PITTSBURGH (AP) — Derek Shelton ended nearly each press availability during spring training by jokingly telling reporters they picked the wrong day to ask the Pittsburgh Pirates first-year manager about his opening day starter.His answer was always some variation of “sorry, that's tomorrow" before jogging off to his next meeting. The bit was equal parts corny and comforting, a way for the former minor league catcher turned major league assistant to set an easygoing tone for a club with both a modest payroll and modest expectations.Three months later, the routine feels like a relic of a reality that no longer exists. The questions Shelton must grapple before managing his first regular season game are far more complex. Like, how is he going to make sure his team is abiding by the 108-page health protocol Major League Baseball put together in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? How will he support players who might feel the need to speak out on social justice issues? How will he help create... [More]

June 71885 — The American Association allowed pitchers to throw overhand.1906 — The Chicago Cubs scored 11 runs in the first inning off New York Giants aces Christy Mathewson and Joe McGinnity and went on to a 19-0 victory.1931 — The Philadelphia Athletics left 18 base runners on base and still beat the Detroit Tigers, 12-2.1936 — The New York Yankees and the Cleveland Indians played 16 innings without recording a strikeout. The Yankees won 5-4.1938 — Cleveland pitcher Johnny Allen walked off the mound in the second inning and didn’t return after plate umpire Bill McGowan wanted Allen’s dangling sweatshirt sleeve to be cut off because it was distracting Boston Red Sox hitters. Allen was fined $250 by manager Ossie Vitt and the shirt ended up in the Hall of Fame.1946 — Chicago pitcher Claude Passeau won his own game with a two-run game-ending homer in the ninth inning against Brooklyn. The Cubs won 2-0.1950 — The Boston Red Sox collected 42 total bases, including six home runs and 23 hits... [More]

June 61918 — Casey Stengel, after being traded by Brooklyn in the offseason, made his return to Ebbets Field a memorable one. In his first at-bat, Stengel called time, stepped out of the batter’s box and doffed his cap. A bird flew out and the fans broke into laughter.1934 — Myril Hoag hit a major league record six singles in the New York Yankees’ 15-3 rout of the Boston Red Sox.1939 — The New York Giants hit five home runs in the fourth inning in a 17-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at the Polo Grounds. With two out, Harry Danning, Al Demaree, Burgess Whitehead, Manny Salvo and Joe Moore connected as the Giants scored eight runs in the inning.1945 — In the first game of a doubleheader, Boston’s Boo Ferriss scattered 14 hits to beat Philadelphia 5-2. Ferris, 8-0 on the year, tied the AL mark held by Chicago’s John Whitehead for wins at the start of a career.1975 — Cleveland manager Frank Robinson hit two three-run homers in a 7-5 win over the Texas Rangers.1986 — San Diego Padres manager... [More]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Chris Archer won't pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020, and his time with the club may be over.The 31-year-old right-hander had surgery Tuesday in St. Louis with Dr. Robert Thompson to relieve symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. Archer will not be available this season if Major League Baseball finds a way to put together a truncated schedule.Pirates director of Sports Medicine Todd Tomczyk said Wednesday that Archer reported discomfort in the neck/shoulder area on his right side in March shortly before spring training was stopped due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Archer remained on a throwing program when he went home but symptoms continued to linger. “What made it most challenging for Chris, he didn’t feel the symptoms immediately after throwing,” Tomczyk said. “It was hours afterward. It was the next day."Tomczyk estimated Archer will need six-to-eight months of rehabilitation. Archer's absence this season is another blow to a starting rotation already missing ace... [More]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Chris Archer won't pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020 and his time with the club may be over.Pittsburgh announced Wednesday that 31-year-old Archer underwent surgery to relieve symptoms of thoracic outlet syndrome. The procedure was conducted on Tuesday in St. Louis, and the Pirates said Archer will not be available this season if Major League Baseball finds a way to put together a truncated schedule.The Pirates were banking on a bounce back year by Archer, who is 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 33 starts since he was acquired from Tampa Bay at the 2018 trade deadline for outfielder Austin Meadows and pitcher Tyler Glasnow. Archer has struggled to find any consistency with the Pirates, while Meadows became an All-Star last season and Glasnow also blossomed.Archer's contract includes a $9 million salary this year, but he will receive only a portion due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pittsburgh holds an $11 million club option for 2021, with a $250,000 buyout. ___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Houston manager Dusty Baker celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy on the 73rd anniversary of the fall of the major league color barrier and lamented the lack of African Americans in today’s game. “It’s frustrating because we’ve talked about it forever ... but it seems like the numbers are dwindling instead of increasing," Baker said Wednesday.Only 7.7% of big league players on opening day rosters last year were African American, down from 17% in 1990. Baker and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts are the only two African American managers in the majors.Baker appreciates that the league is making a “conscious effort" to get more young African Americans involved in baseball through programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and is optimistic there can be a turnaround in the upcoming years. “Hopefully in this decade and the next decade there will be more guys that get a chance,” Baker said. “All they need is a chance. A lot of guys have been bypassed and overlooked.”Robinson broke the color barrier... [More]

