The 30-year-old Suárez is coming off a season in which he posted a 3.20 ERA over 157 1/3 innings with the Philadelphia Phillies.
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Since converting to a full-time starter in 2022, Suárez has been an effective pitcher when on the mound. Over the past four seasons, he owns a 3.59 ERA over 588 1/3 innings. That was good for a 117 ERA+, meaning his ERA was 17% better than the league average over the past four seasons.
The left-hander, however, has dealt with minor injuries in each season during that stretch and has never started more than 30 games in a single regular season. Notably, the last time Suárez dealt with an elbow injury was in 2023. He was able to return from the issue that season and still posted solid numbers. His injuries the past two years have not involved his arm. While he’s not necessarily a workhorse, Suárez has averaged 26 starts per year since 2022, so he’s not injury-prone, either.
His performance since joining the Phillies’ rotation was enough to make Suárez one of the more coveted starting pitchers on the free-agent market, ranking No. 9 on Yahoo Sports’ list. With Suárez, Dylan Cease and Tatsuya Imai off the board, that leaves Framber Valdez and Zach Gallen as the biggest names left on the starting pitching market.
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Suárez is a fascinating signing for the Red Sox, who also acquired veteran Sonny Gray this winter in an effort to shore up the team’s rotation. With Garrett Crochet expected to once again serve as the team’s ace, Suárez, Gray and Brayan Bello should round out the top four in the rotation. From there, the Red Sox have myriad other options, including Connelly Early, who showed promise in limited starts last season. The team could also consider Kyle Harrison, who was acquired as part of the Rafael Devers trade, or Payton Tolle, who remains one of the team’s top prospects despite struggling in his brief debut in the majors. In addition to those three, the Red Sox should get Kutter Crawford, Tanner Houck and Patrick Sandoval back from injury at some point in 2026.
Because of that, it could be argued that starting pitching wasn’t the most pressing need for the Red Sox. But as a number of MLB teams will attest, you can never have enough starting pitching, and Suárez definitely makes the team stronger at the top of the rotation. If the Red Sox make it to the postseason in 2026, he’s a clear candidate to earn a playoff start.
Despite his success on the mound, Suárez doesn’t get a ton of publicity, thanks to his approach. He doesn’t throw hard by today’s standards, with a fastball that averaged just 91.3 mph last season. Because of that, Suárez isn’t an elite strikeout pitcher and needs to rely on pinpoint location and great command to stymie hitters. That said, throughout most of his time as a starter, the approach has worked. Suárez limited opposing batters to a 31.1% hard-hit rate last season, one of the best figures in MLB.
That success has mostly come due to Suárez’s breaking pitches. While his fastball, sinker and cutter tend to get hit hard, his changeup, curve and slider are true weapons. Opposing batters hit .203 on Suárez’s changeup last season. They posted even worse averages against his curveball and slider.
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The Red Sox are the ideal team to take advantage of those strengths. When Boston emerged as a surprise contender at the beginning of the 2024 MLB season, the team did so thanks to an approach that drastically cut down on four-seam fastball usage. The Red Sox finished the year throwing four-seam fastballs 37.1% of the time, the lowest figure in the majors.
That strategy didn’t continue in 2025, as Boston jumped to 14th in fastball usage, but the team’s willingness to get away from the pitch suggests the Red Sox could see value in Suárez that other teams overlooked. And a tweak to his approach or pitch usage could lead to even more improvement from a player who already has one All-Star appearance under his belt.
While Suárez’s approach could be a cause for concern in the long run given his lack of strikeouts and lesser velocity, the Red Sox might be the perfect team to take advantage of his unique approach.
Tom Haberstroh and Dan Devine discuss Jaylen Brown’s $35,000 fine after calling out the NBA refs, break down how the lack of foul shots is impacting the league in the new year and ask what can be done to end the scoring drought.
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Next, they dive into the latest NBA trade deadline rumor mill news. The duo breaks down Rich Paul’s comments surrounding a potential Austin Reaves trade and gives their thoughts on the best fit for Ja Morant.
