How are MLB’s 2025 awards races shaping up?

▪ American League: Aaron Judge may be on his way to a third MVP in four seasons. His 6.6 bWAR is one win better than Tigers ace Tarik Skubal and Mariners catcherCal Raleigh.

But Raleigh went into the weekend with seven more home runs than Judge and 10 more RBIs. Voters could give him extra credit for being a catcher and for Seattle finishing with a better record than the Yankees, if that proves to be the case.

Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals), José Ramírez (Guardians), and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Blue Jays) are candidates for the top five.

Garrett Crochet likely will be the Red Sox player with the most votes unless Alex Bregman carries the team down the stretch.

▪ National League: It’s not inevitable that Shohei Ohtani will win his third MVP in a row, something that hasn’t happened since Barry Bonds won four in a row from 2001-04.

The high-caliber defense Pete Crow-Armstrong plays in center field for the Cubs had him with 6.0 bWAR going into the weekend. Ohtani was at 5.8.

Three pitchers — Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies (5.9), Paul Skenes of the Pirates (5.7), and Zack Wheeler of the Phillies (5.1) — were all over 5.0.

But no full-time pitcher has won an MVP since Clayton Kershaw in 2014.

Ohtani pitched into the fifth inning against the Angels on Wednesday night in his 10th start of the season. He could give the Dodgers six or seven more starts before the season ends.

Shohei Ohtani is 31.Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

If Ohtani hits 50 home runs, scores 150 runs and pitches 85 innings, it would be tough for voters to deny him, as dynamic as Crow-Armstrong has been.

Fernando Tatis Jr. (Padres) and Juan Soto (Mets) are among the better choices for second or third unless you are really blown away by Sánchez.

▪ American League: Skubal is a heavy favorite to repeat. He has a 2.42 ERA and 0.87 WHIP while raising his strikeouts per nine innings (11.2) since being a unanimous winner last season.

Pedro Martinez (1999-2000) is the last American League pitcher to win two Cy Youngs in a row.

Crochet, Nathan Eovaldi, Joe Ryan, and Jacob deGrom could round out the top five.

▪ National League: It’s a much better race as Sánchez, Skenes, and Wheeler are all worthy choices.

Skenes has allowed more than four earned runs once in 25 starts. He’s allowed two or fewer 20 times. Opponents have hit .197 and struck out 166 times against 36 walks.

Sánchez has had a breakout season at 28, posting a 2.45 ERA over 24 starts. Wheeler has been more overpowering, averaging 11.8 strikeouts over nine innings after finishing second to Chris Sale last season.

▪ American League: Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz is a heavy favorite. He made his debut on April 23 and had 23 homers and 62 RBIs in his first 81 games.

A platoon first baseman playing home games in a minor league park may not be an exciting choice. But a .999 OPS doesn’t lie. Roman Anthony, who debuted on June 9, looks like a solid second choice and could pass Kurtz if he carries the Red Sox into the playoffs.

Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson and Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez (one of two rookies to appear in 100 or more games) will get votes. Keep an eye on Texas righthander Jack Leiter, who has a 2.95 ERA in his last eight starts.

▪ National League: Those futures bets on Roki Sasaki aren’t looking very good. Miami DH Agustín Ramírez and Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin have been the two most productive hitters along with Milwaukee outfielder Isaac Collins.

Cubs righthander Cade Horton, who has been dominant in recent games, is the choice here to emerge as the winner. Pitching well down the stretch for a contender is a difference maker.

▪ American League: Blue Jays manager John Schneider looked like a candidate to get fired late April when Toronto lost eight of nine. Now his Jays are fighting the Tigers for the top seed in the playoffs.

You can make a good case for Joe Espada (Astros), A.J. Hinch (Tigers), or Alex Cora for second place.

Cora has done very well to keep the Red Sox afloat given their injuries, the trade of Rafael Devers and the surprising lack of reinforcements at the trade deadline.

