The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 after dispatching the Minnesota Timberwolves in five games. They will face the Indiana Pacers, who knocked off the New York Knicks in six games, and the Thunder are overwhelming favorites in the series. In fact, Oklahoma City is the biggest Finals favorite in franchise history.

The Thunder opened as -800 favorites in the NBA Finals at BetMGM, with the Pacers as +550 underdogs.

Oklahoma City was a -175 favorite back in the 2012 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat, but ended up losing the series in five games. The Seattle SuperSonics were -140 favorites in the 1978 NBA Finals against the Washington Bullets, per Sports Odds History.

The biggest favorites in NBA Finals history were the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, who were -2000 against the Philadelphia 76ers and won the series in five games. The 2018 champion Golden State Warriors were the second biggest of all time as -1075 favorites over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Who were the biggest favorites to lose in the Finals? Well, that again would be the Lakers, who fell as -700 favorites to the 2004 Detroit Pistons.

Oklahoma City has arguably been the best team in the league all season, going 68-14 in the tough Western Conference to earn the No. 1 seed, which included a historic 55-23-4 record against the spread in the regular season — the best ATS mark in 35 seasons.

While the Thunder have struggled against the spread in the postseason entering the finals (7-9 ATS), they have been impressive and won games when it has mattered most — winning Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets in the conference semifinals and hitting clutch shot after clutch shot in Game 4 against the Timberwolves in the last round.

The Pacers are in the NBA Finals for only the second time in franchise history (in 2000 they lost to the -800 favorite Los Angeles Lakers in six games) and have been impressive in the postseason, winning seven games outright as underdogs. Indiana was a -190 favorite at sportsbooks in its Round 1 series against a banged-up Milwaukee Bucks team, before being underdogs (+425 series price) against the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Knicks (+135) in the last two rounds.

We’ll be tracking the changing finals odds throughout the series:

Indiana Pacers (+1050) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (-2500)

OKC leads 3-2

Game 5: Thunder 120, Pacers 109

Spread result: Thunder -9.5

Total: Over 225.5

Series price heading into Game 4: Pacers (+450) vs. Thunder (-625)

Game 4: Thunder 111, Pacers 104

Spread result: Thunder -6.5

Total: Under 225.5

Series price heading into Game 4: Pacers (+200) vs. Thunder (-250)

Game 3: Pacers 116, Thunder 107

Spread result: Pacers +5.5

Total: Under 226

Series price heading into Game 3: Pacers (+425) vs. Thunder (-600)

Game 2: Thunder 123, Pacers 107

Spread result: Thunder -11.5

Total: Over 228.5

Series price heading into Game 2: Pacers (+275) vs. Thunder (-350)

Game 1: Pacers 111, Thunder 110

Spread result: Pacers +10

Total: Under 230

Series price heading into Game 1: Pacers (+500) vs. Thunder (-700)

The New York Yankees — already one of the best teams in the American League — just got stronger. Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton made his 2025 season debut Monday against the Angels. 

He went 2-for-4 with a single and a double before being substituted for a pinch runner in the ninth inning. The Yankees lost 1-0 in 11 innings.

Stanton, 35, is returning from injuries to both his elbows. He was shut down during spring training due to tendonitis in his elbows. He received PRP injections to help the issue in March and has made steady progress since then.

He started a rehab assignment Thursday and played in three minor-league games. Stanton had three hits in those contests, including a double.

Stanton’s return creates a potential roster crunch for the Yankees. With him expected to primarily fill in at designated hitter, the team will need to get creative with lefty slugger Ben Rice’s playing time. Rice hasn’t hit for a high average in 2025 but has been a solid source of power. The 26-year-old is slashing .227/.311/.460 with 12 home runs in 239 plate appearances. Rice, who played catcher in the minors, could see time at that position with Stanton back.

Since joining the Yankees in 2018, Stanton has experienced an uneven tenure. While he put up strong numbers with the team between 2018 and 2021, injuries have often kept him away from the field. Injuries remain an issue for Stanton — he has averaged 108 games over the past three years — but he has also started to see some age-related decline, hitting .212/.291/.454 since 2022.

Despite that, Stanton still has moments when he looks like a power-hitting superstar. He played a major role in the team’s playoff success last season, slugging .273/.339/.709 with seven home runs in 14 postseason games. That performance wasn’t enough to lift the Yankees over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2024 World Series, however. 

Stanton’s return comes at a crucial time for the Yankees. While the team has the second-most wins in the American League, it just got swept by the division-rival Boston Red Sox in three games. 

