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REPORTED BY: CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman MORE: Top 25 free agents | SPECTOR: Can the Cubs win it all? THE DETAILS: While the Yankees still may be inclined to try and sign big-name free agents in David Price and Zack Greinke, the Bombers believe they can get a serious bounce-back candidate in Samardzija on the cheap. Heyman notes that some people within the Yankees organization love Samardzija for his potential and interest in the big stage....

Success in the season’s first month doesn’t guarantee success in the season’s following five months. Heck, success in April doesn’t even guarantee success in May or June. Remember Chris Shelton? In his first 13 games of 2006, Shelton hit nine home runs, five doubles, three triples and had 17 RBIs for the Tigers. MORE: SN’s MLB Power Rankings for May It was incredible, watching him crush the ball day after day....

Six players and both managers received varying suspensions, with Reds manager David Bell getting hit with six games and Pirates skipper Clint Hurdle receiving two. Pittsburgh pitcher Keone Kela received the largest suspension of 10 games for “intentionally throwing a pitch in the area of the head of Derek Dietrich”, while Cincinnati pitcher Amir Garrett got an eight-game ban for initiating the brawl by charging the Pirates’ dugout from the mound....

But he also led the league in blown saves in 2013, and the Baltimore Orioles are shopping him in hopes of landing a designated hitter, according to multiple reports. Johnson, 30, went 3-8 with a 2.94 ERA, 1.280 WHIP, 50 saves, nine blown saves, five home runs allowed and 18 walks in 2013. He had stretches in May and August in which he was awful, blowing game after game in spectacular fashion....

Nothing wrong with that. Most teams are fine. But it’s not about them, Phillies fans. It’s about why you think they deserve your fandom. You deserve a team that makes you feel like you’ve been struck by lightning. Don’t you dare settle for fine. MORE: Blue Jays should celebrate return home with strong deadline moves With apologies to Roy Kent for stealing his material, that’s what the Phillies have been for four years now: fine....

New York has asked the Cincinnati Reds about the availability of Brandon Phillips, CBSSports.com reports. The Reds reportedly are looking to move the three-time All-Star because they view him as as troublesome presence in the clubhouse and because of negative comments he made about the team's front office. Phillips, 32, hit .261/.310/.396 with 24 home runs and 103 RBIs in 2013. He is owed about $50 million over the next four seasons....

However, Beltran was targeted as the ringleader for the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal in 2017. This situation has seemed to complicate an otherwise easy Hall of Fame decision. Is the sign-stealing scandal enough to keep him out of the Hall of Fame? That’s going to be the question the Baseball Writers’ Association of America voters will have to figure out. Some fans think Beltran shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame alone for the scandal....

Los Angeles put away Philadelphia with a whopping 16-2 win at Citizens Bank Park. It was a true team effort as all but three Dodgers scored and all but four brought in runs. However, Cody Bellinger managed to steal the show after he hit two home runs to now lead MLB with 33 on the season. What made things even sweeter? Max Muncy followed Bellinger with his 24th home run of the season in the seventh inning....

The Rays secured a 1 1/2 game lead over the Yankees with a 7-2 victory at Tropicana Field on Saturday. MORE: Watch ‘ChangeUp,’ a new MLB live whiparound show on DAZN Two home runs and four RBIs from third baseman Yandy Diaz helped Tampa Bay improve to 24-14 on the year. The Rays finished with 10 hits to New York’s five. Gleyber Torres led the Yankees with two hits in his four at-bats....

The league announced Tuesday it has awarded St. Louis its 28th franchise, which will begin play in in 2022. “St. Louis is a city with a rich soccer tradition, and it is a market we have considered since the league’s inception. Our league becomes stronger today with the addition of the city’s deeply dedicated soccer fans," MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a statement. The city has proposed a new 22,500-capacity stadium that will be located in the Downtown West district of St....

