Mets land Padres trade target SP Freddy Peralta

Padres still looking for starting pitchers (among other positions), SDSU can't beat Grand Canyon (again), Chucky tries to work with SDFC, Oscar nominations and more.

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San Diego Padres

Mets land Freddy Peralta in multiplayer trade with Brewers - ESPN
The New York Mets’ winterlong pursuit of a front-line starting pitcher ended late Wednesday when they acquired All-Star Freddy Peralta, as well as fellow right-hander Tobias Myers, from the Milwaukee Brewers for Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams, two of their top prospects.

Peralta, as the haul the Brewers received indicates, was coveted by several clubs. He is a two-time All-Star coming off a career season in which he went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA in 176⅔ innings across 33 starts. He is one of two pitchers -- Dylan Cease is the other -- with at least 200 strikeouts in each of the past three seasons. He also ranks 10th in the majors among qualifiers with a 3.40 ERA and third in opponent batting average (.210) over that span.

Padres need to upgrade backup catcher position - Gaslamp Ball
You would expect the organization to bring other backup candidates to Peoria on minor league deals. However, finding a suitable replacement has not been easy. Still, the Friars have been linked to several catchers, notably Christian Vasquez, Reese McGuire, and Gary Sanchez.

Each adds a veteran presence to the clubhouse. Vasquez and McGuire are known as defensive specialists who call a good game. Sanchez may not have the glove, but he does offer a proven power-hitting commodity off the bench.

Around the League in 90 Days: The Padres - Baseball Prospectus
The team that outdrew every team but the Dodgers. Really.

Padres build their 2026 international free agent class - MadFriars
For the second straight year, the Padres expect all of their signees to begin the year in the Dominican Republic. Thus far, Mexican infielder Jose Verdugo is the only member of last year’s class who has already been added to the domestic roster. A handful of players, including shortstop Jhoan De La Cruz and Taiwanese pitcher Su Lan-Hong, who signed for six figures in October, should join him in Peoria when minor league spring training opens in March.

SDSU Aztecs / USD Toreros

Late foul call, free throws sink SDSU in loss to Grand Canyon - San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego State’s basketball team has beat Kansas in Allen Fieldhouse. It has won at Gonzaga, at Arizona, at BYU, at USC, in the Pit against New Mexico, at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum against Utah State.

It wins all the time at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.

A week ago, it beat Wyoming by 17 in the Arena-Auditorium at 7,220 feet.

It … just … can’t … win at cozy GCU Arena on the campus of Grand Canyon University.

Been here three times. Three losses.

Record 3-Point Shooting Night Lifts Toreros Past Washington State - USD Toreros
A program record 15 threes propelled San Diego men’s basketball to a 96-92 win over the Washington State Cougars on Wednesday night in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

Junior guard Ty-Laur Johnson, now the West Coast Conference’s scoring leader, led the team to victory again, posting a career-high 28 points – 26 in the second half – with seven assists and three steals.

Odds & Ends

Chucky Lozano makes key proposal to San Diego FC to return to play ahead of 2026 World Cup - MARCA
Lozano’s proposal is that the MLS side manage his next destination without objection. The only condition the attacker is said to have put in place is to maintain a salary close to what he currently earns. If this is not achieved, San Diego FC would be willing to cover part of the salary together with the club that agrees to sign him.

If no viable option appears in the market, the Mexican would even be willing to stay in San Diego, accepting the sporting and contractual conditions imposed by the management, as long as he is allowed to play regularly.

Niners to look into ‘everything,’ including substation theory - ESPN
After yet another injury-plagued season, the San Francisco 49ers intend to investigate every avenue to find out why those ailments continue to pile up year after year.

That includes an investigation into the viral conspiracy theory that the electrical substation near their training facility and Levi’s Stadium is contributing to those injuries, general manager John Lynch said Wednesday.

