The Chicago Cubs acquired right-handed reliever Ryan Brasier in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, deepening their bullpen through another trade in an offseason full of activity.

In return, the Dodgers receive a player to be named later or cash. The Dodgers said they also sent cash to the Cubs as part of the deal.

Brasier, 37, was designated for assignment last week when the Dodgers' deal with right-handed reliever Kirby Yates was finalized. He was a solid contributor on Los Angeles' World Series-winning team, throwing nine innings during the postseason after posting a 3.54 ERA in 28 regular-season innings.

Los Angeles' acquisitions of two closers -- Yates and Tanner Scott -- as well as re-signing Blake Treinen edged Brasier out of the Dodgers' bullpen mix and gave Chicago the opportunity to add him to a bullpen that has been significantly strengthened in recent weeks. In addition to Brasier, the Cubs added closer Ryan Pressly in a trade with Houston, and earlier this winter acquired right-hander Eli Morgan.

Chicago's biggest deal of the winter was for outfielder Kyle Tucker, a perennial MVP candidate who is set to hit free agency after the 2025 season. Chicago signed left-hander Matthew Boyd to a two-year, $29 million contract, gave catcher Carson Kelly $11.5 million over two years, locked up right-hander Colin Rea on a one-year, $5 million deal and added left-hander Caleb Thielbar ($2.75 million) and utilityman Jon Berti ($2 million) on one-year pacts.

With a mid-90s fastball, a biting slider and a cutter, Brasier weathered early-career scuffles to turn in solid performances throughout his 30s. Though his fastball velocity dipped slightly last year, his precision -- he walked only five batters and struck out 25 -- served him well.

Brasier, who will make $4.5 million this season in the second season of a two-year contract, joins a bullpen that should have strong competition for spots when spring camps open in just over a week. In addition to Brasier, Pressly, Morgan and Thielbar, the Cubs return right-hander Porter Hodge -- who was the closer toward the end of the 2024 season -- as well as right-hander Tyson Miller, who had a 2.15 ERA in 50 innings.

Other options in the Cubs' bullpen include right-handers Nate Pearson, Keegan Thompson, Julian Merryweather, Ethan Roberts, Caleb Kilian and potentially Ben Brown, a starter who could prove a late-inning weapon if he does not crack Chicago's rotation.

Halep memorably won her first major title at the French Open in 2018, defeating Sloane Stephens, having lost her previous three Grand Slam finals.

She then won at Wimbledon in 2019, committing just three unforced errors in a stunning final victory over Serena Williams.

She won 22 other WTA Tour titles and spent 64 weeks as world number one.

Halep was given a four-year ban for two separate doping offences after initially testing positive for a banned substance in August 2022.

She always maintained her innocence and appealed against the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2024.

The panel ruled Halep, "on the balance of probabilities", had not taken roxadustat intentionally and her ban was reduced to nine months.

She subsequently returned to the WTA Tour in March 2024 but played just six matches through to 2025 and won only once.

"I've always been realistic with myself and with my body," Halep said.

"Where I probably was, it's very hard to get there and I know what it means to get there."

South Africa wing Makazole Mapimpi has been banned for three games after admitting he made contact "with the eye or eye area" of a Cardiff opponent during a United Rugby Championship (URC) game in January.

Mapimpi, a member of two World Cup winning squads, was involved in a scuffle with Cardiff hooker Efan Daniel during Sharks' 42-22 win win at Cardiff Arms Park on 25 January.

He was not punished during the game, but was cited and at a disciplinary hearing Mapimpi admitted committing a red card offence.

Mapimpi will miss Sharks' URC matches at fellow South African side Bulls on Saturday, 15 February and back-to-back games against Lions.

Disciplinary officials took into account a previous incident of a similar nature in settling on Mapimpi's ban. He was banned for two weeks after being found guilty of making contact with the eye area of Bordeaux-Bègles scrum-half Maxime Lucu in a European Champions Cup game in January 2023.

After losing leading goal scorer Kirill Marchenko to a broken jaw over the weekend, the Columbus Blue Jackets will be without top scorer Zach Werenski for Tuesday's road game against the Buffalo Sabres.

Werenski, 27, did not take part in Tuesday's morning skate with an undisclosed injury. The nine-year veteran ranks third among defensemen with 57 points (17 goals, 40 assists) this season in 53 games.

In 539 games since Columbus selected him with the No. 8 pick in 2015, Werenski has 359 points (107 goals, 252 assists).

Slated to play for the U.S. at the 4 Nations Face-Off later this month, Werenski returned to Sunday's 5-3 loss at the Dallas Stars after leaving in the second period.

