Outside The Confines: An embarrassment of riches

I’m not sure about the rest of you, but the last time I was on a private plane was... never. It was never. Because I am a normal human person who has never been lavished with millions of dollars and the ability to avoid commercial air travel. In all honesty, I’ll be taking the cheapest flights available to humanity for the remainder of my adult life.

But that’s simply not the case for team owners, and often the men who play for them. It’s not a huge surprise that teams will charter planes to get their players to away games, but in those instances, it’s typically the entire team, plus certain personnel all flying together, it makes sense.

The news we saw this week following the end of the All-Star Game was a bit of hand-wringing over the fact that the Washington Nationals would not charter a private plane to fly Juan Soto to the Home Run Derby (SI). Now, I grant you, on the one hand this feels like a very petty move by team ownership after Soto recently turned down their extension offer. But if it’s meant to engender sympathy, it does not. Soto had to fly commercial — one assumes he likely still flew first class — and the discourse is all about how cheap the team is. Perhaps the discussion should be that no individual person needs to take a private plane anywhere let alone to an exhibition hitting contest.

This is, of course, just my opinion, but seeing journalists spotlight a story about a millionaire not being given a jet to use by billionaires doesn’t exactly make me feel warm and fuzzy things for either party.

Now on to the links.

• Speaking of Juan Soto, everyone is watching to see if he’ll get traded, and the folks at MLB dot come have come up with seven potential trade fits.
• Andy McCullough is also thinking about the paradox of the trade, in that Soto should be traded, but how could the Nationals trade him? (The Athletic subscription required.)
• And now that all eyes are on the trade deadline, MLB also offers up a tantalizing (if unlikely) suggestion: what would happen if the Angels decided to trade Shohei Ohtani? They’ve also made up a list of one big trade target for each team.
• SI dot com has a whole feature from Tom Verducci spotlighting what we should be watching for and what’s to come in the second half of the season.
• ESPN tries to determine who the shoe-in contenders are, and who the long-shots might be.
• Are the Mariners poised to finally be a playoff team? Jay Jaffe thinks so.
• Madison Williams shares in the joys of mic’d up players and why we need more of it.
• Another fun thing from the ASG? The fashion! The Athletic staff rank to top looks from the red carpet. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• This is really cool.

• On the cusp of Hall of Fame inductions, Jay Jaffe looks at what is changing with the Eras Committee, and what it could mean for future stars who missed their first shot at the Hall.
• Want a truly iconic piece of sports history? Bobby Bonilla is auctioning off his still-infamous Mets’ contract. Story by Thomas Neumann.
• Albert Pujols has won the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for his good works off the field. (ESPN)
• Scott Miller shares Nolan Ryan’s dirty little secret: he had a soft slider.
• Bo Jackson helped pay for some of the funerals for the victims of the Uvalde school shooting in Texas. (AP)
• For the first time in almost 20 years, the “Three True Outcomes” across baseball are all trending down. Jayson Stark and Eno Sarris want to know why. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• What year is this data from?!

And tomorrow will be a better day, Buster. Make it so.