Four days after the Milwaukee Brewers finished off their sweep of the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday night won their American League Championship Series by dispatching the Cleveland Guardians in Game 6 at Tropicana Field.

The Brewers last played in the Fall Classic in 1982, when they were an American League team, and have been around as a franchise since 1969. The Rays did not exist until 1998, and this is their third World Series, along with 2008 and 2020.

Neither the Brewers nor Rays have won a championship, which gives the 2026 Fall Classic a rarity — the first championship matchup featuring two teams who have never won a World Series since the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Kansas City Royals in 1980.

Game 1 of the World Series is Friday night at American Family Field in Milwaukee, with every game of the series a 5 p.m. PT telecast on Fox.

Today’s question is simple — Who are you rooting for in the 2026 World Series? Let us know in the comments below.

Aaron Bummer has truly had a fascinating career. If we’re judging solely by the eye test, he’s had the type of career that makes you wonder if he just walks under ladders, breaks mirrors and hangs out with black cats all the time because of his hilariously high BABIP-against numbers and the fact that he still remained productive regardless of the bad luck. Bummer made it through two seasons with the Braves while still being a pretty solid reliever — though 2024 was clearly better than his 2025.

With that being said, things finally hit the wall for Bummer in 2026, as he ended up not being too much of a positive factor for the Braves during his time here. It’s time to check out how things went for Bummer and the Braves in 2026.

How Acquired

The Braves initially picked up Bummer in a trade following the 2023 season that sent Riley Gowens, Nicky Lopez, Braden Shewmake, Jared Shuster and Michael Soroka. Following the 2024 season, the Braves restructured their deal with Bummer and he ended up making $3.5 million for 2025 and was set to make $9.5 million for 2026.

What were the expectations?

Based on the contract restructure, it was clear that the Braves figured that Bummer would play a key role in the bullpen and bounce back from what was a rocky (and injury-affected) season in 2025. Remember, Bummer ended up going down for the season with shoulder inflammation during August 2025, following a pretty strange year in which he was asked to do a lot of things he didn’t usually do, like pitch long outings and make starts that saw him stay in the game until he was falling apart. Did those things cause his shoulder injury? It’s hard to say. In any case, maybe the expectations should’ve been lower considering that that’s a pretty tough injury to come back from in a lot of cases. Still, Bummer made the Opening Day roster and was put in a position to take on some quality innings early on in the season.

Projections-wise, his outlook was basically a repeat of his 2025 (0.4 fWAR in 54 innings). That was actually substantially worse than his prior performance (1.1 fWAR in 55 innings as a Brave in 2024), but was probably a good gauge given the injury situation.

2026 Results

Bummer just never looked right during his time with the Braves, which only lasted through mid-May. In the occasion where he didn’t give up an earned run, he still looked shaky at best getting through an inning or he likely surrendered a run from the situation that he inherited. This wasn’t a case of bad luck affecting him like it had in the past — Bummer was just unable to get any type of good results while he was here. He only ended up throwing 15.1 innings the for Braves this season and finished with an ERA of 7.63 (182 ERA- and remember, 100 is league average) and a FIP of 8.64 (208 FIP-, again, 100 is league average). Nor was this a case of some sort bad-results-only thing, as his xFIP was 6.05 (144 xFIP-).

The nadir came on May 18, which is when the Braves sent him out there while down 6-0 just to hopefully eat an inning. He did eventually finish the inning but that was only after he walked five batters and gave up two homers and a single on his way to surrendering six runs across 11 batters faced. Bummer was released two days later, then the Cubs signed him to a minor-league deal on May 27. He opted out of that deal on July 17, signed with the Royals on July 20, which is where he made two appearances for Kansas City in early-August. He gave up three runs in each of those appearances and was promptly sent down to Triple-A following the second appearance. Bummer elected free agency on August 7 and that was the last time he’d been seen near a big league organization.

What went right?

He pitched a scoreless inning against the Dodgers on May 8, so that was cool. The Braves didn’t win that one but it was certainly an outing to be proud of, as he sat down Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith and Freddie Freeman in order with three straight fly-outs. Though, given how Bummer succeeds, even that kind of tells you there was an issue, since giving up contact in the air really hasn’t been part of his game.

Bummer did manage to record two shutdowns (to five meltdowns) on the season, but just like the Dodgers outing, they didn’t feel right. His highest WPA outing of the year came back on April 10: Bryce Elder had given up the go-ahead run to the Guardians and departed with the bases loaded and two out. Bummer came in and got a pop to shortstop to end the game; the Braves then turned the game into a blowout in the next inning, hitting three homers in the span of eight batters.

To find an actual throwback Bummer outing, you have to go to April 24. The Braves had just turned a deficit into a two-run lead, and Bummer was asked to face Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. Both grounded out meekly to second: Schwarber after a 12-pitch battle and Harper on the first pitch. Then, there was an infield single before Brandon Marsh flew out. That was probably Bummer’s best outing-in-a-close game of the year.

What went wrong?

Other than that, this was a nightmare season for Bummer. His velocity continued to drop precipitously and that was likely due to the fact that he hadn’t fully recovered from his shoulder ailment in 2025. Baseball Savant’s metrics aren’t the be-all, end-all of player evaluation but if your page is looking about as blue as a Toronto Maple Leafs home game, that’s not great at all!

The only thing that went remotely well for Bummer is that he was still inducing ground balls at a pretty high rate but that doesn’t really mean much when the average exit velocity is still sitting around 92 mph. It was also a notable drop — from 60 percent in 2024 and 53 percent in 2025 to 45 percent in 2026. Bummer also gave up six home runs in 2026 — he did that in just under 16 innings pitched, while it took him 109 2/3 innings to give up five homers across the 2024 and 2025 seasons. His strikeout rate was the lowest of his career, his walk rate was his highest since 2023, and his HR/9 had absolutely skyrocketed. In a cruel twist of fate, his BABIP was as low as it had ever been but perhaps it was proof that there was nothing that Bummer could blame this on but himself and the injury issued that he tried to work his way through. It just didn’t work out for Aaron Bummer in 2026.