▪ National League: Milwaukee’s Pat Murphy should win again.

The National League hasn’t had a repeat winner since Hall of Famer Bobby Cox from 2004-05. But Murphy has the Brewers on pace to win 100 games with the 11th-lowest payroll in the National League.

Murphy is a good strategist while being genuine and funny to create a winning atmosphere. At 66 it feels as if he’s just getting started.

Pat Murphy has been the Brewers' manager since 2024. — Pat Murphy has been the Brewers’ manager since 2024.Colin Hubbard/Associated Press

Deal to be made?

Beer, Bregman and what comes next

Samuel Adams started brewing “Bregman’s Beer.” It’s a citrusy pale ale, we’re told. Presumably without a hint of pine tar.

What’s next, naming a duck boat after him and making Bregman a character in the next Dennis Lehane novel?

Bregman told the Globe’s Tim Healey this past week that he will wait until after the season to discuss a new contract with the Red Sox, which means his plan is to opt out of the $41.6 million he could get in 2026.

Bregman likes the energy at Fenway Park, playing for Alex Cora, and serving as a mentor to young players. But he didn’t choose Scott Boras as his agent to make things easy. He turns 32 in March and this could be his last chance at a major deal.

It’s also likely Bregman will want a contract structured to protect him financially should games get canceled in 2027 because of labor issues.

With the team-friendly extensions the Sox have negotiated with several of their young players, there should be a path to sign Bregman.

Hopefully chief baseball officer Craig Breslow sees the value of Bregman’s off-field leadership, something that has played a major role in this team being in contention.

A few other observations on the Red Sox:

▪ The Red Sox used 43 pitchers during spring training. Payton Tolle wasn’t one of them.

The big lefthander from TCU threw on the main stadium field a few times with a gaggle of coaches and executives watching closely but played only in minor league games.

Now it’s possible he could factor into the pennant race at 22, having made his last start for Triple A Worcester.

Rosters expand from 26 to 28 on Sept. 1 with a maximum of 14 pitchers. Tolle is a good candidate to take one of those spots if only for a start or two. The other one would seem reserved for Kristian Campbell, who has hit well in recent weeks for the WooSox after initially struggling after his demotion.

▪ Red Sox first basemen have a .698 OPS. The American League average is .752. It hasn’t been a wreck since Triston Casas was lost for the season but it hasn’t been particularly good, either.

Going into the weekend, Abraham Toro has a .559 OPS since the All-Star break and is a below-average defender.

Maybe that is where Campbell fits. But an inexperienced first baseman in a pennant race seems like a big risk given the team’s defensive issues. Campbell could fit better in a utility role.

Etc.

Alonso the home run king of Queens

Pete Alonso’s home run off Atlanta’s Spencer Strider on Tuesday gave him 253 as a member of the Mets, a franchise record.

He added another off Austin Cox three innings later.

The old mark of 252 was held by Darryl Strawberry, whose last game as a Met was in 1990.

Only the Padres (187 by Manny Machado) and Diamondbacks (224 by Luis Gonzalez) have all-time leaders with fewer home runs.

Arizona came into existence in 1998. The Mets (1962) and Padres (1969) don’t have any excuses.

The leaders for home runs for one franchise are who you would expect: Hank Aaron had 733 for the Braves. Babe Ruth had 659 for the Yankees and Willie Mays hit 646 for the Giants.

Along with Alonso and Machado, the only other active franchise leader is Mike Trout (398 for the Angels). Giancarlo Stanton is Miami’s leader with 267, the last of those coming in 2017, before he was traded to the Yankees. Dan Uggla, with 154, is second.

Only 18 of the 30 franchises have Hall of Famers atop the list. For every Stan Musial or Ted Williams there is an Evan Longoria or Ryan Braun.

Williams (521) encountered a bit of a challenge from David Ortiz (483) but seems secure in the top spot for the Red Sox for a long time to come.

