It has to be incredibly frustrating for Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, who spent more money ($345 million) than any of the other 31 NFL teams for a 2-2 start this season. The Vikings have been devastated by injuries to high-paid players.
Meanwhile, quarterback J.J. McCarthy, also injured, had been underwhelming except for one quarter before his high right ankle sprain. The Vikings won’t say it publicly, but at this juncture it’s a decent bet they wish they had kept Sam Darnold, who has led the Seattle Seahawks to a 3-1 start. Or signed Daniel Jones, whose Indianapolis Colts are 3-1 with him under center.
The Vikings could have franchise-tagged Darnold, 28, for one year at $37 million while providing McCarthy, 22, another year to develop. Also, insiders say Aaron Rodgers, 41, who beat the Vikings in Ireland last Sunday, nearly begged the Vikings to sign him before signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who are 3-1.
— Entering this season, the Vikings’ plan was to build a veteran roster to support McCarthy, who is expected to return as starter against the Philadelphia Eagles in Minneapolis after next week’s bye. By then, the Vikings should have an idea whether they can go forward with McCarthy or need to reevaluate their quarterback future.
For McCarthy, the rest of this season will be an audition. If he shows promise, the Vikings will continue to build around him. If he plays poorly, the Vikings may have to rethink their decision drafting him No. 10 overall two years ago and, depending on their 2026 draft position, maybe even take another quarterback in the first round.
The way it looks now, the Vikings’ first-round draft pick next year will be in the Nos. 10-12 range. Another QB route for the Vikings would be to sign a veteran more skilled than Carson Wentz with the understanding that McCarthy will need to compete for the starting job in 2026. Theoretically, believe it or not, that guy could be Kirk Cousins, 37, the backup in Atlanta. The Falcons do not have their first- or fifth-round picks in next year’s draft. The trade deadline is Nov. 4.
— Another potential free agent QB having a good season (4-1) is Mac Jones, who just turned 27, with the San Francisco 49ers.
In 2023, with the No. 4 pick in the draft, the Colts took Anthony Richardson. After two years of injuries and inconsistency, the Colts decided they would go into this season (year three) not merely handing the job to Richardson, but with open competition with Jones for the starting job, which Jones has won.
— The Vikings are fortunate they don’t have to face new Green Bay edge rusher Micah Parsons until Nov. 23. Through four games, Parsons leads the NFL in pass-rushing grade, per Pro Football Focus.
— It should be a big payday from the Chicago Cubs this winter for Simley High grad Michael Busch, who finished the regular season with 34 home runs and 90 runs batted in while hitting .263. Busch, 27, who led off the NL Division Series with a home run Saturday and also homered last week against San Diego, played for $780,500 this season. He isn’t eligible for full arbitration until 2027, but an anticipated Cubs offer could be in the $70 million, five-year range.
— Totino-Grace grad Joe Alt, the Los Angeles Chargers’ top draft pick (No. 5 overall) last spring now out with a badly sprained ankle, bought Five Guys hamburgers for fellow offensive linemen after a practice last week.
— Pulling for Louie Mitteco, the hall of fame former Totino Grace and St. Charles Borromeo basketball coaching legend from Minneapolis facing health challenges.
— The Miami Heat have signed former Park Center star Dain Dainja and former Rochester Mayo star Gabe Madsen, who passed Roseville’s Nick Jacobson to become Utah’s career three-point leader.
— The Utah Jazz have signed ex-Eastview star Steven Crowl, who played at Wisconsin.
— Brophy College Prep (Arizona) wide receiver Devin Fitzgerald, son of future Pro Football Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald Jr., of Minneapolis, the other day caught 14 passes for 234 yards and three TDs despite a 70-33 loss to Hamilton. The 6-2, 205-pounder with a 4.0 grade-point average declined an offer from the Gophers in favor of Notre Dame. He worked out this summer with Justin Jefferson and Cris Carter.
— St. Louis Park grad Mark Boyle, son of former WTCN-TV sportscaster Joe Boyle, has just signed a four-year extension as the superb voice of the Indiana Pacers that will take him through the franchise’s 41st season.
— Look for the opening soon of the new Woodbury youth hockey training center, which has Utah Mammoth pro scout Mike Guentzel and NHL star Jake Guentzel of the Tampa Bay Lightning as key investors.
