Notes

West Notes: Andujar, Sheets, Betts, Bradford, Sborz

By Mark Polishuk | June 1, 2025 at 11:26pm CDT

An oblique injury forced Miguel Andujar into an early exit from the Athletics’ 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays today. A’s manager Mark Kotsay told MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos and other reports that Andujar is “most likely” going to be placed on the 10-day injured list, and Andujar will undergo tests on Monday to gauge the severity of the injury.

Now in his second season with the A’s, Andujar has a .296/.328/.402 slash line over 180 plate appearances, or roughly the same production he delivered in 319 PA in 2024. Splitting his time mostly between left field and third base, Andujar has been a solid player for the Athletics, yet he might now face a lengthy absence given the uncertain nature of oblique-related injuries. A more severe strain could put Andujar out for months, which would threaten his availability as a trade chip for the July 31 deadline. Andujar is a free agent after the season, so he is a logical trade candidate for an A’s team that may be moving into seller mode in the wake of a miserable 3-21 stretch over their last 24 games.

More from around both the AL and West divisions…

Gavin Sheets also left the Padres’ 6-4 win over the Pirates in the fourth inning after a collision with the left field wall. That pursuit of Adam Frazier’s home run ball resulted in multiple issues for Sheets, as manager Mike Shildt told reporters (including The Athletic’s Dennis Lin) that Sheets was being treated for a possible concussion, as well as a “head contusion coupled with a sore hip and a little bit of a jammed wrist and thumb.” It certainly seems like an IL stint might be in the cards for Sheets, and since Jason Heyward is also sidelined with injury, the Padres’ top left field candidates on the big league roster would be rookie Brandon Lockridge and utilityman Tyler Wade. Sheets signed a minor league deal with San Diego over the offseason and now looks like a coup for the club, as Sheets has delivered 11 homers and a .267/.323/.494 slash line over 192 PA as a left fielder, first baseman, and designated hitter.
Mookie Betts has now missed the Dodgers’ last three games due to a left toe fracture and won’t start on Monday either, as manager Dave Roberts told the Orange County Register’s Bill Plunkett and other reporters. Betts is still considered day-to-day with the injury and might be back as early as Tuesday, since he was able to do some hitting in the batting cage and was walking in “pretty normal” fashion, as the shortstop told Plunkett and company.
Josh Sborz and Cody Bradford have yet to pitch during the 2025 season, but the Rangers pitchers each threw breaking balls for the first time in bullpen sessions over the few days, manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News). Sborz underwent shoulder surgery last November and was projected to miss the first 2-3 months of the season, so his throwing progression puts him on pace for a return on the far end of that timeline. Bochy said Sborz and Bradford are expected back roughly around the same time, as Bradford recovers from a sprain in his left elbow that arose during Spring Training. Bradford is slated to throw two more bullpens before aiming for a live batting-practice session during the second week of June.

NL West Notes: King, Waldron, Ohtani, Giants

By Nick Deeds | May 31, 2025 at 10:38pm CDT

The Padres provided an update on the status of right-hander Michael King earlier today, as relayed by Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. The good news is that King’s shoulder issue, which sent him to the injured list just last weekend, is not structural in nature. Rather, Sanders writes that the right-hander is dealing with a pinched nerve. Less fortunate, however, is that the Padres remain in the dark about what King’s timetable for a return to action will ultimately look like.

“Now that we’ve been able to locate what the issue is … just trying to get a handle on how to release that nerve a little bit that’s preventing that (scapula) from being able to fire appropriately,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said, as relayed by Sanders. “We’ve got some really smart people, including Michael himself, involved with that process that will get that going as soon as possible, and how soon that is is to the discretion of that nerve.”

