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CFP format debate: Would SEC change cost bids? Does the 11+5 make the most sense?

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2 months ago

May 31, 2025

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Bill ConnellyMay 31, 2025, 07:20 AM ET
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Leave it to college football to take the silliest, most circuitous possible route to the easiest, most logical answer.

Though nothing’s official and things could take further silly turns, a read of recent tea leaves gives the impression that those in charge of how the College Football Playoff will look in 2026 and beyond are homing in on a straightforward, 16-team tournament with five guaranteed spots for conference champions and 11 at-large bids. After months of debates about different bracket structures and conferences getting multiple automatic bids, the conversation seems to have returned to a clean and easy bracket.

We’re going to pretend this means people are listening to me. When I wrote about this debate in March, I recommended skipping expansion to 14 teams and moving to 16, and I mocked the idea of multiple autobids. Granted, I also recommended putting six conference champions in the field and putting quarterfinal games in home stadiums, not just first-round games. I won’t hold my breath on those ideas (especially the former), but that’s still a pretty good batting average.

After a week of posturing from power conference leaders, let’s keep the conversation going. Here are some thoughts about what we’ve learned this week and the debates still to come

Moving to nine conference games might cost the SEC one to two playoff teams per year

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey talked a lot this week. He went on “The Paul Finebaum Show.” He talked about a scheduling partnership with the Big Ten. He increased the fines for field rushing. He talked about which playoff games should or will be on home campuses. He talked about how long this formatting process takes. He scoffed at being told to serve the good of the game. And he spent a long time telling everyone how hard the SEC’s schedules are:

On Thursday afternoon, the SEC provided members of the media with a six-page packet that included color-coded charts using multiple metrics to illustrate the league’s dominant schedule strength. Sankey said the task for determining the CFP’s strength of schedule component is striking a balance “between human and machine,” referring to the old BCS computer formula. … [The packet] included ESPN’s Strength of Record, Bill Connelly’s SP+, Kenneth Massey’s metric, ESPN’s Football Power Index and ESPN’s Strength of Schedule metric.

Sankey seemed to have two primary goals for bringing up strength of schedule. For starters, it seemed like he wanted to remind everyone that Alabama and its 9-3 record didn’t get into last year’s 12-team CFP despite strength-of-schedule numbers quite a bit stronger than those of higher ranked teams such as SMU (which had gone 11-2), Boise State (12-1) and Indiana (11-1). He said that decision left him with critical questions about the committee and its process.

“I do think there’s a need for change,” Sankey said of the ranking protocol Thursday at the conclusion of his league’s spring meetings. “… How do you make those decisions? It’s hard, and we trust the committee to do that, and I respect the people in there, so this isn’t a criticism of the people. This is wanting to understand the decisions. We have to have better clarity on the criteria that inform those decisions.”

Now, all the strength-of-schedule advantages in the world didn’t stop Alabama from losing to 6-6 Vanderbilt and 6-6 Oklahoma. In the latter game, Alabama couldn’t have looked less playoff-worthy, losing 24-3 to the Sooners. Maybe the Tide would have gotten in with a formula approach, but they showed no indication that they could make a playoff run at the end of the season. Plus, we know that the playoff committee took Alabama’s strength of schedule into account because it ranked the Tide ahead of 11-2 Arizona State, 10-2 Miami and 10-2 BYU, among others, despite how they looked at the end of the regular season. If Bama had lost to only one of Vandy or Oklahoma, the Tide would have almost certainly been in the field of 12. And they’d have definitely been in a field of 16 regardless, along with two other three-loss SEC teams (Ole Miss and South Carolina).

Greg Sankey discusses the hottest topics from the SEC spring meetings

Commissioner Sankey joins The Paul Finebaum Show to detail the conversations around possible CFP changes and conference schedules going forward.

Also, Sankey didn’t mention that the committee placed a one-loss Alabama team ahead of an unbeaten Florida State team in the CFP rankings just one year earlier. If we want to talk about a formula, let’s talk about a formula. But the SEC has been treated with extreme kindness by the committee on average.

