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These 10 ex-Dodgers are in the postseason. Who has the best shot at winning the World Series?

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These 10 ex-Dodgers are in the postseason. Who has the best shot at winning the World Series?

Trea Turner was a Dodgers star for a year and a half. Trey Sweeney was a Dodgers farmhand for a little more than an eyeblink.

Both shortstops are key cogs on teams eyeing a World Series title and perhaps spoiling the Dodgers’ dreams along the way.

Last season, J.D. Martinez and David Peralta were veteran bats and clubhouse leaders in Los Angeles. Now wearing other uniforms, they hope to advance deep into the postseason, something they were unable to do with the Dodgers.

Dodgers fans treat Manny Machado like a long lost villain, showering him with boos every time he returns to Chavez Ravine. Alex Verdugo was popular in L.A. and his trade netted the Dodgers Mookie Betts. Yet both present roadblocks in the Dodgers’ quest to win their first full-season championship since 1988. The Dodgers won the World Series in 2020 during the COVID-shortened season.

Those and other former Dodgers are sprinkled throughout rosters of teams still alive in the playoffs. Let’s take a look at each one:

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Trey Sweeney, SS, Tigers: The 20th overall pick in the 2021 draft by the Yankees out of Eastern Illinois, Sweeney was stuck behind budding star Anthony Volpe and traded to the Dodgers last offseason for reliever Victor González and minor league infielder Jorbit Vivas.

Despite their clear void at shortstop last spring — Gavin Lux failed at the position, Betts took a crash course in playing there and Miguel Rojas was considered a part-time plug-in — the Dodgers never seriously considered Sweeney as an option. He was viewed as average in every phase of the game and exceptional at none.

The Detroit Tigers held him in higher regard, however, trading front-of-the-rotation starter Jack Flaherty to the Dodgers in July for Sweeney and minor league catcher Thayron Liranzo. Sweeney was promoted from triple-A on Aug. 16 to fill in for the hugely disappointing and overpaid Javier Báez, who is out for the season with a hip injury.

Sweeney has provided above-average defense and enough offense to justify his starting role. Meanwhile, Flaherty will be the Dodgers’ Game 1 starter Saturday in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres.

Zach McKinstry, IF/OF, Tigers: Another Dodgers castoff finding a home in Detroit is McKinstry, who has played shortstop, third base, second base and two outfield positions this season. He started at third and hit a double in the Tigers’ series-clinching wild-card win over the Houston Astros on Wednesday.

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McKinstry, a 33rd-round pick out of Central Michigan in 2016, made a splash with the Dodgers early in 2021, filling in for the injured Cody Bellinger and Betts and impressing manager Dave Roberts, who said: “He’s kind of cut from that Chris Taylor cloth, where it doesn’t matter where he plays, he just wants to play, and he’ll figure it out and make the plays.”

After batting .303 with four homers and 14 runs batted in in his first 16 games that year, McKinstry bounced up and down between the Dodgers and triple-A until being traded to the Chicago Cubs at the 2022 July 30, deadline for reliever Chris Martin, who blossomed during his two months in L.A.

The Tigers acquired McKinstry before the 2023 season and he has proved to be a valuable utility man, playing every position except catcher — yes, he’s even mopped up on the mound on four occasions.

Kenta Maeda, RHP, Tigers: Maeda was a reliable starter from 2016 to 2019 with the Dodgers after coming over from Japan on an eight-year, $25-million contract. He finished second in Cy Young voting in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season with the Minnesota Twins and signed a two-year, $24-million contract with the Tigers despite coming off Tommy John surgery.

After a horrendous first half of this season as a starter, Maeda moved to the bullpen and was reasonably effective. However, he was left off the wild-card roster and it remains to be seen whether he will be activated for the American League Division Series against the Cleveland Guardians. Maeda is under contract for $10 million in 2025.

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Alex Verdugo, OF, Yankees: Picked by the Dodgers in the second round of the 2014 draft out of Sahuaro High School in Tucson, Verdugo established himself as a proficient major league hitter as a rookie in 2019, batting .294 with 12 home runs in 343 at-bats.

