Category: Baseball

1945
Harry Grabiner, the longest-tenured executive in White Sox history and certainly one of the longest-running employees overall, resigned as GM of the club. While not really formally holding a GM title, Grabiner had run the White Sox in tandem with three generations of Comiskey ownership, dating back to 1915. He first caught on with the team in 1905, selling scorecards; the 15-year-old got the job after noticing owner Charles Comiskey working the Comiskey Park infield after a rainstorm and asking if he could help out. By 1916, Grabiner was the team secretary (the de facto GM), at just 26. In 1939 upon the death of Comiskey’s son, Louis, the will stipulated that Grabiner was guaranteed another 10 years of employment in running the White Sox. However, Grabiner’s health was in decline, forcing his leave six years later.

Grabiner would soon return to baseball, as part of Bill Veeck’s ownership group in Cleveland. Meanwhile in Chicago, sabermetrics pioneer Les O’Connor took over the club for the next three seasons.

Also on this day came some administrative news of a different sort. With Hall of Fame voting at this time occurring just once every three years, just one player and two people overall had been elected to the Hall of Fame over the previous five years. With a massive pileup of worthy players were clogging the ballot, Cooperstown decided to hold a runoff election in order to get more players into the Hall — but the move was ineffective, as no one reached the necessary 75% for election. That included legendary White Sox hurler Ed Walsh, who received just 137 of 247 (55.5%) of votes, finishing third overall on the ballot.

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1948
After six years with the White Sox (interrupted right in the middle by three seasons lost to military service in World War II), Taffy Wright was sold to Philadelphia. Wright logged 12.5 in his White Sox career, was an average or better player in four of six seasons, and earned MVP votes in three. By 1948, with the right fielder’s WAR winnowed down to 0.5 over a full season of play, Chicago cut ties. He would play one subpar season for the Athletics and would not see the majors again, although Wright would stay active in the minors until 1956, at age 44.

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1951
In an outrageous turn, White Sox outfielder Minnie Miñoso lost the American League Rookie of the Year award to Gil McDougald of the New York Yankees, 13 votes to 11.

There are two objectionable areas in particular, when reviewing this hack voting. First is the fact that Miñoso finished much better than McDougald in MVP voting, which drew from a bigger and better spread of voters, 120-63. Miñoso finished fourth in the AL and actually received one first-place vote of the 22 ballots cast. McDougald finished ninth, with just 63 votes. Among all hitters who were “serious” candidates (i.e. Top 10 on the ballot), Miñoso’s WAR was highest, at 5.4 (McDougald sat at 4.5).

Second was the pure stats breakdown. Beyond the WAR advantage, Miñoso had the best OPS (.922) among Top 10 finishers, and also led the league in steals, with 31. Miñoso also led McDougald in basically every offensive category besides home runs (10, to McDougald’s 14).

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1972
After accomplishing one of the greatest individual seasons in franchise history and barely missing the Triple Crown, White Sox first baseman Dick Allen was named the MVP of the American League by the Baseball Writers Association of America. 

Allen led the league with 37 home runs, 113 RBIs, a .603 slugging percentage and 99 walks. He led the Sox with a .308 batting average, drove in 19 game-winning runs, stole 19 bases, scored 90 runs and was only .0005 points shy of leading all AL first basemen in fielding. He was the overall MLB leading vote-getter for the All-Star team. 

In the MVP race, Allen garnered 21 of 24 first place votes, for 321 points. Joe Rudi of the A’s was second, with 164 points.     

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2000
Jason Giambi edged out Frank Thomas for AL MVP, 371 votes to 285. Giambi hit .333 with 43 homers, 137 RBIs and 7.8 WAR, while the two-time White Sox winner batted .328 with 43 homers, 112 RBIs and 6.0 WAR.

The fact that Giambi later admitted to steroid use during the 2000 season has long given Thomas and his backers cause to dispute the award, but in truth Thomas’ reputation as a two-time winner (and leader of the division-winning White Sox) got him into second place to begin with.

Per WAR, several other players had more just cause for AL MVP than either Giambi or Thomas, beginning with Boston Red Sox ace Pedro Martínez, with 11.7 WAR. And if you believe, very reasonably, that the MVP should be restricted to position players, then both Alex Rodriguez (10.4 WAR, third-place finisher) and Darrin Erstad (8.3, 8th) had better cases than either Giambi or Thomas and at least three other AL hitters had a better case than Thomas.

There’s a lot of old timey baseball things that don’t exist in the modern MLB. One notable one is ties. Now, it’s not that they didn’t play extra innings back in the early decades, they did. The issue was that for a long time stadiums did not have lights. Eventually, things got to a point where you literally could not play anymore. Leagues like NPB in Japan still have ties, but MLB has specifically created rules (the extra innings automatic runner) to ensure that games don’t go too long and end with a winner.

