U.S. men's national team coach Gregg Berhalter has named a 26-player roster ahead of friendlies against Mexico and Uruguay, headlined by Chelsea's Christian Pulisic.

The U.S. will face El Tri at East Rutherford, New Jersey's MetLife Stadium on Sept. 6, followed by a match against Uruguay at St. Louis' Busch Stadium four days later.

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Players will begin reporting to camp on Sept. 1. A separate camp for the U.S. under-23 team -- which will attempt to qualify for the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo to be held next summer -- will also be held. The roster for that camp is tentatively scheduled to be announced on Friday.

"Along the lines of progress, the starting point for the roster is we're able to maintain a core group of main players from the Gold Cup and continue building," Berhalter said. "We are also bringing some new players into the fold that we feel have the potential to make an impact with this team."

The roster features 15 players from the team that reached the final of the Gold Cup in July, including Fortuna Dusseldorf goalkeeper Zack Steffen, New York Red Bulls defender Aaron Long and Schalke midfielder Weston McKennie. Wolfsburg defender John Brooks, who missed the Gold Cup due to injury is also named. Pulisic is listed on the roster as a forward, hinting that he'll be used further up the field in these two matches.

"I think Christian has a unique skill set," Berhalter said. "He's a great attacking player and we want to put him in position to affect the game. We're open to where we're using him. We've used him centrally and on the wing before. All those things keep adding up to the fact that we want him affecting the game in a positive way."

The biggest surprise is the recall of midfielder Alfredo Morales, Steffen's club teammate. Morales last represented the U.S. in a 3-1 win against Puerto Rico on May 22, 2016, but Berhalter felt his performances for Dusseldorf merited a call-up.

"Alfredo is a case where he's done such a good job with Fortuna Dusseldorf, not only through the first two Bundesliga games, but we've seen reports from preseason where he's been an outstanding player. It's nice to give a guy a reward like that -- an opportunity again because of how he's performing at his club."

Werder Bremen forward Josh Sargent, who was surprisingly left off the Gold Cup roster last summer, is also named along with Ajax right back Sergino Dest and FC Dallas midfielder Paxton Pomykal, both of whom represented the U.S. at last May's FIFA U20 World Cup.

A quartet of injuries had an impact on Berhalter's roster selections. RB Leipzig midfielder Tyler Adams continues to work his way back from a groin injury, as does Newcastle United defender DeAndre Yedlin. A thigh injury precluded Lille attacker Tim Weah from participating in the camp, while a calf injury sustained last weekend prevented Reading defender Matt Miazga from taking part.

Also left off were the Toronto FC duo of Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. TFC has a pair of league games during the international window.

U.S. MNT ROSTER BY POSITION (Club; Caps/Goals):

GOALKEEPERS (4): Jesse Gonzalez (FC Dallas; 0/0), Brad Guzan (Atlanta United FC; 60/0), Sean Johnson (New York City FC; 8/0), Zack Steffen (Fortuna Düsseldorf/GER; 15/0)

DEFENDERS (9): John Brooks (Wolfsburg/GER; 37/3), Reggie Cannon (FC Dallas; 6/0), Sergiño Dest (Ajax/NED; 0/0), Nick Lima (San Jose Earthquakes; 7/0), Aaron Long (New York Red Bulls; 11/2), Daniel Lovitz (Montreal Impact/CAN; 8/0),) Tim Ream (Fulham/ENG; 35/1), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United FC; 0/0), Walker Zimmerman (LAFC; 10/2)

MIDFIELDERS (7): Sebastian Lletget (LA Galaxy; 9/2), Weston McKennie (Schalke/GER; 14/3), Alfredo Morales (Fortuna Düsseldorf/GER; 13/0), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas; 0/0), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders FC; 15/0), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew SC; 19/0), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes; 1/0)

FORWARDS (6): Corey Baird (Real Salt Lake; 3/0), Tyler Boyd (Besiktas/TUR; 5/2), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders FC; 33/5), Christian Pulisic (Chelsea/ENG; 31/13), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen/GER; 7/2), Gyasi Zardes (Columbus Crew SC; 51/10)

The most valuable thing you can do on a soccer field is score a goal. The second-most valuable thing you can do on a soccer field? Play the pass that leads to a goal. The market agrees: the 12-most expensive transfers of all time include 11 attackers and one midfielder, Paul Pogba, who is especially valued because of his ability to contribute like he's an attacker.

Without someone who can put the ball on a plate and/or put it into the back of the net, all of the other stuff -- pretty passing out of the back, savvy positioning from a defensive midfielder, dervishing dribbles past a full-back -- adds up to zero.

But who is the best attacker in the Premier League right now? Is it Raheem Sterling, or do his super-teammates cancel him out? Is it Mohamed Salah, or does the fact that his team improved when his goal output declined make you question his value? How about Harry Kane? Maybe Sadio Mane? Perhaps Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang? Could it be... Teemu Pukki?

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Intrigued by the current question, we decided to take a page out of Bill Barnwell's book to go back and award a "Best Attacker" belt for each Premier League season this decade.

The rules are such: Total contribution (goals+assists) will be the largest factor in the decision-making process while others -- per-90 rates, expected goals, etc. -- will also be given weight when necessary. However, we won't use penalty goals as anything more than a tiebreaker. (Why? Most pros convert their penalties around 75 percent of the time, and we're not here to reward players for their place atop a subjective intra-club hierarchy!)

To qualify, you need to have played at least half of the available minutes (1,710). Also, if a player is in possession of the belt, he'll have to be surpassed by a significant margin to lose it.

In other words: tie goes to the guy with the belt.

2010-11: Robin van Persie, Arsenal

What a freaking weird year this was. This season marked the first time Manchester City qualified for the Champions League, so their team included the likes of Carlos Tevez along with Micah Richards and Joleon Lescott. Jerome Boateng started 15 games for City this season! Elsewhere, Roy Hodgson was steering the Liverpool ship into an iceberg and Fernando Torres was readying himself for a move to Chelsea, while Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez would eventually arrive at Anfield. Please gaze upon the hilarity of the end-of-the season top 10 for goals+assists:

1. Robin van Persie (Arsenal), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City): 26
3. Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United): 24
4. Nani (Manchester United): 23
5. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Peter Odemwingie (West Brom), Didier Drogba (Chelsea): 22
8. Rafael van der Vaart (Tottenham): 21
9. Charlie Adam (Blackpool): 20
10. Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool): 19

If we remove penalties, Berbatov and van Persie tie for the lead in overall production with 24. The tiebreaker goes to the Dutchman, 25 years young at the time, who posted his production in nearly 500 fewer minutes than the languid, 29-year-old Bulgarian raconteur. In fact, van Persie's per-90-minute mark for non-penalty goals+assists (1.22) has only been surpassed twice since the turn of the decade.

2011-12: Robin van Persie, Arsenal

This is the year, depending on your personal preferences, that is remembered for either the "AGUEROOOOOOO" goal against QPR or that time Mario Balotelli set his house on fire with fireworks and then scored two goals against Manchester United in a 6-1 win the next day. Either way, it was the season in which Manchester City's transformation into a title-quality club was finally complete.

However, no one did enough to take the belt from van Persie, who scored an absurd 29 non-penalty goals and created 11 assists. No one else combined for more than 29; this was Wayne Gretzky-esque. Seemingly every other weekend, Alex Song would play a 45-yard diagonal pass over the left shoulder of van Persie, who would then thunder the ball in at the far post. Song and RVP, of course, would both leave the club the following summer.

Fun fact: Only three players (van Persie, Rooney, and Sergio Aguero) registered more non-penalty goals+assists than Fulham's Clint Dempsey this season. The early part of the decade was weird, man.

2012-13: Robin van Persie, Manchester United

Same name, different team!

This was the year that Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez emerged as superstars, the only two players in the league to average at least five shots per 90 minutes. Bale waged an all-out, long-range assault on opposing keepers as he scored nine goals from outside the box; while no other player notched more than five. In all, he scored 21 non-penalty goals and added four assists.

