SEATTLE (AP) — Major League Baseball's independent investigation found no credible evidence to support claims of disparaging comments and discriminatory treatment by members of the Seattle Mariners front office.MLB said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation found the Mariners did not violate baseball's "workplace code of conduct, or applicable anti-discrimination law," in the treatment of Lorena Martin or in her termination by the club. Martin was the club's director of high performance for one season, then was fired following the 2018 season.The investigation also concluded there was no evidence to support Martin's claims that general manager Jerry Dipoto, director of player development Andy McKay and manager Scott Servais made disparaging comments against Latino players. The Mariners have denied Martin's claims since they were first made.Martin has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the team. MLB said it will have no further comment regarding the investigation due... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Major League Baseball's independent investigation found no credible evidence to support claims of disparaging comments and discriminatory treatment by members of the Seattle Mariners front office.MLB said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation found the Mariners did not violate baseball's "workplace code of conduct, or applicable anti-discrimination law," in the treatment of Lorena Martin or in her termination by the club. Martin was the club's director of high performance for one season, then was fired following the 2018 season.The investigation also concluded there was no evidence to support Martin's claims that general manager Jerry Dipoto, director of player development Andy McKay and manager Scott Servais made disparaging comments against Latino players. The Mariners have denied Martin's claims since they were first made.Martin has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the team. MLB said it will have no further comment regarding the investigation due... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Major League Baseball's independent investigation found no credible evidence to support claims of disparaging comments and discriminatory treatment by members of the Seattle Mariners front office.MLB said in a statement Wednesday that the investigation found the Mariners did not violate baseball's "workplace code of conduct, or applicable anti-discrimination law," in the treatment of Lorena Martin or in her termination by the club. Martin was the club's director of high performance for one season, then was fired following the 2018 season.The investigation also concluded there was no evidence to support Martin's claims that general manager Jerry Dipoto, director of player development Andy McKay and manager Scott Servais made disparaging comments against Latino players. The Mariners have denied Martin's claims since they were first made."I hired her. At the end of the day we believe that, I guess, justice will prevail. There is an ongoing investigation I'm not going to get... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Japanese left-hander Yusei Kikuchi has finalized four-year contract with the Seattle Mariners that guarantees $56 million and incudes club options that could make it worth $109 million over seven seasons.Seattle announced the agreement Wednesday, just ahead of the deadline for the 27-year-old to sign with a major league club.He receives a $6 million signing bonus and salaries of $8 million this year, $14 million in 2020 and $15 million in 2021. The agreement includes a $13 million player option for 2022, and Seattle has options worth $16.5 million annually for 2022-25.Seattle has until the third day after the 2021 World Series to exercise all four team options. If the Mariners decline, Kikuchi has until the fifth day after the 2021 World Series to exercise his player option."Yusei's combination of character, talent, experience and relative age made him a primary target in our roster building plans," Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "He is an exciting young pitcher... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Japanese left-hander Yusei Kikuchi has finalized four-year contract with the Seattle Mariners that guarantees $56 million and incudes club options that would be make it worth $109 million over seven seasons.Seattle announced the agreement Wednesday, just ahead of the deadline for the 27-year-old to sign with a major league club or be forced to return to Japan for another season.He receives a $6 million signing bonus, salaries of $8 million this year, $14 million in 2020 and $15 million in 2021, and the agreement includes a $13 million player option for 2022. Seattle has options worth $16.5 million annually for 2002-25.Seattle has until the third day after the 2021 World Series to exercise all four team options. If the Mariners decline, Kikuchi has until the fifth day after the 2021 World Series to exercise his player option."Yusei's combination of character, talent, experience and relative age made him a primary target in our roster building plans," Seattle general manager... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Japanese left-hander Yusei Kikuchi has finalized four-year contract with the Seattle Mariners that guarantees $50 million and incudes club options that would be make it worth $103 million over seven seasons.Seattle announced the agreement Wednesday, just ahead of the deadline for the 27-year-old to sign with a major league club or be forced to return to Japan for another season.He receives salaries of $8 million this year, $14 million in 2020 and $15 million in 2021, and the agreement includes a $13 million player option for 2022. Seattle has options worth $16.5 million annually for 2002-25.Seattle has until the third day after the 2021 World Series to exercise all four team options. If the Mariners decline, Kikuchi has until the fifth day after the 2021 World Series to exercise his player option."Yusei's combination of character, talent, experience and relative age made him a primary target in our roster building plans," Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "He is... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners have signed Japanese left-handed pitcher Yusei Kikuchi to a four-year deal just ahead of the deadline for him to sign with a major league club or be forced to return to Japan for another season.Seattle made the signing official Wednesday after word first surfaced of an agreement late on New Year's Eve. Kikuchi was one of the few starter options remaining on the market and he will be joining a team with a long history of success with Japanese players."Yusei's combination of character, talent, experience and relative age made him a primary target in our roster building plans," Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "He is an exciting young pitcher with the ability to impact the Mariners, both in the present and future."Kikuchi was posted by the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan in early December. Under new posting rules, he had until Wednesday afternoon Seattle time to sign with a major league team or be forced to return to Japan... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle Mariners say they fired high-performance director Lorena Martin this season in part because she created a hostile work environment and ignored recommended treatments for injured players issued by team doctors.The Mariners' claims were revealed in a filing in King County Superior Court in response to Martin's lawsuit against the team filed earlier this month. The club's response was an eight-page, weeks-old letter originally filed in an attempt to have her situation settled in private arbitration, but it became public after it was attached to a motion filed by Martin's attorney.The Mariners say unnamed employees had warned general manager Jerry Dipoto last March that Martin was ignoring medical advice on treatment of injured players and that she was misrepresenting herself "as a medical doctor to other MLB teams' staff."The team also said it had received "overwhelming and accumulating" employee complaints about Martin.Martin's wrongful-termination lawsuit claimed... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — A wrongful-termination lawsuit filed by the Seattle Mariners' former high-performance director alleges she went to team owners John Stanton and Buck Ferguson and CEO Kevin Mather as far back as March to complain about alleged discriminatory treatment.The lawsuit also says several Latino players complained to Dr. Lorena Martin about feeling excluded and that general manager Jerry Dipoto took midseason steps to deliberately undermine the progress and mental state of star pitcher Felix Hernandez.Martin's lawsuit, filed Wednesday, counters claims by the team that Martin did not approach anybody with complaints of racial and gender discrimination before making accusatory Instagram posts last month that led to her termination.The Seattle Times reports that the lawsuit states Mather, after hearing Martin's complaints about Dipoto, vowed to address the matter and put a stop to what Mather viewed as bullying.And the lawsuit says Dipoto blamed Latino players for ruining the team's... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — Mariners fans have waited longer than any supporters in North America for a return to the postseason.General manager Jerry Dipoto is asking Seattle to wait a little bit more.Dipoto continued a whirlwind reshaping of the Mariners' roster Monday by sending Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to the Mets and Jean Segura, James Pazos and Juan Nicasio to Philadelphia. In exchange, Seattle received a bundle of prospects and freed up significant salary space for after the 2020 season."This is what a reset looks like," Dipoto said.Dipoto believes the flurry of moves he's made in the past few weeks can get the Mariners into contention by 2021, calling the strategy a "step back" rather than a rebuild, even though it could take longer than a couple of seasons for Seattle to return to relevancy.The Mariners have been the busiest team in baseball, making wholesale changes to begin the offseason. Salary and experience are being swapped for youth and hope, with an eye on opening a competitive... