Halos claim top trade target Giolito from ChiSox
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Jeff Passan, ESPN
The Los Angeles Angels acquired right-hander Lucas Giolito and right-handed reliever Reynaldo Lopez from the Chicago White Sox for two top prospects late Wednesday, bolstering their roster on the same day they decided they would not trade star Shohei Ohtani before he hits free agency this winter.
The move for Giolito, arguably the best pitcher on the trade market, and Lopez, whose fastball regularly hits 100 mph, was the first significant trade in Major League Baseball before Tuesday’s deadline. Multiple contenders had considered dealing for Giolito and Lopez, but the Angels swooped in with catcher Edgar Quero and left-hander Ky Bush, both at Double-A, to reinforce themselves for a playoff run.
The Angels have won six of seven games to move to 52-49 but remain four games out of the final American League wild-card spot, with two other teams, New York and Boston, also ahead of them.
In Giolito and Lopez, the Angels will add to a rotation and bullpen that both rank 20th in baseball in earned run average. The 29-year-old Giolito (6-6), who will be a free agent after the season, has a 3.79 ERA and has struck out 131 in 121 innings. The 29-year-old Lopez, who in 2016 came to the White Sox along with Giolito in a trade for Adam Eaton, has shown flashes of excellence this season and sports a 4.29 ERA with 52 strikeouts in 42 innings.
Originally taken in the first round by Washington in 2012, Giolito was long regarded as a frontline starter in the making. From 2019 to 2021, he received Cy Young votes and finished the season with ERAs in the mid-3s. While his ERA regressed last year, he has consistently posted top strikeout-to-walk ratios. He regained a half-mile per hour on his fastball this year and was the White Sox’s most productive starter, although his 20 home runs allowed are the 11th most among 63 qualified starters.
Both the White Sox and Angels are expected to engage in more deals before the deadline. This one, Chicago general manager Rick Hahn said, came together over the past 48 hours in conversations with Angels GM Perry Minasian.
“He was very clear about the needs they were trying to address,” Hahn said. “We were able to move fairly quickly over the course of today towards a decision.”
The inclusion of Quero, 20, and Bush, 23, helped the Angels push past other teams with whom the White Sox spoke, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Texas Rangers, sources said.
With rookie catcher Logan O’Hoppe looking like a fixture before an early-season injury, the Angels were willing to part with Quero, a switch-hitter whose bat is his carrying feature. In 70 games this season, he is hitting .246/.386/.332 with three home runs, 35 RBIs, 55 walks and 53 strikeouts.
Bush, a second-round pick in 2021, looked like the best pitcher in the Angels’ system last year, posting a 3.67 ERA in 21 starts. In six Double-A appearances this season, he has a 5.88 ERA and 33 strikeouts over 26 innings.
With right-hander Lance Lynn, right-handed reliever Keynan Middleton and a cadre of other players available, the White Sox are looking to bolster an on-the-rise farm system led by shortstop Colson Montgomery, a top-10 prospect, and Noah Schultz, one of the best left-handed pitchers in the minor leagues. Quero, who signed with the Angels in 2021, is the latest in a long line of Cuban-born prospects to join Chicago’s organization and is a consensus top-100 talent — the sort teams rarely get for rental players like Giolito and Lopez. The White Sox could further fortify their system if they choose to deal right-hander Dylan Cease or shortstop Tim Anderson, though they’ve said they hope to contend in the wide-open AL Central next season.
The Angels, meanwhile, are girding for a playoff run. While Ohtani is a near-lock for his second AL MVP award in three seasons, Los Angeles had struggled to assemble a playoff-worthy roster around him.
Owner Arte Moreno’s desire to keep Ohtani, who chose to sign with the Angels when he came to MLB from Japan six years ago, fueled the deal. The Angels are hopeful that in addition to Giolito and Lopez, the return of star Mike Trout, O’Hoppe and super-utilityman Brandon Drury from the injured list will help lead to the team’s first postseason appearance since being swept in the division series by Kansas City in 2014.
