Quarterback Jaxson Dart has apparently changed his mind and will not be in Green Bay for the 2025 NFL draft.

Dart, who played at Ole Miss, is ranked by ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. as the 16th best player on his Big Board and is projected as a late first-round pick by Kiper.

No reason has been given for Dart's change of plans.

He was one of three quarterbacks -- along with Miami's Cam Ward and Alabama's Jalen Milroe -- who had been confirmed by the NFL to be among the 17 players attending next week's draft. An updated list issued Friday, however, showed Dart and Georgia edge rusher Mykel Williams no longer planned to wait in the green room in Green Bay.

Kentucky cornerback Maxwell Hairston was added to the list of attendees on Friday.

ESPN's ranking of the top 300 prospects in the 2025 NFL draft lists Dart as the No. 28 overall prospect.

The draft begins with the first round April 24 (8 p.m. ET), followed by the second and third rounds on April 25 (7 p.m. ET), and Rounds 4 through 7 on April 26 (noon ET).

Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

HENDERSON, Nev. -- Las Vegas Raiders general manager John Spytek didn't want to talk about specific prospects during Friday's pre-draft news conference. That includes Boise State's Ashton Jeanty, who has been linked to the organization throughout the draft process.

However, Spytek made it clear that he's a strong believer in taking a running back high in the draft.

"I mean we just saw Saquon Barkley just change the Eagles in one year," said Spytek during Friday's pre-draft news conference. "...There's certain ways to build a team, and I don't know where we got to a place where we don't feel like running backs are valued.

I come from the University of Michigan, and those guys were certainly really valued there. So, it's hard for me to get away from that."

ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. has the Raiders drafting Jeanty sixth overall in his mock draft. The Heisman Trophy finalist had a "good formal" visit with the Raiders at the combine. Spytek was at Boise State's pro day and brought Jeanty to Las Vegas for a Top 30 visit.

Spytek and coach Pete Carroll are on the same page in making the run game an integral part of the offense. Jeanty, who rushed for 2,601 yards and 29 touchdowns in 2024, can provide an immediate boost to the Raiders' offense, which finished last in rushing yards per game at 79.8.

Outside of running back, Spytek said the team remains "open-minded" when it comes to drafting a quarterback.

"You guys have all done your investigative journalism well enough to know that we brought some quarterbacks in. And that wasn't by accident," Spytek said. "We remain open to the most important position in sports to get right."

The position is not as big of a need for the organization after trading for Geno Smith and signing the former Seahawks starter to a two-year extension, $75 million extension that can be worth up to $85.5 million and includes $66.5 million in guaranteed money, a source told ESPN's Adam Schefter.

At the same time, Smith doesn't have any guaranteed money after 2026, and that could potentially open the door for the Raiders adding a rookie quarterback to develop.

The Raiders have done their due diligence in evaluating quarterbacks during the draft process. This week, Las Vegas hosted Colorado's Shedeur Sanders for a Top 30 visit. They've also met with other quarterback prospects such as Quinn Ewers, Jaxson Dart and Will Howard.

"If you start forcing players because you need them, you end up regretting that. And you also can't have enough good players in certain positions, too," Spytek said. "Sometimes what doesn't feel like a need right now becomes a need after one or two injuries during the season, and then you're thankful you took this really good player."

SO MUCH WAS happening behind the scenes on Feb. 1 -- when the Los Angeles Lakers' stunning trade for Luka Doncic was being consummated -- that it was easy to miss what actually happened in the game that night.

The Lakers had defeated the Knicks 128-112 at Madison Square Garden behind a stout defensive effort without their best defensive player, Anthony Davis. The box score offered clues at how they'd done it: Knicks stars Jalen Brunson (16 points on 7-for-18 shooting) and Karl-Anthony Towns (17 on 3-for-12 shooting) had off nights, while role players such as Josh Hart (26 on 11-for-16 shooting) picked up the slack.

The next game, a 122-97 win over the Clippers, offered more evidence. James Harden shot 2-for-12 with just seven points. Kawhi Leonard went 4-for-11 for 11 points. Then came a 120-112 win over the Warriors in which Stephen Curry finished with 37 but was an atrocious 6-for-20 from behind the 3-point arc.

It was over the next four weeks, during a stretch in which the Lakers won 13 of 15 games and rocketed up the Western Conference standings, that coaches and scouts around the league began to examine that win over the Knicks for clues as to what the Lakers had been doing. They'd gone from the league's 20th best defense over the first three months of the season to first.

