Yankees' post-Juan Soto ‘pivot' aced its first big test
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Back in spring training, before Max Fried ever threw a pitch in a game that counted for the Yankees, Gerrit Cole still shuddered at the idea of calling him the Yankees Plan B after missing out on Juan Soto.
'Well, what if we had two Plan As?' Cole said. 'I just don't want to say he's a Plan B. That's my guy.'
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'Pivot' seemed to be a slightly kinder way to describe what the Yankees did.
'Decisive pivot,' Cole said. 'Like, yes.'
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Fox Sports
32 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Yankees vs. Dodgers top questions: What's at stake in this star-studded series
The New York Yankees had seven months to think about their fifth-inning collapse in Game 5 of the World Series last October. The Bronx Bombers dropped a 96.5% chance of winning the game, and the Los Angeles Dodgers rubbed it in their noses all winter. Los Angeles players said they were just waiting for the Yankees to make mistakes, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts felt that their challenging NLDS matchup against the San Diego Padres "was the World Series." This offseason, both pennant winners added to their dominance (and payrolls) while maintaining their momentum. The Yankees lost Juan Soto in free agency, but they responded aggressively. The Dodgers went on a spending spree, with their future salary commitments rising to nearly half a billion dollars. The Yankees are hungry to avenge. The Dodgers are ready to defend. That's the backdrop to this weekend's highly anticipated World Series rematch, set to kick off on Friday night at Chavez Ravine. It's a new season, with fresh starts, and yet both the Yankees and Dodgers represent two of the top five teams in Major League Baseball. There are the top storylines to keep track of as these teams meet again, and FOX Sports MLB writers Deesha Thosar and Rowan Kavner broke them down for you. Here are the six themes to watch this weekend. Will the Juan Soto replacements be difference makers? The Yankees wasted no time pivoting after they lost the Soto sweepstakes to the Mets this offseason as general manager Brian Cashman secured a huge haul — signing southpaw Max Fried, outfielder Cody Bellinger, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and closer Devin Williams in free agency. This year, the Yankees are actually a more well-rounded and complete team with those four stars on the roster than they were with Soto patrolling right field last year. Despite ace Gerrit Cole's season-ending Tommy John surgery, the Yankees have the fourth-best pitching staff in the major leagues, led by Fried's MLB-best 1.29 ERA. They have the best offense in baseball, in terms of on-base percentage, slugging, walk rate, OPS+ and WAR. Goldschmidt's 156 wRC+ is ranked 14th among all qualified major-league hitters, a huge boost from Anthony Rizzo's 84 wRC+ last year. And Bellinger is playing nearly 40 points better (120 wRC+) than his predecessor, Alex Verdugo (83 wRC+), was for the Yankees last year. Their defense has been enhanced (more on that later) and their bullpen has rebounded from Williams' early-season struggles to boast the fourth-best ERA (3.25) in the league. Was losing Soto for the best? The Yankees team that walks into Dodger Stadium on Friday has a completely different look to it than the one that crumpled in the fifth inning of Game 5 last year. As of now, the Yankees have the advantage in several statistical categories, and the Soto replacements have the potential to bury Los Angeles this weekend. - Thosar Will the Yankees' defense cost them the series — again? There is an argument to be made that the Yankees lost the World Series because of their own embarrassing errors in the field. At least, the Dodgers sure seemed to think so after they won the World Series, with players like Joe Kelly and Chris Taylor indicating they received scouting reports to just wait for the Yankees to get in their own way. That prophecy ultimately came true. New York's poor fundamentals were exposed throughout the Fall Classic. In Game 1, Shohei Ohtani took third base on Soto's error, a bad throw to second base, and he instantly scored on Mookie Betts' sacrifice fly. In Game 3, Giancarlo Stanton, who ranks in the 3rd percentile in sprint speed, was easily thrown out at home. In Game 4, Anthony Volpe should've scored from second base on a double off the wall, but he just advanced to third. It all culminated in Game 5, a fifth-inning meltdown that will haunt Yankees fans until the club wins a championship. The Yankees were in the driver's seat with a 5-0 lead and two outs in the fifth when Aaron Judge dropped a can of corn in center field, Volpe committed a throwing error, and Gerrit Cole did not cover first base. The Dodgers, anticipating this, took full advantage and completed a five-run rally in the fifth before winning the championship that night. Fast-forward to now, though, and the Yankees have improved from being ranked 12th in Defensive Runs Saved last year, to fifth in MLB this year. Max Fried leads the team with 4 DRS, and the sharp defense of Cody Bellinger and the currently-injured Jazz Chisholm has led to a needed boost on the field. Gleyber Torres had