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Center fielder Cody Bellinger and the Cubs are in agreement on a three-year, $80 million contract, sources told ESPN, ending a prolonged free agency with a return engagement after his excellent 2023 season with Chicago.

Bellinger, 28, will receive opt-outs after the first and second years of the deal, sources said. He will receive a $30 million salary this season, $30 million in 2025 (if he doesn’t opt out after the first year) and $20 million in 2026 (if he doesn’t opt out after the second year), according to sources.

Coming off a season in which he hit .307/.356/.525 with 26 home runs and 97 RBIs, Bellinger reached free agency in hopes of securing a mega-contract. A robust market never materialized, and Bellinger took a similar path to that of Carlos Correa, with whom he shares an agent in Scott Boras.

Before the 2022 season, Correa signed a three-year, $105 million contract with Minnesota when no team offered a longer-term deal he deemed worth signing. Correa opted out after the first season and returned to the Twins on a six-year, $200 million deal after medical issues scuttled agreements with the San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. Bellinger’s deal is pending a physical.

Bellinger’s health in 2023 allowed him to thrive in a season that earned him National League Comeback Player of the Year. Finishing 10th in NL MVP voting, Bellinger nearly halved his strikeout rate from previous seasons and proved adept against left-handed pitching as well, hitting .337 against them with a .984 OPS.

Before joining the Cubs, Bellinger was coming off two down seasons after he was hampered by a lingering shoulder injury from the 2020 playoffs. And even though he produced the lowest average exit velocity of his career in 2023 — just 87.9 mph — Bellinger often cut down on his swing with two strikes, making softer contact but avoiding strikeouts. His whiff rate plummeted to a career-low 15.6% as he hit .279 with two strikes, second in all of baseball behind Luis Arraez.

Bellinger returns to a Cubs team that has patiently waited out a free agent market that still includes NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, World Series star Jordan Montgomery and All-Star third baseman Matt Chapman. After signing left-hander Shota Imanaga to a four-year, $53 million deal, the Cubs added reliever Hector Neris on a one-year, $9 million deal. Chicago also traded for former Los Angeles Dodgers prospect Michael Busch, who will compete for the first-base job.

Bellinger can play there or center, and the Cubs valued the versatility last season, using him 84 times in the outfield and 59 times in the infield. He established himself as a dual-position star with the Dodgers, with whom he won NL Rookie of the Year in 2017 and was NL Most Valuable Player in 2019 after hitting .305/.406/.629.

He fell off in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and spiraled worse in 2021, hitting .165/.240/.302 with 10 home runs in 95 games. With his health still in question during the 2022 season, he batted .210/.265/.389 with 19 home runs in 144 games and was non-tendered by the Dodgers that season.

Bellinger went to Chicago for $17.5 million, won a Silver Slugger, opted out of a $25 million option for this season and entered a market that looked promising for the best hitter available. General managers deemed the initial price tag too high, and as Bellinger remained on the market, the number of teams committed to spending money shrunk.

Teams have pointed to the uncertainty of local-television broadcast rights as an impetus not to spend. Aside from the Dodgers — who committed well over $1 billion — no team has exceeded the $200 million mark in free agent spending.

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.

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Kentucky Derby to remain on NBC through 2032

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Kentucky Derby to remain on NBC through 2032

STAMFORD, Conn. — The Kentucky Derby will remain on NBC through 2032 after the network and Churchill Downs Inc. extended their contract, announcing it hours before the running of the 150th race Saturday.

The race switched to NBC in 2001 after airing on ABC from 1975 to 2000 and CBS from 1952 to 1974. The multiyear extension will make NBC the longest-running home of the race for 3-year-old horses.

The deal includes multiplatform rights to the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Oaks, and Derby and Oaks day programming, which will be presented on NBC, Peacock, USA Network and additional NBCU platforms.

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Padres trade for Marlins batting champ Arraez

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Padres trade for Marlins batting champ Arraez

The San Diego Padres have acquired second baseman Luis Arraez in a trade with the Miami Marlins for reliever Woo-Suk Go and prospects Dillon Head, Jakob Marsee and Nathan Martorella, the teams announced Saturday.

The Padres also received nearly $7.9 million in cash considerations, leaving them responsible only for the major league minimum salary for Arraez.

The transaction represents the first significant move for the Marlins since Peter Bendix took over as the team’s president of baseball operations in November after Kim Ng departed. It marks the beginning of the Marlins’ teardown of an underachieving roster that has produced the third-worst record in the majors at 9-25 with a minus-61 run differential after reaching the postseason in 2023.

