McGee’s Mascot Power Rankings: The best of the fun and furry in college football
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Ryan McGee
You probably missed it. Either because you were too distracted by the ongoing goings-on of conference media days, or perhaps because you miss a lot of stuff because your peripheral vision is perpetually hindered by tiny papier-mâché eye slots or swatches of flappy faux fur. But last week, the college mascots of America gathered in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to dance. And dance. And dance. No matter how big or felt-covered their feet might be.
As we watched the collegiate creatures cut a rug (not to mention their minor league baseball counterparts win the post-Coldplay interwebs), it got us thinking. No, not NIL/revenue sharing/eyes-glazed-over thinking. Fun thinking. Well, fun until we make one of them mad and they come for us in the night with those googly eyes.
Who is the greatest college football mascot in all the land?
It’s a complicated question. So, taking a page from the expanded CFP playbook and trying to make it fair, we made it even more convoluted. In a mascot multiverse made up of so many mixed-up monsters, mammals and miscellany, we decided to break up the discussion into five categories.
If you’d like to turn this into a bracket and sort out the champ, go for it. We’re going to stick with the divisions. Because we don’t want to wake up one morning to find that Cal Poly’s Musty the Mustang has left one of his horse heads in our bed.
Costume Division
5. Keggy the Keg, Dartmouth
For decades, Dartmouth, which dropped the symbol and nickname “Indians” from its sports teams in the early 1970s, had no mascot to go with its new moniker “The Big Green.” But in 2003, an on-campus humor magazine debuted an anthropomorphic beer keg and named it Keggy the Keg. And yes, that is the most Ivy League sentence I have ever written.
To no one’s surprise, the still-new internet made Keggy famous. Also to no one’s surprise, Dartmouth administrators didn’t like that. Despite the foamy resistance and its ongoing status as an unofficial mascot, there aren’t many events where Keggy isn’t serving up cold and refreshing support for the Big Green.
4. The Stanford Tree
Different coast, similar story. Stanford also ditched the “Indians” name and mascot in the early ’70s, and while the name “Cardinal” was adopted, the always quirky Stanford band pitched a series of mascots during halftime shows that members believed represented life on the campus known as The Farm. The Steaming Manhole, French Fry, Robber Barons, Spikes and Huns all failed to receive official status. But in 1975, a janky homemade tree started dancing around and has been gyrating in Palo Alto ever since.
The new mascot is chosen each year during “Tree Week” with the candidates auditioning in their own self-constructed costumes. The Tree also has never received official status, since the team is the Cardinal, and if you are looking for an actual cardinal, it can be found in an actual tree.
3. Big Red, Western Kentucky
Unlike Keggy and the Tree, Big Red isn’t homemade, he just looks like he is. Western Kentucky is home of the Hilltoppers, and in 1979 a student was charged with producing a mascot that embodied the Hilltopper spirit. Ralph Carey sketched out a red blob and built it with $300 worth of stuff he bought at a hardware and craft store.
The result is a creature that is nothing, but also everything. I’m not saying WKU’s Big Red eyeball helmets of 2024 were the greatest lids in college football history. But I’m also not saying they weren’t.
Big Red 𝘴𝘦𝘦𝘴 all 👀 pic.twitter.com/jsztJjJTzQ
— WKU Football (@WKUFootball) October 3, 2024
2. Brutus, Ohio State
As hard as it is to believe, before 1965 there was no mascot in Columbus. After flirting with the idea of bringing a live buck onto the sidelines of the Horseshoe, a student vote settled on Buckeyes, honoring the official state tree of Ohio, and the name Brutus.
Over the years, Brutus generally has been considered the template for the “person in clothes but with a huge plastic head” model for modern mascot business. Thankfully, Brutus has experienced some extreme cranial makeovers — and shrinkage — through the ages. The O.G. O-H-I-O Buckeye looked more like a chocolate bonbon bowing ball than a fearsome football foe.
