MLB’s luxury tax — officially the Competitive Balance Tax (CBT) — is baseball’s substitute for a salary cap: teams can spend whatever they want, but every dollar above a set threshold gets taxed at escalating rates that reach 110% for the biggest repeat spenders. In 2026, the final year of the current labor deal, the … Read more
When the White Sox make the first pick of the MLB Draft in Philadelphia tomorrow night, they’ll be cashing a ticket they won seven months ago, on a stage in the Winter Meetings ballroom, via ping-pong balls. The MLB Draft Lottery is baseball’s newest anti-tanking weapon, just four drafts old, and it works nothing like … Read more
The Home Run Derby has killed the clock. After a decade of sprint-format chaos, hitters racing a timer, gasping between hacks, Monday night’s Derby at Citizens Bank Park debuts a completely new set of rules: every slugger gets a fixed number of swings, every swing counts whether it leaves the yard or not, and the … Read more
Shohei Ohtani led off the bottom of the first at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night, turned on a Michael Lorenzen sinker, and became the 170th member of baseball’s 300 home run club, the first Japanese-born player ever to reach the mark, in the fifth-fewest games in MLB history. It capped a remarkable three-week rush on … Read more
Every MLB team runs on two rosters at once, and the difference between them explains half the transactions you’ll ever read. The 26-man roster is the team you watch: the players in uniform tonight, eligible to play. The 40-man roster is the organization’s protected inventory: everyone under a major-league contract, including a dozen-plus prospects and … Read more
“He was optioned to Triple-A.” “He’s out of options.” “They can’t send him down without waivers.” No piece of baseball jargon confuses more fans than the option system, and none explains more roster moves. Options are the invisible currency that determines which struggling young player gets sent to the minors overnight and which one a … Read more
MLB free agency is the least restricted player market in American sports, no salary cap, no max contracts, deals fully guaranteed, and it’s guarded by one of the most convoluted gates: six full years of service time to reach it, a “qualifying offer” system that attaches draft-pick shackles to top free agents, and compensation rules … Read more
The 2026 MLB Draft runs July 11-12 at the Philadelphia Convention Center, the centerpiece of All-Star week, airing on NBC and Peacock for the first time, with the White Sox holding the No. 1 pick after winning the December lottery, their first top selection since they took Harold Baines in 1977. And if you’re coming … Read more
Justin Verlander announced on July 8, 2026 that this season, his 21st, will be his last, and the sport spent the day doing what it will now do all summer: staring at the numbers. They are staggering. Three Cy Young Awards. An MVP. Three no-hitters, a club only six pitchers in history have ever joined. … Read more
At 6 p.m. ET on July 31, Major League Baseball’s trade market slams shut, completely. Since 2019 there is no August escape hatch, no waiver-trade workaround, no second deadline: the July date is the only one, which is precisely why the final 48 hours have become baseball’s frantic midseason holiday, complete with all-night front-office phone … Read more