Who's Next? Aaron Judge Hits 351st HR, Ties A-Rod On Yankees' List
Judge's solo homer in the first inning was his 351st with the Yankees, matching A-Rod and behind Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra.
Judge also scored from first on Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s double in the seventh and finished 1 for 4 with a walk and two runs scored.
Marcus Strohman (2-1) worked six strong innings in his fourth start since returning from a knee injury. He gave up one run on five hits with four strikeouts and no walks in his longest outing of the season.
Paul Goldschmidt was 1 for 3 with a walk, an RBI and a run scored, and Giancarlo Stanton was 3 for 5 with a run scored.
Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a solo home run, his 13th, in the ninth off Devin Williams, who earned his 14th save for the Yankees.
Matt Olson hit a 442-foot homer, his 18th, that hit the top of the Chop House in right field in the sixth inning for the Braves' other run.
Atlanta's Grant Holmes (4-9) gave up three runs on seven hits in six innings.
Trailing 2-0 in the third, the Braves put the first two runners on with the top of the order coming up. Jurickson Profar popped a bunt up to third baseman Jorbit Vivas, and Olson hit into a double play to end the threat.
The win kept the Yankees within three games of the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East ahead of a three-game series in Toronto starting Monday.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Fox News
a few seconds ago
- Fox News
Yankees to acquire All-Star closer David Bednar from Pirates before MLB deadline: reports
The New York Yankees have added the bullpen help they've needed before the MLB trade deadline. New York agreed to a deal to acquire right-handed closer David Bednar in a trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, according to multiple reports. The deal is pending a medical review. The Yankees are sending a package with Rafael Flores, the team's eighth-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, leading the way alongside 19-year-old prospect Edgleen Perez and outfielder Brian Sanchez, according to The New York Post. Bednar, the 30-year-old two-time All-Star, has a 2.37 ERA over 38 innings with 17 saves for the Pirates this season. It was just two years ago he led the National League with 39 saves in his second straight All-Star campaign in Pittsburgh. But Bednar struggled in 2024, owning a 5.77 ERA over 57.2 innings, though he still had 23 saves. Bednar is a much-needed arm for New York, as their bullpen has been struggling of late. Luke Weaver and Devin Williams, their back-end battery who had been consistent in past seasons, have both had a rollercoaster year. With both Weaver and Williams hitting free agency after the year, Bednar's addition is a crucial one. He still has one more year of team control, meaning he will be with the team throughout the 2026 season before free agency in 2027. Relievers are always a hot commodity for playoff pushes before the deadline, and there has been a flurry of deals and big names that have been traded in the last few days. The San Diego Padres made a big splash, acquiring Athletics closer Mason Miller and left-handed pitcher J.P. Sears, a former Yankee, in a deal that sent Leo De Vries, the third-best prospect in baseball, to Sacramento. Across the Bronx and into Queens, the New York Mets bolstered their bullpen with Gregory Soto, Tyler Rogers and Ryan Helsley, the St. Louis Cardinals' stud closer for their own playoff push. There are still a few hours left for teams to continue swapping players before the MLB trade deadline at 6 p.m. ET passes. The Yankees, who still have their top prospects in hand, may not be done making moves.
