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  • Five things to know about new Phillies outfielder Adolis García, from his defection to his light bulb-shaped head

    Five things to know about new Phillies outfielder Adolis García, from his defection to his light bulb-shaped head

    The Phillies, who re-signed slugger Kyle Schwarber last week, made their first big free agent addition of the offseason Monday, agreeing with outfielder Adolis García on a one-year deal worth $10 million.

    Here are five things to know about the newest Phillie …

    García defected from Cuba

    García ultimately charted his path through professional baseball by first playing in Japan for Nippon Profession Baseball’s Yomiuri Giants. On his return flight to Cuba, which connected through Paris, García instead disembarked and boarded a flight bound for the Dominican Republic, where he lived for six months to establish residency and to become an international free agent in 2017. He signed with the Cardinals for $2.5 million.

    García appeared in 21 games for St. Louis in 2018, and then was traded to the Texas Rangers in 2019. In his 2021 rookie season with Texas, García appeared in 149 games for the Rangers — he had only played a total of 24 games prior — and made the American League All-Star team, finishing fourth in rookie of the year voting.

    Adolis García could be the new Nick Castellanos, and he looks the part. Uncomfortably so. | David Murphy

    He’s a playoff riser

    If you’re familiar with García already, it’s probably because of his postseason performance for the Rangers in 2023, the year Texas won the World Series, a series the Phillies were one win from reaching before losing two straight to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    Garcia, who was named MVP of that year’s American League Championship Series, is a confident player who loves the big stage.

    “These types of games, when there’s a lot of emotions, the fans out there, they are rallying for their team, it fuels me,” García told Fox Sports. “It’s motivation that helps me out when I’m playing.”

    Former Ranger teammate Marcus Semien, who García now joins in the National League East, said the outfielder was the most confident teammate he’d ever had.

    “I think so,” Semien told Fox Sports. “He’s got the swag to go with it. It’s just so good for young players to watch him and how he plays with such confidence to just boost up everybody else. I think a lot of young players could learn from that guy.”

    Adolis García won a World Series with the Rangers in 2023.

    El Bombi 💡

    García’s nickname is El Bombi, which, according to the Dallas Morning News, originated in childhood in Cuba, thanks to a friend who thought his head represented a light bulb, or a “bombillo.”

    Baseball is a family affair

    His older brother, Adonis García, played in MLB with the Atlanta Braves from 2015-2017. His father also played professionally in Cuba.

    The Phillies are sticking with a veteran core in 2026. But this time the kids have to play too.

    García is the godfather …

    … to Randy Arozarena’s daughter.

    García and current Mariners outfielder Arozarena defected from Cuba around the same time. They didn’t know each other well in Cuba, but became close friends in the Cardinals’ minor league system.

    “Adolis is kind of like my brother,” Arozarena told The Athletic. “So much (so) that I named him the godfather of my daughter.”

  • Janney Montgomery Scott sheds investment bank under owner KKR and focuses on brokers

    Janney Montgomery Scott sheds investment bank under owner KKR and focuses on brokers

    Philadelphia-based Janney Montgomery Scott LLC has confirmed plans to exit the investment banking business and will focus exclusively on beefing up its wealth advisory business under its private-equity owner KKR, which bought Janney last year.

    The firm has made what CEO Tony Miller called “a strategic decision” to sell the last of its banking units.

    Investment bankers raise money for companies and governments by selling stock shares, bonds, and other financial instruments to investors, for a cut of the proceeds, a sometimes lucrative but hard-to-predict business. Research analysts help attract those clients by writing about their financial prospects.

    Wealth advisors, typically registered with the SEC or licensed through the industry group FINRA, are paid to guide clients’ investments, and may sell exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and other approved products. Business has soared with the U.S. stock markets in recent years. Miller, the Janney CEO, called investing in that business a better road to “long-term success.”

    Janney plans to sell its last bond and investment banking units, including staff in Philadelphia, at its TM Capital in Atlanta, and in other offices, to Ohio-based Huntington Bancshares and its financial institutions banking, research, and sales units to New York-based Brean Capital. Janney officials hope to close the deals in early 2026. The prices haven’t been disclosed.

    Janney, which recently added advisors in Texas among other states, will remain based in Philadelphia. The company employs around 900 in the region.