How did a team without its best defensive players hold Brunson and Towns to a combined 30% shooting? What about Harden and Leonard? Curry? Were these just bad nights? Or had the Lakers, with traditionally small lineups, concocted some sort of nontraditional scheme that could stifle the NBA's biggest stars?

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins posited that L.A. was simply conceding the 3-point shot and daring teams to shoot themselves out of games. Others pointed to the defensive play of Dorian Finney-Smith and Gabe Vincent. One scout told ESPN, simply, "I think they're just playing really hard."

No one was wrong. But no one had come up with an explanation that fully captured why the Lakers were shutting teams down without their two best defenders.

And, perhaps most importantly, no one knew, either, if what the Lakers were doing would work when it matters most: with an NBA championship on the line.

IT WAS AROUND this time that former Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski sent a text to his former player, first-year Lakers head coach JJ Redick, to check on him. Krzyzewski had always watched NBA games, but he'd been paying especially close attention to the Lakers this season.

"I reached out to him and said, 'Who the hell would've predicted you could teach defense?'" Krzyzewski joked.

Redick won a player of the year award at Duke, but early in his NBA career, defense, or his lack thereof, had kept the sharpshooting Redick off the floor at times. Eventually he improved enough to play meaningful minutes for the Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers and New Orleans Pelicans.

"What they're doing seems very simple," Krzyzewski told ESPN, "but it's actually a lot of preparation. They make it where the other team's lower-percentage shooters are taking more shots."

It might sound simple: Make it hard for the other team's best players to score while encouraging less dangerous shooters. But the Lakers' scheme is far more complicated than that, and it was born out of offseason analysis by Redick and his staff on how NBA defenses are allowed to play by referees against modern space-and-shoot NBA offenses.

Even with a brilliant individual defender such as Davis, who is as good of a rim protector as there is in the league, it's virtually impossible to slow down the modern NBA superstar in pick-and-roll actions in space because of how much 3-point shooting is emphasized.

Most teams focus on acquiring perimeter defenders to at least slow down superstars before they meet a back-line defender like Davis. But with the way referees call hand-checking fouls now, even that is difficult.

The Lakers came into the season with another problem: two weak one-on-one perimeter defenders as their starting guards in D'Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves. So they developed a defensive scheme to mitigate that vulnerability -- and save Davis from an exhausting amount of work as a backline defender.

The Lakers, the thinking went, would create the illusion of a crowded floor for the ball handler rather than funnel everyone to Davis.

It worked in spurts during the first half of the season. But the Lakers' defensive scheme stiffened once L.A. traded for Finney-Smith in late December and he became a bigger part of the rotation a few weeks later.

Star players are always going to find ways to score. What the Lakers do is use analytics to break down the least efficient shots each star player takes and then try to force them into taking those shots, as opposed to their most efficient shots.

The Lakers limit shots in the paint -- just 39.9% of the shots attempted against them have come from inside, the NBA's third-lowest rate, per GeniusIQ, an AI-powered sports analytics site -- and force 3s; 49% of the shots they face come from deep, the NBA's second-highest mark.

Consider that first Knicks game: The Lakers swarmed Brunson and Towns, forcing them to pass to less dangerous offensive players such as Hart, Miles McBride and Precious Achiuwa. Brunson and Towns were contested by an average of 1.37 players per shot attempt, the third most they faced in a game this season, per GeniusIQ. By contrast, Hart and McBride faced 0.92 per attempt, the seventh-lowest mark in a game in which they combined for 20 or more shot attempts.

And whoever is defending the less dangerous players will aggressively help on the more dangerous one, often leaving their player completely open, like Vincent did on a play with 9:53 remaining in the fourth quarter, when he left McBride to clog a passing lane to Brunson, who was already being denied by Max Christie.

This is intentional. The Lakers send a double-team inside the arc at the second-highest rate in basketball, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder. On the aforementioned play in the Garden, McBride picked up his dribble near the top of the 3-point arc, realized the Lakers had completely left him alone and decided to shoot. He air-balled.

The ball fell right into the waiting hands of James, who plays what Redick describes as a "quarterback" role in the scheme.

