MILWAUKEE (AP) — Milwaukee right-hander Nick Mears was left off the Brewers' roster for their NL Championship Series matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers after making 63 relief appearances during the regular season.
The Brewers included right-hander Tobias Myers, who wasn't on Milwaukee's roster for their NL Division Series with the Chicago Cubs. Myers, who has started in 31 of his 49 career appearances, could produce longer stints out of the bullpen than Mears might have done in this series.
“Mears has been unbelievable for us this year,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said before Monday night's opener. "He’s been that get-out-of-a jam guy. But he’s really been most effective when used in small spurts. We’re in a seven-game series and we basically have one and a half starters available or maybe a total of two starters available as far as length and where they are right now in the season.
“So with that, we’ve got to look for more length. Most people drop the position player and add another pitcher. We chose not to for particular reasons, and then gained some more length out of that.”
Left-hander Aaron Ashby was to start Game 1, likely filling a role similar to when he served as an opener in Game 2 of the NLDS. The Dodgers already had announced left-hander Blake Snell as their Game 1 starter.
Los Angeles also altered its bullpen for this series. The Dodgers added one more pitcher by including right-hander Ben Casparius and leaving out Dalton Rushing, among three catchers on their NLDS roster. Rushing struck out in his lone NLDS at-bat.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Casparius was added to provide more bullpen options in the best-of-7 format.
The Dodgers' NLCS bullpen will also include left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who was added to the NLDS roster after Tanner Scott had a surgical removal of an abscess from an infection on his lower body before the final game of the NLDS matchup with Philadelphia.
Scott is eligible to return for the World Series if the Dodgers advance.
Mears went 5-3 with a 3.49 ERA for the Brewers during the regular season. He pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in the NLDS.
Myers was 1-2 with a 3.55 ERA for Milwaukee in six starts and 16 relief appearances. That followed a 2024 rookie season in which he went 9-6 with a 3.00 ERA in 25 starts and two relief outings. Myers allowed only two hits over five shutout innings while starting Game 3 of the Brewers' NL Wild Card Series loss to the New York Mets last season.
Milwaukee's NLCS roster also didn't include two-time All-Star pitcher Brandon Woodruff as he continues to recover from a right lat strain.
Casparius went 7-5 with a 4.64 ERA in 46 appearances this season. He had a 1.42 ERA in 6 1/3 postseason innings last year — including 4 1/3 scoreless innings in the NLCS — to help the Dodgers win the World Series.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Nick Mears (25) throws during the ninth inning in Game 1 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)
Milwaukee Brewers' Nick Mears throws during the first inning of Game 3 of baseball's National League Division Series against the Chicago Cubs Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump hosted the annual Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday, praising Sylvester Stallone, Kiss, Gloria Gaynor and the other honorees as being “legendary in so many ways.”
“Billions and billions of people have watched them over the years,” Trump, the first president to command the stage instead of sitting in an Opera House box, said to open the show.
He said the honorees, who also include country music superstar George Strait and Tony Award-winning actor Michael Crawford, are “among the greatest artists and actors, performers, musicians, singers, songwriters ever to walk the face of the Earth.”
Since returning to office in January, Trump has made the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which is named after a Democratic predecessor, a touchstone in a broader attack against what he has lambasted as “woke” anti-American culture.
Trump, who said in August that he had agreed to host the show, said Saturday at a State Department dinner for the honorees that he was doing so “at the request of a certain television network.” He predicted the broadcast, scheduled to air Dec. 23 on CBS and Paramount+, would have its best ratings ever.
Trump assumed a role that has been held in the past by journalist Walter Cronkite and comedian and Trump nemesis Stephen Colbert, among others. Before Trump, presidents watched the show alongside the honorees. Trump skipped the honors altogether during his first term.
Asked when he arrived for the ceremony how he had found time to prepare, Trump said he “didn’t really prepare very much.”
“I have a good memory, so I can remember things, which is very fortunate,” the president said. “But just, I wanted to just be myself. You have to be yourself. Johnny Carson, he was himself.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, one of several Cabinet secretaries attending the ceremony, said he was looking forward to Trump's hosting job.
“Oh this president, he is so relaxed in front of these cameras, as you know, and so funny, I can’t wait for tonight,” Lutnick said as he arrived with his wife, who is on the Kennedy Center board.
