Bristol Bears forward Santiago Grondona has been given a three-match ban by the Rugby Football Union after being sent off during their Premiership win against Exeter.

The Argentina international was shown the red card in the 29th minute of the match last Saturday for a head-on-head tackle on Chiefs' back row Martin Moloney.

The 26-year-old admitted the charge at an independent panel hearing this week and was given the ban, which will be reduced to two games if he completes a World Rugby coaching intervention programme.

Grondona, who has made 11 appearances for Bristol this season, will miss their Premiership match away to Gloucester this Saturday, at home to Leicester on 20 April and potentially the trip to Northampton Saints on 26 April.

Moloney suffered a broken nose as a result of the tackle but a medical report detailed there was no signs of concussion.

There could be debuts for prop Molly Poolman and second row Becky Boyd who are among the replacements.

Leah Bartlett remains on the bench after her try against Wales.

France also started with a win last weekend, beating Ireland 27-15 in Belfast, and will have a sell-out crowd cheering them on in La Rochelle for Scotland's visit.

"La Rochelle is some place and I believe it's sold out," Easson said. "The whole town will come out - they'll be there for warm up.

"We have made it very clear to the group of players who have not been in France before what to expect because I think it's important they understand."

Scotland came close to an upset in last year's clash against France, leading 5-3 at half-time before ultimately falling to a 15-5 defeat in Edinburgh.

"France are a good side, but I thought our performance against France last year was excellent," Easson said. "We've got to take confidence in that.

"We've got to take confidence from how tight the game was up until the last minute. We've got to take confidence from our performance against Wales as well and go in with belief.

"We've won 13 out of the past 17 and that's how we've got to look at it. We've got to look at you know every game as being a good opportunity.

"It will be tough. We've been very, very clear on that, but we're going there with confidence."

Wales: Jasmine Joyce; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Jones (capt), Kayleigh Powell, Carys Cox, Lleucu George, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Carys Phillips, Jenni Scoble, Abbie Fleming, Gwen Crabb, Kate Williams, Bethan Lewis, Georgia Evans.

Replacements: Kelsey Jones, Maisie Davies, Donna Rose, Alaw Pyrs, Bryonie King, Meg Davies, Courtney Keight, Nel Metcalfe.

Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappé was pleasantly surprised by how "handsome" his wax statue is that will soon stand at London's Madame Tussauds.

The France captain recently traveled to London to see for the first time the sculpture that will be on display from Easter at one of London's major tourist attractions.

"Oh wow," a smiling Mbappé said in English in a video when closely inspecting the wax figure.

"The new [France] jersey. Even the new [soccer] boots. That is me. I love it. Amazing. Handsome. Oh my God, you got everything guys ... Yes, that's me ... It's a perfect job."

The 2018 World Cup winner already has a wax statue at the Grevin museum in Paris, but says being on display at London's Madame Tussauds is "a big honour."

"It's a big achievement for me, a big honour to be part of the big Madame Tussauds family," Mbappé, 26, said. "I am really happy and even more when you see the results. It is amazing. I'm really proud to be here. It is a big day for me."

Mbappé, who joined Real Madrid last summer as a free agent after his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expired, said he is a fan of London.

"I love to visit the city, to go to the restaurants, to see a little bit of the culture of the country." he said. "London is one of the best cities in the world."

LIVERPOOL -- As Jürgen Klopp and his players took in the ovation from the Liverpool fans after the Premier League's final day last season, one man appeared more emotional than most. Trent Alexander-Arnold was moved to tears as supporters paid tribute to their outgoing manager, and the right-back's reaction was interpreted in some quarters as a sign that he too was headed for the exit door.

Of course, no move materialised last summer, and the 26-year-old has been an integral part of Liverpool's success under new head coach Arne Slot. But, on that balmy May afternoon, perhaps Alexander-Arnold could already sense it was the beginning of the end of his own Anfield story.

Now, with three months left on his contract and Real Madrid closing in on a deal to sign him on a free transfer at the end of the season, it now seems highly likely that, for the first time in his career, he will soon be playing his football away from Merseyside.