(For the record, I’m all for a formula-based rankings system. I put out a BCS-like formula ranking in the home stretch of each season, and there’s value in the approach. People convinced themselves that they hated the BCS formula, but I will forever insist that the main reason they hated the formula wasn’t the formula — it was that the BCS selected only two teams to play for the title. With a lot more teams to choose now, a formula approach would work quite well.)

Beyond the attempts to work the referees, however, Sankey also discussed schedule strength as it pertained to the ongoing conversation about the length of the SEC’s conference schedules. The SEC plays eight-game conference schedules, while the other primary power conference, the Big Ten, plays nine-game schedules. Despite this difference, the metrics cited by the SEC above (including, yes, my SP+ rankings) are a pretty stark reminder that, between the SEC typically having far fewer easy matchups than the Big Ten and a solid rotation of annual out-of-conference rivalry games played by SEC teams against ACC programs — Florida against Florida State, South Carolina against Clemson, etc. — the average SEC schedule is already a decent amount tougher than the average Big Ten schedule. Using my recent post-spring SP+ projections as a guide, SEC teams project to have 13 of the 15 hardest schedules in the country despite eight-game conference slates.

Since Sankey serves at the discretion of SEC presidents and, to a degree, athletic directors, it made sense that Sankey wanted to push back on the mounting pressure to move to nine games.

“If we’re not confident that the decision-making about who gets in and why and what are the metrics around it, it’s going to be really hard for some of my colleagues to get to the nine games,” Texas A&M athletics director Trev Alberts said this week.

Why make your schedules harder if it will cost your conference playoff bids, right?

There are plenty of valid reasons for moving to nine games regardless of what it does to playoff status. For starters, it will likely increase the value of the SEC’s media rights contract, giving the league even more of a war chest. It would make teams’ home schedules even more exciting and, potentially, expensive. And most importantly, it would make the 16-team conference feel like an actual conference: With a nine-game schedule, you can play every team twice in four years. With eight-game schedules, those rotations take a lot longer. (Yes, this is being written by a Mizzou guy who’s bitter that LSU fans, with their tailgating prowess, have had a reason to come to Columbia only once in Mizzou’s 13 SEC seasons.)

Because we’re using numbers to prove that SEC schedules are already difficult, let’s use numbers to ask a different question: How much more difficult would nine-game SEC schedules be?

To answer this question, I did what I do: I ran a simulation. I created four years’ worth of nine-game SEC schedules based around the super-clean, super-easy idea of permanent conference rivalries: You assign every team three permanent, annual opponents, and they play six other opponents home-and-away over two years, then the other six over the next two. Voila, you’ve visited every stadium in your conference and hosted every conference mate at least once every four years. I’ve been floored that other huge conferences such as the Big Ten and Big 12 haven’t leaned further into the permanent rivals concept — the 16-team Big 12 isn’t making Farmageddon (Kansas State-Iowa State) an annual game, and the 18-team Big Ten didn’t set up annual games between all of its four new Western teams. Regardless, I set up permanent rivals for each SEC team.

Alabama: Auburn, LSU, Tennessee
Arkansas: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M
Auburn: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi State
Florida: Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina
Georgia: Auburn, Florida, South Carolina
Kentucky: Florida, Tennessee, Vanderbilt
LSU: Alabama, Mississippi State, Ole Miss
Mississippi State: Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss
Missouri: Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina
Oklahoma: Missouri, Texas, Texas A&M
Ole Miss: LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt
South Carolina: Florida, Georgia, Missouri
Tennessee: Alabama, Kentucky, Vanderbilt
Texas: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M
Texas A&M: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas
Vanderbilt: Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee

These pairings preserve all but one of the series that have been played 90-plus times (Alabama-Mississippi State is the one I couldn’t squeeze in, in part because MSU has four such series). They reconnect former Big 8, Big 12 and/or SWC rivalries such as Oklahoma-Missouri and Texas-Arkansas, but they don’t go too far in that regard — at this point, Missouri has played South Carolina as conference mates as many times as Texas A&M (13) and more than Texas (nine), and the teams from the two Columbias have played some strange and memorable battles already.

