For more than 30 years, a man known as Roger A. Pearce Jr. worked as a prosperous land-use and zoning attorney in Oregon and Washington. He represented some of the Pacific Northwest’s most prominent people and businesses and took on high-profile projects. He served on planning commissions, nonprofit boards and racked up hours doing pro bono legal work. He and his wife retired to a $1.4 million condo on Seattle’s Lake Washington. By all accounts, the now-77-year-old had made a good name for himself. Except one thing: Roger Pearce wasn’t actually his name. It belonged to a baby who died in Vermont in 1952. Pearce stole the identity when he was in his early 20s and looking to leave his troubles behind — college dropout, check fraud, a failed marriage. The State Department unmasked him only in 2022 during a review of one of his applications for a new passport. Federal workers detected that he had applied for a new Social Security number as an adult — a red flag. But they still couldn’t figure out who he truly was. So prosecutors last year indicted the man in federal court in Oregon as “John Doe,” charging him with making a false statement in an application for a passport, a felony. He was arrested last year on a warrant in Washington. When he pleaded guilty three months ago to an identity fraud misdemeanor, the courtroom deputy, at the judge’s behest, asked him to state his name for the record. “My birth name was Willie Ragan Casper Jr.,” he said, marking the first time since his arrest that he gave his real name under oath. “The name I’ve gone under and been known as for the last over 50 years is Roger Alfred Pearce Jr.” When he stood Wednesday in Portland to receive his sentence, he offered an explanation for his decades of duplicity. “I really wanted to start over,” he said. ‘I felt the failure’ Casper was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in December 1946, the older of two boys. He seized an opportunity to leave his hometown to attend Rice University in Texas but wasn’t prepared for the rigor of the classes and dropped out. An early marriage ended around the same time. Then Casper got involved in fraud, writing checks on a bank account with no money in what he called a “fairly naive” anti-war protest against banks during the Vietnam War era, he said. “I was a young person, confused, depressed. I felt the failure,” he said in court, reading in a steady voice from an open binder resting on the defense table in front of him. Casper, tall, slim and white-haired, sat upright beside his lawyer. He wore a black blazer and gray slacks, a white shirt and a black tie that he adjusted just before the judge arrived on the bench. He looked every bit the experienced lawyer he typically portrayed in court during his three-decade-long career, even engaging in small talk with the prosecutor before the hearing began. “I was ashamed that I had wasted a lot of my parents’ money supporting me in a distant city they couldn’t really afford,” Casper said. “My marriage had fallen apart. I had no real career prospects.” He said he also was worried about getting arrested for his check-kiting. A friend had been caught renting a car with a false ID and police had come to the house they shared. He wasn’t home at the time but feared police would return, looking for him. He spoke for about six minutes as his wife sat in the front row behind him in the public gallery. A psychologist who evaluated Casper and submitted a sealed report to the judge was present by video but didn’t speak. Casper said he stayed another six weeks in Houston and then fled. He also changed his identity. “I wanted to start over with a clean slate,” he said. “I felt like everything was at a dead end for me there in Texas.” In 1971, he stole the name of a dead child using the baby’s birth certificate. It’s unclear who gave him the certificate or if he paid for it, but his lawyer said birth certificates were apparently easy to come by during the anti-Vietnam era as others used them to try to evade the draft. Two years later, when he was in his late 20s, he applied for a Social Security number in the name of Roger Alfred Pearce Jr., using the dead baby’s birth certificate. Casper first went to Montana, then to Oregon, where he had some friends in Eugene. “The decision to change my name at that time was foolish, of course. At the time, I viewed it as a clean break from the past,” he said. I was also naive and in love with grand gestures, like some young people are.” He found work and took classes at Lane Community College in the early 1970s, records show. He made new friends, he said. “I crawled out of being depressed and within a few years, that new name was absolutely normal to me,” he told the judge. “After that, I have never thought of myself as other than Roger Pearce.” He did a stint as a dancer and singer in New York before ending up in Seattle, working for a bakery and then got the idea to go to law school, according to his lawyer. He enrolled in what was then the University of Puget Sound law school in Tacoma without a college degree, graduating in his mid-40s as the first in his class, summa cum laude in May 1991, according to his lawyer. He went on to a successful career with the Seattle-based firm Foster Pepper LLC, representing Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan development company and serving as a lawyer for the Seattle Monorail Popular Authority. In 2014, he was admitted to the Oregon State Bar, later moved back to Oregon and opened Pearce Law in Ashland. He served as chair of Ashland’s planning commission and as a Jackson County hearings officer. He also was secretary of the Rotary Club of Ashland and secretary of the Ashland New Plays Association. ‘False pretenses’ His façade cracked in 2022 when the State Department discovered an unresolved irregularity in his Social Security number. When Casper had gotten his fraudulent number, technology wasn’t available to track the birth certificate he submitted back to a dead child. But the federal government now has fraud detection that screens passport applications of people who received Social Security numbers as adults. Late-issued Social Security numbers strongly correlate to fraud, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan D. Knight wrote in his sentencing memo. The State Department’s screening has caught members of the mafia and other criminals trying to avoid detection. This time, it caught Casper. He had applied for a U.S. passport in 1991 and then renewed it twice more — in 2003 and May 2013 in Ashland. His applications got flagged as suspicious. State Department investigators then confirmed the Pearce name he was using was of someone who had died and had been submitted illegally to get a passport. But they couldn’t figure out his true name — only that the man claiming to be Pearce lived in Oregon and Washington and had been practicing law since 1991. “This is a case, from a criminal perspective, more about who the defendant is not, than who he is,” Knight said. In January 2023, a federal grand jury in Oregon returned a one-count indictment charging “John Doe” with making a false statement on his passport application and he was arrested in Seattle. In a plea deal in August, Casper pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of producing an identification document without lawful authority. The maximum penalty is a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Prosecutors had weighed his “sustained act of deception” with his “otherwise law-abiding existence” and “fundamental decency,” Knight said. When defense lawyer Janet Lee Hoffman tried to explain at the plea hearing that Casper had pursued an illustrious legal career, the judge hastened to interject. “Under false pretenses,” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon pointed out. ‘Choice that few receive’ At the start of sentencing Wednesday, Simon asked, “Do you want me to refer to your client as Mr. Pearce, Mr. Doe or Mr. Casper.” Hoffman said Pearce. She sought a year of probation for her client, but the prosecutor recommended two years. “Every person is responsible for and owns their own history and really the shadow that that casts and the consequences that ultimately may bear out,” Knight said. “The defendant’s choice in this case really is an abdication of that basic principle.” Many people come before the court who would have liked the option Casper took to start anew and leave their past behind, Knight said. “He availed himself of a choice that few receive, and that’s why we’re here today,” he said. Hoffman said the defendant lived a model life under his new identity. “Roger had a stellar career and enhanced each community that he lived in and the lives of everyone he touched,” she said. The judge said he considered Casper’s statement, the psychologist’s evaluation and letters from his wife and from Elisabeth Ann Zinser, a retired Southern Oregon University president who had known him for 10 years. Simon noted that Casper’s wife – Julie Benezet, a Seattle finance lawyer and author – hadn’t said in her letter if she knew of her husband’s long deception. He asked if Casper would say. Casper demurred, replying, “I prefer not to answer,” while acknowledging that he didn’t expect the government to prosecute his wife for fraud. He also said they have a “really wonderful marriage.” Simon said he was troubled that no one had delved into the real Roger Pearce Jr. Based on a photo in the court documents, he noted that the baby’s gravestone indicated he had lived six months and nine days. “It must be tough for a parent to lose a baby after six months, and it would only be worse if they ever knew or learned that someone else falsely took that baby’s name,” Simon said. Knight told the judge that the baby’s parents had both died. Simon then adopted the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Casper to two years of probation. Casper must now relinquish his licenses to practice law in Oregon and Washington and never reapply to practice law. He also faces an Oregon State Bar disciplinary investigation. He is barred from getting a new piece of identification, whether it’s a driver’s license or Social Security number, in any name other than his legal name. But Casper said he intends to legally