New Chicago White Sox infielder Nicky Lopez is enjoying the most unforgettable offseason of his life.

That was true even before receiving an honor Friday that he said ranks among the best of his accomplishments.

“It’s been an eventful offseason, for sure,” Lopez said. “A day before I got married, I got traded from the Braves to the White Sox.

“That was something I won’t take for granted, just to be able to come back and play for a hometown team, which is something special.”

But getting the call for the Naperville Central Athletic Hall of Fame is equally special for Lopez, 28, who graduated from the school in 2013 after earning five varsity letters in baseball and basketball. He was inducted Friday, joining a Hall of Fame that already included Candace Parker, Anthony Parker, Owen Daniels, Sean Payton and Casey Krueger.

“100 percent it’s up there, only because it means so much not only to me but my family,” Lopez said. “This is where it started.

“This is a steppingstone for the journey that I’m still on. So that’s what I’m most thankful for, that I’m coming back and seeing all the teachers who have helped me become who I am. That’s why it’s a little bit more special.”

Those teachers include Naperville Central basketball coach Pete Kramer and baseball coach Mike Stock, who were proud to be part of the induction ceremony held before the boys basketball game against Neuqua Valley.

“It being Nicky, there was a lot of excitement in the building, and that would have been the case even if he was playing for the Braves,” Stock said. “But the fact he’s with the Sox adds another layer.

“It’s just a blast. It’s one of the rewards that you get from being around people like this all the time. We want to make sure we slow it down and celebrate. He’s a great young man from a great family.”

Also inducted Friday were 2006 graduate Erica Carter, who helped Naperville Central’s girls basketball team win two state titles and scored more than 1,000 points at Binghamton; pioneering female athlete Lois Madsen, a 1975 graduate who became the first person to earn a full volleyball scholarship at Northern Illinois; wrestling star Rodney Landorf, a 1962 graduate who became an Army officer and received a Bronze Star in the Vietnam War; and late wrestling coach Bill Young.

“I haven’t been back to Naperville since a few months after I graduated,” Carter said. “There are so many amazing times that happened throughout high school and my athletic career.

“Walking through the hallways, it brings back a lot of good memories, and I feel honored to be a part of the Hall of Fame. I know there are so many student-athletes that go through the building at Naperville Central, and it’s just been a day full of amazing memories.”

Lopez’s family, including his parents Bob and Angela and brothers Bobby and Anthony, still lives in Naperville. Angela Lopez presented him for induction.

“Obviously, this honor is humbling,” Nicky Lopez said. “You always hear each year of people getting inducted, so to be able to add to the list is awesome.”

After graduating from Naperville Central, Lopez played baseball at Creighton and was picked by the Kansas City Royals in the fifth round of the 2016 MLB draft. When the Royals called him up in 2019, he became the first Naperville Central graduate to play in the major leagues.

Lopez, who has a .249/.312/.319 career slash line, was a Gold Glove finalist at second base in 2020 and became the first Royals shortstop to hit .300 in 2021. He played parts of five seasons in Kansas City before being traded in July to the Braves, whom he helped win the National League East title.

Lopez said he is thrilled to join the White Sox, who acquired him in November.

“I grew up going to White Sox games,” he said. “I went to Game 2 of the World Series in 2005, so just being able to put the jersey on, wow, it’s cool.”

Long known for his humble, hardworking approach to the game, Lopez is quick to share credit for his ascent.

“When you come to high school, obviously you’re there to learn, but you’re there to grow and also learn life lessons, and these teachers every step of the way helped mold me,” he said. “Whether it was my English teacher or math teacher, we’ve all had conversations with them that have helped me get to where I’m at.

“I can’t thank them enough. They’ve done so good by me with all the respect and love that they’ve shown, and I keep in touch with them.”

Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.

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The Chicago Cubs needed to find reinforcements for the bullpen.

Acquiring a reliever with a consistent track record was particularly important — and something they finally addressed Saturday.