Later, they react to Giannis being booed by his home crowd. Should the Bucks trade Giannis for Jalen Johnson? Plus, they discuss Anthony Davis not undergoing surgery for his hand injury and confirm he is back on the trade block. Where would he fit best?
1:12 – The Big Number: $35,000 – Jaylen Brown’s fine for criticizing refs
3:50 – NBA scoring drought: What’s causing the slump?
15:57 – The Little Numbers: 77 – 3-shot fouls called since January 1st
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22:11 – The Little Numbers: 12 – teams with at least 17% of total points from free throws
26:43 – The Little Numbers: 3.4% – OKC’s FTA rate increase in the new year
30:49 – Latest with the trade deadline
32:41 – What’s next for Ja Morant?
37:37 – Anthony Davis back on the trade block
47:10 – Giannis gets booed by home crowd
Boston, MA – January 10: Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown drives to the basket as San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet defends in the first quarter. The Celtics played the Spurs at TD Garden on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — About 12 miles south of Washington, D.C., the Gaylord National Resort looms over the Potomac River, its 19-story indoor garden atrium delivering a perpetual oasis as thousands of tourists meander underneath its glass ceiling.
This week, university and conference executives participate in the annual NCAA convention here.
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As it turns out, the scene — thousands of convention-goers under a single roof — is indicative of the NCAA as a whole. The Gaylord is quite literally a “big tent,” the term often used to describe the NCAA’s scope of member schools with drastically differing missions, standards and financial prowess, yet they are all governed under a single national association.
Perhaps, it’s time for a change.
“Big problems are not solved in big rooms filled with people. That is a principle,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a recent interview with Yahoo Sports.
In the midst of the association’s annual gathering, leaders from the NCAA’s aristocracy — the Football Bowl Subdivision, including most notably the four power conferences — are charting a course for more change to the governance and enforcement of college athletics, in particular football.
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Unbeknownst to many, college leaders have created a new committee with the expressed mission to study the future of FBS governance and determine if the subdivision should operate outside of the NCAA structure — a long-discussed move gaining more momentum than ever.
But there is, perhaps, something even more serious brewing: a frustration from those in many power leagues at the lack of enforcement from the NCAA — and College Sports Commission too — over allegations of tampering of college athletes, eligibility rulings and the circumvention of the industry’s new roster spending cap.
For some, a solution is emerging: Each conference should govern itself, enforce its own rules and, perhaps even, compete solely with its own members.
“If the CSC is not going to enforce the House settlement, if the NCAA is not going to enforce tampering rules and if Congress is not going to pass the SCORE Act, then it leaves the SEC in a position that we have to go our own way to create some rules and a level of responsibility,” Georgia president Jere Morehead, a former chair of the NCAA DI Board of Directors, told Yahoo Sports earlier this month. “We’d be able to make a much stronger argument that we are not in violation of antitrust rules because we don’t have market power.”
Leaders from across college sports are gathering this week at the Gaylord National Resort in National Harbor to discuss the industry’s many pain points.
While the SEC isn’t alone in its dismay over national enforcement, league officials are publicly expressing their feelings, while they privately take preliminary steps to contemplate a new model.
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Sankey cautions any suggestion of the long-discussed “breakaway” by the SEC and other power leagues. Nobody wants to “rush there,” and the SEC remains committed to a “national organization,” he says.
However, “there are limits to that,” Sankey said. “The frustration level is building. I anticipate that there’s a lot of people that are saying, ‘This might not work for us.’”
Those people exist well beyond the SEC’s footprint, even if they remain in the background.
“There is support among other memberships for a similar model,” one Big Ten athletic director told Yahoo Sports. “Each league governs itself and plays only games within the league.”
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‘We are money laundering’
At the forefront of the latest frustrations is the unruly nature of the college sports landscape six months into the industry’s most fundamental change in its more than 100-year history — schools directly compensating athletes through a capped revenue-sharing model.
The enforcement failures are directed at the NCAA, charged with tampering and overseeing eligibility, and the new entity created by the power leagues, the College Sports Commission, charged with policing the cap.
The pursuit of athletes at other schools is a common occurrence, described by Mississippi State president Mark Keenum as “widespread tampering.” Coaches and staff members are encouraging athletes from other schools to enter the portal, despite many of them being under signed revenue-share agreements with their current programs — something that has resulted already in one lawsuit (Wisconsin is suing Miami over tampering allegations).