There’s obviously a pretty big difference in quality between, say, Auburn’s or LSU’s annual opponents versus that of Kentucky or Ole Miss. But remember: Six of a team’s nine conference games come from the rest of the pool. Over a four-year rotation, Auburn’s schedules are only a smidgen harder than Ole Miss’ on average.

A full nine-game Auburn schedule might look like this: Alabama, at Georgia, Mississippi State, at Oklahoma, South Carolina, at Ole Miss, Tennessee, at Vanderbilt, Texas A&M. Meanwhile, an Ole Miss schedule might look like this (common opponents in bold): at LSU, Vanderbilt, at Mississippi State, Arkansas, at Kentucky, Auburn, at Missouri, Georgia, at Oklahoma. One plays Alabama, the other plays LSU. One plays Kentucky, the other plays South Carolina. Over time, the schedule strengths will be pretty close.

Using existing nonconference games as much as possible (with a few necessary tweaks), here’s what the 2026 schedule might look like with nine total conference games and a 3+6 approach.

Because you’ve got some teams now playing five conference road games, it will be difficult to avoid handing teams some pretty rough patches — Alabama and Missouri playing four road games in five weeks late in the season, for example, or Kentucky starting with back-to-back conference road games. But it’s hard not to notice how every week is pretty loaded. Some hypothetical 2026 headliners:

Week 1: Georgia at Ole Miss, Clemson at LSU, Miami at South Carolina, Texas A&M at Tennessee
Week 2: Ohio State at Texas, Oklahoma at Michigan, Missouri at Kansas, Kentucky at LSU
Week 3: Florida State at Alabama, Oklahoma at Texas A&M, South Carolina at Auburn, Florida at Kentucky
Week 4: Tennessee at Georgia, Alabama at Florida, Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, LSU at South Carolina, Illinois at Missouri*
Week 5: Georgia at Alabama, Auburn at Oklahoma, Florida at Texas, Texas A&M at South Carolina, Ole Miss at Missouri
Week 6: Oklahoma vs. Texas, Tennessee at Auburn, Missouri at Georgia, South Carolina at Florida
Week 7: Tennessee at Alabama, LSU at Texas, Auburn at Ole Miss, Oklahoma at Arkansas, Georgia at South Carolina
Week 8: Arkansas at Ole Miss, Missouri at South Carolina, Oklahoma at Kentucky
Week 9: Alabama at Texas, Georgia vs. Florida, Ole Miss at LSU, Missouri at Texas A&M
Week 10: Alabama at LSU, Texas A&M at Auburn, Ole Miss at Oklahoma, Texas at Missouri
Week 11: Auburn at Georgia, Texas at Arkansas, Florida at Texas A&M, Missouri at Tennessee
Week 12: LSU at Florida, Georgia at Texas A&M, Missouri at Oklahoma, Alabama at South Carolina
Week 13: The typical loaded rivalry week

(* Missouri is somehow scheduled to play at Illinois and Kansas in 2026, but because the Tigers drew a slate with five conference road games, I flipped the Illinois game out of pure convenience.)

Obviously, the real-life 2026 SEC slate will also feature a lot of these big-time games, but aside from a relatively paltry Week 8, every week has some huge, TV-friendly brand matchups. That’s an utterly loaded schedule.

It’s also a schedule that will, as athletic directors will surely notice, hand quite a few losses to good teams.

Paul Finebaum supports CFP moving to straight seeding in 2025

Paul Finebaum is on board with the College Football Playoff shifting to a straight seeding model starting this season.

Though I shared hypothetical 2026 schedules above, I wanted to use SP+ projections to look at a full four-year rotation and compare what it would produce from a wins-and-losses standpoint to what the current eight-game slate produces.

