Ryne Sandberg former Chicago Cub and Hall of Famer who passed away this week at age 65 is seen here taking a swing against the Cincinnati Reds on Wed Aug 29, 1984. MLB teams will be paying respects to Sandberg before games on Tue Jul 29, 2025 (AP News photo)

MLB The Show podcast Jessica Kwong:

#1 Hall of Famer and former Chicago Cub second baseman Ryne Sandberg passed away this week at the age of 64 from prostate cancer. Sandberg during his 16 year career hit .285, 2386 hits, 282 home runs, and 1061 RBIs.

#2 The Tampa Bay Rays traded with the Miami Marlins catcher Nick Fortes on Tuesday. This after the Rays sent catcher Danny Jensen to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Marlins got minor league outfielder Matthew Etzel. This is Etzel’s second year in a row being traded. The Rays got minor league infielder Jadher Areinamo part of the trade with the Brewers. The MLB trade deadline is on Thursday.

#3  Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez is relieved that X-rays retuned negative results of a fracture after he was hit in his right index finger by a 95.6 mph sinker pitch by Detroit Tigers pitcher Will Vest. Suarez after getting hit on Monday night doubled over and had to leave the field. On Tuesday Suarez said “I’ll come back as quickly as I can.”

#4 Last week during an annual meeting with one of the 30 teams that MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has with MLB teams he met with Philadelphia Phillies in the clubhouse after the first few minutes it was pretty smooth but when Manfred raised the subject of the game’s economics came up but didn’t use the words salary cap Phillies star outfielder Bryce Harper stood up and walked over to Manfred and said “If you want to speak about that, you can get the f— out of our clubhouse.” Which Manfred replied, “not going to get the f— out of here,” the Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos then tried to intervene saying, “I have more questions.” Harper and the Players Association are dead set against a cap and are prepared to stay out of the 2027 season if there is a salary cap and the owners are prepared to lock the players out for as long as it takes if there is no salary cap,

#4 Framber Valdez’s frustrations came out when he questioned the defensive positioning regarding a sixth inning play on Monday night that led to the Astros coughing up a run in a 2-1 loss against the Washington Nationals. Valdez said through a Spanish interpreter, “I saw the right fielder playing center field and, you know, we have a center fielder for that, “I feel like the right fielder should have been playing right field. I was uncomfortable with that.” The Astros had also lost a four game series to the last place Sacramento A’s before playing the Nationals.

#5 Cleveland Guardians pitcher closer Emmanuel Clase is under investigation for sports gambling and has been place on non-disciplinary leave through Aug 31st. Clase is the second Guardian to go under non-disciplinary leave due to gambling allegations. The other pitcher Luis Ortiz is on non-disciplinary leave he is being investigated for throwing two pitches for balls that are allegedly connected to gambling activity.

Jessica Kwong does MLB The Show podcasts every other Wednesday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com