The Nuggets’ very newsy Wednesday began with news from the broadcast booth. The franchise announced its new team for Altitude Sports broadcasts, with Noah Reed joining the lineup as the play-by-play announcer and NBA veteran Jason Richardson joining the studio team to provide analysis.

Reed, a native of Indiana, had spent the previous five seasons calling football and college basketball for ESPN, FOX Sports and NBC/Peacock. He’ll be joined by Katy Winge, a longtime Kroenke Sports & Entertainment fixture who will take the role of lead analyst, becoming just the third full-time female analyst on an NBA regional network.

“This is a dream come true for me and something I’ve spent so much time and effort striving toward,” Reed said via a Nuggets news release. “I am thrilled to make Denver home and begin connecting and interacting with Nuggets fans everywhere.”

The duo of Reed and Winge replaces Chris Marlowe (play-by-play) and Scott Hastings (analyst), who were let go earlier this summer, along with reporter and studio analyst Chris Dempsey, a former sports reporter for The Denver Post.

Gardner, a Front Range favorite, is returning to Altitude, the company announced. The Denver native and CU/Northglenn alum will serve as a host/reporter on Nuggets broadcasts, as well as fulfill “other roles for the network,” per the KSE release. Gardner spent the last seven years based in New York City as a host with the MLB Network, NHL Network and DAZN, following roughly three years with Altitude prior to that.

Richardson, 45, will serve as studio analyst and as a second game analyst for “select” home games, per KSE. He played 14 seasons in the NBA (2001-15), primarily with Golden State, with whom he won NBA Slam Dunk Contest titles in 2002 and 2003. Richardson will be joined in the studio by another KSE fixture, Vic Lombardi. Altitude veteran and former Nuggets coach Bill Hanzlik will also serve as a studio analyst for “select” games, per KSE.

The new team’s regular-season debut will be the Nuggets’ home opener on Oct. 24 vs. the New Orleans Pelicans. Altitude will carry 67 Nuggets regular-season basketball games this season on both Altitude TV and Altitude+.

LOS ANGELES — Tommy John, who won 288 games during a 26-year big league career and became the first pitcher to successfully return following that later was named after him, has died. He was 83.

He died at his home in Bradenton, Florida, on Saturday night, agent Mike Maguire said Sunday. He had been in hospice care.

On Aug. 8, the New York Yankees released a social media post in which John wrote that he wanted to say goodbye to everyone, including friends and fans who followed him throughout his career, saying, “I will never forget you.”

The Yankees called John “a bedrock of our rotation during his time in pinstripes and a longtime favorite of Yankees fans.”

John was a four-time All-Star with a record of 288-231 and a 3.34 ERA during a career that stretched from 1963 to 1989. He pitched for Cleveland, the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Yankees, the California Angels and the Oakland Athletics.

“Tommy was an exceptional pitcher throughout his career in Major League Baseball, and his courageous role in becoming the first to have surgery that would go on to bear his name can’t be overstated,” Stan Kasten, Dodgers president and CEO, said in a statement. “His impact both on and off the field has been felt by ballplayers of all ages and will be for generations to come.”

The left-hander was 31 years old when he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow in 1974, a death knell for pitchers’ careers to that point.

John allowed Dr. Frank Jobe, the Dodgers’ team physician, to replace the ligament with a tendon from his right forearm. Jobe gave the surgery 100-to-1 odds of being successful.

John was a great pitcher, but his elbow surgery made him a baseball legend

The procedure had been done on others before, although it was usually performed on wrists and hands. John was the first pitcher to have it done on his elbow.

More than and thousands more amateurs have since had UCL reconstructions, better known as Tommy John surgery. It����ap been a godsend for many of baseball’s greatest stars, including two-way sensation , three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander and even Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper.

“If you put it in dollars and cents, I think there’s no question that Tommy John is the most valuable reconstructive procedure there is,” Dodgers team physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache told The Associated Press in 2024.

Born Thomas Edward John Jr. on May 22, 1943, in Terre Haute, Indiana, he was a top baseball and basketball player at the city’s Gerstmeyer High. He graduated in 1961 as valedictorian but did not give the commencement speech because of a stutter. Despite being recruited by the University of Kentucky to play basketball, John chose baseball and signed with Cleveland.

“The day I left for my first job as a pitcher, my father looked at me & said, ‘Good luck, Tommy. Just remember one thing: whether you make it big in the big leagues or you don’t, you’ll always just be Tommy John from Terre Haute, Indiana.’ I’ve never forgotten those words,” John wrote in his Aug. 8 post.

John recorded 2,245 strikeouts but never led either league in wins or strikeouts. He had the second-most wins of any pitcher since 1900 not to be elected to the Hall of Fame. From 1995 through 2009, John was on the Hall of Fame ballot, but he never received more than 31.7% of the votes, falling well short of the 75% required for election.

“Tommy was a wonderful person who competed to the utmost and did what no player had ever done to save his career, in conjunction with the esteemed Dr. Frank Jobe,” former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti posted on X. “The HOF is missing Tommy John.”

John won more games after his eponymous surgery

Known for his longevity, John was the opening day starter for both the 1966 Chicago White Sox and the 1989 New York Yankees. He won 124 games before his UCL repair and 164 after. His final appearance came days after his 46th birthday.