1. The Duck, Oregon
We promise we’re not just doing this because Walt Disney helped Oregon devise its mascot (and ESPN is a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Co.). We’re doing it because as much as Brutus showed the sideline way, the Duck has written the book on how to be a feathered friend to one’s fan base in the modern era, from holding signs over Lee Corso’s shoulder on “College Game Day” to the stadium entrance GIF that every human with a smartphone has either seen or used.
The Duck would have an aviary argument to be in this spot simply based on his surprise photo bomb tour of the stadiums of the Big Ten prior to Oregon joining the league one year ago. Just this week the Duck has ducked down to Australia and, of course, taken all photos in Southern Hemisphere form.
˙ʎɐʍ ʎqɐllɐʍ ᘔ߈ ‘uɐɯɹǝɥs ˙d pic.twitter.com/FmwSXk9OzZ
— The Duck (@TheOregonDuck) July 20, 2025
Mechanized Division
5. Cocky in the Cockaboose, South Carolina
Cocky is one of America’s most underrated costume mascots, with a Big Red-like bouncy body and the biggest feet this side of Shaquille O’Neal. Prior to every game at Williams-Brice Stadium, amid the stirring sounds of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Cocky rides onto the field in a train pulling a red caboose, a nod to the folks in the “Cockaboose” luxury boxes partying outside the stadium, and escorting Gamecocks celebs, from Marcus Lattimore to Darius Rucker.
4. Monte on a Harley, Montana
Monte, which is short for Montana (duh), is a grizzly (duh) who has been known to enter Washington-Grizzly Stadium atop and astride more high-powered machinery than can be found in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s garage. His most famous entrances have been on a custom-made Harley-Davidson, but he has also had his paws around the throttle of ATVs, the tailgate of a pickup truck and the reins of a horse, long brown mane bouncing in the wind like Chewbacca behind the wheel of the Millennium Falcon.
3. Demon Deacon on a chopper, Wake Forest
Every autumn Saturday, the brick walls around Winston-Salem are rattled by the black and gold hog wheeled by the Demon Deacon. It’s a custom-built machine that could have come from the Johnny Cash song “One Piece at a Time” with what looks like an amalgamation of a Kawasaki Vulcan 800, Captain America’s rig from “Easy Rider” and whatever was left over from one of Evel Knievel’s crashes in the 1970s.
2. Buzz in the Ramblin’ Wreck, Georgia Tech
Keeping it in the ACC, Georgia Tech sticks to the Deep South tradition of having multiple mascots inspired by songs, stories and stuff that people forgot the details about long ago. Buzz is a yellow jacket, a name attached to Tech since students started attending games in the 1890s wearing, yes, yellow jackets. Around that same time, the “Ramblin’ Wreck” was conjured as a nod to the school’s legendary engineering program and makeshift vehicles pieced together by students during overseas projects. The current ride is a 1930 Ford Model A Sport coupe that has led the team on the field since 1961. Buzz has been hitching rides on the back since 1972.
1. Sooner Schooner, Oklahoma
Since 1964, a slightly shrunken Studebaker Conestoga wagon pulled by a pair of ponies named Boomer and Sooner has hammered its way onto the field before Oklahoma football games, a la the Oklahoma Territory Land Run of 1889. It is steered by the peerless RUF/NEKS, the school’s rootin’-tootin’ spirit squad. When it works, it’s awesome. When it doesn’t, it’s pretty scary … but still pretty awesome.
Human Division
5. Vili the Warrior, Hawai’i
A staple of Hawai’i home games for years, Vili the Warrior (aka Vili Fehoko) was so amazing that he makes this list even though he hasn’t been on the Warriors sideline since 2011. His drumming and leading of traditional islander chants at a local Polynesian education center earned him an invite onto the field from the coaching staff of June Jones. There, he taught an entire stadium through his performances of the haka, a war chant that encapsulated Hawai’i’s feelings of native pride and captured the attention of America when the team earned a BCS-crashing invite to the 2008 Sugar Bowl and Vili performed before the game.
