Minor leaguers, MLB reach tentative deal on 1st CBA, sources say

The pay increases at each level are significant, according to sources, and will pay players in spring training as well as the offseason, outside of a dead period between the Thursday before Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. At each level, the increases will be:

Triple-A: From $17,500 per year to $35,800

Double-A: $13,800 to $30,250

High-A: $11,000 to $27,300

Single-A: $11,000 to $26,200

Complex league: $4,800 to $19,800

Phillies trade for Cristian Pache, put Rhys Hoskins on 60-day IL

The Philadelphia Phillies acquired center fielder Cristian Pache from the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday in exchange for minor league pitcher Billy Sullivan.

To make room for Pache on the 40-man roster, the Phillies placed first baseman Rhys Hoskins on the 60-day injured list. Hoskins will undergo surgery Thursday for a torn ACL and is out for the season.

Pache, 24, hit .166 with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 91 games for the A’s in 2022. But it’s his defense the Phillies want.

Yankees sign Franchy Cordero in Opening Day roster twist

The Yankees are bringing in an outside reinforcement to finish off their bench.

Franchy Cordero agreed to a major league split contract with the Yankees on Wednesday, The Post’s Joel Sherman confirmed, putting the left-handed hitting outfielder/first baseman in line to fill the final bench spot on their Opening Day roster.

The addition of Cordero, 28, could allow the Yankees to move Estevan Florial (who is out of options) in a deal for a bullpen arm, with one relief spot left up for grabs on the roster.

It’s possible the Yankees could carry both Cordero and Florial on the roster to begin the season — meaning 14 position players and only 12 pitchers, taking advantage of Friday’s off day — but if they don’t add Florial, he ...

Masyn Winn’s confidence high after sublime camp with Cardinals: ‘I think I belong up here’

I watched a bunch of Cardinals games this spring. Winn was impressive.

This spring, Winn appeared in 18 games and made 17 starts (13 at shortstop, four at second base). He batted .333 (18-for-54) with two doubles, two triples, two home runs, nine RBIs, four stolen bases, a .393 on-base percentage and a .556 slugging percentage, on top of dazzling defense in the field.

Winn, who turned 21 last week, entered spring training as the fourth-youngest player in the Cardinals’ camp behind Jeremy Rivas, Tink Hence and Walker.

“I think it’s always good when a player gets a taste of it and goes, ‘Wait a second. I can do this up here,’” Marmol said. “He’s locked-in in a way where he’s going to continue to get after it regardless ...

Amazon announces 20 New York Yankees games on Prime this season, commence the complaining

Amazon and the Yankees announced Tuesday that 20 regular-season games will air exclusively on Prime Video. Just like last season, the games will be produced by YES Network and include their team of broadcasters.

While most of last year’s Yankees broadcasts on Prime aired on Friday, most of this season’s games will be on Wednesday.

The games will once again feature Amazon’s X-Ray technology, which lets viewers access live in-game stats, team and player details, and real-time play-by-play information for fans streaming on Android, iOS mobile, and Fire TV. Games will also be available for replay on Prime for 48 hours afterward.

And just like last year, these Yankees games will be available to MLB.TV subscribers outside of the New ...

Sioux City Rep. J.D. Scholten pitches legislative ban on MLB television blackouts in Iowa

Thursday morning, first-term Iowa State Rep. J.D. Scholten, D-Sioux City, announced a bill aimed at ending TV blackouts for Major League Baseball broadcasting in the state.

House File 577, which was introduced by Scholten and co-sponsored by Wilton Republican Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, would prohibit a sports broadcast platform from stopping paying customers in Iowa from being able to watch MLB games. The measure would include not just cable but video and internet-streaming providers as well.

“The aim of this bipartisan legislation is to grow America’s game, alleviate Iowa baseball fans from unfairness from media companies, and relieve bar owners from the overly burdensome purchasing of multiple channels and MLB.tv,” Scholten said in a ...

2023 MLB predictions: Wild Cards, Playoffs, World Series, more

Figured we could use a predictions thread. Give your picks for:

AL Division winners:
AL Wild Cards:
NL Division winners:
NL Wild Cards:
World Series matchup:

AL MVP:
NL MVP:
AL Cy Young:
NL Cy Young:
AL ROY:
NL ROY:

Is the New CBA Really Combating Service Time Manipulation? Sort Of.

Last year’s class made a far more powerful case that service manipulation was on its way out; five top-50 prospects made their debuts in the first few days of the season, and Rutschman and Greene could well have been among them if not for injury. Rodríguez and Rutschman both won bonuses for their high finish in Rookie of the Year voting, and Rutschman was made whole by the new CBA awarding him a full season of service time for only 138 days in the majors.

