Category: Sports News

Jerry Koosman died, the Mets announced Sunday. He was 83.

One of the greatest pitchers in franchise history, Koosman's No. 36 was retired Aug. 28, 2021, at Citi Field.

"Humbly thankful that they thought that much of me to retire my number," he said before his ceremony five years ago. "I know I’m joining a great crew that's already had their numbers retired. I don't know that I deserve it, but I guess we're gonna get on with it."

Koosman's MLB career featured the Mets (1967-78), Minnesota Twins (1978-81), Chicago White Sox (1981-83) and Philadelphia Phillies (1983-84).

He was a two-time All-Star (1968-69) and key member of the Mets' 1969 World Series team alongside ace
Tom Seaver
.

"Jerry was so underrated because Seaver was there, too," Duffy Dyer, the former Mets catcher and Koosman's teammate from 1968-71, told SNY's Anthony McCarron in August 2021.

"His fastball had really good movement and he threw hard. I always thought he was tougher to catch because you didn't know how his fastball was going to move each time -- cut, sink or rise. It was such a great pitch."

Koosman was on SNY's Mets All-Time Team earlier this year.

"Seaver's wingman, Koosman -- whose No. 36 was retired in 2021 -- was a force in his own right during the 12 years he spent with the Mets from 1967 to 1978 -- posting a 3.09 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in over 2,500 innings," SNY's Danny Abriano wrote March 20.

"His most dominant stretch came from 1968 to 1971, and included tossing a complete game in Game 5 of the 1969 World Series as the Mets won their first title."

Koosman was born Dec. 23, 1942, in Appleton, Minn. He made his MLB debut April 14, 1967, with the Mets and last appeared in the bigs as a member of the Phillies Aug. 21, 1985.

We can all easily remember a bunch of big plays from the 2026 season that came at crucial moments, and either helped the Yankees win or cost them in a loss. However, there is another way to look back at some of those moments beyond just racking the brain to recall them.

Win Probability Added is a statistic that measures how every play in a game changes the statistical likelihood of a team winning. As we continue through our end-of-season obituaries on this most recent campaign, I wanted to see how our memories of the biggest plays match up with what WPA says were the most impactful ones. Here are two lists—one of the best plays and one of the worst—of the biggest WPA changes from the 2026 Yankees’ season.

Positive

3. Amed Rosario’s go-ahead home run (4/7 vs. Athletics, +0.526 WPA)

Rosario ended up having a disappointing season considering all he was re-signed to do was be a platoon bat. However at the start of the year, it seemed like he could be that and more, and this was a major reason why. Having already homered on the day, Rosario stepped to the plate in the eighth with the Yankees down 3-2. Facing former Yankee Mark Leiter Jr., Rosario took a pitch into the second deck in left field, despite facing a pitcher opposite-handed from the ones he was supposed to crush.

2. Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s go-ahead home run (7/10 at Nationals, +0.645 WPA)

For reasons I can’t entirely pinpoint, this ended up being the biggest play of the regular season according to Championship Win Probability Added, as it increased the Yankees’ World Series odds by 0.44 percent. However, I definifely understand how it changed this one game so much. Trailing the Nationals in the top of the ninth, Chisholm stepped to the plate with a runner on and one out against another former Yankee (albeit briefly), Matt Krook. He crushed one down the right-field line, as it stayed fair to give the Yankees a lead somewhat out of nowhere. Austin Wells chipped in with another homer later in the inning, as the Bombers hung on after that.

1. José Caballero’s walk-off double (4/15 vs. Angels, +0.663 WPA)

Having taken a 3-0 lead early, the Yankees had managed just three baserunners from the third through eighth innings, losing the lead to the Angels in the process. With familiar punching bag Jordan Romano on the bump for the Halos, however, they had a fighting chance. Chisholm singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth and Wells drew a walk. Both were then going when Caballero dropped a single into center field. The hit-and-run ended up being quite helpful. Chisholm probably would’ve scored anyway, but thanks to some nifty sliding, Wells managed to just beat the tag, flipping the score on one play and giving the Yankees a walk-off win.

