SAN DIEGO, CA - OCTOBER 06: Xander Bogaerts #2 of the San Diego Padres celebrates after defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in Game Three of the National League Division Series presented by Booking.com at Petco Park on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability).
The Veteran Shortstop
When Xander Bogaerts was signed to an 11-year, $280 million contract prior to the 2023 season (wow, that’s still insane to think about), he was expected to man shortstop for the next several years for San Diego. He’s done so faithfully and has been available for the majority of his tenure thus far. Bogaerts has played in 130-plus games in three of four seasons with the Padres. However, he has yet to perform better than his first year in San Diego (4.2 Wins Above Replacement).
Overall Grade: C+
Bogaerts’ production has continued to decline year by year. This season was no different, with the shortstop posting a .231/.332/.344 slash line and 13 home runs. The homer total was an increase from the last two seasons, but his batting average took a sharp downturn. Bogaerts’ bat was downright anemic apart from certain portions of the year.
That being said, Bogaerts ended the season batting .315 in September and slashed .286/.348/.476 with a home run in the playoffs. His defense took a step back from his stellar performance in 2025 (+6 Fielding Run Value, +7 Outs Above Average), but he was still solid at the position with +4 FRV and +3 OAA. Bogaerts manned shortstop faithfully for the Friars, playing in 151 games for San Diego.
The biggest question for Bogaerts is whether his offense can return to form. Since joining San Diego, he has yet to prove he can make a difference with his bat apart from a solid 2023 campaign. That being said, Bogaerts was somewhat unlucky in 2026. The veteran shortstop batted .231 with an expected batting average of .248. That’s not a great deal better, but it’s certainly an improvement.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL - OCTOBER 19: Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrates after defeating the Cleveland Guardians at Tropicana Field on Monday, October 19, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
On the newest Rays Your Voice, I break down the Rays’ pennant-clinching game 6 win over the Guardians, and what the atmosphere was like inside Tropicana Field.
About halfway through the episode, I am joined by Danny Russell to preview the World Series matchup against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Stay tuned for instant reaction podcasts after World Series games, which will be streamed live from our YouTube channel. All episodes are also available wherever you get your podcasts!
MILWAUKEE — The Miz will try to whiz his famous fastball by batters on baseball’s biggest stage, opening a new-look World Series between teams guaranteed to produce a first-time champion.
Jacob Misiorowski brings his record-setting heat to the mound for the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night when he throws the first pitch of the best-of-seven championship against the Tampa Bay Rays, a matchup of modest-money marvels who bumped off glamorous rivals with a throwback base-to-base style.
“Forrest Gump, everyone,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said Thursday, introducing his ace to the assembled media.
“I’m still fresh to this and have no idea what the hell is going on,” Misiorowski said a few minutes later.
Few predicted this pairing of pennant winners when the season opened March 25. The first World Series with robot umpires is the first since 1980 between teams seeking their first championship and also could be the first with a 104 mph pitch — thanks to Misiorowski — and the first to be played totally indoors.
“I’m excited to see two great teams that play the game a little differently than maybe it’s been played the last decade or so,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said.
Milwaukee is in the Series for the second time after a 44-year absence — an appropriate number given that it was the jersey of the Cream City’s most famous baseball player, Hank Aaron, who became a star with the Milwaukee Braves in the 1950s and ended his career with the expansion Brewers in the 1970s.
Both teams fell short in previous Series trips, the Brewers losing to St. Louis in 1982 and the Rays to Philadelphia in 2008 and to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020. Not since the Phillies beat Kansas City in 1980 have two teams met seeking their first title. The time before that was in 1920.
Misiorowski is likely to set a World Series velocity record
Misiorowski, a 24-year-old right-hander in his first full major league season, is a starting pitcher like no other. He threw 1,115 pitches of 100 mph or higher this year — shattering the old high of 673 since tracking began in 2008, by Jordan Hicks in 2018.
His fastest pitch was 105.5 mph to the Chicago Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong on June 27, and he appears likely to break the 101.1 mph record for a Series starter by the New York Mets’ Noah Syndergaard in 2015 and possibly the overall Series high of 103.2 mph by Cubs reliever Aroldis Chapman to Cleveland’s Coco Crisp in Game 2 of 2016.
Misiorowski didn’t finish the fifth inning in either of his first two postseason starts this year. Batters have swung at 94 of his 182 postseason pitches and fouled off 51 — 28% of pitches and 54% of swings.