However, that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes, that could lead to some funny box scores, like this one from 1919.

Very early in the 1919 season, the Yankees were hosting the Washington Senators on May 11th. The game that day was a makeup one after a scheduled meeting two days prior was postponed due to “wet grounds.” There’s another old timey baseball thing that you don’t really see today.

The Yankees faced a difficult task that day as starting on the mound for Washington was future Hall of Famer Walter Johnson. However, Yankees starter Jack Quinn was up to the challenge himself, although it would be a difficult journey. In the second inning, the Senators put their first two runners on base thanks to a single and an error, but Quinn managed to work around that by getting two big strikeouts for the first two outs.

That would become a pretty common occurrence for the Yankees on the day. In the third, Quinn allowed a single to Johnson himself, before getting out of the inning with a double play. In the fourth, Quinn got an out on a fielder’s choice play at home and then had to strand the bases loaded, but managed to do so.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ offense wasn’t exactly holding up their end of the bargain against Johnson. Roger Peckinpaugh had actually singled in their second at-bat of the day, but he ended up stranded at second. After that, Johnson retired the next 28 batters. If you did the math correctly, you may have realized that’s more consecutive batters retired than what a pitcher does in a regulation perfect game. Johnson was already an all-time great at this stage of his career, but he was especially dealing in this one.

Meanwhile as his offense was giving him nothing, Quinn was continually having to dodge bullets. He had to work out of further bases loaded jams in the sixth and eighth innings. Eventually, the game drifted into extra innings. In the 10th, Quinn worked around two runners. The Yankees’ offense then finally ended their dry spell when Home Run Baker drew a two-out walk. Somewhat understandably, he tried to make something happen by stealing second, but he got thrown out to end the inning.

After all that, the Yankees arguably had the better of the chances in extras. Quinn only allowed one runner in extra innings and promptly picked him off. Meanwhile, the Yankees had two runners on against Johnson, but failed to capitalize. Finally in the 12th, when George Halas (yes, that one) grounded out to end the inning, that also ended the game. It was believed that there was a law at the time that said Sunday games had to be over by 6:00 PM. The clock was nearing that time, and the game was called after a conference between umpires and managers. Reportedly, the law did not actually state the game had to end by 6, but it was a cold and damp day and neither team looked likely to cash in.

Both starting pitchers ended up going all 12 innings, but their stat lines couldn’t look any more different other than the runs column. Quinn allowed 10 hits and four walks in his 12 innings, facing 49 batters. Meanwhile, Johnson allowed just two hits and a walk, and his 37 batters faced was only one more than the minimum possible for his day.

At the end of every season, I like to write a “Stupidest Game of the Season” retrospective post. Had Pinstripe Alley been around in 1919, I think there’s a good chance this game would’ve made that list.

*State

Go Cards.

A lot of guys got cups of coffee with the Braves this year, including some true cups of coffee (just one appearance). Hunter Stratton added some nuance: not only did he get a true Braves cup of coffee, but he was part of two trades following that.

How Acquired

Stratton was a midseason trade acquisition by the Braves in 2025, acquired for minor league outfielder Titus Dumitru and cash on July 1, after the Pirates designated him for assignment in late June of that year.

The moribund Braves had him ride the shuttle quite heavily that year, as he was recalled five times in the span if two months.

What were the expectations?

Stratton had a nice-ish 2024 (0.7 fWAR in 37 2/3 innings, 84 ERA-, 80 FIP-, 98 xFIP-), but his season abruptly ended when he ruptured his patellar tendon running to cover home plate after a wild pitch. Given his injury status, the Pirates non-tendered him and re-signed him to a minor league deal; he was still working his way back from the injury with just (awful) appearances in 2025 when the Pirates sent him to the Braves.

Stratton worked 16 1/3 innings with the Braves down the stretch in 2025, but aside from a low ERA, he didn’t really offer anything of interest (52 ERA-, 102 FIP-, 110 xFIP-). His story in Triple-A was the same: an undeservedly low ERA and nothing else particularly great. However, he was on the 40-man roster, which meant he’d be yo-yo-level depth for the Braves in 2026, unless they needed his 40-man roster spot. Stratton was projected to be perhaps a below-average reliever, but not one the Braves were going to devote a dedicated bullpen spot to.

2026 Results

Stratton spent the first month of the season at Gwinnett; the Braves called him up on May 1. He got into one game: May 2, against the Rockies, where he threw the top of the ninth in a blowout win (strikeout, single, double play). The Braves optioned him to Gwinnett the next day; he spent another six-ish weeks there before the Braves decided they did need his 40-man roster spot, and designated him for assignment.

