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SAN DIEGO — Shortstop Xander Bogaerts and the Padres agreed to an 11-year, $280 million contract late Wednesday, sources confirmed to ESPN, a monumental move that brings the longtime Boston Red Sox luminary to a team already laden with star talent.

The stunning deal, consummated as an especially active winter meetings came to a close, adds Bogaerts to a Padres team that already includes Juan Soto, Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. Boston, meanwhile, was left lamenting the loss of a homegrown talent who made his major league debut at 20 years old and leaves at 30 after opting out of the final three years of his contract.

Bogaerts won a pair of World Series and made four All-Star teams, including in 2022, when he hit .307/.377/.456 with 15 home runs and 73 RBIs in 150 games. The expectation is he will remain at shortstop, with Ha-Seong Kim — who took over at the position in 2022 when Tatis was injured and suspended for a positive performance-enhancing-drug test — moving to second base, incumbent second baseman Jake Cronenworth sliding over to first, Tatis shifting to right field and Soto going to left field.

The deal, which runs through Bogaerts’ age-40 season, capped a winter meetings during which teams signed 18 players for nearly $1.6 billion, including the New York Yankees locking up outfielder Aaron Judge for $360 million, the Philadelphia Phillies signing shortstop Trea Turner for $300 million and the Red Sox spending more than $105 million, between his salary and the posting fee to his former team in Japan, to add outfielder Masataka Yoshida.

Bogaerts entered the winter as one of the prizes of a strong free agent class. After making runs at Turner and Judge, the Padres pivoted to Bogaerts, spooked neither by the cost to sign him nor the domino effect his arrival might cause.

With the deal, the Padres’ payroll spikes to more than $250 million, a staggering number for a team with the 27th-ranked media market in the country.

Boston, which typically has among the largest payrolls in the game, declined to play anywhere near the financial realm to which the Padres were willing to go. On a day in which the Red Sox agreed to a deal with Yoshida as well as a two-year, $32 million pact with closer Kenley Jansen, they found themselves without another high-profile, popular player two years after trading outfielder Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The signs that Bogaerts could leave Boston had percolated after he rejected a contract extension earlier this year. The opt-out in Bogaerts’ six-year, $120 million contract extension hung over the Red Sox like the sword of Damocles, threatening to take away another core member of the team that won the World Series in 2018 and made the American League Championship Series in 2021 before falling to last place in the AL East this year.

As Boston faltered, the Padres ascended with a series of moves bolder than the last. First, they signed Machado to a 10-year, $300 million free agent contract before the 2019 season. Two years later, they gave Tatis a 14-year, $340 million extension. And at the trade deadline this year, they dealt five prospects for Soto, who turned down a $440 million contract extension offer from his previous team, the Washington Nationals, and can reach free agency after the 2024 season.

Without Tatis, the Padres won 89 games and secured a wild-card berth, finishing 22 games back of the first-place Dodgers in the National League West. San Diego beat the 101-win New York Mets in the wild-card series, ousted the Dodgers in the division series and dropped the NL Championship Series to the Phillies, who lost the World Series to the Houston Astros.

The Padres last made the World Series in 1998, getting swept by the Yankees, and have yet to win a championship since their inception in 1969. Now the only major men’s professional sports team in San Diego, the Padres have entranced the city, capping season-ticket sales and regularly filling Petco Park as they fell just shy of 3 million attendees, the fifth-highest number in baseball behind the Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, Yankees and Atlanta Braves.

The amount the Padres were willing to spend to sign Bogaerts nevertheless stunned the baseball industry. While Machado can opt out of his contract after the 2023 season and the Padres are slated to shed nearly $60 million in payroll beyond him with the impending free agencies of pitchers Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Josh Hader and Drew Pomeranz, the financial three-card monte in which they are engaging left rival executives questioning their long-term plan.

The Padres pay no mind to outside opinions. Moving Kim and his elite glovework at shortstop to second for Bogaerts, who scouts and defensive metrics agree is inferior defensively? No problem. Depleting their elite farm system for the final 2½ years of Soto’s club control? The price of building a championship-caliber team.

Bogaerts knows what World Series rings look like, nabbing a pair in his 10-year career, during which he has hit .292/.356/.458 with 156 home runs and 683 RBIs while playing at least 136 games in each of his eight full seasons. The ability to stay healthy proved a hallmark for Bogaerts, who signed with the Red Sox out of Aruba as a 16-year-old, rocketed to the major leagues and became a fixture in the lineup with a sweet right-handed swing oriented for contact and damage.

