The Bears need a starting receiver — or two. Problem is, it’s never been more expensive to acquire one.

The three priciest receiver contracts in history were signed this year — and immediately followed trades. The Raiders dealt for the Packers’ Davante Adams and signed him to a five-year, $141.25 million deal. Tyreek Hill went from the Chiefs to the Dolphins and got a four-year, $120 million contract, the highest per-year total in NFL history. The Cowboys dealt Amari Cooper to the Browns, who gave him $100 million over five years.

Earlier this month, the Bills rewarded Stefon Diggs with a four-year, $96 million contract extension. More receivers will join him– the Titans’ A.J. Brown, the Commanders’ Terry McLaurin and the 49ers’ Deebo Samuel all want new deals and are avoiding their teams during voluntary workouts. Samuel has requested a trade. D.K. Metcalf has one year left on his Seahawks contract, and could be traded if the two sides disagree on its value.

Even mid-range starters got paid this offseason. Christian Kirk — who has never posted 1,000 receiving yards in a season–signed a baffling four-year, $72 million deal with the Jaguars. His $37 million in guarantees ranked second among offensive free agents; former Bears receiver Allen Robinson’s $30.8 million — from the Rams — was third.

The Bears don’t figure to hunt pricy receivers who ask for trades. Instead, they’ll likely pick a receiver in the second or third round of the NFL draft on Friday.

Those contract prices, though, will move receivers up draft boards. The reason: teams that hit on receivers will have tremendous cost savings over the next four or five seasons. The Vikings, for example, picked receiver Justin Jefferson No. 22 overall two years ago. He’ll have a $3.6 million cap hit this season — despite being better than many of the pass-catchers mentioned above.

“You get cost control on a player like that at that price for four years plus a fifth-year option versus having to go the veteran route and having to pay that huge, huge number to get a premium guy,” NFL Network draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah said. “[And] if not pay him, then you’ve got to trade a bunch of assets to go get him.

“To me, I think that’s why this year we see wideouts get pushed up a little bit more, maybe, than in years past. I think we’ll see six of them go in the first round.”

The Bears will be waiting in Round 2 or 3. Or both.

Fields’ future might depend on it.

“There’s a lot of guys coming out this year’s draft and a lot of guys that are talented,” quarterback Justin Fields said. “So I’m excited to see who we get, excited to see who my guys from Ohio State go to.”

Those two Buckeyes, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, figure to be long gone by the time the Bears draft No. 39 and No. 48 overall. Second-day options include Western Michigan’s Skyy Moore, Georgia’s George Pickens, North Dakota State’s Christian Watson and Alabama’s John Metchie III, among others.

Darnell Mooney, the Bears’ best receiver, wants to see the team draft another one.

“I would love to get one of those guys to come here and give us a spark, and just create,” Mooney said. “And just be extremely more dangerous.”

New general manager Ryan Poles said the Bears front office studied quarterbacks who made leaps from Year 1 to 2 and found that many had a receiver that they trusted when times got tough. The Bears, though, have only two receivers who caught more than 10 passes last year — Mooney and free agent acquisition Byron Pringle.

The Bears need help at receiver. The problem is, so do most other teams.

“Everybody is kind of wide receiver-obsessed this off-season,” Jeremiah said.

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Thanks to a rainy afternoon weather forecast, the Cubs moved the start of Friday’s game against the Pirates to 7:05 p.m. The game was originally scheduled to start at 1:20 p.m.

Wrigley Field gates will open at 5:35 p.m. and no ticket exchange will be required.

The Cubs, who are on a three-game losing streak and have dropped below .500 for the first time this season, are hoping to bounce back after Thursday’s 4-3 loss to Pittsburgh.

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The Cubs-Pirates game, originally scheduled for 1:20 p.m. at Wrigley Field, has been rescheduled for a 7:05 p.m. start because of forecast inclement weather. Gates will open at 5:35 p.m.

The Cubs could have rescheduled the game for Saturday as part of a doubleheader. Or on July 27, an open date for both teams following a three-game series at Wrigley Field. But the Cubs are heading to San Francisco after the July 26 game, so that probably wasn’t ideal.

Getting the game in Friday was the best option for them.

“When in doubt I don’t want to play doubleheaders, if that’s ever an option for me,” manager David Ross said. “Doubleheaders are tough. It’s a long day. This is at least, we got to know early enough … one of those things we can get cranked up. We weren’t hitting on the field anyways. So guys can go home, come back, do whatever they want to do. Manager gets to get a workout in, so that’s always nice for the body. I don’t think two nines in a day is healthy for players.”

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While the seventh-annual Latin American Music Awards offered a sizzling celebration of Latin music, there was also an unmistakable message of global unity.

The Black Eyed Peas, who embraced Latin music on their 2020 album “Translation,” opened the show with a heartfelt tribute to the people of Ukraine and performed a bilingual rendition of “Where Is the Love?” They were accompanied by Ozuna, Prince Royce, Farruko, Christian Nodal, CNCO, Chiquis Rivera, and Ukrainian singer Nastya Kamenskikh, also known as NK.

Later in the night, NK gave a touching speech on her native country, which is under attack by Russia. Mexican superstar Nodal also gave Ukraine a shoutout during his acceptance speech after being honored with the Extraordinary Evolution Award.