Suarez, meanwhile, flourished in his first season under Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool, scoring 23 and helping on another five. Bale would get scooped up by Real Madrid on the back of his performance in 2012-13, while Suarez would head to Barcelona a year later. And yet, neither season was enough to unseat van Persie.

Sir Alex Ferguson's decision to buy the striker from Arsenal, then 28, probably won him the Premier League title in his last season in charge. Van Persie once again led the league in attacking production with 23 non-penalty goals and nine assists, capping off one of the best three-year runs the league has ever seen. The age curve comes for us all, though, and RVP never scored more than 10 non-penalty goals or created more than three assists in another Premier League season after 2013.

Perhaps not coincidentally, United have not won another title since.

2013-14: Luis Suarez, Liverpool

This is the easiest choice on the list. Suarez's 2013-14 season is the best attacking season in the history of the Premier League. He scored 31 goals -- with no penalties! -- and added 12 assists. Oh, and he did all that despite being suspended for the first six games of the campaign for... biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanonic in a match toward the tail-end of the previous season. Good times.

Anyway, neither this level of raw production nor this kind of efficiency have ever been matched in England. The 43 non-penalty goals+assists and the 1.33 non-penalty goals+assists per-90-minute rate are both still Premier League records.

Suarez made real just about every cliche: he was unplayable, he was on fire, he was a force of nature, and so on. He played with a controlled recklessness that no Premier League defense was ever able to get a handle on, and he nearly dragged a flawed Liverpool team to a title in the process. Who knows: If Suarez doesn't miss the first month and a half of the season, then maybe Steven Gerrard's slip never happens. And if it does, maybe it doesn't even matter.

2014-15: Sergio Aguero, Manchester City

With Suarez not around to defend his title, the belt goes to the guy who is -- by far -- the Premier League's most consistent attacker of the decade. Since arriving in Manchester in 2011, Aguero's non-penalty goals+assists per-90 minute rate is 0.94. To put that into context: his average season would basically be a top-three season in any year since the league began.

Were we handing out a belt for the past 10 yards, it would go to Aguero, hands down. It might seem strange that he's getting the designation in a year that City didn't win the title, but some of Aguero's best years just happened to coincide with supernova seasons from players who could never match his consistency or would soon leave to play in another league. In 2014-15, Aguero scored 21 non-penalty goals and added in eight assists. Next best: a 21-year-old Harry Kane, with 19 and four.

2015-16: Mesut Ozil, Arsenal

This is the trickiest pick on the list. Aguero once again led the league in per-90 production, while Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez were nos. 1 and 2 in the total goals+assists charts during Leicester's title-winning run. But Aguero only made 30 starts this season, while Vardy scored five penalties and Mahrez added four from the spot.

Harry Kane won the Golden Boot, but his paltry one assist runs counter to the spirit of this process. Hell, even Dimitri Payet -- nine goals, 12 assists in his debut season for West Ham -- warrants some consideration. However, Ozil functions as a nice symbolic choice; plus, he actually led the league in non-penalty goals+assists, too.

All of the other choices on here are players who mainly put the ball into the net while adding some supplementary creative skills to their repertoires. Not Ozil. His 19 assists (along with six goals) are the Premier League's high-water mark for creativity this decade, and the 146 chances he created are the most by a single player in any of Europe's Big Five's since 2010.

With the rise of pressing, nascent analytical thinking, and system-devoted managers, the role of the chief creator, the no. 10, has been on the decline ever since.

2016-17: Harry Kane, Tottenham

Just five players have broken the 1.00 non-penalty goals+assists-per-90-minutes mark this decade: van Persie, Aguero, Suarez, Daniel Sturridge, Mohamed Salah and Harry Kane. Alexis Sanchez edges Kane out by three non-penalty goals+assists (32 to 29), but we're giving Kane the edge because his raw totals are still super-high despite featuring in nearly 700 fewer minutes than Sanchez.

(Quick aside: Given all the attacking talent they've had since 2010, it's incredible, and perhaps incredibly unlucky, that Arsenal haven't won at least one title this decade. There's van Persie, Sanchez and Ozil, but also this infuriating fact. In RVP's first-year at United, Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski were Nos. 1 and 2 in the league in non-penalty goals+assists per 90. Olivier Giroud was third in 2014-15 and second in 15-16.)

This is probably Kane's best season to date: 24 non-penalty goals and five assists. He scored 28 non-penalty goals the following campaign, but nabbed just two assists and did so in 500 more minutes. This was the year in which St. Totteringham's Day finally didn't come and the biggest reason why is that Spurs had a 24-year-old striker who became the best attacker in the league.

2017-18: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool

Aguero had his best per-90 attacking season in the Premier League. Kevin De Bruyne threw up eight goals and 16 assists, Leroy Sane went for 10 and 15, while Raheem Sterling posted an 18-and-11 campaign. Harry Kane scored 28 non-penalty goals. And yet, none of them really even come close to deserving the designation.

In his first year with Liverpool, Salah's totals and per-minute efficiency were both second only to 2013-14 Suarez in the history of the league. No one -- not even Liverpool's front office, who'd signed Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in the previous two summers -- could have seen this coming, but Salah's leap to superstardom isn't quite from out of nowhere. Sure, Jose Mourinho deemed his surplus to requirements to Chelsea but in his last season with Roma, Salah's rate of production (15 non-penalty goals and 11 assists at a 0.95 per-90 clip) was better than anyone in the Premier League that year, outside of Kane.

Taken together, Liverpool got the two players who produced the two best individual attacking seasons of the Premier League era for less than Manchester United paid for one Angel Di Maria. Of course, neither one got them that elusive Premier League title -- at least not yet.

2018-19: Mohamed Salah, Liverpool

Aguero once again led the league on a per-90 rate (0.98). He also matched Salah and Eden Hazard in total non-penalty goals+assists with 27, despite playing significantly fewer minutes than either of them.

Hazard himself has a legitimate claim for this title. It's his first (and last) mention in this exercise because it's also his only season north of 0.65 non-penalty goals+assists per 90 minutes in the Premier League. He moves the ball up the field with passing or dribbling as well as anyone, and over his last few seasons at Chelsea he also served as the primary outlet for their attacking moves, but his goal production had never reached the elite tier until his final year at Stamford Bridge.

However, given the heights Salah hit the previous season, tying for the league-lead in goals+assists isn't enough to cost him the throne. While standard expected goals models just take into account the location of a shot, TruMedia has a post-shot xG model that adds or subtracts value from a shot based on where it was put on the goal frame. (Shots that miss the net get a big ol' zero.) According to this data, Salah led the league with 24.06 xG (on 22 goals), while no one else was above 20, and Aguero was down at 16.69 (on 21 goals).

Put another way: The main reason Salah didn't score more goals was that opposing keepers consistently stood on their heads when he shot the ball.

How about this year?

Three games into the 2019-20 season, Raheem Sterling's already got five goals along with league-leading expected-goal numbers, too. He and Aguero and even potentially Kevin de Bruyne seem like the most likely candidates to ascend beyond the 27-year-old Egyptian come May. But if Salah's electric performance against Arsenal last weekend is any indication, he's not going to give up the belt too easily. Someone else is gonna have to come take it.

Ajantha Mendis, perhaps cricket's original mystery spinner in the video analysis age, has announced his retirement from all forms of the game. The 34-year old last played international cricket in 2015, an ODI against New Zealand in Christchurch.

The inventor of what became known as the "carrom ball" - legbreaks produced by flicking the ball like a striker on a carrom board - took 70 wickets in 19 Tests, 152 in 87 ODIs and 66 in 39 T20Is.

He made his debut against West Indies in an ODI in April 2008, when he took 3 for 39, but it is at the Asia Cup that followed which produced Mendis' most famous memories. After 11 wickets in four games, he blew India away in the final in Karachi, taking 6 for 13 as Sri Lanka romped to a 100-run win. He would go on to become the fastest player to 50 ODI wickets, in just 19 games, a record he still holds.