A Liverpool source has told ESPN that no deal has yet been finalised, but a source from Spain added that discussions with the player's camp have continued since January and that there is a growing optimism from Madrid that an agreement is now close. The prospect of the European champions landing their top defensive target -- just months after their January advances were rebuffed -- feels inescapable.

Madrid have made no secret of their long-term interest in Alexander-Arnold and, for many of a Liverpool persuasion, his departure has felt inevitable for some time. Still, that will do little to soften the blow as this painful and protracted saga looks to be nearing its end.

Even in today's ultra-commercialised landscape, football remains a game for the romantics; the notion of a player walking away from his boyhood club in search of adulation elsewhere will, for many, be a bitter pill to swallow.

In the coming days and weeks, there will no doubt be plenty of debate over who to blame and, for those seeking culpability, there are numerous targets at which to point the finger.

Liverpool will be rightly criticised for their handling of the situation, with Alexander-Arnold one of three key players -- alongside captain Virgil van Dijk and goal-scoring talisman Mohamed Salah -- whose contracts will expire in June. That a club of Liverpool's standing find themselves in such a predicament constitutes a damning oversight from owners Fenway Sports Group and their footballing hierarchy, though there are some clear mitigating factors.

Typically, the club would look to secure a player to a new contract when there are around two years left on their existing deal. However, when Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Van Dijk were in that position in the summer of 2023, Liverpool were in the midst of a seismic shake-up behind the scenes. Sporting director Julian Ward had just left the club after only one year in the role and, while former Wolfsburg sporting director Jörg Schmadtke had been drafted in as an interim, the internal infrastructure remained in disarray. The scope for long-term planning was then further scuppered when Klopp announced in January 2024 that the season would be his final one at Anfield.

For incoming sporting director Richard Hughes, the priority was ensuring Klopp's successor had the credentials to excel on Merseyside and -- with Liverpool now 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League table -- the hiring of Slot from Feyenoord Rotterdam appears to have been a masterstroke.

But the subsequent lack of headway made in negotiations with Liverpool's out-of-contract trio has left the club vulnerable to advances from elsewhere, with all three players having been free to speak to overseas clubs since Jan. 1.

Of course, there are few cities in Europe more gloriously tribal about their football than Liverpool. Whether you are Liverpool red or Everton blue, the chance to represent the region on the pitch is the ultimate dream for so many.

It is for that reason many supporters will struggle to reconcile with Alexander-Arnold's decision, if he does depart this summer. At Liverpool, the defender is revered, having joined the academy at the age of six and evolved into a linchpin of the first team, making 349 senior appearances and winning seven major trophies.

While some players -- including Luis Suárez, Philippe Coutinho and, perhaps more pertinently, homegrown winger Steven McManaman (who joined Real Madrid on a free transfer in 1999) -- have had to leave Anfield in order to pursue silverware, Alexander-Arnold is part of a Liverpool team that looks poised to compete at the top level for years to come.

When asked in an interview with British GQ back in 2020 whether he could envisage spending the entirety of his career at Liverpool, the right-back said: "I can, yeah. It is not something I have ever really thought about. I have always loved Liverpool; I have always supported them. I have always played for them, so I have never had that reason to think about it. Still, now I wouldn't sit there in my room and daydream about playing somewhere else. Right now, I am a Liverpool player, I love the club more than anything."

Rightly or wrongly, those words will be used as a weapon against him in the coming weeks as supporters try to wrestle with the idea that, somewhere along the way, his mindset has shifted.

Critics will also argue the defender could have been more transparent about his intentions to leave this summer. Alexander-Arnold has spoken publicly only once about his contract situation this term, after Liverpool's 3-0 victory over Bournemouth in September.

"Look, I have been at the club 20 years now, I have signed four or five contract extensions and none of those have been played out in public," he said. "And this one won't be either. I want to be a Liverpool player this season [as a minimum] is what I will say."

At the time, it was viewed as an admirable stance. However, that vacuum of silence has since been filled with noise from Madrid, threatening, at times, to destabilise Liverpool's season at crucial moments. Some will contend that, as vice-captain, Alexander-Arnold should have fronted up to the issue more, or that his camp should have encouraged his suitors to maintain a dignified silence while negotiations continued.