Houston manager Dusty Baker celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy on the 73rd anniversary of the fall of the major league color barrier and lamented the lack of African Americans in today’s game. “It’s frustrating because we’ve talked about it forever ... but it seems like the numbers are dwindling instead of increasing," Baker said Wednesday.Only 7.7% of big league players on opening day rosters last year were African American, down from 17% in 1990. Baker and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts are the only two African American managers in the majors.Baker appreciates that the league is making a “conscious effort" to get more young African Americans involved in baseball through programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and is optimistic there can be a turnaround in the upcoming years. “Hopefully in this decade and the next decade there will be more guys that get a chance,” Baker said. “All they need is a chance. A lot of guys have been bypassed and overlooked.”Robinson broke the color barrier... [More]

Houston manager Dusty Baker celebrated Jackie Robinson’s legacy on the 73rd anniversary of the fall of the major league color barrier and lamented the lack of African Americans in today’s game. “It’s frustrating because we’ve talked about it forever ... but it seems like the numbers are dwindling instead of increasing," Baker said Wednesday.Only 7.7% of big league players on opening day rosters last year were African American, down from 17% in 1990. Baker and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts are the only two African American managers in the majors.Baker appreciates that the league is making a “conscious effort" to get more young African Americans involved in baseball through programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and is optimistic there can be a turnaround in the upcoming years. “Hopefully in this decade and the next decade there will be more guys that get a chance,” Baker said. “All they need is a chance. A lot of guys have been bypassed and overlooked.”Robinson broke the color barrier... [More]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Chris Archer was scratched from his scheduled Monday night against the New York Yankees and Gerrit Cole due to neck tightness.Pittsburgh said the move was precautionary and that Archer is day to day.Archer went 3-9 with a 5.19 ERA in 23 starts last season.Cole was scheduled to make his first start with the Yankees after signing a $324 million nine year contract as a free agent.___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — The son's stay in town has outlasted the father's. The irony isn't lost on Jacob Stallings.It wasn't necessarily supposed to be this way. Stallings was still a catching prospect — and not necessarily a young one — in the Pirates' organization four years ago when his dad Kevin left a successful run as the men's basketball coach at Vanderbilt to take on the same job at the University of Pittsburgh. The marriage between the elder Stallings and the Panthers lasted all of two nightmarish seasons. By the spring of 2018, Pitt moved on. It seemed the younger Stallings might meet the same fate. Pittsburgh designated for him assignment several times as he pogoed between the minors and the majors after making his debut in 2016. The odds of him ever sticking in Pittsburgh seeming to grow more and more remote as his mid-20s turned into his late-20s.Yet rather than worry about it, Stallings buried himself in the game. When he spent the first half of 2019 as the third catcher while... [More]

BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Chris Archer is 2 ½ pounds lighter than at the end of last season.The Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander didn’t go on a winter diet, though. Instead, Archer cut off his trademark dreadlocks.“It was time for a change,” Archer said Friday after a spring training workout. “It was time for something different.”Archer feels the same way about his pitching. He had an awful 2019 season, compiling a 3-9 record and 5.19 ERA in 23 starts.A Florida resident and North Carolina native, Archer spent a large portion of the offseason working out in Southern California.“The thing about being out there is it gave me a chance to disconnect,” Archer said. “And disconnecting is something I really needed to do after what happened last season.”Archer not only has less hair and a clearer mind this spring, but some strong ideas about how he can get his career back on track. He was a two-time All-Star with the Tampa Bay Rays, yet has gone 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in 33 starts since the Pirates acquired... [More]