It’s hard to pick a low point in a few weeks full of them, but April 13 could do the trick. The Braves had just battled back from a three-run deficit to tie the game, and on came Bummer for the fifth. There were two groundball singles, and then Agustin Ramirez whacked a three-run homer and the game descended into a Marlins blowout. Bummer hadn’t been pitching well to that point, but he had actually managed to avoid getting charged with any runs… but that outing was kind of the dam starting to show some cracks and the deluge eventually washed him off the roster.

2027 Outlook

Aaron Bummer is a left-handed reliever, which means that someone out there is going to give him an opportunity to pitch for them if he even shows remote signs of returning to form. It’ll all depend on whether or not he can actually get over his shoulder injuries and get back to his style of success. If that happens, then it wouldn’t be particularly shocking to see him latch onto another organization at some point. If not, then this may have been the last we see of Bummer in the big leagues since his velocity and command had both dropped to a point where any major-league caliber hitter would be able to do some serious damage against him.

Either way, it speaks to how weird this Braves team was. Bummer figured to be an important part of this bullpen, only ended up throwing just under 16 innings and Atlanta’s bullpen ended up performing at a high level, regardless. Man plans while the baseball gods laugh. Hopefully Bummer will be able to make a comeback in the future — it just likely won’t be with the Braves.

While he’ll probably get a shot, he was so bad in 2026 that his outlook is pretty much “below average reliever” at this point… which is really just an average of “no longer playable” and “recovers from shoulder injuries and is back to his old self.” Sure, someone will take a flier with little financial commitment, but banking on a reliever coming off shoulder woes and an awful season is even riskier than banking on a reliever where neither of those things are true.

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

No. 39, Blake Adams (-0.2 rWAR)

The Colorado Rockies have gotten several years of minor league production out of right-handed pitcher Blake Adams, but whether he fits in their major league rotation remains a question mark.

The University of Arkansas turned Kansas State prospect was selected in the 13th round of the 2022 draft by the Rockies. In college across both universities, he started 15 games and appeared in 10 others, posting a 7-6 record, a career 5.75 ERA at the college-level, and 101 strikeouts in 98.2 innings pitched.

Since then, he’s logged innings across all levels of minor league ball and slowly risen the ranks. He debuted with the ACL Rockies with 5.1 innings over five appearances in 2022. He split 2023 between the Single-A Fresno Grizzlies and the High-A Spokane Indians, before moving between Spokane and the Double-A Hartford Yard Goats in 2024.

He remained in Hartford for 2025 before the next call-up to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes in 2026. In 2026 with the ‘Topes, he posted a 3-6 record in 21 games played with two games started. He logged 61.1 innings of work, posting a 7.48 ERA and a 1.745 WHIP.

His numbers in Triple-A highlight an unnerving trend: They’ve gotten worse with each level he’s climbed. Skipping over his very limited rookie league innings, Adams had a 2.60 ERA in Single-A, 3.68 in High-A, up to 4.76 in Double-A, and then 7.48 in Triple-A.

That said, also evident is a lack of consistency within each of those levels. His ERA, win-loss record, strikeouts and walks over nine innings, and WHIP have fluctuated each year, typically improving after his first year in a given level.

Although Adams earned promotions through the Rockies’ farm system, his performance became less reliable as he approached the majors. His brief improvement in Double-A was encouraging, but his struggles in Triple-A suggest that he still has work to do.

In 2026, he finally got the call. With some roster shuffling around Kyle Freeland’s move to the injured list, the Rockies selected Adams’ contract in late August.

He got roughed up in his only big league appearance, making his MLB debut in August in a rough 13-3 loss to the Washington Nationals. He entered in the seventh inning, giving up two runs in the frame. He attempted to start the eighth inning but was pulled after allowing a three-run home run and following that up with a walk. In all, he posted one inning of work, giving up five earned runs on five hits with one walk.

Overall, Adams’ minor league numbers are modest. a 21-23 record, a 4.52 ERA, a 1.307 WHIP, and 367 strikeouts across 394.2 innings. His strikeout rate of 8.4 per nine innings is respectable, but his overall run prevention has been more inconsistent, particularly against advanced hitters. His 2026 season was challenging, raising questions about whether his arsenal of pitches can hold up against major league hitting.

Adams has lots of experience, but as a whole, it suggests more of an organizational depth role than an MLB prospect with starting rotation or even relief utility. Provided he improves his command and consistency, bigger sample sizes at both the Triple-A and MLB levels will tell us more about how long he could stick around in the big leagues.

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With the departure of Pete Alonso last offseason, the Mets' first base situation became unsettled for the first time since 2018. 

New York attempted to address it in part by signing Jorge Polanco, whose ultimate role probably would've been to be the designated hitter pretty often. But Polanco struggled badly as he attempted to play through an ankle issue that eventually resulted in season-ending surgery, further complicating things.

While attempting to patch first base together, the Mets turned mostly to Jared Young (74 starts at first base) and Mark Vientos (58 starts), and also gave Brett Baty a look there (16 starts).

Throughout the course of the season, Eric Wagaman, Christopher Morel, Gabriel Arias, and Luis Torrens also saw time at first base.

As David Stearns and the front office strategize, what seems apparent is that there will be some external help added this offseason to bolster first base.

Whether that's a bigger free agent addition or a lower-cost right-handed hitter who can platoon with someone like Young remains to be seen. 

Who are the Mets' options at first base for 2027, and how should they proceed? Let's break it down...

