MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Brewers All-Star catcher William Contreras agreed to a one-year, $9.4 million contract Thursday just before the scheduled start of an arbitration hearing in Scottsdale, Arizona.
The deal includes a $14.5 million team option for 2027 that converts to a mutual option if Contreras finishes fourth or better in this year’s NL MVP balloting.
The agreement was $175,000 above the midpoint between the $9.9 million Contreras had requested and the $8.55 million offered by the team when they exchanged proposed salaries last month.
This marks the second straight year in which the two-time All-Star has agreed to terms on a deal shortly before a potential arbitration hearing. Contreras agreed to a $6.1 million deal last year that included a $12 million option for 2026 with a $100,000 buyout. The three-time defending NL Central champion Brewers declined that 2026 club option.
Contreras, 28, batted .260 with a .355 on-base percentage, 17 homers and 76 RBIs in 150 games last year while dealing with a fractured left middle finger for most of the season. He had finished fifth in the NL MVP voting in 2024 and was 11th in the balloting in 2024, his first year with Milwaukee.
His 2025 performance represented a dip in production after he won Silver Slugger awards each of his first two years with the Brewers.
Contreras batted .281 with a .365 on-base percentage, 23 homers and 92 RBIs in 2024. He hit .289 with a .367 on-base percentage, 17 homers and 78 RBIs in 141 games in 2023.
He was selected to the All-Star Game in 2024 as well as in 2022 with the Atlanta Braves.
Contreras is on track to become eligible for free agency after the 2027 World Series.
The Brewers acquired Contreras along with reliever Joel Payamps in December 2022 as part of a three-team trade with the Atlanta Braves and Athletics. The Brewers only gave up outfielder Esteury Ruiz in the deal.
SURPRISE, Ariz. — Top prospect Sebastian Walcott of the Texas Rangers is having elbow surgery, and the infielder is expected to miss most of the season.
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said Thursday that Walcott has a UCL injury and was experiencing elbow discomfort. He could be back by the end of the season but it’s too early to tell.
The 19-year-old Walcott is the No. 7 prospect in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline. He hit .255 with 13 home runs, 59 RBIs and 32 stolen bases at Double-A Frisco last year.
Walcott received a non-roster invite to spring training.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – OCTOBER 13: Terrence Shannon Jr. #1 of the Minnesota Timberwolves dribbles the ball during the game against the Guangzhou Loong Lions on October 13, 2025 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. 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. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Terrence Shannon Jr. is about to return to the Timberwolves and team up with another Illini.
A foot injury has sidelined TSJ since Christmas, but he finally returned this week for the Iowa Wolves in the G League to ramp back up before rejoining the T-Wolves in the NBA.
In his first game on Tuesday, he scored 11 points.
On Wednesday, he lit it up, going for 36 points on 10-of-15 shooting in just 21 minutes.
Terrence Shannon Jr was sent down to Iowa for a rehab game last night where he scored 36 points in 21 minutes, on 10/15 shooting.
Obviously the Illini legend is way too good for the G League, and he’ll get his chance to team up with Ayo Dosunmu for the first time after the All-Star Break next week.
The news on Monday that the team had lost reliever Andrew Saalfrank for the season, after shoulder surgery, was not exactly the way the Diamondbacks wanted the week of pitchers and catchers reporting to start. Since debuting as a September call-up in 2023, Saalfrank has posted a 1.79 ERA, and was better even than that last year, with a 1.24 ERA. Of course, that was limited to only 28 appearances, coming after he had finished serving a suspension for gambling. But going into the off-season, he was one of only a few relievers who seemed locked in for a 2026 bullpen spot. So discovering he won’t be appearing is a significant blow.
What can the team do in the left-handed bullpen department? Let’s look at the various areas from which they could pull.
The 40-man roster
There are currently seven left-handed pitchers on the 40-man roster. However, for one reason or another, most of there are not credible replacements for Saalfrank.