the team's worst DRS (-11) last season, and it was no coincidence the Yankees didn't re-sign him in free agency this offseason. Judge had the second-worst DRS (-9) last year playing center field, but he's much more comfortable back in right field this year, sporting a 0 DRS that indicates he's at least league average. We're not expecting the Yankees to meltdown this weekend in the World Series rematch, but it will be fascinating to see how their improved defense overall helps them with the finer details against the reigning champions. -Thosar Will Mookie Betts be a threat against the Yankees? After the Dodgers captured the championship trophy last year, they asked Betts to transition from playing outfield to becoming their every-day shortstop (again), and this time, he's going to stick there for good. But, ever since Betts turned his full attention to playing an above-average shortstop for Los Angeles, it sure looks like that focus on his defense has negatively impacted his presence in the lineup. The 32-year-old's batting average (.254), OPS (.742) and underlying advanced metrics are all below his career averages in 53 games this year. Most of the red popping up on his Baseball Savant page is for his higher chase, whiff, and strikeout rate, which is completely unlike what the 12-year veteran with all-time great numbers is used to seeing. He didn't just rack up seven Silver Slugger awards, a batting title and an MVP award by accident, so it's fair to expect Betts to return to his usual high bar at some point in the season. But can he do it against the red-hot Yankees, who enter the series on a five-game winning streak, having won 16 of their last 20 games? Betts deserves a ton of credit for playing shortstop at an excellent level after learning the intricacies of baseball's most demanding position in the big leagues. That's a lot to take on, and his selfless attitude to make the shift to short, which was asked of him in part to allow the club to re-sign Teoscar Hernandez, is something not a lot of superstars in the game would agree to do. Still, Betts' bat is just as important as his glove. The Dodgers, though equipped with the second-best offense in baseball, need all the boost they can get against New York, and this weekend sure would be a terrific time for Betts to reclaim his groove at the plate. - Thosar Do Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández continue tormenting the Yankees? The swing lives in Dodgers lore…and Yankees nightmares. Freeman's walk-off grand slam to end Game 1 of the World Series, after hobbling his way through the first two series of the postseason, will go down as one of the all-time memorable moments in playoff history. But the World Series MVP was far from finished after that iconic blast. He went on to homer in each of the first four games of the series and became the first player in MLB history to hit a home run in six straight World Series games (dating back to the last two games of the 2021 World Series, when he was with the Braves). Of course, he is not the only player in the Dodgers' lineup who gave the Yankees headaches last year. Teoscar Hernández had already endeared himself to Dodgers fans in his first season with the club last year long before a June trip to the Bronx, but that series in New York helped build his clutch reputation and set the stage for October. He won the opener of that mid-season series by knocking in the first two runs of the game in the 11th inning, blasted two home runs the following day to spark a victory and finished the series with six hits and three home runs. Including the postseason, Hernández recorded a hit in all eight games he played against the Yankees last year. He hit the go-ahead home run in Game 2 of the World Series and the game-tying double in the five-run onslaught in the deciding Game 5 during the Yankees' fifth-inning unraveling. Now back with the Dodgers after re-signing this offseason, Hernández enters the weekend as the club's RBI leader. Even if the Yankees manage to limit Ohtani, Betts and Freeman, life doesn't get much easier with Hernández lingering. - Kavner How do the former Dodgers now wearing pinstripes impact the series? It's a customary gesture from the reigning World Series winners: When a visiting player who contributed to their championship run returns to Dodger Stadium, that player picks up his ring. It happened for Jack Flaherty in March. It happened for Ryan Brasier in April. If or when it happens this weekend, though, it might be a little more awkward. Ryan Yarbrough pitched in 32 games in relief for the Dodgers last year before getting traded to Toronto. He signed with the Yankees this March, helped lift a depleted New York rotation earlier this month — he shifted from reliever to starter and has a 2.25 ERA in four May starts — and is now in line to start Sunday in Los Angeles. At some point before then, he will likely receive his World Series ring… from the team that beat his current team in the World Series. Yarbrough is one of a handful of new Yankees players with ties to the Dodgers as the teams prepare to run it back. Most notably, this will be the third series back at Dodger Stadium for Cody Bellinger since the team non-tendered the 2019 MVP after the 2022 season. He made his first two trips back count. As a member of the Cubs, Bellinger went 3-for-11 with a home