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  • David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterSep 4, 2024, 07:00 AM ET

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    • College football reporter.
    • Joined ESPN in 2012.
    • Graduate of the University of Delaware.

A day after his team’s worst loss in more than a decade, Dabo Swinney was feeling optimistic.

This is unsurprising for two reasons. The first is that Swinney had watched the film of Clemson‘s 34-3 drubbing at the hands of top-ranked Georgia and saw a team that, according to him, matched Georgia physically and lost, in large part, due to a handful of unforced errors and an inability to capture any “momentum.”

The second is that Swinney is unapologetically optimistic in even the most dire of circumstances. Recall the last time Clemson lost in such emphatic fashion — a 54-14 embarrassment at home to eventual national champion Florida State in 2013, when Swinney’s postgame analysis approached delirium: “If we played them 10 times,” he said, “we’d have won five.”

And so it was again after Saturday’s loss.

“We matched up well. It didn’t go our way, but we were physical, we could run. We’ve got a good team,” Swinney said. “We’ve got a bunch of good, young talent. It’s going to come together, and it’s going to be fun to watch.”

Or, to borrow a Swinney analogy, Clemson’s stock took a bit of a hit against Georgia, but that only means the return on investment will be that much bigger when it finally takes off.

So, yes, Swinney feels good in the aftermath of Clemson’s latest debacle — the team’s seventh loss in its past 15 games against Power 4 competition. He’s building something — just as he has before — and he’s not interested in changing course simply because one game against the country’s best team didn’t go his way.

“We’ve done it in a unique way,” Swinney said. “Now people want me to go do it some other way. They’ve lost their freakin’ mind. I’m not doing it another way. Everything doesn’t go the way you want it every single time but that doesn’t mean you get away from what your foundation is, what you believe.”

Swinney believes in building a program, and that means more than winning games. And on that front, he’s been exceptional.

Clemson’s player retention rate is among the best in the country — only Northwestern and Oklahoma State had fewer players leave in the December window than Clemson’s 12. The Tigers had the highest graduation rate of any Power 4 school (Georgia, in comparison, is last). Clemson is the only team in the country to rank in the top 25 in both the AP rankings and graduation rates for 13 years straight.

Even the wins and losses aren’t a clear-cut knock on Swinney’s approach. Clemson’s record from 2021-23 — the supposed downturn of the program — was 30-10, the eighth-best mark of any program in that span.

In a vacuum, it’s reasonable to follow Swinney’s logic. Look back at all the losses that have accrued since Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne Jr. left town, and it feels like a meteoric shift, but each individual loss comes with strings attached: flukey turnovers, missed kicks, overtime defeats where a single play was the difference.

Even in Saturday’s blowout, Swinney believes that, had a few early plays gone Clemson’s way — a miss on Cade Klubnik‘s first pass, a big gain negated by an Adam Randall formation penalty — the rest of the game would’ve unfolded more favorably. The butterfly effect was Clemson’s problem, not talent.

Except it’s possible Swinney’s unyielding optimism is exactly the problem, and for an understanding of why, look to Swinney’s biggest taboo: the transfer portal.

The conventional wisdom follows that Swinney is simply a stubborn coach, tethered to an archaic way of thinking that has held the Tigers back from adding difference-makers via the portal. But this ignores two crucial realities. The first is that Swinney has made adjustments, including bringing in Garrett Riley to call the offense two years ago and hiring Matt Luke and Chris Rumph to his staff this season after critics had derided his longstanding practice of hiring internally.

The second is that Swinney isn’t alone in his reluctance to build a roster through free agency.

“I’m a big believer in retention, and I think Dabo believes that, too,” said Kirby Smart, whose win over Clemson was led, in part, by transfers Colbie Young and London Humphreys. “If I had my preference, I’d keep my team my team and coach my team and not have that constant turnover. Unfortunately, we have to deal with those circumstances and that makes it tougher. But I’m a big believer in getting the players we sign here and growing them and getting them better.”

That is, essentially, Swinney’s pronounced belief, too, even if he’s at the far end of the spectrum of coaches who’ve actually used the portal.

