FORT MYERS, Fla. — Andrew Chafin’s trip through free agency was a frustrating one. Just as frustrating, he said, as his journey a year prior that ended with him signing a minor league deal with the Detroit Tigers in late February.

The left-handed reliever was coming off of a solid 2025 season split between the Washington Nationals — he signed there after opting out of his Tigers deal — and Los Angeles Angels and felt like he had put himself in a position to have multiple options. But, “I know how to get guys out and the computer doesn’t understand,” the 35-year-old veteran said.

Eventually, as camp began, he decided to take what he deemed the best opportunity available to him: a minor league deal with an invite to major league camp with the Twins.

With bullpen spots available, Chafin figured this would be the best opportunity to break camp with a team. At least, that’s what he was told.

“I don’t know (expletive) about baseball outside my little bubble,” he said. “I’ve got enough problems of my own to worry about, so that’s all I worry about. I’ve never been a fan of baseball. I don’t watch anything but what I’m doing. I let my agent do all the digging on that stuff. He knows what he’s doing. I know how to pitch.”

That he does.

He is, after all, a 12-year major league veteran, one who seems to be sought after at the trade deadline every year for contending teams, even if free agency isn’t playing out the way he would like. Chafin posted a 2.41 earned-run average across 33 2/3 innings last season.

“I know how to pitch. Most of the young bucks these days know how to throw hard,” Chafin said. “They don’t know what to do with it yet. It took me a while into my career to figure that out. I know how to pitch, and that’s why I’m good at pitching. … I know who I am as a pitcher, what I’m good at, and how to get outs with what I have.”

The Twins signed lefty Taylor Rogers to a one-year deal this offseason. They picked up Anthony Banda in a deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers at the beginning of spring training. Kody Funderburk had a strong finish to the 2025 season after the deadline.

All of a sudden, the Twins have a glut of lefties competing for spots. Right now, there’s no telling how many they may break camp with.

“I think we’re good with whoever’s the best pitchers to leave when we break here,” manager Derek Shelton said. “If you tell me that we leave and everybody’s healthy and we have to make challenging decisions, I’ve learned over the course of time, you can never have too much pitching.”

ABS testing

Ryan Jeffers responded to the first pitch he saw from Rogers during live batting practice with a tap on the helmet. The Twins started to familiarize themselves with the Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) challenge system during live batting practice Wednesday, with Jeffers challenging a call immediately.

“I felt bad it was the first pitch, because that umpire probably hadn’t seen a pitch since last November,” Shelton said. “But ultimately, yeah, it’s good to be able to use it.”

Players tested it out the system last spring, and it has been in use in the minor leagues in recent years. But starting this season, it will be used at the major league level, giving players the chance to appeal an umpire’s ball-strike call. The decision will then be either confirmed or overturned by the ABS challenge system. Teams will have two challenges that are retained when successful.

There’s still plenty for the Twins to work through as they adapt to the new system, but there’s one thing that stands out early: catchers and batters will be doing much more of the challenging than pitchers.

“I don’t think pitchers are going to be probably the most astute at it, and they’re also the most emotional with it,” Shelton said.

Briefly

The Twins have one more day of workouts before they start game play. Zebby Matthews will take the ball Friday when the Twins play host to the University of Minnesota. The day after that, they begin Grapefruit League play against the Boston Red Sox.

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The lives of Joaquin Pereyra and Tomas Chancalay are intertwined across two continents.

Pereyra was born in late 1998 in Parana, Argentina, a small town roughly 300 miles northwest of the capital Buenos Aires. Exactly one month later, Chancalay was born in Viale, a smaller town 40 miles east of Parana.

The pair of attacking midfielders later played together on Argentina’s Under-20 national team. After their own club careers took them on separate trajectories, the now 27-year-olds have been reunited with Minnesota United this season.

“(Tomas is) going to be a great help” on the field, Pereyra said in Spanish in January, “in addition to the company he provides during our morning mate sessions.”

Putting Yerba Mate in front of soccer is far from surprising for typical Argentines, who drink the caffeinated herbal tea in a ritualistic way akin to how Americans gulp down coffee.

On the field last season, Pereyra was a jolt to the Loons’ attack, producing 14 goal contributions (6 scored, 8 assisted) in 33 regular-season games.

In New England a year ago, Chancalay was more groggy, working his way back from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee suffered in the middle of the 2024 season and produced six goal contributions (4 scored, 2 assisted) in 26 games.

Chancalay was a high-priced Designated Player when the Revolution paid a $3 million transfer fee to Racing Club for him in Argentina in November 2024. While on loan with the Revs earlier in 2024, he had scored six goals in 859 minutes for an impressive 0.63 goals per 90 minutes. His 2025 campaign started slowly even before that significant injury.

