Haley Van Voorhis’ journey into college football history
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Alex Scarborough, ESPN Staff Writer
WINCHESTER, Va. — More than a decade after her three-year run as a Washington Commanders cheerleader was over, Heidi Van Voorhis never lost interest in the team. A mother of two working in marketing, she’d take her young family to Jack Kent Cooke Stadium whenever possible. At home in their small Virginia town west of Washington, she’d find the time to watch the team’s games on TV.
She can close her eyes and still picture her daughter, a toddler, sitting on the floor and studying the sport on screen, growing more and more enamored by what she saw. Haley was always quiet, but one day she turned to her mom with a pointed question: “Why aren’t there any girls on the field?”
Heidi was at a loss.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know why.”
Heidi could have said that girls weren’t allowed, and it might have changed everything. But she didn’t, leaving open a path that would culminate in her daughter becoming a pioneer in the sport. On Saturday, Haley, a junior safety at Division III Shenandoah University, appeared in her first game, becoming the first woman in NCAA history to compete at a non-kicking position. She was in for one play, helping to force a three-and-out by getting pressure on the Juniata quarterback. The following day, Shenandoah coach Scott Yoder said he hoped her role would increase: “Yesterday was certainly a huge moment in her path, but her path keeps going.”
As a child, Van Voorhis was more surprised by the lack of girls playing football than discouraged by it. Looking back, Heidi said, “I guess she didn’t take it as if there couldn’t be any.”
There were other signs, like how one Christmas, Heidi’s parents gave Haley and her brother, Claiborne, a set of Washington uniforms — a football player’s and a cheerleader’s. They ended up giving away the skirt and pompoms.
“It still had the tag on it and never got worn,” Heidi recalled. “She absconded her brother’s football uniform very early on and wore it for years.”
Chandler, Haley’s father, remembers going to Washington games when Haley was a child and how she’d tell the family, “One day I’m going to be on the field as a player.”
“That’s always been in her,” he said. “I think part of this is just kind of who she is.”
It was always so matter-of-fact, the way Haley moved from flag football in elementary school to tackle football in the sixth grade. She became the first girl to play football at her high school, Christchurch. And when the boys hit their growth spurts, she responded by spending countless hours in the gym to get bigger and stronger. She knew that to have a chance to play in college she had to get faster, so her family hired a trainer to improve her speed. She earned all-state honorable mention as a junior in 2019 before seeing her senior season canceled due to COVID-19.
She wasn’t bothered when some boys refused to tackle her. Other parents would whisper about the little blonde girl playing such a violent game, but Heidi and Chandler didn’t pay them any mind. They didn’t buy into the notion that women were more fragile than men. Besides, they had neighbors who let their kids ride horses and every once in a while they read about someone who fell off and died; that seemed scarier than football to them.
All they wanted was for their children to find something they were passionate about — to find their dream and follow it. To see her put in the work to make that happen and earn a spot on a college team, Chandler said, “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
“Even the days I didn’t want to [train], I was like, ‘But if I don’t, I’m not going to get anywhere,'” Haley said. “Being the first made me do extra because I wanted it more than anything.”
BYRON MITCHELL WAS in charge of the shuttle station at a recruiting camp on a cold December day in 2020. The assistant coach from Shenandoah watched kids rotate in, darting back and forth, back and forth, between the orange cones.
There were about 150 prospects trying to capture the attention of coaches from Division II and Division III colleges. But only one player caught Mitchell’s eye.
“I don’t think it was her being a female,” Mitchell said of Van Voorhis, who played receiver and defensive back. “That’s what stuck out, her appearance.”
As in, how muscular she was.
If only Mitchell knew what it took to become the 145-pound ball of muscle he saw. Van Voorhis’ parents had watched in awe as their daughter turned into a workout warrior in high school. Then, when COVID-19 canceled her senior season, she became even more obsessed, training around the clock at home. She worked with weights and resistance bands in the garage, ran sprints in the driveway, did ladder drills in the backyard. She spent hours researching different diets online and how to add weight, lamenting that most were geared toward the physiology of men rather than women.
She signed up for a speed-training class, and when the neighborhood gyms opened back up, she seemingly spent every waking hour there. Chandler pointed to the Michael Jordan documentary “The Last Dance” as Haley’s inspiration, specifically the moment when a young Jordan is getting beaten up by the more physical Detroit Pistons and the decision he made to transform his body and take his game to the next level.
“That made an impression on her,” Chandler said. “If you had a camera in our house during that lockdown, you would have thought this was Gold’s Gym for 6-7 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Mitchell thought Van Voorhis had adequate speed but superb technique. “Almost picture perfect,” he said. While most players would finish the shuttle drill by pulling up the split second it was over, Van Voorhis would run through the line, which meant something to him.