And as one Power 4 coach said of Swinney’s portal position, “You can still win a championship without the portal. The margin for error is just much smaller, and your flaws get much harder to hide.”

Since the modern portal began in 2018, Clemson has never had a transfer start a game. In the last cycle, only four schools did not take a single transfer: Clemson and the three service academies. For the latter three, an endorsement from a congressman is necessary. For Clemson, the bar may be even higher.

Swinney has, in fact, dabbled in the portal. Clemson made offers to a number of players over the past two years — particularly along the offensive line — but simply hasn’t reeled in any.

This is not, Swinney insists — emphatically, repeatedly — a philosophical opposition to the transfer portal. This is, like Clemson’s loss to Georgia, just a matter of happenstance and optimism. Some guys weren’t interested. The rest weren’t as good as he thinks the players already on his roster could be.

Swinney drew blowback in the spring for his latest attempt to rationalize his portal aversion with rhetorical gamesmanship by suggesting that everyone is a transfer from somewhere, and he’d just prefer to focus on guys transferring from high school to Clemson.

“There’s not one guy out there we wanted to bring in at this point,” Swinney said during the spring portal window. “Most of the guys in the portal now are guys getting pushed because people over-sign. We like our guys and we like our team.”

In the portal, Swinney sees mostly cast-offs. He looks at the high school recruits Clemson has signed and sees limitless potential. The reason Clemson hasn’t returned to its status as a perennial playoff team is that the results haven’t matched that potential.

Instead, Tigers fans have been left frustrated after Swinney and others spent an entire offseason raving about freshmen wideouts Bryant Wesco and T.J. Moore — quotes about how the pair was incredibly advanced at this stage, how the Tigers didn’t need veteran help at their most underperforming position because these two new faces would change the game.

Wesco played 12 snaps against Georgia. Moore played five. They combined for two catches for 12 yards, all in the fourth quarter after the game was out of hand.

Swinney took responsibility for problematic personnel choices and suggested Wesco and Moore would see far more action moving forward, but the imbalance between promise and performance is hardly an isolated incident. Receivers alone offer a stark reminder of that yawning chasm. From Joe Ngata to E.J. Williams Jr. to Beaux Collins, Clemson has shuffled nearly a dozen players through its receiving room in recent years that earned high praise from Swinney and the staff but did little on game day to justify the hype.

Still, when Swinney looks for help in the portal, his perception of his in-house talent underpins his requirements for new additions. Swinney said in 2023 that, if Clemson is going to add pieces in the portal, he wants all-conference players with significant experience.

That’s already a thin pool of options. Then Swinney adds that no one is guaranteed playing time and Clemson isn’t shelling out huge NIL sums for players who haven’t yet contributed to winning games at Clemson.

“We don’t use NIL in recruiting,” Swinney said. “Zero. But [former five-star recruit] Peter Woods came anyway. And they’re not leaving. They’re looking for what we are. We’re so unique in our approach, it’s like a magnet to the type of kid who’ll be successful here.”

So, boil that all down into an elevator pitch to transfers: You must be elite. You’re going to have to win a job against players here that Swinney already adores. There will be no NIL handouts without proven production. To be at Clemson is a privilege.

Is it any wonder Clemson hasn’t reeled in any big fish in the portal?

And, of course, the portal works both ways. Swinney flaunts the program’s retention rate, but as one opposing coach noted, in a world in which scholarships are capped at 85, there’s value in culling the herd and ridding a roster of players who aren’t contributing.

But again, Swinney can point to his impressive track record as ample evidence that his philosophy works — and will work again. Sure, his freshmen receivers didn’t blossom against Georgia, but that’s just Week 1. Look back at Vic Beasley (eighth overall NFL draft pick in 2015), Kevin Dodd (33rd in 2016), Cornell Powell (fifth-round pick in 2021). Clemson has produced countless stars who spent the first two, three, four years in the program languishing with the scout team before bursting into the spotlight late in their college careers. If Swinney has done that for Beasley, why not Klubnik or Randall or Cole Turner?

“You’re not going to get Trevor Lawrence every year but that doesn’t mean this guy doesn’t turn out and get to the same place,” Swinney said.