change his name to Roger Alfred Pearce Jr. soon, making the prohibition moot. “He will always be Roger Pearce,” his lawyer said after court. ‘Still in shock’ The actual Roger Alfred Pearce Jr. was born in Montpellier, Vermont, in September 1951 and died March 11, 1952. A younger sister, Dawn Hyttinen, now 51, said she believes her brother died of meningitis. He was the first born of seven children, she said. Their mother died in 2016 and father died in 2020, she said. “I grew up hearing about him,” she said. She said her father didn’t talk about the baby, but her mother always did. But she said no one in her family was told that someone had stolen her brother’s identity or was living under his name. “This is just absolutely crazy,” she said. “I’m flabbergasted.” Government investigators couldn’t find any living relatives of the boy, prosecutors said in court records, but an Oregonian/OregonLive reporter found Hyttinen in Arizona. She said she’s very curious about Casper and how he ended up using her brother’s identity. “I’m still in shock,’’ she said. The same is true for the family that Casper left behind. “He’s alive?!” a stunned Justin Casper blurted when contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He’s the son of Casper’s younger brother, Dr. Robert Casper, now 72. “This is the first I’ve heard anything about him,” said Justin Casper, who lives in Arkansas. “We didn’t have a good answer as to what really happened to him. He’s my dad’s long lost brother.” He said he had heard his uncle had some problem with credit card fraud. “He just kind of left. He took off and never said where he was going. He never had any contact with his family again,” Justin Casper said. “I thought he was dead.” In a coincidence, Justin Casper had tried about six months ago to track down his uncle for his dad but couldn’t find anything online about him and was thinking of hiring a private investigator. He said his father hasn’t talked much about his older brother through the years. “I think it hurt him too much,” Justin Casper said. Now, the nephew is eager to learn what happened. “Why? What in the world? I’m happy that he’s alive,” he said. “Maybe we can reconnect with him, though it’ll be an awkward conversation.” Another chance In the months since his arrest, Willie Casper said he has had to face his past. He’s had difficult and emotional conversations with colleagues and friends about what he did but said they’ve been supportive. “I didn’t forget my birth name. I didn’t forget my early history,” he said in court. “I think I just literally compartmentalized it because it wasn’t relevant to my day-to-day life.” He added matter of factly: “I was Roger Pearce.” As he’s reflected on his identity, he said he feels good about what he’s accomplished: “I contributed to my community. I think I’ve helped raise a wonderful daughter.” At the same time, he can’t shake his true past. “I’ve also had an opportunity to think about what I’ve walked away from and lost,” he said. At the time he changed his name, he said he was “disengaged and estranged” from his birth family. His parents didn’t understand his anti-war sentiment, his lawyer said. “I really never got back in touch with them,” Casper said. But now, he said, he would be willing to contact his younger brother. He hasn’t seen him in over 50 years. “Perhaps paradoxically,” he said, “this prosecution may give me the chance to recover some of what I’ve lost.”
Treyarch put measures in place to prevent cheating in Black Ops 6 Ranked Play, but they weren’t enough to hold the floodgates. To access BO6 Ranked Play , you must first win 50 multiplayer matches so the RICOCHET anti-cheat system can build a match history that can be used to weed out any discrepancies in Ranked Play. In addition, RICOCHET uses a replay investigation tool to watch back completed matches as part of the investigation process. But these preventative measures weren’t enough. Just hours after the game mode launched, clips circulated , exposing cheaters for using aim bot and other external services to take over high-rank lobbies. The 100 Thieves founder took to social media and said , “The cheating in Ranked Play on Black Ops 6 is the worst it’s been. I’m actually disgusted. Don’t know how it’s gotten to this point, but the game is completely chalked.” Call of Duty League pros also spoke out about the game mode not doing a good enough job of banning cheaters. “Ranked play turned my brain to mush tonight. The hackers are winning,” Atlanta FaZe star Simp said . In response to the issue, LA Thieves’s Ghosty suggested , “Kernel-level anti-cheat is the only effective method I know that’s worked, but I’m not versed enough about how hard it is to implement.” Why isn’t RICOCHET anti-cheat working? As Ghosty suggested, Kernel-level anti-cheat is a technology that detects cheating by identifying malware and hacks on the user’s computer. Ironically, RIOCHET already uses anti-cheat uses Kernel technology, but that still hasn’t been enough to properly stop cheating in high-rank lobbies. Related: And, without kill cams, it’s challenging to gather evidence to report cheaters. Players on PlayStation and Xbox also can’t avoid cheaters on PC because turning off cross-play is not an option . This isn’t the first year cheating has been a problem for Ranked Play. CDL pros slammed Ranked Play hackers in MW2, and players also reported an uptick of cheating in MW3 . So, although we have seen similar complaints before, frustration continues to mount amongst pro players and creators who rely on Call of Duty to make a living. In the November 21 update , Treyarch addressed a few glitches in Ranked Play, but the development team has yet to an issue a statement on the overflow of cheating reports.Democrat Flipping Party to Republican After Election Sparks Liberal Fury
Scanlan: Time for legislators to protect womenMLB GMs apparently realized they had holiday plans, prompting a surge of activity in the days before Christmas. On the heels of a major first base shakeup that saw Christian Walker, Paul Goldschmidt, Josh Naylor, Carlos Santana and Nate Lowe change hands, two of the top remaining starting pitchers have come off the board, with Sean Manaea returning to the Mets and Walker Buehler joining the Red Sox. Scott White and Chris Towers are here to guide you through the transactions of real consequence for Fantasy Baseball. This is the place where we'll react to them as they happen, breaking down what they mean for 2025 drafts. So bookmark this page and keep checking back. As the news comes in, you'll be glad you have one stop for keeping track of it all. Gleyber Torres signs with the Tigers In some ways, this one is fairly straightforward: The Tigers are an ascending team with some self-imposed financial restraints, so they're taking a cheap, one-year flier on Torres bouncing back. Torres stumbled in 2024, hitting just .257/.330/.378 with 1.7 fWAR, but he had been a solid mid-.700s-to-low-.800s bat in the previous two seasons. He'll be 28 and looking to set himself up for a big contract next offseason, though he'll be doing that in a worse lineup and home park, which certainly isn't ideal. Torres remains in the low-end starting 2B range with the potential for a bounceback, but even at a relatively weak position, you'd probably rather have more of a sure thing as your starter. But if Torres can get back to being a 20-ish homer threat with double-digit steals, he can be a very fine middle infield option at a discount. The more interesting wrinkle here is what it means for the rest of the Tigers infield. Team president Scott Harris told reporters in the aftermath of the signing that Torres will play second base, with Colt Keith shifting over to first base. Whether that means he will supplant, compete, or share time with Spencer Torkelson remains to be seen, but at this point, it's not clear either should be handed a job; Torkelson found himself back in Triple-A for part of last season amid a .219/.295/.374 line in the majors, while Keith barely managed any better, hitting .260/.309/.380. So, I'm guessing this is an open competition, and neither should be viewed as much more than a late-round flier even in deeper leagues. Then there's this: The Tigers actually somehow managed to get even worse production from two other infield spots in 2024. The team's shortstops managed to hit just .190/.237/.315, while their third basemen hit .234/.294/.349. The offseason isn't over, but as of now, it doesn't look like they're making any attempt to upgrade over Javier Baez, perhaps with the hope he can improve enough over the next two seasons to give top prospect Kevin McGonigle a chance to stay on the fast track to the majors. And the Tigers seem likely to give recent top prospect Jace Jung another chance at the hot corner despite an underwhelming 34-game debut in 2024. Which is all to say, despite his underwhelming 2024, Torres might be the most interesting Fantasy option of this group. They need someone – and probably multiple someones – to step forward to repeat last year's miracle run to the playoffs (Unless they decide to make another splash in free agency and sign Alex Bregman, something they were rumored to be interested in before the Torres signing.) Walker Buehler signs with Red Sox Buehler gets a nice $21.05 million payday even though his return from a second Tommy John surgery last season could only be described as disastrous. So why the vote of confidence? Things turned around for him in the postseason as his sweeper picked up several inches of horizontal break. The eye-opener was Game 3 of the NLCS against the Mets, when he struck out six over four shutout innings while piling up 18 swinging strikes. He ended the postseason with 10 consecutive scoreless innings, surrendering just five hits and striking out 13. It was a tiny sample, which is probably why he was only able to secure a one-year deal, but it was enough to give us (and apparently the Red Sox) hope that his second Tommy John surgery wasn't as ruinous as it first seemed. Buehler won't be a top target on Draft Day, but he's certain to get some late-round looks. --Scott White Joc Pederson signs with Rangers After swapping out Nathaniel Lowe for Jake Burger at first base in two separate moves, the Rangers