TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays laid some groundwork for a potential Roki Sasaki signing, acquiring international bonus pool room from the Cleveland Guardians on Friday.
According to two industry sources, they’re adding $2 million in space — pushing their total up to $8,261,600. The deal does not mean that Sasaki has made up his mind or that he’s given the Blue Jays any indication of his decision, one source added.
To get the bonus pool room, the Blue Jays are taking back Myles Straw and his contract. The outfielder Cleveland was outrighted off the roster last March and is due $6.4 million this season, $7.4 million next year and comes with a club option for $8 million with a $1.75-million buyout in 2027.
Cleveland is also sending the Blue Jays an undisclosed amount of cash, while the Blue Jays will send the Guardians a player to be named or cash.
GUELPH, Ont. — Team Isabella Wrana of Sweden made it through to the quarterfinals of the WFG Masters with a 7-4 over Ottawa’s Team Rachel Homan on Friday.
Wrana, who wrapped up round-robin play at 3-1, rallied with a deuce in the sixth and stole two in the seventh to snap Homan’s 26-game winning streak on tour.
Homan (3-1) had already qualified for the playoffs. The reigning world champion holds a 42-3 record on the season and swept through the past two Grand Slam events.
The top four teams selected their pool opponents in an online draft last month. Another draft will be held following the conclusion of round-robin play to determine the matchups for the quarterfinals.
Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa also came from behind scoring two in the eighth and stealing three in the extra end to edge Team Kerri Einarson of Gimli, Man., 7-4.
Both teams went 2-2 through round-robin play and await the results of the final women’s draw later Friday to find out their fates.
Winnipeg’s Team Kaitlyn Lawes (2-2) defeated Team Seung-youn Ha of South Korea 7-5 to remain in the mix. Ha was eliminated at 1-3.
Calgary’s Team Kayla Skrlik (1-3) ended on a high note earning a first win in a top-tier Grand Slam event with an 8-5 victory over Japan’s Team Momoha Tabata (2-2).
UP NEXT
One more women’s round-robin draw and two men’s draws are on tap Friday.
Broadcast coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ resumes at 11:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. PT.
NOTES
The WFG Masters is the fourth Grand Slam of Curling event of the season featuring 16 of the top men’s teams and 16 of the top women’s teams from around the world. … A new rule is being tested this week where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends. … The top eight teams in the men’s and women’s divisions qualify for the playoffs. If necessary, one tiebreaker round will be held Saturday morning. … The quarterfinals and semifinals are scheduled for Saturday with both finals slated for Sunday.
Roger Goodell is looking at expanding the NFL regular season once again.
The NFL commissioner expressed his interest in an 18-game regular season and is pleased with the results from the previous expansion implemented a couple years ago.
In 2021, the league went from 16 regular-season games and four pre-season games to 17 regular-season games and three in the pre-season. Goodell wants to do something similar in a new expansion.
“We would keep within that 20-game framework,” Goodell said Friday, on Bloomberg TV. “We went to 16 and four, and now 17 and three. So 18 and two is a logical step.”
Goodell said NFL Players Association would need to approve the extension of the regular season. The union could object on the basis that more games will mean more injuries, although Goodell said the 17-game season has not increased the number of injuries, thanks to improved training and rules changes.
The NFL played 16-game seasons for 43 years (with two strike-shortened seasons) before expanding to 17 games in 2021.
One of the names that appeared most frequently on every start-of-the-year list of emerging talents competing in the UFC is that of Payton Talbott, the unbeaten 26-year-old bantamweight who makes his 2025 debut this weekend at UFC 311 in a featured preliminary card clash with Brazilian veteran Raoni Barcelos.
Following a strong showing on the regional circuit, the Reno, Nev., native earned his place on the UFC roster with a commanding decision win over Reyes Cortez on Season 7 of Dana White’s Contender Series, drawing eyeballs with his mid-fight flip out of a bad position and his overall dynamic style.
He quickly made his debut, submitting Nick Aguirre in the third round before posting a pair of impressive finishes in 2024 — the first a second-round stoppage of South African prospect Cameron Saaiman, and the second a 19-second knockout win over Yanis Ghemmouri at UFC 303.
The wins pushed his pro record to 9-0 and cranked the intensity of the hype surrounding the poised prospect up to extreme levels, which is something Talbott tries diligently to ignore while also seeing the pros and cons of people being so invested in him and his upside in the sport.
Watch UFC 311 on Sportsnet+
Islam Makhachev faces Arman Tsarukyan for the lightweight title and Merab Dvalishvili takes on Umar Nurmagomedov for the bantamweight championship. Watch UFC 311 on Saturday, Jan. 18 with prelim coverage beginning 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT, and the pay-per-view main card starting at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.
“I try really hard not to,” Talbott said this week when asked about carrying the weight of expectation on his shoulders. “Of course some of it gets through and leaks through, but my hometown gym, Reno Academy of Combat, and my close friends in town that I grew up with, that are childhood friends, they always show up for me the same, and that’s important.
