Nineteen-year-old pitcher Carter Stewart is in agreement with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Japanese Pacific League on a six-year contract worth more than $7 million, a groundbreaking deal that could have long-term ramifications for Major League Baseball's amateur and professional sides, sources told ESPN.

Stewart, who was chosen by the Atlanta Braves with the eighth pick in the 2018 draft out of a Florida high school but did not sign after they reduced their signing-bonus offer due to an alleged injury, was expected to be chosen in the early second round of this June's draft. By signing with Fukuoka, which has won four of the past five Japan Series, Stewart would guarantee himself significantly more money than he would have made with a major league organization -- and could theoretically join the major leagues as a 25-year-old free agent.

The deal, first reported by The Athletic, is expected to be finalized at the end of the month, according to sources. The 6-foot-6 Stewart, whose fastball sits in the mid-90s and curveball has spun at an elite 3,000 RPMs, would be the first American amateur to join a Japanese team on a long-term deal. Unlike Brandon Jennings and other basketball players who have avoided the NBA's early-entry rule by taking a gap year abroad, Stewart would be committed to the Hawks through the cusp of his 25th birthday.

The contract includes escalators that could take it beyond the $7 million-plus guaranteed. Had he opted to stay in the United States, Stewart likely would have received a bonus of less than $2 million and made even less over the next six years, barring a rapid ascent to the major leagues.

The secondary benefit for Stewart could be even more lucrative: International free agents 25 or older can sign with any major league team without restrictions, so long as their Japanese team enters them into the posting system. Were Stewart to play in Japan for the next six years, sources told ESPN, he would be considered, under the present rules, an international free agent eligible for posting.

Although the limit of four foreign players per Japanese team could stem an influx of American players, elite amateur talent could begin to use the prospect of going to Japan -- not just for the greater guarantee in money but the earlier access to free agency -- as a cudgel in negotiations.

Stewart's agent, Scott Boras, has long tried to use the prospect of taking an amateur player to Japan for leverage purposes. Never until Stewart had one come close to agreeing to a deal. Boras, who has exploited multiple draft loopholes in the past, opted for a 7,500-mile end-around with Stewart.

Stewart is in Japan now and is expected to join a minor league affiliate of the Hawks upon the completion of his deal. At Eastern Florida State College, the junior college where he pitched this spring, Stewart went 2-2 with a 1.70 ERA in 74 1/3 innings and struck out 108.

For years, opponents of Major League Baseball's draft who believed it stifled the true value of players have hypothesized about ways to avoid its constraints. Nineteen-year-old Carter Stewart is ready to test the viability of an alternative -- and travel more than 7,500 miles from his Florida home to do it.

Stewart is in agreement on a six-year contract worth more than $7 million with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Japan's Pacific League, sources familiar with the deal told ESPN. Stewart was the No. 8 overall pick in last year's MLB draft but didn't sign after the Atlanta Braves, who believed he was injured, offered him a signing bonus well under the $4.98 million slot value of the pick -- around $2 million. Stewart went to junior college instead and was expected to go early in the second round of this year's draft -- and receive an offer of less than $2 million.

Instead, he agreed to a groundbreaking contract with the Hawks, who have won four of the past five Japan Series. Stewart is expected to finalize the deal by the end of May. Not only does Stewart stand to make more money during his six years in Japan than he would have with an MLB organization, he could potentially return to the United States as a 25-year-old free agent allowed to sign a long-term contract with any of MLB's 30 teams.

Certainly that is a long way from today, when Stewart is a raw right-handed pitcher with a mid-90s fastball and a curveball that last year flashed elite spin, whirring at more than 3,000 rpm. Still, the value proposition of playing in Japan was alluring enough to convince Stewart to play patient zero and make real what long has been a what-if question bandied about baseball.

The idea of a player decamping to Japan has been floated over the years by agent Scott Boras, who represents Stewart, in an attempt to extract leverage in an amateur draft system without any. Every team is assigned a pool of money to divvy up in signing bonuses, and teams are penalized for exceeding that pool. The rules have essentially capped draft spending.

Stewart's decision makes easy sense financially. Say he stayed in the United States and signed for $2 million. Best case, Stewart would have started with a team's short-season Class A affiliate. In 2020, he would top out at Double-A and make less than $10,000 for the season. And if Stewart is that good, and moving that quickly, his team probably would keep him at scant wages in the minor leagues for all of 2021, too, and promote him around this time in 2022 to ensure it controls him for 6¾ years before free agency. In 2022, 2023 and 2024, Stewart would make the major league minimum -- which, being generous and assuming the new collective bargaining agreement gives it a big bump, could be $750,000.

