The Atlanta Braves signed veteran catcher Jonah Heim to a one-year contract, according to multiple media reports.

Heim was with the team on the first day of spring training when pitchers and catchers reported on Tuesday, according to MLB.com.

Heim, 30, was non-tendered by the Texas Rangers last November. The 2023 All-Star and Gold Glove winner played 595 of his 608 career major league games with Texas, posting a .226 batting average and .282 on-base percentage with 68 home runs, 87 doubles and 277 RBIs with the Rangers.

In 2023, he hit a career-best .258 with 18 homers and 95 RBIs in 131 games, leading Texas to its first World Series title over the Arizona Diamondbacks. He hit .212 with three homers and eight RBIs that postseason.

Heim enters Atlanta’s spring training as a likely backup to reigning NL Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin. Catcher Sean Murphy will miss the start of the season as he recovers from a labral tear in his right hip that prematurely ended his 2025 season.

–Field Level Media

Right-hander Aaron Civale and the Athletics agreed to a one-year, $6 million contract, multiple media outlets reported on Tuesday.

Per reports, Civale can earn an additional $1.5 million in incentives.

Civale, 30, posted a 4-9 record with a 4.85 ERA in 23 games (18 starts) last season split between the Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago White Sox and Cubs.

He is 43-44 with a 4.14 ERA in 140 career games (135 starts) with the Cleveland franchise, Tampa Bay Rays, Brewers, White Sox and Cubs.

–Field Level Media

MILAN, Italy — National Hockey League stars are adapting to different rinks, rules and routines at the Milan Cortina Games, where rivals-turned-team mates will compete for gold beginning on Wednesday after the NHL’s 12-year absence from the Olympics.

The tournament is a dream come true for players who had to wait to compete in the Games after the NHL opted out in 2018 and 2022 – even as it obliterates the tightly choreographed daily routine for many of the league’s multimillion-dollar stars.

“In the NHL there’s routine,” said Finland’s Sebastian Aho, a prolific scorer for the Carolina Hurricanes.

“You skate in the morning at the same time, you play most of the time (at the) same time, you know every rink, you know all the players. I’m not saying it’s easy at all, but at least it’s familiar.”

SCARCE TIME TO ADAPT

The NHL began its Olympic break on Friday, less than a week before the men’s tournament was set to kick off on Wednesday.

That leaves scarce time for players to adapt to new team mates and Olympic playing surfaces that are shorter than a typical NHL rink, as well as the International Ice Hockey Federation’s slightly gentler approach to the game.

“The rules are a little different here. Obviously it’s important that you don’t take penalties or sit in the box,” said forward Sam Bennett, who was a late addition to the Canadian roster.

Fighting, a staple in the bone-crunching world of the NHL, has long been strictly prohibited in IIHF competition and players are going into the Games aware of the constraints they face in Milan.

“Everyone’s cognizant of it and thinking about it but also at the same time you still want to play with that same edge,” said American Brock Nelson, a center for the Colorado Avalanche.

COACHES SEEK PRE-TOURNEY CALM

The return of NHL stars to the Olympics for the first time since 2014 has proven one of the big stories of these Games, with reporters swarming practices – when allowed.

A few teams at the built-from-scratch Santagiulia Arena complex closed some of their practices to reporters in the days leading up to the tournament, including favorites Canada on Monday.

“It was only done because the rink’s too small,” Canada coach Jon Cooper told the dozens of reporters who were packed shoulder-to-shoulder inside the smaller practice facility adjacent to the main arena for a post-practice media availability.

“It’s just distractions and people, there’s just issues to have so many people here,” he said of the practice rink.

Sweden head coach Sam Hallam said the option to close a practice offered a small measure of serenity inside the Olympic cauldron.

“Sometimes it’s just nice to have that calmness,” Hallam told reporters on Tuesday, a day before his team kicks off its Olympic campaign against hosts Italy.

“It’s no mysteries, we’re not going to invent something new out there. But just keeping it a bit calm is nice.”

–Reuters, special to Field Level Media