And herein lies the paradox for Clemson. Swinney sees the potential in this team every year. He recruited these guys, he knows them, he’s seen flashes of success and believes that, given the right mixture of time and circumstance, they’ll put up numbers like Lawrence or Deshaun Watson or Tajh Boyd. It has happened before, so it will happen again.

Reality, however, offers a more tepid metric. Clemson has not had a Day 1 or 2 NFL draft pick on offense since Lawrence and Etienne were selected in 2021, and it’s hard to imagine a member of this season’s roster that would reverse that trend in the near future.

“Trevor Lawrence covers up a lot of flaws,” one Power 4 coach said of Clemson. “When you don’t have that, the flaws become obvious.”

Or, as another coach offered: “You can still be a good team but there aren’t a lot of great teams. Usually there are four or five teams that are way better than everybody else, and five or six that are imperfect but also better than everybody else. And then, 13 through, like, 40, is all the same thing.”

Swinney points often at the close losses — and, following the Georgia game, even the blowouts — and notes the handful of plays that might’ve set Clemson on a different course. But in the Lawrence era, most games didn’t come down to a handful of critical plays. Clemson was at the narrow end of the bell curve, one of those elite teams that was simply better than everyone else.

That’s what Clemson fans saw Saturday — a litmus test against one of the game’s best teams, where the Tigers didn’t measure up.

Instead, Clemson is firmly ensconced in the wide, nondescript middle ground. It is good enough to win against almost anyone, but it isn’t good enough to do so without playing nearly flawless football.

Still, Swinney looks at his team and sees the makings of a champion.

“I know there’s a lot of frustration and disappointment, and nobody feels that more than us,” he said. “But I think we’ve got a great season ahead.”

He may be right. Numerous coaches who spoke to ESPN suggested Clemson was still capable of making a run, with one saying unequivocally that the Tigers had the most talented roster in the ACC. The league’s champion is guaranteed a playoff bid this year, and the loss to Georgia does nothing to keep Clemson from winning the league.

As another ACC coach said, Swinney has won more games than anyone else in the league, even during a so-called downturn, so it would be foolish to suggest he needs to change his approach.

It’s a point Swinney reiterates often.

“I’m 54 years old,” Swinney said. “I’d have to be stupid to not believe based on what I’ve been through in my life — not football, my life. Where I’ve come from, how I’ve grown up, I’d have to be stupid to question my faith and not have belief. God didn’t put me here to fail. But I don’t look at it as a failure if you don’t win every game.”

So Swinney remains steadfast in his optimism. A glass-half-full coach sees the opportunity still ahead, sees the potential for greatness as a challenge worth pursuing. Swinney’s glass is filled to the brim.

“I know everybody will just point to the scoreboard, but it’s not always what you see, and as coaches, we know that,” Swinney said. “Lot of good stuff we can teach on and grow our team for a great season. It was a disappointing night but a great opportunity for us to build on it, and I really believe we can have a great season.”

Saturday’s loss may have been a harbinger of more problems ahead, but Swinney is hardwired to instead see it as an opportunity. It’s his only way forward.

And so the biggest question — for 2024 and beyond — isn’t whether Swinney will finally change his stripes and embrace the portal, but whether the players on Clemson’s current roster can live up to what their coach sees in them.

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Who has the edge for MVP, Cy Young and more? MLB Awards Watch at the All-Star break

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July 16, 2025

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Who has the edge for MVP, Cy Young and more? MLB Awards Watch at the All-Star break

  • Bradford DoolittleJul 16, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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      • MLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com
      • Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com
      • Been with ESPN since 2013

Judge. Ohtani. Skubal. Wheeler.

A little more than halfway home, four of baseball’s titans have established themselves as the front-runners in the major awards races, at least according to ESPN BET. A lot can happen between now and the balloting late in the season, but when you have established stars and perennial awards favorites atop the leaderboard, their competitors can’t count on any kind of a drop-off.

In other words: Barring a major injury to Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani, Tarik Skubal or Zack Wheeler, it’s going to take a strong second half by anyone hoping to overtake them. It can happen, and if any of these races tighten up, it’ll be something to behold.

