Dec 7, 2017 4 min read

Mariners get

Gordon from Marlins

The Marlins’ latest payroll purge began not with Giancarlo Stanton, but with Dee Gordon.

The two-time All-Star second baseman was traded Thursday to the Seattle Mariners for three prospects in the first big deal involving new Marlins CEO Derek Jeter. He wants to cut payroll by more than 20 percent to $90 million or less, which is why NL MVP Stanton is also on the trading block.

Miami acquired right-hander Nick Neidert, the Mariners’ No. 2 prospect, along with infielder Chris Torres and right-hander Robert Dugger. The Marlins haven’t been to the playoffs since 2003, and they’re anxious to bolster a farm system that ranks among baseball’s worst.

“We need to add depth,” president of baseball operations Michael Hill said. “We need to do things to give us an opportunity to build an organization that we feel can win consistently. In this deal we took an All-Star caliber player in Dee Gordon, and were able to add three very talented pieces to our minor league system.”

The Mariners get $1 million in international signing bonus pool allotment, boosting the amount they can offer Japanese star pitcher and outfielder Shohei Ohtani to a major league-high $3,557,500, just ahead of the Texas Rangers ($3,535,000). They assume Gordon’s contract, which guarantees him $38 million through 2020.

Nets acquire Okafor

The Philadelphia 76ers have traded beleaguered center Jahlil Okafor to the Brooklyn Nets.

Okafor, the No. 3 pick in the 2015 draft, was dropped from the rotation this season and has played only two games. The Sixers also sent guard Nik Stauskas and a 2019 second-round pick to the Nets for forward Trevor Booker.

Okafor has largely been considered a bust and he asked for a contract buyout once the Sixers declined to pick up his option. The Sixers declined to release Okafor for nothing and continued to shop the 6-11 center out of Duke and finally found a taker in the Nets.

Stauskas had played in only six games for the 76ers. Booker averaged 10.1 points for the Nets.

Cal’s Friend named

PSAC runner of year

California University senior Julie Friend was named Thursday the PSAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year.

Friend is the first runner in Cal history to receive the conference honor. She secured the school’s first NCAA All-America honor in women’s cross country with a 22nd-place finish at the NCAA Division II Championships. Friend was the only runner in the Atlantic Region to receive All-America status. She also was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year last month after winning both the conference and regional titles.

Report: Youngest Ball

brothers get agent

The Ball family’s brief association with college basketball is over.

According to LaVar Ball, his younger sons LiAngelo and LaMelo have signed with an agent, ensuring neither will play in the college ranks. The elder Ball told ESPN on Thursday that his plan is for the teenagers to play on the same team overseas.

Oldest brother Lonzo is the only Ball brother to have played in college, completing one season at UCLA before entering the NBA draft and being taken by the Los Angeles Lakers.

LiAngelo never played a regular-season game for the Bruins after being indefinitely suspended last month for shoplifting during the team’s season-opening trip to China. Youngest brother, LaMelo, was headed to Westwood in two years, but that plan has been scuttled. LaVar Ball recently withdrew LaMelo from Chino Hills High, where he was a junior, and said he was going to home school him.

LaVar Ball told ESPN that LiAngelo and LaMelo have signed with Harrison Gaines, the same agent who represents Lonzo Ball.

“I don’t care about the money,” LaVar Ball told ESPN. “I want them to go somewhere where they will play them together on the court at the same time. The priority is for the boys to play on the same team.”

Ball pulled LiAngelo from UCLA earlier this week, saying he was frustrated that the school hadn’t made a final decision on the length of his son’s suspension following the shoplifting incident.