Marchand mulling Florida return, but focus on Cup
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Greg Wyshynski
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Brad Marchand said he has considered re-signing with the Florida Panthers this offseason but stressed that his focus remains on winning the Stanley Cup before making any free agency decisions.
“Yeah, I’ve thought about it. But we’ll deal with that in the future,” Marchand said.
The Panthers acquired Marchand from Boston after he and the Bruins were unable to come to terms on a contract extension. Marchand becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1. Next season will be his 17th in the NHL.
The 37-year-old left wing could be a coveted veteran on the free agent market, having scored 23 goals with 28 assists in 71 games this season. He remains a solid two-way player who plays a tenacious, agitating game, and his stock has only risen in this run to the Stanley Cup Final with the Panthers. Marchand has seven goals and 10 assists in 19 playoff games, with two of those goals scored in Florida’s 5-4 win over the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of the Final, including the game winner in double-overtime.
“I didn’t appreciate how good his hands are,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said of Marchand. “They’re kind of in that Matthew Tkachuk mode. That’s a set of hands that’s at the top end. Those guys are special. He’s an exceptional man. Really enjoy having him.”
Marchand said he has tried to avoid thinking about free agency, with the Panthers tied at 1 in their series with the Oilers.
“The longest you can go is two weeks, so you’re in the moment that entire time. You can’t have your mind in any other place other than right here and now,” he said. “I’ve said it so often during this run: You have to enjoy these moments. They don’t come often. There’s no other thought in my mind right now.”
When the postseason wraps up and Marchand turns his attention to free agency, the Panthers would appear to have an advantage to retain him. Not only have the Panthers advanced to the Final for three straight seasons — and Marchand has praised the organization’s professionalism behind the scenes — it is also one of six U.S.-based teams that have no state income taxes. The Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights have all won Stanley Cups and have been to multiple Finals since 2020. The Dallas Stars, another team with no state income taxes, have made three straight Western Conference finals.
While other teams and their fan bases have protested about this advantage in a salary capped league, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly recently said the league and the players aren’t looking to address the issue in their next collective bargaining agreement.
“These imbalances have existed forever,” Daly said. “There’s nothing new here. There are so many reasons why a player can choose to play in a particular location for a particular team that have nothing to do with the tax situation in that market. So I don’t expect it’s anything we’re going to address proactively as part of this collective bargaining negotiation.”
Marchand indicated that, as a veteran player, the local tax advantages will play into his thinking entering free agency.
“There are teams where that absolutely matters. It doesn’t matter for every player, but when you’re dealing with guys that have a choice between multiple teams, it absolutely plays a part,” Marchand said. “If you have two teams that are offering the same contract, you’re going to pick the team with less tax.”
Marchand said teams without that advantage typically have to pay players more, which impacts their cap space and their ability to maintain a successful team.
“Most contending teams don’t have a lot of cap space,” he said. “When you look at Canadian teams, most of them have an extremely high tax rate. Then the California teams, same thing. So those teams are going to have to pay more money to get certain players than others.”
The teams will face off in Game 3 on Monday night at 8 ET in Sunrise.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The Yankees are acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
The Yankees will assume the remainder of 30-year-old McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the remainder of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons.
An All-Star last season, McMahon was batting .217 with 16 home runs and a .717 OPS in 100 games for Colorado in 2025. He hit home runs in the first two games after the All-Star break and another on Tuesday and is on pace to keep his four-year 20-homer streak alive.
While the production has resulted in a 92 OPS+, which suggests McMahon has been 8% worse than the average major league hitter this season, he still represents a significant offensive upgrade at third base for New York.
The Yankees have had Oswald Peraza, one of the worst hitters in the majors, manning third base nearly every day since the club decided to release DJ LeMahieu, another former Rockies player, earlier this month and move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base. Peraza, while a strong defender, is slashing .147/.208/.237 in 69 games this season. His 24 wRC+ ranks last among the 310 hitters with at least 160 plate appearances this season.
Defensively, McMahon is a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman whose four Outs Above Average is third in the majors this season. He joins a Yankees club that has been marred by sloppy defense, most recently on Wednesday when it committed four errors in a defensive meltdown against the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
Herring, 22, has recorded a 1.71 ERA in 89⅓ innings across 16 starts between Low- and High-A this season. He was a sixth-round pick out of LSU in the 2024 draft.
Grosz, an 11th-round pick in 2023, had a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings over 16 games (15 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley this season.
With third base addressed, the Yankees will continue to seek to acquire pitchers to bolster both their rotation and bullpen.
MLB.com first reported on the Yankees trading for McMahon.
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Jorge Castillo
The Mets acquired left-handed reliever Gregory Soto from the Orioles on Friday in exchange for two minor leaguers in what could be the first of multiple moves by New York to bolster its bullpen before the trade deadline Thursday.
The trade, which sent Class A right-hander Wellington Aracena and Double-A right-hander Cameron Foster to Baltimore, gives the Mets a hard-throwing left-hander to complement the club’s only lefty on the roster, Brooks Raley, who returned from Tommy John surgery last week.
Soto, who is 30 and was an All-Star with the Detroit Tigers in 2021 and 2022, has posted a 3.96 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate in 45 appearances this season. The Mets will be his fourth team since the 2022 season.
On Monday, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns plainly signaled that upgrading the bullpen for the stretch run is his top priority.
The need is clear. Injuries and overuse have depleted a relief corps that led the majors in bullpen ERA through May 31. Since June 1, the group has posted 4.52 ERA, good for 23rd in the majors.
Aracena, 20, is 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA in 17 games for St. Lucie. The Orioles said he is one of two pitchers in the minors this season to have thrown at least 60 innings without surrendering a home run.
Foster, 26, is 5-2 with two saves and a 2.97 ERA while pitching at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
BOSTON — Hundreds of Aramark workers at Fenway Park are on strike and planning to stay out for all of a homestand between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Friday night.
Concession workers had set a deadline of noon Friday for Aramark and Fenway Park to reach an agreement with the Local 26 chapter of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island hotel, casino, airport and food services workers union.
The union went on strike at noon asking for “living wages, guardrails on technology and R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”
With the Red Sox and Dodgers scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m. EDT, union officials had a request for fans attending this homestand with food and beer workers on strike.
“We’re asking you to NOT buy concessions inside the ballpark,” Local 26 wrote on social media. “Tailgate before the games!”
Union workers walked the picket line wearing green T-shirts declaring “FENWAY WORKERS ON STRIKE.” They carried signs in the shape of a baseball proclaiming Local 26.
The Red Sox go out of town Monday with a game that night at Minnesota.
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