In a near-optimal scenario, Stewart would receive around $4 million for the next six years -- and would not reach free agency until after the 2027 season, when he will be 28. His deal with the Hawks would guarantee Stewart $3 million more and potentially allow him to hit free agency three years earlier.

MLB's rules require a "foreign professional" to have spent "all or part of at least six seasons" playing in an "MLB-recognized foreign professional league." Even though Stewart is American, sources told ESPN that residency determination for foreign players is based on a number of factors, including where a player has played, where he plans to live, as well as his nationality. Stewart, under current rules, would be considered a foreign professional if he spends the next six seasons in Japan, sources said, though those rules are subject to change.

If they do not, Stewart could at age 25 join MLB via the posting system, which is used to transfer players between the leagues. The system allows foreign professionals 25 and older unrestricted free agency and delivers a fee to their Japanese team that depends upon the size of the contract negotiated with the MLB team.

All of this, of course, is wildly presumptuous. Stewart is 19 years old. He could get hurt. He could lose control of his pitches. He could regress. Pitching prospects are notoriously finicky, and ascribing to him an idealized scenario isn't entirely fair.

It's just a function of the draft's clamping down on players' value for so long. The reason teams place such a premium on draft picks is because the assets gained with those picks carry enormous marginal value. Were Adley Rutschman, the switch-hitting Oregon State catcher widely expected to go No. 1 overall on June 3, a completely unrestricted free agent, teams would line up to pay him at least $50 million -- perhaps upward of $75 million. The slot value of the Baltimore Orioles' No. 1 pick is $8,415,300.

It's no wonder, then, that Boras wants to subvert the draft. For more than 30 years, he has raged against it, whether it was through Tim Belcher not signing in 1983 or Brien Taylor squeezing a record bonus out of the New York Yankees in 1991 or Jason Varitek and J.D. Drew going to independent leagues or the loophole that made four draft picks unrestricted free agents in 1996. This is not so much a loophole as it is an end around -- and one with risk.

Stewart, after all, is a kid from the Space Coast who played baseball at Eau Gallie High School last year and Eastern Florida State College this season. The baseball culture in Japan is markedly different from that of the major leagues, let alone the travel league, high school and juco ball Stewart has played. The Japanese minor leagues, or ni-gun, are even more trying. All of Stewart's physical skills will require complementary mental toughness. On the other hand, the competition will be plenty representative, and by the time he does arrive in the Japanese major leagues, he'll be playing in the finest foreign league on the planet, the best training ground possible for MLB.

If Stewart excels, it could change baseball. Not only is the money better, the marketing opportunities in Japan for baseball players far exceed those in the United States. Other amateur talent could follow -- or at least use the possibility of Japan as a cudgel, potentially forcing MLB to reassess its draft rules. In a tweet more than five years ago, Hiroshi Mikitani, the billionaire owner of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, said he hoped Nippon Professional Baseball would loosen restrictions on foreign players, which currently limit each team to four. Perhaps Japanese teams could start recruiting more amateurs in the Dominican Republic, an area MLB monopolizes.

The fact that it took decades for a player like Stewart to agree to such a deal might indicate this is more the exception than the rule. Most 19-year-olds aren't altogether keen on going to a country in which they don't speak the language, learning new customs and figuring out how to thrive in a game as difficult as baseball. Then again, kids from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela and Colombia and all around Latin America do it every day in MLB -- and for far less than the millions Stewart will receive.

Stewart, in the end, is a proxy for something bigger -- a haymaker at a system capable of careening out of control until brought back into balance. Perhaps Stewart is that counterweight. Maybe it's someone after him. Could be that nothing changes and this is but a blip. Whatever the case, it's a noble effort, an admirable risk and a fascinating story, this idea in a vacuum coming to life and playing out 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate and thousands and thousands of miles from home.

Conor McGregor opened up about the now-notorious brawl that broke out after his loss to lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, offering his perspective in detail for the first time in a recently released interview with self-help guru Tony Robbins.

In the interview, which was taped in early-April, McGregor said he felt like he landed the final strike of the night and expressed his desire for a rematch with Nurmagomedov.

"At the end of the day, I landed the final blow of the night, right on his brother's eye socket," McGregor said on Robbins' podcast. "Although the match didn't go my way, the fight went my way. And trust me when I tell you, Tony, this war is not over. If this fight does not happen again, if it does not get reset, it's on them. They're running away. I'm here for the fight and here for the rematch."

