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Mariners To Acquire Eugenio Suarez
The Mariners and Diamondbacks are reportedly in agreement on a trade that’ll send Eugenio Suárez back to Seattle. The D-Backs are getting rookie first baseman Tyler Locklear, reliever Juan Burgos and minor league pitcher Hunter Cranton in return. The deal is expected to be announced on Thursday.
Seattle has made a Suárez reunion their top deadline priority. They’ll get their man, bringing back a two-time All-Star who combined for 53 home runs in a Mariners uniform between 2022-23. The M’s made the regrettable decision to trade Suárez away after the ’23 season. That netted hard-throwing middle reliever Carlos Vargas but was primarily motivated by a desire to shed the $13MM that remained on the third baseman’s contract at the time.
While Suárez started his Arizona tenure slow, he’s been one of the best hitters on the planet dating back to the middle of last summer. Over the past calendar year, Suárez has hit 53 home runs with a .273/.332/.589 slash line. He’s tied with Kyle Schwarber and teammate Cal Raleigh for third in MLB in homers during that stretch. Only Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have hit more. Suárez went on such a tear in the second half last year that the D-Backs had an easy call to bring him back on a $15MM club option that once looked likelier to be bought out.
Suárez has shown no signs of slowing down at age 34. He has mashed at a .248/.321/.577 clip across 433 plate appearances. He and Raleigh are tied for the MLB lead with 87 runs batted in. Only Raleigh, Ohtani, Judge and Schwarber have more home runs. He’d led the American League in strikeouts during both seasons in his first run with Seattle. The 12-year big league veteran has trimmed his strikeout rate by a few percentage points in Arizona. There’s still a decent amount of swing-and-miss, but it’s not at the same rate that surely alarmed the M’s front office a couple years ago.
The Diamondbacks were on the fringe of the NL Wild Card race as recently as two weeks ago. A sweep at the hands of the Astros sealed their fate as deadline sellers. Houston’s division rivals have ironically been the big beneficiary. The D-Backs began their sell-off by dealing Josh Naylor to Seattle last week. He displaced Luke Raley as the starting first baseman. Suárez rejoins him as an impact corner infield tandem. It’ll likely push light-hitting rookie infielder Ben Williamson back to Triple-A.
Seattle now runs out a lineup including Raleigh, Suárez, Naylor, Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, Jorge Polanco and J.P. Crawford. Right fielder Dominic Canzone has mashed since being called up from Triple-A in early June. It’s the imposing lineup that Seattle has tried for years to build alongside their elite rotation.
The M’s are nevertheless far from guaranteed to make the playoffs. They’re currently tied with the Rangers for the AL’s last Wild Card spot and sit five games back of Houston in the division race. They’ve poked around the market for another late-inning reliever. Seattle added left-hander Caleb Ferguson to the bullpen on Wednesday evening, but he’s more of a complementary piece. If the Mariners have another big move in them, it’d probably be in the late innings.
The Mariners are taking on nearly $5MM in salary still owed to Suárez for the stretch run. They assumed almost $4MM on Naylor and close to $1MM for Ferguson. It’s a significant change from an offseason in which ownership left the front office without much budgetary flexibility. They’re all-in as they try to capitalize on Raleigh turning in one of the greatest seasons ever by a catcher. Suárez and Naylor might be the two best impending free agent hitters to move. The acquisition should be very well received in the clubhouse, as Suárez is a highly-regarded teammate with whom much of the roster is familiar.
Seattle gave up a trio of players to make that happen. Locklear, 24, is the most intriguing. He’s a righty-hitting first baseman who could replace Naylor as Arizona’s long-term answer at that position. Seattle took the Virginia Commonwealth product in the second round in 2022. The 24-year-old doesn’t have much big league experience. He appeared in 16 games last season, hitting .156 while striking out 20 times in 49 plate appearances.
Plenty of hitters struggle in their first look at MLB pitching. Locklear has posted excellent minor league numbers. He’s a career .291/.392/.502 hitter against minor league arms. That includes a huge .316/.401/.542 showing in Triple-A this season. Locklear has connected on 19 home runs in 434 plate appearances. Seattle just recalled him this afternoon to replace Raley, who went down with back spasms. Instead, he’s off to Arizona, where he’ll probably jump directly onto the MLB roster.