Animated and exuberant, Verdugo was a fan favorite but was traded to the Boston Red Sox in the deal that brought Betts to L.A. He was solid, if not spectacular, in four years in Boston, batting .281 with a .762 OPS in about 2,000 plate appearances, before being traded to the Yankees last offseason.

After a strong start in the Bronx, Verdugo cooled, batting .227 since May 1 and losing his starting job in left field to top prospect Jasson Domínguez in September. Domínguez, however, had defensive lapses and batted only .179 in 18 games, and Verdugo could be in the lineup when the Yankees open the AL Division Series against the Kansas City Royals on Saturday.

Tommy Kahnle, RHP, Yankees: Kahnle spent far more time in the training room and sitting at his locker playing video games than he did on the mound during his two seasons with the Dodgers. They signed him to a two-year, $4.75-million contract before the 2021 season knowing he’d miss that entire campaign recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Injuries persisted, however, and in 2022, he pitched only 12 2/3 innings, albeit effectively. That short window prompted the Yankees to sign him to a two-year, $11.5-million deal, and he responded by posting a 2.40 earned-run average over 92 appearances in 2023 and 2024.

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Manny Machado, 3B, Padres: Machado was an inarguable superstar when the Dodgers acquired him from the Orioles at the trade deadline in 2018, only 25 years old and in the midst of his fourth consecutive 30-plus-home run season. He underperformed, however, especially in the postseason when the Dodgers lost to the Red Sox in the World Series.

Worse, he didn’t run out a ground ball, played with a smirk and explained himself thusly: “I’m not a player that’s going to be ‘Johnny Hustle.’ … That’s just not my personality. That’s not my cup of tea. That’s not who I am.”

Here he is, six years later, having performed in San Diego at a level that could eventually land him in Cooperstown. Still only 31, Machado has 1,900 hits, 342 home runs and 1,042 RBIs. What he doesn’t have is a World Series championship ring, and he and his Padres teammates must go through L.A. in the NLDS to take the next step.

David Peralta, OF, Padres: Peralta, 37, has long been admired as a professional hitter, a dangerous left-handed bat in the lineup or off the bench. With the Dodgers in 2023, he batted .259 with a career-low .294 on-base percentage and .675 OPS. With the Padres in 2024, he rebounded, batting .267 with a .335 OBP and .715 OPS.

He batted .288 with an OPS of .804 against right-handed starters this season, and all of the Dodgers’ starters are right-handed, so he might see some action.

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Yu Darvish, SP, Padres: The enduring memory of Darvish as a Dodger is him getting shelled for four runs in the second inning of a Game 3 World Series loss to the Astros in 2017. Later it was revealed that the Astros were cheating, using technology at Minute Maid Park to steal the Dodgers’ signs.

Fast forward seven years and Darvish, 38, is still effective, winning his only three decisions in September after missing three months with a groin injury and a family emergency. The right-hander was 7-3 with a 3.31 ERA in 16 starts this season.

Trea Turner, SS, Phillies: Another brilliant trade deadline acquisition put Turner in a Dodgers uniform in the second half of the 2021 season and throughout 2022. Fans appreciated his uncommon blend of speed and power and his otherworldly slides, landing on red dirt as if it was a billowy cloud.

The Dodgers declined to offer Turner a monster free-agent contract, and he landed one with the Phillies to the tune of 11 years and $300 million. His first two years have gone pretty much as expected, and Turner is one of several exceptional players on a Phillies roster expected to make a serious push for a World Series title.

J.D. Martinez, DH, Mets: A productive designated hitter and stabilizing clubhouse force for the Dodgers in 2023, Martinez was unneeded the moment Shohei Ohtani chose to wear blue for the next 10 years. Martinez languished on the market until the Mets signed him to a one-year, $12-million deal less than a week before the season began.

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His production took a steep dip from the 33 homers and 106 RBIs he posted with the Dodgers, and he was mired in an 0-for-36 slump only a few days ago. But Martinez had key hits in the waning days of the regular season and his RBI single helped the Mets win the first game of the wild-card series against the host Milwaukee Brewers.