Only one top-50 prospect made it to Opening Day in 2021, the last year of the old CBA. That probably has something to do with the old rule set and something to do with the fact that two-thirds of this prospect class said “Macbeth” in a theater while opening an umbrella on Friday ...

Guardians finalizing 7-year extension with Giménez

Guardians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti said he was confident at least one contract extension would get done before the start of the season. As it turns out, he was right.

Second baseman Andrés Giménez is close to finalizing a contract extension with the Guardians, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand on Tuesday. The deal, which will begin in 2024, is for seven years and worth $106.5 million, with a club option for an eighth year. The club has not confirmed the deal.

Orioles’ Elias on the demotions, futures of Hall, Rodriguez

A quiet Orioles spring training ended with some surprising news on Monday. Executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias wanted to keep the team’s No. 1 pitching prospect, Grayson Rodriguez, with the Orioles but his performance was too uneven.

Rodriguez goes to Triple-A Norfolk, where the Orioles also sent their No. 2 pitching prospect DL Hall, on Sunday.

Hall’s demotion wasn’t a surprise, but Rodriguez’s was….

Elias rejected the idea that the Orioles are manipulating the service time of Hall and Rodriguez to give them more seasons of club control.

“I really get frustrated with the topic, too,” Elias said. “We have five starting pitchers here, all of them [with] established major league success as starting ...

‘OOTP Baseball:’ How a German programmer created the deepest baseball sim ever made

The Athletic sub required.

When Heinsohn was a computer science student at the University of Hamburg, he and a few friends would stay up late, drinking beer, crunching chips and watching weekly MLB games broadcast in Germany. He fell in love with the Atlanta Braves, admired Greg Maddux’s command and Ryan Klesko’s swagger.

Trying to replicate it all, he forked out a bundle of money to order a copy of Diamond Mind, an early computer descendant of tabletop games like Strat-O-Matic. He had it shipped from the U.S. to Hamburg on a 3.5-inch wide floppy disc. He had also played rudimentary baseball games such as “Hardball III” and “Hardball IV.” He was usually underwhelmed. He craved more depth, like the soccer simulations he grew ...

Sergio Romo pitches for last time, gets curtain call amid final exit

Sergio Romo retired as a San Francisco Giant just the way he wanted to, pitching one final time for the team he helped to win three World Series championships, and then calling it a career Monday night.

In a moment more special than he could have imagined, the entertaining right-hander faced three Oakland batters in the seventh inning at Oracle Park in the exhibition finale for both clubs.

“Very fitting to find some closure in what literally is for me, was a storybook career,” he told reporters, pausing to catch his breath after the Athletics’ 12-6 win.

The Giants reached out a few weeks back to see whether Romo might consider tossing an inning—he looked at his arm and asked if it could give it one last hurrah. He had already taken up ...

Sources: Hoerner, Cubs agree on 3-year, $35 million extension

Second baseman Nico Hoerner and the Chicago Cubs are in agreement on a three-year, $35 million contract extension, sources told ESPN, locking up the team’s most productive player last season for an extra season before he was due to hit free agency.

Hoerner still will reach the open market after the 2026 season at 29 years old, and the ability to do so led to a shorter-term deal. With Hoerner making $2.5 million this season, his first year of arbitration, the deal will price the second and third arbitration years at around $15 million while giving him around $20 million for his first free agent year.

All 30 MLB stadiums, ranked: 2023 edition

1. Petco Park - San Diego Padres

We really shouldn’t be surprised at this point because Petco Park truly is the perfect ballpark. It’s embedded right in the heart of downtown San Diego with the skyline basically on top of you. There’s a community park that leads right into the outfield concourses, making it a cool place to check out even on non-gamedays. Petco Park has the best food and beer selection in baseball to go along with the top-notch location. And now that the Padres are among the more exciting teams in MLB, the game-day atmosphere measures up with the stadium itself.

It’s really difficult to imagine any stadium topping Petco Park — it’s simply the best.

Mets give up on Darin Ruf after disastrous run with team

The Mets have accepted failure with their trade for Darin Ruf by designating the righty hitter for assignment, The Post has learned.

The Mets decided they would rather have Tim Locastro’s speed off the bench in a year when new rules are expected to enhance stolen bases over continuing to try to revive Ruf in New York.

The Mets currently owe Ruf $3.25 million – $3 million for 2023 and $250,000 as a buyout on a $3.5 million option for 2024.

They have until Monday to trade him and try to offset some of that money.

After that, Ruf would become a free agent and can then sign for the major league minimum, with the Mets responsible for the rest.

Red Sox drop trademark applications for ‘Boston’, blame MLB

The Red Sox no longer seek to trademark the word “Boston” for entertainment services, clothing and other purposes.

In a statement shared with The Boston Herald on Friday, Red Sox owner John Henry appeared to blame Major League Baseball for its role in two applications, filed on March 17 to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The applications are attributed to only one applicant—and it’s not MLB, commissioner Rob Manfred or anyone at the league.