Any sadness about that series was immediately erased when the Red Sox shockingly traded slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. That, combined with Stanton’s return, should give the Yankees the boost they need to get back on track vs. the Angels.

Boston Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and team president and CEO Sam Kennedy met with reporters on Monday to address Sunday’s surprising trade of Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. 

With the team beginning a nine-game West Coast road trip in Seattle (which includes three games against the Giants from June 20 to 22), Kennedy and Breslow issued statements and then took questions from reporters over a streaming video call.

Both executives repeatedly emphasized that the team “couldn’t find alignment” with Devers on his future role and the best direction going forward. 

“We worked at it, we had a different vision for him going forward than he had,” Kennedy said. “We couldn’t get there, what we felt we needed from him that would be in the best interest of the ball club.”

Without that agreement, Breslow suggested that the Red Sox would be a better team without Devers, allowing the front office and clubhouse to move in the same direction with a “functional and complete team.”

“I do think there’s a real chance that at the end of the season, we’re looking back and we’ve won more games than we otherwise would have,” he said. 

Breslow explained that Devers and his representation did not formally request a trade. But during conversations regarding a move to designated hitter and then a possible position change to first base, Devers’ people indicated that perhaps a fresh start elsewhere might be best.

Additionally, Breslow declined to specify whether the Red Sox talked to any other MLB teams about a potential Devers trade. However, he indicated that conversations with various front offices provided an idea of what might be attainable in such a deal.

“We rightfully set a really high bar to execute a trade of this magnitude,” he said. “Making this move made more sense for us than not making it. If we didn’t get the return we were hoping for, we would not have made it.”

Breslow also acknowledged that he frequently asked himself if the situation with Devers could have gone better if he’d addressed a possible position change in the offseason. He added that he hopes the next time such a situation arises, he can manage it differently before relations deteriorate.

“I need to own the things that I could have done better,” he admitted.

Devers was moved to DH over his objections after Boston signed free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman in the offseason. Then, after being asked to move to first base following a season-ending injury to Triston Casas, Devers refused and publicly criticized Breslow for his decision-making.

Breslow said that manager Alex Cora was behind the trade and supported it, noting that they are in constant conversation about the team. He added that Cora was the best manager to handle the player and coaching staff reaction to such a disruptive move.

“He understands all of the dynamics here and what we’re trying to build here in the short term and the long term,” Breslow said.

The full media availability with Kennedy and Breslow can be viewed here.

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge and Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani are the leading vote-getters in the first round of MLB All-Star Game voting released Monday.

Judge has received 1,568,527 votes thus far through Phase 1 of voting, according to MLB. If that lead holds, he’d be the first player to finish as the top All-Star vote-getter in consecutive years since Alex Rodriguez in 2007-08. Ohtani has 1,398,771 votes and could certainly overtake Judge before this phase of voting concludes at 12 p.m. ET June 26.

The leading vote-getters for the American and National League at the conclusion of Phase 1 will automatically earn starting spots in the All-Star lineups, bypassing the next round of voting. 

Here are the current leaders in MLB All-Star voting by position: 

American League

C: Cal Raleigh, Mariners
1B: Paul Goldschmidt, Yankees
2B: Gleyber Torres, Tigers
3B: José Ramírez, Guardians
SS: Jacob Wilson, Athletics
OF: Mike Trout, Angels
OF: Riley Greene, Tigers
OF: Aaron Judge, Yankees
DH: Ryan O’Hearn, Orioles

National League

C: Will Smith, Dodgers
1B: Freddie Freeman, Dodgers
2B: Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks
3B: Manny Machado, Padres
SS: Francisco Lindor, Mets
OF: Teoscar Hernández, Dodgers
OF: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
OF: Kyle Tucker, Cubs
DH: Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

Ohtani is one of five National League players with more than one million votes, along with Dodgers teammates Freddie Freeman and Will Smith, the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong and Francisco Lindor of the Mets. The only other American League player passed one million votes is the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh, who is tied with Judge for the MLB lead in home runs at 26.

The Dodgers have the most players leading All-Star voting at their position, with catcher Smith, first baseman Freeman and outfielder Hernández joining Ohtani. The Yankees, Tigers and Cubs each have two players among the current lineups based on voting.

Voting totals for the top five players at each position are available at MLB.com. The next phase of voting will go from June 30 to July 2, when starters will be announced. The remainder of the MLB All-Star rosters will be revealed July 6.

The 2025 MLB All-Star Game will be played at Atlanta’s Truist Park on July 15.

