Sports
Best Landing Spots for the Veteran Slugger Nick Castellanos After Phillies Release
The situation between Nick Castellanos and the Philadelphia Phillies had reached an untenable situation last year, and it’s probably better for both sides that they are moving on from him.
Through most of last season, the Phillies were in search of a trade partner for Castellanos but were unable to offload the back end of his hefty contract. They’ll now be stuck holding the bill on the final $20 million that he was owed this season.
It made sense for Philly to move off his contract. Castellanos has been the worst defender in baseball over the last few years and has not provided enough at the plate to justify ever DHing him. The Phillies are slowly watching their window for contention close, and they need to be playing the best possible lineup every night.
Besides his play on the field, reports have come out today that he was a liability in the clubhouse as well. From drinking beer in the middle of a game to fighting with coaches, both sides needed to move on.
Castellanos might not have a spot in Philly, but could he find renewed life as a platoon bat? This past season, Castellanos had somewhat even splits against left and right-handed pitching, but over his career, he’s dominated lefties.
With the Tigers adding Framber Valdez to their rotation, teams in the AL Central will be seeing a whole lot of dominant left-handers each night. Both the Royals and Guardians seem like they could be perfect fits for Castellanos if he’s willing to take a role as a platoon hitter.
More specifically, the Guardians could really use any sort of right-handed hitting in their lineup. Cleveland is always one of the cheapest teams in baseball, but their payroll going into this season is $7 million less than that of any other team in baseball. Heck, they have a payroll nearly $25 million below the Pirates. They should be more than capable of adding a guy like Castellanos, even if he still wants over $10 million.
Cleveland will work with three right-handed options in the outfield during spring training: Angel Martinez, Jonathan Rodriguez, and the newly signed Stuart Fairchild. I’m sure Cleveland isn’t particularly sold on any of those options, so a veteran presence like Castellanos could help what was one of the worst offenses in baseball last season.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not a serious contender will take a risk on Castellanos before spring training gets underway. I think with his long tenured track record of crushing lefties, I’d still be willing to see if he has one more solid season left in the tank.
Sports
Kings' Zach LaVine set for season-ending hand surgery
Feb 1, 2026; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine (8) looks on during the second half against the Washington Wizards at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Kucin Jr.-Imagn Images The Sacramento Kings, leading a tight race to finish with the worst record in the NBA, reportedly will be without their leading scorer for the rest of the season.
Zach LaVine will have right hand surgery following this weekend’s All-Star break, veteran NBA writer Chris Haynes reported on Friday.
LaVine missed the Kings’ past three games due to what was described as a tendon injury to his right pinkie.
The 30-year-old veteran has appeared in 39 games (37 starts) for Sacramento this season, averaging 19.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists. All of those figures are his lowest in the past eight seasons.
The Kings acquired LaVine from the Chicago Bulls as part of a three-team deal at the February 2025 trade deadline. Sacramento picked up three first-round picks and three second-rounders in that transaction, which saw De’Aaron Fox go from the Kings to the San Antonio Spurs.
Over 12 NBA seasons, LaVine has averages of 20.7 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.9 assists in 693 games (602 starts) with the Minnesota Timberwolves, Chicago and Sacramento. He was an All-Star for the Bulls in 2020-21 and 2021-22.
The Kings (12-44) are battling with the Washington Wizards (14-39), New Orleans Pelicans (15-41), Indiana Pacers (15-40), Brooklyn Nets (15-38) and Utah Jazz (18-37) at the bottom of the league standings. The Pacers and Jazz were fined by the NBA on Thursday for holding players out of games in an apparent attempt to tank.
Teams reportedly are keen to be in the draft lottery this year with a highly rated class set to enter the NBA.
Sacramento returns from the All-Star break on Thursday with a home game against the Orlando Magic.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Liquid, Yandex charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals
A Pace Center for Girls Jacksonville student uses a controller to play a video game with police after the Sheriff’s Office’s new mobile gaming center was unveiled at the facility. Team Liquid pulled out a marathon 3-2 win over Team Falcons on Friday to reach the semifinals of the BLAST Slam VI event in Attard, Malta.
In the other quarterfinal match, Team Yandex took down HEROIC 3-1.
The Saturday semifinals will feature Team Liquid vs. OG and then Natus Vincere vs. Team Yandex.
