Category: Baseball

Despite the speculation of a frenzied period to sign players before the expiry of the CBA at 11:59 pm on December 1st, it’s been all quiet on the free agent front around the league. Nary a peep has been heard from the Yankees front office as to players they are potentially pursuing, making for a rather lifeless offseason so far since being swept out of the ALDS. Mostly, news has centered on end-of-season awards, the most immediate roster decision mile markers being the November 17th deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 Draft and the November 20th non-tender deadline.

Today, we will cover the players under consideration for Rule 5 protection. We’ll begin with the disclaimer that there is a strong likelihood that the major league portion of the Rule 5 Draft will be cancelled this offseason, just as it was during the previous lockout during the 2021-2022 offseason, as it is scheduled to fall during the December 7-9 Winter Meetings that are largely expected to be cancelled with no CBA in place. The MLBPA proposed moving the Rule 5 Draft up to the end of the November so that it can take place before the expiry of the current CBA, but that was back on July 1st and we have not heard anything on the matter since.

That being said, this still might be a useful exercise to refamiliarize ourselves with the players who did enough in 2026 to merit consideration to be added to the 40-man roster. The Rule 5 Draft was created to prevent teams from suppressing players in the minors who might otherwise have a shot to make the major league roster of another team. Any player who joined an organization at age 18 or younger must be added to the 40-man roster within five seasons while players who joined aged 19 or older must be added within four season or else risk exposure to the Rule 5 Draft. Any team who selects a player from another organization in the draft must pay the original team $100,000, and the selected player must be added to the 26-man active roster for the subsequent season. If a team wishes to remove that player from the 26-man roster during the season, the player must be placed on outright waivers, and should he clear waivers, must be offered back to the original team for half the draft price ($50,000).

The Yankees have 49 players who are Rule 5 eligible by virtue of not currently inhabiting a 40-man roster spot and their minor league service time:

The vast majority of these players will not be added to the 40-man roster for protection. There is either high confidence that said player would not be selected in the Rule 5 Draft or that said player is not one the Yankees would mind losing to the Rule 5 Draft. However, with seven open spots on the 40-man roster, the Yankees have some wiggle room to protect a handful of players while still maintaining flexibility to add additional players via free agency or trade.

In my mind, there is only one surefire lock to be added to the 40-man roster in this prospective scenario, and that’s Carlos Lagrange. A consensus top-three organizational prospect, Lagrange was already on the major league radar for a potential late season call-up to the bullpen before a shoulder injury derailed the second half of his season. Evaluators are split as to whether the Yankees should continue his development as a starter or commit to moving him to the bullpen full time. However, he can certainly impact the big league bullpen as soon as next season with his triple-digits heater and at times plus secondaries of cutter, sweeper, and changeup, especially with David Bednar and Paul Blackburn hitting free agency and Fernando Cruz suffering a partially torn UCL at the end of August. Lagrange has always struggled with his command, but reined in his walk rate to a more palatable 11.6-percent while still striking out almost 30-percent of batters in 64.1 innings at Triple-A in 2026.

On the position player side, there’s not a lot that jumps off the page. Roderick Arias is the most recognizable name after signing for $4 million as the No. 1 ranked prospect of the 2022 international class. However, he has steadily fallen down the organization’s prospect rankings and has yet to reach Triple-A after five years in the organization. He split time between High-A and Double-A in 2026, posting a 107 wRC+ with 16 home runs, 84 RBIs, and 38 steals in 128 games, but struck out 30-percent of the time between the two levels.

Tyler Hardman has seemingly been in the organization for ages, but only just got his first taste of Triple-A in 2026. He went from a 157 wRC+ in Double-A to a mark of 80 in Triple-A, but did slug 28 home runs in 134 games across both levels. However, I’m not sure how much interest there would be from other teams or indeed major league breakout potential for a career minor leaguer about to enter his age-28 season. Infielders Josh Moylan and Coby Morales and outfielders Jace Avina, Cole Gabrielson, and Garrett Martin all put together decent campaigns at Double-A, but nothing extraordinary enough to merit 40-man consideration.

Things get a little more interesting on the pitching side of things. The Yankees boast a trio of intriguing high octane arms who could work their ways into the major league bullpen discussion in the not-too-distant future. Allen Facundo rocketed up the organizational ranking list last year after going 7-3 in 22 starts with a 4.01 ERA, 4.09 FIP, and 148 strikeouts in 114.1 innings between Low and High-A. Eric Reyzelman has pitched almost exclusively out of the bullpen in the minors, and has struck out an eye-popping 199 batters in just 144 career minor league innings. Hayden Merda posted gaudy strikeout totals in 2026 but saw his ERA spike upon making the jump from Double-A to Triple-A. All three have touched triple digits with their heaters along with the potential for 60-grade sliders. Precipitously high walk rates for the trio likely rule them out of long term rotation plans, but they all possess fastballs that are absolutely major league ready from a raw stuff standpoint.

Beyond that pair, I wouldn’t be that interested to protect any of their other Rule 5 eligible pitching prospects. Lefty starter Brock Selvidge posted a 4.68 ERA in 18 starts between Complex ball and Double-A in 2025 but missed the 2026 season after undergoing an internal brace procedure. Given the depth of Yankees starting pitching, lower level starters Cade Smith and Luis Serna are still miles away from major league consideration. Harrison Cohen, Carson Coleman, and Zach Messinger are all Triple-A relievers 27 years old or older, the former pair finding that level a step too far while Messinger simply does not possess major league stuff. Thomas Balboni Jr. is an interesting higher velo sidearm guy but only just made it to High-A after blowing out his elbow in 2025.

“I mean, anytime you can come up in that spot and win the game for the team is just a special moment, and I think obviously coming off the bench too for a pinch hit makes it even cooler. I know how tough it is to be a pinch hitter. So to be able to execute like that and in your one at-bat of the game is pretty awesome, and obviously seeing the guys how excited they were and all the fans are cheering. It was just really cool.” — Ryan Waldschmidt

As mentioned, some players have gone a very long time without hitting a walk-off home-run for the D-backs. Nick Ahmed played 888 games for the D-backs, and never felt that thrill. Ryan Waldschmidt may be forgiven for feeling it’s an easy feat to accomplish, having done it twice in his first 66 career MLB contests. Indeed, he did it twice in the month of August. The only other Diamondback with two walk-off HR in the same calendar month was Chris Young on June 5 + 19 in 2007. Ketel Marte also had a pair of more adjacent walk-offs earlier in 2026, on May 19 + June 4 – sixteen days apart, compared to Waldschmidt’s eighteen days.