Nurmagomedov beat McGregor last October by fourth-round submission. In the immediate aftermath, the violence spilled outside of the Octagon. Nurmagomedov, McGregor and their corner people were later suspended and fined for their roles in the melee by the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).

After submitting McGregor, Nurmagomedov got into a verbal exchange with McGregor's cornermen, then climbed over the cage and took a running jump toward them. Nurmagomedov and Dillon Danis, a teammate of McGregor's, threw punches at one another while security tried to break things up.

Back inside the cage, McGregor saw what was going on. He ran in the direction of Nurmagomedov and hopped on top of the cage. McGregor was met there by Abubakar Nurmagomedov -- one of Khabib's teammates whom McGregor mistakenly referred to as Khabib's brother -- who was also trying to join the fight outside the Octagon.

"I seen him there, it was like a Christmas present," McGregor said. "He was right there. I just smacked him right in the eye socket. We started fighting on top of the cage. It was broken up."

Once down from the top of the cage, McGregor said he situated himself with his back against the fence in order to see any potential danger coming his way. McGregor said at that point he didn't know who was security and who was in there trying to swing at him.

"What happened was, two of his teammates ran and jumped over [the cage]," McGregor said. "Right behind me. For me, with my mindset, it was fascinating for me to watch back. Because I got to a safe place, I was good. I got to a place where I was aware. I could see any oncoming threat and deal with it. They came right over my back. Right over my back."

The two Nurmagomedov teammates whom McGregor referred to were Zubaira Tukhugov, who engaged in punches with McGregor, and Esedulla Emiragaev, who landed punches to McGregor's head from behind. Security and commission officials separated the parties.

Then Abubakar Nurmagomedov and McGregor got into it again.

"The final one was the original brother who was on top of the cage," McGregor said. "He broke free from the security, ran at 100 miles an hour towards me. He threw a right hand. As he threw the right hand, I threw a left hand. Boom. There's an image, an aerial image, of the right hand just whipping by my face and my left hand just landing flush down the pipe. The final blow of the night. So, that's it. I win."

McGregor, 30, has not fought in the UFC since that brawl. He was suspended six months, retroactive to the day of the fight, and fined $50,000 by the Nevada commission. The NSAC suspended Khabib Nurmagomedov nine months and fined him $500,000. Khabib Nurmagomedov is expected to return in September and defend his title against interim champion Dustin Poirier.

There is no timetable for McGregor's return, and he told Robbins he wants "what I deserve" from the UFC to get back in the Octagon.

"I just want my worth," he told Robbins. "There's a lot of politics in the game. The fight game is full of sharks. But I'm the f---ing whale, so I want what's mine and that's what I'm gonna get -- what I deserve."

McGregor, though, is still angling for a rematch. He said he broke his foot 2 1/2 weeks before UFC 229 when he kicked a training partner who was shooting in for a takedown. McGregor said two of his toes bent backward, and a doctor had to come into the cage and reset them. He said his foot swelled up "like a balloon" and that he probably should have rescheduled the Nurmagomedov fight but chose not to.

"I wanted to compete," McGregor said. "I wanted to get in there."

McGregor admitted to Robbins that he had "lapses in commitment" to fighting leading up to that bout. And the injured foot made it harder for him to cut weight. McGregor said he was severely dehydrated and didn't sleep for 48 hours leading into the weigh-ins.

McGregor added that he felt like his mindset was too defensive in training camp, which goes against his "attacking" style.

"I gave him my respect. Congrats, he won the match," McGregor said of Nurmagomedov. "Let's see what happens next time. I'm confident we'll get it again. Let's go again. I am humble in victory or defeat, no matter what. It's a sport at the end of the day. A gruesome sport, but a sport."

BALTIMORE -- The Baltimore Orioles have reached the century mark.

On Tuesday, the Orioles surrendered their 100th home run of the season, making them the fastest team to ever reach that mark. They achieved the dubious distinction in the fifth inning, when New York Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier drilled a three-run shot to dead center against O's starter David Hess. The home run, which traveled 411 feet and gave New York a 9-0 lead, was Frazier's second of the night and the third allowed by Hess in the game.

Baltimore's pitching staff, which was working its 48th game this season, reached triple digits nine games faster than the 2000 Kansas City Royals, who allowed their 100th home run in their 57th contest. The O's are on pace to surrender 338 homers this year, which would shatter the current record of 258, held by the 2016 Cincinnati Reds.

"We're facing good teams, but you gotta pitch," said Baltimore's rookie skipper Brandon Hyde. "You gotta pitch here. You gotta stay off the barrel. You gotta be able to locate. And if you don't, in a hitter's ballpark against guys that mash, you're going to give up a hundred homers, 40-something games into it."