“He hasn’t been as crisp,” Murphy said. “They’re obviously looking at an area. They’re trying to exploit everything. He’s exposed, like all these guys get at some point.”
The Brewers and Rays have throwback offenses
In an age where power bats usually rule, Milwaukee scored a major league-low 32.1% of its runs on homers and Tampa Bay was second-lowest at 34.4%, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“It’s cool that you don’t have to be that team to hit 170 home runs a game or whatever,” Misiorowski said. “You can win a baseball game so many different ways.”
Rays batters had the fewest strikeouts among the 30 teams and Tampa Bay’s 45 sacrifice bunts were the most among American League teams since 2015.
“I was a little discouraged for the last 10 or 15 years in the way the game had gone as far as relying on the home run, not worrying about strikeouts,” said Hall of Famer Robin Yount, a star of the ’82 Brewers. “The game today looks like they’re starting to really focus on playing baseball again.”
After back-to-back Dodgers titles, MLB will have a small-payroll champion
This marks the first time since 1991 that both Series teams are in the bottom half of payrolls: the Brewers were 19th as of Aug. 31 and the Rays 25th. Milwaukee, MLB’s smallest market, could become the first small-market champion since Kansas City in 2015. The Rays rank 15th in market size.
To reach the Series, the Brewers swept the deep-pocketed, two-time champion Dodgers in the NL Championship Series and the Rays swept the New York Yankees in an AL Division Series.
The highest-paid player in the Series, Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich, was 44th overall in the majors on opening day. Yandy Díaz, who earns most among the Rays, ranked 154th.
Robot umps are changing games
Batters have succeeded on 63% of challenges during the postseason in the first year of the Automated Ball-Strike System, winning 40 of 63 appeals to the robot umps. That is up from 49% during the regular season.
Catchers’ 58% success rate in the playoffs (58 of 99) is down a tick from 59% during the regular season and pitchers are 1 for 1 — Tampa Bay’s Griffin Jax made the only challenge. The 60% overall rate is up from 54% in the regular season.
Tampa Bay’s batters have yet to make a postseason challenge. Milwaukee’s have won 4 of 7, including a perfect 2 for 2 by Jake Bauers.
Brewers catcher William Contreras has won 60% (12 of 20) and Rays catcher Liam Hicks 67% (8 of 12).
Rest vs rust: Extra time off hasn’t been helpful in recent years
Milwaukee will have had seven days off going into the opener.
While teams with less rest are 15-15 in the Series since Wild Card Era started in 1995, they are 12-4 since 2009.
Both teams are happy at home
Milwaukee and Tampa Bay tied for the best home record this year at 55-26.
Forced from Tropicana Field for 2025 after damage from Hurricane Milton, the Rays played across the bay at the Yankees’ spring training stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, and then returned to the refurbished Trop for 2026.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL - OCTOBER 13: Manager Stephen Vogt #12 of the Cleveland Guardians talks with media during a press conference prior to Game Two of the American League Championship Series between the Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, October 13, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Stephen Vogt as next Mariners manager rumors can officially be put to bed. Vogt told Cleveland media at today’s Guardians end-of-season media availability that he is coming back to Cleveland.
Here’s Vogt speaking directly on it:
"You've gotten more phone calls than I have. I have not heard a word about it and I'm under contract here and I love Cleveland. I would love to be close to my family if I'm being honest. I miss them everyday. It's the hardest part of the job…but I'm committed to being here in… pic.twitter.com/OgLhPLzOLu
Vogt’s name has been connected by some to the Mariners managerial search since the position became vacant, despite him being under contract with the Guardians, meaning the two teams would have to pull off a trade in order to get Vogt to Seattle – an extremely rare occurrence, and one that would require the Guardians to willingly part with a manager who has overseen three straight playoff appearances in the three years he’s been with the club. The flames of this fantasy were stoked by geography – Vogt’s family is based in the Olympia area, and the former catcher got his pro coaching start with the Mariners in 2023.
Those flames blew into their biggest fire yet when Anthony Castrovince, a long-tenured MLB.com reporter and generally one of the Voices We Trust around here, went on Cleveland sports radio and said that in his “personal observation” it “kills” Vogt to be away from his family:
“I can’t possibly rule it out, just knowing the personal element.”