Awards Watch agrees with many of the assessments made by the betting markets, but if the season ended today, there would be a few disagreements, according to AXE. That doesn’t mean the voters would fall in line with the numbers, but the debate would be robust.

As we check in with our midseason Awards Watch, let’s see how things stack up for the favorites.

Most Valuable Player

American League

Front-runner: Aaron Judge, New York Yankees (162 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners (148); 3. Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals (138); 4. Jeremy Pena, Houston Astros (134); 5. Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins (133); 6. Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Guardians (130); 7. Ceddanne Rafaela, Boston Red Sox (129); 8. (tie) Randy Arozarena, Mariners, J.P. Crawford, Mariners (124); 10. Julio Rodriguez, Mariners (122).

Leader trend: Judge has retained a comfortable lead in this category all season. Raleigh drew fairly close in late June, but the gap has since widened again. That’s not Raleigh’s fault; it’s just Judge being Judge. At the time of our last Awards Watch, Judge had a 1.234 OPS. Since then, he has managed a meager 1.141. Yeah, that’s still pretty good.

The shape of Judge’s numbers has changed a bit. When we convened in late May, he was hitting .395, and he has posted a mortal .297 average since. But he has picked things up in the slugging category. Last time, he was mashing homers at the rate of 54 per 162 games. Since, that number is 66. Raleigh might be having the greatest catcher season of all time, and it’s possible that if there is any kind of Judge fatigue among the voters, that could impact the ballot. But what isn’t likely is any kind of prolonged drop-off by Judge.

Biggest mover: Buxton wasn’t in the top 10 last time out, but he has entered the top five based on several weeks of elite production and good health. During an 11-year career marked as much by injury as spectacular play, the first half featured Buxton at his best and most available, putting him on pace for his first 30/30 season at age 31. It keeps getting better: Since the last Awards Watch, Buxton has a 1.025 OPS with rates of 48 homers and 39 steals per 162 games.

Keep an eye on: Last time, there were two Red Sox in the top 10. Both have dropped out, with Alex Bregman hitting the IL and Rafael Devers hitting the airport for a flight to join his new team in San Francisco. But Boston is still represented by the overlooked Rafaela. No, he isn’t going to overtake Judge in the MVP race, but one of baseball’s most unique players deserves a little run.

After splitting time between shortstop and center field in 2024, Rafaela has played almost exclusively on the grass this season, and his defensive metrics have been off the charts. That’s driving this ranking, but Rafaela also has made tremendous strides at the plate. After entering the season with a career OPS+ of 83, he has upped that number to 118 in 2025 and is on pace for a 20/20 campaign.

National League

Front-runner: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers (144 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs (143); 3. Fernando Tatis Jr., San Diego Padres (136); 4. Kyle Tucker, Cubs (135); 5. James Wood, Washington Nationals (134); 6. Will Smith, Dodgers (131); 7. (tie) Pete Alonso, New York Mets, Juan Soto, Mets (129); 9. Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds (128); 10. Francisco Lindor, Mets (127).

Leader trend: Crow-Armstrong just won’t go away. He has lurked behind Ohtani on the AXE leaderboard for most of the season, but a quiet series from Ohtani in Milwaukee paired with another outburst from Crow-Armstrong flipped the top spot. Ohtani is still the favorite — the leaderboard flipped again over the weekend and, besides, he’s Ohtani — but at this point, we have to come to grips with the reality that Crow-Armstrong can mount a legitimate challenge.

Like Rafaela, Crow-Armstrong’s defensive metrics are top of the charts and, in fact, those two are in a duel for the MLB lead in defensive runs saved metrics among outfielders. But Crow-Armstrong’s bat continues to fuel his rise to superstar status. He entered the break on pace for 42 homers and 46 steals.

Ironically, if the offensive numbers between Ohtani and Crow-Armstrong are tight, it could come down to very different forms of run prevention. Crow-Armstrong is at 15 defensive runs saved as a center fielder. Meanwhile, Ohtani is at three runs above average during his nine innings on the mound. As the pitching side of Ohtani’s record grows, that gap might narrow considerably.

