The Chicago White Sox plan to unveil a statue of Mark Buehrle when they celebrate their 2005 World Series-winning team at Rate Field on July 11.
Buehrle pitched for Chicago for the first 12 of his 16 seasons in the majors. Known for working quickly with pinpoint control, the left-hander went 161-119 with a 3.83 ERA in 390 appearances with the White Sox, including 365 starts.
The White Sox announced the honor for Buehrle at the team’s fan festival on Friday. He had his No. 56 retired by the franchise in 2017.
“It’s an incredible honor,” Buehrle said. “To put a statue up, of me, out there, forever. I guess the number could be unretired and get taken out and put it back into play. But the statue, unless someone tears it down or does something to it, it’s always going to be there.”
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Buehrle, 45, put on his old uniform and made a few throws to help the sculptor with the details for the statue.
“I ain’t going to lie. It actually felt pretty good — for the 10 minutes I did it. A couple hours later it did not feel good,” a smiling Buehrle cracked.
Buehrle pitched for Miami and Toronto after departing Chicago. The five-time All-Star finished with a 214-160 record and a 3.81 ERA over 3,283 1/3 innings, to go along with four Gold Gloves. He struck out 1,870 and walked 734.
He received 45 votes (11.4%) in his fifth year on the Hall of Fame ballot for the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
“I’m literally just honored to be on the ballot this many years,” he said. “Just getting my name on the first, I was like, ‘Man if I can just stay on for another year,'” Buehrle said. “And now we are going into Year 6. I mean literally giving me goosebumps. It’s insane.”
Buehrle played a key role in Chicago’s last World Series title. He posted a 16-8 record with a career-low 3.12 ERA in 33 starts, helping the White Sox win the 2005 AL Central. Then he went 2-0 with a 3.47 ERA in four postseason appearances, including three starts.
He got the save when he came in and retired Adam Everett on a popup for the final out of the 14th inning in a 7-5 win at Houston in Game 3 of the World Series.
“Every time you go out there you’re trying to win a World Series. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t,” Buehrle said. “I have the feeling the way these fans are and the way they talk to you about that year, they start tearing up and shaking when they’re talking to you about it, yeah you can definitely feel how it affects everybody.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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EA Sports’ beloved college football video game series won’t be hitting the transfer portal any time soon.
“College Football 26” will return for the 2025 season and will be available this summer, EA Sports announced on Jan. 16. EA Sports re-launched the popular video game series in the summer of 2024, marking the first time it had released the game since 2013.
After 2.8 million players bought the game at launch, “College Football 25” became the highest-selling video game of all time in the United States in November. Players like Travis Hunter and Ashton Jeanty became instant fan favorites, due to their electric abilities in the game and on the field.
With so much excitement around the game, it got us thinking — who are the greatest sports video game characters of all time? We looked back at games over the last couple of decades and picked out the most dominant athletes in that span.
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Did your favorite player make the list? Let’s take a look:
10 best sports video game characters of all time
10. Ronaldinho, “FIFA 07”
Plenty of FIFA legends through the years could represent EA Sports’ beloved soccer simulator on this list, but Ronaldinho’s superior offensive abilities propel him into this spot. The Brazil superstar had a rating of 90 or better in finishing, short passing, dribbling, ball control, acceleration, sprint speed and reaction.
9. Sunday Tiger Woods, “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2009”
Really, Sunday Tiger from any 2000s edition would suffice. If your character was lucky enough to make the cut and face Sunday Tiger, you had to play a virtually perfect round of golf to stand a chance of beating him.
EA Sports even leaned into Sunday Tiger’s God-like abilities by using a fan video of a glitch in “Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2008” in which the namesake character could walk on water and hit a chip shot from a lake, turning it into an incredible marketing campaign for the next edition of the game.
8. Michael Jordan, “NBA 2K11”
Some of the characters in these games became overpowered superstars by accident. This edition of Jordan was anything but. The Chicago Bulls legend graced the cover of the 2010 release of the iconic basketball game and had several different modes centered around him, including one in which players could compete in a “Jordan Challenge” that let them simulate key moments from his career.
There were eight retro versions of Jordan from different seasons of his career, and all eight of them had him rated at an unstoppable 99 overall. Jordan also starred in one of the most memorable sports video game opening sequences ever.
7. Peja Stojakovic, “NBA Ballers”
If sweet-shooting NBA players who became video game juggernauts had a patron saint, it would be Stojakovic in this 2004 streetball simulator. The digital version of the Sacramento Kings swingman paved the way for a long line of NBA players in future basketball video games who, once you figured out their shot timing and favorite places to let it fly from beyond the arc, could not be contained.
The first and only player to earn a 99 overall rating in one of the most anticipated games of the decade, Hunter is a cheat code in “EA College Football 25.” The Heisman winner was given 99 acceleration, 99 awareness, 99 spectacular catch, 99 play recognition, 97 jumping, 97 change of direction, 97 catching, 95 speed, 95 juke move, 95 zone coverage and 90 man coverage. There probably has never been a football video game character to have several ratings in the 90s on both sides of the ball — which is apt for his unprecedented two-way play this past season. The Colorado receiver/cornerback finished the year with 96 catches for 1,258 yards and 15 touchdowns, along with 36 total tackles, 11 pass deflections, a forced fumble and four interceptions.
