FORT MYERS, Fla. — Things are looking pretty good in Brock Stewart’s world these days.

The relief pitcher recently returned to Twins camp after heading home to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the birth of his second son, Cal. And at work, for the first time in his career, he walked into spring training knowing there’s a major league roster spot for him.

It’s a far cry from where he was a year ago when he came into camp knowing he was ticketed for St. Paul. That’s what a season in which you post a 0.65 earned-run average while striking out 12.7 batters per nine innings and displaying electrifying stuff will do for you.

“When I was healthy, I was one of the best pitchers on the planet, and to think about that is pretty cool,” Stewart said. “Obviously it’s going to take everything in me and probably some more from the outside world to duplicate my numbers from last year, but … I’m going to put my best foot forward every time I’m on the field.”

The only downside to Stewart’s breakout season was the three months he spent on the injured list dealing with an elbow injury, which limited him to just 27 2/3 innings at the major league level last year. But injury aside, Stewart’s breakout was a revelation for both the player and the team.

The Twins originally signed the right-hander to a two-year minor league contract in 2022, a low-risk deal as he finished up his rehab. They believed in his upside.

When he got to St. Paul late that season, his stuff felt good — and he struck out 11 batters in 7 1/3 innings — but the numbers weren’t. He finished with a 6.14 ERA in seven games.

“As I got into spring training and I saw the velocity was really good and I heard the feedback that they gave me about how they loved my stuff and some of the plans that they wanted me to try to obtain when it comes to attacking the strike zone and all sorts of things like that, after all that, I kind of had some more confidence in myself that, ‘Oh, maybe this is possible,’ ” Stewart said.

It was.

After a strong start to the 2023 season for the Saints, the Twins selected his contract in late April and called him up. He quickly became a crucial piece of their bullpen, a shutdown reliever with a four-seamer that averaged 97.3 miles per hour, a huge jump from when he had last pitched in the majors in 2019 (91.7 mph).

Opponents hit .194 off his sweeper last year and just .071 against his cutter.

“It was pretty apparent and obvious to everybody watching that he was a different pitcher and a guy that can get the best hitters out and a guy that has electric stuff, and he’s commanded it pretty well,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think when his stuff ticked up I think it was a little new to him, and commanding those pitches might have been challenging at the beginning, but I think he’s made really good adjustments with that and he has good feel for his stuff at this point.”

Expect to see Stewart filling a high-leverage role for the Twins once again this year, coming in to pitch pressure-filled important innings.

And while Stewart, 32, has adjusted to his new reality as a big leaguer after years of trying to establish himself — he first debuted in 2016 — he certainly hasn’t forgotten all it’s taken to get to this point.

“I’ve never known going into spring training ‘Hey, there’s a 99 percent chance if I’m healthy that I have a spot.’ So that’s really cool but still keep it in perspective,” Stewart said. “I’m just fortunate to have a job in pro ball so I try to come in here every day and treat every outing, treat every bullpen and every workout kind of like a tryout, put my best foot forward, no matter if I have a spot locked up or not.”

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Teams with an abundance of salary-cap room first look to invest in their own players. It’s always more sound to build from within than to chase veterans in free agency, where teams wind up overpaying for players who, in many cases, are available for a reason.

The Chicago Bears head into a seismic offseason with a healthy cap situation. They have the eighth-most “effective cap space,” according to overthecap.com, at $36.6 million. Effective cap space takes into account where a team will be after it has met what’s called the “Rule of 51,” for offseason bookkeeping purposes, and signed its projected rookie class. For the Bears, that includes the first and ninth picks in the draft.

The Bears’ figure is expected to rise. Releasing free safety Eddie Jackson and offensive lineman Cody Whitehair would create an additional $21 million in cap room. So general manager Ryan Poles has more than enough flexibility to accomplish his goals for the next phase of roster construction.

That process figures to begin with negotiations to retain cornerback Jaylon Johnson, who was voted to the Pro Bowl Games and was a second-team All-Pro after a banner season that included a career-high four interceptions.

“Jaylon’s not going to go anywhere,” Poles said last week, a sure sign the Bears are prepared to use the franchise tag if they’re unable to hammer out a multiyear contract before the window closes. Teams can apply the tag from Feb. 20 through March 5.