BOSTON — Two hours before he was part of the season’s most surprising trade, Rafael Devers stood in the center of the Red Sox clubhouse, meeting the media after the team’s three-game sweep of the Yankees. Reporters asked him how he felt about the drama that had defined the early part of his 2025 season.

“That has passed,” he said through interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez.

In a way, it had. Just not in the way he meant.

The deal — which sent Devers to the Giants in exchange for left-hander Kyle Harrison, reliever Jordan Hicks, outfield prospect James Tibbs III and rookie pitcher Jose Bello — was about more than a positional dispute or locker room tension. It wasn’t the result of a trade demand or a front office trying to shed salary. It was the culmination of eroded trust, fraying relationships and a deeper breakdown inside one of baseball’s most visible franchises.

The Red Sox have spent years telling fans that they’re building something sustainable. But when pressure mounts — whether over money, development or identity — the foundation keeps cracking. The Devers trade was not a fluke but a rupture.

Across Boston, the mood is unmistakable. Fans who were told to buy into a long-term plan are watching the team punt on another star they were told would be part of it. It’s impossible not to feel echoes of Mookie Betts — another homegrown star, dealt away during his prime, for reasons that were more financial and philosophical than baseball. The details are different, but the message feels familiar: When things get uncomfortable, the Red Sox flinch.

This past weekend, the Red Sox beat the Yankees in three straight. The ballpark was packed. The team seemed to be gaining real momentum. Then, without warning, they traded the face of the franchise. The front office might see that as bold, but to the fan base, it’s just another betrayal.

‘I’m not certain what [issue] he has with me’

This all started back in February, when the Red Sox signed Alex Bregman — another All-Star third baseman. At his first news conference of the season, Devers told reporters that the team had assured him third base was still his. Then they handed Bregman the job. Devers, the last remaining member of Boston’s 2018 World Series team, had signed a 10-year, $313.5 million extension in 2023 with the expectation that he’d be treated like a franchise player. Instead, he felt misled. He believed chief baseball officer Craig Breslow had gone back on his word.

“Third base is my position,” Devers declared.

A month later, Devers met with Breslow and manager Alex Cora to air things out. The conversation seemed productive. Devers said he was “good to do whatever they want me to do.” But the détente didn’t last. When Triston Casas went down with a season-ending injury on May 2, the Red Sox asked Devers to move to first base. He refused.

“I know I’m a ballplayer, but at the same time, they can’t expect me to play every single position out there,” Devers said through team interpreter Daveson Perez.

The frustration simmered. Inside the front office, sources say patience wore thin. Devers didn’t want to play a single inning at first base. And when asked about Breslow, his response was telling.

“I’m not certain what [issue] he has with me,” Devers said in May of Breslow, who played 12 seasons in the majors from 2005 through 2017. “He played ball, and I would like to think that he knows that changing positions like that isn’t easy.”

The standoff escalated as team owner John Henry flew to Kansas City alongside team president Sam Kennedy and Breslow to meet with Devers in person. Their conversation was private, but Devers returned to the lineup as the designated hitter, still unwilling to move.

The tension finally broke on Sunday. Hours after hitting a home run in a sweep-clinching victory, Devers was traded to San Francisco. The Giants will cover the remainder of Devers’ contract — more than $250 million through 2033.

Devers didn’t demand a trade, according to multiple team sources, but he communicated that he would be OK with one. The team didn’t shop him either, per ESPN’s Buster Olney, but listened to offers. Ultimately, none of that really mattered. The relationship had eroded past the point of repair.

What happened Sunday — the trade, the scramble, the silence that followed — represents just the latest fracture for a franchise quietly splintering behind the scenes. The Devers saga wasn’t just about positional conflict or clubhouse drama. It was a symptom of something deeper: a Red Sox organization that has lost its alignment, its patience and maybe even its identity.

Signs of a front office losing cohesion

The tension inside Fenway Park isn’t new. It has just evolved.

Manager Alex Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow have not seen eye-to-eye on the direction of the team. Cora wants to win now. Breslow, like Chaim Bloom before him, was hired to build a sustainable future. The last time Cora found himself misaligned with the head of baseball ops, Bloom was fired. Breslow arrived shortly after and re-signed Cora to a three-year contract through the 2027 season that pays him $7 million annually. After the Red Sox finished 81-81 and out of the playoffs in 2024, Breslow’s first season at the helm, the team went out and acquired ace pitcher Garrett Crochet and Bregman, signaling a shift back toward contention. Owner John Henry celebrated with a cigar.

