Betts trade to L.A. finally in agreement

The Red Sox have again agreed to send 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts and pitcher David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers in a reworked deal, a person with knowledge of the negotiations told The Associated Press on Feb. 9.

The Red Sox will receive Dodgers outfielder Alex Verdugo and prospects Jeter Downs and Connor Wong, the person told the AP on the condition of anonymity because the deal still needed the approval of Major League Baseball. Boston was to send cash to the Dodgers to offset Price’s salary, reportedly half of the $96 million still owed to the 2012 AL Cy Young Award winner.

A three-team deal that would have sent Dodgers pitcher Kenta Maeda to the Twins for pitcher Brusdar Graterol and then flipped Graterol to the Red Sox fell apart last week when Boston balked at Graterol’s medical records. Los Angeles and Minnesota completed a separate deal.

MORTON HAS REGRETS ABOUT SCANDAL >> Twotime All-Star pitcher Charlie Morton says he regrets not doing anything to try to stop the Astros from illegally stealing signs and relaying the information to their hitters during the team’s 2017 World Series championship season.

Morton, now the ace of the Rays, was in his first season with the Astros that year and was the winning pitcher in Game 7 of both the AL Championship Series and World Series.

He also pitched for Houston in 2018 before signing a two-year contract in free agency and helping the Rays make the playoffs last season.

“I was aware of the banging . ... Being in the dugout, you could hear it. I don’t know when it dawned on me, but you knew it was going on,” Morton said Feb. 8 during Tampa Bay’s annual Fan Fest event at Tropicana Field.

“Personally, I regret not doing more to stop it. I don’t know what that would have entailed,” the 36-year-old right-hander said.

“I think the actions would have been somewhat extreme to stop it. That’s a hypothetical.”

While conceding the cheating scandal “negatively impacted the game and people’s perception of the game,” as well as Houston’s lone World Series title, Morton said he doesn’t recall specifics about who did what wrong in 2017.

NBA

JAZZ WIN IT AT BUZZER >> Bojan Bogdanovic made a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Utah Jazz a 114-113 victory over the Rockets.

Jordan Clarkson scored 30 points and Donovan Mitchell finished with 24 points, six assists and five rebounds for the Jazz, who won their second straight after a five-game losing streak.

They needed to come back after P.J. Tucker’s 3-pointer from the corner gave Houston a twopoint lead with 1.6 seconds remaining.