In a twist of fate, the next day, the Braves traded him for former teammate Joey Bart, who was the guy who couldn’t corral the wild pitch that led to Stratton’s season-ending injury in 2024 and may have altered the course of his career.

Then, things got a bit weird: the Pirates basically activated him from the minors to pitch two times in three games against the Braves, and then sent him down again. Basically, Stratton made three MLB appearances in 2026, and all three involved the Braves. At the Trade Deadline, the Pirates then traded him again, this time for the Padres’ Andrew Moore, a very fringy relief prospect. The Padres didn’t call up Stratton over the course of the season, but he remains on their 40-man roster.

All in all, Stratton’s three-appearance 2026 was kind of the reverse of his recent appearance, in a tiny sample: he had 0.1 fWAR, but with a 125 ERA-, 31 FIP-, and 42 xFIP-.

What went right?

Well, he actually pitched pretty well in two of his three outings, and actually earned a shutdown in a losing effort against the Braves in his final MLB appearance of the year. He came in with a four-run deficit and more on base and benefited from a fielder’s choice to end that frame. Then, after the Pirates scored two in the next frame, he shut the Braves down with a couple of strikeouts — but the Braves later turned it into a blowout anyway.

Plus, amid all the moves, Stratton retains his 40-man roster spot, so he seems likely-ish to pitch in the majors again in 2027, provided that there’s a 2027 season and he actually keeps said 40-man roster spot.

What went wrong?

For a second consecutive year, no one really seemed interested in giving Stratton a lot of runway at the MLB level. Part of it is that he just hasn’t done enough in the minors since his knee injury to make him an exciting callup. In 2026 at Triple-A, he had an ERA and estimators all in the 4.00s for the Braves; they were good in a few games with Triple-A Indianapolis (Pirates) but, with the El Paso Chihuahuas (Padres), all he could muster was another low ERA, poor estimators line.

Another issue for Stratton is just that his arsenal doesn’t make him an appealing add. His fastball is hard but lacks the “rise” you’d expect given its velocity, and the fact that deadens any fade on it means that it ends up looking very similar to his hard cutter. His slider has great shape and maybe he’d benefit from throwing a billion of them and nothing else, but there’s also a command issue there. Until he straightens some stuff out (but not literally; that fastball is straight enough), yo-yo guy might be Stratton’s role.

2027 Outlook

The Padres have a pretty top-heavy bullpen at this point, led by best-reliever-in-baseball Mason Miller, but they don’t have a lot of interesting depth, such that Stratton currently projects to have a decent workload at replacement level. Of course, the Padres will probably make some additions, which will cost Stratton his presumed spot if they happen. That said, there are many worse bullpens out there, so someone could probably use him to eat innings, whether he figures out how to be more effective or not, a la the Braves in 2025. But, given the way team control works in MLB, he’s not guaranteed to stick with a team like that, unless the Padres decide to move on.

Rumor fly fast and furious this time of year, and with the owners planning to lockout the players on December 1, cutting off free agency until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached, things have gotten off to a fairly speedy start. Of course, a rumor of interest could come from an agent trying to drum up interest in their client, or from a lower ranking executive just generally mentioning a player as being a fit. None of this means there’s a signing imminent, but BBWAA writer Francys Romero noted recently that the Tigers have shown interest in right-handed reliever Raisel Iglesias. That’s pretty vague, so I wouldn’t get too sold on the likelihood of a deal, but we’ll explore it anyway.

The 36-year-old right-hander has racked up 130 saves for the Atlanta Braves over the last four seasons. His recent peak was the 2024 campaign in which he posted a 1.95 ERA with a 2.65 FIP and was among the most valuable relievers in baseball. He hasn’t been quite that sharp the past two seasons, but he’s still a very good reliever and would immediately become the Tigers’ top dog.

Iglesias has had a much wilder ride than most major leaguers. A budding young closer on National teams for his native Cuba, Iglesias was caught fleeing through the mountains to try and defect. He was detained briefly but upon release escaped again and made his way to Haiti. A tryout in 2023 in Mexico City convinced the Cincinnati Reds to offer him a seven year deal worth $27 million. They tried to convert him into a starter in 2015, but abandoned that project the next season and he played out his contract with excellent success until he was traded to the Angels in 2020. They subsequently dealt him to Atlanta, where he played the past four seasons. Last year, the Braves signed him again to a one year, $16M deal and he made the All-Star gave for the first time in 2026.

Iglesias has since put together a decade plus of good to great relief work with rare consistency. In all that time, he’s posted an ERA over 2.75 just twice. Basically, he keeps the walks down, strikes out an above average percentage of hitters and doesn’t have a notable issue with giving up home runs.

