The next five weeks will see lots of shuffling on Major League rosters. Here are the most intriguing positional battles on each of the 30 MLB clubs.

Astros outfielder Josh Reddick vows to start hitting to the opposite field more this year, which is something he did well in 2017, but not '18. Reddick hit .242 with 17 homers and 47 RBIs last year after hitting .314 with 13 homers and 82 RBIs to help the Astros to the World Series title in '17.

They wrestled with the decision to start a family for five years. It's something most young couples discuss at some point. Timing is important, and considering their busy lives, even more so for Astros pitcher Joe Smith and his wife, TV sports reporter Allie LaForce. The issue facing the couple is far more momentous than most others have to deal with -- one that's a matter of life and death.

The first Hall of Famer to join the Astros at Spring Training is Craig Biggio, who was in uniform for morning workouts on Tuesday and will remain with the team throughout the week.

It took only two words for Alex Bregman to send 9-year-old Jax Nystrom into a frenzy, but this kind of reaction -- young people freaking out at the slightest bit of attention from him -- has become commonplace for the Astros' All-Star third baseman.

NEW YORK (AP) — Uber is cutting 3,700 full-time workers and its CEO will give up his base salary with the nation largely still in lockdown. The San Francisco company said Wednesday that the layoffs and related costs like severance will reach...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nation’s leader said Wednesday the world’s one billion people living with disabilities are among the hardest hit by the coronavirus and called for them to have equal access to prevention and...

Airbnb says it is laying off 25% of its workforce as it confronts a steep decline in global travel due to the new coronavirus pandemic. It’s a serious setback for the 12-year-old home-sharing company, which just a few months ago was...

  WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 40 public companies are pledging to return money to the government’s small business coronavirus fund now that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is threatening criminal prosecutions for...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (AP) — A Pennsylvania inmate whose dreadlocks violated a jail’s haircut policy has been released from solitary confinement after more than a year, although his federal lawsuit is still pending. A federal...

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) director, Dr Carissa Etienne, is warning that lifting COVID-19 restrictions too soon could accelerate the spread of the virus and open the door for a dramatic upsurge in countries of the region. The warning...

HYDERABAD, India (AP) — A gas leak at a chemical factory owned by a South Korean company in southern India early Thursday left at least 11 people dead and about 1,000 struggling to breathe. The chemical styrene, used to make plastic and...

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii authorities are cracking down on rogue tourists who are visiting beaches, riding personal watercraft, shopping and generally flouting strict requirements that they quarantine for 14 days after arriving. A newlywed...

Dozens of United States children have been hospitalised with a serious inflammatory condition possibly linked with the coronavirus and first seen in Europe. New York authorities announced Wednesday that 64 potential cases had been reported to...

Can COVID-19 survive on my phone? Yes. That’s why a daily wipe down of “high-touch” surfaces like phones, keyboards and tablet computers is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A scientific test...

COVID-19-ravaged regional economies, including Jamaica, will need the united strength of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) to help revive their micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sectors, many of which have been decimated. That...

JERUSALEM (AP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally received the support of a majority of lawmakers to lead a new government yesterday, paving the way for a controversial power-sharing deal with rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz....

MANILA (AP): The Philippines’ largest TV and radio network, which was shutdown this week by a government regulator, asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to allow it to return to the air amid an uproar over its closure. ABS-CBN Corp said in its...

MOSCOW (AP): United States (US) President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed progress in combating the coronavirus pandemic, along with arms-control issues and oil prices, in a phone call Thursday, the White House and the...

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — A virtual meeting of South African lawmakers has been disrupted by hackers who flooded the video call with pornographic images. In the incident on Thursday, the hackers also hurled racial and sexual insults at the meeting...

LONDON — Britain’s minister for the environment, food and rural affairs says Prime Minister Boris Johnson won’t be announcing immediate changes to the country’s coronavirus lockdown when he addresses the nation on Sunday....

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials have revoked US authorisation for masks made by more than 60 Chinese manufacturers after they failed to meet standards needed to protect health care workers. The Food and Drug Administration had...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, who’s taken to calling the US the “king” of ventilators, is making plans to ship 8,000 of the breathing machines to foreign countries by the end of July to help in their fight...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A Colombian advertising company is pitching a novel, if morbid, solution to shortages of hospital beds and coffins during the coronavirus pandemic: combine them. ABC Displays has created a cardboard bed with metal...

JAMAICA OLYMPIC Association (JOA) President Christopher Samuda believes that his sports administration experience will aid him in helping to finally shape a professional football league in the Caribbean. Concacaf announced Samuda’s appointment to...

The Jamaica Tallawahs have wasted little time in finding a replacement for the ‘Universe Boss’ Chris Gayle, as they have snapped up the captain of the St Kitts and Nevis Patriots, Carlos Brathwaite. The Gleaner has been reliably informed that...

Germany’s decision that football can return this month provided encouragement for players and teams across Europe yesterday that the shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic could soon be coming to an end. With COVID-19 infections declining,...

ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC): A top West Indies Cricket Umpires Association (WICUA) official says regional umpires have also been heavily impacted by the cessation of cricket, stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vivian Johnson, who...

BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC): ST KITTS AND Nevis Patriots have made some significant changes to their line-up for the upcoming Caribbean Premier League (CPL) season. Captain Carlos Brathwaite has gone to the Jamaica Tallawahs, while the Patriots have...

Portmore United captain Rosario Harriott says the Premier League Clubs Association shouldn’t rush to call off this season of the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The league was stopped indefinitely in mid-March...

Western Bureau: A number of swimming officials in western Jamaica say that the region’s struggles with underdevelopment will continue even if the COVID-19 pandemic is brought under control. They say this is because they still lack proper pools to...

Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited, operators of Caymanas Track, has announced the re-opening of the main track, effective tomorrow. The company said in a press release on Thursday evening that the track will be opened for two days...

FORMER NATIONAL footballer Aldrick ‘Allie’ McNab is concerned about the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Caribbean’s football development. The coronavirus has caused the postponement, suspension, and cancellation of a number of sporting...

Former national footballer Arthur Lattimore has died. Lattimore, who represented Jamaica in the 1970s, lost his battle with throat cancer at his home in Florida on Thursday. Lattimore, who was known as one of Jamaica's most skilful left-sided...

BERLIN, Germany (AP): THE BUNDESLIGA football season will resume on May 16 in empty stadiums, picking up right where it left off two months ago amid the coronavirus pandemic. Yesterday’s announcement comes one day after clubs were told the season...

Western Bureau: THE MOBAY City Run organisers have reconsidered the event’s cancellation. Organising committee chair­person Janet Silvera said on Sunday, the day the event was to have taken place, that the seventh staging of the 5K/10K Walk and Run...

OTTAWA, Canada (CMC): The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football’s (Concacaf) hexagonal round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar may have to be scrapped because of the disruption the COVID-19...

National 400m hurdles champion Rushell Clayton is concerned about what she says are inequalities between men and women in track and field. Clayton was speaking at a Women in Sports Conference in Kingston recently and discussed issues of inequality...

KINGSTON COLLEGE (KC) principal Dave Myrie has refuted claims that St Jago High School sprint hurdler Vashaun Vascianna will be joining the school this September. The Gleaner understands that Vascianna, who broke the Class Two boys’ 110m hurdles...

MADRID, Spain (AP): Rafael Nadal says Novak Djokovic will need to be vaccinated to keep playing if the governing bodies of tennis make coronavirus shots obligatory once they become available. Nadal told the Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia this...

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC): Former Windies fast bowler Kenny Benjamin says that cricket in the Caribbean is suffering from players’ lack of loyalty and commitment and that intervention is required to save the sport. The Antiguan called for coaches...

Former national footballer Arthur Lattimore passed away after a long battle with throat cancer. Lattimore, who represented Jamaica’s football team through­out the 1970s, died at his home in Florida, leaving behind five children, grandchildren, and...

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) general secretary Dalton Wint says that any potential changes to the Concacaf hexagonal round for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers could present challenges to the nation’s aim of qualifying for Qatar 2022. Wint’s...

One hundred years ago, Pennsylvanian surgeon Evan Kane penned a brief letter to JAMA in which he declared himself a rigorous proponent of the “benefic [sic] effects of the phonograph within the operating room.” Now David Bosenquet, a surgeon from University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff has written a Christmas editorial about the evidence for the...

Winners of the Darwin Award must eliminate themselves from the gene pool in such an idiotic manner that their action ensures one less idiot will survive. Ben and Dennis Lendrem, and colleagues, have reviewed the data on winners of the Darwin Award over a 20 year period and they join us to discuss why men are idiots, and why their team is not the...

Those who rise to the top in medicine see themselves as hardworking extroverts with a caring nature, suggests an unscientific analysis of the answers given by contributors to BMJ Confidential. But ask about their pet hates and another, less nurturing, side emerges. We gathered 6 former confidentialists in The BMJ studio to moan over mince...

Waiting times in theatre can be a source of friction – but is the delay due to mandatory anaesthetic faff around time (MAFAT), or AWOL surgeons? Elizabeth Travis, and orthopaedic house officer in New Zealand and colleagues, have been trying to create and evidence base to argue the toss, and she joins me now to discuss her study, Operating...

Until recently, hepatitis C screening was offered to people at increased risk of infection - such as intravenous drug users - but now, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended screening all people born between 1945 and 1965. Kenny Lin, associate professor of family medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and...

Philipe de Souto Barreto argues that, to reduce premature mortality, policies should focus on getting fully inactive people to do a little physical activity rather than strive for the entire population to meet current physical activity recommendations. Read the full analysis paper: http://www.bmj.com/content/350/bmj.h23

Multimorbidity presents a number of different challenges, for the patients living with the conditions, but also for the health professionals caring for them in systems that often are not designed with these more complex needs in mind. Emma Wallace, general practice lecturer, and Susan Smith, a professor of general practice at the Royal College of...