Kakko doesn’t think Rangers criticism led to deal
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Kaapo Kakko doesn’t believe his criticism of the New York Rangers led to his being traded to Seattle on Wednesday night, although Kraken general manager Ron Francis believes the player’s candor might have accelerated a deal.
Kakko, 23, candidly disagreed with coach Peter Laviolette’s decision to make him a healthy scratch for the Rangers’ loss in St. Louis on Sunday. “I know we’re losing games, but I think it’s just easy to take the young guy and put him out,” he said.
Kakko also noted that while his line hadn’t generated a lot of offense — the forward had four goals and 10 assists in 30 games for the Rangers — opponents hadn’t scored much when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. “I’ve not been the worst guy, [but] that was me out of the lineup,” he said Tuesday
The next day, the Rangers traded Kakko to the Kraken for defenseman Will Borgen, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL entry draft.
An NHL source indicated that the Rangers weren’t reacting to Kakko’s comments in making that trade — that the move was made to continue to reshape the struggling team and because Kakko is a restricted free agent next summer to whom the Rangers weren’t ready to commit long term.
Kakko also believed his comments weren’t the catalyst for the trade.
“I don’t think it’s because of that. The team was playing not well enough. I was kind of waiting something is going to happen, and I knew also it might be me,” said Kakko of the Rangers, who are 3-11-0 in their past 14 games. “I mean, with those comments, I was kind of frustrated and I was honest and then that’s what I thought at the time.”
But Francis feels Kakko’s criticism might have hastened the trade.
Francis said that he and Rangers GM Chris Drury had talked about a Kakko trade for at least a week before it happened but that interest picked up in recent days.
“I would think when he was a healthy scratch that Chris got a lot of calls, not just from me. That tends to be the nature of the beast in our business. We had already started having conversations when the comments came out,” he said. “So it’s kind of an awkward situation. You’ve got a disgruntled guy in your locker room. So did that speed things up? It probably did, but at the end of the day, I think Chris wasn’t just going to do something to do something. But could have been a factor as well.”
Kakko had been vocal during his time with the Rangers about his role and the ice time he received. He admitted on Thursday that there were discussions with management about a trade last season to give him a fresh start with another team, but he stopped short of characterizing those talks as “demanding” a trade.
“Last year was kind of bad year for me. I wasn’t good enough, to be honest,” he said regarding a season when he had 13 goals and six assists in 61 games.
Rather than get that fresh start, Kakko re-upped with the Rangers in June on a one-year contract worth $2.4 million.
“I didn’t have a contract after the last season. We were thinking about what’s the best thing for me and for the team. We talked about it a little bit, but then [I] ended up signing with the Rangers and wanted to play for them,” he said.
But 31 games into this season, the Rangers are a disappointment in the Eastern Conference, sitting in sixth place in the Metro Division. They already traded captain Jacob Trouba to Anaheim in a bid to shake up the roster. Then it was Kakko’s turn.
He said he realized something was afoot when he emerged from a hotel sauna in Dallas to discover that he had missed three phone calls from Drury.
Kakko said he’s looking forward to getting started with the Kraken, seeing the trade to Seattle as a second chapter for his NHL career. In 330 NHL games, he has 61 goals and 70 assists (131 points). His career best in goals was 18 in 2020-21.
“I liked my time in New York, but it never worked out the way we wanted. I think this is a new chance for me over here, and then we’ll see how it goes,” said Kakko, who again will be a restricted free agent after the season.
Francis said the Kraken intend to give Kakko a chance to make an immediate impact, playing him in their top six forwards and giving him power-play time.
“We’ll see what the coaches want to do there, but he’s played 300 games but he’s still only 23 years old. So we just think there’s the potential for upside, and that’s why we made the deal,” Francis said.
BALTIMORE — Shohei Ohtani tossed 3⅔ shutout innings Friday night in a surprise start for the Los Angeles Dodgers against Baltimore after teammate Tyler Glasnow was scratched due to back stiffness.
Ohtani threw 70 pitches, 44 for strikes, and reached 101.5 mph with his four-seam fastball against Orioles third baseman Emmanuel Rivera. The 31-year-old right-hander allowed three hits and a walk while striking out five, but the slumping Dodgers lost 2-1 in the opener of a three-game series.
Los Angeles dropped its fourth straight but remained two games up in the NL West over skidding San Diego.
Left-hander Anthony Banda replaced Ohtani in the fourth with Ryan Mountcastle at third base. Banda walked Dylan Beavers but then retired Samuel Basallo on a grounder to end the inning.
