We’re coming off of a pretty exciting week of Big Ten men’s basketball that saw some teams cement their status as true national title contenders and others look shaky against inferior competition. The conference as a whole has handled itself pretty well in non-conference play up to this point, it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues.
Let’s talk about it:
Winners
Purdue cemented itself as the No. 1 team in the country with an impressive 87-80 road win over Alabama. Trey Kaufman-Renn, absent for the Boilermakers’ first two games, didn’t start slow against the Crimson Tide in his season debut, scoring 19 points, pulling down 15 rebounds and dishing out five assists. This is the team to beat in the Big Ten until truly proven otherwise.
Brad Underwood and Illinois dispatched Texas Tech 81-77 at home without the services of all-Big Ten candidate center Tomislav Ivisic. Underwood’s balkan makeover has proven potent as the Fighting Illini boast the nation’s third most efficient offense per KenPom’s metrics.
Nebraska owns the nation’s longest active winning streak at eight victories and counting after emerging victorious in a 105-99 shootout against Oklahoma at the Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota. Pryce Sandfort, the younger brother of former Iowa star Payton Sandfort who transferred to Nebraska after the Hawkeyes’ coaching change, went 4-9 from long range en route to a 28-point performance against the Sooners.
Losers
Michigan entered this season looking the part of not just a Big Ten contender, but maybe so much as a national championship contender. The Wolverines looked every bit the part in a 121-78 season opening win over Oakland but were shaky against both Wake Forest and TCU. Michigan earned wins in both instances but lost some of its shine in the process. Look for the Wolverines to have a prove-it performance at home against Middle Tennessee State.
Minnesota has gotten off to a rocky start to the Niko Medved era. The Golden Gophers easily dispatched two sub-300 KenPom teams at home in Gardner Webb and Alcorn State before getting pummeled 83-60 on the road at Missouri. If that wasn’t enough, Minnesota needed overtime to survive an upset bid from Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay, which is also a sub-300 KenPom team by the way. Rebuilds are tough, but this isn’t the best start.
Indiana almost learned the hard way what can happen when its 3s aren’t falling. The Hoosiers survived a 69-61 scare against Incarnate Word in the ugliest game of the Darian DeVries era up to this point. Now, should that be huge cause for worry? Probably not, no, the Cardinals played out of their minds on offense in the closing minutes and the Hoosiers still found a way to win. But Indiana still struggled against a poorly rated defense.
Dishonorable Mention: Marquette has now fallen to both Indiana and Maryland on the season. With Wisconsin and Purdue still on deck, it’s within reason if not likely that the Golden Eagles go 0-4 against the Big Ten in the non-conference. It’s a good program under Shaka Smart, but getting 100-pieced is a tough look.
The biggest news from the Cincinnati Bengals’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers is the spitting incident between wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and defensive back Jalen Ramsey, in which Chase appeared to spit on Ramsey after the two had already had an altercation after the previous play.
So it isn’t surprising that the day after the game that head coach Zac Taylor is getting tons of questions about it. He stopped mid-press conference to go on a bit of a rant in defense of his All-Pro receiver.
“I think Ja’Marr Chase will go down as one of my favorite all-time players and favorite all-time leaders and everything he is about. It’s like we are trying to make something out of this situation. It’s the only thing that’s kind of upset me as I’m sitting in here. For a guy who has done everything we can to build our organization around, he’s been awesome,” Taylor said of Chase.
“Not perfect. I’m not perfect. Trust me, I made plenty of mistakes yesterday. People don’t see on camera. Unfortunately, his was. He’s going to have to own up to that. That will be part of his journey.
“In some ways, he’s a veteran. I think he’s going to play for a long time. So when you look at the overall part of his career, this will be the beginning of his career in a lot of ways. We are going to move past that, and he is a guy we are going to continue to depend on. He’s a guy I will put at the forefront of any leadership group I ever have for the rest of my life.
“When I retire, I will bring Ja’Marr Chase in as a board member of whatever leadership board I create to talk to people I want him to talk to. I hope you understand my position on this because he is a guy who has done everything he possibly could to help us win and do things the right way.”
It isn’t surprising to see Taylor stick up for Chase, but for him to stick his neck out that far tells you why players really like Taylor.