Season	IP	ERA	FIP	K%	BB%	HR/9	fWAR
2023	55.2	2.75	3.26	29.4	6.5	1.13	1.0
2024	69.1	1.95	2.65	26.3	5.0	0.52	1.6
2025	67.1	3.21	3.31	27.4	6.0	1.07	1.0
2026	60.0	2.55	3.17	26.8	7.1	0.9	1.1

From 2020-2022, Iglesias hit a peak where he was sitting 96 mph and punching out over 30 percent of hitters he faced. He was never quite in the elite class, but he was certainly among the nastiest relievers in the game. Now he’s just plain nasty, but it’s still plus stuff with good command. He features one of the best changeups in baseball and it’s a time tested weapon at this point.

Iglesias sits 94-95 mph these days and mixes plenty of sinkers in with his fourseam fastball, which is his primary pitch. It’s a pretty unique set of fastballs in that neither pitch moves that much, but from a funky, low three-quarters, short arm slot, they’re really hard to differentiate for hitters. Add to that a changeup that looks exactly the same as the fourseam-sinker combo and then disappears, and you have a pitcher that really baffles hitters, gets whiffs, and rarely allows them to land their A swing.

The fly in the ointment is that Iglesias will be 37 next year, and if you’ve read my concerns about Emilio Pagán, well Iglesias is better but the same fears as velocity declines and mileage adds up are present. We’ll leave it at that. The Tigers have had no luck at all with older free agent pitchers.

Iglesias would fulfill the Tigers desire for a high leverage reliever who can handle either-handed hitters. He’s tougher on lefties, but handles right-handers just fine too. He does occasionally break out his slider against right-handers, and while he only used it 7.5 percent of the time last year it’s still a solid pitch in its own right. The changeup is just the monster weapon in this repertoire, and might help Iglesias to continue to age well despite losing a full mile per hour off his fastball over the past two seasons. So far he’s held up pretty well. It’s probably wise to expect at least a little continued decline, but even so he’ll likely be the Tigers best right-handed arm unless peak Will Vest returns or River Ryan or another starter converts and dominates.

The other problem, is that while the Atlanta Braves went and spent bigger than expected to land RHP Evan Phillips, they may very well turn right around and offer Iglesias another deal. The Tigers are just interested. Probably a lot of teams are interested. The crop of good relievers this offseason isn’t exactly huge, and several names are off the board already. At this point I’d be pretty happy to land Iglesias but there is probably going to be a fair bit of competition for him now.

Right now, I’d probably put a low likelihood of this rumor turning into Raisel Iglesias to Detroit. If only because there are no particular ties to the Tigers for Iglesias. Ben Clemens of FanGraphs suggests he’ll get a one-year deal for $13 million, but also suggests that a lot of teams will be in on him. Those two things aren’t really compatible. If the Tigers want him, something like two years, $24 million might be what it would take. Some certainty for a player as a very uncertain offseason begins might be the ticket to luring him to pick the Tigers over the one year, $16 million that seems likely. We’ll see if they want him quite that much.

If you said the Yankees’ first transaction of the offseason would be to re-sign one of their relievers, that’d be pretty believable, but you’d probably assume it’d be David Bednar off his qualifying offer. Instead, it’s a bit of a surprise, as the Yankees have re-signed lefty Tim Hill to a cheap, one-year deal with a club option in 2028.

Hill has had a classic reliever career. A 32nd-round pick in 2014, he debuted with the Royals in 2018, was traded to the Padres for one-time Yankee Franchy Cordero in 2020, and spent the next few seasons carving out a niche as a funky lefty for San Diego until he appeared to hit a wall in 2023. Over the next year and a half, he pitched to a 5.60 ERA over 67 innings for two teams and was released in June 2024 by the dreadful White Sox.

Left-handed reliever Tim Hill and the New York Yankees are in agreement on a one-year, $2.25 million contract that includes a $2.5 million club option for 2028, sources tell ESPN. Hill returns for his fourth season with the Yankees, whose bullpen is a top priority this offseason.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 15, 2026

Being 34 at the time, in a position with such volatile turnover, that could’ve well been it for Hill, but the Yankees gave him a shot on a flier two days later and found something in him, tweaking his arsenal and turning him into one of the most effective lefty specialists in the sport, spinning a 2.05 ERA in 44 innings down the stretch. He had gained so much trust in such little time that he owns a place in Yankees lore for being unjustly left in the bullpen in Game 1 of the World Series in favor of a rusty, injured Nestor Cortes.

Hill was worse, but still effective in 2025, though the warning signs started to flash. As a high-80s sinker-throwing lefty who relies on location with his extremely low arm angle, he’s susceptible to giving up hard contact if his command is off. In 2024, he had some of the best damage prevention stats in the sport, but it has slowly eroded since.