For the league’s elite teams, moving to nine games won’t make much of a difference. For instance, with its current schedule, SP+ projects Georgia to win 9.8 games on average, with an 84.9% chance of going at least 9-3 (the hypothetical cutoff line for SEC teams hoping to get into the field). But with an abridged, three-game nonconference schedule — for the most part, I shrank nonconference schedules by getting rid of teams’ second games against Group of 5 teams and leaving one game against a power-conference opponent, one against a G5 team and one against an FCS team — Georgia averages 9.7 wins over four simulated seasons, with a 79.6% chance of reaching 9-3 or better on average. There’s a bit less margin for error, but well-projected teams like Georgia will be in good shape, regardless.

For the league’s light heavyweights, however, things get trickier. Florida has a 43.7% chance of finishing 9-3 or better in 2025, but in a nine-SEC-games universe, that drops to 19.6%. Four others see their odds drop by at least 10%, and current long shots like Vanderbilt (10.2% chance of going 9-3 in 2025) see their odds almost completely vanish (0.1%).

Overall, an average of 6.2 SEC teams are projected to go 9-3 or better in 2025. In a nine-game universe, that average shrinks to 4.7. With a 16-team field, you could say that the league would go from expecting around six teams in the field to having four or five teams safely in and campaigning for some 8-4 teams. Meanwhile, the league would also go from an average of 13.4 bowl-eligible teams to just 11.4.

That’s not an insignificant change. There would be plenty of cases where an 8-4 team with an off-the-charts strength of schedule would also be in good shape, but the professed risk is real. Of course, that’s what the money’s for. Media rights revenue would probably rise with expanded conference schedules; plus, the SEC and Big Ten are already guaranteed a huge portion of future CFP money anyway, so if they lose a playoff team here or there, it’s only going to hurt so much. Still, it’s easy to see why SEC ADs and coaches, whose jobs (and, potentially, bonuses) might be dictated by CFP bids, might balk at making tough schedules tougher.

The SEC and Big Ten championship games are being rendered moot

Among the main reasons the Big Ten, in particular, was interested in a selection process that featured multiple autobids (a rumored four each for the Big Ten and SEC) were that it would allow the two conferences — plus, perhaps, the ACC and Big 12, which were likely to receive two guaranteed bids each in such a structure — to redefine Championship Weekend.

The Big Ten and SEC championship games provided little-to-no positive impact for their winners last year: Oregon beat Penn State in the Big Ten championship to earn a first-round playoff bye but drew a smoking hot Ohio State in the quarterfinals and lost, and Georgia beat Texas in the SEC championship but lost quarterback Carson Beck to injury and handed Gunner Stockton his first career start in a quarterfinal loss to Notre Dame. (Plus, there were almost no negative repercussions for losing these games. Penn State and Texas each dropped only one spot in the rankings, and when SMU lost to lower-ranked Clemson in the ACC championship game, the Mustangs fell only from eighth to 10th and still got in.) With autobids, you could create multiple play-in games and produce a new spectacle while avoiding handing extra injury risk to just your top two teams.

There’s logic in that, even if I didn’t think it outweighed the negatives of multiple autobids — that they would make the entire playoff look like a Big Ten-SEC invitational, render large portions of the regular season moot (nonconference games would have almost no impact on playoff bids, and if a No. 6 seed with an 8-4 record can steal an 11-1 No. 3 seed’s playoff bid, then what’s the point of any of this?) and sure looked like they were primarily designed to rake in extra television dough.

Recent brainstorming sessions reportedly produced ideas such as giving SEC and Big Ten champions a double-bye in a 16-team bracket, with a first round consisting of play-in games for the lowest-ranked of the 16 teams, but that ruins the point of a clean, easy 16-team playoff. But with a plain 16-teamer, the impact of the SEC and Big Ten championships will be the difference between getting a No. 1 and No. 4 seed. That doesn’t counter the injury risk.

Conference championships are valuable enough that I doubt conferences will willingly get rid of them. But they feel like a hindrance to the current process, and I wonder how conference leaders will square that circle. I have one idea, though, and it comes from the 2020 COVID season.

When the Big Ten initially announced it was returning to action that fall, it created an abbreviated eight-game slate for each team, followed by a championship weekend that was intended to feature extra cross-division games for each team across the East and West divisions — No. 2 East vs. No. 2 West, No. 3 vs. No. 3, etc. Granted, things got messy because of positive COVID tests and resulting cancellations, but the Big Ten still featured four games on championship weekend.