Now, Castrovince wasn’t exactly speaking as a journalist here, but more as an opinion-giver on what he’s perceived over Vogt’s tenure, but there’s a reason there’s no “personal observation” class taught in J-school. This soundbite obviously got picked up and bandied about as proof that Vogt might be on the move back to Seattle, logic and facts be darned. It’s a good reminder that smoke doesn’t necessarily mean fire in this process, and the best voices to listen to are the local, deeply informed ones – such as Ryan Divish in The Seattle Times, who called the Vogt idea a “nonstarter” weeks ago.
It’s also a reminder that the Mariners front office – and specifically Jerry Dipoto – despise internal leaks: recall the brouhaha around who broke the news about Scott Servais’s firing in 2024. There’s a very good chance the list of managerial candidates that circulates publicly vs. the internal list has one or two or zero overlapping names. A more constructive path is to think of what qualities the Mariners might prize most highly in a managerial candidate, and then seek to identify people who fit those qualifications. Teaser: tomorrow we’ll be publishing a wishlist of what the LL staff considers non-negotiables for a future manager that you can refer to in building your own list.
Sunderland drop points in 1-1 draw but stay unbeaten
VAR rules out Juventus winner in draw with Rennes
Celtic suffered more Europa League pain as Spanish side Celta Vigo came from behind to win 2-1 at Parkhead. After defeats by Ferencvaros and Benfica in their first two league phase fixtures, Martin O’Neill’s side struggled to impose themselves on the visitors who were neat and tidy without really testing Hoops keeper Sam Johnstone.
Germany midfielder Mika Baur fired the home side in front just over a minute into the second half to thrill the Celtic fans but Spain defender Javi Rodríguez scored twice in three minutes – a header then an unstoppable drive – to stun the home side who could not find a way back.
After the congratulations were complete at St George’s Park on Thursday and the Australians milled on the outfield for a moment, Marnus Labuschagne lingered a few metres behind his teammates and appeared to be taking the whole ground in.
It was an unforgettable moment on Tuesday night in New York when the Knicks raised a championship banner to the rafters at Madison Square Garden for the first time in over half a century, and the members of last year’s title-winning team received their championship rings.
It was unforgettable for everyone involved in the franchise's first championship since 1973. Well, except for Mitchell Robinson.
The former Knick, who signed with the Boston Celtics this offseason, admitted on Thursday that he wasn’t watching.
“I didn’t watch it,” he said, adding that he was “still stuck” in his head from the Celtics game earlier in the day as Boston began its season by letting a 22-point second-half lead slip away in a 121-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons.
“I am proud of those guys; obviously, I was a part of it,” Robinson said of his former comrades. “I just didn’t really wanna watch it.”
A few days later, Robinson indicated that his focus remains on his new team as he shrugged off any talk about facing his former teammates this Friday in Boston.
"It doesn't matter that I'm playing my former team; it’s more so just trying to bounce back from what happened two nights ago,” he said, referencing the season-opening defeat.
“It's basketball; it's a business,” Robinson continued. “Got to play the team just like you play any other team."
Karl-Anthony Towns said it was "bittersweet" to see Robinson join the Celtics.
"You love Mitch, we've done so many historical things together here. To not see him in a Knicks jersey anymore... for all of us. We're a family unit," Towns said.
"It's gonna be amazing to see our brother, to be able to hug him, to be able to show him some love, and to, obviously, compete," he continued.
Earlier in the day, Josh Hart said he was "looking forward" to seeing Robinson.
"They cross match a lot, so I'm sure he'll be guarding me, so can't wait to shoot in that..." he said before stopping himself. "When I make a couple, I'm gonna let him know."
Asked specifically about facing Jalen Brunson coming down the lane, Robinson shrugged and said he is “just here to play basketball.”
“Same thing I’ll do with any other team, same thing I’ll do with them. It’s just all about basketball,” he said.
Robinson started and played 18 minutes in the Celtics' first game, scoring four points (2-for-2 from the floor, 0-for-2 from the line) with just three rebounds (one offensive), two blocks, a steal, an assist, and two turnovers to finish a minus-8.
“I use it as fuel, kinda have to,” Robinson said about getting past a rough night. “Last game we got demolished. As a big, can’t let that happen. I gotta take that on the chin and learn from it, watch the film, and get better, and just focus on the next one.”