“While his incredible longevity and post-surgery achievements changed the fortunes and trajectory of countless athletes around the world, it also overshadowed his excellence as a pitcher,” the Yankees said in a statement. “We pause to remember the totality of his legacy — his competitiveness and skill, his penchant for conversation, his kind and gracious nature, and his stature as an athletic and medical pioneer.”

John made his major league debut on Sept. 6, 1963, pitching one inning in relief for Cleveland.

He was traded to the White Sox in 1965 and worked his way into the starting rotation. The following year, he tied for the American League lead with five shutouts and in 1967, his six shutouts led the AL.

In 1971, he was traded to the Dodgers.

In 1974, John had a 13-3 record and led the National League in victories going into the All-Star break. He was pitching against the Montreal Expos when he permanently damaged the UCL in his left arm. After a month, the injury had not improved.

During the four-hour surgery on Sept. 25, 1974, Jobe made holes in the humerus and ulna bones of John’s left arm and used anchors to insert the tendon in a figure-eight pattern.

At first, John’s left hand was shriveled and he lacked feeling in several of his fingers because of damage to the ulnar nerve. Jobe performed a second procedure to reroute the nerve that was necessary to John’s full recovery.

John’s arm was in a cast for four months. He had recovered the full range of motion in his left arm by spring training of 1975 and spent that season resting, healing and rebuilding strength in his arm. John worked with fellow Dodgers pitcher Mike Marshall, who had a doctorate in kinesiology, on learning a different grip.

That September he made five appearances during an offseason instructional league, working his way up to seven innings by his final game.

John resumed pitching for the Dodgers in 1976 as the fourth starter in their rotation. He allowed three runs in five innings and took the loss in his first start against Atlanta, the first time any pitcher had started a game following UCL reconstructive surgery.

John donated the original cast from his surgery to the Smithsonian Institution in June 2022. His teammates on the 1974 Dodgers signed it, as well as Jobe and the team’s Hall of Fame announcer Vin Scully.

The procedure has become so widely known that in 2019, Merriam-Webster added the term to its dictionary.

John made 31 starts for the Dodgers in 1976, posting a 10-10 record, a 3.09 ERA, 91 strikeouts, 61 walks and 207 hits allowed in 207 innings.

In 1977, he won 20 games for the first time in his career, finishing with a 20-7 record. He finished second behind Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton in voting for the NL Cy Young Award.

John and his family had mixed feelings about the legacy of his operation

Over 50 years later, Tommy John surgery is as much a part of baseball as peanuts and hot dogs. Advanced training methods are helping throw harder than ever. They take comfort knowing a torn UCL won’t necessarily end their careers.

“I am sick my name is attached to a surgery happening in kids more than pros,” John tweeted in July 2018.

John’s oldest son, Tommy III, became a chiropractor who wrote a book suggesting ways to prevent young athletes from having to undergo major sports-related surgery similar to what his father endured.

After his pitching career ended, John worked as a broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins and Yankees in the 1990s. He managed the Bridgeport (Connecticut) Bluefish from 2007-09.

John was hospitalized in December 2020 because of COVID-19 and later had Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which a person’s immune system attacks their nerves. John told the New York Post in May 2022 that he was paralyzed in his lower extremities for several months.

John and his wife Sally Simmons had four children: Tamara, Tommy III, Travis and Taylor, who died of a prescription drug overdose at 28 in 2010. The couple divorced in 2013.

Besides his children, he is survived by his second wife, Cheryl, and son-in-law Patrick Mannelly, a retired NFL long snapper who played 16 years for the Chicago Bears.

It is time for the Rockies to go all in on Condon.

Charlie Condon, the No. 3 pick in the 2024 draft, is ready for his big league call-up in September. And if they want to do it sooner — like next Monday against the world champion Dodgers — even better.

This sounds like malpractice to those who understand the value of 40-man roster spots and know the ramifications of the looming lockout. We can dive into the fine print on that in a moment.

The present cannot be ignored.

After breaking his wrist in his first pro game, after struggling to find his footing last season, Condon has established himself as an elite slugger and solid hitter in Triple-A.

There is nothing left for him to prove with the Albuquerque Isotopes. Heading to The Show makes the most sense for this development.

“We want Charlie to be dangerous, a power threat and a run producer. He has had a really good year, and gotten back to his calling card in the batter’s box,” general manager Josh Byrnes told The Denver Post. “He doesn’t chase. He has demonstrated the ability to map out different plans for the pitchers he has faced, and shown he can play outfield and first base.”

So, what is the problem? Timing.

The Rockies are weighing the side effects of a work stoppage against the value of exposing Condon to big league pitching as the franchise focuses on building up its core moving forward.

Condon, by any measure, will be part of that group. He is ready.

“That’s the goal. And not just to get to the big leagues and chill there, but to eventually become a middle-of-the-order bat. Deep down inside, even through the struggles I have had in my minor league career, I have always believed that is what I was working for. I know who I am as a player and what the game calls for me to do,” Condon told The Post after batting practice in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. “It would be exciting to get the call. But I can’t lose sleep over something out of my control.”

In baseball, if you want income you can’t focus on outcome.

Condon has embraced the process to achieve success. In the season’s first two months, spanning 48 games, he clubbed 21 extra-base hits, including eight home runs, while hitting .262 with a .391 on-base percentage and .861 OPS.

Over the last 50 games, he boasts 26 extra-base hits with 14 home runs, batting .294 with a .399 OBP and 1.002 OPS.

