The Dodgers’ luxury-tax team salary went up to $298.5 million with the addition of Utley’s $15 million salary, according to MLB’s calculations. Multiple players could receive incentive bonuses at season’s end, so that number could jump over $300 million, according to The Associated Press. MORE: Highest-paid athletes in the world | Baseball’s best contracts The National League West-leading Dodgers already were well above the $189 million tax threshold. They will pay a 40 percent rate for exceeding the mark for the third straight year with a projected fee of $44 million, which would surpass the record $34 million paid by the Yankees after the 2005 season....

Anthony was a star with the Knicks and Nuggets but has not played in the NBA since he parted ways with the Rockets in mid-November. “The reason he’s not in the league — because he’s still worthy — he hasn’t mentally taken that step back to say ‘Okay, I’ll come in and play against backups. I’ll try to help the team out. I know I might not be able to close, but I just want to help the team out,’" Billups said during a recent interview with SiriusXM radio....

Sarri has long been keen on a move to Stamford Bridge and has been in dialogue to secure his release from his Napoli contract in a gentleman’s agreement, with Carlo Ancelotti having already been announced as his replacement. Chelsea have explored, and spoken to, several other options but have decided that Sarri is their best choice, with Laurent Blanc among a group of managers to have been contacted over the upcoming vacancy....

Revealed: Chelsea’s summer transfer plans Denmark international Christensen has spent the past two seasons on loan at Gladbach, but is returning to Chelsea to push for a regular first-team spot this summer. With current Blues captain John Terry leaving Stamford Bridge, Christensen is widely expected to figure prominently in manager Antonio Conte’s pre-season preparations. However, if things do not go to plan for Christensen, then Gladbach’s sporting director Max Eberl would be keen to re-sign the centre-half, either on loan or permanently....

Blues 13/2 to beat Swansea 1-0 N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater performed their duties well in midfield, but Bakayoko wasn’t matching their performances on the left-hand side, leaving Gary Cahill and Marcos Alonso exposed. Chelsea got a 1-1 draw and Antonio Conte’s player rotation was mostly a success. His side only arrived back into London at 5am on Thursday morning after a Champions League trip to Azerbaijan, then had to travel to Anfield for their match on Saturday due to television scheduling....

Pulisic, 21, was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s 2-0 Premier League win over Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday. Pulisic moved to Chelsea from Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund in the offseason amid plenty of hype following a $73 million transfer. However, the United States international has only appeared in one of the club’s last five matches — the 7-1 EFL Cup rout of Grimsby Town on Wednesday. “Yeah, of course, it is very frustrating, but I will continue to work my hardest because I want to play,” Pulisic told NBC Sports after Saturday’s game....

Musonda has been unable to make the breakthrough at Stamford Bridge after joining from Anderlecht in 2012 and is expected to be sold this summer. Speculation has claimed that the 20-year-old is on his way to Celtic in a £5 million deal, with Rodgers looking to add creativity to his squad for next season. Time is right for Alexis to ditch Arsenal “It’s been a period of six months,” said Rodgers when talking about his prospective signing....

Antonio Conte’s men moved into second place in the table on Saturday after a comprehensive 5-0 thrashing of Stoke City at Stamford Bridge. The hosts raced into a 3-0 lead midway through the first half thanks to Antonio Rudiger, Pedro and Drinkwater as Stoke were brushed aside with ease. Willian and Davide Zappacosta completed the win late on to fire Chelsea above Manchester United and to within 13 of leaders City – who face Crystal Palace on Sunday....

The Blues got off to an awful start at Stamford Bridge when Gary Cahill was dismissed inside 14 minutes for a tackle on Steven Defour. Chelsea 14/1 to win Champions League Burnley, tipped by many to struggle at the wrong end of the table this season, took full advantage of the sending off by racing into a stunning 3-0 lead courtesy of two goals from Sam Vokes and another from Stephen Ward....

A contributing factor in the excitement was the fact that both Chelsea and Liverpool were looking for a win in the hope they could reduce the deficit behind Man City to single digits. As it stands, Chelsea (2nd, 43 points) is 10 points back and Liverpool (3rd, 42 points) is 11 points away though the Reds have a game in hand. Liverpool looked to be cruising early with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah staking it out to a 2-0 lead after just 16 minutes, exposing the Chelsea defense on both goals....

