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12 starting pitchers, $788.5M?! It's a good time to be an ace
DALLAS -- The enormity of Juan Soto's contract -- stretching 15 years and guaranteeing $765 million, not a penny of which is deferred -- brought an initial jolt to Major League Baseball's winter meetings on Sunday night. It was monumental and far-reaching, but it was also an outlier, given the uniqueness of landing one of history's greatest hitters in his mid-20s. As the days passed, subsequent transactions took place and the offseason began to round into form, a more revealing trend emerged at the sprawling Hilton hotel that hosted baseball's annual gathering earlier this week.
A prominent agent expressed it succinctly on Tuesday night, in the middle of an emptying lobby after a dizzying round of transactions.
"Man," he said, "starting pitchers are getting paid."
Hours earlier, Max Fried signed an eight-year, $218 million deal with the New York Yankees, blowing away the most reputable projections. Later, Nathan Eovaldi secured a three-year, $75 million contract to return to the Texas Rangers, more than doubling the guarantee of his prior deal in his mid-30s. And just a day prior, Alex Cobb, a 37-year-old who made three starts while dealing with a litany of injuries last season, cost the Detroit Tigers $15 million on a one-year deal -- a sign that it wasn't just the top starters getting paid, but the innings-eaters and the reclamation projects, too, age be damned.
Fried, Eovaldi and Cobb followed a path that had already been laid out by the likes of Blake Snell (five years, $182 million with the Los Angeles Dodgers), Luis Severino (three years, $67 million with the Athletics) and Matthew Boyd (two years, $29 million with the Chicago Cubs). All of them did better than expected. All of them triggered a fundamental question:
Why, at a time when starting pitchers have never been counted on less, are they more expensive than ever?
Executives, agents and coaches surveyed in the 72 hours that encompassed baseball's winter meetings brought up an assortment of theories.
One general manager noted that starting pitchers who can consistently tackle five to six innings and 160 or so over the course of a six-month season aren't any less important, even in an era of heavy bullpen usage -- they're simply more rare, triggering the type of demand that can escalate prices. Another pointed to the impact of big-market teams chasing top-tier free agents and how that has affected those below them. Another pointed specifically to the New York Mets, who handed Soto a record-breaking contract but might have set a tone in a different way -- by signing Frankie Montas earlier this month to a two-year, $34 million deal that was viewed in some circles as an overpay.
But most of the conversations came back to the rapid rate of arm injuries that have plagued the industry and made teams hyper-paranoid about their starting pitching depth.
These days, even more so than before, enough is never enough.
"Teams used to feel good if they could go into a season with, I'd say, seven or eight guys they can count on to start games at the major league level, at least in some capacity," said one front office executive. "Now that number is like 11."
The approach taken by two of the sport's most successful franchises illustrates that.
The Yankees already boasted a solid fivesome of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil, Marcus Stroman and Clarke Schmidt -- but Fried was their obvious pivot after missing out on Soto, enough to cross a $200 million threshold few foresaw for the soon-to-be-31-year-old left-hander. The Dodgers, who beat the Yankees in the World Series, were set to return a rotation composed of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May, while backed by a pitching pipeline that has become the envy of the sport -- and yet they zeroed in on Snell at the onset of the offseason.
"I know that as a team, we've felt it more acutely," said Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, whose club suffered through an array of pitching injuries in 2024. "You feel like you have depth coming in, and sometimes it maintains and sometimes it doesn't. It's a little scary of an unknown."
The increase in pitcher injuries has been raising alarm bells for the better part of a decade, but a presentation at this week's winter meetings placed that in a new light. The sport's 30 managers gathered in a conference room on Wednesday morning as MLB officials guided them through key findings from a yearlong study of pitcher injuries that involved input from more than 200 experts in a variety of roles. One of the slides showed that surgeries to repair damaged ulnar collateral ligaments at the minor league level had basically doubled over the past 10 years. Not only are current major league pitchers breaking down, so is the foundation behind them.
Said one manager in attendance: "It was stunning."