Even then, Cora wasn’t fully on board with how the front office wanted to manage the roster and player development. This season, Cora has managed like someone who knows his legacy is on the line, leaning into experience over upside, even when it conflicts with the long-term plan. He benched top prospects and left-handed sluggers Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony against left-handed pitching, despite their strong minor league splits, opting for veteran right-handed bats in Rob Refsnyder and Romy Gonzalez. The choice underscored the ongoing friction: Cora’s focus on winning now clashing with a front office preaching sustainable growth.

“This team is supposed to play better baseball and be in the hunt. We’re not there yet,” Cora said last week. “My job is to try to maximize matchups and help win games. We haven’t done that.”

Meanwhile, Breslow has grown increasingly insulated. Multiple sources within the organization describe a front office losing cohesion. Staffers who helped build four championship teams — veterans of the Theo Epstein, Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski and Bloom regimes — now feel shut out of the operation. The collaborative spirit that once defined Red Sox baseball operations has frayed.

The discontent intensified in May 2024, when Breslow brought in sports consulting firm Sportsology to conduct an organizational audit. The stated purpose was to streamline baseball operations. In practice, it triggered a wave of firings and accelerated the marginalization of some of the longest-tenured voices in the building, characterizing the cultural shift to align more with Wall Street efficiency.

One of the clearest signals came during an internal team Zoom meeting earlier this season. Toward the end, Carl Moesche — the Red Sox’s scouting supervisor and a team employee since 2017 — thought the call had ended. It hadn’t. As the meeting wrapped, his voice cut through a quiet moment.

“Thanks, Bres, you f***ing stiff,” Moesche said, according to two team sources.

The words landed like a grenade, and Breslow fired Moesche.

Moesche did not respond to a request for comment.

Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports

Dysfunction on the field and hands-off ownership

The internal strain has bled into how the Red Sox handle their players, too.

The coaching staff has grown frustrated with the state of player development, specifically how much emphasis is placed on swing mechanics and hitting data, often at the expense of fundamentals. That imbalance, coaches believe, traces back to the Bloom era and has only accelerated under Breslow. One example cited is rookie Kristian Campbell, who has made a string of routine errors at second base since being called up. He’s not alone; as a team, the Red Sox lead all of baseball with 64 errors, one more than the Colorado Rockies and 17 more than the third-place Los Angeles Angels.

Another error came during Roman Anthony’s debut, when he misplayed a ball in right field. The next day, Anthony was sent out to run outfield drills in front of the media. Multiple people in the organization noted that under previous regimes, that kind of instruction would’ve taken place behind closed doors. This time, it felt like a message from the coaching staff to the front office. One team source described the message as deliberate: “This is what we still have to teach, at the big-league level.”

Ownership, meanwhile, has grown increasingly hands-off. Since Epstein’s tenure, Red Sox owners have often acted as active stewards of baseball operations — meddling at times but always deeply invested. But now, multiple sources say there’s a growing sense that John Henry delegates the day-to-day operations of the Red Sox to team president Sam Kennedy. That detachment has created an opening for divergent priorities across Fenway Sports Group’s portfolio. Case in point: Just days before the Devers trade, FSG made headlines in England by spending a record £116 million ($157.7 million) on German star Florian Wirtz at Liverpool. Meanwhile, in Boston, they were preparing to offload their franchise star.

The optics are staggering. On a picturesque Sunday afternoon, the Red Sox swept the Yankees. Hours later, they traded Devers. No farewell. Just silence. One staffer described the situation as “an absolute s*** show.”

Kennedy, Breslow and Cora did not respond to requests for comment.

For a franchise that once set the standard for modern baseball operations, dysfunction has become the new normal.

Where do the Red Sox go from here?

The Red Sox believe their blockbuster trade represents a clean break from a contract they no longer believe in. Devers, for all his production, hitting .272/.401/.504 with 15 homers and 2.2 bWAR this season, was stubborn. He resisted stepping into a leadership role. After Xander Bogaerts left in 2023, Cora clearly wanted Devers to fill the void. When I asked Devers about it back then, he was honest: “I don’t really see myself too much as a leader right now.” That reluctance never really changed.

But to reduce this entire saga to Devers’ shortcomings is to miss the point. His unwillingness to move to first base wasn’t just a personal decision. It was a reaction to a team that no longer made sense around him.