The cause of the pinched nerve isn’t known, though King was initially scratched from his start last week due to discomfort in his shoulder after sleeping on it uncomfortably the night prior. Sanders adds that King sought a second opinion on the issue earlier this week and that, because he’s already started to improve, the Padres are not yet ruling out him resuming playing catch by the end of next week. That would potentially allow him to return to the rotation shortly after his minimum stint on the injured list expires without a rehab start, although ultimately King won’t be able to return until the nerve issue has completely resolved itself. Sanders suggests that right-hander Matt Waldron, who pitched 146 2/3 innings for San Diego last year but has been sidelined all season so far due to an oblique strain, could be ready to return from the injured list in the near future and take up King’s rotation spot while he’s on the shelf.

More from around the NL West…

The Dodgers watched as Shohei Ohtani continued his slow-going return to pitching earlier today, as Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report that the superstar threw two innings of live BP against the Dodgers’ minor league hitters this afternoon. Harris notes that’s a slight uptick from last week’s 22 pitches, and that Ohtani recorded one strikeout and one walk along during the session. After the session, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including USA Today’s Bob Nightengale) that the outing was a “positive” one for Ohtani, though his command wasn’t quite as sharp as his last time out. That Ohtani is continuing to make progress in his rehab is encouraging, although he remains expected to not pitch until some point in the second half of the season. Fortunately, rehabbing hasn’t seemed to slow him down one bit at the plate, as he entered play today slashing .294/.394/.670 with a 187 wRC+, 22 homers and 11 steals.
The Giants could be looking to make a change at first base in the near future, even with top prospect Bryce Eldridge not yet at Triple-A. As Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle reported on yesterday, the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Sacramento tabbed former top prospect Marco Luciano to serve as their first baseman in a game earlier this week. It’s a new position for the 23-year-old, who has already appeared at second base, shortstop, and in left field over the years, but Rubin notes that the River Cats are expected to continue using Luciano at first going forward as concern mounts about the club’s production at the position in the majors. LaMonte Wade Jr. is the club’s starter at the position, but after entering the year with a 115 wRC+ in a Giants uniform he’s slashed just .171/.278/.279 with a wRC+ of 60 across 48 games. Luciano has yet to hit in the majors himself, with a career 68 wRC+ in the majors, but even his meager production in 126 career plate appearances would be an improvement over Wade’s numbers this season. Plus, Luciano is a former consensus top-20 prospect in the sport who may be able to tap into that potential if offered regular reps at the big league level. While Luciano begins to learn the new position, the Giants will hope that Jerar Encarnación’s eventual return from the injured list is enough to help improve the club’s first base production going forward.

AL East Notes: Kim, Rays, Orioles, Red Sox, Dalbec

By Mark Polishuk | May 26, 2025 at 11:26pm CDT

Ha-Seong Kim began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Durham today, marking both his first official on-field appearance with the Rays organization and the first minor league game of his four-plus years in North American baseball, as Kim never saw any time in the minors when he was a member of the Padres from 2021-24. Kim underwent shoulder surgery last October, which chilled his free agent market and allowed Tampa to swoop in for a two-year, $29MM guarantee that allows the infielder to opt out after the 2025 campaign.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes that Kim and four other injured Rays players (Jonny DeLuca, Jake Mangum, Travis Jankowski, Kevin Kelly) are all scheduled to be activated from the IL over the next few weeks, which might make for a bit of a roster crunch as the Rays figure out how to make room for everyone. Some holes will be created when some current players are optioned to the minors, though Topkin figures the Rays will at least check out the trade market to see if any of their surplus players could potentially draw interest from other teams.

Blue Jays Notes: Garcia, Swanson, Burr, Sandlin, Gimenez, Manoah

By Mark Polishuk | May 26, 2025 at 10:29pm CDT

Yimi Garcia was placed on the Blue Jays’ 15-day injured list on Saturday, as the reliever is dealing with a right shoulder impingement. Manager John Schneider provided some updates on several injured players to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling) today, including the news that Garcia received a cortisone shot in his ailing shoulder and will therefore be shut down from throwing for a few days while the shot takes effect. A more definitive recovery timeline won’t be in place until Garcia starts throwing, Schneider said.