Major League Baseball Is Determined To Rain On Its Own Parade - Defector
The work of bringing baseball to a stop will ultimately be that of the 30 team owners, who are expected to vote on Dec. 1, 2026 for a lockout based on the tiresome issue of a salary cap, which they have been pursuing off and on for generations, and the momentum for which has been building since Shohei Ohtani’s contract with the Dodgers. That drumbeat reached a new peak volume after Kyle Tucker’s contract with the Dodgers, which in total value is actually one-third of Ohtani’s and is therefore fair if you regard Tucker as one-third as impactful as Ohtani. In truth, owners have been screaming for a salary cap since the mid-’90s, when the San Francisco 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl in 15 years and spent their fellow NFL owners into apoplexy. But the Dodgers’ recent moves, and recent dominance, have made them an outsized straw man in the debate.

How Buss family infighting drove the $10B sale of the Lakers - ESPN
Jeanie privately grumbled, people close to the team say, about what she felt was James’ outsized ego and the overt control that he and Klutch Sports, which represents both James and Anthony Davis, exerted over the organization at times.

She didn’t like that James was considered a savior for a floundering franchise when he arrived in 2018 and that it was he who chose the Lakers rather than the team’s leadership receiving praise for landing him. Team sources have been adamant for years that James’ camp informed the Lakers as early as 2017 that he was coming to join them when he became a free agent the following year.

The distance between Jeanie and James widened after the Lakers traded for Russell Westbrook in July 2021, people close to the team said. The team had made the trade in an effort to appease James, but the acquisition backfired in catastrophic fashion. L.A. went 33-49 and missed the playoffs, and James seemed to wash his hands of his role in the acquisition.

Oscar Nominations 2026: ‘Sinners’ Dominates With 16 Nods, ‘One Battle After Another’ Follows With 13 - Variety
“Sinners,” a bold and bloody vampire saga set in the American South, earned a record-breaking 16 Oscar nominations. It was followed closely by “One Battle After Another,” a searing examination of radical politics, which picked up 13 nods. Both films were nominated for best picture at the 2026 Academy Awards, along with “Frankenstein,” “Bugonia,” “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “Sentimental Value,” “Train Dreams,” “F1” and “The Secret Agent.”

NCAA Learns The Legal Consequences Of Making Shit Up As You Go Along - Defector
The NCAA at this point is an organization that’s sole purpose is to lose in court. Wednesday brought another defeat, when an Alabama state judge granted temporary eligibility to Charles Bediako, a 23-year-old center who is seeking to rejoin the Alabama men’s basketball team despite the NCAA declaring him ineligible to play.

Bediako played for Alabama for two seasons in 2021 and 2022 before declaring for the NBA draft. He was not selected, and went on to play three seasons in the G-League after briefly signing a two-way deal—a contract that allows a player to split time between an NBA team and its G-League affiliate—with the San Antonio Spurs. The NCAA tried to bar Bediako from returning to Alabama on the basis that any player who has previously signed an NBA contract, even a two-way deal, is ineligible to play college basketball.

The Sins on the River Road Cannot Be Erased - The Ringer
How did a tiny industrial hub in Louisiana find itself at the center of America’s culture war? For St. John the Baptist Parish, the history is much deeper—and the costs of one age are stacked on the costs of another.

ICE detains 5-year-old Minnesota boy; school leader says agents used him as ‘bait’ - MPR News
The Columbia Heights Public School district says federal agents have detained four of its students in four separate incidents over the last two weeks. One child is a 5-year-old boy who attends a district elementary school and was used as “bait” to draw family members out of their home.

“Why detain a 5-year-old? You can’t tell me that this child is going to be classified as a violent criminal,” Zena Stenvik, the Columbia Heights superintendent, told reporters Wednesday.

Renee Good was shot in the head, autopsy commissioned by her family finds - NBC News
An autopsy commissioned by the family of Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an immigration officer in Minneapolis this month, found that she suffered three clear gunshot wounds, including one to her head, lawyers for her family said Wednesday.

One of the injuries was to Good’s left forearm, the lawyers said in a statement, while another gunshot struck her right breast without piercing major organs. Neither of those wounds was immediately life-threatening, the attorneys said.

A third shot entered the left side of Good’s head near the temple and exited on the right side, according to the statement, and she also appeared to have sustained a graze wound.