continued to tweak their lineup by landing a new DH (at least against right-handed pitchers) on a two-year, $37 million deal. This represents a raise for Pederson after an impressive season with the Diamondbacks in which he delivered a career-best .908 OPS. The 32-year-old is well traveled and does pretty much the same thing no matter where he goes, so you can pencil him in for another decent batting average along with 20 homers or so. Because he's a strict platoon player, it's not as valuable as it may seem for Fantasy, but he's useful in a streaming capacity and in leagues that allow for daily lineup changes. His signing presumably makes Leody Taveras no longer a regular part of the Rangers lineup, though he'll be available off the bench if Evan Carter struggles to stay healthy again. --Scott White Sean Manaea signs with Mets Manaea was inspired by Chris Sale to drop his release point toward the end of last season, and the transformation was both immediate and striking. He threw seven two-hit innings with 11 strikeouts in his first outing with the new delivery and went on to post a 3.09 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 9.9 K/9 in his final 12 starts, his swinging-strike rate climbing to 14 percent after being 11 percent in his first 20 starts. Typically when a 30-something with an established track record has an uncharacteristic stretch of dominance, you should chalk it up to statistical variance and take it with a grain of salt, but because a dramatic mechanical change prompted this particular transformation, it could have staying power. The Mets, who reaped the benefits of it last season, clearly felt comfortable doubling down, signing Manaea to a three-year $75 million deal Monday. He makes for an advisable roll of the dice after the top 40 starting pitchers are gone. --Scott White Jesus Luzardo traded to Phillies While Philadelphia is considered to be a much tougher place to pitch than Miami, it's all academic until we're sure Luzardo is healthy again. The left-hander didn't pitch after June 16 last because of a lumbar stress reaction and wasn't particularly effective for the 12 starts he did make, averaging 1.5 mph less on his fastball than in 2023. It wasn't a total collapse, however. His slider and changeup both still had better than a 40 percent whiff rate, and his 13.7 percent swinging-strike rate would have ranked ninth among qualifiers. But he tends to get hit hard and, judging from the ups and downs in his career, probably can't afford to pitch in a diminished state. I ranked him just outside my top 60 starting pitchers prior to this trade, and the tradeoff between venue and supporting cast is probably a wash. Unfortunately, this trade likely ends Andrew Painter's candidacy for a rotation spot this spring. An injury to Luzardo or someone else could reopen the door, of course, but as things currently stand, the Phillies have a strong 1-5 without Painter. The 21-year-old lit up the Arizona Fall League in his return from Tommy John surgery and is among the top pitching prospects in baseball, but a delayed deployment might be in his best interest anyway. As for what the Marlins are getting back in this deal, the biggest piece is shortstop Staryn Caba, a top-100 prospect according to some publications. His glove is the real selling point, though, with much development still ahead of him as a hitter. --Scott White Nathaniel Lowe traded to the Nationals So, in the end, it's Jake Burger replacing Lowe in Texas, as the Rangers cleared up an apparent log jam at first base with this move. It makes the path to everyday playing time a bit clearer for both Lowe and Burger, which is the biggest takeaway here. I've been out on Burger at his 120-ish ADP in NFC drafts even before he was sent to Texas, but this does make that pessimism a little harder to justify, since the Rangers don't really have an obvious alternative at first base/DH if Burger gets off to a slow start. He's a solid low-end starter at the first base position for Fantasy, with big power upside and decent run production potential in a very good Rangers lineup, though given his poor on-base skills and defense, I still think there's an extremely low floor here. Lowe is back in the CI discussion with this trade. The Nationals were reportedly in on some of the free agent first basemen, but will settle for Lowe, who had a decent season in 2024 despite hitting for little power. His 121 wRC was actually the second-best of his career, but Lowe is probably a better hitter in real life than in Fantasy given his limited power and average upside. He has hit right around .265 in three of the past four seasons, with a walk rate north of 12% and between 16 and 18 homers; the exception is 2022, when he had 27 homers and a .302 average. That's the clear outlier here, and Lowe is probably best served hitting at the top of the lineup rather than in a run production spot. He's a decent CI option – better in OBP leagues – but he's a fringe starter unless he taps into that power a bit more consistently. --Chris Towers Carlos Santana signs with Guardians And so the other shoe falls. Not long after shipping Josh Naylor to the Diamondbacks, the Guardians sign his replacement in Carlos Santana, who of course has a long history in Cleveland and would appear to have something left in the tank heading into his age-39 season. Of course, at that age, you halfway expect his production to drop off a cliff, so it's a little surprising to see a contender with so little margin for error put so much trust in him. Theoretically, Kyle Manzardo could shift from DH to first base if Santana falters, but this signing at least confirms that Santana will have a full-time job to begin 2025. And considering he was last year's 18th-best first baseman in 5x5 leagues and 13th-best in points leagues (always his better format), he's likely (or at least halfway likely) to be of some use in Fantasy even if he's not a prime draft target. --Scott White Josh Naylor traded to Diamondbacks Whoa. There were reports Naylor might be on the move this offseason, and the Diamondbacks are a logical destination given that they just lost Christian Walker in free agency. But the return (right-hander Slade Cecconi and a competitive balance Round B draft pick) seems a little light for a 27-year-old who emerged as an All-Star and impact Fantasy bat last year, even if he's poised to become a free agent at season's end. In any case, this move should theoretically hurt Naylor given that Chase Field rates as the worst home run venue for left-handed hitters over the past three seasons, but Statcast estimates that he'd have hit just two fewer home runs if he played every game there last season and that he'd actually have one more if he played every game there for his entire career. Other left-handed batters like Corbin Carroll and Ketel Marte (a switch-hitter, technically) have made it work, so I'd say Naylor's stock holds steady with this deal. I also think he has some untapped upside given the mismatch between his consistently low strikeout rate and typically blah batting average. Some of that mismatch is owed to his tendency to put the ball on the ground, but his 2023 season, when he hit .308 with a .293 xBA, is the dream. I ranked Naylor sixth among first basemen -- just ahead of the man he's replacing, Walker -- prior to this trade, and I'm inclined to rank him there still. --Scott White Paul Goldschmidt signs with the Yankees The Yankees are betting on a bounceback from the 37-year-old Goldschmidt, who figures to be the team's everyday first baseman on the one-year deal. And Goldschmidt still does some things very well, sporting well above average quality of contact metrics in 2024, including an 82nd percentile average exit velocity of 91.2 mph and a 92nd percentile hard-hit rate of 49.6%. Goldschmidt's expected wOBA on contact in 2024 was .423, the worst mark he has posted since 2016, but still solidly above average – and it should play up even more in Yankee Stadium, a better park for power than his old home in St. Louis. The problem is, Goldschmidt might be at the point where he has to cheat to get to that power he once came by so easily. His strikeout rate ballooned to a career-high 26.5%, with his underlying plate discipline metrics all moving in the wrong direction, too – he was making worse swing decisions and making contact less often when he swung. That's a bad sign, and one you can't necessarily bet on improving as he nears 40. This is a mild park upgrade and a solid lineup upgrade for Goldschmidt, and it probably improves his chances of that bounce-back season the Yankees are hoping for. And, for what it's worth, Goldschmidt was better down the stretch, sporting a .379 xwOBA over his final 100 PA, compared to a .329 mark for the season as a whole -- and he cut his strikeout rate to 23% in September, too. Goldschmidt is no longer a good bet as your starting 1B in Fantasy, but as a corner infielder in a Roto league, he's a decent bet around the 15th round or so in drafts. --Chris Towers Christian Walker signs with the Astros The Astros continued the on-the-fly remake of their corner infield – and seemingly foreclosed the possibility of a reunion with free agent Alex Bregman – with the signing of Walker to a three-year, $60 million deal. It feels like a surprisingly light number for a player of Walker's caliber until you remember he will be 34 a few days after Opening Day, though he hasn't shown any real signs of aging so far. Walker has actually been remarkably consistent over the past three seasons, posting an OPS+ between 125 and 121, with a triple-slash line of .251/.335/.468 in 2024. An oblique injury during the summer limited him to 130 games, but he was otherwise on pace for another 30-homer season, finishing with 26, along with 84 RBI and 72 runs. Walker is the platonic ideal of a solid starting Fantasy first baseman -- hardly a superstar, but not someone you ever have to think about upgrading from -- though his value to the Astros is a little greater thanks to three consecutive Gold Gloves. A right-handed hitter, Walker isn't quite as likely to benefit from the short porch in left field as new teammate Isaac Paredes, but it's still a nice landing spot for him – if Walker had played every game in