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LeBron opens up on relationship with idol Jordan
Michael Jordan went from being LeBron James' childhood idol to now, in the twilight of James' Hall of Fame career, being the basketball figure his résumé is most often judged against.
James opened up about the current relationship between him and Jordan as part of a wide-ranging interview that aired Wednesday on "The Pat McAfee Show."
While James characterized their dynamic as being in "a good spot," he admitted there is distance between them.
"We don't talk," James said during the 75-minute interview that was taped at McAfee's studio outside Indianapolis on Tuesday. "Because I'm still playing. I'm still playing, I'm still focused on my craft right now."
James said, "I would hope so," when asked if he believed a rapport could blossom between him and Jordan after the Los Angeles Lakers star retires -- similarly to the way James became closer to Kobe Bryant after Bryant finished his playing career.
"The funny thing is, me and Kobe -- the late, great Kob, obviously -- me and Kobe never had a real relationship either," James said. "We were on the [USA] Olympic team, we had a great relationship there. The Olympic team in '08, the Olympic team in '12, but it was always competitive between us. We were always like, I was on the East Coast, he was on the West Coast, and it was like, even though ... in '09 and we didn't beat Orlando and didn't get an opportunity to play him in the Finals [there was a competitive friction]."
James said that first began to change in 2016 when Bryant retired and that it continued to evolve when James signed with L.A. as a free agent in the summer of 2018.
"That's when our relationship became really, really good," James said. "He welcomed me. He called me, like, 'Bro, anything you need in L.A., I got you. You're a Laker now. You're family.' And we would have multiple conversations. Obviously, you guys saw him coming to a lot of games. ... And when I passed him for the scoring record in Philly, he had a tweet out there like, 'Keep on going.' Like, 'Keep transcending the game. Keep going.' And that s--- meant so much to me."
James and Jordan did come together to share a memorable embrace at halftime of the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland when the league honored the league's 75th Anniversary Team.
"That was dope," James said. "That's straight respect, admiration and me, for sure, I wear 23 because of MJ. And the inspiration that he gave me as a kid in Akron, Ohio, who don't have much inspiration in your hometown."
However, so long as James, 40, is still an active player and continues to stack his résumé to be able to compare to Jordan -- a six-time champion, five-time MVP and 10-time scoring champ -- he doesn't expect the relationship with 62-year-old Jordan to change.
"I think it's because I'm still playing," James continued. "And MJ, we all know MJ. Even if you don't know him personally, he is one of the most ruthless competitors there is, and until I'm done and he doesn't have to look at me running up and down wearing the No. 23 and every time my name is mentioned, it's mentioned with his, [a relationship will have to wait]."
Among the many topics James also touched on with McAfee was how his son Bronny James has developed throughout his rookie season with the Lakers.
"For me as a dad, it doesn't matter if he never scores, ever. For me as a dad, I'm just super proud of him, period, as a young man. For me as a mentor and as a teammate of his that wants to see him thrive because I have seen the work he's put into the game, I am super proud of his development to where he is now," James said. "From the moment that he was drafted ... to now ... his development has skyrocketed."
Bronny James, whom the Lakers selected with the No. 55 pick in the second round after his freshman season at USC, scored a season-high 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting for the Lakers last week. He followed that up by scoring 39 points on 14-for-21 shooting Monday for the South Bay Lakers, L.A.'s G League affiliate.
"Super proud of Bronny," James said. "Super proud of his game and where he is today, starting off the G League season with just trying to figure it out and now, 39 [points] and even when I talked to him, he was more pissed off at the technical free throw that he missed more than anything. He was like, 'I could have had a 40 ball, and I missed that damn technical free throw.' So, the kid, he's awesome."
It's a long way from where Bronny James was in October when he made his debut for the Lakers on opening night in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. That debut came less than a year and a half after he suffered a cardiac arrest because of a congenital heart defect and needed corrective surgery.
"Us going out on the floor and having that moment, physically I wasn't even there," LeBron James said. "I wasn't even there. I'm floating. I could only imagine where Bronny was. We haven't even talked about it yet. At some point we will. But I wasn't even there. I was so [overjoyed], I might have been in the rafters. I might have been at home -- my body might have been at home watching the game and watching the moment. I completely was not there.
"But, damn, that was an unbelievable moment, man, for me to be able to have that dream, be able to speak it into existence, for it to come to fruition. For my mom and my wife and my daughter and my youngest son to be there, I started thinking about everything from what the hell he went through less than a year before with his cardiac arrest."