Burgos, 25, could also get an MLB look in the near future. Seattle called up the 6’0″ righty in late June. Burgos didn’t get much of a look over a three-week stint in the big league bullpen. He made four appearances, working 6 2/3 frames of three-run ball with eight strikeouts. Burgos showed a five-pitch mix built around a low-90s cutter and a mid-90s sinker.
He doesn’t have elite velocity for a bullpen prospect, but he has punched out an above-average 26.1% of batters faced over 31 innings between the top two minor league levels. Burgos has an absurd 0.87 earned run average in that stretch. Baseball America ranked him 25th among Seattle prospects, while he placed 17th at MLB Pipeline. Both outlets feel he’s a low-variance middle relief type.
Cranton is further off. Seattle drafted him in the third round last summer out of the University of Kansas. He was an underslot signee as a senior draft pick. MLB Pipeline ranked the 6’3″ righty as the #16 prospect in the Seattle system. He placed 23rd on Eric Longenhagen’s writeup at FanGraphs last month. He did not rank among BA’s top 30. Cranton has an upper-90s fastball and a slider. He was on the minor league injured through the end of June after being struck in the head by a comebacker during Spring Training, Longenhagen notes.
None of the three players are top-end prospects. The lack of a true headliner might come as a disappointment to Arizona fans, but it reflects teams’ general reluctance to give up elite young talent for rentals. The D-Backs added a pair of controllable players who could play meaningful roles as they try to return to competitiveness in 2026. In the meantime, they’ll eventually get their first real look at third base prospect Jordan Lawlar. Lawlar isn’t quite ready to return from a June hamstring injury that sent him to the Triple-A injured list, but he should get 4-6 weeks of everyday playing time to close the season.
Arizona has traded three impending free agents: Naylor, Suárez and Randal Grichuk. They’ll move at least one and possibly both of Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly tomorrow. They could also try to move an outfielder or short-term relievers like the currently injured Shelby Miller or Kevin Ginkel. There’s plenty more to come from the Snakes over the next 18 hours.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported the Mariners were reacquiring Suárez. Daniel Kramer of MLB.com had the return going to Arizona. Images courtesy of Imagn Images.
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Old master painting looted by Nazis recovered a week after being spotted in Argentinian property listing | Nazism
Authorities in Argentina have recovered an 18th-century painting stolen more than 80 years ago by the Nazis from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam, a week after it was spotted by chance in a real estate listing.
The painting, the long-lost Portrait of a Lady (Contessa Colleoni) by the Italian master Giuseppe Ghislandi, was looted in the second world war. It was handed over on Wednesday to the Argentinian judiciary by the daughter of the late Nazi financier Friedrich Kadgien, Patricia Kadgien, who has been under house arrest with her husband since Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege the couple tried to conceal the stolen artwork. They face a hearing on Thursday on charges of concealment and obstruction of justice. The Guardian contacted her legal representatives, who declined to comment.
The Dutch newspaper AD traced the painting after a years-long investigation that took a breakthrough turn last week when one of its reporters found Kadgien’s house in an online property listing in the seaside city of Mar del Plata.
A photo in the listing showed the missing artwork – last seen in 1946 and belonging to the Dutch Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker – hanging above a sofa in the couple’s living room. AD published its findings on 25 August.
The next day, federal prosecutor Carlos Martínez ordered a raid on the property, but the painting was no longer there. Police seized two unlicensed firearms and two mobile phones.
Four additional raids on Monday uncovered two other paintings that experts believe could date back to the 19th century, along with several drawings and engravings. The judiciary is analysing the works to determine whether they, too, were looted during the second world war.
A federal court in Mar del Plata placed Kadgien and her husband under 72-hour house arrest on Tuesday.
After the fall of the Third Reich at the end of the second world war, several high-ranking Nazi officials fled to South America.
Friedrich Kadgien was among them. He fled the Netherlands in 1946, first to Switzerland, then Brazil, and finally to Argentina, where he had two daughters. The painting is believed to have accompanied him and to have remained in his family’s possession after he died in Buenos Aires in 1978.
The portrait was among more than 1,000 works of art stolen by the Nazis from Goudstikker, who died in 1940 after falling in the hold of the ship carrying him to safety.
Goudstikker’s heirs plan to reclaim the painting, AD reported.
Getty ImagesFlorida is aiming to become the first US state to cancel all of its vaccine mandates, many of which require children to get jabs against diseases like polio in order to attend public schools.