The Cubs and veteran reliever Héctor Neris have agreed to a one-year, $9 million deal that includes a $9 million team option for 2025, a source told the Tribune. Neris’ club option converts to a player option if the right-hander appears in 60 games, a mark he has hit each of the last three years and six of eight seasons excluding the shortened 2020 season. His contract ultimately can max out at $23.25 million with incentives.

Bringing in Neris addresses key needs in the bullpen. He brings durability, pitching in at least 70 games five times, and gives the Cubs a proven, back-end-of-the-pen reliever who has experience pitching in big games. The Cubs bullpen struggled down the stretch en route to missing the 2023 postseason as an inexperienced group wore down and battled injuries in September.

Neris, 34, owns a career 3.24 ERA over 546 big-league appearances coming off two seasons in Houston, including a World Series title in 2022. He also spent eight years with the Philadelphia Phillies. Primarily used in the seventh and eighth innings with the Astros, Neris also has experience closing, earning five saves in Houston and 84 with the Phillies.

Neris gives the Cubs another splitter in the bullpen to accompany right-hander Mark Leiter Jr., whose pitch has been a shutdown weapon versus lefties. Neris utilizes his splitter against righties and lefties, a pitch that generated a 42.2 Whiff% and .237 slugging percentage in 2023.

While he typically relies on a four-seam fastball and splitter combination opposing left-handed hitters, Neris also mixes a sinker and slider when facing right-handed batters. His average fastball velocity dropped by 1.3 mph from 2022 to 2023, but this deal indicates the Cubs are not significantly concerned with that.

The Cubs’ work on building a more proven bullpen should not be complete with the Neris acquisition. They still need more depth and ideally another postseason-tested reliever.

And with Cody Bellinger among the notable position players still available in free agency, the Cubs are capable of making significant roster improvements in the coming weeks.

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The Minnesota Court of Appeals has sent the case of a transgender powerlifter back to Ramsey County District to determine whether she was barred from participating in women’s competitions because of her sexual orientation.

A year ago, Ramsey County District Judge Patrick Diamond sided with JayCee Cooper, then 35, of Minneapolis, finding that USA Powerlifting engaged in discriminatory practices by prohibiting the transgender athlete from competing.

A claim of an unfair performance advantage because of sexual orientation or sex — as USA Powerlifting officials have contended — is not a reason to discriminate, Diamond wrote in his Feb. 27, 2023, ruling. The judge ordered the Alaska-based organization to “cease and desist from the unfair discriminatory practice” and to revise its policies within two weeks.

In its decision released Monday, the appellate court affirmed that discrimination against athletes based on gender identity violates the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

However, the appellate court found Diamond erred by granting Cooper’s motion for partial summary judgment on Cooper’s claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation in a place of public accommodations and in business, “because there are genuine issues of material fact as to whether USAPL’s decision to exclude Cooper … was motivated by her sexual orientation (i.e., transgender status).”

The appellate court reversed the district court’s Feb. 27, 2023, and April 11, 2023, orders for injunctive relief.

“We remand the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion,” the ruling read.

Policy question

Attorneys for Gender Justice filed the lawsuit against USA Powerlifting and USA Powerlifting Minnesota on behalf of Cooper in June 2021, alleging violations of Minnesota’s Human Rights Act. The lawsuit came two years after the St. Paul-based legal and policy advocacy group filed a charge of discrimination with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

According to the 2021 lawsuit, Cooper had trained for and registered in 2018 to compete in the 2019 USAPL Minnesota State Bench Press Championship in Maplewood and the Minnesota Women’s State Championship.

A USAPL medical doctor emailed Cooper, informing her that she was ineligible to compete. The emailed explanation read “male-to-female transgenders are not allowed to compete as females in our static strength sport as it is a direct competitive advantage,” the lawsuit states.

At the time, USAPL had no express policy regarding participation in competition by transgender athletes, according to the lawsuit. USAPL revoked Cooper’s competition card, and later issued a formal policy banning all transgender women from participating in its competitions, according to the lawsuit.

