ORLANDO — Kyle Schwarber, Gunnar Henderson and Will Smith were among the stars officially added to Team USA’s World Baseball Classic roster on Tuesday. Byron Buxton was not, but the Twins’ star center fielder is expected to be added to the preliminary roster in the coming days.

Asked about Buxton and whether he might play for the team, Mark DeRosa, the manager of the team said he wasn’t sure what he could or couldn’t say, but said Buxton had been talked about as a candidate to join the team.

“I think it’s time for the world to see him. I’ve known him since he was 16 years old,” DeRosa said. “I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I kind of followed his ascent. He used to work out with us as a young kid and kind of watched him become a star. He’s been nicked up by injuries. He’s healthy now. He just hit 35, 36 jacks. It’s kind of time for the world to see him run around in center field, in my opinion.”

Buxton has never played in the World Baseball Classic before and should he wind up playing, he would depart from Fort Myers, Florida, during the middle of spring training to compete in the competition.

Team USA is scheduled to play two exhibition games in Scottsdale, Arizona, before heading to Houston for pool play. The semifinals and finals will take place at loanDepot Park, the home of the Miami Marlins.

“We talk a lot about a balanced roster. You have a right-handed (Aaron) Judge. We’ve already (got) two left-handed outfielders in (Pete Crow-Armstrong) and Corbin Carroll,” Team USA general manager Michael Hill said. “A Byron Buxton type just checks so many boxes. He has speed, great defender, a right-handed bat to potentially complement some of the other pieces. Definitely someone under serious consideration for us as he should be because he’s one of the great players in our country.”

Joe Ryan is also another potential option for Team USA, while Team Venezuela is hoping fellow starter Pablo López will be healthy and can once again compete on the team. López pitched for the team in 2023, allowing one run and two hits over 4 2/3 innings in a start against Puerto Rico.

The starter dealt with multiple injuries throughout last season, ending the year on the injured list with a forearm strain after a weird dive while fielding a ball. He also missed much of the summer with a shoulder injury. Twins president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey said López on Monday is healthy, back to his full normal offseason prep.

If able, López has expressed his desire to play, Team Venezuela manager Omar López said.

“He might become our first starter. He might become our starter in the quarter finals and he might be in the final game, too,” Omar López said. “I’m hoping and praying that he can be with us because there’s no doubt that if everything goes well, that Pablo López is on our team.”

While his status is in question, there’s at least one person with Twins connections who has signed on to join Team Venezuela: Johan Santana. The two-time Cy Young Award winner will be the team’s pitching coach for the first time.

“I’m very excited because it’s an opportunity to come back to the game,” Santana said. “I have done a few things for the Twins and the Mets, but to officially be a part of this for me is very important and I’m looking forward to it.”

Baldelli lands new job

Former manager Rocco Baldelli, whom the Twins fired after a disappointing season, is joining the Los Angeles Dodgers in a front office role, reuniting with Andrew Friedman. Baldelli worked with Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, in Tampa Bay. He previously worked in the Rays’ front office as a special assistant while Friedman was there following the conclusion of his playing career.

Baldelli managed the Twins for seven seasons before being dismissed after the Twins’ second-straight fourth-place finish. He went 527-505 (.511) at the helm of the Twins.

Briefly

The Twins have a full 40-man roster currently, but could make a move ahead of Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft if they want to make a selection. That’s something they are still considering, president of baseball and business operations Derek Falvey said on Tuesday evening.

“We’ve been thinking about that over the course of the week and working through some different iterations that could allow for us to have an opening,” Falvey said.

Related Articles

Twins drop one spot, receive No. 3 overall pick in 2026 draft

Twins plan to “retool” on the fly, keep trio of stars

First order of business for new Twins manager Derek Shelton: Meet the team

Three things Twins fans can watch for during MLB’s Winter Meetings

Twins trade for catcher Alex Jackson, tender contracts to seven

By SETH BORENSTEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has removed any mention of fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — from its popular online page explaining the causes of climate change. Now it only mentions natural phenomena, even though scientists calculate that nearly all of the warming is due to human activity.

