Sports
Which MLB front offices, managers and teams are under the most pressure? Insiders weigh in
Here in the frozen north country, we feel more February heat from our toaster than from the sun. But that isn’t the kind of heat this column cares about right now.
The kind of heat that really matters in baseball these days is the heat being felt by the teams, front offices and managers that are under the most pressure to make 2025 the year — or else.
So who are those teams, front offices and managers? We asked that question of the 32 baseball executives, former executives, coaches and scouts who took part in our annual spring training preview survey. Let’s take a look at the teams they think are feeling the heat.
MARK SHAPIRO, ROSS ATKINS, JOHN SCHNEIDER AND THE BLUE JAYS (22 VOTES): From the day they called up Vlad Guerrero Jr. in 2019, it feels as if the Blue Jays have been on the clock. But six years and zero postseason wins later, this seems like the year the alarm goes off.
What are the odds they can extend Vlad before he cuts off contract talks on Tuesday and prepares to head for free agency? What happens if they can’t? What are the ripple effects on Bo Bichette and the still-talented cast around them? The rest of the baseball world is intently focused on all of that.
What does it mean for the fate of a front office that feels haunted by all the stars it chased but couldn’t sign? Stay tuned. There’s a season to play. The fan base is watching. And that whopping vote total tells us the entire sport is riveted on every one of these plot lines — and how they affect the people who run this team and the stars whose time has produced more frustration than thrills.
“I don’t see anybody being under more pressure than the Blue Jays,” one longtime exec said. “I think they’ve got a lot on the line this year.”
How will the Blue Jays-Vladimir Guerrero Jr. saga end? (Dan Hamilton / Imagn Images)
JED HOYER, CRAIG COUNSELL AND THE CUBS (12 VOTES): Their curse-busting World Series was (gasp) nine years ago. Their last postseason win was (what?) eight years ago. And the Cubs are now entering their fifth season since Theo Epstein headed off to figure out the inner secrets of the pitch clock. So one voter said this as clearly as it can be said: “The Cubs have to win.”
You should know that our voters like this roster. It feels as though Hoyer, the club’s president of baseball operations, has pushed many of the right buttons. And there’s a reason Counsell is the highest-paid manager in the game. But when you’re the one team spending big money in the NL Central Thrift Shop, you need something tangible to show for it. Will this be their time?
“The Cubs,” said one rival exec, “feel like they’re under heavy pressure.”
BRYCE HARPER, TREA TURNER AND THE PHILLIES’ CORE (7 VOTES): We introduced a new question in our survey this year: Which rosters — or core groups — are under the most pressure? The results were fascinating.
The Blue Jays players (nine votes) won that one, too. But right behind them were the Phillies. It’s not hard to see why.
They’re rocking the third-highest payroll in baseball. They’re coming off two straight postseason train wrecks. Yet for the second straight winter, their legendary team-builder, Dave Dombrowski, has doubled down on a roster built to win. So if this core group wants to stay together, it needs to win together.
“They’re getting older,” said one voter. “Their core group of players is starting to age. (Kyle) Schwarber and (J.T.) Realmuto are free agents at the end of the year. I just feel a sense of urgency in a very difficult division.”
JERRY DIPOTO AND THE MARINERS (7 VOTES): Let’s recap the Mariners’ star-crossed history: 48 seasons … zero appearances in the World Series … just five trips to the postseason … and haven’t even reached a League Championship Series since 2001. That doesn’t quite make them the Cleveland Browns of baseball, but that’s quite a trail of seasons that didn’t end well.
Not all of that, obviously, is on their modern-day trade maestro, and current president of baseball ops, Jerry Dipoto, now entering his 10th season atop this front office. But 130 trades into his tenure, this feels like a significant year in Dipoto’s life and times.
He has built possibly the best rotation in baseball. But ownership hasn’t given him the cash to build around it. So it feels like this team is just treading water — and the baseball world let us know it’s noticed.
“The iron is hot,” said one AL exec, “and they’re not striking.”
Who else is feeling the heat?
A.J. Preller’s Padres were among the clubs singled out by voters. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
With all the precincts counted, let’s recap the voting.
TEAMS/FRONT OFFICES/MANAGERS UNDER PRESSURE
Blue Jays — 22
Cubs — 12
Mariners — 7
Padres — 5
Angels — 2
Phillies — 2
Yankees — 1
Red Sox — 1
Cardinals — 1
Astros — 1
Twins — 1
Pirates — 1
Rockies — 1
MANAGERS WHO WERE SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED
John Schneider (Blue Jays) — 3
Oliver Marmol (Cardinals) — 2
Rob Thomson (Phillies) — 2
Aaron Boone (Yankees) — 1
Rocco Baldelli (Twins) — 1
ROSTERS/CORE GROUPS UNDER PRESSURE
Blue Jays — 9
Phillies — 7
Padres — 5
Yankees — 4
Orioles — 4
Mariners — 3
Cubs — 2
Mets — 2
Astros — 1
Dodgers — 1
Diamondbacks — 1
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Cole Burston / Getty Images; Brandon Sloter / Image Of Sport / Getty Images; Griffin Quinn / Getty Images)
Sports
Oba Femi vs Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam is a ‘generational matchup,’ WWE legend JBL says
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Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar’s feud will come to a head at SummerSlam in August, and the showdown has the potential to be WWE’s match of the year.