    Regional commercial banks and other small to midsize financial institutions were among the last industry groups Janney investment bankers and analysts covered. Just last month, Janney bankers announced that they had advised Georgia-based First Southern Bank on its unusual $51 million sale to member-owned Community First Credit Union of Jacksonville, Fla.

    Former Janney employees said Janney’s owners had the option of taking the time and money to build up the investment banking unit, such as regional brokerages Piper Sandler, Raymond James, and Baird & Co. have done in recent years, instead of cutting back and relying entirely on trading and investment volume that rises and falls with market prices.

    Until the late 1900s, Philadelphia was a financial center, and generations of investment professionals — at firms started by Stephen Girard, Jay Cooke, J.P. Morgan’s mentor A.J. Drexel, the predecessors of what’s now Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, the Butcher clan, as well as Janney and smaller firms — raised money for enterprises ranging from the Pennsylvania Railroad to Donald Trump’s ill-fated Atlantic City casinos. Janney notoriously fired critical analyst Marvin Roffman in 1990 at Trump’s insistence.

    Successful investment bankers were paid a percentage of the deals they closed, built Main Line and Shore estates, and established branches in other cities.

    But even locally based companies now bank with giant Wall Street firms. Janney’s wealth advisory office network, juiced by the relentless rise in the U.S. stock markets, has lately accounted for more than 90% of Janney’s revenue, with investment banking only a thin sliver, according to a statement the company gave The Inquirer.

    “The big investment banks are feasting on deals,” said Robert Costello, a veteran Philadelphia-area money manager. “But the small deals have been drying up, and if they are getting rid of the municipal-bond desk, there’s nothing left.”

    “It’s ‘another one bites the dust,’” said Ryan Connors, a Bucks County-based former Janney analyst who covers utility stocks for Northcoast Research.

    “Philadelphia is thriving as a city, but our business has left it,” Connors said.

    Yet investment research has survived the decline in regional investment banking, he added.

    When Connors left Boenning & Scattergood, a Philadelphia investment bank where he had been director of research before it sold and shut down in 2022, “they told us [stock] research was dying.”

    But Connors said research-based firms like his employer are doing well because hedge funds and other large investors have proven willing to pay for financial research.

  • Adolis García could be the new Nick Castellanos, and he looks the part. Uncomfortably so.

    Adolis García could be the new Nick Castellanos, and he looks the part. Uncomfortably so.

    Adolis García is the new Nick Castellanos. That’s the simplest way to look at the Phillies agreeing to a one-year, $10 million contract with the former Rangers star on Monday. It’s true on a lot of different levels, including some that will make you scratch your head about why Dave Dombrowski decided to go in this direction. Not only is García likely to replace Castellanos in right field — his batting profile looks an awful lot like Castellanos’. Uncomfortably so.

    Let’s make sure we keep things in context here. General managers can’t be picky at this particular price point. Any regular who is willing to sign a one-year deal for less than $20 million is self-evidently going to have some massive flaws. Basically, you are talking about two types of players:

    1. Veterans who have done it before and could potentially bounce back to doing it again.
    2. Veterans who have never done it before but have shown flashes of being able to do it.

    Dombrowski has always seemed to favor the first group of players. Whit Merrifield, Max Kepler, Austin Hays, Jordan Romano, etc. — all were brought into the fold with the hope that they could get back to a form they’d shown in previous seasons. García fits that mold.

    The Phillies are sticking with a veteran core in 2026. But this time the kids have to play too.

    The best-case scenario for the Phillies is that García reemerges as the player he was in 2023, when he was an All-Star and then hit eight postseason home runs with a 1.108 OPS in 15 games as the Rangers won the World Series. His regular-season batting line that year was .245/.328/.508 with 39 home runs and 107 RBIs. That’s quite nice.

    García’s first three seasons in Texas looked a lot like what the Phillies were hoping for out of Castellanos when they signed him to a five-year, $100 million deal. From 2021 through ’23, García averaged 32 home runs with a .226 isolated power percentage. Aaron Judge was the only right-handed-hitting outfielder who hit more home runs than García in those three seasons. His Statcast numbers ranked in the top 10 of righty outfielders in all of the power metrics: Hard-hit percentage (47.6%, 10th), barrel percentage (13.4%, 10th), exit velocity (91.7, ninth), etc.