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Roster budgets are booming well beyond the $20.5 million cap meant for all athletes within a university athletic department. Most big-brand football roster estimates are exceeding $25 million as schools arrange the redirection of revenues — from the athletic department to rosters — using third-party marketing and endorsement deals exempt from the cap.
They are using old-fashioned methods (collectives and boosters), multimedia rights partners (Playfly and Learfied) and apparel brands (Adidas, Nike and Under Armour). And while these deals must pass through the CSC’s new clearinghouse, NIL Go, university administrators are guaranteeing the cash to athletes before they reach the point of being cleared.
The situation has left the industry exasperated and broken, with many wondering aloud four simple words.
What are we doing?
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“We are money laundering,” said one high-level Big Ten school administrator. “All we are doing right now is moving money around.”
Three power conference athletic directors — all of them outside of the SEC, as it turns out — told Yahoo Sports within the last week that they believe there should be no cap as the enforcement of it is far too difficult.
In a recent interview on an Ohio-based podcast, the Tim & Beanie Show, Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork said college leaders need to seriously consider no longer “restricting the money,” as it results in rule-breaking and legal challenges. He suggests that the $20.5 million cap figure is no longer enough, evident by the third-party workaround from schools.
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“Should we just make it an open market?” Bjork asked.
But not everyone wishes to drastically alter a system that is only six months old.
In a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo Sports recently, Sankey specifically directed his dissatisfaction toward the NCAA for inconsistencies in eligibility waiver rulings that often magnify frustration and confusion among coaches, he says, and also chided the organization for little tampering enforcement.
“I’m mystified why there is a lack of clarity over the responsibility for tampering,” Sankey said. “That is the responsibility for the NCAA to oversee.”
However, tampering is not an easily prosecuted violation. Firstly, NCAA officials point to a Tennessee judge’s ruling in 2024 that allows booster-funded NIL collectives to communicate with high school recruits and transfer portal players. That judge’s preliminary injunction still stands.
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In a statement to Yahoo Sports, the NCAA says its enforcement team has processed about 95 tampering cases thus far this year, some of which remain with the Committee on Infractions for final approval.
“Successfully enforcing tampering cases requires cooperation from coaches, student-athletes and administrators — especially from those whose teams were tampered with — and while the Association is thankful for the support for the finished cases, more cooperation will lead to more closed cases,” said Tim Buckley, the NCAA’s senior vice president of external affairs.
However, the roster spending cap is another matter entirely.
It is overseen by the College Sports Commission.
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‘Gun shy’ CSC?
The College Sports Commission is only in its infancy, but its CEO Bryan Seeley has by all accounts worked diligently with conference and member schools to assure an earnest operation of the system.
However, in a situation indicative of the strife within college sports, the CSC’s participation agreement — drafted and encouraged by attorneys from the power leagues — has twice failed to gain consensus among the 68 schools in the SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big Ten. The original version of the document — signed by the SEC but only binding if all power league schools sign — prohibits universities from taking legal action against the CSC. It’s a way to protect the CSC to enforce rules and avoid the death knell of NCAA enforcement — legal challenges from its own member schools.
“Everyone wants to blame the NCAA. The NCAA is us,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said. “We made the rules as a governing body and yet members broke the rules and lawyered up to sue over the rules they created.”
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In a presentation from the NCAA convention on Wednesday, Seeley delivered an impassioned 10-minute plea to schools, urging them to sign the participation agreement — a document he refers to as “foundational” to the future — and encouraged administrators to openly support it.
“If there’s a time to stick out your neck, it’s now,” Seeley told the room of conference and school officials.
Investigations could be right around the corner. Seeley says the organization is in the process of notifying several schools of “issues we’re looking into in terms of unreported NIL deals.” The CSC recently hired a 10th member to its staff, which includes at least one former FBI investigator.
Morehead and three other power conference university presidents penned a letter earlier this week encouraging schools to sign the CSC agreement so true enforcement can begin. The situation with the CSC agreement is “the perfect example of why we can’t fix our problems,” said Joe Castiglione, the outgoing athletic director at Oklahoma.