BLAST Slam VI is a 12-team Dota 2 event that pays $300,000 to the winner and $1 million overall. The event opened with three days of group play — a round-robin, best-of-1 format in which each team played each other team once. The top two teams in the standings, Natus Vincere and OG, moved on to the semifinals of the playoffs.
The teams finishing third through eighth in the standings advanced to the play-in round — four best-of-3 matches in which the winners advance to the playoffs and the losers were eliminated. The teams finishing ninth through 12th in group play competed in the last-chance playoff, another best-of-3 format where the winners advanced to the play-in round and the losers went home.
All playoff matches are best-of-5. The championship squad will receive $300,000 plus $100,000 in team earnings, while the runner-up will get $150,000 and $50,000 in team earnings.
On Friday, Team Falcons opened with a 45-minute win on red before Team Liquid posted a 33-minute victory on red and a 35-minute win on green. Team Falcons sent the match to the limit with a 43-minute victory on green before Team Liquid took the decisive fifth map in 38 minutes on red.
Poland’s Michal “Nisha” Jankowski recorded a 46/13/54 kill-death-assist ratio for Team Liquid. Slovakia’s Oliver “skiter” Lepko wound up at 40/17/28 for Team Falcons.
After HEROIC earned a 34-minute win on red, Team Yandex captured three consecutive maps, in 46 minutes on red, 46 minutes on green and 47 minutes on green.
Kazakhstan’s Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov produced a 43/12/43 K/D/A ratio for Team Yandex. Nicaragua’s Yuma “Yuma” Langlet finished at 38/13/30 for HEROIC.
BLAST Slam VI prize pool
1. $300,000 (plus $100,000 in team earnings)
2. $150,000 (plus $50,000)
3-4. $60,000 (plus $29,000)
5-6. $35,000 (plus $15,000) — Team Falcons, HEROIC
7-10. $22,500 (plus $6.250) — Team Spirit, Xtreme Gaming, Tundra Esports, GamerLegion
11-12. $10,000 (plus $2,500) — REKONIX, MOUZ
–Field Level Media
Sports
Reports: Dolphins hiring Mississippi State's Bush Hamdan as QB coach
New Kentucky offensive coordinator Bush Hamdan coaches during practice Friday. August 2, 2024, in Lexington. Hamdan came from Boise State; he’s also coached at Missouri, the Atlanta Falcons and Florida as well. The Miami Dolphins are hiring Mississippi State associate head coach Bush Hamdan as the team’s quarterbacks coach, according to multiple reports Friday.
Hamdan only landed the Mississippi State position in December and also was to coach the team’s wide receivers.
The 40-year-old has 17 years of coaching experience, largely in the college ranks. Most recently, he was the quarterbacks coach at Missouri from 2020-22 and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at his alma mater, Boise State, in 2023 and moved to Kentucky as OC in 2024.
Hamdan has one year of coaching experience in the NFL, having served as the QBs coach for the Atlanta Falcons in 2017 when Matt Ryan threw for 4,095 yards, 20 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions.
The Hamdan hire was not the Dolphins’ first attempt to fill the quarterbacks coach position.
Miami originally hired former Broncos head coach and Packers offensive assistant Nathaniel Hackett before he took the offensive coordinator position under new Arizona Cardinals’ head coach Mike LaFluer.
The Dolphins also wanted to interview Detroit Lions offensive assistant Bruce Gradkowski for quarterbacks coach position, but the Lions blocked the interview, according to multiple reports.
Hamdan faces an uncertain quarterbacks’ room in Miami, where the future of starter Tua Tagovailoa is still up in the air. Miami general manager Jon-Eric Sullivan said Thursday at a fan event that the Dolphins are “getting close to a decision” on Tagovailoa and that the team would be looking at other quarterbacks in this year’s draft.
Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round pick in last year’s draft, is the other quarterback currently under contract in Miami.
Regardless of the Tagovailoa decision, Sullivan said he expects significant competition among quarterbacks.
“I don’t know what the future holds right now, and I told Tua that. We’re working through some things,” Sullivan said. “What I can tell you is that we’re going to infuse competition into that room, whether Tua is part of the room, whether he’s not part of the room. We’re going to infuse competition into that room, like we will do in every other position,” Sullivan said.
“… You can rest assured that we will add competition to that room, one way or the other, to make it the best that we can.”
–Field Level Media
Kings' Zach LaVine set for season-ending hand surgery
Liquid, Yandex charge into BLAST Slam VI semifinals