    Castellanos has never flashed that kind of power in his four seasons with the Phillies. His hard-hit rate since 2022 is just 39.8, down from the 46.9% he posted in his walk year with the Reds. His 82 home runs are well shy of a total that let you accept his plate discipline struggles.

    Adolis Garcia hit 141 home runs over the last five seasons with the Rangers.

    García has many of the same struggles. They are largely to blame for his back-to-back disappointing seasons, which led the Rangers to non-tender him rather than pay him a projected $12 million. After hitting 39 home runs in 2023, he hit just 44 combined in 2024-25. His batting line over those two seasons was .225/.278/.397. That’s still good enough for an OPS+ that was within range of league average. But without the power production, his lack of competitiveness at the plate can be a frustrating thing to watch, manage, and play alongside.

    At the same time, García’s plate discipline metrics aren’t as extreme as Castellanos’. His chase rate of 34.4% in 2024-25 was well above average, but also well shy of Castellanos’ 39.1%. Same goes for his overall swing percentage: 52.1%, compared with 58.4% for Castellanos. García is much more likely to swing-and-miss in the zone. You can live with that when he is hitting 30-plus homers. Not when he is hitting 19, as he did in 2025.

    García hasn’t even been all that good against lefties. His .715 career OPS with the platoon advantage is a lot lower than you’d expect to see out of a power hitter of his profile. Last year, he hit just .199 with 44 strikeouts in 136 at-bats against lefties.

    There aren’t a lot of bad gambles at the $10 million price point. I’m just not sure how realistic the upside is. García is coming off two disappointing seasons and was just non-tendered by a team that knows him quite well. If the Rangers didn’t think he was worth $10 million-$12 million, and the Phillies do, who is more likely to be correct?

    Instead of García, the Phillies could have taken a chance on someone like Miguel Andujar, who finished last season on a tear for the Reds (1.035 OPS, seven home runs in 125 plate appearances over the last quarter of the season). A onetime top-100 prospect who had a big year with the Yankees in 2018 at the age of 23, Andujar has had less than 1,200 plate appearances over the last seven seasons. Heading into his 31-year-old season, he is young enough to think that he might still have his biggest season in front of him. At worst, he gives you a platoon bat (.807 career OPS vs. lefties) with some positional versatility (third base and outfield). Although, you can argue that positional versatility doesn’t mean much if a guy can’t play any of the positions well.

    Phillies give the incomparable Kyle Schwarber an incomparable contract, still need another big bat behind him

    Dombrowski would likely argue that there is a certain floor of value for a guy who has a track record of playing every day for competitive teams. He wouldn’t be wrong, either. García has five straight seasons of 500-plus plate appearances with an elite tool (power) and production that has been close to league average even in two straight disappointing seasons. The Phillies were clearly looking for someone who could play every day for them, presumably in right field, where Castellanos is almost certainly on his way out.

    Whatever the Phillies ended up doing with this particular roster spot, it wasn’t going to be the kind of move you could judge on its own. The important question is the overall picture in the Phillies’ outfield. If they can find a way to bring back Harrison Bader, the unit will be a better one than it was a year ago. Even the player García was in 2024-25 is better than the player Castellanos has been lately.

  • SEPTA opens new $50M Wissahickon Transit Center in Manayunk

    SEPTA opens new $50M Wissahickon Transit Center in Manayunk

    SEPTA officially unveiled its long-awaited Wissahickon Transportation Center in Manayunk, which is about six times the size of the previous small bus depot.

    The new center on Ridge Avenue, near Main Street, is expected to serve 5,000 bus riders a day, officials said Monday at the ribbon cutting.

    Construction of the $50 million project began in 2023 at what was already one of SEPTA’s busiest transportation hubs. It is located within walking distance of the Wissahickon Regional Rail Station.

    Officials say the center improves connections, provides a better waiting experience for riders, and serves as a key transportation link to busy Main Street. They also say it makes navigating the immediate area easier for buses, pedestrians, and bicyclists.

    “We are making bus service safer and more reliable at one of our busiest transportation facilities,” SEPTA board chair Kenneth Lawrence said in a statement. “This new hub provides better access to work, school, and other opportunities, including reverse commute connections for Philadelphia residents to Montgomery and Delaware Counties.”

