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MILWAUKEE — Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said ownership is “clearly frustrated” with the way the team has played this season and if its position in the standings doesn’t improve, he said he’ll have to think about subtracting from the roster instead of adding to it ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.

“It has undoubtedly dragged on far longer than we expected or hoped,” Hoyer said of a two-month slump that has seen the Cubs drop to 38-44 entering Friday. “We need to play a lot better. We dug ourselves a hole, and we have to dig out of that hole.

“It’s important we do that in this next 33 days or whatever we have until the deadline. You have to make hard decisions sometimes.”

The Cubs entered the weekend last in the NL Central, 10.5 games behind the first-place Brewers. They’ve lost seven games to Milwaukee in the standings over the last 31 days.

“I am very surprised,” Hoyer said. “Two weeks turned into four, turned into six, turned into eight … It just hasn’t ended.”

Hoyer pointed to the team’s offensive woes as a catalyst for its plummet, but the bullpen has struggled just as much. Chicago ranks 23rd in bullpen ERA, as it’s struggled to close out games and also has dealt with injuries. The latest to go down was middle-man Keegan Thompson, who was placed on the injured list with a rib fracture Friday. The team also designated newly acquired reliever Vinny Nittoli for assignment.

In the corresponding roster moves, the Cubs selected the contract of former Mets reliever Jorge Lopez and called up righty Ethan Roberts, who hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2022 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

For Lopez, it’s a second chance. After he was pulled from the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 29, Lopez threw his glove into the stands and then had a misunderstanding with reporters afterward in an attempt to blame himself for some of the team’s issues. The Mets subsequently DFA’d him earlier this month.

“I’m never going to do it again in my life,” Lopez said Friday. “It’s emotions. I’ve been working on my mental health for a long time. That’s my priority to not show that anymore, give the best energy and body language that I can to the game.”

Lopez said he wants to set an example for his 11-year-old son.

“He doesn’t know much about it,” Lopez said. “I have to teach him the things not to do. Need to respect the game. I’m not proud of that (what happened).”

In joining the Cubs, Lopez is reunited with bullpen coach Darren Holmes, who held the same position with the Baltimore Orioles from 2019 to ’23, when Lopez pitched for the team.

Lopez and Roberts could be thrust into major roles as Chicago only has three relievers on its active roster from opening day. That turnover has contributed to its overall woes.

“Most of what we’ve been doing is out of necessity,” Hoyer said. “We keep getting hit there.”

In terms of the Cubs offense, Hoyer admitted he can’t tinker with it much considering his core players are all under longer-term contracts. In other words, the trade deadline won’t fix the team’s run-scoring problems; it will have to come from within.

“There’s not a ton of wiggle room on as far as how we can shake things up and improve things, positionally,” Hoyer said. “When you look at where we’ve performed this year with a team that’s stronger (on paper), it’s lesser. Is that frustrating to me? Absolutely. If it’s frustrating to me, I have to imagine it’s frustrating to the fans.”

But the Cubs also haven’t controlled the controllables.

For example, Chicago leads the league in one-run games and in outs made on the bases, including 15 at home plate. That’s a lot of potential scoring left out on the field, which could have turned losses into wins.

It’s also the third consecutive season the team has led the league in outs made at home plate, calling into question the judgment of third-base coach Willie Harris.

“We’ve done a ton of research,” Hoyer said. “Plays at the plate are really hard. It behooves you to be aggressive in those situations. You can take that a little too far. He is aggressive, and off the scorecard we work off of, he does a good job.”

The Cubs rank second in the league in going from first to third base on a single, so some of that aggressiveness has paid off. Yet overall the team hasn’t played as well as last season, when it won 83 games while just missing out on the postseason.

“Our win-total projections were higher this year than last year,” Hoyer said.

All of it adds up to a critical month for the team even though it doesn’t have a lot of pending free agents. Still, Hoyer will ultimately pivot to trading away players instead of adding if the standings dictate it.

“I don’t think it’s time for that full conversation, but it’s just a reality that we have to play better in July,” he said. “We backed ourselves into a corner.”

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Cristobal: QB Beck cleared for summer workouts

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Cristobal: QB Beck cleared for summer workouts

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Miami coach Mario Cristobal said Monday that quarterback Carson Beck has been cleared to participate in all team summer activities and is approaching 100 percent following elbow surgery last year.

