MLB plans to crack down on ‘sticky stuff’ even more | Bruins get even better after three-team trade

Happy Friday, everyone! Another week down. Congrats!

Let’s get right to it.

Good morning to everyone but especially to…

THE BOSTON BRUINS

The rich get richer. The Bruins — who not only lead the NHL but are on pace to challenge the single-season wins and points record — upgraded their roster by acquiring defenseman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway from the Capitals in a three-team deal on Thursday.

• Boston also got Andrei Svetlakov from the Wild as part of a three-team trade.
• The Capitals received a 2023 first-round pick, a 2025 second-round pick, a 2024 third-round pick and forward Craig Smith. Washington will retain 50% of Orlov’s salary.
• The Wild will retain 25% of Orlov’s salary. Minnesota got a 2023 fifth-round pick from Boston.

Orlov has been a fixture in Washington’s defense for most of the last decade, and both he and Hathaway should serve as important depth pieces for the Stanley Cup favorites, writes our Austin Nivison.

• Nivison: “In an otherwise frustrating year for Washington, Orlov has still managed to be effective. … The Bruins already had a stacked blue line with players like Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Matt Grzelcyk eating big minutes. That means Orlov should get more favorable matchups while taking on lighter minutes in Boston. … Hathaway, who has nine goals and seven assists this season, will provide the Bruins with a bottom-six option at forward.”

Honorable mentions

And not such a good morning for…

MLB PITCHERS

It’s been a year-and-a-half since the MLB started checking pitchers for illegal foreign substances. Now, with the season just over a month away, the league is about to take it up a notch.

According to reports, MLB will be more detailed in checking for “sticky stuff” this season:

• Umpires’ inspections of pitchers’ hands fingers will be more thorough, and those inspections will be more random.
• Umpires could resume checking pitchers’ caps, gloves and belts, a practice they mostly abandoned in 2022.
• Umpires will be empowered to be more aggressive in their checks.

Pitchers can use rosin and other league-approved substances, but “spider tack, pine tar or a now-notorious mixture of sunscreen with sweat and other readily available things during the course of a game” are out of bounds, writes our Matt Snyder. No pitchers were found to be violating the rule in 2022, but pitch spin rates — which went down significantly when umpires began checking in June 2021 — started going up again last season.

It’s the second adjustment the MLB has made this month that will potentially make things tougher on pitchers: Balks will also be more heavily scrutinized, or, basically, more by-the-book after umpires had been lenient about the rule.

Not so honorable mentions

Ranking the top 100 potential NFL free agents 🏈

I’d like to give you an official welcome to the NFL dead period. The season is over. All head-coaching vacancies are filled. The quarterback carousel hasn’t started spinning (even though, very crucially, Aaron Rodgers‘ darkness retreat has come to an end). The franchise tag deadline isn’t until March 7, and free agency opens on March 15.

That gives us plenty of time to assess this year’s free agent class. Pete Prisco has ranked the top 100 players potentially available this offseason. In at No. 1 is…

• Prisco: “Lamar Jackson — The Ravens would be foolish to let him get away. They will put the franchise tag on him and then see if they can get a deal done.”

I agree that the Ravens would be foolish to let him get away, and new offensive coordinator Todd Monken seems to think the same. I think he’ll be in Baltimore in 2023, but it’s far from a done deal and it’s complicated. What’s the relationship like between Jackson and John Harbaugh? What about Jackson and the Ravens in general? It’s going to be a fascinating next few weeks.

Here’s Pete’s top 10:

As for where Beckham comes in the top 100, you’ll have to read Pete’s story to find out.

The permanent Big Ten rivals once USC, UCLA join 🏈

In case you hadn’t heard (or maybe you forgot), the Big Ten — which currently has 14 teams — is expanding to 16 teams in 2024 when USC and UCLA join.

Those additions will change a lot of things, including almost certainly how the Big 10 football schedule works. Our Tom Fornelli explained it all.

• The Big Ten’s nine-game conference schedule will continue.
• Now that there are 16 teams, though, how will teams rotate? The answer should be a 3-6-6 model.
• Each team gets three “permanent rivals” they play every season. They then split the remaining 12 conference schools and play every other year.

That’s the easy part, hypothetically. Who are those permanent rivals, though? That’s what Tom set out to answer, and it likely starts with figuring out the rivals for the newcomers.

• Fornelli: “I wanted to lean on teams that were more in the western half of the league. Hence, UCLA gets Nebraska and Illinois, while USC gets Northwestern and Michigan State. I know Michigan State doesn’t count as ‘west,’ but another factor was in play. … The Big Ten is a conference deep in rivalry and rivalry trophies, so there’s no better way to establish a Big Ten feel to USC and UCLA than giving them a trophy game. … There is simply no way we can not let the Trojans and Spartans be rivals.”

This was a really fun hypothetical exercise, and, most importantly, I thought Tom did a good job with my beloved Northwestern Wildcats (and those other Big Ten teams like Ohio State, Michigan, etc…)

What we’re watching this weekend 📺

Friday

🏀 No. 7 Maryland at No. 16 Ohio State, 6 p.m. on BTN
🏀 Heat at Bucks, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Thunder at Suns, 10 p.m. on ESPN

Saturday

🏒 Rangers at Capitals, 1 p.m. on ABC
🏀 Arizona State at Arizona, 2 p.m. on CBS
🏀 No. 8 Texas at No. 9 Baylor, 2 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Auburn at Kentucky, 4 p.m. on CBS
🏀 No. 6 Virginia at North Carolina, 6 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 No. 17 Indiana at No. 5 Purdue, 7:30 p.m. on FOX
🏀 Celtics at 76ers, 8:30 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 15 Saint Mary’s at No. 12 Gonzaga, 10 p.m. on ESPN

Sunday

🏀 Suns at Bucks, 1 p.m. on ABC
🏀 No. 2 Indiana at No. 6 Iowa, 2 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Lakers at Mavericks, 3:30 p.m. on ABC
🏎 NASCAR Cup Series at California, 3:30 p.m. on FOX
🏀 Timberwolves at Warriors, 7:30 p.m. on ABC
🏀 Clippers at Nuggets, 10 p.m. on ESPN