How the Big 12 landed Colorado and shook up college football
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Heather Dinich, ESPN Senior Writer
On July 21, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff took the stage for media day at a critical time for his conference. USC and UCLA were already on their way out, and Colorado was rumored to be next as the league struggled to complete a TV deal.
Kliavkoff told a room full of media members and anyone watching that “our schools are committed to each other and the Pac-12.”
While Kliavkoff spoke, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark was wrapping up a regularly scheduled Zoom call with his athletic directors. As he completed an otherwise mundane meeting, he foreshadowed the big news to come without mentioning any school by name or any details.
“He said, ‘Guys, I’m not going to tell you anything,'” a source on the call said. “‘I’m just feeling really good about it. If it doesn’t happen next week, then it’s probably not going to happen for a while. But you’ll find out five minutes before it happens.’ And that’s basically what happened.”
The near simultaneous unfolding of two vastly different messages from two of the most powerful people in college athletics on a sweltering Friday in July was uncanny. Five days later, the Big 12 presidents and chancellors held a private call during which they voted unanimously to accept Colorado as a member. The next day, on July 27, the Colorado board of regents voted in favor of the move in a public videoconference — a swift formality that lasted less than 16 minutes and put an end to months of speculation about the future home of the Buffaloes.
For the third straight summer, conference realignment has been one of the biggest stories in college athletics — and for the second straight year, the Pac-12 is the league scrambling to pick up the pieces. In 2021, Big 12 co-founders Oklahoma and Texas announced their intent to join the SEC. In 2022, USC and UCLA decided to join the Big Ten, arguably an even more shocking move, given the geographical mismatch with the Big Ten and the history of the Pac-12’s flagship schools. All of those sweeping changes combined with new leadership and media rights deals contributed to where the Power 5 pecking order sits today — with Colorado leaving the Pac-12 in a precarious position.
Colorado’s flirtation with the Big 12 was one of the worst-kept secrets of the offseason.
“Do I think I caught my peers off guard?” Colorado athletic director Rick George said. “I don’t believe so, but that’s a question you have to ask them.”
“There was smoke,” one Pac-12 source said. “Smoke was being shown everywhere on this deal. So I don’t think it’s surprising. It was pretty clear and obvious for several months that Colorado was considering this move.”
It wasn’t necessarily the decision to leave that stunned the Pac-12 — it was the timing of it. Multiple sources told ESPN that on June 30, the Pac-12’s presidents and chancellors voted unanimously — including Colorado — to authorize Kliavkoff to set July 31 as the deadline for all of the league’s bidders on its new media rights deal. Those on the Zoom moved forward — and Kliavkoff walked onto the stage in Las Vegas believing the league would stay intact at least until all the bids were in.
“Pissed off is the wrong word,” a Pac-12 source with knowledge of the vote said. “[Pac-12 presidents and chancellors] were livid. Can’t overstate the betrayal.”
The Big 12 has been burned before too.
“We were on the other end of that barely two years ago,” a Big 12 athletic director said. “What we’re trying to do is just change our position. You’re either growing and you’re moving to try to best position yourself, or you’re vulnerable. For the first time, the Big 12 is moving in the other direction. If I had to choose which side of that I’d rather be on, I’d rather be on this one, for sure.”
KLIAVKOFF’S CONFIDENCE IN his conference membership at media day was strikingly similar to the comments made by then-Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, who in July 2021 also stood before members of the media, saying, “a lot of the motivation for realignment is no longer there.” A week later, there was a bombshell report that the Big 12’s biggest brands wanted out.
“If you think back when we lost Oklahoma and Texas, the Pac-12 could have been as aggressive as we were,” a Big 12 source said. “Texas Tech would have gone to the Pac-12 in 10 seconds if they would have given them a call, and they never did. They had chances long before this to take control, and they didn’t.”
In August 2021, Kliavkoff and Bowlsby met at an undisclosed location to discuss the possibility of a merger, or some sort of partnership, but it never materialized.
“They were in the driver’s seat,” said Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt. “There was a lot of speculation about the future of the Big 12. They were not in a growth mindset. Insert Brett Yormark. It’s full-tilt forward.” When Yormark was hired after Bowlsby stepped down in 2022, his message rang loud and clear.