— After one season with Jacksonville in the East Coast Hockey League, former Gophers star goalie Justin Close, who backstopped Minnesota to a pair of Frozen Four trips, is hanging up the pads and is interested in coaching.
— Eagan’s Tom Barnes, the St. Paul Central grad and retired NFL official who was a line judge in the 1994 Super Bowl, this season is back evaluating officials for the Big Ten Conference.
— Hall of fame golfer Annika Sorenstam, at a speaking appearance moderated brilliantly by Dave Mona, was entertaining and insightful the other day at Interlachen Country Club.
— Lisa Lissimore, 64, the hall of fame former Central basketball star who retired as Minnesota State High School League associate director, is busy writing children’s books.
— Blake Freese, 38, a former Minnesota State Mankato linebacker star who received NFL training camp tryouts with the Vikings and New Orleans Saints, ripped a 188-yard six-iron into a strong headwind and the cup on the 17th hole at Hazeltine National in the recent Folds of Honor tournament. Prize: a new $230,000 wake surfing boat.
— Derek Hitchner, the Blake grad, has earned full Korn Ferry Tour status for 2026 and is exempt into Final Stage PGA Tour Q-School in December via his performance on PGA Tour Americas this season.
— Cretin grad Tom Ryan, the former Minnesota Golf Association president, will be honored Nov. 3 in Austin, Texas, as a recipient of the International Association of Golf Administrators Award.
— Adam Mazur, the Woodbury grad who was 0-4 in six starts for the Miami Marlins this season, the other day pitched five scoreless innings for Triple-A Jacksonville in the International League championship game.
— That’s Robbinsdale Cooper grad Steve Zahn in the role of head football coach Jake Hudson in the just released hilarious Hulu TV series “Chad Powers.”
Don’t print that
— Among the dozen or so managing candidates the Twins are considering, a guess at a final four list will be Torii Hunter, Craig Albernaz, Derek Shelton and Toby Gardenire.
The people’s choice to succeed fired Rocco Baldelli would be Hunter, the former Twin who also would provide the club a desperately needed public relations boost.
Hunter has no managing experience, but neither did Baldelli, who in his first year (2019) became the American League’s manager of the year after winning 101 games. Besides personality-plus, Hunter, 50, is a ferocious competitor and proven clubhouse leader.
— Baldelli, 44, who’ll be paid $2 million by the Twins not to manage next year, is sure to have an opportunity to return to the Tampa Bay Rays.
— The Colorado Rockies have been eyeing former Twins general manager Thad Levine for their GM vacancy for a year.
— How does a major league baseball team get $500 million in debt? The Twins had what the club termed a “manageable” debt until COVID-19 struck in 2020. In the ensuing two years, when most teams incurred losses of at least $100 million due to COVID, those teams responded by taking on private equity or limited partners to infuse cash into their operations.
The Twins did not. Meanwhile, the Twins were running a payroll north of their revenues, specifically due to Carlos Correa’s ridiculous $200 million contract. The Twins also lost millions in TV revenue.
In order to pay off their $500 million debt, the Twins took on limited partners, who a little birdie says are in the process of finalizing deals with banks. Major League Baseball is working on an approval process for the partners, with final approval likely at owners meetings in New York the second week in November. At that time, the Twins will announce the new partners.
— Pssst: The Timberwolves under new owners Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore have yet to entice hall of famer Kevin Garnett to join the front office, but they are hopeful.
— There’s fear that Vikings star outside linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel’s neck injury keeping him off the field is worse than the team is saying.
— Now it’s official: Major League Baseball will add robot ball-and-strike umpires next season.
“This is the nightmare scenario,” Tim Tschida told the Pioneer Press. “You’ve got the defensive team in the field with a two-run lead with two outs in the ninth inning. Offense has guys on second and third, 2-2 count on the hitter. The next pitch comes in and the robot umpire says strike three, game’s over.
“The catcher goes to the mound, the infield comes in, they’re all celebrating, high-fiving. But OK, stop. They challenge it and it turns out the pitch was three-eighths of an inch outside, so it’s a ball. Now it’s 3-2, everybody goes back on the field. The next pitch, the umpire calls ball four.
“The guy starts going to first base. Now the pitcher wants that pitch challenged. They look back, the challenge says the pitch just caught the outside of the corner of the plate. Strike three. And the game’s over.”
