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Sources: Padres, quiet all winter, add RHP Pivetta
The San Diego Padres filled a clear need in their starting rotation Wednesday, agreeing to terms on a four-year, $55 million contract with veteran right-hander Nick Pivetta, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan.
Pivetta's deal, still pending the completion of a physical exam, includes opt-outs after the second and third seasons and is heavily backloaded. The contract will pay him a $3 million signing bonus and only a $1 million salary in 2025, then calls for salaries of $19 million, $14 million and $18 million from 2026 to 2028, sources told Passan.
The structure helps a Padres team that is trying to keep costs down for a second straight offseason and was already running a 2025 payroll of about $194 million, roughly a $30 million increase from where they were on Opening Day last year.
Pivetta, who will celebrate his 32nd birthday Friday, will likely slot in behind the Padres' incumbent trio of Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish and Michael King, leaving Matt Waldron and Randy Vasquez, among others, to compete for the fifth spot.
One of few reliable starting pitchers remaining on the free agent market, Pivetta has been lauded for his durability, extension and propensity for missing bats.
With the Boston Red Sox over the past four seasons, he averaged 156 innings, posted a 4.33 ERA and struck out 26.9% of hitters. Last year, while posting a 4.14 ERA in 145 innings, Pivetta finished with the lowest walk rate of his career at 6.1%.
Padres general manager A.J. Preller has navigated through a conservative, relatively quiet offseason since watching his team lose to the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series.
Preller didn't make an addition to his major league roster until bringing back catcher Elias Diaz at the end of January. Days ago, the team agreed to $1 million deals with Connor Joe and Jason Heyward, who will make up a left-field platoon.
The Pivetta deal, occurring at the start of spring training, represents the first big move of the Padres' offseason. Given the absence of front-line starter Joe Musgrove, who will spend the year recovering from Tommy John surgery, it's an important one.
Sources: Bregman to Red Sox for 3 years, $120M
Free agent Alex Bregman has a new home after agreeing to a three-year, $120 million deal with the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night, sources told ESPN's Jesse Rogers.
The $40 million annual salary is $10 million-plus more per year than other teams were offering, sources said. The deal includes two opt-outs and deferred money.
Bregman, who was the biggest free agent remaining on the market, is expected to play second base for Boston, sources said, after primarily playing third for the Houston Astros since 2020. He gives the Red Sox another big bat to go with a retooled pitching staff after the team acquired Garrett Crochet via trade and signed Walker Buehler and Aroldis Chapman via free agency earlier this offseason.
Boston manager Alex Cora wanted Bregman badly, having previously coached him in Houston. And with the contract, the Red Sox made a big-money splash after guaranteeing only $52.3 million to free agents this winter, leading to significant frustration from a fan base of a team that hasn't been to the postseason since 2021.
Bregman, who previously played all nine seasons with the Astros, had received interest from several teams, with the Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs most heavily linked to him, along with Boston and Houston. The Tigers offered him a six-year, $171 million deal, and the Astros were around six years, $156 million, sources said.
Bregman's right-handed bat has a track record of success at Fenway Park. In 21 career games there, he has a .375 batting average with seven home runs and 15 RBIs. His career 1.240 OPS at Fenway is the best in major league history among players with at least 90 plate appearances.
After slumping mightily at the start of the 2024 season, Bregman's bat began to come around in June and the rest of the team followed, as the Astros ultimately jumped the Seattle Mariners to claim their seventh AL West title in eight years.
Bregman, who will turn 31 on March 30, finished the season with a .260 batting average, 26 home runs and 75 RBIs in 145 games. Houston lost back-to-back AL Wild Card Series games to the Tigers.
The two-time All-Star had surgery after the season to remove a bone chip from his right elbow, and agent Scott Boras said Bregman, who has exclusively played third base since 2020, was willing to move to second base if needed.
The Red Sox already have star Rafael Devers at third, so Bregman's expected move to second would allow him to stay there. And while Bregman has logged only 32 innings at second in his major league career, Cora referred to him last month as someone he envisioned as "a Gold Glove second baseman" when the two were together in Houston.
Bregman, who is coming off a five-year, $100 million contract, slashed .275/.376/.488 with 157 home runs and 554 RBIs from 2017 to 2023, compiling 34.2 FanGraphs wins above replacement, eighth most among all position players. Overall, he has a .272 career batting average with 191 home runs and 663 RBIs.