Raheem Sterling curled in Chelsea’s first goal of their Champions League campaign, sending a classy 48th-minute finish past Philipp Kohn after Salzburg allowed a Mason Mount delivery to roll across the penalty area. The visitors hit back when Okafor seized on slack defending to steer a low shot beyond Kepa with 15 minutes remaining, sending the Austrian Bundesliga’s noisy supporters wild. The equaliser ended Potter’s perfect record in his first competitive games in charge of major English clubs, having begun with victories in his previous roles at Swansea and Brighton....

Chicharito still a star at the highest level Schmidt knows his Spanish opponents well, having been put out of the European competition by Atleti a mere two seasons ago, and feels the task ahead could be even tougher than it was in the past due to the Liga side’s experience – especially in attack. Speaking exclusively with Goal , the 49-year-old German shared his thoughts ahead of the anticipated clash....

The irony of the situation is that Reid reached this milestone by beating the other team he had 100 wins with. Reid coached the Eagles from 1999-2012, so Sunday’s game was a homecoming for the tenured coach. MORE: NFL power rankings from Week 4 Since the team was in Philadelphia, Reid chose to celebrate in the most Philly way by having a cheesesteak for dinner: “My room was filled with food....

During Monday night’s game between the Chiefs and Patriots, Kansas City fans broke the Guinness World Record for loudest outdoor stadium, per the Chiefs’ Twitter feed. With the game Jamaal Charles was having, it’s no wonder the fans in Kansas City were cheering so loud. MORE: Vinnie Iyer’s live blog of Pats-Chiefs

The U.S. Navy said over the weekend that two of its carriers, the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan, were conducting exercises in the South China Sea. Alongside a video, the U.S. Navy tweeted that the “Nimitz Carrier Strike Force celebrated #IndependenceDay with unmatched sea power while deployed to the South China Sea conducting dual carrier operations and exercises in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” On Monday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told a daily press briefing that the American military operations were conducted “totally out of ulterior motives,” The Associated Press reported, and undermined stability....

And in some ways it was. As Jiang’s longtime protege and hatchet man, Zeng had just engineered a political coup. Two thirds of the new Standing Committee’s members are Jiang allies, ensuring that the 76-year-old former leader will be a formidable presence as the party’s elder statesman. China’s first orderly succession since 1949 was a deep-reaching one. Nearly half of 300-odd top party positions are filled by new faces; all but Hu are new to the Standing Committee....

“China called last night our top trade people and said ’let’s get back to the table’ so we will be getting back to the table and I think they want to do something. They have been hurt very badly but they understand this is the right thing to do and I have great respect for it. This is a very positive development for the world,” Trump said while speaking at the G-7 Summit in Biarritz, France, on Monday....

North Korea has long attempted to use the threat of nuclear weapons as a response to what it claims is hostility from the U.S. and South Korea, the AP said. At the same time, it has sought to apply pressure to remove sanctions against it and receive economic aid. On Monday, the North said it successfully tested newly developed long-range cruise missiles over the weekend in its latest bid to pressure the West....

The Chinese government vessels joined two other China Coast Guard ships that had entered and remained in the contiguous zone adjacent to the waters of the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands on Monday, said Japan Times. The energy-rich Senkakus in the East China Sea are uninhabited but also claimed by the governments of China and Taiwan, which refer to them as the Diaoyu and Diaoyutai Islands, respectively. Nobuo Kishi, Japan’s defense minister, told reporters Tuesday that a fishing vessel operating off one of the islets, Taisho, was “pursued” by the pair of intruding ships, which were warned off by Japan Coast Guard patrol ships....

After what was only the second publicized conversation since hostilities began between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Kuleba said he was “[g]rateful to my Chinese counterpart for solidarity with civilian victims.” “We both share the conviction that ending the war against Ukraine serves common interests of peace, global food security, and international trade,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter following his phone call with Wang, who thanked his opposite number for Kyiv’s help in evacuating Chinese nationals from the country....