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    Among the improvements:

    • Weather-protected waiting areas, benches, and bicycle racks
    • Better lighting, signs, and security cameras
    • A supervisor’s booth
    • A new left turn lane dedicated to buses on a wider road
    • Improved crosswalks for pedestrians crossing Ridge Avenue
    • Bicycle racks
    • Improved crosswalks
    • Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant boarding areas

    The previous center that fronted Ridge Avenue was basically a large bus shelter where commuters who live in neighborhoods in the city’s northwest and pass through on their way to jobs in King of Prussia and Plymouth Meeting change buses.

    SEPTA’s new Wissahickon bus station promises better connections. But it could harm a beloved Philly landscape. | Inga Saffron

    Nearly three-quarters of the passengers who board at Wissahickon are transferring to or from other SEPTA services.

    “This is our largest customer-centric bus project to date,” said SEPTA general manager Scott Sauer.

    Officials say the center lays the groundwork for SEPTA’s new bus network. For about five years, the transit agency had been taking steps toward launching its first comprehensive overhaul of the bus system since SEPTA opened in 1964, but last year SEPTA put the project on indefinite pause due to funding issues.

    The new center, which is immediately behind the old facility, is part of the city’s larger Wissahickon Gateway Plan to grow and improve the area where the Schuylkill and Wissahickon Creek meet at Ridge Avenue and Main Street.

    The gateway plan’s goal is to address stifling traffic, dangerous conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, and provide easier access to the river.

    As part of the gateway, a new trail segment is also planned that would include a paved path allowing walkers, runners, and cyclists to circumvent the busy nexus of roads, giving easier access to the Schuylkill River Trail.

  • Philly lawyer accused of falsifying medical records calls Uber’s suit a ‘tactic’ to scare attorneys

    Philly lawyer accused of falsifying medical records calls Uber’s suit a ‘tactic’ to scare attorneys

    The Philly-area personal injury lawyer accused by Uber of working in concert with a group of medical professionals to falsify medical records told a federal judge that the lawsuit was part of a “business tactic” by the rideshare giant to scare attorneys away from representing crash victims.

    Marc Simon, of Simon & Simon, asked the judge on Friday to toss out Uber’s complaint.

    “If you are a lawyer who dares to sue Uber or its drivers (or a doctor who agrees to treat the victims of the Uber drivers’ negligence), Uber will destroy your career — call you a fraud, accuse you of criminal racketeering, seek ‘eight figures’ in damages, and demand the surrender of your law license,” Simon’s filing said.

    Uber accuses a Philly-area law firm of using bogus medical reports in dozens of crash cases

    Uber filed similar lawsuits against personal injury law firms in New York, California, and Florida in which the rideshare company alleges that attorneys conspired with medical professionals to fraudulently inflate medical costs in an effort to get higher settlements or verdicts.

    “Their strategy is simple: use their unlimited resources to intimidate injured victims and bully their lawyers into silence,” Simon said. ”It won’t work.”

    Uber sued Simon & Simon in September, accusing the firm and its founder of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, saying the law was enacted “to address precisely this type of fraudulent pattern.”

    The scheme, as alleged in Uber’s lawsuit, involved the firm providing instructions on the treatments clients should get at a New Jersey pain physician’s clinic and having clients often receive more than 20 chiropractic visits.

    It culminated in expert reports written by a private-practice orthopedic surgeon who performed nearly 1,300 exams for Simon & Simon clients in the past three years, and the firm paid him about $1.5 million, according to the complaint.

    The providers documented a need for extensive treatments that often contrasted with police reports where officers on the scene noted no injuries, the suit says.

    The goal of the reports was to inflate cost-of-care projections, which Simon & Simon used in settlement negotiations to turn “low value claims into million-dollar-plus” requests, according to the complaint.

    Simon was an obvious target for Uber in Philadelphia, the attorney’s filing says. He was viewed as an “easy hit” because of two recent instances in which federal judges sanctioned him.

    The sanctions were related to firm procedures and jurisdictional issues, and neither order “even slightly resembles” the “outrageous fraud and criminal conspiracy” alleged by Uber, Simon said in his motion to dismiss.

    One of the judges who sanctioned Simon noted in a blistering memo that the firm’s expert reports had “little relationship to real world medical care” and that when the same expert in every case projects “monumental future costs” it “becomes difficult to read the reports in question as credibly addressing actual patient needs.”