He rejected a one-year, $21.05 million qualifying offer by the Astros on Nov. 19, meaning Houston will receive a compensatory pick after the fourth round of this year's MLB draft. Boston will lose its second-highest pick for signing him and will forfeit $500,000 of international signing bonus pool allocation.
Bregman's ascension directly correlates with the Astros' run of dominance, as his first full season came in 2017, when the franchise won its first championship -- a title later tainted by the sign-stealing scandal that led to the firing of general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A.J. Hinch.
The Astros went on to make seven consecutive appearances in the AL Championship Series and won another World Series, during which Bregman established himself as one of the game's best third basemen and became, along with Jose Altuve, one of the team's core leaders.
Bregman was originally drafted by the Red Sox out of high school in 2012, but he opted to go to college at LSU. Houston then selected him second overall in the 2015 draft.
The Red Sox will hold their first full-squad workout Monday in Fort Myers, Florida. They host the Astros in the regular season Aug. 1-3, then visit Houston Aug. 11-13.
News of Bregman's deal with Boston was first reported by The Athletic.
Information from ESPN's Jeff Passan, Buster Olney and Alden Gonzalez was used in this report.
Norrie wins to reach Delray Beach Open last eight
British number two Cameron Norrie is through to the quarter-finals of the Delray Beach Open in Florida after beating French fifth seed Arthur Rinderknech.
The 29-year-old came out on top in a lengthy first-set tie-break but dominated in the second to win 7-6 (11-9) 6-2.
Norrie, the 2022 winner, is unseeded at the tournament having dropped to 61 in the world rankings.
He needed just over two hours to beat Rinderknech in a gruelling match in the Florida heat.
Norrie will face American qualifier Michael Mmoh or Alex Michelsen, seeded third, in the last eight.
England are intent on ending their four-year "hurt" against Scotland when the old rivals meet in the Six Nations, says scrum-half Alex Mitchell.
Scotland have won the last four Calcutta Cup matches and Mitchell says English motivation is high to deny Gregor Townsend's side a record fifth consecutive victory.
England will welcome Scotland to the Allianz Stadium on 22 February in high spirits following their last-gasp win over France, which curtailed a run of seven defeats against Tier One nations.
"We are hurting for the last four years at not getting a result [against Scotland]," Mitchell told BBC Sport.
"This Six Nations campaign is still up for grabs so it's a massive game for us.
"We know Scotland are a quality opposition with some quality individuals so we can't take them for granted.
"We know we have to just put a performance out there."
Mitchell was influential in England's late recovery against Les Bleus, moving the attack from a wearied rolling maul at the line-out to a buoyant midfield, where Elliot Daly glided through the French defence to score the winning try.
The Northampton Saints scrum-half, 27, says he noticed an opportunity amid the forwards arm-wrestle, which Daly exploited.
"The France defence was changing the whole time," Mitchell added.
"They had two defenders and then one as [Damian] Penaud was doing a really good job behind the maul covering both sides.
"We noticed a mismatch in the open so we shot that way and scored. You have a split second to try and make the right decision and luckily we did."
Hettinger Racing Enters Truck Series Opener with Maggio
MOORESVILLE, N.C. Hettinger Racing has entered the season-opening NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Daytona (Fla.) Intl Speedway with driver Mason Maggio.
The 20-year-old racer from Palm Beach Garden, Florida, will drive the No. 4 Tantillo Auto Group Chevrolet Silverado in Fridays Fresh From Florida 250.
The event will be Maggios 22nd career Truck Series start and his second on a superspeedway. Maggios first superspeedway start came in his most recent Truck Series race Oct. 4, 2024 at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, where he finished 18th.
As far as the overall basics of superspeedway racing and how to navigate it, Talladega definitely gave me a great feel of what to expect, Maggio said. Ive been putting in the work watching film between practice, qualifying and the race, and then Ive got some really good people here at Hettinger Racing to lean on for advice. Talladega gave me a lot of good pointers and it just makes me feel even more prepared than I wouldve been if I didnt do that race last year.
Daytona marks Hettinger Racings third Truck Series start. The team ran the final two Truck Series race of the 2024 season at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway and Phoenix Raceway with driver Brett Moffitt after team owner Chris Hettinger bought the assets of Bret Holmes Racing.
Hettinger is a second-generation racer whose father, Jim, raced open-wheel Midgets and Sprint Cars and won two championships in 1984 and 1990, accolades that earned him a spot in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame. Chris began his racing career behind the wheel, winning in Midgets and Late Models before becoming a full-time team owner.