“It’s cool though. It allows me more traction to do things, push boundaries, maybe inspire others, because I think that’s a really special thing. Long after I’m dead, if I can continue to influence or inspire somebody, I’m technically still alive, I think.
“But I do pity them a little bit,” he added, “because they have skin and emotion in a very rollercoaster lifestyle, and if they’re so affected by me cutting my hair, then they’re gonna have a pretty rough time down the line, I’m sure.”
He smiled as he spoke about his recent haircut and how going close-cropped drew a reaction from people within the MMA sphere.
Like a lot of things, the attention feels both curious and like an opportunity for the boundary-pushing, playfully coy ascending talent.
“Yeah, it’s a little strange,” began Talbott, speaking about how people tend pay a great deal of attention to his appearance and style, and speculating on his sexuality. “It’s more strange how emotionally invested people get into it, with something so fleeting as an appearance.
“I kind of like it because it gives me a chance to mess with people,” he added, grinning. “All I did was cut my hair a couple inches; it’s really no big deal.”
At a time where so many people are obsessed with putting forth a version of themselves that is going to be accepted and approved of by the masses, Talbott is solely focused on being his authentic self, reactions be damned.
It’s an approach forged in adolescence, though the details of why and how aren’t exactly something the engaging, yet often vague bantamweight is quick to detail.
“I think when your reality isn’t so concrete, when the line between your environment is blurred at a young age, you have issues with that, I think you will do things to solidify yourself from your environment to define who you really are, and that’s just putting it vaguely and simply,” offered Talbott, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Nevada. “I think at a late adolescent age I had to define myself from my environment, otherwise I would… I don’t know.
“That need and desire of sanity in that moment has (produced) some of my long-lasting values that might be a trauma-patterned or something really good for me.”
It’s a typical Talbott answer — captivating, but unclear, which evokes a desire to probe for more details, which is certain to be brushed aside with a wide smile and his piercing eyes. When I mentioned this he smirked.
“People are starting to pick up on the pattern; maybe I have to start to over-share.”
That’s the kind of response that makes you wonder if he’s trying to cultivate a mysterious personality or just really is guarded and uninterested in sharing the details of his life story at the moment; if he’s being vague for the sake of being vague, rather than genuinely not wanting to get too deep into his personal history because those are things fight fans and media aren’t necessarily entitled to know about in the first place, despite many believing otherwise.
Having spoken with Talbott a couple times in the past, my inclination is that it’s the latter, and the way he frankly discusses his impending clash with Barcelos gives credence to that inference.
Normally when you ask a fighter about their upcoming fight and the person they’re soon to share the Octagon with, you’re hit with a smorgasbord of cliches, fighter-speak, and compliment sandwiches, where a subtle dig or straight-up slight is lodged between a couple bits of praise or kind words.
But with Talbott, requesting his thoughts on the matchup draws out the kind of genuine, earnest assessments that most fighters don’t dare speak aloud.
“I’m happy to fight a veteran and somebody that has been around the sport so long, has as much experience as him,” he said of the 37-year-old Barcelos, who enters Saturday off a third-round submission win over Cristian Quiñonez and brandishing an 18-5 record overall. “Raoni is somebody — I don’t know this for a fact, but he seems not scared to fight anyone, and I respect that because people are very careful these days, and that is what it is. I think he’s tough and has enough skills to stay safe for most of the fight, so hopefully I’m just able to show more of who I am.”
“I think stylistically, he’s not great for me; he’s gonna make me struggle for a victory,” added Talbott, marking one of the rare times a competitor has acknowledged they might have to navigate some hurdles to get their hand raised inside the Octagon.
“Everybody says I’m not a great wrestler, so we’re gonna find out,” he said. “I’m thankful for that and on the way up, I think it’s good. It would really suck if I got to the Top 15 and I hadn’t been tested yet.”
And for the promising talent from Reno, the opportunity to find out how he measures up against the cagy veteran is of paramount importance, even if it means having to go through some rough periods in order to get to 10-0.
“I think it’s everything; that’s where we draw our confidence from is what we can endure and how you can show up when everything is pitted against you. He’s old, but he’s no slouch. He was a five-time champion in wrestling in Brazil, so dude is probably a much better wrestler than me if we were just wrestling, but we’re not; we’re fighting.
“But this is everything.”
So how, exactly, does he see things playing out after he makes the walk to the cage on Saturday night, soundtracked by a mix of songs he proudly put together himself?
“I think it’s probably going to be a lot of colliding and clashing early on, from far away. I think he’ll get the better of me early on in some situations, and I think I’m gonna have to overcome a little bit of adversity early on, but then you’ll start to see the elevation sink lower and lower into the water, and it will go my way.”
Most fighters would tell you they’re going to knock the other person out, but clearly, Payton Talbott isn’t most fighters.