Dodgers teammate Freddie Freeman appreciated Ohtani’s effort on short notice.
“You could see he’s exhausted after an inning or two,” Freeman said. “It’s muggy. He’s still not healthy. He’s still sick. He gave it his all. It’s amazing what he’s doing. He’s throwing 100, 101 mph. We will be saying this every year about Shohei Ohtani until he retires. He’s a unicorn. He pitched great. Everything he had in that fourth inning to get out of it.”
Ohtani was scratched from his previous turn Wednesday due to a cough, and manager Dave Roberts projected the five-time All-Star would pitch fewer than five innings Friday.
“I was able to get my high-intensity catch play in yesterday so I felt pretty good chiming in today,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I was contacted around 2 o’clock and was told if I could potentially start today.
“I actually felt really good coming into the game today. Probably the worst I felt was game one and game two in Pittsburgh. I started to feel a lot better my last day in Pittsburgh.”
The two-way superstar threw five innings of two-hit ball his last time out on Aug. 27, allowing one run with nine strikeouts for his first win of the season in a 5-1 decision over the Cincinnati Reds.
Roberts saw Ohtani’s pitch count rising in the fourth and decided to go get him.
“I just felt that the pitch count was high,” Roberts said. “Initially, I was thinking four [innings] and 60 [pitches] for him. He was north of that. Even leading up to the fourth inning there was a lot of stress and a lot of high-velocity pitches. For me, I’m not going to risk him just to get another hitter where we have a guy that’s fresh that I felt needs to be able to get those lefties out. If it was a normal situation where it wasn’t short notice, then I would’ve let him get that hitter. We will have time to push him [later this season].”
Glasnow felt discomfort late Thursday night when the team plane landed. The back issue cropped up when he arrived at the ballpark and the right-hander is day-to-day, Roberts said.
“I think it’s just more of trusting the player and also knowing that he wants to be out there and feeling like we got ahead of it early,” Roberts said. “It’s not something that we got to a point where he’s hurt. It’s back stiffness. We feel like to not take this start will allow him to be able to start hopefully early next week.”
Ohtani batted leadoff Friday as the designated hitter again, and Roberts said the three-time MVP wanted to be a critical piece to ending the club’s slide.
“Shohei, to his credit, wants to pick us up,” Roberts said. “I really admire him for that.”
All-Star catcher Will Smith still has some swelling in his right hand and did not play. Roberts believes Smith will have to play through the bone bruise for the rest of the season.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Houston Astros outfielder Taylor Trammell is facing no discipline from Major League Baseball after umpires confiscated his two-color bat when New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone asked for it to be checked following a double.
Trammell said Friday, a day after the incident in the ninth inning of the Astros’ 8-4 loss to New York, that he had spoken with MLB officials. Trammell said he understood and appreciated their explanation of what happened because of some discoloration on the dark-colored barrel of the bat.
“We see it a lot with some guys who may have a wristband on or something like that, and just got to take it off. So, it’s nothing crazy, didn’t impact the ball or anything like that,” Trammell said before the American League West-leading Astros opened a series in Texas. “It was more so of an aesthetic of the eye, so that was basically the only thing.”
MLB regulations require a two-color bat to be divided into two sections, each of one solid color. That discoloration, while not likely to impact the performance, made it a nonconforming bat.
During the lengthy delay in the ninth inning Thursday night in Houston, both managers talked to plate umpire Adrian Johnson. The umpire then spoke with the replay office in New York before handing the bat to an official who was sitting near home plate.
Boone said Friday that he had asked umpires to check the bat only after it was brought to his attention that something didn’t look right about it.
“Frankly, that was something hard for me to do because I don’t think Taylor was up to anything. I really don’t,” Boone said. “In the moment, I felt like a duty to at least check in for my team. But, you know, I’m frankly satisfied with the ruling, the explanation.”
Trammell, who appeared in five games for the Yankees last season before going to Houston in November, said he wasn’t sure if he would get the bat back from MLB. But he would like to have it.
“I probably would just want it, to have it just because I can have a story to tell my grandkids about it. It’s kind of a cool, funny little story,” he said. “I don’t know if they’ll give it back. They put a sticker on it so it’s authenticated at least. … So, somebody is going to have it.”
Asked about his bats for the series against the playoff-chasing Rangers, Trammell held up the bat he had just used in batting practice.
“I’m making sure like there’s no chipping, there’s a little mark here,” he said, noting a small spot. “We’ve moved on. Like I said, respect for both organizations, and glad how everything kind of turned out.”
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