Daytona marks another step in the growth of our race team, Hettinger said. Weve got our Late Model and ARCA program, and the Truck Series represents the top step of the ladder program we have available to our drivers. Mason is ready for this opportunity and we are too.
Maggio is an accomplished Late Model racer who began his career in Bandolero and Legend Cars. He made his Truck Series debut on June 4, 2022 at Worldwide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois, and his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut on April 1, 2023 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
I broke into the Truck Series in 2022, and then did my first Xfinity start in 2023. Just been kind of going back and forth there, really hustling with smaller-to-mid-pack teams trying to make a name for myself and continuing to show the NASCAR world what I can do, Maggio said. I feel like Ive done a pretty decent job of that, from well-established, small teams to even startup teams, so Im not afraid to grab the bull by the horns and take on a new challenge.
Its whats led me to this opportunity with Hettinger Racing and, knowing Ive got good equipment and good people, its the most excited Ive been in a long time.
Easum Commits to Sophomore ASCS National Campaign
CONCORD, N.C. Terry Easum checked off a bucket list item during his rookie campaign with the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) National Tour last year win a series race. This year, hes determined to further make his name known nationally during his sophomore year with the series.
We raced a lot locally for several years here, and we just enjoy getting to go to a lot of new racetracks and see new places, Easum said. Really, we just want to be better, and the only way youre going to get better is racing guys like that.
The 32-year-old from Broken Arrow, Okla., is set for his sophomore season of competition with ASCS behind the wheel of the Premier Self-Storage, Don Ott Racing Engines-powered Triple X Chassis No. 88.
His rookie season started with quick success, winning the second race of the season at Red Dirt Raceway in Meeker, Okla. less than 90 minutes from his house. From seventh on the starting grid, Easum raced his way to the lead in 13 laps, using the bottom lane around the 1/4-mile track to hold off all challengers for the win.
Really, it was a dream come true, he said. It was something I had always dreamed of doing, and I was able to do it there with so many people there that we knew. It was kind of unreal for a few days the number of people that called.
But that was one race. Weve got to move on and get better.
Despite the early success, struggles in various areas slowed Easums progress, garnering only two more top-10 finishes through the remainder of the season to rank him 10th in the final points standings. The winter break bought him time to fix those issues, and hes ready to return to the track.
Weve made a lot of big changes in our team, switching our engines over to Don Ott, Easum said. We had some issues with Qualifying and it just kinda hindered the middle to the end part of the year; we never could get them running where we needed to. Weve corrected that, and hopefully, thatll help to start off the night better and put ourselves in position to win races.
In addition to the equipment upgrades, Easum has recruited the help of veteran crew chief Jimmy Jones to lead his operation at the track and in the shop going forward. Jones, an experienced wrench who won three World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series championships as a mechanic for Steve Kinser, has also worked with open-wheel standouts Mark Kinser, Aaron Berryhill, Robert Ballou and most recently Ryan Timms.
Having Jimmy Jones there in the shop during the week is going to be a huge help with him going over everything and taking some weight off of Kacee [Frazier] and Is shoulders, Easum said. We raced together years ago, and it was a lot of fun. Were kinda like a family; hes kinda like a second dad to me.
Easum and Jones have their goals set for 2025 ones that aim to land the team a higher championship points standing at seasons end.
Mainly get more aggressive; we need to get in the top 10 and top five every night, Easum said. Last year, we were just all over the map, really. But we just need to get more consistent.
Easum begins his second season on the ASCS National Tour full-time roster at the next event Saturday, April 12 at Salina Highbanks Speedway in Salina, Okla.
Kansas/Texas USAC Sprint Weekend Added at Dodge City, Amarillo
SPEEDWAY, Ind. The USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship schedule has expanded with the addition of two dates on Oct. 17, at Dodge City Raceway Park in Kansas and on Oct. 18, at Route 66 Motor Speedway in Amarillo, Texas.
The Oct. 17 Dodge City event marks the return of USAC National Sprint Car racing to the three-eighths-mile semi-banked clay oval. Fourteen years ago in 2011, the series made its only previous trip to Dodge City, both events of which were won by Tracy Hines.
Twenty-two previous USAC National Sprint Car events have been held in the Sunflower State of Kansas since 1963. Brady Bacon, Robert Ballou and Tracy Hines are the lone multi-time USAC National Sprint Car winners in Kansas with two victories apiece.
