SEATTLE -- The Mariners have lost their best player to injury 21/2 weeks before spring training.

At Thursday's pre-spring training luncheon, general manager Jerry Dipoto announced that All-Star outfielder Mitch Haniger won't be ready for opening day March 26.

Dipoto received a phone call Monday evening that Haniger suffered a setback injury to...Read more

CHICAGO -- Michael Kopech noticed a different energy recently while playing catch with White Sox teammates Ryan Burr, Zack Burdi and Yasmani Grandal.

"It was that camaraderie, but more so the underlying competitiveness in all of us," Kopech said Wednesday. "It felt like a different energy. We were all pulling in the same direction, which is ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- After the 2019 postseason ended and the free agency period quickly ensued, the Cardinals made free agent left fielder Marcell Ozuna a standard, one-year, qualifying offer of $17.8 million in order to ensure a high draft choice if Ozuna signed with someone else. More than two months later, Ozuna, who turned down that offer, has ...Read more

The Phillies, after two straight offseasons of committing significant financial resources to their bullpen, added another low-cost veteran reliever on Wednesday by taking a flier on Francisco Liriano.

The contract, first reported by baseball reporter Robert Murray, gives Liriano a minor league deal with an invitation to major league spring ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- Josh Donaldson had a lot of suitors as one of baseball's high profile free agents this winter, but the veteran third baseman finally found a home with the Twins.

"He had choices in the free agent market," Twins vice president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said, "and he chose to come here."

The 34-year-old third baseman ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- At almost the same place and in the same room where he stood and said his current contract would likely be his last contract, Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina grinned, bounced a bit, and bent his knees.

He thinks they have at least two more years in them.

"I also said that if the Cardinals want me that's the only team I want to ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA -- Curt Schilling will have to keep waiting.

Schilling fell tantalizingly short of election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his eighth -- and third-to-last -- year on the ballot. The former Phillies ace and three-time World Series champion with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox received 70% of the vote (75% is ...Read more

ATLANTA -- The Braves have their clean-up hitter.

Marcell Ozuna, who tormented the Braves in the National League Division Series with St. Louis, signed a one-year, $18 million deal, the team announced Tuesday night. He fills the need for a power hitter in the middle of the lineup.

The signing came one week after Josh Donaldson signed a four-...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS -- The potential on-field effects of adding three-time All-Star and former MVP Josh Donaldson to the reigning American League Central champions are almost too numerous to track. The Twins will open the 2020 season, for instance, with six players on their roster who hit 30 or more home runs last year, the most in major league history....Read more

CHICAGO -- The Cubs added another potential bullpen piece Tuesday, acquiring Red Sox reliever Travis Lakins for a player to be named later or cash considerations.

Lakins, who had been designated for assignment by the Red Sox, made his major league debut last season, posting a 3.86 ERA in 16 appearances, including three starts. A sixth-round ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask the commissioner of baseball to award the Dodgers the 2017 and 2018 World Series titles after Major League Baseball punished the Houston Astros for cheating and continues to investigate the Boston Red Sox for possible misconduct.

The resolution, co-sponsored by ...Read more

ST. LOUIS -- The opportunity to add an upgrade or outfit the roster with more depth would be enough for Cardinals ownership to consider a larger payroll, but chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. stressed Monday that he did not expect a "significant" addition or did he think it would be wise for the team's "model."

In comments to the media on the final day ...Read more

Major League Baseball's Steroids Era left in its aftermath a wide swath of damaged reputations, impugned achievements and guilt by association.

The entire saga made you question everything, and everyone. Skepticism became a default setting for fans.

If a certain player had big muscles and hit home runs, you questioned whether it was achieved ...Read more

Baseball loves to call the oral history of its dreary offseasons "The Hot Stove," but remember that time the stove exploded and blew off the entire back wall of the house, killing the cat and exposing a ton of dirty laundry and various other mortifying incriminations?

Yeah, that was this week.

For reasons not likely buttressed by logic, I keep...Read more