During a break, a coach from Wagner sidled up to Mitchell. “You won’t believe who caught the ball better than anyone,” he said.
Mitchell knew. When the camp was over, he found Van Voorhis and handed her a business card.
And that might have been the end of it had Mitchell not felt compelled to ask a simple question: “What’s your goal?”
“It was her response that really triggered all this,” he said. “She said, ‘Coach, I just want to play Division III football.'”
Mitchell said most players he recruits don’t picture themselves in Division III. Some are modest enough to shoot for Division II, but most imagine themselves in the FBS, formerly known as Division I. When Mitchell tells someone he has a spot for them at Shenandoah, they usually hold out for a scholarship offer elsewhere.
“That just told me that she’s confident in herself, but she’s very, very humble,” he said. “She knows where she is and she knew where she fit in. And I thought the world of that.”
As Mitchell got ready to make the two-hour drive home, he stopped and looked Van Voorhis up on Twitter. He found her highlights and was impressed. If she wasn’t a girl, he thought, everyone would be recruiting her. He said he arrived at a conclusion: “Haley deserves to play college football.”
Mitchell wasn’t looking to make history when he followed up and invited her to campus. For a while, he kept his interest in recruiting Van Voorhis to himself.
But one day, he pulled aside defensive coordinator Brock McCullough to tell him about Van Voorhis. McCullough had been Mitchell’s position coach at Shenandoah and was about to begin his 18th season with the university.
“Why don’t you recruit her?” McCullough asked matter-of-factly. “I mean, are you not going to recruit her?”
Mitchell looked at him, surprised.
“Yeah,” he said, expecting an argument and instead getting a green light. “I am.”
McCullough nodded.
“I don’t see why not,” he said before moving on with his day.
A few weeks later, Mitchell stood in the doorway of head coach Scott Yoder’s office and explained what was happening — how Van Voorhis and her parents were on their way for a visit, and to be prepared.
Mitchell left and Yoder pulled up Van Voorhis’ highlights, agreeing with Mitchell’s assessment. He liked how she got up to top speed quickly.
The only question Yoder had was, “Why?” He wanted to know why football was important to her and whether she and her family were in it for the right reasons.
“They’re legit,” he said. “This is not some type of attention grab, because at the end of the day all I want to do is coach college football. I don’t want the circus, I don’t want the distractions, because at the end of the day we’ve got a team. There’s 115 kids on the team.”
Once Van Voorhis committed, the only thing Yoder had to figure out was logistics — what accommodations would need to be made to ensure her privacy. Yoder’s first thought was to find a room at the stadium for her to dress in, but Van Voorhis didn’t want to be removed from the team, which dressed at the football facility a half-mile walk from the field.
Symbolically, Yoder thought, that said a lot about Van Voorhis. Because the locker room was where connections were made. And it’s where, when it’s game time, the players gather to walk to the stadium — as a single unit, as a team.
Van Voorhis didn’t want to miss any of that. So she changed in a training room one floor up from the locker room; that way she could be nearby when it was time for the coaches to address the team and for everyone to leave for practice and games.
It’s all she has ever wanted — to play the game she loved, to compete and to be a part of something bigger than herself.
The media attention that comes with that isn’t what she said she’s after. If anything, she’s uncomfortable in the spotlight. Shy around strangers, she turned down a number of opportunities to share her story, even though in the age of name, image and likeness, she could have monetized her journey.
A blend of quiet and confident — “determined” is the word Yoder uses — Van Voorhis said she’s a doer and not a talker.
“I like proving it,” she said. “It’s really cool being the first, but there’s something inside of me saying that I haven’t done anything here yet.”
If she wanted to take the easy route, Shenandoah was not it.
If all Yoder and the school wanted was to make history, they would have done it two years ago.
Van Voorhis needed time to get healthy and develop as a football player. Which is why she said she was so confident coming into this season. She felt herself improving and getting stronger between her sophomore and junior years. “Great things happen when you work hard,” she said matter-of-factly.
“At the core of this thing is a young person chasing their dream and earning an opportunity and taking advantage of an opportunity that they earned,” Yoder said. “If you asked anybody on our team, they might not use the same words, but they’re going to tell you she’s a great teammate. She does everything that’s asked of her — she’s in the weight room, she’s at practice, she’s working hard, she’s getting better.”
TRAMMEL ANTHONY, a former Shenandoah defensive back, remembers getting a text during the summer of 2021 about a girl joining their team. His response: “Bro, what position does she play?”
He was relieved when he found out she’d be playing safety rather than receiver, believing defense was the safer and more palatable option.
“Nobody is going to want to see a woman get hit over and over again,” he said.
He wound up following Van Voorhis on Twitter and watched some of her highlights that day. Then he sent her a direct message, welcoming her to Shenandoah. He thought the whole thing was “pretty cool.”
