#player-development

#player-development

What I find so cool about all the metrics we have on exit velocity, spin rate, bat speed, and so forth is that they allow us to define what were once amorphous concepts akin to magic. We have the ability to know beyond a shadow of a doubt which pitcher throws the fastest or which ball was hit the hardest. And you know what? Knowing that doesn't take any of the magic or joy away.

They Athletics already invested in three core players over the past year, getting Brent Rooker on a five-year $60 million extension in Jan. 2025, followed by Lawrence Butler (seven-years, $65.5 million in Mar. 2025) and Tyler Soderstrom (seven-years, $86 million in Dec. 2025). Now as the calendar flips to 2026, the Athletics have continued to invest in that young core with their latest extension going to shortstop Jacob Wilson.

All-Star shortstop Jacob Wilson and the Athletics reached agreement on a seven-year contract that includes a club option for an eighth season, the team announced Friday, adding another premium young player to an impressive core as the franchise prepares to move to Las Vegas. The contract is worth $70 million, sources told ESPN. Wilson, 23, finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting last year after hitting .311/.355/.444 with 13 home runs and 63 RBIs in 125 games.

With a bit of distance, Deco talks about Vitor Roque without trying to rewrite history. "From a quality standpoint, I don't think we made a mistake," Barcelona's sporting director said, pointing out that the club's idea was clear from the start: find a long-term successor to Robert Lewandowski before the clock became a problem. The issue wasn't the player's profile so much as a total mismatch in timing, according to Deco.

"[Bernal is] good with and without the ball, he knows how to find the best spaces and make the best decisions. You saw it against Copenhagen, in the second half, how much he's improved defensively, physically he's doing much better, he's on another level physically and he's a great professional, and he's very good to watch. "I think, as I said, Casadó is a fantastic professional, and so is Bernal.

Keon Coleman is going to be a Buffalo Bill.

For now at least, Bruins' coach Marco Sturm termed Elias Lindholm as "day-to-day" with an upper body injury, though he there was the caveat that the No. 1 centerman was still scheduled to visit the doctors when Sturm met with reporters after the B's morning skate on Thursday. The immediate future, however, was that Lindholm would be a scratch for Thursday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers. That precipitated the call-up of one Matt Poitras.

On paper, this is a team that should be taking a clear step into a new era: Anže Kopitar is nearing retirement after a successful career, Brandt Clarke and Quinton Byfield are emerging, and the front office has invested heavily in a core that's supposed to push them forward.

Their 2024 first-round selection, Trey Yesavage, started the year off in Single-A Dunedin. By the time he was finished, he had just shattered multiple postseason records by a rookie starting pitcher. Arjun Nimmala took another step towards becoming a true upper-echelon prospect. Johnny King emerged as a teenage phenom with gaudy swing-and-miss ability. Juan Sanchez appears to be their first IFA signee with true star potential since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The list goes on.

EXCLUSIVE: River Plate agree deal to sign Kendry Paez on loan from Chelsea, here we go! ???#CFC recall Kendry from Strasbourg loan with new talents coming, Paez travels to Buenos Aires for medical tests as ideal solution for his development. Season long loan agreed ?? pic.twitter.com/F7PuOz3Qzr Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) January 28, 2026 EXCLUSIVE: River Plate agree deal to sign Kendry Paez on loan from Chelsea, here we go! Romano posted. #CFC recall Kendry from Strasbourg loan with new talents coming, Paez travels to Buenos Aires for medical tests as ideal solution for his development. Season long loan agreed What next for Chelsea wonderkid Kendry Paez? Paez will no doubt be hoping to do a lot better with his next loan after a slightly underwhelming spell in Ligue 1.

Yasin Ozcan has joined Turkish club Besiktas on loan, and he is excited to get his career back on track after being frozen out at Aston Villa. The 19-year-old defender joined the Premier League club in January, but he struggled for regular opportunities. He was sent out on loan to Belgian club Anderlecht, but he barely played for them. He has now been loaned out to Besiktas as part of the deal to sign Tammy Abraham.

I want to be at Barça, it has always been my priority. The issue [of the new contract] is going well. There are some things left, but I intend to be at Barça, which is the most important thing for me. The truth is that I hope it will be done soon. I'm very happy. I have improved a lot since last year, I have matured.

La Masia is widely regarded as one of the greatest football academies in history. It has produced legends, Ballon d'Or winners and players who shaped an era at FC Barcelona. Yet, for every talent that makes it at Camp Nou, many others are forced to look elsewhere for opportunity. Leaving Barcelona is often painted as a failure, but history tells a very different story. In many cases, stepping away from La Masia becomes the defining moment that unlocks a player's true potential.

It is a chore to watch the Rangers this season. The game was over a minute into the game as Macklin Celebrini scored a power play goal after Mika Zibanejad took a rare penalty in the opening minute. It was a rare misstep by Zibanejad this season, as he's still the best Rangers forward this season. After carrying the entire offense in January, an off night is ok, but the rest of the team continued to take game nights off.

For most of the first half of the season, the squad depth was the main topic among Milan fans. Between injuries, suspensions and deputies not cutting it, the Rossoneri definitely didn't perform as well as they could have done on the pitch. Yet, they managed to ride out the worst storms and now have 46 points after 21 games, only losing one game as well (the opening round).

The Miami Heat weren't hopeless entering the 2025-26 NBA season, but their hopes were all tied to the future: future star pursuits, future prospect emergences, future splashes on the trade market. Multiple months into this campaign, things are pretty much still the same. They're still scanning the trade market for difference-makers, but the ones they want aren't available, and they don't want the ones that are.

At one point, Mathys Tel looked like he was destined to be a part of Bayern Munich's future. A dynamic attacker back in the 2023/24, Tel was thought to have the ability to shift out to wing and bring a goalscoring threat to that position. After all, he did register 10 goals and six assists during that initial campaign in Bavaria.

Retired right-hander Ryan Pressly has been hired by the Twins, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. According to Declan Goff of SKOR North, Pressly will be working in player development with both major and minor leaguers. Pressly, 37, just announced his retirement as a player a couple of days ago. It seems he doesn't plan to sit by the fire smoking a pipe and reading the paper. He has quickly launched the next stage of his life with this gig with the Twins.

The theory behind drafting Walter with the 19th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft was that they would be grooming their shooting guard of the future. The top prospect had an up-and-down freshman season at Baylor but showed signs of both on-ball shot creation and off-ball shot making that would make him an ideal fit for the Raptors. It is obviously still early in Walter's career, so it's hard to make any definitive statements about his ultimate trajectory as a player.

He needs to get back to where he was 7, 8 weeks ago when everyone felt he was stacking good days. He's stacking days in the wrong direction now," he said. "I get it with some young players. You sometimes subconsciously play poorly to say, 'Hey, I'll play poorly until you play me the minutes I think I deserve, and then I'll play well.' That's not how it works.