Inside the clubhouse, players watched as the coaching staff publicly flagged Roman Anthony’s defensive fundamentals as a slight to the front office. They saw teammates asked to switch positions on the fly. They witnessed Cora trying to win baseball games while benching the team’s top prospects. In the front office, scouts were fired over slights, veteran leaders with deep organizational trust were iced out, and the communication from Breslow dried up. According to multiple sources, Devers was also upset when the rookie Campbell volunteered to play first base this season — interpreting it as a slight to his own stature.

In the end, though, Devers was still hitting and was ready to move past the early-season drama. Breslow saw things differently, saw the slugger as a problem that needed to be solved. For him, the trust was gone. And now, so is Devers.

Maybe this will work out for the Red Sox. Maybe Kyle Harrison becomes an ace, Jordan Hicks finds another gear and James Tibbs III turns into an every-day outfielder. But in the hours since the trade, that possibility has felt secondary to what it revealed: A franchise that claims to be building something stable keeps unraveling when the pressure rises.

Congratulations, Red Sox: You won’t have to pay Rafael Devers a bunch of money when he (probably) isn’t very good anymore. You have successfully rid yourself of the unpleasant burden that is paying a player when he is well past his prime. More pertinently, you have shipped away a player whose inflexibility about his position proved too problematic to keep in the clubhouse. His unwillingness to pick up a glove to help the team in its time of need had pushed your relationship beyond repair, and now he’s gone. You did it. Hooray.

Now what?

For a franchise famously known for going eight-plus decades without a World Series, the Red Sox have had quite the surplus of success in the 21st century. Boston has won more World Series titles in the past 25 years than any other franchise — not to mention the gaudy collection of championships amassed by the city’s other sports teams — cementing a sky-high standard for a fan base that has come to expect not just competitiveness but also contention nearly every season.

But now, after a maddeningly uneven first 73 games and an industry-rattling trade that exported the team’s best hitter to the other league and other side of the country, the Red Sox are staring down the possibility of missing the postseason for a fourth consecutive year — something this franchise hasn’t done since 1991 to ‘94.

Or maybe not. Following an emphatic and invigorating series sweep of the Yankees, the Red Sox are above .500 for the first time since May 24 and have won five in a row for just the second time this season. Maybe the unpopular and bold decision to trade the face of the franchise and a world-class bat is the first in a series of moves that will better position this team for short- and long-term success. Or maybe the American League is wide-open enough that the Red Sox roster as currently constructed is good enough to snag a playoff spot.

Exactly how the Red Sox proceed from here is uncertain, but what’s clear is that some big-picture questions need to be answered sooner rather than later. Let’s dig into three of those now.

How do you replace one of the best hitters in baseball?

It’d be plenty difficult to replace Devers’ bat if the Red Sox had dealt him amidst one of his more standard seasons, one that saw his offensive stats rank among the 20-or-so best in baseball. But Devers has seemingly gone up a level this year. Since his bizarre 0-for-19 slump with 15 strikeouts to start the season, Devers has hit .292/.418/.542 with 15 homers in 68 games, good for a 162 wRC+ that ranks seventh in MLB over that span. Devers’ .389 wOBA, .400 xwOBA, 55.6% hard-hit rate and 16.8% walk rate are all career-best marks. He had been designated to hit, and he sure was hitting. Now he’ll likely keep hitting, but for another team, which means the bats still in Boston have some serious work to do to backfill Devers’ production.

The first task will be to identify a new designated hitter — or an assortment of hitters who can cycle through that spot. Having a rotation of sorts at DH is hardly uncommon, as it grants a manager the flexibility to deploy a deeper array of bats depending on the matchup and affords position players more days off their feet without taking them out of the lineup. At the same time, Devers was the rare slugger who warranted every-day reps at DH — he had started all 73 games this year for Boston — and replicating his production through any means is a tall task.

Alongside Alex Bregman, Devers formed one of the most dangerous 2-3 duos in the league. Now Devers is gone and Bregman is still on the injured list nursing a quad strain, leaving an enormous hole in the lineup. Jarren Duran has been solid as the leadoff man but notably worse than during his breakout campaign a year ago. Abraham Toro and Romy Gonzalez have performed admirably at first base in place of the injured Triston Casas. Rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez has been a revelation, but it’s hard to believe having him bat cleanup was ever Plan A. Veteran Trevor Story has shown modest signs of life recently after a wretched start to the season, but he’s hardly the impact bat he used to be. These players, among others, will need to step up their game at the plate if the offense is to stay afloat, particularly until Bregman returns.

