PITTSBURGH – The Pittsburgh Pirates locked up promising outfielder Gregory Polanco well into the next decade.
A person familiar with the decision told the Associated Press the 24-year-old right fielder agreed to a five-year contract that will begin at the start of the 2017 season. The agreement includes club options for 2022 and 2023. Financial details were not immediately available. The person spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity Monday because the deal had not been announced.
The agreement was first reported by Yahoo.
BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Buffalo Bills signed three free agents, including linebacker Zach Brown to a one-year contract.
The Bills also announced Monday that they signed cornerback Corey White and receiver Leonard Hankerson, who finished last season in Buffalo. Brown and White signed shortly after meeting with Bills officials at the team’s headquarters.
Brown, the Titans 2012 second-round draft pick, spent four seasons in Tennessee. He has just five starts in 16 games after tearing his pectoral muscle in the 2014 season opener.
White split last season between Arizona and Dallas after spending his first three in New Orleans. He has four interceptions in 51 career games, including 20 starts.
Hankerson spent his first four seasons with Washington, and has 107 catches for 1,408 yards and nine touchdowns.
NEW YORK – The New York Jets signed free-agent linebacker Bruce Carter to a one-year contract.
Carter is expected to compete with the recently re-signed Erin Henderson for the middle linebacker spot opposite David Harris.
Carter spent last season with Tampa Bay after playing four years with Dallas, which drafted him in the second round out of North Carolina in 2011. He was released by the Buccaneers last month, and chose to join the Jets after also drawing interest from Buffalo and Detroit.
PHILADELPHIA – Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy won’t be charged over a Philadelphia nightclub brawl that left two off-duty police officers injured.
District Attorney Seth Williams said Monday that he can’t prove who initiated the fight and says it’s legal to act in self-defense or the defense of others.
Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan said McCoy was only trying to break up a fight between the officers and his friends over a $350 bottle of Champagne.
Police have said the fight broke out over a misunderstanding about who had bought the bottle.
ALAMEDA, Calif. – The Oakland Raiders signed free agent pass rusher Aldon Smith to a two-year contract to return to the team after his yearlong suspension ends next November.
Smith signed the contract Monday but will not be able to re-join the team until after his suspension for violating the league’s substance abuse policy ends Nov. 17. Smith must be reinstated by the commissioner before he is able to return. He can apply 60 days before the suspension ends but will not be allowed to participate in the offseason program or training camp.
Smith signed with the Raiders just before last season started after spending his first four years with the San Francisco 49ers. He had 3 sacks in nine games with Oakland.
NEW YORK – The NHL suspended Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri for four games without pay for cross-checking Detroit’s Luke Glendening in the back of the head.
The discipline announced Monday by the league’s department of player safety will cost Kadri $200,000. Kadri will also miss Toronto’s final four games of the season. The Leafs, who already have been eliminated from playoff contention, host Florida on Monday.
DURHAM, N.C. – Brandon Ingram has made it official – he’s the latest one-and-done player to come through Duke.
The freshman announced his decision Monday in a first-person story posted on The Players’ Tribune website. Duke spokesman Cory Walton said Ingram is hiring an agent and is staying in the draft.
The Kinston, N.C., native is the seventh Duke freshman since 2011 to head to the NBA, a run that started with eventual NBA rookie of the year Kyrie Irving and continued last year when three freshmen made the jump after winning the program’s fifth national title.
Ingram averaged 17.3 points, matching the third-highest average by a Duke freshman in school history.
LAUSANNE, Switzerland – The International Skating Union banned two-time Olympian Mitchell Whitmore of the United States for one year after a late-night fight with a Netherlands coach outside a team hotel.
The ISU said its disciplinary panel found the 26-year-old speedskater guilty of misconduct in December during a World Cup meet in Germany.
The ISU’s ruling said Dutch team Coach Stefano Donagrandi alleged Whitmore assaulted him after he complained about noise.
Whitmore acknowledged hitting Donagrandi after the former Olympic champion yelled insults and pushed him.
Whitmore competed in the 500-meter sprint at the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, and placed ninth at the world championships in February.
LONDON – Nick Blackwell’s promoters said the boxer woke after a week in an induced coma since a British middleweight title fight and he is speaking to family members.
Blackwell collapsed soon after the end of the March 26 fight against Chris Eubank Jnr, which was stopped in the 10th round.
Promotion company Hennessy Sports said the bleeding was “outside the brain – on the skull, in fact – and was minor enough for there to be no need to operate.”
The statement adds that Blackwell woke from the coma on Saturday after sedatives were gradually reduced and by the following day he was talking to family and friends.
Hennessy Sports says “it was the outcome everyone had been hoping and praying for; Nick had won his toughest fight yet.”