If that happens and it comes down to a straight-up comparison at the plate, it’s going to be tough for Crow-Armstrong, whose 140 OPS+ currently is dwarfed by Ohtani’s 174.

Biggest mover: Wood continues to cement his arrival as a right-now star player, and his pace has been accelerating even after an excellent start. Despite a subdued week before the break, Wood has a .908 OPS and 162-game rates of 42 homers, 127 RBIs, 19 steals and 100 runs since the last Awards Watch. Overall, he has a .381 OBP and is on pace for 100 walks, so those numbers aren’t driven by a short-term power surge. At 22, Wood simply is already an all-around offensive force.

Keep an eye on: Tucker overtook Crow-Armstrong for the No. 2 slot (and the Cubs’ team lead) in AXE late in June, before Crow-Armstrong reasserted himself. But Tucker’s production is metronomic: His AXE at the last Awards Watch was 130, and he is now at 135. Tucker has an .839 OPS at Wrigley Field as compared to .905 on the road, where 12 of his 17 homers have been hit. But if warmer weather and outward-blowing winds become consistent in Chicago, a Tucker power surge could be in the offing. If that happens, look out.

Cy Young

American League

Front-runner: Tarik Skubal, Detroit Tigers (151 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Garrett Crochet, Red Sox (149); 3. (tie) Framber Valdez, Astros, Joe Ryan, Twins (138); 5. Hunter Brown, Astros (137); 6. Nathan Eovaldi, Texas Rangers (136); 7. Kris Bubic, Royals (134); 8. Max Fried, Yankees (133); 9. Jacob deGrom, Rangers (132); 10. Bryan Woo, Mariners (126).

Leader trend: Skubal was fourth in AXE among AL pitchers last time out, though he was still the clear front-runner to repeat as AL Cy Young. A few more weeks have brought AXE in line with reality, as Skubal has gone to that magical place few pitchers ever reach.

Skubal’s blastoff actually began when we posted the last Awards Watch, as he was coming off a complete-game, two-hit shutout against Cleveland. Perhaps the most impressive part of that outing is that he recorded 13 strikeouts on just 94 pitches. Well, since then, Skubal did the same thing to Minnesota: 13 whiffs on 93 pitches on June 29.

In eight outings following the last Watch, Skubal has gone 5-1 with a 1.89 ERA, thrown at least seven innings five times and posted an absurd ratio of 61 strikeouts to nine walks. This race isn’t over, but it’s clearly Skubal’s to win.

Biggest mover: DeGrom missed the top 10 last time, but since then, he has shown every indication of ramping back up to his historic level of stifling run prevention. He’s doing it a little differently than he did in his Mets heyday, emphasizing pitch efficiency to a greater extent.

DeGrom’s 26% strikeout rate is his lowest in nearly a decade, and he has reached double digits in whiffs just once this season. But he has a sparkling 2.32 ERA and has been at 2.20 over eight starts since the last Awards Watch. He had a string of five straight starts when he threw at least six innings, reaching seven twice, all without hitting the 90-pitch mark.

Keep an eye on: Crochet has been coming on like gangbusters, as has the team around him. He finished his first half with a complete-game, three-hit shutout of Tampa Bay, closing the AXE gap between him and Skubal. Crochet leads the AL in innings pitched (129⅓), strikeouts (160) and ERA+ (185). We’ve seen Skubal do this for a full season; now, it’s up to Crochet to prove he can match the reigning Cy Young winner start for start in what’s shaping up as a great race.

National League

Front-runner: Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh Pirates (150 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Zack Wheeler, Philadelphia Phillies (148); 3. Cristopher Sanchez, Phillies (143); 4. MacKenzie Gore, Nationals (135); 5. Nick Pivetta, Padres (133); 6. Ranger Suarez, Phillies (132); 7. (tie) Andrew Abbott, Reds, Freddy Peralta, Milwaukee Brewers (131); 9. Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants (130); 10. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Dodgers (128)

Leader trend: The numbers between Wheeler and Skenes are so close, it’s hard not to fixate on the disparity in the win-loss columns: Wheeler is 9-3, while the criminally under-supported Skenes is 4-8. Recently, I re-pitched the notion of a revised win-loss record based on game scores, so that’s worth taking a fresh look at to see if the difference in the traditional records is misleading.