REDICK PLACED JAMES at the center of this decision-making tree, relying on his basketball IQ to call out coverages and adjustments on the fly. "Quarterback is an offensive position, but he's the quarterback on [our] defense," Redick said. "A lot of that is his voice and his IQ."

Watch the Lakers closely on defense, and James is the director, constantly pointing to where his teammates need to go -- and when.

"There's was a play in the first half where [Reaves] switched onto a big," Redick noted after a recent win over the Rockets. "Within half a second, Bron was screaming at him, 'Scram! Get Out, AR! Get out of here!' Plays like that really connect our defense."

The Lakers have struggled when James isn't on the court, playing that quarterback role. They fell off noticeably when James sustained a left groin strain during a March 8 game vs. the Boston Celtics. But they got back in sync once James returned from that injury March 22. From Jan. 30 until the end of the regular season, L.A. ranked sixth in 3-point field goal percentage allowed. It also defended the eighth-most 3-point attempts per game during that span.

In other words, the Lakers gave up a lot of 3-point attempts, but teams didn't make very many of them. According to GeniusIQ, opponents have shot 36.8% on wide-open 3-pointers against the Lakers since Jan. 30, the third-best rate "allowed" over that stretch.

Why? Because the Lakers are forcing the least efficient shooters on opposing teams to take those 3s.

How? By communicating until they lose their voices -- sometimes literally.

James leads the chorus when he's out there, but Jarred Vanderbilt, Finney-Smith and Vincent also step into that role when James isn't on the court. There's also constant direction coming from the sideline during defensive possessions. Assistant coach Greg St. Jean is often hoarse from barking out coverages.

The result has been a defense that has performed much better as a whole than its individual defenders might suggest. "People might look at us and say we're going small," Reaves told ESPN of the Lakers' often centerless lineups without a traditional rim protector following the trade of Davis to the Mavericks. "But we also have five guys that are 6-foot-7 and above out there ... and when we're playing well, we're all on a string."

At times, that can look like a zone defense as the Lakers pack the paint and rotate to close off gaps and passing lanes. But it's not a zone. It's a blend of modern analytics and old-school, Bobby Knight-style denial of whoever is one pass away from a good shot.

The goal is to play the percentages. To disrupt what the other team wants to do as much as possible. To force great players to take bad or average shots. But also to cajole average players to shoot more by giving up good shots.

It takes time and trust in the scheme to play this way effectively. When that trust fails, so does the defense. Sometimes spectacularly. But it's the best chance the Lakers have after trading away two of their best defensive players.

And in the first round against Anthony Edwards, one of the NBA's most dynamic scorers -- and shooters -- and the Minnesota Timberwolves, a team with lineups that can go either big or small, the Lakers' defense is about to be tested once again.

French forward Noa Essengue, a projected top-20 pick, will enter the 2025 NBA draft, he told ESPN Friday.

"Since I was a kid, it's been my dream to get drafted by an NBA team," Essengue said. "My goal now is to be a top-10 pick. I'm focused on the end of my season, hoping to win a championship, but after the playoffs, I will need to get myself ready, because there's a big gap between Europe and the NBA."

Essengue, ESPN's No. 17 ranked draft prospect, plays for German team Ratiopharm Ulm, which competes in both the domestic BBL league and the intercontinental EuroCup league. The 6-foot-10, 18-year-old power forward is averaging 10.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.0 steal in 24 minutes per game through 43 games, shooting 63% for 2.

"Coming to Ulm was the best decision I could have made for my career," Essengue said. "This is my second season here, and we're working nonstop to develop my skills. There's great infrastructure, a beautiful practice facility, a huge weight room, coaches and support staff around anytime if we want to practice extra. They let young players play here, and the club doesn't put any pressure on the coach for results, which is why we can play our best basketball and win games."

Born Dec. 18, 2006, Essengue is the second-youngest prospect in this draft, just three days older than Cooper Flagg. He would have had to wait until the 2026 NBA draft to be eligible if he had been born two weeks later.

Despite his youth, Essengue has carved out a strong role with Ulm against high-level international competition, excelling in the EuroCup and helping his team to the second-best record in the BBL just weeks before the start of the German league playoffs. Essengue became one of the youngest players ever to make a French senior national team debut when he was called up to France's FIBA EuroBasket qualifying campaign as a 17-year-old last November.