Tschida, 65, retired after nearly 30 years as a major league umpire and crew chief, during which he worked three World Series. He is from St. Paul.
“You want to be a fan, pay to get in and watch that at the end of the game, take all the drama out, all the fun, all the excitement, the whole reason you went to the game, to watch a five-minute video game at the end of the night?
“The people in charge of the game create five new problems when they create this one solution.”
Tschida added, “It’s great to be retired.”
— The Wild will be able to afford Kirill Kaprizov’s $138 million contract extension — the franchise is now worth $1.79 billion, an increase of 12 percent over last year, per Sportico’s new valuations.
— Among John Harris’ innumerable admirers who on Monday at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church will attend the funeral of the iconic Minnesota golfer from Minneapolis will be Tom Dolby.
Dolby, a longtime club professional from South St. Paul, was among a notable foursome of Minnesota golfers, including Harris, who years ago played a Monday afternoon round at Olympic Hills in Eden Prairie.
“I played good and won $44,” Dolby, now the pro at Detroit Lakes, recalled last week. “The clubhouse was closed, so we paid off in the parking lot.
“I’m driving home and I’m almost at (Highways) 169 and 494, and this car races up behind me and he’s flicking the brights on and off. I pulled over on the shoulder — I thought something was wrong — and it’s John Harris behind me. John came up to the window and says, “I misfigured our game and I owe you four more dollars.
“That was classic John. He wasn’t going to bed without paying the debt right.”
— Harris was a member of golf’s most exclusive club, Augusta National, home of the Masters. He was accepted as an amateur. When he turned professional at age 50 in 2002, he was one of only two professional golf members at Augusta National. The other was Arnold Palmer.
— It takes only a glimpse at the Gophers football players’ on-campus parking lot to see the effects of name, image and likeness (NIL) and player revenue sharing these days. Among evidence is a shiny white Chevrolet Corvette belonging to one of the team’s stars.
— Wide receiver Jeremiah Smith of the Ohio State team that hosted the Gophers on Saturday night this season is paid $4 million in NIL compensation, per On3.
— Those were players from Herb Brooks’ 1980 Olympic gold medal hockey team golfing at Hazeltine National the other day, then showing up at a Minneapolis restaurant for a memorabilia signing session.
Netflix is producing a where-are-they-now film about the team for airing in February, just before the Winter Olympics in Italy.
— Don’t be surprised if the Detroit Pistons waive ex-Gopher Dawson Garcia in a procedural move to allow them to retain the Prior Lake grad’s NBA G League rights.
— South St. Paul and Inver Grove Heights were among potential sites eager to bid for the new Minnesota Hockey Hall of Fame, but it’s expected to end up in Bloomington.
— Help wanted: The Gophers baseball program has advertised for full-time students interested in being a bullpen catcher. Among requirements: Ability to catch 90-mph pitches.
— The Twins have a 22 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick in next year’s draft lottery.
— The Twins, with a payroll of $143 million (No. 18 in baseball), finished with a 70-92 record this season. The Milwaukee Brewers, with a $115 million payroll (No. 23), finished with a 97-65 record and are in the playoffs.
— Speaking at the recent Morrie Miller sports fundraiser in Winona, new Timberwolves and Lynx co-owner Alex Rodriguez was surprisingly transparent about his suspension from baseball for performance enhancing drugs, his therapy and counseling. Off stage, he was especially praiseworthy of Paul Molitor and Jack Morris and wants to connect with Minnesota hall of famers.
Rodriguez is back as a baseball playoff TV analyst for Fox.
— The Dallas Wings’ WNBA rookie of the year Paige Bueckers, 23, from Hopkins has a three-year contract averaging $82,563 per season.
— Look for St. Thomas Academy to name Patrick Sjorberg and Tom Ihnot as basketball coaches
— How soon they forget: Joel Maturi, the former Gophers athletics director after whom the University’s sports pavilion is named, wasn’t allowed to the media floor at Huntington Bank Stadium before the Gophers-Rutgers football game because he was told he didn’t have a proper credential.
— A parking lot four blocks from Huntington Bank Stadium was charging $50 before the Gophers-Rutgers game.
Overheard
— Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, asked at media day if he transformed his body this summer: “I still got a little chubbiness on me, but I’ll be ready to go, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
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