June 2025 - Baseball Wiretap

Andrew Benintendi will miss four to six weeks with a broken hand. Benintendi was hit on the right hand with an 87 mph fastball by Cleveland right-hander Logan Allen in the first inning and left the game. The White Sox announced the diagnosis as a non-displaced fracture, with no surgery required.

Benintendi signed a $75 million, five-year contract with the White Sox prior to the 2023 season. 

Benintendi matched his career high in 2024 with 20 homers but batted just .229, his worst average for a full season.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani will make his first spring training appearance of the year Friday night against his old team, the Angels.

Ohtani, 30, will be the designated hitter. Roberts has not given a timetable for Ohtani's return to the pitcher's mound other than to say he hopes it would be "sooner than later."

Nolan Arenado says he didn't make the three-hour drive against the New York Yankees as a "showcase" for a potential trade. Arenado went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Arenado struck out on three pitches, lined out to second and whiffed on a 1-2 count.

"My body is ready for it," he said. "I'm ready for nine. My timing [at the plate] is not."

"I didn't come here for that," Arenado told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Day 3 of spring training. That wouldn't be a good day to showcase myself. I'm not ready for that."

Arenado is owed  $74 million over the next three seasons and is on the trade market. 

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher J.B. Bukauskas is expected to miss the entire season because of lat surgery, the latest injury-related setback for a former first-round draft pick.

The 28-year-old Bukauskas missed most of the 2024 season with a lat injury as well. 

Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell pitched a scoreless inning in his spring training debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday.

Snell, who agreed to a $182 million, five-year deal with the Dodgers in November, threw 20 of 30 pitches for strikes. Snell got J.P. Crawford to ground out to start the game, fanned Seattle star Julio Rodríguez, gave up a two-out single to Randy Arozarena and induced a groundout by Mitch Garver to finish the inning.

The Washington Nationals are bringing back closer Kyle Finnegan on a one-year, $6 million contract, sources told ESPN.

Finnegan, 33, saved 38 games for the Nationals last season and was a National League All-Star selection. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers owe $1.051 billion in deferred pay to eight players from 2028 to '46 following Tanner Scott's $72 million, four-year contract and Teoscar Hernandez's $66 million, three-year deal.

Los Angeles' high payment point is $100.95 million in both 2038 and '39, according to details obtained by The Associated Press.

The Seattle Mariners have signed veteran reliever Trevor Gott to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp in spring training.

Gott missed all of the 2024 season after tearing the UCL in his right elbow during spring training with Oakland and had Tommy John surgery last April.

The New York Mets acquired Alexander Canario from the Chicago Cubs for cash. Canario, who turns 25 in May, made his major league debut for the Cubs in September 2023. 

Canario had been designated for assignment last Thursday when the Cubs signed Justin Turner. 

Lawrence J. Dolan, owner of Cleveland's major league baseball team since 2000, has died at age 94. Dolan purchased the team from Richard Jacobs in 2000 for $320 million. The Dolan family has a 75 percent stake in the club and is the longest-tenured owner in Cleveland franchise history.

"Mr. Dolan invested his entire life in Greater Cleveland and impacted our community on so many levels," Bob DiBiasio, Guardians senior vice president of public affairs, said in a statement. "From his service to our country as a First Lieutenant in the United States Marines, his many philanthropic acts of kindness, career in law, business, education, and sports, many benefited from his engagement, influence, and passion. Especially in the world of sports."

Guardians chairman and CEO Paul Dolan, Larry Dolan's son, took over as the team's primary control person in 2013.

"We are saddened by the loss of our Dad, but lucky to have him as part of our lives as long as we did," he said in a statement. "He was a loving husband, father and grandfather who was passionate about his family, work, our community and his love of our local sports teams, including owning the Cleveland Guardians."