Opinion

We've seen a handful of May trades completed in baseball, but the players involved—Jason Bourgeois, Jhoulys Chacin, Anthony Recker and Brendan Ryan—elicit about as much excitement from fans as a Jered Weaver fastball.

Many will say interleague play in Major League Baseball has lost its luster, but it still has at least one gift to give every year.

It's an annual showdown of epic proportions, and the time has come for it to be renewed in 2016: Clayton Kershaw vs. Mike Trout.

We've jumped the gun on Jackie Bradley Jr. before. And if we didn't, all of New England did.

The fans. The media. The Boston Red Sox players.

We've jumped the gun on Jackie Bradley Jr. before. And if we didn't, all of New England did.

The fans. The media. The Boston Red Sox players.

"He's going to be good," Dustin Pedroia told Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe in 2013, just before Opening Day. "I mean, he is now."

What do Game of Thrones' Jon Snow and a guy who tells you he has a handle on the 2016 MLB season have in common?

They both know nothing.

Yes, we've reached the one-quarter mark of the 162-game grind. But predicting the future is still folly.

Hot streaks, cold spells, injuries and trades will inevitably upend the balance of power. The last won't necessarily be first, but they could be.

Jose Bautista and Rougned Odor started a brawl over the weekend, and one of them figures to pay an especially heavy price for it.

But don't think for a second the other should get off easy.

The Chicago Cubs are the best team in baseball.

At roughly the one-quarter mark of the 2016 season, that should be a fairly uncontroversial statement.

You can point to the numbers—specifically the Cubs' 27-9 record and absurd plus-109 run differential, both tops in MLB.

Or you can just watch them play.

If it wasn't before, it's safe to say now: The Toronto Blue Jays and Texas Rangers don't like each other very much.

Wait, scratch that. They don't like each other at all.

Ask Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor, whose right fist connected squarely with Blue Jays right fielder Jose Bautista's jaw on Sunday, clearing the benches and reigniting a blood feud that's been simmering since last fall.

We'll get into the history and what it means going forward shortly. First, the punch:

How much will David Ortiz add to the legend in his final season?

Based on the early returns, as much as he can.

The MLB announcement Friday said Jose Reyes can come back to the major leagues on June 1.

Too bad it's not June 1, 2011.