Well, it is and it isn’t. Skenes has suffered a string of hard-luck game score losses of late and now sits at 11-9 by that method. Wheeler, meanwhile, is an MLB-best 16-3. Wheeler also has a solid edge in average game score at 65.2, as compared to 63.2 for Skenes. For now, Wheeler has the edge.

Will it last? Consider another byproduct of that game score work: pitcher temperature. You win a game score matchup, the temp goes up. You lose, it goes down. Each starter begins his career at the average temperature of 72 degrees, and it goes back and forth from there. The hottest starter in baseball by this method: Wheeler, at 127.2 degrees. Because of his recent bad run, Skenes has cooled to 68.7 degrees.

Biggest mover: For now, Sanchez has seized the spot just behind Wheeler, which of course makes him a mere No. 2 in his own rotation. Sanchez was overlooked when the NL All-Star rosters were released, and it was a true oversight. Like Wheeler, Sanchez has been fiery hot, with a string of excellent outings since the last Awards Watch. Over nine starts during that span, Sanchez has 1.77 ERA and 2.11 FIP, while pitching seven innings or more six times.

Keep an eye on: Let’s just stick with our Phillies theme and keep our eyes on their whole rotation. Wheeler (second), Sanchez (third) and Suarez (sixth) are entrenched in the top 10. Meanwhile, Jesus Luzardo (126 AXE), who led this category last time out, just missed giving the Phillies four rotation members in the top 10. Philadelphia leads the majors in average game score and is second in the NL (behind Cincinnati) in game score win-loss percentage.

Rookie of the Year

American League

Front-runner: Jacob Wilson, Athletics (121 AXE)

Next nine: 2. Carlos Narvaez, Red Sox (120); 3. Cam Smith, Astros (116); 4. Noah Cameron, Royals (115); 5. Nick Kurtz, Athletics (108); 6. Jake Mangum, Tampa Bay Rays (107); 7. (tie) Mike Vasil, Chicago White Sox, Will Warren, Yankees, Jasson Dominguez, Yankees (106); 10. Roman Anthony, Red Sox (105)

Leader trend: Wilson has come back to the pack on the AXE leaderboard, perhaps inevitably after his remarkable start to the season. He was hitting .348 at the last Awards Watch then went out and pushed that number to .372 on June 8. Since then, Wilson has hit just .222 and has just three extra-base hits over 24 games. Wilson’s quick beginning turned enough heads to get him voted as the AL’s starting shortstop in the All-Star Game. But he has been replaced by Smith as the AL Rookie of the Year favorite at ESPN BET.

Biggest mover: Smith has mashed his way into prominence, but he’s proving to be a well-rounded young hitter despite just 32 games of minor league experience. Alas, his surprising .277 batting average is driven by a .378 BABIP that doesn’t seem likely to hold up. However, Smith has just seven homers, and if his game power starts to match his raw power, he can easily replace any loss in average with a gain in slugging.

Keep an eye on: Kurtz has been picking up the pace, especially in the power category, manifesting what was his calling card prior to reaching the majors. Kurtz hit the IL with a hip injury on the day the last Awards Watch went out. He had just started to drive the ball before getting hurt, and he has gone right on slugging since he came back. After homering just once over his first 23 games, Kurtz has since gone deep 16 times in 35 contests while slugging .713 in the process.

National League

Front-runner: Caleb Durbin, Brewers (113 AXE)

Next nine: 2. (tie) Chad Patrick, Brewers, Drake Baldwin, Atlanta Braves (112); 4. (tie) Hyeseong Kim, Dodgers, Isaac Collins, Brewers (109); 6. (tie) Jack Dreyer, Dodgers, Brad Lord, Nationals (105); 8. (tie) Liam Hicks, Miami Marlins, Lake Bachar, Marlins, Yohel Pozo, St. Louis Cardinals (104)

Leader trend: The race remains tepid. One of those players tied for second — Patrick, the leader in this category last time out — is back in Triple A, joining Logan Henderson (not listed here, but who ranks 11th) in the rotation at Nashville. It’s not because of failures on their part, though, it’s just because Milwaukee is so flush with starting pitching. Speaking of which …

Biggest mover: Jacob Misiorowski had yet to debut when we last convened, but he has since become a must-watch big league starter and, amazingly, an All-Star.