run, a double, two walks and two stolen bases at Dodger Stadium in 2023 and then went 4-for-11 with two homers and four walks at the venue last season. In addition, Yankees backup infielder Jorbit Vivas was a Dodgers prospect before getting traded to New York in December 2023. This will mark Vivas' first big-league action against the team that dealt him away. - Kavner Do the Dodgers have enough arms to contain the Yankees' attack? Many of the Dodgers pitchers who helped best the Yankees last October won't be around in the rematch. Walker Buehler is in Boston. Flaherty is in Detroit. Brasier is in Chicago. Blake Treinen, who went 2.1 innings in the deciding game of the World Series, has been out for more than a month. Neither Michael Kopech nor Brusdar Graterol have thrown a big-league pitch this year, though Kopech appears close to a return. After a year in which they were down to three reliable starters last October, they sought to remedy their issues by again spending lavishly this offseason. Needless to say, it hasn't gone to plan. In addition to Treinen and Kopech, the bullpen is also without Evan Phillips and newcomer Kirby Yates, while three starters from the season-opening rotation — Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki — are already on the shelf. You could field a competent big-league staff using only the pitchers on the Dodgers' injured list. They have piled up wins despite the absences, but their starters rank 22nd in ERA while their relievers rank 17th. Their bullpen has thrown the most innings in MLB, and they're coming off a series finale in Cleveland in which they coughed up a late three-run advantage. The task ahead gets harder against a Yankees offense with the highest OPS in MLB, one that features a mostly different cast from last year's World Series squad. Having Yoshinobu Yamamoto helps. The best start of Yamamoto's debut season last year came in New York, when he went seven scoreless innings on June 7. His best postseason start also came against the Yankees, when he held them to a run on one hit and two walks in 6.1 innings in a Game 2 win. He has carried that late-season form into the 2025 season. By the time he goes Sunday, though, how much damage will the Yankees' lineup already have done? - Kavner Dave Roberts joins Colin Cowherd on The Herd to discuss managing Shohei Ohtani, the greatest player in baseball, and what he brings to the Los Angeles Dodgers both on and off the field. Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar. Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner. recommended Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Entrepreneur
2 hours ago
- Entrepreneur
Shastra VC and MGA Ventures Lead USD 1 Mn Investment in Sports Tech Startup KhiladiPro
The capital infusion will be used to scale KPro's proprietary AI technology, expand its domestic footprint, and strengthen support systems for young athletes across India. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. KhiladiPro (KPro), the Bengaluru-based Visual AI sports tech startup, has raised USD 1 million in a funding round led by Shastra VC and MGA Ventures. The round also saw participation from notable investors including M Pallonji, Jeena & Co., Ayaz Billawala, Nimesh Kampani, and Jaimin Bhat, former CFO of Kotak Bank. The capital infusion will be used to scale KPro's proprietary AI technology, expand its domestic footprint, and strengthen support systems for young athletes across India. Founded in August 2023 by Utkarsh Yadav, KPro is on a mission to democratise athletic talent discovery and youth fitness development using cutting-edge Visual AI. "This funding validates our mission to make world-class sports science and coaching accessible to every child in India on their smartphones, regardless of geography or background," said Yadav. "We're empowering current and future generations of khiladis to chase their sporting dreams." KPro's offerings include AI-driven sports ability tests for cricket and badminton, the Khiladi Ability Index (KAI)—India's first AI benchmark for youth fitness—KPro Olympiad for schools, and Khiladi Klub for high-potential youth. These tools allow mobile-based, standardised assessments that generate expert-level insights and personalized video feedback. Built on global fitness frameworks like Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) and Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD), KPro enables early talent identification and structured athletic growth. With over 56 proprietary AI models developed in-house and collaborations with major sports associations such as Karnataka Badminton Association and the Handball Association of India, KPro aims to conduct 200,000 assessments by 2025. Its inclusive 6-pincode marketing strategy targets outreach in India's underserved Tier III and IV towns, aligning closely with national initiatives like Khelo India and the 2036 Olympic vision. Investor Jay Desai of MGA Ventures highlighted, "KhiladiPro represents the rare confluence of deep-tech innovation and social impact. It's one of the most exciting early-stage ventures in India's sports-tech space." Now poised for international expansion to Australia and the UAE, KPro is not just redefining youth fitness—it's laying the foundation for India's Olympic future through technology, inclusion, and purpose-driven innovation.
