Tim Britton

3 days ago | nytimes.com | Chad Jennings |Aaron Gleeman |Tim Britton

One side effect of MLB expanding the playoff field to 12 teams in 2022 was a big decrease in obvious trade deadline “sellers” and a big increase in the murky middle, where even sub-.500 teams can see a path to October — even if they aren’t necessarily incentivized to push all of their chips into the middle as “buyers.” With roughly five weeks until this season’s July 31 trade deadline, 21 of 30 teams began this week with playoff odds above 20 percent, according to FanGraphs, and more than...

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Tim Britton

ATLANTA — The first real adversity of the 2025 season has arrived for the Mets. New York has been brilliant in keeping it at bay until this deep into June, shutting down any potential losing streaks and overcoming nicks to its roster with its surplus of depth. But nearly halfway into the 162-game slate, the Mets are facing their stiffest challenge so far. For the first time this season, they lost a fourth straight game, a backbreaking 5-4 defeat in 10 innings to Atlanta.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Tim Britton

ATLANTA — On the precipice of getting their starting rotation fully healthy, the Mets have lost their second starter in the last week. Right-hander Tylor Megill was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow sprain on Tuesday. Megill will miss at least the next month. Megill felt “pulling” in his elbow, especially on breaking balls, in Saturday’s start against the Rays. A subsequent MRI revealed inflammation but no structural damage in his elbow.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Levi Weaver |Tim Britton |Chad Jennings

By Tim Britton, Chad Jennings and Levi WeaverEvery week,​ we​ ask a selected group of our baseball​ writers​ — local and national — to rank the teams from first to worst. Here are the collective results. As we near closer to the season’s midway point, it feels like a good time to check in to see how each team is stacking up against expectations going into the 2025 season.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Andy McCullough |Tim Britton |Dennis Lin

Red Sox get: RHP Jordan Hicks, LHP Kyle Harrison, OF James Tibbs, RHP Jose Bello Andy McCullough: Here is the good news for the Giants: They are receiving the best player in the trade. Rafael Devers, for all his flaws as his defender and for all of his apparent defensiveness about the general concept of changing positions, is a really good hitter. He entered Sunday's games ranked 13th among qualified hitters in OPS (.894), 15th in weighted on-base average (.386) and 18th in wRC+ (145).