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MADISON, Wis. — No. 19 Wisconsin probably will have to open the season without center Jake Renfro and tight end Riley Nowakowski due to foot injuries.

“We’ll definitely have them back,” coach Luke Fickell told reporters after Saturday’s practice. “It’s just [a matter of] how soon.”

Wisconsin opens the season Sept. 2 by hosting Buffalo.

Renfro earned first-team all-conference honors in 2021 while playing for a Fickell-coached Cincinnati team that reached the College Football Playoff from the American Athletic Conference. After missing the entire 2022 season with a knee injury, Renfro followed Fickell from Cincinnati to Wisconsin.

“We’re hoping it’s three, four weeks,” Fickell said. “We don’t know exactly. We’ll get him back. It’s just how quickly will we get him. I don’t know that we can get him back for Game 1. Will we get him back Game 2 or 3? I hope. We’ll kind of see. It’s just a foot sprain.”

Nowakowski is a former walk-on who had made enough of an impression on the new staff that he was often working with the first-team offense during preseason camp.

“We’re hoping maybe four weeks, five weeks, six,” Fickell said of Nowakowski’s injury. “We don’t know.”

Wisconsin already was dealing with depth issues at tight end even before Nowakowski’s injury. Wisconsin announced at the start of preseason camp that tight ends Clay Cundiff and Jack Eschenbach had both left the program. Cundiff has since stated on social media that he has ended his football career due to repeated injuries.

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Brewers sign veteran Canha to minor league deal

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Brewers sign veteran Canha to minor league deal

PHOENIX — Veteran outfielder Mark Canha signed a minor league deal with the Milwaukee Brewers that includes an invitation to major league camp.

The move announced Monday continues attempts by the two-time defending NL Central champions to boost their depth after outfielder Blake Perkins fractured his right shin during batting practice, an injury that probably will sideline him for the first month of the season. Milwaukee already had signed Manuel Margot to a minor league deal with an invitation to big league camp.

Canha, 36, previously joined the Brewers at the 2023 trade deadline. He batted .287 with a .373 on-base percentage, five homers, 33 RBIs and four steals in 50 games with Milwaukee that season.

He spent 2024 with the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants. Canha batted .242 with a .344 on-base percentage, seven homers, 42 RBIs and seven steals in 125 games.

Canha is a career .249 batter with a .349 on-base percentage, 120 homers and 459 RBIs in 1,049 games with Oakland (2015-21), the New York Mets (2022-23), Milwaukee, Detroit and San Francisco.

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Giants’ Verlander pitches 2 innings in spring debut

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Giants' Verlander pitches 2 innings in spring debut

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Justin Verlander struck out one and allowed a solo home run while pitching two innings in his spring training debut for the San Francisco Giants on Monday.

Verlander’s first start of the spring came four days after the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s 42nd birthday.

After allowing the two-out homer to Colorado’s Michael Toglia in the first inning, Verlander walked the next batter before retiring the last four he faced. All three Rockies hitters in the second were retired on fly balls.

Verlander’s 262 career wins are the most among active pitchers. The right-hander is preparing for his 20th big league season and his first with San Francisco after an injury-plagued 2024 in Houston. He signed a $15 million, one-year contract with the Giants.

Shoulder inflammation and neck discomfort limited Verlander to 17 starts last season, when he went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA — a single-season worst that was more than two runs higher than his 3.30 career ERA.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Chafin gets minor league deal, returns to Tigers

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Chafin gets minor league deal, returns to Tigers

LAKELAND, Fla. — Free agent reliever Andrew Chafin signed a minor league deal Monday to go to spring training with the Detroit Tigers, the team that traded the left-hander to Texas last summer.

Chafin has pitched in 105 games for the Tigers over two stints — 64 games in 2022 and 41 last year before being dealt to Texas for two minor leaguers in July. It was the fourth time in five seasons he was part of a deadline trade.

Texas in November declined a $6.5 million team option for Chafin, who instead got a $500,000 buyout. He had a 4.19 ERA while pitching 19⅓ innings in 21 appearances for the Rangers, after a 3.16 ERA with 50 strikeouts over 37 innings for the Tigers.

The 34-year-old Chafin has a 3.75 ERA in 601 big league appearances over 11 seasons for six teams. The only team he has pitched more for than Detroit is Arizona, the club that picked him 43rd overall in the 2011 amateur draft. He made 377 relief appearances and started three games for the Diamondbacks over parts of eight seasons.

Chafin made his debut with the Diamondbacks in 2014, and they traded him to the Chicago Cubs in 2020. He returned to Arizona as a free agent in 2023 and was traded that summer to Milwaukee. He also pitched for Oakland during part of the 2021 season.

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