SoCal Varsity Awards: Harvard-Westlake's Ryan Neapole tops the All-Varsity Boys Water Polo Team  —  The Southern California News Group honors the region's top fall sports athletes:  —  SoCal Varsity Awards special section is in Sunday's edition of your local SCNG newspaper.  —  PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Alex Wood: Get to know the pitcher the Cincinnati Reds acquired from the LA Dodgers  — Wood was an All-Star during the 2017 season and finished ninth in the National League Cy Young vote after posting a 16-3 record and 2.72 ERA with the Dodgers.  — He ended the 2018 regular season pitching …

Baseball notes: Dodgers' Kelly is happy to be going home  —  Joe Kelly helped the Boston Red Sox win a World Series title.  His next goal is to try to win one for the team he grew up rooting for and defeated in October.  —  The Dodgers on Friday officially announced signing Kelly …

Who will counsel MLB, union to avoid labor strife?  —  Underneath the anticipation of Manny Machado's tour of teams and a continued flurry of trades, the Associated Press published news jarring and yet completely unsurprising to some agents and executives — for the first time since 2004 …

Texan of the Year finalist Adrian Beltre brought a love of baseball to Texas Rangers fans  —  Athletes provide the rest of us with lesser motor skills the joy of living vicariously.  And when they are good guys, too, so much the better.  —  Such is Adrian Beltre, one of the greatest players …

A's to re-sign RHP Mike Fiers to two-year deal  —  The Athletics and Mike Fiers have agreed to a two-year contract for the right-hander to return to Oakland, according to MLB.com.  —  MLB.com reports that the deal, which is pending a physical, could be worth up to $15 million.

Red Sox writer refuses to vote Mariano Rivera into Hall of Fame  —  Leave it to a Red Sox scribe to rain on Mariano Rivera's historic quest.  —  Bill Ballou, of the Worcester, Mass., Telegram, spent about 1,500 words Saturday arguing that the Yankees legend shouldn't receive a bid into the Hall.

Mets, potential trade chip Travis d'Arnaud agree to 1-year deal … Whether Travis d'Arnaud remains with the Mets is another question, but the catcher has avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal with the club for $3.515 million, an industry source confirmed Saturday.

Cubs remaining relatively quiet while NL Central rivals make their moves  —  Photos of Theo Epstein, the Cubs' president of baseball operations.  —  Chicago Tribune  —  The Cubs' official 2018 postseason T-shirts were marked down from $40 to $10 at a local sporting-goods store Saturday morning.

Detroit Tigers mailbag: Have we seen rock bottom yet in rebuild?  —  The mailbag has hit the holiday season, and there isn't much left on the Detroit Tigers' wish list other than netting a prospect haul for right fielder Nicholas Castellanos.  —  At the Winter Meetings, they got their shortstop —