“I come back in a really good way,” Chancalay told the Pioneer Press in English in January. “I take my mind (off the) ACL, and I’m really ready for play.”

The overlapping layers of Chancalay and Pereyra go down to the same primary position — left attacking midfielder. During their one preseason game together, a 3-0 win over Kansas City on Feb. 7, Chancalay was in that left-side spot, while Pereyra moved into the No. 10 role, or central attacking mid.

New Loons head coach Cam Knowles has made it clear he wants a more attacking style this season and said he was going to experiment with Chancalay and Pereyra in different ways.

“We’ve looked at (Chancalay) as a second forward,” Knowles said. “We look at him as a second (No.) 10. We’ve even looked at Joaquin playing on the right side instead of the left, so there are a few things.”

This trial was before the Loons signed Colombian star James Rodriguez, who plays the No. 10 playmaker role. How the pieces all fit together with Rodriguez, Pereyra, Chancalay and Bongi Hlongwane will be an ongoing experiment to start the season. The first data will come in the Loons’ season opener at Austin FC at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Rodriguez received his work visa on Wednesday, which gives him a few official days of prep before a potential debut this weekend.

Knowles liked what he saw from Chancalay during that first preseason game at the Coachella Valley Invitational in Indio, Calif. Chancalay chipped in a cross that set up Anthony Markanich’s first goal against Sporting.

“If we look back at that game, I thought he was excellent,” Knowles said. “His work rate was excellent on both sides of the ball. The players that we have in those attacking positions, the rotations that we can have and the problems we can cause the opposition, he becomes a really good part of that.”

Chancalay missed the final two preseason games while obtaining his U.S. Green Card; that will remove him from the team’s international spots as the club works toward roster compliance by this weekend.

To acquire Chancalay, the Loons spent a paltry sum of $100,000 in a cash-for-player trade the day after Christmas. Chancalay will no longer be a DP with MNUFC in a new deal through the 2027-28 season, but he will still come with a significant budget charge and the accompanying pressure to produce goals. His guaranteed compensation last year in New England was $1.06 million, per the MLS Players Association.

Besides a bond with Pereyra, Chancalay has another fellow Argentine in the Loons’ dressing room: center back Nico Romero.

“It’s always good to have (teammates) from your country,” Chancalay said. “They help me a lot with the first couple days to understand everything here. That’s really good for me. They open the way for me.”

The longtime connection with Pereyra will come in handy for Chancalay.

“I’ve known Tommy for quite a while now,” Pereyra said. “And as I said, the important thing is that we can help him feel good and comfortable in these first few months. After that, I know the kind of player he is, I know how much he can give to the team.”

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV opened the church’s penitential Lenten season by presiding over Ash Wednesday and lamenting the “ashes of international law and justice” that have been left by today’s wars and conflicts.

Leo revived the traditional prayer and procession that Pope Francis largely delegated to others in his final years. He walked with dozens of monks, priests, bishops and cardinals from one Roman church to another and then sprinkled ashes on the heads of cardinals during Mass.

Ash Wednesday, a day of fasting and reflection, starts a season of self-denial and repentance from sin known as Lent. The 40-day period leads up to observances of Jesus’ death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter.

In his homily, Leo offered a meditation on sin and said the ashes that Christians receive bear the “weight of a world that is ablaze, of entire cities destroyed by war.”

“This is also reflected in the ashes of international law and justice among peoples, the ashes of entire ecosystems and harmony among peoples, the ashes of critical thinking and ancient local wisdom, the ashes of that sense of the sacred that dwells in every creature,” he said.

Leo has spoken out strongly against the collapse of the post-World War II international legal order fueled by Russia’s war in Ukraine and even the U.S. military incursion into Venezuela to remove its leader.

Just this week, the Holy See confirmed it would not participate in the Trump Administration’s Board of Peace for Gaza. The secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the United Nations was the appropriate institution to monitor the currently shaky ceasefire agreement and rebuilding of Gaza.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

TESERO, Italy (AP) — A surprise participant in Wednesday’s action at the Milan Cortina Olympics had four legs and zero concern for race times.

As elite cross-country skiers pushed to the finish in the women’s team sprint heats, a dog wandered onto the course and ran with athletes down the straightaway.

Racers stayed focused as spectators cheered on the canine intruder before it crossed the finish line and was restrained by venue officials.

The dog had slipped away from a local owner while out on a nearby walk, officials later said.

The incident came on the same day and the same course where Olympic history was made: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway won his record 10th gold medal and his fifth of the Milan Cortina Games.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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