The Internal Options

Jared Young

After bouncing around a bit over the first three seasons of his career, playing 44 combined games for the Cubs and Mets between 2022 and 2025 (Young spent part of the 2024 season in the KBO, posting a 1.080 OPS in 38 games), Young emerged as a key lineup cog for the Mets in 2026 in what was his age-30 season.

In 103 games, Young slashed .266/.330/.429 (.759 OPS, 113 OPS+) with nine homers, 17 doubles, and three triples across 342 plate appearances before his season ended in scary fashion on Sept. 17 at Citi Field, when he suffered a concussion during a collision at first base with Nolan McLean.

There are numerous things Young does well, including impacting the baseball and limiting strikeouts, but it's fair to wonder whether he has enough power to be the regular first baseman on a team that is expected to contend.

Young hit just nine homers this past season after hitting a combined six home runs over 44 games for the Cubs and Mets from 2022 to 2025. In the KBO in 2024, Young mashed 10 homers in 38 games while slugging .660. But the competition in the KBO is not viewed as stiff, so those numbers need to be taken with a big grain of salt.

Another mark against Young is that he hasn't fared well against left-handers in his big league career, with a .674 OPS. This past season for New York, Young's OPS against lefties was just .606.

Brett Baty

Stearns talked Baty up after the season, and it feels like he'll be part of the equation in 2027 -- whether it's as a semi-regular presence at first base or second base or as a possible super utility player.

But while Stearns remains bullish on Baty's potential, he has been clear about the need for more consistency.

With both Young and Baty being left-handed hitters (and Baty posting a .500 OPS against left-handed pitching in 2026), it's possible Baty is viewed more as a second base option or as a fit for the aforementioned utility role.

Jorge Polanco

There are three huge asterisks when it comes to Polanco.

The first is that his health is in question following season-ending surgery, with Stearns having no illusions about what to expect going forward.

The second is that his production in 2026 was dismal. Polanco posted a .431 OPS in 135 at-bats, though it's fair to believe a lot of that had to do with his physical limitations.

The third is that even if Polanco is healthy and productive in 2027 (two enormous ifs), he probably won't be a regular presence at first base given his recent health issues and lack of experience at the position.

Another potential option is Vientos, who is arbitration-eligible this offseason. But when you combine Vientos' worsening offensive production and continued fielding issues, it feels more likely he'll be traded or DFA'd this offseason than be a serious candidate for playing time at first base.

The External Options

Teruaki Sato

Sato will be posted by his Japanese team relatively soon, giving interested MLB teams the ability to sign him before the expected lockout begins on Dec. 1.

For the Mets, Sato would be a huge swing. And his upside is tantalizing.

Sato, 27, won the Triple Crown in Japan this year after slashing .306/.383/.609 with 39 home runs, 40 doubles, 100 runs scored, and 106 RBI in 143 games for the Hanshin Tigers. He hit .278/.345/.579 with 40 home runs, 34 doubles, and 102 RBI in 139 games in 2025 as he won the Central League MVP award.

Primarily a third baseman and outfielder in Japan, there are those who believe Sato's best defensive fit in the majors is first base, which would obviously work perfectly for the Mets.

While Sato's power is undeniable, there are questions about his swing-and-miss tendencies, which are not dissimilar to the ones that surrounded Munetaka Murakami before he signed with the White Sox. Sato fanned 164 times in 143 games this past season for Hanshin. While that strikeout rate is not alarming, it would figure to go up in the majors.

For reference, Murakami struck out 196 times in 127 games this past season for Chicago. In his final season in Japan, Murakami fanned 180 times in 143 games.

Ty France

In 133 games for the Padres this past season, the righty-swinging France slashed .295/.363/.502 (.865 OPS, 139 OPS+) with 21 homers and 24 doubles. Was it an aberration or a late breakout from a player in his age-31 season?

A look at France's advanced metrics shows serious improvement in his average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage, so what he did this season wasn't a fluke. At the same time, it's fair to expect some regression given the player he was before 2026.

What's not in question is how good France's first base defense has been the last two seasons. He won the NL Gold Glove in 2025 after being in the 96th percentile in OAA, and followed that up by being in the 93rd percentile in OAA in 2026.

A tier below France is Jake Bauers, who had a similar mid-career eruption, posting an .874 OPS in 144 regular season games for the Brewers.

Alec Bohm or Paul Goldschmidt

The Mets could theoretically add the righty-hitting Bohm or Goldschmidt to share the first base job with Young.

Bohm (.816 OPS against left-handers in 2026) and Goldschmidt (.967 OPS against lefties in 2026) aren't bad options, but the fit for Bohm would be curious given his poor defensive metrics and the fact that he remains an everyday player -- something he should not be with the Mets if signed.

***

A look at the Mets' roster right now shows that they're set at all three outfield positions as well as shortstop, catcher, and third base (unless Bo Bichette surprises nearly everyone and opts out).

At second base, the answer will almost certainly come internally in the event Marcus Semien continues to falter.

That leaves first base and designated hitter as the logical places where improvements can be made this offseason, but Stearns has never seemed eager to clog up the DH spot (except for New York's brief flirtation with Kyle Schwarber last offseason). That would leave first base as the spot to upgrade.

While New York could conceivably make first base work by adding a right-handed hitting complement to Young, they shouldn't be aiming to just get by.

The goal here should be to make a serious improvement and make the position a plus, whether that comes in the form of Sato, France, or someone else who isn't yet on their radar.

At this point, anytime there’s a post that features a photo of Ray Davis, it doesn’t bode well, does it?

I’ve kind of put off doing this, because I don’t want to think about the Texas Rangers’ payroll situation for 2027, or their budget, or the looming lockout, with Rangers owner Ray Davis reportedly being one of the salary cap hawks on the ownership side.

