Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Athletics groundbreaking ceremony in Las Vegas:
The A’s are scheduled to finally break ground on their planned ballpark in Las Vegas this morning, nine months after they played their final game in Oakland. The ceremony is scheduled for 8am local time. According to Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review Journal, the ceremony will feature an appearance from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in addition to a number of local- and state-level government officials. Akers suggests that they’ll be joined by A’s ownership, executives, and alumni at the event. The A’s have today off, but with a game scheduled for tomorrow evening in Detroit it’s unlikely that any current players will make appearances at the ceremony.
2. Orioles examining catcher following collision:
The very same day Adley Rutschman was placed on the injured list due to an oblique strain, the Orioles may have lost another catcher when backup Maverick Handley collided with Yankees infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. as Chisholm attempted to score. As noted by MLB.com’s Jake Rill, O’s manager Tony Mansolino told reporters after the game that Handley’s “full body” was being evaluated and that placing the 27-year-old in the concussion protocol had not been ruled out. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Handley ended up needing a trip to the injured list, at which point Baltimore would need to make a 40-man roster move to bring up a depth catcher like David Banuelos or Chadwick Tromp.
3. Series Preview: Cubs @ Cardinals
One of the league’s most storied rivalries has yet to face off in 2025, but that changes tonight when the Cubs take the field in St. Louis against the Cardinals in a game scheduled for 6:45pm local time. St. Louis is currently 4.5 games back of Chicago for the NL Central lead, meaning a sweep of this four-game set could but them within spitting distance of the division lead. It would likely put them in playoff position as well, given that they’re just one game back in the NL Wild Card race. As for the Cubs, a strong showing in this series could help them turn things around after a middling stretch of play that’s seen them go 7-8 over their past 15 games.
Right-hander Ben Brown (5.57 ERA) will face off against southpaw Matthew Liberatore (4.08 ERA) in tonight’s game. Cubs veteran Jameson Taillon (3.84 ERA) is the only other announced starter for the series, but The Athletic’s Katie Woo and Sahadev Sharma write that right-hander Michael McGreevy (2.70 ERA in 3 appearances) and southpaw Shota Imanaga (2.82 ERA in eight starts) are expected to take the mound during the series at some point as well.
If Cubs can win 3 out of 4, perhaps the dirty birds will start their long anticipated fire sale.
MLB Top 100: If the Cards sweep, that would be nice but, unfortunately, I doubt that will happen.
If the Cubs do take 3 out of 4, it would certainly deepen the gap in the standings. I don’t know if it would trigger a fire sale, but it would certainly take the wind out of them.
Quite a few Cards fans would regard that as doing the club a favour, and push them to get what they can for Helsley, Matz and Maton.
Won’t be a kings ransom, but better than getting nothing at the end of September
Quite a few Cards fans are lame.
Helsley isn’t having a good year. Matz is making a bunch of money. And no matter what the Cardinals aren’t picking higher than 10th in next years draft. Might as well play to win.
Rob – Quite a few Cards fans would happily accept a losing record if it means Joel goes away. LOL!
Dummy. Cards pick fifth in the draft. Stupid Cub.
Cards- To be fair, when I read ‘next year’s draft’ i took him to mean 2026, as the cards pick 5th in ‘this years draft’
I know there’s some rule regarding rev sharing status preventing certain team from picking within the top-10 in consecutive years – thus why the nationals are ineligible for the lottery and cannot pick above 10th next season. But I don’t call to mind the ins and outs.
Possible the Cards meet the same criteria, I’ve got no clue.
Yes the Cardinals meet the same criteria and yes I meant 2026
Time for the June swoon for the cartoon bears. Oh wait, that already started.
A fire sale if they’re a single game further back than they are now? Long anticipated by everyone but the organization itself.
When you lose 3 out of four, you fall two games further back, not one.
The Cubs spent most of May and June playing Miami, Colorado and Pittsburgh. The bullpen is already melting and counting on the starters to go deep and stay on this trajectory in the 2nd half isn’t realistic.
@jhanley108
How can you get excited to play those teams? I’d probably put 25% effort into everything playing those teams. Not worth getting injured against teams that shouldn’t exist in the MLB level.
And they also should be given their just due for playing the toughest schedule in the majors the first couple months and passing with flying colors.
Try first few weeks. Crybaby.
The Cubs are currently 13th in SOS to date. espn.com/mlb/stats/rpi/_/sort/sos
The Chicago Cubs have a 4-3 record against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 season
now do the Cubs first month of the season
Finnerty…he’s a white sox fan troll (daily). Notice he left the Sox off the list of teams the Cubs played in May.
