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Starter Tyler Mahle, Giants reportedly agree to one-year MLB free-agent contract

Starter Tyler Mahle, Giants reportedly agree to one-year MLB free-agent contract originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants are adding additional arms to the starting rotation.

San Francisco agreed to a one-year free-agent contract with right-handed starting pitcher Tyler Mahle, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported Wednesday, citing a source, after the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shayna Rubin was first to report that the two sides were nearing an agreement.

Mahle, 31, posted a 6-4 record with 66 strikeouts, 29 walks and a 2.18 ERA in 86 2/3 innings pitched for the Texas Rangers last season.

A seventh-round pick by the Reds in 2013, Mahle debuted with Cincinnati in 2017, and spent five-plus seasons with the team before the Reds traded him to the Minnesota Twins ahead of the 2022 MLB trade deadline.

Mahle spent an additional season with Minnesota before signing a two-year, $22 million contract with the Texas Rangers in Dec. 2023.

After a strong 2025 season with Texas, Mahle now appears close to joining a Giants starting rotation that needed multiple arms at the start of the offseason, and already has added veteran Adrian Houser.

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Starter Tyler Mahle, Giants reportedly close on one-year MLB free-agent contract

Starter Tyler Mahle, Giants reportedly close on one-year MLB free-agent contract originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Giants appear to be adding additional arms to the starting rotation.

San Francisco is close to signing right-handed starting pitcher Tyler Mahle to a one-year contract, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Shayna Rubin reported Wednesday, citing a source.

Mahle, 31, posted a 6-4 record with 66 strikeouts, 29 walks and a 2.18 ERA in 86 2/3 innings pitched for the Texas Rangers last season.

A seventh-round pick by the Reds in 2013, Mahle debuted with Cincinnati in 2017, and spent five-plus seasons with the team before the Reds traded him to the Minnesota Twins before the 2022 MLB trade deadline.

Mahle spent an additional season with Minnesota before signing a two-year, $22 million contract with the Texas Rangers in Dec. 2023.

After a strong 2025 season with Texas, Mahle now appears close to joining a Giants starting rotation that was in need of multiple arms at the start of the offseason, and already has added veteran Adrian Houser.

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Warriors reportedly are ‘staunchly' against trading Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler

Warriors reportedly are ‘staunchly' against trading Draymond Green, Jimmy Butler originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors’ path to acquiring a superstar player before the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline appears slim.

Golden State, if it wanted to acquire a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Anthony Davis, for example, would need to match salaries in a potential blockbuster trade due to the league’s salary cap rules for second-apron teams.

Young forward Jonathan Kuminga is one obvious piece to a potential deal, but his contract ($23.4 million this season) still is much smaller than what the biggest names that could be on the trade market are making, like Antetokounmpo ($54.1M) and Davis ($54.1M), which means Golden State likely would have to include one of its other veteran players, like forwards Draymond Green ($25.89M) or Jimmy Butler ($54.1M), to make the money work.

However, the Warriors reportedly are “staunchly” against the notion of including either Green or Butler in a potential trade, The Athletic’s Sam Amick reported in a story published Wednesday, citing team sources.

Golden State’s brass, from coach Steve Kerr to general manager Mike Dunleavy, repeatedly have expressed confidence in the team’s veteran core of Butler, Green and Steph Curry, so any seismic deal that breaks that trio up, in addition to the financial complications a potential trade might present, seems unlikely.

However, things certainly can change between now and Feb. 5, and if the Warriors end up sliding further down the Western Conference standings, Dunleavy and Co. might be inclined to really shake things up in order to give Curry a chance at winning a fifth championship.

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The Spin | The men’s Test cricket team of the year: from Travis Head to Jasprit Bumrah

Our selection panel’s votes have been counted to reveal the best men’s Test side from the last 12 months

Sharpen your pencils and swallow your marmalade on toast before you read on, everyone, it’s time for the Guardian’s annual men’s Test XI of the year (here’s the women’s team from last week). This year’s 13-person selection panel included Ali Martin, Vic Marks, Tim de Lisle, Adam Collins, Rob Smyth, Jonathan Liew, Tanya Aldred, Taha Hashim, Daniel Gallan, Emma John, Simon Burnton and James Wallace. Everyone taking part picked and submitted their own XI in the days after Australia’s victory in the third Ashes Test at Adelaide (statistics are from 1 January 2025 up to and including this match). When the votes were added up, Earth’s combined side to play Mars looked like this:

Travis Head: 759 runs at an average of 42. Votes (out of 13): 10
The E and the D in the end of England’s Ashes chances. The series took an early turn when Head volunteered to open the batting in the fourth innings of the first Test, and turned in the sort of innings England’s batters only spoke about playing. They had 205 runs to defend, which (easy to forget this bit) everyone reckoned ought to be enough on a tricky pitch but ended up looking pitifully inadequate. Ben Stokes flapped, and England’s fragile attack, which had bowled so well in the first innings of that same match, were smashed. The damage was so bad that some of them were still looking for their lines and lengths in Adelaide three weeks later, when Head scored the century that killed their last faint chance of winning the Ashes.

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