Garcia hasn’t allowed an earned run in 19 of his 21 appearances in 2025, as all of his damage allowed (seven ER) came over back-to-back disastrous outings against the Guardians and Angels on May 3 and 6, respectively. He has a 3.15 ERA and an excellent 28.9% strikeout rate over 20 total innings this season, but his 12% walk rate is far beyond his career norms, and his 23.8% chase rate is well below the league average.

Even with those minor red flags, Garcia was Toronto’s top set-up option behind closer Jeff Hoffman, so losing Garcia for at least 15 days is another tough break for a Blue Jays bullpen that has been missing some key arms for all or most of the 2025 campaign. Erik Swanson has yet to pitch at all this year, due to median nerve entrapment in his right arm that surfaced during Spring Training and then some forearm soreness that interrupted the start of his minor league rehab assignment.

Fortunately, Swanson now looks ready to go, as Schneider said the reliever will get a rehab outing with Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday. Swanson was another pitcher ticketed for a set-up role this season, and he excelled in the position in 2023 and in the second half of the 2024 season, albeit only after an injury-marred first half.

The news isn’t as good for right-hander Ryan Burr, who went in for a check-up with team doctors following his Triple-A rehab appearance on Sunday. Burr is another pitcher still waiting for his 2025 debut since he was dealing with shoulder inflammation in the spring, and Burr’s shoulder was still feeling some discomfort in the wake of Sunday’s outing. More will be known soon if Burr’s soreness was anything serious, or if his rehab may be put on hold.

Nick Sandlin got his Blue Jays tenure off to a nice start when he posted a 2.25 ERA in his first eight innings with the team, before a right lat strain sent him to the 15-day IL back on April 20. With now over a month spent on the sidelines, Sandlin is on the road to recovery, as he threw a bullpen session today at the Jays’ training complex in Florida.

Turning to position players, Andres Gimenez is also down in Florida, and Schneider said Gimenez is aiming to be part of a rehab game on Wednesday. Acquired along with Sandlin in a big offseason trade with the Guardians, Gimenez drastically cooled off after a hot start, and was hitting only .195/.273/.305 over 143 plate appearances before a right quad strain sent him to the 10-day IL earlier this month. Gimenez had been the Jays’ starting second baseman, and Ernie Clement has since moved to the keystone in Gimenez’s absence, bringing Addison Barger into the picture as the regular third baseman.

Alek Manoah also provided reporters with an update on his status during the Blue Jays’ recent visit to Tampa to play the Rays, as Manoah has been rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery at the Jays’ Dunedin complex. Speaking with MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other media, Manoah is aiming to be back with the Jays in August, which would mark roughly a 14-month absence since he underwent his TJ procedure in June 2024.

As with any recovery from a UCL surgery, of course, this timeline is still pretty fluid. Manoah is still in the bullpen session phase of his throwing progression (with twice-weekly bullpens of more than 40 pitches), so he has a ways to go before turning to his own minor league rehab work and fully building his arm up for a starter’s workload.

Once the burgeoning ace of Toronto’s rotation, Manoah’s career has been going sideways for the better part of three years. Manoah followed up his excellent 2022 season with a miserable 2023 campaign that saw him lose his command of the strike zone and his spot on the Jays’ big league roster entirely. He seemed to be somewhat back on track when he posted a 3.70 ERA over five starts and 24 1/3 innings in 2024 before the Tommy John procedure put Manoah on the IL.

It is anyone’s guess as to how Manoah may look once he makes his return to the active roster, yet even the 2024 version would be welcomed by a Jays team in need of rotation depth. Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, and Chris Bassitt remain the top three anchors of the pitching staff, but Bowden Francis has struggled, and Max Scherzer’s own injury problems have led to a revolving door of mostly ineffective options in the fifth starter’s role.

Dodgers Notes: Sasaki, Glasnow, Phillips

By Nick Deeds | May 25, 2025 at 10:45pm CDT

The Dodgers’ pitching staff is the most injured in the sport, as has become common for Los Angeles. With three of their five Opening Day starters currently on the injured list, L.A. has been using secondary choices in its rotation in recent weeks. That’s still a strong group, as staff ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto is joined by a solid group despite those injuries: Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Clayton Kershaw, and Landon Knack are all pitchers most teams would be happy to have on staff.

