another bad season, despite Paul Skenes‘ brilliance. Really, do we talk enough about him? Yes, we do talk about him, but he has a 1.95 ERA through his first 42 career starts. Incredible.
Here’s an amazing thing about baseball. The Pirates are not a good team, but they recently put together one of the best six-game stretches in history. That’s not stretching the description. First, they swept the Mets — a good team — by scores of 9-1, 9-2 and 12-1. Then they swept the Cardinals — a good team — with three shutouts, 7-0, 1-0 and 5-0. They became the first team since at least 1901 to score 43 runs or more and allow four runs or fewer in a six-game stretch. And then they promptly got shut out three games in a row, making them the first to win three straight shutouts and then lose three straight shutouts.
Eighteen of our 28 voters picked them to win the AL West before the season, but it’s looking more and more like the 2023 World Series might be a stone-cold fluke in the middle of a string of losing seasons. That year, nearly everyone in the lineup had a career year at the plate, and the pitching got hot at the right time.
This year’s Rangers, though, have struggled to score runs, and while some have pointed to the offensive environment at Globe Life Field, they’re near the bottom in road OPS as well. It’s been fun seeing Jacob deGrom back at a dominating level, and Nathan Eovaldi should have been an All-Star.
Put it this way: If the Rangers can somehow squeeze into the postseason, you don’t want to face the Rangers in a short series. Indeed, if any team looms as an October upset special, it might be the Rangers.
The Nationals received superlative first-half performances from James Wood and MacKenzie Gore, while CJ Abrams is on the way to his best season. But there remains a lack of overall organizational progress, which finally led to the firings on Sunday of longtime GM Mike Rizzo and longtime manager Dave Martinez. A 7-19 record in June sealed their fate, as the rotation has been bad and the bullpen arguably the worst in baseball.
Until the Nationals figure out how to improve their pitching — or, better yet, find an owner who wants to win — they will be stuck going nowhere.
That fell apart in a hurry. Sunday’s loss was Cleveland’s 10th in a row, a stretch that remarkably included five shutouts. Indeed, the Guardians have now been shut out 11 times; the franchise record in the post-dead-ball-era (since 1920) is 20 shutouts in 1968.
There’s nothing worse than watching a team that can’t score runs, so that tells you how exciting the Guardians have been. Last year, the Guardians hit exceptionally well with runners in scoring position, keeping afloat what was otherwise a mediocre offense. That hasn’t happened in 2025 (trading Josh Naylor didn’t help either). Throw in some predictable regression from the bullpen, and this season looks lost.
We can’t give this a complete failing grade due to the emergence of All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson (the Athletics’ first All-Star starter since Josh Donaldson in 2014) and slugging first baseman Nick Kurtz, who have a chance to finish 1-2 in the Rookie of the Year voting. Plus, we have Denzel Clarke‘s circus catches in center field.
But otherwise? Ugh. The Sacramento gamble already looks like a disaster, three months into a three-year stay. The team is drawing well below Sutter Health Park’s 14,000-seat capacity, with many recent games drawing under 10,000 fans. Luis Severino bashed the small crowds and the lack of air-conditioning.
The A’s had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new park in Vegas, renting heavy construction equipment as background props. Maybe they should have spent that money on more pitching help.
Based on preseason expectations, the Braves have clearly been the biggest disappointment in the National League — fighting the Orioles for most disappointing overall.
What’s gone wrong? They haven’t scored runs, as the offense continues its remarkable fade from a record-setting performance just two seasons ago. The collapses of Michael Harris II and Ozzie Albies lead the way, with lack of production at shortstop and left field playing a big role as well. Closer Raisel Iglesias has struggled, and the team is 11-22 in one-run games. Spencer Strider hasn’t yet reached his pre-injury level and Reynaldo Lopez made just one start before going down.
The Braves haven’t missed the playoffs since 2017, but that run is clearly in jeopardy.
The Orioles have a similar record to the Braves but have played much worse, including losses of 24-2, 19-5, 15-3 and two separate 9-0 shutouts.
They will spend the trade deadline dealing away as many of their impending free agents as possible, and then do a lot of soul-searching heading into the offseason. After making the playoffs in 2023 and 2024, will this season just be a blip? While the pitching struggles aren’t necessarily a big surprise, what has happened to the offense? Are some of their young players prospects or suspects?
After two months of Cleveland Spiders-level baseball, it would be easy to make fun of the Rockies. Especially since they recently announced Walker Monfort — son of the owner — was promoted to executive VP and will replace outgoing president and COO Greg Feasel.
On the other hand, the Rockies are doing something right: They just drew 121,000 for a three-game series against the White Sox.
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Jesse Rogers
CHICAGO — Former White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle was forever immortalized inside Rate Field as the team unveiled a statue in his honor Friday.
Buehrle, 46, played 16 years in the majors, including the first 12 with the White Sox, who he helped win a World Series in 2005. He won 214 games and pitched 200 innings or more in 14 consecutive seasons from 2001 to 2014.
“I can’t put it into words,” Buehrle said after the unveiling. “You don’t play the game for any of this. You never think of number retirements or statues. I can’t even wrap my head around it. It doesn’t make sense.”
The statue is an action shot of him throwing a pitch.
His wife and kids were in attendance and helped pull off the cover to unveil the statue while his 2005 teammates looked on. The event kicked off a weekend reunion for the World Series team which went 11-1 in the postseason, beating the Houston Astros in four games to take home the title.
Buehrle was a five-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, finishing fifth in Cy Young voting in 2005.
“Well-deserved,” former right fielder Jermaine Dye said of the statue. “Great teammate. Great leader. Definitely someone you want on a ballclub to lead a pitching staff.”
The White Sox rotation — led by Buehrle — threw four complete games in the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox in 2005, missing a fifth complete game by two-thirds of an inning. It’s an unheard of accomplishment in today’s game since starters infrequently go the distance.
Besides being an innings-eater on the mound, Buehrle was a fast worker — a favorite trait of his catcher, A.J Pierzynski. And he wasn’t someone who threw a lot of different pitches. He caught it and threw it without much input from behind the plate.
“He was fast,” Pierzynski said. “We had Jermaine Dye calling pitches from right field some games. We did come crazy things you wouldn’t recommend to people to do nowadays.”
Buehrle is a notoriously low-key guy who hates the spotlight but even he was moved by the team’s decision to honor him with a statue, which joins former slugger Harold Baines in the right-field concourse.
“I joked with him when I saw him,” Dye said. “I told him ‘Man it takes you getting a statue to get you out of the house.'”
Buehrle added: “I was literally nervous as can be today. This is not my comfort zone but by no means am I taking it lightly. This is incredible.”
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