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Slugging free agent Jorge Soler agrees to $42M, three-year deal with Giants, AP source says

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SAN FRANCISCO — Slugging free agent outfielder and designated hitter Jorge Soler has agreed to a $42 million, three-year contract with the San Francisco Giants, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the deal was pending a successful physical. San Francisco President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi was still hopeful of upgrading his roster ahead of the start of spring training this week, and will have a slugger to give new manager Bob Melvin more depth in the outfield.

The 31-year-old from Cuba was a first-time All-Star last season with Miami. He also provides versatility that Zaidi has long valued as a hitter who consistently gets on base and can play both corner outfield positions. Soler played 137 games for the Marlins last season, batting .250 with 36 home runs and 75 RBIs. He spent 102 games as DH

The games played were third-most in his 10-year big league career with the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City, Atlanta and the Marlins. He appeared in all 162 games for the Royals in 2019, then 149 during with Kansas City and the Braves in 2021.

San Francisco hopes to contend in the NL West after hiring Melvin from division rival San Diego to replace Gabe Kapler following two straight years missing the playoffs. The Giants won a franchise-record 107 games and the division crown in 2021.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb



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Nicollet Avenue bridge in Minneapolis gets $34 million federal grant

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“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, more than 11,000 bridges in communities across America are finally getting the repairs they’ve long needed with funding from our infrastructure law,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, in a news release. He said the bridge repairs ensure “people and goods can get where they need to go, safely and efficiently.”



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Driver, 19, passing illegally on Wright County road, causes fatal crash

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A 19-year-old driver trying to get around slower vehicles collided head-on with an SUV in Wright County and killed one person and injured several others, officials said Thursday.

SUV passenger Janice Evelyn Johnson, 92, of Arden Hills, died Monday at HCMC from injuries she suffered in the collision on Oct. 22 in Monticello Township on County Road 37 near County Road 12, the Sheriff’s Office said in a search warrant affidavit filed in Hennepin County District Court.

The driver and two other people in the SUV survived their injuries, according to the affidavit, which the Sheriff’s Office filed to collect Johnson’s medical records at HCMC as part of its investigation.

According to the affidavit:

Deputies arrived at the crash scene and spoke with the car’s driver, Christian Kabunangu, of Brooklyn Park, who said he was heading west on County Road 37 and found himself behind two vehicles traveling below the speed limit.

“He was late for work, so he decided to pass them,” the affidavit read. Kabunangu said he saw the oncoming SUV and estimated it was about a half-mile down the road.

As he attempted to pass one of the slower vehicles, he explained, the other driver “sped up, preventing him from getting back into the westbound lane,” the filing continued.

As the Honda drew near, he swerved to the left, but the SUV did the same and they collided.



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University of Minnesota researchers find that native plants can beat invasive buckthorn on their own turf.

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If the invasive buckthorn that is strangling the life out of Minnesota’s forest floor has a weakness, it is right now, in the shortening daylight of the late fall.

With a little help and planning, certain native plants have the best chance of beating buckthorn back and helping to eradicate it from the woods, according to new research from the University of Minnesota.

The sprawling bush has been one of the most formidable invasive species to take root in Minnesota since it was brought from Europe in the mid-1800s. It was prized as an ornamental privacy hedge. All the attributes that make buckthorn good at that job — dense thick leaves that stay late into the fall, toughness and resilience to damage and pruning, unappealing taste to wildlife and herbivores — have allowed it to thrive in the wild.

It grows fast and thick, out-competing the vast majority of native plants and shrubs for sunlight and then starving them under its shade. It creates damaging feedback loops, providing ideal habitat and calcium-rich food for invasive earthworms, which in turn kill off and uproot native plants. That leaves even less competition for buckthorn to take root, said Mike Schuster, a researcher for the university’s Department of Forest Resources.

When it takes over a natural area, buckthorn creates a “green desert,” Schuster said. “All that’s left is just a perpetual hedge, with little biodiversity.”

Since the 1990s, when the spread became impossible to ignore, Minnesota foresters, park managers and cities have spent millions of dollars a year trying to beat it back. They’ve used chainsaws and trimmers, poisons and herbicides, and even goats for hire. The buckthorn almost always grows back within a few years.

It’s been so pervasive that a conventional wisdom formed that buckthorn seeds could survive dormant in the soil for up to six years. That thought has led to a sort of fatalism: even if the plant were entirely removed from a property there would be a looming threat that it would sprout back, Schuster said.

But there is nothing special about buckthorn seeds. They only survive for a year or two.



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