A high-end defensive lineman from the Motor City will reportedly visit Michigan State during the spring.
Jameer Henry of Detroit will reportedly visit Michigan State during the spring, according to Allen Trieu of 247Sports. He is also set to visit Illinois and Missouri, per Trieu.
Henry, who plays for historic Martin Luther King High, is a high-end three-star prospect, with a recruiting rating of 88 in 247Sports’ recruiting system. He ranks as the No. 8 player from Michigan and No. 48 defensive lineman in the 2027 class, according to 247Sports. He is also listed as the No. 444 overall prospect in the class.
Michigan State extended Henry an offer nearly two years ago in October of 2023, and is one of nearly 25 schools to offer him, according to 247Sports. He also holds notable offers from Cincinnati, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi State, Missouri, Ole Miss, Pitt, Purdue, Tennessee, USC and Vanderbilt.
Detroit King OL Jameer Henry has spring visits set with Illinois, Missouri and Michigan State.
He talks about why each school is in the race for him including a meaningful gesture from the Spartan staff on his last visit.
Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page onFacebookto follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Robert Bondy on X @RobertBondy5.
UConn women’s basketball forward Ice Brady underwent surgery for a right knee injury and will be out for the rest of the season, the team announced on Tuesday, Feb. 17.
Brady played two games to start the season, averaging 2.5 points and 3 rebounds. Coach Geno Auriemma said Brady started having “inflammation” in her knee. She has not played since Nov. 12.
Brady was a McDonald’s All-American and No. 5 recruit in the Class of 2022. She redshirted her freshman season after a patella injury in her right knee.
Brady played 71 games over the past two seasons and made 15 starts. She has averaged 4.0 points and 3.1 rebounds in 16.5 minutes a game. Brady should be eligible for an additional medical redshirt year.
Players, pundits and managers speak out as Vini Jr suffers alleged racial abuse in Real Madrid win at Benfica
Real Madrid found a way past Benfica in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League play-off tie thanks to a superb Vinicius Jr strike – but that was not why the Brazilian was the post-match talking point.
The 25-year-old forward rippled the back of the net with a fantastic effort at the start of the second half, and was booked for his celebration by referee François Letexier. That in itself was a controversial decision, but paled in comparison to the alleged racial abuse suffered by the Real Madrid star shortly after.
The players had not made it so far as the centre circle to resume play by the time Vinicius Jr alleged that he had been the subject of a racist comment by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni – who held his shirt over his mouth while speaking to the Brazilian.
Kylian Mbappé explained that “there was a moment of tension with the Benfica players, which can happen because this is the Champions League and that’s normal because everyone wants to win for their fans.
“Then, Benfica’s number 25 – I don’t want to say his name, he doesn’t deserve it – started to talk badly. Then he lifted up his shirt to say that Vini is a monkey five times, I heard it. There are Benfica players that heard it too. And from that point on, you all saw that happened,” he told the club’s website.
Play was paused for ten minutes in Lisbon under the appropriate protocol for these events, and as Real Madrid closed in on a crucial win, Alan Shearer – commentating for Amazon Prime – put it perfectly.
“What we should be talking about is a special goal. I suspect the headlines will be very, very different,” he said. And that they were, with players and pundits alike reflecting on a sobering night at the Estádio da Luz.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, who joined Real Madrid in the summer, highlighted that Vinicius Jr “has been subject to this a few times throughout his career and he has handled it excellently.
“I can’t comment too much on it as it’s an ongoing investigation at this point, but I think what has happened tonight is a disgrace to football and overshadowed the performance as well after an amazing goal,” he told Amazon Prime.
Álvaro Arbeloa stood by his star forward in his post-match press conference, urging Prestianni to clarify what he said to Vinicius Jr, suggesting that “everyone in the footballing world deserves the answer to this question.
“There has to be absolutely zero tolerance for racism. These things can’t happen on a football pitch in 2026.
“Obviously, I believe what Vini told me he was called. I don’t believe that he would invent such a thing and I’m never going to sow doubt in his words,” the 43-year-old Real Madrid manager commented.
José Mourinho’s comments, though, left a lot to be desired.
In conversation with Amazon Prime, the Benfica boss commented: “These talents are able to do beautiful things, but unfortunately he was not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.
“I told him, when you score a goal like that, you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person in the history of this club was black,” he continued, referring to Portugal’s Eusébio, who played for Benfica for 15 years in the 1960s and 1970s.
Mourinho also insisted that he was told “different things” by both Vinicius Jr and Prestianni, “but I don’t believe in one or the other; I want to be an independent.”