While Anthony admits that some of his teammates were in a sort of “wait-and-see mode” about Van Voorhis at first, their attitude changed quickly once summer conditioning began. The most grueling test was the 110-yard sprints — 16 sets with only 45 seconds of rest in between.
As a freshman, Anthony remembers struggling to keep up.
“If you’re out of shape,” he said, “it’s brutal.”
Van Voorhis made it on her first try. Competing among the skill players, who have the most difficult target time to reach, she was one of only a few freshmen to make her time on all 16 sprints.
Anthony was impressed.
“She went from the top half to the top third to the top quarter,” he recalled. “And her pace never changed.”
Yoder looked on.
“You knew she took it seriously,” he said. “That’s my moment when we came off the field like, ‘She’s prepared.'”
Not that it was always easy for Van Voorhis. She said she was nervous in the beginning. She’d been on campus only a few days and was thrown in the deep end — trying to learn the playbook while going against players 3-4 years older than her.
And like any freshman, she got burned. During one practice, two receivers were set to one side of the field — one ran an underneath route, one ran a post. Van Voorhis bit on the underneath route and watched helplessly as the ball sailed over her head for a would-be touchdown.
McCullough pulled her aside, reminding her to let the linebackers clean up the short passes. It was her job to guard the deep part of the field.
Two plays later, the offense ran the same play, Van Voorhis stayed deep and took away the post.
A few days later, on a similar play, Van Voorhis backpedaled, jumped up and high-pointed a pass, snatching it from the receiver. She landed hard on her back, securing one of the first interceptions of camp.
Mentally, McCullough said, “She’s elite.” She may be only 145 pounds, but he said that pound for pound, she’s among the strongest players on the team.
And she’s tough. McCullough noticed how she played through what he thought was a broken wrist as a freshman and never said a word to anyone about it.
“She just feels like one of the guys on the team,” Anthony said. “Like it’s nothing, no one special, just like she’s one of us.”
That’s all Van Voorhis could ask for. While her teammates acknowledge that she is a woman, she said, they never dwell on it. She credited their positive energy and the culture of the program for snuffing out any potential awkwardness.
“We fit perfectly,” she said.
Watching from the sidelines that first year, she said she learned about pulling through difficult situations and how the game takes more mental toughness than physical — “more than you would think.”
As a freshman, she was confident her time was coming. She just didn’t know when.
“Maybe not yet this year,” she said at the time, “but later if I keep working at it, getting more reps.”
TWO YEARS LATER, Van Voorhis came running off the sidelines and into the game for the first time.
Against Juniata on Saturday, with Shenandoah leading 21-0 in the first quarter, coaches called for No. 10 to go in. Van Voorhis popped in her mouthguard, lined up near the line of scrimmage and sprinted off the edge, making a beeline for the quarterback, who hurriedly threw an incompletion before getting wrapped up and tackled to the turf by Van Voorhis.
The public address announcer called out Van Voorhis’ quarterback hurry and the crowd lit up in applause. Van Voorhis hustled back to the sideline, where senior safety Quante Redd waited to congratulate her, along with a handful of other teammates on defense. David Agyei, who helps coach linebackers, walked over and gave her a high-five. She didn’t play the rest of the game.
It didn’t hit Yoder right away what had taken place. He was too preoccupied with the flow of the game, which was affected by a storm passing through the area.
“I knew she was in,” he said, “but it didn’t really register with me until after everything happened and the energy from the crowd and our players’ reaction on the sideline. I was just like, ‘Wow, that just happened.'”
It didn’t register to Van Voorhis at first, either, because at the end of the day she said she was doing something natural: playing the game she loved since she was a child. But then it dawned on her what she’d done.
“Not just for my team but for the whole community of people behind me,” she said. “Nobody’s ever done this before, so it’s just cool to be able to do something so big that can impact so many people after you, and just make history.”
After the game, Van Voorhis found her parents outside the stadium. Dad gave her a big bear hug. Mom clenched her jaw and fought back tears. “So proud,” she said.
“You don’t have to cry,” Van Voorhis replied. “It’s not that emotional.”
Mom wasn’t having that.
“It’s a big deal,” she said. “It’s a long road.”
Van Voorhis and her parents knew two years ago that it might take time to get here. What they couldn’t know was how difficult her freshman season would be: how she’d contract COVID and miss 10 days; how she’d be sick on and off for weeks after that; how she’d find out that the wrist pain she was playing through was actually a torn ligament that required surgery. Recovery took months, knocking her out of spring practice. And by the time she was cleared, she’d lost so much muscle that it felt like she was starting from scratch in the weight room.
Truth be told, Van Voorhis said, she felt cursed.
“It’s a lot,” she explained, “because coming in, just being the only female, it’s probably enough adversity.”