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“The CSC is probably a little gun shy to enforce things at the Power Four schools because we basically just fired the NCAA,” Tennessee athletic director Danny White said.
Many administrators attribute some of the ballooning rosters not as much to cap circumvention but to schools “frontloading” athlete contracts last spring. Universities paid millions to players for their 2025 roster before the implementation of the new enforcement entity and the creation of the cap, thus providing them with excess cash to use in the portal for next year’s roster.
“It’s going to take a couple of years to normalize what happened in the frontloading,” said Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who says he’s aggressively working toward having the participation agreement signed soon. “CSC is prepared to enforce settlement rules and is making real progress.”
Last summer, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said that a school may need to be punished to fully realize the effectiveness of the new enforcement arm.
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“That needs to happen,” Phillips said. “And if it happens in our league, I won’t feel any differently about it because this is about us trying to settle down the whole entire enterprise.”
Is enforcement on the way?
Sankey gestures toward the NIL Go clearinghouse as one avenue for enforcement by approving and denying third-party compensation to athletes. In the latest figures, the CSC has approved 17,321 deals worth $127.2 million and denied 524 deals worth $14.9 million. Several hundred more are under review.
The organization announced on Friday that it is “concerned” over third-party guarantees to athletes that have not yet been approved and that it is launching inquiries into several programs for unreported NIL deals. If these deals are eventually rejected, athletes may be risking their eligibility.
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“If we don’t get the federal legislation and schools don’t legitimately agree to this settlement and do everything we can to follow the spirit of the law, if you don’t get to that place, we’re going to have to look at the other alternatives that allow us to have guardrails,” Baylor president Linda Livingstone, a former chair of the NCAA Board of Governors, told Yahoo Sports in an interview in August.
“The ones you hear most about are some kind of bargaining model,” she continued. “We don’t want an employment model, but everybody recognizes bargaining is something we need to be considering.”
‘What’s old is new again’
Decades ago, even before Mike Slive and Jim Delaney deftly operated the SEC and Big Ten, enforcement and investigations originated from the conference office.
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Many administrators believe such conference-only governance provides a way to create rules and enforce those rules — such as tampering, eligibility and the roster cap — without as much legal scrutiny as the NCAA endures.
But for many that also could mean something else: conference-only competition.
“Federal law prevents us from setting unilaterally national standards,” says Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin. “It seems like the only chance you have at setting a standard is a smaller subset of schools. We want to make this a national sport. But according to federal law, it’s a regional sport that happens to have national appeal.”
For years, conferences operated within silos, governing only themselves, investigating and enforcing themselves and playing mostly themselves until the postseason, when bowl games — tethered to specific leagues — arranged end-of-year matchups.
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“What’s old is new again,” said one power league athletic director with a laugh here at the convention.
But such a model doesn’t solve all of the problems, Sankey acknowledges, though it’s “helpful to have a more consistent environment and more commonality among decision-makers to make decisions for the group,” he said.
“Regardless of everyone who calls you to pitch their idea, there is no easy button,” Sankey said.
From the convention on Tuesday, NCAA president Charlie Baker doesn’t necessarily disagree on some of these points. In fact, the NCAA plans to undergo what Baker described as a “pretty big review” of rule-making to “figure out where deregulation makes sense.” The vast majority of his membership believes that national standards should exist on academic and eligibility standards, seasons of competition and some level of playing rules. As for the rest of it, he hopes to shift to more “conference-centric.”
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“The big question mark on some of this is, ‘Can you create a national championship if you don’t have some framework on how people are engaged?’” he asked.
It’s true.
What if other leagues don’t adopt similar rules and enforce them? One SEC athletic director says it’s “plausible” to have an SEC-only independent enforcement arm, but that could cause problems with national competition.
“If the Big Ten does something different, it doesn’t work,” the official said. “Our coaches would be up our asses.”
That’s why some within the SEC believe that conference-only competition is necessary — at least eventually — if other conferences do not adopt and enforce similar policies.
