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The loan with Dodger Tickets LLC, a subsidiary tied to the Dodgers and involved with ticketing and other business operations, offers a look at the ties between investments
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In its annual filing for 2025, Delaware Life reported that Dodger Tickets was an unaffiliated business, despite Walter’s controlling ownership stake in the team.

The March regulatory filings reclassified Dodger Tickets as being affiliated. In the most recent filing released Tuesday, Delaware Life reported that the $4.1 million loan was nearly paid off in April. One dollar was listed as the balance in the June filing released Tuesday.

Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten, who was listed as CEO of Dodger Tickets in an April 2025 business filing with California’s Secretary of State, declined to comment on the organization’s corporate entities.

Kasten, however, maintained that the sale of the Lakers is not related to the Dodgers and changes are not coming to the MLB organization.

The Apollo deal, announced Tuesday, gives the firm a mix of equity and debt in Yankee Global Enterprises and values the baseball team at close to $10 billion, according to two people briefed on the transaction who were not authorized to speak publicly.

That appears to be a record valuation for an MLB team in a realized transaction, and fits with the upper range of estimated values the news media has given the club. Sportico this spring estimated the Yankees to be worth $9.4 billion, while Forbes projected an $8.5 billion price tag.

Hal Steinbrenner and his family maintain control of the Yankees. Apollo’s percentage stake in the team was not disclosed, but, per MLB rules, it has to be less than 15 percent.

It’s unclear exactly what motivated the Yankees to sell at this moment, be it the valuation they received or a different desire for increased cash on hand. It’s also unclear how the Steinbrenners intend to use their newfound dough, but player representatives hope it will be used to add more talent.

“It’s great for the fans and the sport to see a team take an aggressive step to compete,” said Joel Wolfe, who heads up the baseball division at the powerful agency The Team. “The constant drumbeat from the commissioner’s office complaining about baseball’s decline has become stale.”
“The one thing this indicates is that the appreciation of baseball franchises has been immense in the last six months to a year,” said another top agent, Scott Boras. “Private equity is not paying $2.6 billion for a small percentage of the Yankees unless they’re doing quite well. The private equity analysis is strictly based on profit.”

Monday night, agent Scott Boras told The Athletic the Tigers presented this offer after 2024, Skubal’s first Cy Young season.

“Scott informed me that he had offered a four-year contract to Tarik for $75 million,” Boras said. “I advised him that a great deal for the Tigers would be something with an eight-year length where he had two years to go until arbitration and another six (before) free agency.”

According to Boras, Harris indicated the Tigers were not willing to go that far. Boras said he never mentioned wanting to test free agency. The industry now expects Skubal to be worth upward of $300 million on the open market. For reasons like that, the majority of star Boras clients test free agency rather than negotiate extensions.

Said another executive, whose team did not bid on Skubal: “No use playing the rest of the year. It’s over.’’

“It will be interesting to see how every contender in the National League reacts,’’ one AL executive said. “Are they still going to be aggressive knowing you got to go through the Dodgers? It’s different in the American League. There’s no super team and you got a real chance to get to the World Series.’’

MLB wants to make the LA Olympics in 2028 mandatory for chosen players.

Skip out without an approved excuse, and you're on the restricted list without pay and service time for as many as 25 days through Aug. 3 that year — well after the second half begins July 21.

Supposed to be an Olympian, but on the IL? You can't come back to your MLB team or go on rehab until after Aug. 3.

This year, Betts said his calculus was driven by his desire to spend time with his family. In April, he and his wife, Brianna, welcomed their second daughter, Khari, to become a family of five.

“If I do [go], people are gonna hate me. If I don’t, people are gonna hate me,” he said. “So instead of trying to make everyone else happy, I’m gonna think about myself and my family.”

Betts reiterated that his thinking was not politically motivated, but acknowledged “people are gonna try to drag me into politics, just because I am who I am.”

“That’s just the cards I’m dealt,” he said. “So it is what it is.”

The Mets’ collapse last season — going from a major-league best record on June 12 to missing the postseason — stemmed, more than anything, from pitching injuries. Stearns sensed the problem was deeper. Perhaps he was correct. But since that 45-24 start a year ago, Team Stearns is 72-102, the fourth-worst record in the majors, ahead of only the Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels and Colorado Rockies. And this season, only the Los Angeles Dodgers are spending more.

Those facts are as damning to Stearns as Wednesday night’s collapse was to Mendoza. From Marcus Semien to Jorge Polanco to Luis Robert Jr. — all three of whom are now injured — virtually all of Stearns’ position-player replacements have flopped. And, after a 2024 season in which Stearns’ small bets on starting pitchers yielded big returns, spurring a surprising run to the NLCS, he has yet to put together a quality rotation. The current group ranks 28th in ERA, and not just because Clay Holmes is out with a fractured fibula.

“To watch most ballgames today, you might need a map. If you’re trying to watch a game inside your favorite team’s territory, you cannot watch your team’s games via MLB’s “out-of-market” streaming service, MLB.tv. That creates confusion and sometimes leaves fans without an easy way to watch games.

Beyond those local matchups, an entirely different class of games exists:  the national games, such as those on ESPN, NBC or Netflix. For those, fans would still need access to other channels or services. MLB is simultaneously planning to increase the number of games available nationally starting in 2029, while reducing the number of games available locally.

Therefore, no matter what happens during bargaining between players and owners, fans will probably still need several paid subscriptions to watch every game their favorite team plays.

And there are several other key points to understand, too.
The first is that, at least for now, MLB is offering to end local blackouts only if the players accept a salary cap — something players have always said they will not do.”

If the salary cap proposed in Major League Baseball’s first offer this week were to take effect next season, more than 20 percent of the New York Mets’ theoretical cap space would account for just one player: Juan Soto.

Soto, owner of the richest contract in baseball history, isn’t buying it.

“I don’t think that’s right, to have a cap,” Soto said this week. “Baseball is doing great. We’ve been increasing every year. It’s been great for baseball. We are in the best moment in baseball right now in all kinds of ways. Why should we have a cap?”