What Tennessee State hopes to build with HBCU’s first hockey program
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Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter
Hockey. Hockey? Not baseball? Not soccer? Hockey?!?
For a second, Howard Gentry allowed himself to be surprised upon learning that Tennessee State University would be the first Historically Black College and University to have a hockey program.
Then Gentry remembered: Being the first HBCU to do something unexpected is what allowed TSU to even be in this position at all.
“Now to see hockey come here? To some, it might be that thought of ‘Black people don’t play hockey.’ But the truth is they do. That’s where it started,” said Gentry, a former TSU athletic director. “I know the history. And even if people thought Black people didn’t play hockey, they do now. … I see us having the chance to be as successful as the other dreams and visions that were made true by those administrators from the past.”
In the two months since TSU’s announcement, the school has made what it feels is gradual progress in the next steps of its plan.
Nick Guerriero, the assistant athletic director for communications and creative content at TSU, said the school recently finished interviewing for their director of club hockey role. Initially, TSU was going to hire one person, but decided to make it a two-person job. One will be charged with handling the majority of the work on the fundraising side, while the other will manage the recruitment side of building the program. Guerriero said the goal is to have the hires in place by mid-October.
Guerriero outlined how there are several moving parts to the school’s tentative plan. Their goal is to start with a club program that will begin play in the 2024-25 season. In 2025-26, TSU will have a “hybrid season” in which it will seek to play a mix of club teams and Division I teams with the belief that TSU will be a full-fledged D-I program by the 2026-27 campaign.
Guerriero said there are still a few items that need to be sorted out. Such as who TSU will play against. He’s continuing to have discussions with club hockey entities such as the American Collegiate Hockey Association (the ACHA) along with the AAU, which recently took over what was previously known as the College Hockey Federation (CHF).
Playing against ACHA schools would give TSU a chance to follow the path taken by schools such as Arizona State before moving up to Division I. Playing against CHF schools would allow TSU the opportunity to play against club teams from schools their fans would be more familiar with such as Auburn, Georgia and Vanderbilt, which is in Nashville.
Guerriero said TSU has not petitioned the NCAA about going D-I, with the intention that TSU will do so at some point.
He said TSU plans to eventually add a women’s program as well, but creating a men’s hockey program means the school must first add another women’s team in addition to remain Title IX compliant. Currently, TSU is Title IX compliant with Guerriero explaining that even when TSU adds a women’s hockey program, it would still need to have another non-hockey women’s sport in order to remain compliant.
Guerriero said he is aware those discussions have taken place in a few closed-door meetings.
“We don’t want to rush into things, especially being the first HBCU,” Guerriero said. “You don’t want to rush into something and then if it fails, it is that, ‘I told you so.’ It has to be done right when it is going to be the first. I think that’s the other thing too. Everyone has this microscope on HBCUs. It is so tightly magnified that if they do something wrong, it gets blown up 25 times more than if a mid-major school did the same thing.”
MIKE SNEE IS the executive director of College Hockey Inc., a nonprofit that was created to grow the collegiate game. If there’s a college or university that is looking to start a hockey program, they’ve surely run across Snee.
College Hockey offers interested schools the chance to do a feasibility study. The study itself, which is paid for by the NHL and NHL Players’ Association, assesses if colleges and universities are in a position to add a men’s or women’s program or both.
Snee said that TSU’s decision to do a feasibility study was “totally unique” because there were no HBCUs that offered a hockey program.
“We previously contacted different HBCUs and knew they had access to a building for club hockey and had a contact there. We became aware [of TSU] because of the Predators when it came to Tennessee State,” Snee said. “The Predators became aware that we had this idea of being deliberate about pursuing HBCUs and choosing of the schools when it came to their markets and facilities. The Predators said they worked closely with a local HBCU, Tennessee State, which is not NCAA ready but it is club hockey ready.”
Snee said TSU athletic director Dr. Mikki Allen was beyond receptive. He said Allen’s work in getting former Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George as TSU’s head football coach, plus the team being the first HBCU to play Notre Dame, proved the school had a vision.
