The Chicago White Sox continued to work on their bullpen depth by signing right-hander John Brebbia to a one-year deal on Saturday, a source confirmed to the Tribune.

The move is pending a physical.

MLB Network’s Jon Morosi initially reported the signing and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported the deal is for $5.5 million.

Brebbia, 33, has a 15-15 record with a 3.42 ERA and two saves in 295 career appearances (21 starts as an opener) during six seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals (2017-19) and San Francisco Giants (2021-23). He has 321 strikeouts and 90 walks in 299 2/3 career innings.

He went 3-5 with a 3.99 ERA in 40 outings (10 as an opener) for the Giants in 2023. Brebbia had 47 strikeouts and 14 walks in 38 1/3 innings, missing a portion of the season with a right lat strain.

Brebbia underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2020 and made 18 appearances for the Giants in 2021. He led the National League with 76 outings the next season (11 as an opener), going 6-2 with a 3.18 ERA, 54 strikeouts and 18 walks in 68 innings.

The signing comes on the heels of the Sox agreeing to terms on a one-year contract with left-handed reliever Tim Hill last month.

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The Bartz brothers of New Brighton unveiled their largest snow sculpture ever on Saturday, a creation named “Sparky” that was inspired by the famous sea lion at the Como Park Zoo in St. Paul.

Austin, left, and Conner Bartz unveil their latest snow sculpture, “Sparky,” named after the famous Como Zoo seal, in New Brighton on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. The 21-foot-tall and 48-foot-long sculpture took over 1,200 hours to create and comes complete with a smoke machine in the seal’s mouth. The unveiling was part of New Brighton’s Brave the BRRR celebration at Brightwood Hills Golf Course. The winter celebration features a Brrrzaar Weekend Market, amateur snow sculpture contest, food trucks and, of course, Austin and Conner Bartz’s latest creation. It runs through Feb. 4. For more information, go to https://www.newbrightonmn.gov/640/Brave-the-BRRR. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

After years of making their snow creations in their parents’ front yard, Sparky is on display at Brightwood Hills Golf Course in New Brighton as part of the city’s “Brave the BRRR” winter celebration, which runs through Feb. 4.

The snow seal, constructed by Austin and Connor Bartz with help from their father, Dave Bartz, and friends Caleb Kroeze and Seth Hanson, is 21 feet tall, 48 feet long and took 1,200 hours to build. A hidden smoke machine makes it appear that Sparky has steam coming out of its mouth.

A third brother, Trevor Bartz, assists with design ideas but is no longer hands-on with the sculpture building because he lives outside of the metro area.

The Bartz sculptures, which started with a puffer fish in 2012, were inspired by a trip to Florida. All of them, which have included a whale, walrus, shark, turtle, octopus, fish and lobster, have been creatures of the sea.

People walk down a path decorated with photos of the Bartz Brothers’ previous snow sculptures in New Brighton on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024. New Brighton’s Brave the BRRR celebration kicked off on Saturday with the unveiling of the Bartz Brothers snow sculpture “Sparky” at Brightwood Hills Golf Course. The winter celebration will feature a Brrrzaar Weekend Market, amateur snow sculpture contest, food trucks and, of course, Austin and Conner Bartz’s latest creation. It runs through Feb. 4. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

On the Bartz Snow Sculptures Facebook page, the brothers said this year they are raising money for clean water in Africa through World Vision.

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As more and more Hall of Fame ballots have been publicly released and Joe Mauer’s odds of getting into Cooperstown this year have seemingly risen, his former teammate and good friend Justin Morneau has found himself paying an increasing amount of attention to the vote count.

But it’s not a topic he chats with Mauer about and Mauer himself “would never bring it up,” Morneau said.

“I was with him and somebody asked him about it and he gave the same answer you would expect him to give. ‘Well, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see. It’s not up to me. It’d be cool if it happens,’ ” Morneau recounted. “Typical Joe but I think deep down it means a lot to him but it’s out of his control.”