The trade market hadn't reached full tilt by the time most of the industry's agents and executives boarded their flights back home on Wednesday afternoon. But the expectation was that it would soon pick up, particularly as it relates to starting pitchers. Teams seeking alternatives to the higher free agent prices have expressed interest in Dylan Cease, Pablo López, Framber Valdez, Jesús Luzardo and Luis Castillo, names that should gain more traction after Chicago White Sox ace Garrett Crochet was dealt to the Boston Red Sox for an impressive haul of prospects.
Two of the Red Sox's division rivals, the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays, are still searching for frontline starting pitching. So are the Mets and the San Francisco Giants, two of the offseason's busiest teams. So are many others.
A dozen starting pitchers have signed for a combined $788.5 million through the first five weeks of this offseason, already about 63% of the spending in that department from last year -- with Corbin Burnes still expected to exceed $200 million and Jack Flaherty, Sean Manaea, Nick Pivetta, Walker Buehler, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander among the roughly 75 other starters available. And though the player pool is widely considered to be better than it was a year ago, and many executives will caution that early deals tend to be inflated, setting up the possibility that those who remain don't do so well, one thing is clear:
Starting pitching, famously out of vogue in the modern game, is still at a premium.
Baxter focuses on quality additions to Exeter squad
Baxter says the next few months will be key for those members of his squad who are out of contract.
Exeter have historically not brought in many first-choice players each summer, although the last few seasons has seen a greater squad turnover as long-serving players have left as the salary cap has been reduced.
"I'm not going to run away from the fact, we're the bottom team in the Premiership and recruitment and retention is a little different," added Baxter.
"The main reason being is you've got to have a look around the squad and you've got to decide who's standing up and who's moving forward who are off contract.
"You want to keep your off-contract guys who look like they're improving players and who are using this period, where we're going through a bit of pain, to get better.
"There's still a positive in keeping those guys moving forward, but at the same time you've also got to go, 'are we a strong enough squad, are there things we need to change and improve?'.
"Outside of the squad we've got now, we do also have eight players in the coming season's Under-20 EPS (Elite Player) squad.
"There's no value in you bringing in somebody just because they're available when next season we might want to pick one of those guys. I'm only really going to recruit guys who I think will improve us from where we are now.
"I'm determined not to get panicked into signing the wrong players, I'm going to spend a lot of time on it and we're only going to approach the correct players to make us better."
'Street-fight rugby' - Kpoku on Top 14 and Test future
Still only 19, the Londoner, who can play as a blindside flanker or second row, has started eight of Racing's 11 league games, establishing himself as a first choice in a squad that also features France pair Cameron Woki and Romain Taofifenua, along with Wales' Will Rowlands.
"At the start of the season, I did not expect to be starting over some of the big names we have at Racing," Kpoku adds.
"But I was working so hard because I was hungry to start."
He is part of an English enclave at the heart of the Racing dressing room.
Owen Farrell, Henry Arundell and ex-Sale centre Sam James have made Paris home. Former England coach Stuart Lancaster is the boss. Paul 'Bobby' Stridgeon oversees fitness and Tom Whitford, a veteran Top 14 team manager who helped Jonny Wilkinson integrate into Toulon's galacticos, organises behind the scenes.
Kpoku has an advantage over them all.
Born in Newham to Congolese parents, he has been fluent in French since he was a boy.
His twin elder brothers Joel and Jonathan already play in France, for Pau and second-tier Albi respectively. One of the motivations for Junior's own move from Exeter to Racing was to be nearer his unwell father.
With Lancaster still learning the language and a stellar squad from different nations, Kpoku is the first-choice on-pitch translator, as well as a back-five wrecker.
He is settling so well, it has unsettled some back in England.
Across the water and therefore ineligible for Steve Borthwick's England team, the prospect of Kpoku representing France remains live.
To play for France, he would have to be registered with a French club for five years. It is a lengthy process, but Kpoku has started early.
He would be 23 when he, in theory, he becomes eligible in autumn 2028.
In practice, Kpoku says it is unlikely.
Stoinis: BBL power surge makes it hard to develop middle-order talent
The new Melbourne Stars captain is uniquely qualified on the subject having become an outstanding middle-order T20I batter for Australia and a highly sought-after player for that role in franchise cricket around the world, including the IPL, after making his name as an opener in the BBL.