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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Law firm fighting for women’s sports in SCOTUS battle comments on ruling possibly impacting SJSU trans lawsuit

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A law firm leading the charge in the ongoing Supreme Court case over trans athletes in women’s sports has responded after a federal judge suggested the case’s ruling could impact a separate case involving a similar issue. 

Colorado District Judge Kato Crews deferred ruling in motions to dismiss former San Jose State volleyball co-captain Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the California State University (CSU) system until after a ruling in the B.P.J. v. West Virginia Supreme Court case, which is expected to come in June. 

Slusser filed the lawsuit against representatives of her school and the Mountain West Conference in fall 2024 after she allegedly was made to share bedrooms and changing spaces with trans teammate Blaire Fleming for a whole season without being informed that Fleming is a biological male. 

 

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Meanwhile, the B.P.J. case went to the Supreme Court after a trans teen sued West Virginia to block the state’s law that prevents males from competing in girls’ high school sports. 

The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is the primary law firm defending West Virginia in that case at the Supreme Court, and has now responded to news that Slusser’s lawsuit could be affected by the SCOTUS ruling. 

“We hope the ruling from the Supreme Court will affirm that Title IX was designed to guarantee equal opportunity for women, not to let male athletes displace women and girl in competition. It is crucial that sports be separated by sex for not only the equal opportunity of women but for safety and privacy. Title IX should protect women’s right to compete in their own sports. Allowing men to compete in the female category reverses 50 years of advancement for women,” ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategies Jonathan Scruggs said.

Slusser’s attorney, Bill Bock of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, expects a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the legal defense representing West Virginia, thus helping his case. 

(Left) Brooke Slusser (10) of the San Jose State Spartans serves the ball during the first set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Oct. 19, 2024. (Right) Blaire Fleming #3 of the San Jose State Spartans looks on during the third set against the Air Force Falcons at Falcon Court at East Gym on October 19, 2024 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. ( Andrew Wevers/Getty Images; Andrew Wevers/Getty Images)

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“We’re looking forward to the case going forward,” Bock told Fox News Digital. 

“I believe that the court is going to find that Title IX operates on the basis of biological sex, without regard to an assumed or professed gender, and so just like the congress and the members of congress that passed Title IX in 1972, allowed this specifically provided for in the regulations that there had to be separate men’s and women’s teams based on biological sex, I think the court is going to see that is the original meaning of the statute and apply it in that way, and I think it’s going to be a big win in women’s sports.”

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared prepared to rule in favor of West Virginia after oral arguments on Jan. 13. 

Slusser spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 while oral arguments took place inside, sharing her experience with a divided crowd of opposing protesters. 

With Fleming on its roster, SJSU reached the 2024 conference final by virtue of a forfeit by Boise State in the semifinal round. SJSU lost in the final to Colorado State.

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Slusser went on to develop an eating disorder due to the anxiety and trauma from the scandal and dropped out of her classes the following semester. The eating disorder became so severe, that Slusser said she lost her menstrual cycle for nine months. Her decision to drop her classes resulted in the loss of her scholarship, and her parents said they had to foot the bill out of pocket for an unfinished final semester of college. 

President Donald Trump’s Department of Education determined in January that SJSU violated Title IX in its handling of the situation involving Fleming, and has given the university an ultimatum to agree to a series of resolutions or face a referral to the Department of Justice. 

Among the department’s findings, it determined that a female athlete discovered that the trans student allegedly conspired to have a member of an opposing team spike her in the face during a match. ED claims that “SJSU did not investigate the conspiracy, but later subjected the female athlete to a Title IX complaint for ‘misgendering’ the male athlete in online videos and interviews.”

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SJSU trans player Blaire Fleming and teammate Brooke Slusser went to a magic show and had Thanksgiving together in Las Vegas despite an ongoing lawsuit over Fleming being transgender. (Thien-An Truong/San Jose State Athletics)

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SJSU Athletic Director Jeff Konya told Fox News Digital in a July interview that he was satisfied with how the university handled the situation involving Fleming.

“I think everybody acted in the best possible way they could, given the circumstances,” Konya said. 

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

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Myles Garrett cited for speeding a ninth time, an elite pass rusher seemingly always in a rush

Myles Garrett is in a hurry to become the greatest pass rusher in NFL history. The Cleveland Browns All-Pro defensive end set the single-season sack record in 2025 and has cracked the top 20 career leaders after only nine seasons.

