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New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
Your views on Jhoan Duran to Phillies
The 2025 MLB trade deadline arrives at 6 p.m. (ET) Thursday. Join us for live updates and analysis on trades around the league. Getty Images As for the Phillies' new closer, we have a doozy of some insight from The Athletic's Jayson Stark coming for you shortly. But let's quickly go over what you all think of the Jhoan Duran deal: Loren H: I will wait for more professional analysis, but it feels like the Twins could have gotten more. I really hate the owners of this team, and the GM doesn't give me any confidence either. Sean S: Let's go! Getting Durán without giving up Painter, Miller or Crawford is huge. Cat F: This trade is maybe okay from a raw value But the Twins talked a big game about "needing to get blown away" by an offer and this isn't it. Sure feels like they folded. Getty Images The Mets have made some bold moves today, first getting Giants setup man Tyler Rogers then adding All-Star Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley to help Edwin Diaz at the back of their bullpen. Let's see what you had to say about it all... Austin C: This deal rules. Incredible 8th inning set up man for Diaz. None of the Mets top 7 prospects touched in any deal today. SS Baez the most valuable player traded with the most potential of all Mets moves but he's far from making the show, we have Lindor, and Pena our IFA who was just signed has the most upside and is the future. John Z: Mets are getting after it, revamped the bullpen in a couple days, hope they can find a starter or bring up 1 of the kids because Holmes and Montas are a weakness right now. Evans #24 F: In the comments in the other article re Rogers trade. Someone said Mets would need to trade Vientos and one of the three top pitching prospects to get Helsey. Guess not 😉 Getty Images Whew. Hope you've had a chance to catch your breath from that trade deadline flurry. Here are the full details that sent two of baseball's current top closers into the thick of the National League East race: Phillies get RHP Jhoan Duran from Twins for minor-league catcher Eduardo Tait and pitcher Mick Abel . from Twins for minor-league catcher and pitcher . Mets get LHP Ryan Helsley from Cardinals for minor-league shortstop Jesus Baez and pitchers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt. Got it? Getty Images With the Los Angeles Angels, it's always dangerous to make definitive statements. So while their trade for relievers Andrew Chafin and Luis García would indicate the team is in 'buy' mode, a loss to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night still might leave them open to a sell-type deal. Closer Kenley Jansen is the Angels' most desirable potential free agent, and club officials sent conflicting signals after the trade with the Nationals on whether he might still be available. The question might not even be that relevant. The bullpen market erupted Wednesday with deals for relievers with bigger stuff and better numbers than Jansen. The trade for Chafin and García, at least, protects the Angels if they pull one of their trademark reversals. It happened in 2023, when the team made several 'buy' moves at the deadline, then dumped most of those players on waivers when they fell out of contention in August. A trade of Jansen would be even more sudden. It also might damage the chances of him returning to the team next season, an outcome both he and general manager Perry Minasian have said they desire. But with the Angels, nothing cannot be ruled out until the deadline passes. Getty Images So, after they landed Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley to bolster their bullpen, what's next for the Mets? It's probably the offense, league sources said. Center field stands out as the most obvious area for an upgrade, but the Mets aren't limiting themselves to just that position, people familiar with their thinking said. Their fluid situation at designated hitter allows them to explore different things. Getty Images Within an hour of the Phillies trading for Twins closer Jhoan Duran, the Mets made a move for Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. Relief pitching — especially closers — was one place where this trade market felt potentially deepest, and once that market started to move, two of the biggest chips came off the board in a hurry. Duran ranked No. 6 on our Big Board (the top-ranked closer other than Emmanuel Clase) and Helsley ranked No. 26 (the top bullpen rental), but Pirates closer David Bednar, Rays closer Pete Fairbanks, and Royals closer Carlos Estévez also ranked among our top 50. Padres closer Robert Suarez didn't make the Big Board but probably should have (we chose not to rank him, but it now seems possible the Padres could get creative and trade him). The Giants could also trade Camilo Doval, the Nationals could trade Kyle Finnegan, the Angels could trade Kenley Jansen, and the Braves could try to find a taker for Raisel Iglesias. There are still plenty of closers available, but two of the best have come off the board in quick succession. More coming shortly from The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal about Jansen... The Mets' deal for Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley is, to use a highly technical term from The Athletic's prospects guru Keith Law, "a f---ing heist." After New York traded MLB reliever José Buttó and two MLB-ready prospects to the Giants for setup man Tyler Rogers, the Cardinals by comparison got three prospects well outside New York's top five in return for the two-time All-Star closer — shortstop Jesus Baez and right-handed pitchers Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt. Baez ranked No. 7 in Law's list of the top 20 prospects in the Mets' farm system before the season, while Dohm ranked No. 17 on that list. Baez is still in the lower levels of the minors. Elissalt was not ranked on Law's list. GO FURTHER New York Mets 2025 top 20 prospects: Brandon Sproat, Jett Williams lead the way Getty Images In their three-game sweep in San Diego, the Mets saw first-hand the value of a shutdown bullpen. The Padres' league-best pen held New York to four hits in 47 at-bats, allowing one run in 11 1/3 innings. That's the kind of pen the Mets are aiming to construct. In Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley, the Mets have acquired arguably the two best rental relievers on the market. Rogers is a nightmare on opposing hitters with his submarine arm angle — to the point that the Trajekt system many teams employ to prep for pitchers can't imitate him — and Helsley led the National League in saves just last season. New York can shorten the game now, with Rogers and Helsley joining Reed Garrett, Gregory Soto, Ryne Stanek and Brooks Raley as set-up options to get to Edwin Díaz. Helsley's ample closing experience also provides manager Carlos Mendoza with the freedom to use Díaz earlier in games if desired. The Mets had lacked that kind of piece since A.J. Minter went down earlier this season. Getty Images The Cardinals sell-off begins. Closer Ryan Helsley is the first of three relievers St. Louis expects to move before Thursday's deadline, including right-hander Phil Maton and left-hander Steven Matz. Helsley, the longest-tenured Cardinal, joins what is shaping up the be a super-bullpen in Queens. The Cardinals, eager to bolster their depleted farm system, add prospects Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt. Baez entered the season ranked No. 7 in the Mets system, per The Athletic's Keith Law, while Dohm is ranked No. 17. Though he hasn't been as dominant as last season, Helsley, 30, remains one of the top closers in the league thanks to his powerful fastball and wipeout slider. Entering play on Wednesday, Helsley had posted a 3.00 ERA over 36 games (21 saves), with 41 strikeouts in 36 innings. Helsley's fastball ranks in the 99th percentile in average velocity (99.3 miles per hour). Both his chase rate and whiff rates are over 30 percent and he's struck out roughly a quarter of his total batters faced this year. There will be some concern over his fastball command — the heater has been hit much harder this year than in previous seasons. But Helsley's stuff, combined with his overall experience, makes him a legitimate weapon and greatly improves the back-end of any contending team's bullpen. GO FURTHER Mets acquire closer Ryan Helsley from Cardinals: Sources The Mets are sending prospects Jesus Baez, Nate Dohm and Frank Elissalt to the Cardinals in the deal for Ryan Helsley, league sources tell The Athletic . Getty Images Ryan Helsley, the fireballing two-time All-Star closer and longest-tenured member of the St. Louis Cardinals, recently estimated his chances of being traded away '90 percent.' He was proven correct on Wednesday, when the New York Mets traded for Helsley, league sources confirmed to The Athletic's Will Sammon. Minutes after our team at The Athletic broke the Phillies' trade for Jhoan Duran, there are some reports about their main competition in the NL East also going all-out for a top closer... We'll have more on that for you shortly... Getty Images One rival evaluator tells me that 18-year-old Eduardo Tait, the former Phillies catching prospect heading to Minnesota, is regarded as having a high ceiling and was asked about by several teams. The evaluator said that pitching prospect Mick Abel could use some improvement his changeup but is now in a good position to do so with the Twins, who are strong at pitching development. GO FURTHER Phillies call their shot and get their closer, acquiring Jhoan Durán from Twins Getty Images Jhoan Duran was asked about the possibility of getting traded an hour ago: 'That'd be hard. I got a couple years here and I feel like here is my family so if that happens, that's maybe breaking my heart a little bit.' Getty Images Minnesota's rumored asking price for Jhoan Duran was extremely high, and the Twins ended up getting (basically) two top-100 prospects for the 27-year-old closer. High-A catcher Eduardo Tait is a consensus top-100 prospect and 23-year-old right-hander Mick Abel was a top-100 prospect prior to graduating to the majors earlier this season. It's the biggest prospect haul for any player traded so far, and yet it's easy to see why Philadelphia was willing to pay the price. Bullpen issues have been a constant for the Phillies, and in Duran they get an elite-level reliever with overpowering raw stuff who can transform the late-inning situation for the