5. “Jon Dowd” (Barry Bonds), “MVP Baseball 2005”
The folks at EA Sports had a problem. Barry Bonds, MLB’s consensus best player at the time, had pulled out of the MLB Players Association’s common licensing agreement. Thus, EA Sports could not use his name or likeness in “MVP Baseball 2005.” It circumvented this by creating the fictional “Jon Dowd,” a slugging, left-handed-hitting San Francisco Giants outfielder with a familiar build and swing. And Dowd, much like the real-life Bonds at the time, was a cheat code, routinely depositing virtual baseballs into a digital McCovey Cove beyond the right-field wall in San Francisco.
4. Mike Tyson, “Punch-Out”
Unlike the other names on this list, Tyson was not a playable character but instead was the final boss in this boxing game. The virtual Tyson is considered one of the most difficult video-game final bosses of all time thanks to his ability to, like the name suggests, knock players out with a single punch.
3. Bo Jackson, “Tecmo Bowl”
The original unstoppable video game character, this version of Jackson is still considered the G.O.A.T. for sports video game fans of a certain age. It’s easy to see why. The pixelated Jackson was too fast and too strong for just about anyone else in the game to stop him, no matter what they did. And unlike the real-life Jackson, whose incredible two-sport professional career was cut short due to injuries, this Jackson could not get hurt.
“Tecmo Bowl” Bo Jackson lives on in the cultural zeitgeist, including an appearance in the iconic animated sitcom “Family Guy” and a Kia commercial starring the actual Bo Jackson.
2. Pablo Sanchez, Backyard Sports
With respect to Jon Dowd, Sanchez is the only truly fictional character on this list, but he deserves to be here after a decade across a litany of Backyard Sports titles.
Sanchez is best known for his abilities in various Backyard Baseball editions. He was a true five-tool player, representing one of the best hitters and fastest runners in just about every edition of the game. When Millennials and even some older Gen Z gamers discuss their Backyard Sports memories, Sanchez is usually the first name they think of.
1. Michael Vick, “Madden 2004”
The first true dual-threat quarterback of the modern Madden era, the current NFL on FOX analyst was simply impossible to stop in the game that bore his image on the cover. He was too fast when he took off running and too accurate as a passer to be contained by even the best defensive game plan.
Nothing like Vick has been seen in Madden since then — which is by design. Madden developer Clint Oldenburg revealed in a 2016 interview that several features included in subsequent Madden editions, such as the popular “Hit Stick” and much less popular and since-discontinued “QB Vision,” were added specifically to counteract Vick. It was as though they were Frankenstein trying to stop a monster of their own creation.
Additionally, the Madden player ratings system has been changed significantly so that no player is overwhelmingly dominant at so many different facets like Vick was.
“For me, Andy is a Hall of Famer,” Sabathia said in an interview with MLB.com. “Getting a chance to pitch alongside him, getting a chance to still talk to him pretty much all the time, I believe he’s a Hall of Famer. … [with] my getting in, hopefully people will reconsider his candidacy and put him in.
“I mean, anybody that wins 19 games in the playoffs, I think deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.”
Pettitte, a three-time All-Star, won five World Series with the Yankees in his three stints with the franchise (1995-2003, 2007-10 and 2012-13); he pitched for the Houston Astros from 2004-06, posting a combined 3.38 ERA over 84 appearances/83 starts and a career-best 2.39 ERA in 2005.
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In his career, Pettitte had a 3.85 ERA, 1.35 WHIP and 2,448 combined strikeouts across 531 appearances/521 starts. He also sported a 256-153 career regular-season record.
Pettitte is first in Yankees history with 2,020 career strikeouts, is tied for first with 438 games started and is third with 219 wins, 2,796.1 innings pitched and a 51.3 WAR among pitchers.
A potential hindrance to Pettitte’s Hall of Fame case has been him admitting in 2007 that he took HGH to recover from an elbow injury in 2002. This year, Pettitte received 27.9% support to get into the Hall, up from 13.5% from 2023; a player needs 75% to get in.
On the hill, the left-hander is best remembered for being one of the premier postseason pitchers in MLB history. Making 44 postseason starts, Pettitte posted a combined 3.81 ERA and went 19-11. Pettitte’s 19 postseason wins stand as the most by a pitcher in MLB history.
As for some of his more epic outings, Pettitte pitched 8.1 scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the 1996 World Series in a 1-0 Yankees win. Two years later, he tossed 7.1 scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres in Game 4 of the 1998 World Series. And then, two years after that, Pettitte gave up two runs, neither of which was earned, in the Yankees’ Game 5 series-clinching win over the New York Mets in the 2000 World Series.
Moreover, in the last two seasons that he played in the postseason (2010 and 2012, when he was 38 and 40, respectively), Pettitte pitched through at least 6.2 innings and surrendered no more than three runs in each of the four starts.
Sabathia and Pettitte were teammates on the Yankees from 2009-10 and 2012-13. The former joined the Yankees in 2009, serving as their ace for the bulk of his 11 years in the Bronx and helping them win the World Series in his first season (2009). The pair of left-handers (Sabathia and Pettitte) and fellow free agent signee A.J. Burnett formed a three-man starting rotation in the 2009 postseason for the Yankees.