However, now we have to get to the other side of the coin…

Negative

3. Coby Mayo’s go-ahead home run (5/11 at Orioles, -0.481 WPA)

As you might be able to tell from the rest of these lists, most of the big WPA swings come on events in the eighth, ninth, or extra innings. This one, however, cracked the list despite coming in the seventh. Ryan Weathers had been excellent on this day, keeping Baltimore off the board for six frames. He came back out for the seventh and got one out, but also gave up a single to Adley Rutschman and a walk to Tyler O’Neill. Aaron Boone then went to Brent Headrick. While the southpaw had a very good season, this happened on the third pitch he threw, eventually costing the Yankees the game.

2. Tyrone Taylor’s game-tying homer (5/17 at Mets, -0.483 WPA)

Even good closers blow games on occasion. While he’s not at a Mariano Rivera level or anything, David Bednar has been very good for the Yankees in his 1.5 years in the Bronx. However, this was a day to forget. Holding a three-run lead, Bednar allowed two singles to the Mets in the bottom of the ninth, but then bounced back by getting the next two outs. At that point, Bednar just needed one thing not to happen, it’s just that said thing then did. The Yankees got the game to extras after that, but ended up losing in the 10th.

1. Luis Campusano’s walk-off homer (9/4 at Padres, -0.719 WPA)

The biggest WPA swing in a game involving the Yankees was in fact one that went against them.

After a pitchers’ duel left the game 1-1 going into extra innings, the Yankees did the somewhat impossible and scored a run off Mason Miller in the top of the 10th. They had already used closer Bednar to get the game to extras to begin with and sent out the normally reliable Paul Blackburn for the bottom of the inning. Blackburn started the inning by winning a six-pitch battle over Xander Bogaerts. However, on the very next pitch he threw:

Steve Avery. Kris Medlen. Craig McMurtry. Brandon Beachy. Multiple generations of nascent Braves starting pitchers saw promising — and at times, dominating, big league careers — destroyed by injuries.

Is it too early to apply that same label to Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Spencer Strider? Maybe, but his 2026 added another season of validation to that narrative. Once one of the most electric arms in baseball, 2026 just further clouded Strider’s outlook and viability as a useful big league arm going forward.

How Acquired

The Braves drafted Strider in the fourth round of the 2020 draft out of Clemson University. After an amazing rookie season in which he started in the bullpen and helped the Braves overcome a slow start with four months of dominant starting pitching, the Braves signed him to a hefty $75 million, six-year extension that includes a club option for 2029.

What were the expectations?

After making his MLB debut the season after he was drafted, finishing second to teammate Michael Harris II in the 2022 National League Rookie of the Year vote, and then being selected as an All-Star and finishing fourth in the NL Cy Young Award in 2023, Strider missed most of the 2024 season due to an elbow injury.

After dealing with a hamstring issue, he returned to make 23 starts in 2025. That season was much more of a mixed bag despite Strider being healthy-ish enough to throw 125 1/3 innings: Strider put together a 106 ERA-, 111 FIP-, and 102 xFIP-, which are basically fourth starter numbers. More frustrating was that he had a dominant eight-start stretch from mid-June through late July where it looked like he had turned the proverbial corner and returned to his high standard of effectiveness (67/75/69), but then horribly regressed the rest of the way (130/131/123 over his last ten starts).

As a result, the expectations were variable, uncertain, and headache-inducing. The hope was that he’d go back to something resembling 2022-2023, or at least that eight-start summer stretch. The fear was that he’d look like the aggregate fourth starter he was in 2025, or worse. And, of course, the possibility of missing a bunch of time with another injury also loomed.

Preseason projections kind of split the difference in terms of a point estimate of average-y starter performance, but that was an average of a bunch of highly disparate and volatile outcomes.