CNN
2 hours ago
- CNN
What we know about the trans high school student at the center of Trump's threat to remove California funding
LGBTQ issues Student life Donald TrumpFacebookTweetLink Follow A transgender high school student was pushed into the national spotlight this week after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from California over her participation in this weekend's state track and field championships. A.B. Hernandez, a junior at Jurupa Valley High School, is at the center of controversy after she qualified in the long jump and triple jump in the upcoming meet, prompting the agency governing high school sports in California to change its rules to allow more cisgender girls to compete. The California Interscholastic Federation said in the announcement Tuesday it decided at the end of its track and field qualifying meets last weekend to 'pilot an entry process' for the championships, inviting those 'biological female' student athletes who would have otherwise earned a qualifying mark were it not for the participation of trans students in the competition, an automatic entry to compete in the finals. On Tuesday, President Trump said, 'Please be hereby advised that large scale Federal Funding will be held back, maybe permanently, if the Executive Order on this subject matter is not adhered to,' in a post on Truth Social. President Trump's statement alluded to his February executive order titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' which leans on compliance with Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities receiving funding from the federal government. In an interview with the nonprofit news organization Capital & Main earlier this month, Hernandez said after competing on the team for three years, this is the first year her presence has received backlash. 'There's nothing I can do about people's actions, just focus on my own,' Hernandez told Capital & Main. 'I'm still a child. You're an adult, and for you to act like a child shows how you are as a person.' The Hernandez family declined to comment for this story when contacted by CNN. Here's what we know about the student athlete and why her participation in women's sports events has drawn controversy: In its statement, the federation said the rule change only applies to this weekend's competition without specifying whether it will be set in place for all future sports events. Coach Keinan Briggs, a club coach who is not affiliated with specific schools, coaches two student athletes – from Calvary Chapel High School in Santa Ana and Woodbridge High School in Irvine – who took lower places in the last weekend's competition due to A.B.'s participation. At the Southern Section Masters Meet, A.B. finished first in the triple jump and long jump, qualifying her for the upcoming championships. Briggs' student Skyler Cazale, from Santa Ana, finished third in the triple jump last weekend but her third-place finish behind AB drew significant ire from the community, he told CNN. According to the Capital & Main report, A.B. is ranked third in California in the triple jump but she's not highly ranked nationally. A.B.'s placement also had a 'trickle effect,' which bumped his student from Irvine down because she did not make the qualifying list for the championships in the long jump, effectively ending her season, Briggs said. The coach added he felt for the student and her parents because he 'couldn't give her the emotional support that I typically would give because it wasn't us, it was the way the system set up that put her in a position to where she couldn't continue.' 'That's been hard for her,' Briggs said. 'She also understands that the mark was the mark, she needed to hit that, but it comes down to the fairness of the event – the way it's set up – there was one less biological girl able to compete.' While many parents and community members are upset, Briggs says he agrees with those who believe A.B. should be competing because there is not a specific category for transgender athletes. He doesn't believe the Trump administration should take away California funding, but says the bigger question should be: 'How do we give support for all athletes to be able to feel welcome, included, to where they're able to compete?' Rather than taking away federal funding, Briggs said the federal funds should be used to create resources and opportunities for more student athletes in general. A.B. has been training rigorously, said Briggs, who added he's watched her 'progression throughout the years. She is getting better; she's doing a great job. However, right now, the debate is where she should be competing.' At a track meet earlier this month, A.B. was accompanied by campus security guards and deputies from the Orange County Sheriff's Department as she faced heckling and protesters in the crowd, Briggs said. During a break at the meet, A.B. said in an exclusive interview with Capital & Main she has the support of most of the athletes she competes against. 'Girls were just shocked that people would actually come to do that, and really bully a child,' A.B. told the news organization. 