In the grand scheme of things, she acknowledged that injuries are normal.
“But it’s just stress added on when you don’t need it,” she said. “And that’s the situation: Everyone’s waiting for you to quit or give up.”
It wasn’t something anyone specifically said or did that made her feel that way. Van Voorhis reiterated that her coaches and teammates have been great. Shenandoah, she said, is home.
But even though she stays away from social media — she has a grand total of four Instagram posts — she knows there’s negativity lurking online. She saw what Sarah Fuller went through at Vanderbilt, becoming the first woman to score a point at the Power 5 level as a place-kicker in 2020, and the white-hot microscope she was under.
Asked what advice she’d give to little girls who want to do what she has done, Van Voorhis said they should not expect it to be easy.
“You can’t even expect it to generally be hard,” she said. “It’s going to be hard-hard. Like extremely hard, mentally, because everyone can be physically prepared for something. But when you go into something and you’re not the same as anyone else, it adds pressure. You’re noticed everywhere you go. There’s a lot of pressure to not only live up to your own standards but the ones around you. From my experience, you have to have a new level of mental toughness to be able to go through that pressure and play football.
“Because you can’t take plays off. And, honestly, you can’t mess up. In my opinion, it’s like you can’t let the girl mess up one play because then everyone knows. But if a guy messes up, mistakes happen, it’s fine.”
Van Voorhis said there’s nothing wrong with shooting for perfection. It’s just a lot to deal with.
“My best advice is, just don’t hold back anything, make the most of the opportunity,” she said.
McCullough called Van Voorhis a “pioneer.” He said he has a teenage daughter who is interested in football and inspired by Van Voorhis’ journey.
“It’s really neat to see,” he said. “You know it’s coming. In 10-15 years from now things will be a lot different.”
Case in point: In the past year, Yoder has had two football coaches reach out who are recruiting women. If they’re as genuine as Van Voorhis and her family, Yoder said, they’ll be fine.
Now that the not-so-small matter of making history is out of the way, Van Voorhis is moving forward.
“Now that I’ve hit a goal, I have to make my next one,” she said. “I mean, that’s what it’s always been. It’s always just striving to be a better football player. Once I play, I want to play more.”
She wants to get better.
She wants to get on the bus as part of the travel roster.
She wants to keep playing football this year and next year and however long it lasts.
“I mean, at the end of the day,” she said, “I’m just doing this because I love the game.”
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Kiley McDaniel
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Kiley McDaniel
ESPN MLB Insider
- ESPN MLB Insider
- Kiley McDaniel covers MLB prospects, the MLB Draft and more, including trades and free agency.
- Has worked for three MLB teams.
Co-author of Author of ‘Future Value’
The July 31 MLB trade deadline is just days away, so it’s time for a deadline week update to our top 50 trade candidates ranking.
Major League Baseball’s trade market is ever evolving, and to keep you updated, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan have put together a list of potential trade candidates based on players’ performance — and that of the teams that could be involved in potential deals.
This is the most up-to-date accounting of where MLB’s trade market stands. While some of the players on the list are unlikely to be dealt, they’re at least being discussed in potential deals. Others might be making the list for the first time this week as their team’s fortunes have changed.
Note: Players ranked by value for their new team if traded, not likelihood of being dealt.
Chance of trade: 90%
Suarez is in a contract year and playing like one of the best players in baseball. Only Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge have more home runs than his 33. Despite turning 34 years old before the trade deadline, Suarez is sitting near career highs in isolated power and wRC+ (which measures overall performance). His fielding metrics have declined in recent years, but he’s still an acceptable defender at third base. Even if the Diamondbacks don’t offload all their free agents to be, Suarez could move because they’ve got Jordan Lawlar raking in Triple-A and primed to take over at third.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies
Chance of trade: 10%
Ryan is one of the best pitchers in baseball, with a mix of stuff and pitchability, and teams in search of long-term fits dream of the possibility the Twins will actually move him. That is unlikely, but this is deadline season, so there is always the chance a team surveys the market, finds nothing to its liking and overpays. The Twins don’t necessarily want to move Ryan; they are more in listening mode on nearly everyone that occupies a roster spot — and with Ryan not a free agent until after the 2027 season, teams are trying, with little success thus far, to pry him away.
Best fits: Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 10%
While the general sense is that Gore won’t go anywhere, the Nationals are, at the very least, listening — and that warrants a spot atop the list regardless of the minimal likelihood interim general manager Mike DeBartolo deals him. The prospect of Gore moving is tempting enough to want to engage: 144 strikeouts in 117⅔ innings with enough control that he’s walking a career-low 3.4 per nine innings. Even if stuff-plus models aren’t crazy for Gore, he gets elite swing-and-miss and is the sort of pitcher that could tempt teams to overpay.
Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, Baltimore, Houston, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 25%
Another late entry to the proceedings, Cease is throwing as hard as he did in his prime and is here more as a function of the Padres not having payroll flexibility or a deep minor league system than some sort of desire to deal him. As an impending free agent, he wouldn’t bring back nearly the haul of Ryan or Gore. And there are genuine questions about whether the holes the Padres would try to fill by moving Cease would only be exacerbated on the starting-pitching side were he to go. Regardless, they’re at the very least listening, and with Cincinnati and San Francisco breathing down their necks for the final NL wild-card slot, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller could try to get creative in upgrading his roster.
Best fits: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets
Chance of trade: 10%
An All-Star the last two years and Gold Glove winner in all three of his previous big league seasons, Kwan is a do-everything left fielder with elite bat-to-ball skills and two years of club control after 2025. Cleveland doesn’t want to deal him, but with a dearth of available bats, the Guardians at very least will listen to see if teams are willing to blow them away with offers.
Best fits: Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, Toronto, San Diego, Los Angeles Dodgers
Chance of trade: 25%
Duran had a huge breakout season in 2024, posting the seventh-best fWAR in the majors at 6.8. He overperformed his underlying metrics, though — i.e. had some lucky outcomes — and those metrics have regressed a bit this year as has his luck. Duran’s projected to finish the season with around 3.0 WAR, which is more in line with how the league sees him. With Roman Anthony, Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu, the Red Sox have the outfield depth to consider moving Duran for controllable, top-end pitching.
Best fits: San Diego, Atlanta, Cleveland, Kansas City, San Francisco, Philadelphia
7. Jhoan Duran, RP, Minnesota Twins
Chance of trade: 30%
Duran is one of the best relievers in the sport, thanks to his nasty stuff, headlined by a fastball that averages 100.4 mph and a splinker that sits 97.6 mph. He has two more years of team control after this season, so he’d demand a big trade package.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
Chance of trade: 20%
Clase was nearly unhittable last season, but his numbers have regressed this year. He has issued more walks and gotten fewer ground balls while allowing more damage on his cutter that averages 99 mph — in part due to more center-cut locations. Under contract for less than $30 million through 2028, he would bring a big return to Cleveland.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
9. Cade Smith, RP, Cleveland Guardians
Chance of trade: 20%
Smith has been the best reliever in baseball by WAR since the beginning of the 2024 season, and with more than 13 strikeouts per nine innings this year, he is the solution to many teams’ late-inning woes. With four more years of control, he’s also going to be prohibitively expensive for most teams, making a deal difficult to come by.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
10. Griffin Jax, RP, Minnesota Twins
Chance of trade: 30%
Despite a 3.92 ERA that says otherwise, Jax has been one of the top relievers in baseball this season — the best by xFIP and toward the top in other similar metrics. Over the last two seasons, he’s second in the sport behind Cade Smith in reliever WAR. Only Fernando Cruz and Mason Miller have a better strikeout rate than Jax’s 14.37 per nine, and his sweeper-heavy arsenal induces as much swing-and-miss as anyone.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Texas
11. Merrill Kelly, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Chance of trade: 70%
Kelly doesn’t have big raw stuff, posting the second-lowest average fastball velocity (92.1 mph) among pitchers with 125 innings pitched this season. His changeup is his best pitch by a wide margin, and he gets by with location and offspeed stuff. He was a stalwart in the Diamondbacks’ run to the 2023 World Series, striking out 28 in 24 innings with a 2.25 ERA.
Best fits: Toronto, Boston, Houston, Chicago Cubs
Chance of trade: 65%
Not only is Keller in the midst of a career-best season with a 3.53 ERA, he’s under contract for another three years at a very reasonable $55.7 million. The Pirates need bats, and moving Keller is the likeliest way to fill that void. Teams could be scared off slightly by the quality of contact against him — his average exit velocity and hard-hit rate have spiked while his strikeouts are down — but in an environment with little pitching, Keller is nevertheless desirable.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, Toronto, Houston
Chance of trade: 30%
All the potential the Marlins have seen in the 27-year-old right-hander is finally coming into focus this season. While Cabrera’s 97 mph fastball gets hitters’ attention, it’s his curveball and slider that are doing most of the work. And with a changeup that in years past has been his best pitch, the cost to acquire Cabrera will be high because of his full arsenal and three more years of club control.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Boston, New York Mets, Toronto, Houston, Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees
Chance of trade: 50%
Alcantara was arguably the best pitcher in baseball in 2022, winning the NL Cy Young unanimously. He was more solid than spectacular in 2023 and missed 2024 with Tommy John surgery. He has been tinkering this season to try to get his pitch mix and locations right in hopes of regaining his former glory. His 6.66 ERA is frightening, and with the Marlins still valuing him as a top starter, they could hold onto him until the winter, when teams like the Orioles would be more inclined to acquire him and the final two years of his contract.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros, Boston, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego, Baltimore
15. Zac Gallen, SP, Arizona Diamondbacks
Chance of trade: 70%
Gallen was excellent for the last three seasons but now, in a contract year, is posting career-worst numbers in almost every category. His stuff looks pretty similar, but he’s allowing much more damage when hitters make contact. That said, his strikeout-to-walk ratio is back to normal in his last six starts, at 35-to-6, despite a 6.55 ERA in that span.
