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Jim Alexander: A 'golden' Dodgers' era? That's hard to dispute.

Sports / Baseball /

Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said it on the Yankee Stadium field late Wednesday night, after the team had sewn up the World Series with its improbable Game 5 comeback from a 5-0 deficit: This is a “golden era of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball.”

It’s hard to argue with that. In fact, anyone who ...Read more

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Michael Wacha agrees to new contract with Royals

Sports / Baseball /

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Royals announced a new contract for right-handed starter Michael Wacha on Sunday afternoon.

Wacha, 33, was set to decide on a $16 million player option this offseason. The Royals had expressed optimism in retaining Wacha for 2025, and on Sunday, both sides agreed to a new three-year contract with a club ...Read more

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Mirjam Swanson: Same plan next year, Dodgers? Because job's not actually finished.

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — So that was (expletive) fun. See you back here next year? And the year after? And the year after that …

Mookie Betts is banking on it.

“When I became a Dodger, it was for 12 years, and we got two (World Series rings) so far,” the Dodgers outfielder told fans on Friday afternoon at Dodger Stadium, where the team’s ...Read more

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Bill Madden: Yankees' fatal flaws exposed in World Series loss to Dodgers

Sports / Baseball /

NEW YORK — To the Yankee legions licking their wounds from their heroes’ ignominious pratfall in the just completed “Checkbook World Series” with the Los Angeles Dodgers, when putting it in perspective their season must still be considered a success. After all, who among them wouldn’t have signed up for a season that ended up with ...Read more

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John Romano: Money, politics and insurance, oh my! The sad saga of fixing the Trop.

Sports / Baseball /

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Even in its potential demise, Tropicana Field has proven to be problematic.

One of the most ridiculed stadiums in the history of Major League Baseball, the Trop’s shredded roof has served as the symbol of Hurricane Milton’s destructive path through the west coast of Florida. And now a baseball team, a city, a county...Read more

Yankees decline $17 million team option on veteran Anthony Rizzo

Sports / Baseball /

NEW YORK — Anthony Rizzo is officially a free agent.

The first baseman may have played his last game in pinstripes as the Yankees declined his $17 million option sending him to the open market and triggering a $6 million buyout, the team announced on Saturday.

The 35-year-old knew the World Series could be the last time he called Yankee ...Read more

Sarah Stier/Getty Images North America/TNS

Yankees decline $17 million team option on veteran Anthony Rizzo

Sports / Baseball /

NEW YORK — Anthony Rizzo is officially a free agent.

The first baseman may have played his last game in pinstripes as the Yankees declined his $17 million option sending him to the open market and triggering a $6 million buyout, the team announced on Saturday.

The 35-year-old knew the World Series could be the last time he called Yankee ...Read more

Will the Dodgers re-sign Teoscar Hernández? Walker Buehler? The offseason questions begin.

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — For the first time in four years, the Dodgers are once again World Series champions.

That doesn’t mean they enter the offseason without any questions.

Just as soon as the team had descended its rally stage at Dodger Stadium on Friday, following the first Dodgers parade in Los Angeles in 36 years, manager Dave Roberts remarked...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Will the Dodgers re-sign Teoscar Hernández? Walker Buehler? The offseason questions begin.

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — For the first time in four years, the Dodgers are once again World Series champions.

That doesn’t mean they enter the offseason without any questions.

Just as soon as the team had descended its rally stage at Dodger Stadium on Friday, following the first Dodgers parade in Los Angeles in 36 years, manager Dave Roberts remarked...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Gerrit Cole reportedly opts out of contract, but Yankees have a way to void the move

Sports / Baseball /

NEW YORK — Gerrit Cole reportedly triggered the opt-out clause in his contract Saturday, putting his future in the Yankees’ hands.

The ace opted out of the final four years and $144 million on his deal, according to ESPN, but the Yankees can void the opt-out by adding another year at $36 million to Cole’s contract.

Doing so would inflate...Read more

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Cubs' Cody Bellinger picks up $27.5 million player option for 2025, meaning he won't test free agency

Sports / Baseball /

CHICAGO — Cody Bellinger is staying with the Chicago Cubs.