Today, Fehoko has crowds chanting around the NFL, where his son Breiden plays nose tackle, most recently for the Steelers. With a new Hawai’i stadium slated to come online by 2028, maybe let’s get Vili to coach up a new generation of Vili Warriors?
4. Chief Osceola, Florida State
Few pregame moments are as dramatic as when this Florida State student rides out onto the field on Renegade the horse and spikes an actual flaming spear into the 50-yard line at Doak Campbell Stadium, especially if he rides too close to an unknowing sportswriter who has wandered in his way like an idiot … not that I ever did that. Though some members of the Seminole tribe have expressed concerns about the portrayal, tribe leadership has long officially endorsed the tribute to their legendary leader and the university is quick to state that the Seminoles “are not our mascots, they are our partners.”
3. Masked Rider, Texas Tech
Dressed in black with a scarlet cape, this black-masked gaucho gallops into Lubbock atop a trusty black steed, the first college mascot to ride horseback, predating Chief Osceola and USC’s Traveler. What started as a prank — a student with a borrowed horse and a cape made in the home economics department suddenly riding across the field during a game — has become the Zorro of college sports.
2. The Mountaineer, West Virginia, and Davy Crockett, Tennessee
I can already see my mentions from by-god WVU and my fellow Tennessee alums for the sharing of this spot, but two rowdy mountain men in coonskin caps who wield custom-built mountaineer rifles? I’ll take my chances with those dudes walking into any tense situation, especially a football Saturday.
Back in the day, those rifles worked. Still one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen was at Boston College in the early days of the Big East football conference. Whenever West Virginia scored — and that day, it was a lot — that Mountaineer would blast his powder musket and those poor startled people of Chestnut Hill were convinced the Redcoats were back in town.
1. The Notre Dame Leprechaun
For years, Notre Dame’s only mascot was an Irish terrier. But in 1964, an artist was commissioned to come up with a leprechaun design that first landed on the cover of Time magazine and then found its way onto the South Bend sideline.
In the beginning, candidates were expected to be short and redheaded, and they had to grow a chinstrap beard, but in the years since, there have been female and African American leprechauns. As long as they can survive the spring tryout gauntlet of Notre Dame trivia, 50 pushups and their best Irish jig, they have a chance to share a field with Marcus Freeman and Rudy.
Live Animal Division
5. War Eagle, Auburn
There are more actual birds to choose from than most might realize, from the Falconry of Air Force to Sir Big Spur, a Gamecock so beloved that it triggered a feud in South Carolina. But anyone who has ever been in the presence of the War Eagle knows that size does matter, whether the eagle is swooping its way around Jordan-Hare Stadium during pregame festivities or is perched on the arm of one of its keepers from Auburn University’s Raptor Center, which rescues and heals birds of all types. When either Aurea or Independence opens its wings, you understand why forest animals learn how to hide. It’s scary.
4. Mike the Tiger, LSU
Speaking of size, Mike VII of Baton Rouge weighs in at 420 pounds. The size of his head alone is intimidating. His habitat is also massive, a 15,000-foot custom-built enclosure that’s across the street from Death Valley and operated by the school’s veterinary school. He has such a close relationship with the students assigned to take care of him that he knows the sound of their cars when they arrive.
3. Bevo, Texas
Meanwhile, Bevo, the longhorn who made his first appearance on a Longhorns sideline in 1916, has his own section of a ranch, located about 45 minutes away from Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. He weighs more than 1,700 pounds and has horns that span 58 inches. There is an entire association dedicated to his care, an entire scholarship in his name and an entire streak of cold blood still in the veins of anyone who was at the 2019 Sugar Bowl when he charged at another live mascot. That’s called game face.
2. Ralphie, Colorado
Speaking of charging, Ralphie, the furry face of Colorado football, doesn’t weigh quite as much as Bevo, tipping the scales at around 1,200 pounds. But while Bevo mostly stands there, in Boulder, she — yes, she — carries that load onto the field at 25 mph, steered (hopefully) by four handlers.