Stoinis, 35, was a key match-winner at No. 5 and 6 in Australia's 2021 T20 World Cup triumph and was one of the best performed batters at the most recent T20 World Cups for Australia in 2022 and 2024. But Australia's middle-order was a weak-point overall in the 2024 edition, compared to 2021, as they failed in two chases against Afghanistan and India and missed the semi-finals.
On Thursday he was asked if there was a rule within the BBL he would like changed and Stoinis diplomatically suggested the surge should be revisited.
"I usually steer clear from this sort of stuff," Stoinis said. "But I think, personally, if we're building towards our Australian T20 team being as good as it can, I think having the surge and shorter powerplay at the start. I think that sort of makes it hard for middle-order batters in the Big Bash to push a case for international cricket, and to learn the way to play through those middle-overs in international cricket.
"I understand why they've done it, and I understand the entertainment aspect, but I think it's probably a question that needs to be spoken about."
The surge was designed to create a different dynamic in the second half of the innings, with the standard six-over powerplay reduced to four overs at the start and two surge overs, with just two men allowed outside the circle, to be used any time after the 10-over mark of the innings.
It has been a hit with fans, but the issue from an international standpoint is that middle-order/death batting in T20I and IPL cricket has become a power game with specialists needed to score at well in-excess of 10 runs per over with five men out. The surge has allowed less powerful middle-order players to face 12 deliveries against an older ball with just two men out.
Players have been able to find the boundary more freely without needing to clear the men on the fence, like they would in international cricket. International middle-order batting is even harder in Australia compared to overseas because of the size of the grounds. But the surge lessens that challenge in the BBL.
The BBL has been flexible with the rules and open to feedback. The competition leadership was happy to abandon both the X-Factor and Bash Boost as it was felt neither were having the impact they were initially designed to have.
But the surge has remained as it has been a hit with fans and broadcasters. The BBL are adding to the entertainment factor this year both inside the stadium and on the broadcast after success during the WBBL, with young kids involved in hitting a 'Surge button' at the venue to light-up the stadium and announce the surge overs. There has not been a discussion within the BBL to have the surge reviewed at the moment.
Stoinis' sentiment highlights the ongoing push and pull between the 'entertainment' of the BBL and the development of Australia's domestic talent for international cricket.
Australia's selectors and coaching staff are already looking to regenerate the T20I side ahead of the 2026 after long-time No. 7 Matthew Wade and opener David Warner retired at the end of the last World Cup. Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell, 36, could well be involved in the 2026 World Cup but will almost certainly not play beyond that.
The middle-order axis of Maxwell, Stoinis, Tim David and Wade, which has been the bedrock of Australia's T20I side at the last two World Cups, will need to be completely reshaped in the near future. In the case of Stoinis and Wade, both men developed their middle-overs and death batting skills at T20I level or in franchise cricket overseas in part because of how they were used by their BBL sides.
But there is a concern the surge isn't helping the next generation of players, like Aaron Hardie, get true middle-over experience at BBL level with five men out, with Hardie scoring 109 runs from 55 balls in the surge for just two dismissals.
Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
Gill toasts old Gabba memories as he prepares to make new ones
Gill at his best is comes with a volume warning, because when he hits the ball, it just reverberates around the ground. Sometimes you feel like you could pick out his shots with your eyes closed because the connection is so crisp.
Early in India's chase of 329, he hit Mitchell Starc off the back foot all along the ground through cover and on commentary former England cricketer Isa Guha exclaimed, "Crunched! Sound off the bat. Shubman Gill. Wow!" It is unmissable. The 91 he made at the top of the order set India up for the miracle that followed.
"Definitely very nostalgic when I came here," Gill said on the eve of this year's Gabba Test against Australia. "The whole team was coming and just walking to the stadium again after 2021 win, felt very nostalgic."