Since 1978, the honors have recognized stars for their influence on American culture and the arts. Members of this year's class are pop-culture standouts, including Stallone for his “Rocky” and “Rambo” movies, Gaynor for her feminist anthem “I Will Survive” and Kiss for its flashy, cartoonish makeup and onstage displays of smoke and pyrotechnics.
Trump said persistence is a trait all the artists share.
“Some of them have had legendary setbacks, setbacks that you have to read in the papers because of their level of fame,” he said from the stage. “But in the words of Rocky Balboa, they showed us that you keep moving forward, just keep moving forward.”
The ceremony was expected to be emotional for the members of Kiss. The band’s original lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, died in October after he was injured during a fall. The band's co-founder Gene Simmons, speaking on the red carpet when he and the other honorees arrived for the ceremony, said the president had assured him there would be an empty chair among the members of Kiss in memory of Frehley.
Stallone said being honored at the ceremony was like being in the “eye of a hurricane.”
“This is an amazing event,” he said. “But you’re caught up in the middle of it. It’s hard to take it in until the next day. ..: but I’m incredibly humbled by it.”
Crawford also said it was “humbling, especially at the end of a career.”
Gaynor said it “feels like a dream” to be honored. "To be recognized in this way is the pinnacle," she said on the red carpet.
Mike Farris, an award-winning gospel singer who was performing for Gaynor, said she is a dear friend. “She truly did survive,” Farris said. "What an iconic song.”
Previous honorees have come from a broad range of art forms, whether dance (Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham), theater (Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber), movies (Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks) or music (Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell).
Trump upended decades of bipartisan support for the center by ousting its leadership and stacking the board of trustees with Republican supporters, who then elected him chair. He has criticized the center’s programming and the building’s appearance — and has said, perhaps jokingly, that he would rename it as the “Trump Kennedy Center.” He secured more than $250 million from Congress for renovations of the building.
Presidents of each political party have at times found themselves face to face with artists of opposing political views. Republican Ronald Reagan was there for honoree Arthur Miller, a playwright who championed liberal causes. Democrat Bill Clinton, who had signed an assault weapons ban into law, marked the honors for Charlton Heston, an actor and gun rights advocate.
During Trump’s first term, multiple honorees were openly critical of the president. In 2017, Trump’s first year in office, honors recipient and film producer Norman Lear threatened to boycott his own ceremony if Trump attended. Trump stayed away during that entire term.
Trump has said he was deeply involved in choosing the 2025 honorees and turned down some recommendations because they were “too woke." While Stallone is one of Trump's Hollywood ”special ambassadors" and has likened Trump to George Washington, the political views of Sunday's other guests are less clear.
Strait and Gaynor have said little about their politics, although Federal Election Commission records show that Gaynor has given money to Republican organizations in recent years.
Simmons spoke favorably of Trump when Trump ran for president in 2016. But in 2022, Simmons told Spin magazine that Trump was “out for himself” and criticized Trump for encouraging conspiracy theories and public expressions of racism.
Fellow Kiss member Paul Stanley denounced Trump's effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, and said Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were “terrorists.” But after Trump won in 2024, Stanley urged unity.
“If your candidate lost, it’s time to learn from it, accept it and try to understand why,” Stanley wrote on X. "If your candidate won, it’s time to understand that those who don’t share your views also believe they are right and love this country as much as you do.”
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Italie reported from New York.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, walk the red carpet before the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, walk the red carpet before the 48th Kennedy Center Honors, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
2025 Kennedy Center Honoree Sylvester Stallone, right, and Jennifer Flavin arrive on the red carpet for the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception, hosted at the U.S. Department of State, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
2025 Kennedy Center Honoree Gloria Gaynor arrives on the red carpet for the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception, hosted at the U.S. Department of State, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
2025 Kennedy Center Honoree George Strait, center left, and his family arrive on the red carpet for the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception, hosted at the U.S. Department of State, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
2025 Kennedy Center Honoree Michael Crawford, center, and his family arrive on the red carpet for the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception, hosted at the U.S. Department of State, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
President Donald Trump, left, speaks as he presents Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, KISS, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford with their Kennedy Center Honors medals in the Oval Office of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
The 2025 Kennedy Center Honorees, front row from left, Sylvester Stallone, George Strait, Gloria Gaynor and Michael Crawford; back row from left, members of the rock band KISS, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons and Peter Criss, pose for a group photo at the 48th Kennedy Center Honors Medallion Reception, hosted at the U.S. Department of State, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