Still, in instances such as this, there is no silver bullet. No matter which approach Alexander-Arnold chose to adopt, there would still be those unable or unwilling to make peace with his decision. And that, ultimately, is the crux of the matter: However unpopular, this is Alexander-Arnold's decision to make. Perhaps, as galling as the situation might be for some supporters, no one is truly to blame here. Perhaps it is simply the case that a talented footballer -- having won all of the biggest honours available to him at Anfield -- craves a new challenge.

When asked by Sky Sports in October whether he would rather win another Champions League title, captain Liverpool, win an international trophy, or win the Ballon d'Or, Alexander-Arnold surprisingly opted for the latter.

"I believe I can," he said. "I want to be the first full-back to ever do it."

Even the most ardent Liverpool supporter would struggle to argue that Madrid is not an easier route to success, both collectively and individually. A move to the Bernabéu would pave the way for the greater stardom which Alexander-Arnold clearly covets, though he must acknowledge that will likely come at the expense of tainting his legacy back on Merseyside.

For Liverpool, the biggest concern now is that Salah and Van Dijk, as things stand, will also leave this summer. Replacing Alexander-Arnold would be a challenging proposition in itself (offset somewhat by the emergence of teenager Conor Bradley), but replacing three players of such pedigree in the same window -- while also performing much-needed surgery on other parts of the squad -- would be a daunting task indeed.

On the pitch, Liverpool are in pole position to win what would be only the club's second league title in 35 years. Should they get over the line in the final months of the season, it would be doing Slot and his team a disservice to let their efforts be overshadowed by acrimony toward a player who has contributed so much during his time at Anfield.

Clarity is needed so that all parties can prepare themselves for what lies ahead. This should be a time of celebration for Liverpool; it would be a shame to let the noise off the pitch spoil the party.

Sportsbooks are taking extreme steps to try to balance out the heavy betting action coming in on the Los Angeles Dodgers, but nothing has worked so far.

The Dodgers are +275 to win the World Series at ESPN BET as of Thursday morning, making them the biggest Opening Day favorite since the 2002 New York Yankees (+200), according to ESPN Research. The Dodgers' win total of 105.5 is 12 wins higher than any other team this year (Atlanta Braves, 93.5).

The Braves at +800 have the second-shortest World Series odds, followed by the Yankees (+850). The New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies are each 10-1 at ESPN BET.

Despite the historic odds, the betting public can't get enough of the star-studded Dodgers. At some sportsbooks, more bets have been placed on the Dodgers to win the World Series than every other team combined. At the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, the Dodgers have attracted approximately four times as much money as any other team, and BetMGM reported that 35 out of the 50 largest bets on the sportsbook's World Series odds were on the Dodgers ahead of Opening Day.

"If there's a market that includes the Dodgers, bettors have taken interest," BetMGM trading manager Halvor Egeland said.

It's not hard to figure out why. After winning the 2024 World Series, the Dodgers bolstered their pitching staff with the addition of top prospect Roki Sasaki, two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and relievers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates. Additionally, reigning National League MVP Shohei Ohtani is expected to return to the mound at some point after being strictly a hitter last season while recovering from elbow surgery.

"On paper, they're a superteam," said Randy Blum, who oversees baseball odds for the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas. "But baseball can be really random."

Blum said the SuperBook expects to make the Dodgers 2.5-run favorites regularly in games this season, up from the 1.5-run line typically offered by sportsbooks. He added that when the Dodgers face the bottom teams in the league, the odds on games could reach "-600 or -700," which would be some of the shortest in recent memory.

The Dodgers, with Snell on the mound, are around -185 favorites over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

IN THE BACKYARD of his 11,540-square-foot Beverly Hills mansion, next to the saltwater pool with an underwater sound system, Steve Cohen was talking about building things. Trying to construct something great nearly broke him once. The hedge fund Cohen founded made him one of the richest men in the world, and insider trading from two employees led to a $1.8 billion fine and the dissolution of the business. Cohen was being transparent, more than someone in his position might otherwise, because he wanted the man sitting next to him to understand that work ethic and drive and sacrifice and the pursuit of excellence are building blocks for something bigger, something that lasts -- something that can change lives. As he locked eyes with Juan Soto, who stared back at him, rapt, Cohen posed a question.

"What are your aspirations?"