Snee said in discussions with other HBCUs, the schools were not dismissive but they presented reasons why it might not work.
The feasibility study mainly focuses on the financial impact of adding hockey. Questions such as can schools account for adding internal scholarships? Or how much would it cost their athletic department to hire a full coaching and support staff? The study also examines a school’s realistic chances to join a conference, a factor that has become an even greater priority within the current collegiate landscape.
According to Snee, the only question Allen asked about adding hockey at TSU was: “Why not?”
“In a literal sense, [TSU] is a Division I athletics program,” Snee said. “Therefore, they can add any sport that they want that Division I sponsors. … Arizona State is a good comparable for what we are talking about. They decided to add hockey. They are a D-I program. Tennessee State can play D-I hockey when they decide they’re ready.”
Snee has previously said any school that wants to add hockey must first figure out how to clear the facilities hurdle. Even then, it’s something of a nuanced process. Snee said the objective is to build an arena that holds between 3,000 and 4,000 people while also having the necessary locker room space for both the home and away teams.
There are behind-the-scenes items that can help in recruiting, such as a player lounge, a team space and a weight training area. There’s also what Snee described as the “front of house” amenities, such as in-game production, scoreboards and having an overall look that could work toward the path of joining a conference.
Snee said the price tag to build that type of facility is around $75 million.
Not every college hockey program, however, plays at a venue of that size. There are currently more than a combined 30 active men’s and women’s programs playing at the D-I level that play their home games in buildings that hold less than 3,000 fans. Programs such as Lindenwood University and Long Island University play games at community rinks that are owned and operated by NHL teams.
What does all this mean for TSU?
College hockey teams typically have a Friday/Saturday schedule with the rare Thursday or Sunday game. Snee said Bridgestone Arena, home of the Predators, would not work because of the NHL schedule, live entertainment acts, plus the venue being too large as it seats more than 17,000 for hockey.
“Maybe they play one game a year there and bring in a big opponent where they make a big deal out of it,” Snee said. “But all the sheets of ice in Nashville are in a community where there are 800 seats on one side or it is where the Preds play, which is [just under] 18,000 seats.”
Guerriero said TSU administrators have talked about building an arena as part of the school’s 10-year plan. It’s possible it could be a multipurpose complex that would be the home for TSU’s football program, men’s and women’s basketball programs and hockey programs.
In the interim, the plan would be for TSU to play at least its first season in different rinks around the Nashville market. Guerriero said there are city-owned rinks such as Centennial Iceplex and the three Ford Ice Centers in the metro area that are owned by the Predators. He also mentioned the newly built F&M Bank Arena in Clarksville, which is a nearly hourlong drive from TSU’s campus.
Snee estimated some of the local Nashville rinks may hold around 800 fans while the F&M Bank Arena website says it holds 5,000 for hockey.
“We may be utilizing that as well on top of the potential of Bridgestone,” Guerriero said. “I hate to say we are going to be the traveling circus to build a fanbase. But we feel it could be important toward getting more fans rather than being at one facility.”
THE IDEA OF TSU adding hockey had been talked about before. It was known they had done a feasibility study in 2021.
Almost two years had passed when news of an announcement broke the night before the NHL draft in Nashville. Guerriero said that only four people at TSU knew about the announcement with the rest of the athletic department finding out just before the news broke on social media.
Keeping a secret was not the issue for Guerriero. His concerns stemmed from the fear of what could come from TSU’s announcement. He was worried that the news might not be welcomed by current students and/or alumni who might have wanted the school to add a different sport. He thought about those outside of TSU who might have been inclined to voice that hockey didn’t belong at a HBCU.
“I kept sitting there before bed thinking this is going to get bad and then when the news broke about our announcement, it was the greatest thing in the world,” Guerriero said. “You think this could be bad because you’re going to get blown up on social media with people saying how dumb they think this is. Then you see the reaction. It was great and it was awesome. … That day, it was ‘The Land of Golden Sunshine’ as we call it here at Tennessee State.”