James' younger son, 17-year-old Bryce, is coming off a state championship during his senior season with Sierra Canyon and is committed to play basketball for the University of Arizona in the fall. James, who is in his 22nd season, was asked whether he could see himself staying in the NBA long enough to play alongside both of his sons.
"Don't do that to me," James said with a smile.
HOUSTON -- New York Mets right-hander Paul Blackburn will begin the season on the 15-day injured list with right knee inflammation, team president of baseball operations David Stearns announced Wednesday during the team's workout at Daikin Park.
Stearns also said that right-handed relievers Max Kranick and Huascar Brazoban and catcher Hayden Senger have made Mets' opening day roster.
After the workout, infielder Luisangel Acuna was informed that he had made the roster, a source confirmed to ESPN, rounding out the Mets' projected 26-man roster. The club has until noon Thursday to finalize the group before opening the season against the Houston Astros.
Blackburn was slated to pitch out of the bullpen to begin the season. Stearns said Blackburn reported knee soreness in the days after his last spring outing. He received an injection for the discomfort and will be shut down for seven to 10 days. Stearns added that the injury isn't believed to be serious, and Blackburn is expected to return before the end of April.
Acuña and outfielder Alexander Canario were the only two healthy position players who attended the Mets' workout Wednesday and hadn't been told whether they made the roster.
With Acuña on the roster, barring a last-second development, Canario won't make the team. Canario, who is out of options, would be exposed to waivers if he isn't put on the roster. The Mets already have six outfielders on their projected roster.
"It's really just ensuring we stay open to what might be out there," Stearns said during the team's workout. "This is a highly active time of year as players are on waivers, players have assignment clauses, players have upward mobility clauses, players take their outs and become free agents, players become available at the last minute before rosters are submitted. And the last thing we want to do is tell a player that they are on the opening day roster and then have to walk that back before rosters are due."
Acuña, the younger brother of former Braves MVP Ronald Acuna Jr., is a former top prospect who impressed during his first major-league stint at the end of last season. The 23-year-old Venezuelan batted .308 with a .966 OPS and three home runs in 14 regular season games as the Mets fought for a playoff spot down the stretch. He mostly played shortstop in place of the injured Francisco Lindor, and has played second base and center field as a pro. This spring, he spent time at third base for the first time.
Kranick, a 27-year-old lifelong Mets fan from Pennsylvania, hasn't pitched in the majors since appearing in two games for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2022. Brazoban, 35, was traded to the Mets last summer and posted a 5.14 ERA in 19 appearances with the team.
Senger, at 27 years old, has never been on a major-league roster, having spent the last seven seasons in the minors. The opportunity opened for him opened when starting catcher Francisco Alvarez fractured his left hand earlier this month. Senger was a 24th-round pick in 2018 who has spent the last two winters working at a Whole Foods in the Nashville area while his wife, Ryann, worked as a physician's assistant to help keep his dream alive.
"I gotta give a shoutout to my wife," Senger said. "She has worked for a lot of years to support me through this and it kind of made it all worth it now that I get to say I'm a Major League Baseball player."
Designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton, who continues to deal with tendinitis in both elbows, was one of eight New York Yankees players to be placed on the injured list Wednesday.
There is no clear timetable for the 35-year-old Stanton to return. He was bothered by elbow pain last season when he batted .233 with 27 homers and 72 RBIs in 114 games.
Infielder DJ LeMahieu, who suffered a left calf strain during a spring training game on March 1, also was put on the 10-day IL. LeMahieu, 36, batted .204 with two homers and 26 RBIs in 67 games last season.
Also going on the injured list were right-handers Clarke Schmidt (rotator cuff tendinitis), Jonathan Loaisiga (right elbow), Ian Hamilton (viral illness), Scott Effross (left hamstring strain), JT Brubaker (left rib fractures) and Clayton Beeter (right shoulder impingement).
New York also optioned right-hander Yerry de los Santos to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
Books set historically low win total for White Sox
The good news for Chicago White Sox fans is that the betting market believes there will be an improved baseball team on the South Side.
The bad news? Oddsmakers still have the 2025 White Sox pegged as one of the worst teams in over 35 seasons.
Chicago's current over/under on victories during the regular season is 53.5 at ESPN BET and other sportsbooks. It's the lowest season win total set by sportsbooks in over 35 seasons, according to ESPN Research.
At the same time, it's 12.5 wins more than the White Sox won last year during their record-breaking 121-loss campaign.