The franchise tag for cornerbacks is expected to be about $18.8 million in 2024, and that would set a floor for contract negotiations and buy another five months to work out more than a one-year deal. The Bears have used the franchise tag twice in the last decade — on wide receivers Allen Robinson in 2021 and Alshon Jeffery in 2016 — and placed the transition tag on cornerback Kyle Fuller in 2018.

Johnson is aiming to become the NFL’s highest-paid cornerback, a distinction currently held by Jaire Alexander of the Green Bay Packers or Denzel Ward of the Cleveland Browns, depending on how you measure it.

“The ball’s in my court, the ball’s in my favor,” Johnson said Wednesday when he appeared on the Fox Sports podcast “All Facts No Brakes” with Keyshawn Johnson. “I think it’s just a matter of time and when it happens. Going into the negotiations I don’t think there’s too much to try to talk about.

“I feel like there’s no reason why I can’t be the highest-paid corner in the league. That’s what I’m aiming for. That’s what I’m shooting for. That’s what I think can be done and should be done.”

Alexander received a four-year, $84 million extension in 2022, with the average annual salary of $21 million setting the bar atop the market. That same year, Ward got a five-year, $100.5 million extension ($20.5 million average) with a record $44.5 million fully guaranteed. Jalen Ramsey of the Miami Dolphins is the only other cornerback in the $20 million club in terms of annual average, having signed a five-year, $100 million deal in 2020.

Two years after the Alexander and Ward contracts, with Johnson having bet on himself, it stands to reason he is shooting to reset the market considering his performance and accolades and the rising salary cap. Whether he gets there remains to be seen.

Poles was reluctant to consider a market-setting deal for inside linebacker Roquan Smith in 2022. While he hasn’t spoken specifically about numbers for Johnson, cornerback is considered a more premium position and the Bears could maintain a strength by retaining Johnson with developing second-year cornerbacks Tyrique Stevenson and Terell Smith and third-year nickel back Kyler Gordon.

The cornerback market took a slight dip since Alexander and Ward were paid, but that probably had more to do with the available talent than a shift in thinking about positional value and budget allocation.

Some defensive coaches place a greater premium on cover men than pass rushers with the philosophy that it’s easier for offenses to scheme around a defensive end than an elite cornerback, especially one who isn’t a liability against the run.

That’s not to say you can play great defense without top-tier edge rushers — you can’t. It all goes hand in hand, but if forced to pick an elite cornerback or an elite edge rusher, some coaches would go with the guy who can mirror top-tier wide receivers.

That’s why it is paramount the Bears keep their talent. Johnson turns 25 in April, and he’s only eight months older than Gordon despite having two more years of experience.

The Bears love Johnson and his makeup, and he’s wired exactly how you want a cornerback to be with a desire to face the best receiver every Sunday. The only issue they will have when considering whether to make him the highest-paid cornerback in the league is durability. He missed three games this season, including the finale against the Packers when a minor shoulder injury sidelined him. He missed six games in 2022, two in 2021 and three as a rookie.

That doesn’t take away from what Johnson accomplished this season, meeting the challenge of delivering more on-the-ball production. It’s important to recognize Johnson was having an elite season before Poles acquired defensive end Montez Sweat at the trade deadline. So it’s not like his ascent was the result of a suddenly enhanced pass rush.

The front office has a lot to work through with its attention being pulled in many directions. The Bears need to fill out Matt Eberflus’ coaching staff while preparing for free agency and draft meetings.

Confidence should be high that the Bears will resolve matters with Johnson, but it could take some time. The last three players on whom the Bears used the franchise tag — Robinson, Jeffery and defensive tackle Henry Melton (2013) — played out their one-year deals. The Bears secured running back Matt Forte with the franchise tag in 2012, ultimately leading to a four-year contract.

The goal with Johnson has to be a multiyear agreement.

“We’ll work through it and get something done,” Poles said.

It’s a matter of how high the dollars — and more importantly the guarantees — go.

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Less than four months ago, Savannah Ryan Williams was killed in Minneapolis after performing a sex act on a man during the early morning hours of Nov. 29, 2023.

According to police reports, Damerean Kaylon Bible, 25, told law enforcement that he became “suspicious” of Williams, a transgender woman, before he shot her point blank in the head.