2026 was a disaster for Hill, pitching to a 4.60 ERA and 5.93 FIP in 58.2 innings as his chase rate plummeted and he became completely unplayable against righties, allowing a .293/.365/.543 slashline in 104 plate appearances. That, coupled with the presence of Brent Headrick, Ryan Weathers, and Ryan Yarbrough, left him off the playoff roster for both rounds.

Yet, despite the 36-year-old’s worst season peripherally, he had a strong market, drawing interest from teams like the Dodgers, Mets, and Guardians. Ultimately, he decided to stay with the team that revitalized his career on a low-risk contract. With Bednar, Paul Blackburn, John Schreiber, Michael Fulmer, and even Yarbrough also free agents, the Yankees clearly had spots to fill from their end-of-season bullpen. Not all the additions are going to be blockbuster moves, and that’s OK.

Hill is still quite effective against lefties, has the league’s best ground-ball rate, and is surely due for some positive regression after registering the second-highest HR/FB% in the history of baseball, but it’s certainly an interesting move to make first.

We have been doing this for a few years now: looking at the top free agents, using the contract Ben Clemens suggests he’ll get, and asking whether you would like the Jays to give him that contract. This year, the lockout makes it a little more complicated. Keith Law’s list is here. Ben Clemens’ is here.

Number 5 on Ben Clemens list and number 2 on Keith Law’s is Teruaki Sato.

The Jays are said to be talking to him, thinking that he could play outfield.

He is a 27-year-old (28 in early March), left-handed hitter. Last year, for the Hanshin Tigers, he hit .306/.383/.609 with 39 home runs, 68 walks, and 164 strikeouts. He’s had six seasons in the NPB, playing 803 games, with a .273/.338/.516, with 167 home runs.

Law said:

Sato is the best player coming over from NPB this winter and might be the best position-player free agent on the market, period. Playing in a pitcher-friendly stadium in Koshien, Sato hit 79 homers the past two seasons and heads to the posting system off a .306/.383/.609 season, where he also hit 40 doubles and walked more than 10 percent of the time, finishing third in the Central League with 68 walks. It’s easily plus power, earning comparisons to that of Munetaka Murakami, who offered a little more power but less of a hit tool than Sato has. Sato does strike out quite a bit, with a 26.7 percent rate last year, and he had the highest swinging-strike rate of any qualifying NPB hitter. Scouts I’ve asked say his approach is better than the raw data would indicate, that he’s swinging harder and more often to try to do damage, since that’s the expectation given where he’s hit in the lineup and since his home park is unfriendly to power. At the very least, he’d benefit from simply swinging less, in or out of zone.

Clemens said:

Defensively, Sato is below average, both at third base and in right field. Some teams likely see him as a first baseman, but he might also be more of a rotating corner guy whose defense you accept in exchange for some homers. Between that and the contact question, I wouldn’t be comfortable relying on Sato as a difference-maker for a likely playoff team; there are just too many fail cases. But there are a lot of boom cases as well. If he’s acceptable at third and the power plays, “perennial All-Star” is well within the realm of possibility. That makes me think an ascendant team looking to bank a little bit of spending and gamble a bit on a good outcome will sign Sato, much like the White Sox did with Murakami last year. Sato has the tools to be an impact player, and he’s so young that if he’s good next year, he’ll likely be good for a while. That seems like a good deal to me overall, even if every team won’t be interested.

Clemens figures he will get a 5-year contract at $22 million a year for a total of $110 million. I think he’s a fair bit low on the yearly amount.

Getty Images had the following caption for this photo:

Talking things over before their exhibition game at Wrigley Field, March 18, are four eminent gentlemen of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs baseball teams. After the brawl was over, the Cubs had won, 9-6. Left to right: Harold Traynor, Pirates’ manager; Russ Bauers, Pirate pitcher; Jerome “Dizzy” Dean, cub pitcher, and cubs manager Gabby Hartnett

Well. That doesn’t look like Wrigley Field, and it’s extremely unlikely that the Cubs and Pirates would have played an exhibition game in Chicago in mid-March nearly 90 years ago.

The thing is, the caption is 100 percent correct. These teams did play an exhibition game March 18, 1939 at Wrigley Field — the Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, where the Cubs often did play pre-season games when they were training on Catalina Island off the California coast.

And, in fact, the Cubs did win an exhibition game on that date by the score of 9-6 over the Pirates. There wasn’t an actual “brawl.” That was just the way a caption writer back in the day referred to that baseball game.