Soto paused to think. He had made a career out of careful consideration. No baseball player in his generation, and scant few before him, wielded such immaculate control over his own decision-making skills. From the time he debuted at 19 years old, Soto had launched himself on a trajectory toward the Hall of Fame in large part because of his mastery of the strike zone. He has the ability to process information so fast that to him the half-second between the time a pitcher releases the ball and when it pops into the catcher's mitt feels like an eternity. It carried Soto out of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and all the way here, to California's 90210 ZIP code, where Cohen, the wealthiest owner in baseball, was trying to convince him to sign with the New York Mets.

The answer was multipronged. Soto wanted to win championships, plural, and he wanted to win a Gold Glove in the outfield, and he wanted to do a million other things, because he wasn't in the business of restricting himself. What he said next aligned with that.

"I want to be the best hitter of all time," Soto said.

More than 17,500 players have stepped into a major league batter's box. Soto's suggestion that he wanted to stand atop that list took hubris, but Cohen gleaned something else from Soto's words. He saw a kindred spirit, a perfect embodiment of what he wanted his Mets to be. The franchise had spent most of its 64-year existence bumbling along, while the New York Yankees, for whom Soto played in 2024, won championship after championship. Now, Cohen believes the Mets have finally replaced decades of amateur-hour mismanagement with a functional group of leaders -- and created a franchise that any free agent would choose over the 29 other clubs. Particularly a 26-year-old in search of his forever home.

Cohen sat at the head of the outdoor table, flanked by Soto to his left and the Mets' new president of baseball operations, David Stearns, to his right. Soto's agent, Scott Boras, sat next to him and across from Alex Cohen, Steve's wife. Her father, 93-year-old Ralph Garcia, a Mets fan for decades, showed up to the meeting, as did Cohen's son, Josh. The attendees reinforced a point Cohen wanted to emphasize: The Mets might function around the principles embodied by Cohen's hedge funds, but at its heart, theirs is a family business. For hours they talked, enjoying Dominican food, making sure that this seemingly perfect match of team and player was as substantive in person as it was in the computer models that suggested Cohen spend more money to secure Soto's services than had ever been guaranteed to a professional athlete.

For the entirety of Cohen's adult life, he had assessed the value of financial products and leveraged them to inconceivable riches. This deal was value anthropomorphized, an opportunity for something bigger, lasting, life-changing -- delivering a moment decades in the making for Ralph and the other Mets diehards and all of Queens. And Cohen intended to finish the meeting with a flourish. He told the group to follow him to the theater room downstairs.

On the way, Cohen told a story. He is one of the world's great art collectors, and one piece in particular enraptured him: Picasso's Le Rêve. Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn owned it, and Cohen had agreed to purchase it in 2006 for $139 million. Then Wynn accidentally elbowed a hole through it, scuttling the sale. One restoration and seven years later, Cohen bought the piece for $155 million.

The point, Cohen said, was that when he sees something he wants, nothing will stop him from getting it. With that, the lights in the theater dimmed, and a video started to play. Josh Cohen had devised it. Soto in a Mets uniform. Soto at Citi Field. And at the end, next to the statue of Tom Seaver that adorns the outside of Citi Field, a large, bronze version of Soto. He could stay with the Yankees or go to Los Angeles or Boston or Toronto, sure, but nowhere, Cohen said, would he change the arc of baseball history like he would with the Mets.

TWO MONTHS AFTER signing the largest contract in the history of professional sports, a tectonic 15-year, $765 million deal with no deferred money, Juan Soto was ready to report to New York Mets spring training. And he was nervous. His jitters were more the first-day-of-school variety than anything, but in the time between when he agreed to the deal and mid-February, Soto considered the gravity of what he soon would undertake. His career was his most valuable possession, and he was entrusting it in an organization that for its six-plus decades of existence earned a reputation for brokenness.

"I feel like I have everything in front of me," Soto said. "I just gotta put the work in and do what I have to do. It's going to take a lot, but I think when you put the bar that high and you put your goals in a big spot, it brings the best out of you, and that's what I want to bring every day."