That being said, we are going to take a look at the Rangers’ current payroll situation this morning. As always, Cot’s Contracts is our invaluable source for most of this information.

As a sidenote…the past few seasons, when we have done this exercise, we have looked at both the actual payroll and the payroll for luxury tax purposes, in order to get a handle on where the Rangers are relative to the luxury tax thresholds. Given that the organization has made it clear that ownership is not going to spend close to the current luxury tax levels,* there’s no reason to deal with that.

* With the CBA expiring, we don’t know what the luxury tax threshold will be in 2027, or even if there will be a luxury tax anymore. However, if the luxury tax threshold moved up at the same rate it did throughout the expiring CBA, teams with over $247M in luxury tax payrolls in 2027 would pay the luxury tax. Each team pays roughly $20M in player benefits and the pre-arb bonus pool, so that would mean a team could get to approximately $227M in player payroll without paying the tax, in that scenario.

Texas currently has five players under contract for the 2027 season:

Jacob deGrom — $37,000,000

Corey Seager — $31,500,000

Nathan Eovaldi — $24,000,000

Brandon Nimmo — $20,500,000

Danny Jansen — $8,000,000

In addition, the Rangers have $1M due to Kyle Higashioka to buy out his mutual option for 2027, and $1.25M due to Jakob Junis to buy out his mutual option for 2027.* There’s a mutual option with Joc Pederson, as well, but no buyout.

* Mutual options are almost never picked up, since a club is either going to decline the option as being more than they are willing to pay, or a player is going to decline the option because they think they can do better on the open market, or at least want to explore their options.

Those commitments total $123.25M.

The Rangers also have ten players who are arbitration-eligible for 2027. Those ten players, along with their projected arbitration salaries in 2027 (per MLB Trade Rumors), are as follows:

MacKenzie Gore — $8,700,000

Jake Burger — $6,900,000

Josh Jung — $5,200,000

Ezequiel Duran — $4,000,000

Wyatt Langford — $3,300,000

Logan O’Hoppe — $3,100,000

Jacob Latz — $3,000,000

Evan Carter — $1,700,000

Cody Bradford — $1,300,000

Robert Garcia — $1,100,000

In looking at this list, there are only two players who I see as being potential non-tenders — Jake Burger and Logan O’Hoppe.

The Rangers got Burger two offseasons ago for three prospects who the team doesn’t miss (and who don’t appear in the current BA Marlins top 30 list), and he’s given the team two cheap seasons of middling performance at first base. $6.9M is in the ballpark of what middling first basemen cost on the open market — it does not, at first blush, appear to be the sort of discount against market value you hope to capture with players in their arbitration years.

Complicating things for Burger is that Sebastian Walcott is knocking on the door. Were it not for his elbow injury, which cost him most of 2026, Walcott may have already kicked the door down and staked a claim for a major league job. Still, his strong performance over the final couple of months, when he returned to action (though primarily at DH), as well as his Arizona Fall League performance, would suggest he may be a viable option for an infield job in the majors in 2027.

The Rangers could move Josh Jung — who graded out as below average defensively in 2026, and has been underwhelming with the glove the past three years — to first base, opening up the third base position. The hope, I imagine, would be for Walcott to earn the spot in spring training, with Cody Freeman, Justin Foscue (who would be at second base, pushing Ezequiel Duran to third base), and an NRI or two also vying for the job.

That would theoretically make Jake Burger expendable. Of course, the Rangers still don’t have a DH, and we all know about the durability concerns with Jung, so a team that isn’t pinching pennies might see Burger as having value as the DH and backup first baseman.

My guess is that the Rangers look to sign Burger to a modest raise from the $3.2M he made in 2026 — say, $4.5 to $5M — and let him know he’ll be non-tendered at the November 20 contract tender deadline if he doesn’t agree. It would make for a difficult decision for Burger, who is old for an arb-eligible player (he turns 31 in April), has a skill set and profile that doesn’t tend to be financially rewarded by the market, and who would be on the market for less than two weeks before the lockout hits.

As for O’Hoppe, the Rangers got him from the Angels, along with Chase Silseth, for little other than taking on his salary (which was offset by the Rangers dumping Josh Smith and his salary in the subsequent deal with the Jays, and if you’re curious, MLBTR projects Smith as getting $3.875M in arbitration this year). The DMN reported just this past week that they view him as a long-term project on defense, which would suggest that they are interested in keeping him around and working with him. Given the lack of catching depth in the upper levels, keeping O’Hoppe around, even as a third catcher who you can option to the minors, would make sense, if you think the defense is salvageable.

O’Hoppe made $2.63 million in 2026. My guess is that the Rangers do with O’Hoppe what I am guessing they do with Burger, offering him around $2.5 million — perhaps on a split contract — and non-tendering him if he doesn’t accept. Catchers are always in demand, but with the concerns about O’Hoppe’s receiving, I don’t know what the market for him would be like, and he could end up landing in the pile of fungible veteran catchers who get NRIs every spring.

To head off any comments about Gore being a non-tender candidate, he’s made 96 starts over the past three seasons, is lefthanded, and has quality stuff. He’d get more than one year at $8-9 million if he were a free agent. And that’s without even getting into the fact that the Rangers traded five prospects for him last offseason, and non-tendering him would be an admission of failure that I don’t think the front office wants to make.

So let’s assume that the Rangers keep all ten of their arb-eligible players, at the MLBTR projected salaries, except for Burger and O’Hoppe, who we would slot in at $5M and $2.5M, respectively.

That would put us at $159.05M for 2027 payroll. Add in roughly $12M for the rest of your pre-arbitration players rounding out the active roster and the 40 man roster, and that’s a $171.05M payroll

To put this in perspective, Cot’s has the Rangers’ 2026 year-end payroll at $191.7M. So if the Rangers were to keep payroll static, they’d have $20 million to spend this offseason.