It’s all the more remarkable because Waldschmidt was sent down to Reno in mid-June, as pitchers exploited his trouble with breaking pitches. Said hitting coach Joe Mather, “The league made a little adjustment, started spinning a lot of pitches, making it tougher for him at a level of which he’s never seen… The slider started coming out more, we noticed that.” Ryan was called back up four weeks later, after an injury to Lawlar left the team in need of an outfielder, and was a solid contributor the rest of the way, with a .710 OPS. But nothing surpassed the pair of walk-off home-runs he hit in August.

How do we separate them? Both were two-run shots, coming with a man on second, when the D-backs trailed by one run. His walk-off against the Dodgers came with two strikes, as opposed to one strike versus the Cubs. And, of course, walking off Los Angeles does come with bonus, simply because it’s Los Angeles. However, it was off Edwin Diaz, who trudged off the mound with an ERA of 11.00 across ten appearances. Frankly, I feel my grandmother could have taken Diaz deep, and she died in 1984. Jacob Webb’s ERA this year after meeting Waldy? Just 2.91. Also, Arizona were down to their final out when Ryan delivered, making it particularly dramatic.

“When I go up there and I’m looking up at the scoreboard and seeing it’s the bottom of the ninth inning, two outs, down by one, guy on base and get my name called to go pinch hit, I was grateful for the opportunity. So, I’m walking up, smile on my face, like this is what everyone dreams to do, every kid, every time you’ve played baseball growing up, you make this scenario up in your head. So for me to go up there and be able to do this in real life and have that opportunity, it doesn’t even matter anymore if you get a hit or not. This is just one of the coolest opportunities that you could ever get.” — Ryan Waldschmidt

Indeed, by Win Probability, it was not only the biggest hit of the year, at +85.5% it ranked top five in franchise history, and the greatest in over 14 years. The all-time record was by Ryan Roberts – though perhaps not the hit you’re thinking, his grand-slam against the Dodgers. That was in 2011, and was worth +90.8%. But even higher, at +91.1%, was this one against the A’s the following year. Not sure how that counts for more, but them’s the numbers. Anyway, what of Waldschmidt’s?

The Cubs had a 4-0 lead through seven, having scored a remarkable thirty unanswered runs in a row. Jordan Lawlar then got hit in the head in the eighth, adding to the gloom. But a checked-swing roller by Gabriel Moreno, with an xBA of .080, became an RBI double, and Geraldo Perdomo made it a one-run game with a single. In the ninth, Tim Tawa drew a one-out walk, and was run for by Jose Fernandez. With two outs, and Waldschmidt pinch-hitting for Jorge Barrosa (another element in favor of this walk-off), Fernandez stole second and the call was upheld after a review requested by the Cubs manager. Two pitches later…

Statcast tells us this had a 31-degree launch angle. It left the bat at 102.6 miles per hour, and the ball would have traveled an estimated 408 feet. Waldschmidt became the first rookie in Diamondbacks franchise history to hit a pinch-hit, walk-off home run. More remarkably, he had more walk-off homeruns (2) than regular home-runs (1) to that point in his career. He’s among just five players to have two walk-off homers in their first three bombs – among the others, curiously, was team-mate James McCann.

“Being a pinch-hitter, I went up looking for the fastball,” said Waldschmidt afterwards. However, Webb started him off with a slider. He laid off it, and that gave Ryan a look at the pitch. When Webb threw another one on the fourth pitch of the at-bat, the batter was ready. He said, “I saw the same kind of release [point] with that pitch that I saw in the first one, so I had a good feeling where I thought it was going to end up. And just tried to stay through it, keep my head down and not try and [take] too big [of a swing] on that kind of pitch.” The result has now become the 2026 SnakePit Play of the Year – congratulations to Ryan for that!

Previous winners

• 2025: 9/6: Blaze Alexander’s home run robbery
• 2024: 8/9, Adrian Del Castillo walks it off
• 2023: 4/4: Jake McCarthy’s incredible catch and 10/20 Alek Thomas, game-tying PH home-run
• 2022: 4/7: Beer’s all round!
• 2021: 4/29, Josh Rojas robs Tatis
• 2020: 9/8, Josh Rojas trips “awkwardly”
• 2019: 6/12, Ahmed nabs Kingery after review
• 2018: 6/18, Dyson’s tremendous leaping grab
• 2017: 8/8, Jake Lamb grand-slam vs. LAD
• 2016: 10/1, Archie Bradley fields comebacker
• 2015: 9/18, A.J. Pollock catch at wall
• 2014: 8/8, David Peralta steals home
• 2013: 6/9, Gerardo Parra’s bare-hand force
• 2012: 9/9. Adam Eaton double-play
• 2011: 9/27, Ryan Roberts’ walk-off grand-slam
• 2010: 9/1, Brandon Allen, come from behind grand-slam
• 2009: 5/4, Triple-play vs. LAD
• 2008: 7/29, Alex Romero, game-saving catch
• 2007: 6/5, Brandon Lyon covers third-base

The full list of award winners

1971
Todd Ritchie, author of one of the worst seasons in White Sox history, was born in Portsmouth, Va.

He came to the White Sox from Pittsburgh in a ballyhooed deal that saw three pitchers dealt away for a player in Ritchie — who was never destined for much more than middle-rotation innings-eater. And in 2002 for the Pale Hose, Ritchie was … awful: a 6.06 ERA (to be fair, something was fishy, as he sported a 4.84 FIP), 5-15 record and 1.706 WHIP. All those peripherals added up (down) to a -1.7 WAR, which is still tied for the 15th-worst pitching season in White Sox annals.

Ritchie was eligible for free agency after the season, and unsurprisingly the White Sox let him go.

---

1997
The White Sox bought reliever Doug Creek from the San Francisco Giants. There’s a chance the lefty was someone that Chicago wanted as part of the return in the “White Flag Trade,” given this purchase’s proximity to the deal. If so, something turned pretty quickly, as Creek was sold a month later to the Hanshin Tigers of the Japanese Central League.

Creek would make his way back to the States and play in another six MLB seasons, but never with the White Sox.

---

2005
In an utterly shocking and embarrassing move, despite going wire-to-wire in first place and sweeping to a World Series title White Sox GM Ken Williams did not win Executive of the Year from The Sporting News. Instead, Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro took home the honors.