Houston over the past three seasons, he would have hit 96 homers, a slight upgrade over the 93 he would have hit playing every game in Arizona. It's not necessarily a lineup upgrade leaving the league leader in runs last season, but the proximity to Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez makes it a fine landing spot, too. Walker is at the age where you can reasonably downgrade him for some age-related risk, but we just haven't seen any sign of that coming – in fact, 2024 saw his highest average exit velocity since a brief 2017 cameo. Walker has been going off draft boards around 100th overall in early drafts, and he belongs in that third tier of first baseman – ahead of Spencer Steer and Vinnie Pasquantino, while whether you take him ahead of Josh Naylor or Triston Casas will mostly come down to personal taste. --Chris Towers Max Kepler signs with Phillies Kepler has long been a player who Fantasy Baseballers have believed was oh so close to finding another gear -- so long, in fact, that this move to one of the most hitter-friendly venues in baseball may be coming too late. He's on the wrong side of 30 and saw a sharp decline in production last season after hitting .260 with 24 homers and an .816 OPS in 2023. But 2024 also saw him hit a ball as hard as 115.4 mph, tying a career-high and putting him in the top 5 percent in baseball. His strikeout rate came down a little, and his zone-contact rate was still verging on 90 percent, an elite mark. Not bad! On the other hand, his walk rate was a career-low and his chase rate a career-high, so I suspect he was pressing to make up for the time lost to knee injuries. Or perhaps he never felt quite right. In any case, if the knee issues are behind him (a big if, granted), he has a reasonable chance to bounce back in his new surroundings, offering the upside for 25-30 homers as long as he plays every day. And you can get him late even in five-outfielder leagues. --Scott White Michael Soroka signs with Nationals I hesitated to include this transaction in the Offseason Tracker because Soroka is such an afterthought in Fantasy, but the fact the Nationals signed him to work as a starter and are paying him a healthy sum to do so ($9 million) bolsters my belief that he may be a sleeper of sorts. He's had to reinvent himself after two Achilles surgeries and nearly three full years out of baseball, but his efforts began to bear fruit over his final 15 appearances last season. Working as a multi-inning reliever, he put together a 1.95 ERA, 0.94 WHIP and an incredible 15.3 K/9 rate. He was more of a sinkerballer prior to the injuries and had fared well with that approach, but he's learned to lean heavily on his slider, throwing it more than 40 percent of the time during that successful stretch. Both it and his fastball also have a different movement profile than before. Whether those fixes translate over a starter's workload remains to be seen, but the Nationals are showing enough confidence that we should at least consider the possibility as our drafts are winding down. --Scott White Cody Bellinger traded to Yankees It's a remarkably straightforward trade: Bellinger (and $5 million) for middle reliever Cody Poteet. Yep, that's it. I'm not sure anything has fundamentally changed about Bellinger between 2023 and 2024. His production was worse, of course, as he dipped from an .881 OPS in 2023 to a .751 mark in 2024. But the fundamentals of his game didn't change very much. It's not unreasonable to expect better in 2025 now that he's going to be calling Yankee Stadium home for half of his games. To find out why, check out my full-length article . --Chris Towers Tomoyuki Sugano signs with Orioles The 35-year-old Sugano has had an illustrious career in Japan, twice winning that league's version of the Cy Young award and also capturing four ERA titles. One look at last year's numbers would suggest he's not slowing down, but the radar gun tells a different story, clocking his fastball in the low 90s rather than the mid-90s. Clearly, he's made it work for him, though, through pinpoint control and a confident mix of six different pitches, the splitter being the best. Other pitchers from the not-so-distant past have come over from Japan to make an impact in their mid-30s, with Hiroki Kuroda and Hisashi Iwakuma being two prominent examples, and the Orioles' $13 million commitment to Sugano suggests they're confident he can do the same. Understand, though, that if he succeeds, it would be in an understated, Michael Wacha sort of way rather than as a big bat-misser. --Scott White Jeffrey Springs traded to Athletics Springs returned from Tommy John surgery to make only seven starts last season before elbow fatigue set in, shutting him down for the final month or so. Even when he was healthy (presuming he actually was), his average fastball velocity was down about 2 mph, and seeing as a contender just traded him to a non-contender, it's reasonable to wonder if he's damaged goods. The Rays got back a couple interesting players in return, but no top prospects. The most notable is Joe Boyle, a right-hander with scintillating stuff but massive control problems that he still hasn't figured out by age 25. Having said all that, Springs did perform reasonably well even with the diminished velocity in those seven starts and had a 2.46 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 9.6 K/9 in his transition to the starting role in 2022. There's upside here, but between the poor supporting cast and considerable health concerns, Springs drops outside of the top 60 starting pitchers for me. --Scott White Kyle Tucker traded to Cubs It's fair to say this one rises to the level of blockbuster. Anytime a genuine first-round Fantasy talent is on the move, that's the case. But what it means for Tucker's own Fantasy value is minimal. Rather than the headliner, it's the downstream effects of this deal that matter most for Fantasy. You may wonder what happens to Isaac Paredes, one of the players headed to the Astros, or Pete Crow-Armstrong, the player Tucker is theoretically replacing in Chicago. You may also wonder who takes over at third base for the Cubs. Well, I have the answers for you, and you can read all about them in my full-length article . --Scott White Devin Williams traded to Yankees The Yankees addressed their bullpen needs in the biggest way possible, acquiring former Rookie of the Year and two-time All-Star closer Devin Williams in a trade with the Brewers. Williams pitched just 21.2 innings last season after recovering from a back injury, but he looked like his typically dominant self when healthy, putting up a 1.25 ERA while striking out 43% of opposing batters. Williams will step into the ninth inning role for a team that figures to still easily clear 90 wins despite losing Soto, making him one of the best bets for saves in Fantasy, and an easy top-three closer. And he might be No. 1 or No. 2, given his strikeout upside. Of course, it's bad news for Luke Weaver, the breakout star of the Yankees bullpen in the second half of 2024. Weaver stepped up amid Clay Holmes' struggles, eventually becoming the team's go-to fireman in September and then the playoffs. He'll still be Fantasy relevant in deeper categories leagues thanks to his 100-strikeout upside and contingent value as the No. 2 man on a good team, but he goes from a potential top-12 closer to just a ratios specialist and win/save vulture for as long as Williams is healthy. That can still be a valuable role – Williams was a viable Fantasy option himself back when he was setting Josh Hader up – but he now needs something to go wrong for Williams to have must-start upside. On the Brewers side of things, this should push Trevor Megill back to Fantasy relevance. He wasn't nearly as dominant as Williams when he filled in as the team's closer last season, but he more than got the job done, putting up a 2.72 ERA and 1.014 WHIP with 50 strikeouts in 46.1 innings of work. He isn't the most proven closer around, but he did close out 21 games in 2024, and should be at the front of the line, ahead of the likes of Joel Payamps. Megill is a top-20 closer for sure, and worth drafting in all formats for saves. --Chris Towers Nestor Cortes, Caleb Durbin traded to the Brewers Cortes is a perfectly viable No. 4 starter, the kind the Brewers tend to build their whole rotation out of when they don't have a home-grown ace to lean on. When things are going right, he does a good job limiting damage on contact, while garnering enough strikeouts to have stretches as a legitimate must-start pitcher. But he doesn't have premium stuff even at his best, and some nagging injuries over the past couple of years have kept him far from his best, which made him more of a low-end option for Fantasy for much of last season. In another mediocre park for pitching, Cortes is probably just a late-round target, though at least this trade does seem to guarantee him a rotation spot — something he may not have had in New York. Durbin isn't much of a prospect by traditional ranks, but he has started to garner some hype in fantasy circles after stealing 29 bases in 24 games in the Arizona Fall League. Durbin's is a speed-and-contact oriented profile, and he'll fit right in on a Brewers team with several comparable options. He might be redundant on a team with Brice Turang, unless the Brewers are willing to slide the Platinum Glover over to shortstop. If they are, Durbin could have an Opening Day lineup spot on a team that is willing to run a lot, so he could certainly matter in category leagues. Or he could be another part-time player on a roster full of them. He's a fringe-y enough talent that an everyday role is not guaranteed. —Chris Towers Garrett Crochet traded to Red Sox Crochet pitched like an absolute ace in 2024, with a merely decent 3.58 ERA hiding near-best-in-league peripherals. He looked like a legitimate ace, and I don't have much question about the talent level, assuming he stays healthy. In return, the White Sox score a big prospect haul that includes catcher Kyle Teel, outfielder Braden Montgomery, infielder Chase Meidroth and pitcher Wikelman Gonzalez. For more on them and Crochet's transition to the Red Sox, check out my full-length article . --Chris Towers Jake Burger