Trae Young appears headed for the open market, though his short stay with the Washington Wizards may not be over.

Young plans to decline his $48.97 million player option for the 2026-27 season and will become an unrestricted free agent on Monday, according to a report from Andscape on Wednesday. Washington is the favorite to retain the four-time All-Star guard, but multiple teams are expected to show interest once he enters free agency, per the report.

The decision was expected to be one of the first major moves of Washington’s offseason. The Wizards acquired Young from the Atlanta Hawks in January, sending CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert to Atlanta in a move aimed at giving their rebuild a solid offensive leader.

Young’s first season in Washington never really got started. He suffered a sprained right medial collateral ligament while with Atlanta in late October, returned in December, then played only five games for the Wizards after the trade before his season was cut short by back and quad issues.

Across 15 games with Atlanta and Washington, Young averaged 17.9 points and 8.0 assists. In his five appearances with the Wizards, he averaged 15.2 points and 6.2 assists.

Washington’s interest in retaining Young is connected to a broader effort to move beyond the bottom of the standings. The Wizards finished 17-65 last season and have lost at least 64 games in three consecutive seasons, but they now have Young, Anthony Davis and a young core.

The Wizards also hold the No. 1 pick in next week’s draft, giving the franchise another major piece to add around their veteran pairing.

Young, 27, has averaged 25.1 points and 9.8 assists over 498 career games and remains one of the league’s most accomplished playmakers. Now the question is whether Washington can turn its head start into a long-term deal.

–Field Level Media

Royce Lewis is feeling great at the plate.

It has been a long time coming.

The Minnesota infielder will try to maintain his hot streak when the Twins play the Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon in Arlington, Texas. The Twins have won the first two games of the three-game series and three in a row overall.

Lewis could be a factor in the Twins’ efforts to finish off the sweep.

The former No. 1 overall draft pick has been back in the big leagues for 10 games, and he has rediscovered his comfort level on offense. He is hitting .324 (12-for-37) with three home runs and seven RBIs since he returned from Triple-A Saint Paul.

A month ago, nobody knew what Lewis’ future with the Twins might be. The team demoted him to the minors after a brutal start to the season, and it seemed like he could have been traded to another organization for a fresh start.

Instead, Lewis hit well in Triple-A and forced his way back into the majors. He added a toe tap and a leg kick to his routine in the batter’s box, and he said the mechanical adjustments helped him get past one of the worst slumps of his career.

“I feel like my confidence was always there,” Lewis said. “I feel like people say, ‘It was a confidence thing, and you’ve got to mentally reset.’ I’m like, ‘Dude, I was mentally fine.’ I just wanted to know what was the thing to get me back to actually doing it in a game.”

Rangers right-hander Jack Leiter (3-6, 4.97 ERA) will try to help his team salvage a victory in the series. Leiter is looking to rebound from back-to-back losses, including a bumpy outing Friday in which he gave up six runs (four earned) on seven hits in five innings against the Boston Red Sox.

Leiter has faced the Twins once in his career. He took a loss on June 11, 2025, after giving up four runs on five hits in four-plus innings. He walked four and struck out three.

Minnesota will counter with right-hander Joe Ryan (4-3, 3.17 ERA). He is coming off a no-decision in his outing on Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals, who scored three runs on six hits in six innings against him. Ryan walked none and fanned eight.

In three career starts against Texas, Ryan is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA. He walked five batters and struck out 20 in 17 1/3 innings during those outings.

After playing games against each other Monday and Tuesday, the Twins and Rangers had the day off Wednesday because of a World Cup match at AT&T Stadium, which is part of the same sports and entertainment complex as the Rangers’ ballpark.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker is hopeful that the break can help his players move past a rocky performance Tuesday. Texas lost 12-2 while allowing 17 hits to the Twins, and Brandon Nimmo made a pair of errors in the outfield.

“I’ve said it before: Ugly losses like this, when you don’t do well in all facets of the game, it starts with me,” Schumaker said. “We made some fundamental mistakes throughout the game that we have to clean up.”

–Field Level Media

Luis Diaz shined in his World Cup debut, scoring the tiebreaker in the 65th minute and contributing an assist to lift Colombia to a 3-1 victory over Uzbekistan in both teams’ World Cup opener on Wednesday in Mexico City.

The 29-year-old Bayern Munich star also assisted Daniel Munoz’s sensational 40th-minute volley as Los Cafeteros took the lead in Group K following Portugal’s draw with the Democratic Republic of the Congo earlier Wednesday.

Jaminton Campaz sweetened the victory with a third goal from Cucho Hernandez’s cross deep in second-half stoppage time before a fiercely pro-Colombian crowd.

Abbosbek Fayzullaev leveled affairs in the 60th minute on a close-range rebound during Uzbekistan’s World Cup debut. However, Colombia thoroughly deserved the victory, outshooting their opponents 15-9 overall and 4-3 in efforts on target.

Remarkably, Diaz never previously appeared at the World Cup, as he was a relative late bloomer in his career. He was still playing in the Colombian second tier during the 2018 World Cup, and Los Cafeteros failed to qualify for the 2022 tournament.

However, after leading his nation with seven goals in 2026 qualifying, he was clearly Colombia’s most important player on Wednesday, even alongside the presence of captain James Rodriguez.

Diaz struck the post with a shot in the 32nd minute. Eight minutes later, he delivered a perfectly weighted diagonal ball into the path of Munoz’s well-timed run.

Instead of attempting a diving header or trying to take a second touch, Munoz reached out his right leg and stuck an exceptional first-time effort out of the air and past Uzbekistan goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov.

Uzbekistan’s equalizer came from an excellently worked attack. Dostonbek Khamdamov chased a ball down the left to keep it in play, then hooked a cross back to the far post.

Colombia goalkeeper Camilo Vargas saved Eldor Shomurodov’s excellent volley, but Fayzullaev cleaned up by heading the ball into an open net from close range.

The deadlock lasted only five minutes until a moment of selective Colombian pressure led to a turnover and a break. Gustavo Puerta surged forward before laying the ball left into the penalty area for Diaz, who hit a confident and low finish past Yusupov.

–Field Level Media