On the other side, it’s another aggressive deal for A.J. Preller, the leader of the Padres’ front office since 2014. Arraez, one of the sport’s best contact hitters, will give the Padres a needed left-handed-hitting weapon after Juan Soto was sent to the New York Yankees in December. San Diego is 17-18 with a plus-6 run differential.

“It’s really amazing — that guy is a baller,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said about Arraez after the Padres’ win Friday night. “He’s probably the closest to Tony Gwynn right now, so looking forward to seeing him in our lineup. … The guy’s a pure hitter, and I can’t wait for him to help us.”

Miami is paying San Diego $7,898,602 of the $8,491,398 remaining for the final 149 days of Arraez’s $10.6 million salary. That left his cost to the Padres at $592,796 — exactly a prorated share of the $740,000 minimum.

Arraez, 27, was the Marlins’ best player, an All-Star and batting champion each of the past two seasons. This season, he is batting .299 with a .719 OPS in 33 games, all started at second base. He also has extensive experience at first base.

“When a guy like that is taken out of the lineup or potentially traded, you feel it, because he’s such a good kid and one of the leaders in that clubhouse,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said, “so there’s definitely a shock value.”

Arraez is expected to start games as the Padres’ designated hitter, but the club plans to cycle through the DH spot. Jake Cronenworth, Xander Bogaerts and Manny Machado could also get at-bats there. Bogaerts has been the club’s starting second baseman.

Go spent seven seasons in the Korean Baseball Organization before signing a two-year deal with a mutual option worth $4.5 million guaranteed during the offseason. The 25-year-old right-hander appeared in 10 games for Double-A San Antonio, posting a 4.38 ERA across 12⅓ innings after failing to make the Padres’ bullpen out of spring training.

Head was the Padres’ first-round pick (25th overall) last year out of high school. The 19-year-old center fielder is batting .237 with a .683 OPS and three stolen bases in 21 games in low-Class A.

Martorella is batting .294 with an .820 OPS in 23 games in San Antonio. The Padres selected the 23-year-old first baseman in the fifth round of the 2022 draft. Marsee, a 22-year-old outfielder, has spent the season in San Antonio batting .185 with two home runs. He was a sixth-round pick in 2022 out of Central Michigan.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Yanks’ Cole takes next step, throws off mound

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Yanks' Cole takes next step, throws off mound

NEW YORK — Yankees ace Gerrit Cole threw off a mound Saturday morning for the first time since being shut down in mid-March, checking off another box in his road back from an elbow injury.

Cole took the mound in the Yankees’ bullpen at 10:40 a.m., hours before New York took on the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. He said he threw 15 pitches, 13 for strikes and all fastballs. He said the pitches averaged 89 mph.

“It was exciting,” Cole said. “This was a good day for me. I was fired up.”

Cole, 33, started the season on the 60-day injured list after being diagnosed with nerve irritation and edema in his pitching elbow following one spring training outing. The reigning American League Cy Young Award winner is eligible to come off the injured list May 27, but the Yankees have declined to share a timetable for Cole’s return.

On a scale from 1 to 10 — 10 being game ready — Cole reported he is “somewhere between 1 and 5.” He said how his body responds over the next 48 hours will decide when he throws off a mound again.

Cole’s injury was a significant blow to a club with championship-or-bust aspirations, but the Yankees’ starting rotation has been one of the best in the majors and a primary reason for the team’s 21-13 start. The rotation’s 3.43 ERA through Friday ranked ninth in the majors. Its 183⅔ innings pitched ranked fourth.

Luis Gil, Cole’s rotation replacement, logged the best start of his young career Wednesday, holding the explosive Baltimore Orioles scoreless on two hits over a career-high 6⅓ innings. Gil, 25, has recorded a 3.19 ERA in 31 innings across six starts despite leading the American League with 20 walks.

Earlier this week, Yankees manager Aaron Boone said neither the team’s nor the rotation’s success will impact Cole’s timeline. Asked whether the overall success has made his absence more “palatable,” Cole was unsure.

“I don’t really have anything unpalatable to compare it to,” Cole said. “You know what I’m saying? So I’m just kind of like, just like everybody else, just glad we’re playing well.”

Also on Saturday, the Yankees reinstated infielder Jon Berti from the 10-day injured list and designated former first-round pick Taylor Trammell for assignment.

Berti, 34, has been out of the Yankees’ lineup since April 10 with a left groin strain. The Yankees had selected Trammell off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 18, and he collected 1 hit, 1 walk and 2 runs in five games with New York.

Field Level Media contributed to this report.

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