traded to Rangers Burger brings plenty of power, but that's about it. It wasn't a problem when he played for the White Sox and Marlins, who were desperate to fill out their lineup with anything worthwhile, but the threshold for playing time is much higher with the Rangers. Perhaps he's insurance for another Josh Jung injury at third base. Perhaps he's a platoon partner for Nathaniel Lowe at first. Perhaps he's a part-time DH for those days when Leody Taveras' bat just isn't cutting it in center field. More likely, Burger is all of the above, but whether that'll amount to full-time at-bats is hard to say as of now. So while the lineup and venue improve for Burger, I'm inclined to downgrade him somewhat due to the uncertainty of the role, dropping him behind names like Paul Goldschmidt and Ryan Mountcastle at first base and Nolan Arenado and Josh Jung at third. --Scott White Andres Gimenez to Blue Jays, Spencer Horwitz to Pirates in three-team deal This one is technically more of a flip since all three of the Pirates' contributions to the deal (Luis Ortiz, Josh Hartle and Michael Kennedy) are going to the Guardians, but since Horwitz didn't even have time to pack his bags, I'll call it a three-team deal. The most Fantasy-relevant player on the move is Gimenez. His arrival in Toronto is a little disappointing for Will Wagner, Davis Schneider and Orelvis Martinez, all interesting players who might have pushed Horwitz for playing time but won't overtake Gimenez. Horwitz himself would seem to be the big winner, presuming the Pirates give him full run at first base (he was stretched at second, and the Pirates have ample alternatives there). The 27-year-old is a bat-control specialist who showed surprising power as a rookie and could approach 20 homers with a .280 or so batting average if given ample runway. As for Gimenez, his value doesn't change much. There may be a slight park downgrade, though not enough to change his power output meaningfully. He's my No. 14 second baseman in 5x5 scoring and No. 15 in points. One sneaky aspect of this deal is that the Guardians seem to think Travis Bazzana, the No. 1 overall pick in this past year's draft, is close to major league-ready. By flipping Horwitz, they've left themselves without an obvious starter at second base, and while it probably won't be Bazzana to start out, there's a good chance it will be by season's end. --Scott White Nathan Eovaldi signs with Rangers We already have a pretty good idea how things will play out for Eovaldi in Texas seeing as he spent the past two years there. It was, in fact, the best two-year stretch of his career, which is why he was rewarded with a three-year, $75 million deal. He remains a hard-thrower at age 34, and that ample velocity, while driving his success, can be difficult to sustain over the full major-league calendar, which makes for a bumpy ride at times. So there will be stretches when Eovaldi looks better than his mid-to-high-threes ERA and stretches when he looks worse, but the end result will be respectable ratios with a quality win total because of how deep he works into games when healthy. I rank Eovaldi just inside my top 60 pitchers for 2025. --Scott White Max Fried signs with Yankees Having just lost Juan Soto to the crosstown rival Mets, the Yankees pivoted in a big way Tuesday, agreeing to an eight-year, $218 million contract with former Braves ace Max Fried. It's the largest ever guaranteed contract for a left-handed pitcher, and on the surface anyway, it's a nice fit. But here's where I point out that this free agent deal, like every other free agent deal, is pending a physical, and while normally that's a matter of crossing t's and dotting i's, I can't shake the feeling that there might be a hiccup in Fried's case. For the complete lowdown, check out my full-length article . --Scott White Yimi Garcia signs with Blue Jays This signing matters for Fantasy only because the Blue Jays are lacking a tried-and-true closer after non-tendering Jordan Romano (who has since signed with the Phillies). You may remember Garcia got the first chance to fill-in as closer when Romano was sidelined by injury last season and fared well enough in the role, but then the Blue Jays dealt him to Seattle, where he developed his own elbow troubles. Healthy now, Garcia could claim the closer role from Chad Green, who spent longer in it last season but also had a curiously low strikeout rate, or the Blue Jays could opt to bring in someone more established still. It's an evolving situation, but if nothing else, we can say Garcia has landed in a spot where he has a chance for saves. --Scott White Thairo Estrada signs with Rockies The Rockies had an opening at second base after non-tendering Brendan Rodgers and will fill it with Estrada on a one-year, $3.25 million deal. The modest terms would suggest he's merely a bridge to prospect Adael Amador eventually claiming the role. Amador was rushed to the majors as a 21-year-old and showed he wasn't ready, but if he were to make big strides this year, Estrada doesn't represent much of a roadblock. The 28-year-old was a useful Fantasy option in 2022 and 2023, contributing a little bit of pop with some speed -- a poor man's Tommy Edman, you might say -- but he fell off hard last season while contending with a bum wrist. Coors Field makes for a cushy environment to rebuild his value, and fittingly, he's hit .348 (32 for 92) with four home runs in 24 career games there. He'll still likely be drafted outside the top 20 second baseman but has sleeper appeal in Rotisserie league especially. --Scott White Jordan Romano signs with Phillies The battle for the ninth inning in Philadelphia feels a bit less wide open after this signing , but Romano is obviously no sure bet coming off a season ruined by elbow injuries. There's a reason the Blue Jays , who intend to compete in 2025, non-tendered him with club control left. When Romano is right, he's a fringe-elite closer, with a three-year stretch from 2021 through 2023 where he posted a 2.37 ERA and 30.3% strikeout rate – a stretch that included consecutive 36-save seasons. The big question here is whether Romano can truly be "right" coming off a season where he dealt with elbow pain from Spring Training right up until he had surgery on the elbow in August. He should open spring as the favorite for saves in Philadelphia, and that can be a very good spot to be in if you are looking to rack up saves. But if Romano isn't himself, Orion Kerkering , Jose Alvarado , and possibly Matt Strahm are there to step up as possible alternatives. I think the likeliest outcomes are, either Romano is healthy and is the closer for as long as he is right, or he struggles pretty early and this whole bullpen is the same kind of muddled mess it was for much of last season. That makes Romano a viable option for saves in the middle rounds of drafts, but I'd be wary of investing much more than that into him given how poorly 2024 went for the soon-to-be 32-year-old. --Chris Towers Alex Cobb signs with Tigers The comp doesn't work perfectly. Cobb was never as good as Jack Flaherty at their respective peaks, and he is nearly a decade older than Flaherty was when he signed with the Tigers last offseason. But you can see the appeal for a veteran like Cobb, who is trying to rebuild his value after a mostly lost 2024 season that saw him deal with hip, shoulder, and finger injuries. Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter has received a lot of praise in recent seasons for the work he has done with the likes of Flaherty and, obviously, Tarik Skubal , and they'll hope to help Cobb find success on a one-year deal. Now, the thing here is, Cobb has actually been quite good when he's been able to stay on the mound in recent years, posting a 3.75 ERA over his past four seasons. The Tigers have been very good at coaxing more velocity out of their arms in recent years, and that wouldn't be a bad thing for Cobb, whose velocity was down a tick when he was able to get on the mound in 2024. It's also a great ballpark for any pitcher to call home, which should help Cobb continue to limit damage on balls in play. He isn't a star, or anything, but if the early-season schedule looks favorable, Cobb could be an interesting late-round flier for 2025. --Chris Towers Blake Treinen signs with Dodgers Treinen had just one save for the Dodgers during the regular season, but he was their most trusted reliever during the postseason, taking on a high-leverage role that netted him three saves. Presumably, they're bringing him back to fill that role, which would make him the early favorite for saves in Los Angeles. We should know by now, though, that manager Dave Roberts doesn't adhere to bullpen conventions and will mix in a fair amount of Michael Kopech and Evan Phillips as well, but notably, Treinen has the most closing experience of the three. He had 38 saves to go along with a 0.78 ERA, 0.83 WHIP and 11.2 K/9 for the Athletics in 2018, and over his final 30 appearances this past season, he had 1.24 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 9.9 K/9. I'll be ranking him just outside of my top 15 relievers for 2025 since there's some uncertainty surrounding his role, but clearly, he has the upside for more. --Scott White Juan Soto signs with Mets The Mets finally landed the big fish they've been angling for in free agency, as Juan Soto has agreed to sign a record-breaking contract that will keep him in Queens until 2039. Soto's deal will pay him $765 million over the next 15 seasons, besting the total value of Shohei Ohtani's contract from a year ago by $65 million. But does it really matter where Soto is playing when considering his Fantasy value? To find out, check out my full-length article on the signing , which also addresses the impact on the rest of the Mets lineup and the free agent market as a whole. --Chris Towers Michael Conforto signs with Dodgers Conforto's 2024 stat line may not look particularly impressive, but it was his best since the 2019-20 stretch that made him one of the most highly regarded outfielders in Fantasy. Even more notable is what happened under the hood. His .479 xSLG was just as good as those peak seasons as his average (90.2 mph) and max (113.6 mph) exit velocities jumped to 68th