"We'll continue to evaluate, same as we do with everybody that's hurt or injured," said coach Dean Evason, whose team entered Tuesday in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. "We'll evaluate it and move forward."

Werenski's defensive partner, Dante Fabbro, will also sit out Tuesday after sustaining an upper-body injury in Sunday's game. In 43 games this season between Nashville and Columbus, Fabbro has 13 points (four goals, nine assists).

Jordan Harris and Jack Johnson are expected to fill in for the injured pair.

Marchenko, struck in the face by a puck while sitting on the bench Sunday, underwent jaw surgery Monday and will be out indefinitely after landing on injured reserve. A stray puck hit the left side of Marchenko's face late in the second period of that loss to Dallas. He left the bench area, holding a towel to his jaw.

Marchenko has 55 points in 53 games this season and leads Columbus in goals (21) and plus/minus (plus-31).

Information from Field Level Media was used in this report.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen underwent knee surgery in New York on Tuesday.

Stars coach Pete DeBoer said Heiskanen's status is classified as "month to month," possibly leaving a window for him to return late in the regular season or during the playoffs.

He was slated to play for Finland in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off tournament but was ruled out late last week.

Heiskanen was injured in the third period of the Stars' overtime victory over Vegas on Jan. 28 after taking a hit from Mark Stone, who fell toward Heiskanen's left knee and thigh after getting tripped. Stone hasn't been fined or suspended.

DeBoer said Heiskanen had an MRI on Jan. 29.

The Stars, who have reached the Western Conference Final each of the past two seasons, have a five-game winning streak and have won seven of their last 10. They are second in the Central Division, with Colorado and Minnesota close behind.

Heiskanen has been a top defenseman for the Stars since making his debut as a 19-year-old in 2018. Dallas drafted him third overall in 2017.

The Premier League has said "significant progress" has been made with testing of semi-automated VAR offside technology (SAOT) in recent weeks, adding that it still plans to introduce the new system this season.

It's almost a year since clubs unanimously voted to bring in the technology, which is intended to reduce the time taken for an offside check by an average of 31 seconds.

The system was not ready at the start of the season, but it was supposed to be brought in "after one of the Autumn international breaks."

However, no information was forthcoming on the progress of testing, and as the calendar crossed into 2025 it seemed as though SAOT would not arrive in the 2024-25 campaign.

Extensive testing and analysis was conducted throughout last season but the Premier League is not yet confident the technology is fully reliable and won't use it live until it is.

"We are still testing it, but we are making significant progress," Tony Scholes, the Premier League's chief football officer, revealed on Tuesday. "We're in a different place to when I spoke to managers just over Christmas, we've made a lot of progress in this area.

"Now I'm hopeful that at some point this season we will be able to introduce semi-automated technology but I repeat the points I've made a number of times. We are not going to introduce it if we've got any doubts at all with regards to its operation."

SAOT removes the manual element of placing the lines onto players and to pitch level, making it quicker and more accurate. SAOT also provides a much-improved graphical visualisation of an offside decision, rather than the existing method of displaying lines on the broadcast camera.

FIFA and UEFA have used an enhanced system in the World Cup and the UEFA Champions League, which sees a chip inside the ball for better detection of when the ball has been touched. However, Adidas owns the patent for that system, and none of the major European leagues use the company as ball supplier.

Serie A was the first European domestic league to switch to SAOT, introducing it in January 2023 after a high-profile VAR error early in that campaign had seen a stoppage-time winning goal for Juventus incorrectly disallowed.

LaLiga became the second top European league to move over to SAOT at the start of this season, though its accuracy has been called into doubt several times including when Robert Lewandowski had a goal disallowed for Barcelona against Real Sociedad.

Questions have been raised about the Premier League developing its own SAOT, when other leagues have already introduced it.

"The system that we've adopted, we believe it to be the best system," Scholes added. "We believe it to be the most accurate and the most futureproof system as well and that's why we went with that.

"I have to confess, given the difficulties that we had over the first few months of the season, I had severe doubts about this, but the progress made over the last four to six weeks has been significant.

"We believe we're going to be adopting the best system and the most accurate system without the need for the chip in the ball."

Scholes also defended the prospect of switching from the legacy VAR offside technology to SAOT when the majority of the season will have been played.

"It's a very fair question and we've sort of questioned ourselves about this," Scholes admitted. "But fundamentally, the operation of semi-automated offside technology does not change the integrity of the offside law and doesn't change the integrity of the decision making.

"What it does is makes the process more efficient. So if we hold true to that basis that we're not actually changing the integrity of it, we're just making it more efficient, you arrive at a place that says, well, why wouldn't you introduce it when you're absolutely confident it's ready.