    He was killed in a car crash on Kelly Drive while riding in an Uber. Now, his family is taking the ride-share giant to court.

    The attorney says Uber failed to show that it was injured by any alleged misrepresentation. As evidence of the conspiracy, Uber says Simon dropped the rideshare giant as a defendant from dozens of lawsuits in which the pain physician was the key expert once they asked question.

    “For this reason, Uber did not plead (and could not have pled) that it paid any verdicts or settlement in such cases,” the Simon’s filing says.

    The medical professionals also filed motions to dismiss the case.

    A spokesperson for Uber said in a statement that the motions to toss out the lawsuit offer “no real response to the detailed and credible allegations of fraudulent conduct.”

    “We are confident in the merits of our case and look forward to seeing the defendants in court,” the statement said.

  • The Eagles put up a bunch of wild numbers in their win over the Raiders

    The Eagles put up a bunch of wild numbers in their win over the Raiders

    Leave it to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders to help the Eagles snap a three-game losing streak in style. The Eagles’ 31-0 victory over the Raiders on Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field made history and had plenty of notable numbers come out of it.

    Here’s a look:

    • At 2 hours, 31 minutes, Sunday’s game was the quickest Eagles game since at least 1999.
    • The Eagles posted their first shutout since Dec. 30, 2018. The 31-point margin was the Eagles’ largest margin of victory during a shutout since Dec. 16, 1990, a 31-0 victory over Green Bay.
    • The 75 yards the Eagles limited the Raiders to were the fewest allowed by the Eagles in the Super Bowl era, and fewest overall since they surrendered just 49 yards to the Chicago Cardinals on Dec. 4, 1955. It was also the fewest yards allowed by a team in the NFL since Cleveland allowed just 58 yards by Arizona on Nov. 5, 2023.
    • The 312-yard advantage in total yards was the Eagles’ largest margin since Sept. 7, 2008, when they outgained St. Louis by 356 yards.
    • Dallas Goedert scored twice, reaching nine touchdowns on the season. He has more touchdowns in 2025 than his previous three seasons combined. Goedert became the fifth player in Eagles history to reach 400 career receptions, joining Harold Carmichael (589), Zach Ertz (579), Pete Retzlaff (452), and Brian Westbrook (426).
    • Goedert is now one off the single-season record for touchdowns by an Eagles tight end. Retzlaff had 10 in 1965.
    • Brandon Graham, at 37 years, 255 days, became the oldest player in Eagles history to register a sack in a game. The record was previously held by Richard Dent, who registered a sack on Dec. 14, 1997, in Atlanta on the day after his 37th birthday. Graham also became the oldest NFL player to produce multiple sacks in the first half of a game since Bruce Smith on Nov. 28, 2002 (39 years, 163 days).
    • Zack Baun picked up his third interception of the season. He is the only NFL player with at least 100 tackles, three sacks, and three takeaways this year.
    • Jalen Hurts became the first quarterback in Eagles history to record multiple games with a 150-plus passer rating (154.9) and .800 completion percentage in the same season. He previously accomplished the feat in Week 7 at Minnesota (158.3 rating and .826 percentage).
    • The Eagles secured their fifth consecutive winning season with Nick Sirianni at the helm — the longest streak to start a career in franchise history. Sirianni is the 10th head coach since 1970 to start his career with five straight winning seasons, joining Bill Cowher, John Harbaugh, Mike Holmgren, Chuck Knox, Sean McVay, George Seifert, Mike Sherman, Mike Smith, and Mike Tomlin (according to Elias Sports Bureau).
    • This is the 21st winning season under Jeffrey Lurie’s ownership, making the Eagles one of only four teams with 21-plus winning seasons since Lurie took over — joining Green Bay (24), New England (24), and Pittsburgh (23).

    (Statistics courtesy of the Eagles’ football communications staff.)

  • Queen Village’s new all-day restaurant is thanks to a Philly restaurant-industry romance

    Queen Village’s new all-day restaurant is thanks to a Philly restaurant-industry romance

    Queen Village has a new watering hole, and it’s all thanks to a classic restaurant-industry meet-cute.