The Orioles aren't the only ones serving up gopher balls at a record clip this year though. The Seattle Mariners, who've allowed 87 homers in 51 games, are also on pace to surpass the 2016 Reds. Overall, MLB hitters are homering in 3.4 percent of all plate appearances, up from 3.0 percent last season.

More than half of the home runs the Birds have given up this season have been hit by the Yankees and the Minnesota Twins. In 10 games against Baltimore, New York hitters have gone deep 29 times, including 20 times in five contests at Camden Yards. The Twins have 23 bombs in six games against the O's.

Entering play on Tuesday, the Orioles ranked last in the majors with a 5.63 ERA. They owned a .319 winning percentage (15-32) that was second worst, behind the Miami Marlins.

This has been such an epic season, brimming over with drama, quality, tears, surprises, incompetence, confusion, sackings, fight backs and heroism that I've decided two trophies (La Liga and the Copa del Rey) simply aren't enough.

So here are a few medals and awards that acknowledge that the tapestry of a Spanish season is not woven by excellence alone, that the supporting cast, sometimes, keep us on the edge of our seat, laughing, despairing, roaring (with joy or anger) almost as often as the elite do. This is their moment.

The 'My Height Might Be 5-Foot-5 But Inside I'm 6-Foot-5' Award

This one was very nearly a tie. Two diminutive guys, bursting with so much talent and character that you'd imagine they've been given theirs and someone else's as well: Santi Cazorla and Iago Aspas.

Aspas is a magician. It's that simple. He carried Celta Vigo on his back, scored at a higher goal-per-game rate than ever before in his career at a time when the majority of his teammates played like competition winners. "What are those three conjoined metal poles with a fishing net draped around them?" Celta's defenders and other attackers seemed to be asking each other for most of the season. They redefined clueless.

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Those of us who consistently adjusted our TV sets for parts of the season because it looked as if Celta were playing on pause or delay when the opposition were ruling around at double speed eventually accepted it was just that the boys from Balaidos were actually conducting a scientific experiment to see how closely they could flirt with gutless relegation and still have Aspas rescue them.

He is not only a wriggling, inventive, anarchic, heroic, lion-hearted imp, he's utterly brilliant value to watch whether you feel anything for Celta or not. And like some Galician papa bear cuffing his idiot cubs into line while simultaneously scaring off predators, he ensured that there was vigor, instead of rigor mortis at Celta these past couple of months.

All of which tells you how massive Cazorla's impact has been this season in order to (just) pip Aspas to the prize. Part of the judge's final decision, what swung the tie breaker, is that it wasn't so long ago that this 34-year-old with a tendency towards blushing and a bravery gland the size of Tenerife was in dreadful agony and fearful of his ability to walk, let alone play football.

Indeed, his doctor told him that if the operation to replace around nine centimetres of Achilles tendon enabled Santi to walk in the garden with his kids then it'd be considered a good success. Bacteria ate away at his leg, operations came and went, his continued excellence as an elite athlete shouldn't have been possible. Yet after he appeared as if by magic from a smoke-filled tube last August -- rejoining the club at which he truly made his name -- having lost considerably more than 600 days to injury and illness, he ensured that Villarreal fought off relegation.

Playing in a position and covering ground that would have tested a 25-year-old, Cazorla shuttled the ball around, prompted teammates to react, entertained the crowd, scored and created goals. And after he wept with frustration, embarrassment and self-reproach all the way home from Sevilla to Spain's eastern coast and Yellow Submarine HQ, having missed a penalty to save a point at Real Betis, he shrugged off the pain and raised his game.

This was magnificent from our award winner, and not only did he keep Villarreal up, take them to a European quarterfinal and play joyous football, he won back his place in the Spain squad too. Santi, we salute you.

The 'Exactly What Did I Do Wrong, Boss?' Award

Hands-down winner here: Sergio Reguilon. Born in Madrid, a Real Madrid supporter, joined the club 14 years ago, worked his way up through the ranks, was promoted into a team that looked as if it couldn't tie its own shoelaces. This 22-year-old left-back made his Madrid debut in the midst of a season that you would describe as comically hapless, if only that weren't too generous.

In La Liga, prior to Zinedine Zidane taking over, he started 11 times between November and April, and the team won 10 of those matches: a 91 percent win rate and four clean sheets. He even carried the fight, verbally, to Luis Suarez during Madrid's 1-0 defeat to Barcelona at the Bernabeu.