Chase has taken on more of a leadership role this season. It has especially grown with Joe Burrow out for an extended period of time. He has almost weekly press conferences at this point, and you can see him talking with players and coaches on the sideline regularly.
This is probably the last bit holding him back. It has shades of him getting 15-yard penalties against the Kansas City Chiefs last season after they didn’t call a hip-drop tackle. Sometimes his emotions get the best of him, and some people are just emotional. It doesn’t make him a bad guy. It just makes these situations something he needs to watch out for and maybe step back from sooner, before they get to that point.
Chase will likely go down as one of the best to do it. These incidents are going to be things that might nitpick him for, but no one is going to say Randy Moss isn’t one of the best, even if they didn’t appreciate his mooning celebration at Lambeau.
Nationals manager Blake Butera, left, and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni meet the media Monday in Butera’s formal introduction as the franchise’s top man in the dugout. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
His age, or lack thereof, was a main character at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon as the eighth skipper in franchise history was formally introduced. The stadium’s subterranean press conference room, adorned with red, white and blue roses, was packed to the gills for the occasion. Members of the club’s elusive ownership group, the Lerner family, peppered the front few rows. A large throng of front-office officials, clad in a department store’s worth of obligatory quarter-zips, crammed themselves into the back of the room.
Up on the podium sat just two placards; one for Butera and one for his new boss, Paul Toboni, the team’s recently-hired president of baseball operations.
“As you’ve heard me say many times over the course of the last six weeks, I’m a strong believer that you win with people,” Toboni, 35, offered during his opening statement. “And Blake’s character and ability to connect with everyone across the baseball spectrum is second to none.”
The two men then shook hands before Butera curved a red cap onto his head and pulled a crisp white uniform over his 5-foot-9 frame. He and Toboni, formerly an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, briefly posed for a few pictures before the skipper, still too young to run for president, settled in to introduce himself.
“As we move forward, our identity is going to start with character,” Butera proclaimed. “I believe true leadership is built on real relationships, relationships that create unity, clarity and a shared purpose.”
Since raising the World Series trophy in 2019, the Nationals have slogged to baseball’s second-worst record, better than only the catastrophically discombobulated Colorado Rockies. The trades conducted in the teardown of that core have borne some fruit, most notably the Juan Soto deal that brought young All-Star outfielder James Wood to D.C.
But in the main, Washington has been a draft-and-development disasterclass, an organization distinctly unskilled at making players better. That half-decade run of ineptitude reached a turning point this past July, when a pair of title-winning stalwarts, GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, were simultaneously fired.
And now, into that void, charge Toboni and Butera, a pair of unwrinkled, clean-shaven 30-somethings. Together, they come armed with fresh perspectives, cathedral expectations of themselves and almost zero big league experience. Butera, in fact, has never spent a day in a Major League dugout.
Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft after a plucky four years at Boston College, the infielder’s playing career petered out after two minor league seasons. But Butera quickly and successfully made the transition to coaching. In 2018, still just 25 years old, he was named manager of Tampa’s short-season Hudson Valley affiliate. After two strong years there, Tampa pushed him to Low-A Charleston, where he won back-to-back league championships and a Manager of the Year award. That eventually earned him a big new gig as the Rays’ senior director of player development, a role that he served in until his hiring a few weeks ago. Butera was also the bench coach for Team Italy under manager Mike Piazza during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
It’s an impressive résumé, but not necessarily one that would have pointed to a big league head job, at least not in such short order. In fact, Butera admitted that he entered this winter not expecting to be a part of the managerial carousel. His biggest concern was much closer to home: Butera’s wife Caroline was set to have the couple’s first child around the last week of October, right as the Nats were trying to finalize the hiring.
To simplify things, Toboni flew down to Raleigh, where the Buteras live, so that Blake could stay close to home just in case Caroline went into labor. It all came together on the same day with Blake receiving the job offer before the birth of their newborn Blair and accepting it later that day after having become a father. It has been a whirlwind, to say the least.