Another fascinating character who could reemerge is Masataka Yoshida. In the third year of a five-year, $90 million contract and still on the injured list working his way back from shoulder surgery, Yoshida has faded into the background to an almost amusing degree amidst all the roster construction drama in Boston over the past few months. He was hitting in games during spring training but has had multiple setbacks in his attempts to throw at maximum effort, which have slowed his progress toward becoming a viable option in the outfield. Granted, it was and still is unclear how Yoshida would fit in the ultra-crowded Boston outfield even if able to throw. But with Devers gone, the DH role that Boston seemingly preferred for Yoshida is once again vacant. It might seem a bit strange to re-clog the DH spot with a hitter who, while perhaps underrated, is objectively much worse than Devers, but that might be the most obvious path forward for Boston given where things stand.

More broadly, the spotlight now burns even brighter on Boston’s heralded trio of top prospects: Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell. Campbell raked in April before going ice-cold in May but has slowly started to rediscover his stride at the plate, albeit while still struggling mightily at second base. Mayer’s and Anthony’s careers are still in their infancy, with markedly less data than Campbell at the major-league level. No one is questioning these players’ star-level ceilings, but expecting them to approach their potential as rookies for a team with playoff aspirations feels like a lot to ask. On a team that is still without Bregman and just dealt away its best hitter, the kids have seemingly been given a vote of confidence that their time to make an impact is now. Let’s see how they respond.

How much will the players acquired from San Francisco help now and in the future?

It’s apparent that the frayed partnership between player and team and Devers’ potentially onerous contract were the driving forces behind this blockbuster transaction. But the Red Sox did receive four players in this deal, a quartet offering varying levels of promise moving forward. So, who are these guys?

Jordan Hicks is the most accomplished of the bunch, a 28-year-old flamethrower in his eighth major-league season. The Red Sox reportedly had interest in Hicks before the Giants signed him as a free agent two offseasons ago and made the decision to transition him to the rotation after years of coming out of the bullpen. That transition flatly failed, and now Hicks has a 6.47 ERA in the second year of a four-year, $44 million contract, the remainder of which now falls on the Red Sox.

Currently on the injured list due to a toe injury, Hicks last pitched on June 1. He still throws tremendously hard and gets a ton of groundballs, but he isn’t especially good at anything else; his command and ability to get whiffs remain poor. Hicks’ elite velocity unquestionably remains an attractive ingredient, but he hasn’t been an effective pitcher for a while. He immediately becomes a top-priority project for Boston’s pitching infrastructure to try to reestablish as a reliable relief option whenever he returns from injury.

Kyle Harrison, a 23-year-old left-hander with just 182 ⅔ major-league innings to his name, is a bigger upside play for Boston, as he’s not far removed from being one of the top pitching prospects in baseball and is under team control through the 2029 season. The Red Sox optioned Harrison to Triple-A upon acquiring him, but it’s reasonable to assume he could play a meaningful role in the big leagues at some point later this season.

Although his velocity has fluctuated since his call-up in 2023, Harrison’s heater is a truly terrific pitch when it’s sitting 95 mph, as it has more recently. He also throws from an unusually low arm angle, giving him a unique look for a starting pitcher. It’s now on Boston to help him round out the rest of his arsenal and develop starter-quality command to ensure a promising future in the middle of the Red Sox rotation for years to come. It’s unclear how much he’ll contribute this season and what role he’ll be deployed in if there are no rotation spots available, but Harrison is a talent worth getting excited about.

Outfielder James Tibbs III was my 11th-ranked prospect for the 2024 MLB Draft and was ultimately selected 13th overall by San Francisco. Without much added speed or defensive value — he played primarily first base and both corner outfield spots in college and has played exclusively right field as a pro — the lefty-hitting Tibbs’ calling card is his bat, which produced an epic statline (1.264 OPS) as a junior at Florida State en route to his first-round selection.

There were real concerns from scouts leading up to the draft about Tibbs’ ability to hit left-handed pitching, but he has done quite well so far this season in a small sample, with an .857 OPS overall in 57 games in the High-A Northwest League. That said, anyone who demolished high-level collegiate competition to the degree Tibbs did should be expected to hit well in A-ball. Double-A looms as a far more telling test that will help forecast Tibbs’ potential impact in Boston’s lineup. As for his defensive fit in Boston’s still overcrowded outfield depth chart … we’ll cross that road if/when we get there.