Bible reportedly confessed the murder to a parent in a phone call recorded by police and claimed that he “had to do it.”

He is now charged with felony second-degree murder, and his lawyer notified the court earlier this month that his defense includes acting in the defense of self and/or others. Bible’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Savannah Williams poses in an undated photo. (Courtesy of The Aliveness Project via Forum News Service)

Williams’ death and the ensuing self-defense claim is a familiar chain of events to the LGBTQ+ community. A bill introduced by Democratic-Farmer-Labor legislators represents an attempt to change that.

The legislation is a continued push by legislators to provide more protections for the LGBTQ+ community, partially in response to the death of Williams, according to Rep. Brion Curran, DFL-Vadnais Heights, who said that statements made by Bible were about Williams’ identity.

Curran recently introduced a bill in the House that’s a companion piece to legislation introduced last year in the Senate. If passed, it would bar a defendant from using someone’s actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or expression as a defense for committing a crime.

“Just by using that defense in the courtroom, it gives a platform to that rhetoric that LGBTQ+ individuals have a reason to be harmed or a reason to be feared or that there’s some sort of excuse for violence against us,” said Curran, who identifies as nonbinary.

The legal strategy is called the LGBTQ+ panic defense, meaning that someone is so shocked by the sexual orientation or gender identity of a sexual partner that they are driven temporarily insane, which absolves them of any responsibility regarding the assault or murder of their partner.

“It’s using a piece of someone’s identity as an excuse to harm, and that doesn’t make sense, it’s not moral,” Curran said.

While a criminal defendant may use it in Minnesota, it is currently barred in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

Many advocates who push for the defense to be banned cite the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard over two decades ago and the ensuing trial as a reason to pass this type of legislation.

Shepard, a 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, was tied to a fence and violently beaten in a field outside of Laramie, Wyoming, where he was left to die.

During the trial to bring one of his killers to justice, a sheriff’s deputy said Shepard’s face was covered in blood, except for where his tears had fallen down his face. Shepard died about six days after the assault.

His killer, Aaron McKinney, attempted to claim in court that he was driven temporarily insane after alleged sexual advances by Shepard. A judge refused to allow that defense in court after McKinney’s girlfriend said McKinney and his accomplice, Russell Henderson, pretended to be gay to lure Shepard into a truck so they could rob him.

Both men were convicted of murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

Shepard’s murder and court trial received national attention, though laws regulating the LGBTQ+ panic defense have only picked up steam since 2019, when only eight states had banned the defense. The first of those was California in 2014. Wyoming, where Shepard was murdered, still allows the defense.

While the movement is gaining momentum, about 56% of the LGBTQ+ community in the United States live in a state where someone accused of their murder can use a self-defense claim based on their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity during trial.

The LGBTQ+ communities in those areas have a good reason to be fearful, said Courtnay Avant, legislative counsel for Human Rights Campaign, an organization focused on ending discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.

“We’re in a moment where anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric is on the rise, and so we’ve seen an explosion in really violent and hateful rhetoric targeting LGBTQ+ people and we’re seeing that it is leading to a horrifying elevation of physical violence against the community,” she said.

According to 2022 hate crime statistics from the FBI, incidents targeting gay men and women have recorded their highest totals in the last five years and anti-transgender incidents increased nearly 40% from 2021 to 2022.

“It’s been 25 years since the death of Matthew Shepard, and we are still talking about LGBTQ+ panic defenses,” Avant said. “So there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The American Bar Association has also called for government entities to take legislative action to curtail the availability and effectiveness of the LGBTQ+ panic defense since 2013.

“It is harrowing that currently, one’s sexual orientation or gender identity can still provide even an inkling of a legal defense in their murder trial. Help to end this discrimination by supporting legislative bans on the gay/trans panic defense,” an ABA member wrote in a 2019 OP-ED for the association.

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DULUTH — Anyone who spent the past few months in the Upper Midwest won’t be surprised to know that winter’s grip on Minnesota lakes is disappearing faster than Sasquatch when you pull out a camera.

The warmest meteorological winter since accurate records have been kept across Minnesota is leading to the earliest-ever ice-out dates for many of the state’s 10,000 or more lakes, and in most cases, it’s not even close.