'I've trained so hard. I mean, hours of conditioning every day, five days a week. Every day since November, three hours after school. And then all of summer, no summer break for me,' she said in the interview. 'A few people think I'm brave and strong and they hope to be like me one day. I say, don't just hope, make it happen.' Sonja Shaw, a candidate for California superintendent of instruction in the 2026 election and an activist with the advocacy group Save Girls Sports, which is pushing for a ban on trans girl athletes from girls' athletics in the state, had a heated exchange with A.B.'s supporters and her mother, Nereyda Hernandez, according to Capital & Main reporting. 'What a coward of a woman you are, allowing that,' Shaw told A.B.'s mother, according to the Capital & Main report. In a statement on Instagram earlier this month, A.B.'s mother said A.B.'s identity 'doesn't give her an advantage; it gives her courage. It takes immense bravery to show up, compete, and be visible in a world that often questions your very right to exist, let alone to participate.' Nereyda Hernandez said in the post the actions of those who have 'doxed, harassed and violated my daughter A.B.'s privacy' are 'not only shameful, but they are also abusive,' and have created a 'hostile and unsafe environment for a minor.' At the core of disagreements over transgender athletes' participation in sports, which prompted more than half of US states to implement bans on trans athlete participation since 2020, is whether transgender women have unfair physical athletic advantages. Few trans athletes have reached elite levels of sports competition and even fewer have taken home top prizes, but their limited success has fueled the growing movement to ban them from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity, CNN has reported. Research on trans people's athletic performance is scarce, and there have been no large-scale scientific studies on the topic or on how hormone therapies may affect their performance in specific sport categories, such as running or wrestling. Trans athletes and advocates say trans people deserve the right to compete alongside their peers and reap the proven social, physical and mental benefits of sports. Even among cisgender athletes, bodies and physical abilities vary widely, and traits that may be an advantage in one sport – such as grip strength or bone density – may not be an advantage in others, experts say. A day after Trump's threat to withhold federal funding from California over A.B.'s participation in the sporting event, the Justice Department announced it was investigating whether California's School Success and Opportunity Act, which in part prohibits public schools from blocking transgender students from participating in school sports, violates Title IX. Letters were sent by the Justice Department to the California Attorney General and the superintendent of public instruction, as well as the California Interscholastic Federation and the Jurupa Unified School District. In a statement to CNN, the school district said it is required to follow California law and the state federation's policy regarding school athletics. 'Both state law and CIF policy currently require that students be permitted to participate in athletic teams and competitions consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on the pupil's records,' the Jurupa Unified School District said. A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said the CIF's proposed pilot rule change for the upcoming championships is 'reasonable.' Newsom has recently taken aim at a number of causes popular among progressives and previously said transgender girls and women competing is 'an issue of fairness' in a break from many Democrats' position on the topic. 'Well, I think it's an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It's deeply unfair,' Newsom said in a podcast episode with conservative activist Charlie Kirk in March. Leandra Blades, president of the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District board of education, introduced a resolution last week she said would make the district compliant with Title IX, only allowing 'biological females' to compete in women's sports, but it failed on a 3-2 vote by the district's trustees. She told CNN the issue of trans student athletes has 'been a low roar in our community for the last couple of years,' but complaints started to accelerate after A.B. competed at Yorba Linda High School within the school district. The board of education president said she believes the federal government should take away funding from the state if trans women are allowed to compete in women's sporting events moving forward and if the new CIF rule only applies to the one championship meet. Despite misgendering A.B. throughout her interview with CNN, Blades said she doesn't have 'any issues' with the LGBTQ+ community, adding: 'I just believe in fairness in women's sports, and we should follow Title IX.' The school district prohibits harassment against any student, saying it has done a 'very good job with bullying policies and being inclusive to all students.' CNN's Samantha Waldenberg, Stephanie Elam, Jen Christensen and Elizabeth Wolfe contributed to this report.