"Clearly if we're not confident until the last two or three match rounds, I think you then arrive at a pragmatic place where you just say it wouldn't make sense to introduce it now. But if we're able to introduce it in advance of that, then it's something that we are actively considering."

Scholes also insisted that marked improvements have been seen in refereeing standards this season, despite several notable errors. The statistics produced by the Premier League's Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel revealed that the number of errors after 23 games had fallen from 20 last season to 13 in the 2024-25 campaign.

He added that the Elite Referee Development Plan, which aims to fast-track promising referees through the level, is already producing results.

"These are referees whose potential has been identified and plucked out from whatever level they're operating in the game," Scholes explained. "We're investing in them to shorten the time it takes them to get to the league. Sixty-five games have been officiated by officials in the development group already this season at a level higher than they operate.

"Two years ago, Sam Barrott was a League One and League Two referee. He's now on the FIFA list. And then there's Lewis Smith, who's refereed four Premier League games. Two years ago, Lewis was refereeing Premier League Two [academy teams] and National League games. So PGMOL deserved great credit for the work that they are doing in shortening the amount of time it takes for these officials to come through to be able to officiate in the Premier league."

Scholes also revealed that the Premier League intends to introduce referees announcing VAR decisions to the crowd, which has been tested in the Carabao Cup semifinals, at the start of next season. The Bundesliga became the first major European league to trial it, starting with select fixtures last weekend.

Scholes added that he wants fans inside the stadium to have "at least an equal experience as to those at home" when it comes to VAR, and the league's position is "to get to a place where we have full visibility and full audio of the conversation between the referee and the VAR."

The Premier League will continue to lobby for change with the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which controls VAR protocol.

All 13 VAR errors in the Premier League this season

Incorrect interventions (4)

1. AFC Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle United, Aug. 25
Dango Ouattara goal disallowed for handball ('90+2)

2. West Ham United 2-1 Manchester United, Oct. 27
Penalty awarded for a foul by Matthijs de Ligt on Danny Ings ('90+2)

3. Everton 0-0 Brentford, Nov. 23
Christian Nørgaard sent off for serious foul play ('39)

4. Nottingham Forest 3-2 Southampton, Jan. 19
No Chris Wood offside offence on goal ('64)

Missed interventions (9)

1. Man United 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur, Sept. 29
Serious foul play, red card to Bruno Fernandes ('41)

2. Aston Villa 2-2 Crystal Palace, Nov. 23
DOGSO, red card not given to Ian Maatsen ('65)

3. Everton 4-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers, Dec. 4
Abdoulaye Doucouré offside offence on goal ('72)

4. Nottingham Forest 2-1 Aston Villa, Dec. 14
Penalty not awarded. Foul by Elliot Anderson ('34)*

5. West Ham 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion, Dec. 21
Serious foul play, red card not given to Pervis Estupiñán ('84)

6. Brighton 0-0 Brentford, Dec. 27
Violent conduct, red card not given to João Pedro ('75)

7. West Ham 0-5 Liverpool, Dec. 29
Penalty not awarded. Foul by Alexis Mac Allister ('35)

8. Ipswich Town 0-2 Brighton, Jan. 19
Penalty not awarded. Foul by Wes Burns ('11)

9. Wolves 0-1 Arsenal, Jan. 25
Serious foul play, red card to Myles Lewis-Skelly ('43)

*Panel stated the penalty may not have been awarded due to a prior foul but this should have been decided on review.

These have been an interesting few days in Spanish football around the subject of how we treat our stars, what we expect them to accept, and whether we are properly protecting them. It's a morality tale that includes Kylian Mbappé, Carlo Ancelotti, Gavi and that will extend to Vinícius Júnior, and it emerged on Saturday when Spanish and European champions Real Madrid were surprisingly beaten 1-0 at relegation-threatened Espanyol.

Los Blancos have recently restored one of their most thrilling, most chilling skills: The ability to retrieve possession around their own penalty area and, via no more than three or four passes, be up at the other end of the pitch scoring a dazzling goal somewhere between 14-18 seconds later. It's sporting lightning.

Against the blue-and-white club in Barcelona, Ancelotti's team were unleashing one of these extraordinary counter-attacks, with Mbappé in full flight, when the guy who would become the infamous name of the evening lunged wildly at the Frenchman. His name is Carlos Romero and by the end of the match, he'd be enjoying the greatest moment of his short career by virtue of scoring the winner. But in the instant when he thought that Espanyol's world was about to collapse, he attempted the ugliest of fouls to bring Mbappé down, at any cost, by diving, leg-extended, to rake his boot down the back of the forward's calf.