USA Powerlifting contends it did not exclude Cooper because she is transgender. The organization had argued to the appellate court that it excluded Cooper from the women’s division of its competition for a non-discriminatory reason: that she has male physiology, which gives her “unmitigated strength advantages that would compromise principles of fair athletic competition.”

After last year’s lower court ruling, USAPL submitted a proposed policy in April 2023 that would allow a transgender woman to compete in USAPL’s women’s division if she declared her gender to be female, had conforming government identification and maintained a testosterone level below a certain numerical level, according to Monday’s opinion.

The district court held a hearing on USAPL’s proposed policy on April 11, 2023 and Diamond ruled from the bench that the proposed policy does not comply with the Minnesota Human Rights Act.

Diamond said at the time that USAPL “is enjoined from holding any events in the state of Minnesota, competitive or otherwise” and “is similarly enjoined . . . from selling memberships to identified residents of the state of Minnesota” until USAPL submits a proposed policy that complies with the MHRA.

Jess Braverman, legal director for Gender Justice, said in a Monday statement they believe it is “crystal clear” that Cooper was not allowed to compete because of her sexual orientation, “and we are confident that the courts will ultimately agree.”

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Last year around this time, the Wild lost Joel Eriksson Ek at the worst possible time, and while Minnesota is expecting him back before the regular season ends, the team will play at least two more games without their top line center.

The team’s second-leading scorer with 29 goals and 60 points, Eriksson Ek missed the Wild past two games and didn’t travel to Southern California for back-to-backs against Anaheim on Tuesday and Los Angeles on Wednesday.

“He’s rehabbing, and getting treatments, things like that,” coach John Hynes told reporters after a practice Monday afternoon at the Ducks’ Honda Center. “So, I think it’s probably more beneficial for him to do it there, have more time, and more facilities than you do sometimes on the road.”

Last year, Eriksson Ek suffered a broken fibula when he blocked a shot in an April 6 game against Pittsburgh and missed all but one aborted shift in a first-round playoff series against Dallas. The Wild lost in six games.

This year, Minnesota is fighting for a postseason spot as the regular season winds down, and will do it without Eriksson Ek at least until Saturday’s afternoon game against St. Louis at Xcel Energy Center. Eriksson Ek, who left a 4-1 victory over Arizona in March 12 with a lower body injury, is tied with Kirill Kaprizov with a team-high 12 power play goals, leads the team in faceoff percentage (49.4) and is a top-unit penalty killer.

After Saturday’s game against the Blues, the Wild have four days off before playing host to San Jose next Thursday.

“Whether it is Saturday, that’s a possibility, (but) I’m not sure,” Hynes told reporters who traveled to Anaheim. “But if it’s not, I would assume after that, with a little bit of that four days in between games that we have, the schedule certainly lends itself to (that).”

Specials practice

With Eriksson Ek out, the Wild included rookie center Marat Khusnutdinov in both special teams units during practice on Monday.

Khusnutdinov, 21, has played in just two games since signing an entry-level contract on Feb. 29. He has no points and a zero plus/minus in a combined 21:15 of ice time, with only 9 seconds of power play time on special teams.

“He is a penalty killer, (but) we didn’t really have a chance to practice it with him with all the 5-on-5 stuff and everything, plus a little power play,” Hynes told reporters. “Today was a good day to give him some reps on the penalty kill, plus the power play, just to get a feel for him.”

Briefly

— Adam Beckman appears set to return to the lineup on Tuesday. A third-round pick in the 2019 entry draft, Beckman, 22, has played in 15 NHL games over parts of the past three seasons. He was recalled on March 7 and has been a healthy scratch the past three games. “It wasn’t a thing where he came out because of something we don’t like, and he knows that,” Hynes said, “and we’ll look to give him another opportunity tomorrow.”

— The Wild signed 2023 second-round pick forward Rasmus Kumpulainen, 18, to a three-year, entry-level contract starting next season. In 53 games with major junior Oshawa of the OHL, Kumpulainen (6-foot-2, 201 pounds) had 27 goals and 53 points. He led the Generals with 10 power-play goals, and scored a pair of goals in seven games with Finland in the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.