“There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium; a stadium where Vinicius plays, something happens, always.”
Clarence Seedorf, who spent four years at Real Madrid during his playing career, criticised Mourinho’s comments.
Speaking on Amazon Prime, the Dutchman said: “I think he made a big mistake today to justify racial abuse, and I’m not saying that was the case today, but he mentioned something more than today.
“He said wherever [Vinicius Jr] goes, these things happen – so he’s saying it’s okay when Vinicius provokes you, that it’s okay to be racist, and I think that is very wrong.
“We should never, ever justify racial abuse, and Vinicius has had enough of that unjustified behaviour from people. I know Mourinho by heart would agree with me but he expressed himself a bit unfortunately, I believe, because we should not be telling the people at home that if someone makes a dance or something, then it’s okay to be racist.”
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton feels his Yankees career is lacking.
“It’s definitely incomplete,” he said Tuesday ahead of his ninth season in pinstripes. “The point of being a Yankee is being a champion.”
Now 36 and entering the final two guaranteed seasons of a $325 million, 13-year contract he signed with the Miami Marlins, Stanton has gone on the injured list in seven consecutive seasons but has been a force when healthy.
“I’m good. Ready to go,” Stanton maintained. “As I said before, it’s not going anywhere. It’s always going to be maintenance, but it didn’t hinder me from any work.”
He said the preparation is “a lot of hold, strengthening, make sure I’m able to maintain holding and swinging with power and throwing.”
A five-time All-Star and the 2017 NL MVP, Stanton has a .258 average with 453 homers — most among active players — and 1,169 RBIs in 16 big league seasons. He is key component in the Yankees batting order.
“With us over the last couple of years (having) become more and more left-handed, his presence in the middle is just really big,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “It’s like having that guy lingering there, that’s Big G in the middle.”
Stanton had 38 homers with 100 RBIs in his first season with New York in 2018 but missed 266 of 708 games over the next five seasons because of a series of strains of right biceps, right knee, left hamstring (twice) and left quadriceps along with right ankle inflammation and left Achilles tendinitis.
Noticeably slimmer in 2024, he limited his lost time to 28 games for a strained left hamstring. Stanton finished with 27 homers and 72 RBIs in 114 games and added seven homers and 16 RBIs in 14 postseason games.
He isn’t thinking about career stats.
“Numbers like the next one and the next one is good for now,” he said. “Those numbers, 500 or what not, is the same as we’re going to win the World Series right now. You got each day to do work and prove and do something positive.”
Stanton is owed $64 million in guaranteed money by the Yankees: $29 million this year, $25 million in 2027 and a $10 million buyout of a $25 million club option for 2028. He comes at a discount because the Marlins owe the Yankees $30 million to offset part of what remains in his contract: $5 million each on July 1 and Oct. 1 in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
However, his salary for purposes of the Yankees’ luxury tax payroll is $25 million and since New York is likely to pay the top tax rate of 110%, he adds $27.5 million to the team’s tax bill.
Teammates look to Stanton for succinct tips before they bat.
“He just processes things really well and really gains from the things he sees: the experience, the times he faces a pitcher, how he processes that and puts it to use in future at-bats against guys,” Boone said. “I think he knows himself incredibly well as a hitter, but his presence with just the makeup of our club is huge.”
Volpe hopes to return in April
Shortstop Anthony Volpe won’t be ready for the March 25 opener but hopes to return in April following surgery on Oct. 14 to repair the labrum in his left shoulder.
He started a hitting progression Monday with dry swings — no ball involved — and hopes to advance soon to hitting off a tee and soft toss.
“My body’s ready to go defensively and running, so the hitting will be what we work through next, and judging on how everything’s gone so far, I’m just excited,” he said.
Volpe hurt the shoulder on May 3. He returned to the lineup two days later but struggled for much of the season. He had a pair of cortisone shots and hit .212 with 19 homers and a career-high 72 RBIs. He went 1 for 15 with 11 strikeouts in the AL Division Series loss to Toronto, making an out in his last 13 at-bats.
Volpe’s surgery was more extensive than had been expected following an MRI.
“When I woke up from the surgery and we went through everything, we kind of had an idea of what the best case and what the worst case and everything in between would have been, so I wasn’t shocked” he said. “I was just more excited and in pain and motivated.”
Looking back, his left shoulder and side didn’t feel like his right after the injury. Yankees manager Aaron Boone said following the surgery that Volpe could start hitting in four months but couldn’t dive on the shoulder for six months.