He said the positive response to the announcement has created even more optimism around the program. Guerriero did not have specifics about how much TSU has generated in its first round of fundraising, but he said the school’s goal is to raise between $10 million and $20 million.
With the school having its homecoming this weekend, Guerriero said there have been discussions about the potential of TSU having a home hockey game as part of next year’s homecoming plans. Guerriero also shared how a handful of prospective parents and players traveled to TSU for this year’s homecoming so they could see the campus while also experiencing everything that comes with homecoming weekend.
Gentry, who was TSU’s AD for three years, said fundraising requires numerous investors and that it must be sustained over several decades to have long-term success. This led Gentry to joke that he would also not be mad if a certain TSU alum were to get involved.
The TSU alum in question? Oprah Winfrey.
“We have to have many big investments for this to be successful and sustainable,” Gentry said. “That being said — Oprah, if you are listening, we could still use the help!”
Overseeing TSU’s fundraising efforts is one of the responsibilities the school’s director of club hockey will handle. The person hired will also be in charge of items such as community partnerships, managing day-to-day operations and student-athlete recruitment.
Guerriero said it is possible that whomever is hired to be the director of club hockey operations could also be the first coach in TSU’s history. He somewhat joked about how he’s trying to hire what would be the contemporary version of Lou Lamoriello, now the general manager of the New York Islanders, when he served in numerous roles at Providence College.
“I’ve already got seven to eight people on volunteer contracts who are helping us,” Guerriero said. “That’s the great part. People just want to be involved. Nobody has come to me and said, ‘I need this’ to get involved. The hockey community and professional hockey community have been tremendous with giving their time and their brains to talk through some of these things.”
Speaking about items such as potential venues, the director of club hockey operations opening and fundraising makes it clear TSU’s venture into hockey is real. It also prompts those talking about TSU to get into why they feel this must work.
Hockey at all levels has struggled to make itself more inviting when compared to other sports. While visible but not openly discussed, the conversation around race and racism in hockey started becoming more common over the past few years.
Not that TSU adding a college hockey program is expected to solve all of the sport’s challenges when it comes to race and racism. But the visibility of a HBCU that was initially named the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State Normal School for Negroes in a city that is more than 27% Black having a hockey program represents something that’s never been seen before.
“Everybody’s got these great stories and histories and nobody knows it,” Gentry said. “But when this hockey program starts making its mark, people are going to start paying attention. It’s a chance to understand that HBCUs are able to and have always been to provide the same quality programming in athletics and academics as any other school can provide.”
Gentry has an affinity for TSU’s history because it is so personal. His father, Howard C. Gentry Sr., was once the athletic director, coach and a professor at TSU whose name is on the building where the men’s and women’s basketball teams play.
Understanding why there is a strong sense of optimism about hockey succeeding at TSU requires looking back at some of that history. Gentry shares stories of how Walter S. Davis, who was the second president in TSU history, told Gentry’s father upon hiring him that he wanted to see TSU win not just Black national championships in football, but national championships against predominantly white institutions — PWIs — when the United States was segregated.
That vision gave the world the Tigerbelles — the all-Black female track team that represented the United States at the 1956 Olympics. They won bronze that year, only to return in 1960 and win several gold medals. Three of them belonged to Wilma Rudolph at a time when women, let alone Black women, were not encouraged to participate in sports.
It set the stage for TSU to be the first HBCU to play in a PWI conference, the Ohio Valley Conference. The school would eventually win conference titles in numerous sports while having a football program that produced Ed “Too Tall” Jones, who became the first player from a HBCU program to be the No. 1 pick of an NFL draft.
Snee shares that optimism while also remaining cautious. He’s caught in the place between not wanting TSU to feel pressure while also understanding that what they do could lead to more HBCUs starting programs, whether they be club or D-I.
“If we check back and there are four HBCUs and they are offering club hockey, that’s a cool thing,” Snee said. “But within that, what can turn a solid base knock up the middle into a grand slam? What if we check back in 10 years and 13 HBCUs are offering hockey. Seven of them are offering various club programs, four are offering D-I and there’s two more that are considering transitioning. That is better than a single.”
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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