Ahead of Friday’s deadline, the Phillies tendered contracts to seven arbitration-eligible players.
Infielders Alec Bohm, Edmundo Sosa, and Bryson Stott, outfielder Brandon Marsh, right-handed pitcher Jhoan Duran, and left-handers Tanner Banks and Jesús Luzardo were tendered contracts by the organization. Both sides have until Jan. 9 to exchange salary figures for 2026, and if a deal cannot be reached, they will head to arbitration.
The Phillies also agreed to terms withcatchers Rafael Marchán and Garrett Stubbs on contracts for the 2026 season, shoring up their catching depth with J.T. Realmuto currently a free agent.
On Friday, the Phillies also agreed to terms with Garrett Stubbs to return for the 2026 season.
The Phillies did not tender contracts to pitchers Michael Mercado and Daniel Robert, who became free agents.
Mercado, formerly ranked the Phillies’ No. 30 prospect by MLB Pipeline, had a 4.59 ERA in 49 innings with triple-A Lehigh Valley this season and also made three major league appearances.
Robert ended the season on the injured list with a right forearm strain. In 15 relief appearances with the Phillies, he had a 4.15 ERA and 1.62 WHIP.
The Phillies also claimed Pedro León, 27, off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles. The outfielder slashed .253/.314/.505 in the Houston Astros organization during the 2025 season. He was limited to 25 games between rookie level and triple A because of an MCL sprain in his left knee. León played seven games with the Astros in 2024.
The former head of human resources and diversity initiatives for the Philadelphia Art Museum was charged with theft earlier this year. The police said she racked up more than $58,000 in personal expenses on a company credit card, then failed to pay back the funds, court records show.
Latasha Harling, 43, was arrested in July and charged with theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and related crimes about six months after she quietly resigned from her job as the chief people and diversity officer for the museum.
The charges against Harling — which had not previously been reported or made public by the museum — are the latest chapter in a six-week stretch of turbulence for the prominent institution, and raise new questions about the financial oversight and controls of its senior executives.
On Nov. 4, the museum fired its director and CEO, Sasha Suda, after an investigation by an outside law firm flagged the handling of her compensation. Suda filed a lawsuit on Nov. 10 against her former employer claiming that she was the victim of a “small cabal” from the board that commissioned a “sham investigation” as a “pretext” for her “unlawful dismissal.”
The Art Museum on Thursday responded to the lawsuit in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas with a petition saying Suda was dismissed after an investigation determined that she “misappropriated funds from the museum and lied to cover up her theft.” Her lawyer, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, called the museum’s accusations false.
“These are the same recycled allegations from the sham investigation that the museum manufactured as a pretext for Suda’s wrongful termination,” he said.
A sign shows the recent rebranding of the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Harling declined to comment on the charges filed against her Friday, as did her lawyers at the Defender Association. A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Art Museum also declined to comment on the matter.
Harling was hired by the museum as a senior member of its executive staff in November 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile. In that role, she oversaw human resources for the museum, implemented policies to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, and managed budgetary responsibilities, among other duties, per her profile.
As part of her job, Harling had access to a corporate credit card for business-related expenses, according to the affidavit of probable cause for her arrest.
In January 2025, museum staff noticed that Harling’s December credit card statement contained “several large, and apparently personal expenses,” the affidavit said.
The museum’s chief financial officer conducted an audit and found that, over the course of Harling’s tenure, she charged $58,885.98 in personal expenses to the company’s credit card, the document said. She had not filed an expense report since July 2024, according to the affidavit.
Museum officials confronted Harling about the charges in January, the filing said, and proposed that she repay $32,565.42. She resigned from her role soon after “without resolution,” according to the affidavit.
The museum continued to negotiate with Harling, and in February, she signed a promissory note agreeing to pay back $19,380.21 over the course of three months that spring, the record said.
But in April, per the filing, a lawyer for the museum contacted the police to say that two months had passed and Harling had not repaid any of the funds. They said that, according to their agreement, she should have paid back about $13,000 by then.
After the museum provided investigators with copies of their emails with Harling, her expenses, and its travel and expense policy, prosecutors agreed to charge her with theft.
The case remains ongoing in Philadelphia’s criminal court.
Staff writer Jillian Kramer contributed to this article.
Yobranny Martinez-Fernandez, 20, and Hendrick Pena-Fernandez, 23, face life in prison without parole if they are convicted of first- and second-degree murder, respectively, in addition to attempted murder, robbery and a slew of related charges.