“There’s one writer that I wasn’t able to get a vote from,” he said through a translator Thursday, two days after receiving 393 of 394 votes from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “I would like to invite him over to my house, and we’ll have a drink together, and we’ll have a good chat.”
Suzuki had been to the Hall seven times before attending a news conference Thursday with fellow electees CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner. The trio will be inducted on July 27 along with Dave Parker and Dick Allen, voted in last month by the classic era committee.
Suzuki struggled to process being the first player from Japan elected to the Hall.
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“Maybe five, 10 years from now I could look back, and maybe we’ll be able to say this is what it meant,” he said.
BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O’Connell recalled Suzuki was at the Hall in 2001 when he called to inform the Seattle star he had been voted AL Rookie of the Year. Suzuki received 27 of 28 first-place votes, all but one from an Ohio writer who selected Sabathia.
“He stole my Rookie of the Year,” Sabathia said playfully.
Sabathia remembered a game at Safeco Field on July 30, 2005. He had worked with Cleveland pitching coach Carl Willis in a bullpen session on a pitch he could throw to retire Suzuki, which turned out to be a slider.
“I get two strikes on Ichi, and he hits it off the window,” Sabathia said of the 428-foot drive off the second deck restaurant in right field, at the time the longest home run of Suzuki’s big-league career. “Come back around his next at-bat, throw it to him again, first pitch he hits it out again.”
Suzuki’s second home run broke a sixth-inning tie in the Mariners’ 3-2 win.
As the trio discussed their favorite memorabilia, Suzuki mentioned a mockup Hall of Fame plaque the Hall had created — not a design for the real one — that included his dog, Ikkyu.
“Our dog and then Bob Feller’s cat are the only animals to have the Hall of Fame plaque. That is something that I cherish,” Suzuki said, referring to a mockup with the pitcher’s cat, Felix.
Sabathia helped the New York Yankees win the World Series in 2009 after agreeing to a $161 million, seven-year contract as a free agent. Sabathia started his big league career in Cleveland, finished the 2008 season in Milwaukee and was apprehensive about signing with the Yankees before he was persuaded by general manager Brian Cashman.
“Going into the offseason, I just heard all of the stuff that was going on, the turmoil in the Yankees clubhouse,” Sabathia said. “Pretty quick, like two or three days into spring training, me and Andy [Pettitte] are running in the outfield, I get a chance to meet [Derek] Jeter, we’re hanging out, and the pitching staff, we’re going to dinners, we’re going to basketball games together. So it didn’t take long at all before I felt like this was the right decision.”
Sabathia was on 342 ballots and Wagner on 325 (82.5%), which was 29 votes more than the 296 needed for the required 75%. While Suzuki and Sabathia were elected in their first ballot appearance, Wagner was voted in on his 10th and final try with the writers.
Even two days after learning of his election, Wagner had tears streaming down his cheeks when he thought back to the call. His face turned red.
“It’s humbling,” he said, his voice quavering before he paused. “I don’t know if it’s deserving but to sit out 10 years and have your career scrutinized and stuff, it’s tough.”
Wagner, who is 5-foot-10, became the first left-hander elected to the Hall who was primarily a reliever. He thought of the words of 5-foot-11 right-hander Pedro Martínez, voted to Cooperstown in 2015.
“I hope kids around see that there is a chance that you can get here and it is possible, that size and where you’re from doesn’t matter,” Wagner said. “I think Pedro said it first, but If I can get here, anyone can get here.”
The all-time great became the first player from Japan to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 2025 class.
The all-time great was just one vote away from becoming the second player to be unanimously selected for induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, getting voted in as part of the 2025 class. Suzuki is the first player ever from Japan to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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C.C. Sabathia and Billy Wagner will join Suzuki as part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class. Sabathia, who was in his first year on the ballot, received 86.8 of the vote. Wagner, who was in his 10th and final season on the ballot, received 82.5% of the vote.
Nominees needed to earn at least 75% of the vote from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in order to be inducted. Dave Parker and Dick Allen will also be a part of the 2025 class, getting voted in last month by the classic era committee.
With Suzuki falling just short of the unanimous vote, Mariano Rivers remains the only player to be unanimously selected for induction in Cooperstown. He got 100% of the vote from the BBWAA in 2019, appearing on all 425 ballots. Derek Jeter was picked on 395 of 396 in 2020 and Ken Griffey Jr. on 437 of 440 in 2016.
Suzuki came to Major League Baseball from Japan as a 27-year-old in 2001 and joined Fred Lynn in 1975 as the only players to win AL Rookie of the Year and AL MVP in the same season. He was a two-time AL batting champion and 10-time All-Star and Gold Glove outfielder, hitting .311 with 117 homers, 780 RBIs and 509 stolen bases with the Seattle Mariners (2001-12, 2018-19), the New York Yankees (2012-14) and Miami Marlins (2015-17).
Suzuki’s perhaps the best contact hitter in baseball history, with 1,278 hits in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and 3,089 in MLB. His combined total of 4,367 is higher than Pete Rose’s MLB record of 4,256. Suzuki had a record 262 hits in 2004.
Sabathia was a six-time All-Star, won the 2007 AL Cy Young Award and a World Series title in 2009. He went 251-161 with a 3.74 ERA and 3,093 strikeouts, third among left-handers behind Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton, during 19 seasons with Cleveland (2001-08), the Milwaukee Brewers (2008) and New York Yankees (2009-19).