My father, a former college football official, tells a story about the logistics meeting held the night before the 1990 Orange Bowl, a game between Colorado and Notre Dame with heavy national title implications. Everyone in the room was perfectly clear on every detail of the night but one. As the meeting wrapped up, Fighting Irish head coach Lou Holtz stood and shouted, “Wait! How the hell does this work with the buffalo?!” Everyone laughed. Then they realized Holtz was serious.
1. Uga, Georgia
Despite Bevo’s best efforts, the pampered bulldog who lives “between the hedges” is still the leader of college football’s animal kingdom. The Seiler family of Savannah is keeper of the direct Uga bloodline that runs back to the 1950s, bringing His Royal Mugness up to Athens on game weekends, where he has the presidential suite in the on-campus hotel (Rece Davis was once booted from that room to accommodate the dog, for real) and a customized SUV traveling compartment and hangs out in a temperature-controlled doghouse during games. Uga wasn’t the first dog mascot (shoutout to Yale’s Handsome Dan) and he is one of dozens of college canines, but he’s still top dog.
Bonus: Non-Football Division
5. Fighting Okra, Delta State
It’s a giant okra that wears boxing gloves fighting its way through Mississippi. What else could you want?
4. King Triton, UC-San Diego
It’s a giant undersea king with a trident who looks like he might break into song at any moment, or yell at Ariel for bringing all that junk into the house. What else could you want?
3. Sammy the Slug, UC-Santa Cruz
It’s a giant yellow mollusk that was featured on the T-shirt worn by John Travolta in “Pulp Fiction.” What else could you want?
2. The Gael, Saint Mary’s College
It’s a giant, jacked Irish warrior who looks like a 1980s barbarian action hero, inspired by a nickname given to the school by Grantland Rice, aka the greatest American sportswriter who ever lived. What else could you want?
1. Friar Dom, Providence
It’s a giant Dominican friar with a fixed face of fear and eyeballs so huge that it looks as if he is peering into your damned, sinful soul. What else could you want? Actually, a lot. He stared me down during an NCAA tournament game a decade ago and I haven’t slept through the night since.
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David Schoenfield
There’s plenty of history in the rivalry between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies. It’s about 116 miles from Citi Field to Citizens Bank Park. The two teams been competing for the NL East since 1969. Star players from Tug McGraw to Jerry Koosman to Lenny Dykstra to Pedro Martinez to Zack Wheeler have played for both franchises. Mets fans loathe the Phanatic, and Phillies fans laugh derisively at Mr. Met.
Despite this longevity, the two teams have rarely battled for a division title in the same season. The only years they finished No. 1 and 2 or were battling for a division lead late in the season:
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1986: Mets finished 21.5 games ahead
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2001: Both finished within six games of the Braves
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2006: Mets finished 12 games ahead
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2007: Phillies finished one game ahead
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2008: Phillies finished three games ahead
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2024: Phillies finished six games ahead of Mets and Braves
So it’s a rare treat to see the Mets and Phillies battling for the NL East lead in as New York faces the San Francisco Giants on “Sunday Night Baseball” this week. This season has also been a bit of bumpy ride for both teams, so there is pressure on both front offices to make trade deadline additions in hopes of winning the World Series that has eluded both franchises in recent years despite high payrolls and star-laden rosters. Let’s dig into what both teams need to do before Thursday.
The perfect trade deadline for the Mets
1. Bullpen help
The Mets already acquired hard-throwing lefty Gregory Soto from the Orioles, but David Stearns will likely look for another reliever, given that the Mets’ bullpen has struggled since the beginning of June with a 5.02 ERA. In my grade of the trade, I pointed out the importance for the Mets to add left-handed relief. Think of potential playoff opponents and all the key left-handed batters: Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper on the Phillies; Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy on the Dodgers; Kyle Tucker, Michael Busch and Pete Crow-Armstrong on the Cubs.
Soto has held lefties to a .138 average this season, and it does help that the Mets have two lefty starters in David Peterson and Sean Manaea. They also just activated Brooks Raley after he had been out since early 2024. If he is back to his 2022-23 form, when he had a 2.74 ERA and held lefties to a .209 average, maybe the Mets will feel good enough about their southpaw relief.
