Latest news with #Braves'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
How Mets' Juan Soto feels about being snubbed from MLB All-Star Game
BALTIMORE — Juan Soto's game-winning hit on Tuesday night, which came as part of his second three-hit performance in three games, was the latest evidence of a surprising All-Star snub. Soto lifted the Mets to a 7-6 victory over the Orioles with a 10th-inning RBI single in the series opener at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Advertisement After Tuesday's effort, Soto is now batting .269 with 21 home runs, 52 RBI and 66 runs, while upping his OPS to .908. But the 26-year-old superstar understands why he wasn't included. "It's part of baseball. It's part of it. It's going to happen," Soto said. "There's a lot of players out there that have great numbers that deserve to be. It's a roster that they got to fill and it's only 25 guys. They can't take all of the guys into it." Soto fell short of reaching the team partially due to his slow start. In 57 games through the month of May, Soto was slashing .231/.357/.413 with nine home runs, 27 RBI and 36 runs. "Everybody thinks they should make it. Every player in this league, they should make it," Soto said. "I feel like every player that makes it to the big leagues is an All-Star. It's just part of it, it's going to happen. For me, I would have loved to be there, it's just one of those years." Advertisement The Mets have three National League All-Stars, with Francisco Lindor drawing the start at shortstop and Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz earning nods as reserves. In the NL, the Braves' Ronald Acuña Jr. and Cubs' Pete Crow-Armstrong and Kyle Tucker were voted in as starters in the outfield. The reserves include the Diamondbacks' Corbin Carroll, Nationals' James Wood, Padres' Fernando Tatis Jr. and Marlins' Kyle Stowers. Members of the Mets are holding out hope that Soto can join them as a potential replacement. "I hope he will be making it. I hope he gets the recognition he deserves," Lindor said. "He has one of the best Junes and he has (some) of the best numbers in the league and he's one of the best players in the league for a reason." This article originally appeared on NY Mets: Juan Soto's thoughts on missing MLB All-Star Game
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Live from Atlanta: The next front in the war between MLB owners and players
ATLANTA — In 2021, Times columnist Bill Plaschke incurred the wrath of Atlanta by blaspheming the entertainment district surrounding the Braves' ballpark as a 'sterile shopping mall.' The district, called The Battery, prefers the grand descriptor of 'the South's preeminent lifestyle destination.' Let's take a walk around The Battery, so you can understand why it could become one of the flash points in the coming holy war between owners and players. If you leave the ballpark through the right-field gates, you are in The Battery. You'll see a plaza in front of you, and around you places to ride a mechanical bull, go bowling, navigate an escape room or take in a concert. You can eat, drink, shop, dance, stay in a hotel. You can live here, in apartments above the storefronts. You can work here, in office towers housing corporate giants. 'To create an environment where you can spend eight, nine hours at The Battery and the field, and still feel like you have all the time in the world, I think they've done a wonderful job building this place,' Dodgers and former Braves All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman said. The Braves built all this, not only to lure fans to come early and stay late on game days but to make money from the property 365 days a year rather than 81. On that front, it is a spectacular success: Nine million people come here each year, and the Braves generated $67 million in revenue from The Battery last year. This, according to major league officials, is the template for the modern team. The Angels had planned a ballpark village twice as large as The Battery. Imagine what the Dodgers could build, and how much revenue they could generate, on property twice as large as the Angel Stadium site. And, speaking of revenue, Rob Manfred has something he likes to say to players about it. The MLB commissioner spoke at the Braves' Investor Day last month and said he tells players that their share of the sport's revenue has dropped from 63% in 2002 to 47% today. Baseball is the only major sport in America without a salary cap system, in which owners agree to spend a designated percentage of revenue on player salaries. 