Agreed. Cubs desperately need starting pitching. If the Ricketts try to go,cheap, they will almost certainly lose the fan base for a good while.
Does the “full body” evaluation include a rectal exam? Usually have to pay extra for that.
I get them for free at the airport all the time. Think I must be on a list.
Wade – Charlie Sheen had to get that from the guy who played Bull on Night Court, it was pretty funny.
I heard there’s a five-finger discount for that. 😉
I believe that’s called a Probing Fee.
The Cubs-Cardinals and Red Sox-Yankees rivalries just haven’t been what they use to be for a few decades now. Truly miss those heated rivalries. I guess with MLB cracking down on any emotion in the game, it’s hard to have a true rivalry when your player gets banned for 10-games for punching someone.
We need a good MLB brawl, preferably at the All-Star game.
Sonny – Too bad the Dodgers and Padres play in the same league.
How about Raffy hitting an All-Star Game winning homerun off Crochet or Chapman? Now THAT would be something!
That would be the best thing ever. I would definitely watch if there was a huge brawl in the middle of the game. Manfred wouldn’t suspend anyone anyway. The ratings would sky rocket. All-Star Game needs some juice.
Phillies – All-Star Game hasn’t had juice since 1970 when Rose separated Fosse’s shoulder, likely because he had a bet.
💰💼💵
If you “truly miss” the traditional rivalries it’s because baseball forces every team to play every other team every season. And the first Cubs-Cards series is midweek rather than weekend.
The Balanced Schedule strikes again!
A few decades? C’mon.
It was a lot more likely to have something interesting happen when they faced each other ~18 times a year.
When I was a newspaper reporter in the 90s we were frequently sent out to photograph ground-breaking ceremonies where officials posed with a shovel (or shovels), after which a ceremonial spade of dirt was turned. And that was that.
It was always my suggestion that these officials be told that they must dig a shoulder deep hole, or no publicity photo. Make them work for the publicity. Sadly, my editors disagreed.
Blood, Sweat and Tears should be required!
Executives response “woah, woah, woah, we only said we were going to break ground, not do any work. Let’s not get ridiculous here. Next you’ll be asking us to pick up the tab at dinner.”
How about we ask the team owners to pick up the tab for their own stadiums?
The way the cubs pitching has been going, I’d say a split would be acceptablle and starting with the up and down brown tonight. It’s a miracle that the cubbies with that pitching are still where they are.
Strong offense can keep you winning so long as you don’t face too many teams that have good enough pitching themselves to hold down the offense.
Cubs offense does well against 3-5 opposing starters, not so well against 1 or 2.
According to none other than Bruce( I really need to retire) Levine the Cubs will be acquiring a starter soon. Duh. The AS Game is like 3 weeks away and everybody and his brother knows Hoyer is going to trade for a starter. The question is, Exactly how high will he shoot, Will any difference maker be available and how much is willing to throw away. I’m not gonna sweat one wind blown 3 game series in Wrigley and trash a staff that’s been pretty reliable this year. I’m still just wondering who Hoyer will launch to get 1 or 2 pitchers. I think we can mostly agree that all the Cubs need is maybe a couple of pitchers and a reliable LH bat off the bench which he’s been looking for for 3 years now with absolutely zero success.
Looking forward to October when Jed packs up his office and his mediocre teams and gets the heck out of Chicago
That would be an awesome early Christmas present for me.
I don’t think it is Jed’s decision to go cheap so that he can lose his job.
Uncle—that reliable LH off the bench also has to be able to play center field once every three weeks or so or in case of emergency.
I’m not going to argue about 24th or 25th men on a roster because no matter the team these guys pretty much stink, but Brujan has to be replaced. Even though he played infield that last couple of days he is the in case of emergency center fielder. Berti can take those starts in the infield if Brujan is gone.
I’m not saying this is the guy—but someone like Mike Tauchman who isn’t expensive, is probably available and shouldn’t take a really high prospect is most likely the type of player I would take at #24 instead of Brujan.