Mitch Bratt – Outside of his 2023 stint in the Arizona Fall League, he has been almost exclusively a starter. While using him in the bullpen is possible e.g. Ryne Nelson, that would most likely be as long relief, not the situational lefty role Saalfrank occupied.
Kohl Drake – The same goes for Drake, perhaps even more so. He will be part of the team’s rotational depth in 2026, and quite close to the top of the AAA depth chart. The Diamondbacks will want to keep him stretched out down in Reno, for that purpose.
A.J. Puk – Puk said yesterday he is hopeful he can return by early May. Because his procedure was less invasive, that should reduce the rehab time. He may start in low-leverage situations, but I would expect him to take over the closer’s role quite quickly, with Justin Martinez likely out until late August.
Eduardo Rodriguez – Simply put, earns too much money to be moved to a bullpen role at this point, with two years still left on his contract.
Blake Walston – It’s been a while, Walston having Tommy John surgery in mid-March 2025. While there have been no updates since, expectation at the time was about fourteen months, so we are probably looking at late May before he can pitch.
That leaves just two candidates: Philip Abner and Brandyn Garcia, and they have less than twenty innings of major-league experience between them. That’s not necessarily a show-stopper – Saalfrank claimed the job fresh out of the minors, making more appearances in the 2023 playoffs than in the regular season. But it’s not a great body of work on which to base things. Abner looked decent in 2025, with a 2.86 FIP, but that’s off a pitiful sample size of 3.2 innings. Garcia, who came over from Seattle in the Josh Naylor trade, has slightly more experience and put up a decent 3.07 FIP between the Mariners and D-backs. Rolling the dice with either would be a risk.
Non-roster invitees
While there are a lot of non-roster invitees to spring training, only three are left-handed pitchers. Conveniently, I wrote about those at the link above. Inconveniently, none of them are a good fit for the role. While Tommy Henry is in camp, he is recovering from Tommy John surgery last June, so clearly isn’t going to be ready. Spencer Giesting and Yu-Min Lin are both young starting pitchers, and would be better served in their development by staying in that role, rather than getting intermittent work out of a major-league bullpen. So I don’t see any of the trio as being a credible replacement for Saalfrank on Opening Day.
Outside the organization
I would definitely not be surprised to see the team go outside the current system to find a replacement, and there are a couple of names of definite interest, and both should already be known to Arizona fans. The first is former D-back Anthony Banda, who was designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Dodgers – they simply had too many lefties. It’s generally expected they will be able to find a trade partner for him before he hits waivers. He has had an ERA+ of 130 across the last two years, covering 119 appearances, and at $1.625 million for the year, seems well worth that price. Should the D-backs be in on him? There is always a general reluctance to deal within the division, but he certainly would fill a need.
The other possibility is the free-agent market, and a reunion with Jalen Beeks. He was the busiest member of the Diamondbacks pitching staff last year, appearing 61 times, and with a solid ERA+ of 115, while being paid $1.25 million. He would be another reasonably cheap option, and unlike Banda, would not cost prospect capital. There are other decent left-handed veterans still on the market. Justin Wilson was good with the Red Sox, and Danny Coulombe – a local kid, who went to Chaparral HS, possibly overlapping with the SnakePitette – was great with the Twins, then terrible after being traded to the Rangers at the deadline. Does Mike Hazen have the money left for any of these?
Conclusion
While there is no requirement to have a left-hander in the bullpen, it has been standard practice for the D-backs in the Lovullo era, and we all know how he likes to play match-ups. So, given the paucity of the options currently in the system, I would not be surprised to see the team look for an outside replacement. This could come via a trade, a free-agent signing or even adding a non-roster invitee or two to the squad, and seeing who impresses in spring training. At least the timing of Saalfrank’s surgery gives time for alternatives to be assessed. Which this sucks, it would have sucked considerably harder if it had happened on the eve of Opening Day.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 11: (L-R) Mikey Musumeci and Shay Montague face off during the UFC BJJ 5 weigh-ins at Meta APEX on February 11, 2026 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) | Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
MMA Fighting has UFC BJJ 5 results for the Musumeci vs. Montague event and more from Meta Apex in Las Vegas on Thursday night.