Best fits: Toronto, San Diego, Houston, Chicago Cubs
16. Ryan O’Hearn, 1B, Baltimore Orioles
Chance of trade: 85%
O’Hearn is having an out-of-nowhere career year, with an OPS+ of 132 (and he’s been unlucky with ball-in-play luck, to boot) along with being on pace for a career high in homers. He doesn’t face lefty pitchers much at all and his splits suggest that he shouldn’t.
Best fits: Houston, Boston, San Francisco, Texas
17. David Bednar, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates
Chance of trade: 70%
In a market replete with relief options, the 30-year-old Bednar brings high-end performance without quite the price tag of his peers. His swing-and-miss stuff has been elite since his return from Triple-A, and he has more than salvaged his trade value: Over his last 23 outings, Bednar has struck out 29, walked five and posted a 0.00 ERA.
Best fits: Detroit, Toronto, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, Seattle
Chance of trade: 80%
Helsley had the fourth-best WAR among relievers last season and is in a contract year, but he has been notably worse this season. His stuff and locations are pretty similar, but the main difference is his fastball is getting hit hard — with one byproduct being his spiking home run rate.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, New York Yankees, Toronto, Detroit, New York Mets, Seattle
Chance of trade: 20%
Fairbanks raised his slot a bit this year, and now his 97.3-mph fastball has more cutting action while his slurvy slider has more depth with both pitches playing a notch better than they did last season. He’s got a club option for 2026 that, with escalators, should wind up around the $10 million range. Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes and bullpen injuries have cut into the likelihood Fairbanks moves.
Best fits: Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia, Detroit, Toronto, Texas
20. Shane Bieber, SP, Cleveland Guardians
Chance of trade: 50%
A late entrant into the trade market, Bieber still hasn’t thrown a big league pitch this season and is coming back from Tommy John surgery. With his fastball up to 94 mph and his slider looking like its old sharp self, though, he’s generating plenty of interest and could be one of the bigger names moved at the deadline.
Best fits: San Diego, Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, Toronto
Chance of trade: 60%
Ward comes with an additional year of team control after this season and he’s having a strong 2025 campaign, just one homer away from last year’s career high total of 25 — and in 52 fewer games.
Best fits: Cincinnati, San Diego, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco
Chance of trade: 50%
Robert has been extremely unlucky with ball-in-play results this season, but that has begun to turn around recently. He remains a strong defender and baserunner, with a career-high 24 steals already. But the slashline is unsightly, and his trade value has cratered over the last two seasons. He’s got a pair of $20 million-a-year club options that the acquiring team will be hesitant to exercise absent a turnaround. Finding a match with a team willing to pay more for Robert’s upside than his productivity could be challenging.
Best fits: San Diego, Philadelphia, New York Mets, Cincinnati, San Francisco
23. Nolan Arenado, 3B, St. Louis Cardinals
Chance of trade: 20%
Arenado’s strikeout rate is around his career best and he’s still an above-average defender, but his power and patience are both trending down to around the worst of his career. He’s still a solid starter but no longer a star, and the team taking him on a deal would still have to pay him like one. Potentially complicating any deal: a full no-trade clause.
Best fits: Detroit, Milwaukee, Seattle
Chance of trade: 70%
Ozuna is a stone-cold DH, playing two games in the field in 2023 as his last regular-season experience defensively. He’s also in a contract year, but his power numbers are down a notch from his standout .302 average and 39-homer performance last season. His on-base percentage remains among the highest of potential trade candidates. If anyone is moving from Atlanta, he’s the likeliest candidate, with free agency beckoning.
Best fits: San Diego, Seattle, Texas, Detroit, San Francisco
Chance of trade: 50%
Garcia averaged 30 homers in 2021-24, but he’s fallen off since his 2023 career year. It’s worth noting that per xwOBA, he’s been the 13th-most unlucky hitter in the big leagues this year. He also has another year of team control, so some teams could see a buy-low opportunity.