But Butera, ever-youthful, did not appear worn down by the taxing, early days of parenthood. That is, by all accounts, par for the course. Despite being “young for the level” at every turn, the new skipper has thrived. Butera draws rave reviews for a special ability to communicate with players, empowering them to get the most out of their skills. In that sense, his lack of trips around the sun have proved helpful, allowing him to relate better to players close to him in age.
That will remain an important dynamic in D.C., as a young Nats roster attempts to author a pivot back to contention. A whopping 60 percent of the team’s plate appearances last season were taken by players aged 25 or younger. After a brilliant first half, Wood scuffled down the stretch. Consistency from the spindly slugger is key. So is developing the other kids on the roster, players like Dylan Crews, Brady House, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile, into needle-moving pieces.
The pitching staff presents an even more formidable task. Only the Rockies, in their launching pad of a ballpark in the sky, had a higher ERA last season. Improvement on that front will largely be the responsibility of new pitching coach Simon Mathews, formerly an assistant with the Cincinnati Reds. Mathews, whose hiring was first reported by Yahoo Sports, is even younger than his skipper, having turned 30 just two months ago.
His hiring was yet another data point that Toboni and Co. plan to chart a new path. That dynamic was further reinforced at Butera’s news conference Monday. For better or worse, this era of Nats baseball will not unfurl with a strategy of half-measures. Over the last half decade, the Nationals have been an emblem of regressive, archaic baseball thinking. Unwilling and unable to adapt, the game passed them by, leaving them playing catch-up.
The shift under Toboni will be significant, comprehensive and immediate. Big swings will be taken. Character will be prioritized over experience. They will dream big. It is risky and refreshing. Butera may well be too young, too green for such a big job. He might be great at the gig and the players fall short anyway. Perhaps he’ll manage here for decades and oversee the glory years of D.C. baseball. Time will tell. But on Monday afternoon, he certainly looked the part and said all the right things in the right way.
For Nats fans, it is, at the very least, a plan to believe in.
Nationals manager Blake Butera, left, and president of baseball operations Paul Toboni meet the media Monday in Butera’s formal introduction as the franchise’s top man in the dugout. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
His age, or lack thereof, was a main character at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon as the eighth skipper in franchise history was formally introduced. The stadium’s subterranean press conference room, adorned with red, white and blue roses, was packed to the gills for the occasion. Members of the club’s elusive ownership group, the Lerner family, peppered the front few rows. A large throng of front-office officials, clad in a department store’s worth of obligatory quarter-zips, crammed themselves into the back of the room.
Up on the podium sat just two placards; one for Butera and one for his new boss, Paul Toboni, the team’s recently-hired president of baseball operations.
“As you’ve heard me say many times over the course of the last six weeks, I’m a strong believer that you win with people,” Toboni, 35, offered during his opening statement. “And Blake’s character and ability to connect with everyone across the baseball spectrum is second to none.”
The two men then shook hands before Butera curved a red cap onto his head and pulled a crisp white uniform over his 5-foot-9 frame. He and Toboni, formerly an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, briefly posed for a few pictures before the skipper, still too young to run for president, settled in to introduce himself.
“As we move forward, our identity is going to start with character,” Butera proclaimed. “I believe true leadership is built on real relationships, relationships that create unity, clarity and a shared purpose.”
Since raising the World Series trophy in 2019, the Nationals have slogged to baseball’s second-worst record, better than only the catastrophically discombobulated Colorado Rockies. The trades conducted in the teardown of that core have borne some fruit, most notably the Juan Soto deal that brought young All-Star outfielder James Wood to D.C.
But in the main, Washington has been a draft-and-development disasterclass, an organization distinctly unskilled at making players better. That half-decade run of ineptitude reached a turning point this past July, when a pair of title-winning stalwarts, GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, were simultaneously fired.
And now, into that void, charge Toboni and Butera, a pair of unwrinkled, clean-shaven 30-somethings. Together, they come armed with fresh perspectives, cathedral expectations of themselves and almost zero big league experience. Butera, in fact, has never spent a day in a Major League dugout.
Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft after a plucky four years at Boston College, the infielder’s playing career petered out after two minor league seasons. But Butera quickly and successfully made the transition to coaching. In 2018, still just 25 years old, he was named manager of Tampa’s short-season Hudson Valley affiliate. After two strong years there, Tampa pushed him to Low-A Charleston, where he won back-to-back league championships and a Manager of the Year award. That eventually earned him a big new gig as the Rays’ senior director of player development, a role that he served in until his hiring a few weeks ago. Butera was also the bench coach for Team Italy under manager Mike Piazza during the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
It’s an impressive résumé, but not necessarily one that would have pointed to a big league head job, at least not in such short order. In fact, Butera admitted that he entered this winter not expecting to be a part of the managerial carousel. His biggest concern was much closer to home: Butera’s wife Caroline was set to have the couple’s first child around the last week of October, right as the Nats were trying to finalize the hiring.
To simplify things, Toboni flew down to Raleigh, where the Buteras live, so that Blake could stay close to home just in case Caroline went into labor. It all came together on the same day with Blake receiving the job offer before the birth of their newborn Blair and accepting it later that day after having become a father. It has been a whirlwind, to say the least.
But Butera, ever-youthful, did not appear worn down by the taxing, early days of parenthood. That is, by all accounts, par for the course. Despite being “young for the level” at every turn, the new skipper has thrived. Butera draws rave reviews for a special ability to communicate with players, empowering them to get the most out of their skills. In that sense, his lack of trips around the sun have proved helpful, allowing him to relate better to players close to him in age.
That will remain an important dynamic in D.C., as a young Nats roster attempts to author a pivot back to contention. A whopping 60 percent of the team’s plate appearances last season were taken by players aged 25 or younger. After a brilliant first half, Wood scuffled down the stretch. Consistency from the spindly slugger is key. So is developing the other kids on the roster, players like Dylan Crews, Brady House, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile, into needle-moving pieces.
The pitching staff presents an even more formidable task. Only the Rockies, in their launching pad of a ballpark in the sky, had a higher ERA last season. Improvement on that front will largely be the responsibility of new pitching coach Simon Mathews, formerly an assistant with the Cincinnati Reds. Mathews, whose hiring was first reported by Yahoo Sports, is even younger than his skipper, having turned 30 just two months ago.
His hiring was yet another data point that Toboni and Co. plan to chart a new path. That dynamic was further reinforced at Butera’s news conference Monday. For better or worse, this era of Nats baseball will not unfurl with a strategy of half-measures. Over the last half decade, the Nationals have been an emblem of regressive, archaic baseball thinking. Unwilling and unable to adapt, the game passed them by, leaving them playing catch-up.
The shift under Toboni will be significant, comprehensive and immediate. Big swings will be taken. Character will be prioritized over experience. They will dream big. It is risky and refreshing. Butera may well be too young, too green for such a big job. He might be great at the gig and the players fall short anyway. Perhaps he’ll manage here for decades and oversee the glory years of D.C. baseball. Time will tell. But on Monday afternoon, he certainly looked the part and said all the right things in the right way.
For Nats fans, it is, at the very least, a plan to believe in.
Victor Wembanyama missed his first game of the season on Sunday due to a sore calf, a condition the Spurs had been playing down (he was wearing a sleeve over his calf postgame, but no walking boot), and the team went out and earned a win over Sacramento without him. San Antonio will need more of that in the next couple of weeks.
An MRI determined that Wembanyama has a strained left calf and the team has listed him as out. Multiple reports have said he is expected to be re-evaluated in 2-3 weeks.
Wembanyama has been a force this season on both ends of the court, playing at a level that gets him mentioned in the early MVP conversation. Wembanyama is averaging 26.2 points a game while shooting 34.5% from beyond the arc (but he has lowered his number of attempted 3s and is getting closer to the basket), plus grabbing 12.9 rebounds and dishing out four assists a night. His 3.6 blocked shots a night leads the league.
When Wembanyama is off the court, the Spurs’ defense is 10.8 points per 100 possessions worse. Still, thanks to strong guard play, the Spurs still outscore teams by 1.5 per 100 without him.
Expect just returned De’Aaron Fox to have a couple of big weeks carrying the San Antonio offense, he had 28 points and 11 assists on Sunday. Luke Kornet will move into the starting center slot (he had a solid game against the Kings Sunday with 13 points and 11 boards), and veteran big man Kelly Olynyk also should see more run off the bench.