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“l think we’d want to play with the schools following the rules,” said Morehead, the Georgia president. “I think this plan would work because college football fans are focused on the SEC. Look at the TV ratings this past season. Our fans want to see a rules structure.”
The SEC won 13 of the football national championships from 2006-2022. Despite not having a team for a third straight year in the national title game, the league’s viewership continues to top the sport. Twelve of the top 15 most-watched games this season involved an SEC team.
Can it survive only playing among itself? The league may be trading legal antitrust scrutiny for heated political criticism.
Sankey knows this. In fact, unprompted during the interview, he launched into his respect and appreciation for national competition such as the NCAA basketball tournament — one of the most popular events in American sports. Over the last several weeks, Sankey has distributed to his university presidents a history on “how we got to where we are now,” says Keenum, the Mississippi State president.
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“The decisions made in the early 2000s, to pull the commissioner’s office out of investigation and enforcement, do we want to make any changes to the current status quo?” Keenum asks. “We are having early preliminary conversations in our conference in light of all the frustrations and without a clearly delineated enforcement and investigative body.”
Some suggest that it should go well beyond a conference-only governance model.
In a wide-ranging story published at Yahoo Sports in June, several power conference athletic directors publicly voiced their support for a collective-bargaining model as a way to establish rules, regulations and some stability.
As the NCAA convention marches onward here, beneath the giant roof of the Gaylord National Resort, everyone seems to be searching for a solution.
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Anything but this.
“Lots of people in this league are saying, ‘What is Plan B?’” Texas A&M athletic director Trev Alberts says. “I’d put a really small group together, including current coaches. Put everything on the table. You’re basically saying, ‘If we were going to start over, what would it look like?’ The longer we wait, the deeper the hole gets.”
In 18 seasons with the Ravens, Harbaugh posted a 180-113 record. He led Baltimore to a Super Bowl XLVII victory in the 2012 season, 12 playoff appearances and six AFC North championships.
He emerged as the top head-coaching candidate in this year’s hiring cycle, and the Giants were willing to pony up to pay the 63-year-old and his future staff, according to Hughes.
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As for Dart’s reported appearance during Harbaugh’s Wednesday meeting with the Giants, it wasn’t exclusive. Dart is around the facility daily and has met with most of the coaches his organization has welcomed for in-person interviews, per Hughes.
College basketball is getting a new, shorter transfer window.
The NCAA announced Wednesday it will adjust transfer windows for both men’s and women’s college basketball to just 15 days immediately following the conclusion of their respective national championship games.
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This change, which was proposed by the Division I Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees in November, will go into effect in April. Now, the women’s basketball notification-of-transfer window will be open from April 6-20. The men’s basketball window will be open from April 7-21.
Additionally, a 15-day window to enter the transfer portal will start five days after a school announces a new head coach. If a school hasn’t hired a new coach within 30 days of the previous head coach’s departure, and the 31st day is after the national championship game, a 15-day window will open, too.
This is now the third change to the transfer portal window since it was first introduced ahead of the 2022-23 academic year. Initially, the NCAA had a 60-day window that started after Selection Sunday of the NCAA tournament. That was cut to 45 days after Selection Sunday in 2023, and then shortened to 30 days starting after the second round of the tournaments in October.
Now, teams will have to wait until each tournament has ended to jump into the portal.
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This is one of several changes the NCAA made on Wednesday. Men’s wrestling will have a new 30-day transfer window starting April 1 of each year, down from 45 days. Men’s ice hockey will have a 15-day window starting after the national championship game. Men’s and women’s track and field will still have a 30-day window that opens after the selections for the outdoor track and field championships, as well as a fall window.
The men’s and women’s fields for this season’s NCAA tournaments will be revealed on March 15. The men’s Final Four is scheduled for April 4 and 6 in Indianapolis, while the women’s Final Four is set for April 3 and 5 in Phoenix.
At long last, the Boston Red Sox are on the board in free agency.
Just hours after Alex Bregman’s deal with the Chicago Cubs was made official, the Red Sox made their first major-league free-agent signing of the winter on Wednesday, agreeing to a five-year, $130 million deal with left-hander Ranger Suárez. Boston was the only MLB team that had yet to add to its big-league roster via free agency this winter, with its additions to this point (notably, Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras and Johan Oviedo) all coming via trade. Suárez represents Boston’s biggest move yet — and a fascinating and unexpected pivot in the wake of losing Bregman.