Even so, Dodgers fans are surely hoping for the club’s other rotation arms to get healthy soon, particularly given the fact that May’s 4.09 ERA (96 ERA+) is the best of the group aside from Yamamoto. They received some good news on that front today, as manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) that right-hander Roki Sasaki is set to start a throwing progression at some point this coming week. It’s the first sign of the 23-year-old phenom beginning to ramp back up toward a return since he was placed on the shelf with a right shoulder impingement two weeks ago.

It’s encouraging news regarding Sasaki’s status, but fans shouldn’t expect him back on the mound in the near future. Even after Sasaki resumes throwing, it will be some time before he begins throwing bullpen sessions and facing hitters. A rehab assignment of some length is sure to follow after those boxes are checked, and that could leave Sasaki several weeks away from a return to action yet. Still, the fact that the youngster appears likely to return before the first half of the season comes to a close is certainly encouraging. The Dodgers are surely hoping that Sasaki’s current stay on the injured list is giving him time to get on track before his return, as well. After all, the righty has struggled to this point in his big league career with a 4.72 ERA and 6.13 FIP across eight starts and a worrying 14.3% walk rate.

If Sasaki’s ramp back up to big league readiness may end up being as much about getting him right as it is about getting him healthy, the same could arguably be said about right-hander Tyler Glasnow. The 31-year-old had an uncharacteristic 4.50 ERA with a 5.41 FIP in 18 innings of work across his first five starts of the season before getting shelved with inflammation in his right shoulder near the end of April, but the good news is that he’s making good progress towards a return. MLB.com notes that Glasnow threw his first bullpen session since going on the shelf on Friday. The session lasted less than 20 pitches, but Roberts suggested that Glasnow came out of it feeling “great.”

That suggests that Glasnow is a bit ahead of Sasaki in his rehab process. The veteran righty will likely throw more bullpen sessions with higher pitch counts before progressing to facing live hitters and an eventual rehab assignment, but this weekend’s first step was nonetheless an important one. Glasnow would be a huge boost to the Dodgers’ rotation if he comes back looking anything like he did last year, when he pitched to a 3.49 ERA with a 2.91 FIP across 22 starts during his first year in Los Angeles.

Positive as those updates regarding the rotation might be, however, the Dodgers also revealed some worrying news regarding the status of right-hander Evan Phillips today. The reliever was shelved earlier this month due to what was termed “discomfort” in his right forearm at the time, and while that injury was initially believed to be minor Roberts told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times) that Phillips is still feeling discomfort and has yet to resume throwing three weeks later. Harris went on to note that Roberts acknowledged the injury is “starting to get a little concerning,” though he added that the club is still “hoping for the best.”

Phillips is sorely missed in a bullpen that is also without Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, and Brusdar Graterol among others. The righty was removed from Los Angeles’s closer job last year but has been nothing but excellent during his time with the Dodgers overall, posting a 2.22 ERA in 195 innings of work since the club acquired him back in 2021. That includes seven scoreless appearances this season where he struck out 27.3% of opponents while issuing walks at just a 9.1% clip.

AL West Notes: Trout, Soler, Seager, Gilbert, Miller

By Mark Polishuk | May 25, 2025 at 1:48pm CDT

Mike Trout is seemingly nearing a return to action, as the Angels superstar has been taking part in batting practice sessions and running drills, and is set to start running the bases within the next few days’ time. Trout has been out since April 30 due to a bone bruise in his left knee, and when he does get back, it isn’t clear whether or not Trout will return to outfield duty or if he’ll get more time as a DH in order to help preserve his health. Halos manager Ron Washington told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and other reporters that the focus right now is just on getting Trout healthy, and “once Mike is back, we can have that conversation right there” about his spot in the lineup.