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tyler Glasnow agreed to a $2.05 million, one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday that avoided arbitration and fellow right-hander Oliver Drake struck a $1,025,000, one-year deal.Outfielder Hunter Renfroe agreed at $3.3 million after making $582,100 while hitting 33 home runs with the San Diego Padres in 2019. Infielder David Robertson received a $1,025,000 deal as the Rays reached agreements with all of their arbitration-eligible players.Reliever Chaz Roe agreed at $2,185,200 on Thursday night. He made $1,275,000 last season.Glasnow, who earned $566,700 last season, was acquired in a trade sent Chris Archer to the Pittsburgh Pirates in July 2018. He earned a spot in Tampa Bay’s rotation last spring and was off to a strong start before being sidelined for nearly four months by a right forearm strain in mid-May.The 26-year-old right-hander was 6-0 with a 1.47 ERA over his first seven starts of 2019. He returned from a stint of the 60-day injured list... [More]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ben Cherington earned three World Series rings with the Boston Red Sox, the last as general manager of the 2013 club that raced from worst to first.The challenge that lies ahead for Cherington with the Pittsburgh Pirates will be different.The market is smaller. So are the resources Cherington can draw from. The chance to supplement the major league roster with expensive free agents — as Cherington did in Boston — likely will not exist. Yet the 45-year-old does not appear to be intimidated by the financial realities his new job presents. Two decades in the business have taught him that while budgets may vary, the tenets of successful teams do not.“Obviously the bigger the payroll, it gives you more margin for error on certain types of decisions,” Cherington said Monday, when the Pirates announced he had been hired to succeed Neal Huntington. “But if you peel back in Boston and what really drove winning, I think, in most of the best years was really good work in scouting... [More]

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays general manager Erik Neander has been voted Major League Baseball's Executive of the Year.Tampa Bay was 96-66, the second-most wins in team history, despite a big league-low payroll of $66 million. The Rays beat Oakland in the AL wild-card game, then lost to Houston in a five-game Division Series.Neander's moves included acquiring outfielder Austin Meadows and pitcher Tyler Glasnow at the 2018 trade deadline from Pittsburgh for pitcher Chris Archer, and signing free agent pitcher Charlie Morton ahead of the 2019 season.The 36-year-old Neander became the Rays' general manager in November 2016 and one year later replaced Matt Silverman as the team's top baseball official.New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman was second in voting announced Monday night on the first day of the annual GM meetings. Oakland Athletics executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane and Minnesota Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey tied for third.Each team has one vote for the award, which began in 2018 and was won by Beane in its initial year.___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

