Left-hander Max Fried agrees to $218 million US, 8-year contract ...

Max Fried and the New York Yankees have agreed to a $218 million US, eight-year contract, the largest deal for a left-handed pitcher in baseball history, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.

The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the agreement, first reported by ESPN, was subject to a successful physical.

New York made the move two days after outfielder Juan Soto left for a pending $765 million, 15-year contract with the rival Mets.

Fried, who turns 31 in January, gets the fourth-highest contract among pitchers behind the Los Angeles Dodgers' Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million), the Yankees' Gerrit Cole ($324 million) and Washington's Stephen Strasburg ($245 million), who hasn't pitched since 2022 and has retired. Fried broke the mark for lefties set by David Price at $217 million.

Fried spent his first eight seasons with the Braves, making the All-Star team in 2022 and 2024. He had his first big season in 2019, finishing 17-6 with a 4.02 ERA.

He was 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, finishing fifth in the National League Cy Young Award voting. The three-time Gold Glove winner had his best season in 2022, going 14-7 with a 2.48 ERA.

Fried was 8-1 with a 2.55 ERA in an injury-hampered 2023 season, then was 11-10 with a 3.25 ERA over 29 starts this year.

The right-hander was the seventh overall pick in the 2012 amateur draft by the San Diego and was traded to the Braves in a six-player deal that sent outfielder Justin Upton to the Padres.

The Washington Nationals will have the No. 1 overall pick in the amateur draft next summer after winning the lottery in a drawing of ping-pong balls at the winter meetings Tuesday.

Despite having the fifth-best odds at winning the lottery, the Toronto Blue Jays fell to the No. 8 overall pick.

Unlike last year, when the Nationals were ineligible after initially coming out with the top spot, they will get to make the first pick in July in Atlanta, the site of the All-Star Game.

Washington was ineligible for a top-six pick last year because the collective bargaining agreement states a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan cannot have a lottery selection in back-to-back years. The Nationals chose outfielder Dylan Crews with the No. 2 pick in 2023.

The Los Angeles Angels have the second pick for next summer. Seattle, Colorado, St. Louis and Pittsburgh round out the top six.

A weighted lottery among the 18 teams that failed to make the playoffs this season determined the order of picks for the third year in a row.

The Nationals went in with a 10.2 per cent chance, the fourth-best odds, for getting the No. 1 pick. Colorado and Miami, both 100-loss teams, had the best odds at 22.45 per cent, ahead of the Angels at 17.96 per cent.

Seattle got the No. 3 overall pick after having a 0.53 per cent chance to get the No. 1 pick, the second-worst odds among 16 eligible teams.

The 121-loss Chicago White Sox, who had the most losses of any major league club since 1900, were not eligible for the draft lottery since they had one of the top six picks last year (No. 5) and is a team that pays into the revenue-sharing plan.

The CBA also doesn't allow teams that receive money in revenue sharing to have lottery picks three years in a row. That made the Athletics (69-93) ineligible for the lottery — they picked fourth last year after having the No. 6 selection in 2023.

Chicago instead got the 10th pick, one spot ahead of Oakland — the highest possible positions for those two teams because of their recent lottery picks.

Right-hander Yimi Garcia is returning to the Toronto Blue Jays, agreeing to a $15 million, two-year contract, a person with knowledge of the talks told The Associated Press.

The person spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.

The 34-year-old Garcia was traded from Toronto to Seattle on July 26 for outfielder Jonatan Clase and catcher/outfielder Jacob Sharp. He had a 6.00 ERA in nine innings over 10 appearances for the Mariners.

He was 3-0 with a 3.46 ERA and five saves overall this year in 39 games and 39 innings.

Garcia is 22-29 with a 3.59 ERA and 26 saves over 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers (2014-19), Miami (2020-21), Houston (2021), Toronto (2022-24) and Seattle. He missed the 2017 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Willy Adames and San Francisco finalized a $182 million, seven-year contract on Tuesday, providing the Giants with a power-hitting shortstop in the prime of his career.

San Francisco has missed the playoffs in each of the last three years, going 80-82 this season.

Adames' deal is the richest in franchise history, topping a $167 million, nine-year contract that Posey agreed to in 2013.

The 29-year-old Adames is coming off his best offensive season in the big leagues after hitting .251 with a career-high 32 homers and 112 RBIs with the Milwaukee Brewers. He's a solid defensive shortstop with a strong arm and good range, though his metrics slipped a little in 2024.

He also has provided consistent power with 150 homers over seven seasons, breaking into the big leagues in 2018 with Tampa Bay and hit 20 homers in his first full season in 2019.