In the main event, Mikey Musumeci puts his UFC BJJ bantamweight title on the line against Shay Montague. Musumeci is 2-0 in UFC BJJ competition and seeks the second defense of his championship, while competes for the promotion for the first time.
The UFC BJJ middleweight title is on the line in the co-main event as Ronaldo Souza Junior takes on Tarik Hopstock. Souza became the inaugural 185-pound champion this past December with a unanimous decision win over William Tackett. Now he faces Hopstock, a world champion from Norway making his UFC BJJ debut.
PITTSBORO, Miss. (AP) — In saying “the NCAA ignored its own rules,” a Mississippi judge granted Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss a preliminary injunction Thursday against college athletics’ governing body, allowing him to receive an extra year of eligibility so he can play next season.
Judge Robert Whitwell took about 90 minutes to explain his decision that he agreed with Chambliss’ argument that the player’s medical history was not properly considered by the NCAA. The 23-year-old Chambliss has been in college for five years, but was healthy enough to play just three years.
Whitwell said Chambliss would have received “irreparable harm” had the NCAA’s ruling been upheld, but that the organization will not be damaged by allowing him to play.
Chambliss and Ole Miss submitted nearly 91 pages to the NCAA to document how medical issues prevented him from playing two years, the judge said. The NCAA, the judge said, didn’t properly take those records into account and denied the waiver request “on pure semantics.”
“Trinidad Chambliss has demonstrated based on the evidence presented that he is entitled to an additional year at the University of Mississippi,” Whitwell said. “The NCAA has failed in its argument to withhold that right.”
Though the NCAA released a statement expressing frustration with the legal system, the organization did not say whether it would appeal the ruling.
“This decision in a state court illustrates the impossible situation created by differing court decisions that serve to undermine rules agreed to by the same NCAA members who later challenge them in court,” the NCAA said. “We will continue to defend the NCAA’s eligibility rules against repeated attempts to rob future generations of the opportunity to compete in college and experience the life-changing opportunities only college sports can create.
“The NCAA and its member schools are making changes to deliver more benefits to student-athletes, but the patchwork of state laws and inconsistent, conflicting court decisions make partnering with Congress essential to provide stability for current and future college athletes.”
Chambliss began his college career at Ferris State in 2021, redshirted his first season and did not play in 2022 because of medical reasons.
He played two more seasons at the Division II school in Michigan, leading the Bulldogs to a national championship before transferring to Ole Miss before the start of this past season.
Chambliss completed 294 of 445 passes (66.1%) for 3,937 yards with 22 touchdowns and three interceptions for Ole Miss (13-2), which set a school record for wins, including two after making the College Football Playoff for the first time. He ran for 527 yards and eight more TDs.
The Rebels lost 31-27 to Miami in the College Football Playoff semifinals on Jan. 8.
The final game before the All-Star break goes tonight at Crypto.com Arena, where the Los Angeles Lakers play host to the Dallas Mavericks.
Both teams enter this one shorthanded, but as my Mavericks vs. Lakers predictions and NBA picks explain, the Lakers still have enough depth to pick up the win on Thursday, February 12.
Continuing this will not tie to Luka Doncic, who is sidelined with a hamstring worry, but Cooper Flagg’s absence looms even larger, robbing Dallas of its best and sometimes only offensive option.
The Mavericks should be broadly doubted for the rest of the season. As well as Flagg has played this season, Dallas has little else it can rely on.
Mavericks vs Lakers same-game parlay
Dallas’s greatest weakness is its backcourt’s defense, something Austin Reaves should exploit so readily that the fourth quarter becomes a bit of a plod amid a blowout.