The active Red Sox closest to Williams are Jarren Duran (46), Triston Casas (45), and Trevor Story (39).

J.D. Martinez drove up to Tampa when the Dodgers were at Steinbrenner Field earlier this month to work with Mookie Betts, who ended July hitting .240 with a .681 OPS. They were Red Sox teammates from 2018-19, and again with the Dodgers in 2023. After spending three days with Martinez, Betts was 14 of 39 with three extra-base hits, seven RBIs and only four strikeouts over the next nine games. The team didn’t mind as Martinez is a good friend and a former pupil of Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc. Martinez doesn’t need a job. He’s busy with his first child and fishing the waters off South Florida. He also made $154 million as a player. But some team would be wise to bring him in as a consultant or even just for spring training. He knows hitting and can skillfully communicate that knowledge … Rafael Devers made his debut at first base with the Giants on July 22. He played first in nine of the next 19 games. Devers has only been charged with one error … MLB set the dates for the postseason. The best-of-three Wild Card series are scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The best-of-five Division Series would all start on Oct. 4 and run through Oct. 11. The ALCS starts Oct. 12 with the NLCS opening on Oct. 13. That round would be over by Oct. 21. The World Series is set to begin on Oct. 24 with Game 7 on Nov. 1, if necessary. Unlike last season, there is no provision to start the World Series earlier if the pennant winners are decided in five games … Kyle Schwarber is not yet a free agent but the recruiting has started. The Reds invited Schwarber’s father to throw out a first pitch at Great American Ball Park on Tuesday. Greg Schwarber is a retired police chief who runs the youth baseball and softball programs in Middletown, Ohio. Schwarber grew up roughly 40 miles from Cincinnati. But Dave Dombrowski is no fool. Schwarber has 173 home runs, a .350 on-base percentage, and an .856 OPS over the last four seasons in Philadelphia. He also has a .906 OPS over 69 career postseason games and is one of the best clubhouse presences in the game. The Phillies won’t let him walk away … Commissioner Rob Manfred said at the All-Star Game that there would be “a transaction” involving the Twins coming soon. That was expected to be a sale of the team. Then the Pohlad family announced on Wednesday that the team was off the market and the only change would be bringing in two minority partners. It was a decision that stunned team employees, many who were looking forward to new ownership revitalizing an organization carrying $425 million in debt. After a fire sale at the trade deadline, Minnesota now has the fourth-lowest payroll in the game, ahead of only the Nationals, Marlins, and Athletics. Average attendance at Target Field is down to 22,298, better than only five teams. “We feel we’re the right people to lead this organization, to own this franchise,” said executive chair Joe Pohlad, whose family has owned the Twins since 1984, and accomplished little in recent years. Only the Yankees, White Sox, and Phillies have longer tenures for their ownership groups … The Braves released Alex Verdugo on July 5, and he remains a free agent. The 29-year-old outfielder has a .631 OPS over 205 games since the Red Sox traded him to the Yankees … The Diamondbacks won nine of 13 and averaged 5.8 runs after trading six players off the major league roster before the trade deadline. “They fight. They go out there every single day to win a baseball game,” manger Torey Lovullo said of his players. “Things have not always gone our way, but we are continuing to play hard.” … The Angels were 6-0 against the Dodgers this season after going 5-19 against them the previous five seasons … The struggling Mets dropped once-upon-a-time Red Sox prospect Frankie Montas out of the rotation and replaced him with 24-year-old rookie Nolan McLean. Montas has appeared in only eight games and has a 6.38 ERA since agreeing to a two-year, $34 million contract … Bourne has built a Cape Cod League dynasty, winning the league for the third time in four seasons under manager Scott Landers, who coaches at SUNY Oswego. His pitching coach is Kevin Curtain of Tufts. The Braves swept Yarmouth-Dennis in the championship round, winning, 5-3 and 19-2. Gavin Kelly (West Virginia) drove in six runs in the clincher. He doubled twice and homered. Lefty Folger Boaz (North Carolina) went six innings in the final game and allowed one earned run … The 31st annual Old-Time Baseball Game will be Wednesday at 7 p.m., at St. Peter’s Field in Cambridge. The game, organized by The Athletic’s Steve Buckley, features college and high school players from the Boston area wearing replica throwback uniforms dating to 1890. Brock Holt is expected to be on hand. Proceeds benefit The Boston Home, a non-profit residence for adults with neurological disorders. Red Sox vice president Gus Quattlebaum, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021, will be honored as part of the game. Go to oldtimebaseball.com for more information … Happy birthday to Skip Lockwood, who is 79. The Roslindale native grew up in Norwood and was a star at Catholic Memorial before signing with the Kansas City Athletics in 1964, as a third baseman and making his debut in 1965, as an 18-year-old third baseman. Lockwood went to the Seattle Pilots in 1968 expansion draft as a pitcher and went on to a 12-year career that included making 24 appearances for the Red Sox in 1980. Lockwood was 57-97 with a 3.55 ERA and started 106 of he 420 games he pitched. Lockwood earned an MBA from MIT after his baseball career and was an early adopter of sports psychology, according to stories at the time.