That is not a lot.

On the other hand, the lineup and starting rotation don’t have a lot of holes right now. You’re bringing back all your starters in the lineup except for Pederson at DH, though if you are moving Jung to first base and Burger to DH, that problem is solved.

You probably want a righthanded hitting outfielder who can play center field to either platoon with Evan Carter, or push him to the bench if he continues not to hit, though they could opt to put Duran in the outfield — at least against lefties — and use Justin Foscue or Cody Freeman at DH. Or, hell, they could let Burger go and put Foscue at DH, now that I think about it.

And you also need a backup catcher, unless you decide you’re confident in O’Hoppe, though if they have Jansen and O’Hoppe and feel like O’Hoppe is a potentially viable backup option, they could just go with some veteran NRIs and, if O’Hoppe doesn’t have the Chopp-es behind the plate in Surprise, have one of them back up Jansen.

The rotation currently features deGrom, Eovaldi, Gore, Jack Leiter, Kumar Rocker, and Cody Bradford. The latter three all have questions and concerns, but overall, I don’t see the Rangers spending money on adding starting pitching. There will be your usual collection of NRIs brought in as depth, of course, but I can’t see the Rangers going out and spending money to add a middling innings eater, given where things stand now.

The bullpen, of course, is the bullpen, and once again, the Rangers will be going out into the market to get cheap, functional arms. That said, they are bringing back Garcia, Silseth, Jacob Latz, and Peyton Gray, which would represent half of their projected Opening Day bullpen. Young, Fenstermaker & Co. will probably need to add three or four relievers, and will likely do it, as they have the previous couple of seasons, on the cheap.

So if the Rangers are looking at a 2027 payroll in line with what they had in 2026, they don’t have a lot to spend, but would be able to fill the holes.

The problem, of course, is that the Rangers don’t have the financial resources to make any real upgrades or improvements to the roster in this scenario. They’d essentially be running it back — something that the front office seems to have signaled they don’t want to do. If they want to upgrade a spot, they’d likely need to increase payroll from 2026, make a trade that would cost prospects and/or current major league pieces, or move one of the four veterans with large salaries in an effort to re-allocate those funds elsewhere.

Its a conundrum. And its made all the more difficult by the pending lockout, and the uncertainty of the future financial landscape with a new CBA.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The 2026 MLB World Series is now set, as the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians to join the Milwaukee Brewers.

This feels like the perfect match-up for a feel-good World Series. Neither team has ever won a championship, despite many recent playoff appearances. So it’s kind of fun to go into the series not really having a strong preference, and feeling good about either winner.

Game 1 of the World Series will take place in Milwaukee on Friday night at 5:00 p.m. PT, airing on Fox.

How are you feeling about this World Series match-up?

The Royals’ Double-A affiliate the Northwest Arkansas Naturals had a tough year. They went 57-79 on the season. Overall, it was a very rough season in Arkansas, but who carved out a good year?

The good from the position players:

Luke Pelzer is a fast-moving guy and a name to keep an eye on. The 23-year-old outfielder was drafted in the 17th round of the 2025 draft out of Illinois-Chicago. Pelzer was great over a short period of time in Columbia in 2025. This season, he started in Quad Cities, where he was unreal, slashing .337/.404/.506 in 69 games. He had 18 doubles, 7 triples and 4 homers. He walked 30 times and stole 28 bases. Then once he got the promotion, he played in 42 games in Northwest Arkansas, he slashed .337/.414/.405. He had 7 doubles and 2 triples, walking 20 times and stealing 14 more bases. Defensively, Pelzer played all three outfield spots, but mainly left field, where he posted a .993 fielding percentage.

Spencer Nivens is another outfielder that put together a solid season. He missed some time due to an injury, but over 104 games slashed .280/.365/.446 with 29 doubles, 4 triples and 9 homers. He also walked 55 times, compared to 75 strikeouts, while stealing 17 bases. It was Nivens second full season in Northwest Arkansas, and all of his offensive numbers improved, he should be in Omaha to start next season. Defensively, he played all three outfield spots, but mainly left field, where he posted a .992 fielding percentage.

Sam Kulasingam put together a solid 2026 campaign, slashing .249/.370/.396 over 127 games. Kulasingam had 24 doubles and 12 homers, stealing 30 bases too. The 25-year-old, 2024 draft pick out of the Air Force Academy had a solid first year in Double-A. Defensively, he played first, second, third, left and right field, but got the most starts at third base.

Brett Squires and Carson Roccaforte had awesome seasons, I know, but they will be highlighted next week in the Storm Chasers season in review.

The good from the pitching staff:

25 different guys made an appearance this season for the Naturals. It was such a mixed bag on the pitching staff, because guys like Drew Beam and Hunter Owen showed great flashes, but their overall numbers were discouraging. Beam threw 129 innings, the most on the team and won 9 games, but finished the season with a 6.49 ERA. Owen had a mix of starts and relief appearances and finished with a 5.94 ERA in just 94 innings but struck out 108 guys and showed true hit and miss stuff. Those are two names I’d say to keep an eye on, but I would just like to see more consistency next season.

Frank Mozzicato also falls into this category of a mixed bag type of season; he was downright awful as a starter but was rather ok as a reliever. Mozzicato finished the year throwing 71.2 innings, with an 8.04 ERA, but struck out 97 batters. Although, he walked 72. Overall, the minor league numbers throughout his career aren’t really encouraging. Mozzicato, if he sticks around might be tried as a full-time reliever next year, which somewhat piques my interest, to see if he has something. His velo was way up in relief.

Hunter Patteson, the 26-year-old lefty, who finished out in Omaha, had solid numbers in Northwest Arkansas. He threw 99.2 innings, with a 4.52 ERA, striking out 83 hitters, while walking 48. Opponents hit .240 off him.