He soon received a Test call-up against India in July that year and he, along with Muttiah Muralitharan, went on to rattle India's batting order, taking Sri Lanka to a 2-1 win. He picked up 26 wickets in three games, including eight wickets on his debut, a Test that saw Sri Lanka beat India by an innings and 239 runs.

Mendis' numerous variations, allowing him to spin the ball both ways or skid it on, proved particularly effective in T20 cricket. He holds the record for best figures in a T20I, with a 6 for 8 against Zimbabwe in the opening game of the 2012 World T20. He was impressive in the in 2009 (12 wickets in seven games) and 2012 (15 wickets in six games) editions of the T20 World T20s too, helping Sri Lanka reach the final both times. He is also the only bowler to take two six-fors in T20Is, the other one (6 for 16) coming against Australia in 2011.

But once the mystery faded and batsmen began to figure him out, performances started to dip and he found himself falling down the famously replete Sri Lankan spin-bowling pecking order. Injuries played their part in hampering him in the last five years or so, and by now, Mendis had dropped off the selectors' radars almost entirely.

His success across formats earned him a World Cup spot in 2011, where he picked seven wickets in five innings. He regularly featured for Sri Lanka across white-ball formats until 2014, when his career was jolted with a back injury. He did not make the 2015 World Cup side, and then was unavailable due to injury through the middle of that year, after which he was picked for the West Indies ODIs in November that year when he took four wickets in three games. In his last ODI, a month later, he finished with 0 for 49 in Sri Lanka's seven-wicket loss against New Zealand.

In recent years Mendis has been captaining Police Sports Club in Sri Lanka's domestic Tier B tournament, where he reinvented himself as a batting allrounder. In fact, in his last eight first-class innings he has four 50-plus scores.

Much like his NFL counterpart, Capt. Andrew Luck has said farewell.

In a letter posted to SI.com on Wednesday, the Twitter parody account wrote an open address to the Indianapolis Colts, saying, "life on the family farm is just as I remembered," and reminiscing on his days with his fellow soldiers.

Dearest friends -

A heartfelt thank you. And a fond farewell.

- Andrew https://t.co/vReoCytpJw

— Capt. Andrew Luck (@CaptAndrewLuck) August 28, 2019

"Oh, the times we had out on our campaigns through the years. I feel as though I was just a youth who hardly had two neckbeard whiskers to rub together when I first unholstered my sidearm," the letter reads in part. "How we have all grown one hard-fought battle after another. From that frozen tundra to face the Horned Barbarians (I recall sleeping in a deer carcass to keep warm) to combating those painted Pirate Ruffians in their land without light. Then there were the Steel Men, who battled in a Pitt. And who could forget the orange Horsemen? Good thing we packed extra air since their land had so little."

Though it was called a farewell, it was not stated whether the account, which has more than 540,000 followers, will continue.

The Luck parody account was started in December 2015, with the writer developing the character off the now-retired quarterback's resemblance to a 19th-century soldier. The tweets linked upcoming Colts games and relevant news from the perspective of a Civil War battlefield as letters to his mother back home.

Luck announced his retirement Saturday, saying the challenge of rehabbing numerous injuries over the years had taken away his passion for football.

The Capt. Luck account has tweeted one other time, on Sunday morning, since Luck's announcement.

FRISCO, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones likes to say that deadlines make deals, but when it comes to Ezekiel Elliott, he does not see the approaching Sept. 8 regular-season opener as a deadline.

"We have to be prepared to play without any given player," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Wednesday, alluding to injuries and suspensions. "We may very well play without a player that's not coming in on his contract. We'll play and play well."

The Cowboys have said they wanted to sign Elliott, Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper to long-term contract extensions, but negotiations with all three have gone slowly. Last week, executive vice president Stephen Jones expressed confidence on The Fan that a deal with Elliott could be reached before the season begins.

Jerry Jones went so far as to see the positive of Elliott missing games, at least early in the season.

"We've got a marathon here," Jerry Jones said. "We want Zeke when we get to the playoffs. We want Zeke when we're in the dog days of this season. ... A fresh Zeke, if we got to the end, would be great."

As for Elliott's off-the-field missteps, including one that led to a six-game suspension in 2017, Jones said those are not a factor in the negotiations.

"I'm very comfortable with everything off the field for Zeke," Jones said.

The Cowboys concluded training camp practices Tuesday and begin prep Monday in earnest for their opener against the New York Giants. With a strong possibility of Elliott not being on hand, the Cowboys have been impressed with rookie Tony Pollard and also have veteran Alfred Morris.

"Listen, we're preparing for the season and you know we're going to play with what we got -- and what we got is a damn good back in Tony Pollard," said right guard Zack Martin, who should return to practice next week after missing time with a back injury. "Obviously you want him [Elliott] out here, but we are preparing to get ready for Week 1."

Alabama defensive signal-caller Dylan Moses likely will miss the 2019 season, sources told ESPN, after the inside linebacker suffered a knee injury during practice Tuesday.

Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said on the SEC media teleconference that Moses will need surgery on the knee and will be out "indefinitely."

"Certainly, this is a character check for our team, and we're going to do everything to support Dylan and the people that have the opportunity now to fill in for Dylan," Saban said.

Moses, a Butkus Award finalist last season, finished with 86 total tackles -- 10 for loss -- and 3.5 sacks in 2018.

He was ranked No. 13 on the preseason Big Board by ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr.

Saban told ESPN earlier this month that linebacker was among the thinnest positions on the team and that the Tide could ill afford to have injuries there this season.

Alabama was already dealing with the loss of senior inside linebacker Joshua McMillon, who suffered what's believed to be a season-ending knee injury earlier this month.

"We can't afford to lose a lot of guys on defense, especially at linebacker," Saban said then. "We haven't been able to stay healthy there the last few seasons, and that's limited some of what we've been able to do on defense. We've got good players, but a lot of young ones, too. The maturity level, knowledge, confidence and experience -- it's going to be a little bit of a work in progress to get it where we need it to be."

With McMillon and Moses sidelined, the Tide defense will lack experience at inside linebacker.

Saban said Wednesday that true freshman Shane Lee was the backup to Moses at middle linebacker and "he's the guy that will have the opportunity to play now."

Sophomore Markail Benton, who had 14 tackles last season, also is listed as a backup to Moses on the official Alabama depth chart, which was released Monday.

Christian Harris, another true freshman, is listed as a starter at the second inside linebacker position.

"We try to get these guys prepared every day," Saban said of the backups. "They know they're only one play away from having to be in the game. Fortunately, for the guys that we have as backup linebackers, they have been good students of the game, and they've really tried to prepare themselves the right way."

Alabama opens the season against Duke in Atlanta on Saturday.

Australian Nick Kyrgios said Wednesday he had not used the "correct choice of words" after he claimed in a press conference at the US Open on Tuesday night that the ATP was "pretty corrupt."

The 24-year-old told reporters Tuesday night that he was not bothered by a recent record fine of $113,000, handed to him in Cincinnati for bad behavior, because "the ATP are pretty corrupt anyway".

Under ATP rules, the comment comes under the banner of "conduct contrary to the integrity of the game." In theory, Kyrgios could be fined up to $100,000 and banned for up to three years.

But in a statement on his Twitter feed Wednesday, Kyrgios clarified his use of the word "corrupt."

"It was not the correct choice of words and my point and intention was to address what I see as double standards rather than corruption," he said.

"I know my behavior at times has been controversial and that has landed me in trouble, which at times is granted and valid, but my issue is around others whether gaining the same or similar behavior and not being sanctioned.

"That's my issue and it continues to be. To be clear, I know I'm not perfect and do not pretend to be and I acknowledge I've deserved fines and sanctioning at times, but I expect consistency and fairness with this across the board, to date that's not happened."