Last week a jury sat through prosecutors’ presentation of evidence, which included recovered DNA and cell phone tower data as well as testimony from a man who participated in the theft and identified his former accomplices before a crowded courtroom.
Defense attorneys did not put any witnesses on the stand, rebuffing prosecutors during opening and closing arguments.
But on Wednesday, about an hour after Common Pleas Judge Giovanni O. Campbell sent the jury to deliberate, confusion began to seep into the trial.
A juror suffered a medical emergency and was removed from court on a stretcher. Campbell ordered that he be replaced by an alternate juror and that deliberations begin anew.
On Thursday, jurors came back to the judge with a handful of questions, asking to see copies of DNA evidence, photographs from the scene, and the outfits Mendez and his partner wore that evening.
They also wanted to see the letters exchanged between prosecutors and their star witness, who had pleaded guilty to a lesser murder charge days before the trial got underway.
As the day wore on, Campbell brought jurors back into the courtroom. There would be no verdict, however.
For unknown reasons, the judge instead suggested that the jury operate with “courtesy and respect,” and that they approach deliberations with an “open mind.”
“We recognize it’s not easy,” Campbell said of the process.
Deliberations resumed Friday morning; courtroom observers would not see the jury until Campbell called them back into court around 4 p.m.
Campbell, without citing a reason, said a second juror had been removed. He told the court “it had nothing to do with her views on the case.”
And again, the jury was told to restart deliberations from the beginning.
Campbell dismissed the jury at 5:40 p.m. and told them to return on Monday.
The Philadelphia Art Museum’s trustees fired back at a lawsuit filed by recently ousted director and CEO Sasha Suda, saying she was dismissed after an investigation determined that she “misappropriated funds from the museum and lied to cover up her theft.”
In Thursday’s filing with the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, the museum said that Suda repeatedly asked for raises, and when she was denied them by the museum board’s compensation committee, she took matters into her own hands.
“Suda took the money anyway,” the petition alleges, defying the board and violating her contract.
“Given Suda’s misconduct, no responsible board member could have done anything other than vote to remove Suda for cause,” says the petition, which asks the court to compel arbitration of the dispute. Suda had requested a trial by jury.
“The museum’s accusations are false,” Suda’s lawyer, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan said Friday.
“The motion, as well as its false narrative, fits the Philadelphia museum’s longstanding pattern of trying to cover up its misconduct and mistreatment of staff. We expected the museum would prefer to hide the sordid details about its unlawful treatment of Sasha Suda in a confidential arbitration. If the museum had nothing to hide, it would not be afraid to litigate in state court where we filed the case.”
The money in question came as increases to Suda’s compensation, and these increases were “authorized” and “budgeted” cost-of-living increases that were “fully approved” and “disclosed,” and amounted to about $39,000 over two years, a source close to Suda stated previously.
Another source with knowledge of the petition said the raises mentioned in the petition are, in fact, the same as the cost-of-living adjustment the first source refers to.
Sasha Suda at the Philadelphia Art Museum, Jan. 30, 2024.
Suda was in the third year of a five-year contract when she was dismissed.
The museum on Friday named Daniel H. Weiss, a veteran leader of nonprofits, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to be its new director and CEO.
Thursday’s court filing by the museum said that the board formed a seven-member special committee after documents showed that Suda was “receiving far more than the $720,000 in annual base salary” authorized by her contract.
According to the petition, the special committee “was authorized to investigate issues including whether Suda had engaged in self-dealing by increasing her annual base salary and engaged in any improprieties with respect to her museum-related expenses.”
The special committee hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis to conduct an investigation, which interviewed 20 current and former museum board members and employees.
Suda was among those interviewed, and during that interview, she “lied about her actions, claiming, among other things, that her subordinates had advised her that she was entitled to receive these increases,” the court filing says.
The special committee met with Kirkland & Ellis in October to review the evidence, and, as stated by the filing, the museum’s “executive committee determined that the evidence overwhelmingly established that Suda violated her agreement by misappropriating museum funds and engaging in repeated acts of dishonesty.”
The petition alleges that Suda requested, and was denied, a salary increase from the compensation committee on Feb. 8, 2024.She then “awarded herself the salary increase” effective March 1, 2024, followed by a second “unauthorized” increase in July of that year. In July 2025, Suda “awarded herself a third unauthorized pay increase, which she once again failed to disclose to the board,” according to the museum’s petition.
Suda, in her complaint, claims she was “terminated when her efforts to modernize the museum clashed with a small, corrupt, and unethical faction of the board intent on preserving the status quo.”