"It's bittersweet. You love Mitch - we've done so many historical things together here. To not see him in a Knicks jersey anymore...we're a family unit. To not be able to have him with us on this journey after that amazing journey we went through is bittersweet. But it's going to be amazing to be able to see our brother, hug him, show him some love and compete playing basketball like we love to do. We made each other better. He brought the best out of me, and I feel that I was able to bring the best out of him. Mitch was a big part of this team winning a championship and probably has the most important offensive rebound in Knicks history." Karl-Anthony Towns on facing Mitchell Robinson and the Celtics tomorrow night:
May 12, 2026; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; The 1995 World Series trophy on the field in honor of former Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner and former manager Bobby Cox before a game against and Chicago Cubs at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
The 2026 World Series creeps ever closer.
Both teams participated in World Series Media Day on Thursday before the action finally gets underway Friday night in Milwaukee.
Which team are you pulling for to win its first World Series? Personally, a good friend of mine is a diehard Rays fan so I’m throwing my weight behind Tampa Bay to beat Milwaukee.
For those who will be watching even with the Braves not involved for the fifth straight year, here’s an appetizer MLB posted on its YouTube account Thursday.
And for those who are only particularly interested in watching when the Braves are involved, the timestamp you’re looking for is 47:30.
James Hoye has been named the crew chief of the nine-umpire crew that will work this year's Fall Classic, Major League Baseball announced on Thursday, Oct. 22. There are seven MLB umpires assigned to the field with a rotation each game that will ensure a different person is behind home plate. There are also two MLB umpires assigned to manage the league's replay system throughout the series.
The Brewers and Rays are set to open the 2026 World Series with Game 1 in Milwaukee on Friday. Here's a look at the umpires selected to work the series and their assignments for each game:
MILWAUKEE, WI - OCTOBER 13: Hall of Famer Robin Yount embraces Ryan Braun after delivering the ceremonial first pitch prior to Game One of the National League Championship Series presented by loanDepot between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers at American Family Field on Monday, October 13, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Aaron Gash/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
After the Brewers clinched the pennant, the first person I reached out to was my dad.
My father was born and raised in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. He’s been a Brewers fan his entire life, no doubt a consequence of coming of age during the franchise’s glory years in the late ’70s and early ’80s. When I was a kid, he’d tell me about (and show me highlights of) players like Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Sal Bando, and Rollie Fingers.
In 1982, he was 15, and the Brewers were the best team he’d ever seen. Yount was at short, Molitor at third, Gantner at second, and his cousin Tom was Bernie Brewer. If he had friends he wanted to impress, he’d have Tom wave at him from the top of the slide.
My dad had been going to games at Milwaukee County Stadium for years thanks to his uncle, who would take him whenever he didn’t have school. But that fall, his sister took him to see the Brewers play the Angels in the ALCS. The Brewers beat the Angels, but they went on to lose the World Series to the Cardinals in seven games. I asked him whether that loss took the air out of him.
“If anything, it made me more of a fan,” he said. The Brewers were still a great team, one of the best in baseball, and to him, it looked like they had what it took to win a World Series. They’d make it back soon enough.
But slowly, those late ’70s and early ’80s Brewers teams fell apart. While Yount and Molitor remained, Gorman Thomas and Don Money were gone by the end of the ’83 season, Don Sutton by the end of ’84, Fingers by ’86, and Ben Oglivie by ’87.
From 1988 to 2007, the Brewers won 90 games just once and finished under .500 more often than not. As my dad got older, his fandom faded a little, too. He went to college, moved away, and spent much of those 20 years working, preoccupied with more immediate concerns than the Brewers’ record. Baseball is magical, but it’s easier to see the magic when you’re a kid. He never stopped being a fan, but the love he’d had for those late ’70s and early ’80s teams didn’t quite return. Not until I came along.
He showed me the Brewers, and somewhere along the way, I fell in love with them on my own.
We visited family in Milwaukee in 2007, and my dad took me to a game at Miller Park, the first baseball game I ever saw in person. Rickie Weeks hit a walk-off single, and that was it: I was officially a Brewers fan, too. What my dad felt as a kid watching Yount and Molitor, I felt watching Prince Fielder, Ryan Braun, Yovani Gallardo, and Rickie Weeks.
And because I cared about the Brewers, he started caring about them again, too. When he’d pick me up from school or take me to practice, he’d already have the Brewers game on the radio. He’d given me the team. Without meaning to, I gave it back.
I was six years old in 2008, the year my dad really got back into the Brewers. He remembers the CC Sabathia trade fondly, as many fans do. CC only pitched half a season in Milwaukee, but that run was unforgettable. More than that, as my dad put it, it was the “first time in (his) memory that he ever saw the Brewers go after a big name midseason.” That team felt different from the teams that came before it.