    In 2020, Culinary Institute of America-trained pastry chef C.J. Cheyne was delivering pastries to West Passyunk Avenue’s La Llorona Cantina Mexicana when she met Israel Nocelo, a Puebla native, longtime Philly restaurant vet, and La Llorona’s general manager at the time. The introduction sparked a romance and a collaborative partnership that’s blossomed over the last five years into an engagement and, now, a full-fledged restaurant.

    Casa Oui, at 705 S. Fifth St., opened its doors Friday. The all-day spot fuses both partners’ culinary backgrounds — French and Mexican — in a contemporary American restaurant just a block off South Street and East Passyunk Avenue.

    The interior of Casa Oui, a new restaurant from owners Israel Nocelo and C.J. Cheyne.

    It’s open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for breakfast and brunch, featuring a full coffee menu, Cheyne’s pastries — doughnuts, cookies, beignets, cinnamon buns — plus breakfast sandwiches, burgers, salads, and tacos. There’s also a crudo bar with weekly rotating dishes including carpaccios and tiraditos dressed with house-made oils and seafood sourced from Philly’s Small World Seafood.

    The menu shifts after 3 p.m. for dinner: There are ceviches, steak with pepper sauce and cognac, churrasco with chimichurri sauce, tacos (al pastor, asada, fried fish), cauliflower with chili oils, guacamole, chorizo, and green hummus. (“We eat a lot of hummus in Mexico, made with chili powder and veggies,” Nocelo said.) Cheyne’s desserts, including miniature ice cream cakes, will be on the menu, too.

    The Asada taco at Casa Oui.

    The 60-seat restaurant’s debut comes after both Cheyne and Nocelo wound down their respective previous spots: Oui Pastries in Old City and the Si Taqueria in Point Breeze. “When we knew that the leases were going to expire soon,” Cheyne said, “our goal … was to find somewhere to bring the two together — have one home.”

    The couple had recently moved to Queen Village and found their new address while on a walk through the neighborhood. They took over 1,500-square-foot space that was formerly home to Umai Umai.

    Once they secured the lease and a liquor license (a factor Cheyne said was their “biggest objective”), Nocelo and Cheyne started remodeling the space with different textures — marble, cement, and metal — inspired by the design of museums in Mexico City. “It’s very classy, very clean,” Nocelo said. “When you walk [into the restaurant], we want the focus to be on what you get on the table — the cocktails and the food.”

    The Desesperado and La Incondicional cocktails at Casa Oui.

    Expect habanero margaritas, dirty martinis with blue cheese-stuffed olives, and Rival Bros. espresso martinis on the seasonally rotating cocktail menu. The wine list includes selections from Spain, France, Italy, and California, as well as local wineries. After 10 p.m., there’s a separate menu of late-night cocktails and snacks; think Libélula tequila and prickly pear-grapefruit sipper and steak tartare tostados.

    Come spring and summer, the couple plans to have 30 seats on the patio.

    Nocelo explains that there are some aspects of Mexican cuisine that have long been influenced by French technique due to France’s occupation of Mexico in the 1860s. “Croissants and baguettes, all that, are French influences in Mexico, especially in Puebla City,” he said. “Without the French, we would have never had cakes in Mexico.”

    The exterior of Casa Oui.

    The connection between the two cooking styles is what led to the chefs’ initial collaboration. After their meet-cute, Cheyne baked pan dulce Mexican bread and other pastries for La Llorona for about a year. The couple worked together on various food and beverage events in the city. And then in 2022, they ran a pop-up at Oui with cochinita tacos and Mexican-flavored doughnuts. The concept evolved into their takeout hot spot, Sí Taqueria, where you could pick up fresh conchas (baked to order in a wood-fired oven) and al pastor breakfast sandwiches (or tacos) served on Cheyne’s croissants.

    Among the former Sí Taqueria’s specialties was the El Trendy breakfast sandwich, with al pastor and a fried egg on a Oui croissant.

    Casa Oui is the culmination of Cheyne and Nocelo’s cooking collaborations, the pair said.

    “We want to welcome you into our house,” Cheyne said. “Our line is, ‘It’s a place to stay awhile,’ so however you’re coming — for a bite, tapas to share, or dinner — we want you to feel welcomed.”

    Casa Oui, 705 S. Fifth St., 267-654-0016, instagram.com/casaouibar. Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Lunch/brunch 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., happy hour 2 to 5 p.m., dinner 3 to 10 p.m. Late-night menu 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Closed Mondays.