She seeks two years’ salary plus damages.
Thursday’s response from the museum said her complaint was “laden with false, dishonest, and irrelevant allegations.”
Inquirer staff writer Abraham Gutman contributed to this article.
Warner Bros. Discovery has received preliminary buyout bids from rivals Paramount Skydance, Philadelphia-based Comcast, and Netflix, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, kicking off a potential sale of the century-old Hollywood studio.
The bids set the stage for a significant consolidation in the media industry and will determine the future of prized assets such as HBO, the Warner Bros. film library, and the DC Comics universe.
Paramount is expected to bid for all of Warner Bros. Discovery, including its cable television networks. Paramount’s bid is backed by the studio’s controlling shareholder, billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who is among the world’s richest men. The potential combination would enhance Paramount’s presence in movie theaters, giving it a 32% share of the North American theatrical market, according to Comscore, and strengthen its streaming service by combining HBO Max with Paramount+.
Reuters exclusively reported that Warner Bros. Discovery’s board rejected a mostly cash offer of nearly $24 a share for the company, valuing it at $60 billion, and publicly announced it would evaluate strategic options for the studio.
NBCUniversal’s corporate parent, Comcast, is interested in Warner Bros.’ film and television studios and HBO, whose characters, including Superman and Batman, would strengthen its theatrical and streaming business and its theme parks. The merged studios’ share of the North American theatrical market would exceed 43%, according to Comscore.
Netflix is also courting Warner Bros.’ studio and streaming businesses, aiming to gain access to Warner Bros.’ extensive film library and established entertainment franchises, such as Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Warner Bros. Discovery previously announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies, separating its studios and streaming business from its fading cable networks.
Warner Bros. Discovery did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. Comcast and Paramount Skydance declined to comment. Netflix could not be reached for comment. The New York Times first reported the development.
INDIANAPOLIS — Former Temple guard Hysier Miller placed dozens of bets on Owls games, including some against his team, the NCAA announced Friday.
The NCAA deemed Miller, a graduate of Neumann Goretti, permanently ineligible after finding he placed 42 parlay bets totaling $473 on Temple games during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. Three of those bets were against his team, the NCAA said.
Miller started every game for the Owls during those seasons. The NCAA found he used sportsbook accounts belonging to other people to bet.
The NCAA’s enforcement staff interviewed Miller on Oct. 10, 2024, and he admitted to placing parlay bets on Temple games but did not remember placing any bets against his team, the NCAA said.
Additionally, former Temple special assistant coach Camren Wynter and former graduate assistant Jaylen Bond were found to have violated NCAA rules by betting on professional and collegiate sports. The NCAA did not find any bets involving Temple by either Wynter or Bond. Both coaches received one-year, show-cause orders and a suspension of 10% of regular-season contests during their first year of employment.
The NCAA did not find the three cases to be connected.
Temple President John Fry and Director of Athletics Arthur Johnson released an announcement Friday, saying the NCAA found no evidence of point shaving or any wrongdoing by the university.
This is the latest gambling infraction uncovered by the NCAA, which revoked the eligibility of six men’s college basketball players earlier this month as a result of three separate sports-betting cases that involved a power-conference school in Arizona State and allegations of players throwing games to lose by more points than the spread.
That followed nearly three dozen people being arrested last month, including an NBA player and coach, for what federal law enforcement officials described as their involvement in various illicit gambling activities. Just this week, UFC President and CEO Dana White said he was in touch with the FBI regarding a match that involved unusual betting patterns.
For its part, the NCAA said last month it was investigating at least 30 current or former players for gambling allegations. The NCAA also banned three college basketball players in September for betting on their own games at Fresno State and San Jose State.
Across the Flyers’ long practice on Friday, Nikita Grebenkin spent a lot of time skating with fourth liners Garnet Hathaway and Rodrigo Ābols.
It’s too soon to determine whether or not that means he will be in the lineup on Saturday when the Flyers host the New Jersey Devils (7 p.m., NBCSP).
But it is fair to say the young Russian winger needs to get consistent playing time.
Grebenkin did not play in the Flyers’ 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday, a game in which the head coach said afterward that he wanted to see his team be better at wall work and puck possession, two things Grebenkin often does well.
“He did early in the season and training camp, but he’s been OK with that [since],” Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet said Friday, adding he can be a “hashmark down guy.”
Noted Hathaway, “He’s really good at controlling the puck, working through guys, battling with guys. His puck possession, I think it helps any line that he’s on. He can hold on to and then he can make plays out of it, too. And he’s not shy to get in the mix and go win a puck battle.”