Wagner received 284 votes and 73.8% in the 2024 balloting, five votes shy of the 75% needed when third baseman Adrian Beltré, catcher/first baseman Joe Mauer and first baseman Todd Helton were elected. Wagner’s induction was quite the climb as he received 10.5% support in his first appearance in 2016.
Wagner is the ninth pitcher in the Hall who was primarily a reliever after Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers, Dennis Eckersley, Bruce Sutter, Goose Gossage, Trevor Hoffman, Lee Smith and Rivera.
A seven-time All-Star, Wagner was 47-40 with a 2.31 ERA and 422 saves for the Houston Astros (1995-2003), Philadelphia Phillies (2004-05), New York Mets (2006-09), Boston Red Sox (2009) and Atlanta Braves (2010). His 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings are the most among pitchers with at least 900 innings.
Alex Rodriguez and Manny Ramírez are among the most prominent players to fall short of induction as part of the 2025 classes. Both players have lagged in voting, getting hurt by suspensions for performance-enhancing drugs. Rodriguez was in his fourth year on the ballot and Ramírez was in his ninth year on the ballot, making next year his last chance to be voted in through the BBWAA.
Other holdovers include Andruw Jones, Chase Utley, Omar Vizquel, Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, Andy Pettitte, Mark Buehrle, Francisco Rodríguez, Torii Hunter and David Wright.
Pitcher Félix Hernández, outfielder Carlos González and infielders Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramírez were among the newcomers joined by reliever Fernando Rodney, second baseman Ian Kinsler, second baseman/outfielder Ben Zobrist, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, catchers Russell Martin and Brian McCann, and outfielders Curtis Granderson and Adam Jones.
Players joining the ballot in 2026 include Cole Hamels, Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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The Dodgers remain the talk of the sport this offseason as they continue hauling in MLB’s top talent. Their latest flurry of activity has increased their projected 2025 payroll to above $370 million, which clears the next-closest teams, while giving the defending champions perhaps their best roster yet.
It all has many wondering what’s next, not just for the Dodgers but Major League Baseball.
FOX Sports MLB experts Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner weighed in on the Dodgers’ sweeping supremacy and how it could impact the future of the league.
Moderator: The Dodgers, coming off a dominant World Series run, have only added to their superteam and assembled one of the best rosters we’ve ever seen. It has the makings of a potential dynasty and has made them the sport’s biggest villains since the Yankees of the late 90s/early 2000s. Is this ultimately good or bad for baseball?
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Rowan Kavner: The payroll discrepancy is not a good thing for baseball, but we also haven’t seen repeat winners since the early 2000s. There is still parity in the sport (for now), and what the Dodgers are doing also shouldn’t be maligned so much. Yes, they can outspend teams, but their success goes far beyond that. There’s a reason players want to go there. They’ve built a machine through spending, development and opportunism.
The Red Sox could have paid Mookie Betts what he was worth, but they didn’t. The Braves could have made more of an effort to keep Freddie Freeman, but they didn’t. The Angels didn’t even try to match the offer for Shohei Ohtani that most other contenders would’ve gladly taken. I would argue the bigger issue is the lower payroll teams not doing more to field a competitive group.
Deesha Thosar: One way or another, what the Dodgers are doing is good for baseball — even if they are irritating 29 other fan bases — because they are prioritizing winning. To lean on what Rowan said, owners who are crying poor should either look at the Dodgers’ model and be inspired to change their own methods, or they should sell their teams to someone who will develop good players and find, at the very least, creative ways to stretch the payroll into building an exciting roster.
What’s the point of punishing teams that are successful within the existing MLB rule book, while rewarding incompetent ownership groups, largely made up of billionaires, who are apathetic to winning?
Kavner: And to go back to the unfairness/competitiveness aspect, yes, it would have kicked up the Dodgers/Padres rivalry a notch — which I would say right now is the best in baseball — had Roki Sasaki chosen to join San Diego and face Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto rather than play alongside them, but can you really blame him? He’s trying to maximize his value while he has the chance, and the Dodgers’ spending and successful operation show players they’re serious about winning for the long haul.
Credit to the rest of the NL West, too, which rather than crying foul is also still trying to win. The D-backs, Padres and Giants aren’t going anywhere. (Well, most of the rest of the NL West, at least.)
Do you believe Japanese ace Rōki Sasaki would have insisted on being posted two years early if he weren’t signing with the Dodgers this winter?
Thosar: Based on how this all played out, there seems to be little to no evidence that Sasaki was ever considering going anywhere but with the Dodgers — whether he was posted earlier or later. Los Angeles targeted Sasaki for years, and from his point of view, what’s the point of waiting? The Dodgers can help Sasaki develop his arsenal now, rather than the 23-year-old potentially harming his arm and increasing his chance for injuries by placing more focus on just high velocity. (Already, his four-seamer touches 102 mph.)
Kavner: I’m surprised he did it now, but I don’t think the Dodgers are the reason for that decision. Wherever he ended up, he was forfeiting a huge sum (at least for the next six years) by making this choice. At the winter meetings, even Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, had a hard time saying definitively why Sasaki didn’t wait two more years, when he would have almost certainly made nine figures.