Related Articles

DOJ ends monitoring of illegal dumping in Houston in retreat from environmental justice

UN says world must jointly tackle issues of climate change, pollution, biodiversity and land loss

Georgia O’Keeffe’s views of the New Mexico desert will be preserved with conservation plan

The holiday shopping season comes with tons of extra emissions. Here’s how to do it sustainably

Federal judge throws out Trump order blocking development of wind energy

Sometime in the past few days or weeks, EPA altered some but not all of its climate change webpages, de-emphasizing and even deleting references to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, which scientists say is the overwhelming cause of climate change. The website’s causes of climate page mentions changes in Earth’s orbit, solar activity, Earth’s reflectivity, volcanoes and natural carbon dioxide changes, but not the burning of fossil fuels. Seven scientists and three former EPA officials tell The Associated Press that this is misleading and harmful.

“Now it is completely wrong,” said University of California climate scientist Daniel Swain, who also noted that impacts, risks and indicators of climate change on the EPA site are now broken links. “This was a tool that I know for a fact that a lot of educators used and a lot of people. It was actually one of the best designed easy access climate change information websites for the U.S.”

Earlier this year, the Trump Administration removed the national climate assessment from government websites.

“It is outrageous that our government is hiding information and lying,” said former Obama National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief and Oregon State oceanographer Jane Lubchenco. “People have a right to know the truth about the things that affect their health and safety, and the government has a responsibility to tell the truth.”

An October version of the same EPA page, saved by the internet Wayback Machine, said: “Since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which has changed the earth’s climate. Natural processes, such as changes in the sun’s energy and volcanic eruptions, also affect the Earth’s climate. However, they do not explain the warming that we have observed over the last century.”

That now reads: “Natural processes are always influencing the earth’s climate and can explain climate changes prior to the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s. However, recent climate changes cannot be explained by natural causes alone.”

“Unlike the previous administration, the Trump EPA is focused on protecting human health and the environment while Powering the Great American Comeback, not left-wing political agendas,” said Brigit Hirsch, EPA spokesperson, in an email. “As such, this agency no longer takes marching orders from the climate cult. Plus, for all the pearl-clutchers out there, the website is archived and available to the public.”

Clicking on “explore climate change resources” on the EPA archived website leads to an error message that says: “This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it.”

Former Republican Governor Christie Todd Whitman, who was EPA administrator under George W. Bush, said, “You can refuse to talk about it, but it doesn’t make it go away. And we’re seeing it. Everybody’s seeing it.”

“We look ridiculous, quite frankly,” Whitman told The Associated Press in an interview. “The rest of the world understands this is happening and they’re taking steps… And we’re just going backwards. We’re knocking ourselves back into the Stone Age.”

Democratic EPA chief Gina McCarthy blasted current EPA chief Lee Zeldin, calling him “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, actively spiking any attempt to protect our health, well-being and precious natural resources.”

Nearly 100% of the warming the world is now experiencing is from human activity, and without that, the Earth would be cooling and dropping in temperatures until the Industrial Revolution, Swain and other scientists said. The EPA listed natural causes “might be causing a very tiny amount of warming or cooling at the moment,” he said.

Marcia McNutt, a geophysicist and president of the National Academy of Sciences, said that there is consensus among experts from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, or NASEM, on the causes of climate change.

“Numerous NASEM reports from the nation’s leading scientists confirm that the climate is changing as a result of human activities,” McNutt said. “Even the EPA acknowledges that natural causes cannot explain the current changes in climate. It is important that the public be presented with all of the facts.”

Former EPA climate advisor Jeremy Symons, now a senior advisor for Environmental Protection Network of former EPA officials, said: “Ignoring fossil fuel pollution as the driving force behind the climate changes we have seen in our lifetime is like pretending cigarettes don’t cause lung cancer.”

Michael Phillis contributed to this report.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

ORLANDO — When 5 p.m. approached on Tuesday and Derek Falvey’s phone still hadn’t rung, the Twins’ president of baseball and business operations came to the natural conclusion: the team had not landed the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.

“You’re waiting and you’re like, ‘It’s 5. They would have called by now. This isn’t great,’” Falvey said.