next 2 1/2 seasons. Duran leaves behind a huge hole in the Twins' bullpen and his potential closer replacement, Griffin Jax, has also been rumored to be available on the trade market. Louis Varland and Brock Stewart are other candidates to take on a bigger role for the Twins. Tait is the second teenage catching prospect acquired by Minnesota this week, as the Twins picked up rookie-ball prospect Enrique Jimenez in the Chris Paddack swap. It's clear the Twins value catcher depth with Christian Vázquez and impending free agent and Ryan Jeffers under team control through only 2026. Getty Images It has been a rough go for the Phillies bullpen since top reliever José Alvarado was suspended for PED usage on May 18. Since then, the group ranks in the bottom half of MLB in ERA (16th, 4.09), WHIP (19th, 1.35), K% (23rd, 20.7%) and FIP (27th, 4.53), per Fangraphs. The Phillies have needed a high leverage arm to pair with relievers like Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering, the latter of whom has emerged as a key part of the closer by committee operation in recent weeks. They will get that in Duran, who has a 2.01 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 49 1/3 innings. Griffin Jax, another reliever on the trade block who tentatively becomes the Twins' closer if and when the Jhoan Duran trade is finalized, had this to say to The Athletic's Dan Hayes minutes before the Duran trade news broke: The Athletic's Jayson Stark reports that the Twins will be getting right-handed pitcher Mick Abel and catcher Eduardo Tait from the Phillies in this deal if finalized. Tait was ranked as the No. 4 prospect in the Phillies' farm system and Abel was ranked the team's No. 9 prospect before the season, per The Athletic's Keith Law.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New York Liberty's health — not the Minnesota Lynx — could be biggest hurdle toward repeating as WNBA champions
MINNEAPOLIS — Everyone remembers the shot, an iconic, buzzer-beating 3-pointer off the hands of New York guard Sabrina Ionescu that quieted Target Center in Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals. It was a play that, in retrospect, the Liberty might not be champions without, Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said on Wednesday. The T-shirts some fans donned courtside told another story: that the officiating Reeve called out following the Game 5 loss in New York cost the Lynx a record fifth championship. 'Everyone watched Minnesota get robbed,' and 'You had to cheat us to beat us,' spotted the crowd alongside signs of 'pay the players.' In broader terms, Lynx assistant Eric Thibault, then head coach of the Washington Mystics, remembers the tightly contested nature of the instant classic series. How enormous every play felt in the moment. 'I think we're going to get a taste of that tonight,' Thibault said on Wednesday morning. Not quite. The first Finals rematch of 2024 collapsed under its own weight and that of the extended season's unrelenting grind, as the Lynx secured a 100-93 win over the Liberty on Wednesday night. Buried past the halfway mark of the season, the matchup barely felt the part, even if the crowd's energy did. 'It's been so long, it doesn't feel like a Finals rematch,' Lynx forward Napheesa Collier said. 'Maybe if, like, the schedule is different, and we would have played them in the beginning of the year, it would have, but now it just feels like two really good teams going against each other.' The action on the court was, for the most part at least, how Thibult envisioned. The sides went shot-for-shot in a tightly contested first half, trading crowd-charging blocks for silencing corner 3s. A player's bellow for a forced timeout off the full-court press here, a matching one for an opposite-end baseline block there. Yet, waiting this long left a riveting, Finals-level matchup at the mercy of the injury gods, and they haven't been kind to the reigning champions. Health is shaping up to be their true hurdle in a rare repeat championship. The ailing Liberty trailed by as many as 15 points at the 3:04 mark before making it a game again late. It felt less-than and, at times, forced. Collier's final-minute and-1, met by chants of 'M-V-Phee,' sealed the win. The two teams will meet again in 11 days in Brooklyn, then twice more in the ensuing week. 'So stupid,' Lynx guard Kayla McBride said, nodding her head at the head-scratching scheduling in this regular-season series scheduled as if it were a playoff one plopped into regularly scheduled programming. Still, the Lynx felt triumphant following the first home loss of their season earlier in the week. At 23-5, they hold front-runner status on home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. All things considered — and that includes a 40-minute team meeting in the aftermath of an 'embarrassing' loss to Dallas on Monday — the second-place Liberty aren't hanging their heads on their ninth loss of the year. 'If there's ever a good loss, this is one of those losses that you can live with,' Ionescu said following her fourth 30-point game of the season. Ionescu scored a game-high 31, carrying the offensive load again and spreading out the accolades for a short-handed squad whose depth still nearly upended their biggest competition. 