“The first half rehabbing was tough. It felt like rock bottom as far as physically,” Volpe said. “Probably at the turn of the New Year is when I really started to feel good and I started to do stuff, baseball activity.”
CLEVELAND, OHIO – NOVEMBER 30: Donovan Mitchell #45 of the Cleveland Cavaliers brings the ball up court during the third quarter against the Boston Celtics at Rocket Arena on November 30, 2025 in Cleveland, Ohio. The Celtics defeated the Cavaliers 117-115. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Donovan Mitchell is having the best season of his career. If the rest of the league hasn’t noticed yet, at least Mitchell himself and one of his teammates certainly have.
What am I talking about? Well, The Athletic released their latest player poll, conducted over All-Star weekend. In the survey, they asked, “Who is the best player in the NBA?” to which Mitchell received the third most votes, behind only Nikola Jokic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and tied with Luka Doncic.
That would make Mitchell not only the best player in the Eastern Conference according to his peers, but also the best American player in the league.
But there’s one catch. And it’s a big one.
The Athletic only polled 18 players for this specific question. Jokic received six votes, SGA three, while Luka and Mitchell received two.
So who voted for Mitchell?
Well… Mitchell voted for himself. Telling The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, “Come on, Joe, I gotta say me, always.”
The other vote? Mitchell’s teammate Jaylon Tyson, who was also at All-Star weekend competing in the Rising Stars challenge. I have to respect a teammate who rides or dies for the other.
This means we can’t really take anything from this poll. Something tells me the voters were a little biased.
Either way, Mitchell deserves some recognition. He’s averaging 29 points and 5.9 assists per game while carrying the Cavaliers through a rough start to the season. Now he’s catapulting his team back into the mix as Eastern Conference contenders and is meshing nicely with his new backcourt partner, James Harden.
The Athletic polled more than 30 players who were in Los Angeles. The full anonymous results of that poll can be found here. Other questions from the survey include “Who has the best player podcast?” and “What’s the biggest problem facing the league today?”
Barrel Man, one of the Brewers mascots operates a TV camera before the Milwaukee Brewers faced the Colorado Rockies for the home opener at Miller Park in Milwaukee, April 6, 2015. Barrel Man was originally the Brewers logo from 1970-1977. He became an official mascot in 2015. | Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
After an offseason full of turmoil with the Brewers’ broadcast plan, the team has a new home on Brewers.TV, an offshoot of MLB.TV, which is now owned by ESPN as part of the league’s new media agreement.
While the team has not yet announced local carrier information — you can keep track of that here — the team has announced their spring broadcast schedule, with most games available for listening via radio or MLB audio and a handful of games on Brewers TV.
I’ve also included the team’s two Spring Breakouts (prospect showcases), their exhibition against Great Britain’s World Baseball Classic team, and their two exhibitions against the Reds leading up to the regular season in late March.
Here’s the schedule, including game times and where to watch/how to listen (note: 620 WTMJ is the Brewers’ flagship radio station, though all games on WTMJ are broadcast across the Brewers Radio Network):
Saturday, February 21: vs. Cleveland @ 2:10 p.m. (620 WTMJ)
Sunday, February 22: @ White Sox @ 2:05 p.m. (Brewers TV)
Sunday, February 22: vs. Royals @ 2:10 p.m. (94.5 ESPN Radio)
Monday, February 23: @ Padres @ 2:10 p.m. (Brewers TV & 620 WTMJ)
NORTH PORT, Fla. — The Atlanta Braves added veteran first baseman and outfielder Dominic Smith to their major league spring training camp on Tuesday as a non-roster invitee.
Smith, 30, will provide depth behind starting first baseman Matt Olson as well as a possible option in left field or designated hitter.
Smith, who played his first six seasons in the majors with the New York Mets, hit .284 with five homers and 33 RBIs in 63 games with the San Francisco Giants last season. He also has played for Washington, Boston and Cincinnati.
Smith is a .250 career hitter in nine seasons. He has 69 homers, including a career-high 12 for the Nationals in 2023.
NORTH PORT, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 21: Overall view during an Atlanta Braves spring training workout at CoolToday Park on February 21, 2025 in North Port, Florida. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good evening, folks. I hope today was a good one for you. Here’s a random clip:
PEORIA, Ariz. — Walker Buehler has signed with the San Diego Padres after the right-hander spent the first eight seasons of his major league career with their archrivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Buehler was in the Padres’ clubhouse Tuesday morning after agreeing to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.
“Yeah, it feels a little weird,” Buehler told reporters in Arizona after pulling on a brown and gold uniform. “I imagine five years ago it would have felt a lot more weird, but this is a crazy game and this is a great opportunity for me.”
The 31-year-old Buehler said he will “come in and try and make the team and contribute in any way I can. I’m a starter, and I want to start, so I’m here to try and make the rotation.”
Buehler spent last season with Boston and Philadelphia, which signed him in late August after the Red Sox released him. Buehler struggled in Boston, but looked good enough during his brief time with the Phillies to generate interest from the Padres and other teams.
“I threw the ball well over there, and getting the velocity back as well as the delivery has kind of been the big thing,” Buehler said. “The second half of last year was relatively successful compared to the first half, and there’s stuff we want to continue to build on there.”
Buehler earned two All-Star selections and two World Series rings during his 10 years in the Dodgers organization, serving as a mainstay in their rotation whenever healthy and often looking like one of the majors’ top starters. He has been particularly good against the Padres in his career, going 7-1 with a 1.67 ERA and 83 strikeouts in his 13 starts.
He won Game 3 of the World Series in 2024 before earning the save in the Dodgers’ clinching Game 5 victory at Yankee Stadium, capping his return to uniform with a gritty Fall Classic. He had missed the entire 2023 season and big chunks of 2024 while recovering from his second Tommy John surgery.
But that memorable relief inning in Game 5 to preserve a 7-6 victory over the Yankees was his final appearance for the Dodgers, who allowed Buehler to walk as a free agent for a lucrative deal with Boston. After one tumultuous year back East, he’s eager to be back in the NL West with the Padres, who have two openings in their rotation.
“Obviously some familiarity with the division, and living in Southern California is something that my family and I are accustomed to,” Buehler said. “A good opportunity to be a part of a really talented ballclub. Looking forward to seeing what we can make of it.”
Nick Pivetta, Joe Musgrove and Michael King already have spots in San Diego’s rotation. Buehler will be competing for the final two slots with returnees Randy Vásquez and JP Sears and newly signed Germán Márquez and Griffin Canning.
Buehler said he moved out West during the offseason to prepare for another run at the majors, and he “got my body in a little better spot.”
Buehler said his delivery is returning to the level and form at which he spent his first six big league seasons with the Dodgers before elbow surgery.
“My elbow and my body has kind of been through some stuff,” he said.
The Padres have been remarkably busy over the past week after doing little during the winter to bolster the roster of a team that won 90 games and made the postseason for the fourth time in six years.
General manager A.J. Preller signed slugger Nick Castellanos along with Canning and Márquez over the weekend after adding Miguel Andujar a week earlier.
Preller also agreed to a contract extension, keeping the second-longest-tenured baseball boss in the majors with San Diego during the club’s probable sale process.
Buehler is 57-29 with a 3.52 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP over his decade in the majors. He has topped 150 strikeouts three times.
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA – FEBRUARY 11: Manager Tony Vitello #23 of the San Francisco Giants talks to players during Spring Training at Scottsdale Stadium on February 11, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images) | Getty Images
When the San Francisco Giants made the unprecedented decision to hire Tony Vitello as their next manager, it was understood that there would be some hiccups along the way. There’s a learning curve for every first-time manager, and that’s doubly true for one attempting the unheard-of leap from college to the Majors with nary a day spent in professional baseball.
The sales pitch with Vitello was simple enough: his personality and people skills were so dynamic that they would propel him forward even while dealing with the requisite adjustments and bumps in the road as he blazed a trail in his new role. How he would manage a big league rotation and how he would adapt to an additional 100 games on the schedule were questions waiting to be answered; how he would present himself as a personality was not.
Which made Monday’s hiccup — his first since accepting the job — quite surprising. It didn’t come from mismanaging a bullpen, or mishandling bench deployment, or, heck, whatever the 2026 equivalent of pinch-hitting Mark Mathias for Brandon Crawford is. It came from the most surprising of places: a controlled environment, with some microphones and mild-mannered reporters in his face.
Less than one week after pitchers and catchers reported, Vitello opened his Monday media scrum not by fielding questions, but by asking one: “When did you first think I was taking this job?”
It was clear that the question was meant both rhetorically and for the group at large, though he seemed to pose it specifically to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser to ensure that someone actually answered him.
After Slusser responded with “about four days before it actually happened” — a reference to reporting from The Athletic that the Giants were “closing in on” hiring the then-Tennessee manager — Vitello had successfully created his opening. Now he could say what was on his mind. “It’s funny you say that,” he smirked, despite it being obvious that it was what Slusser would say. “Because that was not reality. At all.”