Femi beat Lesnar at WrestleMania 42 and led to “The Beast Incarnate” deciding to retire – at least for a moment – at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Lesnar made a dramatic return a few weeks later, challenging and beating Femi at Clash in Italy.
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Oba Femi looks on during Monday Night RAW at Allstate Arena on July 6, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois. (Melina Pizano/WWE via Getty Images)
At SummerSlam, Femi and Lesnar will do battle inside a Hell in a Cell.
WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield called the next meeting between Femi and Lesnar a “generational matchup.”
“I’ve never seen anything like Oba – well, I have. I’ve seen Brock,” he told Fox News Digital. “It’s very much the carbon copy of Brock coming in. Brock coming in was like, oh my God, who is this guy? The guy can even talk, and he’s gonna be one of the biggest stars in wrestling. Not only could he talk, he’s a really smart guy. Brock became one of the biggest draws in professional wrestling. He came one of the biggest draws in UFC. It’s an unbelievable story, and now you got somebody who can rival that character.
Brock Lesnar in action against Oba Femi during “Monday Night Raw” at TD Garden on March 23, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Owens/WWE via Getty Images)
“This Oba Femi comes out with the silly little walk he does. Everyone kinda does it, it’s like The Bushwackers. But the whole arena does it. I was in Vegas and I didn’t want to go to the matches and deal with the traffic and deal with the backstage area, and so I kinda just watched it in a sports bar. I stood in the back where nobody could recognize me, and as soon as Oba came out, the entire sports bar was sitting there doing that Oba Femi dance. The guy is just unbelievably over.
“I really think that somewhere in the NFL this year, you’re going to see an entire NFL arena doing this dance. You’re gonna have somebody like Saquon Barkley or ‘King’ (Derrick Henry) or some of these guys do this dance, and it’s infectious. Once one of them does, one of these great running backs or wide receivers, or somebody scores a touchdown, that’s when I think you’re gonna see entire arenas doing it. I just think Oba Femi is lightning in a bottle and Brock has always been that way. This is, to me, a generational matchup.”
Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi face off during WrestleMania 42: Night 2 at Allegiant Stadium on April 19, 2026, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Georgiana Dallas/WWE via Getty Images)
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SummerSlam will take place on Aug. 1 and 2 at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
Sports
Commentary: ‘I don’t want any handouts.’ Amid the Angels’ drought, a starry homecoming for Mike Trout
Mike Trout last played in an All-Star Game seven years ago. It’s crazy, really. The best player of the previous decade, the link that ties Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols to Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, has not taken an All-Star at-bat this decade.
Injuries, mostly. And he turns 35 next month.
Next week’s All-Star Game takes place in Philadelphia, about 40 miles north of Trout’s hometown of Millville, N.J. Major League Baseball reserves a potential All-Star roster spot or two each summer for distinguished players: Bryce Harper and Justin Verlander this year, Clayton Kershaw last year, Pujols and Miguel Cabrera in past years.
That could have been Trout’s spot this summer: a worthy honor for a three-time most valuable player, a local hero feted on the national stage the Angels have failed to provide him.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Trout said.
Not even at home?
“It’s an honor to get voted in and represent the American League,” he said. “For me, I don’t want any handouts.”
Trout is an All-Star for the 12th time, the old-fashioned way: He earned it.
Fans voted him into the starting lineup, with the most final-round votes of any AL outfielder. His peers voted him as one of the top three outfielders in the AL.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot of hurdles, a lot of adversity. I put some hard work in, and I did not let up. I could have easily got down on myself and not pushed through it and not come back.
“I know what I am capable of. I know I have the confidence to get back to the player I used to be.”
His .874 OPS entering play Thursday ranks second among AL outfielders, a career season for many players. In 11 of his 14 full seasons — all but the previous three — he has posted a higher OPS.
In April, in a four-game series against the New York Yankees, Trout hit five home runs and drove in nine runs.
“Everything was clicking,” he said. “When I first came up, that’s how I felt the whole season.
“Just to be able to get that feeling back, that little spark, to know it’s still in there, it makes you feel pretty good.”
For him, so does playing in Philadelphia. The first time he played there with the Angels, Millville basically closed down for the night, and just about everyone in town boarded a bus to the game. Then Trout had an exceptionally rare experience, a visiting player cheered at the home of the boo.
Mark Gubicza can testify to that. Gubicza, the two-time All-Star pitcher and now the Angels’ television analyst, grew up in Philadelphia.
“I don’t care if you were God himself, if you were wearing a different color uniform, I was still booing you,” Gubicza said. “But he was cheered.”
Still is. Trout is a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan, with his season tickets not in some climate-controlled luxury suite but along the sideline.
“The players all walk by him and say ‘Trouty!’ ” Gubicza said. “Before they all go out to get their heads beat in, they’re all saying hi.
