6:30 AM ET It’s time for the offseason! Which means it’s time for our annual way-too-early 2023 power rankings. The 2022 season came to an end on Saturday night in Houston, as the Astros won their second World Series title since 2017 after defeating the Phillies in Game 6. What do the next few months

11:19 PM ET HOUSTON — The center-field fence at Minute Maid Park sits 409 feet away from home plate. The green batter’s eye that resides behind it stands 40 feet tall. Players don’t ever hit baseballs beyond it. And yet Saturday night, with the game in doubt and a title on the line, Yordan Alvarez

8:53 PM ET HOUSTON — Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson said he plans to have Ranger Suarez available out of the bullpen in relief of Zack Wheeler in Saturday’s Game 6, a must-win game given the Houston Astros‘ 3-2 advantage in this World Series. Wheeler experienced a slight dip in fastball velocity during his Game

7:15 AM ET PHILADELPHIA — The baseball gods wasted no time in giving Philadelphia Phillies boss Rob Thomson his first big managerial moment in the Fall Classic. Five months after taking over from the fired Joe Girardi, Thomson had already navigated the Phillies’ underwhelming end to the regular season and three challenging rounds of the

9:18 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge was voted player of the year and the American League outstanding player by fellow major leaguers in the annual Players Choice Awards from the Major League Baseball Players Association. Judge set an AL record with 62 homers, breaking the previous mark of 61

6:22 AM ET Associated Press TOKYO — Japan’s career home run leader Sadaharu Oh has been hospitalized with COVID-19 symptoms, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Friday. Kyodo cited the Japanese club the SoftBank Hawks, where Oh is the club chairman. Kyodo said Oh was admitted to a hospital in southwestern Japan in Miyazaki prefecture.

2:31 AM ET PHILADELPHIA — Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander knew the stakes. He had stepped up to the mound on Thursday for Game 5 of the World Series with plenty to prove. Winless in seven career games in the Fall Classic, he had just blown a 5-0 lead in Game 1 of this series,

2:53 PM ET Associated Press MIAMI — Skip Schumaker thought his meeting with the Miami Marlins might last an hour. Turns out, he’ll be around them for quite a bit longer. Schumaker was introduced as the Marlins’ manager on Thursday, a little over a week after accepting the job and replacing Don Mattingly at the

8:04 PM ET PHILADELPHIA — The season will come full circle for Philadelphia Phillies starter Noah Syndergaard and Houston Astros ace Justin Verlander when they face off in Game 5 of the World Series on Thursday just as they did in their first starts of the regular season back in April. Both were coming off

2:21 AM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” PHILADELPHIA — Late last week, before Cristian Javier etched his name into baseball history, his Houston Astros teammates attempted to describe his fastball. By velocity alone, it is a milquetoast effort, flung