The applicant is, “Boston Red Sox Baseball Club Limited Partnership New England Sports Ventures, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company Limited Partnership Massachusetts Fenway Park 4 Jersey Street Boston Massachusetts 02215.”

The attorney of record is an intellectual ...

Forecasting Aaron Nola’s free-agent payday as contract talks with Phillies break off

Nola is a free agent after the 2023 season, and on Saturday, Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said that extension talks had broken off.

“We are not going to get that done at this point,” Dombrowski said. “We are going to, at this point, break those off. We think the world of Aaron. We’ve talked long and hard with Aaron and his representative about the situation. We think the world of him, quality pitcher, quality human being, but sometimes you just get to this point where you’re just not able to consummate a deal where both sides feel comfortable.”

If you’re Nola, the benefit of doing a deal now would be to avoid the worst-case scenario of suffering a significant injury during the season that affects the next ...

NYT: Steve Cohen’s Amazin’, Maddening, Money-Losing Bid to Own New York

Those who know him say his view of subordinates can be similarly binary — morons and moneymakers, doers and duds — producing sometimes savage encounters in the workplace. Business associates have been routinely berated in front of peers, their intelligence insulted in a hail of expletives. “That’s your best idea?” he has asked his traders, peppering profanities. “Are you stupid?”

At minimum, Cohen’s overlapping roles now can produce some surface tensions in his days. He is an inveterate ticker-reader who could not stop gushing about the preseason “vibe,” an obsessive trader who recently started working from Citi Field on Thursdays so he could join team meetings a few hours after the market opens.

He is a famed ...

Anthony Volpe wins competition to be Yankees’ Opening Day shortstop

The Yankees will have a 21-year-old New Jersey product starting at shortstop on Opening Day.

Anthony Volpe has won the shortstop battle the Yankees held during spring training, consistently showing off his all-around game and the high potential that team officials had been raving about since drafting him in the first round in 2019.

Volpe entered camp seemingly with the longest odds to win the job, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa the incumbent and Oswald Peraza ahead in his development path after making a one-month cameo at the end of last season.

Unlike Kiner-Falefa and Peraza, Volpe was not on the 40-man roster and had only played 22 games at Triple-A, a knock because the Yankees typically like their prospects to conquer each level of the ...

Cards top prospect Jordan Walker makes Opening Day roster

Jordan Walker, the 20-year-old, elite-level outfield prospect who became the talk of the Grapefruit League with an early power surge and invoked memories of a young Albert Pujols from 22 years earlier, is headed to St. Louis and Major League Baseball.

The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Walker was informed on Saturday afternoon that he had made the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster and would be added to the team’s 40-man roster. Later Saturday, the club announced its expected 26-man Opening Day roster, including Walker, who will be a fixture on a Cardinals team that has designs on winning a 12th World Series crown this season.

As of right now, Jordan Walker will make our club,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “We were always very ...

MLB 26-and-under power rankings: Which clubs have the best young players?

A team’s farm system can take a huge hit when a star player like Julio Rodríguez or Michael Harris “graduates,” but that doesn’t make those players magically way older — they just aren’t prospects anymore. J-Rod and Harris, now certified big-league stars, will play 2023 at 22 years old, the same age as (or younger than) many of the top prospects still eligible for your top-100 list of choice. With more and more of the game’s best players arriving in MLB at such an early age, it feels incomplete to assess a team’s future outlook by strictly looking at how good their prospect-eligible players are or project to be.

This limitation inspired the following project from the FOX Sports MLB staff ahead of the 2023 season: rank every ...

Check out all 30 Opening Day starters

Opening Day will feature eight Cy Young Award winners on the mound (Sandy Alcantara, Shane Bieber, Corbin Burnes, Jacob deGrom, Zack Greinke, Corey Kluber, Max Scherzer and Blake Snell) and 21 All-Star hurlers. In addition, five pitchers—deGrom, Kyle Gibson, Kluber, Pablo López and Kyle Muller—will take the mound on Opening Day in a debut performance with their new clubs.

Here are all MLB pitching matchups for the 15 Opening Day games scheduled for Thursday, March 30th. pic.twitter.com/sKykrLLgiB

— Marly Rivera (@MarlyRiveraESPN) March 24, 2023

All-Star pitcher Miles Mikolas, Cardinals agree on multi-year extension: Sources

A day after a teammate predicted that Miles Mikolas would finish top five in the voting for the National League Cy Young Award with the Cardinals this coming season, the All-Star right-hander finalized an agreement that will assure his next few seasons will also be with the Cardinals.

Mikolas, a two-time All-Star and Jupiter native, as has agreed to a two-year contract extension with the Cardinals, sources told the Post-Dispatch.