'If we had made a deal 10 years ago to share 50-50, you would've made $2.5 billion more than you made,' Manfred said he has told players, in comments first reported by Sports Business Journal. The players and their union rolled their collective eyes at those comments. It is no secret that many owners want a salary cap, and the cost certainty that comes with it. 'It's all tactics,' Dodgers All-Star catcher Will Smith said. 'It's all early negotiating stuff.' Said Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll: 'Owners don't want to put money in our pockets. For them to emphasize how we need this so much, there's a reason for that.' Tony Clark, the union's executive director, said the revenue numbers the league shares with the union are not consistent with Manfred's statements. And, when you consider a percentage of revenue, you have to define what counts as revenue: What goes into the pool to be shared with players? So let's go back to The Battery, and to the revenue opportunities that such ballpark villages create for teams. A report released in April by Klutch Sports, the Los Angeles-based agency, called such villages 'the sports industry's $100+ billion growth engine,' particularly as media revenue wanes. Within the pitch to team owners: Those villages 'generate attractive financial returns that stand outside of league revenue sharing requirements.' Translation: You can make all these millions without sharing any of it with the players. The Braves are building here because the team plays here. That is the new issue looming over the next round of collective bargaining: If a team builds around its ballpark, should that revenue be shared with players? 'Oh yeah,' Athletics All-Star designated hitter Brent Rooker said. 'Revenue is just any dollar that teams bring in that ultimately could be turned around and used to put a better product on the field. It's got to include tickets, TV, concessions, all the things around the stadium. It's got to include all of it.' Is the money a team makes from renting office space outside the ballpark really relevant to the team? Here's what Braves president and chief executive Derek Schiller told ESPN about The Battery: 'You've got a whole other set of revenues from the real estate development that can then be deployed for the baseball team.' I asked Clark whether, if negotiations turn to the possibility of revenue sharing along the lines Manfred discussed, the money from ballpark villages needs to be part of the conversation. 'Yes,' Clark said. He declined to elaborate. Understand this about Clark: He can filibuster a yes or no question into a 45-second monologue without actually answering yes or no. That he would say a clear 'yes' and nothing else leaves no doubt about his position. If the players do ask that owners share revenue from such ballpark villages, the response would be predictable: First, we share baseball revenue from baseball operations, and real estate developments are not baseball operations. Second, if you want to share in the revenue, you can share in the risk too, by helping to fund construction of the ballpark village, say, or by assuming some of the losses when a tenant drops its lease and leaves storefronts or office buildings unoccupied. Said Carroll: 'I think that's a conversation that won't need to happen, because it won't get to that point. A salary cap is a nonstarter from the union's perspective.' Enjoy the All-Star Game Tuesday, because this summer is one of relative peace. The collective bargaining agreement expires after next season, which means the rhetoric between players and owners ought to be flying this time next year. If the owners insist on pushing a salary cap, a lockout almost certainly would follow. And, if the owners push revenue sharing, The Battery could provide the push for the players' pushback.
USA Today
6 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Why was the MLB All-Star Game moved from Atlanta in 2021 to now?