Before he was hurt for the rest of the year, Justin Lamkin was exceptional. He split time between Quad Cities and Northwest Arkansas but was great in both stops. He threw a total of 39.2 innings, striking out 53 batters, walking just 14. Over 8 starts, he posted a 2.04 ERA. Opponents hit just .168 off him and he had a WHIP of 0.93. Lamkin, the 22-year-old lefty out of Texas A&M, the 71st overall pick in the 2025 draft is one to keep a very close eye on.

All these guys will start next year in Double-A again most likely (except Nivens), but I could see some of them quickly moving up, especially with the crop coming up from Quad Cities. Putting all that together, I think the Naturals should be the team to watch next season, as they should have a lot of fun, young talent.

Teruaki Sato was born in Nishinomiya, a city of roughly 500,000 in Japan’s Hyogo prefecture. Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers, is also located in Nishinomiya, and as such, Sato grew up a Tigers fan. Although he played baseball as a boy, he lost much of his passion for it as his teenage years began and was more interested in soccer. He attended Incheon Gakuin Senior High School and only tried out and made their baseball team because of the insistence of a friend.

Sato received very little local or national attention as an undersized, scrawny infielder on a team that did not make koshien any of the three years he attended. While he could not control the fortunes of his team, he was able to improve himself, and thanks to weight training, had transformed into a much stronger infielder by his senior year, hitting 15 home runs that year as opposed to 5 in his prior two.

Because Incheon Gakuin Senior High School was such a relatively unknown school and his coaches there were not in contact with professional scouts, his performance in high school did not attract NPB scouts. Sato was noticed by Hidemasa Tanaka, the baseball head coach at Kindai University, however. He convinced Sato to enroll at the school and the outfielder/infielder quickly established himself as the best player on the team over the course of the next four years.

Sato registered for the 2020 NPB Draft and ended up being selected by the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Orix Buffaloes, Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers with their first-round picks. The Tigers won the lottery for his rights, and just like that, the boy from Nishinomiya was a member of his hometown team.

The rookie outfielder had a strong spring training and made the Tigers in 2021, but his production took a hit as regular season progressed. While he showed a ton of power, he did not take many walks and struck out at a staggeringly high rate. In late August, mired in a deep slump, he was sent down to the Tigers’ ni-gun minor league team for a few weeks. After returning to the majors in late September, he continued struggling and eventually set the NPB record for most consecutive plate appearances by a position player without logging a hit, coming to the plate 54 times between late August and late September without a hit. Ultimately, Sato appeared in 126 games for Hanshin in 2021 and hit .238/.284/.466 with a team-leading 24 home runs, 6 stolen bases, 5.5% walk rate, and a staggering 38.0% strikeout rate.

In 2022, the 23-year-old Sato became the youngest player in Hanshin Tigers history to be penciled into the opening day line-up as the team’s clean-up hitter. While he hit fewer home runs than he did in his rookie season, Sato’s sophomore season was an improvement virtually in every other regard. He appeared in all 143 games for the Tigers and hit .264/.328/.470 with 35 doubles, 8 triples, 20 home runs, 11 stolen bases, and drew 51 walks to 137 strikeouts. Additionally, he appeared in more games as a third baseman than he did in 2021, increasing his utility to manager Akihiro Yano. In 2023, newly hired manager Akinobu Okada liked the idea of having Sato play third base that he made the move permanent. The 24-year-old did not miss a beat and appeared in 132 games for the Tigers, hitting .263/.339/.498 with 30 doubles, 6 triples, 24 home runs, 7 stolen bases, and 54 walks to 139 strikeouts. That winter, he would spent time in the U.S., training at the Driveline Baseball facility outside of Seattle to work on optimizing his swing and biomechanics to help cut down on swings-and-misses and poor contact while retaining his power.

The 2024 season began very poorly for Sato, as he got out of the gate slowly and found himself mired in a slump for most of April. He recovered by the end of the month, but his 2024 season would end up a disappointment for the 25-year-old infielder, though over the course of the season, he did make some history by becoming the first Hanshin player since Akinobu Okada did it in the early 1980s to log 100 hits and slug double-digit home runs in his first four seasons. He would appear in 120 games for the Tigers and hit .268/.327/.439 with 21 doubles, 4 triples, 16 home runs, and 36 walks to 133 strikeouts.

Sato came into the 2025 season the same player as he had been in the prior four, but for whatever reason, everything began clicking for him. He appeared in 139 games for the Tigers and hit .277/.345/.579 with 34 doubles, 4 triples, 40 home runs, 10 stolen bases, and 57 walks to 163 strikeouts, establishing career-bests in virtually every offensive category. His 40 home runs were most in the Central League by a wide margin—Shota Morishita hit 23 and ended the season in second place—and enough of his other stats were near or at the top of the league leaders that the third baseman was voted NPB Central League Most Valuable Player in a landslide.

Over that winter, his contract negotiations with Hanshin were difficult, as the discussion of him eventually being posted to a Major League Team came up numerous times, but Sato and the Tigers ended up agreeing to terms just two days before spring training began. He would not remain in camp for very long, as he left along with the rest of Team Samurai Japan to play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Playing right field in two games, DH in two games, and third base in one, Sato appeared in 5 games during the competition and went 3-10 for the defending champions in their games against Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, the Czech Republic, and Venezuela, belting three doubles, drawing a walk, and striking out twice.