While Karol G sat out this year’s Latin AMAs, the Colombian pop starpicked up the prize for artist of the year, while her third album “KG0516” clinched album of the year. Rapper Bad Bunny, also not in attendance, nabbed song of the year for his multiplatinum single “Dakiti.” And Argentinian singer Maria Becerra, whose debut album “Animal” was released last August, took home best new artist.

Bad Bunny racked up the most nominations with 10, including artist of the year and favorite male artist. Bad Bunny’s No. 1 album “El Ultimo Tour del Mundo” was nominated for album of the year, while “Dakiti” was up for favorite urban song.

Trailing behind Bad Bunny was his “Dakiti” collaborator Jhay Cortez, who earned eight nominations, including favorite urban artist and viral song of the year for “Fiel,” which topped Billboard’s Latin airplay chart. Along with song of the year, Cortez claimed favorite urban song for “Dakiti.”

A star-studded lineup of Latin music superstars, including Reik, Luis Fonsi, CNCO and Gloria Trevi, hit the stage for knockout performances.

The legendary Lupita D’Alessio, also known as the “La Leona Dormida,” also performed a medley from her decade-spanning music catalog. She was honored with the Legend Award.

The Latin AMAs were hosted by Rafael Amaya, Jacqueline Bracamontes and Cristian de la Fuente and broadcast on Telemundo from the Michelob Ultra Arena at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

Like the American Music Awards, the Latin AMAs are voted on by fans. The nominations were based on fan interactions with music, including streaming, sales, airplay and social activity tracked by Billboard from Feb. 6, 2021, through Jan. 29, 2022.

Read more at usatoday.com

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LOS ANGELES — In the Blackhawks’ first nine games after they signed rookie defenseman Alex Vlasic on March 16, he played only three times and averaged just 7 minutes, 1 second of ice time.

But in the Hawks’ last eight games, he has become a regular in the lineup. He has played in all eight, averaging 15:11 of ice time.

”It has been a whirlwind for me, but I’m getting more and more comfortable as the games go on,” Vlasic said Wednesday. ”We play against some of the best teams. Playing against Calgary, that top line was crazy to play against. You get a sense of how good players really are in the NHL.”

In the final weeks of this hopeless season, the Hawks have — to their credit — finally made more use of their NHL roster spots to develop a few prospects.

Vlasic and fellow rookie defenseman Alec Regula technically have made up half of the Hawks’ top two defensive pairs for six consecutive games, with Vlasic paired with Seth Jones and Regula with Jake McCabe.

Although Jones and McCabe have played quite a bit more than their younger counterparts — Regula has averaged 18:41 of ice time during his six games — the rookies have learned from being tossed headfirst into the fire.

”[Regula] just continues to get better and better, and Vlasic [does], too,” interim coach Derek King said Monday. ”I’ve got no problems with them on the ice. I’m not turning my head when they get the puck. They’re doing well, they’re working hard and it’s good to see.”

Added Regula: ”You always want to play as much as possible. It’s definitely a different animal up here . . . so getting to feel it out a little bit is nice.”

In the last seven games entering Thursday, Vlasic led Hawks defensemen in (even-strength) scoring-chance ratio at 54.8% and Regula ranked third at 51.4%. They were the only two Hawks defensemen with high-danger scoring-chance ratios above 50%. Thursday’s game against the Kings went poorly, but that was the case for the whole team.

They also each notched their first NHL goals this week. Regula caught Flames goalie Jacob Markstrom off-guard with a shot from the point Monday, then Vlasic benefitted from his shot from the point deflecting off Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz’s skate during the second period Wednesday.

Schmaltz exacted revenge a period later, however, intercepting a risky pass by Vlasic during four-on-four play and promptly converting it into the tying goal.

It was a bad mistake. Vlasic later admitted he should’ve cleared the puck ”up the wall instead of up the middle.” But with the Hawks eventually winning in overtime, the lesson he learned about the fleeting nature of glory in the NHL — and the need to stay focused at all times — might end up being a positive.

”That’s the thing: He played such a good game, but . . . we’re talking about the turnover, right?” King said after the game. ”This is the stuff he’ll learn as he gets more mature and becomes better and better and gets more games under his belt. But he was probably one of [our best], if not our best, defensemen on the ice tonight.”

Vlasic’s and Regula’s spots aren’t guaranteed to last forever. They’ll compete against an array of defensive prospects in training camp in the fall, some of whom — such as Ian Mitchell, Wyatt Kalynuk and Nicolas Beaudin — will boast more NHL experience, and only a few will earn immediate NHL roles.

That is a problem for next season, though. Right now, their presences are two of the most encouraging parts of a bleak April.

Vlasic singled out Jones, who has given him lots of advice while sitting on the bench without ”being negative at all,” and forward Tyler Johnson, whom Vlasic worked out alongside during his first few weeks, as two veterans he has learned most from. He might glean even more over dinner Friday in San Jose, California, with Sharks veteran Marc-Edouard Vlasic, his cousin.

And when asked what lesson has had the most impact on him, Vlasic tied his answer into his roller-coaster performance Wednesday against the Coyotes: ”Not letting mistakes hold you back.”

”I try not to let [them] affect me, but [I] just learn from things I’m doing wrong and hopefully continue doing the things I’ve been doing right,” he said. ”There are going to be players that are better than you in this league; it’s the best league in the world. Being able to learn from those mistakes — and hopefully keep those to a minimum — has helped me a lot.”

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