"It's really hard to have two historically bad seasons in a row," said Randy Blum, baseball oddsmaker for the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas. "Don't get me wrong, though, there's nothing to love about the White Sox this year."
Some sportsbooks opened the White Sox win total in the high 40s, but the market moved upward, despite a roster that, on paper, is arguably worse than last year's. Chicago traded away ace starting pitcher Garrett Crochet and cut ties with several veterans in the offseason, leaving a team of mostly young and unproven players that will be facing a significant talent gap with the rest of baseball.
The White Sox are projected to win six fewer games than any other team. The Colorado Rockies, at 59.5, are next.
In contrast, the Los Angeles Dodgers entered the season with a win total of 103.5 , the highest since the 1999 New York Yankees (104.5), 10 wins more than any other team and 50 more than the White Sox.
The White Sox open July with a three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Oddsmakers said the series has the potential to produce some rare individual game lines, with the Dodgers possibly being as big as "-600 or -700" favorites.
Still, the betting market believes in the White Sox. At BetMGM, 83% of the money that's been bet on the White Sox's win total was on the over as of Wednesday. And, yes, some bettors have even backed the White Sox to win the World Series at 400-1 odds.
"The White are currently our biggest liability in all of the futures, World Series (400-1), pennant (225-1) and division (250-1)," said Eric Biggio, lead baseball trader for Caesars Sportsbook. "Understandably at their prices, it doesn't take much for the risk to add up."
Rafael Devers will serve as the primary designated hitter for the Boston Red Sox this season, opening the third-base job for newcomer Alex Bregman.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora confirmed the team's plans Wednesday during an interview with sports radio WEEI, adding that the move shows Boston is "in the winning business."
Cora's announcement came nearly two weeks after Devers backed off his stance from earlier this spring, when he declared that third base was "my position" after the Red Sox signed Bregman. The three-time All-Star said on March 13 that he was "good to do whatever," even if that meant being a DH.
"We made a decision," Cora told WEEI on Wednesday. "Alex is going to play third, Raffy's going to DH. We all are in the winning business, and [Devers] understands that."
Bregman won the American League Gold Glove last season at third base, where Devers has posted poor fielding metrics over the years. Devers has led the AL, or been tied for the lead, in errors three times in the past seven seasons.
Playing Bregman at third also allows the Red Sox to give the starting second-base job to top prospect Kristian Campbell, who was announced earlier this week as part of Boston's Opening Day roster.
Devers batted .272 with 28 home runs and 83 RBIs last season despite complaining of soreness in both of his shoulders. The Red Sox signed Bregman, a two-time All-Star, to a three-year, $120 million contract last month.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Dodgers' 'surreal' roster rolls into official Opening Day
IN THE HALLWAY outside a cramped interview room in the Tokyo Dome, Shohei Ohtani loomed in the rear doorway, towering over nearly everyone around him, his shoulders filling the entire frame. It was here that he faced his worst fear: Nothing to do and nowhere to go. A large man in a small space, happiest when he has a bat to swing or a ball to throw, grew more impatient with every passing moment.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani's Dodgers teammate and the winning pitcher last Wednesday night in the first regular-season game of 2025, was at the front of the room, sitting at a table and addressing questions with expansive answers that elicited laughs from the Japanese media. This was his moment, too. Back in Japan, five solid innings against the Cubs in his back pocket, an overflow room hanging on his every word. Those who know Yamamoto say he not only welcomes stardom but also wears it well, and he was enjoying himself -- perhaps a little too much.
Ohtani was waiting for Yamamoto to finish so he could quickly trample his way through four questions, two in Japanese, two in English, and get on with his night. In contrast to Yamamoto, Ohtani wears the public aspect of his fame like a hand-me-down suit. He was not accustomed to standing awkwardly in the back of a room while someone else dictated his schedule. And yet Yamamoto kept talking, almost gleefully, and Ohtani began sending a series of playful messages that suggested the pace needed to be quickened.
First, he looked at his watch, checking it with an elaborate flourish. Whatever Yamamoto did in response -- I was among those piled 15 deep in the hallway, watching Ohtani watch Yamamoto, so the adventure is yours to choose -- elicited a big laugh from Ohtani, who then did history's subtlest jig, one foot to the other, as if speeding himself up would have the same effect on Yamamoto, which it did not. Finally, Ohtani tilted his head back and forth, shoulder to shoulder, in a move that translated universally as blah blah blah. This seemed to do the trick. Yamamoto finished, left his seat and headed out the back of the room at the same time Ohtani was heading to the front. Yamamoto was still laughing when he left the room, and I'm pretty sure Ohtani had something to do with that.