As for his swing decisions, they are good ones. His strikeout rate is 25.1%, while he is walking at a 13% clip.

“In this game you don’t get paid to work hard. You get paid to work hard and produce. But you can’t force it,” Condon said. “My plan for this year was to be consistent and ready to play every day. It is the mindset I have to have and I got fully behind it.”

It has left him on the doorstep.

It took an injury for Zac Veen to get promoted before September because the Rockies’ two best hitting outfielders are left-handed. There is an obvious spot for Condon to get at-bats as the starting right fielder.

And if he needs a breather, rest him against tough righties.

The runway is clear after this weekend. There will be fewer than 45 days remaining in the season. So, as long as he does not exceed 130 at-bats, Condon will retain his rookie status in 2027.

Big deal? Yeah, it is.

Per the 2022 collective bargaining agreement, if a player wins Rookie of the Year — and Condon will have more than a puncher’s chance if he plays everyday and half his games at Coors Field — his team receives a sandwich draft pick after the first round.

That is a remarkable incentive, if not catnip, to send Condon to the bigs. Let him wade into the deep end. Let him sink. Let him swim.

Getting at-bats will create a roadmap for his offseason, a way to accelerate his progress based on real-life experience.

Believing Condon can win Rookie of the Year is presumptuous, but he has the talent to pull it off.

Have you seen him? He is 6-foot-5, 216 pounds with room to add weight. He has levers longer than a slot machine. There are 30 home run seasons in his future.

If the Rockies bring up Condon, it will be applauded.

But not in all circles.

There is risk involved because of the anticipated lockout when the CBA expires on Dec. 1. Across baseball, front offices will face the uncomfortable question of whether to place top prospects on the 40-man roster or slow play promotions to protect their long-term development.

Condon does not have to be added this offseason. It means the Rockies could keep him in the minors and use his 40-man spot for another prospect who must be protected, a reasonable conversation for an organization in the throes of a rebuild.

Of course, that will be about as popular with fans as eating left-out Rocky Mountain oysters. But the argument has merit.

Why? If Condon goes onto the 40-man, he becomes part of the lockout. He can no longer use the team’s Salt River Fields facility in the offseason. He would be ineligible to participate in spring training or minor league games if those start while MLB remains on ice.

It is something to consider.

But there are more reasons to be bold, to bring him to Denver. Condon turns 24 in April. He has earned a reputation as coachable, self-motivated, and hardworking. There is no reason to think he could not prepare well by working out at the University of Georgia or a place of that ilk.

Condon has checked the boxes. He deserves big-league at-bats, not to be penalized for getting caught up in the labor vortex of the owners vs. players.

“Oh man, they always talk about never play GM in this game. That means you sure as heck can’t play commissioner. I leave that to those people,” Condon said. “My job is to do my job, then see what happens.”

Talking with Condon, his maturity is obvious. He has the desirable blend of humility and confidence. But it can’t be easy knowing that he and Nationals Triple-A shortstop Seaver King are the only players drafted in the top 10 in 2024 who have not reached the big leagues.

That list includes Kansas City slugger Jac Caglianone, who was mocked to Colorado in some drafts, and has 21 home runs this season.

“Everybody has their own timeline. It is something I have had to preach to myself since high school, when I was under-recruited, waiting for college opportunities, when all my buddies had them. But you don’t want to be sour about it. When people have good things going, you should be happy for them,” Condon said. “Jac is a great buddy of mine. I am actually going to his wedding this offseason.”

If the Rockies are still discussing the Condon decision, this should end the debate. The kid gets it. He can be trusted to continue his development during a lockout, meaning the math works.

The 120 at-bats are worth more than saving a 40-man roster spot.

A week into NFL training camps and it’s already brutal out there. And not just because of the heat.

The Giants’ Cam Skattebo, who’s built like, and plays like, a giant mountain goat, left practice Friday. So did ace edge-rusher Brian Burns. The Seahawks’ Jadarian Price got dinged with lower body soreness. The Packers’ Josh Jacobs suffered a groin injury this past Thursday.

Pro football is one of those games in which the world’s best sprinters have to prepare for a marathon. You can’t win a division title in early August. But if a critical player goes down with an injury, you can sure as heck lose one.

“I don’t like the term. I feel (very) NBA when I hear ‘load management,’ right?” Payton told reporters Thursday at Dove Valley. “But I believe in the science.”

So do the wanna-be scientists up in the Grading The Week (GTW) offices, come to think of it. Which is why we’re glad to see Payton and his staff exercise discretion over the first seven or eight practices of training camp with Broncos veterans as opposed to trying to exercise them to death.

Broncos load management — B

It’s a tricky balance. The only way to master a violent game is to practice violence, repeatedly. The old fuddy-duddies among the GTW crew are now well-known for complaining about the state of NFL tackling in the 2020s, much to the chagrin of the younger crowd. They often speak of tackling as if it were some lost martial art, practiced by shoguns with single-bar facemasks.

On the flip side, the goal here is to be playing football until early February, and your “best” football from, say, late November onwards. The Broncos aren’t The Junction Boys, and Paul “Bear” Bryant has been dead for 43 years.