Wembanyama joins No. 2 pick Dylan Harper in street clothes for the Spurs due to a calf strain. In the wake of what happened with Tyrese Haliburton in the Finals last season — when he tried to play through a sore calf and tore his Achilles — and similar injuries, teams are being far more cautious this season with calf strains.
Coming off their first trip to the World Series in over 30 years, the Toronto Blue Jays have plenty of reasons to keep the momentum going into 2026. Not only did Toronto have a strong showing in the World Series despite the defeat, but they now have a roster with postseason experience and a superstar in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who showed he can carry a team in October.
The Blue Jays’ run in 2025 left a mark on an entire country, and the team’s front office is now tasked with putting the Blue Jays back into a position to make another postseason run.
This is why Toronto is the biggest wild card in baseball this season.
Toronto has been a suitor for some of the biggest free agents, finishing as the runner-up for Shohei Ohtani before he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and ending as a finalist for Juan Soto before he signed with the New York Mets.
The Blue Jays have been looking to swim in the deep end of MLB’s payroll pool by signing a major free agent, but with no success. Even without landing Soto or Ohtani, they finished last season fifth in payroll. And fresh off their World Series run, they’re looking like one of the most attractive destinations in baseball, both economically and on the field.
“I think Mark [Shapiro] and Ross [Atkins] have done a tremendous job,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Toronto’s top player personnel executives. “And I think going back for us [is] one big thing — probably our largest kind of focal point and biggest goal was to try to create a destination spot where our own players didn’t want to leave and where players from other teams wanted to come.
“And I think invariably we find ourselves going up against the Blue Jays a lot in different ways, and they have created that as well. I think they have done a really good job with their facilities, the way they communicate, and how they help get the most out of players.”
High-leverage arms, high priority for the Blue Jays
One of the biggest areas of need for the Blue Jays this offseason is getting help in the back end of their bullpen. Just a year after they signed reliever Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, $33 million deal, Toronto is back on the market for high-leverage arms.
Sources tell Yahoo Sports that the Blue Jays have been one of the more aggressive teams on the market for the offseason’s top relievers, including Devin Williams, Edwin Díaz and Pete Fairbanks. Toronto has already had initial conversations with each of the free agents.
You could understand why the Blue Jays think additional bullpen reinforcements are necessary. Despite an amazing World Series run, a lasting image from it will be Hoffman surrendering the game-tying homer to Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning of Game 7, leading to Toronto’s eventual extra-innings defeat. But even before that, the Blue Jays right-hander was having a year to forget. The Toronto closer went 9-7 with a 4.37 ERA with an AL-leading seven blown saves.
Adding Williams, Fairbanks or Díaz would make the Blue Jays’ bullpen stronger. It remains to be seen if Hoffman would remain Toronto’s closer, move to an eighth-inning role or if the team would go closer by committee.
What to do with Bo Bichette?
While the bullpen is the area the Blue Jays have started to dive into right away, their biggest question is whether they’ll bring back former shortstop and now second baseman Bo Bichette.
He is a homegrown star and came up the same year as Guerrero in 2019. While Vladdy is locked in on a 10-year, $500 million extension, Bichette will have a chance to hit the open market and test his value.
The Blue Jays infielder has been one of the most consistent bats in the American League over the past five years, leading the AL in hits twice to go along with two All-Star appearances. Bichette bounced back last season after a down 2024, hitting .311 with 18 homers, 94 RBI and 181 hits before missing the final three weeks of the season with a knee injury.
And while the knee injury kept him out most of the postseason, he showed up when it mattered in the World Series, hitting .348 with a homer and a .923 OPS.
Bichette has a strong market this winter as both a second baseman and a shortstop in a weak class for shortstops. And after showing he has the ability to play second base, where he would likely be a stronger defender, his flexibility only helps him.
Could Kyle Tucker make sense as Plan B for Bichette?
When a player is a free agent, that means there’s always a 50% chance of them signing elsewhere. And while having Bichette return to play second base and running it back in 2026 is Toronto’s Plan A, Plan B could also be tantalizing.