And so it was here, in and around this cramped, uncomfortable room that smelled of cigarette-infused sportscoats and deadline sweat, that something truly unexpected occurred: Shohei Ohtani showed a piece of his personality that once seemed destined to remain hidden. Here was Ohtani, expressive and joyous and unconcerned with how it all looked. Ohtani, doing something other than grinding away at the game he seems determined to perfect. It felt as revelatory in its own way as a shirtless run through the streets of the Ginza shopping district would have been.
THIS DODGERS TEAM feels different, looks different and sounds different, and it goes beyond a comfortable and fully integrated Ohtani on the most expensive, and perhaps best, team ever. This group feels like a category error -- the promise of a riveting spectacle that will play out over the next seven months, a team to either loathe or love every single day. Baseball has never seen anything quite like this, and it's clear by now it doesn't have any idea what to do with it.
Considering the perceived gap between them and the rest of baseball, it's somewhat poetic that the Dodgers are 2-0 before baseball's official Opening Day. They swept a quick series from the Cubs in Tokyo, and after each game, Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, made his way through the Tokyo Dome's tight passageways toward the Dodgers' clubhouse, a sly grin on his face, like a kid eager to show off his favorite toys.
He has assembled a roster built to withstand the tides of a long season, a difficult task made considerably easier by the lack of budget constraints. He went shopping for starting pitching depth this offseason and got two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell and Japanese superstar-in-waiting Roki Sasaki. ("Deepest SP staff ever and it's not close lol," former Dodgers starter Alex Wood cracked on social media.)
Friedman spackled the holes in a solid but unspectacular bullpen by signing two top-flight closers, Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, because why stop at one if you don't have to? The Dodgers' payroll will exceed $320 million this season, according to Sportrac, and a roll call of Concerned Baseball People have either bellowed (Rockies owner Dick Monfort) or intimated (commissioner Rob Manfred) that the amorphous and unwritten rules of fairness are being violated.
"I look at the inverse of the criticism," Friedman said. "If other fan bases are unhappy with us, it means more likely that our fans are happy with us, and that's our job. In that way, it makes us feel good when we hear that stuff."
It's indicative of baseball's odd position within the sports firmament that Friedman and the Dodgers are called upon to defend themselves for their owners' willingness to reinvest the profits from a successful business to put the best team on the field. Since the dawn of free agency, the game has been played to a maudlin, emo soundtrack of big-market/small-market standards. Teams like the Dodgers and Yankees -- and occasionally the Red Sox, Cubs, Padres or Braves -- play the vital role of sinister monarchies, allowing the small-market teams to throw up their hands in exasperated supplication. It has become a self-fulfilling prophecy: Each team that doesn't spend can justify its lack of spending by claiming it can't compete with the teams that spend.
"Just because you're good at something, that makes you evil?" Dodgers reliever Blake Treinen asked. "That's kind of crazy talk. To me, the talk of this 'Evil Empire' is from people wanting to blast the Dodgers for wanting to put a good product on the field and being willing to pay to do it. What's Billy Madison say? 'You can't sit in kindergarten and expect to inherit an empire'? You have to actually check some boxes, take some steps to be successful. Some people just don't want to take the direction the Dodgers have, which is fine. Just don't complain about it."
DODGERS MANAGER DAVE Roberts has a way about him that makes you think he could sell just about anything. He faces reporters every day, usually twice, and he has mastered the banter, the eye contact, the ability to give off the appearance of candor. On the first day of spring training in Glendale, Arizona, he answered the obligatory questions about Ohtani, saying he will not pitch in Japan but will pitch this season. He will not steal bases this spring, but he will steal bases this season.
Then he was asked about expectations, and whether it is safe to assume the Dodgers enter the season expecting to become the first team since the 1999 Yankees to win consecutive World Series.
"Yes," Roberts said, his eyes scanning the group like a practiced statesman. "That is our expectation."
From that first day of spring training, the Dodgers have been a spectacle, the closest thing to a full-fledged mania that baseball has had in decades. (Think an international version of the "Last Dance" Bulls without the outsized personalities.) Fans filled the parking lot at Camelback Ranch and crowded around the walkway between the practice fields and the clubhouse, screaming and waving baseballs at anyone in a uniform.