So if Payton chooses to keep vets such as 30-year-old wideout Courtland Sutton, who blew out his knee early in the 2020 season, on a pitch count until the middle of the month, by golly, that’s good by us. Especially after a week in which two of Sutton’s fellow receivers, Jaylen Waddle and Marvin Mims, Jr., both appeared to tweak something over the first few padded practices of camp. Nik Bonitto and Luke Wattenberg suffered injury scares early in the week, while Friday saw Mims, Nate Adkins and Matt Henningsen all leave practice early — and the latter via a cart.

So if said pal continues to fret about the Broncos being “physically ready” for September 14 in Kansas City, or the rigors of a Week 1-6 stretch that features (and the NFL did this on purpose, surely), the Chiefs, the Jaguars, the Rams, the 49ers, the Chargers and the Seahawks, ask him if he can name the NFL’s “preseason champion” from last year. Or, heck, any “preseason champ” since 2006. We’ll wait.

Rockies’ trade deadline tweaks — C

Rebuilding the Purple and Black from Rox bottom was always going to be a process — and a long one — for Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes. And nothing about their trade deadline activity affected our trust in said process. That’s a good thing.

Also good: The club’s top five minor-league prospects, according to MLB.com, are all still here. So is catcher Hunter Goodman, who was never likely to be moved. And outfielders Mickey Moniak (age 28) and Jake McCarthy (29), which was more of a surprise, given their experience and their left-handed bats. Maybe other teams were less enamored with the two veterans’ respective gloves — Moniak sported a minus-2 Defensive Runs Saved total,

If there’s a “down” side, it’s the logjam that remains in front of top hitting prospects, Charlie Condon and Zac Veen. And you tend to get what you give — and when you’re giving away a light-hitting outfielder and two set-up arms, you can’t expect much in return. Of the three minor-league arms acquired, Mason Adams (ex-White Sox) is now, according to MLB.com, the eighth-best arm in the farm system, while Aiden May (ex-Marlins) is now No. 10.

Fresh off signing a seven-year, $65.3 million contract extension that foretold his status as the Rockies’ shortstop of the future, Tovar slashed .269/.295/.469 in 2024 with a .763 OPS, 26 homers, National League-best 45 doubles and 3.6 bWAR.

But amid that success, Tovar also struck out a dubious distinction that foretold his offensive struggles over the next couple seasons because of his inability to control the zone.

Tovar’s freefall last year and this one have become an unmissable blight, especially as the Rockies’ offense has demonstrated drastic overall improvement in 2026. By the traditional stats, the sabermetrics and the eye test, Tovar’s playing like a shell of his breakout self from two seasons ago.

While Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer has continually backed the shortstop, Tovar acknowledged his backslide.

“I’m not going to put my head down,” Tovar told The Denver Post through an interpreter. “I understand that a lot of people had high expectations for me, and I also had high expectations for myself. I had my goals and I’m not hitting them this year. But I’m going to continue to battle out there.

“I know I can (hit better), but I have to keep working. I have to keep improving. I have to get more out of myself. So believe me, I’m looking for a way out of this.”

�³󾱱�����last year’s dip  this summer’s continued struggles raise the question of whether the shortstop will ever be the caliber of player the Rockies expected when they inked that contract.

How much longer can Colorado afford to wait for Tovar to figure it out? It will surely be a question the front office reckons with this offseason, especially considering how the over the next four seasons. He’ll make $8.2 in 2027, $11.2 million in ’28, $14.2 million in ’29, $16.2 million in ’30 and then has a $23 million club option in ’31 that includes a $2.5 million buyout.

What initially looked like a team-friendly deal has now become a possible payroll albatross, especially given that trading the shortstop this offseason is probably not a realistic possibility due to the combination of his contract and his performance.

The most worrisome part is, it’s not just an extended slump that’s behind Tovar’s lack of offense this season. As that 200-K campaign in ’24 foretold, it’s Tovar’s total lack of command and undisciplined approach in his at-bats. Consider the following:

Tovar chases more than anyone in baseball, and he swings too much. Entering Friday’s series in St. Louis, his swing percentage on pitches outside the strike zone the worst in MLB. He also swings at more pitches inside the zone than anyone, too, at 83.0%. Of those in-zone swings, his contact rate is 84.5%, which ranks 28th-worst. So on top of unnecessarily expanding the zone, he’s also missing pitches in the zone at a well-above average rate. His total swing rate is 61.5%, 4% higher than the next most aggressive hitter, Toronto’s Ernie Clement at 57.5%. The end result has been dwindling average (.207, including .201 at home), power (9 homers) and value (-0.8 bWAR).

Tovar isn’t dictating his at-bats and is getting dominated by two pitches. Tovar’s 71.5% first-pitch strike percentage is the highest in MLB, so he’s falling behind quicker than any hitter in the game. Nearly 80% of the pitches he sees are either fastball (51.9%) or slider (26.9%). with the high fastball, and getting him to fish on sliders low and away. He ranks last in MLB in wFB (fastball runs above average) at -16.0, hitting just .185 against the pitch, and is 16th-worst in wSL (slider runs above average) at -4.1. All of this is contributing to another season with a high strikeout rate (25.4%, bottom fourth of baseball) and much lower barrel rates than he posted in 2024 (42 barrels that season, ranked 51st, as opposed to 17 so far this year, ranked 126th).