New York Times
17 minutes ago
- New York Times
Trade grades: Yankees to address top need by landing reliever David Bednar from Pirates
NEW YORK — New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone did not hide his desire for the front office to add pitchers at the trade deadline, telling reporters he hoped the club would acquire at least one or two more arms. After adding three hitters to their roster over the past few days, the No. 1 need for the Yankees to address was in their reeling bullpen. Advertisement The Yankees are close to acquiring closer David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Pirates, team sources told The Athletic on Thursday. Bednar, 30, is under club control through the 2026 season and is making $5.9 million this season. The deal means Pittsburgh's hometown closer is hitting the road. The Pirates will receive catching/first base prospect Rafael Flores, catching prospect Edgleen Perez and outfield prospect Brian Sanchez in return, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Flores was No. 13 on Keith Law's list of the Yankees' top 20 prospects heading into the season. He's hitting .279 with 16 home runs, 60 RBIs and an .826 OPS in 97 games between Double and Triple-A this season. Flores, 24, only boosted his stock this season, crushing Double A (14 home runs, .841 OPS) before recently getting promoted to Triple A. He's considered a work-in-progress defensively, learning a lot from his close relationship with Cincinnati Reds catcher Jose Trevino. He's the third catching prospect the Yankees have traded in a little over a year, including Agustín Ramirez to the Miami Marlins and Carlos Narváez to the Boston Red Sox. Perez, 19, hit .209 at High A this season, and was the Yankees' sixth-best prospect at the start of the year. He's considered a good athlete with a chance to stick at the position and become a potentially average hitter. Sanchez, 21, had an .811 OPS at High A. Bednar, No. 19 on The Athletic's final trade deadline Big Board, gives the Yankees another swing-and-miss reliever, something the club has lacked with Fernando Cruz and Mark Leiter Jr. on the injured list. Bednar's 33.1 percent strikeout rate ranks in the 95th percentile this season. Bednar immediately becomes the Yankees' top reliever in terms of average fastball velocity, another element the club has lacked this season. The Yankees' relievers have the fourth-slowest average fastball in MLB; Bednar's fastball averages 97.1 mph. Advertisement Bednar, 30, has rebounded remarkably after being optioned to Triple A in early April following a rocky start to the season. (That turbulence was not isolated; Bednar had a 5.77 ERA last year.) Since returning to Pittsburgh on April 19, Bednar has a 1.70 ERA and 16 saves, with 50 strikeouts in 37 innings. He was named the National League's reliever of the month in June. Bednar has the high-90s mph heater one now expects from any late-inning reliever, but this season he's throwing his four-seamer less than ever (48.4 percent) and leaning heavily on his curveball (34.2 percent), with the splitter (17.4 percent) as a clear third pitch. The secondary pitches have been especially effective this season in neutralizing left-handed hitters. By the All-Star break, only two of the 140 curves and splitters Bednar had thrown to lefties this season had gone for a hit. The Yankees were in desperate need of upgrading their bullpen. Since the start of June, the Yankees' 4.89 bullpen ERA is the fifth worst in the sport. They've cycled in various relievers, hoping one or two of them could become difference makers, but none have stuck around. Boone has only had three trusted relievers he could turn to in recent weeks, with Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and Tim Hill emerging as the club's inner circle in their bullpen. Leiter is expected back from the injured list next week, with Cruz likely a few weeks behind. When those two return, the Yankees' bullpen should be in much better shape, especially with the addition of Bednar. The Bednar trade also has 2026 implications for the Yankees. Williams and Weaver are both free agents at season's end. The Yankees have not signed a free agent reliever to a contract worth over $10 million per season since 2019, when the club re-signed Zack Britton to a deal that paid him an average annual salary of $13 million. Williams should eclipse that mark, and it's possible Weaver can, too, after a resurgent two years in the Bronx. Advertisement Bednar, whose brother Will was the San Francisco Giants' first-round pick in 2021, was not a touted prospect. Recruited lightly while at Mars Area (Pa.) High, he attended Lafayette College in Easton, Pa., and eventually garnered some scouts' attention on the summer-ball circuit. He was drafted in the 35th round by the San Diego Padres in 2016 and signed for $50,000. Bednar had brief stints with the Padres in 2019 and 2020 before being traded home to Pittsburgh in a deal that sent Joe Musgrove back to his home of San Diego. Bednar quickly gained the trust of Pittsburgh's coaching staff, earning the closer role after turning in a 2.23 ERA in 2021. Bednar was an All-Star for the first time in 2022 (2.61 ERA) and again in 2023 (2.00 ERA) when he also led the National League with 39 saves. The Pirates, meanwhile, are expected to continue their sell-off as the trade deadline nears. So far, they have moved Adam Frazier and Bednar. When manager Don Kelly, another Pittsburgh native, calls down the bullpen hoping to protect a lead in the ninth inning, he'll no longer ask for the hometown kid. The Yankees are still expected to be active until the deadline expires. They may be in the