After years as the Halos’ center fielder, Trout began 2025 in right field, already as a way to try and reduce the wear-and-tear on the oft-injured star. Of course, if Trout takes on more of a regular DH role, that would force Jorge Soler into more right field work, which wouldn’t bode well for the L.A. defense given Soler’s long history of subpar glovework. While Washington has felt Soler has “done an outstanding job” in 13 appearances as a right fielder this season, the team feels keeping Soler in right field only in limited fashion is the best solution to help Soler’s overall game. “Running him out there five, six days in a row, we’re not going to do that. But give him two days, a change from just hitting, will help him focus more,” Washington said.

More injury updates from around the AL West…

Corey Seager hasn’t played since May 10 due to a right hamstring strain, though Rangers manager Bruce Bochy told reporters (including Shawn McFarland of the Dallas Morning News) that the star shortstop could be ready to return at some point this week. Friday seems to be the loose target date, though Seager could be back earlier given the increased ramp-up of his prep work — Seager has been taking part in running and fielding drills, and also took part in a live batting practice on Saturday. The plan is to have these baseball activities get Seager into game-ready mode without the need for a minor league rehab assignment. This is already Seager’s second hamstring-related IL stint of the season, which is why he has been limited to 26 games and 107 plate appearances in 2025. As usual, Seager has been excellent (.300/.346/.520 with six home runs) when he has been able to play, and the offensively-challenged Rangers could badly use that bat in their struggling lineup.
Mariners starters Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert each threw simulated games on Friday, with Miller throwing around 25 pitches and Gilbert going higher with 35. It was exactly a month ago that Gilbert was pulled from a start due to a flexor strain in his right elbow, and while Friday’s session was a good step forward, the right-hander suggested to MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer and other reporters that he has a ways to go in his throwing progression. This could mean another sim game and perhaps multiple minor league rehab starts before Gilbert is back in Seattle’s rotation.
Miller (on the 15-day IL since May 12 due to elbow inflammation) is hopeful of returning as early as this week, though manager Dan Wilson expressed some caution. In perhaps more of a long-term concern, Miller told Kramer and company that some tests revealed that his elbow was structurally fine overall, but “there’s something in there that causes inflammation and something I can’t just take out without missing the rest of the year. So this ideally gets me to the end of the year, and then we can reassess and see if I need to clean it up or anything.” These comments somewhat expand on the lingering health issues the righty hinted at when speaking with the media at the time of his initial IL placement, and the exact nature of these injuries may not be known until or unless Miller does get a clean-up procedure at season’s end. With a 5.22 ERA over his first 39 2/3 innings this year, something has clearly seemed amiss with Miller’s performance, and there’s naturally some risk in trying to tough out several more months of pitching before properly addressing the problem.

NL East Notes: Montas, Blackburn, Manaea, Nola, Finnegan

By Mark Polishuk | May 25, 2025 at 8:29am CDT

Frankie Montas saw his first proper game action of the 2025 season on Saturday, when the right-hander tossed 37 pitches over 1 1/3 innings for high-A Brooklyn in the first game of a minor league rehab assignment. Montas signed a two-year, $34MM free agent deal with the Mets this past winter, but was immediately sidelined at the start of Spring Training by a significant lat strain. Saturday’s game officially started the 30-day clock on Montas’ rehab assignment, and he’ll naturally need to further build up his arm strength over multiple outings before he is ready to be activated from the 60-day injured list.

Paul Blackburn should beat Montas back to the active roster, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Lutz writes that the plan is for Blackburn to make his seventh and final minor league rehab outing before joining the Mets at some point in June. Blackburn has missed the entire big league season due to right knee inflammation, while Sean Manaea has also yet to pitch due to an oblique strain. Manaea is throwing off a mound, and Jon Heyman of the New York Post writes that Manaea’s projected timeline is about two weeks behind Montas. Despite all of these pitching injuries, even the makeshift version of the Mets’ rotation has posted tremendous results this season, giving the club a potential arms surplus to address if and when everyone is healthy.