Tucker could play either corner in Toronto’s outfield, giving the Jays a strong outfield with Gold Glove winner Daulton Varsho in center field. Addison Barger could play the other corner with Nathan Lukes or shift back to the infield at third base, where he spent a majority of his time in 2025. Ernie Clement showed he could be an elite defender at both third base and second base, so a move wouldn’t be a problem for him either.
The one thing standing in the way of Tucker being the perfect fit for the Blue Jays is outfielder Anthony Santander, who signed a five-year, $92.5 million deal last winter. Santander did not have an inaugural season to remember in Toronto, playing in just 54 games in 2025 due to injury. And when he played, he didn’t play well, hitting a paltry .175 with six homers and 61 strikeouts in 194 at-bats.
Moving Santander is likely impossible at this point for the Blue Jays. And unless they eat a majority of his deal, which teams generally don’t do this early into contracts, he’s going to be on the roster one way or another in 2026.
But if Tucker wants to be a Blue Jay, they have to find a way to make it work. Because there’s no doubt adding that caliber of player to a team that just made a World Series appearance puts Toronto back into a position to be the favorite in the American League next season.
Coming off their first trip to the World Series in over 30 years, the Toronto Blue Jays have plenty of reasons to keep the momentum going into 2026. Not only did Toronto have a strong showing in the World Series despite the defeat, but they now have a roster with postseason experience and a superstar in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who showed he can carry a team in October.
The Blue Jays’ run in 2025 left a mark on an entire country, and the team’s front office is now tasked with putting the Blue Jays back into a position to make another postseason run.
This is why Toronto is the biggest wild card in baseball this season.
Toronto has been a suitor for some of the biggest free agents, finishing as the runner-up for Shohei Ohtani before he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers and ending as a finalist for Juan Soto before he signed with the New York Mets.
The Blue Jays have been looking to swim in the deep end of MLB’s payroll pool by signing a major free agent, but with no success. Even without landing Soto or Ohtani, they finished last season fifth in payroll. And fresh off their World Series run, they’re looking like one of the most attractive destinations in baseball, both economically and on the field.
“I think Mark [Shapiro] and Ross [Atkins] have done a tremendous job,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Toronto’s top player personnel executives. “And I think going back for us [is] one big thing — probably our largest kind of focal point and biggest goal was to try to create a destination spot where our own players didn’t want to leave and where players from other teams wanted to come.
“And I think invariably we find ourselves going up against the Blue Jays a lot in different ways, and they have created that as well. I think they have done a really good job with their facilities, the way they communicate, and how they help get the most out of players.”
High-leverage arms, high priority for the Blue Jays
One of the biggest areas of need for the Blue Jays this offseason is getting help in the back end of their bullpen. Just a year after they signed reliever Jeff Hoffman to a three-year, $33 million deal, Toronto is back on the market for high-leverage arms.
Sources tell Yahoo Sports that the Blue Jays have been one of the more aggressive teams on the market for the offseason’s top relievers, including Devin Williams, Edwin Díaz and Pete Fairbanks. Toronto has already had initial conversations with each of the free agents.
You could understand why the Blue Jays think additional bullpen reinforcements are necessary. Despite an amazing World Series run, a lasting image from it will be Hoffman surrendering the game-tying homer to Miguel Rojas in the ninth inning of Game 7, leading to Toronto’s eventual extra-innings defeat. But even before that, the Blue Jays right-hander was having a year to forget. The Toronto closer went 9-7 with a 4.37 ERA with an AL-leading seven blown saves.
Adding Williams, Fairbanks or Díaz would make the Blue Jays’ bullpen stronger. It remains to be seen if Hoffman would remain Toronto’s closer, move to an eighth-inning role or if the team would go closer by committee.
What to do with Bo Bichette?
While the bullpen is the area the Blue Jays have started to dive into right away, their biggest question is whether they’ll bring back former shortstop and now second baseman Bo Bichette.
He is a homegrown star and came up the same year as Guerrero in 2019. While Vladdy is locked in on a 10-year, $500 million extension, Bichette will have a chance to hit the open market and test his value.
The Blue Jays infielder has been one of the most consistent bats in the American League over the past five years, leading the AL in hits twice to go along with two All-Star appearances. Bichette bounced back last season after a down 2024, hitting .311 with 18 homers, 94 RBI and 181 hits before missing the final three weeks of the season with a knee injury.