They could still use another dependable righty reliever. Mets starters were hot early on, but they weren’t going deep into games, and outside of Peterson, the lack of longer outings is a big reason the bullpen ERA has skyrocketed. Carlos Mendoza has overworked his setup guys, including Huascar Brazoban and Reed Garrett. Brazoban has never been much of a strike thrower anyway, and Garrett similarly faded in the second half last season. Adding a high-leverage righty to set up Edwin Diaz makes sense. Candidates there include David Bednar of the Pirates, Ryan Helsley of the Cardinals, Griffin Jax or Jhoan Duran of the Twins, or maybe a longer shot such as Emmanuel Clase or Cade Smith of the Guardians.
2. Think big, as in Eugenio Suarez
Mark Vientos was a huge key to last season’s playoff appearance and trip to the NLCS, hitting .266/.322/.516 with 27 home runs after beginning the season in Triple-A. He hasn’t been able to replicate that performance, though, hitting .224/.279/.354. That has led to a revolving door at third base, with Vientos, Brett Baty and Ronny Mauricio starting games there in July. Overall, Mets third basemen ranked 24th in the majors in OPS entering Friday.
Lack of production at third is one reason the Mets’ offense has been mediocre rather than very good — they’re averaging 4.38 runs per game, just below the NL average of 4.43. They could use another premium bat, given the lack of production they’ve received from center field and catcher (not to mention Francisco Lindor‘s slump since the middle of June). Maybe Francisco Alvarez‘s short stint back in Triple-A will get his bat going now that he’s back in the majors, but going after Suarez to hit behind Juan Soto and Pete Alonso would lengthen the lineup.
3. Reacquire Harrison Bader to play CF
Tyrone Taylor is a plus defender in center and has made several incredible catches, but he’s hitting .209/.264/.306 for a lowly OPS+ of 65. Old friend Bader is having a nice season with the Twins, hitting .251/.330/.435. Maybe that’s a little over his head, given that he had a .657 OPS with the Mets last season, but he would still be an offensive upgrade over Taylor without losing anything on defense — and he wouldn’t cost a top-tier prospect. The Mets could still mix in Jeff McNeil against the really tough righties, but adding Suarez and Bader would give this lineup more of a championship feel.
The perfect deadline for the Phillies
1. Acquire Jhoan Duran
Like the Mets, the Phillies already made a move here, signing free agent David Robertson, who had a 3.00 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 72 innings last season with the Rangers. On paper, he should help, but he’s also 40 and will need a few games in the minors to get ready. Even with Robertson, the Phillies could use some more help here. They’ll eventually get Jose Alvarado back from his 60-game PED suspension, but Alvarado is ineligible for the postseason. At least the Mets have an elite closer in Edwin Diaz. Jordan Romano leads the Phillies with eight saves and has a 6.69 ERA. Matt Strahm is solid, but more useful as a lefty setup guy than a closer (think of all those left-handed batters we listed for the Mets, then sub out Juan Soto and Brandon Nimmo for Harper and Schwarber).
And the Phillies’ bullpen has consistently come up short in big games. Think back to last year’s NLDS, when Jeff Hoffman lost twice to the Mets. Or 2023, when Craig Kimbrel lost two games in the NLCS against the Diamondbacks. Or the 2022 World Series, when Yordan Alvarez hit the huge home run off Alvarado in the clinching Game 6.
So, yes, a shutdown closer is a must. Maybe that’s Bednar, maybe Clase if he’s available (although he struggled in last year’s postseason), maybe Helsley. But the guy Dave Dombrowski should go all-in to get: Duran. The window for the Phillies is slowly closing as the core players get older. Duran is under control through 2027, so he’s a fit for now and the immediate future. The trade cost might be painful, but with his 100 mph fastball and splitter, he has the elite stuff you need in October.