Essengue creates matchup problems every time he steps on the floor, showing impressive speed covering ground fluidly, getting off the floor quickly for dunks and offensive rebounds, and often being tasked with guarding point guards thanks to his quick feet and outstanding length. He draws fouls prolifically, finishes effectively around the rim despite his slight frame, and shows a good feel for cutting, leaking out in transition and finding teammates with intelligent passes.

"My biggest strength is my defense," Essengue said. "I have the versatility to guard 1 to 5. If an NBA coach wanted to put me on the court right now, it would be because I can stay in front of point guards and also put a body on centers. I need to keep improving every aspect of my game, though. I'm playing tougher every game, trying to match the intensity and physicality of my opponents."

"I want to be a guy who can do everything on the court. I watch a lot of Kevin Durant, Brandon Ingram, and Kawhi Leonard, players that can dribble, pass, shoot and defend."

With the college basketball season over, NBA teams will now focus their attention en masse on international prospects like Essengue. He is in the final games of his team's regular season before turning the page to the playoffs, starting in mid-May.

The NBA draft combine will be held May 11-18 in Chicago, and the draft will be June 25-26 in New York.

Jonathan Givony is an NBA draft expert and the founder and co-owner of DraftExpress.com, a private scouting and analytics service used by NBA, NCAA and international teams.

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Rob Pelinka to a multiyear contract extension and added to his title by naming him president of basketball operations and general manager, it was announced Friday.

"For eight seasons, I have relied on Rob's vision and leadership to do what's best for the Lakers organization," Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. "I value his partnership and professionalism and believe in his ability to deliver championship-caliber basketball for Los Angeles and Lakers fans everywhere."

Pelinka joined the Lakers in 2017 as general manager and had vice president of basketball operations added to his title in 2020.

Terms of the new deal were not announced.

Pelinka hired JJ Redick as the team's new coach last offseason. He also acquired Luka Doncic in a blockbuster trade with the Dallas Mavericks in February that provides a face of the franchise for the next 10 years, flexibility and assets this upcoming offseason, and organizational alignment.

Under Pelinka, the Lakers added LeBron James as a free agent in July of 2018 and since-departed Anthony Davis in a July 2019 trade.

The Lakers went 50-32 in the just-completed regular season -- their best record since the 2019-20 season -- to earn the No. 3 playoff seed in the Western Conference. They open the playoffs Saturday with a best-of-seven series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Doncic was acquired Feb. 7 in a deal that cost the team Davis and Max Christie among other assorted pieces included in the deal. In 28 games with Los Angeles, Doncic averaged 28.2 points with 8.1 rebounds and 7.5 assists. The team went 19-13 after Doncic made his Feb. 10 debut.

The Lakers were just 35-47 in Pelinka's first full season as GM in 2017-18 then won the NBA title in 2020 during the shortened pandemic season. Los Angeles has made the playoffs in four of the five seasons since then, advancing as far as the Western Conference finals in 2023.

ESPN's Shams Charania and Field Level Media contributed to this report.

SAN ANTONIO -- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich was taken to a hospital after a medical incident at a restaurant on Tuesday night but is now home and doing fine, a source told ESPN's Shams Charania on Friday.

The 76-year-old Popovich, who is the oldest coach in NBA history, had a mild stroke in November and missed the rest of the season.

According to TMZ, which first reported the medical incident, Popovich was placed onto a stretcher and taken to a hospital with what officials said was a non-life-threatening injury or illness. Sources told TMZ that Popovich was alert when he entered the ambulance.

On Nov. 2, Popovich suffered what the team called a "mild stroke" ahead of a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Hall of Famer, who has coached the Spurs since the 1996-97 season, is the NBA's winningest coach with 1,412 regular-season victories and another 170 in the postseason to go with five championships.

He agreed to a five-year contract extension with the team in 2023.

Assistant coach Mitch Johnson took over on an interim basis to lead San Antonio to a record of 31-45 under his watch.

Franchise cornerstone Victor Wembanyama was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, or a blood clot, in his right shoulder shortly after the NBA All-Star break and was ruled out for the remainder of the regular season. Newly added guard De'Aaron Fox, who joined the Spurs in February through a trade, missed the final 18 games due to a left pinkie injury that required surgery.

Before Popovich's latest health incident, the Spurs had already faced an uncertain future as to whether the coach would return for the 2025 and '26 seasons. Johnson said the Spurs have already put together an offseason plan that will be executed collectively, starting later this spring, by the staff in Popovich's absence.