The state’s top health official, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, likened the mandates to “slavery”, in announcing the plans.
“Who am I to tell you what your child should put in your body?” he said. “I don’t have that right. Your body is a gift from God.”
Florida officials did not give a timeline or details on ending the mandates. Several may only be repealed through a vote by the Republican-led state legislature, while others can be scrapped by the state health department.
Ladapo, though, pledged several times during Wednesday’s news conference to end “all of them, every last one of them”.
The surgeon general has been frequently criticised by doctors and health groups, who say he has spread misinformation.
Democratic state lawmaker Anna Eskamani was among those criticising the plan to end all mandates, decrying it as “reckless and dangerous”.
“This is a public health disaster in the making for the Sunshine State,” she posted on X.
While every state requires children to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools, each one has different policies about giving exemptions to the mandates.
Idaho, another Republican-dominated state, loosened many of its rules on vaccines earlier this year, but still requires children to be immunised.
In Florida, students are currently required to be vaccinated against multiple illnesses, including chicken pox, hepatitis B, measles, mumps and polio.
The Florida Education Association, a group representing more than 120,000 school teachers and administrators, also condemned the move, saying health officials are discussing “disrupting student learning and making schools less safe”.
“State leaders say they care about reducing chronic absenteeism and keeping kids in school – but reducing vaccinations does the opposite, putting our children’s health and education at risk,” the statement said.
Getty ImagesAccording to the World Health Organization, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives – mostly infants – in the past 50 years.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that about four million deaths are prevented worldwide each year by childhood vaccinations.
Dr Debra Houry, who resigned in protest last week from her post as the CDC’s chief medical officer, told the BBC that the move in Florida could lead to outbreaks of several preventable diseases among students.
She noted that about 270 children in the US died from influenza this past flu season, and about 90% of those children were unvaccinated, “so vaccines are really important to prevent kids from having these significant diseases”.
Dr Nahid Bhadelia, director of the Boston University Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases, added: “It’s particularly unfortunate for Florida because its such a big travel hub. They have people coming and going from Florida all over the world.”
Dr Bhadelia, who also advised the White House during the Covid pandemic, also told the BBC that the decision may lead to fewer insurance providers covering the cost of the immunisations, leading to increased danger for at-risk adults such as pregnant women.
On Wednesday, a group of Democratic-led states announced they had created an alliance to co-ordinate on health matters, including immunisations, in opposition to the Trump administration’s overhaul and changes to public health programmes and guidance.
The governors of Washington, Oregon and California said they would use guidance from national medical organisations, many of which have rejected the Trump administration’s changes to childhood vaccinations, and lean less on advice from the federal government.
In a joint press release they said Trump was “dismantling” the CDC, and blasted the recent decision by US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr – a vaccine sceptic – to remove experts from the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A picturesque electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions derailed and crashed Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.
Five of the injured were in serious condition and a child was among the injured, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement. An unknown number of foreigners were among the injured, it said.
Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history, and it cast a pall over Lisbon’s charm for the millions of foreign tourists who arrive every year.
The yellow-and-white streetcar, which is known as Elevador da Gloria and goes up and down a steep downtown hill in tandem with one going the opposite way, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels along.
Its sides and top were crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. Parts of the vehicle, made mostly of metal, were crushed.
Several dozen emergency workers were at the scene but most stood down after about two hours.
Eyewitnesses told local media that the streetcar careened down the hill, apparently out of control. One witness said the streetcar toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.
Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out.
Lisbon’s City Council suspended operations of other streetcars in the city and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning. “It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.
Portugal’s government announced that a day of national mourning would be observed on Thursday. “A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which left in mourning their families and dismayed the whole country,” it said in a statement.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences. “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous Elevador da Gloria,” she wrote in Portuguese on X.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. It reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.
An investigation into the causes will begin once the rescue operation is over, the government said.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that he was “appalled by the terrible accident,” while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that he had met with the Portuguese foreign minister and expressed his “solidarity with the victims.”
The U.S. Embassy Lisbon also offered its “deepest condolences to all affected,” according to a post on X.
The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables and can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is also commonly used by Lisbon residents. The service up and down a few hundred meters (yards) of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road was inaugurated in 1885.
It is classified as a national monument.
Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of tourists typically form for the brief rides on the popular streetcar.
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