Peter Abraham can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Bluesky at peteabeglobe.bsky.social‬.

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Bayern – Real Madrid, en directo: cuartos de final de la Champions League, hoy en vivo

El Madrid bate económicamente al Bayern

El Madrid busca la remontada y lo hace con un once más caro que su rival. El valor de los elegidos por Arbeloa es de 855 millones de euros por los 581 de los bávaros.

Bayern: Neuer (4); Stanisic (35), Upamecano (70), Tah (30), Laimer (32); Pavlovic (75), Kimmich (40); Olise (140), Gnabry (20), Luis Díaz (70); Kane (65).

Real Madrid: Lunin (15); Trent (65), Militao (25), Rüdiger (9), Mendy (6); Brahim (35), Bellingham (140), Valverde (120), Arda Güler (90); Mbappé (200) y Vinicius (150).

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‘Liam Neeson wanted a go at being a film star. I didn’t have that in my DNA’ – The Irish Times

As I meet Ciarán Hinds, the most hearty and unaffected of actors, he is taking a day’s rest from filming in Co Wicklow.

“I’m working on Walk the Blue Fields,” he says. “The Claire Keegan adaptation by Conor McPherson, with John Crowley directing.”

Ah, yes. After An Cailín Ciúin and Small Things Like These, another Keegan story gets the big-screen treatment. The cast is stacked. Who else is in the Netflix production?

“Somebody called Emily Blunt?” he says in mock confusion. “A guy called Andrew Scott?”

He chortles to himself, as if flattered to be in such exalted company. In truth Hinds is rarely far from an “all-star cast” these days. A busy actor since leaving Belfast for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, in London, in the early 1970s, he has, in his golden years, happened upon a truly exhausting run of fecundity.

Only a few weeks ago he was, opposite Lesley Manville, in our cinemas with Midwinter Break. Just before that he starred as Will Arnett’s dad in Is This Thing On? You can see him in Netflix’s version of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden later in the year. He has just finished shooting Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven, a period epic with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Colin Firth. I could go on.

“Over the last year or two I decided to slow down and just more or less choose – if I had the choice, which I don’t often – to get involved with things if I found them interesting. And certainly I found a few things that were very interesting to me. And they just seem to have arrived at the one time.”

[ Ciarán Hinds: ‘A lot of my friends have the same talent as me, but never got the breaks’Opens in new window ]

Here is a question. In 2022 Hinds received an Oscar nomination in the best-supporting-actor category for Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast. Has that been a contributing factor to the run of high-profile jobs? Maybe that is a question for his agent.