Although the referee correctly let the move flow to see whether it ended in advantage or even a goal for Madrid, the absolute requirement was that, immediately after the play stopped, this should merit a red card. Neither the on-pitch referee, nor his companion in the VAR room, considered this a foul worthy of expulsion. It became one of the worst decisions in recent Spanish football.

While not sending Romero off was ludicrous, the fact that he was at the back post to volley home a wonderful right-wing cross, thus reducing Madrid to holding just a one-point lead over Atletico going into the derbi this weekend, made things much worse. (Stream LIVE: Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid, Saturday, 2:50 p.m. ET, ESPN+)

Worst of all was the refereeing team ignoring that Romero had risked, without any thought of the consequences, severe damage to an opponent -- the kind of damage that the sport's lawmakers, and FIFA as governing body, have sought to exterminate from our game so that players are adequately protected. It's unimaginable how these officials decided that they had no duty of care to Mbappé: it flew in the face of everything that those who run football have been trying to preach for the past 30 or 40 years.

Fortunately, Madrid's leading scorer is fine, but that's not the point and that's not what the laws say: you can be punished for recklessness and the potential for your actions to cause serious injury.

Not for the first time, I'm totally with Carlo Ancelotti when he spoke with dignity and well-contained fury after the match: "It was an ugly foul with a big risk of injury and it's also VAR's responsibility to look out for and protect players." That was part one of the evidence that emerged as to how we think players can or should be treated or protected.

Chapter two came the following day and is far more encouraging. Finally, the clear-cut fact that repeated head trauma has a direct impact on the likelihood of post-career issues such as dementia and Alzheimer's is being taken into account and awareness has grown.

The incident where Barcelona's Gavi clashed heads badly with the Alavés attacker, Tomás Conechny, was sickening. It's simple misfortune, but it held the potential to be pretty devastating for both men. It also came against the context of Atletico Madrid treating Robin Le Normand's head injury in October with stringent care. The Spanish international defender suffered a serious concussion, Atleti kept him out of action, observed him, and did not let him play again for 61 days -- a total of 12 missed matches.

Bravo to Atletico.

So, back to Sunday. Gavi's collision with Conechny left him dazed and confused, his fate in the hands of Barcelona's long-term club doctor and his coach, Hansi Flick.

If you know little of Gavi, let me assure you that he is an absolute warrior who bristles with competitive spirit. What ensued was the traditional picture of an athlete who is so dazed that he can't see the sense in withdrawing from play, instead determined to get back on and get on with work.

The doctor asks him what day it is, he has no idea. He is able to quote the kickoff time of the match, but it becomes evident he's suffered a bad head trauma. The laudable moment comes when Flick, who is trying to buck the trend of his team losing important matches at home, nevertheless turns to the doctor and says: "it's your decision" (i.e. not the player's) and then tries to console Gavi with the concept that he's being protected, and that his well-being is more important than three points.

It was wonderful to see.

I admit to a minor personal stake in this argument because my 88-year-old father, a wonderful man who introduced me to sport and all its beauties, was amongst other things, a boxer and a rugby player. We're all pretty certain that the number of times he took blows to the head have helped cause the Alzheimer's from which he suffers quite badly.

It's also true that over the next few days, I will be attending the funerals of two terrific football men, both of whom mattered very much to me: Jimmy Calderwood, who played in midfield with Louis van Gaal and played against Johan Cruyff, a Scotsman somehow cutting it in Dutch football, and my fellow Aberdonian, Denis Law -- the only Ballon d'Or winner Scotland has ever produced, a wonderful man, a prodigious header of the football, and also somebody, like Calderwood, whose death was principally caused by Alzheimers. Sadly, it's too late for them, but we all share the responsibility to ensure that current generations are properly protected, that we learn the lessons which were ignored in previous decades so that the people who now thrill and delight us remain of sound mind right through to their latter years.

Progress in protecting talented players from foul play, as the referees showed when Español beat Real Madrid, can be made, but then abandoned or undermined. Progress, as clubs and referees have shown in the case of footballers with concussions or victims of racial abuse needing protection, can be become the norm.

All of this, I believe, has echoes of the constant battle against racism in sport. All of us -- from legislators to fans, sponsors, clubs, players, managers and the media -- have a responsibility to continue reporting, informing and confronting such abuse. The initiatives to protect players from physical damage on the pitch, whether from deliberate foul tackling or head clashes, are positive, but the past few days have shown that such progress can be interrupted.

For those of us committed to improving the way players are treated, thought about, talked about and protected, I believe these have been informative incidents. It's an imperfect, frustrating and often slow battle, but one that's worth our effort.