“The Big 12 is open for business,” Yormark said in his introductory news conference at Big 12 media days last year.
“We all chuckled and laughed about that,” Hocutt said, “but there’s more behind that statement than people understood. It hasn’t changed from the day he was announced as our commissioner.”
Yormark wasn’t just referring to conference realignment. His first priority was getting the league’s TV deal done. Yormark landed a six-year, $2.2 billion television deal with ESPN and Fox that runs through 2031. The Big 12 opened its negotiations early and completed its agreement before the Pac-12, even though the Pac-12’s current television deal ends a year earlier. Although it’s impossible to untangle previous realignment from what Colorado ultimately chose to do, the Pac-12’s slow process in negotiating its own media rights deal undoubtedly weighed heavily into the process. “It’s not like Brett’s been quiet about hinting and taking a Pac-12 school,” a source said. “He’s put some stuff out there on purpose.”
Baylor athletic director Mack Rhoades told ESPN the Big 12 was able to flip its position in the national landscape because two things happened: The conference announced in September 2021 that it would add Houston, UCF, Cincinnati and BYU, which helped change the narrative that the league was falling apart, and Yormark was able to negotiate a win-win media rights deal for the league and its media partners before going to market — and before the Pac-12.
“We had no leverage because we couldn’t go to the open market,” Rhoades said. “The fact we were able to get that done … for us, goal No. 1 was stability. Goal No. 2 was finances. Make no mistake, that was the order of priority. If we don’t get that done, this is a completely different story.”
With the television deal done, and an early exit plan for OU and Texas in place — plus the assurances of four new schools joining the league this summer — the Big 12 decision-makers began a deeper dive into the possibility of adding more teams. They discussed UConn, Pac-12 schools, and even the scenario of adding Gonzaga for basketball only.
At the spring Fiesta Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, where multiple conferences gather annually for league meetings, representatives from Endeavor presented Big 12 decision-makers with slides of various schools, including Arizona and Arizona State, and valuations of various television scenarios.
School officials from Colorado met with Big 12 officials at a neutral site in early May, a source told ESPN’s Pete Thamel. Colorado had expressed interest and emerged as a legitimate candidate so much so that athletic directors and administrators at the Fiesta Summit joked about it over beers at the resort pool after days during which the Big 12 and Pac-12 held meetings across the hall from each other.
“Colorado was the one that was consistent,” another Big 12 source said. “It was directly between Brett and Rick George the majority of it throughout the process.”
Meanwhile, the Pac-12 media deal remained slow to materialize.
“I think in May was when [it became], ‘OK, Colorado’s really nervous and probably the most interesting,'” a source said.
When asked to describe Yormark’s approach behind the scenes, one Big 12 source said, “aggressive, and I’m not apologizing for it.”
On June 2, after Big 12 spring meetings in West Virginia, Yormark publicly touted the conference as having “a plan” when it comes to expansion. The athletic directors told Yormark at that meeting that if the league was going to add another school, their priority was a Power 5 program. The Big 12’s presidents and chancellors met after the athletic directors and gave Yormark the approval “that if Brett could make Colorado happen, he had the permission from the presidents to do it.”
“Since then,” another league source said, “that’s what he’s been working on.”
ACCORDING TO BIG 12 sources, there was “a very close circle” that knew Colorado’s intentions about three weeks before it happened and discussions turned to action about 10 days before the move became official.
On July 19, just two days before Kliavkoff would speak at media day, Colorado chancellor Phil DiStefano told The Denver Post he had not had any direct negotiations with Yormark or the Big 12. He said the school’s goal “is to stay within the Pac-12 and have a media deal coming up shortly. That’s our goal. And I believe the presidents and chancellors of the Pac-12 are together on that.”
They were.
On the eve of the Pac-12’s media day, Kliavkoff met with the league’s athletic directors for what was a lengthy, substantive update, according to sources with knowledge of the discussion. Multiple sources said the Pac-12 presidents respect Kliavkoff, and the athletic directors haven’t been involved much in the expansion discussion. In Las Vegas, they were told the same timeline the university presidents and chancellors had unanimously agreed on in June.
“Yes, there were warnings,” one Pac-12 source said. “Yes, everybody in America knew they were considering this. But I also believe the decision-makers truly believed the word coming out of [Colorado] that they had until the end of [July] to make that decision, and [Colorado] did it earlier than what they said they were going to do.”