Cristobal said Beck has been throwing for the past three weeks as part of his rehab regimen. Beck missed all of spring practice and has yet to throw to Miami’s receivers as part of organized team activities. But that is all about to change when Miami begins summer workouts next week.

“He’s good to go,” Cristobal told ESPN at the ACC spring meetings. “He’s exceeding every benchmark.”

Beck underwent surgery on his right elbow to repair his ulnar collateral ligament, which he injured on the final play of the first half in second-ranked Georgia‘s 22-19 overtime win against Texas in the SEC championship game Dec. 7.

Beck started at Georgia for two seasons, going 24-3, and ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. had him rated as the No. 5 quarterback for the 2025 draft. But given his injury and inconsistent performance in 2024, Beck entered the portal in January. He quickly opted for Miami, where he will replace No. 1 NFL draft pick Cam Ward.

Beck threw for 7,426 yards over his two seasons as Georgia’s starter, fifth most among all FBS passers since 2023, with 57 total touchdowns and 23 turnovers.

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Canes LB Hayes out of hospital after tragic crash

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Canes LB Hayes out of hospital after tragic crash

Miami Hurricanes linebacker Adarius Hayes, who was one of the drivers in a two-vehicle crash that left three people dead and at least two others injured, has been released from the hospital, the university said Monday.

The three people who died as a result of the crash were all in a Kia Soul, which collided with a Dodge Durango being driven by Hayes on Saturday afternoon in Largo, Florida, police said.

A 78-year-old woman who was driving the Kia and two of her passengers — 10-year-old Jabari Elijah Solomon and 4-year-old Charlie Herbert Solomon Riveria — died in the crash, police said. Another passenger in the Kia was hospitalized with serious injuries, police said.

No tickets or criminal charges have been filed, though the investigation is continuing.

“We are deeply saddened to learn the crash resulted in three fatalities, as confirmed by Largo Police, and our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those lost,” the Hurricanes said in a statement.

The school is still working to gather further information.

“There were no signs of impairment with either driver of the vehicles,” Largo Police public information officer Megan Santo said in a statement distributed Sunday.

Hayes, a four-star recruit coming out of Largo High, played in 12 games for the Hurricanes as a freshman in 2024, mostly on special teams. He finished the season with four tackles and one interception, which he returned 25 yards in Miami’s 56-9 victory over Florida A&M on Sept. 7.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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NCAA prez is open to Trump’s idea of commission

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NCAA prez is open to Trump's idea of commission

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — NCAA president Charlie Baker said Monday he was “up for anything” when asked about a President Donald Trump-proposed commission on collegiate athletics.

Reports surfaced last week that Trump was going to create the commission.

While his conversations at ACC meetings with league football coaches, men’s and women’s basketball coaches, athletic directors and other school officials focused on governance and the pending House settlement, Baker was asked during an informal media availability for his thoughts on the presidential commission.

“I think the fact that there’s an interest on the executive side on this, I think it speaks to the fact that everybody is paying a lot of attention right now to what’s going on in college sports,” Baker said.

“I’m up for anything that can help us get somewhere.”

Baker noted the NCAA has already spent time in Washington asking for congressional help that is focused on three big issues. Among the biggest: a patchwork of state laws that relate to how collegiate athletics work in individual states; and whether student-athletes should be considered employees.

“I think [Congress] can help us. I really do,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said during an interview with ACC Network. “We have been very bold in the desire for a national standard when it comes to name, image and likeness. We need to make sure that we have something that comes out of Washington that connects all 50 of the states because we’ve had a piecemeal project and it’s really undermined college sports. It’s been a race to the bottom. So that’s one. Two is we need some legal protection. We cannot sustain one legal case after another legal case after another legal case. A reaffirmation that these are student-athletes. Those three things to me will be very important to see if that can come out of the commission.”

Baker said, “People in our office have talked to folks who are working on this, but I don’t think they’ve decided the framework around who they want to put on.”

When asked whether he felt the creation of a commission would enhance the NCAA’s chances at legislative relief, Baker said, “I don’t have a crystal ball on that one. I don’t know. I do think, though, that it’s quite clear at this point that there are a lot of people interested in college sports, and we do need some help at some point to create some clarity around some of these issues in Washington. Creating clarity one lawsuit at a time is just a really bad way to try to move forward.”

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