It’s noteworthy that not only did Cleveland finish in second place in the AL Central, six games behind Chicago, but a White Sox sweep on the season’s final weekend eliminated their rivals from playoff contention entirely.

The award was not given to Shapiro for his club’s massive jump in the standings from 2004 to 2005, either, as Cleveland improved by 13 wins in 2005 — but the White Sox jumped ahead 16.

Williams’ work in piecing together a 99-win team that lost just one playoff game en route to a title after leading the AL Central from wire to wire was nothing short of masterful. To wit, seven players brought in by trade or free agency for their first full seasons in Chicago in 2005 combined to provide 18.4 WAR toward the title season — the very definition of brilliant executive work.

---

2012
The White Sox acquired center fielder Blake Tekotte from the Padres, for minor league reliever Brandon Kloess. While Kloess never made the bigs with San Diego, it might have been best that Tekotte didn’t in Chicago, either: a .226/.306/.355 slash in 20 games and caught in three of four steal attempts, for a -0.2 WAR.

After spending most of 2013 and all of 2014 in Triple-A Charlotte, the White Sox sold Tekotte off to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 3, 2014. He never played in the majors again.

---

2014
Long after he played his final game in his home country, Minnie Miñoso was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame — eight years before the legend found his way into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Given that Miñoso had played his last professional game in Cuba some 55 years earlier, it seems Cuba was just as tardy in honoring one of its greatest players of all time, right?

Not so. After the communist revolution in 1959, there were no official inductions to Cuba’s Hall of Fame; otherwise, Miñoso surely would have been enshrined decades earlier.

Miñoso had started his professional baseball career at age 16 in Cuba’s Serie Nacional. Five years later, he was in the U.S., playing for the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues, with whom he won his sole World Series. Another four years later, Miñoso made his MLB debut, with Cleveland.

But Miñoso found his greatest fame with the White Sox, and remains No. 12 overall with 41.5 WAR with the club and fifth overall among batters.

Miñoso was part of a class of 10 players inducted in 2014, and he had the good fortune of being alive for the honor. Sadly, with Miñoso’s passing in 2015, Cooperstown was years too late to treat him similarly.

Scenes at City Grounds today!

During Nottingham Forest's match against Manchester City, manager Oliver Glasner couldn't contain his excitement when his men turned the game 3-1.

After some chaos in the box where the visitors somehow didn't score, the hosts launched a lightning-quick counterattack. 

The ball eventually found Liam Delap, who drifted left thanks to his wicked pace, and eventually hit the far right post, seeing the ball go off it and in for his brace. 

Delap hit the 'Siuuu' against his former club and eventually had the manager jump in the celebration huddle as Glasner soared down the pitch.

A day to remember!

We’ve got some more hot stove speculation to talk about and apparently it’s on the pitching front. As you can imagine after how this past season went, the Atlanta Braves are likely going to be on the hunt to add to their rotation in order to fortify it ahead of next season (whenever that may be). There are some intriguing names out there and while there aren’t really any substantial rumors at the moment, there is now some information out there on who the Braves were looking at back in August once the Trade Deadline rolled around.

According to Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Braves were “prominently linked” to current free agent right-hander Casey Mize and were also reportedly interested in fellow free agent and right-hander Nick Pievetta as well. With that being said, Burns did mention that Atlanta’s “interest was overstated” when it came to Mize and that they also had injury concerns when it came to Pivetta as well.

Mize was certainly coveted by large portions of this fanbase at the deadline, as he’d been a core member of the Tigers’ rotation for a few years and had been having a solid season up until he got traded to the Padres. He then had a very rocky rental stint in San Diego across 10 starts and 44.2 innings pitched where he ended up with a 7.42 ERA (185 ERA-) and a 7.17 FIP (171 FIP-). His production truly fell off of a cliff when compared to how he fared during his time in Detroit in 2026, which is when he was sitting on a 2.70 ERA (65 ERA-) and a 2.58 FIP (62 FIP-) over 16 starts and 86.2 innings pitched.

Who knows how much the change of scenery played a role in Mize going from having an fWAR of 2.9 with the Tigers to cratering down to a -0.7 fWAR during his time with the Padres, but you have to imagine that the Detroit version is more of the true version of Mize than the one we saw in San Diego and that means that he’ll certainly have plenty of interest in him during this free agency cycle. With that being said, that rough stint should play a factor and maybe it’ll play out in Atlanta’s favor since Mize might end up being more amenable to the type of short-term deal that Alex Anthopoulos likes to go for on the free agency market.

Mize also comes with his fair share of injury issues as he did spend a decent amount of time on the IL during the 2026 season. It makes sense that if Atlanta’s interest in Mize was overstated then their interest in Nick Pivetta being muted due to injury concerns is also understandable. Pivetta was only able to make eight starts in 2026 for the Padres as a right flexor strain essentially torpedoed his season and caused him to miss basically everything from late-April until September.

With that being said, Pivetta was effective when he did pitch in 2026 as he finished with an ERA of 2.86 (71 ERA-) and a FIP of 2.21 (53 FIP-), which was largely in line with what he did in 2025 during his first season with the Padres. As such, it makes sense that the Padres themselves are reportedly interested in bringing Pivetta back on a different deal.

That also makes it make sense that Pivetta would be up Atlanta’s alley because, again, Anthopoulos has a M.O. of sticking with short-term deals in free agency. At this point, however, it’s purely speculation on the part of Burns and everybody else since we haven’t really heard anything substantial or that the Braves are close on anybody at the moment. I’m sure that there’s certainly some talking going on with various free agents at the moment but for now, the talk is just that: Talk.

We’ll see if this light puff of smoke eventually turns into a source of fire but for now, all we can do is wait and see what the Braves get up to in this period before the lockout. Let’s see what happens!

This photo was sent to me by BCB reader Brian Peterson. Thanks, Brian — and a reminder, if you can find photos you’d like me to sleuth, send ‘em along!

Incidentally, I could have taken this one and made it black-and-white, but this is the way it was sent to me and I rather like the old-fashioned sepia tone.

So what do we know about this photo? The Cubs catcher is wearing No. 9. There’s a Padres runner who was just thrown out at the plate, as shown by the emphatic “out!” call by the plate umpire. A Padres batter wearing No. 21 is clearly the on-deck hitter.

At first, this might seem difficult but in fact, it was pretty easy.

The catcher is Steve Swisher. I recognized him right away. That narrows this down to 1974-77.