Mavericks vs Lakers SGP
Lakers -7
Austin Reaves Over 24.5 points
Under 236.5
Our “from downtown” SGP: Luka-less
DeAndre Ayton needs Doncic throwing him lobs to excel, particularly against Dallas’s decent defensive frontline.
Mavericks vs Lakers SGP
Lakers -7
Austin Reaves Over 24.5 points
DeAndre Ayton Under 12.5 points
Under 236.5
Mavericks vs Lakers odds
Spread: Mavericks +7 (-110) | Lakers -7 (-110)
Moneyline: Mavericks +240 | Lakers -300
Over/Under: Over 236.5 (-110) | Under 236.5 (-110)
Mavericks vs Lakers betting trend to know
Dallas is 0-4 against the spread in its last four games. Find more NBA betting trends for Mavericks vs. Lakers.
How to watch Mavericks vs Lakers
Location
Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, CA
Date
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Tip-off
10:00 p.m. ET
TV
Prime Video
Mavericks vs Lakers latest injuries
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NEW YORK (AP) — Jeremy Sochan plans to sign with the New York Knicks once he clears waivers, a person with knowledge of the details said Thursday.
The forward will have a new home quickly after the San Antonio Spurs agreed to cut him Wednesday so he could look for another team with a chance for more playing time.
His plan to join the Knicks was confirmed to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no move can be made yet. It was first reported by ESPN.
The Spurs drafted Sochan with the No. 9 pick in the 2022 draft and he averaged 10.4 points with San Antonio. But he had lost his spot in the rotation this season, appearing in just 28 of their 53 games and scoring 4.1 points in 12.8 minutes per game.
The Spurs agreed to waive Sochan after they couldn’t find a trade for him before last week’s deadline.
“We were all very aware of his desire to be in the rotation, given more of an opportunity than he had, especially recently,” coach Mitch Johnson said before the Spurs played at Golden State on Wednesday. “We wanted to do right by him and make sure that he had that opportunity before the year was over.”
Sochan thanked and said goodbye to San Antonio in a post on social media Thursday.
“I’ve moved around a lot throughout my life, and this is the longest I’ve been in the same place since I was 15 years old,” he wrote. “Through the ups and downs, I learned a lot, kept growing, and always stayed true to myself. This community and the fans embraced me from day one! It’s bigger than basketball and I’m forever grateful.”
Sochan, known for his often colorful hairstyles, will join a Knicks team that has been trying to fill in bench pieces around its starting five. They acquired Jose Alvarado from New Orleans in a deadline deal and he scored a season-high 26 points on Wednesday in a victory over Philadelphia.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Thunder guard/forward Jalen Williams will sit out against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night with a nagging right hamstring injury, and he could be out longer.
The team plans to re-evaluate Williams after the NBA All-Star break, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said Thursday. The game against Milwaukee is Oklahoma City’s last before All-Star Weekend.
Last season, Williams was an All-Star, a third-team All-NBA selection and a second-team All-Defense pick who helped Oklahoma City win the championship. He missed the first month of this season while recovering from a wrist injury he suffered late last season and played through during the playoffs.
It is Williams’ second time being sidelined with the hamstring injury over the past month. He first hurt it during the Thunder’s Jan. 17 game against the Heat, clutching his leg after attempting to grab an awkward pass in the second quarter. He later was ruled out and missed the next 10 games.
He looked like the star he was last season when he returned to game action on Monday night, helping the Thunder to a 119-110 win against the Lakers with a 23-point performance.
“Against L.A., he was obviously a little rusty in the first half, but he tried to play with tremendous force in that game,” Daigneault said. “And then as the game wore on, especially in his last stint against the Lakers, he was really on the gas. Really closed that game for us offensively.”
He followed that with a season-high 28 points on 11-for-12 shooting in a 136-109 win against the Suns on Wednesday.
“He obviously had a loud statistical night and great shot making,” Daigneault said. “Got himself to the line a little bit, found shooters, found rollers.”