In 2026, the 27-year-old slugger appeared in 143 games for the Tigers and hit .306/.383/.609 with 40 doubles, 3 triples, 39 home runs, 8 stolen bases, and 68 walks to 164 strikeouts, his 40 doubles and 39 homers both leading the Central League as well as his .306 batting average and .609 slugging percentage- his .383 OBP was merely second in the league, behind Shota Morishita’s .394. With a league-leading 106 RBI, Sato won the Central League Triple Crown, becoming the becoming the ninth player overall in NPB history to achieve the feat, the first player to do so since Munetaka Murakami hit .318 with 56 home runs and 134 RBI in 2022, and the first Hanshin Tigers player since Randy Bass hit .389 with 47 home runs and 109 RBI in 1986.

The left-handed Sato stands square at the plate, holding his hands high at the eyes and angling his bat behind his head at 10:00. He swings with a slight leg lift and has a long-levered, angular bat path that is designed to lift the ball. Sato is a better low ball hitter than high ball hitter, able to really put a jolt into balls that he is able to fully extend and unload on; in 2025, NPB+ Hawk-Eye tracking data measured his max exit velocity at 116.0 MPH, during the 2026 WBC he was measured as high as 108.6 MPH. During the 2026 regular season, the slugger logged multiple batted ball events with recorded exit velocities over 110 MPH.

Like many modern sluggers, much of Sato’s home run power comes from an optimization of his batted ball spray. The slugger pulled the ball at a 39.8% rate in 2026, went up-the-middle at a 40.7% rate, and went to the opposite field at a 19.5% rate, with a minor 5% increase in his up-the-middle percentage and a 5% decrease in his pull percentage as compared to his 2025 season. He posted a 12.4% line drive rate, 32.1% groundball rate, and 55.5% flyball rate, with slight positive increases in his line drive and flyball rates and a slight decrease in his groundball rate as compared to 2025. His 20.8% pulled flyball rate put him in the 80th percentile in the NPB in 2026

With the power and plethora of home runs comes an aggressive approach that raises red flags with most scouts and evaluators. Over the course of his career, Sato has posted a cumulative 8.8% BB% and a 27.4% K%; over the last two seasons, he posted walk rates of 9.5% and 11.1%, respectively, along with strikeout rates of 27.3% and 26.7%.

He posted a slightly above-average 52.5% Swing% and a slightly below-average 66.3% Contact% in 2026, meaning that he swung a bit more than the MLB average and made a bit less contact than what is considered average in Major League Baseball. Against pitches in zone, Sato had a 79.6 Swing% with a 78.1 Contact%, and against pitches outside of the zone, he had a 36.4 Swing% with a 51.0 Contact%. His in-zone numbers both are once again slightly below-average as compared to the MLB average, while his out-of-zone swing rate was slightly below-average and his out-of-zone contact numbers well below average. His Swing% rate against pitches in the heart of the zone, in the shadow of the zone, chase pitches, and waste pitches are all high, but his rate against pitches in the shadow of the zone is considerably higher than MLB average, as opposed to the others, which are only marginally higher. Interestingly, this is not actually a weakness leading to a preponderance of his whiffs; Sato’s Contact% against such pitches is higher than average and his Swing/Run Value is positive against pitches in the shadow of the zone.

The slugger saw a wide variety of pitches in his 614 plate appearances in 2026, facing four-seam fastballs 37.7% of the time, splitters/forkballs 18.3% of the time, sliders 17% of the time, cutters 11.9% of the time, changeups 5.6% of the time, two-seam fastballs/sinkers 5.2% of the time, and curveballs 4.1% of the time. The left-hander posted positive run values against every pitch type he faced, with the highest weighted runs above average per 100 coming from two-seam fastballs/sinkers, changeups, and cutters, while his lowest weighted runs above average per 100 came from curveballs, splitters, four-seam fastballs, and sliders. Of note, the average fastball velocity that Sato faced in 2026 was 147.9 KM, which converts to 91.9 MPH.

Defensively, the third baseman has improved over the years, but still leaves a lot to be desired. Having experience in the infield as well as in the outfield, Sato was initially made a third baseman by Hanshin manager Akinobu Okada because he showed good footwork, arm strength, picking, and receiving in the infield. The transition was far from smooth, as he committed 20 errors in his first year as a full-time third baseman in 2023 and 29 in his second full year there. After being sent down to Hanshin’s ni-gun team for a brief period early in the 2024 season to work on his defense, Sato worked extensively with infield coach Shuta Tanaka that winter to improve his defense. The work he put in paid dividends in 2025, as he committed just 6 errors in 2025, but his yips returned in 2026, posting 18 errors.

Because he has a strong arm and possesses some athleticism, Sato can also play a corner outfield position as well, occasionally being penciled in as one by manager Kyuji Fujikawa over the past two seasons.

2026 stats: .230/ .289/ .424, .713 OPS, 108 wRC+, 0.4 fWAR (121 G, 505 PA), -17 OAA

So begins the individualized account of the 2026 Giants. The atomization of failure. The Bummer Parade. The team failed because many of its players failed — a core that weighed-down rather than carried. Adames is first alphabetically and fittingly first to be scrutinized, because as the recipient of the Giants largest free-agent contract, the first major Free Agent signing during the Posey Era, the veteran shortstop should be considered the grand marshal of this dejected march.   

Before arriving in the Bay, Adames spent his career with the Tampa Bay Rays, a team currently wrestling it out with the Guardians for the American League Pennant, and the Milwaukee Brewers who just proton-torpedoed the Death Star to blast into their franchise’s first World Series appearance in 44 years. He played in the postseason in five of his first seven seasons. HE was in Eden, a winner’s paradise with upwardly-mobile clubs, but now, since signing with the Giants, he’s “east” of it. 2025’s 81-81 record was the first time Adames was a part of a non-winning team, and now he’s tasted a losing record for the first time in his career.

“It sucks” was the blunt assessment Adames provided after receiving an injection in his strained left elbow that ended his season a month early. The not-winning certainly hurts, but I imagine there’s an even harsher burn felt when Adames considers the fact that Milwaukee has earned the best record in baseball in consecutive years since he left. His absence to their success is correlation not causation (probably), but that logic is sheer armor in the cold loneliness of a sleepless night as the demons descend. 

We are our own worst critics, and I’m not here to pile on, just reiterate a known fact: The 2026 Giants were bad in part because Adames was bad. His Win Probability Added was in the negatives (-1.68). He led the Giants position players last year with a 4.4 fWAR, but in 2026, that number plummeted to 0.4 — the lowest mark of his career (including the 60-game 2020 season), and good for just 11th on the team. Lower than injured back-up catcher Daniel Susac (1.0), who logged nearly 350 less plate appearances. Lower than Jonah Cox (0.6) who started the year in Double-A Richmond and played in nearly half as many games at the Major League level. 

Horrid defense is partially to blame for Adames’s fWAR being so low. Generally defensive statistical numbers are best at reflecting the extremes. Pete Crow-Armstrong’s MLB-leading 26 Outs Above Average mark feels appropriately illustrative of how good he is with a glove. Then, on the other end of the spectrum, there’s Adames. His  -14 Fielding Run Value was the lowest of his career and the second lowest of all position players across the Majors. His -17 Outs Above Average also found itself in the dark basement of the league’s 1st percentile, tied with Washington’s shortstop CJ Abrams. 

These numbers resonant. They feel accurate and true. Adames was a bad shortstop, and the free fall started from the very beginning. The first time Adames handled a baseball in 2026 he botched a double-play attempt behind Logan Webb by spiking his throw to first base, allowing a runner to score. 

10 of his 18 errors on the season were from his arm. To be fair, some of these were not egregious misfires, but unnecessarily challenging short-hops in front of a trio of inexperienced first basemen like Rafael Devers, Casey Schmitt, and Bryce Eldridge. One could argue, as I have in the past, that as the Ringo of the infield, the first baseman is there to support the genius of the other three. But that assumes a level of exceptionalism. While Matt Chapman and Luis Arraez fielded their position at a high, somewhat inspired, level, Adames operated on a much lower plane. Range was a serious issue. In different positional alignments, shaded towards third base or second base, Adames struggled to cover the holes that were created by these shifts. He looked stiff, often disjointed, and out of rhythm with himself.

A persistent back issue helps explain this defensive regression. The injury not only hampered Adames’s movement during play, but managing the pain also cut-in to his usual pre-game preparation. Between plate-appearances and between innings, Adames would be seen with his lower back swathed in a cumbersome cummerbund-like compression heat wrap thing in a desperate attempt to keep the issue at bay. Though the discomfort never officially led to a stint on the injured list, it caused periodical in-game exits and periods of forced rest, before he went on the IL in the final month of the season with an elbow strain.

121 games was Adames’s lowest games played total (excluding 2020) since his rookie year in 2018. He had missed just three games over the last two seasons. 

Offensively, there’s not much on the surface that show a significant difference between his performance in 2025 and 2026. Sure he didn’t hit 30 homers again, coming up nine short, but he also logged 180 less plate appearances. His batting average and slugging percentage held pretty much steady from the previous year with some nominal increases.

His wRC+ season dropped from 108 to 98 — a drop best explained by his .289 on-base percentage (.311 wOBA), his lowest of his career.

Walks were a struggle. This was a team-wide epidemic, but on an individual level, you could argue that Adames set the tone as an early choice by Tony Vitello to hit lead-off. Over the first month of the season Adames, dealt with another painfully slow start, posting a 68 wRC+. A good portion of those plate-appearances came at the top the batting order where he walked just seven times in 139 PA with an overall .259 OBP.

Now Adames isn’t known for his disciplined approach at the plate, but throughout his career, he’s been much better at getting on base than what he showed in early 2026, and 2026 in general. His BB% fell from 11.7% in 2025 to 7.3%. Maybe this dip was the result of him trying to embody the Luis Arraez, contact-oriented batting philosophy espoused in the pre-season, but I think his persistent back discomfort held sway here as well. Hitting is hard enough when confident and healthy, so when a hitter isn’t feeling 100 percent, or doesn’t have complete faith in their lower half, their hitting becomes reactionary and defensive. They lunge at pitches to fight them off, or try to cheat by swinging earlier, thus becoming susceptible and exposed to opposing pitchers secondary offerings.

This was the energy emanating from Adames for so many plate appearances. He looked off-balance, on his heels, and not in control. His swing decisions cost him. He chased more out of the zone and made more contact on pitches that weren’t strikes. He swung the bat more overall but took more of the pitches he should’ve swung at. More often than not the count wasn’t in his favor, which led to him seeing fewer straight four-seam fastballs than he did last season — and he did less with the four-seamers he got. He maintained similar consistency with bat speed and launch angle, but overall his barrel-rate and hard-hit rate dropped.   

Despite the all-around rough year — probably the worst of his career — don’t expect any major changes to Adames’s role on the team in 2027. Buster Posey is still confident in his abilities at short, which is not surprising however delusional some fans might consider that to be considering his injury, his age, and the wealth of younger options on the roster and out on the farm. A move to the right side of the infield is definitely on the horizon for Adames (or a move to another team in the offseason??), but to be searching for a replacement now feels a bit reactive. I buy the bad back narrative, and he’ll benefit from extra time provided by the probable lockout will give him.

That being said, patience should be in short supply in 2027. That should be posted above the clubhouse door for every Giants player to see. For Adames in particular, all the good will from the 2025 season is now gone. His annual salary will jump to around $30 million in the third year of his seven-year deal, making him the second highest paid player per year on the roster behind Devers. That’s a lot of cash. And with great cash comes great expectations. His ebullient personality is a nice fit for “heart-and-soul” of the club, but a cheery smile isn’t going to float him through another sub-par year.   

Adames should be feeling the heat.