Sports Briefs: Yankees, Mariners complete trade

The Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees completed their four-player trade Monday that will send pitcher Michael Pineda, an All-Star in his rookie season, to the Yankees in exchange for catcher Jesus Montero, one of the top young slugging prospects in baseball.

Seattle also sent pitching prospect Jose Campos, 19, to New York, and New York sent pitcher Hector Noesi, 24, to Seattle. The trade was completed after all players passed physicals with their new teams.

Pineda had a blistering start to his first season before going through anticipated rookie struggles. He finished 9-10 with a 3.74 ERA and led all of baseball in holding right-handed batters to a .184 average. He struck out 173 in 171 innings.

In 69 plate appearances, Montero hit four homers, drove in 12 runs and batted .328 for New York in a September call-up.

Also Monday, the Yankees said that Jorge Posada, 40 and a five-time All-Star catch, will announce his retirement today at Yankee Stadium. Posada will end his 17-year big-league career with the team that drafted him rather than pursue a spot with another team. He helped the Yankees win five World Series titles and hit .273 for his career with 275 home runs and 1,065 RBIs.

Aoki will make at least $2.25M with Brewers

Outfielder Norichika Aoki will make at least $2.25 million over two years under his contract with the Milwaukee Brewers and would make as much as $8,187,500 if his 2014 option is exercised and he has at least 140 starts and 150 games played each season.

Milwaukee is paying a $2.5 million fee for Aoki to Yakult of Japan's Central League. Aoki, 30, hit better.300 in six of his seven full seasons in Japan's Central League and was a three-time Central League batting champion.

DB Cash leaves Ohio State for Duke

Defensive back Jeremy Cash has transferred from Ohio State to Duke, coach David Cutcliffe announced Monday in a release.

Cash, who played in five games as a first-year freshman at Ohio State in 2011, is enrolled at Duke and will participate in spring drills, which will start Feb. 22. He will sit out next season under NCAA transfer rules, then will have three seasons of eligibility, starting in 2013.

Cash, a 6-foot-2, 190-pounder from Plantation, Fla., was rated a four-star prospect by ESPN.com as a high-school senior.

Wake Forest signs five in volleyball

Heather Kahl Holmes, the volleyball coach at Wake Forest, announced a five-player signing class Monday.

Sam Boesch of Lake in the Hills, Ill., Anna Carley of Mason, Ohio, Taylor Deaton of Los Altos, Calif., Taylor Dickens of Raleigh St. David's, and Megan Miller of Western Springs, Ill., will join the program for the 2012 season. Boesch and Carley are outside hitters, Dickens plays the right side, Deaton is a middle blocker, and Miller is a defensive specialist.

Paul Hamm to return to action

Gymnast Paul Hamm, the gold medalist in the all-around at the Athens Olympic, plans to compete at a U.S. men's ranking meet next month, his first competition since breaking his hand at the 2008 national championships.

Hamm will be trying to secure one of eight national-team spots available at Winter Cup, Feb. 2-4 in Las Vegas. Hamm, 29, the only American man to win Olympics and world all-around titles, missed the Beijing Olympics after breaking his hand in 2008. He came out of retirement for a second time in 2010 but missed last year's national championships because of shoulder surgery.

Odds and ends

• Stewart-Haas Racing, co-owned by reigning Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart, on Monday announced a multi-year sponsorship deal with Aspen Dental for Ryan Newman's No. 39 Chevrolet. The company, based in Syracuse, N.Y., will be the primary sponsor for Newman in 2012 for Sprint Cup races at Daytona in July and New Hampshire in September and an associate sponsor at other races.

• Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 horse of the year, gave birth Sunday to a 125-pound colt sired by Curlin, the 2007 and 2008 horse of the year, at Stonestreet Farm near Lexington, Ky. Rachel Alexandra was the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness, in 2009. She had 13 career wins and five second-place finishes in 19 starts.

• NBC Sports Group and the Breeders' Cup have agreed to a multiyear deal for the network to televise the two-day Breeders' Cup World Championships starting with the 2012 races, and the network will move the Breeders Cup Classic to prime time for the first time. This year, NBC Sports Network will televise Breeders Cup races Nov. 2 and Nov. 3, then NBC will pick up coverage for the $5 million Classic from 8-9 p.m. Eastern.

• The Big South Conference added Longwood as a full member Monday, effective with the 2012-13 academic year. The addition increases Big South membership to 12 schools for the first time in league history. Longwood, located in Farmville, Va., has 14 varsity sports at the Division I level.

• University of Texas regents are considering making changes to football coach Mack Brown's contract and will hold a meeting on Thursday to talk about them. Brown, whose contract runs through 2016, is one of the highest-paid college coaches in the nation at $5.2 million per year.

• Jim Crane, the Houston Astros' new owner, said he is considering changing the name of the franchise as well as its uniforms. Any changes would wait to be made until 2013, when Houston moves from the National League to the American League.

• Alex Ovechkin, a Washington Capitals forward, has been suspended for three games for a charging incident in which he launched himself to hit Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek during Sunday's 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins.

From wire reports