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Once Bregman bolted for Chicago, it was natural to speculate about how the Red Sox would attempt to replace his bat, despite a narrow selection of alternatives still available in free agency or via trade. But while the Red Sox have been linked to infielder Bo Bichette, reports indicated that Boston was contemplating leaning further into its pitching staff as its core strength, rather than trying to backfill Bregman’s impact on offense. It’s possible that Boston will still make an offensive addition to offset the loss of Bregman, but this agreement with Suárez suggests that a pitching-first strategy has indeed been activated. It’s also a sudden jolt in a starting pitching market that has largely laid dormant, and it could spark action involving the other top available arms, such as Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen.
At the outset of the offseason, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow was not shy about his intention to add impact starting pitching. “I don’t think we’re going to spend a ton of time trying to add a No. 4, a No. 5 starter,” he said at the GM meetings in November. “If we’re going to make a starting pitching addition, I think it should be somebody who can pitch at the front of a rotation … particularly someone that we feel like can pitch alongside or slot in behind Garrett [Crochet] and start a playoff game for us.”
A few weeks later, the Red Sox acquired veteran right-hander Sonny Gray from the Cardinals, a highly accomplished arm but not one who necessarily fit Breslow’s description. Gray proved to be effective during his St. Louis tenure, and his hefty $31 million salary is commensurate with that of a frontline arm, but as he enters his age-36 season, he projects more as a reliable mid-rotation option than someone you’d feel confident giving the ball to in October. A few weeks later, the Sox added Johan Oviedo from Pittsburgh to strengthen their rotation depth further, but once Boston turned its focus to retaining Bregman, any discussion about the rotation was largely put on the back burner.
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Evidently, Bregman’s exit prompted an urgent reexamination of the pitching situation; it does not seem like an accident that this pivot to Suárez happened so quickly after Bregman departed. Was this the plan all along, based on the knowledge that Bregman might leave? Or was this strictly reactive to the situation in which Boston unexpectedly found itself? Either way, what matters now is that Suárez is Boston-bound, and his candidacy to be the co-ace behind Crochet is certainly compelling, if unusual in some respects.
We don’t know whether Breslow had Suárez in mind when he mentioned wanting someone who “could start a playoff game” for the Red Sox, but it’s easy to envision the left-hander’s postseason track record standing out as an alluring feature of his résumé. His 1.48 ERA is the fourth-lowest in MLB history among pitchers who have made at least seven playoff starts with at least 40 total innings pitched, behind only Sandy Koufax, Christy Mathewson and Stephen Strasburg. And perhaps his most memorable October outing came in relief, when he closed out the 2022 NLCS to win the pennant for the Phillies, the only organization he has ever known, having signed as a teenager out of Venezuela back in 2012.
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Suárez has excelled in the regular season as well. While he lacks the kind of workload typically associated with pitchers who have commanded nine-figure deals — particularly compared to the two best starters available this winter, Dylan Cease and Framber Valdez — Suárez has been reliably effective when on the mound: Over the past five seasons, he ranked 15th in fWAR despite ranking 38th in innings pitched, and his career-high workload came last year, when he threw 157⅓ frames across 26 starts. Recurring back injuries cost Suárez time in three of the past five seasons, which is something to monitor as he ages.
The stellar stats speak for themselves and paint a picture of a worthy new co-star atop the Boston rotation. The stuff, however, contrasts sharply to that of Suárez’s new rotationmate. Whereas Crochet is one of baseball’s hardest-throwing pitchers, Suárez’s average fastball velocity on both his four-seamer (91.3 mph) and sinker (90.1 mph) is among the lowest of any rotation arm in the league. And his velo has trended down recently, with his 2025 averages a couple ticks less than the 93 mph he averaged on both heaters from 2021 to 2023.
Viewed favorably, Suárez’s ability to rack up outs without premium velocity is a good sign of his advanced pitchability and the likelihood that he can maximize his repertoire as he ages. A more bearish outlook would stress the concern that if Suárez experiences any more of a significant velocity drop, he’s at risk of his fastballs becoming unplayable against the best hitters on the planet.