'With a million reasons why we could have come in here and gone through the motions and made excuses for ourselves, we didn't,' Ionescu said. 'I'm proud of each and every player that was out there tonight playing as hard as they could, doing whatever they could to get back to playing Liberty basketball, and we did that tonight.' While other teams are tooling up for the playoffs, the Liberty are stacking injuries, crossing their fingers that their unlucky stretch will change before then. New York is one of the most injury-riddled teams this season, according to data by The Next contributor and physical therapist Lucas Seehafer. They have so many, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello brought a piece of paper to her pregame press conference to cover it all. 'I've got to go down the list, oh my gosh, there's too many,' Brondello said, interrupting her rundown of current ailments. Only three players from the 2024 champions played in the rematch, and for the 16th time this season, they were without one of their big three in Ionescu, Breanna Stewart or Jonquel Jones. That 38 percent mark is fitting of one of their perimeter shooters, not a front office possessing a roster capable of more trophies. They almost were forced to go without offseason point guard acquisition Natasha Cloud, a game-time decision who battled through illness. Jones returned a week ago from an ankle injury, running the starters' record up to 9-1. The loss is disingenuous; Stewart left in the opening minutes of last week's loss to the Sparks. Brondello said the three-time WNBA champion is out indefinitely with a bone bruise in her right knee. There is no timetable for her return, and Brondello said they would bring her back when she's ready. If that's late in August, 'great,' but 'whether she gets back before the end of the season, I don't know.' Nyara Sabally (knee), the Finals Game 5 heroine, and Kennedy Burke (calf strain) are each expected to miss a couple of weeks. If Cloud couldn't play, New York would have been left with eight players in uniform. Reinforcements are on their way after center Emma Meesseman, a three-time EuroLeague MVP and the Mystics' 2019 Finals MVP, landed in New York on Wednesday. Initially a coup in depth, the 6-foot-4 center is a vital replacement and game-changer in this regular-season series. The Lynx know they saw a different version of the Liberty on Wednesday, will again in a couple weeks, and could see a third if a postseason clash does come to fruition. At the halfway point, there is nothing in terms of talent and performance to counter the belief these two will meet in another epic Finals, this time a best-of-seven. Health — not the Lynx — is the Liberty's largest hurdle this season. 'All this adversity we go through now will help us as we move forward,' Brondello said. 'Now it's about just getting healthy. Can we get healthy and then we have the task of finding the chemistry with the full group. But that's something obviously we all welcome.' Marine Johannes scored 14 in her entrance to the starting lineup. Isabelle Harrison, who missed a couple of games with injuries, was one of those key pieces stepping up with 15 points in 17 minutes off the bench. Harrison remembers watching the Finals and feeling New York's hunger for redemption after losing the 2023 Finals, the 'gut feeling of like, damn, we don't want to lose it again,' she said. She sees it every night out of Minnesota, and knows the Lynx probably circled this first matchup. They won two of their record-tying four championships after losing the year prior, and two of those players (Lindsay Whelan and Rebekkah Bruson) are on the coaching staff with Reeve. 'But it's the same for New York,' she said. Health will be ultimately what makes or breaks them.
CBS News
2 hours ago
- CBS News
Lynx beat Liberty 100-93 in Finals rematch
Napheesa Collier had 30 points and nine rebounds, Kayla McBride added 24 points, and the Minnesota Lynx beat the short-handed New York Liberty 100-93 on Wednesday night in a rematch of last year's WNBA Finals. Bridget Carleton made a 3-pointer from the corner with 7:08 remaining in the fourth quarter to give Minnesota a 79-66 lead. She added Minnesota's 14th 3-pointer — on just 27 attempts — less than two minutes later to make it 84-69. Minnesota's lead reached 92-77 before New York scored 11 straight over a two-minute stretch to get within four. Collier ended the run on a three-point play with 50.1 seconds left for a seven-point lead. Collier went 11 of 16 from the field and 6 of 9 at the free-throw line to record her fifth 30-point game of the season for Minnesota (23-5). The Lynx connected on a season-high 15 3-pointers and reached 100 points for the fourth time this season. Sabrina Ionescu countered with 31 points for New York (17-9), which did not have star Breanna Stewart due to a bone bruise in her right knee. Isabelle Harrison added 15 points and Marine Johannes scored 14. Alanna Smith added 12 points for Minnesota, and Carleton and Natisha Hiedeman each scored 10. Courtney Williams had a career-high 13 assists to go with six points and nine rebounds. Collier drained a 3-pointer with 14.3 seconds left in the first half for a 51-42 lead. She scored 19 points in the first half, including the Lynx's final 11 of the second quarter.