There were several players who wore No. 21 for the Padres in those four seasons, but this man is also easy to recognize. It’s Cito Gaston, who later was a World Series-winning manager with the Blue Jays in the 1990s.

That narrows it down to one season, as Gaston left the Padres after 1974.

Gaston played in just three games at Wrigley Field in 1974: June 17, Aug. 18 and Aug. 19. So then it was a simple matter of seeing when there was a play at the plate where Gaston was the on-deck hitter.

There was, fortunately, only one such play. It happened in the first inning of the game Monday, June 17, 1974. Padres second baseman Horace Clarke, better known for his 10 years with the Yankees — he played only 42 games with San Diego and had been acquired by them only a couple of weeks earlier — walked with one out in the top of the first inning and advanced to second on a walk drawn by Dave Winfield.

Nate Colbert then singled and Clarke tried to score. Billy Williams, playing left field that day, threw Clarke out at the plate. That’s what we are seeing in this photo.

The Cubs took a 5-0 lead into the sixth inning of this game and blew it, with the Padres scoring the tying run in the top of the ninth. That led to long extra innings and the Padres broke through with a two-run 13th inning off Steve Stone, in his first of three years with the Cubs. The Cubs did get the tying runs on base in the bottom of the 13th on a pair of singles with two out, but Carmen Fanzone flied to center to end the game, which the Cubs lost 7-5.

Just a little slice of Cubs baseball from more than half a century ago.

It was a memorable first week of the season for 30-year-old reliever Osvaldo Bido, who somehow landed on the Atlanta Braves Opening Day roster after a well-traveled off-season.

How Acquired

Bido first landed with Atlanta on December 5, 2025 when he was claimed off waivers from the West Sacramento Athletics, but the Braves moved on from him 10 days later. He then was subsequently claimed and waived by the Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Anaheim Angels and New York Yankees before returning to the Braves on March 24, 2026 — right before the start of the regular season.

What were the expectations?

Every offseason, there’s a player or two who suffers a fate similar to Bido, caught in a seemingly never-ending swirl of back-of-the-40-man-roster churn. For Bido, this status was understandable. He was reasonably effective as a swingman with the Pirates in 2023 and Athletics in 2024, putting together a combined 107 ERA-, 89 FIP-, and 113 xFIP- in 114 combined innings, earning 2.1 fWAR in the process on the back of a very low HR/FB. However, he was horrible in 2025 (133 ERA-, 138 FIP-, 132 xFIP-), which led the Athletics to move on and a bunch of other teams to take a peek at him in the hopes of getting something closer to 2023-2024.

His overall outlook was a decent longer-stint reliever… with the hope that 2025 was a blip and that it would be easy to go back to his prior performance level.

2026 results

Unfortunately, 2025 didn’t look like a blip as 2026 wound on. Bido made the Opening Day roster and got some run, appearing in six of the team’s first 19 games. He struck out all three batters he faced in his season debut, but it was all down hill from there, as he could only a manage a 3/5 K/BB ratio in his next five outings. That gave him a 150 ERA-, 128 FIP-, and 145 xFIP-, which looked a lot like his bad 2025 line in ten innings.

The Braves DFAed him again in mid-April, and surprise surprise, another team claimed him: the White Sox. Bido made five appearances for his new team, but his performance was just as bad as it was in 2025 and with the Braves. He finished the MLB portion of his 2026 campaign with -0.2 fWAR in 18 2/3 combined innings, and an eerily consistent, boy-the-system-worked-too-well 150 ERA-, 150 FIP-, and 150 xFIP-.

The White Sox outrighted him to Triple-A, but ten days later, he received enough interest from the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the NPB that he received his release to go pitch in Japan. Said NPB career consisted of two outings spanning two outings where he got blasted. So, in the end, Bido was incredibly well-traveled in 2026, but not very good.

What went right?

It was a marvelous first appearance for Bido, striking out each batter he faced as the Braves trailed 2-0 in the top of the ninth. He was the box score beneficiary of Dominic Smith’s walkoff grand slam.

Then, he danced through the raindrops a bit and filled up the box score. He hurled a three-inning “save” against the Diamondbacks, though it came with a 1/1 K/BB ratio in those three innings. He then made two more appearances spanning three innings where somehow the opposition didn’t score despite another 1/1 K/BB ratio. All of these outings came in low leverage, so his results weren’t particularly relevant, but he wasn’t harming the team.

What went wrong?

But, then the bottom dropped out. He had a poor long relief appearance, but it didn’t matter much since the Braves were losing big anyway. And then, in his final appearance with the Braves, he entered with a big lead (6-0), and left with just one additional out recorded, along with a walk, a homer, two wild pitches, and some other hits. Though it was low leverage, he still earned a meltdown for the performance. That was it, the Braves moved on.

Though he didn’t pitch much, he showed essentially zero command, and his pitch shapes were average-at-best. While his sweeper seemed acquit itself fairly well despite limited break given how hard he threw it, every other pitch lacked effective movement, and Bido had no idea where anything was going when it came out of his hand.

2027 outlook

Bido’s future as an MLB-level player is not certain. He didn’t pitch well in Japan in those two outings, and he’s now had two seasons of basically unplayable MLB performance. Should he return to pitch in the U.S., he’s likely headed the minor league contract route. He could resurface as a deep reserve reliever but it is possible he’s made his final big league appearance. He’ll pitch at age 31 in 2027, so he no longer has youth on his side.

He’s going to be projected from somewhere between replacement level to below average reliever, and given that he showed almost nothing of use for two seasons now, there’s little reason for him to be one of the earlier fliers taken. Still, maybe someone will gamble on the dream of his low HR/FB-fueled 2023-2024 again.

Of the eight prospects the Mariners sent to the Arizona Fall League this year, catching prospect Boston Smith was the biggest name sent by Seattle and has occupied the lion’s share of the headlines. But you should know about a different Smith, as well: Adam Smith, the 26-year-old reliever who makes up the other half of the Mariners’ AFL “Mr. and Mr. Smith” battery.

Acquired when the Mariners purchased his contract from the independent Lancaster Stormers last May to fill out Everett’s bullpen, Smith quickly overpowered the youngsters at High-A and earned a trip to Double-A Arkansas midway through the season, where his strikeouts fell and his walks shot up. Smith has a prototypical pitcher’s frame at a strongly-built 6’2”, but relies more on spin and location than velocity to outfox hitters. On the stat sheet, nothing about Smith stands out: he didn’t rack up eye-watering strikeout numbers in Arkansas, and he’s carrying an ERA north of 5 in the Fall League.

