Off the wire

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

BASEBALL A’s pick up Gentry

The Oakland Athletics have added outfield depth, acquiring Craig Gentry, a Fort Smith native and former Arkansas Razorback, and right-hander Josh Lindblom from the division rival Texas Rangers for outfielder Michael Choice and minor league infielder Chris Bostick. The teams announced the deal Tuesday, a day after Oakland acquired AL saves leader Jim Johnson from Baltimore. While the two-time defending AL West champion A’s have their starting outfield returning in center fielder Coco Crisp, left fielder Yoenis Cespedes and right fielder Josh Reddick, Gentry provides an option off the bench and creates depth. The returnees have dealt with injuries in recent seasons. Gentry batted .280 with 2 home runs and 22 RBI in 106 games for the Rangers this year; Lindblom went 1-3 with a 5.46 ERA in 5 starts and 3 relief appearances.

A person familiar with the negotiations says the New York Yankees have reached agreement with outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury on a seven-year contract worth about $153 million. Ellsbury, who helped Boston win the World Series this year, is the second major free-agent addition in the Yankees’ off season rebuilding. He is scheduled to take a physical in New York today, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because no statements were authorized. The Yankees also had been negotiating with Shin-Soo Choo, who like Ellsbury is represented by agent Scott Boras.

Tony Clark has become the first former big leaguer to lead the baseball players’ union, pending a vote by the general membership. The MLBPA’s executive board voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Clark to replace Michael Weiner, who died Nov. 22 of brain cancer. Clark was an All-Star in2001 and played for 15 seasons with Detroit, Arizona, the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Boston and San Diego. He went to high school in the San Diego area and later played basketball at San Diego State. Clark said he intends to carry out Weiner’s vision and “to continue to bring our fraternity together.” Jeremy Guthrie of the Kansas City Royals called it “a unique time” for the union and said he can’t think of a former player who is as prepared, intelligent, powerful and knowledgeable as Clark to take the job.

The Tampa Bay Rays have acquired catcher Ryan Hanigan from the Cincinnati Reds and reliever Heath Bell from the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-team trade. The deal was announced Monday after Hanigan agreed to a $10.75 million, three-year contract that runs through 2016 and includes a club option for 2017. Tampa Bay sent minor league pitcher Justin Choate and a player to be named to the Diamondbacks. Arizona dealt left-hander David Holmberg to Cincinnati. The 33-year-old Hanigan is expected to become Tampa Bay’s primary catcher. The trade was completed a day after free agent catcher Jose Molina was resigned to a $4.5 million, two-year contract. Bell will be a candidate to become the Rays’ closer.

All-Star catcher Brian McCann has completed his $85 million, five year contract with the New York Yankees and is to be introduced at a news conference Thursday at Yankee Stadium. McCann receives $17 million in each of the next five seasons, and the Yankees have a $15 million option for 2019 with no buyout. The option becomes a player option if McCann has at least 1,000 plate appearances combined in 2017 and 2018, has at least 90 starts at catcher in 2018 and does not end the 2018 season on the disabled list.

FOOTBALL Winning ball recovered

Auburn University found the football that Chris Davis was carrying when he scored the game-winning touchdown on the final play of the game to upset top ranked Alabama on Saturday, the equipment manager said. “We did get it back,” Dana Marquez said in a telephone interview when asked about the football, which one memorabilia expert said could be worth as much as $100,000 if the Tigers win the national championship. “It was presented to our athletic director.” Davis returned a missed field-goal attempt 109 yards for a touchdown, lifting Auburn past rival Alabama, upending the two time defending national champions’ chances of a third consecutive title while keeping their own hopes alive. Auburn entered the game ranked fourth in the country. Marquez said the ball was retrieved by a ball boy as fans flooded the field in celebration. The football technically belongs to Alabama since teams use their own football on field goals, but Alabama associate athletic director Jeff Purinton told Bloomberg that it is unlikely anyone from the university would try to claim the ball.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL AD, Malzahn will talk later about contract

AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn Athletic Director Jay Jacobs will discuss a new contract - which will probably come with a raise -for Coach Gus Malzahn after the season.

The third-ranked Tigers (11-1) will face No. 5 Missouri on Saturday in the SEC Championship Game and still have a shot at playing for the national title. They were 3-9 last season.

“All Gus is thinking about is Missouri,” Jacobs said Tuesday. “When the season’s over, he and I will sit down and talk about things, and certainly we want Gus to be here at Auburn as long as he wants to be.

“It’s been phenomenal what he’s done this year, and we certainly want to make sure that he’s adequately compensated for similar coaches in the Southeastern Conference.”

Jacobs had a brief conversation with Malzahn’s agent, Jimmy Sexton, a couple of weeks ago.

Auburn gave Malzahn, who has led the biggest turnaround in college football, a five-year deal worth $2.3 million annually after his hiring in December 2012. Malzahn left Arkansas State after serving one season as its head coach to return to Auburn, where he previously had been offensive coordinator under Gene Chizik.

Alabama’s Nick Saban makes $5.6 million a year, and LSU pays Les Miles $4.3 million annually.

Jacobs didn’t mention any specific coaches as comparisons for the kind of deal Auburn would offer Malzahn.

“You look at what they’ve accomplished,” he said. “There’s certain ones that are what you would call outliers, those that have won national championships and those who haven’t. Right now I think he’s in the lower quartile of the SEC coaches, and based on what he’s doing he doesn’t need to be there.”

Jacobs said Malzahn “isn’t interested in talking about those things right now.” When he is, the AD suggested the talks should go smoothly.

Sports, Pages 20 on 12/04/2013