At Amarillo, the Oct. 18 event on the three-eighths-mile high-banked clay oval welcomes the debut of USAC racing at the Texas panhandle venue and is the lone visit of the year by USAC to the Lone Star State on its 53-race schedule.
Five previous USAC National Sprint Car events have been held in the state of Texas dating back to 1959, and have seen five different winners emerge, all of whom have also captured USAC National Sprint Car championships.
This years crop of drivers expected to compete at Dodge City and Route 66 include USAC National Sprint Car champions Justin Grant, Robert Ballou, C.J. Leary and Logan Seavey as well as series winners Kyle Cummins, Kevin Thomas Jr., Jake Swanson, Mitchel Moles, Briggs Danner, Jadon Rogers and many more all vying for their first USAC triumph in Texas.
Byron Has More Passion & Excitement For Daytona
The thrill of winning the Great American Race is a feeling that never goes away.
For William Byron, that moment came last year at the famed 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) Intl Speedway as he drove the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet back to victory lane. Jeff Gordon won three Daytona 500s sporting the same car number.
As Byron attempts to become only the fifth driver to go back-to-back in the event, he feels more joy coming down here than I did before.
I have more passion and excitement for this race than I did before, Byron explained. I feel like having experienced it the way it was last year really changed my perspective on the race as a whole in a good way, obviously. I feel thats created some more motivation to get another one.
The magnitude of victory in the 500-mile race earns a driver their own title for life Daytona 500 winner.
This race, its a lifetime achievement, Byron said. Its something people reference everywhere you go. Its something that the first time in my career Ive had something like that.
It makes it cool, it makes it more special, because you can tell people care about the race.
While Byron broke through last year, the challenge of making it to the end of the race has become increasingly difficult with the introduction of the Next Gen race car in 2022.
With the car becoming more of an equalizer in the sport, it makes passing considerably more difficult on superspeedways than in prior years.
The racing has just got really tight and competitive, and everybody is sort of in a really tight gridlock, Byron began. So its really hard to make moves. Three-wide is tough to make.
I feel like youve got to be up toward the front. Track position is really important and you have to be towards the front side coming down to the end.
I think in the past, that was the case, but you could see a guy win from 10th on the last lap. I just dont think thatll happen in this package anymore.
Entering the weekend, HMS is tied with Petty Enterprises for the most Daytona 500 victories (nine).
If Byron or one of his teammates Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott or Alex Bowman snag another Harley J. Earl Trophy on Sunday, itll be the latest record that team owner Rick Hendrick has accomplished in the NASCAR Cup Series.
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson will start Team Sweden's game against Canada in Wednesday night's opener of the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal.
Gustavsson gets the nod over 2023 Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark of the Ottawa Senators and Samuel Ersson of the Philadelphia Flyers. Ersson was added in the mix with New Jersey Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom missing the tournament due to a knee injury.
Gustavsson, 26, has posted a 22-11-3 record with three shutouts, a 2.63 goals-against average and .915 save percentage this season for the Wild.
St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was named Canada's starter on Tuesday.
MONTREAL -- Connor Hellebuyck will start for Team USA when they begin play at the 4 Nations Face-Off against Finland on Thursday.
The United States officially named Hellebuyck their No. 1 following Wednesday's practice -- a mammoth session that lasted well over an hour.
Hellebuyck was projected to get the call in net, with Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman vying for roles as his backup. The Winnipeg Jets goaltender is the NHL's reigning Vezina Trophy winner and on track to potentially earn a second straight -- and third overall -- trophy on the strength of another excellent campaign.
Hellebuyck leads the NHL in wins -- with a 34-7-2 record on the season -- and paces NHL starters with a .925 save percentage and 2.06 goals-against average. His elite play has been a decisive factor in Winnipeg's emergence as the NHL's top team with 81 points and a 39-14-3 record going into the 4 Nations break.
When the U.S. squares off with Finland, it will be Juuse Saros opposite Hellebuyk in net. Finnish coach Antti Pennanen confirmed Saros would get the call after Wednesday's final workout. The Nashville Predators netminder is 11-23-6 this season with an .899 save percentage and 2.95 goals-against average behind his struggling team, which owns the NHL's third-worst record (19-28-7).
Canada previously named Jordan Binnington its starting goaltender for Wednesday's opening matchup for Sweden, who will have Linus Ullmark in net. The 4 Nations tournament round-robin play will continue in Montreal through Saturday before the event flips over to Boston for a final slate of games.
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