Oklahoma landed another top quarterback Thursday when Brock Vandagriff announced his commitment to the Sooners.

Vandagriff has not been ranked yet by ESPN, but is expected to be one of the top passers in the Class of 2021 and already held plenty of major scholarship offers. He chose Oklahoma over Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

A 6-foot-3, 200-pound pocket passer from Prince Avenue Christian School in Bogart, Georgia, Vandagriff is part of a long list of top quarterbacks coming out of the Peach State. He joins Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, Florida quarterback Emory Jones and Ohio State's Justin Fields, among others.

After much time and prayer, the time has come... Thank you to all who made it happen. ?COMMITTED? (video courtesy of @TFB_Sooners) pic.twitter.com/bliUHM6Hw3

— brock ? (@BrockVandagriff) June 20, 2019

The commitment gives Oklahoma its third elite quarterback in four classes. The Sooners landed ESPN 300 quarterback Tanner Mordecai in 2018 and the No. 1 ranked dual-threat QB in 2019, Spencer Rattler. They have yet to land a quarterback in the 2020 class.

Adding a talented quarterback is nothing new for head coach Lincoln Riley, and top-ranked Georgia prospects are also becoming more prevalent at Oklahoma. The Sooners were able to land ESPN 300 wide receiver Jadon Haselwood, the No. 1 ranked receiver in the 2019 class, and now have Vandagriff on board as well.

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert has been released from the hospital as he continues to recover from a stroke suffered last month.

Quicken Loans CEO Jay Farner said in a statement Thursday that Gilbert was discharged Wednesday and would continue his recovery at an in-patient rehabilitation center.

"Dan is looking forward to beginning an intensive rehabilitation program and is eager to continue the progress he has made over the last several weeks," Farner said.

Gilbert, 57, felt ill on May 26, and a friend took him to a Detroit-area hospital, where he suffered the stroke.

The Cavaliers have made five NBA Finals appearances since Gilbert purchased the team in 2005, winning the title in 2016.

Cleveland holds the No. 5 pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW ORLEANS -- The New Orleans Pelicans have picked up the 2019-20 team option on Jahlil Okafor, league sources told ESPN.

Okafor -- who was drafted third by the Philadelphia 76ers in 2015 and spent time playing with the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets -- signed with the Pelicans during the summer of 2018.

During his rookie season in Philadelphia, Okafor averaged 17.5 points and seven rebounds per game. His numbers steadily declined from there, and he began to see less and less playing time. By the time he came to the Pelicans, many around the league wondered if he would be able to make it in the NBA.

Since then, Okafor has transformed his body and worked to change his game.

The center has credited losing more than 20 pounds to his "mostly vegan diet." He has recently added meat back into his regimen to help him regain some of the strength he lost when he shed those pounds. Losing that weight helped reduce the stress he put on his knees. He said he also began working with a therapist to help him learn to cope with anxiety and depression.

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My summer of transformation: First off I want to thank @idanwan & @dzandertraining for getting after it with me the moment my season ended. Grateful to have two of the best in their respective fields work with me all summer. Although the physical changes in this photo are evident, their has been extreme growth unbenounced to the eye. I've learned how to identify and manage different stressors such as anxiety. Learning how to identify certain stressors has also allowed me to over come them. Often times because of my size and profession people may view me in a certain way, but in reality I deal with the same struggles as countless others. Mental health awareness is a cause I will fight for the rest of my life and if you're struggling today don't be afraid to speak with someone and seek help. I would like to thank @kevinlove and the @playerstribune for helping me identify my feelings and informing me what I was dealing with was in fact normal. 6 weeks left in the off season; with a lot more work to do!

A post shared by Jahlil Okafor (@jah8) on Aug 17, 2018 at 11:44am PDT

Okafor has also begun working on his 3-point shooting. He is still not consistent from beyond the arc -- shooting just 1-for-5 over the course of the season -- but has said he will continue to attempt to incorporate that into his game.

According to ESPN's Bobby Marks, Okafor is now guaranteed $54,000 of his contract. If he is not waived by Jan. 7, the full $1.7 million of his contract will become guaranteed.

Last season, Okafor averaged 8.2 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. The Pelicans see him as a logical fit next to Zion Williamson, who is expected to be drafted No. 1 overall by the team.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Drew Smyly struck out the last batter he faced for the Texas Rangers. That came right after the veteran left-hander, who already had lost his spot in the starting rotation, allowed three consecutive home runs in a five-pitch span.