It sounds like, especially after playing in the WBC, Sasaki just decided he wanted to get to MLB as quickly as possible. Wolfe mentioned the tragedies that Sasaki has experienced — Sasaki lost his father and paternal grandparents in the devastating 2011 tsunami in Japan — have shaped his outlook on life. He knows there are no guarantees, so if he has the chance to do something now, he doesn’t want to wait. I can’t blame him for that.
What was the Dodgers’ smartest move this offseason?
Thosar: Loading up on arms. More specifically, adding Blake Snell to the mix and getting him to agree by increasing his annual average value (he actually received the highest AAV among Corbin Burnes and Max Fried) while offering the smallest overall contract within that trio. To further sweeten the deal, and perhaps get Snell to take deferred money, the Dodgers seemed to blow Snell away with a colossal $52 million signing bonus. The deferred money allowed the Dodgers to keep adding to build the roster on the margins, and they now have a rotation, on-paper, that is made up exclusively of aces.
I view their biggest concern as their recent negative trend of pitching injuries, and that’s still something to look out for as Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound and Roki Sasaki begins his development in Los Angeles, but they have at least safeguarded the likely possibility of arm injuries by creating a significant pool of depth.
Kavner: Can I say enticing Sasaki for hundreds of millions less than he would have gotten on the open market? If we’re sticking to the more traditional free agents, though, I’ll go with bringing back Teoscar Hernández. It’s not that three years and $66 million is some sort of massive steal, but I thought he was the best outfielder on the market behind Juan Soto and wondered if he’d end up getting more from a team desperate to make a splash.
As stacked as the Dodgers’ roster is, there were a ton of question marks in the outfield had he not returned (especially with Mookie Betts expected to return to the infield). Hernández, a fan favorite and seed-throwing joy in the clubhouse, provides stability to a group determined to preserve its championship mojo.
Is there any move the Dodgers made this winter that you didn’t like?
Kavner: I’m surprised they’re planning to put Mookie Betts at shortstop and not second base, but extending Tommy Edman with Miguel Rojas and now Hyeseong Kim on the roster at least gives them options if it doesn’t work out. It’s really difficult to poke holes in anything they’ve done. A+.
Thosar: This is nitpicking, but I thought the addition of Michael Conforto was weird to begin with, and then to give him $17 million was way more than I expected for someone who is five years removed from his best season. The deal would make more sense if they didn’t re-sign Teoscar Hernández.
What do you think is the ceiling for this team in the regular season?
Thosar: A lot of things have to go right (health, primarily) but in their best-case scenario, if everything is clicking on all cylinders, I’ll go with 105 wins. They wanted the pressure, they got it.
Kavner: They set their franchise record for wins with 111 three years ago; I’ll say 115. The team is absolutely stacked, but how many times will we actually see Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani and Roki Sasaki all pitch in order? There are a lot of health question marks, but this is undoubtedly the most talented group they’ve assembled during their run of excellence. (I’m taking the over on 105.)
What seems more likely for MLB when the next CBA expires after the 2026 season: a salary cap or a lockout?
Kavner: Seeing how the discrepancies in payrolls are only getting worse, it seems like the latter. The players absolutely do not want a salary cap, although one positive with that would be a salary floor (which I think is the bigger issue). You’re not getting one without the other, and where do you set either when the highest-payroll teams are so high and the lowest-payroll teams are so low? I could see rules about deferrals getting modified, but this is probably shaping up for an ugly battle.
Thosar: At this point, I would be surprised if there wasn’t a lockout. The industry seems to be expecting it, which likely means it will be ugly, as Rowan alluded to. But I still think there are way too many moving parts with a salary cap that would allow the league to actually pull it off.
A primary talking point in the next CBA will be the future of local TV rights, and there’s probably enough overlapping concern among MLB owners and players to find a solution that works for everyone (pooling all the TV money for both high and low revenue teams, for example) that will push the possibility of a salary cap to the CBA after this next one.
So, could you see the players possibly caving on a salary cap if it meant avoiding being locked out for a full season? The ghost of Marvin Miller eagerly awaits your answers.
Thosar: Things could change, but I don’t think all 30 owners are aligned on wanting a salary cap well enough to be able to pull off that kind of ultimatum.
Kavner: If the owners make a salary cap a hard stance, any number of missed games will be possible. It’s just too early to know at this point how far owners are going to go with that demand, and that gets back to the griping about what the Dodgers are doing. We still have two seasons before we know how this is going to play out (although we’ll rightfully be talking about this throughout the 2026 season). So, enjoy next season, everyone! I promise there will still be 11 teams other than the Dodgers who’ll get a chance to play in October.
Thosar: Especially because Rob Manfred & Co. made it easier for small-market, low-revenue teams to sneak into October when they expanded the playoffs. Superteams going for it and inviting public pressure to be successful is fun to talk about, right? Right!
Kavner: If the Padres beat the Dodgers in the NLDS, which many expected to happen, how much are we talking about demands to fix the game?
Thosar: Well, I think the damage is done in that sense. Whether or not the Dodgers repeat as champions, the calls to fix the game have been put in motion by the way they conducted their offseason and the previous one. The league will remember their exorbitant spending, including the topic of deferrals, either way.