The ATP issued its own statement Wednesday, saying that the comments would be considered "under the Player Major Offense provision under ATP Rules."

"A determination will be made by Gayle David Bradshaw, Executive Vice President, Rules & Competition, following an investigation as required by ATP rules," the statement said.

HE'D REHEARSED THIS moment in his mind thousands of times.

Pop off the bench like you're sitting on a spring. Tear off your warm-ups, toss them aside and trot to the scorer's table.

Lean against it? Sit on the floor? Kneel?

Pull the strings on your shorts tight and tuck in your jersey. Adjust your headband and make sure your shoes are tied tight. Not that tight.

Listen for your name echoing through the speakers, hoping the announcer says it correctly.

Checking in for the Clippers, JamesOn Curry.

Savor the moment. Look around the arena, and in this one, see the numbers hanging from the rafters. Maybe dream about yours hanging somewhere someday. Take a deep breath, snap back to the present and call out your assignment. Take your spot on the floor, wait for the whistle to blow, and officially begin your NBA career. Three-point-nine seconds are left on the clock.

You made it. You fulfilled a promise to yourself and your family. You are playing in the NBA.

Three seconds.

Get in your defensive stance. The clock is running, your name is in a box score now.

Two seconds.

Stay with your man. Do your job.

One second.

Another second passes and the buzzer sounds. Run back toward the bench and get in the huddle. You don't know it at the time, but you won't step foot on an NBA court in a game again.

"We just don't recognize the most significant moments of our lives while they're happening. Back then I thought, 'Well, there'll be other days.' I didn't realize that that was the only day."

-- Archibald "Moonlight" Graham, "Field of Dreams"

INSIDE BOSTON'S TD GARDEN, the Los Angeles Clippers had just witnessed a one-point halftime lead transform into a five-point third-quarter deficit.

It is Jan. 25, 2010, and, headlined by Baron Davis, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman, the Clippers are 20-23, four games out of the Western Conference's No. 8 seed. DeAndre Jordan is in his second year. They're one year away from Blake Griffin's debut, two years away from Lob City.

The Celtics are 28-13 and the juggernaut of the Eastern Conference -- led by Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett -- that would go on to lose in seven games to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

Rondo draws a foul with 3.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter when Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy yells from his perch on the sideline.

Called up three days earlier on a 10-day contract, Curry checks in.

Wearing No. 44, he jogs onto the court. He's guarding Rondo, who maneuvers toward the baseline under the basket. The Celtics inbound, Pierce swings the ball to Allen who takes a couple dribbles into the paint. Rondo drifts a few steps to his left to clear the way for Allen's drive. Curry stays next to him. Allen loses the handle on the ball and can't get his shot up before the buzzer sounds. Curry is still there, right next to his man.

"It was the quickest four seconds ever," Curry said after the game. "I wish it would've lasted longer. Being out there, I just felt like a regular person, felt like a regular basketball player. I felt like I was home, like this is where I belong."

To start the fourth, Jordan subs in for Curry, who sits on the bench for the rest of the 95-89 loss. The Clippers waive him 12 hours later.

He didn't take a shot. He didn't grab a rebound. He didn't touch the ball. According to Basketball Reference, there have been nine players who have appeared in only one career game and played a minute or less. None played less than Curry's 3.9 seconds.

NEARLY 10 YEARS later, Curry has nothing from the night he took the court for the Clippers. He doesn't know what he did with the jersey or the shoes or the headband he used.

He looks the same now as he did as a player, a wiry 6-foot-3 guard with a charming grin and an electric demeanor. His name is one part for his great uncle James, and another for his father Leon.

Curry talks fast and bounces around topics at hyperspeed. He reads everything, and like a living college paper he cites each randomly dropped quote midflow. Something from T. Harv Eker's "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" here, or Napoleon Hill's "Laws of Success in Sixteen Lessons" there. Curry's mind hums non-stop.

His phone is full of notes, quotes, thoughts, poems, songs he has written only for himself. He has a list of goals for the year, two above the rest: get married and buy a house.

He's 33 years old now and hasn't played professional basketball in five years.

"You know, if you think about it," Curry says now with a smile, "I'm probably the highest-paid player per second in NBA history."

That kind of optimistic perspective wasn't always there. There was once a feeling of shame and embarrassment about where he'd been and what he'd done. His dream had betrayed him, turning a chosen one to a cheap piece of trivia immortalized on YouTube.

He rose, he fell, he would be broke, he would be broken. But basketball would find a way to change JamesOn Curry's life, just not in the way he ever thought it would.

A BASKETBALL PRODIGY at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, North Carolina, Curry was the kind of talent that seemed chosen by a higher power, destined for greatness: a pure jumper, a tight handle and a feel for the game that's gifted and never learned.

He was a five-star recruit putting up 40.3 points a game, committed to play at the University of North Carolina since his sophomore year.

A newspaper sent a photographer to chronicle his senior season. A UNC fan site traveled to all his games to relay glowing reports of what Tar Heels fans could expect from their super-recruit.

He stood toe-to-toe with other top players from the state, including Chris Paul, whom Curry outshone at the 2002 Hampton Five Star Camp (The "yo-yo dribble" CP3 does to perfection? Curry claims he taught him that at the camp, though Curry gives original credit to streetball legend and former NBA veteran Rafer Alston, who taught him.)

Curry was becoming a state scoring legend. With Lawrence "Cotton" Clayton in the house, the former state all-time scorer, Curry dropped 65 points against Western Alamance in January, then 54 against High Points Andrews five days later.

On the night of Feb. 3, 2004, in a packed gym against crosstown rival Graham, Curry erupted for 47 points, adding to his then-state-record total of 3,307 career points -- more than Michael Jordan, David Thompson and James Worthy (Curry's record was broken by Chicago Bulls rookie Coby White in 2016). The Eagles were undefeated in conference and were hosting Northwood in a couple days.

The next morning, Curry was in art class when he was called into the principal's office. Sheriff's deputies were waiting inside.

He thought they just wanted autographs. They placed him in handcuffs instead.

While he was lighting up the Red Devils, law enforcement officials were prepping a warrant for Curry's arrest; he was one of 60 students from six different high schools in the Alamance-Burlington district arrested as part of a drug sting. Three of his teammates were also arrested.

"I was hustling, I ain't going to lie." JamesOn Curry

Curry had been caught selling marijuana to an undercover police officer, who was posing as a student and had a hidden camera in the strap of a backpack -- two deals in the fall, one in the bathroom after first period and another in the parking lot three weeks later. His total take was $95.

He was charged with six felony counts of possessing marijuana and selling it on school grounds. He pleaded guilty to all of them.

A judge suspended his sentence, placed him on probation for 36 months and ordered him to perform 200 hours of community service. He was kicked off the basketball team and expelled.

North Carolina rescinded its scholarship.

On May 5, 2004, three months after his arrest and 20 days before his graduation from an alternative school in the area, he committed to Oklahoma State, picking it over Memphis and Cincinnati. Curry made the most of his second chance.

His freshman year, in 2004-05, he sparked a run in Madison Square Garden in a win against No. 4 Syracuse. Dick Vitale called him a Diaper Dandy. The Cowboys won the Big 12 and reached the Sweet 16. The Tar Heels won the title.

Everywhere he played, Curry heard the heckles and the chants -- "James-On Crack!" was the most popular one. He started all 33 games as a sophomore, averaging 13.5 points and 4.0 assists. As a junior he averaged 17.3 points and 3.7 assists, making third team all-conference and drawing interest from NBA teams.

Against the advice of head coach Eddie Sutton, he declared for the draft.

The Chicago Bulls, who played a part in persuading Curry to leave school with a rumored promise they'd take him, selected him in 51st overall in the 2007 draft and immediately sent him to the D-League.

"I wasn't worried about getting picked," Curry says.

Another call-up, another demotion, another incident. At the D-League Showcase in January 2008 in Boise, Idaho, during his first season of professional basketball, he was caught by a police officer urinating in an alley outside of his hotel at 2:30 a.m. He ran and was arrested and cited for two misdemeanors. He was suspended one game.