An official announcement is expected Friday afternoon.

The Cardinals have agreed to a 2-year, $40 million extension with starter Miles Mikolas, sources tell ESPN@dgoold was first to report an agreement.

— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) March 24, 2023

MLB to stream all minor league games for free on Bally’s casinos app

Major League Baseball owners have cut a deal with a casino giant to provide free broadcasts of all minor league games this season — a bid to lure more viewers to the sport as rampant cord-cutting continues to shrink its audience, The Post has learned.

MLB sold the broadcasts rights to all 120 minor league teams — from the Class A Savannah Sand Gnats to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes — to casino operator Bally’s Corp., which will offer the free streams on its Bally Live app, according to two sources.

Last season, fans who wanted to catch a glimpse of rising stars like Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe or Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez had to pay a $29.99-a-year premium to watch them on MLB’s At Bat Live app.

MLB Commissioner ...

Rhys Hoskins suffers torn ACL in Phillies’ spring game | ESPN

CLEARWATER, Fla.—Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins needs surgery for a torn ACL after injuring his left knee Thursday fielding a grounder in a spring training game and is expected to miss a significant amount of time.

The Phillies did not say when Hoskins would have the surgery or exactly how long the slugging first baseman might be sidelined.

Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams 2023: Price Tags Are Up 12% Despite Regional TV Woes

The average MLB team value is up 12% this year, to $2.32 billion. During the 2022 season, revenue (net of stadium debt service) increased 7.8%, to an all-time high of $10.3 billion. The top-line gain was driven by a 64% increase in ticket revenue (including postseason and spring training), to $2.4 billion (the 2021 season started with nearly all ballparks under capacity restrictions) and a 35% increase in premium seating (suites and club seating) revenue, to $$1.16 billion. But operating income (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came in at an average of $17.7 million per team, down 20% from the previous season as player costs (salaries, bonuses and benefits) rose 13%, to $5.2 billion, and an ...

Reggie Jackson: Former commissioner Bud Selig blocked me from buying A’s

Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson wanted to purchase the Oakland Athletics nearly 20 years ago, but he says then-MLB commissioner Bud Selig got in the way.

Appearing on the “Howard Stern Show” on Wednesday, Jackson revealed his plans to buy the A’s alongside a group of investors, including the founders of Microsoft, Bill Gates and Paul Allen. However, despite having more than enough funding and offering $25 million more than the highest bid for the A’s, Jackson says he “absolutely believes” Selig blocked his attempt.

“He said, ‘Reggie, stay with me, I’ll guide you through, I’ll get this done for you, don’t worry about,’” Jackson said. “Then all of a sudden, it came out that the A’s were sold to a guy by the name of Lew Wolff — ...

Jed Lowrie announces retirement, reflects on 7 years with A’s

Jed Lowrie’s 14-year major-league career started with a strong rookie season for the Boston Red Sox, when the infielder stood out in the Division Series despite playing with a broken wrist. He also spent three stints with the Oakland Athletics and was part of three playoff teams.

“We always outperformed what our payroll was and exceeded expectations, and I was always drawn to that, and that’s why I always ended up going back,” Lowrie said of the A’s.

He will not be lured back for another season. That stage of Lowrie’s baseball life is over, he told The Chronicle. His retirement is official as of Thursday morning.

“The fact that I wound up playing for the A’s for seven years is amazing,” Lowrie said. “The ...

MLB Pipeline: Ranking all 30 farm systems

The Orioles retain the top spot in the MLB Pipeline Farm System Rankings for the fourth consecutive time between preseason and midseason lists. Since Pipeline began ranking systems in 2015, only one other organization has claimed No. 1 four times in a row, and that was the Padres (2018 pre/mid, 2019 pre/mid). Baltimore and San Diego are also now tied with the most No. 1 rankings with four each; the Rays (three) are the only other club with more than one.

The baseball world caught sight of what’s coming to Charm City last year, when Adley Rutschman became AL Rookie of the Year runner-up and new No. 1 overall prospect Gunnar Henderson debuted in August. The result: a 31-win increase over 2021. There’s lots more where those two came from ...

The Shift is dead in MLB. But is the ‘two-man outfield’ next? And will it work? [$]

The Athletic sub required.

Defensive innovation in virtually all sports is a risk-and-reward game. But do the rewards of the two-man outfield ever justify the inside-the-park-homer risk? In reality, not very often. But what we’re about to find out this season is whether the actual answer is:

Not never.

“I think it’s always a balance of what you’re willing to give up and what you’re trying to accomplish,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “You’re trying to change an immeasurable. You’re trying to change (the hitter’s) approach, which we can’t measure. Because the risk of a triple down the left-field line, that’s real. And that’s a run. That leads to a run, which is super valuable.”

Hinch isn’t announcing ...