No, the luck of the ping pong balls was not on the Twins’ side on Tuesday afternoon — they had the second-highest odds of landing the first pick —  but the team still walked away from the draft lottery with the No. 3 overall selection, a good result all things considered.

The draft lottery took place behind closed doors at the Winter Meetings in Orlando with the results announced in a televised show on MLB Network.

Reporters and executives, including assistant general manager Sean Johnson, who is in charge of amateur scouting, watched the reveal in a crowded ballroom. On stage, two-time Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana represented the Twins. Falvey and general manager Zoll were upstairs in a nearby hotel room, watching on television, waiting as team by team was revealed until finally a card with the Twins’ logo was turned over. The Chicago White Sox, who had the highest odds to win the lottery, landed the first overall pick and the Tampa Bay Rays jumped the Twins to end up at No. 2.

“I was going to live with four. I was going to be OK,” Falvey said. “(Zoll) was going to slam something at four and be OK with three and above, so I was like, ‘Alright, we’re on the same page.’”

At four, Zoll corrected, he would have disappointed. If they had fallen to fifth, he might’ve slammed something. The Twins could have finished anywhere from 1-8.

“Once we had an indication that it wasn’t going to be the top pick, I know Sean and the scouting group were really hopeful to be in the top three so to land that feels really good,” Zoll said.

The Twins had a 22.18 percent chance to land the first pick after their 92-loss season, though three teams actually finished with a worse record than them. Both the Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals finished with worse records but were ineligible for a lottery pick as part of a measure to prevent tanking. The Rockies are a revenue payee and have picked in the lottery in each of the past two drafts while the Nationals are a revenue payor and they selected in the lottery last year.

Their ineligibility boosted the Twins’ lottery odds.

Though there’s still plenty of time before the draft, UCA shortstop Roch Cholowsky is the favorite to go first overall. Behind him, MLB.com ranks Grady Emerson and Justin Lebron as the second and third prospects respectively. Both are shortstops — Emerson at Fort Worth Christian School in Texas and Lebron at Alabama.

The No. 3 pick is the Twins’ highest draft pick since 2017 when they picked current third baseman Royce Lewis with the first overall selection.

“You hope you don’t fall too far. … There’s a good outcome,” Falvey said. “Ultimately to pick in the top three is a really exciting opportunity for the organization and I think we’re going to get someone there that we know our scouting group is going to like.”

Related Articles

Twins plan to “retool” on the fly, keep trio of stars

First order of business for new Twins manager Derek Shelton: Meet the team

Three things Twins fans can watch for during MLB’s Winter Meetings

Twins trade for catcher Alex Jackson, tender contracts to seven

Twins, Saints set for ‘Field of Dreams’ games

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MIKE STOBBE

It’s normal for parents, or anyone, to have questions about vaccinations — but what happens if your pediatrician urges a shot that’s under attack by the Trump administration?

Related Articles

EPA eliminates mention of fossil fuels in website on warming’s causes. Scientists call it misleading

DOJ ends monitoring of illegal dumping in Houston in retreat from environmental justice

Wisconsin judge refuses to step aside as requested by former Trump attorney

Judge orders Georgia to continue hormone therapy for transgender inmates

Federal agents use pepper spray on crowd in Somali neighborhood of Minneapolis amid Trump crackdown

That’s getting more likely: The nation’s leading doctors groups are in an unprecedented standoff with federal health officials who have attacked long-used, lifesaving vaccines.

The revolt by pediatricians, obstetricians, family physicians, infectious disease experts and internists came to a head when an advisory panel handpicked by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urged an end to routine newborn vaccination against hepatitis B, a virus that can cause liver failure or liver cancer.

That vaccine saves lives, helped child infections plummet and has been given safely to tens of millions of children in the U.S. alone, say the American Academy of Pediatrics and other doctors groups that vowed Tuesday to keep recommending it.

But that’s not the only difference. That Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices now is examining possible changes to the entire childhood vaccination schedule, questioning certain ingredients and how many doses youngsters receive.

Pushing back, the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued its own recommendations for youngsters. Other medical groups — plus some city and state public health departments that have banded together — also are issuing their own advice on certain vaccines, which largely mirrors pre-2025 federal guidance.