A month later, he was called up again. On a road trip in February of his rookie season, Bulls coach Scott Skiles told the team the next practice was an open tryout. Curry was ready. He dominated the scrimmage with this passing and scoring. He thought he'd get his chance. Skiles pulled him aside after practice.

"You'll be the best player in the D-League," Curry remembers Skiles telling him.

Maybe it was supposed to be an insult, maybe it was a compliment, but Curry was crushed. The Bulls waived Curry after the season.

He blames some of it on the incident at the D-League Showcase and some of it on missing a team flight to New York because he got lost in Chicago driving to the airport. His past left him little margin for error. "This isn't the only reason, but that's a big reason I'm not in the NBA," he says. "When I missed that flight, it really messed things up."

After a brief time with pro teams in France and Cyprus, he returned to the D-League, playing for the Springfield Armor in Massachusetts. He was the Armor's first call-up when the Clippers signed him in 2010.

After he was released, he played two more seasons for Springfield, making the D-League All-Star team in 2012. He was maybe the best player in that game, scoring 25 points for the East. He thought for sure another call-up was coming.

"We had three call-ups that season," says then-Armor coach Bob MacKinnon, "and I thought JamesOn would be the next guy. It still bothers me to this day that he didn't."

After another stint in Europe -- Italy, this time -- Curry came back to the Armor in 2013, and then was traded to the Bakersfield Jam in 2014. Before that season, he was arrested in Midwest City, Oklahoma, for marijuana possession. He pleaded guilty and the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor.

He suffered a season-ending ankle injury in March 2014 and was waived for the final time in his pro career.

"The NBA's funny. There are what, 450 jobs?" MacKinnon says. "And in my mind, if you take the top 200 to 250 players and the next 150 to 200, you can interchange those out with the next group of guys and the NBA wouldn't change.

"JamesOn was on that next group of guys and, unfortunately, because he had a reputation, that's what hurt him. If you're going to overcome a bad rep, you've got to be really, really good.

"It's easy to get a rep. It's hard to get rid of one."

IT IS OCTOBER 2014 and Curry is living in Edmond, a suburb 15 miles north of Oklahoma City. His girlfriend, Christy, is from there. They met as freshmen at Oklahoma State and have three children together.

Riding as a passenger in a silver Cadillac with its tail lights out, he is pulled over near the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma at 1 a.m. when an officer finds marijuana and a handgun. He tells the officer his name is James Davis.

He is charged with two felony counts: possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute within 2,000 feet of a school and false impersonation. He pleads not guilty.

With that case still open, in February 2015 he is arrested again for possession of another controlled dangerous substance -- this time Alprazolam, better known as Xanax.

"I was hustling," Curry says now. "I ain't going to lie."

After months of the cases bouncing around in court, he accepts a deal and pleads guilty to all charges. More felony convictions. Starting in April 2016, he serves 10 consecutive weekends in Oklahoma county jail, plus 40 hours of community service.

Curry doesn't like to go into much detail about it -- those were the "dark days," as he calls them. He points to his left eye where there's a scar across his upper cheekbone. He got it in a scuffle in Tulsa, where someone hit him and a wristwatch cut him.

"All that thug s---, yes. Hood s---, yes. But I'm not some bad guy," Curry says. "Ain't no stealing, no killing, none of that. Some selling, some hustling, that s--- I did."

With his life legally complicated, his relationship with Christy in flux and a belief of being targeted by police in Oklahoma, Curry moves back to North Carolina to try to reset his post-basketball life in the fall of 2016. He concedes now he was just running from his problems.

"It was a bad eight months," he says.

Curry comes from a large, tight-knit family with siblings and aunts and uncles. Being back home, driving the country roads, smelling the tobacco-drenched air from the nearby fields, might give him something sturdy, he thinks.

Being back around his grandmother, Georgia Parker, whom he describes as his spiritual guiding light, could recenter his life. He's still training and thinking maybe there's one more comeback in him.

It is April 2017. After a late-night workout, he's driving down Highway 49 in his dad's white Nissan pickup. It is around midnight and he is on his way to Johnny Brewer's, the only store open outside of Pleasant Grove. He wants a cigar.

He drops his phone. He reaches down to grab it.

"Looked up. Wheel turned, it flipped," Curry says now. "Of course, they thought I was drinking."

The truck is on its side, propped up in a ditch by scraggly roadside bushes. Every window is smashed, the cab is turned inside out. He had dislocated his ribs, broken his back and had blood pouring from his head. He remembers a man walking up to his truck as Curry crawled out and stood up.

Wiping blood from his eyes and his breaths short and staggered, Curry had asked the man to drive him home.

"You look bad, bud," Curry recalls the man saying. "But if you can make it to me, bud, I'll take you home."

The next thing he remembers is waking up in the emergency room. Two steel rods are implanted in his back, with two eight-inch scars running parallel on each side of his spine. He needs help going to the bathroom and can't walk for a month.

Three months later, still rehabbing from surgery, the hope of a comeback gone, Curry moves back to Oklahoma to be with Christy and the kids.

"I was so depressed when I came back from North Carolina," Curry says now. "That whole year."

With felony convictions haunting him, Curry was lost -- and wandering. "Burger King wouldn't even hire me, man," he says.

He signs on with a temp agency and works various jobs -- at a Purina dog food factory in Edmond, which is next door to the Oklahoma City Thunder's first practice facility. He delivers packages for UPS as a driver's assistant. After playing pickup at a church rec center he decides to apply for a job as a trainer. They run a background check. Denied.

He is a convicted felon, low on money and thin on options. Looking for somewhere cheaper to live, he moves from Edmond to Enid, some 80 miles farther north. He gets a job working 12-hour days, 60-hour weeks loading and driving trucks. He admits the only reason he got the job was because his supervisor is a big Oklahoma State fan.

After a couple months, his supervisor, Justin, asks if Curry could fill in as a weekend coach for his kid's team at the YMCA. He knows the game, but doesn't have any coaching experience.

"It was the hardest thing ever," he says. "But I enjoyed it."

Justin also asks if Curry could do extra one-on-one training with his kid. For 20 bucks, sure, Curry says. He works 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., then at 7:15 he's at the Y, ready to train. He sheds the interim tag and takes over as coach of the youth team. And they are terrible.

"Walking in there and guys knowing me, 'That's JamesOn Curry!' And then guys walking out saying, 'Man, JamesOn Curry's team sucked!'" he says with a laugh.

He conducts workouts for a couple more kids; an extra few bucks a week in the pocket. Parents start noticing how much better the kids doing private workouts are getting. With nothing but word of mouth and positive reviews for his coaching and teaching, Curry adds more workouts. He starts coaching an additional team.

Three months later, he quits his job driving trucks and working in oil fields.

He starts a new dream.

IT'S A 60-SECOND drive through Drummond, Oklahoma -- a straight shot on Highway 132 -- with no stoplights or even a stop sign to slow you down.

If you're coming from the north, a big metal white cross in a cracked concrete parking lot of a Baptist church greets you. Windmills spin in the distance against a painted pastel blue sky, tinted a slight shade of orange because of the red dirt kicked up by tractors tilling the earth. Black oil derricks tower in yellowed, sun-baked fields. The flat landscape clears the way for classic Oklahoma gusts that feel like someone has a blow-dryer pointed in your face.

Directly across the street from the fire department sits Drummond High School, with a domed gym sitting behind the main building. It's the practice gym, but it's also the school's safe room, built to withstand an F5 tornado.

"Would playing in the NBA bring peace of mind? No. Would I be rich as hell? Yeah. Maybe I could outshoot 80 percent of the guards in the NBA right this second. But would I personally be happy, every single day? This is where I want to be." JamesOn Curry, on working with kids in Drummond, Oklahoma

Inside, bouncing balls echo off gray cinder-block walls and joyous screams of children pierce the air. Curry blows a whistle and 60 or so kids drop their basketballs and hustle to form a semicircle around him.