Once Zidane was in charge, the kid saw duty just twice more in 11 matches -- a win and a draw. Athletic, a decent user of the ball, and bristling with precisely the "you won't get past me" spirit that Los Blancos desperately needed a transfusion of all season, his omission was utterly bizarre. Zidane, meanwhile, managed four defeats and a draw in the nine matches without Reguilon in the team. Zizou, J'accuse!

The 'Hold On, Hold On, What Just Happened?' Award

This one's for Jan Oblak, and it's probably the only thing he'd like to drop all season. La Liga's best keeper, by a distance, the Slovenian was the first one to give the outside world a hint that not everything was cooking by gas at Atletico Madrid. He held off and held off accepting the club's offer of a new contract while, given the fact that on his day he's easily in contention to be considered the world's No. 1 keeper, the rest of Europe's big-spending, big-ambition clubs hovered. "Leave me alone, stop hassling me about this," was his overall attitude.

Then, suddenly, even though World Cup-winning Lucas Hernandez makes it clear he's jumping ship for Bayern Munich, Oblak trusts Atleti and signs up for a further two years, until 2023, with a buyout clause of €120 million. What immediately follows is that Diego Godin leaves, Juanfran leaves, Filipe Luis leaves, Diego Costa completes a season where he's scored two La Liga goals, Antoine Griezmann announces he's moving this summer, Chelsea's transfer ban makes it likely they'll want Alvaro Morata back and Rodri is the subject of a heavy, heavy "we want you now" seduction from both Barcelona and Manchester City -- one of which he seems likely to accept.

Oblak surely is now furiously rereading the small print of that contract looking for get-out clauses, right?

The 'Don't Tell Everyone Or They'll All Be At It' Award

Celta and Madrid had six coaches between them this season. The former nearly got relegated, the latter embarrassed themselves. Barcelona's Ernesto Valverde has won -- at the time of writing and with the Copa del Rey final to come -- four trophies in two seasons, and the first questions he had to answer after being knocked out of the Champions League semifinal, by one goal, were: "Are you thinking about resigning?" "Are you worried about being sacked?"

Betis just dismissed the coach who won them a place in European football last season and took them within three points of repeating that feat, despite his directors not signing him a decent goal scorer, and who coached Los Verdiblancos to wins over Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico and Sevilla while doing so.

In the midst of all this, Espanyol's board withstood massive criticism, pessimism and pressure to sack Rubi, when his team won just twice in 16 matches and sank to within two points of the relegation zone. They finished seventh and play UEFA football for the first time in more than a decade next season.

Better still, however, is Marcelino's story. At Christmas, driving back to his Asturian home with his wife and mother, he crashed into a wild boar that darted out onto the darkened road in front of him. His injuries were minor, his mother's not so. His team was scoring fewer than a goal per game, the title race was lost to them, they had just four victories in 17 outings, and given that the Mestalla is an ultra-unforgiving venue, his job was in serious doubt. Just a few days earlier the Mestalla had indulged in the traditional "Panolada," which signified "Get Out!" to both owners and the coach.

His employers held firm, his players rallied. He kept his job. Form is temporary, class is permanent, they recalled.

Cut to today. Valencia's centenary season is decorated with a Europa League semifinal, a Copa del Rey final and, most importantly, fourth position and the Champions League next season. Sacking a coach isn't automatically wrong; it's just often a response from people who don't understand, who are suffering from what Sir Alex Ferguson called "squeaky bum time" and the results are often as catastrophic as the decision is stupid. Holding your nerve can work. This is another trophy for Marcelino, which he may wish to share with his board.

Great first quarter here in Toronto, where the Raptors lead 32-31 after 1. Kyle Lowry got off to a great start, scoring 12 points and hitting a couple 3s, while Giannis Antetokounmpo has 11. Both teams came out hitting shots after Sunday's slugfest.

CHICAGO -- Though the Chicago Cubs don't believe the injury is serious, shortstop Javier Baez is getting an MRI on his injured right heel as he's not in the starting lineup for the second straight game.

Manager Joe Maddon indicated Baez told him on Monday he was still hurting.

"Just that it's sore," Maddon relayed before Tuesday's game against the Philadelphia Phillies. "He keeps using the word sore. I just want to make sure that's all it is."

Baez was injured Sunday night against the Washington Nationals when he charged a ball and then threw awkwardly to first base in the bottom of the fifth inning. He left that game and hasn't played since.

"I didn't twist it or anything," Baez said. "I just went too hard to the ground and me heel kind of got jammed a little bit ... All the time I was running it didn't bother me. When I got to the dugout it was kind of pumping a little bit. It's just a bruise."

Baez is hitting .319 and is tied for the team lead with 11 home runs. Addison Russell has started the last two games in his place.