hunt for another reliever, and they have been searching for another starting pitcher, with multiple candidates on their radar, including the Pirates' Andrew Heaney, according to another league source. Yankees: B Pirates: B- Andy McCullough: Bednar has rebounded from an atrocious 2024 to recapture the form that made him an All-Star in 2022 and 2023. He can miss bats and get hitters to chase outside the zone. Reducing his walk rate has helped, too. In other words, he's the exact sort of reliever the Yankees could use. The team will just have to hope he performs better than the last closer acquired from the National League Central: Part of the reason the Yankees need Bednar is because Devin Williams has flopped in the Bronx. Flores went undrafted out of college in 2022 but has slugged his way up the Yankees' pipeline. He was recently promoted to Triple-A Scranton. He's a tweener who might not throw well enough to stick at catcher but might not hit enough to hang at first base. But he's acquitted himself quite well with Double-A Somerset these past two seasons. The Pirates can give him a shot in the majors sooner than the Yankees would have. Advertisement Perez has demonstrated negligible power in three professional seasons, but he is also a teenage catcher, so maybe that will change. For right now, he has been slugging .236 in the class-A Florida State League. Not ideal. Given the packages for rental relievers elsewhere, this return feels a tad light. Yankees: B+ Pirates: B- Stephen J. Nesbitt: After watching every reliever from Jhoan Duran to Ryan Helsley, Mason Miller, Kyle Finnegan and the Rogers twins be traded over the past 24 hours, the Yankees did not depart the trade deadline empty-handed. Bednar, who unlike Devin Williams and Luke Weaver is under club control beyond this season, gives the Yankees a late-inning option with big swing-and-miss stuff. Bednar has a 95th percentile strikeout rate (33.1 percent), fueled by a devastating curveball-splitter secondary combination that complements a fastball that averages 97.1 mph. However, the background here shouldn't be ignored. After back-to-back All-Star seasons in 2022 and 2023, Bednar fell apart last season. He had a 5.77 ERA, heard boos from the hometown crowd, and was demoted from the closer's role late in the season. He regained that role in spring training this year, then turned in three bad outings in March and was sent to Triple A. It was a humbling moment for a player who was once a long-shot prospect — a 35th-round pick out of Lafayette College — but who had since grown accustomed to pumping pitches past major league hitters. Since returning to the major league roster in mid-April, Bednar has a 1.70 ERA in 37 innings. He is throwing the baseball well. But it's not long ago that he was struggling mightily. For the Pirates, the sting is more from the fact that Bednar, the kid from up the road in Mars, Pa., is leaving home without having experienced a winning season playing for his childhood favorite team. They will backfill his spot in the bullpen with either Dennis Santana or the newly acquired Taylor Rogers. The best player in the return is 24-year-old catcher Rafael Flores, who Baseball America ranked No. 8 in the Yankees system. He was recently promoted to Triple A and could slot in at catcher — a position of immediate need for the Pirates — as soon as next season. He can really hit, though there's some swing-and-miss in the profile. The other prospects will take longer to reach the majors. Edgleen Perez, 19, is ranked No. 16 in the Yankees system but Baseball America; Brian Sanchez, 20, is ranked No. 24. All in all, three bats with upside feels like a fair return for Bednar, but it also seems underwhelming considering the going rate for a closer these days (OK, this exact day). The Pirates' asking price as of a few days ago was two top-10 prospects for Bednar. They got one, plus a couple top-25 guys. That's a reasonable place to land. (Photo of Bednar: Justin Berl / Getty Images)
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
David Bednar trade: Yankees score ace closer from Pirates in MLB deadline deal
Scratch another closer's name of the list of available options as the MLB trade deadline approaches. The New York Yankees are on the verge of acquiring right-hander David Bednar from the Pittsburgh Pirates, , according to a person with knowledge of the deal. The person spoke to USA TODAY Sports on the condition of anonymity because the deal wasn't yet official. The acquisition willl the Yanks much-needed bullpen depth to go with Devin Williams and Luke Weaver for the stretch run. Bednar, 30, spent the first two seasons as a major leaguer with the San Diego Padres before coming to the Pirates in 2021 in a three-way trade involving the New York Mets. He has developed into a reliable closer – earning a pair of All-Star nods and leading the National League in saves in 2023 with 39. He has one more year of arbitration eligibility in 2026. David Bednar trade details The Yankees acquire reliever David Bednar from the Pirates, pending a medical review. Yankees Class AAA catching prospect Rafael Flores and two others go to the Yankees, according to MLB Network's Jon Heyman. David Bednar stats This season, Bednar has converted all 17 of his save opportunities with a 2.37 ERA and 1.11 WHIP in 38 innings. He also has struck out 12.1 batters per nine innings. David Bednar contract David Bednar is earing $5.9 million this season and is under team control through 2026. This story has been updated to include new information. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: David Bednar trade details: Yankees get top closer in Pirates swap