2. Add Ryan O’Hearn
The Phillies have received below-average production from both left field (mostly Max Kepler) and center field (Brandon Marsh/Johan Rojas platoon). The center-field market is pretty thin except for Bader or maybe a gamble on Luis Robert Jr. I’d pass on Robert, stick with the Marsh/Rojas platoon and upgrade left field with O’Hearn, who is hitting .281/.375/.452 for the Orioles. He isn’t the perfect fit since, like Kepler, he hits left-handed and struggles against lefties, but he’s a patient hitter with a much better OBP, and he’s passable in the outfield.
3. Acquire Willi Castro
Here’s the bottom line: The Phillies have to admit that some of their long-term position players aren’t getting the job done — such as second baseman Bryson Stott, who has a 77 OPS+. Third baseman Alec Bohm has been better but also has a below-average OPS.
That makes Castro a nice fit. He’s not a star, but he’s an above-average hitter, a switch-hitter who plays all over the field for the Twins, having started games at five different positions. He could play second or third or start in left field against a lefty. Philadelphia could even start him in center instead of Rojas, although that would be a defensive hit. Bottom line: Castro would give the Phillies a lot more versatility — or a significant offensive upgrade over Stott if they start him every day at second.
Note as well: Stott has hit .188 in 33 career postseason games. Bohm has hit .214 with two home runs in 34 postseason games. The Phillies need a different offensive look for October.
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Buster Olney
It would be ideal if every MLB team were so desperate to win that they would do whatever it takes. But in an industry with so many variables from team to team — roster composition, payroll commitment, market size, owner ambition, fan rabidity and history — some organizations are willing to go further and do more than others.
The New York Mets paid more in luxury taxes last season ($97 million) than the Pittsburgh Pirates have dedicated to payroll this season, and Pittsburgh could attempt to reduce salary commitments even further at this year’s trade deadline.
Some teams are more desperate than others. As we near the July 31 deadline, we present the teams most desperate to make a deal.
New York played in the World Series last year, and in a lot of markets, that might be enough to satisfy a fan base. But not with the Yankees, whose most faithful fans judge them under the George Steinbrenner Doctrine: If you don’t win the World Series, you’ve had a bad year. This is a constant.
The Yankees could return to where they were last October. The 33-year-old Aaron Judge, one of the most dynamic hitters ever, is having another historic season. New York wants to take advantage of that — particularly because the American League is wide open with as many as seven or eight AL teams having reasonable paths to the World Series.
But the Yankees still have distinct holes. They badly need an upgrade at third base, which someone like Eugenio Suarez could fill. Gerrit Cole and Clarke Schmidt suffered season-ending elbow injuries, leaving a need for another experienced starting pitcher. Their bullpen also needs help in the sixth and seventh innings.
After the departure of Juan Soto, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner and general manager Brian Cashman are probably under more pressure to do something this season than any of their peers. What else is new?
It’s remarkable how similar this version of the Phillies is to the teams that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski constructed in Detroit, with Philadelphia’s strong starting pitching (Zack Wheeler and Cristopher Sanchez playing the roles of Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer) and a lineup of sluggers (Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper as Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder).
The major question that hangs over this Philadelphia team, as was the case with those Tigers teams, is about the bullpen: Is there enough depth and power? For the Phillies, that is complicated by the situation with lefty Jose Alvarado, who will return in August from his 80-game suspension under the PED policy but not be eligible for the postseason.
The Phillies paid heavily for free agent reliever David Robertson, giving him the equivalent of a $16 million salary for the rest of the regular season, but they could use another reliever who is adept at shutting down high-end right-handed hitters in the postseason.
On the days Tarik Skubal pitches, the Tigers could be the best team in baseball; it’s possible that in the postseason, he could be his generation’s version of Orel Hershiser or Madison Bumgarner, propelling his team through round after round of playoffs to the World Series.
But the Tigers might have Skubal for only the rest of this year and next season, before he, advised by his agent Scott Boras, heads into free agency and becomes maybe the first $400 million pitcher in history.