It's the first annual D.R.I.P. camp -- Dedication, Respect, Integrity, Preparation. Curry's spirit is boomeranging as he talks, his hands popping with energy. He throws himself down on the floor, pantomiming what happens if a teammate doesn't call out a screen for you. Everyone laughs, including the parents who stayed to watch.

According to the 2017 American Community Survey, of the 432 residents of Drummond, 86.6 percent are white, with small percentages of Hispanic and Latino, and American Indian. There were zero African-Americans on the survey. And that's pretty clearly reflected in the demographics of the camp.

"I'm a six- or seven-time felon, a black guy with tattoos all over my body," Curry says, "And I'm also a respected mentor and trusted coach to a Trump supporter's kid."

He's inside the dome in Drummond all day, every day. Principal Jarrod Johnson -- who was a student at Oklahoma State the same years as Curry -- gave him a key a few months ago.

"I talked to him and told him, 'I know you've had some stuff happen, but the past is the past,'" Johnson says. "'But if anything happens again, I can't have you around.'

"But I believe people need second chances, too," Johnson says. "When I got to sit in front of him, man-to-man, and talk, you just get this feeling where you say, 'I know this guy is for real.' This is what he wants and his priorities were right in line and that's what matters.

"There was no hesitation. It seems like he's a changed man."

Johnson is a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Enid, and one Saturday a month he's part of a group that cooks and serves meals to about 100 people in need. Curry volunteered himself and his basketball players to help.

"He has been nothing but awesome," Johnson says.

Curry says he has three players whose parents are in law enforcement. He knows they've surely looked up his record. He once feared the police, but he gets along great with the parents.

Coaching and training is his full-time job now. Nothing excites him like watching incremental development. He has a unique patience, praising the smallest of steps for struggling kids. He lays out two hula hoops on the left block of the lane.

"Two lines!" he yells, calling for a layup drill. "One foot for each. Right! Left!" He steps to the side. "Watch," he says with a confident grin, "They'll be able to do 'em tomorrow."

They come from Woodward, from Tonkawa, from Oklahoma City. Parents bring their kids from an hour or more away just for Curry to coach them.

"It's because he cares, and the kids can tell," says Jackie Wilkinson, grandmother of Ethan, a shy 12-year-old attending one of Curry's camps.

"I tried to get [Ethan] into basketball, but he had so much anxiety that he didn't want to," Wilkinson says. "And then here, we got him into the Y and JamesOn was the coach.

"He's come out of his shell. He doesn't want to work with anybody but JamesOn."

Jackie didn't know anything about Curry before he started coaching. Ethan told his grandmother that he was an NBA player. She Googled him.

But like every other parent that knows Curry, what she found didn't bother her.

"No," she says. "Because people make mistakes."

DRUMMOND FEELS LIKE home. Curry loves his jacked-up black Ford F-250 with broken air conditioning, the dashboard stained from driving dirt roads with the windows down.

"I want it to feel like I'm driving the tobacco fields," he says. "I want it to feel like I'm back home in the country. We're going to grow this out. We're going to work."

There was a time when every setback, every issue, every screw-up, every piece of baggage were things that weighed him down. "Every obstacle is an opportunity," he says now.

The two rods in his back? They've actually just improved his shooting mechanics because his posture is straighter on his jumper.

There was a time not long ago when Curry took offense to his 3.9 NBA seconds -- he has seen the YouTube videos -- but now he sees it as part of his story and nothing to hold shame in. He was an NBA player. He made it. And he's proud of that.

"He played. He played in an NBA game," MacKinnon says. "How many people in the world can say that? He should take a lot of pride in that. And he overcame a lot to get there."

It took foundational events for Curry to find himself. He cites two things that started a transformation: (1) his near-death experience with his car accident that forced him to reconcile a life without basketball and (2) the death of his grandmother in 2018.

"I don't want to talk about it much," he says of his grandmother. "But that changed me. It made me refocus and see what's important."

His life changed in that principal's office at Eastern Alamance, but Curry doesn't think too much about what-ifs, either.

He and Christy got married a few weeks ago in North Carolina on a beach in front of his entire family. He thinks he could still probably play in the NBA. "The way the game's changed now, man. I really could play. I know I can," he says.

Parents at his camp watch him drain 30-footers and will text him that he needs to play for the Thunder. He doesn't hold on to the past, but he does use it. He tells his players he played in the NBA -- "It's good for credibility," he laughs.

If the phone rang tomorrow and there was an offer, a tryout, a chance, would he consider leaving Drummond behind?

"No-pe," he says, turning it into a two-syllable word to make it sound more convincing. "I like this. I like building. I like planting these seeds. I know what you're thinking, but it's the truth. This is something real. This has stability. I can do this for a long time.

"Would playing in the NBA bring peace of mind? No. Would I be rich as hell? Yeah. Maybe I could outshoot 80 percent of the guards in the NBA right this second. But would I personally be happy, every single day? This is where I want to be."

A career lived in the blink of an eye, a dream brushing past like a stranger in a crowd, a purpose found in an unlikely place.

"NEVER SEEN IT," Curry says of "Field of Dreams." "But I know about Moonlight Graham."

Graham is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, some 80 miles north of Pleasant Grove. He was a real person -- not a Hollywood creation -- whose entire career spanned a single inning for the New York Giants in 1905 and he never got to bat. He became a physician and practiced medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota, for 50 years, mainly as a school doctor.

"It's pretty cool, I think," Curry says. "Both working with kids, planting seeds, seeing something bigger in this world."

One played an inning, the other 3.9 seconds. Both found a calling away from the game, trading one dream for another.

Someday, Curry sees himself owning a gym and having his own youth program. He wants players to come from all over the state to his gym and train with him.

Day 2 of his camp is over and he stands in the dome, cleaning up loose gum wrappers. A scream from midcourt turns his attention sharply back to the floor. His 6-year-old daughter Parker is trying to launch half-court shots while his 13-year-old son Braylen and 11-year old daughter Peyton cackle with laughter.

"I could be chasing a ball somewhere still," Curry says, "but I'd be missing out on this."

The final game of the 2019 regular season is barely a month away. The World Series starts three weeks later. It ends early enough that players will be able to file for free agency in October. And thus will begin another baseball winter -- one primed to drag on deep into the spring, just like the last two.

Major League Baseball's offseason shows no signs of changing, at least not according to more than a dozen executives and agents with whom ESPN spoke to forecast the offseason ahead. Get used to the hot stove spitting out BTUs like it's out of gas and the pace of free-agent action mimicking a Yankees-Red Sox game, they said.

This is the new normal, the consequence of a collective bargaining agreement finally past its halfway point and indisputably tilted toward the teams. The imbalance colors the game's entire economic landscape. Little incentivizes clubs to act early in free agency. The degradation of the market for older players is practically codified. It is a perfect storm of meh.

Maybe all the pent-up action left over from the winter meetings in Las Vegas last year will spill into this year's incarnation in San Diego and do something to enliven what should be one of MLB's most exciting times of year. Likelier, the executives and agents believe, is more of the same.

So what, exactly, does that look like? We decided to play a little game of 20 Questions, baseball-style, that covers the most important free agents, potential trades, contract extension possibilities and other potentially conflagrant issues.

Who is the best free agent this winter?

Houston Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole. He is everything teams want in a front-line starter. Young (29 next month). Durable but not overused (on pace for his third consecutive 200-inning season but with just 1,146⅓ career innings thus far). Injury-free (no Tommy John scar on his elbow). Front-line stuff (especially the 97 mph fastball and wicked 89 mph slider). Ace performance (an AL-best 2.75 ERA with 238 strikeouts against 40 walks in 163⅔ innings).

