MESA, Ariz. (AP) — Tyler Austin's return to the major leagues has been put on hold for what Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell says will be months following a procedure on his right knee.
Counsell said Wednesday that Austin had a patellar tendon debridement procedure on his right knee Tuesday and will need a lengthy recovery period.
Austin, 34, signed a one-year deal with Chicago after spending six seasons with Yokohama in Japan's Pacific League. He was competing for playing time at designated hitter and also can play first base and the outfield.
Austin was selected by the New York Yankees in the 2010 amateur draft and on Aug. 13, 2016, combined Aaron Judge to become the first teammates to homer in their first major league at-bats in the same game.
Austin also played for Minnesota, Seattle and Milwaukee. and has hit .219 with 33 homers in four seasons in the majors. He was part of the 2021 U.S. Olympic team.
His contract, agreed to on Dec. 18, calls for a $1.2 million salary while in the major leagues and $400,000 while in the minors. Austin could earn $500,000 in performance bonuses for plate appearances: $50,000 for 175 and each additional 25 through 400.
His injury could create an opening for Michael Conforto to earn a bench spot on the team after Conforto agreed to a minor league deal on Monday.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Chicago Cubs' Tyler Austin juggles some baseballs at the team's photo day Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s military operation to capture Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, telling Caribbean leaders, many of whom objected to that move, that the country and the region were better off as a result.
Speaking to leaders from the 15-member Caribbean Community bloc at a summit in the country of St. Kitts and Nevis, Rubio brushed aside concerns about the legality of Maduro’s capture last month that have been raised among Venezuela’s island-state neighbors and others.
“Irrespective of how some of you may have individually felt about our operations and our policy toward Venezuela, I will tell you this, and I will tell you this without any apology or without any apprehension: Venezuela is better off today than it was eight weeks ago,” Rubio told the leaders in a closed-door meeting, according to a transcript of his remarks later distributed by the U.S. State Department.
Rubio said that since Maduro’s ouster and the effective takeover of Venezuela’s oil sector by the United States, the interim authorities in the South American country have made “substantial” progress in improving conditions by doing “things that eight or nine weeks ago would have been unimaginable.”
The Caribbean leaders have gathered to debate pressing issues in a region that President Donald Trump has targeted for a 21st-century incarnation of the Monroe Doctrine meant to ensure Washington’s dominance in the Western Hemisphere. The Republican administration has declared a focus closer to home even as Washington increasingly has been preoccupied by the possibility of a U.S. military attack on Iran.
In his remarks to the group, America's top diplomat tried to play down any antagonistic intent in what Trump has referred to as the “Donroe Doctrine.” Rubio said the administration wants to strengthen ties with the region in the wake of the Venezuela operation and ensure that issues such as crime and economic opportunities are jointly addressed.
“I am very happy to be in an administration that’s giving priority to the Western Hemisphere after largely being ignored for a very long time,” Rubio said. “We share common opportunities, and we share some common challenges. And that’s what we hope to confront.”
He said transnational criminal organizations pose the biggest threat to the Caribbean while recognizing that many are buying weapons from the United States, a problem he said authorities are tackling.
Rubio also said the U.S. and the Caribbean can work together on economic advancement and energy issues, especially because many leaders at the four-day summit have energy resources they seek to explore. “We want to be your partner in that regard,” he said.
Rubio said the U.S. recognizes the need for fair, democratic elections in Venezuela, which lies just miles away from Trinidad and Tobago at the closest point.
“We do believe that a prosperous, free Venezuela who’s governed by a legitimate government who has the interests of their people in mind could also be an extraordinary partner and asset to many of the countries represented here today in terms of energy needs and the like, and also one less source of instability in the region,” he said.
Rubio added: “We view our security, our prosperity, our stability to be intricately tied to yours.”
Trump, in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, called the operation that spirited Maduro out of Venezuela to face drug trafficking charges in New York “an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States.”
The U.S. had built up the largest military presence in the Caribbean Sea in generations before the Jan. 3 raid. That has now been exceeded by the surge of American warships and aircraft to the Middle East as the administration pressures Iran to make a deal over its nuclear program.
In the Caribbean, Trump has stepped up aggressive tactics to combat alleged drug smuggling with a series of strikes on boats that have killed over 150 people and he has tightened pressure on Cuba. Regional leaders have complained about administration demands for nations to accept third-country deportees from the U.S. and to chill relations with China.
One regional leader who has backed the U.S. escalation is Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whom Rubio thanked for her “public support for U.S. military operations in the South Caribbean Sea,” the State Department said.
Persad-Bissessar told reporters that her conversation with Rubio focused on “Haiti; we talked about Cuba of course; we talked about engagements with Venezuela and the way forward.”
She was asked if she considered the latest U.S. military strikes in Caribbean waters as extrajudicial killings: “I don’t think they are, and if they are, we will find out, but our legal advice is they are not.”
Rubio had other one-on-one meetings with heads of government, including from St. Kitts and Nevis, Haiti, Jamaica and Guyana.
Trump said during the State of the Union that his administration is “restoring American security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference.”
Terrance Drew, prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and chair of the Caribbean Community bloc, said the region “stands at a decisive hour” and that “the global order is shifting.”
Drew and other leaders said Cuba's humanitarian situation must be addressed.
“It must be clear that a prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba,” Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned. “It will affect migration, security and economic stability across the Caribbean basin.”
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday slightly eased restrictions on the sale of Venezuelan oil to Cuba, which instituted austere fuel-saving measures in the weeks after the U.S. raid in Venezuela.
That move came hours before Cuba’s government announced that its soldiers killed four people aboard a speedboat registered in Florida that had opened fire on officers in Cuban waters.
Coto reported from San José, Costa Rica. Associated Press reporters Bert Wilkinson in Georgetown, Guyana, and Andrea Rodríguez in Havana contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center front in red tie, poses for a group photo with other government officials attending the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. Also pictured are, Bahamas' Prime Minister Philip Edward Davis, left, Grenada's Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, fourth from right, Antigua and Barbuda's Prime Minister Gaston Browne, second from right, Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, second from left, Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness, front row third from left, and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, third from right. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, shakes hands with St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, which is hosting the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio waits to meet with St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, which is hosting the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a thumbs up during the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) plenary session in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, meets with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar during the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) meeting in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, front center, attends the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) plenary session in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool photo via AP)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrives before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