Best fits: Philadelphia, Seattle, Cincinnati, San Diego, San Francisco
26. Reid Detmers, RP, Los Angeles Angels
Chance of trade: 15%
The No. 10 pick from the 2020 draft transitioned to relief this season and has found similar success to other highly-drafted college lefties, including A.J. Puk, Andrew Miller and Drew Pomeranz. He comes with three more years of control after this season and his velo is up 1.7 mph in the new role, so this might be where he fits long term — and he could fetch a hefty return. Some teams still see Detmers as a starter.
Best fits: New York Mets, New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Detroit, Toronto
Chance of trade: 90%
Following a dreadful start to the season, Morton found his curveball and has righted himself. Between his stuff and playoff experience, he has leapt up teams’ boards as a true target and almost certainly will move before the deadline.
Best fits: New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto
28. Adrian Houser, SP, Chicago White Sox
Chance of trade: 90%
Houser’s resurgence is a success story for the White Sox. He opted out of a minor league deal with Texas to sign with the White Sox in mid-May and has limited home runs to post a 2.10 ERA in nearly 70 innings. He’ll eat innings for sure, but some scouts see his stuff as good enough to warrant a spot in a postseason rotation.
Best fits: Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston, San Diego, Toronto
Chance of trade: 80%
Mullins is a 30-year-old center fielder in a contract year who contributes in a number of ways, though he’s hitting only .217 and his defensive metrics have regressed to be below average in center. His walk rate and power numbers are up this season, making him a solid contributor on a contender.
Best fits: Philadelphia, Houston, New York Mets
30. Willi Castro, UT, Minnesota Twins
Castro has played six of the eight field positions this year and has been a solid, versatile utility type since a breakout season in 2023. He doesn’t offer eye-popping numbers or tools, but is around average at most things while playing all over the field on an everyday basis.
Nos. 31-57
31. Seth Halvorsen, RP, Colorado Rockies
32. Zack Littell, SP, Tampa Bay Rays
33. Jeffrey Springs, SP, Athletics
34. Jesus Sanchez, RF, Miami Marlins
35. Bryan Reynolds, OF, Pittsburgh Pirates
36. Dennis Santana, RP, Pittsburgh Pirates
37. JP Sears, SP, Athletics
38. Michael Soroka, SP, Washington Nationals
39. Tyler Anderson, SP, Los Angeles Angels
40. Kyle Finnegan, RP, Washington Nationals
41. Luis Severino, SP, Athletics
42. Zach Eflin, SP, Baltimore Orioles
43. Pierce Johnson, RP, Atlanta Braves
44. Phil Maton, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
45. Steven Matz, RP, St. Louis Cardinals
46. Harrison Bader, CF, Minnesota Twins
47. Jake Bird, RP, Colorado Rockies
48. Ke’Bryan Hayes, 3B, Pittsburgh Pirates
49. Yoan Moncada, 3B, Los Angeles Angels
50. Andrew Heaney, SP, Pittsburgh Pirates
51. Chris Paddack, SP, Minnesota Twins
52. Raisel Iglesias, RP, Atlanta Braves
53. Tomoyuki Sugano, SP, Baltimore Orioles
54. Ramon Urias, 3B, Baltimore Orioles
55. Isiah Kiner-Falefa, UT, Pittsburgh Pirates
56. Luis Urias, 2B, Athletics
57. Shelby Miller, RP, Arizona Diamondbacks
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Bradford Doolittle
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be enshrined into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, one of five new members of baseball’s hallowed institution.
After enduring the baseball tradition known as a rain delay, the five speeches went off without a hitch as the deluge subsided and the weather became hot and humid. Joining Suzuki were pitchers CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, and sluggers Dick Allen and Dave Parker, both of whom were enshrined posthumously.
“For the third time, I am a rookie,” Suzuki said, delivering his comments in English despite his long preference for conducting his public appearances in Japanese with the aid of an interpreter.
For the American audience, this provided a rare glimpse into Suzuki’s playful side. Teammates long spoke of his sense of humor behind the closed doors of the clubhouse — something the public rarely saw — but it was on full display Sunday.
When Hall voting was announced, Suzuki fell one vote shy of becoming the second unanimous selection for the Hall. He thanked the writers for their support — with an exception.
“Three-thousand [career] hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers,” Suzuki said. “Except, oh, one of you.”
After the laughter subsided, Suzuki mentioned the gracious comments he made when balloting results were announced, when he offered to invite the writer who didn’t vote for him home for dinner to learn his reasoning. Turns out, it’s too late.
“The offer to the one writer to have dinner at my home has now … expired!” Suzuki said.
Suzuki’s attention to detail and unmatched work ethic have continued into the present day, more than five years since he played his last big league game. That was central to his message Sunday, at least when he wasn’t landing a joke.
“If you consistently do the little things, there’s no limit to what you can achieve,” Suzuki said. “Look at me. I’m 5-11 and 170 pounds. When I came to America, many people said I was too skinny to compete with bigger major leaguers.”