Yeah but who gets to pick? Hoyer is pretty horrible at it. McKinistry- Mastrobuoni- Brujan.in that order. They don’t get better, They keep getting worse. That’s a downward progression. I disagree that that guy needs to be a CF. There is help at AAA. I mean I don’t know what Turner is doing here as he’s over. I think we can all agree that Long deserves a shot and other than Turner being PCA’s support animal he seves no purpose other than taking Busch out of the line up way too much. I suppose if the Cubs brought up Long, Got Tauchmann back they would be better as Long can play a little 3RD ( As little as possible) and 1st Base. I’ve seen him play OF also but I wouldn’t want that on a regular basis either. Anyway that would make them better. Decent reliever shouldn’t be impossible to find but the starter will be the Key to the whole thing. And I don’t really trust Lame Duck Jed to make that call. Sorry, Just how I feel.
The Cubs need pitching. The priority is pitching not the 25th man on the team. Pitching.
Cubs don’t really need pitching. Just a couple of tweaks. I watch a lot of the Cubs minor league teams. Right now they are starting to get arms back. Birdsell, Assad just started throwing. Noland and Sanders are moving up the rankings. Wiggins is dominating although he had a rough spot last game. These are guys who can help.
Other than Wiggins, Caissie, Birdsell, there isn’t anybody I wouldn’t package together for THE RIGHT SP. Key word being right there. But he’d have to be the key piece. Imanaga is back and the Cubs should absolutely be giving Brown and Horton all the MLB pennant race experience they can handle. And when I meant anybody I wouldn’t trade I meant anybody not on the MLB roster right now.
There are still a lot of questions here. Will Boyd’s arm hold up? Horton? Brown? Same. Are the Cubs going to Strasburg those last 2 and pull them at the wrong time? This all boils down to the decisions made by the guy running the show. And it’s no secret I don’t care for him much. If you haven’t watched the Cubs prospects pitch, You can’t say they need pitching. It’s just a matter of bringing up the right guys at the right time.
@Uncle: Is it possible that Hoyer has been secretly extended and is not a lame duck at all?
Nah I doubt it. That would have been blasted on every TV station in town and Marquee would be all over it. Also no industry insider, At least the reputable ones has even mentioned a blurb about it.
Uncle the name doesn’t matter—McKinstry, Mastro, Brujan are no different than LaStella, Ildemaro Vargas, Eric Sogard—they are all going to stink at the 25th man on the roster. It has no impact who the GM or Presdent is.
Brujan is on this team because he “can play” center field—they don’t have another guy that can. That’s why who they add has to play there (if Brujan is the logical guy from the bench to go).
My argument isn’t about the talent there because there are 29 other teams with the same talent at that spot on the roster….
Cubs need starting pitching. They ar 18th in team starter ERA to date.
They are 9th in reliever ERA.
mlb.com/stats/team/pitching/era?split=sp&sort…
We had that left handed reliable bat in Tauchman and let him go !
Glad to see the Athletics new stadium build process finally starting. Two MLB clubs playing in AAA stadiums this year is ridiculous, and I think the Athletics formally starting the dig on their new stadium makes it clear for the local fans of teams in precarious stadium situations like Kansas City, Tampa Bay and the Chicago White Sox that decision making time has arrived.
It’s just a matter of market pressure (not whether it’s right or wrong) that public money will need to be pushed into any stadium effort. It should be interesting from a general fans perspective on how things play out. MLB will definitely be in favor of teams staying put as moving would mean the elimination of expansion opportunities.
mart – Not to nitpick, but the Rays are playing in a Single-A stadium.
martras: The Sox don’t need a new stadium. For the brand of baseball they play, their current digs are actually too big. Fortunately reinsdorf’s money-grubbing idea of building a new stadium looks like it isn’t going to happen.
Please feel free to share your sentiments with the billionaires.
The White Sox are getting a new stadium. Guaranteed. (No pun intended, but I noticed after I made the statement and I’m quite pleased with myself about the pun)
Rate Field is one of the oldest ballparks in MLB, but without the panache and history of Wrigley or Fenway, and without the massive renovation history and prime real estate value location like Dodger Stadium.
It seems Reinsdorf is committed to a new stadium and the billions of value it will add.
martras: As of now, Governor Pritzker has shot down reinsdorf’s plan of building a new stadium. Jerry still owes $50M for rate field, so he’s trying to do what all billionaire owners do: hold up the taxpayers for the money to build his new toy. Until the organization shows that it deserves a new stadium, their current park is good enough.
At least you’ve also got some AAA to AAAA quality rosters playing in MLB stadiums to even things out.
According to BWAR the Cubs position players have been worth 21.1 WAR and their pitching is worth 2.9. Thats probably the biggest gap in all of baseball. The position players are championship material but the pitching is not. Gotta imagine they will be making some trades before the end of July.