The Tribune recap of the game written by Edward Burns indicated that Joe Marty, Steve Mesner and Phil Cavarretta all homered for the Cubs in that game. Marty had been a spare-part outfielder for the Cubs the previous year, but played in only 23 games for them in 1939, batting .132/.175/.224, before he was traded to the Phillies on May 29, along with Ray Harrell and Kirby Higbe, for Claude Passeau. That was an exceptionally good trade for the Cubs, as Passeau was a solid Cubs pitcher for nine years, with three All-Star appearances, including 1946, when he was the NL’s starting pitcher — still the only Cubs pitcher to start an ASG.

Mesner played in only 17 games for the Cubs in 1939 and after that year was traded to the Cardinals, along with Gene Lillard and cash to the Cardinals for Ken Raffensberger and Bobby Sturgeon. That would have been a good deal if the Cubs had only held on to Raffensberger, who eventually was traded to the Phillies and who would have several very good years for the Reds in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The Cubs, of course, were coming off an NL pennant year in 1938, their fourth flag in a 10-year span, and hopes were high for a repeat in 1939. That year’s Cubs contended for a while, but eventually finished fourth at 84-70, 13 games out of first place.

It takes more than just household names to build and maintain a dynasty. Every World Series winning squad needs the role players and glue guys to get through the grind of the regular season and step up in unexpected ways when the games matter the most. For the Joe DiMaggio’s and Whitey Ford’s of the early-50s halcyon days, you had guys like Joe Ostrowski who went unremembered but contributed nonetheless.

Joseph Paul Ostrowski
Born: November 15, 1916 (West Wyoming, PA)
Died: January 3, 2003 (Wilkes-Barre, PA)
Yankees Tenure: 1950-52

Joseph Paul Ostrowski was born on November 15, 1916, in West Wyoming, PA, the sixth of eleven children (six girls and five boys), to Polish immigrants Marcel (or Martin) and Helena (née Cegielka) Ostrowski. Despite growing up in the heart of Pennsylvania coal country, Ostrowski did not work the mines like his father after his oldest brother perished in a mining accident when he was 17, causing his father to promise that Joe nor any of his remaining brothers would work in the coal industry. His local high school did not have a baseball team, so his introduction to the sport came through playing in the local sandlot “anthracite leagues” as they were informally known.

Ostrowski attended college at St. Thomas College (now the University of Scranton) and graduated with a degree in education. He taught social studies and Latin in his hometown, which is the origin of the nicknames of “Professor” and “Specs” that he would pick up from teammates during his major league career. Playing baseball during the summers, Ostrowski pitched a no-hitter and a pair of one-hitters in amateur ball in 1940 and 1941, which caught the eye of the business manager of the Scranton Red Sox, Joe Reardon. His first taste of organized ball came with Boston’s Class D affiliate, the Centreville Red Sox of the East Shore League in 1941, with whom he compiled a 10-4 record and league-best 1.71 ERA in 17 starts to earn a promotion to the Class C Canton Terriers of the Middle Atlantic League. It was during these initial years in the low minors that Ostrowski learned how to throw a curveball from Hall of Fame pitcher Herb Pennock, at that time Boston’s minor league director.

A promotion to the Class B Greensboro Red Sox of the Piedmont League in 1942 further accelerated his career, as he posted a league-best 21-8 record and 1.65 ERA in 35 starts as his team won the league championship. The following year, Ostrowski enlisted in the US Army Air Forces. He served as a medic and rose to the rank of sergeant after being assigned to a fighter group in Italy for 19 months. Upon his return from the war, Ostrowski married Helen Regina Augustynovich, with whom he would have three sons. Around the same time in 1946, he was promoted to the Triple-A Louisville Cardinals of the American Association and went 10-4 with a 2.87 ERA in 24 appearances (11 starts). The next season saw him go 13-11 with a 2.98 ERA in 29 appearances (22 starts), but that is as close as he would get to playing for the Red Sox, the team trading him alongside eight other members of the organization and $310,000 to the St. Louis Browns for Vern Stephens, Jack Kramer, Ellis Kinder, and Billy Hitchcock following the 1947 season.

After starting the season with the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens of the International League, Ostrowski finally received his first big league call-up at the age of 31. He debuted on July 8, 1948, allowing four runs on five hits and two walks in the seventh inning of a 6-2 loss to the Tigers. He pitched his first career complete game in August against Cleveland and even added two hits and two RBI on the offensive side. His rookie season ended with Ostrowski sporting a 4-6 record and 5.97 ERA in 26 appearances (nine starts) and 78.1 innings.