What for most of baseball history would have seemed inconceivable was now a reality: a future Hall of Famer in the prime of his career fleeing the Bronx for Queens. For the better part of a century, Yankee Stadium had functioned as baseball mecca, the place where the best players found the best of themselves. From 1921 to 2009, they won the American League pennant nearly half the time and captured 27 World Series championships, more than twice as many as the next-best franchise. The baseball universe orbited around East 161^st Street and River Avenue.

The Mets weren't just little brother; they were the distant step-cousin. They didn't spend like the Yankees. They didn't develop like the Yankees. The Yankees' brand was greatness, the Mets' dysfunction. Even when they cobbled together a championship-caliber core in the 1980s, the Mets' reign stopped at one championship, in 1986, dreams of a dynasty dashed. Little changed until Cohen, who grew up in Great Neck, about 10 miles from Citi Field, arrived. He saw the Mets not only as an undervalued asset but a loom that could weave the social fabric of Queens and regions beyond. And for all the money he planned to spend to make that happen, the Mets needed an anchor, a face, a defining character for the franchise's defining era.

Though plenty of talented baseball players have plied their trade for the Mets, none has matched Soto's luminescence. He is coming off the best year of his career, hitting .288/.419/.569 with 41 home runs. His lifetime on-base percentage of .421 is 13^th among all players with at least 2,000 plate appearances in the modern era, sandwiched between Shoeless Joe Jackson and Mickey Mantle. And at 26, plenty of prime years remain for Soto to help reinvent the Mets in his image -- on-field alphas, shuffling in the batter's box, staring down pitchers -- saying they're the ones who own New York now without needing to open their mouths.

On that first day, all Soto wanted to do was fit in. His first seven years in the major leagues were unlike those of any player of his caliber in the game's history. Superstars rarely get traded before they reach free agency; none moves more than once. Soto had gone from Washington, which signed him as a gangly 16-year-old, to San Diego, which regarded him as the missing piece to winning its first championship, to the Bronx, where the Yankees paired him with Aaron Judge to fashion a fearsome duo in the image of Ruth and Gehrig, Mantle and Maris.

Soto pulled in to Port St. Lucie, Florida, with no specific plan to ingratiate himself. Mets manager Carlos Mendoza, who had been hired before their surprising National League Championship Series run last year after 15 years managing and coaching with the Yankees, encouraged Soto to ignore the fact that he'd now be viewed through a different lens than the previous half-decade. Though his talent had always set Soto apart, now he was the $765 million man, and even if the money would not change him, it would alter the perception of him.

"I just bring myself. This is who I am. I hope you guys like it," Soto said. "I'm going to try my best. If not, I'm going to make adjustments. That's what I did. I didn't have any strategy. 'Oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that.' I don't want to change anything. This is who I am, and this is the guy you're going to see for the next 15 years.

"I don't want to try to do more. I don't want to try to be a superhero. I'm just going to be the same guy I've been."

Whatever Soto does or doesn't want to try to be, he's wise enough to recognize that to Mets fans he's Superman, Batman and Captain America amalgamated. Once he arrived at camp, fans started showing up in droves -- thousands on the backfields, plenty wearing Soto's No. 22, craving just a peek at the one prophesied to liberate them from the shackles of their history. Being a Mets fan is a lesson in second-class citizenry, and with Soto in the fold, it mattered not that their presumed Opening Day starter, Sean Manaea, would miss the beginning of the season, or that another free agent signing, right-hander Frankie Montas, would be out for two months with a lat strain. Soto's presence alone made the sun shine a little brighter, the bat crack a little louder, the loaded NL East -- with Atlanta and Philadelphia teams also harboring World Series aspirations -- a little less intimidating.

"At the beginning, I didn't know what to expect, especially with Soto," Mendoza said. "That was the biggest thing for me: the guy that's been around a lot of different teams, but he's making that transition to another New York team with a huge contract. So how is that going to go here? And I think it was Day 2 of position players [reporting]. I saw him joking around, smiling, laughing. I was like, 'OK, I think we're good here.'"

Soto made clear to Mendoza that the size of his contract would be no impediment to him fulfilling all of the goals he told Cohen. "He wants to be held accountable," Mendoza said, and if that meant getting on him about his defense or baserunning or being a good teammate or even his hitting, he expected the same treatment as someone making $765,000.