Teams that want Cole understand that he's getting more than $200 million this offseason. How much more is the question. The record deal for a starter is David Price's $217 million. The record per year for a pitcher is Zack Greinke's $34.4 million (or, for the pedants who factor in the price of deferred money in Greinke's deal, Justin Verlander's $33 million). Cole seeking Price's seven years at Greinke's average annual value is not out of the realm of possibility, not with the Astros, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves all positioned and motivated to explore adding Cole.

OK: Who's the best position-playing free agent this winter?

Washington Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon. He's in the midst of his best season, which is saying something because for the two years prior he was one of the two or three finest third basemen in the league. This season he has gone into overdrive: a .329/.407/.617 line, his typically excellent (and underappreciated) glove, his always-stellar baserunning. The best way to describe Rendon is: He's just really, really, really good at baseball.

And as someone who is that and hits free agency at 29, he's really, really, really going to get paid. As with Cole, the floor is $200 million. The goal is presumably higher -- something in the range of the eight-year, $260 million extension fellow third baseman Nolan Arenado signed with the Colorado Rockies this spring.

Guess who represents Cole and Rendon?

And Hyun-Jin Ryu. And Stephen Strasburg. And J.D. Martinez. And Nicholas Castellanos. And Dallas Keuchel. And Mike Moustakas.

Get used to hearing Scott Boras' name again. His ubiquity will be particularly acute this winter due to his agency negotiating on behalf of the two best players in the class and a litany of others expected to get paid.

Boras also has the clearest predilection among agents to let free agents stay jobless deep into the winter. He did it last year with Bryce Harper. He has done it plenty of times before -- both successes and failures. There's no compelling reason to believe he won't do it again, not after staying strategically steadfast even as the market clearly shifted.

What are some other big stories we'll be hearing about?

Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon entered this season a lame duck, and the team has done little to convince those around the sport that the organization will bring him back next season. Unless, of course, the Cubs win the World Series, which at this point feels like a long shot. Mickey Callaway's long-term status as New York Mets manager remains an open question. The San Francisco Giants will be looking for a new manager too, after Bruce Bochy's retirement. The expected sale of the Kansas City Royals could prompt changes. The Pittsburgh Pirates could undergo a refresh. Abject underachievement with a club-record payroll, as is the Colorado Rockies' truth this season, doesn't bode well for long-term security.

Oh, and a number of executives are expecting monster names to be in trade talks.

Wait. Did you say monster names?

Are Mookie Betts, Francisco Lindor and Kris Bryant monster enough?

Really?

Yup. Now, this does not mean all three -- or even any of the three -- will be traded. But in preparing for this winter, rival executives believe the Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs are willing to at very least listen on their stars.

This is nothing new for any of the three organizations. All are successful in part because they have no sacred cows, because they explore all avenues to winning, because to dismiss an idea outright is antithetical to teams that pride themselves on curiosity and creativity.

Listening on all three makes total sense. For the Red Sox it's the clearest no-brainer. Betts is a free agent after the 2020 season. He has shown no desire to give the Red Sox a hometown discount, as is well within his rights. The conversation for the right fielder is likely to start at $300 million. The Red Sox are in a tight spot financially with nearly $80 million a year committed to Chris Sale, David Price and Nathan Eovaldi. Their minor league system is bad. Betts single-handedly could reload the farm. Of course, Boston also would be dealing a homegrown star -- something no team wants to do.

It's what makes Lindor moving less likely. He is not a free agent until after the 2021 season, meaning the Indians control his rights for two more years. The benefit of dealing him over the winter would be the price of two full seasons -- even heftier than a year of Betts. Cleveland also has a history of dangling some of its best players, including starters Corey Kluber, Trevor Bauer, Carlos Carrasco and Shane Bieber, to gauge their worth. Bauer was dealt at the trade deadline this year, with a year and a half to go before his free agency. The Indians may listen, but it's difficult to imagine them dealing Lindor before seeing how they perform in 2020 -- even if they know they won't re-sign him.

Bryant is the wild card. A not-uncommon feeling inside the Cubs organization is the need for a big shake-up. Perhaps Maddon leaving would provide that. The sentiment among some extends to the players too. And with Javier Baez a reasonable bet to stick around -- more on that later -- and Bryant a Boras client more prone to testing free agency, the Cubs may see him as a combination of Betts and Lindor: a star with two years of control primed to hold out for free agency but capable beforehand of enriching a farm system in desperate need of help after years of dealing away its most valuable pieces.

In baseball, trade talks are quite often nothing more than idle chatter. When they get reported -- Team X has talked with Team Y about Player Z -- they are often blown up by those who know no better. So let this be your forewarning: There are going to be talks about big-name players this year, because smart teams consider their options. That doesn't mean any of them are going anywhere. But talks can lead to offers and when the offer stage of discussions arrives, that's when you know to take them more seriously.

Back to free agency: What will the market for Madison Bumgarner look like?

It should look really good. The closest comparable to Bumgarner in a number of ways is Jon Lester. Both are left-handed. Both had fastballs top out in the mid-90s but live at the lower end. Both have been incredibly durable, incredibly clutch in the postseason and incredibly consistent in everything from their release points to their performance. Lester's career ERA+ (a metric that measures him against the league with ballparks factored in and every number above 100 his percentage better than average) is 121. Bumgarner's ERA+: 121.

Bumgarner, who just turned 30, is even a year and change younger than Lester was when the Cubs gave him a six-year, $155 million contract. It's worth noting Lester was coming off a career year, whereas Bumgarner's resurgence with the Giants -- on pace for 200-plus innings with strikeout and walk rates better than his career level -- has been much more under the radar.

Because Bumgarner has been pitching in the major leagues since age 19, the fear of wear and tear among teams considering investing in him is real. There are other free-agent pitchers: the front-line guys, right-handers Zack Wheeler and Jake Odorizzi, lefties Cole Hamels, Dallas Keuchel and Wade Miley. Bumgarner is Bumgarner, though, and the bet will be more on just how well he can replicate a past that is so very good.

Will Strasburg opt out of the remaining four years and $100 million left on his contract?

Ooooh. This is a good one.

Why to opt out: His stuff remains electric. Analytically inclined teams believe there's even more there -- that they can draw the true greatness out of Strasburg similar to what Houston did with Cole and Verlander. In a five-and-fly era, he is almost always good for six innings and quite often more.

Why not to opt out: He's 31. He threw more than 183 innings once in his first nine major league seasons. He's entering the ninth year of a reconstructed elbow, which doctors believe have finite shelf lives.

Instinct says he opts out -- or, perhaps even likelier, the Nationals, sensing that and not wanting to lose Strasburg, tack on a few more years to his current deal and invalidate the opt-out he holds following the 2020 season.

How about J.D. Martinez?

He's got $62.5 million left over three years if he does not opt out. He also can opt out following the 2020 season if he stays this winter. Considering Martinez's age (32) and position (designated hitter), the instinct leans toward not opting out. On the other hand, Martinez's sizzling August has his season line at .313/.387/.571. Only six players in baseball have a better OPS. And a guy with that sort of productivity can't get more than $62.5 million guaranteed?

And Aroldis Chapman?

The belief around baseball is that, as Ken Rosenthal reported a month ago, Chapman is as good as a free agent. Which makes complete sense. Even with slightly diminished velocity, Chapman, 32 in February, is owed just $30 million over the final two years of his deal. And if Craig Kimbrel can misread the market, sit out for a couple months and still guarantee himself $43 million, then Chapman, coming off another dominant season closing for the Yankees, can beat $30 million easy.

Who has done best for himself in 2019?

Braves third baseman Josh Donaldson. He and agent Dan Lozano took a decided risk in agreeing to a one-year, $23 million deal and going the make-good route. And they've come out the other side looking brilliant for it. Yes, Donaldson turns 34 in December. But the way he has played -- hitting .260/.374/.529 with 32 home runs -- he's well within his rights to pursue a multiyear deal at a higher cost than he's making this season. The bat, the glove, the work ethic -- Donaldson is rather similar to the last player whose make-good deal went so well: Adrian Beltre.

Who's going to get the qualifying offer?

