Sports briefs
Pirates trade Thompson to Jays
The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded right-handed pitcher Zach Thompson to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for minor league outfielder Chavez Young.
Thompson, 29, was designated for assignment on Thursday to make room for left-handed pitcher Rich Hill on the 40-man roster.
Young, 25, will be a non-roster invite to spring training. He was a 39th-round pick in the 2016 draft and has yet to make his major league debut.
Young has a .266 career batting average with 31 home runs across six professional seasons. In 2022, Young hit .234 with five home runs in 65 games at Triple-A Buffalo.
Thompson had a 3-10 record in 29 outings (22 starts) and a 5.18 ERA last season.
In baseball
Trevor Story had surgery on his throwing elbow and is expected to miss most – if not all – of this season, delaying Boston’s plan to shift him across the infield to replace Xander Bogaerts at shortstop.
Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom said Tuesday that Story underwent an internal bracing procedure on his right ulnar collateral ligament. The operation is less drastic than the full ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction known as Tommy John surgery, which usually leads to a year of rehab.
“I certainly would not rule out a return some time during 2023,” Bloom said. “But it’s also not something at this stage we want to bank on.”
Bloom said Story experienced pain in the elbow just before Christmas while “ramping up” to get ready for the season. The internal bracing procedure is a more recent innovation than the ligament reconstruction pioneered on John in 1974 and has less of a track record that can be used to estimate a time for Story to return. Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle underwent a similar procedure last July, ending his season.
- Outfielder Corey Dickerson and the Washington Nationals have agreed to a one-year contract.
The well-traveled Dickerson is a left-handed-hitting left fielder, a spot the Nationals had been looking to fill this offseason after a third consecutive last-place finish in the NL East. He was a free agent after playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022, batting .267 with six homers and 36 RBI in 96 games.
In college football
The Air Force Academy said offensive lineman Hunter Brown died after experiencing a medical emergency as he left his dormitory for class Monday. He was 21.
Brown was from Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Cadet 3rd Class played in games against Northern Iowa and Nevada during the 2022 season.
“He was a pure joy to coach and have as a teammate,” football coach Troy Calhoun said. “He was tough, a great worker, and no one unselfishly pulled harder for others than Hunter.”
In college basketball
A.J. Hoggard made a tiebreaking layup with 41 seconds left and Michigan State rallied past No. 18 Wisconsin 69-65 Tuesday night for its seventh consecutive victory.
Wisconsin (3-2 Big Ten, 11-4) was playing its second straight game without leading scorer and three-year starter Tyler Wahl, who averages 13.2 points per game.
In the NHL
Nikita Kucherov had two goals and two assists, and the Tampa Bay Lightning won their eighth consecutive home game, 6-3 over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Nick Paul, Vladislav Namestnikov, Brayden Point and Ross Colton. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves.