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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 6/19/2025

Some Teams Win, Some Teams Lose, Some Teams (May) Change Hands

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 6/19/2025

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

I attended my first Warped Tour this past weekend at 37, which is definitely the age you want to be baking in the sun in what is effectively a parking lot for several hours two days in a row. But also, teenage me is pretty happy about it. I am pleased to report that I spotted multiple baseball jerseys in the crowd: a home Phillies Aaron Nola, a home Yankees jersey of indeterminate provenance, a Kyle Schwarber jersey of some kind of alternate I’m unfamiliar with (white on black, but a weird font that almost looked like the Rangers City Connect one), and my favorite, a Pirates City Connect Ke’Bryan Hayes. That one’s my favorite because it’s something of a deep cut for that team. A Paul Skenes or Oneil Cruz jersey? Sure, but your glove-first 3B? That’s a dude who wanted to rep His Guy, and I will always respect it.

In far more important news, Brent Rooker got the start in right field on Wednesday, which means he’s officially got OF eligibility in most fantasy leagues now. Please join me in a raucous celebration of this fact.

Don’t forget to watch every game with the Pitcher List community on Playback!

 

Today’s Headlines

 

Rays The Sales

Woof, ok even I’m shaking my head at that one. Sportico has reported that the Rays are in advanced talks with an investment group headed up by Florida real-estate developer Patrick Zalupski. All of the discussions are still private, but according to the article, Zalupski has signed a “letter of intent” to purchase the team, and the Rays have confirmed the team has “commenced exclusive discussions,” so we’re at least past the swirling rumor phase of any potential sale.

The Rays were valued at $1.35 billion, according to Sportico’s most recent MLB valuations, ranking 29th out of 30 MLB teams and just ahead of the Miami Marlins.

Despite that valuation from Sportico in March, the current figure being thrown around is a $1.7 billion purchase price, which is a pretty good ROI considering that current Rays owner Stu Sternberg bought the franchise for $200 million back in 2004. If the $1.7 billion figure holds up, it means that the Rays would be selling for barely less than the $1.73 billion that the group led by David Rubenstein paid for the Orioles last year. My immediate reaction to that is that one of those franchises has the wrong value attached, but I’m not a banker, I guess.

Should this proceed through to an actual sale, Zapluski will inherit a team currently without a functional home stadium, and having had a deal with the local government to build a new one fall through earlier this year. It’s always interesting to speculate about how a new owner will change a team, but in the Rays’ case, it feels like the most likely outcome might be that nothing really changes. They’ve always been a team that doesn’t spend much while still generating respectable results on the field, so it doesn’t seem like much of a target for the maligned slash-and-burn, payroll-dump takeover type thing, but it doesn’t seem like a passion project type of purchase like the Mets and O’s were thought of. I suppose the first rumor of where a new stadium would go, and who would pay for it, will be instructive.

Fire Sale In Atlanta

I’m the Tobias Funke of subheadlines, and I love it.

It was a masterclass from Chris Sale yesterday at Truist Park:

As you can see, he absolutely flummoxed the Mets’ bats for nearly a CGSHO, but he also helped his own cause with this painful-looking diving play to get the first out of the ninth inning:

Atlanta won the game 5-0, although they’re still six games under .500 and 11 games back in the division. They’re only (“only”) 6.5 games back in the Wild Card hunt, but with four teams between them and the third spot. Despite those numbers, however, GM Alex Anthopoulos went on the record as saying that as far as selling goes? “Will. Not. Happen. Bold, italicize it, caps.” Check back in July to see if we really need to apply the formatting.

A Contrasting Streak

Yankees now have 6 players with 10+ HR this season. That's the most on any team.

— Katie Sharp (@sharpstats.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T00:45:39.870Z

If I showed you that stat in a vacuum, you’d probably think the Yankees were doing just fine, still holding onto a nice lead in the AL East and chugging along. Well…

Yankees 7-game spans with 7 runs or fewer and 6+ losses:June 12-18, 2025Sept 1-7, 1908

— Katie Sharp (@sharpstats.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T02:15:58.468Z

The Yankees lost to the Angels last night by a score of 3-2, bringing their losing streak up to six games. That ties them with the Twins for the longest losing streak in baseball, although only one game ahead of the L5 that the Mets are currently rocking.  Anthony Volpe had quite the ugly swing at a middle-middle cutter from Kenley Jansen for the final out of the game, and it kind of sums up the last week for what has suddenly become a totally hapless offense:

The Yankees’ lead in the AL East is down to just 1.5 games over Tampa, they’re hoping to turn things around and avoid the sweep tomorrow before the O’s come into town for a weekend series.

Winning Is Cool, Too, I Guess

Meanwhile, the longest active winning streak belongs to none other than the LA Dodgers, who walked off the Padres 4-3 on Wednesday thanks to a Will Smith solo shot:

The return of Emmet Sheehan from the IL went about as well as LA could have hoped for, to boot:

Emmet Sheehan returned looking impressive with six strikeouts over four innings of one-run ball.

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2025-06-19T05:07:51.568Z

With the Giants losing, LA now had a 4.5 game lead in the NL West.

That makes five in a row for LA, although really I want to shout out one of the two teams tied for the second-longest streak at four wins. And without looking it up, it’s definitely the team you’re thinking of: The Colorado Rockies! (The other is the Reds, just for completeness.)

The Rockies beat the Nats by a score of 3-1, with the first run coming from the currently en fuego Michael Toglia:

They really tested my commitment to complimenting them by scoring their second run of the game off of a bunt, but I’ll allow it just because of the fact that Ryan Ritter got so low on the squaring around that the pitch practically knocked him over:

Colorado got back to the proper way to score for their third and final run with another home run, this time from Jordan Beck:

With their latest win, Colorado is up to uh, a 17-57 record and finds themselves… 28.5 games behind the Dodgers in the division. Listen, not all winning streaks are created equal, okay?

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Obscure Rules Are Still Rules

One of my favorite rules that nobody really hears about, because it simply never comes up, is the prohibition on using pretty much anything but your hands to make a catch. Luis Torrens was reminded of it the hard way yesterday:

For further learning, please keep in mind that using your hat to try and field a ball will result in a three-base penalty.

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ Shane McClanahan had a “very good” visit with a nerve specialist following his shutdown last week. He’s been playing catch at 125 feet, and manager Kevin Cash is encouraged that the Rays “can get him back on the mound here soon.”

⚾ The Giants reactivated both Patrick Bailey and Justin Verlander from the IL.

⚾ Houston has placed Brendan Rodgers on the IL due to a left oblique strain.

⚾ Corbin Carroll was removed from Wednesday’s game after being hit by a pitch, but his X-rays came back negative, so consider him DTD for the time being.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

Put Your Pants On, It’s Time To Fight! – Davy Andrews, FanGraphs

In a fire, their cherished Mike Trout autograph was lost. Then Trout got involved. – Sam Blum, The Athletic (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Waiver Wire Picks

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

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Asher Dratel

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Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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