As for the Cardinals I think trades are also coming. Even a trade like last years Edman Fedde deal makes sense because the Cardinals need to make room for McGreevy and Matthews. Ironically it could be Fedde who is dealt.
King: If the Cards are in the WC mix, I would hope they become buyers and go for it. Last year was supposed to be a sort of “Let’s play for 2025” year for the Mets, and that worked out better than expected.
I’m expecting that unless the cardinals are into a wild card spot, they’ll mostly stand pat, or pivot to selling last minute if they fall further back in the wild card standings. This series will be crucial though, as getting into the division race while holding a wild card spot could convince them to buy.
The problem for the cubs may be that with so few impact pitchers available, and so many others also looking to upgrade at the deadline, they may balk at the price, which could cost them. With fewer sellers at the deadline, and being that the Rockies don’t seem to ever like to sell off, they may just not want to pay the prospect capital. But if they don’t, that pitching may not hold up much longer.
Would be nice if the Orioles could just lose ten in a row and begin their fire sale. Bring up the kids to get their feet wet and prep for next year.
I think the Os r cooked. Maybe bring Willems up from AA for a taste until the backstop troops are healthy, again.
The Cubs face their most challenging week of the season with 4 in St. Louis and 3 in Houston. Cracks have been showing lately, so this is treacherous territory.
The Cubs have not been swept in a series yet this season (unless you count the 2 games in Tokyo as a series, which I don’t since a pair is not a series, a series means at least three of something). I will be surprised if that is still true a week from now.
As a Cubs fan, I’m sorry the Cardinals did not take the media’s advice last winter and trade all their veterans. But it is the younger players who have been lifting the Cards all season, and probably will continue to do so over the next four days.
The Brewers are home to the Pirates and Rockies for six games this week, by the way. The standings are going to look very different next Monday morning.
Hey hey Alan—-the weekly post of “this is the Cubs most challenging week” dating all the way back to April and yes, including that week when they were going to collapse against the Marlins and White Sox.
If you say it enough (probably nine times so far) sooner or later you’re gonna get a week where they go 3-4 or 2-5 and you’re going to shockingly the smartest guy in the room.
I found eight definitions for “series,” and none said it means three or more of something just “a set” of something.
@gbs: Have you ever punctuated a two-member “series”? If you have, you did it wrong. Two is a pair, three or more is a series.
And that pair of games in Tokyo was a sham anyway, just this side of being a fix. The Cubs were brought over there to lose to MLB’s forever darlings. MLB obsessively wants to promote the Dodgers. The Dodgers are a good team, but I think most baseball fans are kind of sick of them.
I’m going to make a prediction as of now, June 23, and please let me know in three months if my prediction turns out to be wrong. It’s not one I’m happy to make, but 65 years of watching the National League tells me this: The Cardinals and Brewers, two very good teams, will both make the post-season. So will the Dodgers, Phillies, and Mets. At the end, the Padres and Giants will be battling for the last WC spot.
In September, Wrigley Field will be cool and (relatively) empty, and I might take in a game or two. I used to take in 40 or 50 each season, but they long ago priced me out of that–and the place sure ain’t what it used to be, anyhow.
I’ll remind you, Alan, just like the White Sox-Cubs series where the ChiSox were predicted to take 2 out of 3.
@mike and stein: You said this before. Just the other day. I have gathered that you don’t like me, which I can live with. The feeling is mutual. But no, you aren’t going to power-trip me out of expressing my opinions and judgements.
Alan, it has nothing to do with liking you are not liking you. I have no reason not to like you. Just pointing out that you say the same thing every week and have been wrong the first 11 times. Sooner or later you are going to get one right and I’m going to tell my friends that you told us the Cubs were going to have a 2-5 week.
Didn’t the Dodgers recently have a four or five game losing streak. How about the Phillies losing nine out of ten? Hey, the Mets are 2-8 in their last 10. Padres had a rough patch. Cardinals, same. It’s baseball—–play it long enough, baseball is going to happen.
I would settle for a 2-5 week in a heartbeat. That would be more-or-less holding serve. It might be worse than that.
The problem for the Cardinals, they are Easily out Managed.
It’s a ceremonial ground breaking, not a real ground breaking.
Currently moving dirt around while Fisher couldn’t get investors after 2 years so he put his MLS team for sale. Still bridges to cross before this is official.
It’s happening. There are no loose ends with Manfred.
Most likely.
Not because of Fisher but MLB and Vegas will help drag it across the line.
It will be similar to Miami, new stadium, cheap ownership and middling attendance.