Earlier this spring, the Mets set up an optional bunting station that hitters could visit to work on their technique. Perhaps no one should have been surprised that Soto ambled over and spent 15 minutes there. He is an excellent bunter who stole four hits last year pushing the ball away from shifted fielders. But a number of people in the Mets organization were nevertheless pleasantly surprised: If the highest-paid player in sports history can work on rarely used fundamentals, what is anyone else's excuse to skip the bunting station?

Divas can poison cultures, and the shift in the Mets' since Cohen bought the team -- the hiring of Stearns, who made the playoffs in five of eight years as general manager for the payroll-challenged Milwaukee Brewers, and the immediate success of Mendoza, a first-time big league manager -- is fundamental to the Mets' reimagination. Without a solid foundation, a team filled with nine-figure players would be susceptible to wobble. Organizational sturdiness can help make the complicated seamless.

"We saw it last year with the Dodgers getting Shohei," said Manaea, who played with Soto in 2022 with San Diego and witnessed firsthand last year how adding one of the best players in baseball can take an already good team and turn it into something special. Los Angeles blitzed the Mets in the NLCS, with Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers' $700 million free agent signing, getting on base 17 times in six games and blasting a pair of home runs. What Ohtani is to the Dodgers, Soto can be for the Mets. And his desire for that -- for everything baseball has to offer -- helped guide him toward that ultimate decision.

JUST BEFORE THANKSGIVING, Soto wrapped up his in-person meetings with the five teams courting him and started to confer with his family, Boras and Boras' lieutenants. Quickly, he realized he had absolutely no idea where he wanted to spend the remainder of his career. He was most impressed by the Mets' meeting. The Blue Jays wowed him as well. The Red Sox's cadre of prospects foretold a bright future. The Dodgers were the industry standard. And he loved playing for the Yankees, whose fans had spent much of the season and October rhythmically chanting "Re-sign So-to," a clarion call for owner Hal Steinbrenner to channel the energy of his late father, George, and treat the team less as a business and more as a win-at-all-costs championship factory.

"It was a lot of meetings, a lot of back and forth looking at the teams," Soto said. "What is going to be the best? Who's going to be at the top for the next 15 years? Who's going to be willing to spend money after five, six, seven, 10 years?"

The pressure was understandable. Soto had been barreling toward this moment for years. He turned down three contract-extension offers from the Nationals -- the first for $100 million-plus, the second a near-facsimile of Fernando Tatis Jr.'s $340 million deal with San Diego and the final a 14-year, $440 million offer that would have made him at the time the highest-paid player in baseball history at 23 years old. He vowed to prioritize fit over money, not because he didn't care about the economics of the deal but because Boras assured him that eventually the bidding would reach levels never before seen in sports.

At the center of the fit was family -- literally, with his parents and siblings deeply involved in his decision, and colloquially, with the length of his expected deal tantamount to a marriage. Soto was raised in a household, said his younger brother, Elian, where they were taught to "be respectful and be nice to everyone -- to the game, to the coaches, to our teammates. And try to be as positive as we can on and off the field."

Cohen's bet on involving his family in the meeting proved spot-on. Soto saw Cohen not only as a billionaire who was willing to devote the necessary resources to building a team to compete with Los Angeles, but as a husband with the means to give his father-in-law the gift of winning. As much as Soto liked the Dodgers, they were the one team unwilling to match the others financially, with Ohtani's contract already on their books. As engaging as the Blue Jays were in their meeting -- with a video nearly as resonant as the Mets' and the presence of Edward Rogers, the team owner who never before had involved himself in these sorts of summits -- their farm system lagged far enough behind that he eliminated them. And though Boston expressed a willingness to go well beyond $765 million, the Red Sox never made a formal offer in that range, and Soto removed them from the proceedings, too. The biggest free agent contract in MLB history was officially a battle between the two New York teams.

Among the pros for the Mets: Soto believed he could create something bigger, something that lasts, something that would change lives and legacies. For the Yankees: He had grown weary of baseball nomadism, and the Yankees, for all of the consternation among a fan base aggrieved by the lack of championships since 2009, still have the most wins of any team this century and the third most in Major League Baseball over the past decade.

