Justin Verlander and the San Francisco Giants have agreed to a $15 million, one-year contract, according to a person with direct knowledge of the negotiations.

This will be the 20th MLB season for the three-time AL Cy Young Award winner who turns 42 next month.

Verlander went 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA in 17 starts for the AL West champion Houston Astros last year. He opened the season on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. He also was on the IL from June 18 to Aug. 21 because of neck discomfort.

Verlander spent his first 12-plus seasons with Detroit. He won his first Cy Young Award and was AL MVP after going 24-5 with a 2.40 ERA for the Tigers in 2011.

He was traded to Houston in August 2017 and helped the team capture the franchise’s first World Series title that year. He won two more Cy Young Awards and another championship during his first stint with the Astros.

Verlander signed an $86.7 million, two-year contract with the New York Mets in December 2022. The nine-time All-Star made 16 starts for New York before he was traded back to Houston for two minor leaguers.

Verlander is 262-147 with a 3.30 ERA in 526 career starts. He is baseball’s active leader in wins, strikeouts (3,416), innings (3,415 2/3), starts and complete games (26). He is 17-12 with a 3.58 ERA in 38 postseason appearances.

The Athletics have agreed to a $60 million, five-year contract extension with slugger Brent Rooker.

The deal keeps Rooker signed through 2029, when the team is planning to be in Las Vegas. The A’s left Oakland after last season and are set to play the next three seasons in a minor league park in West Sacramento.

Rooker has been one of the best players for the A’s since joining the team in 2023. He batted .293 with 39 homers and 112 RBIs last season. He hit 30 homers in his first season with the A’s, making the AL All-Star squad.

NFL

The Las Vegas Raiders fired Antonio Pierce after just one season as their full-time coach.

Pierce, a former NFL linebacker and Super Bowl champion with the Giants, took over as the interim coach midway through the 2023 season and went 5-4 the rest of the way, earning strong player support for him to get the job on a full-time basis.

But the Raiders, after a 2-2 start, went on a 10-game losing streak to put his job in jeopardy. The Raiders dealt with a number of injuries and finished the season 4-13.

Pierce was the fourth full-time Raiders coach — Rich Bisaccia closed out the 2021 season as the interim coach — in the past decade.

Pierce, a former standout player at Paramount High and Mt. San Antonio College, was head coach for four seasons at Long Beach Poly.

The Tennessee Titans fired general manager Ran Carthon after two seasons on the job and a 9-25 record.

The Titans introduced Carthon as the franchise’s first Black general manager in January 2023.

college football

Boise State junior running back Ashton Jeanty has declared for the NFL draft.

Jeanty’s decision to forego his senior year is no surprise.

The Heisman Trophy runner-up put together one of the most impressive college seasons ever assembled by a running back in 2024, leading the nation in rushing yards (2,601) — nearly 900 yards more than the next-best player — and finishing second in rushing touchdowns (29) behind Army quarterback Bryson Daily (32).

Jeanty’s rushing yards were the second-most in a single season in college football history. The junior finished just 27 yards from tying Barry Sanders’ record of 2,628 yards, set in 1988.

Northern Illinois accepted an invitation to join the Mountain West Conference for football only in 2026.

The Huskies will go from the Midwest-based MAC to a conference in which the easternmost school is in Colorado Springs, Colorado. They will join Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming in the Mountain West.

Northern Illinois has played 39 seasons in the MAC over two stints from 1975 to 1985 and since 1997. It was in the Big West Conference in football from 1993 to 1995 and operated as an independent from 1986 to 1992, as well as in 1996.

The Huskies went 8-5 this season and pulled off a huge stunner at then-No. 5 Notre Dame in September.

NIU has consistently been among the top teams in the MAC for two decades. It’s played in 15 bowl games in that span, and the 2012 team even made the Orange Bowl.

Wide receiver Malik Ben- son is leaving Florida State and transferring to Oregon.

Oregon will be Benson’s third school in three years after he played two seasons at a Kansas junior college before transferring to Alabama first, then Florida State. Benson is in line to play another season after a federal judge last month issued a preliminary injunction allowing Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia to play one more year after Pavia challenged NCAA eligibility rules for athletes coming from junior colleges.

Benson was a record-setting receiver at Hutchinson Community College and the No. 1 junior college prospect in 2023. He started six of his 14 games at Alabama that year. He transferred to Florida State in the offseason and was the team’s third-leading receiver with 25 catches for 311 yards and a touchdown.

Oregon is losing leading receiver Tez Johnson, who announced he would declare for the NFL draft.

Mark Gronowski, the prolific quarterback who led South Dakota State to two FCS national championships and to the semifinals this season, announced that he’ll play his final season at Iowa.

He immediately becomes the projected 2025 starter, even though the Hawkeyes return Brendan Sullivan, who said two weeks ago he welcomed the competition.

Gronowski threw for 2,719 yards and 23 touchdowns this season as the Jackrabbits went 12-3 with a loss to eventual national champion North Dakota State in the Football Championship Subdivision semifinals.

He has passed for 10,309 yards and 93 touchdowns and was 49-6 as the Jackrabbits’ starter.