Tyler Kepner

The negotiations took place in Los Angeles, and both sides knew the outcome in advance: This was going to be the most lucrative contract in baseball history. It took about 15 minutes. This, of course, was not ’s deal with the , the (by one calculation) that set a new salary standard while somehow costing his team for the next decade. This was Mike Piazza’s seven-year, $91 million deal with the in 1998 — and it was not exactly shrouded in an Ohtani-style cone of silence. Advertisement The Dodg…

The Athletic has live coverage of the announcement. The Baseball Hall of Fame closes for three days each year: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. That leaves 363 options to visit in this leap year, so you just might find yourself alone in the plaque room. The Hall does a brisk business, but it’s in Cooperstown, N.Y., after all — not, say, Manhattan. Advertisement When you’re there, enveloped in a saintly kind of silence, you think about the moments and the stories that made the members…

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer has filed a civil suit against a former friend in Superior Court in Orange County, Calif., alleging that he lost nearly $1 million in a fraudulent business scheme. Palmer said the defendant, Warren Michael Holmes, had befriended Palmer’s autistic stepson, Spencer, and built such a bond with the family that he was named as Spencer’s guardian and the manager of his trust. Palmer said that Holmes had misrepresented himself as a prominent British hair stylist and that…

The Athletic has live coverage of the announcement. Jim Leyland stepped from the podium at the MLB Winter Meetings last month and embraced his old pals, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre, now brothers in the fraternity of Hall of Fame managers. La Russa and Torre won multiple World Series titles, but Leyland did it just once, with the in 1997. His best player from that team, Gary Sheffield, is still waiting for induction — and Leyland was keenly aware of his status. Advertisement “He got 55 percent l…

Twenty years ago, after blowing the lead in a critical playoff game for the , Juan Rincón described the feeling with an : “Nobody wants to be in my pants right now.” These days, it seems, nobody wants to be in any pair of baseball pants. Major leaguers reported to spring training this week to find that they cannot customize their pants anymore, and that their new style of jerseys – designed by Nike, manufactured by Fanatics – is not up to big league standards. Advertisement As , players around t…

GLENDALE, Ariz. — Four and a half hours before the first pitch Tuesday, as Dave Roberts reported to work at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ spring training complex, a visitor greeted him near the lobby. “I’m the magician,” he said, and Roberts responded excitedly. Starter had invited the man, with Roberts’ blessing, to entertain the team before practice. , baseball’s greatest showman, was especially intrigued. “He wasn’t in any of the magic tricks,” Roberts said, “but he was locked in trying to figure…

PEORIA, Ariz. — You’ve made it to the top of your industry. The pay is great, but some coworkers make several times more than others. Generational wealth. You don’t have long to get it, though, and a lot depends on the role your company assigns you. You’d strive for a promotion, obviously. But the company’s success depends on dozens of people performing specific, sometimes thankless duties. You don’t want to disrupt the delicate organizational structure. But if you don’t advocate for yourself, w…

The began their pennant defense on Thursday with the biggest inning ever on Opening Day: a 14-run barrage in the third inning against the at Chase Field. Arizona sent 18 batters to the plate, pummeling for seven hits and for six more before got the final out of the inning. Incredibly, the Diamondbacks did all their damage without a home run. Here’s how it happened: Single Single Walk Single Double Single Single Fly out Double Single Single Walk Single Single Double Sac fly Single Ground out…

Right around the corner, said, that’s where it first felt real. He was sitting at his locker in the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field on Friday night, unwrapping the tape from his wrists after a game. That clubhouse hallway, he said, is where he first had the chance to be part of something special. Advertisement It was 2013, his first All-Star Game — he’s up to eight now — and Perez was just 23 years old. Before the game, in the hallway, American League Manager Jim Leyland told Perez that he wou…

Welcome to Sliders, a weekly in-season column that focuses on both the timely and timeless elements of baseball. It starts with good intentions. That’s the point that should quiet the howling, if only a little, about the way teams handle young pitchers. Think about it: Who has more incentive to keep pitchers healthy than the teams that depend on them? Advertisement The problem is that nobody knows how to do it. “I wish I could say there is a perfect formula for it — there is not,” said Ben Cher…