Jose Bello is the third pitcher heading to Boston in the Devers deal. The right-hander has been exceptionally effective early in the Arizona Complex League season (2.00 ERA in 18 IP, 28 K, 3 BB), working out of the bullpen in mostly multi-inning stints. At just 20 years old and yet to throw a pitch at a full-season affiliate, Bello is likely years away from contributing in the majors. He’s off to a promising start to his career, but he isn’t considered an elite prospect at this stage.

How will the Red Sox reallocate the money they no longer owe Devers, and how soon should we expect another move?

With San Francisco assuming the entirety of Devers’ contract, the Red Sox have cleared more than $250 million from their future books. In theory — and hopefully in practice — these savings can be reinvested in the roster in a significant way. But when? Doing that now would be next to impossible; it’s not like there are a bunch of All-Star free agents just hanging out in the middle of June.

That said, without a contract of such length and magnitude on their payroll for years to come, perhaps the Red Sox will be more comfortable pushing harder for a top free agent in the near future or pursuing another long-term extension with a key player already on the roster or finding a way to keep Bregman in Boston for the long haul if/when he opts out of his short-term pact after this season. Boston’s financial ceiling has been rather amorphous over the past half-decade. Devers’ presence on the roster last winter didn’t stop the team from reportedly being willing to offer $700 million to Juan Soto, but we’ve also seen the Red Sox act with self-imposed payroll restraints on multiple occasions in recent years.

Maybe the Sox spend big on a free agent this coming winter. Maybe they don’t. More pressing now will be how the front office retools a Devers-less lineup with a playoff berth still in mind. There’s little reason to take this trade as indication that the Red Sox will be sellers this July, but it’s fair to expect them to add further. Even with Devers out of the mix, this Red Sox roster is riddled with confusing conundrums and difficult puzzle pieces for the front office and coaching staff to put together. Perhaps the increased financial flexibility enables the team to add an expensive star veteran ahead of next month’s trade deadline, but we’re still weeks away from knowing what players will be available.

More simply, this is not a franchise that should use this dramatic Devers divorce as a sign that this season is suddenly a year of transition, rather than one of contention. More moves must be on the way in short order, someway, somehow. Based on what we’ve seen from this franchise in recent years, I feel pretty good that there’s plenty more drama to come.

Legendary Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz understands why the team traded Rafael Devers. In his first comments since the deal, Ortiz took the team’s side, saying, “You have to give the club the benefit of the doubt.”

That’s a departure from Ortiz’s take earlier in June, when he seemed to agree with Devers’ decision to stick at designated hitter following an injury to first baseman Triston Casas. At the time, Ortiz said, “He’s doing great as the DH. They asked for it, and he’s doing great as the DH.”

But following Sunday’s deal, which saw Devers traded to the San Francisco Giants, Ortiz reversed course, implying that ego and maturity played a role in the team’s decision, per The Athletic.

“The organization is always going to be there. Players come and go. As a player, sometimes you’ve got to put your ego aside and understand that once you get paid, you’ve got to find a way to do what you’re told,” Ortiz said.

“That’s a message for all young players who think they turn out to be bigger than the game. I’m not saying that Devers was like that. He’s humble. He’s a good kid. But sometimes when you’re young and immature, you (don’t realize that).”

Ortiz explained that he experienced friction with the Red Sox during his career but “was mature enough to understand and keep things internal.”

That wasn’t the case with Devers, who made multiple public comments about his dissatisfaction with the Red Sox’s approach to having him change positions. After signing Alex Bregman in the offseason, the team asked Devers to play designated hitter. He bristled at the idea before eventually signing off on it. 

A few weeks later, Casas went down with a season-ending injury. The Red Sox then approached Devers about playing first. Devers refused and ripped president of baseball operations Craig Breslow in the process.

Despite all that drama, Devers performed on the field. After a glacially slow start, he recovered and was hitting .272/.401/.504 at the time of the trade. He’ll take a career-high 152 OPS+ to San Francisco.

Ortiz was careful to avoid directly throwing Devers under the bus, but he implied that Devers’ youth prevented both sides from reconciling.

“I think it would be easier, if they pay you that kind of money, to go, ‘F*** it, let’s do it.’ But players’ egos play a big role sometimes. I’ve seen it with so many players. Sammy Sosa. A-Rod, my friend Manny Ramirez, you name it. And guess what? At the end of the day … you know you did wrong. Once you mature, you understand.”

Ortiz added that in these situations, the team holds all the power. He said that’s something that can be “hard to understand” when you’re a young player. 