Grebenkin, 22, has skated in 12 of the Flyers’ first 19 games, averaging 9 minutes, 35 seconds. It is consistent with the other players on the fourth line, including Nic Deslauriers, with whom he rotates.
And the rotation, formulated by Tocchet and his staff, does follow what the head coach said on Nov. 1: “I like that we played him a couple of games, work with the coaches when you can really work with them, get him back in — hopefully he can string some good games together for us.”
Added Tocchet on Friday when asked what he needs to see from Grebenkin to play consistently. “We’re trying to make him an NHL player. He spent a lot of time with the coaches. More predictable to his game, good angles, being a good first forechecker. [When] he’s more predictable, it’ll help the line in general. It’s hard, I get it, 9-10 minutes, but there’s only so much ice to go around. It’s the world we live in right now.”
Grebenkin was a big piece of the return in the trade that shipped Scott Laughton to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Flyers organization is OK with how things are going in terms of the winger’s development. If he does start sitting out stretches, Grebenkin, who is waiver-exempt, could get sent back to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League to play a ton of minutes.
But that shouldn’t be the case. Grebenkin deserves a chance to work things out at the NHL level. He brings energy and jam to the lineup with some skill.
And, for now, the Flyers are trying to find him time in Philly. But is he a fourth liner or should he play up higher? Grebenkin has the skill to play higher in the lineup; he just needs to play more consistently. And the crux is, is there really anyone he can supplant in the top nine?
Flyers right wing Nikita Grebenkin is at home along the boards.
Across his first six games, when he often skated on the fourth line, he averaged 8:53 of ice time, picked up one assist, and logged a plus-minus of minus-4.
After sitting out for a pair of games, he averaged a minute more in the next five, posting a goal, an assist, and a plus-1 rating. When Tyson Foerster was out, the Russian winger was often deployed higher in the lineup. He skated a season-high 12:24 in the Flyers’ loss to the Dallas Stars on Nov. 15, and wasn’t on the ice for a goal against despite the Stars scoring four at even strength.
Tocchet has said that Grebenkin has communicated to him that he’s been thinking too much on the ice. He wants him to be “sticky” and stay in piles. The winger can also bring skill to a fourth line that has not scored a goal this season when on the ice together.
“Especially at the start of the year, feel like you can’t get him off the puck down low, or if two guys go on him, you feel like he’s going to lose it, but he comes out with it,” Ābols said. “I think that’s one of his strong attributes, and obviously, quite skilled with the puck. It’s maybe, at some points, [something] we lack on our line, realistically. Once he’s on his game, he can make those little plays and bring some skill.”
Ābols has also played a key role in helping Grebenkin work on his game. The Latvian speaks several languages, including Russian, and told Tocchet in training camp that he can help translate.
The bench boss said the center even helps during games, something he was often spotted doing last season with Matvei Michkov.
“Yeah, those situations you can see when they talk to their coaches, and you kind of see their lost face, then I kind of slide in,” Ābols said. “I’m going to try any way I can, whether it’s translating or helping anyway I can.”
Forwards Owen Tippett and Foerster did not skate on Friday. Tocchet said they are a “little banged” up. Both had maintenance days, and Tocchet expects them to play on Saturday.
SEPTA is extending its trolley tunnel closure through at least Nov. 30, hoping to use the extra time over the Thanksgiving holiday to complete repairs to the overhead catenary power system.
The tunnel has been shut down for most of the last two weeks as crews work on the problem.
Riders should use the Market-Frankford El to travel through Center City, catching the trolleys at 40th and Market Streets.
“My wife, daughter and I are totally dependent on the trolley to get us to work and school, and with a prolonged trolley-tunnel diversion, the system has become unreliable and, frankly, unusable,” Will Tung, a Southwest Philly resident, told the SEPTA board during public comments at its Thursday meeting.
Trolley ridership is typically lower during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday so the closure should be less of a disruption, spokesperson Andrew Busch said.
SEPTA is contending with glitches in the connection between the overhead catenary wires in the tunnel and the pole that conducts electricity to the vehicle.
The issue led to two trolleys becoming stranded in October, with a total of 415 passengers needing to be evacuated.
The snow rumors notwithstanding, the Philadelphia region and most of the rest of the Northeast can pretty well rule out a white Thanksgiving, nor will Black Friday turn white.