The following season saw Ostrowski go 8-8 with a 4.79 ERA in 40 appearances (13 starts) and 141 innings including a pair of complete game victories. It was around this time that the Browns started deploying Ostrowski as the game’s final pitcher, long before the term “closer” came into existence. He tallied another pair of complete game victories to open the 1950 season, but the cash-strapped Browns owners were desperate to keep the team solvent, and so traded Ostrowski alongside Tom Ferrick and Leo Thomas to the Yankees on June 15, 1950, for Snuffy Stirnweiss and minor league prospects Jim Delsing, Don Johnson, and Duane Pillette along with $50,000 in cash.

Ostrowski added a multi-inning relief arm to the Yankee bullpen to help ease the burden on their starting rotation, pitching to a 5.15 ERA in 21 appearances (just four starts) totaling 43.2 innings following the trade. He was left unused in the 1950 World Series as the Yankees swept the Phillies thanks to brilliant pitching displays from Ford, Allie Reynolds, Eddie Lopat, and Vic Raschi.

Ostrowski saw a sharp uptick in his game time in 1951, and he made the third-most appearances on the pitching staff behind Reynolds and Raschi. In 34 appearances (three starts), Ostrowski went 6-4 with a 3.49 ERA and six saves in 95.1 innings while earning the highest salary of his career at $8,500. He made the lone postseason appearance of his career as the Yankees advanced to their third straight World Series, tossing two scoreless innings allowing just one hit in 6-2 loss in Game 3 against the Giants. Lopat and Reynolds combined for three complete games in the series as the Yankees vanquished the Giants in six games.

The following season would be Ostrowski’s last in the big leagues, the 35-year-old seeing his opportunities taper off sharply after the Yankees acquired Johnny Sain and Bob Kuzava the previous offseason. He made just 20 appearances, going 2-2 with a 5.63 ERA in 40 innings, his final major league appearance a five-inning relief outing allowing five runs on five hits and three walks in a 12-3 loss to the White Sox on August 20, 1952. The Yankees hosted Joe Ostrowski Day on the final day of the regular season, gifting him a car. He would again watch from the sidelines in that year’s World Series as the Yankees outlasted the Dodgers in seven games to tie a then-MLB record four straight titles. Ostrowski succinctly explained his last of work by noting “The Dodgers had seven right-handed batters and I was a left-handed pitcher.”

Prior to the start of the 1953 season, the Yankees sold Ostrowski to the Los Angeles Angels — then the Pacific Coast League affiliate of the Cubs — and he finished his baseball career with a 3-6 record and 2.96 ERA in 28 appearances totaling 73 innings. He settled with his wife and children in his hometown of West Wyoming, PA, where he would resume his teaching career for a further 25 years while also coaching baseball and refereeing basketball. He returned for Old-Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium in 1978, where he light-heartedly recalled that former teammate Phil Rizzuto didn’t recognize him despite reminding him his name, though DiMaggio and Ford did remember him. Ostrowski was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1988 and passed away at the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital on January 3, 2003, at the age of 86.

Although he largely went unused in the three-straight World Series wins during his Yankees tenure, Ostrowski nonetheless helped preserve the arms of the team’s workhorse starters during the regular season as a valuable member of those teams’ bullpens.

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See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

Nationals top pitching prospect Jarlin Susana’s career has been defined by two things: almost unbelievable fastball velocity and continued attempts to keep him healthy.

With a clean bill of health heading into the 2026 Arizona Fall League season, the righty was able to let things rip; and let things rip he did. His first start in the AFL was headlined by his fastball touching 103.8 mph, and he kept lighting up the radar gun en route to a league-leading 26 punchouts.

Susana went on to throw 18.2 innings in the AFL season, almost matching the 20.1 total innings he threw across the entirety of the 2026 season. His command remains a point of emphasis, still registering 13 walks, but his triple-digit fastball and .162 batting average against placed him firmly among the top arms in the league. The secondary offerings he showed, albeit experimental at times, also gave hitters far more than they could deal with.

Jarlin Susana brought the heat in the desert, and he's the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Year!

The @Nationals 6-foot-6 🔥-thrower led the AFL in strikeouts (26) and touched 103.8 mph with his heater.

More: https://t.co/QFZsQwqCpHpic.twitter.com/8EErLOKt1y

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 14, 2026

His primary breaking ball was clocked routinely in the upper 90s and was causing all sorts of problems, and he even mixed in a slower sweeper-type pitch that should create another storyline for Nats fans to watch going into 2027.

Two aspects of Susana’s showing might go unnoticed but point to him continuing his upward trajectory: his ability to carry his velocity through a higher pitch count and maintain control when switching between his arsenal.

He was given the start in the league quarterfinals and worked 2 2/3 innings with his pitch count climbing above 55, and continued to flash 100+ with his heater throughout his start. The pitch mixing was on full display during his strikeout to end a scoreless inning in the AFL All-Star game, as he pumped 103.1 mph for strike two before flipping in an 87 mph breaking ball to finish off Baltimore Orioles prospect Vance Honeycutt Jr.