The bat isn’t the only concern — the glove’s fallen off a cliff, too. When Tovar won the NL Gold Glove Award in ’24, he was a wizard at shortstop who was one of the most valuable fielders in the game. But the sabermetrics don’t lie — his glove has been far from that level this season. He has -2 defensive runs saved this season, so below average, after posting 10 defensive runs saved in ’24. in the 44th percentile in range with 0 outs above average in ’26, just two seasons after he was in the 98th percentile in the metric with 15 outs above average.

With those three breakdowns in mind, the Rockies currently don’t have many options to replace Tovar.

Ryan Ritter and Chad Stevens are other shortstops who are in Triple-A; beyond that, Andy Perez is a promising 22-year-old in Double-A while top prospects Ethan Holliday (out for season ) and Tyler Bell (No. 10 overall pick this year, but out for the season with shoulder surgery) are still far off from arriving in LoDo.

The most obvious solution could already be on the active roster: rookie Cole Carrigg. Colorado has beta-tested Carrigg at shortstop, where he’s played four games and had one start in addition to his duties in center field. Carrigg says he’s ready to play there more, if called upon. It’s a position he played sparingly in college and the minors.

“It’s definitely pretty wild to be playing short in the big leagues,” Carrigg said. “I think you’ve just got to play with confidence and just believe in yourself, no matter where it is, and playing everywhere is something I’ve always done. But whatever (Schaeffer) needs, I’m going to do it, and do it to the best of my ability.”

If Carrigg got more starts at shortstop down the stretch, Jake McCarthy would become the de facto starting center fielder in the post-Brenton Doyle era, with utilityman Tyler Freeman capable of also seeing more time out there to help keep McCarthy fresh.

Whatever the case, the final couple months of the season would be a good time for the Rockies to see if Carrigg, whose bat has been potent through his first 47 career games, could warrant more time at shortstop. Meanwhile, Colorado will surely keep plugging Tovar into the lineup; the 25-year-old has been hitting better lately, including a .333 average over the past couple of weeks.

“I look at every aspect of the game, not just my chase (rate), that I need to improve on,” Tovar said. “…  That’s something that every coach out here and everyone (in the organization) is trying to help me with. And that’s something that we are collectively trying to answer.”

Tovar will have all offseason to dig into his issues, make changes, and attempt to bring a fresh approach into 2027. Barring a big surprise, he’ll remain the starting shortstop going into next season. But the clock is now ticking. If the Rockies are going to truly turn the corner into contenders over the next few years, a weak-hitting shortstop can’t be part of the plan.

After losing their previous six series, the Rockies took three from the Royals this weekend to open a six-game homestand at Coors Field. In the process, Colorado surpassed its 43-win total from 2025 while also showcasing several roster pieces whom the Rockies could move ahead of Monday’s 4 p.m. MT deadline.

In Friday’s homestand opener, right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano threw 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball Sugano’s been Colorado’s best starter this year, with a 4.47 ERA and 1.9 bWAR in 19 starts. That includes a 3.78 ERA and 7-2 record within hitter-friendly LoDo. He’s surged as of late, with a 2.95 ERA in three second-half starts.

Sugano’s salary is affordable ($5.1 million this year) and he’ll be a free agent at the end of the season. Among the teams in the hunt for the playoffs, the AL East-leading Rays, NL Central-leading Brewers and wild card contenders in the Cubs, Diamondbacks and Phillies could all use another reliable starter for a postseason push.

Saturday’s blockbuster trade that sent Cy Young southpaw Tarik Skubal from the Tigers to the two-time defending champion Dodgers took the top starting pitcher off the market.

Skubal, who is on an expiring contract, was dealt for three prospects in a deal that lacks a wow factor for Detroit’s return. The Tigers got outfielder Zyhir Hope, MLB Pipeline’s No. 25 prospect, plus right-handers River Ryan (No. 68) and Brady Smith (the Dodgers’ 17th-ranked prospect).

Of course Sugano won’t demand a return like Skubal, who is just the sixth reigning Cy Young winner to be traded in-season. But for a team desperate to shore up the back end of their rotation with someone who can gobble up quality innings, Colorado could get a prospect or two in return for the Japanese veteran.

In Saturday’s 12-6 win, all-star catcher Hunter Goodman continued his torrid season with two homers in his MLB-best sixth multi-homer game of the season. Pitchers are scared to attack Goodman with the fastball but he continues to hammer offspeed pitching, with his 32nd homer coming on a slider and his 33rd coming on a changeup. His 33 homers are tied for second in the majors with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber, with the Astros’ Yordan Alvarez setting the pace at 35.

Somewhat suspiciously, a day after blasting 808 feet worth of homers amid a 4-for-5, 5-RBI day, Goodman sizzling bat was not in the lineup in Sunday’s 8-1 victory that was highlighted by Kyle Freeland’s first career complete game. It was the Rockies’ first complete game since Chad Kuhl threw one on June 27, 2022, as Freeland allowed just one run on five hits and two walks. The 115-pitch effort came amid 99-degree temps at first pitch, the second-hottest first pitch temperature in Coors Field history behind a 100-degree game in 2012.

Back to Goodman: While there are reservations about Goodman’s defense — his sabermetrics at the position — his overwhelming offense and the fact that there are several teams in the playoff chase in need a power bat at the position could outweigh those concerns.

Whatever the case, the asking price for Goodman remains high.

