Sports

Dodgers open second half seeking improved health, more from stars

Published

2 minutes ago

July 15, 2026

LOS ANGELES — Regular-season success feels like a given around these parts because the Los Angeles Dodgers have created an ecosystem in which anything less than a 14th consecutive postseason berth feels unfathomable.

The reigning back-to-back World Series champions own baseball’s best record at the All-Star break, at 61-36. Their plus-149 run differential also tops the majors. The Dodgers had not been swept all year until the Arizona Diamondbacks took three in a row from them to end the first half. They are not infallible, but with less than a month until the trade deadline, they don’t have an obvious hole on the roster.

“I think overall it’s been really good,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Certainly, the record speaks to it.”

The Dodgers expected to be a good regular-season club. This club’s legacy will be defined by whether they can become the fifth team to bring home a third consecutive World Series title. Neutralizing this Death Star juggernaut requires finding the thermal exhaust port. The next few months will determine where that is for the Dodgers.

These are the most pressing second-half storylines for the Dodgers:

How the Dodgers manage Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani swung at the first pitch he saw on Sunday and sent it over the fence, so he only had to jog around the bases. He cruised into second base for a double in his second at-bat. Only in his third at-bat, when he tried beating out an infield single, did the most important player for the Dodgers show any signs of discomfort as he hobbled back to the dugout.

His knee has been bothering him for a month, and prompted the Dodgers to skip his final pitching start of the first half. Ohtani went directly from Dodger Stadium to get his knee drained and likely get a pain-killing injection after Sunday’s game, a planned course of action to maximize the All-Star break.

Ohtani said the other ailments he’s had this season, including a blister and some biceps tightness, are normal wear and tear of the season. This issue is different. Ohtani reportedly told Japanese media the discomfort centers on his kneecap. Ohtani had surgery in 2019 to address a bipartite patella that he was born with.

The hope is that the course of treatment during the All-Star break knocks out the pain entirely. Ohtani will still need to be managed carefully. He has faced 340 batters as a pitcher and made 406 plate appearances as a hitter, giving him 746 times where he’s been directly involved in the game in the first half. In 2023, his last year as a full-time two-way player, he had 1,130 such interactions total.

What Ohtani is doing on both sides of the ball is remarkable. Making sure he can do it in October is paramount.

“Nothing is gonna come in front of being healthy for October,” Roberts said.

Will this roster ever be at full strength?

Throughout the first half, several observers around the Dodgers noted how they’ve found success despite who they’ve been missing. Blake Snell has made just one start. Edwin Díaz has appeared in just seven games. Kyle Tucker has an OPS that starts with a 7. They only just got Tommy Edman back, and they lost Kiké Hernández almost as soon as he returned from offseason surgery. The Dodgers have gone from Will Smith not needing a stint on the injured list to him being out for more than a month with a neck issue, just as they thought Tyler Glasnow wouldn’t need to go on the IL in early May and he hasn’t pitched since.

The Dodgers have not seen a fully formed version of their roster this season. Will they?

Díaz did indeed appear in a game on Saturday night … in Ontario, with the Dodgers’ Class A affiliate. This was the start of his rehab assignment after undergoing surgery to clean out bone chips from his elbow. He could be back sooner rather than later.

Snell will start a rehab assignment next week and could be back within four or five starts after a procedure for bone spurs in his elbow.

Hernández will start a rehab assignment after the All-Star break and could be active by the time they next play at Dodger Stadium on July 28.

Glasnow is progressing slowly, but did throw a bullpen session last weekend. He is hoping to clear each step without his back flaring up.

Then there’s Smith, who has been swinging, but his recovery is stagnant.

“Certainly expect him back this year,” Roberts said of Smith. “Just have no idea when.”

So … what do the Dodgers need at the deadline?

The Dodgers wrapped up the season’s first half with a .777 OPS, tops in baseball. While Roberts griped that the bats could be more consistent in the second half, there isn’t an obvious place for the Dodgers to seek out more offense.

Their October rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow still projects to be one of the game’s best, and that alignment would essentially push Justin Wrobleski, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan and others (potentially River Ryan) into relief roles, boosting the Dodgers’ bullpen.

The Dodgers could seek to add impact for impact’s sake with Tarik Skubal, but there isn’t another obvious candidate out there on the market. They could canvass the margins, like when they acquired Brock Stewart, Alex Call and prospects James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard as part of a 2025 deadline haul in which the only prospects they surrendered all period were Hunter Feduccia, Sean Paul Linan and Eriq Swan.