2026 results

Strider was on pace to start the season in the team’s rotation, but an oblique issue landed him on the Injured List prior to the end of Spring Training. He was activated on May 3, but managed just a month and a half on the active roster before inflammation in his pitching elbow sent him to the shelf on June 13. Four days later, the Braves transferred him to the 60-day IL and the writing was pretty much on the wall, as Strider didn’t return.

This wasn’t a story of a promising return cut short by another injury. Rather, Strider largely struggled, with a 126 ERA-, 129 FIP-, and 104 xFIP-. Again, fourth starter numbers pitching-wise, with a finger pushing down on the scale given how homer-prone he ended up being across his eight starts and 39 innings.

By FIP, he had four good starts and four horrendous starts. By xFIP, he had three dominant starts, one meh outing, and really struggled to pitch well four times. Thanks to all the homers, he finished with just 0.1 fWAR.

What went right?

His strikeout rate went up a bit from 2025. A lot of people clamored for Strider to add more pitches to his arsenal; in 2026, he (perhaps, because he was forced to) threw his curve and changeup a combined 25 percent of the time, setting career highs in usage for both.

It’s hard to pick a highlight from his season. Perhaps it was his third of the year, where the Braves won 3-2 while Strider put up a 4/3 K/BB ratio in 5 1/3 innings — no Red Sox runs scored while he was in the game (though he was charged when an inherited runner scored). Perhaps it was his start against the Reds, where he flashed a great 8/2 K/BB ratio… though got BABIPed en route to getting saddled with a bunch of singleton runs (one in four of the five frames he pitched) and the Braves lost 6-4. Or, it was when he actually looked a bit like his old self with an 8/2 K/BB ratio in a six-inning scoreless effort in a blowout win over the Dodgers. Those were really the only highlights.

What went wrong?

Getting labelled as injury-prone isn’t something any player wants, but Strider’s past three seasons have been littered with arm, core and leg issues. In 2026, Strider saw his fastball velocity dip to basically 95 mph which was two ticks below his 2023 average. He struggled with walks and allowing home runs. He also failed to average five innings in his starts. His arm angle was three degrees below what he managed in 2023, though at least it was three degrees higher than in 2025. The pitching models rated his stuff as third- or fourth-starter quality. He struggled to miss bats, and to hit the zone. It was, in aggregate, kind of a mess.

Things all came to a head in his last start of the season, on June 12 against the Mets. He pitched three innings, gave up three homers, and the Braves were in a giant hole by the time he departed. It was more frustrating because after he gave up back-to-back homers to Bo Bichette and Juan Soto in the first, the Braves battled back to tie the game… only for Bichette to pop him for a grand slam in the next frame. It was an ignominious end to a poor season.

After Strider was lost for the season, the Braves attempted to make a Trade Deadline deal with the Texas Rangers for starting pitcher Jacob DeGrom, according to multiple reports. The prevailing rumor was that Strider would have been the package heading to Texas, or at least part of it. DeGrom voted the trade, thus Strider remained with the Braves. While we don’t know if the rumors are true or just reporters trying to connect nonexistent dots… to the extent they are, it suggests a substantial turnaround in how the Braves think about Strider, as well as Alex Anthopoulos’ prior stated commitment to not trading players that received long-term extensions. It’s a pretty disappointing state of affairs either way.

2027 outlook

As noted, Strider is inked through 2028 at $22 million per season, with a team option (also at $22 million) for 2029 (with a $5 million buyout). There are substantial questions about his future, both in terms of health and expected performance, that will be present whether the Braves have him in their 2027 plans, or decide to move on via a trade of some capacity.

A great as Strider was in 2022 and 2023, he’ll have started only 33 games across the last three seasons, with a disappointing 114/116/103 line in aggregate, whenever the 2027 regular season begins. Should he finally be able to pitch at the level he did earlier in his career, the Braves will have one less question about their rotation. But — and that is a but as massive as Strider’s quads — it is fair to question if his injury issues would allow him to be either durable or dominant, much less both.

There’s always the possibility he could transition to the bullpen, but given the financial commitment the team has in him and the starting rotation’s needs, that seems more like a last-gasp move versus an optimal one. It’s not like Strider has pitched so well recently that the issue is just leveraging his effectiveness in shorter stints, given that he hasn’t showcased much effectiveness.

Furthermore, given the team’s rumored willingness to include him in a trade, it is fair to wonder if Atlanta might try to use him and his salary in an attempt to improve elsewhere, given that Strider is only 28 years old and there is still the tantalizing potential that another organization might gamble on.

Unfortunately, this comparison of Strider and Medlen is one that seems more apt with each passing year.

Projections haven’t counted out Strider yet, given that 2026 was a relatively small sample. Still, he’s now slipping into below-average territory with a central estimate of being a shorter-stint starter over about 20 starts. Even that seems pretty optimistic given that he’s only managed 1.0 fWAR in his last 170 innings, but given how good he was, you can see how some deference is being paid to his earlier-career performance.

When I got this photo, it had the filename “1969wrigley.”

I knew with 100 percent certainty, even before beginning sleuthing, that this photo was not taken in 1969. How did I know that? Because the Astroturf tarp that covered up the empty center field bleachers and became a hitters background was installed in 1967, not to be removed until Tribune Co. bought the Cubs in 1981.

Okay, definitely not 1969. Let’s narrow things down, then. Here’s a larger version of the photo (tap or click to enlarge further):

It’s almost certainly a Sunday because there are no “NITE GAME” indications on the board. Could be a Saturday, as most games in that era on Saturdays were day games, but occasionally there were a few Saturday night games in other cities, so I began with the assumption that it’s Sunday.

The clock shows just before 1:30, but the game has already started. My Wrigley game time history article shows you that weekend games didn’t start before 1:30 until 1965.

All right, now we’ve got it narrowed down to 1965 or 1966. It’s the bottom of the first inning. The visiting team has a hit, but didn’t score in the top of the inning. There’s no one on base and nobody out, so the leadoff hitter is batting. That has to be Don Landrum (1965) or Adolfo Phillips (1966). I couldn’t quite read all of the board matchups, except that it was clear that the White Sox were in New York. So I sent the photo to Mike Bojanowski. Here’s what he sent me back:

Sox are definitely playing in NY, first inning complete, Yankees did score in the first. I think the Cubs’ opposition is the Braves. The Mets are in LA; St.Louis, KC, Detroit, Cleveland, are all at home, looks like Boston is at Washington, Baltimore at KC, Pittsburgh is a road team.

That narrowed it down. There was only one game that matched all of those in this time frame. It happened Sunday, May 29, 1966. The Cubs were hosting the Braves. Felipe Alou singled for Atlanta in the top of the first, the one hit shown on the board.

Adolfo Phillips is the batter for the Cubs. He has clearly just made a hit to left field; the baseball-reference play-by-play indicates that he doubled. So that’s what we’re looking at here. Phillips took third on a throwing error by Braves left fielder Rico Carty (who would play for the Cubs briefly in 1973). He scored on a ground out by Glenn Beckert. Phillips also scored in the seventh for the Cubs after being hit by a pitch, stealing second and going to third on a wild pitch. Another Beckert ground out made it 2-0.

Fergie Jenkins started this game for the Cubs. He had been acquired (along with Phillips) in that big trade with the Phillies just a few weeks earlier. Of note: This game was Jenkins’ first start as a Cub at Wrigley Field (he’d started against the Braves in Atlanta eight days earlier for his first start with the team). Atlanta scored its first run in the top of the eighth when Mack Jones stole home, and tied the game in the ninth on an inside-the-park home run by Eddie Mathews. Mathews had hit a ball down the line in right field, but Billy Williams, playing right that day, had thought it hit the wall on the fly and was foul. But first-base umpire Bob Engel called it fair, and by the time Billy caught up with it, Mathews had circled the bases.

