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Column: With Cody Bellinger staying and Jeimer Candelario en route, the Chicago Cubs are ready to make their move

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

Cody Bellinger spent much of July answering questions about whether or not he would be traded.But as the Chicago Cubs got on a hot streak and Bellinger continued putting up numbers that make him a good bet to win National League Player of the Month, it became obvious that President Jed Hoyer couldn’t deal the would-be free agent and still be able to show his face at Wrigley Field.As the Cubs prepared to play the first-place Cincinnati Reds on Monday, the eve of the Aug. 1 trade deadline, manager David Ross confirmed what everyone expected — that Bellinger was sticking around for the rest of the season.A little while later, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported the Cubs had acquired third baseman Jeimer Candelario from the Washington Nationals. The Cubs were taking batting practice at the time, but afterward could go check out the news on MLB Trade Rumors, the popular online clearinghouse for baseball rumors. The Cubs confirmed the rumor, announcing they sent two pr...

Mets trade OF Mark Canha to Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor league right-handed pitcher Justin Jarvis

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

The dominoes are falling for the Mets ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline with Mark Canha being the latest to fall.The Mets traded the outfielder to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday afternoon, the team announced. The Brewers sent right-handed starter Justin Jarvis in return, a 23-year-old pitcher who was selected in the fifth round of the 2018 draft.Jarvis is 6-6 with a 4.33 ERA in 17 starts between Double-A and Triple-A this season.The club is using this trade deadline to get younger and deepen their farm system at several levels. The Mets haven’t developed any frontline starters in recent years and don’t have many top pitching prospects at the higher levels of the system. Jarvis, the 30th-ranked prospect in the Brewers’ system, gives them one.Jarvis was recently promoted to Triple-A and struggled in his first few starts, but some talent evaluators tend to think of this as a positive. The thinking is that adversity at a higher level will make them better in the...

Yankees weighing their options when it comes to what’s next for Luis Severino

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

Somber, self-aware and searching for answers, Luis Severino criticized himself after yet another poor performance.“Right now, I feel like I’m the worst pitcher in the game,” the righty said after allowing nine earned runs over 3.1 innings in the Yankees’ Sunday loss to the Orioles. “No doubt about it.”An impending free agent, Severino is having a brutal season. He owns a 7.49 ERA over 12 starts.The Yankees had hoped he was turning a corner after two solid starts against the Angels and Royals on July 17 and July 23, but Severino reverted against the O’s, who scored seven runs off him in the first inning.On Monday, Aaron Boone was asked if the Yankees are committed to giving Severino his next start. The manager’s response didn’t offer any guarantees.“Everything’s on the table,” Boone said. “We haven’t ruled in or out anything. That’s something that we’ll continue to work through here in the...

Yankees’ Josh Donaldson hopes to return from calf injury this season: ‘I feel really good’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

Yankees third baseman Josh Donaldson doesn’t consider his calf injury to be season-ending.Donaldson took batting practice and fielded ground balls before Monday’s game at Yankee Stadium, less than two weeks after he was transferred to the 60-day injured list.Asked Monday if he plans to return this season, Donaldson replied, “Yes, I hope so. I feel really good right now, relative to what the initial results were.”The 37-year-old last played on July 15, when he aggravated a right calf issue while running to first base on a groundout against the Colorado Rockies. He was diagnosed with a high-grade strain soon after.Donaldson was initially placed on the 10-day injured list but was transferred to the 60-day IL on July 19.“As a competitor, you want to be out and helping your team as often as you can,” Donaldson said. “I don’t make those decisions, but I feel good where I’m at right now.”Donaldson also missed most of April and all...

Chicago Cubs acquire third baseman Jeimer Candelario from Washington Nationals

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

The Cubs have made their first trade deadline move.The organization acquired third baseman Jeimer Candelario from the Washington Nationals before Monday night’s game, the team has confirmed. The Cubs sent minor-league infielder Kevin Made and left-handed pitcher DJ Herz to Washington to receive Candelario and a cash consideration.The switch-hitting Candelario gives the Cubs much-needed power. In 99 games with the Nationals this year, Candelario, who is a free agent after the season, has hit 30 doubles and 16 home runs with a 128 OPS+.Candelario, 29, was originally signed by the Cubs as an amateur free agent in 2010 and appeared in 16 games between 2016-17 before getting traded to Detroit in July 2017 for Alex Avila and Justin Wilson. ()