In an exclusive interview with ESPN immediately after his remarks at media day, Kliavkoff pointed to DiStefano’s comments in the Post as the source of his confidence. Kliavkoff declined further comment for this article. What Kliavkoff didn’t address was DiStefano’s comments about expecting an update on the media rights deal on the eve of media day. “You could tell he was putting them on a different timeline publicly,” a Pac-12 source said. “As soon as he did that, I was like, ‘Oh they’re gone.'”
Through a university spokesman, DiStefano issued the following statement on Aug. 3: “We disagree with the assertions that have been stated. The main reason we made the decision when we did was because it’s in the best interest of the university, CU athletics, and most importantly, our student athletes. We look forward to starting our final season in the Pac-12 and are excited about our future in the Big 12 beginning in 2024.”
At the conference’s media leading into what would be their final season, Colorado AD George bolted early without comment, further fueling the speculation that the university would soon follow him out the door.
A week later, DiStefano appeared on camera in the board of regents’ videoconference, sitting next to the school’s athletic director as it was made public that the Big 12 “has offered admittance to the University of Colorado Boulder as part of conference expansion.”
“I think there’s a misconception at least from some schools that Brett is ruthless in his pursuit, and I just don’t think it’s that way at all,” said TCU athletic director Jeremiah Donati. “Brett’s set a vision and a platform for our conference that’s incredibly attractive, candidly, and I think that’s ultimately why Colorado decided to come back to the Big 12.”
OF ALL THE schools engulfed in all of the speculation, Colorado always made the most sense because of its previous ties to the Big 12, where it was a member from 1996 to 2010, and in the Big Eight for 47 years before that. The idea gained further traction with the hire of coach Deion Sanders, who has yet to coach his first game with the Buffaloes but has already reignited interest in a program that has had no bowl wins and just two winning football seasons since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.
“Quite frankly, Deion was pushing for it,” one Big 12 head coach said.
George said he spoke with all of his head coaches about the potential move, but also acknowledged that playing in the Big 12 will align with how Sanders is recruiting.
“I will tell you there’s tremendous benefits for being in the Big 12 for the direction that Coach Prime is going as it relates to recruiting,” George said. “Being able to play in Orlando against UCF, where he’s recruited very heavily. The state of Texas has always been a priority for us, and now playing four teams in that area. … I tried to include all of our coaches in this, and Coach Prime certainly and I had conversations about this, as well as I did with other coaches.”
George, who declined to comment for this story beyond his public remarks from a July 27 news conference on campus, insisted that Colorado’s decision “wasn’t about” any failures by Kliavkoff or frustrations with a lack of a media rights deal.
“George Kliavkoff is doing as good a job as he can do, and he works his ass off and works tirelessly for the members of the Pac-12,” George said. “But this decision wasn’t about that. It was about this, and that’s the Big 12 Conference and what’s best for CU and CU athletics and our student-athletes, and that’s what we made this decision based on.”
Colorado’s departure will coincide with the end of the Pac-12’s television deal, which expires after the 2023-24 season, meaning Colorado won’t have to pay an exit fee. Colorado is expected to join the Big 12 at a pro rata basis, which is an average of $31.7 million in television revenue per year over the course of the league’s new deal starting in 2025.
“Was money a part of it? Absolutely,” one Big 12 athletic director said. “But [George] saw a better direction with the Big 12 than what was happening in the Pac-12. It was more than just the money.”
George agreed the move was “not just based on money or finances.”
“Certainly, revenue and expenses are part of the equation,” George said. “We have looked at the cost that we will be incurring from team travel in the Big 12, as well as the initial rebranding. And when we consider the Big 12 revenue, we believe it’s a great win for the University of Colorado. The revenue was not just from the media deal — and there’s a lot of talk about that — but from other revenue streams, and we believe that’s positive.
“We believe the benefits far outweigh the costs for the move into the Big 12 Conference,” he added. “Because college sports evolve, so do conferences. It’s our responsibility to put CU in a position of strength for the future. And as an AD, conference realignment is always something that we’re looking at. I feel strongly that today’s decision positions the University of Colorado for years to come.”
The question remains, though, how the move will position everyone else.
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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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