NL East Notes: Young, Mauricio, Edwards

By Nick Deeds | May 17, 2025 at 10:08pm CDT

Today’s game between the Nationals and the Orioles included a scary moment where Nats center fielder Jacob Young crashed into the outfield wall at full speed and went down, as noted by Spencer Nausbaum of the Washington Post. He eventually departed the game with a left shoulder injury and was replaced by Alex Call in the outfield. Fortunately, Nausbaum was among those to note after the game that x-rays on Young’s shoulder came back negative. The 25-year-old’s status remains uncertain ahead of further evaluation tomorrow, but it’s undeniably a good omen for the club on the heels of an exciting win over Baltimore.

Young, 25, hasn’t hit much in his second season as a regular fixture of the Nationals lineup. Across 124 plate appearances this season, he’s posted a meager slash line of just .215/.300/.252 with zero home runs and just four doubles. Despite that lackluster performance at the dish, however, Young has largely made up for it with elite defense and base running. Young has been in the 88th percentile when it comes to value on the basepaths this year according to Statcast even in spite of his league-leading four failed stolen base attempts. The defense has been nearly as good, as his +2 Outs Above Average leaves him tied for sixth among NL center fielders with other strong defenders like Brenton Doyle and Johan Rojas.

With James Wood and Dylan Crews in the outfield corners on a daily basis and Call posting a solid 114 wRC+ in part-time duty, Young may need to hit more in order to keep himself in the lineup on a regular basis in the long-term, particularly with prospect Robert Hassell III beginning to hit at the Triple-A level this year. For now, however, the Nationals will surely content themselves with a quick return to action for their center fielder, given that the loss of Young would likely force Crews to slide over to center field on a more regular basis. With Crews scuffling badly at the plate himself to this point in the year, the Nats would surely prefer to avoid putting additional responsibilities on his plate at this point.

More from around the NL East…

The Mets optioned infielder Ronny Mauricio to Triple-A today after ending his rehab assignment at the Double-A level. As noted by Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, the move is largely procedural in nature given that Mauricio was already in the minors. Mauricio missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a torn ACL during winter ball, and he’s appeared in just ten games in the minors so far this year as he works his way back up to speed with five games at Single-A and five games at Double-A. Now, Mauricio is set to finish getting back into form with the club’s Syracuse affiliate. Given he’s hitting just .125/.176/.188 with a 35.9% strikeout rate so far this year, it’s safe to say that Mauricio is still focused on recovery at this point and likely won’t be a realistic big league option for the Mets for some time yet.
The Marlins, meanwhile, have been without shortstop Xavier Edwards in the lineup for two days now due to back soreness. Craig Mish of the Miami Herald relayed today that, according to manager Clayton McCullough, Edwards underwent imaging that “came out OK” and that Edwards was slated to resume baseball activities today. It’s unclear if Edwards is expected to return to the lineup tomorrow, but if a trip to the injured list is being considered that would be an ideal time to make a decision seeing as a hypothetical IL stint could be backdated due May 16 if it began tomorrow. Edwards was one of the club’s better hitters in 70 games last year but has hit just .263/.337/.292 to this point in the 2025 campaign. Javier Sanoja is filling in at shortstop while Edwards is out of commission.

Dodgers Notes: Kershaw, Edman, Hernandez, Ohtani

By Nick Deeds | May 17, 2025 at 8:17pm CDT

Longtime face of the Dodgers’ franchise and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw is making his 2025 season debut against the Angels this evening, and ahead of the start of his 18th season in the majors the veteran spoke to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic about his drive to continue his playing career.

“I don’t really understand that question,” Kershaw said, as relayed by Ardaya, when asked why he’s continuing his career. “People ask me that. Why not just ride off into the sunset? I’m 37. I have a long time ahead of me. Baseball is fun. So why not? As of today, that’s my answer, yeah.”