While Ortiz no longer plays for the Red Sox, he’s still linked to the organization. He signed a “forever” contract with the team in 2017, allowing him to serve in a variety of roles. He let some of that loyalty show when talking about the Devers trade, saying, “I prefer to play in Boston than freezing-ass San Francisco for the next 10 years.”

With Devers gone, the Red Sox will try to turn the page on a drama-filled year thus far. Despite all the outside noise, the Red Sox are coming off a three-game sweep of the rival New York Yankees and are still very much in the playoff hunt in the American League. 

Trading Devers will almost certainly hurt in the short term, but it wasn’t a white flag trade. Maybe Ortiz was right about giving the team some credit, though it doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to trading away elite talent. 

Dodgers ticket prices are soaring, as Shohei Ohtani is set to make his 2025 pitching debut for Los Angeles on Monday against the San Diego Padres. 

“He’s ready to pitch in a major-league game,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after his team’s 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. “He let us know that.”

Hours later, the Dodgers announced on social media that Ohtani would pitch Monday. This will be his first time pitching since Aug. 23, 2023, when he was still with the Angels. Ohtani had his right elbow surgically repaired the following month.

Even with Ohtani expected to pitch only one or two innings, according to TickPick, ticket prices went up by 174% after the team announced Ohtani’s season debut. The get-in price for Monday’s game rose from $51 to $137. 

Back in March, a report from Vivid Seats noted that the average ticket price for a Dodgers game increased after the team won the World Series against the New York Yankees in October.

The average price of Dodgers tickets, home or away, was $181, according to the report. That average cost was $40 more than the next-highest mean MLB ticket price, held by the Boston Red Sox.

The Dodgers managed to secure the World Series crown last year without having Ohtani on the mound. Now the defending champions get a boost, building up their two-way star with plenty of runway left in the season. 

Apart from the game tickets ballooning, a Bluesky user who identified themselves as a Dodger Stadium tour guide highlighted that tour tickets for Monday skyrocketed to $202.25. The tour usually costs $40 for adults and $30 for children. The user, Tavi, noted that tour guides make minimum wage, and their wages do not increase with ticket rates. 

Ohtani last pitched in 2023 for the Angels, throwing 132 innings with 167 strikeouts and a 3.14 ERA that season. At the plate this season for the Dodgers, he’s hitting .297/.393/.642 with a National League-leading 1.035 OPS and 25 home runs.

Ohtani is in the second season of his 10-year, $700 million contract, and the Dodgers are 43-29 on top of the NL West. 

Spire Motorsports has fined driver Carson Hocevar $50,000 for his derogatory comments about Mexico City on a Twitch stream.

Hocevar called Mexico City a “sh*thole” on a live stream while in the city for Sunday’s Cup Series race. He was complaining about the city and logistics of the event and said “it’d be an absolutely great experience” but only “if you take all those out, it’s unbelievable. It’s great.”

Hocevar apologized for his comments in a social media post on Sunday night after the race, but that didn’t spare him from the punishment. He said his post on X that he had “never been out of the country until Thursday.”

Spire said in its post announcing Hocevar’s punishment that he’s also required to take cultural-sensitivity and bias-awareness training. The fine will be distributed among the Mexican Red Cross, the United Way Mexico and Un Kilo de Ayuda, a nonprofit that helps childhood nutrition and development in rural communities across the country.

“These actions are consistent with Spire Motorsports’ core value of respect, which is something we proudly display on every race car, team uniform, trackside hauler, and digital channel,” the team’s statement said. “Respect is not a slogan. It is a daily expectation that we ‘walk the walk’ in how we speak, compete and serve the communities that welcome our sport.”

“Carson Hocevar’s recent comments during the livestream fell short of that standard. They did not represent the views of Spire Motorsports, our partners, or NASCAR. He has acknowledged his mistake publicly, and his prompt, sincere apology demonstrated personal accountability. We now take this additional step to underscore that words carry weight, and respect must be lived out loud.”

Hocevar, 22, finished 34th out of 37 drivers in the inaugural Cup race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. He again drew the ire of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for contact during the race after Stenhouse crashed into the wall off Hocevar’s bumper two weeks prior in Nashville.

Hocevar is currently 20th int he standings and has finished in the top five twice through the first 16 races of the season. He’s shown speed at all three levels of NASCAR, but Stenhouse isn’t the only driver he’s ticked off with the way he races. In 2023, Hocevar infamously spun Corey Heim as the two were among the four drivers racing for the Truck Series title in the championship race. Less than 30 laps after Hocevar spun Heim, Heim retaliated by crashing Hocevar himself.