"I think I haven't had time to deal with it yet," Johnson said after the season finale on Apr. 13. "I understand it's a fair question and I think I will, hopefully like everybody that's gone through this, take some time away, catch my breath and spend some time with family.

"This organization is still prioritizing Pop's health. In time, he will do what he needs to do and make decisions. That will go through this organization on very many levels. We really put together that plan as a group. Obviously, my role has changed in nine years. What I'm doing this spring won't be what I did eight years ago, but the player development has been at the forefront since I've been here."

The organization has steadfastly maintained internally that it would let Popovich decide whether he wants to return for a 30th season in San Antonio. Sources who have been in contact with Popovich since his stroke have said the coach has expressed to them an intention to return to the bench next season to lead the Spurs.

"I trust the organization," Wembanyama said after the season finale. "I trust Pop to [do] all he can to come back and get his energy back. And I also trust Mitch to grow into that role. I think we are in good hands supporting each other all throughout the organization. I'm ready for anything, and I know the organization will [make] the good decisions."

Popovich had an emotional meeting with Spurs players on Feb. 27, and he issued a statement at that time that he officially wouldn't be returning this season but hopes to return in the future.

"I will continue to focus on my health with the hope that I can return to coaching in the future," his statement said.

Popovich joins Don Nelson and Pat Riley as one of just three coaches to win the NBA Coach of the Year on three occasions. He is also one of five coaches to have won at least five NBA championships along with Phil Jackson (11), Red Auerbach (nine), John Kundla (five) and Riley (five).

The 2025 NBA playoffs will tip off on Saturday with just two more spots left to play from this week's play-in tournament.

Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors clinched the No. 7 spot after defeating 8-seed Memphis Grizzlies to set up a first-round series with with the No. 2 Houston Rockets. In the East, the Orlando Magic routed the Atlanta Hawks to claim the No. 7 seed and a first-round matchup against the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics.

All that's left is which teams will clinch each conference's No. 8 seed on Friday. The Hawks will take on Miami Heat (who ousted the Chicago Bulls in the 9-10 game) for the East spot while the Grizzlies will how the Dallas Mavericks (who eliminated the Sacramento Kings in the 9-10 game).

The first-round tips on Saturday with the 3-6 and 4-5 matchups from each conference. The No. 1 and 2 seeds will host their Game 1s against Friday's play-in tournament winners on Sunday.

But before the NBA's biggest superstars take the postseason stage, our NBA experts are making their picks for each first-round series.

NBA postseason: 20-team preview | 25 key people | Schedule and news

East play-in

Miami Heat (10)
at Atlanta Hawks (8)

Chris Herring: Heat

Bobby Marks: Heat

Kevin Pelton: Hawks

Jorge Sedano: Heat

Marc J. Spears: Heat

Tim MacMahon: Heat

Jeremy Woo: Hawks

Final tally:
Heat 5, Hawks 2

West play-in

Dallas Mavericks (10)
at Memphis Grizzlies (8)

Chris Herring: Grizzlies

Bobby Marks: Mavericks

Kevin Pelton: Grizzlies

Jorge Sedano: Mavericks

Marc J. Spears: Mavericks

Jeremy Woo: Grizzlies

Final tally:
Grizzlies 3, Mavericks 3

East first round

Boston Celtics (2)
vs. Orlando Magic (7)

Jamal Collier: Celtics in 4

Andre Snellings: Celtics in 5

Chris Herring: Celtics in 6

Bobby Marks: Celtics in 5

Jorge Sedano: Celtics in 5

Dave McMenamin: Celtics in 5

Ohm Youngmisuk: Celtics in 6

Ramona Shelburne: Celtics in 6

Final tally:
Boston 8, Orlando 0

New York Knicks (3)
vs. Detroit Pistons (6)

Jamal Collier: Knicks in 5

Andre Snellings: Knicks in 7

Chris Herring: Knicks in 7

Tim MacMahon: Knicks in 6

Bobby Marks: Knicks in 5

Dave McMenamin: Knicks in 7

Jorge Sedano: Knicks in 7

Ramona Shelburne: Knicks in 5

Marc J. Spears: Knicks in 6

Jeremy Woo: Knicks in 6

Ohm Youngmisuk: Knicks in 7

Final tally:
Knicks 11, Pistons 0

Indiana Pacers (4)
vs. Milwaukee Bucks (5)