Now is the time for Detroit to make a push for its first championship in more than four decades. And for Scott Harris, the team’s president of baseball operations, that means adding a couple of high-impact relievers capable of generating a lot of swing-and-misses.
The Mariners showed they are serious about making moves before this deadline with Thursday’s trade for first baseman Josh Naylor.
The last time the Mariners reached the league championship series, Ichiro Suzuki — who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend — was a rookie. Edgar Martinez was a 38-year-old designated hitter, and Jamie Moyer and Freddy Garcia were the staff aces. You get the point: It has been a really long time since the Mariners have had postseason success, and the team has never reached the World Series.
An opportunity seems to be developing for Seattle. The talented rotation, hammered by injuries in the first months of this season, could be whole for the stretch run. Cal Raleigh is having the greatest season by a catcher, contending with Judge for the AL MVP Award. Julio Rodriguez has generally been a strong second-half player.
Even ownership seems inspired: After a winter in which the Mariners spent almost nothing to upgrade the roster, other teams report that Seattle could absorb money in trades before the deadline.
5. New York Mets
Owner Steve Cohen doesn’t sport the highest payroll this year — the Dodgers’ Mark Walter is wearing that distinction — but the Mets are well over the luxury tax threshold again, in the first season after signing Juan Soto. Cohen has made it clear that generally, he will do what it takes to land the club’s first championship trophy since 1986.
But that does not include preventing David Stearns, the Mets’ respected president of baseball operations, from doing what he does best — making subtle and effective deals at the trade deadline. Rival execs expect that Stearns will work along the same lines he did last year — finding trades that improve the team’s depth without pillaging its growing farm system. That could mean adding a starting pitcher capable of starting Game 1, 2 or 3 of a postseason series, as well as bullpen depth.
Cohen is experiencing the impact of overseeing a front office that made an impetuous win-now trade at the 2021 deadline, when the Mets swapped a minor leaguer named Pete Crow-Armstrong for two months of Javier Baez. That clearly didn’t pan out for them. Cohen is desperate to win, but within the prescribed guardrails.
Last winter, the Padres had to live with the knowledge that they were probably the best team other than the Dodgers and that they came within a win of knocking out L.A. There is a lot about San Diego’s 2025 roster to like: Manny Machado clearly responds to a big stage, and the bullpen could be the most dominant at a time of year when relief corps often decide championships.
However, as Padres general manager A.J. Preller navigates this trade deadline in the hopes of living out late owner Peter Seidler’s dream of winning San Diego’s first World Series title, he has a relatively thin, aging, top-heavy roster with a lot of significant payroll obligations. This is why the Padres are considering trading Dylan Cease, who is potentially the highest-impact starter available on the market. Preller could move Cease to fill other roster needs, current and future ones, and then deal for a cheaper veteran starter to replace him.
“He’ll have to rob Peter to pay Paul,” one of Preller’s peers said.
Hope has emerged after the team’s all-in, $500 million signing of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with the Blue Jays taking the lead in the AL East.
Toronto’s rotation is comprised of an older group — 34-year-old Kevin Gausman, 36-year-old Chris Bassitt, 40-year-old Max Scherzer and 31-year-old Jose Berrios. Without a clear favorite in the AL, Toronto could break through for its first title since the Jays went back-to-back in 1992-93 — and in just the second season since the club’s expensive renovations of Rogers Centre were completed. When Alex Anthopoulos led the front office a decade ago, he made an all-in push to get the Jays back into the playoffs, adding players like David Price because he believed this was the right time for them to take their shot — and they came very close to getting back to the World Series.
Reportedly, Mark Shapiro — the team’s incoming president at the time — did not approve of Anthopoulos’ strategy. Now, Shapiro’s Blue Jays are in a similar situation in 2025 to where they were under Anthopoulos: Will they wheel and deal aggressively before the deadline, or will they be conservative?
The Dodgers won the World Series in 2024, after taking the title in the shortened season of 2020. So, if they don’t win a championship this year, it’s not as if a bunch of people are getting fired and the roster will be jettisoned. But winning can be intoxicating, especially when the lineup and rotation are loaded with stars: The Dodgers can envision a postseason in which a starting staff of Shohei Ohtani, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto could propel the team to a second consecutive title.