But on a trip to the AFL last month, I watched Smith pitch the most dominant inning of the night in a lopsided Peoria win. Hitters simply weren’t reading the ball out of his hand, swinging ugly or backing away from pitches that landed squarely in the zone.

So far, Smith has appeared in seven games in the AFL, pitching 6.2 innings, over which time he is yet to issue a walk while striking out 10, leading to his selection to the Fall Stars game.

Smith was initially drafted by the Padres in the 14th round in 2021 out of UNC Wilmington, where he spent four years before spending one year in the Red Sox system. He then transitioned to indy ball, which is where the Mariners found him.

As a former starter, Smith has a full arsenal at his disposal as a reliever: a four-seam, sinker, cutter, changeup, and sweeper. He mixes his pitches effectively, keeping hitters off-balance, but says he relies more heavily on his off-speed, since he’s not blessed with eye-popping velocity on his fastball. Of his off-speed pitches, he has a clear favorite.

“I would say I get most of the ugly swings from my sweeper,” said Smith. “It’s kind of my go-to, the old reliable. I learned it about two years ago, and then once I really figured out how to use it, I haven’t gone away from it.”

Adam Smith throws 2 perfect innings to close out the AquaSox win. pic.twitter.com/iaUGzEijv3

— Mariners Minors (@MiLBMariners) June 24, 2026

Smith says in his time with the Mariners he’s learned to not be afraid of throwing in the zone, buying into the “dominate the zone” philosophy and trusting in what the organization has told him about what makes him good. Ironically, that confidence to throw in the zone despite not having huge velocity and lean in to his identity as a pitcher who pounds the zone has caused his velocity to tick up into the mid-90s.

“The velocity aspect early in my career wasn’t really there, and being a part of two different organizations prior where they strive for only velocity just didn’t fit my motto because I was more of an in-zone pitcher, get a lot of strikes, and just average velocity. Whereas here, being able to embrace the identity of being in the zone all the time has translated into my velocity being where it’s at now.”

But it’s not just the uptick in strikeouts or velocity that Smith is grateful for. He’s happy to be with the Mariners because he feels like the organization has a clear direction for how to make him successful, a vision that’s communicated clearly and consistently.

“Everyone’s got a plan here, and they’re solely driven on that plan, and everyone’s bought into the plan, which is that communication aspect where everyone is in tune with what’s going on,” Smith said. “I think it makes it a lot easier for us as players when we’re communicated with on a daily basis about what we need to do, maybe in our routine or changing other things up. Everything is communicated. It’s not like we have to find out a few months later, like, oh, we’ve been actually wanting you to do this, but we didn’t tell you. It’s very upfront.”

Those are encouraging words to hear from any player in your organization, but especially considering the apparent communication breakdown that hurt the big-league club this year. It’s a reminder of what this organization does well when those avenues of communication are free-flowing and meaningful, a big part of which is identifying players like Adam Smith and helping them become the best version of themselves.

You can watch Smith pitch in the Fall Stars game on Sunday at 5 PM PT; the game will be broadcast on MLB Network, but you can also stream it on MLB.com.

It’s not Tarik Skubal and Adrian Morejon, but when you make two huge moves and both meet the approval of even Trainman, you’ve done something right.

You would have to be quite the fanatical follower, or at least a fan of the Red Sox or Brewers, to even have been familiar with two names that will lead the A’s gently into that good desert. Taylor Smith is such a household name, if you search “Taylor Smith” Google’s first result is a question: “Did you mean Taylor Swift?” At this point you just say “yes,” click on the first few links and forget that you were thinking about baseball.

Cam Castro may be famous to his family and friends but few outside of Wisconsin could have told you much about his work. Out of all the Castros throughout history his fame ranking is relatively low, as there are no known political regimes nor neighborhood districts in his name.

Yet Smith and Castro come with just the credentials the A’s need right now as they try to rebuild their analytic, development, and trading/acquisition models to work more like, say, the Brewers and Rays. Those 2 teams have a couple things in common: they just met in the World Series and Castro/Smith previously spent the most seasons with their organization.

As GM, Castro will have a big hand in who the A’s acquire, who they keep and who they let go, but perhaps his most essential expertise comes in his record of helping to bring out the best in pitchers yet to tap into their potential. The hope would be that instead of spinning valuable players like Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom into worthy pitching talent, perhaps those gems can be culled from Luis Morales and Jack Perkins, who certainly have the physical tools.

Meanwhile, as PBO Smith comes with experience watching both sides of the payroll scale, starting with the frugal-but-shrewd Rays and continuing with the big market Red Sox. He will draw more from his understanding of how the Rays operate, but if his first big move (sorry Nate Eaton) was to select Castro to put a spotlight on the pitching side, Smith appears to be “1 for 1” and demonstrating a clear understanding not just of the need for the A’s to emphasize pitching but also to develop it beyond just bringing”adding good pitchers to the roster”.

If you’re not familiar with Castro’s resume (and I wasn’t until this week), he began his career in 2019 as a minor league pitching coach and his work since is littered with “pitching development”:

• Senior Vice President of Player Development and Performance (2025–2026): Oversaw player development and performance systems fresh off helping guide the Brewers to a World Series title.
• Vice President of Player Development (2022–2024): Led player development strategies and acted as a key liaison between the front office and coaching staff.
• Director of Pitching Development (2022): Promoted to direct organization-wide pitching development frameworks.
• Minor League Pitching Coordinator (2020–2021): Managed pitching philosophies and development across the minor league system.

This for the organization that, during this time, helped Jared Koenig go from an 89 MPH junk-baller with the A’s to a 96 MPH throwing plus reliever with the Brewers. The organization that brought Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson from draft to rotation, and most recently turned a disappointing Freddy Peralta into a key arm seemingly overnight. The Brewers know how to develop and harness pitching and Castro was an integral piece of that program.

The intriguing question is how this exciting tandem will go about improving the A’s roster for 2027 and for beyond 2027, to try to realize the stated goal of building a team that can compete in the post-season year in and year out. That may be a high bar, but it’s also one that some teams do achieve for the most part — and those teams include Tampa Bay, Boston, and Milwaukee.

Easier said than done, of course. Every PBO and GM will say this as rarely do you pick up the morning paper to read that a GM’s goal is to “wobble around .500 most seasons and hope the division is as weak as the 2026 AL West”. Actually that does sound a bit like Arte Moreno but he’s on his way out the door.