However, the upper atmosphere evidently is in a state of upheaval with a potentially rare event unfolding, and forecasters say something resembling winter may arrive around here before the holiday weekend ends.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center has chances favoring below-normal temperatures and above-normal precipitation from Thanksgiving Day through Dec. 1.
However, the meteorologists who have grappled with longer-range outlooks are cautioning against taking social media snow forecasting too seriously.
“The observed snowfall is inversely proportional to the hype,” said Judah Cohen, research scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is among those who have noticed the snow mentions that have popped up on X accounts and popular websites.
The next week should generally be uneventful save for rain Tuesday night possibly into getaway Wednesday, when highs are forecast to reach the 60s.
Then a developing pattern change is predicted to import colder air into the Northeast. “I do believe it will get colder as the Thanksgiving week wears on,” said Bob Larson, senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc.
A rare event may chill December
What has the attention of Cohen and others in the meteorological world is the potential for a “major” stratospheric warming event in the upper atmosphere over the Arctic sometime in the next several days, a disruption that could allow significant cold air to pour into the United States.
Major events have occurred on average about six times a decade, according to NOAA researchers; however, having one so early would be a rarity.
If one occurred, it would be only the second time in records dating to the early 1950s that it has happened this early, said NOAA meteorologist Laura M. Ciasto.
While computer models have been debating over just what is going to happen, Cohen, chief of seasonal forecasting for the Janus Research Group, said that such an early date has given him pause about forecasting it will happen.
What causes a stratospheric warming event?
On occasion, upward-moving waves from the troposphere, 5 to 9 miles over the Arctic, crash into the stratosphere, 10 to 30 miles up. That has the effect of compromising the polar vortex, the west-to-east winds that lock cold air in the places where the sun disappears for the winter, Ciasto said.
When the winds slacken, the vortex can weaken and allow frigid air to spill southward. In some cases it might “stretch,” or split into pieces that deliver cold air to regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
A major disruption would have longer-lasting impacts, Cohen said.
The European forecast model has consistently predicted a major event, Ciasto said, while the U.S. model has not been as impressed.
What is likely to happen if the warming event occurs?
A major warming in January 2021, when temperatures in the stratosphere suddenly jumped 65 degrees Fahrenheit, resulted in quite a snowy February in the Philadelphia region.
After a warming event, “there’s a greater chance that the jet stream will become more disrupted and dip down” over the continuous United States, Ciasto said, “bringing cold air with it.”
As for timing, the effects may show up anywhere from two to several weeks after the event.
In the meantime, she noted that “several other factors,” including patterns over the North Pacific, favor a chilling for the Northeast.
Don’t be surprised to see snow appear in an actual forecast, but not necessarily on the ground.
Cam Jurgens (concussion) is questionable to play in Sunday’s rematch against the Dallas Cowboys, according to the Eagles’ final injury report.
The 26-year-old center practiced in a full capacity on Friday for the first time this week. He had been a limited participant in practice on Thursday and did not participate on Wednesday.
“Anytime these guys can get back out there coming off things, that’s huge,” coach Nick Sirianni said Friday of Jurgens’ return to practice. “We will see where he is today, but excited to have him back out there when he was.”
Jurgens exited the Week 11 game against the Detroit Lions late in the fourth quarter with the concussion, requiring Brett Toth to take over in his place. The concussion was the latest ailment that Jurgens has navigated this season. He missed the prior two games with an injury to his right knee, which still requires him to wear a brace.
Additionally, Jurgens is just nine months removed from the offseason back surgery he underwent in late February. He played through that injury in the NFC championship game and the Super Bowl.
Jurgens isn’t the only Eagles offensive lineman who has dealt with numerous injuries this year. Lane Johnson was officially ruled out for Sunday’s game after sustaining a Lisfranc injury in the first quarter against the Lions. He is expected to miss at least four to six weeks. Fred Johnson, the 6-foot-7, 326-pound swing tackle, is slated to start at right tackle in his absence.
This will be the first game that the two-time All Pro Johnson has not started this season. He has dropped out of games with various ailments, including a neck injury in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams, a shoulder injury in Week 4 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and an ankle injury in Week 10 against the Green Bay Packers (he ultimately returned to action).
Tackle Myles Hinton (back) and center/guard Willie Lampkin (knee/ankle), who are both on injured reserve, are listed as questionable to play.
The Eagles are at capacity on their 53-man active roster, so they would need to make corresponding moves to open up spots for Hinton and Lampkin if they are activated. One of those moves could be placing Lane Johnson on injured reserve.
Jaelan Phillips, who popped up on the injury report this week with a shoulder issue, is available to play.