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Jorge Castillo
NEW YORK — The Yankees are acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.
The Yankees will assume the remainder of 30-year-old McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the remainder of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons.
An All-Star last season, McMahon was batting .217 with 16 home runs and a .717 OPS in 100 games for Colorado in 2025. He hit home runs in the first two games after the All-Star break and another on Tuesday and is on pace to keep his four-year 20-homer streak alive.
While the production has resulted in a 92 OPS+, which suggests McMahon has been 8% worse than the average major league hitter this season, he still represents a significant offensive upgrade at third base for New York.
The Yankees have had Oswald Peraza, one of the worst hitters in the majors, manning third base nearly every day since the club decided to release DJ LeMahieu, another former Rockies player, earlier this month and move Jazz Chisholm Jr. to second base. Peraza, while a strong defender, is slashing .147/.208/.237 in 69 games this season. His 24 wRC+ ranks last among the 310 hitters with at least 160 plate appearances this season.
Defensively, McMahon is a Gold Glove-caliber third baseman whose four Outs Above Average is third in the majors this season. He joins a Yankees club that has been marred by sloppy defense, most recently on Wednesday when it committed four errors in a defensive meltdown against the first-place Toronto Blue Jays.
Herring, 22, has recorded a 1.71 ERA in 89⅓ innings across 16 starts between Low- and High-A this season. He was a sixth-round pick out of LSU in the 2024 draft.
Grosz, an 11th-round pick in 2023, had a 4.14 ERA in 87 innings over 16 games (15 starts) for High-A Hudson Valley this season.
With third base addressed, the Yankees will continue to seek to acquire pitchers to bolster both their rotation and bullpen.
MLB.com first reported on the Yankees trading for McMahon.
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Jorge Castillo
The Mets acquired left-handed reliever Gregory Soto from the Orioles on Friday in exchange for two minor leaguers in what could be the first of multiple moves by New York to bolster its bullpen before the trade deadline Thursday.
The trade, which sent Class A right-hander Wellington Aracena and Double-A right-hander Cameron Foster to Baltimore, gives the Mets a hard-throwing left-hander to complement the club’s only lefty on the roster, Brooks Raley, who returned from Tommy John surgery last week.
Soto, who is 30 and was an All-Star with the Detroit Tigers in 2021 and 2022, has posted a 3.96 ERA with a 27.5% strikeout rate in 45 appearances this season. The Mets will be his fourth team since the 2022 season.
On Monday, Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns plainly signaled that upgrading the bullpen for the stretch run is his top priority.
The need is clear. Injuries and overuse have depleted a relief corps that led the majors in bullpen ERA through May 31. Since June 1, the group has posted 4.52 ERA, good for 23rd in the majors.
Aracena, 20, is 1-1 with a 2.38 ERA in 17 games for St. Lucie. The Orioles said he is one of two pitchers in the minors this season to have thrown at least 60 innings without surrendering a home run.
Foster, 26, is 5-2 with two saves and a 2.97 ERA while pitching at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.
BOSTON — Hundreds of Aramark workers at Fenway Park are on strike and planning to stay out for all of a homestand between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers starting Friday night.
Concession workers had set a deadline of noon Friday for Aramark and Fenway Park to reach an agreement with the Local 26 chapter of the Massachusetts and Rhode Island hotel, casino, airport and food services workers union.
The union went on strike at noon asking for “living wages, guardrails on technology and R-E-S-P-E-C-T!”
With the Red Sox and Dodgers scheduled to start at 7:10 p.m. EDT, union officials had a request for fans attending this homestand with food and beer workers on strike.
“We’re asking you to NOT buy concessions inside the ballpark,” Local 26 wrote on social media. “Tailgate before the games!”
Union workers walked the picket line wearing green T-shirts declaring “FENWAY WORKERS ON STRIKE.” They carried signs in the shape of a baseball proclaiming Local 26.
The Red Sox go out of town Monday with a game that night at Minnesota.
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