Mariners Moose Tracks, 6/27/25: Wander Franco, Aaron Judge, and Shohei Ohtani

News and notes from around baseball.

Hello folks and happy Friday! It’s time to give you those baseball updates you’re looking for.

In Mariners news...

• Daniel Kramer reports that Mariners ownership has greenlit payroll increases at this year’s deadline, and that the team may seek to acquire the “best bat available” regardless of position.

Around the league...

• Rays shortstop Wander Franco has been found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor in the Dominican Republic. He will receive a two-year prison sentence and almost certainly will never play in an MLB game again.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks appear to have secured funding to renovate Chase Field.
• The Rockies are promoting majority owner Dick Monfort’s eldest son Walker to the role of Executive Vice President.
• As the top two vote recipients so far, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge have secured their spots at this year’s All-Star Game. We now move on to the final round, where Cal Raleigh needs your support to get in!
• The Triple-A strike zone is being called differently than the MLB one, J.J. Cooper at Baseball America writes. ($)
• Jonathan Judge at Baseball Prospectus explains changes that BP has made to the statistic Range Defense Added (RDA).