Apart from that natural gift, he seems very well attuned to the vagaries of batting. He understands how things can go wrong and spends ages in the nets trying to fix them. He also understands how things can go right. Former India coach Ravi Shastri recently spoke about how Gill had gone up to Rishabh Pant at tea on the final day of the 2021 Gabba Test and pointed out that Australia might resort to Marnus Labuschagne's legspin to tide them through to the second new ball and that was a time to cash in. (Labuschagne bowled only one over though)
"When you are out there one of the challenges is can you play the game how you want to play the game irrespective of what's happening on the other end or what's happening on the scorecard and I think I faltered in the first innings around because of that," Gill said, "Because what happened on the other end I kind of took that on me.
"There was a period where I didn't get to face, maybe I faced one ball in like four overs and then the next ball that I faced I kind of missed a straight ball, a fuller ball [and was lbw]. But these are the challenges that you face while playing a Test match, you might not get the strike for three or four overs, you might get the strike less or you might face like 18 balls on the trot."
Looking good but not going on is part of why Gill's Test average is at 36.45 after 30 Tests. He has crossed 20 in 33 of his 57 innings. So he's good at getting starts but converting them is a problem. More than half of those 33 innings have ended before he could bring up fifty.
In Adelaide, he pointed to the mitigating factor. "Just the dynamics of a pink-ball Test," Gill said, "We don't play [it] as much, and just playing at night, it is a little bit harder to gauge the seam position and the hand position at which the ball is released, so it is a bit more difficult to look as a batsman."
Australia will test him like that too. And in a million other ways. "I think the intensity at which the games are played here, especially Test matches is one of the most difficult things," Gill said, "To be able to maintain that intensity throughout the course of five days is what makes touring Australia so difficult, and I think more than anything it is the mental intensity and the mental fitness that is required here in Australia, especially here [at the Gabba]."
It will be fascinating to see how he comes through an examination like that.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Richard Gould: Hundred equity sale can future-proof county cricket for '20-25 years'
ECB chief executive Richard Gould is confident the Hundred will generate enough money to future-proof the County game for the next "20 to 25 years" after multiple bids were tabled for each of the eight teams earlier this week, in the second round of the equity sales process.
Having received over 100 bids from 35 parties in the first round, a broad spectrum of interested buyers remains. They are understood to include eight of the 10 IPL team owners and co-owners, plus US-based sports investors and private equity.
Gould confirmed most investors have put in multiple bids. Once it is determined which investors best match the interest of one of the eight host teams, the third and final stage will see clubs and counties decide upon their two preferred partners for a joint venture.
Most of the money raised from those 49 percent stakes is set to be split among the 18 counties and MCC, with 10 percent portioned off for the recreational game. This means that county game is in line for a massive windfall, But Gould insists it will need to be spent wisely.
"My hope is that this will recapitalise the county game for the next 20-25 years, if that money is used really well," he said in Hamilton, on the eve of the third Test between England and New Zealand.
"We're not counting our chickens yet, but the aim of this is to raise significant investment that is going to go into the game. One of the things that has been attracting the investors is the money they'd be putting in is going to develop the game. A very significant chunk is going into the recreational game, even more is going into the professional game and that is split between the hosts and non-hosts.
"The professional counties have been very keen to explain to us that they want guard rails in place. Those are likely to focus on the level of debt a club has, the level of reserves a club should have and also when they are making investments, making sure those are investments for the good of the game - providing financial return or in things like the player pathway."
Herring 'short of minutes' but ready for Bordeaux
With Herring and Tom Stewart out injured, young hooker James McCormick has been given a chance and he scored a try in the hammering against Toulouse.
Herring has been impressed with the performances of the 22-year-old and believes there is good competition for places developing at hooker.
"I've been watching him closely and helping him when I can, but he's had a really good season," Herring added.
"He has had a few injuries in the past which stunted him but it's good to see him going well. We have a really good hooker unit so it's good to see us all challenging."
The 34-year-old is hoping Ulster's return to the Kingspan Stadium can spark a big response against another high-quality opposition and he has called on the crowd to play their part.
Bordeaux opened their European campaign with an impressive 42-28 win over Leicester on Sunday and they currently sit second in France's Top 14.
"It's good to be back home and the challenges don't get any easier but that is Europe so hopefully we can reset and bring new energy into training this week.