Inside the clubhouse, the locker configuration on one wall went, from left to right: Sasaki, Yamamoto, an empty locker, Ohtani. (The empty was Ohtani's, a gesture of respect extended to only the most accomplished players, and even in this clubhouse a three-time MVP qualifies.) Third baseman Max Muncy became the de facto team spokesman for the first day, standing at his locker wearing a look of abject horror as the crowd around him grew larger and larger, and his avenues for escape vanished. He parried questions about the absurd makeup of his team's roster by saying that baseball is different, that the best team at the beginning of the season is not always the best at the end. He sounded like a kid being forced to argue an unpopular side in debate class. "In baseball, the best player in the world isn't always going to take over," he said.
Muncy's approach was understandable; it's what you say when you have to say something. But the argument fell apart the second everyone walked away and looked at the names hanging above the lockers. The Dodgers, to an almost ridiculous degree, seem uniquely non-reliant on any one player.
Take away their first four starting pitchers (Snell, Yamamoto, Sasaki, Tyler Glasnow) and you're left with a rotation that would compete for a playoff spot. There's No. 5 starter Dustin May, who was 4-1 with a 2.63 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP in 2023 before undergoing Tommy John surgery. Tony Gonsolin, another front-line starter who will be back within six weeks. And Ohtani the pitcher -- or, as outfielder Michael Conforto says, "The other half of Shohei" -- is expected to return to the mound by May or June.
"It sounds a little crazy to say, but as much recognition as Shohei's gotten, he's still underrated," Friedman said. "He's just the most diligent, thoughtful worker I've ever seen. The more we've seen him and the more we've been around it, the less and less surprising it gets when we see what he can do on the field."
Yates' numbers as a closer last year with the Rangers (85 strikeouts in 61 innings, 0.827 WHIP, 33 saves, 1.17 ERA) make it difficult to fathom how he could enter the season as a setup man for Scott, until you realize Scott was nearly as good (84 strikeouts, 45 hits allowed) last year with Florida and San Diego. Scott stood at his locker in the comically condensed Tokyo Dome clubhouse, Yates maybe six inches away at the next stall. "It's gonna be fun," Scott said. "I have no clue what the roles will be, but whenever the phone rings, I'm pretty sure everybody in our bullpen is going to be ready, and it's going to be exciting."
In the opener in Tokyo, a preview: Yamamoto for five, then one inning each from Alex Vesia, Treinen, Yates and Scott. Four innings from the bullpen, zero baserunners. The starting pitching might be the deepest ever, as per Wood, and the lineup -- they played without Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts in Japan -- is free of any major deficiencies. But the bullpen might be what makes the talk of a 120-win season sound almost reasonable.
"I think when this team wants you, it's really, really hard to turn them down," Yates said, echoing other conversations with Scott and Conforto, another offseason signing. "They were the most aggressive team. They were very persistent. There was no sales pitch; there didn't have to be a sales pitch. To have the chance to come and take part in this is a tremendous opportunity."
On the second day of spring training, word spread that Sasaki would throw his first bullpen. It was an absolute frenzy, media on one side of the eight bullpen mounds and nearly every Dodgers executive, coach and player lined up either beside or behind Sasaki. Friedman was right behind him, and Roberts was right beside him. Clayton Kershaw was one mound away. Farhan Zaidi, the former GM who was recently rehired as special adviser after being fired as team president of the San Francisco Giants last year, was peeking around two or three pitchers throwing their own bullpens, trying not to make it obvious.
Catcher Austin Barnes, the first Dodger to catch Sasaki in gear, looked around at the crowd quizzically, as if somehow this scene came as a surprise. Several pitches into his session, Sasaki motioned to Barnes that he going to throw his splitter, the pitch that made him frequently unhittable in Japan -- a pitch that could drop to its left or its right or straight down, often of its own accord. Sasaki threw, and Barnes stabbed at the ball as it dove toward his left foot. "Oh my god," he said, loudly enough to be heard 30 feet away. Later he would explain his reaction by saying, "I don't think I've ever really seen a pitch like that."
Sasaki is 6-foot-2 and lean, and he carries himself with a slumped nonchalance that makes it seem that he has yet to grow into his stature. His features are sharp, as if everything is held together tightly. "Everyone has been very kind," he said of his time with the Dodgers when he met the media for the first time. He stood with his right hand holding his left wrist, clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight. He'll go on to start the second game against the Cubs in Tokyo, his talent as obvious as his nerves in a jumbled three innings. He hit 100 mph on the gun several times, walked five and struck out three. The Cubs' solitary hit traveled about 75 feet before it stopped. He will be very good, maybe great. The Dodgers have the luxury of patience.