and 90th percentile, respectively. A quick look at the splits will tell you Oracle Park wasn't doing him any favors. Away from there, he hit .253 with and .852 OPS and 17 of his 20 home runs overall. The Dodgers certainly took notice, and judging by the data, there's a chance he goes the Teoscar Hernandez and J.D. Martinez route of blowing away expectations on a one-year deal. The Dodgers' recent with such signings is all the more incentive for me to mark Conforto as a sleeper, ranking him just outside of my top 50 outfielders. --Scott White Willy Adames signs with Giants I had already positioned myself as an Adames skeptic for next year, ranking him 10th at shortstop after he just placed fifth there, and this signing only fortifies my position. Oracle Park isn't quite the neutralizer it once was, but it still rates as the third-worst home run venue for right-handed hitters over the past three years while American Family Field rates as the sixth-best. On the other hand, Adames has batted .321 (18 for 56) with an .827 OPS in 16 career games in San Francisco, and Statcast estimates that he would have hit 31 home runs playing every game there last year vs. the 32 he actually hit. So maybe it won't be so bad? The issue is in using Adames' 2024 as a basis for comparison when it was almost certainly his best-case outcome. His exit velocities, strikeout rate and batted-ball angles were all in line with career norms, and yet his batting average (.251) was his highest in three years, his home runs (32) were his most ever, and he also stole 21 bases when he had never reached even double digits before. It also probably goes without saying that he won't have a combined 205 runs and RBI as the most feared hitter in a mediocre Giants lineup. So if this signing makes you skeptical of a repeat performance, that's probably for the best. You already should have been. --Scott White Tyler O'Neill signs with Orioles Seems like the Orioles are moving in their left field fence just in time. O'Neill just had a resurgent season with the Red Sox in part because he made a concerted effort to pull the ball in the air more -- a fine strategy for a right-handed hitter at Fenway Park but one that would have brought such a player to ruin at Camden Yards the past couple years. Fortunately, the reported changes to the left field fence there should make it a more neutral environment for right-handed hitters, and notably, O'Neill's career season (2021) came in St. Louis, which is also a challenging place for right-handers to hit it out. Perhaps, then, the more significant variable for O'Neill than venue is his own health. Cutting a muscular figure, the 29-year-old has been particularly susceptible to strains, playing just 65 percent of his team's games the past four years, and even when healthy, his limited bat control (he struck out a career worst 33.6 percent last year) has made for unpredictable outcomes. He has the upside of top-20 outfielder, but the concerns piled on top of concerns drop him to 36th in my outfield rankings. --Scott White Clay Holmes signs with Mets After three years as the Yankees on-again, off-again closer, Holmes is switching not just leagues but also roles, getting a shot as a starter on a three-year, $38 million deal. The role isn't totally foreign to him, seeing as he spent much of his minor-league career as a starter, and in the years since, he's developed a more trustworthy arsenal and stable enough command to attempt this move back. While his sinkerball approach may have been ill-suited for closing, leaving him too vulnerable to hits in high-leverage moments, it's likely to minimize damage over extended stretches. For all the tense moments as a closer, the ERA was always good, after all. This signing raises Holmes' Fantasy appeal in the hopes he can follow in the footsteps of successful relievers-turned-starters like Michael King , Reynaldo Lopez and Bowden Francis , and interest should be especially high in Head-to-Head points leagues, where he figures to be one of the top 15 relievers drafted. --Scott White Shane Bieber signs with Guardians It's a one-year pact with a player option for a second just in base Bieber's recovery from Tommy John surgery goes poorly. His entire future in Fantasy of course hinges on that recovery. You'll remember the former Cy Young winner seemed to be on the verge of regaining ace standing after an offseason spent working with Driveline Baseball, regaining the bite on his slider and dominating through two starts. But then his elbow began barking, and well, you know the rest. The earliest we can hope to see Bieber is June 2025, which means he'll only be worth stashing in leagues with ample IL stash. Which version of Bieber shows up then is anybody's guess, but it's encouraging that the organization that knows him best opted to re-up with him. --Scott White Danny Jansen signs with the Rays After playing with two AL East teams in the same game last season, Jansen continues his tour around the division by joining the Rays, where he will likely be the starting catcher. That didn't go quite so well for either Toronto or Boston in 2024, as Jansen struggled through one of his worst seasons ever, hitting just .205/.309/.349, so the Rays are surely hoping for a bounce-back on this one-year deal. Jansen makes a lot of contact and has a decent eye at the plate, but his quality of contact has been in a freefall in his late 20s, with his expected wOBA on contact dropping from .408 in 2022 to .291 last season. If he can rediscover some of the pop he has last in recent years, he could be a decent No. 2 catcher, especially with the Rays making a move to what we think will be a hitter-friendly home at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa this season. Jansen is a viable, low-end No. 2 catcher for deeper formats, but shouldn't be viewed as a priority, even in 15-team leagues. --Chris Towers Luis Severino signs with the Athletics The A's made a surprising splash in free agency with their three-year contract with Severino for $67 million , the largest guaranteed contract in franchise history. It's a less-than-ideal landing spot for Severino's Fantasy value in 2025, unfortunately, as the A's still figure to be a pretty middling team (at best) in 2025 and are moving from a pitcher friendly park to one that may play at least a bit closer to average. That would be a downgrade for Severino, after he spent a year rebuilding his value in a very pitcher-friendly park with the Mets. To his credit, Severino did a great job rebuilding that value with the Mets, and he did so by showing a lot more flexibility as a pitcher than ever before. At his best, Severino didn't really need much of a gameplan, as he just pumped four-seamers and sliders past hitters, throwing those two pitches 85-90% of the time. In 2024, he introduced a sweeper and greatly increased his sinker usage, giving him six pitches he threw at least 7% of the time. The Mets have become a very good pitching development organization, and Severino benefited from his time with them. The likeliest outcome here is that Severino isn't much more than a rotation filler for Fantasy, but if he can stay healthy, he'll have moments of usefulness. And, if the strikeout rate jump he tapped into in the second half of the season (26.2%) sticks, maybe he can even be a bit more than that. But he probably doesn't need to be much more than a late-rounder in drafts, and even that might be overstating it if he has a poor early schedule. --Chris Towers Aroldis Chapman signs with Red Sox About four months away from the start of the season, it's nearly impossible to say what the Red Sox plans for the back end of the bullpen are, but Chapman surely figures to be part of them now. Their returning saves leader is a tie between Justin Slaten and Josh Winckowski , who all had two each last season, while their most experienced in-house closer option is Liam Hendriks , who has pitched just five innings since 2022 after recovering from leukemia and then Tommy John surgery. Chapman is no longer the lights-out closer he was at his best, but the soon-to-be 37-year-old still strikes out nearly 40% of opposing batters (despite losing a tick or two off fastball last season) and can get the job done on a one-year deal. At this point, it makes sense to treat him like the favorite for the ninth inning in Boston in 2025, at least until we see what Hendriks looks like in the spring – for what it's worth, Hendricks' fastball velocity was down 2-3 mph in his brief minor-league rehab assignment toward the end of last season, which doesn't bode well. --Chris Towers Matthew Boyd signs with Cubs Another retread-gone-right, Boyd is earned a two-year deal with the Cubs after a successful eight-start run with the Guardians in 2024. Boyd posted a 2.72 ERA in his return from Tommy John surgery last season, with underlying peripherals that mostly backed it up – thanks, in large part, to a strong 27.7% strikeout rate. Boyd's velocity was mostly back up to pre-injury levels, though that still makes him a soft-tosser at this point, so his success will be based on his effective his slider/changeup combo can be. Both pitches were excellent in 2024, but the underlying pitch characteristics don't necessarily back up what he accomplished, with most pitch modeling metrics suggesting Boyd was a below-average pitcher in 2024. A year further removed from surgery, maybe Boyd can take another step forward and find success with a pretty clear path to a rotation spot for the Cubs, but he doesn't have to be much more than a late-round, bench-spot flier even in deeper leagues. --Chris Towers Frankie Montas signs with Mets The Mets have a rotation to rebuild, and the first step was adding a pitcher coming off a down year split between the Reds and Brewers . Or maybe calling it a "down year" is soft-pedaling given that it was Montas' first back from surgery to the labrum in his right shoulder. His velocity was basically up to snuff, though, and he did see his K/9 rate jump from 7.5 in his 19 starts with the Reds to 11.0 in his 11 starts with the Brewers. Even prior to the 2023 shoulder surgery, his career was defined by inconsistency due to the on-again, off-again nature of his splitter. The Mets fared well with reclamation projects