Velo aside, with plus command of a bevy of offerings beyond his two fastballs — a terrific changeup and curveball, plus a cutter — it’s no surprise that Suárez’s track record of run prevention is strong, and he thrives on inducing weak, ground-ball contact rather than racking up whiffs. In short, he’s a really good pitcher, even if the aesthetic of his arsenal pales in comparison to that of the average frontline arm in 2026.
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With this addition, a new round of “now what?” questions will swirl around the Red Sox, specifically involving their position-player group that remains both imbalanced and incomplete. Failing to retain Bregman — their top target this winter and also a main character amid a tumultuous past year for the franchise — was an organizational failure by any measure. But with a resolution finally reached, even if it wasn’t the one they were hoping for, the Red Sox can move forward in their effort to construct a contending team in 2026. Suárez is a bold first move of the post-Bregman era, and more are likely to come.
Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles has declared for the 2026 NFL Draft.
Styles made the widely expected announcement on social media Wednesday. He could be a top-10 pick.
“Thank you to [Coach Ryan Day] for leading me over the past four years and for believing in me throughout my journey at Ohio State,” Styles wrote. “I’m also incredibly grateful to [defensive coordinator Matt Patricia] and [linebackers coach James Laurinaitis]. Both of you had a huge impact on my development and I wouldn’t have the success I did at linebacker without you.”
Styles was Ohio State’s leading tackler in 2025, with 82 stops and 6.5 tackles for loss in 14 games. He also had a sack, an interception and three passes defensed, along with a forced fumble. The season before, Styles had 100 tackles in 16 games as Ohio State won the national championship.
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He’s the third star Ohio State defensive player to declare for the 2026 draft, along with fellow LB Arvell Reese and defensive back Caleb Downs. Ohio State’s defense allowed 9.3 points per game and 4.0 yards per play in 2025. Miami’s 24 points in the Hurricanes’ Cotton Bowl win were the most any team scored against Ohio State all season, and Miami’s total included a pick 6.
Here’s what Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice and Charles McDonald had to say about Styles potentially going to the Rams at No. 13:
The Rams use their first of two first-round picks on Styles to solidify their linebacker room. Styles has an element of speed and range to his game that the Rams could really use, and he would give them a much sturdier front seven than the boom-or-bust one they have.
Styles was a five-star recruit in the class of 2022, the No. 4 player in the country and the No. 2 athlete in Rivals’ rankings. The No. 1 athlete in Styles’ class was Travis Hunter, the 2024 Heisman winner who played both wide receiver and defensive back at Colorado.
Who will get a seat in the NFL’s game of head coach musical chairs this offseason? Yahoo Sports’ Andrew Siciliano and Jori Epstein predict what coaches will land at all nine openings and why they should go there. Plus, Andrew sits down with Los Angeles Rams safety Quentin Lake to discuss the firing of Mike Tomlin as well as the upcoming playoff matchup at Chicago. Andrew also talks to Jacksonville Jaguars legend Maurice Jones-Drew to get his opinions on the head coach hiring cycle.
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(5:15) – Dante Moore returns to Oregon
(10:20) – Head coach matchmaker
(29:50) – Maurice Jones Drew joins the show
(53:50) – Rams DB Quentin Lake joins the show
(1:09:50) – One More Thing
Will Quentin Lake and the Los Angeles Rams get a playoff win in Chicago? (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images)
The first of those title-winning Crimson Tide squads featured running back Mark Ingram, who will be enshrined among this year’s group of 22 inductees.
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Ingram headlines a 2026 class announced Wednesday, along with defensive linemen Aaron Donald and Ndamukong Suh. They starred at Pitt and Nebraska, respectively, before beginning prolific NFL careers.
Here’s the complete list of 18 players and four coaches headed to the Hall in Atlanta.