The Thunder are also without reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander due to an abdominal strain. He also will be reevaluated after the All-Star break.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – FEBRUARY 11: Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs talks to the media after the game against the Golden State Warriors on February 11, 2026 at Chase Center in San Francisco, California. 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 Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
“Can you just let me have this?”
We were fifteen minutes from the California border, and the trees in Oregon were getting taller and taller. Having flown into Medford, we were now two hours into the drive to Cresent City and seven hours into a journey that had started at 5am, and the anticipation had reached its peak.
Both Taylor and I had dreamed of seeing the Redwoods since we were children, and now we were approaching them rapidly as the road receded before us. Not rapidly enough for Taylor, though, who could barely sit still, pointing out every large tree on the horizon, oohing and aahing at the unquestionably beautiful southern wilds of The Beaver State.
And then she saw it, stretching well above the canopy, some 200 or so feet of a monster Douglas Fir, towering over the other pines.
“That’s it! That’s it! My first Redwood!”
Her eyes welled with the emotion of a fulfilled dream as she looked over at me meaningfully, the orchestral folk of Noah Kahan swelling in the background.
“Isn’t is amazing?”
Wordlessly I looked slowly from my girlfriend to the tree, and back again.
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s not a Redwood.”
“What? Are you messing with me?”
“No, it’s just that the bark looks wrong, and so do the branches. I think it’s just a really tall pine tree.”
“Oh my God, can you just let me have this?”
As it turned out, no, I could not. And thus began one of those incredibly productive conversations that usually start with a seemingly innocuous question, and end in a mutually agreed-upon silence.
In Taylor’s defense, she was sleep-deprived from all the packing and planning and coordination, and we had been packed together in very close quarters for most of the day. She also does not love flying, and I may have playfully ribbed her a bit while we were experiencing turbulence. She was not completely out of pocket to have questioned whether I was messing with her or not.
It’s also an easy mistake to make when you’ve not spent a lot of time in the proximity of forests. She has spent most of her life on the fringes of San Antonio. I, on the other hand, spent most of my childhood summers in the confines of the Piney Woods of East Texas.
I had never seen a Sequoia, but I knew my pine trees. And I was not about to let my first Redwood be a pine tree.
It’s the same way I feel about some of the expectations and enthusiasm surrounding the Spurs this season. I hate to break it to some of y’all, but I’m pretty sure this is not a championship team.
I know this, because, like you, I’ve seen them before. I know what a championship roster looks like. I know what they play like. I’ve seen how they carry themselves.
And in spite of (or rather, because of) last night’s win, I can tell you that they’re just not quite there yet.
Facing the snake-bitten and limping Warriors, they came out sluggish in the first quarter and gave up 38 points to a roughly .500 team without the scoring prowess of Jimmy Butler, Kristaps Porzingis, and the still-lethal Steph Curry.
But the Warriors execute. They still retain some of the focus, organization, and aura of a champion. They have a seasoned all-time coach who knows how to press each and every advantage that comes to light. They have championship vets who know how to push their teammates and frustrate their opponents.
These are things you have to earn, and you can only earn them by going through the fire together. Free agency can only aid you so much (especially in the current CBA era), and drafting accumulates talent, not experience.
And these Spurs are talented, to be sure. With the 3rd best record in the league, they tower over most of their peers, not unlike their prodigiously gifted leader. But there’s still some sloppiness they must curtail. Turnovers they can ill afford in the postseason. Concentration that fluctuates with seemingly every quarter. Vulnerabilities at positions like Power Forward, and functional big man depth that must be addressed.
There’s little reason that the Spurs should have entered the 3rd quarter down to the Warriors after the destruction they visited on the similarly vulnerable Los Angeles Lakers the night before. Yes, it was the second night of a back-to-back, but the Spurs are so very young, and the Warriors and Lakers are so very old.
And yet, there’s no question that they’re beautiful to watch when they’re locked in.
Victor Wembanyama is more efficient than ever and is becoming more and more capable of taking on thuggish play from the Draymond Greens of the world. De’Aaron Fox and Dylan Harper orchestrated the offense to near-perfection in the 2nd half, relegating the errors of the 1st half to distant memories.