"On European nights, the crowd want to get behind you and it's up to us to give them moments in the game where they can do that, whether it's momentum swings, big mauls or scrums, those get the crowd going and that's up to us to deliver."
Preds D Josi (lower body) out Thursday vs. Stars
Aiming to avoid a franchise-record ninth straight loss, the Nashville Predators won't have the services of captain and No. 1 defenseman Roman Josi on Thursday against the host Dallas Stars.
Josi, 34, was injured in the first period in Tuesday's 4-3 loss to the visiting Calgary Flames. The three-time All-Star and the 2019-20 Norris Trophy winner is listed as day-to-day.
Josi has a team-leading 23 points (seven goals, 16 assists) in 29 games this season. He has 709 points (188 goals, 521 assists) in 938 games since Nashville selected him in the second round of the 2008 NHL draft.
Predators star forward Ryan O'Reilly and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon will return to the lineup on Thursday after missing time with lower-body injuries.
O'Reilly, 33, who missed the past three games, has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 26 games this season.
Lauzon, 27, who has been out for seven games, has one assist in 22 games this season.
The Predators called up defenseman Kevin Gravel from Milwaukee of the American Hockey League. In 20 AHL games this season, Gravel, 32, has five points (one goal, four assists).
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras will be out for six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.
Zegras had surgery Thursday, the team announced.
Zegras was injured last week on a fairly innocent-looking play during the Ducks' 4-1 loss to Vegas in Anaheim. Zegras and William Karlsson only briefly got their skates and stick blades entangled, but Zegras needed help to get off the ice after taking a fall.
Zegras' torn meniscus is his third major injury in just over a year, although a torn meniscus is likely a fortunate outcome for a knee injury that could have been much worse. He was limited to 31 games last season by two injury setbacks, including a broken ankle that required surgery.
Zegras has four goals and six assists in 24 games this season for Anaheim, which had lost four straight heading into its road game against Toronto on Thursday night.
The Ducks surprisingly activated forward Robby Fabbri from injured reserve before they faced the Maple Leafs. Fabbri had arthroscopic knee surgery on Nov. 15 and is progressing much faster than his initial predicted timeline of six to eight weeks.
Laughton ties Flyers record with four-goal game
PHILADELPHIA -- Flyers center Scott Laughton felt a huge sense of pride when his second goal of the game gave him 100 in his career.
Laughton had another major milestone in sight: He added two empty-net goals to tie Philadelphia's team record of four goals in a game in a 4-1 victory over Detroit on Thursday night.
"Kind of get my game going, hopefully," Laughton said. "It was an awesome night."
After scoring just once in his previous 25 games, Laughton had his second career hat trick and became the first Flyers player to score four goals since John LeClair in 2002.
He's the 10th Flyers player to score four goals in a game and it's the 17th time a player scored four goals.
"For Scotty Laughton, you always hope good things happen for him," coach John Tortorella said. "He works so hard. He's the reason we won the game."
Laughton was greeted by a standing ovation by his teammates inside the locker room who then mobbed him in celebration. They then presented him with a pro wrestling championship belt stamped with the Flyers logo.
The 30-year-old Laughton, who made his NHL debut with the Flyers in January 2013, scored the first two goals the hard way.
He opened the scoring in the second period with a breakaway goal on a slap shot from the left circle. He added a short-handed goal in the third, tipping a pass from Travis Konecny as he crashed into the crease.
Laughton has been a steady presence for the Flyers for more than a decade but never scored more than 18 goals in a season. He had just three goals this season for a Flyers team that seems poised to finally emerge from a lengthy rebuild and compete for their first playoff berth since 2020.
His first trick was Feb. 7, 2021, against Washington.
"I think 100 goals, you don't look at it really, but I've been in the league for a long time and it's hard to score goals in this league," Laughton said. "To score 100, it's pretty cool to me, pretty special. I know it's not much compared to some guys, but it feels pretty cool to get that."
His last two goals came on the empty-netters over the final 70 seconds of the game.
"It's pretty cool," Laughton said. "Two empty-netters but I know they all count."
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