And while the knee injury kept him out most of the postseason, he showed up when it mattered in the World Series, hitting .348 with a homer and a .923 OPS.
Bichette has a strong market this winter as both a second baseman and a shortstop in a weak class for shortstops. And after showing he has the ability to play second base, where he would likely be a stronger defender, his flexibility only helps him.
Could Kyle Tucker make sense as Plan B for Bichette?
When a player is a free agent, that means there’s always a 50% chance of them signing elsewhere. And while having Bichette return to play second base and running it back in 2026 is Toronto’s Plan A, Plan B could also be tantalizing.
Tucker could play either corner in Toronto’s outfield, giving the Jays a strong outfield with Gold Glove winner Daulton Varsho in center field. Addison Barger could play the other corner with Nathan Lukes or shift back to the infield at third base, where he spent a majority of his time in 2025. Ernie Clement showed he could be an elite defender at both third base and second base, so a move wouldn’t be a problem for him either.
The one thing standing in the way of Tucker being the perfect fit for the Blue Jays is outfielder Anthony Santander, who signed a five-year, $92.5 million deal last winter. Santander did not have an inaugural season to remember in Toronto, playing in just 54 games in 2025 due to injury. And when he played, he didn’t play well, hitting a paltry .175 with six homers and 61 strikeouts in 194 at-bats.
Moving Santander is likely impossible at this point for the Blue Jays. And unless they eat a majority of his deal, which teams generally don’t do this early into contracts, he’s going to be on the roster one way or another in 2026.
But if Tucker wants to be a Blue Jay, they have to find a way to make it work. Because there’s no doubt adding that caliber of player to a team that just made a World Series appearance puts Toronto back into a position to be the favorite in the American League next season.
LeBron James went through his first full practice with the Lakers, coming off a couple of practices with the franchise’s G-League team, but his status for the Lakers’ game Tuesday against the Utah Jazz remains “TBD,” as Lakers coach J.J. Redick put it.
“Just trying to get back to where I feel like myself again,” LeBron said after practice, via the Associated Press. “Got to see how the body responds over the next 24 hours-plus.”
The Lakers have the front end of a home-and-home with the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena. After that, the Lakers are off until Sunday, when they face the Jazz in Salt Lake City, before returning home to face the Clippers in a critical West Group B NBA Cup game, which you can watch on Nov. 25 on NBC and Peacock.
LeBron said he’s feeling good.
“My lungs feel like a newborn baby,” LeBron said. “That’s the most important thing: I’ve got to get my lungs back up to a grown man. My voice is already gone (from) one day back barking out calls and assignments and stuff. Got to get my voice working again. Be a lot of tea and rest tonight. Feels good to be out here with the guys. Missed them.”
Whenever he does set foot on an NBA court this season, LeBron will set a record as the first player ever to reach 23 seasons in the league. Even without LeBron, the Lakers are 10-4 to start the season, led by a top-10 offense sparked by Luka Doncic playing at an MVP level.
Lakers star Lebron James sits on the bench during a preseason game against the Sacramento Kings on Oct. 17. (Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
LeBron James said his lungs felt like those of a “newborn baby” and his voice was “already gone” after his first Lakers practice Monday as he moved a step closer toward making his season debut after being sidelined by sciatica.
James didn’t fully commit to playing Tuesday night against the Utah Jazz at Crypto.com Arena. But James sounded as if he was close to playing in his NBA-record 23rd season.
“We got a long time,” said James as he wiped sweat from his face while speaking to reporters. “I mean, we’ve been taking literally one minute, one hour, one step at a time throughout this whole process. So, see how I feel this afternoon, see how I feel tonight. When I wake up in the morning. … We’ll probably have [a] shootaround [Tuesday]. So, just gotta see how the body responds over the next 24 hours-plus.”
LeBron James on how he’s feeling: “My lungs feel like a newborn baby.”
Says he’s trying to get his conditioning back up and his voice is already shot from yelling at practice, but he was happy to be back. pic.twitter.com/rl6WMAuYmw
James, who will turn 41 next month, was asked how long it took him to become pain-free.
