The Dodgers’ biggest pickup at the upcoming trade deadline could be a star player already on the club roster.

Two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani faced hitters earlier this week in a practice pitching setting, the first time he has done so since undergoing major ligament surgery in September 2023, while still with the Angels. Three months after that procedure, Ohtani signed a record-setting, $700 million deal with the Dodgers, since eclipsed by Juan Soto, premised heavily on his highly rare status as an elite hitter and pitcher. 

The hitting has certainly been there, and then some, as Ohtani won the National League Most Valuable Player award last year as a designated hitter en route to the Dodgers’ first full-season title since 1988. He’s off to a hot start again at the plate in 2025, currently leading MLB in home runs and runs scored. The practice pitching session, however, brings Ohtani a significant step closer to being back on the mound and fully reflecting his unique value. 

Both Dodgers coaches and players raved about Ohtani’s 22-pitch simulated session, during which the superstar reached a peak velocity of 97 miles per hour.

“He looks good. He looked healthy,” said Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior. “That’s always the main thing with facing hitters, that he feels confident, his endurance is good, and he maintained his stuff. From that standpoint, it’s a success. Pitch movement-wise, it looked good, too.”

A specific timetable for Ohtani’s return to pitching has not been finalized, and Prior cautioned there is “still a long way to go.” There is a hope, however, that he could be ready for a return soon after the mid-July All-Star break and around the July 31 trade deadline. 

The next steps for Ohtani will be to throw another bullpen session Wednesday and live batting practice this weekend. 

Ohtani is already one of MLB’s biggest stars, but a return to pitching will only expand his notoriety more, and provide the league another sizable boost as it continues efforts to make its standout talents into major national and international figures. 

“I’ve gotten so used to seeing him as a hitter. So to see him on the mound just solely as a pitcher, it was different and certainly exciting for all of us,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “If it kind of works as it should, he’s a top-end starter, so that’s kind of all our expectation.”

For an aspiring professional basketball player, getting selected in the first round of the NBA draft is more than just an honor. It comes with millions of dollars in guaranteed money.

So it was a surprise on Tuesday when ESPN reported that projected late first-round pick Yaxel Lendeborg will withdraw from the 2025 NBA draft to return to college and transfer to Michigan. Lendeborg, who played his last two years at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, was No. 26 on ESPN’s NBA draft projections and was No. 28 in The Athletic’s mock draft in March. 

The 22-year-old is theoretically risking a four-year contract worth more than $14 million with two years, $5.6 million guaranteed. The last pick of the first round of the 2025 NBA draft is expected to sign for $14.1 million, according to Spotrac.

It’s unclear how much in NIL (name, image, and likeness) money Lendeborg will receive from the Wolverines, but there is a notion that college programs could begin to offer deals that would rival NBA salaries, given that projected 2026 top pick AJ Dybantsa reportedly received $7 million per year from BYU. While Lendeborg was the No. 1 projected big man in the transfer portal per ESPN and is expected to start for Michigan, he likely does not command close to as much as Dybantsa.

What makes leaving for the NBA immediately enticing for top prospects like Dybantsa and projected 2025 No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg is that they can get to their second contract as soon as possible. Those deals can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

But for potential late first-round picks like Lendeborg, there is still a risk of falling out of the first round, where contracts are no longer guaranteed. Even if he stays in Round 1, the likelihood of a massive second contract isn’t a guarantee, either. For example, Kansas center Udoka Azubuike, who was selected No. 27 in the 2020 NBA draft, earned $6.3 million over four years in the NBA but has since moved overseas.

According to ESPN, Lendeborg’s background played a factor in choosing to stay a little longer in college to mold his skills before going pro. The Dominican American player played just 11 high school games in his senior year and said he was “more into video games than basketball” for most of his life. 

Other Withdrawals

Lendeborg wasn’t the only player to withdraw from the 2025 NBA draft Tuesday. 

ESPN reported Tuesday morning that Milos Uzan will also return to college, staying with Houston, which he helped lead to the national championship game last year. The 22-year-old guard was a projected second-round pick.

Hours later, Australian center Alex Condon, who was also projected for the second round, announced he’s withdrawing his name from the 2025 NBA draft. Condon helped Florida defeat Uzan and the Cougars to win the national championship last month alongside Walter Clayton Jr., who ESPN has listed at No. 27 in this year’s NBA draft class.

The U.S. Women’s Open tees off Thursday from Erin Hills, as the USGA continues the trend of hosting the major championship at prestigious golf courses once reserved for its men’s counterpart.

This marks the first time the U.S. Women’s Open is being played at the Wisconsin course, which was the site of the 2017 men’s U.S. Open won by Brooks Koepka. 

Over the next two decades, the U.S. Women’s Open is scheduled to be played at nine more courses that are also hosting men’s U.S. Opens—many of them multiple times.

It’s a trend that kicked into high gear in 2023 when the U.S. Women’s Open was played at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links for the first time. The famous California course will host the women’s major again in 2035, 2040, and 2048, while hosting the men’s in 2027, 2032, 2037, and 2044.

Next year’s U.S. Women’s Open will be held at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles, the site of the 2031 men’s U.S. Open and the host of the golf competition at the 2028 Olympics. In 2028, the U.S. Women’s Open will go to Oakmont Country Club, the difficult Pittsburgh course that is hosting the men’s championship next month, and return in 2038.

In 2029, the women’s and men’s U.S. Opens will be played in consecutive weeks at Pinehurst No. 2. It will mark the first such instance since 2014 at the same course.

Other courses hosting both the men’s and women’s championships include Oakland Hills Country Club, Los Angeles Country Club, Merion Golf Club, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, and The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. 

Taking the men’s and women’s U.S. Opens to so many of the same courses is made possible in part by the USGA’s new “anchor sites” strategy that allows it to build permanent infrastructure at many sites it plans on returning to on a regular basis.

Money Talks

Once again, the U.S. Women’s Open is offering a record $12 million in prize money, which is the same amount as last year’s edition and still the most lucrative event in women’s golf. The winner will pocket $2.4 million, also equal to what Yuka Saso made for winning at Lancaster Country Club in 2024. 

That’s not the biggest winner’s check in women’s golf, though, as last year’s CME Group Tour Championship, the LPGA’s season-ending tournament, paid out $4 million to Jeeno Thitikul from an $11 million purse.