Kershaw, of course, has flirted with the possibility of retirement from time to time over the years. After winning a second World Series championship with the Dodgers last year and being forced to end his season in August due to injuries that eventually required surgery on his left plantar plate and to repair a torn left meniscus over the winter. He’s been rehabbing ever since, and enters this year playing on a one-year deal that guarantees him just $7.5MM, although incentives based on starts made and time on the active roster could bring that total up to $15MM by the end of the season depending on his health.

The southpaw is already a slam-dunk Hall of Famer and one of the greatest pitchers of the 21st century, but there are some career milestones left for him to conquer. For one thing, he’s 32 strikeouts away from being the 20th pitcher in MLB history to reach 3,000 for his career. The 257 1/3 innings he’d still need in order to join the 3,000 innings club isn’t a goal he can reach this season, but after pitching 258 innings total in 2022 and ’23 it’s not hard to imagine him reaching that milestone before his 40th birthday should he decide to continue his career for that long.

One other motivator for Kershaw could be that neither of his World Series rings have come with the full experience: the Dodgers couldn’t hold a parade in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Kershaw was not on the field with his teammates for their championship last year due to injuries. Kershaw confirmed that his inability to participate down the stretch last year was a source of frustration.

“Nobody wants to just sit around,” Kershaw said, as relayed by Ardaya. “I want to pitch, and contribute, and be a part of it. Last year was difficult. Obviously, fun to at least be a part of it and see us win and things like that. You always want to be a part of a great team. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Yankees Notes: Canning, Cousins, Stanton

By Mark Polishuk | May 17, 2025 at 2:29pm CDT

With Griffin Canning starting for the Mets in today’s Subway Series matchup, Yankees manager Aaron Boone revealed to reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) that his own club met with Canning and explored a possible signing this past offseason. Instead, Canning wound up in another corner of the Big Apple, signing with the Mets for $4.25MM in guaranteed money on a one-year contract.

The deal was the culmination of a busy winter for Canning, who was dealt from the Angels to the Braves as part of the Jorge Soler that was essentially a salary dump on Atlanta’s part. Indeed, Canning found himself non-tendered just a few weeks after the trade was completed, and he caught on with the Mets a month later. That deal is now looking like one of the better under-the-radar contracts of the offseason, as Canning has blossomed to a 2.36 ERA over 42 innings with the Amazins.

Signing Canning obviously wouldn’t have prevented the Yankees from their big-ticket pitching acquisition of Max Fried, but it could be that if Canning was in the fold, minor league signings Carlos Carrasco or Jake Woodford might not have wound up in the pinstripes, or the Yankees might not have claimed Allan Winans on waivers. Who knows if Canning would’ve enjoyed the same early success with the Yankees that he has with the Mets, but having an extra starter on hand would’ve been helpful for a Bronx Bombers rotation mix that has been thinned by injuries to Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman, and JT Brubaker.

Boone’s pregame media session (with Hoch, the New York Post’s Greg Joyce, and other reporters) also included some injury updates. Jake Cousins has yet to pitch in 2025 due to a right elbow flexor strain sustained during the offseason, and the reliever’s recovery process has been further delayed by a pec injury that developed during a recent live bullpen session. Boone doesn’t think the pec issue is “anything serious,” but it was enough for the Yankees to shut Cousins down for 4-5 days to monitor the situation.

Cousins is on the 60-day injured list and was already expected to be out well beyond his first eligible activation date in late May. Joyce writes that Cousins was aiming to return to New York’s bullpen by the middle of June, “but this shutdown will almost certainly delay that timeline.”

The first of Cousins’ live bullpens came facing Giancarlo Stanton, as part of Stanton’s own rehab from torn tendons in both of his elbows. Boone said that Stanton’s workload has included running on the field and facing a high-velocity pitching machine, in addition to some live at-bats against the likes of Cousins.

Stanton is also on the 60-day IL and can be activated in a little over a week’s time, though it isn’t clear exactly how close the slugger is to even a minor league rehab assignment, let alone returning to the majors. Boone did note that Stanton’s rehab process may not follow a standard path, as since Stanton is a DH-only player, he won’t have to take any reps in the field.

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