Chicago
Russell is serving a 40-game domestic violence suspension following allegations by his ex-wife.
President of president of baseball operations Theo Epstein called the decision a “procedural step” and said it “does not represent the finish line nor rubber-stamp his future” with them.
“It does, however, reflect our support for him as long as he continues to make progress and demonstrates his commitment to these important issues,” Epstein added.
Teams had a deadline of Friday to offer contracts to unsigned players on their 40-man rosters.
Russell accepted a 40-game suspension last October for violating Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. The decision followed allegations made by his ex-wife Melisa Reidy. Though Russell has denied the allegations, he apologized to Reidy and his family for “my past behavior.”
Russell had a $3.2 million salary last season. His unpaid suspension includes the 11 regular-season games he missed after being placed on administrative leave Sept. 21. Russell will be eligible to return on May 3 against St. Louis, barring any postponements.
“Since accepting my suspension, I’ve had time to reflect on my past behavior and think about the next steps I need to take to grow as a person,” Russell said in a statement issued by the Cubs.
Russell said he will meet regularly with experts and counselors mandated by his treatment plan. He said he also plans to keep working with his own therapist, whom he has been seeing several times a week the past two months.
He also hopes to work with non-profit groups in his hometown of Pensacola, Fla., as well as Chicago and Arizona “to become part of the solution.”
Nats Add Tribe’s Gomes
Cleveland
In return, the AL Central champions get outfielder Daniel Jonson and right-hander Jefry Rodriguez.
The Nationals went into the offseason in need of a new catcher — and now have two new ones. They also signed free agent Kurt Suzuki.
Gomes has been a steady player for Cleveland since coming over from Toronto in 2012. The 31-year-old had one of his best offensive seasons in 2018, batting .266 with a career-high 26 doubles, 16 homers and 48 RBIs in 112 games. He was also excellent behind the plate and got selected an AL All-Star for the first time.
Sparks’ Agler Resigns
Los Angeles
Agler officially resigned on Nov. 1, but was required by contract to give the team 30 days’ notice. The team announced the move on Friday morning.
He is the all-time winningest coach in U.S. women’s professional basketball with 315 regular-season wins. He’s the first coach in league history to win titles with two different teams: Agler guided the Seattle Storm to the 2010 WNBA championship.
Stenson, Rahm Share Lead
Nassau, Bahamas
Tiger Woods stayed eight shots behind, and an 18-month-old rules decision kept him from being a further stroke back. He hit into a palm bush on the 18th hole on his way to a double bogey. Video evidence revealed he hit the ball more than once, but Woods wasn’t given an additional penalty shot because of the rule that players aren’t penalized if it can’t be seen by the naked eye. He shot 69.
Feuz Wins Colo. Downhill
Beaver Creek, Colo.
Feuz finished in a time of 1 minute, 13.59 seconds on a course shortened due to the weather. Mauro Caviezel finished second, 0.07 seconds behind his teammate Feuz. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal wound up third as his reign came to an end.
Svindal captured the last two downhill races at Beaver Creek before Feuz’s speedy performance on softening snow.
American teammates Steven Nyman and Bryce Bennett tied for ninth.
Schmidhofer Gets First Win
Lake Louise, Alberta
The 29-year-old finished in a time of 1 minute, 48.13 seconds to beat Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin by 0.15 seconds. Germany’s Kira Weidle wound up third in a race that was missing Lindsey Vonn, who’s recovering from a training crash that injured her knee.
Although she planned to retire after the season, Vonn posted Friday that she intends to race at Lake Louise in 2019-20. It’s her favorite venue.
Schmidofer’s best World Cup finish before Friday was second in a super-G race on Jan. 20, 2013, in Italy. She won the super-G at the 2017 world championships.
Two-time World Cup overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin was ninth.
There’s another downhill today.
Cameroon Stripped ofAfrican Cup Host Role
Accra, Ghana
The decision was made by tournament organizer the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after a special meeting of its executive committee in Ghana, where the women’s African Cup is being played.
CAF president Ahmad, who goes by one name, said the move to take the tournament away from the Central African country was “a crucial and decisive moment for the good of African football.”
A new bidding process was opened with countries interested in hosting Africa’s top soccer tournament, which starts in just six months, invited to apply by the end of December.
The African Cup is scheduled to be played June 15 to July 13.
Morocco, which this year lost out to a join United States-Canada-Mexico bid for the 2026 World Cup, is the favorite to step in and has frequently been touted as a short-notice host during Cameroon’s troubled preparations.
Those preparations have been criticized regularly since Cameroon won the right to host in 2014, but gained momentum in September when CAF, which had previously been unwilling to criticize the country publicly, said there was a “significant delay” with stadiums and other tournament-related infrastructure.
The African soccer body gave Cameroon a final chance by planning two more inspection visits in October.
One of those was to assess the security situation after an increase in violence in the southwest and northwest of the country involving English-speaking separatists and government forces.
There was a “horrific escalation of violence” in recent months in those regions, Amnesty International said. Two cities due to host African Cup games, Limbe and Bafoussam, are deep in the regions where the fighting is.
Claiming they are being marginalized in the largely French-speaking country, the English-speaking, or Anglophone, separatists vowed to disrupt and even attack the African Cup if it went ahead.
In a thinly-veiled threat, they said soccer players, officials and fans may not be safe.
African Cup hosting has been a major headache for CAF, with the last four tournaments not held in the country they were initially awarded to.
South Africa stepped in for war-torn Libya in 2013, Equatorial Guinea replaced Morocco in 2015 and Gabon stood in for Libya, which again couldn’t host last year.
Morocco may be the favorite to rescue CAF this time but lost the tournament three years ago after it threatened to place travel restrictions on fans traveling from West African countries affected by that year’s deadly Ebola outbreak.
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