They might be more intriguing in the market for what they could give up in a trade. The Dodgers have a potential surplus of starting pitching and have already traded a big-league starter at each of the last three deadlines (Noah Syndergaard in 2023, James Paxton in 2024 and Dustin May in 2025).

The Dodgers also have a farm system loaded with outfielders who could be used to reconfigure their group of prospects. They could be an interesting team at the deadline, just not in the way you’d think.

Can their stars perform like stars?

Ohtani has a .952 OPS and a 1.79 ERA on the mound, so you can check him off. Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy put up All-Star first halves. Andy Pages was the Dodgers’ best player for stretches of April and May, making him a first-time All-Star even as his bat has fallen off. Mookie Betts was starting to figure it out, but he still has a 93 wRC+.

Tucker is supposed to be the guy to change things for the Dodgers. He, Pages and Dalton Rushing are the only regulars on the active roster under 30. Tucker is also the only player of that group receiving a record average annual value after signing a four-year, $240 million deal this winter.

Tucker hasn’t been an active detriment to the roster. He’s produced at around a league-average rate. His defense has been fine. But he has been neither the floor-raiser the Dodgers signed nor the budding superstar he was for much of his time with the Houston Astros and in the first half of 2025 with the Chicago Cubs. Tucker felt as if he finished the first half in a good place.

“Controlled the strike zone a lot better, barreled up a lot more balls,” Tucker said. “Just need them to fall a little bit more.”

The Dodgers don’t necessarily need him to play like a superstar until October. But they’re expecting more than what they’ve gotten so far.

Sports

Ryan Garcia vs Conor Benn: Briton to face WBC welterweight champion on 12 September

Published

11 minutes ago

July 15, 2026

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The 27-year-old has won 25 of his 28 professional fights, losing two with one no-contest, and was suspended from boxing for a year between 2024 and 2025 after failing a drugs test.

Benn, who has lost just once in 26 fights, was also sidelined for a year amid a doping scandal.

In May, Garcia appeared on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show to announce he would be facing Benn, but Oscar de la Hoya, who promotes the American, said the following month that no talks had taken place.

Garcia and Benn were on stage last week when fighters weighed in before UFC 329.

Benn’s last fight at welterweight was more than two years ago when he beat Peter Dobson by decision in Las Vegas.

He moved up two divisions in 2025 for two fights against Chris Eubank Jr at middleweight, before beating Regis Prograis in April at a catchweight – 3lb above the welterweight limit.

Benn left promoters Matchroom to sign a one-bout deal with Zuffa Boxing in February and has since penned a multi-fight deal with them.

In April, Benn told BBC Sport that Garcia was “good for boxing” but believes he is a “liability”.

Sports

Joey, Jesse Buss pursuing NBA Europe ownership: Sources

Published

19 minutes ago

July 15, 2026

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Siblings Joey Buss (left) and Jesse Buss (right) attend a 2022 Lakers news conference.

Siblings Joey Buss (left) and Jesse Buss (right) have been looking for a pathway back into significant ownership in pro sports after the Lakers’ sale last summer. Jay L. Clendenin / Getty Images

July 15, 2026 2:16 pm EDT Updated

Buss Sports Capital, a business venture launched by Joey and Jesse Buss following the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers, is actively pursuing NBA Europe franchises in multiple markets, sources briefed on their plans told The Athletic.

The group has placed multiple bids for ownership in the developing league, including in London; Manchester, England; and Lyon, France. The sources, granted anonymity so they could speak freely about ownership strategies, said that a venture by Lakers star Luka Dončić and former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson Jr. in Italy could also be a possibility.

Joey and Jesse Buss, the youngest sons of former Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, have been looking for a pathway back into significant ownership in pro sports after the Lakers were sold to financier Mark Walter for a record $10 billion valuation last summer. As part of that deal, Jeanie Buss, their sister, retained the franchise’s governorship for at least five years.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking at a news conference Tuesday in Las Vegas, said NBA Europe is expected to make decisions regarding bids in the upcoming weeks, and the league is set to launch in October 2027.

The Athletic reported Tuesday that Buss Sports Capital is also interested in an ownership stake in Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres as part of the group led by José Feliciano and Kwanza Jones.

The moves in MLB and NBA Europe come after the Buss brothers were relieved of their duties with the Lakers last fall. Joey Buss had been the CEO and president of the G League’s South Bay Lakers while Jesse Buss was the team’s scouting director. They remain minority owners of the Lakers.

League sources said they expected the decision following the sale of the Lakers to Walter. Shortly after the deal, the brothers formed Buss Sports Capital to continue in sports ownership.

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Sports

The Steve Yzerman era is over for the Red Wings. Now what?

