HOT CORNER

1 PRO BASEBALL: The Brewers will open the season without All-Star closer Devin Williams, who won’t throw for six weeks and could miss at least three months while recovering from two stress fractures in his back. Williams pitched through back soreness at the end of last season, when the Brewers were NL Central champions, and the righthander was feeling discomfort again this spring. The 29-year-old was 8-3 with a 1.53 ERA and 36 saves in 40 chances last year. Over his past two All-Star seasons, Williams had 183 strikeouts in 119 1/3 innings. He is 26-10 with a 1.89 ERA and 54 saves over 219 career appearances.

2 PRO FOOTBALL: The Bengals agreed on contracts with defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins and safety Vonn Bell, two people familiar with the terms told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Rankins gets a $26 million, two-year deal. He had six sacks in 2023 with Houston, after five seasons in New Orleans and two with the Jets. Bell gets a one-year, $6 million contract to return to Cincinnati after one season in Carolina. Bell spent three seasons with the Bengals after starting his career in New Orleans.

MIXED MARTIAL ARTS: UFC 3 Hall of Famer Mark Coleman, 59, called himself“the happiest man in the world” as he embraced family members from a hospital bed. Coleman was airlifted to a hospital Wednesday after saving his parents from a house fire in Ohio this week, according to daughter Morgan Coleman. On Thursday, a video was posted to Mark Coleman’s Instagram.“I’m so lucky,”he said in the video. Morgan Coleman said her father went into the burning house several times and was able to bring out his parents.

RUNNING: Some of the top 4 also-rans from the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials are coming to Boston. Elkanah Kibet, who missed the men’s podium by 5 seconds in a personal best 2 hours, 10 minutes, 2 seconds, will run April 15 in Boston. He will be joined by Sara Hall and Caroline Rotich, who finished fifth and sixth in the trials. Rotich, who recently became a U.S. citizen, won the 2015 Boston Marathon while representing Kenya.