Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers
We have our first blockbuster trade before the NFL’s Nov. 1 trade deadline, as running back Christian McCaffrey goes from the Carolina Panthers to the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers, who are 3-3 and looking for an offensive spark, get McCaffrey, and the Panthers get a second, third and fourth round draft pick in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024.
Though he missed a combined 23 games in 2020 and 2021 due to injury, when healthy, McCaffrey is one of the best dual-threats – and the 49ers have another in Deebo Samuel – in the league. In 2019, he had both 1,000 yards receiving and rushing.
Thus far in 2022, McCaffrey has 393 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns and 253 receiving yards and one rushing touchdown.
American League Championship Series
The Houston Astros and the New York Yankees are facing off in the American League Championship Series (ALCS), with the currently not-cheating Astros holding a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven series.
Game 2 took place Thursday night in Houston, with the Astros winning, 3-2, behind an Alex Bregman three-run homer and a solid outing from pitcher Framber Valdez. The Astros are 7-2 against the Yankees this season.
The series moves to New York for Game 3 on Saturday at 5:07 pm ET/2:07 pm PT on TBS.
National League Championship Series
It’s still painful for me to talk about this, but the playoffs must go on. It’s the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Diego Padres in the NLCS and the series is tied, 1-1.
The Padres, already down 1-0 in the series, came back from a 4-0 deficit to win Game 2, 8-5. Game 3 in the best-of-seven series moves to Citizens Bank Park on Friday at 7:37 pm ET/4:37 pm PT on FS1.
The starting pitchers are Joe Musgrove for San Diego and Ranger Suárez for Philadelphia.
Bruce Bochy
The Texas Rangers have a new manager, as the team announced Friday that it’s bringing in Bruce Bochy to try to right its ship. Bochy, who led the San Francisco Giants to three World Series wins, takes over a Rangers team that has had six consecutive losing seasons.
Bochy stepped away from baseball in 2019, after 13 seasons with the Giants. He managed the Padres from 1995-2006 and took them to the World Series in 1998.
J.K. Dobbins
Per ESPN, Baltimore Ravens running back J.K. Dobbins needs arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and will be out four to six weeks as a result. Dobbins did not play the second half of Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants and did not practice this week.
Dobbins was out all of 2021 after a preseason injury that tore his ACL, LCL, meniscus and hamstring. He returned after the first two games of the season and was averaging 3.5 yards on 35 carries for a total of 123 yards.