"They just go out and get the pieces they think they need," outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. His words amounted to a shrug, like, what do you expect?
OVER IN A corner of the Dodgers' clubhouse in Tokyo, an objectively depressing corner between the smoking capsule and the door to the showers, 26-year-old Jack Dreyer failed in his attempt to contain his giddiness over making the team's Opening Day roster. A left-handed reliever from Iowa, the most unlikely Dodger learned of his promotion from Roberts roughly 48 hours before the first game against the Cubs -- too late for his parents to hop on a flight, but plenty of time for him to savor the moment.
The Dodgers like Dreyer's ability to miss bats -- 72 strikeouts last year in 57 minor-league innings -- and induce soft contact without elite velocity. They like his maturity and his personality and other intangible stuff that accelerated him past some of the more vaunted arms in the Dodgers' top-rated farm system.
But almost four hours before his first game in a big-league uniform, none of that mattered to Dreyer. He was standing at that locker -- no empty next to him -- alternating between staring at his crisp gray uniform -- No. 86, but who cares? -- and looking around the room. Kershaw's locker was almost close enough to touch; Ohtani was getting dressed less than 15 feet away; Freeman was on the other side of the room; Betts, though he was back home in Los Angeles with an illness, had his uniform hanging in a locker two down from Freeman.
"This is crazy," Dreyer said. "It's me and a bunch of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers sharing experiences for the first time together."
He was unfailingly polite. He was speaking quickly. The smile on his face might have remained there forever. He scanned the room and shook his head. There was a part of him that wanted to pretend like he had been here before, to act like none of this was a big deal because this was precisely what he had been working toward for years. But then he thought about it one more time, where he was and who he was with and what it meant.
"Surreal," he said. "Sorry, but that's the only word I've got."
Djokovic beats Musetti to reach Miami quarter-finals
Novak Djokovic cruised past Lorenzo Musetti 6-2 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the Miami Open.
The match was delayed because of rain and world number five Djokovic, who has won six Miami titles, started slowly and was broken in the opening game as Italy's Musetti opened up a 2-0 lead.
But Serbian Djokovic, 37, completely dominated the match from that point.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion won nine consecutive games, closing out the first set 6-2 and moving 3-0 up in the second.
"It was tough, particularly in the first seven, eight games of the match," said fourth seed Djokovic.
World number 16 Musetti, 23, offered little resistance after winning those opening games as Djokovic cruised through to set up a tie with American Sebastian Korda.
Ireland forward coach Paul O'Connell - a former Lions captain and three-times a tourist as a player - had been widely expected to take charge of the Lions pack.
But with O'Connell out of the running, Farrell has turned to Dalziel. The former Glasgow coach will share forwards duties with Fogarty, with Easterby likely to run the defence.
Wigglesworth will be given responsibilities around skills and attack as Farrell looks to tap into England's best Six Nations performance in five years. England averaged five tries a game in the championship, up from 2.7 in the autumn.
Farrell will pick his playing squad on 8 May, with the Lions' first match against Argentina in Dublin on 20 June.
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says Ali Hepher's demotion from his role as head coach was not a "knee-jerk reaction" to the club's Premiership Rugby Cup final loss.
Hepher was replaced as head coach by forwards coach Rob Hunter last week, with Exeter enduring their worst season since being promoted to the top flight in 2010.
They have won just two Premiership matches all season, lost all their European Champions Cup ties and won just twice against top-flight sides in the cup before being thrashed 48-14 by Bath in the final earlier this month.
Hepher is acting as the club's interim backs and attack coach for the rest of this season before taking on a new role helping transition academy players into the first team set-up.
"One thing Ali had already indicated to me was that, if the opportunity arose, he would love to get involved in that transition group and get back to some pure coaching," Baxter told BBC Sport.
"But at the same time, if that opportunity didn't arise he was going to look for other opportunities.
"I just felt with the break coming out of the Premiership Cup, with the opportunity now to rebuild almost into next season and what we can achieve over the end part of this season, the time was right now."
Women's Six Nations: Wales v England
Venue: Principality Stadium, Cardiff Date: Saturday, 29 March Kick off: 16:45 GMT
Coverage: BBC One, BBC Radio Wales, Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds, the BBC Sport website and app, plus live text commentary, followed by report and reaction on the BBC Sport website and app.
Phone: (800) 737. 6040
Fax: (800) 825 5558
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