like Sean Manaea and Luis Severino last season and have agreed to pay Montas $34 million over the next two, so they clearly see something they like. We shouldn't rule out a bounce-back season, particularly since the cost in Fantasy will be so low. --Scott White Blake Snell signs with Dodgers To the surprise of no one, the Dodgers have landed the first marquee free agent of the offseason, agreeing to a five-year $182 million deal with Blake Snell Tuesday. It's a big commitment for what's been the model organization the past few years and may go a long way toward allaying fears about Snell's irregularities. While he's put together a 2.82 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and 12.0 K/9 over the past three seasons, much has been made about the way he came about those numbers. For more, check out my full-length article breaking down the signing. --Scott White Yusei Kikuchi signs with Angels The three-year, $63 million deal is a modest one for a pitcher who seemed to have real momentum heading into the offseason, having just put together a 2.70 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 11.4 K/9 in his 10 starts for the Astros . The improved performance coincided with Kikuchi roughly doubling his slider usage, and his 2025 destination matters less for his Fantasy value than whether or not he sticks to that approach. He has always missed bats at a good rate but has gotten inconsistent results due to questionable pitch selection and a penchant for hard contact. Going to the Angels gives him a lower margin for error than if he had gone to a true contender and also does nothing to soften his vulnerability to the long ball, but again, his success is tied more to continuing his slider-heavy approach. And for that, we'll just have to wait and see. I cautiously rank him just inside my top 50 starting pitchers for 2025, but he has the upside for more. --Scott White Jonathan India traded for Brady Singer Unfortunately, this trade is close to a worse-case scenario for the two major players involved. India goes from the most favorable park for home runs -- i.e., one of the few where his fringy power plays -- to one of the least favorable. According to Statcast, his 63 career home runs would be 42 if he played every game at Kauffman Stadium. Obviously, the reverse move is bad for Singer, a pitcher who's on the more pitch-to-contact side of the ledger, but since he generally puts the ball on the ground, maybe it's not as bad . Then again, he has a career 3.92 ERA at home in Kauffman Stadium compared to a 4.74 ERA everywhere else. Neither India nor Singer figured to be a hot commodity prior to this trade, and both might go undrafted now in shallower leagues. India is a little more useful in points leagues because of his on-base skills, and both he and Singer at least stand to be high-volume plays. India's removal does free up some of the Reds' infield logjam with Matt McLain expected back, penciling in Noelvi Marte at third base again. --Scott White Nick Martinez signs with Reds Rather than test the free agent market, Martinez accepted the Reds' qualifying offer of $21.05 million, which isn't altogether surprising given that it now represents roughly 40 percent of his career MLB earnings. That the Reds extended the offer is telling. They had a front-row seat to the 34-year-old's career season and bought in hard at an amount that virtually guarantees he'll be a full-time starter rather than reverting to a swingman role. Perhaps, then, we should take Martinez just as seriously. He's always had a killer changeup, and he became a strike-thrower of the highest order in 2024, boasting the third-best walk rate among pitchers with at least 100 innings. His home run prevention was probably too good to be true, particularly for pitching half his games in Cincinnati, but he won't be priced for another 3.10 ERA. More likely, he'll be sort of a poor man's Jose Berrios or Zach Eflin , good for piling up innings with a low WHIP, and he takes on added value in Head-to-Head points leagues due to his relief pitcher eligibility. --Scott White Travis d'Arnaud signs with Angels Finally freed of his catching tandem with Sean Murphy , d'Arnaud was quick to put himself in another one, this time with up-and-comer Logan O'Hoppe . It's frustrating for a couple reasons, one being that O'Hoppe loses some of the volume that made him so attractive for Fantasy, likely going from a 75 percent workload share to 60 percent or less, and the other being that d'Arnaud himself could have pursued a full-time role. Instead, d'Arnaud figures to remain a fringe second catcher for two-catcher leagues, and while O'Hoppe doesn't necessarily slide down the rankings -- he was already regarded as a low-end No. 1 -- his upside takes a hit. Maybe his .196 batting average in the second half is evidence he was overworked, but even if it improves, his counting stats will be capped. Meanwhile, Murphy has a golden opportunity to reestablish himself in Atlanta after bombing for the past season-and-a-half there. Injuries have likely contributed to his struggles, as has irregular playing time due to the presence of d'Arnaud, but he'll need to prove himself quickly to hold off prospect Drake Baldwin . --Scott White Jorge Soler traded to Angels Only three months after acquiring him from the Giants , the Braves flipped Soler to the Angels in what was essentially a salary dump. They ended up non-tendering the player they got back in the deal, Griffin Canning . You might think Soler's departure reflects well on Ronald Acuna's recovery from a torn ACL, but GM Alex Anthopoulos later confessed that the star outfielder likely won't be ready for the start of 2025. As for Soler, he has an easy claim to the Angels' DH spot and will play in a pretty nice venue, particularly for home runs, but his success has never depended on such factors. He's a mercurial performer coming off a down season but still has the 35-homer upside to pay off handsomely as a fourth or fifth outfielder. --Scott White
Trump asks court to delay TikTok ban so he can weigh in after inaugurationChilliwack council waived fees and development cost charges (DCCs) totalling almost $1.2 million at the Nov. 19 council meeting for an affordable housing project on Spadina Avenue. But before the vote, Coun. Jeff Shields took the opportunity to raise a "big" concern he has about another project, the Trethewey supportive housing and homeless shelter project. "You know this is pretty important what we're doing here as a city," Shields said about "foregoing" almost $1.2 million in fees for the affordable housing project. As housing is not a municipal jurisdiction, waiving the associated fees and DCCs is the city's contribution to these projects. "We have the good people of the United Church that donated a church property worth a fair bit of money in a nice area of town. We have really stepped up and showed our commitment to building housing but now I have this big concern with the other partner in this, which is the provincial government, responsible for building this housing. "As we know we have one sitting over there on Trethewey and we're into the second or third year of it sitting there not done. And I don't have great confidence but I do hope the province is going to do a whole lot better on this one than it did on the last one," the councillor said. Chilliwack has proven "over and over again" that it is willing to commit to this kind of housing, Shields said. "And still we kind of get left out, and left high and dry." The councillor added he hopes the Spadina project won't be a repeat of the stalled Trethewey project. Mayor Ken Popove originally said at a council meeting in September that the delayed Trethewey project got bogged down in litigation, apparently after the builders went broke. City officials were notified by BC Housing that they were working toward a completion date of March 2025 for Trethewey. Mamele'awt Qweesome Housing Society (MQHS), a non-profit urban Indigenous housing society, applied to have the fees waived for the Spadina project under the City of Chilliwack's Community Development Initiatives funding policy, for $31,394 in fees, as well as the development cost charges of $1,183,977. The Spadina project will deliver 64 units of affordable rental housing for seniors and low-income renters earning less than the median income for Chilliwack. The site and structure will be leased and operated by MQHS through a 60-year leasehold. Karen Stanton, director of public safety and social development, told council she did some followup since she knew the building process was a concern, clarifying that the Province/BC Housing was funding the Spadina project and offering operating subsidies as well. "But the project management is undertaken by housing consulting firm, CPA Consultants, who were the consultants on the Paramount project, and the builder is Vanmar Construction." Final approval of the tender for the Spadina project is expected in December, with a tentative plan to break ground in the new year, followed by a 20-month construction period. "If the experience we had with the Paramount is any indication, we should be in good shape," Stanton said. Mayor Popove added a reminder that "it took seven years from inception to buildout for the Paramount. So don't hold your breath."Stocks closed lower as Wall Street ended a holiday-shortened week on a down note. The S&P 500 fell 1.1% Friday and the the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 333 points, or 0.8%. The Nasdaq composite dropped 1.5%. The “Magnificent 7” stocks weighed on the market, led by declines in Nvidia, Tesla and Microsoft. Even with the loss, the S&P 500 had a modest gain for the week and is still headed for its second consecutive annual gain of more than 20%, the first time that has happened since 1997-1998. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose slightly. On Friday: The S&P 500 fell 66.75 points, or 1.1%, to 5,970.84. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 333.59 points, or 0.8%, to 49,992.21. The Nasdaq composite fell 298.33 points, or 1.5%, to 19,722.03. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies dropped 35.60 points, or 1.6%, to 2,244.59. For the week: The S&P 500 is up 39.99 points, or 0.7%. The Dow is up 151.95 points, or 0.4%. The Nasdaq is up 149.43 points, or 0.8% The Russell 2000 is up 2.22 points, or 0.1%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,201.01 points, or 25.2%. The Dow is up 5,302.67, or 14.1%. The Nasdaq is up 4,710.68 points, or 31.4%. The Russell 2000 is up 217.52 points, or 10.7%.