The 2025 MLB All-Star Game is happening in Atlanta as planned, but as you might recall from a few years back, the Midseason Classic was supposed to be hosted in 2021 by the Braves' stadium that opened four years before. MLB HOME RUN DERBY ODDS: Who's the favorite to win it all? Instead, there was controversy and the festivities were moved to Colorado at the Rockies' Coors Field. So if you're here, you might be wondering: what exactly happened that moved the game from Atlanta that year? We've got the whole story as we get set for the 2025 MLB Home Run Derby and All-Star Game this week. Let's break it all down: Why was the MLB All-Star Game moved from Atlanta? Let's go back to 2021. It was in March of that year that Georgia's state legislature passed a sweeping law known as the Election Integrity Act of 2021. The bill had all kinds of provisions that limited voters even further in the state, particularly for voters of color. with changes made to voting by mail and the ban of giving out food and water to those standing in line waiting to vote. Momentum began to have MLB move the scheduled All-Star Game out of Atlanta. What happened next that led to the All-Star Game being moved? Then-president Joe Biden said he'd "strongly support" the game being moved. Via USA TODAY Sports: "I think today's professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that," Biden, a Democrat, said. "People look to them. They're leaders. "Look what's happened with the NBA, as well. Look what's happened across the board. The very people who are victimized the most are the people who are the leaders in these various sports, and it's just not right." With support from all over, from the Players Association to Barack Obama to the Players Alliance -- a group of current and former MLBers who focus on diversity in the sport, among many other things -- commissioner Rob Manfred made the decision to move the game. What did Rob Manfred say at the time the MLB All-Star Game was moved out of Atlanta? Per his statement "Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views. I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year's All-Star Game and MLB Draft. "Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box. In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States. We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game's unwavering support." Why did MLB then award the 2025 MLB All-Star Game back to Atlanta? There's no good answer to that. It could be that the political climate changed, it could be MLB giving in after its original decision, it could be all of the above From 11Alive: 'I made the decision in 2021 to move the event, and I understand, believe me, that people had then and probably still have different views as to the merits of that decision,' Manfred said in November 2023. ... Some Democrats were conciliatory after the announcement that the All-Star Game would return in 2025 — then-state Rep. Teri Anulewicz, whose district included the area around Truist Park, told 11Alive it was "wonderful that what (MLB) is doing is really correcting something that happened during a very heated time."
New York Post
6 days ago
- Sport
- New York Post
What the desperate sports fan can find to fill the relative quiet of MLB All-Star week
For sports fans, this can be a dreaded week. One that is not circled on the calendar or looked forward to with any excitement. It's one of the quietest weeks of the year on the sports schedule — MLB All-Star week. However, if you're really in need of some action there are some events to tune into this week to get your fix: Monday brings the Home Run Derby, which features Jazz Chisholm Jr., who should be an entertaining watch in his first appearance. For his part, the Yankees second baseman said he will just aim to 'have fun.' The Braves' Matt Olson will also be among the field of eight participants and figures to have some extra motivation after he replaced Ronald Acuña Jr., (sitting out the event because of back tightness). Not only is he defending his home stadium, but the first baseman was born in Atlanta and grew up a Braves fan. Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh's power is certainly a draw, too, with 38 home runs this season and an impressive 87th percentile rank in average exit velocity.
New York Post
12-07-2025
- Sport
- New York Post
Braves place Austin Riley on IL as injury nightmares continue
The Braves' nightmare season is only getting worse. Atlanta placed star third baseman Austin Riley on the 10-day injured list with a strained right abdomen, adding to the long list of Braves players sidelined with various ailments. Riley started Friday's game against the Cardinals but was pulled during the fourth inning in what was deemed a precautionary move after the game by Braves manager Brian Snitker, but the injury is apparently a bit more serious than that. Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley (27) in the field against the Los Angeles Angels during the third inning at Truist Park. Dale Zanine-Imagn Images He joins a nearly entire starting rotation's worth of Braves pitchers on the injured list, which includes Spencer Schwellenbach (fractured right elbow), Chris Sale (fractured rib cage), AJ Smith-Shawver (torn right UCL), and Reynaldo López (right shoulder inflammation). The latest wave of injuries in Atlanta comes after they opened the season with ace Spencer Strider and superstar outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr. on the shelf, although both players are healthy now. The loss of Riley adds to what's been a miserable season for the Braves. Heading into Saturday's play, Atlanta is sitting at 41-52, 10 games back of a National League wild card spot and 12.5 games back of the Phillies in the NL East. Atlanta Braves' Austin Riley rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run in the first inning of a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Saturday, July 5, 2025, in Atlanta. AP The Braves, who have made the playoffs in seven straight seasons, came into the year with World Series aspirations. Before hurting his abdomen, Riley had been hitting .274/.324/.441 with 14 home runs in 408 plate appearances in 2025. Despite their poor record, Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said last month that the franchise was 'not selling' at the trade deadline, but he left the door open if the team kept falling in the standings. 'A month from now, we end up 30 games under or something crazy, I guess I would reconsider,' Anthopoulos said.