Look for few “quick fixes” and many “long view” moves in which hopefully “long” comes to fruition in a year rather than 4. Look for significant “behind the scenes” improvements in the way development and analytics are emphasized and approached even if it doesn’t bring a specific player onto the big league roster.

But you can also look for a “get better now” splash as opportunity presents itself as the tandem tries to make the team competitive in time for a new stadium to be greeted with the excitement of success. That could look like giving Clay Holmes a longer deal than anyone else will, gambling on his sustained ability to limit hard contact into his late 30s and minimizing the impact of playing 2027 in West Sacramento. But while this is a pet idea oft floated on AN perhaps Smith and Castro have a whole different scheme up their sleeve to boost the team’s fortunes sooner rather than later.

With a lockout looming in 24 days, likely we will know soon, at least in some sense, what direction Smith and Castro and looking to go with regard to 2027. But the eye is going to be more on the next 5 years than on the next 5 months and all we know is this: the A’s appear to have made 2 very smart hires to lead this quest.

Yesterday the Nats made a big move by extending Jacob Young. Paul Toboni inked the Nats center fielder to a 4-year $23 million deal with an option for a 5th year. We broke down the deal itself yesterday, but now I want to look at the bigger picture. Specifically, I want to examine what this means for Dylan Crews.

Terms: Jacob Young and the Nationals reached an agreement on a four-year, $23 million contract extension that includes an $8 million option for a fifth season, according to a source familiar with the deal.

— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) November 6, 2026

With the Young deal, the Nats now have James Wood, Daylen Lile, Dylan Crews and Young under team control into the 2030’s. On the one hand, that is a great group of outfielders to have around for years to come. However, it also creates a surplus that you can trade from.

We know that Paul Toboni is not afraid to trade from a surplus. The most prominent example of that was the Curtis Mead trade, where he dealt a bat for an arm in Connelly Early. With Young locked up, the Nats now have a chance to make a similar sort of deal again.

Entering this offseason, I looked at either Dylan Crews or Jacob Young as potential trade pieces. They both profile as athletic, defense first right handed outfielders who are better against left handed pitching. Crews’ pedigree, raw power and bat speed give him a higher offensive ceiling. However, Young is the better defender and had an OPS 45 points higher last season. Now that Young has been extended, a trade is likely to be off the table.

After this extension, I would bet executives have been calling Paul Toboni and asking about Dylan Crews. Obviously Crews has not lived up to his potential so far as a pro, but there are still traits to dream on for other teams. His bat speed, hard hit rate, barrel rate and average exit velocity are all above the 60th percentile. Crews also provided positive value as a defender and baserunner.

There would be plenty of teams that would be willing to take a shot on the 24 year old former top prospect. A Blue Jays fan account, who I think puts out very smart content, talked about how he either wanted Crews or Jacob Young. It makes sense for them, and plenty of other teams also need outfield help.

Every single iteration of an offseason plan I devise for the Blue Jays includes acquiring one of Dylan Crews or Jacob Young from the Nationals. I'm simply attached to the hip with one of those two.

I #need.

— Damon (@Damon98_) November 3, 2026

Now that Young is off the board, Crews would be the one to trade. However, a move is far from a given. We saw last season that there is enough playing time for both of them to get at least semi-regular at bats. The Nats used a DH rotation last year, which often allowed them to have Wood, Crews, Lile and Young in the lineup at the same time. There is no reason they cannot do this again.

The Young extension is also not total proof that the regime is out on Crews. At $5.75 million per year, the Nats are not exactly paying Young like a set in stone everyday starter. He will get plenty of playing time, but this extension does not automatically mean he will play every day.

It does mean that Young is in the team’s long term plans though. If the right offer comes for Crews, I have no doubt that Toboni would pull the trigger. A Crews trade is certainly something worth monitoring. However, I do not necessarily think he is being shopped. 

As for Crews himself, his 2026 season was very frustrating. It was not all bad, but there was just never enough consistency. Whenever he did something good, he was unable to take that momentum and run with it. The best example of this came after he got the Nats first walkoff hit in August. I thought this had a chance to be a real turning point for him, but instead he went 0 for 11 in the three games afterwards.

This is so huge

Bigger than the win itself

Hoping this is the confidence builder Dylan Crews needs and he starts to build on it pic.twitter.com/oQnZiBw8Z1

— Kev (@klwoodjr) August 29, 2026

That pretty much summarizes his Nats tenure so far. However, he is entering his age 25 season and has shown flashes of excellence. If you do trade him, you run the risk of seeing him realize his potential with another team. On the other hand, it could also be the last time he has any real value. After the Young extension, this is a really interesting decision Paul Toboni has to make.

You see the talent when you watch Dylan Crews, but in 225 big league games, Crews has a .217 average and .648 OPS. That is simply not good enough for the former second overall pick. As we enter the offseason, the Nats have a decision to make. Do they give Crews another chance or is Paul Toboni happy to roll out an outfield of Lile, Young and Wood while getting the assets he can for Crews?

With the lockout less than a month away, we could get answers to that question pretty soon. There are cases for both sides, but I would certainly be listening to Crews trade offers now. I do not think there is any urgency to trade him, but after this Young extension, teams will definitely be calling about Crews. What would you guys do with the former LSU star?

Runs were hard to come by for the Glendale Desert Dogs on Friday night in a 1-0 road loss to the Scottsdale Scorpions in the Arizona Fall League. Glendale only had five hits, all singles, and Dodgers prospects accounted for three of the five hits.

Third baseman Chase Harlan had two hits, while second baseman Charles Davalan had a single and walked, but that wasn’t enough for the Desert Dogs to touch home plate.

Cody Morse inherited runners on first and second base with two outs in the sixth inning, and stranded them with a groundout. Then Morse added a scoreless seventh, with one walk and a strikeout. The left-hander has been nearly spotless in his nine appearances so far in the Arizona Fall League, allowing only one unearned run on two hits and five walks in eight innings. To go with that 0.00 ERA, Morse has 14 strikeouts among his 33 batters faced for a tidy 42.4-percent strikeout rate.

---

Sam Horn, the Missouri quarterback turned Dodgers minor league pitcher, did not pitch Friday, but in his professional debut in the AFL has a 3.86 ERA in seven innings with eight strikeouts and four walks in his seven games. Horn was among the 10 pitchers in Arizona profiled by Geoff Pontes at Baseball America.