“I’m going to take that down, and I prefer I take it down in the next five years,” Garrett told Casino Guru News last month.

Off the field, however, his urgency to get from point A to B is a problem. He’s accumulating speeding tickets at an alarming rate.

On Feb. 21, Garrett was handed his ninth speeding ticket since his NFL career began in 2017. He was cited for driving 94 mph in a 70-mph zone on Interstate 71 between Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio.

The citation from the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office says Garrett was driving his green 2024 Porsche at 1:35 a.m., returning home after attending a Miami of Ohio basketball game in Oxford.

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Body cam footage shows the officer telling Garrett that she kept the charge under 100 mph so that a court appearance wouldn’t be mandatory. Garrett reportedly still holds a Texas driver’s license — he attended Texas A&M — and told the officer that he did not have an Ohio license.

Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett wears a jacket displaying his girlfriend Chloe Kim before the women’s snowboarding halfpipe finals at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Livigno, Italy.

(Lindsey Wasson / AP)

The officer wrote that the famously affable Garrett was “kind and cooperative,” and that drugs and alcohol were not a factor.

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Garrett’s need for speed flies in the face of his persona. He has written poetry since high school, peppers social media with inspirational sayings and donates time and money to several charities.

His girlfriend is two-time gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic snowboarder Chloe Kim, for whom he wrote a poem he shared on social media: “You enrapture fools to kings, and exist without a peer, put on this Earth for many things, but our love is why you’re here.”

Verse hasn’t slowed his roll. On Aug. 9 he was cited for ticket No. 8, clocked at 100 mph in a 60-mph zone in a Cleveland suburb a day after the Browns returned home from a preseason game at Carolina.

Garrett’s seventh ticket followed a frightening crash in 2022. He flipped his gray 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S off State Road in Sharon Township and he and a female passenger were injured. He was cited for failing to control his vehicle due to unsafe speeds on what had been a slick roadway.

A witness told a responding police officer that Garrett’s vehicle went airborne, took out a fire hydrant and rolled three times. Garrett sustained shoulder and biceps sprains and was sidelined for the Browns’ game that week against the Atlanta Falcons. His companion was not seriously injured.

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Cleveland television station WKYC reported that in September 2021 Garrett was stopped twice in a 24-hour period — for driving 120 and 105 mph. The infractions occurred on Interstate 71 in Medina County, where the speed limit is 70 mph, and he paid fines of $267 and $287.

A year earlier, Garrett was cited for driving 100 mph in a 65-mph zone of Interstate 77 — again while driving a Porsche — and paid a $308 fine. He accumulated his first batch of speeding tickets in 2017 and 2018, and the police reports recite similar circumstances: Garrett driving well over the speed limit, cited without incident, paid a nominal fine.

The piddly fines certainly aren’t a deterrent. Garrett, 30, and the Browns agreed to a four-year contract extension in March 2025 that made him the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history at the time. The deal pays the seven-time All-Pro more than $40 million a season and includes more than $123 million in guaranteed money.

He set the NFL single-season sack record with 23.0 last season, surpassing the 22.5 accumulated by T.J. Watt and Michael Strahan. Garrett has 125.5 career sacks, averaging 14 a season, a pace that would enable him to break Bruce Smith’s career record of 200 in five years.

“That is definitely on my mind to go out there and get,” Garrett said. “That’s a goal I’ve had for years now since college.”

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Garrett has declined to discuss his driving habits.

“I’d honestly prefer to talk about football and this team than anything I’m doing off the field other than the back-to-school event that I did the other day,” he told reporters after ticket No. 8 in August, referring to a charity appearance.

“I try to keep my personal life personal. And I’d rather focus on this team when I can.”

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Keith Olbermann under fire for calling Lou Holtz a ‘scumbag’ after legendary coach’s death

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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead. 

“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights. 

Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.

 

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“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann. 

One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”

Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”

Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif.  (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.

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After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.

In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020.  (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post. 

In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk. 

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Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”

Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States. 

After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media. 

Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.

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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)

At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death. 

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