After becoming one of the biggest stars in Japanese baseball, hitting .353 over nine seasons for the Orix BlueWave, Suzuki exploded on the scene as a 27-year-old rookie for the Seattle Mariners, batting .350 and winning the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP honors.
Chants of “Ichiro!” that once were omnipresent at Mariners games erupted from the crowd sprawled across the grounds of the complex while the all-time single-season hits leader (262 in 2004) posed with his plaque alongside commissioner Rob Manfred and Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark.
Despite his late start in MLB, Suzuki finished with 3,089 hits in the majors and 4,367 including his time in Japan. Suzuki listed some of his feats, such as the hit total, and his 10 Gold Gloves.
“Not bad,” he said.
Sabathia’s weekend got off to a mildly rough start when his wife’s car broke down shortly after the family caravan departed for Cooperstown. They arrived in plenty of time though, and Sabathia was greeted warmly by numerous Yankees fans who made the trip.
After breaking in with Cleveland at age 20, Sabathia rocketed to stardom with a 17-5 rookie season. Alas, that came in 2001, the same year that Suzuki landed in the American League.
“Thank you most of all to the great players sitting behind me,” Sabathia said. “I am so proud and humbled to join you as a Hall of Famer, even Ichiro, who stole my Rookie of the Year Award in 2001.”
Sabathia focused the bulk of his comments on the support he has received over the years from his friends and family, especially his wife, Amber.
“The first time we met was at a house party when I was a junior in high school,” Sabathia said. “We spent the whole night talking, and that conversation has been going on for 29 years.”
Parker, 74, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on June 28, less than a month before the induction ceremony. Representing him at the dais was his son, Dave Parker II, and though the moment was bittersweet, it was hardly somber.
Parker II finished the speech with a moving poem written by his father that, for a few minutes, made it feel as if the player nicknamed “The Cobra” were present.
“Thanks for staying by my side,” Parker’s poem concluded. “I told y’all Cooperstown would be my last rap, so the star of Dave will be in the sky tonight. Watch it glow. But I didn’t lie in my documentary — I told you I wouldn’t show.”
Parker finished with 2,712 hits and 339 homers, won two Gold Gloves on the strength of his legendary right-field arm and was named NL MVP in 1978. He spent his first 11 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and entered the Hall representing the Bucs.
Wagner, whose 422 career saves ranks eighth on the all-time list, delivered an emotional but humorous speech about a small-town guy with a small-for-a-pitcher 5-foot-10 stature who made it big.
“I feel like my baseball life has come full circle,” Wagner said. “I was a fan before I could play. Back when baseball wasn’t so available on TV, every Saturday morning I watched Johnny Bench and so many of the other greats on a show ‘The Baseball Bunch.'”
In one of the moments of baseball serendipity that only Cooperstown can provide, the telecast flashed to Bench, sitting a few feet away from where Wagner was speaking.
Allen’s widow, Willa, delivered a touching tribute to her late husband, who died in 2020 after years of feeling overlooked for his outstanding career. The 1964 NL Rookie of the Year for the Phillies, Allen won the 1972 AL MVP for the Chicago White Sox.
“Baseball was his first love,” Willa said. “He used to say, ‘I’d have played for nothing,’ and I believe he meant it. But of course, if you compare today’s salary, he played almost for nothing.”
Willa focused on the softer side of a player who in his time was perhaps unfairly characterized for a contentious relationship with the media.
“He was devoted to people, not just fans, but especially his teammates,” Willa said. “If he heard someone was sick or going through a tough time, he’ll turn to me and say, ‘Willa, they have to hear from us.'”
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Alden Gonzalez
The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran starting pitcher Erick Fedde from the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later or cash, both teams announced Sunday.
As part of the deal, the Cardinals will cover the majority of what remains of Fedde’s $7.5 million salary for 2025, a source told ESPN.
Fedde, 32, is a free agent at season’s end, making him a surprising pickup for a Braves team that was swept by the Texas Rangers over the weekend and is 16 games below .500, trailing the first-place New York Mets by 16½ games.
But the Braves have sustained a slew of injuries to their starting rotation of late, with AJ Smith-Shawver (torn ulnar collateral ligament), Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured elbow), Chris Sale (fractured ribcage) and, more recently, Grant Holmes (elbow inflammation) landing on the injured list since the start of June.
Fedde reestablished himself in South Korea in 2023, parlaying a dominant season into a two-year, $15 million contract to return stateside with the Chicago White Sox. Fedde continued that success in 2024, posting a 3.30 ERA in 177⅓ innings with the White Sox and Cardinals.
This year, though, it has been a struggle for a crafty right-hander who doesn’t generate a lot of strikeouts. Twenty starts in, Fedde is 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA and a 1.51 WHIP.
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