Daily News | Gary Phillips: ($) With the specter of a lockout looming over the 2027 season, Hal Steinbrenner was asked during his press conference Wednesday about hit thoughts on the owners’ salary cap proposal. The Yankees owner bristled at the questions, citing a desire to hold on discussing labor issues until after the World Series is complete while conceding that, as a member of the league’s labor policy committee, “I helped craft, one of many, the proposals that we have given at the bargaining table, and I support those proposals in their entirety.” Left unanswered is how a salary cap (and with it, potentially, a salary floor) could possibly give one of the league’s highest spenders a better chance to win, a refrain he returned to frequently as his top priority.
MLB.com | Shanthi Sepe-Chupuru: Congratulations are in order for Cody Bellinger, who took home his third Fielding Bible Award Thursday. The award, presented by Sports Info Solutions and voted on by a panel of experts, recognized him as the best defensive left fielder in all of baseball. Belli’s first two awards came back in 2019 with the Dodgers, when he was honored both for his work in right field and as a multi-position player. The 31-year-old’s 21 DRS tied for third in the majors at any position despite his missing nearly a month to injury.
The Athletic | Ian O’Connor: ($) The venerable former beat writer pens a pointed critique of Steinbrenner’s leadership, arguing the Yankees’ underperformance in October goes straight to the top. He contrasts the owner’s parsing of what makes a successful season with Derek Jeter’s more direct, “If we don’t win a championship, the season is a failure,” positing that Hal’s reticence to hold anyone to task publicly trickles down to a lack of accountability at all levels of the organization. O’Connor cites Jazz Chisholm Jr. as an example; after Aaron Boone indicated he addressed concerns with the second baseman behind the scenes in 2025, he had a dreadful ‘26 punctuated by taking the field with a lollipop in his mouth and contributing a head-scratching error in the first inning of Game 2 of the ALDS as the Yankees’ season slipped away yet again.