Smyly was designated for assignment by the Rangers on Thursday, two days after his last appearance.

After not pitching in the majors the past two seasons because of Tommy John surgery, Smyly, 30, was 1-5 with an 8.42 ERA in 13 games (nine starts) with the Rangers.

"He's coming off injury, and I don't think the expectations were overly high, but I think, it honestly didn't work out,'' manager Chris Woodward said. "He was fighting to figure things out. I think it's just best for him, and honestly best for us, to just have him move on.''

The Rangers made the move before their series finale against Cleveland, when they also optioned left-hander Joe Palumbo to Triple-A Nashville after he was the loser Wednesday night. Texas brought up a pair of lefties, Kyle Bird and Locke St. John, for St. John's possible big league debut.

Texas also said Jesse Chavez would move from the bullpen to the starting rotation, and is the likely starter Tuesday at Detroit.

Chavez, 35, made his team-high 34th appearance Wednesday night, pitching five innings in relief for Palumbo after his second start since coming up from Double-A Frisco. Chavez is 2-2 with a 3.18 ERA.

Smyly allowed 19 homers in 51 1/3 innings. In his last appearance Tuesday, a 10-3 loss to the Indians, he took over in the fourth and needed 32 pitches to get through the inning. He was gone in the seventh after the first three Cleveland batters went deep before he struck out Mike Freeman.

"There were times that it looked like the work he was putting in was going to pay off,'' general manager Jon Daniels said. "We were just at a point in the season where we felt like we had given it a chance. ... He was putting work in, it just wasn't paying dividends at this point.''

The Cubs signed Smyly to a two-year deal when he was coming off surgery, and he pitched one minor league inning for Class-A South Bend at the end of last season.

Smyly is 32-32 with a 4.13 ERA in 169 major league games (94 starts) for the Detroit Tigers (2012-14), Tampa Bay (2014-16) and Texas. The Rays traded him to Seattle before the 2017 season, and he had Tommy John surgery that summer.

The Washington Nationals announced Thursday that they will install protective netting at Nationals Park during the All-Star break, becoming the first MLB team this season to install protective netting from far right field to far left field.

The current coverage will be replaced by knotless netting, which is more transparent than traditional netting, and extended to just short of the right and left field corners.

Last month in Houston, a 4-year-old girl was struck and injured by a line drive off the bat of Cubs center fielder Albert Almora Jr, who was visibly distraught.

"Over the past few weeks, we have seen several fans injured by bats and balls leaving the field of play at other stadiums," Mark D. Lerner, the Nationals' managing principal owner, said in a statement. "I could not help but become emotional last month watching the Astros-Cubs game when a four-year-old little girl was hit by a line drive. I can't imagine what her parents must have felt in that moment. And to see the raw emotion and concern from Albert Almora Jr. was heartbreaking. Further extending the netting at Nationals Park will provide additional protection for our fans."

Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle was one of many players who called for baseball to address the issue after the incident, saying fans' safety should be a top priority.

"I am glad the Washington Nationals have decided to lead the charge on this issue," Doolittle said of the announcement. "Players want fans to be able to safely enjoy the game without fearing for their safety."

Following recommendations from MLB, by the start of the 2018 season all 30 teams had expanded their protective netting to at least the far ends of the dugouts after several fans were injured by foul balls in 2017.

Earlier this month, reacting to the incident in Houston, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he did not expect teams to make changes to the netting around ballparks during the season, but he said he expected conversations to continue about whether netting should be extended.

The Colorado Rockies have placed star shortstop Trevor Story on the 10-day injured list with a sprained right thumb.

The Rockies announced the move before Thursday afternoon's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The team didn't reveal a timetable for his return. Story had an MRI on Thursday and is set to see a hand specialist.

Pat Valaika will start at shortstop Thursday, and the Rockies recalled infielder Brendan Rodgers from Triple-A Albuquerque to replace Story on the 25-man roster.

Story suffered the injury during Wednesday's victory over Arizona. He is batting .294 and leads all National League shortstops with 17 home runs (tied with Javier Baez) and 48 RBIs.

The Tampa Bay Rays have received permission from Major League Baseball's executive council to explore a plan in which they would play early-season home games in the Tampa Bay area and the remainder of the year in Montreal, commissioner Rob Manfred said Thursday.