Published

28 minutes ago

July 15, 2026

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From the moment Steve Yzerman returned to the Detroit Red Wings as general manager in 2019, the city and franchise he once led to glory as a player wanted desperately to believe he could do it all again in the front office.

He brought hope. He said the right things. And there were moments where it looked like it just might work.

But on Wednesday, the Yzerman era came to an abrupt end when the Red Wings announced he would transition from his role as executive vice president and general manager into a senior adviser to governor and CEO Chris Ilitch.

Technically, Yzerman remains in his current role while the Red Wings conduct a search for a new head of hockey operations. And it’s unclear how long that process could take. But Wednesday marks the functional end of Yzerman’s tenure, which once seemed to carry so much promise.

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There are all kinds of questions that follow the news. One big one is the timing, three months after the season ended in yet another late-season collapse, and just two weeks after the busiest portion of the offseason. But the two most important questions are: What went wrong? And where do the Red Wings go from here?

The Red Wings never made the playoffs in seven seasons under Yzerman, and now their postseason drought sits at a decade. His departure comes at a time when their captain and top center, Dylan Larkin, has requested a trade from his hometown franchise. All is not well with the Red Wings, and the release announcing the leadership change acknowledged as much.

“Clearly, we are not where we and our fans expect to be as an organization,” Ilitch said. “I’m looking forward to bringing in new leadership to build the championship-caliber organization Hockeytown deserves.”

Ilitch had plenty of kind things to say about Yzerman in the release, including that his “lifetime of contributions to the Red Wings has meant more to this franchise than words can truly express, and I have the highest level of respect for his continued commitment to our organization.” That Yzerman will now apparently serve as an adviser to Ilitch himself is notable too.

But between the on-ice results and off-ice tension, something had to change. Now, it will.

There are many different lenses through which to view Yzerman’s tenure. Start with the bottom line, which is that the Red Wings still remain outside the playoffs, and have been passed by several divisional opponents who were on parallel rebuilding timelines. The Montreal Canadiens just went to the Eastern Conference final. The Buffalo Sabres — who held the mantle of the league’s longest playoff drought before Detroit — just won the Atlantic Division. The Red Wings are still on the outside looking in.

That owes to multiple factors, some in Yzerman’s control and some not. But professional sports will always be a results business above all, and Yzerman failed to deliver them.

He made some strong early draft picks, starting with his very first one in 2019. Moritz Seider was a shocking pick at the time at sixth overall, but is now the load-bearing pillar of the Red Wings’ franchise. But between rocky results in free agency and trades, an underwhelming yield outside the first round in amateur drafts and a locker room that just couldn’t seem to push through the hardest time of the year, the Red Wings had become the worst things an NHL team can be: stagnant and stuck.

Paradoxical as it may be, though, the franchise is still in a better place than it was when he arrived. Back then, the cupboard was barren of prospects — owing both to a 25-year playoff streak that cost significant draft capital, and major drafting misses at the end of previous GM Ken Holland’s tenure — and had had few assets of meaningful value to deal from, either. It was a true ground-up rebuild.

That is a very different situation than the one his soon-to-be-successor will inherit.

While the Larkin trade request still looms — and what this news means for that situation is its own interesting question — the version of the Red Wings that Yzerman is leaving behind has a clear foundation in Seider, Lucas Raymond and Simon Edvinsson, a deep pool of prospects and young players (albeit one lacking obvious future stars) and some serious tradeable assets, led by Larkin.

You can argue — and I have — that with their own outlook looking bleak in a loaded Atlantic, the Red Wings’ best path forward, even before this news, was to reset around a younger core, even if it meant the playoff drought continuing to drag on.

With a management change, that option becomes even more compelling. There are still some big decisions to make — particularly around leading scorer Alex DeBrincat, who has one year left on his contract at age 28 and is eligible for an extension — but the Red Wings as currently constructed (especially with Larkin’s future in doubt) were already a long shot to compete for a Stanley Cup in the next couple of years.

And while they cannot simply punt Seider and Raymond’s prime years — as they did with far too many of Larkin’s — the team the next GM inherits will be deeper and more equipped to pull off a shorter re-tool than Yzerman ever really had a chance to. The leadership change may even squeeze some final drops of patience from the fan base, too.

Of course, we won’t know exactly what the next manager’s vision is until one is hired. And in a changing NHL, executing a vision is always harder than it seems. Yzerman’s tenure reinforced that.

His return to Detroit won’t have the storybook ending so many dreamed of back in 2019. The once-legendary playoff streak he helped author as a player has given way to a devastating drought for the franchise. And as his tenure as general manager comes to an abrupt conclusion, the Red Wings are now left to search for a new way out.