“He’s not one of those guys that comes there to be seen. He’s going there to root. That’s why they love him: He’s one of us.”
Said Trout: “I know how passionate I am about the Eagles. From my experience as an Eagles fan, it’s just different.
“It’s like win or die.”
It’s not like that in Southern California, where almost no one listens to sports-talk radio, and where a nice day is always a day away.
No one would begrudge Trout for living year-round along the Orange County coast. (OK, maybe Philadelphia fans would.)
Roy Hallenbeck, Trout’s high school coach, remembered visiting years ago on what he called “a perfect day” and asking Trout how he could ever get tired of all that sunshine.
“Yeah, coach, I couldn’t live here,” Trout told him. “‘I need my seasons.”
Trout built a family home near his boyhood home. He built his Trout National golf resort, with a course designed by Tiger Woods, in Millville.
He is as loyal to the Angels as he is to Millville. He appreciates the team that “took a chance on a kid from a little town in southern New Jersey” and signed him to two nine-figure contract extensions.
Trout was the last Angels player to take a postseason at-bat, in 2014. Even amid baseball’s longest playoff drought, he still considers Anaheim a special place, and always will.
“It’s where it all began,” Trout said. “I think the fuel of people doubting us kind of makes it more of a fire for me to try to get back to the playoffs. I think that’s the biggest key for me.
“Could I take the easy way out and just leave? Yeah. But I think — I said this last year around this time, but it’s the same feeling I’ve been having — I really haven’t sat down and talked to anybody about it specifically, but I know there’s a time where, if things change, who knows? I don’t know. But, for me, right now, my focus is on trying to get this club back in the playoffs.”
At the All-Star Game, Trout might well hear Phillies fans beseech him to come play for the home team. However, Hallenbeck said, the hometown folks no longer are as strident in that long-held wish.
“I think the overriding sentiment of most people I talk with, even Phillies fans, is we would all — as people that know him, love him and care for him — love to watch him play relevant baseball in August and September,” Hallenbeck said. “It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who. Just being relevant late in the season would be something we would all love to see.
“Hopefully, it’s with the Angels. They’ve been so good to him. We’d love to see it there.”
So would we. In the meantime, in the absence of a World Series, Trout deserves to enjoy his homecoming game.
Sports
London descends into disorder as Morocco fans flood streets after World Cup elimination by France
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Public unrest began in parts of London late Thursday night, and it appears Morocco’s exit from the 2026 FIFA World Cup at the hands of France is the reason.
France took down Morocco 2-0, eliminating the African country for the second consecutive tournament, this time in a quarterfinal match.
As a result, many feared Paris would erupt into riots, especially after the chaos that followed Paris Saint-Germain’s UEFA Champions League victory over Arsenal in May.
Instead, images and videos from Edgware Road in northwest London showed police clashing with large crowds as smoke billowed through the streets and debris littered the roadway.
A police vehicle is parked in a road as people from pro-Palestinian activist groups gather near the Edgware United Synagogue during a demonstration against the “Great Israeli Real Estate Event” organized by real-estate agency My Home in Israel, which markets property in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, in London, Britain, June 14, 2026. (Toby Shepheard)
Riot police, equipped with shields and body armor, tried to contain the crowds as they clashed with people launching fireworks and throwing debris. One video also appeared to show an officer down.
KYLIAN MBAPPÉ, OUSMANE DEMBÉLÉ FIRE FRANCE INTO WORLD CUP SEMIFINALS WITH WIN OVER MOROCCO
It’s unknown what happened to the officer who was down on the asphalt or how he was injured.
Fans waved Moroccan flags in the middle of the streets, which held up traffic. Some even jumped on top of vehicles trying to get through the area.
Moroccan fans in the stands before a FIFA World Cup 2026 quarterfinal match between France and Morocco at Boston Stadium July 9, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (Richard Sellers/SportsphotoAllstar)
Similar scenes unfolded after Egypt’s World Cup exit, when Argentina rallied for a controversial 3-2 victory that featured several disputed officiating decisions.
Paris, on the other hand, looked more like a city celebrating than one on the brink of a riot. Supporters of both France and Morocco flooded the streets, slowing traffic in several parts of the city.
One video showed horns blasting from cars with French and Moroccan flags out the windows on the L’avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Supporters on the side of the road, waving their own flags, joined in on the celebration.
France’s Kylian Mbappé scored his eighth goal of this World Cup, which ties him for the most with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. Ousmane Dembélé also scored in the second half for France in the 2-0 win over Morocco.
It’s the third straight semifinal appearance for France, while Morocco still made World Cup history despite the loss. After becoming the first African country to reach the quarterfinals and semifinals in World Cup history in 2022, Morocco added to that by becoming the first-ever African nation to reach more than one quarterfinal.
Moroccan fans react while attending a watch party for the World Cup round of 8 match between France and Morocco in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 9, 2026. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)
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Morocco’s exit means there are no more African nations alive in the World Cup. France will be taking on the winner of Spain and Belgium, while England and Norway and Argentina and Switzerland face off in the quarterfinals.
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