Angels acquire RHP Alex Cobb from Orioles for prospect Jones
ANAHEIM — The Los Angeles Angels acquired veteran righthander Alex Cobb from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for prospect Jahmai Jones.
The Angels also get cash in the trade announced Tuesday night.
The 33-year-old Cobb is expected to join the Angels’ rotation alongside Dylan Bundy, who had the best season of his career in 2020 after Los Angeles obtained him from rebuilding Baltimore.
Cobb went 2-5 with a 4.30 ERA in 10 starts last season for the Orioles. He is 55-57 with a 3.88 ERA during a decade in the majors with Tampa Bay and Baltimore.
Although he hasn’t regularly reached the heights of his best days with the Rays in recent years, Cobb is a groundball pitcher who could benefit from playing in pitcher-friendly Angel Stadium with the Halos’ excellent infield defense.
Cobb had Tommy John surgery in 2015 and missed most of the 2019 season with back problems.
Cobb is owed $15 million in the final season of a $57 million, four-year contract, of which $4.5 million is deferred and due as part of $20 million payable in a $2 million installment this Nov. 30 and $1.8 million each Nov. 30 from 2023-32.
He has a limited notrade provision allowing him to block trades to 10 teams, but it wasn’t an impediment to joining Mike Trout, Anthony Rendon and the pitching-poor Angels.
The Angels have been in the chase for Cy Young Award-winning free agent Trevor Bauer, but they have built some depth in a rotation headlined by Bundy, Cobb, fellow newcomer José Quintana, Andrew Heaney and Griffin Canning. Los Angeles also has Shohei Ohtani, Jaime Barria and Patrick Sandoval as possible rotation members.
The 23-year-old Jones was once considered one of the Angels’ top prospects, and he made his major league debut late last season. He has played second base and center field — two positions where he had no real path to the majors with Los Angeles — and he struggled at the plate during his recent stops in the minors.
Wild 4th NHL team shut down for virus reasons
The National Hockey League now has four teams paused for virus-related reasons after the Minnesota Wild were shut down through at least Tuesday.
The Wild now have six players on the league’s COVID-19 list and had their next four games postponed. The Vegas Golden Knights,
New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabres were already paused because of the virus.
A total of 22 NHL games have been postponed so far, affecting 16 of 24 U.S.-based teams.
The Wild and Colorado Avalanche were set to finish a four-game, home-and-home series Thursday night in Denver.
COVID case at Australian Open hotel cancels play at tuneups
MELBOURNE — All competition at six Australian Open tuneup events scheduled for Thursday was called off and 520 people who flew to Melbourne for the year’s first tennis major were ordered to isolate after a worker at one of the tournaments’ quarantine hotels tested positive for COVID-19.
The Australian Open is scheduled to begin Monday. Any players, coaches or officials who quarantined at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Melbourne were deemed to be casual contacts of the 26-year-old infected man and required to remain in their accommodation until they test negative.
“We will work with everyone involved to facilitate testing as quickly as possible,” Tennis Australia said in a statement announcing the postponement of all matches at Melbourne Park. A dedicated facility will be used to get players, coaches, officials and staff tested as quickly as possible.
Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews said he called a late-night news conference Wednesday to announce the case “through an abundance of caution.”
Speaking before all of Thursday’s play was postponed, which he acknowledged was a possibility, Andrews said of the Australian Open: “At this stage, no impact on the tournament proper.”
NWHL cancels rest of season after additional virus positives
The National Women’s Hockey League called off the remainder of its season Wednesday on the eve of the playoffs because of additional positive test results for the coronavirus.
The NWHL cited safety concerns for what it called the suspension of play inside a quarantined bubble in Lake Placid, New York. COVID-19 instead wreaked havoc on the two-week event.
“We were not trending in the right direction,” interim commissioner Tyler Tumminia said of more test results coming in Tuesday night. “Our actual numbers per se were not alarming in comparison to the scope of other sports clubs or other sports leagues. However, if you project a number that was going to happen, it doesn’t make sense for us.”
Two of the league’s six teams had already withdrawn from the tournament, with the Metropolitan Riveters citing “several” virus cases. Tumminia said the team had 10, which was over the threshold for disqualifying a team.
The Connecticut Whale’s departure was a choice made at the team level. Tumminia said the NWHL would not disclose how many total positive tests it had in what she called a “restrictive access environment” that did not hold up like other pro sports bubbles.
Two semifinal games Thursday and the final Friday were set to be televised nationally in the U.S. on NBC Sports Network, putting women’s hockey in a prominent spotlight a year away from the Beijing Olympics.
NCAA moving some championships to single sites
The NCAA is moving Division I women’s championship events in volleyball, ice hockey and bowling to single sites. The changes to the format are in response to directives to have as few preliminary-round sites as possible.