The Red Sox signed infielder Mike Olt, a former supplemental first-round pick, to a minor league contract. He will report to minor league spring training. The 28-year-old Olt has played in 135 major league games with three teams, none since 2015. He has a career .580 OPS. Olt spent last season in the minors with the San Diego Padres, but played only 52 games. Olt is primarily a third baseman and has experience at first base. The Red Sox had 21 players on the field for an informal workout at Fenway South at Fort Myers, Fla., on Tuesday. New arrivals included righthander Heath Hembree, lefthander Brian Johnson, and infielder Deven Marrero.
Peter Abraham
Yankees pick up NL HR leader
Chris Carter, who tied for the National League home run lead last season, agreed to a $3.5 million, one-year contract with the Yankees. “I am excited to go play for a bigger-market team with more national exposure,’’ Carter said Tuesday. Carter, 30, whose career-high 41 home runs last season matched Colorado’s Nolan Arenado for tops in the NL, became a free agent in December when Milwaukee failed to offer him a contract. Carter, a first baseman, hit .222 with 94 RBIs.
Napoli to rejoin Rangers?
Mike Napoli and the Texas Rangers are working toward another reunion, this time to fill pressing needs the AL West champions have for a first baseman and another big bat in the middle of the lineup. Napoli hit a career-high 34 homers last year in his only season with the Indians . . . Pitcher Kevin Gausman and the Baltimore Orioles avoided an arbitration hearing by agreeing to a $3.45 million, one-year contract. Gausman went 9-12 with a 3.61 ERA in 30 starts last season . . . All-Star reliever Will Harris is guaranteed $5 million in his two-year contract with the Houston Astros . . . The retired Mark Teixeira will work as an analyst for ESPN.
Pro Basketball
Mavs sign rookie tryout Ferrell
The Mavericks signed rookie point guard Yogi Ferrell to a multiyear deal after a dazzling start under a 10-day contract. Ferrell averaged 17.2 points and 5.0 assists in five games, all starts. That included a 32-point game and a critical 3-pointer at Portland when Dallas won a season-best fourth straight game. Ferrell tied an NBA rookie record with nine 3-pointers in the 108-104 victory over the Trail Blazers on Friday. He was undrafted out of Indiana.
Colleges
Rhode Island holds off UMass
Jared Terrell scored 14 points and Rhode Island made 5 of 6 free throws in the last 34 seconds to defeat UMass, 70-62, in Amherst. Terrell sank a pair of free throws with 34 seconds left to blunt a UMass rally. E.C. Matthews and Nicola Akele each added 12 points for Rhode Island (16-7, 8-3 Atlantic 10). Donte Clark led the Minutemen (12-12, 2-9) with 30 points . . . Napheesa Collier made all of her 10 shots while piling up 24 points, and top-ranked UConn (23-0, 11-0 American Athletic) rolled to a 96-49 victory over host Cincinnati (14-9, 5-5) , the Huskies’ 98th straight win . . . Baylor fired newly hired assistant strength and conditioning coach Brandon Washington after he was arrested on a prostitution solicitation charge, the latest legal development at a school wracked by a sexual assault scandal. Washington, 33, was fired Saturday after school officials learned he had been arrested earlier in the day on a misdemeanor charge . . . In more fallout from the scandal known as WakeyLeaks, Army suspended defensive coordinator Jay Bateman for two weeks for mishandling information about the Wake Forest football program. Bateman and former assistant coach Ray McCartney obtained non-public information from former Wake Forest assistant coach-turned-broadcaster Tommy Elrod and tried to conceal the information.
Boxing
WBC champ, Russian in fight
Two heavyweight boxers — one American, the other Russian — are squaring off outside the ring in a legal battle accusing the Russian of doping. World Boxing Council champion Deontay Wilder and his one-time challenger Alexander Povetkin were both in federal court in Manhattan to hear opening statements at a civil trial stemming from a lawsuit filed by Wilder. He’s seeking $5 million for breach of contract after Povetkin failed a drug test, forcing the cancellation of a 2016 bout. A jury must decide whether a test result showing Povetkin had taken meldonium was valid. Meldonium is the substance that got Maria Sharapova banned from tennis for 15 months.
Miscellany
Vonn starts, doesn’t finish
In a surprising start to the world ski championships, Lindsey Vonn failed to finish the super-G and Nicole Schmidhofer won a race for the first time at St. Moritz, Switzerland. Vonn arrived in St. Moritz with a women’s record 77 career wins in World Cup races. Schmidhofer, 27, had zero. Vonn struggled to grip her right ski pole — a lingering problem since breaking her right upper arm in November — and seemed uneasy before taking a too-straight line and went off the course midway down . . . Olympic hurdles gold medalist Dawn Harper-Nelson has been suspended by the US Anti-Doping Agency for three months after testing positive for a banned substance, hydrochlorothiazide and related metabolites. Harper-Nelson captured gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Games. She earned silver four years later in London.