But the Dodgers’ bullpen — heavily worked in the first months of this season because of injuries to the rotation — is in tatters due to injuries. Will the Dodgers’ push to become the first team to repeat as champions since the 1998-2000 Yankees drive them to swap valuable prospects for needed bullpen help before the deadline? We’re about to find out.
This is a team very well-suited for the postseason: The Cubs are a strong defensive team; they have a deep lineup around Kyle Tucker, in what might be Tucker’s only season in Chicago; and they put the ball in play.
They’ve got a good farm system, as well as an experienced president of baseball operations in Jed Hoyer. He was part of championships in Boston in 2004 and 2007 and was the Cubs’ general manager for their 2016 title. He and Theo Epstein made the Nomar Garciaparra deal at the trade deadline in 2004, in advance of Boston’s breakthrough title in 2004, and the all-in trade for Aroldis Chapman on the way to the Cubs’ first World Series win in 108 years in 2016.
But the X factor for Chicago in recent years is whether ownership operates with the same desperation — in the way that Astros owner Jim Crane did when he pushed through a Justin Verlander trade for Houston in August 2017.
This seems to be a good time for the Cubs to be desperate, to do anything to win another championship. Will a title be a priority for owner Tom Ricketts?
NEW YORK — Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber topped Mark McGwire for most home runs among a player’s first 1,000 hits, hitting long ball No. 319 during Friday night’s 12-5 victory over the New York Yankees.
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not,” Schwarber said.
Ten days after lifting the National League to victory in the first All-Star Game swing-off, Schwarber keeps going deep. He hit a pair of two-run homers Friday night, with the first drive, his milestone hit, starting the comeback from a 2-0 deficit. He got the ball back after it was grabbed by a Phillies fan attending with his friends in Yankee Stadium’s right-center-field seats.
“I saw it on the video and then I see the dude tugging,” Schwarber said. “I’m like: ‘Oh, they all got Philly stuff on.’ That was cool.”
He met the trio after the game, gave an autographed ball to each and exchanged hugs. When he went to get a third ball to autograph, one of the three said he just wanted the potential free agent to re-sign with the Phillies.
“You show up to the field every single day trying to get a win at the end of the day, and I think our fans kind of latch on to that, right?” Schwarber said. “It’s been fantastic these last 3½ years, four years now. The support that we get from our fans and it means a lot to me that, you know, that they attach themselves to our team.”
Schwarber tied it at 2-2 in the fifth against Will Warren when he hit a 413-foot drive on a first-pitch fastball.
After J.T. Realmuto‘s three-run homer off Luke Weaver built a 6-3 lead in a four-run seventh and the Yankees closed within a run in the bottom half, Schwarber sent an Ian Hamilton fastball 380 feet into the right-field seats.
Schwarber reached 1,000 hits with eight more homers than McGwire. Schwarber has 36 homers this year, three shy of major league leader Cal Raleigh, and six homers in seven games since he was voted All-Star MVP. He has 33 multihomer games.
“I don’t know where we’d be without him,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “Comes up with big hit after big hit after big hit. It’s just — it’s amazing.”
Schwarber, 32, is eligible for free agency this fall after completing a four-year, $79 million contract. He homered on all three of his swings in the All-Star Game tiebreaker, and when the second half began, Phillies managing partner John Middleton proclaimed: “We love him. We want to keep him.”
“He’s been an incredible force all season long,” Realmuto said. “What he’s meant to his team, his offense, it’s hard to put in words.”
A World Series champion for the 2016 Chicago Cubs, Schwarber has reached 35 homers in all four seasons with the Phillies. He’s batting .255 with 82 RBIs and a .960 OPS.
He also has almost as many home runs as singles (46).
Schwarber had not been aware he topped McGwire for most homers among 1,000 hits.
“I had no clue. I didn’t even know it was my 1,000th, to be honest with you,” he said.
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