The three types of players the Orioles could target at the trade deadline

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

During his pre-trade deadline news conference Friday, Mike Elias described the American League East as “arguably the strongest division of all time.”After years in the division’s cellar, the Orioles are now leading it ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline. But Elias, the club’s executive vice president and general manager, said going from worst to first in under two years hasn’t given him the confidence to sit on his hands while other AL East teams bolster their rosters.On Monday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Rays, who entered the day 1 1/2 games back of the Orioles, acquired starting pitcher Aaron Civale from the Cleveland Guardians. The Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday acquired reliever Jordan Hicks from the St. Louis Cardinals.Elias said what their top competitors in the AL and division do at the deadline could have an impact on how the Orioles approach potential trades.“We’re keeping an eye on what our division’s doing,” he sa...

In her next book ‘Prequel,’ Rachel Maddow will explore a WWII-era plot to overthrow US government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel Maddow’s next book will be an exploration into right-wing extremism in the U.S., including a plot to overthrow the government at the start of World War II.Crown, an imprint of Penguin Random House, announced Monday that Maddow’s “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism” will be published Oct. 17. The book expands upon research for the liberal author-commentator’s podcast “Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra,” for which Steven Spielberg has acquired film rights.“Just as I like to dive into the backstory and deep origins of any particular news event, I also find it helpful to know if we’ve previously contended with something like what we’re seeing in today’s news,” the Emmy-winning MSNBC host, who discussed the book on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Monday night, said in a statement released by Crown.“Even though I find it disturbing and a little scary that, in our own time, some sizeable chunk of Americans seem ready to jetti...

Lawyers for tech consultant Nima Momeni say he had no reason to kill Cash App founder Bob Lee

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Attorneys for Nima Momeni, the tech consultant charged in the death of Cash App founder Bob Lee, said Monday that the two men had a cordial relationship and the defendant had no reason to kill him. The comments from Momeni’s lawyers came during a preliminary hearing, where the prosecution presents its evidence and a judge decides if there is enough to move ahead to trial. The hearing will continue Tuesday, when Momeni’s defense is expected to lay out more of their arguments. Prosecutors have said that Momeni, 38, planned the April 4 attack that left Lee dying on a desolate San Francisco street. They said he drove Lee to a secluded spot and stabbed him three times after a dispute related to Momeni’s sister, Khazar. But Tony Brass, one of four defense attorneys present Monday, said it was not Lee but another man whom Momeni suspected of acting inappropriately with his younger sister. “What you see is cordial, a cordial relationship between Nima Momeni ...

The $3.9 billion UN humanitarian appeal for Ukraine is only 30% funded, UN aid official says

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The $3.9 billion humanitarian appeal for war-torn Ukraine is less than 30% funded as the country starts preparing for a second winter with more residential buildings damaged and destroyed and thousands of people homeless following the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, the country’s U.N. humanitarian coordinator said Monday.Denise Brown told a virtual news conference from Kyiv that 17 million Ukrainians need aid and the U.N. is targeting between 11 million and 12 million — but funding is becoming a serious issue.A report last week from the U.N. humanitarian office said lack of funding “is hampering operations, adding to the challenges imposed by insecurity and other obstacles.” By the end of June, it said, the U.N. and its humanitarian partners reached 7.3 million people but in some parts of Ukraine’s south, east and north, more than 25% of targeted people couldn’t be reached “due to a combination of funding shortages and other operational challenges.”Br...

UN chief welcomes Kenya’s offer to `positively consider’ leading police force to combat Haiti gangs

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 14:45:45 GMT

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations chief on Monday welcomed Kenya’s offer to “positively consider” leading a multinational police force to help combat Haiti’s gangs and improve security in the violence-wracked Caribbean nation.Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry sent an urgent appeal last October for “the immediate deployment of a specialized armed force, in sufficient quantity” to stop the gangs. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has been appealing unsuccessfully since then for a lead nation to help restore order to Latin America’s most impoverished country.Kenya’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday said its offer includes a commitment to send 1,000 police to help train and assist the Haitian National Police “restore normalcy in the country and protect strategic installations.” The ministry said it was responding to a request from the Friends of Haiti group of nations.“Kenya stands with persons of African descent across the world, including those in the Caribbean, and aligns...