Jamal Collier: Pacers in 7

Andre Snellings: Bucks in 6

Chris Herring: Pacers in 6

Tim MacMahon: Pacers in 7

Bobby Marks: Pacers in 6

Dave McMenamin: Pacers in 7

Jorge Sedano: Bucks in 6

Ramona Shelburne: Pacers in 6

Marc J. Spears: Bucks in 7

Jeremy Woo: Bucks in 7

Ohm Youngmisuk: Bucks in 7

Final tally:
Pacers 7, Bucks 4

West first round

Houston Rockets (2) vs. Golden State Warriors (7)

Jamal Collier: Warriors in 7

Andre Snellings: Warriors in 6

Chris Herring: Warriors in 7

Bobby Marks: Rockets in 6

Jorge Sedano: Warriors in 7

Tim MacMahon: Warriors in 6

Dave McMenamin: Warriors in 7

Ohm Youngmisuk: Warriors in 7

Ramona Shelburne: Rockets in 7

Final tally:
Warriors 7, Rockets 2

(3) Los Angeles Lakers vs.
(6) Minnesota Timberwolves

Jamal Collier: Lakers in 6

Andre Snellings: Lakers in 7

Chris Herring: Lakers in 6

Tim MacMahon: Lakers in 6

Bobby Marks: Lakers in 6

Dave McMenamin: Lakers in 6

Jorge Sedano: Lakers in 6

Ramona Shelburne: Lakers in 6

Marc J. Spears: Lakers in 7

Jeremy Woo: Lakers in 6

Ohm Youngmisuk: Lakers in 7

Final tally:
Lakers 11, Timberwolves 0

(4) Denver Nuggets
vs. (5) LA Clippers

Jamal Collier: Clippers in 7

Andre Snellings: Nuggets in 7

Chris Herring: Clippers in 6

Tim MacMahon: Clippers in 7

Bobby Marks: Clippers in 6

Dave McMenamin: Clippers in 5

Jorge Sedano: Clippers in 7

Ramona Shelburne: Nuggets in 7

Marc J. Spears: Clippers in 7

Jeremy Woo: Nuggets in 7

Final tally:
Clippers 7, Nuggets 3

The Boston Red Sox activated third baseman Alex Bregman off the paternity list Friday, while right-hander Michael Fulmer was designated for assignment.

In other moves, the Red Sox recalled right-hander Hunter Dobbins, while infielder/outfielder Nick Sogard was optioned.

Bregman, 31, last played Tuesday when he went 5-for-5 with a pair of home runs and four RBIs in Boston's 7-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. In his first 19 games with the club since signing as a free agent in the offseason, he was batting .321 with four home runs and 16 RBIs.

He and his wife, Reagan, welcomed their second son this week.

Fulmer, 32, made his Red Sox debut Monday and gave up three runs in 2 innings. A former starter for the Detroit Tigers, he is 37-50 with a 3.96 ERA in 263 appearances (90 starts) over eight career seasons.

He won the 2016 American League Rookie of the Year with the Tigers.

Dobbins, 25, made his major league debut for the Red Sox on April 6 and pitched five innings and gave up two runs. He got the win in an 18-7 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. Sogard, 27, played in 31 games as a rookie last season and batted .273 with four doubles and eight RBIs.

TORONTO -- Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer received a second cortisone shot in his troublesome right thumb this week and will try playing catch again when he rejoins the team in Houston next week, manager John Schneider said Friday.

A three-time Cy Young Award winner, Scherzer had a cortisone injection on March 31, one day after being placed on the 15-day injured list because of thumb inflammation. He played catch several times on Toronto's recent road trip, but still had pain in his thumb.

This week's injection was into a different part of Scherzer's thumb than the first shot, Schneider said.

The 40-year-old Scherzer left his debut start with the Blue Jays against Baltimore on March 29 after three innings because of soreness in his right lat muscle. He said after the game that his thumb issue was to blame for that soreness.

Earlier in March, Scherzer had a spring training start pushed back because of thumb pain.

Scherzer signed a $15.5 million, one-year contract with the Blue Jays in February. He went 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA in nine starts for Texas last season, starting the year on the injured list while recovering from lower back surgery. He also had a stint on the IL with shoulder fatigue and didn't pitch after Sept. 14 because of a left hamstring strain.