“I wouldn’t take it that far,” James said. “Like I said, if you ever had it, you go about it and you wake up one day and you hope that when you step down from the bed that you don’t feel it. You go to bed at night, and you hope that when you’re in the bed that you don’t feel it. So I’ve been doing pretty good with it as of late. There’s a lot of exercises and a lot of mobility things and a lot of things you can do to help it. So I’m just keeping a positive mindset.”
Lakers coach JJ Redick said it was like having a new player in practice with James on the court.
James agreed, saying, “Definitely feels new, for sure.”
The Lakers have four days off after Tuesday’s game against Utah — including three practice days — before playing the Jazz in Salt Lake City on Sunday.
“One day back, barking out calls and assignments and stuff, getting my voice working again,” said James about his first day at practice. “Be a lot of tea and rest tonight.”
James, the NBA’s all-time leading scorer (42,184 points), admitted he had to mentally adjust to missing the start of a season for the first time in his career.
“It sucks. It definitely sucks,” James said. “Never in my life since I started playing the game of basketball have I ever not started the season — in my life. It’s been a mind test, but I’m built for it and it’s been putting in the work, both mentally and physically trying to get myself ready to rejoin the team.
“It’s just been kind of the same revolving door. Just repetition, repetition, repetition; rehabbing, rehabbing, rehabbing. Just trying to get back where I can feel like myself again. It’s great to be out here today.”
James said this wasn’t the first time in his career that he had sciatica.
“I had it two years ago,” he said. “You had it, then you know what the hell it’s about. If you ain’t never had it and people are making jokes about it, I pray you never get it. It’s not fun.”
James practiced with the Lakers’ G League team, the South Bay Lakers, twice last week, getting in some five-on-five work.
“It was great,” James said. “I got cleared to play some five-on-five for the first time since … hurting my MCL versus Minnesota. And that was the blessing.”
The Lakers have gone 10-4 without James. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves have led the way as one of the most potent two-way tandems in the early part of the NBA season.
Doncic leads the NBA in scoring (34.4 points per game) and Reaves is ninth (28.3). Doncic is fifth in assists (8.9) and Reaves is seventh (8.2).
James, who is 50 games away from breaking Robert Parish’s all-time record of most games played in NBA history (1,611), knows he’ll have to adjust things when he returns.
“I have to work my way back into it,” James said. “The guys have been going on road trips, shootarounds, flights. So it’s kind of like a kid going to a new school again. Got to learn the guys and everything. So they got some great chemistry. Feeling my way back in and do it organically. It shouldn’t be hard. But it’s definitely a feel-out process.”
Etc.
Redick said all 14 players practiced for the first time this season and that Rui Hachimura (left call soreness) and Marcus Smart (viral illness) will be available to play against the Jazz after sitting out against Milwaukee on Saturday.
While there was no shortage of fantasy managers who believed that Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson was ready to take another step in his development, how many expected him to provide first-round value? Based on the Yahoo! ADP of 25, not many. However, Johnson has played to that level thus far, and he’s a big reason why Atlanta has gone 7-2 since losing Trae Young to a knee injury.
In the eight games he’s played since the Hawks’ starting point guard went down in an October 29 win over the Nets, Johnson has averaged 22.4 points, 10.9 rebounds, 7.4 assists, 1.9 steals and 1.5 three-pointers while shooting 59.1 percent from the field and 77.5 percent from the foul line. Simply put, he has been one of the best performers in the NBA in November, and the fantasy value reflects that.
As a result, Johnson has vaulted into first-round territory in the latest rankings, and there’s no denying his ability to maintain that production level even after Young returns. Also exceeding fantasy expectations thus far has been Wizards forward/center Alex Sarr, who has played at a top-25 level for his rebuilding franchise. The efficiency issues of his rookie campaign are in the rear-view mirror, much to the delight of the Wizards and the fantasy managers who have him rostered.
Below are the updated top-200 rankings, which, as of Monday afternoon, reflect the impact Victor Wembanyama‘s calf injury will have on multiple Spurs teammates. Clippers guard Bradley Beal is no longer ranked due to his season-ending hip injury. Also, it’s possible that Lakers forward LeBron James will make his first appearance next week, while 76ers forward Paul George will play in his first game on Monday against the Clippers.
