The Texas Rangers and right-hander Nathan Eovaldi have agreed on a $75 million, three-year contract, a person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Tuesday night because the deal was subject to a successful physical for the two-time World Series champion.
Bringing back the 34-year-old Eovaldi was one of the primary goals for the Rangers this offseason.
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Eovaldi became a free agent Nov. 4 after declining a vested $20 million player option for the 2025 season.
The two-time All-Star also got a $2 million buyout from that option earned by throwing more than 300 innings over his two years with the Rangers after joining them in free agency.
Eovaldi was the winning pitcher in their World Series-clinching game at Arizona in 2023, when he was 5-0 with a 2.95 ERA in six postseason starts. He was also part of Boston’s 2018 title.
‘I want to be one of the best’ – Nathan Eovaldi reflects on winning five postseason starts with the Rangers
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The Rangers had expected Eovaldi to decline the option, but had said it was one of their priorities to re-sign the Texas native.
Penn State University police will not charge retired Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce after investigating an altercation with a fan over a cellphone before a Nov. 2 home game between the Nittany Lions and Ohio State.
University Police and Public Safety public information officer Jacqueline Sheader confirmed in an email to the Associated Press on Tuesday night that the case has been closed.
Sheader’s email added that the individual in a video that went viral on social media has not been identified, and no one has come forward to police with a complaint about damage
The Washington Nationals will have the No. 1 overall pick in the amateur draft next summer after winning the lottery in a drawing of ping-pong balls at the winter meetings Tuesday.
Unlike last year, when the Nationals were ineligible after initially coming out with the top spot, they will get to make the first pick in July in Atlanta, the site of the All-Star Game.
Washington was ineligible for a top-six pick last year because the collective bargaining agreement states a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan cannot have a lottery selection in back-to-back years. The Nationals chose outfielder Dylan Crews with the No. 2 pick in 2023.
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The Los Angeles Angels have the second pick for next summer. Seattle, Colorado, St. Louis and Pittsburgh round out the top six.
A weighted lottery among the 18 teams that failed to make the playoffs this season determined the order of picks for the third year in a row.
The Nationals went in with a 10.2% chance, the fourth-best odds, for getting the No. 1 pick. Colorado and Miami, both 100-loss teams, had the best odds at 22.45%, ahead of the Angels at 17.96%.
Miami instead ended up with the seventh pick.
Seattle got the No. 3 overall pick after having a 0.53% chance to get the No. 1 pick, the second-worst odds among 16 eligible teams.
The 121-loss Chicago White Sox, who had the most losses of any major league club since 1900, were not eligible for the draft lottery since they had one of the top six picks last year (No. 5) and is a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan.
The CBA also doesn’t allow teams that receive money in revenue sharing to have lottery picks three years in a row. That made the Athletics (69-93) ineligible for the lottery — they picked fourth last year after having the No. 6 selection in 2023.
Chicago instead got the 10th pick, one spot ahead of Oakland — the highest possible positions for those two teams because of their recent lottery picks.
Max Fried and the New York Yankees have agreed to a $218 million, eight-year contract, the largest deal for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the agreement, first reported by ESPN, was subject to a successful physical.
Fried, who turns 31 in January, gets the fourth-highest contract among pitchers behind the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million), the Yankees’ Gerrit Cole ($324 million) and Washington’s Stephen Strasburg ($245 million), who hasn’t pitched since 2022 and has retired. Fried broke the mark for lefties set by David Price at $217 million.
Fried spent his first eight seasons with the Braves, making the All-Star team in 2022 and 2024. He had his first big season in 2019, finishing 17-6 with a 4.02 ERA.
He was 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, finishing fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting. The three-time Gold Glove winner had his best season in 2022, going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA.
Fried was 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA in an injury-hampered 2023 season, then was 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA over 29 starts this year.
The right-hander was the seventh overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft by San Diego and was traded in a 2014 in the deal that sent Justin Upton to San Diego.