Rockies president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta previously told The Denver Post a couple weeks ago that the return to trade Goodman would need to be substantial, as the front office sees him as a piece of Colorado’s next competitive team. So whatever the Rockies could get in a last-minute deal for the catcher would have to accelerate the club’s hopes of a rebuild faster than keeping Goodman’s power bat in the lineup for the three more years does.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosental reported last week that the Rockies want multi-player packages in return for Goodman. Colorado told Boston and Tampa Bay those packages would need to included each organization’s top prospect (shortstop Franklin Arias of the Red Sox and outfielder Theo Gillen of the Rays). The Yankees, whose catcher Austin Wells is hitting .162 with 7 homers, figure to remain in the mix as well.

Colorado’s other most obvious trade candidates are outfielders Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy, plus reliever Antonio Senzatala. McCarthy is among the best hitters in the National League with a .289 average along with 11 homers, including one Sunday, while Moniak is hitting .273 with 17 homers. Senzatela, who has a $14 million club option for 2027, has a 3.61 ERA in 34 games this season.

Trading Moniak or McCarthy would conceivably be a quick way to clear a roster spot for the debut of Charlie Condon, the first baseman/corner outfielder who is one of Colorado’s top prospects and has been knocking on the door in Triple-A Albuquerque.

The Los Angeles Dodgers — who else? — are the big winners so far at the Major League Baseball trade deadline to a loaded roster as they chase a third straight World Series title.

Over in the American League, by adding right-hander Freddy Peralta while the New York Yankees to give their Aaron Judge-less lineup a little more pop.

The trade deadline is Monday at 6 p.m. EDT and some of the biggest pitching prizes are already off the board. But , including San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller, San Francisco Giants second baseman Luis Arraez and Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Daulton Varsho.

Also on Sunday, the Chicago Cubs in a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, a person familiar with the deal confirmed to the AP.

In other recent deals, the surprising Chicago White Sox from the Seattle Mariners, and the Atlanta Braves from the Kansas City Royals.

Dodgers land Skubal

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts.

If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers led the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers going into Sunday’s games and now add Skubal to the mix.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” an emotional Skubal said on Saturday night. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That’s hard to do, so I’m so excited to a part of that. But it’s a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”

The Tigers received three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Mets unload Peralta to Rays

The last-place New York Mets traded Peralta to the Rays for three minor leaguers, outfielder Aidan Smith, infielder Émilien Pitre and right-hander Gary Gill Hill.

Peralta, a two-time All-Star who can become a free agent following the World Series, has been a disappointment with the Mets after they acquired him from Milwaukee in a January trade.

But he could boost the middle of a strong rotation for the pitching-rich Rays, who began the day with the best record in the American League at 65-45 and a 3 1/2-game lead in the AL East over the New York Yankees.

Garcia ‘both sad and happy’ about trade to Yankees

García has spent his entire seven-year career with the Nationals but acknowledged he would be excited to move to the Yankees.

“I mean it’s a mix of both sad and happy,” García said. “There’s a new chapter in my career, so yeah, 50-50 right now.”

He has a career-high 23 homers and 76 RBIs this season and could help a lineup after he suffered a stress fracture in his right ribs.

“He’s been a hitter who has really come of age this year,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “One of the best left-vs-right hitters in the National League. We think he fits our ballpark very well and should hopefully give a little jolt to our offense which has obviously scuffled a little over an extended period.”

The Nationals received four right-handed pitchers for Garcia — Jake Bird, Yovanny Cruz, Jack Cebert and Ben Grable.

Bird, 30, has a 5.93 ERA in 30 games with the Yankees this season, all in relief. Cruz, 26, has a 1.69 ERA in four games. Cebert and Grable have spent the full season in the minors.

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AP Baseball Writer Mike Fitzpatrick in New York and AP Sports Writer Josh Dubow in West Sacramento, California, and Charles Odum in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Los Angeles Dodgers have acquired the biggest prize on the trade deadline market, getting two-time reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers on Saturday night.

Skubal got the news during the and was emotional after the game as he prepared to leave the team that drafted him in 2018 and developed him into a star to join the two-time defending World Series champions.

“I’m excited to be a Dodger,” he said. “I’m excited to get down there and meet all those guys and chase three championships in a row. That����ap hard to do, so I’m so excited to a part of that. But it����ap a lot of different emotions. Definitely kind of a roller coaster a little bit.”

Skubal is the latest star to join the high-priced roster for the Dodgers that already has big-name players like Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Mookie Betts. If everyone is healthy, he could be part of a rotation with Ohtani, reigning World Series MVP Yamamoto, fellow two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. The Dodgers lead the majors with a 3.36 ERA from their starting pitchers and now add Skubal to the mix.

The Dodgers are in first place in the NL West and were already the favorites to become the first team to three-peat since the New York Yankees from 1998-2000 before adding Skubal. They began the season with a $323.3 million opening-day payroll for their 40-man roster and a $163.7 million tax for a . They will pay Skubal about $9.5 million for the remainder of the season.

ESPN first reported the deal and said the Tigers would receive three minor league prospects in right-handers River Ryan and Brady Smith and outfielder Zyhir Hope.

Skubal is eligible for free agency after the World Series. He has a $32 million salary, a , after the team offered $19 million, and is expected to sign a massive contract in the offseason.

The 29-year-old lefty said in July that it was his preference to finish the season with the Tigers and to compete for a World Series championship, which has eluded the franchise since 1984. Skubal took the loss in the decisive Game 5 of the division series against Cleveland in 2024 and then got a no-decision in a 15-inning loss to Seattle in Game 5 of the division series last year.