Kavner: That’s fair. The deferrals are significant and noteworthy, but if other teams want to offer exceptionally high signing bonuses to get players to agree to defer some money, by all means, they’re free to do so. The highest payroll in the sport doesn’t always win the World Series, we haven’t seen a repeat championship winner since 2000, and until a new CBA is put in place, there’s not much to do about it other than try to field a competitive roster.
The D-backs made the World Series with a payroll that ranked in the bottom half of the sport two years ago. That’s not a sustainable recipe for success, but they saw the possibilities when you secure a spot in the dance, and they’ve spent the past couple of years spending enough to stay relevant. Not every deal has worked out, but they’re going to be a formidable group in 2025. More teams should follow suit. Or sell to someone who will try harder.
Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and NL West for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
Deesha Thosar is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets for the New York Daily News. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
Which one of its five starting pitchers has the best chance to win the NL Cy Young Award? Let’s check out the odds at DraftKings Sportsbook as of Jan. 21.
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National League Cy Young Award 2025 (Dodgers)
Blake Snell: +1000 (bet $10 to win $110 total) Tyler Glasnow: +1700 (bet $10 to win $180 total) Yoshinobu Yamamoto: +2500 (bet $10 to win $260 total) Shohei Ohtani: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total) Roki Sasaki: +7500 (bet $10 to win $760 total)
In terms of the entire oddsboard, Snell is fifth, Glasnow is seventh, Yamamoto is 11th, Ohtani is 19th and Sasaki is 28th.
Snell has won the award twice and is one of only eight pitchers in MLB history to win the award in both leagues. He won the AL version in 2018 with the Tampa Bay Rays, and won the NL version in 2023 with the San Diego Padres.
Glasnow was an All-Star in 2024 with L.A., and Ohtani was the All-Star starting pitcher in 2021 with the Angels.
Ohtani was also an All-Star reserve pitcher in 2022 and 2023.
Rōki Sasaki’s best pitches of the World Baseball Classic
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Still, the guy that has the longest odds of the Dodgers’ rotation is the guy most in the limelight, and that’s Sasaki.
Here is what FOX Sports MLB writer Rowan Kavner had to say about the 23-year-old Japanese star who will make his way to Major League Baseball ahead of next season:
“Sasaki can light up a radar gun. His fastball has clocked in over 102 mph in Japan and touched 101.9 at the World Baseball Classic, where he sat 100.5 mph and got a bevy of whiffs with his devastating splitter. … Over his four years in NPB, Sasaki tallied a 5.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio — more than a full strikeout higher than Yamamoto, whose 4.48 mark was still good enough to make him the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history. That stat demonstrates Sasaki’s ceiling.”
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An 11-year-old collector in Los Angeles has scooped up a one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring National League Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes.
Topps announced Tuesday that the card, which features the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher’s autograph and a patch from a game-worn jersey, had been found.
Now comes the fun part: seeing what it is worth on the open market.
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The collector could get a massive haul if willing to trade it to the Pirates, who have put together a package that includes 30 years’ worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park in exchange for the card. In addition to the season tickets, the Pirates’ offer also includes a softball game for 30 people at PNC Park, two Paul Skenes autographed jerseys and a meet and great with the star pitcher.
Skenes’ girlfriend, LSU gymnast and influencer Livvy Dunne, is offering the card’s owner the opportunity to take in a game with her in a luxury suite at the ballpark during one of Skenes’ starts.
The card could hold pretty high value elsewhere considering the potentially bright future ahead for the 22-year-old Skenes, who also finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting following an outstanding rookie season in 2024.
The first overall pick in the 2023 amateur draft made his major league debut in May and put together one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory. Skenes was selected as the NL’s starting pitcher in the All-Star Game after just 11 starts and finished the season 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 games.
Skenes said over the weekend he hasn’t thought about the potential of signing a long-term contract to remain in Pittsburgh, saying instead that his focus is on helping the Pirates take a step toward contending in 2025.
Paul Skenes has a lot on his mind. The chances of the perpetually curious National League Rookie of the Year staying with the Pittsburgh Pirates indefinitely is not one of them.
Not yet anyway.
“I haven’t given it too much thought,” Skenes said Sunday when asked about the chances of him signing an extension with the Pirates.
The 22-year-old star might be one of the few.
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Pittsburgh’s quiet offseason in free agency has done little to quell belief among the fan base that the club is already living on borrowed time with the hard-throwing right-hander. Armed with an electric 100-mph fastball and the swagger to match, Skenes — the first overall pick in 2023 — became a sensation the moment he made his MLB debut last May.
Skenes’ arrival gave the city and the franchise a much-needed jolt. Yet, it hasn’t exactly spurred general manager Ben Cherington to go on a spending spree over the winter to juice up an offense to complement what could be one of the better rotations in baseball led by Skenes and 23-year-old Jared Jones.
One fan has started a billboard campaign urging Pirates chairman Bob Nutting to sell the team. A small chant of “Sell The Team!” even broke out at the club’s annual fanfest event, with vice president Travis Williams responding during a Q&A session that Nutting had no interest in moving on.
Neither — at this point, anyway — does Skenes, who pointed to Pittsburgh’s young core of talent and tweaks to the coaching staff as proof that the team has not sat idly by following a second consecutive 76-86 finish.