“We owe our patients a consistent message informed by evidence and lived experience, not messages biased by political imperative,” Dr. Ronald Nahass, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told reporters Tuesday.

But Nahass acknowledged the inevitable consumer confusion, recounting a relative calling him last weekend for advice about hepatitis B vaccination for her new grandbaby.

“Most Americans don’t have a Cousin Ronnie to call. They are left alone with fear and mistrust,” he said, urging parents to talk with their doctors about vaccines.

New guidelines without new data concern doctors

Hepatitis B isn’t the only vaccine challenge. Kennedy’s health department recently changed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention webpage to contradict the longtime scientific conclusion that vaccines don’t cause autism. Federal agencies also moved to restrict COVID-19 vaccinations this fall, and are planning policy changes that could restrict future flu and coronavirus shots.

But when it comes to vaccine advice, “for decades, ACIP was the gold standard,” said Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician and Stanford University researcher.

The panel once routinely enlisted specialists in specific diseases for long deliberations of the latest science and safety data, resulting in recommendations typically adopted not only by the CDC but by the medical field at large, he said.

FILE – Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file)

Last week’s meeting of Kennedy’s panel, which includes vaccine skeptics, marked a radical departure. CDC specialists weren’t allowed to present data on hepatitis B, the childhood vaccine schedule or questions about vaccine ingredients. Few of the committee members have public health experience, and some expressed confusion about the panel’s proposals.

At one point, a doctor called in to say the panel was misrepresenting her study’s findings. And the panel’s chairman wondered why one dose of yellow fever vaccine protected him during a trip to Africa when U.S. children get three doses of hepatitis B vaccine. The hepatitis B vaccine is designed to protect children for life from a virus they can encounter anywhere, not just on a trip abroad. And other scientists noted it was carefully studied for years to prove the three-dose course offers decades of immunity — evidence that a single dose simply doesn’t have.

“If they’ve got new data, I’m all for it — let’s see it and have a conversation,” said Dr. Kelly Gebo, an infectious disease specialist and public health dean at George Washington University, who watched for that. “I did not see any new data,” so she’s not changing her vaccine advice.

Committee members argued that most babies’ risk of hepatitis B infection is very low and that earlier research on infant shot safety was inadequate.

Especially unusual was a presentation from a lawyer who voiced doubt about studies that proved benefits of multiple childhood vaccines and promoted discredited research pointing to harms.

Dr. Robert Malone chairs a meeting of the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in Atlanta on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025 to consider changes in hepatitis B vaccine recommendations for infants. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)

“I don’t think at any point in the committee’s history, there was a 90-minute uninterrupted presentation by someone who wasn’t a physician, a scientist, or a public health expert on the topic — let alone someone who, who makes his living in vaccine litigation,” said Jason Schwartz, a vaccine policy expert at Yale University.

By abandoning data and the consensus of front-line doctors, the ACIP is “actively burning down the credibility that made its recommendations so powerful,” added Stanford’s Scott. “Most parents will still follow their pediatricians, and AAP is holding the line here. But the mixed messages are precisely what erode confidence over time.”

Parents already have a choice — they need solid guidance

Trump administration health officials say it’s important to restore choice to parents and to avoid mandates. That’s how the panel’s hepatitis B recommendation was framed — that parents who really want it could get their children vaccinated later.

Parents already have a choice, said Dr. Aaron Milstone of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The government makes population-wide recommendations while families and their doctors tailor choices to each person’s health needs.

But many doctors don’t — or can’t — do their own lengthy scientific review of vaccines and thus had relied on the ACIP and CDC information, Yale’s Schwartz noted.

They “rely on trusted expert voices to help navigate what is, even in the best of times, a complicated landscape regarding the evidence for vaccines and how best to use them,” he said.

That’s a role that the pediatricians and other doctors groups, plus those multistate collaborations, aim to fill with their own guidelines — while acknowledging it will be a huge task.

For now, “ask your questions, bring your concerns and let us talk about them,” said Dr. Sarah Nosal, of the American Academy of Family Physicians, urging anyone with vaccine questions to have an open conversation with their doctor.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.