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Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov has won the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s best defensive forward for the second straight season.

Barkov has now won the Selke three times (2021, ’24, ’25) in his 12-season NHL career. Former Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron holds the all-time mark for most Selke wins with six.

Along with the Selke, Barkov was announced as the winner of the King Clancy Memorial Trophy, presented “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in his community.”

Barkov has been a longtime supporter of the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, a leading pediatric hospital that supports children with cancer, blood disorders, heart transplants, emergency care and rehabilitation. Several girls and boys from the hospital surprised Barkov with the two trophies at the Panthers’ practice facility recently.

“It was amazing,” Barkov told The Associated Press of receiving the awards from the kids. “I got a little emotional there. I didn’t really have words to say. That was very nicely done, and I was really thankful for everyone who was part of it.”

The NHL is announcing the winners of top individual awards a little differently this year, adding surprise elements with only a handful of people knowing what is happening ahead of time.

Barkov, 29, won the Selke by an impressive margin over linemate Sam Reinhart, a first-time finalist who finished second for the award. Barkov appeared on 173 of the 191 ballots as voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers Association and was the top choice on 96 of them. Reinhart had 29 first-place votes, tying him with Tampa Bay Lightning center Anthony Cirelli, another first-time finalist who finished third.

Barkov and Reinhart are the first teammates ever to finish first and second in Selke Trophy voting. This also marks the first time in 23 years that teammates have swept the top two positions for a voted-on NHL award.

The Panthers center helped his team to top-10 finishes in goals-against per game (7th), shots-against per game (5th) and penalty kill efficiency (10th). He ranked fourth among NHL forwards in shot-attempt percentage (59.3%), according to the NHL’s metrics.

The next two players outside the top three finalists were New Jersey Devils center Nico Hischier and Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel. Among the other players who received first-place votes were Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and two-time Selke winner Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings.

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Sources: Yankees get 3B in Rockies’ McMahon

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Sources: Yankees get 3B in Rockies' McMahon

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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Mets trade for reliever in Orioles left-hander Soto

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Mets trade for reliever in Orioles left-hander Soto

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.

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Fenway concession workers strike for Sox series

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Fenway concession workers strike for Sox series

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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