As I fell in love with Fielder, Braun, Nyjer Morgan, and the 2011 squad, he did too. That team didn’t make it to the World Series, and neither did the 2018 team or the 2025 team, but our love for the Brewers never wavered. Whether or not the Brewers were doing well, we made a point of watching every game we could together.
Sometimes that meant complaining about the roster and praying for a .500 season, and sometimes it meant hoping the Brewers would finally make it back to the World Series. As every season ended in heartbreak, some more than others, the hope my dad had had for the 1982 team stayed with him, and with me. Someday, maybe next season, they’d be back in the World Series.
Now, for the first time since my dad was 15, the Brewers are back in the World Series. This year’s team is also different. My dad, who watched the ’82 team in person, says it’s the most fun Brewers team he’s ever seen. He loves Pat Murphy and thinks Murphy has them playing “as a team” more than any other version of the Brewers he’s seen. No one player is bigger than the team, and no one lets his ego change the dynamic. No matter who’s in the starting lineup, it’s all the Brewers. He loves the small ball, too: “four hits in an inning instead of waiting around for someone to hit a homer.”
I asked him what it would mean if they finally won it.
“Like many people have said: just one before I die.”
I’m in my hometown for the playoffs for the first time since 2019, so I’ve been watching almost every game with him at my parents’ house. As is often the case with parents, my dad and I don’t always know what to say to each other. When the Brewers are on, we never have to figure it out.
It turns out that works with strangers, too. During last year’s playoffs, I met a guy wearing a Brewers hat in an airport in Portugal, of all places. We were both jet-lagged and tired, but we immediately flashed each other a smile and struck up a conversation about the team. We didn’t have to explain anything. We both knew about 1982, 2011, 2018, the Cardinals, the Cubs, and the Dodgers, and we all know how rare this is.
I wasn’t home for the clincher. I was at the game in Los Angeles. After the final out, I was outside Dodger Stadium high-fiving people I’d never met and will never see again. I saw Yount jerseys, Braun jerseys, Morgan jerseys, Ben Sheets jerseys. Even a Norichika Aoki jersey. In Los Angeles. For a franchise that’s never won a World Series, fans find each other.
It was the first postseason game I’d ever been to; I was both elated to be there and sad I couldn’t watch it with him. So I texted him from the Dodger Stadium bleachers. He wrote back:
“So glad you got to see it. So sad I am not with you.”
“Here in spirit,” I responded.
I’m grateful to the Brewers for always giving me a reason to reach out to him. I’ll be watching every World Series game with him, hoping he gets to see one before he dies. This time, I’ll be there with him.
Because for us, and for so many Brewers fans, the Brewers are more than just a baseball team.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins has conceded selectors will look closely at the positions of several players after a humilating innings defeat in the second Test against South Africa in Gqeberha.
Will Venable has plenty to smile about after leading the White Sox to the postseason in his second year as manager. | (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)
The 2026 White Sox broke through the national recognition barrier that has haunted them as a team with a small-market reputation and the figurative youngest child in Chicago baseball. Sporting News named Will Venable AL Manager of the Year and tapped Chase Meidroth for the AL All-Star team, in voting by fellow managers and players, respectively.
Venable became the first manager in MLB history to lead a team to the postseason after the Sox posted back-to-back 100-plus-loss seasons. Although South Siders may scoff at their underwhelming September, no other team has won 84 games after losing 100-plus games in three consecutive years. Venable kept the Sox atop the AL Central for 96 days and became the third manager since 1901 to oversee a 19-plus-win improvement in consecutive seasons, excluding 2020 and strike seasons. Applause is especially warranted considering the Sox started 11-17 in the first month of the 2026 season.
Sporting News’ award makes Venable the sixth Sox manager to earn the title, alongside Ozzie Guillén (2005), Jerry Manuel (2000), Jeff Torborg (1990), Tony La Russa (1983) and Chuck Tanner (1972).
Though Meidroth made less history, everyone felt his impact on the field. The 25-year-old slashed .276/.350/.415 in 154 games and led AL second basemen in hits, walks, runs scored, doubles, total bases (235) and slugging percentage while ranking second in average, on-base percentage and OPS (.765). His 4.5 WAR this year was the highest among all Sox second basemen in the 21st century and the best performance at the keystone since Nellie Fox in 1959 (6.1 WAR).