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow‘s home was broken into during Monday night’s game against the Cowboys in the latest home burglary of a pro athlete in the U.S., authorities said Tuesday.
No one was injured in the break-in, but the home was ransacked, according to a report provided by the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies weren’t immediately able to determine what items were stolen. A person who is employed by Burrow arrived at the Anderson Township home Monday night to find a shattered bedroom window and the home in disarray. The
“It’s like his biological clock is ticking,” agent Joel Wolfe said Tuesday at the winter meetings. “And if the team’s not winning it’s driving him crazy every day, every night all through the offseason. And he takes it so personal, like it’s all on him.”
An eight-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove third baseman, Arenado is open to a switch to first base. He hit .272 with 16 homers and 71 RBIs this year, his poorest season in a decade.
St. Louis acquired Arenado from Colorado ahead of the 2021 season, lost at the wild-card round in his first two years, then failed to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
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“The Cardinals are changing direction, which is fine. All teams do that,” Wolfe said. “So if that’s the way it is and they’ve said it might be beneficial to move you and they were open and communicated about it, he’s like: ‘I get it. Let’s just try and find a place where they’re in a different place,’ where he could just jump in and help the team go to the next level.”
Arenado has played 1,629 games in the field during his big league career, all at third base. He won Gold Gloves from 2013-22, matching Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki for winning the award in his first 10 seasons.
Arenado told Cardinals president baseball operations John Mozeliak he is open to a position switch.
“If it would make Mo’s job easier to get to the right team, Nolan is more than willing to move around,” Wolfe said, quoting his client as saying, “‘I’m not insulted to go play first and I can win a Gold Glove over there if that’s what it takes.'”
“He wanted to be just the first to offer that so that Mo could tell other teams that,” Wolfe said.
Arenado has a .285 career average with 341 homers and 1,132 RBIs for the Cardinals and Colorado Rockies. He is owed $74 million for the final three seasons of a contract paying him $275 million over nine years.
He has a full no-trade provision, giving him the ability to decide his destination.
“It’s more of just an ongoing discussion of: Would you be OK with this team? Would you be OK with that team?” Wolfe said. “We don’t want to waste Mo’s time and there some hard nos of where he would prefer not to go and things like that. It’s been somewhat dynamic in the discussion about how that works.”
Graham (6-foot-3, 320 pounds) is an Outland Trophy finalist this year and a two-time All-Big Ten selection. He was a second-team All-America pick in 2023.
The Los Angeles Dodgers expect Shohei Ohtani to be ready to hit when the reigning World Series champions open their season in Japan against the Chicago Cubs on March 18 and 19.
“I don’t think he’d have it any other way,” manager Dave Roberts said Monday of the NL MVP who had left shoulder surgery last month. “That’s our expectation.”
Coming off his third MVP award, Ohtani is doubtful to pitch while recovering from elbow surgery in September 2023. Roberts said a mound appearance in Japan is “very unlikely.”
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“I just don’t see us starting the clock in March to then think that we would keep that continuously going through October,” Roberts said during the winter meetings. “Then that would call for a break or reprieve in the middle of the season, so I don’t know. I still think unlikely.”
Ohtani had surgery Nov. 5 to repair a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder, an injury the 30-year-old sustained while sliding during a stolen base attempt in Game 2 of the World Series on Oct. 26. He didn’t pitch at all during the first season of his $700 million, 10-year deal with the Dodgers while recovering from surgery on the elbow, which previously underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2018.
Shohei Ohtani joins ‘MLB on Fox’ crew to discuss Dodgers winning the 2024 World Series
“It’s not cemented. If something doesn’t look right, feel right, obviously we’ve got to pivot. Maybe a lot of disappointed fans,” Roberts said. “We’re going to do what’s best for Shohei. But where we stand right now, I expect him to play.”
These were Juan Soto’s numbers in 2024: 41 home runs, 109 RBIs, a .288 batting average.
