It's early September, which means that baseball fans around the country are spending their time sweating out each and every game while frantically refreshing the standings page to see how close their team is to clinching a spot in the postseason. But while October is on the mind at the moment, it's far from the only thing worth paying attention to in MLB at the moment.
We're also getting closer and closer to a paradigm-shifting offseason, one in which Chicago White Sox slugger Munetaka Murakami looms as one of the most fascinating extension candidates in the league. The recent blockbuster sale of the Los Angeles Angels, meanwhile, could trigger something of a wave as other owners start to more seriously considering cashing in. Sunday's rumor roundup has the latest on all that and more, including when Aaron Judge might finally return to help the New York Yankees' playoff push.
White Sox want a Munetaka Murakami extension, but finding one could prove tricky
Nightengale reports that Chicago is "interested in talking to slugger Munetaka Murakami about an extension" — as well they should, considering his role in the team's revival this season and the fact that he has just one year of team control remaining before hitting free agency after the 2027 campaign. But finding common ground could be much easier said than done.
Murakami has been a tremendously impactful hitter this season, with a 131 wRC+ and 30 homers in just 107 games — power that's more than backed up by the underlying data. He'll also still be just 27 years old by the time next season ends. He and his camp will almost certainly expect to get paid near the top of the first-base market — a market that got reset when Pete Alonso signed for north of $30 million per season last winter — in order to forgo hitting the free market in just 12 months or so.
But will the White Sox be willing to meet that price? Murakami has been great this year, no doubt. But he's also posted a .647 OPS in August and a .393 mark so far in September, a sign that the league might be starting to adjust to him after his torrid first three months. His whiff and K rates are still among the worst in baseball, a sign of just how far south things can go when he's not doing maximum damage whenever pitchers throw him a mistake. Add in the fact that he adds very little value as a runner or fielder and struggles against lefties, and is that really a player Chicago wants to pay like a premium middle-of-the-order bat?
Aaron Judge timeline becomes clearer after latest rehab step
Both Judge himself and New York Yankees fans are chomping at the bit for the reigning AL MVP to make his return to the lineup after missing a huge chunk of the summer with a rib fracture. But while Judge took on-field batting practice for the first time since the injury this weekend in San Diego, he still has at least one more step to clear before the team's medical staff clears him.
Judge has still yet to take game swings off of live pitching, which Aaron Boone told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner would need to happen “a couple of times" in order for the outfielder to come off the IL. The first time will most likely come during New York's off day on Monday, meaning he almost certainly won't be back until next weekend's Subwa Series against the Mets in the Bronx. And right now, every game without Judge is a blow, as the Yankees are looking to erase a four-game deficit in the AL East with just weeks remaining in the regular season.
Reds could be next MLB team put up for sale amid skyrocketing valuations
It appears that Art Moreno cashing in the Los Angeles Angels for a whopping $4 billion has tempted other penny-pinching owners to take the money rather than continue to put up with grief from enraged fans. According to Nightengale, rival owners predict that the Cincinnati Reds and current owner Bob Castellini could be next in line.
He doesn't get as much attention as Bob Nutting and some of the other faces of MLB's upcoming labor war, but the Castellini family has been failing Reds fans for years now, running out bottom-of-the-barrel payrolls despite having game-changing homegrown talent like Elly De La Cruz, Hunter Greene and Chase Burns. That includes this past offseason, when the team whiffed on Kyle Schwarber and then sat on its hands.Â
Castellini bought the franchise for $270 million in 2006, a number he'd dwarf if he sold the team today. But as much as Reds fans might hate to see he and his children make out like bandits, it would be a small price to pay for a glimmer of hope.
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