Maybe there’s something to the idea of playing a full slate of championship week games, even if they aren’t playoff play-in games? Maybe that becomes part of the regular-season slate, in which, after everyone has played eight conference games, the standings determine who you play for the ninth?

Using last year’s eight-game SEC standings (and adjusting to avoid rematches where possible), we could have sent Texas and Georgia to play for the SEC title in Atlanta while also having 6-2 Tennessee (the No. 3 team in the standings) host 5-3 LSU, 5-3 Alabama host 5-3 Texas A&M, and so on. That would keep everyone from playing an extra game, and it would create a lot of de facto playoff play-in games even if they weren’t officially called that.

The brainstorming on this can continue for a while longer, but there’s no doubting that, though I think a clean 16-teamer is the most favorable conclusion for this long debate, there are still downsides and wrinkles to iron out.

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Deadline week update! Rankings for the top 50 MLB trade deadline candidates

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10 hours ago

July 28, 2025

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Deadline week update! Rankings for the top 50 MLB trade deadline candidates

Kiley McDaniel
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Kiley McDaniel

ESPN MLB Insider
- ESPN MLB Insider
- Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency.
- Has worked for three MLB teams.

Jul 27, 2025, 06:00 PM ET

The July 31 MLB trade deadline is just days away, so it’s time for a deadline week update to our top 50 trade candidates ranking.

Major League Baseball’s trade market is ever evolving, and to keep you updated, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan have put together a list of potential trade candidates based on players’ performance — and that of the teams that could be involved in potential deals.

This is the most up-to-date accounting of where MLB’s trade market stands. While some of the players on the list are unlikely to be dealt, they’re at least being discussed in potential deals. Others might be making the list for the first time this week as their team’s fortunes have changed.

Note: Players ranked by value for their new team if traded, not likelihood of being dealt.

Chance of trade: 90%

Suarez is in a contract year and playing like one of the best players in baseball. Only Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge have more home runs than his 33. Despite turning 34 years old before the trade deadline, Suarez is sitting near career highs in isolated power and wRC+ (which measures overall performance). His fielding metrics have declined in recent years, but he’s still an acceptable defender at third base. Even if the Diamondbacks don’t offload all their free agents to be, Suarez could move because they’ve got Jordan Lawlar raking in Triple-A and primed to take over at third.

Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies

Chance of trade: 10%

Ryan is one of the best pitchers in baseball, with a mix of stuff and pitchability, and teams in search of long-term fits dream of the possibility the Twins will actually move him. That is unlikely, but this is deadline season, so there is always the chance a team surveys the market, finds nothing to its liking and overpays. The Twins don’t necessarily want to move Ryan; they are more in listening mode on nearly everyone that occupies a roster spot — and with Ryan not a free agent until after the 2027 season, teams are trying, with little success thus far, to pry him away.

Best fits: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, New York Mets

Chance of trade: 10%

While the general sense is that Gore won’t go anywhere, the Nationals are, at the very least, listening — and that warrants a spot atop the list regardless of the minimal likelihood interim general manager Mike DeBartolo deals him. The prospect of Gore moving is tempting enough to want to engage: 144 strikeouts in 117⅔ innings with enough control that he’s walking a career-low 3.4 per nine innings. Even if stuff-plus models aren’t crazy for Gore, he gets elite swing-and-miss and is the sort of pitcher that could tempt teams to overpay.

Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, Baltimore, Houston, New York Mets

Chance of trade: 25%

Another late entry to the proceedings, Cease is throwing as hard as he did in his prime and is here more as a function of the Padres not having payroll flexibility or a deep minor league system than some sort of desire to deal him. As an impending free agent, he wouldn’t bring back nearly the haul of Ryan or Gore. And there are genuine questions about whether the holes the Padres would try to fill by moving Cease would only be exacerbated on the starting-pitching side were he to go. Regardless, they’re at the very least listening, and with Cincinnati and San Francisco breathing down their necks for the final NL wild-card slot, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller could try to get creative in upgrading his roster.

Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets

Chance of trade: 10%

An All-Star the last two years and Gold Glove winner in all three of his previous big league seasons, Kwan is a do-everything left fielder with elite bat-to-ball skills and two years of club control after 2025. Cleveland doesn’t want to deal him, but with a dearth of available bats, the Guardians at very least will listen to see if teams are willing to blow them away with offers.

Best fits: Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, Toronto, San Diego, Los Angeles Dodgers

Chance of trade: 25%

Duran had a huge breakout season in 2024, posting the seventh-best fWAR in the majors at 6.8. He overperformed his underlying metrics, though — i.e. had some lucky outcomes — and those metrics have regressed a bit this year as has his luck. Duran’s projected to finish the season with around 3.0 WAR, which is more in line with how the league sees him. With Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, the Red Sox have the outfield depth to consider moving Duran for controllable, top-end pitching.

Best fits: San Diego, Atlanta, Cleveland, Kansas City, San Francisco, Philadelphia

7. Jhoan Duran, RP, Minnesota Twins

Chance of trade: 30%

Duran is one of the best relievers in the sport, thanks to his nasty stuff, headlined by a fastball that averages 100.4 mph and a splinker that sits 97.6 mph. He has two more years of team control after this season, so he’d demand a big trade package.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas

Chance of trade: 20%

Clase was nearly unhittable last season, but his numbers have regressed this year. He has issued more walks and gotten fewer ground balls while allowing more damage on his cutter that averages 99 mph — in part due to more center-cut locations. Under contract for less than $30 million through 2028, he would bring a big return to Cleveland.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas

9. Cade Smith, RP, Cleveland Guardians

Chance of trade: 20%

Smith has been the best reliever in baseball by WAR since the beginning of the 2024 season, and with more than 13 strikeouts per nine innings this year, he is the solution to many teams’ late-inning woes. With four more years of control, he’s also going to be prohibitively expensive for most teams, making a deal difficult to come by.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas

10. Griffin Jax, RP, Minnesota Twins

Chance of trade: 30%

Despite a 3.92 ERA that says otherwise, Jax has been one of the top relievers in baseball this season — the best by xFIP and toward the top in other similar metrics. Over the last two seasons, he’s second in the sport behind Cade Smith in reliever WAR. Only Fernando Cruz and Mason Miller have a better strikeout rate than Jax’s 14.37 per nine, and his sweeper-heavy arsenal induces as much swing-and-miss as anyone.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas

11. Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Chance of trade: 70%

Kelly doesn’t have big raw stuff, posting the second-lowest average fastball velocity (92.1 mph) among pitchers with 125 innings pitched this season. His changeup is his best pitch by a wide margin, and he gets by with location and offspeed stuff. He was a stalwart in the Diamondbacks’ run to the 2023 World Series, striking out 28 in 24 innings with a 2.25 ERA.

Best fits: Toronto, Boston, Houston, Chicago Cubs

Chance of trade: 65%

Not only is Keller in the midst of a career-best season with a 3.53 ERA, he’s under contract for another three years at a very reasonable $55.7 million. The Pirates need bats, and moving Keller is the likeliest way to fill that void. Teams could be scared off slightly by the quality of contact against him — his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate have spiked while his strikeouts are down — but in an environment with little pitching, Keller is nevertheless desirable.

Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, Toronto, Houston

Chance of trade: 30%

All the potential the Marlins have seen in the 27-year-old right-hander is finally coming into focus this season. While Cabrera’s 97 mph fastball gets hitters’ attention, it’s his curveball and slider that are doing most of the work. And with a changeup that in years past has been his best pitch, the cost to acquire Cabrera will be high because of his full arsenal and three more years of club control.

Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, New York Mets, Toronto, Houston, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees

Chance of trade: 50%

Alcantara was arguably the best pitcher in baseball in 2022, winning the NL Cy Young unanimously. He was more solid than spectacular in 2023 and missed 2024 with Tommy John surgery. He has been tinkering this season to try to get his pitch mix and locations right in hopes of regaining his former glory. His 6.66 ERA is frightening, and with the Marlins still valuing him as a top starter, they could hold onto him until the winter, when teams like the Orioles would be more inclined to acquire him and the final two years of his contract.

Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego, Baltimore

15. Zac Gallen, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Chance of trade: 70%

Gallen was excellent for the last three seasons but now, in a contract year, is posting career-worst numbers in almost every category. His stuff looks pretty similar, but he’s allowing much more damage when hitters make contact. That said, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is back to normal in his last six starts, at 35-to-6, despite a 6.55 ERA in that span.

Best fits: Toronto, San Diego, Houston, Chicago Cubs

16. Ryan O’Hearn, 1B, Baltimore Orioles

Chance of trade: 85%

O’Hearn is having an out-of-nowhere career year, with an OPS+ of 132 (and he’s been unlucky with ball-in-play luck, to boot) along with being on pace for a career high in homers. He doesn’t face lefty pitchers much at all and his splits suggest that he shouldn’t.

Best fits: Houston, Boston, San Francisco, Texas

17. David Bednar, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates

Chance of trade: 70%

In a market replete with relief options, the 30-year-old Bednar brings high-end performance without quite the price tag of his peers. His swing-and-miss stuff has been elite since his return from Triple-A, and he has more than salvaged his trade value: Over his last 23 outings, Bednar has struck out 29, walked five and posted a 0.00 ERA.

Best fits: Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Seattle

Chance of trade: 80%

Helsley had the fourth-best WAR among relievers last season and is in a contract year, but he has been notably worse this season. His stuff and locations are pretty similar, but the main difference is his fastball is getting hit hard — with one byproduct being his spiking home run rate.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Toronto, Detroit, New York Mets, Seattle

Chance of trade: 20%

Fairbanks raised his slot a bit this year, and now his 97.3-mph fastball has more cutting action while his slurvy slider has more depth with both pitches playing a notch better than they did last season. He’s got a club option for 2026 that, with escalators, should wind up around the $10 million range. Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes and bullpen injuries have cut into the likelihood Fairbanks moves.

Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, Texas

20. Shane Bieber, SP, Cleveland Guardians

Chance of trade: 50%

A late entrant into the trade market, Bieber still hasn’t thrown a big league pitch this season and is coming back from Tommy John surgery. With his fastball up to 94 mph and his slider looking like its old sharp self, though, he’s generating plenty of interest and could be one of the bigger names moved at the deadline.

Best fits: San Diego, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, Toronto

Chance of trade: 60%

Ward comes with an additional year of team control after this season and he’s having a strong 2025 campaign, just one homer away from last year’s career high total of 25 — and in 52 fewer games.

Best fits: Cincinnati, San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco

Chance of trade: 50%

Robert has been extremely unlucky with ball-in-play results this season, but that has begun to turn around recently. He remains a strong defender and baserunner, with a career-high 24 steals already. But the slashline is unsightly, and his trade value has cratered over the last two seasons. He’s got a pair of $20 million-a-year club options that the acquiring team will be hesitant to exercise absent a turnaround. Finding a match with a team willing to pay more for Robert’s upside than his productivity could be challenging.

Best fits: San Diego, Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, San Francisco

23. Nolan Arenado, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals

Chance of trade: 20%

Arenado’s strikeout rate is around his career best and he’s still an above-average defender, but his power and patience are both trending down to around the worst of his career. He’s still a solid starter but no longer a star, and the team taking him on a deal would still have to pay him like one. Potentially complicating any deal: a full no-trade clause.

Best fits: Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle

Chance of trade: 70%

Ozuna is a stone-cold DH, playing two games in the field in 2023 as his last regular-season experience defensively. He’s also in a contract year, but his power numbers are down a notch from his standout .302 average and 39-homer performance last season. His on-base percentage remains among the highest of potential trade candidates. If anyone is moving from Atlanta, he’s the likeliest candidate, with free agency beckoning.