Sensing the endgame, Cohen requested, and was granted, a second meeting right before the beginning of the winter meetings in early December -- an opportunity only the Mets received. (The Red Sox had inquired about one but Soto did not take it.) At a lunch gathering at his home in Boca Raton, Florida, Cohen went into dealmaking mode, asking: What do we need to do to get this done? More power in the lineup, Soto said. More pitching, he added. Already Cohen had promised Soto a luxury suite for every home game -- a perk the Yankees declined to match -- and a security detail for him and his family. And the money kept rising -- to $750 million first and eventually to $765 million, $5 million more than the Yankees' final offer spread over 16 years.

Back at home in the Dominican Republic, Soto vacillated until Sunday afternoon, as much of baseball arrived in Dallas for the meetings. As tantalizing as it would be to go down in the annals of the sport as an all-time-great Yankee, the allure of Cohen's commitment to build something spoke to Soto. He was far from the highest-rated prospect in his international signing class. Soto, in fact, originally saw himself as a pitcher. But he added skills, iterated, grew, worked, pushed himself, sacrificed, pursued excellence. The kindred spirit Cohen saw was reciprocated.

Hours later, as the news emerged that Soto had chosen the Mets and the $765 million figure was reported, the long-established dichotomy of New York baseball was flipped. The eternal winners lost the sweepstakes; the perpetual losers won the lottery. This did not mean failure for the Yankees, just as it does not ensure success for the Mets, but paradigm shifts in baseball can happen in a hurry, and Soto's decision represented one. For all he has done -- the World Series win in Washington, the exceptional October with the Yankees and everything in between -- his career is still in its nascent stages. So much is yet to come. And when it does, it will be with the New York Mets.

THE BEST HITTER of all time is Babe Ruth. Or Barry Bonds. Or Ted Williams. Or Ty Cobb or Henry Aaron or Willie Mays or Rogers Hornsby or dozens of others whose accomplishments, to this point in his career, dwarf Juan Soto's.

And yet when asked the question of who warrants the title, Soto does not hesitate.

"Myself," Soto said. "Until you prove me wrong."

When pressed, Soto's answer offers a window into how he sees the sport.

"Freddie Freeman," Soto said. "I feel like he's one of the best hitters I've ever seen. There's a lot of guys that have (long) careers like (Albert) Pujols. Mike Trout has been having great years. But the guy I see every day since I've been in the big league has been Freddie Freeman."

Soto's answers, heavily skewed to active players, are not because he's some myopic Zoomer with no knowledge of the game's history. He knows it well. He values the greats. At the same time, it speaks to his reverence for the modern game. Hitting today is harder than it's ever been, and Freeman almost single-handedly beat the Yankees in the World Series. There might be no prettier swing in baseball than Freeman's when stroking an outside pitch to the opposite field. Soto deeply values being on the field, playing all 162 games in 2023 and 157 last year, and Freeman is the king of staying on the field, ailments be damned.

For Soto to enter the GOAT conversation among the general public, he'll need more years like 2024, when he spent the season hitting second for the Yankees, one spot ahead of Aaron Judge. The Mets lineup he's joining will be even more formidable than the Yankees', with Francisco Lindor in the leadoff spot and Pete Alonso behind him. Add Brandon Nimmo at cleanup, Mark Vientos in the 5-hole and a variety of other dangerous bats occupying the bottom half of the lineup, and the Mets will need to hit as they await the return of Manaea, Montas, catcher Francisco Alvarez and second baseman Jeff McNeil from the injured list.

How the Mets evolve beyond 2025 will depend on the growth of their farm system -- it's currently a middle-of-the-pack group -- and Cohen's continued willingness to complement Soto and Lindor, the Mets' two anchors. Replicating the Dodgers' formula will take years, but their success begins with Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freeman -- all future Hall of Famers -- atop the lineup. The vibe that helped fuel the Mets last October, Lindor said, is back this spring, and Soto's addition to the lineup should only serve as accelerant.

"I'm happy he's here," Lindor said. "I think he's definitely going to help us win. Why would I be mad? He's putting our team in a much better spot. ... My ego doesn't get hurt when somebody big in this game walks in. It's just like, I love it."