Longtime members of the Baseball Writers Association of America voted on Mauer’s candidacy and the results of their voting will be revealed on a show that airs live from Cooperstown on Tuesday night on MLB Network beginning at 5 p.m.

It has started to look highly likely that Mauer will be voted in on the first ballot, a possibility that has been drawing plenty of buzz around the Twin Cities, even if the man from St. Paul himself isn’t so keen on talking about it.

“I told my wife, the last one that’s losing sleep over this is Joe Mauer. That’s just the way he is,” said Jim O’Neill, Mauer’s high school baseball coach at Cretin-Derham Hall. “I woke up from a dream the other day thinking about this.”

The former Twins catcher, who played all 15 years of his major-league career down the road from his home in St. Paul, has received 84.1 percent of the vote on ballots that have been revealed publicly, per X user Ryan Thibodaux’s (@NotMrTibbs) tracker. Approximately 47.4 percent of ballots are known.

Per Thibodaux’s data, Mauer would need 66.8 percent of support on the remainder of ballots to be elected.

“He’s at a standard where you can’t deny that he’s a hall of famer,” said Mauer’s former manager, Paul Molitor, himself a first-ballot hall of famer from St. Paul. “… I’m really encouraged by how it’s been trending. Even if there’s a little bit of a drop-off from where he sits at now, in the 4-6 percent range, which seems to be pretty typical, it still puts him in good position. I’m very hopeful about next week.”

Players need 75 percent of the vote for entry to the Hall of Fame, and that drop-off Molitor referred to often comes from voters who do not choose to reveal their ballots publicly casting votes for fewer players.

But with just a few days remaining, Mauer seems to have a comfortable cushion and appears to be in a good position to join an exclusive list of first-ballot hall of famers. Adrián Beltré, who currently has 98.9 percent support as of Saturday morning, is also on pace to enter this year on the first ballot.

“The numbers are the numbers, and as a catcher, definitively, Joe’s numbers rise very quickly to elite status, the upper echelon of the game at that position, and therefore I think (what’s) ultimately proving to win the day is really the track record that he amassed as a player but more importantly as a catcher,” Twins president and CEO Dave St. Peter said.

Among his accomplishments, Mauer was a six-time all-star, a three-time Gold Glove winner and the first catcher to win three batting titles, accomplishing the feat in 2006 (.347), 2008 (.328) and 2009 (.365), his MVP season.

In 2009, Mauer led the American League not only in batting average but also on-base percentage, slugging percentage and OPS. Though he missed the first month of the season, he clubbed a career-high 28 home runs and added 96 RBIs while also taking home a Gold Glove for his defensive prowess behind the plate in one of the best seasons ever for a catcher.

“I always believed he was a hall of famer, but you never know what everyone else thinks. It’s hard to be a first-ballot hall of famer, especially,” Morneau said. “… He’s the best catcher of his generation. I think he did things that no one else did, so I think he’s definitely deserving of being in the Hall of Fame.”

And if Mauer is elected to the Hall of Fame and inducted this summer, well, expect a big celebration in upstate New York.

“We had a huge Minnesota contingent in Cooperstown a couple of years ago for Tony (Oliva) and Jim (Kaat), and I can only imagine how enjoyable it’s going to be if we can do that again to get a large group from Minnesota to rally in Cooperstown next July,” Molitor said.

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It’s hard to write with mittens on and your teeth chattering, but you count your blessings if you don’t have to work outdoors during another polar vortex.

Thinking warm thoughts during this current stretch of frigid weather is the only way to survive, and fortunately there’s been enough going on in the sports world to keep us occupied, from the NFL playoffs to the Cubs Convention to the White Sox equipment truck leaving for Arizona.

Here are 10 takeaways from a wild week.

A “Just One Before I Die” sign was spotted by the CBS cameras in Buffalo during the Bills wild card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday. This used to be the mantra of Cubs fans, who swore they’d be happy with only one championship in their lifetime.