Locks to get it -- and reject it: Cole, Rendon, Bumgarner, Strasburg, Martinez, Chapman, Donaldson, Marcell Ozuna. Outside of Cole and Rendon, it will be brought up during negotiations too.

Likely to get it: Wheeler, Hamels, Odorizzi, Giants reliever Will Smith and Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius. If Wheeler is healthy, he gets it and rejects it. Hamels may accept it from the Cubs. Odorizzi, 29, almost certainly will hit free agency. Smith, who has made less than $12 million in his career, could get $18 million or so if he accepts. And the Yankees may be wary of Gregorius accepting and, considering the luxury-tax implications of him doing so, not offer.

Ineligible to get it: Ryu, Moustakas, Keuchel and Yasmani Grandal, who received it already, and Castellanos and Yasiel Puig, who were traded.

Who may have trouble getting paid?

Even without the qualifying offer saddling him, Puig is in many ways a walking red flag to the modern executive. They try to avoid poor on-base percentages. Baserunning and defense matter, and Puig is considered substandard at both. His age saves him -- he'll be 29 in December -- from another ding but the notion that Puig is going to cash in big this winter simply is not true as of now. Perhaps a great September or postseason changes that, but Puig feels more like a one-year deal.

What does the sport-wide reliever implosion mean?

Tough to say. On one hand, relief pitching is so dreadful in 2019 that the good ones are like gifts from heaven. So the opportunity to get, say, a Chapman or Smith or Will Harris -- all of whom have been excellent this season -- sounds glorious. But then, of course, is the truth bomb that relievers are notoriously volatile. So volatile, in fact, that the possibility of Chapman or Smith or Harris blowing up in 2020 is not at all unreasonable. Which brings about the conundrum -- and a potential impasse in the relief market. The players who performed well will want to get paid for performing well. The teams, cognizant of just how capricious relievers are, don't want to double down on giving them multiyear deals. This chasm is nothing new. This winter just may be the one where it's unbridgeable.

What's the best argument in favor of teams spending this winter?

Next winter. The class of 2020-21 looks pretty brutal. The good: Betts, Philadelphia catcher J.T. Realmuto, Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien, Houston outfielder George Springer, Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu and Angels shortstop Andrelton Simmons. The pitching class is led by Cincinnati right-hander Trevor Bauer, Yankees lefty James Paxton and righty Masahiro Tanaka, Mets right-hander Marcus Stroman and a trio of lefties: Mike Minor, Robbie Ray and Jose Quintana. The relief options are like a secondhand store.

There's also the reality that a number of the dozen listed above will sign contract extensions before reaching free agency, neutering the class even more.

So about those extensions: Are there going to be a boatload like last winter, too?

Probably not multiple billions of dollars' worth like last year. But as the end of the collective bargaining agreement approaches and players young and old try to stomach the idea of a potential work stoppage, their calculus may change. Union sources have acknowledged that the threat of a strike or lockout likely pushed a number of players into extensions last offseason and acknowledge the same may happen again this winter.

Are you gonna name names, Passan, or just tap dance around the good stuff?

For a disembodied inquisitor, you're awfully demanding.

Let's start with Cubs shortstop Javier Baez. There has been momentum in the past to keep Baez, 26, in a Cubs uniform well into his 30s. With Baez two years from free agency, it's the sort of deal that makes a lot of sense.

With around $110 million committed to payroll next season, no massive arbitration raises and some likely non-tenders, the Phillies have every reason to pursue a long-term deal with Realmuto. He is 28. He is a leader. He is a well-above-average hitter and even better defensive catcher. He deserves a nine-figure extension.

It may be time for the Yankees to do what has seemed inevitable for years: lock up outfielder Aaron Judge. He is arbitration eligible for the first time this season and in line for a massive raise. Working in the team's favor: Judge is not due to hit free agency until after the 2022 season, when he'd be 30.

The Yankees also could pursue an extension with Gleyber Torres, who, if Gregorius leaves, is their shortstop heir. Torres, 22, won't hit free agency for another five seasons, so an extension could be pre-emptive -- or could approach $100 million for him while saving tens of millions for the team. Also in that camp: Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, who is Torres' age but due to reach free agency just after his 27th birthday.

Other names to keep an eye on: Trea Turner, Yoan Moncada, Willson Contreras, Lucas Giolito, Shane Bieber, Mike Soroka, Luis Castillo, Matthew Boyd, Jack Flaherty, Dakota Hudson and Brandon Woodruff, among many others.

Well, who isn't getting extended?

It's always smart to start with Boras. The six-year, $120 million extension this March for Xander Bogaerts with Boston was the exception, not the rule. Among Boras' young and talented clients: Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger, Nationals outfielder Juan Soto, Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo, Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins, Mets outfielder Michael Conforto, Pirates first baseman Josh Bell, Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager and Padres pitcher Chris Paddack.

Others: It's probably too early for Fernando Tatis Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. The Mets could try to lock up Pete Alonso but may want to see another year. (Though Jeff McNeil is an interesting possibility.) It's tough to see Walker Buehler agreeing to the sort of below-market deals that are the norm for pitchers -- especially with what Cole is about to get. And as for anyone from the class of 2021-22 ...

Yeah, what about the class of 2021-22?

If you see a big smile on a general manager at any point over the next two years, it's fair to wonder if he's thinking about the free-agent class of 2021-22. While it's something of a fool's errand to try to project out a free-agent class more than two years in advance, the names are titillating enough to at least say them out loud while they're still a possibility.

The Cubs alone have Baez, Bryant and Anthony Rizzo on expiring deals that winter. Freddie Freeman's contract with Atlanta is up. So are Conforto's and Tommy Pham's. The pitchers are a who's who -- more wizened than one might like but still name after big name: Verlander, Kluber, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and the young buck, Noah Syndergaard.

It's the shortstops, though, that make 2021-22 special: Baez, Lindor, Seager, Carlos Correa and Trevor Story, all due to hit free agency in the same year. It's an unprecedented group of talent for one position. And if three or four or somehow all five of them reach free agency together, it's the sort of winter that could cause tectonic shifts in the sport.

Why are we talking two years in the future when there are players who may get traded this offseason?

Because we know disembodied inquisitor will take us back exactly where we need to be. Beyond Betts, Lindor and Bryant, there are a number of stragglers from the 2019 trade deadline who could find themselves moved in the winter:

-- Starters: Ray (plenty of reason to do it as Arizona rebuilds on the fly) and Minor (less likely but still reasonably so)

-- Relievers: Edwin Diaz (the Mets want to salvage something), Kirby Yates (Padres may sell high), Ian Kennedy (as the Royals shift into prospect-hoarding mode), Alex Colome, Mychal Givens

-- Infielders: Whit Merrifield (ibid. Royals), Luis Urias (as the Padres try to land a top starter), Dee Gordon (as the Mariners whittle their payroll)

A few individual names worth noting:

-- Kluber: The Indians have a $17.5 million option with a $1 million buyout. It's an interesting conundrum. The least likely scenario is they buy out Kluber. Even after a down year, what amounts to a one-year deal with another club option for 2021 is near-impossible to turn down. Once he's under contract, though, Kluber could become a very interesting trade chip. Not as interesting as he would be coming off a strong year, but enough for the Indians to strongly consider dealing him.

-- Syndergaard: If he keeps pitching like he has in the second half -- 54⅓ innings, one home run, 12 walks, 55 strikeouts, 1.82 ERA -- he will command an immense amount on the trade market. This is the Thor the Mets have been waiting for -- one so good he might have pitched himself off the trade block.

-- Felipe Vazquez: The Pirates need talent, and whether it's a rebuild on the fly, a partial teardown or a full, to-the-studs reimagination, dealing Vazquez is a good first step when the division may be an unrealistic goal for the first few years of his contract, when he's at his most valuable. Nobody stepped up at the trade deadline this year with an offer to the Pirates' satisfaction. Perhaps this winter will be different -- in at least one way.