“The group that we have from last year is going to be better, I think, than we were last year,” Skenes said. “We’re going to have more experience. I don’t think you can overstate the impact that coaches can have on it, too, so we made some good additions there. It’s not a complicated thing. It’s hard to do, but it’s not complicated.”
The Pirates hired Matt Hague to run their hitting program and brought on longtime pitching guru Brent Strom to help a staff loaded with potential but short on experience.
The external fear is that the club could be limited on time to maximize its window while Skenes is on the roster. Though the Pirates have locked up some of their cornerstones for the long term — including outfielder Bryan Reynolds and pitcher Mitch Keller — in recent years, keeping Skenes would be another matter. He will become eligible for arbitration after the 2026 season, and the list of high-end pitchers the club has parted with before they became too expensive includes Gerrit Cole and Joe Musgrove.
Skenes, however, is not caught up in the future. There’s too much at stake in the present. He’ll be grateful when he arrives for spring training in Bradenton, Florida next month as a full-fledged major-leaguer without worrying about any sort of innings limit like the one the team imposed last year to protect his arm. He was fully on board with the idea, even saying at the end of the season it worked perfectly.
And now it’s a thing of the past.
“I’m going to be ready to throw 240 innings,” said Skenes, who went 11-3 with a 1.96 ERA in 23 starts. “It’s not going to be 160 innings again. I know that. It’s gonna be much more, ‘Take the ball and pitch.'”
Off the field, Skenes expects to take a more central role in creating a clubhouse culture designed to create a productive environment. He spent a portion of his offseason canvassing veterans on other teams looking for insight. What that looks like in the end, he’s not certain. He’ll know it when he sees it.
“I don’t know what the character of that will be, but I’ll have probably a little more say so,” he said, while cautioning “there’s still a long way to go. I’m not going to overstep, but winning is winning. We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do to make it happen.”
On that front, he is fully committed. He spent a portion of the winter training in Charlotte, North Carolina, and coming to grips with his burgeoning fame.
“The nice thing about the offseason is people kind of forget you because it’s not baseball season,” he said. “It never completely goes away. That’s just how it is. It’s the new normal.”
Even if it’s not exactly “normal.” Skenes encountered a fan on a flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh recently. The fan wanted him to sign something but the only thing he had on him was a copy of the classic Russian novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky. So Skenes grabbed a pen and scrawled his name at the bottom of the author’s biography page.
The act quickly went viral, something that’s becoming a habit no matter where Skenes goes, particularly when his girlfriend, gymnast/influencer Livvy Dunne, is involved.
The former Air Force Academy cadet, however, became adept at compartmentalizing things long ago, a skill that should come in handy as he tries to navigate his way from the phenom stage of his career to something more lasting while trying to lead the Pirates back to the playoffs for the first time since 2015.
Yes, he’s aware of the yawning gap between teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Pirates. No, he’s not willing to use it as an excuse for failure.
“There’s no reason we can’t play fundamental baseball and execute at a very high level without having players like (Shohei Ohtani),” he said. “It’s not a complicated game.”
Last December, the Dodgers‘ addition of Shohei Ohtani concluded one of their greatest pursuits and began another.
“One of our goals is to have baseball fans in Japan convert to Dodger blue,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at Ohtani’s introductory press conference, “and to have Shohei along with the rest of his teammates help grow the game and passion for Dodgers baseball all across Japan.”
Weeks later, luring Yoshinobu Yamamoto furthered their cause. And on Friday, the Dodgers cemented their status as the preferred MLB destination for NPB stars and transformed their rotation into a Mount Rushmore of Japanese pitching luminaries by winning the Rōki Sasaki sweepstakes. In a possible ode to Ohtani, Sasaki broke the news of his much-anticipated decision, which was long expected to be Los Angeles, with an Instagram post.
While Ohtani might not be ready to pitch at the outset of the 2025 season, the Dodgers can expect Ohtani, Yamamoto and now Sasaki, three of the most gifted NPB pitchers in recent history, all on the mound for them at some point in 2025.
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Ohtani has been the biggest bargain in the sport, given all the deferrals in his contract and the many revenue streams he creates, but Sasaki can create a strong argument, too, if he pitches to his capabilities.
“He has talked about his desire to be the best pitcher in the world,” Friedman said, “and we believe that he is capable of being the best pitcher in the world.”
Sasaki was affordable for any pitching-needy team, but it was the team with the highest payroll that ultimately secured his services. The reigning champs needed pitching help this winter. By signing Sasaki and Blake Snell, they acquired arguably two of the top three most desired pitchers on the market.
The Dodgers made their interest in Sasaki known early, with Friedman describing the pitcher as “a major priority” at the winter meetings in December. They hoped Sasaki’s experience winning the World Baseball Classic alongside Ohtani and Yamamoto could help their cause.
Clearly, it didn’t hurt.
“He has paid attention to how teams have done, as far as overall success, both this year and years past,” Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, said shortly after Sasaki was posted. “He does watch a lot of Major League Baseball. He has paid attention to what his WBC teammates have done. He’s talked to a lot of players, foreign players, that have been on his team with Chiba Lotte. He asked a lot of questions about weather, about comfortability, about pitching development.”