  • How much snow fell near you, mapped

    How much snow fell near you, mapped

    The Philadelphia region’s first snowfall of the season ended up having quite a March-like quality.

    Totals generally ranged from 4 to 8 inches, but the snow literally was so heavy that the average shoveler may have had a hard time discerning the difference.

    “When I was shoveling my car out, it felt rough,” said Michael Silva, meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Mount Holly. Silva lives in Mount Laurel, where an unofficial 7 inches was reported.

    The snow was so weighty because it had a high liquid content, the result of temperatures close to the freezing mark, as so often happens in March. The borderline temperatures also would help explain the range in accumulations, he said.

    The snow glommed onto the trees, weighing down branches. In fact it took down a branch outside the Mount Holly office that damaged a federal car (sorry, taxpayers).

    The highest amounts, just over 8 inches, were recorded in Chester and Bucks Counties.

    Officially, at Philadelphia International Airport, where temperatures didn’t get below freezing until midmorning Sunday, 4.2 inches was measured.

    By contrast, Boston has measured only 3.1 inches so far.

    Here are the snowfall totals posted by the weather service as of 10 a.m. Monday.

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  • Eagles open as favorites over Commanders — and see their Super Bowl, NFC odds improve after big win

    Eagles open as favorites over Commanders — and see their Super Bowl, NFC odds improve after big win

    After three straight losses, the Eagles bounced back with a 31-0 blowout win over the Las Vegas Raiders at home. Now, the team faces a short week before a Saturday night matchup at Northwest Stadium, where they’ll take on the Washington Commanders in the first of two matchups over the next three weeks.

    From the Birds’ chances this weekend to updates on year-end awards, here are some of the latest odds at two of the biggest sportsbooks …

    Eagles vs. Commanders odds

    The last time these teams met was in the NFC championship game in January. After the two teams split their regular-season matchup — the Eagles’ loss coming in a game in which Jalen Hurts went down early — the Birds dominated a Jayden Daniels-led Washington team on their way to a 55-23 win at Lincoln Financial Field.

    While the Birds are coming off a win, after three straight losses, the Commanders earned their first win in eight games Sunday, a 29-21 victory over the New York Giants without Daniels under center after he reaggravated an elbow injury.

    The Eagles initially opened as 5.5- and 6-point favorites at FanDuel and DraftKings, respectively, but that started to change when news came down that the Commanders would be shutting down Daniels for the season and sticking with Marcus Mariota as the starter. The line jumped by a point at FanDuel by Monday afternoon.

    FanDuel

    • Spread: Commanders +6.5 (-105); Eagles -5.5 (-115)
    • Moneyline: Commanders (+235); Eagles (-290)
    • Total: Over 44.5 (-115); Under 44.5 (-105)

    DraftKings

    • Spread: Commanders +6 (-110); Eagles -6 (-110)
    • Moneyline: Commanders (+225); Eagles (-278)
    • Total: Over 45.5 (-108); Under 45.5 (-112)
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    NFC East odds update

    The 9-5 Eagles increased their division lead over the Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1), who despite two consecutive losses are still in the running for the NFC East — although that can end on Saturday night with an Eagles’ victory. Meanwhile, the New York Giants (2-12) and Washington Commanders (4-10) are out of contention.

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    NFC odds update

    At both sportsbooks, the Eagles have improved their odds of winning the conference after the victory over the Raiders. They trail behind the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks for the third-best odds to win the NFC.

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    Super Bowl odds

    The defending champions remain outside of the top three favorites to win the Super Bowl. However, their odds have improved from last week, where they were ranked seventh at both sportsbooks. Now, the team has made their way back into the top five favorites to win the big game.

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    MVP odds

    Jalen Hurts’ MVP odds have fallen drastically after the last stretch of games with the Eagles, and he’s essentially out of the running. Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye continue to battle for the top spot with Josh Allen rapidly closing in behind them.

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  • Phillies sign outfielder Adolis García to one-year deal

    Phillies sign outfielder Adolis García to one-year deal

    At a time when righty-hitting outfielders with power are in short supply across baseball, the Phillies will wager on a onetime postseason star to have a bounce-back season.

    The Phillies signed free-agent outfielder Adolis Garcia to a one-year contract, which major league sources said is for $10 million. The deal was reported first Monday by Beisbol FG.