He won his first three starts while posting a 1.13 ERA, then put up his first stinker in a loss to the Mets. He followed that with a head-turning six innings of dominance against the defending champion Dodgers, whiffing 12 L.A. batters and beating future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. The end result: Misiorowski has become ESPN BET’s new front-runner for top NL rookie.

Keep an eye on: Kim has been as good as advertised for the Dodgers, matching the elite defense and baserunning we knew he had with a surprising 137 OPS+ over 119 plate appearances. Now, in the wake of Max Muncy‘s knee injury, Kim should be more of a lineup fixture, at least for a few weeks.

Manager of the Year

American League

Front-runner: A.J. Hinch, Tigers (112 EARL)

Next four: 2. Joe Espada, Astros (109); 3. Ron Washington, Los Angeles Angels (108); 4. John Schneider, Toronto Blue Jays (107); 5. Dan Wilson, Mariners (103)

Overview: It’s bittersweet to see Washington on the leaderboard now that we know he won’t be back this season because of a health issue. That leaves a pretty good battle between Hinch and Espada, his bench coach with the Astros. The Tigers’ historic pace with such a young team has Hinch in front. But Houston’s surge despite injuries and underperformances is the kind of thing that will catch a voter’s eye.

National League

Front-runner: Pat Murphy, Brewers (108 EARL)

Next four: 2. (tie) Oliver Marmol, Cardinals; Bob Melvin, Giants (106); 4. (tie) Craig Counsell, Cubs; Clayton McCullough, Marlins (105)

Overview: This is a hard race to read. Marmol is a classic candidate, guiding a low-expectation team to a good record and playoff contention. But the Cardinals might be on the verge of dropping back. Meanwhile, the Brewers have become the NL’s hottest team, nudging Murphy, last year’s NL Manager of the Year, into the lead at the break. But in both manager categories, these stories are very far from being written.

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MLB betting: Top storylines for the season’s second half

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July 16, 2025

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MLB betting: Top storylines for the season's second half

Coming off his second American League MVP season in 2024, New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge opened as the favorite to repeat for the award. He has only helped his argument by posting the AL’s best average (.355) as well as its second-most home runs (35) and RBIs (81) at the All-Star break. However, as excellent as his season has been, a stunning breakout campaign from Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh is closing the gap in the odds.

Judge currently shows -600 odds to win the AL MVP in 2025, a major improvement from his leading +300 at the start of the season, according to ESPN BET lines. However, Raleigh now has the second-best odds +325, a remarkable shortening from his opening 100-1 price.

Judge’s short odds all season — which reached an incredible -1,000 in mid-May — dictated that he was never going to be an attractive option for bettors, with BetMGM reporting 5.2% of the bettors backing him for the award, fifth best in the market.

Raleigh, on the other hand, made a slow progression up the odds board, allowing bettors to take advantage of his long plus-pricing for some time. Caesars Sportsbook baseball lead Eric Biggio said many of the sportsbook’s customers grabbed the Mariners backstop at 90-1 back in early May. Judge’s excellence actually helped keep Raleigh at a long price, according to another bookmaker, since Judge’s extremely short price needed to be balanced.

BetMGM said Raleigh holds a leading 33% of the handle for AL MVP, the book’s largest liability in the market. His laidback attitude, Home Run Derby win and amusing nickname could continue to fuel his MVP narrative … and make trouble for sportsbooks.

“As much as I like him, as much as I enjoy rooting for the Big Dumper, he’s a pretty big liability for us,” Biggio told ESPN. “We’ve got some pretty big tickets on Raleigh to win the MVP and for the home run leader.”

The latter market is also an intriguing one: Even as Raleigh (38) holds a three-homer lead over Judge, the Yankees slugger is still the solid favorite to sock the most dingers this season, showing -140 odds to Raleigh’s +130 at ESPN BET. Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani holds +800 odds to accompany his 32 home runs.