Nearly all of the lakes in the southern half of the state have lost their ice at a record-early date so far this year, many a full month or more ahead of normal, according to data from the Minnesota State Climatology Office of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Clear Lake in Waseca County, with records dating back to 1874, lost its ice March 1 this year, smashing the old record set March 6, 1987, and more than a month ahead of the median ice-out date of April 3. Pickerel Lake in Aitkin County lost its ice March 9, more than a month before its average April 14 ice-out. Even Fish Lake near Duluth had ample open water at midweek, approaching ice-out.

For northern Minnesota, 2012 is the year to beat in many cases, the last time the Northland had a non-winter and saw most lakes lose their ice in March and April. Big Sandy Lake in Aitkin County lost its ice March 26, 2012, the earliest on record. Even the big, cold lakes bordering Ontario lost their ice in early April in 2012, and that appears to be what may happen this year.

The lack of snow on any Minnesota lake of late means an even faster ice-out. Snow insulates the ice and protects it from the sun, making ice last longer.

“So far, it’s been pretty consistently a month early as it (ice-out) progresses north. That may slow down some farther north, but probably not much,’’ said Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota State Climatology Office.

While state climatologists don’t have nearly as many records for lake ice-in dates, the dates lakes freeze over, they have a few that may show this was the shortest winter ice period on record. Boulay says he’s watching Lake Bemidji which has both ice-in and ice-out dates going back to 1959. Until now the shortest period of ice cover was 85 days in 2012 and again in 2016. But because Lake Bemidji didn’t officially freeze until Jan. 6 this winter, Boulay is guessing the lake may break its record for shortest ice cover.

Having lakes ice-free a month early should be good for people anxious to open their cabins, put in their docks and start fishing, but it may not be great for the fish. The News Tribune earlier this month reported that recent research by Wisconsin scientists found that earlier and highly variable ice-out dates hurt walleye spawning success.

This will be one year when there’s no worrying if the ice will be out by the Minnesota fishing opener.

“Not only has it been very, but we didn’t have much ice to begin with,’’ said Don Schreiner, a fisheries researcher for Minnesota Sea Grant at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

The extra month of open water means lake water will likely warm up faster, spurring more weed growth and likely more algae blooms, Schreiner noted. He said lake ecosystems would get a jump-start from the extra month without ice and that fish, by the May 11 fishing opener, could be in places and moods they would normally be in early June.

“Daylight (length) is also a factor (in when fish spawn) so that should moderate the very early ice-out somewhat. But it’s going to make this an interesting summer,’’ Schreiner said. “If the temperature trend we’ve seen this winter continues, weeds and algae are probably going to be an issue.”

Many lakes and rivers are already very low due to virtually no winter runoff and ongoing drought conditions. Schreiner said the low and warmer water could be most troublesome for fish in North Shore streams, which tend to run off stored snowmelt and rainfall rather than from underground springs.

“We could see fish struggling to get up streams,’’ he said.

Did you know?

Greenwood Lake in Cook County is, on average, the last lake in Minnesota to lose its ice, with a median date of May 9. Still, it has happened as late as May 24 (2014) and as early as April 10 (2012). The latest ice-out on record in Minnesota is for Gunflint Lake, on the Ontario border, which didn’t lose its ice until June 3 in 1936.

Definition of lake ice-out

The definition of lake ice out can vary from lake to lake. In most cases for the citizen observers reporting data to the Minnesota State Climatology Office, ice out occurs when the lake is completely free of ice. But for some lakes, it may be when it is possible to navigate from point A to point B. Either way, observers on each lake use consistent criteria from year to year when reporting lake ice-out dates. To check your favorite lake, go to dnr.state.mn.us/ice_out/index.html.

Find estimated ice-out date for your lake

The Duluth News Tribune wrote last year about Minnesota Sea Grant’s new Ice Out Widget. This year Sea Grant has renamed it the Minnesota Ice-Out Clock and updated some features to make it easier to use. You simply click on the weather station nearest your lake, fill in a little information and the program spits out an estimate for ice-out. Go to seagrant.umn.edu/programs/recreation-and-water-safety-program/mn-ice-out-clock.

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