For the first time since 2011, the Supporters’ Shield wasn’t decided during the final weekend of the MLS season. TFC, in fact, had the prize sewn up with nearly a month to spare. Going 20-5-9, Greg Vanney’s side compiled the most points in MLS history. By finishing 12 points clear of New York City FC, Toronto also posted an unprecedented margin of victory. So it should come as no surprise that TFC is the best represented club in Goal’s MLS positional rankings, which are designed to recognize players based on their level of play and durability throughout the 2017 campaign....

LAFC rallied to a 5-3 victory over a 10-man Montreal Impact side, having trailed 3-1 at halftime away from home on Saturday. The visitors from Los Angeles were staring at their third defeat in four games after Ignacio Piatti’s first-half hat trick put the Impact in control. But Laurent Ciman’s stunning free-kick against his former team before the half-hour and a red card to Jukka Raitala gave LAFC a glimmer of hope heading into the second 45 minutes....

The context for that query: the reported starting bids for each player (per ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick). Martinez supposedly is seen by agent Scott Boras as being worth $200 million, give or take; Bruce (represented by Matt Sosnick) is said to be looking for between $80 million and $90 million over five years. TOP 20 FAs: SN predicts where Martinez, Bruce will sign Martinez vs. Bruce is a natural comp: They’re power-hitting right fielders who are close in age (Martinez will enter his age 30 season in 2018, Bruce his age 31 season) and are coming off productive walk years....

Nash recently posted an Instagram reel where she captured the moment of giving the present to her husband. The two started dating in 2019 before finally tying the knot on 22 January 2022. Nash posted an Instagram reel on her account, which appears to be from Christmas morning. The video starts with Dallas Keuchel standing in pajamas in front of a Christmas tree. Keuchel appeared surprised when he opened his gift to find car keys inside....

Indians ace Corey Kluber took the mound Wednesday evening and made a strong Cardinals lineup look like the Bad News Bears. The 2014 AL Cy Young Award winner struck out 18 batters and held the Cards hitless through 6 2/3 innings, before yielding a single to Jhonny Peralta. MORE: Fantasy rankings and sleepers for Thursday | Buy/sell options | MLB Mock Draft While Indians fans were undoubtedly hoping for Kluber to come out and mow down the side in the ninth to break the all-time MLB strikeout record of 20, he’d already thrown 113 pitches on a cool evening....

Well, two games have already been played in Japan. But every fanbase can get excited about Thursday because all the teams are playing, and with that aces will be on mounds across the league. That provides a lot of intriguing possibilities for pitchers’ duels for the first games of the season. All of them are interesting in their own ways, but we do not want to bog you down by breaking down every single matchup of the day....

The Dodgers are ending the Yankees' 15-year streak as baseball's biggest spenders and as of Tuesday had a projected payroll of $235 million, according to study of all major league contracts by The Associated Press. New York, which last failed to top the payroll rankings in 1998, was a distant second at $203 million. After that, it was another huge gap to Philadelphia at $180 million, followed by Boston at $163 million and Detroit at $162 million....

Check The Linemakers on Sporting News’ odds page for current baseball lines from Las Vegas. Toronto Blue Jays -128 (vs LAA Angels)Drew Hutchison vs Jered Weaver The odds have moved toward the Blue Jays all day, and for a reason. Toronto won the first game of the series on Monday 10-6, and the Angels grabbed the 3-2 win last night. Tonight’s game, the third of a four-game set, is predicted to go to the home team by quite clear numbers....

The table below shows World Series odds from Westgate Las Vegas Super Book with Accuscore’s predictions. These predictions are based on 10,000 simulations of every postseason game. Cleveland and the Los Angeles Dodgers have become the favorites to win the World Series. Their combined win probability based on odds from Westgate is close to 60 percent. However, Accuscore’s simulations are not completely agreeing with those numbers. Based on Accuscore, the Houston Astros will continue pounding opponents in the postseason and are the projected World Series winners....