Keep doing that over the next 15 years, and he’ll be making roughly $1.2 million for every home run. Or $467,890 for every RBI. Or $307,229 for every hit.
He’ll make $314,815 per game. Based on his numbers this season, he’d get $671,053 for every extra-base hit. Or $46,322 every time he swings the bat — no matter if he misses, hits a tapper back to the mound or has Mr. Met celebrating in the stands after driving one out at Citi Field. Of course, that’s assuming Soto remains as healthy and productive as he was in 2024. If he misses significant time, those rates just go up.
“Thank you Uncle Steve,” Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo wrote on social media.
Some of the numbers around the sports world, when broken down by accomplishment, are simply eye-popping in this era. (And keep in mind, these examples are based on current earnings, not taking into account restructurings or any other potential changes.)
A look:
The two-time Cy Young winner will earn about $65 million in 2025, most of which is a signing bonus that comes his way in January. He has also never made more than 32 starts in a season. If he makes 32 starts in 2025, he’d be getting (when factoring in the signing bonus) $2,031,250 per game. For comparison’s sake, Detroit’s Tarik Skubal made $2.65 million for the entire 2024 season — and won a Cy Young award.
His record $700 million deal is no longer a record because of the Soto deal, but Ohtani still holds the mark for average total value at $70 million a year. The only member of baseball’s 50-50 club (54 homers, 59 stolen bases in 2024) would — at this past season’s rate — be making $619,469 every time he hits one out or steals a base.
It’s unfair to break down his stats this year because he’s hurt, but Prescott’s current deal is worth an average of $60 million a season from Dallas. Based on his career average, that means over the lifetime of his current contract, Prescott gets $13,680 for every passing yard.
NFL: Quarterbacks in general
The per-game numbers in the NFL for starting QBs are wild. Patrick Mahomes’ current $450 million contract isn’t even at the top of the cash-per-game standings: Prescott gets about $3.5 million for every regular-season game, while Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence, Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow and Green Bay’s Jordan Love are around $3.25 million/game.
At nearly $56 million this season, Curry leads the NBA salary race (for this year, anyway). The NBA’s all-time 3-point king is earning about $680,000 per game in 2024-25; if he was paid by the 3-pointer only, he’d be getting about $161,908 every time he makes one of those this season.
Brown is starting a five-year deal worth around $285 million, Tatum will start a five-year deal next year worth around $314 million. At those rates, the Celtics would be paying their two best players (at their current scoring paces) around $27,406 for every point scored. To compare — Larry Bird, for his career, made about $1,100 per point.
Based just on his MLS-guaranteed salary, Messi got just over $1 million per goal this season ($20.4 million, 20 goals). Again, just counting the MLS salary — his full deal with Inter Miami is worth at least $150 million for 2.5 years — Messi made $229 for every second he was on the field during the 2024 regular season.
Scheffler’s official earnings in 2024 were $29,228,357 (plus an Olympic gold medal, which is priceless). And that doesn’t include $34,037,500 million in bonuses and unofficial earnings, including $25 million for winning the FedExCup. Add it all up, and that meant the world’s No. 1 player earned about $11,243 per shot he took this season.
He’ll start a contract next year that will pay him an average of $14 million a season over eight seasons. At his current rate of scoring, he’d be earning roughly $119,393 for every goal or assist over that span.
Shesterkin just got the richest extension for a goalie, $92 million over eight years. At his current averages, every time he makes a save, he’ll be earning $5,084.
LOS ANGELES — Detroit‘s 34-31 comeback victory over Green Bay last Thursday night averaged 17.29 million viewers, making it the most-streamed NFL regular-season game in history.
It was also Amazon Prime Video’s most-watched game since exclusively taking over the prime-time package in 2022.
According to Nielsen, the audience peaked at 18.87 million viewers during the first half (9:15-9:30 p.m. ET), which is also a new high.
The previous record for “Thursday Night Football” was 16.23 million for the Dallas Cowboys‘ 20-15 win over the New York Giants