SEATTLE (AP) — It wasn’t pretty, but the Seattle Seahawks pulled off a 6-3 slog of a victory Thursday over the Chicago Bears. The win featured an outstanding effort from Seattle's defense, a near disappearance from the offense and a game-sealing pick that ended Caleb Williams' rookie record for the most pass attempts without an interception at 353. The Seahawks sacked Williams seven times to tie the team’s season high as the Bears lost their 10th consecutive game in the lowest scoring contest of the season. The Bears had a chance to pull off an upset when they had the ball at Seattle's 40-yard line late in the fourth quarter, but Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen picked off Williams with 20 seconds left. It was a nice bounce-back win for Seattle, but had little impact on their postseason outlook. The more important game will come Saturday, when the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals face off with Seattle’s postseason fortunes on the line. A win by Arizona keeps the Seahawks in the hunt — but still needing a win over the Rams next weekend to clinch the NFC West. A Rams win this weekend would dash Seattle’s hopes as Los Angeles would win the tiebreaker over Seattle even if the Seahawks win the regular-season finale. “We’re in the mode of controlling what we can control,” coach Mike Macdonald said. “We know what’s coming next week. We’re going to spend this weekend getting our minds and bodies and spirits right to go play a game. "Yeah, we’re praying that it’s for the division championship.” What’s working Leonard Williams continues to be a force for the Seahawks. The defensive tackle dominated the Bears' offensive line with two of Seattle’s seven sacks, four quarterback hits and three tackles for loss. Williams been the key to Seattle’s defensive resurgence. A unit that was among the worst in the league earlier in the season has become one of the NFL's most productive in the second half with Williams' big-time impact up front being a major reason Seattle is still in the playoff hunt. “He should be up for all the accolades,” Macdonald said. “I don’t know what the awards are out there, but I would give it to him,” Macdonald said. “He’s just a phenomenal player, phenomenal human being. I’m glad he’s a Seahawk. Glad he’s with us.” What needs help Seattle’s offense was full of stops and starts, but two field goals proved to be enough. Geno Smith managed just 160 passing yards and nearly threw yet another interception in the red zone on Seattle’s first drive of the game. Zach Charbonnet and Kenny McIntosh combined for 103 yards on 22 carries, with McIntosh’s 25-yard first-quarter run marking Seattle’s longest offensive play of the day. Charbonnet, starting in place of the injured Kenneth Walker III, was held to just 3.8 yards per carry. Offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb has spent the season trying to figure out how to get the running game going, with little success. Stock up The Seahawks' defense put up a lockdown performance after struggling in losses against Green Bay and Minnesota, holding the Bears to just 179 yards of total offense and finishing with 10 quarterback hits. Along with Leonard Williams big day, Devon Witherspoon had six tackles with a sack and three tackles for loss as the Seahawks recaptured some of the momentum it had lost the past two weeks. Under constant pressure from Seattle’s pass rush, Caleb Williams threw for 122 yards, while completing 16 of 28 pass attempts. Stock down WR DK Metcalf. He had a tough day, with just three receptions for 43 yards. He also drew a pair of personal fouls on a single play, one coming after he head-butted Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson in the second quarter. Metcalf hasn’t had more than 70 yards receiving in a game since Seattle’s win over Atlanta on Oct. 20. He has only had more than four receptions in three games this year, and has just four touchdown catches in what has been a bit of a disappointing season for the sixth-year receiver. Injuries The Seahawks put Walker (ankle) on injured reserve Thursday, marking the end of his regular season. Walker has to miss at least the next four games, but could return if Seattle makes it deep into the playoffs. Key number 7 — Seattle’s seven sacks made it 67 on the year for Caleb Williams, 15 more than any other quarterback in the league and fourth-most in league history. Up next The Seahawks finish the regular season at the Los Angeles Rams on either Jan. 4 or 5. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Shane Lantz, The Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin public worker and teachers unions scored a major legal victory Monday with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights they lost under a 2011 state law that sparked weeks of protests and made the state the center of the national battle over union rights. That law, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain for wage increases and other issues, and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. Under the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, all public sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power would have it restored to what was in place prior to 2011. They would be treated the same as the police, firefighter and other public safety unions that were exempted under the law. Republicans vowed to immediately appeal the ruling, which ultimately is likely to go before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. That only amplifies the importance of the April election that will determine whether the court remains controlled 4-3 by liberal justices. Former Gov. Scott Walker, who proposed the law that catapulted him onto the national political stage, decried the ruling in a post on the social media platform X as “brazen political activism.” He said it makes the state Supreme Court election “that much more important.” Supporters of the law have said it provided local governments more control over workers and the powers they needed to cut costs. Repealing the law, which allowed schools and local governments to raise money through higher employee contributions for benefits, would bankrupt those entities, backers of Act 10 have argued. Democratic opponents argue that the law has hurt schools and other government agencies by taking away the ability of employees to collectively bargain for their pay and working conditions. The law was proposed by Walker and enacted by the Republican-controlled Legislature in spite of massive protests that went on for weeks and drew as many as 100,000 people to the Capitol. The law has withstood numerous legal challenges over the years, but this was the first brought since the Wisconsin Supreme Court flipped to liberal control in 2023. The seven unions and three union leaders that brought the lawsuit argued that the law should be struck down because it creates unconstitutional exemptions for firefighters and other public safety workers. Attorneys for the Legislature and state agencies countered that the exemptions are legal, have already been upheld by other courts, and that the case should be dismissed. But Frost sided with the unions in July, saying the law violates equal protection guarantees in the Wisconsin Constitution by dividing public employees into “general” and “public safety” employees. He ruled that general employee unions, like those representing teachers, can not be treated differently from public safety unions that were exempt from the law. His ruling Monday delineated the dozens of specific provisions in the law that must be struck. Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he looked forward to appealing the ruling. “This lawsuit came more than a decade after Act 10 became law and after many courts rejected the same meritless legal challenges,” Vos said in a statement. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state's largest business lobbying organization, also decried the ruling. WMC President Kurt Bauer called Act 10 “a critical tool for policymakers and elected officials to balance budgets and find taxpayer savings." The Legislature said in court filings that arguments made in the current case were rejected in 2014 by the state Supreme Court. The only change since that ruling is the makeup of Wisconsin Supreme Court, attorneys for the Legislature argued. The Act 10 law effectively ended collective bargaining for most public unions by allowing them to bargain solely over base wage increases no greater than inflation. It also disallowed the automatic withdrawal of union dues, required annual recertification votes for unions, and forced public workers to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits. The law was the signature legislative achievement of Walker, who was targeted for a recall election he won. Walker used his fights with unions to mount an unsuccessful presidential run in 2016. Frost, the judge who issued Monday's ruling, appeared to have signed the petition to recall Walker from office. None of the attorneys sought his removal from the case and he did not step down. Frost was appointed to the bench by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who signed the Walker recall petition. The law has also led to a dramatic decrease in union membership across the state. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum said in a 2022 analysis that since 2000, Wisconsin had the largest decline in the proportion of its workforce that is unionized. In 2015, the GOP-controlled Wisconsin Legislature approved a right-to-work law that limited the power of private-sector unions. Public sector unions that brought the lawsuit are the Abbotsford Education Association; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Locals 47 and 1215; the Beaver Dam Education Association; SEIU Wisconsin; the Teaching Assistants’ Association Local 3220 and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 695.