Players
RB Jerry Azumah – University of New Hampshire (1995-98)
RB Ki-Jana Carter – Penn State (1991-94)
OT Bruce Collie – University of Texas at Arlington (1981-84)
LB George Cumby – Oklahoma (1976-79)
DT Aaron Donald – Pittsburgh (2010-13)
WR/KR Marvin Harrison – Syracuse (1992-95)
RB Garrison Hearst – Georgia (1990-92)
DB Chris Hudson – Colorado (1991-94)
RB Mark Ingram – Alabama (2008-10)
C Olin Kreutz – Washington (1995-97)
LB James Laurinaitis – Ohio State (2005-08)
QB Jordan Lynch – Northern Illinois (2010-13)
WR Herman Moore – Virginia (1988-90)
CB Terence Newman – Kansas State (1999-2002)
OG Bob Novogratz – United States Military Academy (1957-58)
DT Ndamukong Suh – Nebraska (2006-09)
WR Peter Warrick – Florida State (1996-99)
S Eric Weddle – Utah (2003-06)
Coaches
Jim Margraff – Johns Hopkins (1990-2018)
Gary Patterson – TCU (2000-21)
Chris Petersen – Boise State (2006-13); Washington (2014-19)
Ken Sparks – Carson-Newman University (1980-2016)
Important notes
Ingram rushed for 1,658 yards and piled up 20 total touchdowns (17 rushing and three receiving) during the 2009 season. He became the first Alabama player to win the Heisman Trophy, and the Crimson Tide won the BCS national championship. He went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL.
Long before Donald was a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year, he was ACC Defensive Player of the Year and a whole lot more. In fact, he swept the sport’s major defensive awards during his final college season in 2013, when he stacked 28.5 TFLs, 11 sacks and 4 forced fumbles.
Suh went on to earn All-Pro honors five times as a defensive stalwart in the NFL during the 2010s. But first, his play made him a must-watch sensation at Nebraska. In 2008, he recorded two pick 6s, and he notched a receiving touchdown while lining up as a fullback. The next season, he amassed 85 total tackles, 20.5 TFLs and 12 sacks before collecting hardware as college football’s top defensive player.
Warrick overlapped with FSU’s dominance in the ’90s. During the two-time first-team All-American receiver’s four seasons with the Seminoles, they were a mainstay at the top of the national polls. He amassed 1,232 receiving yards and 13 total touchdowns in 1998 and then helped FSU win it all in 1999.
Harrison is a Pro Football of Famer, too. He became a household name with the Indianapolis Colts. Before that, he developed at Syracuse, where he eclipsed 1,000 receiving yards and tallied two punt-return touchdowns in 1995.
Patterson was a TCU staple. He coached the Horned Frogs for 22 seasons, compiling a 181-79 record along the way. He guided them to 11 bowl victories — including a win in the Rose Bowl during the 2010 season and another in the Peach Bowl during the 2014 season — and helped them navigate their transitions from Conference USA to the Mountain West to the Big 12.
Petersen helped transform Boise State into the football power it is today. He’s the winningest coach in the Broncos’ history. From 2006 to ’13, he went 92-12. In that span, he piloted Boise State to a pair of Fiesta Bowl victories: Those came in 2006 and 2009, each capping undefeated seasons and top-five finishes in the AP Poll. He later led Washington to three straight double-digit-win seasons from 2016 to ’18, picking up a pair of Pac-12 titles in the process.
Every Wednesday in January, Matt Harmon and Justin Boone take a look back at the 2025 fantasy season to find lessons they learned and can apply to the 2026 fantasy season. For today’s pod the two look at their biggest takes from last summer to see what they got right and wrong at the WR and TE position. To end the show, Harmon brings back ourr new ‘Dynasty Debates’ segment where listeners send in their most pressing dynasty questions this fantasy offseason.
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(4:15) WRs & TEs we were WRONG about in 2025
(35:05) WRs & TEs we were RIGHT about in 2025
(55:15) Dynasty Debates
Every Wednesday in January, Matt Harmon and Justin Boone take a look back at the 2025 fantasy season to find lessons they learned and can apply to the 2026 fantasy season. For today’s pod the two look at their biggest takes from last summer to see what they got right and wrong at the WR and TE position. To end the show, Harmon brings back ourr new ‘Dynasty Debates’ segment where listeners send in their most pressing dynasty questions this fantasy offseason.