He said it was “very tough” to leave the Tigers having fallen short of the goal of winning a title.

“Ever since that ’24 Game 5, the failure that I experienced on the mound, I’ve used that as fuel to try and bring a World Series to the city of Detroit. I truly did,” he said. “That whole offseason I’ve never been more motivated and then go in and we lose Game 5 again. That failure kind of sparks some more motivation, just to dig deeper and see how good you can truly be. The goal was always to win a World Series for the city, for the organization that took a chance on me. It����ap tough. I love all those guys in there. They’re some of my best friends.”

Detroit planned to contend again this season, bolstering the Skubal-led rotation by giving two-time All-Star pitcher a $115 million, three-year contract in free agency and retaining three-time All-Star infielder Gleyber Torres with a $22 million deal.

The Tigers, though, got off to a rough start and are currently 2 1/2 games out of the last wild-card spot in the American League.

“It����ap crazy. Going into the season, this isn’t what I planned on doing,” Skubal said. “But circumstances change, situations change, and I’m very appreciative of everything the Tigers have done for me.”

They bounced back in June and most of July to get into playoff contention with Skubal leading a rotation and three All-Stars in the lineup: rookie infielder , catcher Dillon Dingler and outfielder Riley Greene.

With a chance to possibly persuade management to keep Skubal by improving its playoff positioning, Detroit lost ground by dropping four of its last five games at home, including Skubal’s last start that was made even more memorable by a late-inning collapse.

The Tigers led Baltimore 7-0 after six innings Wednesday and lost 10-9 in 12 innings. started the game, recorded his 1,000th career strikeout and was cheered at every opportunity by a crowd of 34,406.

“I’ve watched this guy rise to the top of the sport,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s carried us a lot. I’ll forever be grateful that our paths crossed and the things that he did for this organization and for a couple of playoff teams. His presence, his work ethic, his example, his dominance. There’s so much to go through, it����ap hard to capture in one quote or kind of one setting. But I’m very grateful that I was able to manage him for the time that I did.”

Skubal is 7-5 this season with a 2.79 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 96 2/3 innings. He is 61-42 with a 3.04 ERA over seven seasons, all in Detroit. In two postseasons, Skubal is 2-1 with a 2.04 ERA in six starts.

Skubal had a minimally invasive on May 6 to remove a loose body from his pitching elbow and returned to pitch on June 13.

“The way the surgery went is exactly how it was supposed to go,” he said in July.

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AP Sports Writer Larry Lage in Detroit contributed to this report

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Hellerstein’s wife, Judy Frieman, from heart complications. Her passing left the owner of LoDo’s National Ballpark Museum in an emotional spiral as he grappled with how to properly honor Judy. She was a critical partner in her husband’s mission to showcase the majors’ original 14 classic ballparks, and the history of baseball in Denver, at the museum.

So over the last year, Hellerstein decided to cement his late wife’s legacy via baseball. His conduit to doing so was Ebbets Field, perhaps the most beloved ballpark ever and the home to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Hellerstein recently finished an Ebbets Field honorarium room for Judy at the museum, complete with rare artifacts, glass cases filled with memories of Judy’s diehard fandom, and the couple’s wedding picture. That photo is centered on the wall beneath a crossed-bats light fixture that hung over a ticket window in the , and the honorarium also has a baseball globe from the rotunda’s chandelier.

“I wanted to honor Judy in a sacred way,” Hellerstein explained. “I thought, ‘What could be better than having these historical light fixtures from the marble rotunda at Ebbets Field?’ If you turn off the main (ceiling) light, and just have the two rotunda lights on, it just gives such a reverence to the room.

“It’s like her memory’s in a Church of Baseball. ‘Bull Durham’ starts out as a religion, and it’s the same thing for me and Judy. She just loved it so much.”

The missing piece

Hellerstein had been working on putting together the museum’s Ebbets Field room for about seven years, but Judy’s death was the impetus for completing the project.

The room already had several featured mementos, including the baseball globe which Hellerstein acquired decades ago and restored after an electrician installing the light dropped it, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. The room also has a diorama of Ebbets Field signed by Vin Scully, a replica gold railing from the stadium, from when the venue was torn down and a Jackie Robinson No. 42 retired number circle (acquired from Cleveland’s Progressive Field).

But it was missing the crossed-bats light fixture, a piece that Hellerstein had bought, sold, and then bought again four times over the years.

That’s been a common trend in Hellerstein’s collecting, which began with a display in his basement and eventually led to opening the National Ballpark Museum at its present location on Blake Street in 2010. He would often sell one piece of memorabilia to pay for another he wanted, or sometimes sell pieces to pay the museum’s rent.

Hellerstein managed to re-acquire the crossed-bats light fixture in May, about a year after Judy’s death, and just days before the piece was going to be sold to another collector instead. Hellerstein didn’t want to reveal how much he paid for it, but says it’s the most expensive piece of memorabilia in the entire museum and that the most recent price was several times what he originally paid for it many years ago.

“I’d been trying to get it back all this time and then after she died, it was a no-brainer,” Hellerstein said. “The room had to have that lamp in there. Otherwise, the room would not be close to what it is. It is the most important piece in my entire museum. And it’s obviously my favorite piece.”