Vitello, who in fairness seemed jovial as usual while engaging in a half-monologue, half-conversation about what he deemed to be inaccurate reporting, certainly aired some grievances. While clarifying that he had not accepted the job at the time of The Athletic’s reporting (which, it should be noted, is in line with said reporting) Vitello offered up an ominous and fairly cryptic set of sentences: “Somebody tweeted it out. I don’t know who told them. I wish I did. It might have changed the course of history if I’d known who did.”
As is usually the case with reporting in sports, Vitello’s primary source of ire seemed to be that he wasn’t in control of his own narrative. “I did a really damn good job at keeping that away from our team, our recruiting, and it was not a distraction,” Vitello emphasized, suggesting he had taken meetings with the Giants without letting those around his college team find out. “And then all of a sudden in the middle of practice, I see our first and third base coaches freaking out. And they freaked out on me, too. And for no reason, because at that point nothing was gonna happen. And then somebody decided it that it was gonna happen, and then the whole world starts spinning real quick and I had to address the team.”
There was a lot in Vitello’s TED Talk that was understandable, but even more that was, frankly, odd. Most notable was that he performed the cardinal sin of Spring Training managers: he made himself the story.
At a time when platitudes and superlatives are as copious as bubble gum and sunflower seeds, the story this week has become Vitello. It stood in stark contrast to the last memorable time that a Giants manager eschewed questions and instead opened his Spring Training scrum with his own thoughts. That came a whole seven years ago, when a sheepish and slightly-uncomfortable Bruce Bochy announced that the upcoming season would be his final one in a Giants jersey; and while Bochy had, indeed, made himself the story on that day, he had quite clearly and openly done so to avoid being the story in the days that would follow.
That was not the case for Vitello who, four months after the offending action, opened a can of worms for seemingly no purpose at all. A point that could have been made at his introductory press conference, or during one of his many winter interviews, or, better yet, not at all, is now dominating the black and orange airwaves. At a time when we’re usually serving up best shape of his life clichés and excitedly discussing the battles for eighth reliever and fifth outfielder and second emergency starter, we’re instead not just talking about Vitello, but talking about a long-since buried story of his.
Vitello, like so many others in professional sports over the years, appeared upset at the media for an accurate report. His desire to control when his decisions are made public is very understandable, as is his ire at someone leaking the news prematurely. But those issues, of course, are not the fault of the journalists at The Athletic (national MLB reporters Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli, and Giants beat reporter Andrew Baggarly). The implication with such a complaint (and sometimes it’s an outward statement, rather than an implication) is that the media should be working with the players and coaches, rather than in opposition to them.
It’s there where the funny irony of the story comes in. While it is, of course, not the media’s job to do PR for the Giants, it is, inadvertently, much of what we do, especially this time of year. Every article and soundbite about Bryce Eldridge’s rising stardom, and Hayden Birdsong’s attempt to bounce back, and Harrison Bader’s defensive wizardry, and the battle for the backup catcher position only serves — even when objective and journalistically sound — to excite a fanbase that is then even more likely to purchase tickets, buy merch, tune into a game, and heck, maybe even hop online in a fit of spontaneity and see what the flight prices to Scottsdale look like.
I had an article planned for today about Giants players. I suspect Baggarly, Slusser, and the other beat reporters on the scene at Papago did, as well. Instead, we all wrote about Vitello. The KNBR airwaves, offering Giants nuggets not just to diehard fans but, perhaps more critically, to casual ones, have been dominated with talk about Vitello. Many of the takes are absurd, but they’re out there nonetheless, causing damage where there would otherwise be excitement.
On Tuesday, Vitello fielded a question about the prior day’s scrum, and noted that he had not received any friendly feedback on his comments from the front office, despite the employment of the notoriously even-keeled trio of Bochy, Buster Posey, and Dusty Baker. It would certainly seem he was being honest there, as he somewhat doubled-down on his sentiments, saying that he was “just stating facts.” He thankfully offered a clarification on his cryptic comment: while “it might have changed the course of history” seemed to imply that Vitello may have chosen a different path had he known who leaked the story, he said on Tuesday that it “has no real impact on the opportunity that was presented, and it wouldn’t have changed what Buster and I would have agreed and joined to do.”
That probably ends the story. It’s not like Vitello committed a fireable offense or, despite what the online masses may have you believe, did something that should make you question his ability to be a good big league manager.
But it was an unforced error. The Giants have had a lot of those over the last half-decade, on and off the field. The hope was that Vitello would help them have fewer. For now, it remains exactly that: the hope.
