PHILADELPHIA — Black Friday took on a whole new meaning for 80 Phillies employees this year.

That was the day the world discovered that the $2 billion franchise and its billionaire ownership group eliminated 80 of its front-office positions — almost 20% of the workforce — to save about $8 million. With excruciatingly insensitive timing, ...Read more

Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena was released by authorities in Mexico and his attorney said no charges will be filed after a custody dispute over his 2-year-old daughter, according to a newspaper in the Yucatan.

Attorney Carlos Chable told Por Esto! that a judge determined there was not enough evidence to pursue charges against the breakout ...Read more

Rays prospect Wander Franco has a sore shoulder and left his winter league team in the Dominican Republic to return to Tampa Bay for precautionary tests, the team confirmed Wednesday night.

The injury was not considered serious when Franco was scratched from the lineup over the weekend but did not get better after a few days of rest.

"He came ...Read more

Ron Fowler came off as a San Diego sports fan.

Dean Spanos came off as aloof and entitled.

It mattered.

If the top Chargers executive since 1994 and face of team ownership since the 2000s had connected with San Diego sports fans as the top Padres exec and part-owner did in his eight-year run that downshifted last week, then assume this: The ...Read more

CHICAGO — When introduced as Chicago Cubs president 14 years ago at Wrigley Field, John McDonough said his "singular" goal was to win the World Series.

"Not win the wild card or win the division or win the pennant," he said. "It's time to win. It's time to win the World Series. It's time to reward these tens of millions of fans who have ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — In any other year, this would be a joyful certainty: The Dodgers, winners of the World Series, would raise the championship flag at the start of the new season, to the full-throated approval of a sellout crowd.

In 2021, the Dodgers' opening day attendance could be the traditional 56,000; a fraction of that; or limited to player ...Read more

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Tampa Bay Rays postseason star Randy Arozarena has been arrested in Mexico after an apparent domestic dispute involving his young daughter, according to the player's agent.

Arozarena is expected to be held in custody for 48 hours and is scheduled to meet with his attorney this evening. It is unclear what charges he is ...Read more

Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Willson Contreras and Kyle Schwarber provide an array of value for the Chicago Cubs.

But should new President Jed Hoyer decide to trade one — or more — of the four, only so many major-league teams can afford them. And in the case of Baez, Bryant and Schwarber, how many teams would be willing to pay for only one ...Read more

With a roster destined for a major retooling, the length of Jed Hoyer's five-year contract as Chicago Cubs president might prove essential to the task of maintaining the team's perennial playoff presence.

"In this job you always have one eye on the present and one eye on the future," Hoyer said Monday in a conference call after the Cubs ...Read more

The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees will take another crack at playing the MLB at Field of Dreams game in 2021.

Major League Baseball announced Monday the teams are tentatively scheduled to meet Aug. 12 in Dyersville, Iowa, in an 8,000-seat temporary ballpark built on the farm where the iconic Oscar-nominated 1989 film "Field of Dreams" ...Read more

The new Mets are keeping the old manager, for at least next year.

Team president Sandy Alderson said Monday that he was retaining Luis Rojas as manager, something he previously only committed to being "very likely."

Rojas, 39, was the first Latino man to manage the Mets. He was the second hired to do so, replacing Carlos Beltran, who was fired...Read more

BALTIMORE — A January trip to the Dominican Republic provided Chris and Jill Davis a homecoming of sorts, a return to a country neither had visited since Chris played in the Dominican Winter League in 2010. It also laid the groundwork for the Orioles first baseman and his wife to make a global impact amid a pandemic that would shut down ...Read more

Robinson Cano, batting second as DH, led off the top of the fifth inning against the Nationals on Sept. 27 in the Mets' final game of the 2020 season. He popped out to shortstop on the first pitch from right-hander Austin Voth to end an 0-for-3 day at the plate.

Last week, new owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson considered that ...Read more

CHICAGO — Theo Epstein's resignation as Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations stunned more than the baseball world.

Epstein's departure with one year remaining on his contract affected the entire Chicago sports landscape this week. Here's a look at the winners and losers from Epstein's decision, which was announced Tuesday.

___

...Read more

This is the last story in a series looking at Los Angeles Dodgers free agents.

CASE FOR DODGERS KEEPING JUSTIN TURNER: He is a face of the franchise and fan favorite, both for his success on the field and philanthropy in the community. He turns 36 on Monday but has remained a crucial component in the Dodgers' success.

CASE AGAINST: He's about ...Read more

SAN DIEGO — Again and again, Tim Flannery fumbles for the words to adequately explain how a life-threatening staph infection upended his world, how his family has been pure granite, how the army of medical experts from Scripps Health hospitals in San Diego moonlight as angels.

Thoughts tangle for the rough-and-routinely-tumble former Padres ...Read more

When former Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow sued the team last week, he took aim at Astros owner Jim Crane. Now, in a California court, pitcher Mike Bolsinger is using Luhnow's lawsuit to take aim at Crane.

Bolsinger sued the Astros in February, blaming them for his inability to find another job after he was shellacked in Houston in ...Read more