Angels re-sign closer Raisel Iglesias to $58 million deal

ANAHEIM — Closer Raisel Iglesias agreed to a fouryear, $58 million deal Wednesday night to stay with the Los Angeles Angels.

Iglesias was outstanding in his first season with the Angels after they acquired him in a trade with Cincinnati a year ago.

The Cuban righthander had 34 saves while going 7-5 with a 2.57 ERA and 103 strikeouts with only 12 walks in 65 appearances. His 8.58 strikeoutto-walk ratio was the best of his career, and he finished 11th in the AL Cy Young voting while repeatedly going multiple innings for the Angels, including eight saves longer than three outs.

Iglesias was the best thing to happen to the Angels’ annually beleaguered bullpen in several years, and the team didn’t take it for granted. He will make $10 million in 2022 and $16 million in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

The Angels declined to trade Iglesias at the deadline because they saw him in their long-term plans. When Iglesias turned down an $18.4 million

qualifying offer last month, Angels general manager Perry Minasian said he remained confident they could reach a deal.

Iglesias, who turns 32 next month, was likely the most desired reliever on the free agent market after his strong performance for the Angels on the back of six solid seasons for the Reds, who signed him in 2014, several months after he defected.

Iglesias has a career ERA of 3.06 with 140 saves, including at least 28 saves in each of the past four full major league seasons despite playing for four teams that finished with losing records.

Minasian is focused on rebuilding the Angels’ pitching staff after they finished 22nd in the majors in ERA during the latest in a decade of mostly poor mound performance.

Iglesias will be joined in the Angels’ bullpen by Aaron Loup, who agreed to a twoyear, $17 million contract as a free agent last month. The veteran left-hander also was one of the majors’ most effective relievers last season for the New York Mets.

Arizona hires UCLA assistant Nansen as defensive coordinator

TUCSON, Ariz. — Arizona has hired UCLA defensive line coach Johnny

Nansen as its defensive coordinator.

Nansen replaces Don Brown, who left to become the head coach at Massachusetts.

Nansen spent the past two seasons coaching the Bruins’ defensive line and has coached in the Pac-12 since 2009. He previously spent six seasons as an assistant at Southern California, serving as assistant head coach while working with the linebackers and recruiting efforts from 2016-18.

Nansen served in a variety of roles at Washington from 2009-13, including a stint as assistant head coach. He also worked at Idaho from 2004-08 after playing three seasons at Washington State.

LAFC picks up short contract option on Vela

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles FC has picked up its short-term contract option on former MLS Most Valuable Player Carlos Vela.

Vela’s option extends to next summer. LAFC said it also exercised its options on forward Danny Musovski and midfielder Eduard Atuesta on Wednesday.

Vela was the first player signed by expansion LAFC, and the Mexican forward had one of the most dominant seasons in MLS history in 2019. He scored a record 34 goals and 49 points while LAFC won the Supporters’ Shield with the league’s best regular season record.

But injuries have dramatically limited Vela’s effectiveness in the past two seasons. He scored only four goals while appearing in just seven games during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, and he made only 15 starts for LAFC this year, scoring a meager five goals.

Vela will turn 33 in March.

LAFC’s decision to keep Vela is a mild surprise, although the former Real Sociedad star still could leave in the January transfer window. The club is undergoing a significant reboot after missing the playoffs last month for the first time in their existence, most notably parting ways with original coach Bob Bradley.

AP source: Notre Dame set to promote Freeman to head coach

Notre Dame is working on a deal to promote defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to head coach to replace Brian Kelly, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because nothing had been finalized, though the first piece of Notre Dame’s plan to regroup after Kelly left for LSU earlier this week had already fallen into place.

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees informed Notre Dame to he would remain with the Fighting Irish

instead of joining Kelly in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Notre Dame released a video on Twitter of Rees telling the team he was staying put.

The person told The AP that Kelly also had interest in bringing Freeman to LSU.

Kelly left Notre Dame after 12 seasons and was introduced Wednesday at LSU.

College Football Playoff expansion talks inch forward

DALLAS — The latest meeting on expanding the College Football Playoff wrapped up without an announcement Wednesday as the people involved agreed to keep talking.

CFP Executive Director Bill Hancock said there remains a strong consensus to expand the four-team field among the management committee, comprised of the 10 major college football conference commissioners and Notre Dame’s athletic director.

But how and when? A proposed 12-team model remains at the heart of the discussions and there is still hope it can be implemented for the 2024 season. How teams would qualify and be selected are topics still under discussion.

“I thought there was a chance we’d get to the end today,” Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. “We didn’t and there were good appropriate reasons why we didn’t. There are people in the room that are differently

situated and they therefore have different perspectives. And they were healthy discussions. I think we made good progress, but we aren’t done.”

There is no firm date for the next meeting, but there is one scheduled for January around the College Football Playoff championship game in Indianapolis.

Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said there are still some who would rather expand only to eight teams. Others are adamant eight won’t work.

Women’s tennis tour suspends China events over Peng concerns

In the strongest public stand against China taken by a sports body, the head of the women’s professional tennis tour announced Wednesday that all WTA tournaments there would be suspended because of concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former government official of sexual assault.

Peng dropped out of public view after raising the allegations about former vice premier Zhang Gaoli in a Nov. 2 social media posting that was quickly taken down by Chinese authorities.

“Unfortunately, the leadership in China has not addressed this very serious issue in any credible way,” WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon wrote in a state

ment distributed by the tour. “While we now know where Peng is, I have serious doubts that she is free, safe, and not subject to censorship, coercion, and intimidation.”

Simon has made repeated calls for what he termed Wednesday a “full and transparent investigation — without censorship” of Peng’s accusations. He said the move to put a halt to his tour’s play in China, including Hong Kong, came “with the full support of the WTA Board of Directors.”

“In good conscience, I don’t see how I can ask our athletes to compete there when Peng Shuai is not allowed to communicate freely and has seemingly been pressured to contradict her allegation of sexual assault,” Simon said. “Given the current state of affairs, I am also greatly concerned about the risks that all of our players and staff could face if we were to hold events in China in 2022.”

China typically hosts about 10 women’s tennis tournaments each year, including the prestigious season-ending WTA Finals, which are scheduled to be held there for a decade. The nation is a source of billions of dollars in income for various sports entities based elsewhere, including the WTA (headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida), the NBA (run out of New York) and the International Olympic Committee (Lausanne, Switzerland).