The Morning: The future of baseball

Plus, government firings, the Israeli military and a new Universal theme park.

View in browser|nytimes.com April 6, 2025 Good morning. Today, an interview with the M.L.B. commissioner about the future of baseball. We're also covering government firings, the Israeli military and a new Universal theme park. Shohei Ohtani Darryl Webb/Associated Press What's on deck by Matthew Cullen and Michael S. Schmidt A new baseball season is underway, and the sport is enjoying a sort of renaissance. Baseball is making more money than it ever has. The addition of a pitch clock has made games quicker and created more action on the field. Attendance and ratings are on the rise. But the sport also faces a possible long-term problem: the widening gap between its haves and have-nots. Baseball's future, both good and bad, is on display in California. It's a glorious moment for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who won the World Series last year and have baseball's biggest star, Shohei Ohtani. After winning the title, the Dodgers added even more talent to their roster — the team will spend well over $300 million this year on player salaries. A few hundred miles up Interstate 5, in Sacramento, that kind of money feels almost unfathomable. There the Athletics, who left Oakland after 57 years, are playing their home games at a minor-league ballpark as they prepare to move to Las Vegas in three years. The A's entire payroll is only slightly more than what Ohtani alone is owed each year. Money doesn't win games. It's baseball, after all. And the A's are scrappy. Even if they aren't as well compensated, they can beat anyone on any given day. But the imbalance of resources, over time, tends to offer richer teams an advantage. For today's newsletter, The Times spoke with the commissioner of Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, about the state of the game. Payroll disparity Unlike other major American sports, baseball does not have a salary cap, which is used to narrow the gap between the richest and poorest teams. Some M.L.B. owners are pushing the league to adopt a salary cap as part of their next contract with the players' union. Manfred told us in an interview at his office in New York that he believes the financial imbalance is an existential problem for the sport. "We sell entertainment that's based on competition," he said. "If people don't believe there's competition, you've got a product problem." The problem: Players vehemently oppose a salary cap and many insist that they would never agree to play under one. Their union argues that players deserve to be compensated, without restriction, for the work they do. Last time the owners made a real push for a cap, in 1994, it resulted in a 232-day strike, a canceled World Series and years of fan frustration. The current contract is set to expire after next season. If the owners make another push for a cap, another painful work stoppage could follow. Baseball's future In his interview with The Times, Manfred also spoke about a range of other topics concerning the present and future of the sport, including: Torpedo bats: The new, oddly shaped bats that caused a frenzy when the Yankees used them to hit several home runs are legal and "absolutely good for baseball," Manfred said. Robot umpires: "The experiment was really successful," Manfred said about the computerized challenge system for balls and strikes that the league tested during spring training. He hopes to use it in the regular season as soon as next year. Pitching injuries: Manfred warned that pitching "is getting taught in a way that emphasizes velocity and spin rate," which puts additional strain on pitchers' elbows. "By the time we get guys," he said, "they're already damaged goods." What would make the game better: Recent rule changes have led to more action on the field, which Manfred thinks is key to the sport's future. "Action, movement, the ability to show how athletic you are," he said. "Any changes that allow the showcasing of the athleticism of your players is huge." Read the full interview with Manfred here. For more: At the Athletic, Keith Law offers his predictions for the season and Tim Britton explains how each team could reach the playoffs. THE LATEST NEWS Government Overhaul The Department of Justice building in Washington. Sarah Silbiger for The New York Times The Trump administration suspended a senior Justice Department immigration lawyer after he questioned the decision to deport a Maryland man to El Salvador. President Trump's firing of the head of the National Security Agency, on the advice of Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist, has rattled some lawmakers. The ousting of the N.S.A. chief is one of several moves that have eroded U.S. cyberdefenses at a moment of rising danger. Trump administration officials have fired workers for the main American aid agency who were sent to Myanmar after the deadly earthquake there. Trump Tariffs Trump's tariffs will wound global free trade, but the blow may not be fatal: Other countries could find a way to maintain the system without the U.S., Mark Landler writes. Trump vowed to help small businesses by reducing taxes and red tape, but some owners say his other policies have put them at a disadvantage. Vietnam, a manufacturing destination for U.S. brands, faces a potentially devastating 46 percent tariff. Its leader is asking Trump for a delay. Trump's political strength is built on the economy. If it sinks, he could drag Republicans down with him, Nate Cohn writes. More on the Trump Administration In Phoenix, Arizona. Adriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times Demonstrators took to the streets in cities and towns across the U.S. to protest Trump. Marco Rubio revoked the visas of all South Sudanese passport holders, saying the country had refused to accept deported citizens in a "timely manner." Republican Medicaid cuts would put South Dakota, Missouri and Oklahoma in a bind: their constitutions require they participate in Medicaid expansion. International Chemical weapons investigators in Syria in 2013. Reuters More than 100 chemical weapons sites are thought to remain in Syria after the fall of Bashar al-Assad, inspectors said. Israel said its initial account of the killing of 15 rescue workers had been partially "mistaken." A video obtained by The Times had contradicted the military's assertion that the workers had been advancing suspiciously. Rodrigo Duterte, the former Philippine president, is attempting a political comeback from a cell at The Hague. He's charged