The Three Urns, in cinemas this April, has Ciarán Hinds playing an Irishman travelling, with the ashes of his late wife, from France to his old home in Ireland

“You’re right, Donald. My agent and I work very intimately,” he says. “He knows what my taste is. Sometimes he says, ‘This is a paid job. This is probably something that you’d like to do.’ And we work on a very direct and personal basis.

“A couple of things came after the Oscar nomination – to turn up in action films playing the old crabby guy. Ha ha! No, I don’t need that. There are proper adventures to go on.”

But those action flicks come with perks.

“I think they might do. But I’m at a certain age where I’m not chasing perks.”

You will be more likely to see Hinds in something like this month’s The Three Urns. Directed by John-Paul Davidson and Stephen Warbeck, the lively, folksy comedy has Hinds playing an Irishman travelling, with the ashes of his late wife, from France to his old home in Ireland.

I would guess that part of the attraction was meeting up with old chums. The cast features such domestic legends as Lorcan Cranitch, Lalor Roddy, Sinéad Cusack, Jim Norton and Lisa Dwan. Quite a gang.

“I said, ‘Can I make some suggestions, if I’m going to be at the heart of it, about people I’d love to work with – to come up for a day, or a day and a half, and do two scenes?’ And they said, ‘Yeah’.

“It was good for me to be able to ask Jim Norton or Sinéad – people that I’d worked with – and say ‘Would you make your way up and get a decent bed for the night and decent dinner? Then we can go to work.’ It was really lovely.”

The story he has just told suggests he likes film sets to be social occasions. He looks to have the same attitude towards the promotional gauntlet. Stories amble into one another. Anecdotes wind their way around opinions. There is never a sense of him feeling under obligation to toe a line or act as salesman. Hinds just seems to enjoy being himself.

He was born, 73 years ago, in north Belfast to a doctor dad and a mum who did a bit of acting. Talking to him over the years, I have got the sense that he finds little to complain about in his childhood. These were the years before the Troubles kicked off, a period that is now rarely mulled over. Did it come as a shock when the violence began?

“It did come as a shock,” he says. “I went to St Malachy’s, a Catholic grammar school, and we weren’t taught ‘our history’ and ‘their history’. We were taught just history: European history, British history, Irish history.

“My parents were middle-class liberal Catholic, I guess. But they were open, and they mixed it up. Because my mom did a bit of drama herself. So they were mixing with people. They weren’t segregated.

“And my father, being a doctor, his practice was on the Springfield Road. So his patients all came from the Shankill and the Falls. We were brought up with no awareness of the huge tribal divide.”

Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Jude Hill and Judi Dench in Belfast. Photograph: Rob Youngson/Focus Features

A lot more history has passed between then and now. Belfast is buzzing in a way that he (and I, for that matter) could barely imagine during the 1970s and 1980s. Is he still connected to the old manor? Does he have a sense of those social changes? He still has family there.

“I’m aware of it,” Hinds says. “I think about this younger generational thing, about getting rid of all the orange and green history and saying ‘Can we please, for the generations to come, move the f**k on?’

“Yeah, and that’s great. That’s how it should be. But there are still chippy people up there at it again. That’s why the whole integrated-education thing is so important. We can all work together.”

There is certainly a large part of the younger generation who don’t care about the old divisions. It’s a demographic you don’t hear enough about.

“It is getting on for 30 years,” Hinds says, looking back to the Belfast Agreement. “You need to move forward – for the future of people you purport to love and care for. If you can afford to, can you not just get out more and be more open-hearted? The Fleadh Cheoil is going to Belfast for the first time this year. I think that should be a great event for everybody.”

The young Hinds briefly studied law at Queen’s University Belfast before lunging towards the acting lark. I can see him as a barrister. He has the bearing. He has the voice. Does he ever consider an alternate path where he practised that profession?

“I don’t think I had it in me to be the lawyer type,” he says. “It’s more of an intellectual pursuit.”