While the plan is in its nascent stages, the Rays have embraced the two-city solution as the most feasible to saving baseball in the Tampa Bay area after years of failed attempts to build a new stadium in the region, sources said.

Under the plan, the Rays would play in new stadiums in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal, sources said. The number of home games each city would receive has not been determined, sources said.

Manfred referred to the idea of a two-city Rays team as a long-term project.

The ability to play games early in the season in Florida would preclude the need for a domed stadium, cutting the cost of a new building.

The return of baseball to Montreal, which lost the Expos when they moved to Washington and became the Nationals before the 2005 season, has long been speculated and has significant support among power brokers in the city, including Stephen Bronfman, the private-equity magnate whose father, Charles, was the Expos' original owner.

A month ago, Bronfman -- who along with Montreal businessman Mitch Garber has expressed interest in taking a minority stake in the Rays, alongside owner Stuart Sternberg -- reached an agreement with a developer on a site in Montreal's Pointe-Saint-Charles neighborhood to potentially build a new stadium.

"My priority remains the same, I am committed to keeping baseball in Tampa Bay for generations to come," Sternberg said via statement. "I believe this concept is worthy of serious exploration."

Significant hurdles remain for the plan to take root, sources said. Though two cities sharing a team isn't entirely novel -- the Expos played 22 home games in Puerto Rico in 2003, and Kansas City, Missouri, and Omaha, Nebraska, split home games with the NBA's Kings in the 1970s -- the viability of long-term success remains in question.

MLB's executive council, which includes Sternberg, nevertheless gave the Rays permission to explore the possibility during owners meetings Wednesday and Thursday.

For more than a decade, the Rays have sought to build a new stadium in Tampa or St. Petersburg, Florida, where they currently play at Tropicana Field. Their lease runs through 2027, and a Tampa Bay-Montreal dual-city plan would necessitate finding a stadium site in Florida as well. The timetable for any potential move likely depends on whether the Rays can strike a deal in the Tampa Bay area for a new stadium, sources said.

The Rays' average attendance of 14,546 is the second lowest in the majors despite a 43-31 record. Their Opening Day payroll of around $65 million was among the lowest in baseball. Among the difficulty in securing a new stadium, a paucity of local revenue and a poor local-television deal, the Rays have been seen by other cities as a target for relocation -- a possibility should the Tampa Bay-Montreal plan fail.

A deal with Montreal would keep the Rays in Florida while potentially adding significant revenues to the franchise. Montreal offers a robust corporate base for sponsorships and a fervent fan base that could support what would amount to a half-season ticket plan. Other teams could object to the Rays occupying two geographical territories, though the support of the executive council to explore the possibility, sources said, constituted a significant step forward.

It is too early in the process, sources said, to answer such questions as what the name of the team would be or where playoff games would be held.

Managing director and 1984 Olympic silver medallist Wendy Sly on her long relationship with AW and why it has to keep changing with the times

I’ve known AW for the best part of the past 50 years. I read it, I’ve been in it, I’ve worked for a competitor against it and now I manage it. I’ve probably never been closer to the magazine than I am now, as we enter another chapter of its long history.

When my name first started appearing in AW, back when I was around 11 or 12, I felt that being in the magazine was some kind of endorsement, that I was part of the sport and a serious athlete. I knew from the outset that it was important.

I made the cover of AW and I was over the moon. What I love is that athletes who make it on to the cover still have that same feeling which I had – the pride of being on the front of the magazine that represents the sport in the UK and increasingly around the world. It means something.

It still has a massive role to play in the sport. I think that role has changed and, like everything, it has had to move and evolve with the times.

People still buy and read magazines but we live in an increasingly digital world and the number of other sources from which people access their information continues to grow. There are just so many more forms of communication.

We are known around the world as AW and it made sense to use that affectionate nickname and make it more official on the magazine’s cover. We are also trying to internationalise our brand more, taking what we do to a bigger market, and changing our name in this way – from Athletics Weekly to AW – is undoubtedly more modern as we look to the future of the magazine.

The goal for me is taking what we do so brilliantly out to a wider audience.

Changing the name gives us a bit more flexibility in the current climate and allows us to take our brand across every communication platform.

The magazine will celebrate its 75th birthday next year and throughout its life has evolved in a way that has been reflective of the times.

Part of the reasoning behind our change to becoming AW is to reflect the time we’re in.

I hope you can come with us on the journey.