Best fits: San Diego, Seattle, Texas, Detroit, San Francisco

Chance of trade: 50%

Garcia averaged 30 homers in 2021-24, but he’s fallen off since his 2023 career year. It’s worth noting that per xwOBA, he’s been the 13th-most unlucky hitter in the big leagues this year. He also has another year of team control, so some teams could see a buy-low opportunity.

Best fits: Philadelphia, Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, San Francisco

26. Reid Detmers, RP, Los Angeles Angels

Chance of trade: 15%

The No. 10 pick from the 2020 draft transitioned to relief this season and has found similar success to other highly-drafted college lefties, including A.J. Puk, Andrew Miller and Drew Pomeranz. He comes with three more years of control after this season and his velo is up 1.7 mph in the new role, so this might be where he fits long term — and he could fetch a hefty return. Some teams still see Detmers as a starter.

Best fits: New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Toronto

Chance of trade: 90%

Following a dreadful start to the season, Morton found his curveball and has righted himself. Between his stuff and playoff experience, he has leapt up teams’ boards as a true target and almost certainly will move before the deadline.

Best fits: New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto

28. Adrian Houser, SP, Chicago White Sox

Chance of trade: 90%

Houser’s resurgence is a success story for the White Sox. He opted out of a minor league deal with Texas to sign with the White Sox in mid-May and has limited home runs to post a 2.10 ERA in nearly 70 innings. He’ll eat innings for sure, but some scouts see his stuff as good enough to warrant a spot in a postseason rotation.

Best fits: Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto

Chance of trade: 80%

Mullins is a 30-year-old center fielder in a contract year who contributes in a number of ways, though he’s hitting only .217 and his defensive metrics have regressed to be below average in center. His walk rate and power numbers are up this season, making him a solid contributor on a contender.

Best fits: Philadelphia, Houston, New York Mets

30. Willi Castro, UT, Minnesota Twins

Castro has played six of the eight field positions this year and has been a solid, versatile utility type since a breakout season in 2023. He doesn’t offer eye-popping numbers or tools, but is around average at most things while playing all over the field on an everyday basis.

Nos. 31-57

31. Seth Halvorsen, RP, Colorado Rockies
32. Zack Littell, SP, Tampa Bay Rays
33. Jeffrey Springs, SP, Athletics
34. Jesus Sanchez, RF, Miami Marlins
35. Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates
36. Dennis Santana, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates
37. JP Sears, SP, Athletics
38. Michael Soroka, SP, Washington Nationals
39. Tyler Anderson, SP, Los Angeles Angels
40. Kyle Finnegan, RP, Washington Nationals
41. Luis Severino, SP, Athletics
42. Zach Eflin, SP, Baltimore Orioles
43. Pierce Johnson, RP, Atlanta Braves
44. Phil Maton, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
45. Steven Matz, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
46. Harrison Bader, CF, Minnesota Twins
47. Jake Bird, RP, Colorado Rockies
48. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates
49. Yoan Moncada, 3B, Los Angeles Angels
50. Andrew Heaney, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
51. Chris Paddack, SP, Minnesota Twins
52. Raisel Iglesias, RP, Atlanta Braves
53. Tomoyuki Sugano, SP, Baltimore Orioles
54. Ramon Urias, 3B, Baltimore Orioles
55. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, UT, Pittsburgh Pirates
56. Luis Urias, 2B, Athletics
57. Shelby Miller, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks

Sports

Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

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14 hours ago

July 28, 2025

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Ichiro shows funny side, joins CC, Wagner in HOF

Bradford DoolittleJul 27, 2025, 06:34 PM ET
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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.

After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.

“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.

For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.

When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.

“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”

After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.

“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.

Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.

“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”

After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.

Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.

Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.

“Not bad,” he said.

Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.

After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.

“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”

Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.

“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”

Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.

Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.

“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”

Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.

Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.

“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”

In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.

Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.

“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”

Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.

“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”

Sports

Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

Published

14 hours ago

July 28, 2025

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Braves get starting pitcher Fedde from Cardinals

Alden GonzalezJul 27, 2025, 06:42 PM ET
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The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.

As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.

Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.

But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.

Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.

This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.