He had enough raw talent to make it into Rada in London. That was an exciting place to be in the aftermath of the 1960s. But there is pressure too. I imagine competition between the hungriest young actors of the era.

“There were 21 students. And they did seven terms,” Hinds says. “Kevin McNally was there. He was the brilliant one of our generation. He gave a remarkable Falstaff at the age of 19. Wow! You knew he was very special.”

McNally, still with us and still busy, became an unavoidable character actor. But others fell away. The breaks weren’t there. They maybe realised they didn’t have what it took.

“I don’t know what it was in our time, but most of them gave up when nothing was happening and retired. But before us there were wonderful actors. Alan Rickman was there. After us, then it all started. You had Kenneth Branagh and Fiona Shaw and so on. I was gone by the mid-1970s.”

[ Liam Neeson: From Paisley-loving Catholic boy to actor, then action man, now comedy starOpens in new window ]

It is an oddly shaped career. You could reasonably argue that, for a decade or so, Hinds was an “actor’s actor”. That is to say he worked consistently but wasn’t hugely well known outside the profession. Like Liam Neeson and Gabriel Byrne, he got an early break in Excalibur, but that did not immediately lead to movie stardom.

“I was doing theatre in Dublin,” he says. “Jim Sheridan was running the Project Arts Centre there. Jim took me into the company, where I met the wonderful actors Peter Caffrey and Johnny Murphy. John Boorman was looking around for young actors to be in Excalibur. But then I went back to the theatre. I really didn’t do much television work until the 1990s, I guess.”

Liam Neeson and Ciarán Hinds at the premiere of There Will Be Blood in 2007 in New York City. Photograph: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images

Did he ever look at how, say, Neeson surged after Excalibur and wish he too could be swanning about Hollywood?

“No, no. Liam is a great friend, and I always knew Liam had it in him,” he says, amiably. “He wanted to have a go at being a film star. I didn’t have that in my DNA.”

In the mid-1980s he toured the world in Peter Brook’s legendary production of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. It was there that he met his wife, the actor Hélène Patarot (who plays his character’s lover, Mina, in the RTÉ dramedy The Dry), and they have remained together ever since.

Does having another actor in the house help? Do they bounce ideas off one another?

“I sometimes help Hélène if she wants help with dialogue,” he says. “It just turned out that I worked more than Hélène.”

Hinds laughs his self-deprecatory laugh.

“It’s strange. The opportunities she has, she goes more for quality than quantity. I’m a bit more about quantity.”

Ciarán Hinds and his wife Hélène Patarot attending the 94th Annual Academy Awards in 2022.Photograph: Mike Coppola/Getty Images

I’m not sure that’s true. There were endless highlights throughout the 1990s. He was in the first production of Patrick Marber’s controversial Closer, at the National Theatre in London. He played Richard III at the Royal Shakespeare Company for Sam Mendes. It is often overlooked that he was hugely touching as Captain Wentworth in Roger Michell’s 1995 film of Persuasion – a first shot in the late-1990s Jane Austen revival – for the BBC.

“It was a beautiful thing to be involved with,” he says. “You realise, as you get older, it’s a tricky thing to take great pieces of literature and transfer them into another medium and give it the grace and the depth.”

As the decades progressed Hinds became an increasingly unavoidable face on film and television. He is in Game of Thrones, There Will Be Blood, Munich and (of course) a Harry Potter film.

I get no sense that the greater visibility has much changed him. His daughter, Aoife Hinds, is now a busy actor. He and Patarot share their life between Paris and London. I can understand that. Hinds is a man of international tastes, but the Belfast in him remains strong. How is his French?

“Well, I did it up to A-level,” he says. “Suddenly these words unlock themselves – with the aid of some red wine. Ha ha! The neighbours are always very kind to me. I have enough to get by and converse.”

That matters. He always has a great deal to say.

The Three Urns is in cinemas from Friday, April 17th

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