“If Raleigh wins either one of those two awards, we’re not going to be in as good of shape with him as we are with those other two guys,” DraftKings Sportsbook director Johnny Avello told ESPN.

Ohtani is also the solid favorite for National League MVP at -700, but Chicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong is putting some degree of pressure on him at +750. BetMGM reports PCA as its biggest liability in that market.

World Series favorites

Ahead of the 2025 season, the Dodgers were an astounding +160 to win the National League pennant and +275 to win the World Series, per ESPN BET lines — the shortest odds to win MLB’s championship since the 2003 Yankees. At the All-Star break, not a whole lot has changed, with L.A. now a +140 favorite to take the NL crown and a +240 favorite for the World Series.

Things have not gone as expected on the American League side, however. After opening the season at +1200 to win the AL and +3000 to take the World Series, the Detroit Tigers now display the best record in baseball, bringing their pennant odds to a favorite’s +250 and their championship odds to +700, tied with the Yankees for second best.

The underdog story resonated with the betting public, who began backing the Tigers at the first indications that they could make some noise not only in the AL Central, but in the league at large. Biggio said Detroit is Caesars’ second-largest liability, behind only the San Francisco Giants.

“We had some longer prices, and the public spotted it early that they’re a legit squad,” he said. “So some big prices on the Tigers to win it all, and they are for real.”

“They’ve become a popular futures selection, now our second-most bet World Series winner by total bets, and third-most popular pick by handle,” ESPN BET’s VP of sportsbook strategy and growth Adam Landeka said via email. “Given their relatively longer price earlier in the season, we already know we’ll be a fan of almost any team the Tigers face in the postseason.”

While Detroit’s concern will be coaching its relatively inexperienced core to a postseason run, L.A.’s will be staying healthy. Bookmakers remark that the Dodgers’ ability to keep winning games despite several significant injuries is a testament to their depth, thus keeping them a favorite in the long run.

Young arms

The eyes of the baseball world turned to Milwaukee for a seemingly random matinee game June 25. It was the first head-to-head matchup between Pittsburgh Pirates ace Paul Skenes and Milwaukee Brewers rookie Jacob Misiorowski, two of the brightest future pitching stars in baseball. It would prove to be significant for at least one of them.

Prior to his MLB debut on June 12, Misirowski was +2500 to win NL Rookie of the Year. That day he moved to +1000, then to +175 after his second start, before finally becoming the odds-on favorite at -120 after getting the better of Skenes, according to ESPN BET’s Landeka. At the break, “The Miz” is -220 to take home the award. Sportsbooks were able to stay on top of his rapid ascendancy, limiting their liability.

“We were able to move this guy pretty quickly,” Avello said. “That’s one that didn’t get hit, could have had some good value there. We’re in pretty good shape with him actually.”

Skenes, meanwhile, is having another remarkable season after taking home ROY honors last year, but his disappointing record (4-8) for a dismal Pirates team could be keeping him from being the NL Cy Young favorite. He currently shows -105 odds at ESPN BET, trailing Philadelphia Phillies ace Zack Wheeler at -130.

It’s largely a two-man race — Wheeler’s teammate, Cristopher Sanchez, is next closest in the odds at +2000 — but sportsbooks aren’t too worried about liability given the short prices on Skenes and Wheeler all season.

“We’ve seen comparable action on both, but as it stands now Skenes would be a better result for us,” Landeka said.

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NHL schedule release: Bruins, Penguins, Maple Leafs and more lead top reveals

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July 16, 2025

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NHL schedule release: Bruins, Penguins, Maple Leafs and more lead top reveals

The 2025-26 NHL season is slowly approaching and teams checked another offseason box on Wednesday by revealing their schedules for the upcoming campaign.

Creativity abounded as squads looked to show off their upcoming calendar in distinctive ways. The Boston Bruins enlisted comedian Bill Burr to help unveil their schedule. The Pittsburgh Penguins went with a hospital theme. Dogs were brought in to help out the Toronto Maple Leafs with their reveal.

Headlined by those and more, here’s a look at the social media schedule release posts from each NHL team.

Boston Bruins

Pittsburgh Penguins

Toronto Maple Leafs

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