They lied of course. Once is never enough.

But if anyone deserves at least one, it would be Buffalo. Or Detroit.

Cubs President Jed Hoyer prefaced his remarks about Christopher Morel at the Cubs Convention by going off on the rumor mill. Someone apparently wrote Morel wasn’t at the convention because he was being traded, instead of the real reason — he had a visa issue.

“The rumors sometimes have zero basis in truth and it happens all the time,” Hoyer said. “Read stuff with a pound of salt, because so often times something that has not a little bearing in truth, but zero basis in truth. And there’ve been a lot of those this winter (where) Morel is linked to this team or linked to this player.

“We’ve been linked to a number of free agents we’ve never actually spoken to this winter, and I think the agent just puts out that we’re interested because we’re a big-market team. … So I think sometimes the rumors get going and it’s a freight train. Be aware of how often these things have no bearing in truth. It’s kind of an alternate universe I would say.”

Hoyer didn’t seem too bothered by the rumors that linked Shohei Ohtani to the Cubs, which made it seem like they had a realistic shot at signing the best player in baseball. Sometimes an alternative universe helps keep a team in the news.

If dealing with a polar vortex builds character, we should have enough in Chicago to last a couple lifetimes by now. Maybe we’re better off having no character and some feeling in your toes.

Watching that Detroit fan cry Sunday during the end of the Lions’ wild-card win over the Los Angeles Rams in a climate-controlled, indoor stadium was the polar opposite of Bears fans crying after the Double Doink loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2018 wild-card game at frigid Soldier Field.

The White Sox invited the media to come out to Guaranteed Rate Field on Tuesday with a subzero wind chill factor. It was not for a free-agent signing or trade, but to report on the equipment truck leaving for spring training in Glendale, Ariz.

The truck leaving town event is a time-honored ritual for teams that have done little over the winter to improve their chances of winning but could use some publicity. The Cubs even used to have a sponsor for the equipment truck videos that would air on newscasts to remind fans it’s “almost spring.”

In a normal world, the Sox would be touting the arrival of SoxFest next weekend. But for reasons that have never been explained, SoxFest is kaput once again, and an event for season ticket holders is currently on the schedule as a replacement.

At least the Kansas City Royals are having a fan fest on Feb. 3 at Kauffman Stadium. Sox fans seeking autographs from future Sox players might be interested in driving down to K.C.

The best part of the NFL wild-card weekend was the fourth-quarter speculation by broadcasters about the losing coach possibly losing his job, whether it was Mike McCarthy, Nick Sirianni or Mike Tomlin. The next best thing was Fox Sports talking head Skip Bayless losing his mind on social media over the Dallas Cowboys’ loss to the Green Bay Packers. Bayless tossing his Cowboys’ gear in the trash after a playoff loss is the human equivalent of Punxsutawney Phil seeing his shadow on Groundhog Day.

A domed Bears stadium in the Soldier Field south parking lot may be the worst idea ever, unless you count drafting Mitch Trubisky over Patrick Mahomes.

President/CEO Kevin Warren, speaking generally about a new stadium, said last week that “very rarely do you get an opportunity to have such a beautiful downtown with a vibrant business community, with an absolutely beautiful lake and the energy that goes along.”

Maybe it looks good on TV, but Warren seemingly doesn’t understand that getting in and out of an area bounded by Lake Shore Drive and the lakefront is one of the reasons fans don’t like Soldier Field in the first place.

A Lions-Chiefs Super Bowl would present the ultimate pop culture showdown between Eminem and Taylor Swift. There might be more cutaways to those two by CBS than Mahomes’ commercials.

Lost in the kerfuffle over Bulls fans making Thelma Krause cry during the Ring of Honor ceremony was the terrible decision by management to not announce the names of the 1995-96 team that was being inducted. It would have been nice to see Luc Longley, Ron Harper, Bill Wennington and the rest of the players and coaches get their well-deserved applause for their contributions to the championship season.

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