“He mixes three pitches: a mid-90s four-seam fastball with seven feet of extension, an 83-85 mph sweeper and a firm upper-80s changeup with negative vertical break.” Pontes wrote. “Horn has a limited track record, but he’s an exciting upside play.”

Friday score

Scottsdale 1, Glendale 0

Saturday schedule

No games on Saturday, but Harlan is one of eight contestants in the Arizona Fall League home run derby, which begins at 5:30 p.m. PT on Saturday night.

This is it.

This is the foundation upon which the Phillies have built their team. This is the backbone, the thing they can theoretically count on most days of a week.

Yet it can still be improved. There are ways that it could be better, ways that the team could protect themselves and grab some insurance to make sure they are set for any kind of catastrophe that might befall them. They need to make sure that what happened at the end of the season, where they were using bullpen games and scrap heap pickups does not happen again.

How to improve the Phillies: Catcher
How to improve the Phillies: Infield
How to improve the Phillies: Outfield

Who they have

You know who they have.

Cristopher Sanchez will finish in the top three in Cy Young voting again this year, Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo maybe both in the top ten. Andrew Painter looked much, much better later in the season after a rough debut and Aaron Nola seemingly found a secret formula to turn back the clock on his year.

After that? Ehh……

The depth that this team possesses is close to a hope and a prayer than it is to actual major league quality starting pitching. Not many teams have pitchers seven and eight deep in their minor league system, but at least others have been able to stockpile something decent in their levels. If we’re talking about some of the elite elite teams, this is what they have.

The Phillies have Gage Wood.

They had a bunch of names here and there, but all of those have gone away as minor league free agents. They have a few minor league options in Moises Chace and Ryan Dromboski, but they are rather unproven at this point. They need to have others.

Free agent options

It is highly unlikely that the team will be spending whatever free agent cash they have on starting pitching that moves the needle. Listing options like Tarik Skubal and Michael King is just an exercise in futility as they will not be options for the Phillies to discuss. If we’re being honest with ourselves, the aisles that the team will be shopping in aren’t going to generate a lot of enthusiasm.

Nestor Cortes – Again, the names I’m going to mention here are going to be the ones that don’t mind pitching for a bit in Lehigh Valley, knowing that they have some assurance their name will be called if an injury were to occur. With Cortes, the team gave him an actual major league deal at the end of the season thanks to their own lack of pitching depth and the hope he’d come back and give them something once he was sufficiently built up following his own surgery. That return never happened and the Phillies punted on that money. At this point, who really cared about the money, but at least there was a recognition that they didn’t have enough and they were trying a dart throw. Maybe bringing him back again, maybe even as a long reliever to start the year, might give them a leg up.

Michael Lorenzen – Speaking of returns. Lorenzen was the crazy guy that said he actually, truly, wanted to pitch in Colorado as a way to challenge himself as a starting pitcher. That experiment went about as well as you could imagine. By the time the carnage was complete, he had moved on to Toronto where he still was bad. It wasn’t long ago when Lorenzen looked like a serviceable member of a rotation, a five and dive guy that at least gave the team a reason not to have a bullpen day. Now, the Phillies could probably get him for a minor league deal and a spring invite.

Trevor Williams – Williams is an interesting choice here. He rehabbed a lot last year after getting internal brace surgery on his elbow and looked decent when he was on the mound. He stayed with Washington for a bit before latching on with Texas at the end of the season, where he performed well there too. He pitched well enough that some pitching starved team is likely to take a shot at him, giving him a guaranteed rotation spot instead of what the Phillies might be able to offer. Yet if he were to linger on the market for a while, he’s someone the team should be looking into.

Trade options

The options that the Phillies could look at to make a deal would probably involve another trade happening a la Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay.

Think about it – why would the Phillies trade someone they have right now? Moving one of Sanchez, Wheeler or Luzardo at this point weakens the top three. Moving Painter is silly since the team can’t keep relying on high priced free agents to fill out the rotation. Moving Nola is probably not in the cards as not very many teams are going to want that contract.

Yet if they did move one of those five names, there could be something coming back. It would likely be of the prospect variety, a way to fill the minor league coffers with young, mold-able arms.

However, would the Phillies actually trade for starting pitching? That seems like a stretch. The place to look is probably at the arbitration eligible players. Making a deal with some of those players that might be higher priced would be the best way to grab someone. There is the chance they make a deal for someone who still has minor league options available, yet is a bit too expensive for a team to roster. That or the team would rather reallocate those resources elsewhere.

Predicted outcome

I’ve seen some people on the internets that have this notion that one of the courses of action the Phillies should be taking this offseason is to move one of their three starters to help shore up other areas of need that exist on the roster.

Why?

The position they are in right now with the rotation is one of strength, arguably one of the strongest units in the game today. They have three Cy Young caliber starters at the top, a young starter that looked to be figuring things out as the season wore on and a grizzled veteran that looked to turn his season around in the final few months. Any team in the game today would take that starting five and run with it. Weakening it for the sake of trying to build up other areas of the roster is not the smartest bit of roster construction.

Instead, what they should be doing is looking for starters that would be willing to bide time at the minor league level at the hopes of cracking a rotation later on. That would involve an injury in all likelihood, something no one should be wishing on this team. Instead, pitchers that are trying to hang on, trying to improve themselves could find that using some time around the Phillies’ pitching development program might do them some good. They’ll likely sign someone who has those coveted minor league options with the hopes of stashing needed depth.

As for a free agent splurge on a top starting pitcher? That seems unlikely.

As someone whose formative Yankees-watching years came during the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ken Singleton and Jim Kaat were two of the voices I most associate with the team. It came as a bit of a shock to me once I got to an age where I could readily look stuff up that neither were most known for wearing a Yankees’ uniform during their playing career. Singleton never played for the team, while Kaat threw a total of 63.1 innings across two seasons towards the end of his career.

Yet for fans around my age, they’re associated with the team forever thanks to their announcing work. Today happens to be the birthday of one of those guys, so let’s give a happy birthday to a great player and announcer in Jim Kaat.

James Lee “Jim” Kaat
Born: November 7, 1938 (Zeeland, MI)
Yankees Tenure: 1979-80

Kaat, of Dutch ancestry, was born in 1938 in Michigan to John and Nancy. Fittingly for said Dutch ancestry, his father was a shoemaker. His father also passed along a love of baseball to Jim.