The game went to extras and Ron Santo led off the bottom of the 10th with a walk-off home run — the second day in a row he’d done that. The Cubs won 3-2. The win improved the team’s record to… 12-27. They were, as you know, pretty bad that year (59-103).

So this was a game filled with interesting happenings. Just another little slice of Cubs history from 60 years ago.

The biggest story of this offseason is the impending lockout. In exactly one month, the MLB collective bargaining agreement will expire and no deal between the owners and players is in sight. That means we are likely to get a work stoppage. The only question is how long will it last and how many games will be lost.

Major League Baseball has a long history of CBA disputes, and there was actually a World Series cancelled because of one. That was back in 1994, and that is exactly what we will talk about today. The 1994 work stoppage is a big reason why the Washington Nationals even exist in their current form.

All of baseball was hurt by the 1994 stoppage, but no team suffered more than the Expos. At the time of the August 11th stoppage, the Expos had the best record in baseball at 74-40. This was the Expos best shot at winning a championship in franchise history, and 1994 had been the year the team was building towards. Here is a great thread on the story of that 1994 season.

The roster was absolutely stacked with young talent. That team featured the likes of Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, Marquis Grissom, Moises Alou and John Wetteland, who were all 27 years old or younger. As a smaller market club, they would not be able to hold on to all these players forever, but the mid-1990’s was setting up to be the golden age of Expos baseball.

However, the lockout killed all of Montreal’s momentum. There were no playoffs that season, which played a role in the Expos having a bit of a firesale. Larry Walker left as a free agent, while Grissom, Wetteland and key starting pitcher Ken Hill were all traded. In 1995, the Expos went 66-78, and the franchise never recovered. They never made the playoffs before moving to DC following the 2004 season.

It is a sad story, but it is also a big reason why the Nationals exist today. I am sure a team would have come to DC at some point, but who knows what that would have looked like if the Expos won the 1994 World Series. When you talk to players on that team, they are convinced they would have gotten over the top. This topic was discussed in the Who Killed the Montreal Expos documentary that came out on Netflix.

As we enter a work stoppage, that 1994 strike is a cautionary tale. The players and owners were actually fighting over a salary cap, just like they are going to do now. In that negotiation, neither side budged for months and it cost baseball dearly. At the end of the day, we did not get that salary cap. Hopefully this lockout can be worked through much quicker.

Baseball is in a much better spot than it was about 5 years ago. Rob Manfred is far from a perfect commissioner, but most of the rule changes he has implemented are working very well. The pitch clock was truly revolutionary in my opinion. It would be a huge blow to see all that progress wiped out due to a lockout.

Make no mistake, if the 2027 season is shortened in a serious way, or god forbid it is wiped out, the sport would suffer massively. It would hurt the smaller market teams the most as well. We saw that with the Expos in 1994.

Just over 10 years after their magical season was prematurely cut short, the franchise was playing its last ever games. Of course, this worked out very well for DC sports fans because it led to the Nats. However, there is still an element of tragedy involved as well.

If there is a long term lockout, there are definitely franchises who could go down a similar death spiral. As we enter another CBA feud, the owners and players need to look at the history and see how painful this can be. 

Even though the franchise did not exist in its current form, the 1994 work stoppage is a defining moment in Nationals history. It set the stage for the Expos moving to DC and becoming the Washington Nationals. At 11:59 PM on December 1st, the MLB CBA expires. This will be the story of the offseason, and as the years go by, we will see what the long term consequences of this clash will be.

Hey, there isn’t really any baseball news going on right now but Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz start their trial tomorrow, so that’s fun.

Make sure to check out Matt Seese’s article and Jakhob Clady’s article and Jake Brahney’s article from yesterday..