Now he will join an offense that, despite the star power, ranked 13th in the major leagues with 705 runs. The addition of Bogaerts and return of Tatis should supercharge it.

Boston, on the other hand, faces serious questions about its present and future.

The Red Sox could move second baseman Trevor Story to his natural position at shortstop, though the velocity on his throws, according to scouts, could hinder his effectiveness there a year after he signed a six-year, $140 million free agent deal. Boston also needs to figure out the future of star third baseman Rafael Devers, a 26-year-old who can hit free agency after the 2023 season and is expected to command over $300 million. The Red Sox and Devers remain far apart on extension talks, sources said.

MLB Network first reported the agreement between Bogaerts and the Padres.

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Secretariat Triple Crown jockey Turcotte, 84, dies

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Secretariat Triple Crown jockey Turcotte, 84, dies

DRUMMOND, New Brunswick — Hall of Fame jockey Ron Turcotte, who rode Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973, has died. He was 84.

Turcotte’s family said through his longtime business partner and friend Leonard Lusky that the Canada-born jockey died of natural causes at his home in Drummond, New Brunswick, on Friday.

Turcotte won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes twice each from 1965-73 before his riding career ended when he fell off a horse and suffered injuries that caused paraplegia. Secretariat’s record time in the Belmont still stands 52 years later.

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Who will make the 12-team College Football Playoff?

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Who will make the 12-team College Football Playoff?

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2025 preseason College Football Playoff predictions

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2025 preseason College Football Playoff predictions

It’s August and no games have been played, but that’s not keeping ESPN’s college football reporters from predicting the 12 schools that will make up the College Football Playoff beginning in December.

Ohio State won the inaugural 12-team bracket last season, despite starting as the No. 8 seed, demonstrating that the playoff truly gives new life to any team that gains entry.

There’s a slight alteration to the format this year. The tournament will still comprise the top five conference champions and seven at-large schools. But the top four seeds — and the first-round bye that comes with each of those seeds — will no longer go to the four highest-ranked conference champions (last season that was Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State). This season the committee has moved to a straight seeding model, so the four highest-ranked schools in the committee’s final top 12 will get the top four seeds.

Ahead of Week 0, here are the slates our reporters picked. Let the chase begin:

Andrea Adelson: 1. Clemson 2. Penn State 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Miami 9. Alabama 10. Iowa State 11. Nebraska 12. Boise State

Kyle Bonagura: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Ohio State 4. Clemson 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State

Bill Connelly: 1. Penn State 2. Alabama 3. Texas 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Texas A&M 8. Clemson 9. Oregon 10. Boise State 11. Miami 12. Kansas State

Heather Dinich: 1. Penn State, 2. Clemson, 3. Texas 4. LSU 5. Georgia 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Alabama 9. Miami 10. Oregon 11. Kansas State 12. Boise State

David Hale: 1. Ohio State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Georgia 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Texas A&M 10. Kansas State 11. Miami 12. Toledo

Eli Lederman: 1. Penn State 2. Texas 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Notre Dame 6. Alabama 7. Oregon 8. Georgia 9. Arizona State 10. LSU 11. Miami 12. Boise State

Max Olson: 1. Texas. 2. Penn State. 3. Notre Dame. 4. Clemson. 5. Alabama. 6. Oregon. 7. Georgia. 8. Ohio State. 9. Texas Tech. 10. LSU. 11. Utah. 12. Boise State

Adam Rittenberg: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Georgia 5. Alabama 6. Ohio State 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. Iowa State 11. Boise State 12. Illinois

Mark Schlabach: 1. Texas 2. Clemson 3. Penn State 4. Georgia 5. Ohio State 6. Alabama 7. Notre Dame 8. Oregon 9. Miami 10. LSU 11. Arizona State 12. Boise State

Jake Trotter: 1. Texas, 2. Clemson, 3. Penn State, 4. LSU, 5. Ohio State, 6. Notre Dame, 7. Georgia, 8. Oregon, 9. Illinois, 10. South Carolina, 11. Texas Tech, 12. Tulane

Paolo Uggetti: 1. Ohio State, 2. Georgia, 3. Texas 4. Penn State 5. Notre Dame 6. Clemson 7. Oregon 8. LSU 9. Arizona State 10. Miami 11. South Carolina 12. Boise State

Dave Wilson: 1. Texas 2. Penn State 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Notre Dame 7. Alabama 8. Oregon 9. LSU 10. Arizona State 11. Miami 12. Boise State

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