Sports Briefs: Beasley, Edu could fill spots on U.S. roster

CARSON, Calif.

Bob Bradley, the U.S. soccer coach, sounds willing to consider midfielders DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu for his World Cup roster.

The U.S. will be missing many of its regulars for its 2010 opener, an exhibition against Honduras on Saturday night, and for a Feb. 24 match against El Salvador on Feb. 24 in Tampa, Fla.

Far more significant is a March 3 game against the Netherlands in Amsterdam, the last game before Bradley selects his 23-man World Cup roster.

Beasley, a veteran of the past two World Cups, hasn't played for the national team since a poor performance against Brazil at last June's Confederations Cup. Last month he scored his first two goals for Glasgow Rangers since April 2008, then strained a thigh muscle.

Edu, Beasley's Rangers teammate, returned to first-team action Dec. 27 for the first time since injuring a knee ligament on May 24.

While Beasley and Edu could be called in for the Netherlands match, the U.S. will be without midfielder Clint Dempsey, who injured his right knee Sunday playing for England's Fulham. After fearing initially that he might have torn the posterior-cruciate ligament and needed surgery, the Cottagers said Tuesday that damage was moderate and that he should return before the end of the Premier League season in May.

Baseball

■ Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners have completed a $78 million, five-year deal that averts an arbitration hearing and keeps Hernandez under contract through 2014.

The Mariners and Hernandez's agents opened talks soon after he finished second in voting for last year's AL Cy Young Award.

Hernandez, a 23-year-old right-hander, was 19-5 last season, tied for the most wins in the majors and made his first All-Star team. He had a career-high 217 strikeouts with a career-low 2.49 ERA.

■ The Los Angeles Dodgers re-signed right-hander Vicente Padilla to a one-year contract after his outstanding performance down the stretch last season.

The Dodgers picked up Padilla last Aug. 19 after the Texas Rangers abruptly released him. Padilla went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in seven starts for Los Angeles, bolstering the NL West champions' inconsistent rotation. Padilla then allowed just one earned run over 14 1/3 innings in his first two career playoff appearances for the Dodgers before losing Game 5 of the NL championship series to Philadelphia.

Padilla is 98-85 with a 4.03 ERA in his 11-year career with Arizona, Philadelphia, Texas and Los Angeles.

■ Infielder Khalil Greene and the Rangers completed a $750,000, one-year contract yesterday.

Texas was looking for a utility infielder who could play shortstop after the departure of free agent Omar Vizquel, who signed with the Chicago White Sox. Greene has played 678 games at shortstop in his career, and his only 16 games at third base came last season with St. Louis.

Greene hit .200 with six homers in 77 games for the Cardinals last season. Before that, he was the starting shortstop for San Diego for five seasons. He is a career .245 hitter.

To make room of their 40-man roster, the Rangers designated outfielder Greg Golson for assignment.

■ A person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press that pitcher Joel Pineiro has agreed to a $16 million, two-year contract with the Los Angeles Angels. Pineiro's deal is subject to a physical, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not yet final.

Los Angeles hopes that Pineiro will help fill a hole created by the departure of John Lackey, who left the team for an $82.5 million, five-year deal with the Boston Red Sox. Pineiro also had been sought by the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.

■ Octavio Dotel has agreed to a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the only team that was offering him the chance to be a closer. The deal, completed yesterday, includes an option for 2011.

Dotel, 36, hasn't been a closer since 2007, when he had 11 saves for Kansas City. He had one save the past two seasons as a setup man for the Chicago White Sox, going 3-3 with a 3.32 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings last year.

Dotel has 83 saves since breaking into the majors with the New York Mets at age 25 in 1999.

■ President David Samson of the Florida Marlins said that the team won't trade second baseman Dan Uggla this winter.

The Marlins will go into the season with the team they have now, Samson said yesterday. That means a payroll of about $45 million, an increase of more than 20 percent from last year's $36.8 million, which was the lowest in the major leagues.

Samson's comments came shortly after ace Josh Johnson signed the $39 million, four-year deal he agreed to last week. Uggla agreed Monday to a $7.8 million, one-year contract.

■ First baseman Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers has spent three months in a treatment program for alcoholism after a much-publicized drinking binge during the final weekend of the regular season.

Cabrera said he has turned his life around. He said yesterday that he hasn't had a drink since he was taken into custody by police after a domestic-abuse complaint was filed by his wife in the early morning of Oct. 3 -- hours before a crucial game against the Chicago White Sox.

Cabrera got drunk enough between Friday night's game and Saturday morning to have what police said was a 0.26 blood-alcohol reading -- three times above Michigan's legal limit for driving -- and a bruised and cut left cheek.

He went to a treatment program in Miami during the offseason, and General Manager Dave Dombrowski of Detroit said that the program will continue into spring training and the 2010 regular season.

■ Joe Blanton and the Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to a $24 million, three-year contract that avoided a salary arbitration hearing next month.

Blanton, a 29-year-old right-hander, was 12-8 with a 4.05 ERA last year during the regular season and didn't get a decision in two postseason starts and two relief appearances. After making $5,475,000 last year, he asked for $10.25 million in arbitration and was offered $7.5 million.

All-Star center fielder Shane Victorino and catcher Carlos Ruiz remain in arbitration.

Olympics

■ Todd Lodwick is the third American ever named to five Winter Olympics teams, headlining a powerful U.S. Nordic combined team that includes fellow world champions Billy Demong and Johnny Spillane.

Lodwick, 33, of Steamboat Springs, Colo., matched bobsledder Brian Shimer and Mark Grimmette in luge for most Olympics Games appearances by an American winter-sports athlete when the five-member team was announced yesterday.

The other members of the team are Brett Camerota of Park City, Utah, and Taylor Fletcher of Steamboat Springs.

Miscellaneous

■ North Dakota higher-education officials have voted to delay a decision on retiring the University of North Dakota's "Fighting Sioux" nickname and Indian head logo.

The board voted 5-3 yesterday in favor of the delay so that the state can find out if it can speed up an appeal to the state Supreme Court by some Spirit Lake Sioux members who sued to keep the name and symbol.

The board is trying to drop the nickname and logo before a November deadline set as part of a settlement with the NCAA, which considers them hostile to American Indians.

A state judge ruled last month in a lawsuit filed by the Spirit Lake Sioux members that the board had the authority to do what it wants. The Spirit Lake Sioux group then appealed to the state's highest court.