with crimes against humanity. Other Big Stories A Louisiana jury ordered Chevron to pay about $750 million to a parish government to help restore wetlands that the jury said the company had harmed for decades. An endangered Galápagos tortoise became a first-time mother at 100. THE SUNDAY DEBATE Do tariffs on cars and car parts help autoworkers? No. Automakers will lose profits to tariffs, which will likely hurt workers through layoffs and production cuts. "All are possible save the impossible: namely, that the impact of Trump's tariffs will be zero on an industry he says he supports," The Detroit News's Daniel Howes writes. Yes. Trump's auto tariffs will bring skilled, high-paid labor needed to produce car parts back to the U.S. "This isn't protectionism. It's restoration," Peter Navarro, Trump's trade adviser, writes for USA Today. FROM OPINION Trump's attacks on democratic principles are not invincible. If institutions like law firms and universities want to survive, they have to fight back, the Editorial Board writes. To save globalization from the far right, governments need to address the inequality that is turning people against it, Tara Zahra writes. Here's a column by Ross Douthat on Trump's tariffs. A subscription to match the variety of your interests. News. Games. Recipes. Product reviews. Sports reporting. A New York Times All Access subscription covers all of it and more. Subscribe today. MORNING READS Stardust Racers, a roller coaster at Epic Universe. Todd Anderson for The New York Times Epic Universe: Our reporter got a peek inside Universal's new Orlando theme park. He says it lives up to its name. Big ship, big concepts: Is your child obsessed with the Titanic? You're not alone. Here's why the disaster fascinates young minds. Most clicked yesterday: A couple wanted to a bigger space in a smaller building in Brooklyn. Which home did they choose? Vows: An awe-inspiring celebration in Guatemala, ruins and volcano included. Lives Lived: Dave Pelz left his job as a NASA scientist to study the short game of golf, and he made himself a celebrated guru of putts and wedge shots. He died at 85. BOOK OF THE WEEK By Elisabeth Egan "Heartwood," by Amity Gaige: For armchair adventurers, Gaige's twisty mystery will be as gratifying as the first daffodil at the end of a long winter. The tale unfolds in two spheres: In one, we have Valerie Gillis, a 42-year-old nurse who goes missing in Maine while hiking the Appalachian Trail. Her story takes shape through journal entries written as letters to her mother. (Gaige used a version of the same device in her last novel, "Sea Wife," to great effect. Who doesn't love reading over a character's shoulder?) And then we have the crew searching for her, including a game warden, a septuagenarian scientist, fellow hikers and Valerie's husband, who is, as the kids might say, "sus." Paths twist, outlooks bleaken and metaphors abound as Gaige guides readers ever closer to answers — which lead to questions worth pondering, even if you don't own hiking boots. More on books Here's the full review of "Heartwood." Liz Moore is another dependable purveyor of missing-person thrillers with soul, including "Long Bright River" and last year's best-selling "The God of the Woods." Read our profile. THE INTERVIEW Philip Montgomery for The New York Times By David Marchese This week's subject for The Interview is Bill Murray, whose new movie, "The Friend," is in theaters. He talked about the film, his lifelong quest to be in the moment, and what celebrity has cost him. The inability to walk down the street anonymously, how did you figure out how to manage that? It's a continuous process. It is not like, Oh, I figured that one out, because I'm not the same person now that I was 20 minutes ago. You can have a different point of view about it. You can hide from people. I've walked down the street with a hat down over my head, glasses on my eyes. I loved Covid. Because you could disappear? Because I could walk down the street with a mask on. But I've been all kinds of ways about it, and it's a continuing development. I used to spend so much energy. People would say, "Can I take your picture?" And I would be the kind of ass that would say, "It's may I take your picture?" I wasted a whole lot of time that way, doing stuff to make it acceptable on my stupid terms. So now what I do for a living is, I take cellphone photographs. I'm not an actor. I am a donkey that is photographed with people who don't know how to operate their own cellphone camera. Have you found a way to get fulfillment out of this new job that you have? It's not so much fulfilling. I've gotten pretty good at it. Most people recognize when they see how skillful I am with this reverse, they say: "Oh, my God. How did you do that?" Well, because I've done it thousands of times, that's how I got good at it. Read more of the interview here. THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE The New York Times Magazine Read this week's magazine here. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Find your next fantasy book. Buy an emergency food kit. Lounge in the best pajamas. MEAL PLAN Kerri Brewer for The New York Times In this week's Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter, Emily Weinstein suggests making "outrageously good" garlicky Alfredo beans, salmon with anchovy-garlic butter, and sheet-pan sausages, sweet potatoes and balsamic kale. NOW TIME TO PLAY Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangram was radicchio. Can you put eight historical events — including the Louisiana Purchase, the invention of the No. 2 pencil, and the release of Aretha Franklin's "Respect" — in chronological order? Take this week's Flashback quiz. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections, Sports Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. Editor: Adam B. Kushner News Editor: Tom Wright-Piersanti Associate Editor: Lauren Jackson News Staff: Desiree Ibekwe, Brent Lewis, German Lopez, Ashley Wu News Assistant: Lyna Bentahar Saturday Writer: Melissa Kirsch Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for the Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving The Morning, unsubscribe. To opt out of other promotional emails from The Times, including those regarding The Athletic, manage your email settings. To opt out of updates and offers sent from The Athletic, submit a request. Subscribe to The TimesGet The New York Times app Connect with us on: Change Your EmailPrivacy PolicyContact UsCalifornia Notices The New York Times Company. 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018