Meidroth is a Gold Glove Award finalist and the second Sox second baseman named a Sporting News All-Star, and the first Chicago infielder since José Abreu in 2020 to earn the honor.
The Sox will keep basking in the glow of their pleasantly unexpected season while the World Series plays out. Even as chatter shifts to next year, Venable and Meidroth will remain cornerstones of Chicago’s near-term future.
MILWAUKEE — The Tampa Bay Rays had ace Drew Rasmussen available on regular rest to start Game 1 of the World Series.
But Rasmussen on extra rest is even more dominant. And that made it a relatively easy decision for Rays manager Kevin Cash to skip Rasmussen and name right-hander Nick Martinez his World Series Game 1 starter.
Martinez, 36, will oppose Milwaukee Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski in the Friday, Oct. 23 opener at American Family Field. Martinez is coming off a strong 5 ⅓-inning, two-hit, one-run start against the Cleveland Guardians in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, tying it 2-2.
Rasmussen followed with a dominant seven-inning, four-hit effort to win Game 5 and send Tampa Bay home with just one win necessary to reach the World Series. No. 2 starter Freddy Peralta followed suit with a Game 6 gem to send them to Milwaukee.
Rasmussen pitched Sunday, putting him on regular rest Friday. But Cash is not going to burn that bullet just yet.
“We prioritized Drew getting an extra day. We’re trying to get the full pitch allotment out of him,” says Cash before the Rays worked out in Milwaukee on Thursday. "He's had a pretty thick workload here. We've relied on him heavily.
"When Nick pitches, we win."
Rasmussen is putting together a fantastic body of work: Over three starts this postseason, he’s pitched 21 innings and given up just three runs, a 1.29 ERA. He’s struck out 23 and walked just three and the Rays have won all his starts.
In Martinez, Tampa Bay does not get the raw power Rasmussen can provide. But he creates excellent deception with his changeup playing off his low-90s fastball, benefiting from working under Kyle Snyder in his first year with Tampa Bay.
Martinez had strong seasons recently with both San Diego and Cincinnati after a mid-career return from Japan, but has never been better than his All-Star campaign of 2026, leading to one of the game’s ultimate honors – a World Series Game 1 start, against the likely National League Cy Young Award winner.
"It fell on me, and my job is just to rack up as many outs as I can," says Martinez.
His contributions to the club have been both tangible and otherwise: Martinez has taken it upon himself to organize team dinners in every city, including before this World Series: He reports that there was a fantastic turnout for the squad's dinner at Carnevore, one of Milwaukee's finest steakhouses.
"I’ve been around guys who know how to control a clubhouse. Getting the guys together was a blessing," says Martinez. "That chemistry transfers to the field."
The National Basketball Referees Association (NBRA), the official union of NBA officials, responded to the controversial traveling no-call by Minnesota Timberwolves guard LaMelo Ball, indicating that it should have been ruled as an infraction.
“For everyone asking, ‘how is this legal?’ It’s not!” the NBRA posted Thursday, Oct. 22 from its social media account. “He gathers with his right foot on the floor and would be permitted two steps by rule (left-right). He takes four steps after gathering the ball and travels.”
The play occurred with 8:19 left in the second quarter of Minnesota’s game against the Miami Heat. With the game tied at 39, Ball slipped past a screen toward the right side of the floor. Ball picked up his dribble and then took a gather step by shuffling to his right. The issue is that Ball then took four lateral steps before beginning his shooting motion. He would go on to lace the 3-pointer, one of his five successful conversions on the night.
For everyone asking, “how is this legal?” It’s not! He gathers with his right foot on the floor and would be permitted two steps by rule (left-right). He takes four steps after gathering the ball and travels. https://t.co/dSitGeRNSD
When reached for comment on the no-call, the NBA referred USA TODAY Sports to the statement issued by the NBRA.
This was the latest controversial traveling no-call early in the 2026-27 season. On opening night Tuesday, Oct. 20, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shuffled his pivot foot on a converted field goal, drawing a number of critical comments from fans and viewers on social media.
During the preseason, Boston Celtics guard Hugo González was on his way to an uncontested layup on a fast break when he collected the ball at the 3-point line and then took five steps before laying it in. That play was also not called for a travel.
The NBA and its officiating staff review every play during the season and assess the enforcement of its rules, so they may opt to take a closer look should they deem it a larger issue. At this point, however, the gather step and travels have not risen to that level.