He's not the only one. In the stands at a game last week, Mets fans lined up along the dugout as Soto spent an inning autographing balls and jerseys for anyone who asked. Inside the clubhouse a few days earlier, Mets players were thrilled that Soto's partnership with Call of Duty: Warzone allowed the team early access to a not-yet-released version of the Verdansk map. At the ownership level, they're hopeful that the excitement about the Mets will only help Cohen's attempts to win one of three casino licenses New York state plans to award this summer, paving the way for an $8 billion development next to Citi Field.

When Cohen bought the Mets for $2.4 billion, this was the idea: turn them into what they always should have been -- not New York's baseball bridesmaids but a team worthy of the city in which it resides. It took Juan Soto for that notion to feel real, and with Opening Day's arrival, never has it been more so. In French, the name of the Picasso that Cohen bought from Steve Wynn -- Le Rêve -- means "dream." The Mets are living theirs, and they don't intend to wake up any time soon.

Her Miami Open hopes may be over, but Danielle Collins leaves Florida this week with a friend for life.

Collins, the world number 15, was beaten by Aryna Sabalenka on Monday as the American's hopes of retaining her Miami Open title came to an end.

But the 31-year-old's mind may have been elsewhere after she found an injured dog two days earlier on her way out of the Hard Rock Stadium.

Collins found the dog curled up in the middle of the road after it had been hit by a car and took him to a nearby veterinary hospital.

The former world number seven, who asked fans to pray for the dog, has now revealed that she has adopted him and named him Crash.

"Crash is recovering and finally out of the hospital after five days on oxygen support," Collins said on Instagram.

"His breathing is back to normal, his wounds are healing, and he's definitely enjoying all the love he's receiving. He's curious, affectionate and grateful for a second chance at life.

"It was so incredibly painful to witness a dog in so much pain after being hit by a car and left in the middle of the road with so many people driving by his curled up body.

"I'm just grateful I was able to be there and get him the care he needed.

"I've officially adopted him. Once he finishes recovering he'll be attending school."

Raducanu found form in Miami with a more relaxed approach, which allowed her to play with greater freedom.

Raducanu decided to abandon a trial partnership with Slovak coach Vladimir Platenik coming into the tournament, asking for guidance from some familiar faces instead.

Mark Petchey, a well-known figure in British tennis who coached Raducanu in her teenage years, joined her long-time confidante Jane O'Donoghue and fitness coach Yutaka Nakamura.

Raducanu said the set-up allowed her to be "authentic" and "express" herself on court - and it showed against Pegula with her clean ball-striking and sharp movement.

Pegula's solid groundstrokes offered few errors and a single break was enough for Raducanu to lose the opening set.

Raducanu was heartened by the quality of her play, though.

Adopting a more aggressive approach in the second set paid dividends as she dominated Pegula, quickly getting her reward with an early break as momentum shifted.

When Raducanu could not level with the double break, amid complaining of dizziness, it felt like she was there for the taking when she returned from the medical timeout.

But she showed remarkable mental toughness to hold serve for 6-5, managing to step up her level again in a superb tie-break, before Pegula outlasted her in the decider.

Ireland's Erin King believes she is playing alongside some of the best back rows in the world during the Women's Six Nations.

King, 21, started her side's 27-15 defeat by France to kick off their campaign last weekend alongside Aoife Wafer and Brittany Hogan.

Wafer scored twice in another superb display, while Hogan was instrumental in some stout defensive stands.

"I'm so lucky to be among some of the best back rowers in the world. I think they're dragging me along," said King, who was named women's breakthrough player of the year at the World Rugby awards in November.

"There's so much competition in our back row and our squad, I think we just keep pushing each other and helping each other improve.

"I'm learning so much off them and I'd say they're learning things off me."

Such has been the form of that trio, the squad's co-captain Edel McMahon was named on the bench for the France loss.

"She's helped me so much," said King of the flanker.

"I'm so lucky to be around such a great person on the pitch and off the pitch.

"She helps me with anything I need and it's great to have her in the camp."

Ireland will travel to Italy for round two of the Women's Six Nations on Sunday, a game that will be be live on BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website from 14:45 BST.

King said Ireland need to be "a little bit more accurate" than they were against France.

"I think we'll go in with loads of confidence and see what we can do," she added.

"I think we can go out there and put in a performance, tweak the things that weren't as good as we know they can be, and just be a little bit more accurate around the park."