Stephon Castle squeezed the opposing guards like an ill-fed python let loose in a barn full of rats, and Keldon Johnson ran wild and unimpeded like a bull in Pamplona, tossing the frames of the very foolish and the very brave aside in equal measure.
Thinking that this will be their year is an understandable error of enthusiasm after long years in the NBA cellar, and therefore an expression of hope, which is no great sin. It’s an error each and every one of us has been guilty of at one time or another.
And yet…
After 20 minutes or so of relative silence, the highway diverged into a wood more lushly green than yellow, and we saw it. Spanning what must have been 300+ feet, it dwarfed the previous pine of contention; the base so wide, that it blocked the view of the other tree trunks around it. There could be no question that it was a real Redwood.
For a moment, we stared at each other, neither one saying a word.
“Wow.”
“Look! There’s another one!”
“Oh yeah, look at that one!”
“They just keep coming!”
“Oh my God.”
After ten or so minutes of this, Taylor leaned over the center console onto my shoulder, and we watched the colossal trees pass by in silent awe, as the 199 carved and curved its way though the vastness of the ancient forest on the way to the 101, and eventually, the Pacific Coast Highway.
“So, it really wasn’t a Redwood after all.”
“No, but I really wanted it to be one. For you.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Takeaways
It’s going to be interesting seeing what MATFO decide to do with Harrison Barnes in the off-season. On the one hand, he’s reliably no drama, still defends and shoots well enough to play with both the starters and bench as needed, and is active in the community. On the other hand, it’s feels like some slippage is finally starting to occur, especially when it comes to his ability to handle to faster, younger players, and getting open off ball. Defenses are beginning to key on Julian Champagnie on the occasion that they share the court, because Barnes is just no longer the cutting threat that he once was, and daring Barnes to punish them for leaving him open. And while Barnes seems to have broken out of his slump (43% from 3 over the last 10 games), he’s shooting just 35% on open threes where the defender is 4-6 feet away. I’m not sure what Barnes will be worth on the open market, but financials are going to start getting tricky for the Spurs soon, and rooting for him to slump for a lower contract isn’t going to help the Spurs. If, on the other hand, he gets molten-lava hot again, a hopeful contender will be likely to give him a look. I’m hoping the Spurs will be able to sign him for something reasonable, as they definitely need to retain shooting, but I’m guessing it will all depend on what role he’s willing to accept for an equally no-drama franchise that find itself on the cusp of contention. Here’s hoping Carter Bryant continues his ascent!
While I don’t always understand what Mitch Johnson is trying to accomplish with his rotations (an inexplicably point-guard-less lineup continues to baffle me), he again made a game-saving adjustment in recognizing that Castle was off offensively, and playing Fox and Harper together for an extended stretch. When Castle is on, he’s just about as good a facilitator as you could hope for, but when he’s off…whew boy, it is not pretty. Recognizing that Curry’s absence meant he could pick his spots with Castle was incredibly savvy of the younger coach in the match-up, and once he figured it out Steve Kerr really didn’t have an answer. There’s no question that Johnson’s still figuring things out, but a move like that could be the difference in winning and losing a series, and I’m feeling more and more confident that he’s capable of pulling that sort of thing off.
According to Win Shares, Keldon Johnson has been worth five wins for the Spurs this season, but by my count, it’s closer to double that, as he has consistently come in clutch in tight games for San Antonio. The Spurs have 19 clutch-time wins, and the bench is 5th in the league in net rating, and Keldon has been a big, big part of that as the unquestioned leader of the bench mob. At the very least, there’s an argument to be made that the Spurs wouldn’t have even made it clutch time so often without the bench keeping them in the game until the starters figured it out. Still carrying career highs in almost every shooting category, Keldon is 3rd on the team in scoring efficiency and 2nd in shooting efficiency. Someone get this guy a 6th man of the year award, stat!