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — After a season marred by narrow defeats, Jacob deGrom became a runaway winner.The New York Mets ace easily won the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night, a reward for a historically fruitless season in Flushing. The right-hander had just 10 victories, the fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter.The AL prize also reflected a change in voters' values, with Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays narrowly beating out past winners Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber for his first Cy Young. Snell pitched just 180 2/3 innings, fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter. Over full seasons, Snell is the second starter to win the award with fewer than 200 innings after Clayton Kershaw logged 198 1/3 in 2014."I definitely think the game has changed in that aspect," deGrom said."I feel like it's just turning more into quality of work and what did you accomplish in those innings," Snell said. "I think that's just the way it's going."DeGrom easily beat out Washington's Max Scherzer,... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — After a season marred by narrow defeats, Jacob deGrom became a runaway winner.The New York Mets ace easily won the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night, a reward for a historically fruitless season in Flushing. The right-hander had just 10 victories, the fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter.The AL prize also reflected a change in voters' values, with Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays narrowly beating out past winners Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber for his first Cy Young. Snell pitched just 180 2/3 innings, fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter. Over full seasons, Snell is the second starter to win the award with fewer than 200 innings after Clayton Kershaw logged 198 1/3 in 2014."I definitely think the game has changed in that aspect," deGrom said."I feel like it's just turning more into quality of work and what did you accomplish in those innings," Snell said. "I think that's just the way it's going."DeGrom easily beat out Washington's Max Scherzer,... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — After a season marred by narrow defeats, Jacob deGrom became a runaway winner.The New York Mets ace easily won the National League Cy Young Award on Wednesday night, a reward for a historically fruitless season in Flushing. The right-hander won just 10 games, the fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter.DeGrom easily beat out Washington's Max Scherzer, who was seeking a third straight Cy Young and fourth overall. DeGrom got 29 first-place votes and 207 points from members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Scherzer had the other first-place vote.Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays narrowly beat out past winners Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber for his first AL Cy Young after leading the majors with 21 victories.In his first season after chopping off his distinctive long hair, deGrom cut down hitters from start to finish despite little help from teammates. He had a 1.70 ERA, the lowest in the NL since Zack Greinke's 1.66 mark in 2015. Yet the 30-year-old right-hander... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets has easily won the National League Cy Young Award, and Blake Snell of the Tampa Bay Rays has edged out two past winners for the American League prize.DeGrom won just 10 games, the fewest ever by a Cy Young-winning starter. He got 29 first-place votes and 207 points in voting announced Wednesday by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Washington's Max Scherzer got the other first-place vote and finished second while seeking a third straight Cy Young and fourth overall.Snell narrowly beat Justin Verlander and Corey Kluber for his first AL Cy Young after leading the majors with 21 victories.In his first season after chopping off his distinctive long hair, deGrom cut down hitters from start to finish despite little help from teammates. He had a 1.70 ERA, the lowest in the NL since Zack Greinke's 1.66 mark in 2015. Yet the 30-year-old right-hander went 10-9, eclipsing the low bar among starters set by Seattle's Felix Hernandez when he... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year award along with two New York Yankees infielders.The Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed the finalists for its major awards Monday night. The winners will be announced next week.Ohtani figures to be in a tight race with Yankees infielders Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres after a historic first season with the Los Angeles Angels. The two-way Japanese sensation was 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA as a starting pitcher before an elbow injury forced him off the mound. He finished out the season exclusively as a designated hitter, hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 61 RBIs.Ohtani is the first player ever to hit 15 home runs and strike out 50 batters in a season, and he joined Babe Ruth as the only players ever to hit 15 homers and pitch 50 innings. He had Tommy John surgery after the season and is not expected to pitch in 2019.Andujar hit 47 doubles, tied for the second-most by a rookie in major league history, while... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is a finalist for the AL Rookie of the Year award along with two New York Yankees infielders.The Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed the finalists for its major awards Monday night. The winners will be announced next week.Ohtani figures to be in a tight race with Yankees infielders Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres after a historic first season with the Los Angeles Angels. The two-way Japanese sensation was 4-2 with a 3.31 ERA as a starting pitcher before an elbow injury forced him off the mound. He finished out the season exclusively as a designated hitter, hitting .285 with 22 home runs and 61 RBIs.Ohtani is the first player ever to hit 15 home runs and strike out 50 batters in a season, and he joined Babe Ruth as the only players ever to hit 15 homers and pitch 50 innings. He had Tommy John surgery after the season and is not expected to pitch in 2019.Andujar hit 47 doubles, tied for the second-most by a rookie in major league history, while... [More]

SEATTLE (AP) — In most years, 89 wins would have landed the Seattle Mariners in the postseason and ended the longest playoff drought of any team in the four major professional sports.The Mariners picked the wrong year to collapse, going from being in control of a playoff berth at midseason to completely out of the race in early September. And with an expensive and aging core group, Seattle is back to asking whether it should push to be competitive with the rest of the American League powers in 2019 or take a step back and make changes this offseason in the hope of longer sustained success."Leaving spring training, if you had told any of us that 89 wins was our outcome this year, regardless of how we were going to get there, we would have been thrilled," Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "We picked a unique season where 89 wins wasn't enough."Seattle's season was defined by its fade. In the middle of June, the Mariners held an 11-game lead over the A's in the standings. By the beginning... [More]

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers clinched baseball's final playoff berth and gave themselves a chance to still win the NL West, getting a go-ahead triple from Manny Machado in the eighth inning Saturday and beating the San Francisco Giants 10-6.The defending NL champions locked up their sixth straight trip to the postseason, assuring at least a spot in the wild-card game. The Dodgers joined Colorado, Atlanta, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee in the NL playoff field.Los Angeles began the day one game behind Colorado for the division lead, and the Rockies hosted Washington later in the day. The regular season is scheduled to end Sunday — if Los Angeles and Colorado finish even, there will be a one-game tiebreaker for the West title Monday at Dodger Stadium.Machado, the star infielder acquired from Baltimore during the All-Star break, hit a two-out triple off Mark Melancon (1-4) for a 6-5 lead. Max Muncy added a two-run double during a four-run ninth.Alex Wood (9-7) pitched the seventh... [More]

CHICAGO (AP) — Shortly after their playoff spot was assured, the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-6 on Albert Almora Jr.'s single with two outs in the 10th inning Wednesday night.The NL Central-leading Cubs clinched their fourth straight postseason appearance when Milwaukee beat St. Louis. The Brewers, who sealed a playoff slot with their win, are a half-game behind Chicago. One of them will win the NL Central, the other will play in the NL wild-card game.After Pittsburgh tied it in the ninth on a two-out, two-run double by Starling Marte, the Cubs bounced back to win. Ian Happ led off the 10th with a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Terrance Gore. Mike Freeman's sacrifice moved up Gore, and he took third on a groundout. Almora singled to left on an 0-2 pitch from Richard Rodriguez (4-3).Jason Heyward homered and drove in three runs for the Cubs. Javier Baez singled for his NL-leading 111th RBI as the Cubs won after blowing a five-run lead. Star third baseman Kris Bryant... [More]

A look at what's happening around the majors on today:ONE MORE TIMEJacob deGrom will make the final start of what has been a remarkably consistent season that has him a favorite for the NL Cy Young Award. It also is the last chance for deGrom (9-9) to have a winning record and reach double digits in victories. The Mets right-hander's win total likely would have made him an underdog for the Cy Young in previous decades, but voters are increasingly looking beyond win-loss record to numbers that are more within a pitcher's control. And nobody has controlled opposing hitters like deGrom, who has a record 23 consecutive quality starts, 28 starts in a row allowing three runs or fewer and a 1.77 ERA. He is to face the NL East champion Braves and Sean Newcomb (12-9, 4.04 ERA), who will make his last start before the playoffs.SHORT-TERM SALERed sox ace Chris Sale gets one more chance to work his way back into form after missing a month with a shoulder injury. The left-hander (12-4, 2.00 ERA) threw... [More]