‘The perfect baseball pairing’

The honorarium is emblematic of how baseball underscored Bruce and Judy’s marriage.

The two divorcees met in their 60s on the Jewish dating website Jdate, and Bruce’s interest was piqued by Judy’s bio: “Take me to any ballpark, and I’m in heaven.” Judy’s username on the site was “Bat Girl,” which some mistook for the comic book character. But Bruce knew it was a reference to America’s pastime.

The couple was together for about a decade, and married for eight years after Bruce proposed to Judy during a Rockies spring training game at Salt River Field in Scottsdale. In their time together, they visited approximately 30 ballparks, including three World Series and an array of independent-league stadiums, minor-league venues, and amateur fields.

“She opened up all these new worlds for me in the game,” Hellerstein said. “I never went to Arizona Fall League, but Judy took me there. Same with the California Winter League. She took me to the Chicago Dogs of the American Association. We practically lived up in Boulder during the summers watching the (collegiate summer league team) Collegians play, just us next to parents and girlfriends of the players.

“During the pandemic, we drove up to Kersey, Colorado, so we could watch high school kids play in the only baseball going on at that time in the state. We went all over this place, fueled by our love and our love for the game together.”

Ed Henderson, an MLB scout and longtime friend of the couple, called Bruce and Judy “the perfect baseball pairing.”

“Bruce is an absolute baseball fanatic, but when he met Judy, he told me, ‘Ed, I know a lot about baseball, but my wife knows a hell of a lot more,'” Henderson recalled with a laugh.

“I remember sometimes talking to Judy about statistics and details on players, and I don’t know in the last 20 years if I’ve known anybody that had more knowledge of the background of players and teams than she did. I would have never wanted to get into a baseball trivia contest with her, because she would have kicked my (butt).”

Honoring a legacy

Judy’s passion for the game extended to the museum, which she helped run and often supported financially.

“She came through big time for me, and that was another reason I knew I needed to create the honorarium,” Hellerstein said. “There’d be no museum without Judy. It’s that simple. This was our museum together.”

This year, Hellerstein says the museum is “busier than ever,” as it’s on pace for around 2,000 visitors, approximately double the number from three years ago. About 95% of the museum’s visitors are out-of-towners, and Hellerstein sees huge upticks of foot traffic during homestands at Coors Field, as well as during other notable local events that bring tourists to the city.

And in the museum’s quiet moments in between, Hellerstein’s made a habit of going into the Ebbets Field room, turning off the ceiling light, and basking in the glow of the orbs in baseball’s most famous rotunda. While the Mets’ Citi Field , Coors Field’s main entrance emulates it, too — an idea that Hellerstein had when he was on the stadium’s design committee in the early 1990s.

“When I’m in that room with the rotunda lights on, she’s with me and I’m with her,” Hellerstein said. “Beyond our baseball memories, it helps me remember what an incredible human being she was. And to me, it’s important to share that with everybody.

“I’m still grieving big-time, but her legacy in this museum means everything to me. If I didn’t do the honorarium, there’d be a huge hole in my life. Getting that (ticket-window) lamp completed the museum, completed the honorarium — and I have completeness within myself now, too.”

After losing the final two games of the Brewers series, Colorado dropped both in San Diego on Tuesday and Wednesday to fall to a season-low 25-games below .500 at 42-67. With that, the Rockies continue to play like a little brother to the Padres, especially on the road.

San Diego’s won seven straight series against the Rockies, including eight consecutive victories at Petco Park and 14 of the last 15 there with a +55 run differential. The Padres are now 18-4 against Colorado since the start of the 2025 season, a better winning percentage against LoDo’s club than even the vaunted, two-time defending World Series champion Dodgers (18-5).

The Rockies haven’t won a series against the Padres since Aug. 16-18, 2024, at Coors Field, and their last series win in San Diego was May 13-15, 2024, a three-game sweep.

Defensive miscues were the story in the series opener at Petco Park, as Colorado committed four errors for the second time this season in an 8-7 loss. Colorado’s 20 errors this month ranks last in the majors.

Padres leadoff man Fernando Tatis Jr. owned the Rockies pitchers in a 5 for 5 performance, raking all singles in the first five-hit game of his career, and homers by Willi Castro and Mickey Moniak were negated by Xander Bogaerts’ walk-off sacrifice fly. It was San Diego’s third walk-off against Colorado this season (also April 9 via Bogaerts’ walk-off grand slam, and Gavin Sheets’ three-run homer the next night).

Then on Wednesday, Colorado lost 3-1, with the lone San Diego damage coming in the fourth inning when the home team loaded the bases with no outs against rookie Gabriel Hughes. The right-hander eventually escaped without the wheels completely falling off, and finished with five innings pitched before the bullpen threw three shutout frames.

Brett Sullivan’s RBI single in the seventh accounted for the Rockies’ lone run as the Colorado offense fell flat against a sextet of San Diego pitchers. Colorado now needs to go 21-32 to avoid becoming the fifth MLB franchise with four straight seasons of triple-digit losses.

Wednesday’s defeat dropped the Rockies to 3-13 in rubber matches this season, a .188 winning percentage that’s last in the majors.

Colorado is off on Thursday before returning to LoDo for a six-game homestand: Three games against the Royals from Friday through Sunday, followed by three games against the American League East-leading Rays from Monday through Wednesday.