The 29-year-old outfielder has picked up his $27.5 million player option for 2025, a source confirmed to the Chicago Tribune on Saturday, and won’t become a free agent. The Cubs resolved their only other pending decision by declining left-hander Drew Smyly’s $10 million mutual ...Read more

Jason Getz/The Atlanta Journal-Constitution/TNS

Braves give Aaron Bummer new two-year deal

Sports / Baseball /

ATLANTA — The Braves had a decision to make on left-handed reliever Aaron Bummer: exercise or decline his $7.25 million club option for 2025.

They are bringing him back, but not on those exact terms.

The Braves signed Bummer to a two-year, $13 million contract, the club announced Saturday. He will make $3.5 million in 2025 and $9.5 million ...Read more

Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Bill Shaikin: Baseball's best rivalry is no longer Yankees-Red Sox. It's Dodgers vs. Padres.

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — In the days preceding the World Series, we were pummeled with references to the rivalry between the Dodgers and New York Yankees.

The Dodgers and Yankees are all about history, about tradition, about the rare chances to charge outrageous prices to see baseball's two biggest brands on the same field.

Today, however, the Dodgers ...Read more

Dirk Shadd/Tampa Bay Times/TNS

John Romano: St. Petersburg is betting millions that Tropicana Field can be salvaged

Sports / Baseball /

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The City Council reluctantly agreed Thursday to stopgap measures that will protect Tropicana Field from further water damage, even though the stadium’s ultimate fate will not be decided for at least another week.

The council approved up to $6 million in mitigation efforts that will create a temporary drainage system ...Read more

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Clayton Kershaw revels in his first World Series parade, reveals additional injury

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — Clayton Kershaw wasn't expecting manager Dave Roberts to hand him the microphone during the Dodger Stadium portion of Friday's World Series celebration, because, as the 36-year-old left-hander said afterward, "My role was pretty limited."

But as the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner and longest-tenured Dodger ...Read more

Ken Hively/Los Angeles Times/TNS

'Happy birthday, Fernando!' Fans call for Fernando Valenzuela statue at Dodger Stadium.

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — Fernando Valenzuela would have turned 64 on Friday.

The left-handed pitcher who sparked "Fernandomania" and helped the Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series died Oct. 22. Eight days later, the 2024 Dodgers clinched another World Series title by beating the Yankees. The team's victory parade was also Friday...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

LA toasts its World Series champion Dodgers: 'The city needed this parade'

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — Many of them spent four years dreaming of it. Others had waited their whole baseball life.

Two days after winning the 2024 World Series, and four years removed from a 2020 title that was never properly christened, the Dodgers celebrated with all of Los Angeles on Friday, parading through the streets of downtown on open-top ...Read more

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Blake Snell opts out of second year with Giants, set to test free-agent market again

Sports / Baseball /

After one season with the Giants, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell is headed back to free agency in search of the long-term deal that eluded him last winter.

Snell, as expected, on Friday declined his $38.5 million player option, according to the Giants.

The lefty, who turns 32 in December, is expected to receive a lot of interest in the ...Read more

Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Dylan Hernández: Freddie Freeman will forever be the name and face of the Dodgers' 2024 championship

Sports / Baseball /

LOS ANGELES — Freddie Freeman was welcomed on Friday to the rest of his life.

From the second level of the double-decker bus he rode with teammates, Freeman looked out at a world that wasn't the same as it was before.

Before the Dodgers won the World Series. Before he hit that home run.

Dodger Stadium was rocking when players walked onto ...Read more

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Giants hire Tommy Lasorda's godson, Zack Minasian, as general manager. His brother is Angels' GM.

Sports / Baseball /

Buster Posey was a splash hire by the San Francisco Giants a month ago as president of baseball operations, his pedigree including three World Series championships with the franchise and a likely Hall of Fame induction on the horizon.

First item on his to-do list was to bring on a general manager. That would not be a splashy hire. Posey, who ...Read more