    García, 32, is expected to replace Nick Castellanos in right field. The Phillies intend to trade or release Castellanos, who is owed $20 million in 2026 but lost his everyday job in August amid declining performance and clashes with manager Rob Thomson.

    Adolis García could be the new Nick Castellanos, and he looks the part. Uncomfortably so.

    The Phillies’ signing of García comes 361 days after an identical one-year, $10 million free-agent deal with outfielder Max Kepler.

    It represents a similar bet, too.

    García, who will be 33 next season and played for the Rangers since 2020, wasn’t tendered a contract last month after batting .225/.278/.397 with a 96 OPS-plus over the last two years. He was projected to make $12.1 million in salary arbitration, according to MLB Trade Rumors.

    Adolis García had a 30.3% strikeout rate last season with the Rangers.

    In particular, García struggled to make contact, with a 30.3% whiff rate last season and 33.6% the year before. For context, Castellanos had a 29.9% whiff rate last season and 30.1% in 2024. García’s bat speed has also dipped in the last two years.

    But when García connects, he still hits the ball hard. He ranked in the 89th percentile among all hitters last season in average exit velocity (92.1 mph), which mirrored his mark from 2023 when he smashed 39 homers and had a 127 OPS-plus, career-best totals. García also batted .323 with eight homers in the 2023 postseason and was MVP of the American League Championship Series en route to helping the Rangers win the World Series.

    The Phillies will count on hitting coach Kevin Long to bring about a revival for García. And maybe he will benefit from hitting in Citizens Bank Park.

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    Even if García’s decline at the plate continues, he figures to be a massive defensive upgrade in right field. Known for his elite arm strength, García tied for third among all outfielders with 16 defensive runs saved above average and was a Gold Glove finalist. He won a Gold Glove in 2023.

    Castellanos rated among the worst defenders at any position last season, 11 runs saved below average, according to Sports Info Solutions. His offense is in a three-year decline (OPS-plus: 112, 104, 88 over the last three years). And Thomson benched him in June in Miami for insubordination in the dugout after being removed for defense in the ninth inning.

    Even with Castellanos, the Phillies, like many teams, looked everywhere in recent years in search of righty-hitting outfield help. After committing to Johan Rojas as a rookie in 2023, they traded for Austin Hays and Harrison Bader on back-to-back July deadlines.

    Last winter, the available righty-hitting outfield options were so scarce that the Phillies signed lefty-swinging Kepler, who batted .216/.300/.391 with 18 homers and an 88 OPS-plus. And although president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has defended Kepler’s season, he also said multiple times that the Phillies would not re-sign him.

    Adolis Garcia has 44 homers over the last two seasons, 10th among all righty-hitting outfielders in baseball.

    The scarcity of righty-hitting outfielders was evident earlier in the offseason, when the Orioles traded a pitcher with four years of team control (Grayson Rodriguez) to the Angels for Taylor Ward, a corner outfielder entering his last year before free agency.

    García ranks 10th among all righty-hitting outfielders with 44 homers over the last two seasons.

    “There’s just a lot more left-handed hitters nowadays than there are right-handed hitters, for whatever reason,” Dombrowski said last week. “We’ll talk about something that comes up, and I’ll say, ‘Yeah, but that’s a left-handed hitter again.’”

    The Phillies are sticking with a veteran core in 2026. But this time the kids have to play too.

    García’s presence in right field likely means top prospect Justin Crawford will play center with Brandon Marsh in left, at least against right-handed pitching. The Phillies could still add a righty-hitting outfielder, or open the door again to Rojas, to share time with Marsh.

    García’s contract will boost the Phillies’ 2026 payroll commitments to approximately $295 million, as calculated for the luxury tax. That figure includes Castellanos’ salary. If the Phillies are able to trade him, they almost certainly will have to swallow all or most of the $20 million.

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    The Phillies still hope to bring back free-agent catcher J.T. Realmuto, which would put them in range with their final 2025 payroll figure of roughly $312 million.

    During the winter meetings last week in Orlando, rival team officials painted the Phillies as interested in trading from the major league roster to create payroll space to add in other areas, including the outfield and bullpen. They remain interested in re-signing Bader, although he’s believed to be seeking to parlay a career-best season at the plate into a three-year contract.

    It’s possible, then, that García will represent the Phillies’ biggest outfield addition.