Month: July 2022

Newly acquired Yankees outfielder Andrew Benintendi is addressing his vaccination status since being traded from the Kansas City Royals to New York.

Benintendi spoke with the media on Thursday to address the matter for the first time; when asked whether or not he was planning on getting vaccinated, Benintendi revealed he has still not received the vaccine. Benintendi said: “I’m still positioned in the same spot. I’m open-minded about it. I’m not against it, but time will tell.” Benintendi added that his vaccination against COVID-19 was not something that he had to agree to prior to being traded.

Prior to his trade to the Yankees, many questioned whether Benintendi’s decision to not be vaccinated against COVID-19 would impact his value on the open market. Benintendi’s vaccination status became known when he was unable to play in Kansas City’s series in Toronto earlier this month.  However, the Yankees did not hesitate to pursue the Royals star outfielder.

Benintendi is having an exceptional year, hitting a career-best .320 with three home runs and 39 RBI in 93 games. He was selected to his first-career All-Star game earlier this month. Benintendi joins the best team in baseball, as the Yankees look to win their first World Series since 2009.

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As reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Seattle Seahawks star wide receiver DK Metcalf is expected to sign a three-year, $72 million extension with the organization.   The 24-year-old Metcalf is guaranteed $58.2 million, and will also reportedly receive a $30 million signing bonus — the most for a wide receiver in NFL history.

The fourth-year receiver caught 75 passes for 967 yards and 12 touchdowns this past season behind center for the Seahawks. In his 2020 Pro Bowl season, Metcalf finished with a team-best 1,303 yards and 10 touchdowns on 83 catches.

This will also be Metcalf’s first season without former teammate Russell Wilson as his starting quarterback, after Wilson was traded to the Denver Broncos. The Seahawks have yet to name its 2022 starting quarterback, but Geno Smith and Drew Lock are the two most likely options.

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Veteran linebacker K.J. Wright signed a one-day contract Wednesday to retire as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. The veteran linebacker spent all but one of his 11 NFL seasons with Seattle, and helped the Seahawks win their first title in 2013. The 33-year-old Wright returned to the franchise Wednesday after spending the 2021 season with the Las Vegas Raiders.

Wright started 140 games for Seattle from 2011-20, during which the Seahawks won four division titles, two conference titles and Super Bowl XLVIII over that span.  Via the team’s website, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said last year after Wright signed with the Raiders: “K.J. Wright has been an incredible Seahawk and been an incredible man in the community as well. There aren’t enough words to talk about the kind of person that he is, the wonderful contributor he has been to the program for 10 years. We had a blast together. I love K.J… K.J. will always be a Seahawk.”

Wright tallied 941 tackles, 11 forced fumbles, nine fumble recoveries, six interceptions, 54 passes defensed and 13.5 sacks during his decade in Seattle. He earned Pro Bowl honors in 2016 after racking up 126 tackles, four sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Wright is third in franchise history in career tackles and tackles for loss, and is tied for third in franchise history in career forced fumbles. He’s also seventh in franchise history in career pass breakups.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Wednesday that the United States has made a “substantial proposal” to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner, as well as another American currently detained in Russia. Blinken did not elaborate on the details of the proposal while taking questions from reporters at the State Department, telling reporters: “We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago. Our government has communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, move us toward a resolution.” Blinken said he would discuss the proposal with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.

CNN reported that the proposal involves exchanging Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker, for Griner and Paul Whelan, a former Marine and former security executive serving a 16-year hard labor sentence at a Mordovia prison camp.  Bout is currently serving a 25-year U.S. prison sentence after being found guilty in 2011 of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to a designated foreign terrorist organization based in Colombia to be used to kill Americans in that country.

The 31-year-old Griner pleaded guilty to possessing less than a gram of hash oil when she arrived and was taken into custody at the Moscow airport on Feb. 17.  She testified in Russian court Wednesday that she had not intended to bring hash oil vape cartridges with her to Russia, saying that her rights were not read to her and she didn’t understand what was going on during her arrest.  Griner testified that she uses medical cannabis after a knee injury, but did not use it before tournaments, adding that she has a medical marijuana prescription from the state of Arizona.

Griner’s trial is expected to last until at least early August, and a Russian judge has ordered her detained for the entire length of the trial.  She faces as many as 10 years in prison if she’s convicted on the drug charges.

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