It’s no wonder, then, why Los Angeles was an obvious fit and why the Dodgers stood out as the favorites to land the latest Japanese sensation. Wolfe advised Sasaki early in the process not to base his decision on how much bonus pool money a team had and to instead consider “the long-term arc” of his career when sifting through his options. Sasaki is entrusting the Dodgers to develop and protect him until he is eligible to sign for the nine-figure deal he would have gotten on the open market.
During their initial pitch to Sasaki, the Dodgers sought to sell the city, the opportunities it could provide, the stability of the organization, the infrastructure they already have in place to support Japanese players and how they could help him grow and develop. In Sasaki, there’s a lot for their pitching development staff to work with. The young flamethrower combines a fastball that gets into the triple digits with a slider and a lethal splitter that routinely misses bats and might already be one of the best offerings in MLB.
Sasaki finished his four-year NPB career going 29-15 with a 2.10 ERA, 0.89 WHIP and 5.74 strikeout-to-walk ratio while striking out 11.5 batters per nine innings. His most dominant years came in 2022, when he threw a 19-strikeout perfect game, and 2023, when he struck out 135 batters in 91 innings. His numbers and velocity took a hit last year, likely due in part to the shoulder soreness he experienced. Health and durability are his biggest question marks — he threw fewer than 130 innings in each of his four NPB seasons — but his value is expected to far exceed his contract, regardless. On a deal this affordable, the risk is minimal.
The signing should be a boon to a Dodgers team that entered this winter in the market for starting pitching after surviving a litany of injuries in their rotation to win the World Series. A 2024 season that began with Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone, James Paxton, Bobby Miller and Yamamoto in their Opening Day rotation ended with just one of those pitchers, Yamamoto, available in October.
Glasnow was unable to finish out his first year in Los Angeles due to an elbow sprain. Stone emerged as a standout rookie and an invaluable steadying force as injuries beset the rest of the staff until he too eventually succumbed. He will likely miss all of the 2025 season after undergoing shoulder surgery. Paxton was designated for assignment and traded to the Red Sox. Miller was coming off a promising rookie year but took a major step back after dealing with a shoulder issue early in the year. The Dodgers’ options in October dwindled further as young talents Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan and Kyle Hurt all needed Tommy John surgery. The breadth of absences was so significant that Friedman said he planned to put together a task force this offseason to rethink and re-examine how they bring their pitchers along.
In the postseason, they relied on just a three-man rotation of Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty and Walker Buehler. The latter two pitchers are now free agents, which left the Dodgers in need. They responded admirably.
Whether they revamp the way they develop their pitchers in any meaningful way, adding more of the best arms to the group is one way to combat the industry-wide injury issue.
“There’s no such thing as too much pitching,” Friedman said. “We learned that last year.”
Sasaki will join a Dodgers rotation that is expected to have Glasnow back alongside Snell and Yamamoto as the headliners in the spring. It’s one of the most talented groups in the sport but also one with plenty of health question marks, particularly behind that quintet.
Ohtani was already building back up from his second major elbow reconstruction when he underwent surgery on his left shoulder earlier this month. Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May are expected back, but Gonsolin is returning from Tommy John surgery and May has pitched just 191.2 big-league innings — and never more than 56 in a regular season — since debuting as a 21-year-old in 2019.
The Dodgers’ group of young contributors on the mound could include Ben Casparius and Landon Knack, who were both on the playoff roster, as well as Miller and Justin Wrobleski. Prospects Jackson Ferris and Nick Frasso, who missed last year after undergoing labrum surgery, could also work their way into the mix. General manager Brandon Gomes said Sheehan could possibly return at some point in the second half, though that will be determined by his rehab and recovery.
That’s a lot of possibilities, but considering that the Dodgers are still planning to operate a six-man rotation to accommodate the schedules of Yamamoto and Ohtani, that Ohtani’s deferrals created room to add, that even the best-laid pitching plans can go awry (as last year demonstrated) and the high cost of trying to bolster a roster at the deadline, the Dodgers sought to create as stable a group as possible right now.
“My goal is to do everything we can right now to not buy in July,” Friedman said. “It is terrible. It is a terrible time to acquire talent.”
Sasaki significantly raises the ceiling of the group and serves as the latest example of the club’s foothold in Japan. The Dodgers signed Hideo Nomo in 1995, Hiroki Kuroda in 2008 and Kenta Maeda in 2016, but what they’ve done since the end of the 2023 season has reached new heights — and quelled any concern that players coming to the states from NPB want to forge a separate path from other Japanese talents.
“It’s different for every single player,” Wolfe said. “Each player is unique in how they feel about it, and I think it also matters on the player that is already on the team. How much do they reach out to other Japanese players? How are they perceived by this particular Japanese player? And it just varies player to player.”
With Sasaki, Wolfe said having Japanese players already on the team could be an attraction, “to have an older player to help show him the ropes.” In Yamamoto and Ohtani, he’ll have two.
In October, before that duo helped the Dodgers to a World Series title, Friedman began the month in their home country watching Japan’s latest pitching phenom. The Dodgers had long held interest in Sasaki, a prodigy who had been on MLB teams’ radars since his high school days.
Now, he’s the latest example of the Dodgers’ growing influence in Japan. Seven years after their failed pursuit of Ohtani, he’s a Dodger, and so is the latest Japanese amateur free-agent pitching phenom to follow in his footsteps.
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
