close

Major Leagues

4 min read
article image -

New York Mets owner Steven Cohen is threatening his underperforming team with the prospect of a trade deadline selloff unless New York gets back into contention for a playoff berth.

“All is not lost yet, but it’s getting late,” he said during a news conference Wednesday. “I’m preparing my management team for all possibilities. If they don’t get better, we have decisions to make at the trade deadline. That’s not my preferred end result. We’re preparing all contingencies.”

Cohen said manager Buck Showalter and general manager Billy Eppler will keep their jobs no matter that through the end of the season, but the team is still pursuing a president of baseball operations.

For this year, older players could be at risk of getting dealt. Cohen said he would be willing to cover their salaries in trades if it brought back better prospects.

“One year older with a veteran team, probably not the place to be,” he said.

New York currently projects to a $360 million payroll and is on track for a record luxury tax of about $99 million. The Mets are shattering the previous payroll high for $291 million set by the 2015 Los Angeles Dodgers, who set a tax record that year at $43.6 million.

Yet, New York began Wednesday 36-43 after losing seven of its previous 10 games and 16 of 22. The Mets were fourth in the NL East, 16 ½ games back of first-place Atlanta and 8 ½ games out of the last wild-card berth, their 4.58 ERA is 25th among the 30 teams.

Interleague

Atlanta 3, Minnesota 0: Matt Olson homered late and doubled in an early run and the Atlanta Braves won their fifth straight game, beating the Minnesota Twins 3-0 for a series sweep.

Atlanta has won 21 of 25 to improve to a National League-leading 53-27. Kolby Allard, Kirby Yates, A.J. Minter, Joe Jiménez and Raisel Iglesias combined on the four-hitter with 14 strikeouts.

Olson’s 26th homer, which leads the NL, came off Jordan Balazovic in the eighth and made it 3-0.

Minnesota manager Rocco Baldelli closed the clubhouse to keep out reporters after the game.

Baldelli said the players were having a meeting to sort out what went wrong following the team’s sixth shutout of the season.

“Well, what I took away was the truth of the matter is we were flat and we made no adjustments really in the game almost whatsoever, and if you’re going to call a spade a spade and say how it is, that’s not good baseball,” Baldelli said.

“We got wiped this series by the team on the other side of the field. There’s no way we can walk out of this with any positives, to be honest with you, and that’s the truth.”

Washington 4, Seattle 1: Patrick Corbin tossed seven shutout innings, Washington jumped on Seattle starter Logan Gilbert for three first-inning runs, and the Nationals won another series with a 4-1 win over the Mariners.

Washington picked up another unexpected series victory and added another layer to the growing frustration of Seattle’s underperforming season. The Nationals took two of three against the Mariners after doing the same in San Diego last weekend.

Corbin (5-9) was terrific with a performance that was more reminiscent of earlier in his career. For the first time in 17 starts this season, Corbin didn’t allow an earned run – and his nine strikeouts were a season high.

Toronto 6, San Francisco 1: George Springer hit the first of four Toronto Blue Jays doubles in a five-run first inning in a 6-1 victory over San Francisco that stopped the Giants’ 10-game road winning streak.

Giants right fielder Michael Conforto left after one inning because of a tight left hamstring. He is hitting .236 with a team-high 12 homers and 42 RBIs after signing a $36 million, two-year contract as a free agent.

Bowden Francis got his his first major league victory for the Blue Jays.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today