Month: January 2024

The Toronto Blue Jays and free agent infielder Justin Turner have agreed on a one-year, $13 million deal with incentives for the 2024 season. The deal carries $1.5 million in roster and performance bonuses; the veteran is expected to be Toronto’s main designated hitter, but will fill in at third base and first base as necessary, according to MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.

The 39-year-old Turner spent last season in Boston after signing a two-year, $21.7 million contract; he received a $6.7 million buyout from Boston and hit free agency for the second consecutive offseason. With the Red Sox, Turner batted .276 with 23 home runs and a career-best 96 RBIs in 146 games last season.

Turner – a two-time All-Star (2017, 2021) and World Series champion (2020) while playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers – is a career .288 hitter with 187 homers and 759 RBIs in 1,539 games. He has played for the Baltimore Orioles (2009-10), New York Mets (2010-13), Dodgers (2014-22) and Red Sox (2023).

Turner has played in 146 games last year and totaled 23 home runs, 96 RBIs and a .276 batting average, and has also accumulated a .800 OPS or better in nine of his last 10 seasons.

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The Seattle Mariners and Minnesota Twins announced the trade of second baseman Jorge Polanco to the Mariners as part of a five-player deal. The Twins will receive right-handed pitchers Anthony DeSclafani, Justin Topa and Darren Bowen, outfielder Gabriel Gonzalez and cash considerations in the swap.

The 30-year-old Polanco, the 2019 All-Star hit .269 with 112 home runs over his first 10 seasons after. making his MLB debut for the Twins in 2014. He hit .295, his best average for a full season, with 22 home runs and 79 RBIs in 153 games in 2019; and last season hit .255 with 14 home runs and 48 RBIs in 80 games, missing time because of knee and hamstring injuries along the way.

DeSclafani, 33, went 4-8 with a 4.88 ERA in 19 appearances last season for the San Francisco Giants. He owns a career 54-56 record with a 4.20 ERA over 180 career appearances, previously spending time in the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins and Toronto Blue Jays organizations. The Giants traded the veteran pitcher to the Mariners earlier this month.

Topa, 32, owns a career 5-5 record with a 3.81 ERA in 92 appearances after being drafted in 2013 by the Pittsburgh Pirates. Topa went 5-4 with a 2.61 ERA in 75 appearances last season for the Mariners, and also spent time with the Texas Rangers and Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers traded the pitcher to the Mariners on Jan. 7.

Gonzalez, 20, hit .302 with 32 home runs, 154 RBIs and 28 stolen bases in 237 games since 2021, at the minor league level, while in the Mariners organization. He hit .298 with 18 homers, 84 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 116 games last season at the Single-A and Advanced-A level. Meanwhile the 22-year-old Bowen was a 13th-round pick by the Mariners in the 2022 MLB Draft. He went 4-2 with a 3.88 ERA over 19 appearances last season for the Modesto Nuts, the Mariners’ Single-A affiliate.

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Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been retroactively disqualified from the 2022 Olympic Games, following a nearly two-year long investigation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland ruled that Valieva violated anti-doping rules, and instituted a four-year ban dating from Dec. 25, 2021. CAS said in a statement announcing the decision Monday: “Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS panel concluded that Ms. Valieva was not able to establish, on the balance of probabilities and on the basis of the evidence before the Panel, that she had not committed the (violation) intentionally.” Valieva will be ineligible to compete until December 2025, nearly two months before the 2026 Winter Olympics are scheduled to begin in Milan, Italy.

All of Valieva’s results from Dec. 25, 2021 going forward have been voided, which includes her achievements at the 2022 Olympic Games. Valieva did not medal as an individual; but the ruling affects the results of the team figure skating event on Feb. 7, 2022, where Russia won gold (with Valieva as a member), the United States won silver, and Japan won bronze. The IOC did not present the athletes with their medals at the time because there were already questions about Valieva, who was 15 at the time. Valieva was found to have tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine at a Russian event a few weeks before the Olympics. Valieva’s positive test was taken more than a month prior to the 2022 Games, but the results were not returned until Feb. 8, one day after Russia won the gold in the team figure skating event.  Russian officials initially suspended her when the results came back, but Valieva appealed that decision and won, allowing her to continue to compete at the 2022 Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency subsequently appealed that decision to CAS, leading to Monday’s verdict. CAS did not take responsibility for the “consequences” of voiding Russia’s Olympic team performance, however, it seems likely that the United States will move up into the gold medal slot, and Canada will move from fourth-place status into the bronze spot.

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England’s Tyrrell Hatton, the 16th-ranked player in the world, will join Ryder Cup teammate Jon Rahm as part of a new 13th team at LIV Golf. Hatton is still scheduled to play in this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am; but it is expected that he will make his debut this week at the LIV season-opening event at Mayakoba, Mexico.

Hatton has not yet won a major; for LIV, major winners have guaranteed exemptions for several years. For example, Rahm is exempted into all four majors through the 2027 season after his 2023 Masters win. However, non-major winners must rely on world ranking points. Hatton, currently ranked 16th in the world, will automatically qualify him for the Masters in April.

Hatton has one PGA Tour win, the 2020 Arnold Palmer Invitational, and six DP World Tour victories. He has recorded five top-10 finishes in majors, his best being a T5 at the 2016 Open Championship.

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