The younger Kaat was a good athlete in a number of sports — including baseball — in his youth, but was still fairly small, even as he graduated high school. As a result, Kaat didn’t get much of a look from professional teams or big colleges, leading him to attend Hope College in Michigan, which plays in what is today called Division III in the NCAA.

However as he began his college life, Kaat began to shoot up in size. During his one year attending Hope, Kaat grew to 6-4. That, plus his continuing good run on the field, finally began to get him looks from MLB teams. In June 1957, he inked a deal with the Washington Senators.

Kaat made quick work of the minors and received a call-up in August 1959. He made a handful of appearances for Washington that season and the next. Kaat eventually became a big league regular in 1961, albeit not exactly for the Senators. Ahead of the 1961 season, Washington moved to Minnesota and became the Twins. There, Kaat would emerge as one of the Twins’ first stars and often the ace of their rotation.

Over the next 13 years, Kaat would become a mainstay for a Twins’ team that quickly became pretty good. In 1965, the Twins won the AL Pennant and took the Dodgers all the way to Game 7 of the World Series. Kaat was entrusted to make three starts in the series, including the decisive Game 7. He and Minnesota took the loss that day, but considering their offense was blanked by Sandy Koufax in arguably his most famous performance, Kaat shouldn’t be blamed too much.

On an individual level, Kaat would make two All-Star appearances over his career with the Twins. He also became known as the preeminent defender on the mound. Starting in 1962, he won 16 consecutive pitcher Gold Gloves, tying him with Brooks Robinson for the most wins in a row. His record for pitching Gold Gloves was later surpassed by Greg Maddux, although there was a one-year break in his run.

The Twins returned to the postseason in 1969, appearing in the first ever American League Championship Series. They had been led there in part by new manager Billy Martin. However, Kaat wasn’t used at all by Martin in the three-game sweep at the hands of the Orioles, as the manager had a distrust of the pitcher, believing that Kaat hadn’t fully backed previous Twins’ manager Sam Mele, who Martin had served on the coaching staff under. Despite returning to the postseason, the Twins opted to move on from Martin after just one year.

Kaat returned to favor under Bill Rigney in 1970, and the Twins again advanced to the ALCS. However, Minnesota again was swept by the Orioles. Kaat started Game 3, but once again fell victim to a gem from a Hall of Famer, this time by Jim Palmer, who allowed one run and struck out 12 in a complete game.

The Twins began to fall back to the pack after that. In 1973, owner Calvin Griffith opted to put Kaat on waivers after the two had previously sparred over salary. The Chicago White Sox snagged him and were rewarded with arguably the two best years of Kaat’s career. According to Baseball Reference, Kaat posted 14.8 WAR over the 1974-75 seasons, making his third and final All-Star appearance in the second of those two years. That wasn’t enough to get Chicago to contend though, and they traded Kaat to the Phillies in December 1975.

By this point, Kaat was in his late 30s. After a good debut season in Philly, helping them to the NLCS, he struggled the next two years and moved mostly to the bullpen by 1979. In May of 1979, the Yankees purchased him from the Phillies. He was pretty good in 58.1 innings over 40 games with the Yankees and opted to re-sign with them for 1980. However, he got off to a bad start to that year, and in April, the Cardinals purchased him from New York.

Kaat remained in St. Louis for the next four seasons. Individually, Kaat’s numbers in St. Louis were never all that dominant, but he became a respected member of the Cardinals’ bullpen. He also got to finally enter the winner’s circle. Kaat appeared in four games of the 1982 World Series, as St. Louis beat the Brewers. Kaat was dinged with a blown save in Game 4, but pitched well otherwise.

He played one further season with the Cardinals in 1983, marking the 25th of his MLB career. Kaat is one of 31 players who have appeared in a major league game in four different decades.

Following his playing career, Kaat got into the broadcasting booth. He first joined the Yankees’ team in 1986 but left after that season. Following a stint with the Twins, he returned to the Yankees in 1995 and remained with them through 2006. He was regularly honored with Emmys for Sports Broadcasting during that tenure. He retired from the Yankees after 2006, but later returned for MLB Network shortly after that channel began airing. Kaat did occasional work for MLBN through 2022, when he officially hung up his mic.

Having appeared on the ballot on previous occasions, Kaat was voted into the Hall of Fame via the Golden Era Committee (also called the veteran’s committee) as part of the class of 2022. These days, Kaat resides down in Florida, playing golf and being a parent and grandparent.

Jim Kaat wasn’t a Yankee for very long, but for many of us, we’ll always associate his familiar voice with the Yankees.

Good morning, LSB.

There is not much going on in terms of Rangers news this morning.

Bruce Bochy is a virtual lock to be voted into the Hall of Fame on the contemporary era ballot. And Dusty Baker, I guess.

Ken Rosenthal writes that all it took was a little lockout for baseballs biggest agents to all become best friends.

And finally, Nico Harrison should be in jail.

That’s all for this morning. Have a good weekend!

Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong won his second straight Gold Glove earlier this week, perhaps the second of several such awards.

Friday night, PCA received another defensive award, this time the Platinum Glove for the best overall fielder in the National League. Here are some of the numbers that got him that award:

Platinum Pete 🤩

Pete Crow-Armstrong is your 2026 NL Rawlings Platinum Glove Award winner 👏 pic.twitter.com/djjCTZ57S6

— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) November 7, 2026

PCA’s former teammate Cody Bellinger won the American League Platinum Glove:

Former teammates Pete Crow-Armstrong and Cody Bellinger are MLB’s 2026 Platinum Glove winners!

This photo of the two is incredible.

(📸 @RawlingsSports) pic.twitter.com/ROfHCLOx5D

— Carson Wolf (@TheWrigleyWire) November 7, 2026

PCA is the second Cub to win the Platinum Glove (also Anthony Rizzo in 2016). In addition, the Cubs won the team Gold Glove for 2026:

That’s the power of glove 😮‍💨

Congratulations to the @Cubs, winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Team Award as the Best Defensive Team in the National League for the second year in a row! pic.twitter.com/zRyJcXaPi5

— MLB (@MLB) November 7, 2026

The Cubs have proven over the last couple of years how much defense matters. They also put together the best offensive team in MLB in 2026. If only the pitching staff had matched the hitting and defense, we might be talking about a Cubs World Series appearance this year. That’s the job of Jed Hoyer this offseason — to put together such a pitching staff.

Congratulations to PCA and the Cubs team on these defensive awards. Here are six and a half minutes of PCA defensive highlights: