4:19 AM ET ESPN.com Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print Will New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera become the first unanimous selection for baseball’s Hall of Fame? Will Mariners slugger Edgar Martinez cash in on his last year on the main ballot? Is this the year enough voters will move past the steroid taint

8:00 AM ET It would be inaccurate to say that a shelf full of Gold Gloves used to be easily converted into a golden ticket to Cooperstown, not when players such as 11-time winner Keith Hernandez, nine-timer Don Mattingly and a handful of eight-timers (Mark Belanger, Paul Blair, Jim Edmonds, George Scott and Frank White)

7:30 PM ET Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Tommy Pham issued a stinging assessment Thursday of his team’s attendance woes, telling SiriusXM that a new stadium or even relocation might be needed to draw more fans. “Do I think something has to happen, whether it be a new ballpark, maybe a new city? I think so,”

11:40 AM ET Free-agent slugger Nelson Cruz has agreed to a one-year deal with the Minnesota Twins for $14.3 million, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday. The deal also features a $12 million team option for 2020, according to the source. Yahoo Sports first reported that the two sides had agreed to a deal.

As we count down the hours to the new year, baseball is still on the mind. It’s always on the mind. I’m thinking of some of 2018’s still-unanswered questions as we look ahead to 2019. … Where will Bryce Harper and Manny Machado sign? This is the big one, the granddaddy of them all. The

11:07 AM ET Josiah Viera, the subject of an E:60 feature, died Monday morning. He was 14 years old. Born May 25, 2004, Viera weighed 5.5 pounds at birth and gained just two more pounds over the next six months. On his first birthday, doctors diagnosed Viera with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria, a fatal genetic condition characterized

8:00 AM ET As you dig out from the post-Christmas pile of pine needles and wrapping paper, baseball writers are scrambling to mail their votes by the Dec. 31 deadline to help elect the 2019 class to the Baseball Hall of Fame. To gain some perspective about some of the best hitters on the ballot,

12:30 PM ET Jurickson Profar was the No. 1 prospect in baseball at one point, before a shoulder injury robbed him of two years of playing time in the majors, a setback from which he seems to have just recovered completely in 2018. The Rangers, however, have no real spot for him at this point,

11:33 AM ET Buried beneath the anticipation of Manny Machado’s tour of teams and a continued flurry of trades, The Associated Press published news that was jarring and yet completely unsurprising to some agents and executives: For the first time since 2004, the average salary of major league players declined. Not by much, mind you.

7:33 AM ET The Athletics and Mike Fiers have agreed to a two-year contract for the right-hander to return to Oakland, according to MLB.com. MLB.com reports that the deal, which is pending a physical, could be worth up to $15 million. Fiers, 33, is coming off his best season (12-8, 3.56 ERA) as a major