NEW YORK (AP) — Madison Bumgarner was among 10 free agents who received $17.8 million qualifying offers from their former teams on Monday, a move that likely will decrease demand for the 30-year-old left-hander.Bumgarner, the 2014 World Series MVP, went 9-9 with a 3.90 ERA over 34 starts this year after two injury-shortened seasons. San Francisco also made a qualifying offer to left-handed reliever Will Smith.Six pitchers received the qualifying offers among the 168 free agents, including right-handers Gerrit Cole (Houston), Stephen Strasburg (Washington), Zack Wheeler (New York Mets) and Jake Odorizzi (Minnesota). The others given the offers were third basemen Anthony Rendon (Washington) and Josh Donaldson (Atlanta), first baseman José Abreu (Chicago White Sox) and outfielder Marcell Ozuna (St. Louis).On the day before free agents can start negotiating contracts with all teams, Red Sox designated hitter J.D. Martinez decided to stay in Boston instead of becoming a free agent, declining... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Madison Bumgarner was among 10 free agents who received $17.8 million qualifying offers from their former teams on Monday, a move that likely will decrease demand for the 30-year-old left-hander.Bumgarner, the 2014 World Series MVP, went 9-9 with a 3.90 ERA over 34 starts this year after two injury-shortened seasons. San Francisco also made a qualifying offer to left-handed reliever Will Smith.Six pitchers received the qualifying offers, including right-handers Gerrit Cole (Houston), Stephen Strasburg (Washington), Zack Wheeler (New York Mets) and Jake Odorizzi (Minnesota). The others given the offers were third basemen Anthony Rendon (Washington) and Josh Donaldson (Atlanta), first baseman José Abreu (Chicago White Sox) and outfielder Marcell Ozuna (St. Louis).On the day before free agents can start negotiating contracts with all teams, Red Sox designated hitter J.D. Martinez decided to stay in Boston instead of becoming a free agent, declining an option that would have... [More]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Pirates have exercised their 2020 options on pitcher Chris Archer and center fielder Starling Marte.Archer is scheduled to make $9 million next season and Marte $11.5 million following Pittsburgh's decisions Monday.A 31-year-old right-hander, Archer has struggled since joining the Pirates at the trade deadline in 2018 in a swap that sent right-hander Tyler Glasnow and outfielder Austin Meadow to Tampa Bay. Archer is 6-12 with a 4.92 ERA in Pittsburgh, including a 3-9 mark with a 5.19 ERA last season. The Pirates are in need of rotational depth with ace Jameson Taillon already ruled out for 2020 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.Archer agreed to a $25.5 million, six-year contract with Tampa Bay in 2014 that included two team options. The 2020 option carried a $1.75 million buyout. Archer's deal includes an $11 million option for 2021 with a $250,000 buyout.Marte, 31, is arguably coming off the best season of his eight-year career, hitting .295 while setting career... [More]

A look at what's happening around the majors today:IT'S ALL ON THE LINEHouston Astros ace Gerrit Cole has won a franchise-record 17 straight decisions heading into the deciding Game 5 of their AL Division Series against visiting Tampa Bay. The winner meets the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series starting Saturday.Cole is 17-0 in 23 starts since a May 22 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He has allowed 92 hits over 154 1/3 innings during that span, striking out 241 and walking 32. That includes an outstanding outing in a 3-1 Game 2 win over the Rays, when he struck out 15, didn't walk a batter until his final one, and allowed four hits over 7 2/3 scoreless innings.Tyler Glasnow starts for the Rays after taking a 6-2 loss in the opener, when he gave up two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings, including Jos� Altuve's go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth.Both starters came up with the Pirates organization and were teammates in Pittsburgh from 2016-17.Cole was the top pick in the 2011... [More]

A look at what's happening around the majors Thursday:IT'S ALL ON THE LINEHouston Astros ace Gerrit Cole has won a franchise-record 17 straight decisions heading into the deciding Game 5 of their AL Division Series against visiting Tampa Bay. The winner meets the New York Yankees in the AL Championship Series starting Saturday.Cole is 17-0 in 23 starts since a May 22 loss to the Chicago White Sox. He has allowed 92 hits over 154 1/3 innings during that span, striking out 241 and walking 32. That includes an outstanding outing in a 3-1 Game 2 win over the Rays, when he struck out 15, didn't walk a batter until his final one, and allowed four hits over 7 2/3 scoreless innings.Tyler Glasnow starts for the Rays after taking a 6-2 loss in the opener, when he gave up two runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings, including Jos� Altuve's go-ahead, two-run homer in the fifth.Both starters came up with the Pirates organization and were teammates in Pittsburgh from 2016-17.Cole was the top pick in the... [More]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Jameson Taillon didn't throw a pitch after May 1. Felipe Vázquez headed to his second All-Star Game in July. By September, he was in jail . Clint Hurdle, who spearheaded a renaissance earlier in the decade, went into the last day of a lost season talking enthusiastically about the future. Two hours later, he was out of a job .Maybe it was a fitting way for the Pittsburgh Pirates to end a 69-93 campaign, one final bout of turbulence in a year when the sailing was rarely smooth. While general manager Neal Huntington talked about the need for a "new voice" heading into 2020, the club the new manager will inherit believes the worst is over."If we can get through all the stuff that's happened this year, all the losses, all the troubles, all the crazy stuff that happened, this is what we call the storm," pitcher Steven Brault said. "So if we can weather the storm and still be as together as we are, I think we're all looking forward to next year."Hard to blame them. Trevor Williams... [More]