Susana is among Washington’s crop of elite pitching talent in the pipeline, and he now enters a major offseason regarding how soon he can impact the MLB club. Continuing to refine his command will be the top selling point for when he finally takes the mound at Nationals Park, but his AFL performance showed that, when healthy, he has the raw stuff to carve up lineups with ease.

MLB’s No. 66 prospect Jarlin Susana (@Nationals) twirls 2 2/3 scoreless frames in the Fall League quarterfinals!

🔴 5 K’s, 4 with his 70-grade sweeper
⚪️ 29 pitches at 100+ mph, topped out at 102.3
🔴 34/58 pitches for strikes, 8 whiffs pic.twitter.com/vOb6OZ8Gs0

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 13, 2026

How much time he will have to showcase his skills against big league talent in the near future remains to be seen with the lockout looming, but prioritizing Susana’s development is likely near the top of the Washington brass’ priority list in the coming months.

Good morning, folks…

The New Yorker has a story on the sports betting boom and gambling addiction, which centers around Jontay Porter in talking about the phenomenon.

Jim Bowden offers up what he’s hearing from the GM meetings.

David Laurila has his Sunday Notes column up at Fangraphs.

The San Diego Padres are desperate for starting pitching and everyone knows it. That is why the club is rumored to be in on pitchers at every level of the market, including the top pitching free agent Tarik Skubal. Earlier this week it was also reported the Padres are in on the Japanese arms looking to transition to MLB as well as established veterans like Dustin May, Freddy Peralta, Nick Martinez and Matthew Boyd. San Diego is also reportedly interested in bringing back Michael King and Nick Pivetta.

With only a couple of weeks before the expiration of the CBA and the expected lockout on Dec. 1, the pitching additions could come fast and furious. Like most seasons, the first domino to fall is usually the top free agent. In this offseason that is Skubal. The left-hander is expected to have meeting with several clubs starting next week and one of those clubs is the Padres. Whether or not they have a legitimate chance to add the star pitcher is anyone’s guess, but if new owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones wanted to make a statement about their commitment to building a winning roster that would be one way to do it.

With so many needs in the San Diego rotation, the question has been whether or not committing a large sum of payroll to one arm like Skubal would be wise. For the same money the Padres might be able to bring back King and then add two or three additional starters like May, Martinez or Peralta. Of course there are also the Japanese pitchers to consider and what those monetary commitments would look like.

With all the talk about pitching this offseason, San Diego’s pursuit of another bat and the need to address first base has taken a back seat. Ty France remains unsigned but he just saw Jake Bauers parlay his season in Milwaukee into a lucrative contract with the Boston Red Sox. Perhaps that deal gives a framework for a France deal whether that is with the Padres or any other team.

General manager A.J. Preller has a stated he has a budget, what that is no one outside of the top brass in San Diego knows. The potential moves over the next two weeks could be very telling in that regard, but for now all anyone can do is wait and speculate.

Padres News:

• Joe Musgrove fought to get back to the San Diego rotation but was unable to do so until his dramatic return for relief innings in the playoffs. That was enough for Lincoln Zdunich of Gaslamp Ball to hand him his grade for the 2026 season.

• Padres prospects playing for the Peoria Javelinas helped their team win an Arizona Fall League title.

• Outfielder Kala’i Rosario signed a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training with the Padres.

• Tom Krasovic of the San Diego Union-Tribune says Adrian Morejon should be celebrated for his 2026 season no matter what he decides to do in free agency.

• Jim Bowden of The Athletic said the Padres have been very aggressive this offseason.

• Brian Murphy of MLB.com looks at what allowed Jackson Merrill to have success in the second half of the 2026 season..

Baseball News:

• The Baltimore Orioles have reportedly reached out to the Arizona Diamondbacks about second baseman Ketel Marte.

• Here are the latest rumors around MLB.

Meet the Mets

In his rundown of what he is hearing at the GM meetings in The Athletic, Jim Bowden writes that the Mets will be players for Tarik Skubal and that the Blue Jays are involved as well, but Skubal may not just pick the highest offer. Freddy Peralta and Michael King are also expected to land big contracts, but likely will not sign until Skubal sets the market.

The Mets are interested in Ty France and Alec Bohm as potential options at first base.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post wonders how far David Stearns should go in prioritizing 2027 when it comes to giving up draft capital for short-term success.

Mets pitching prospect Ryan Lambert has been tinkering with a new pitch in the Arizona Fall League and hopes that it will help him land a spot on the big league roster in 2027. “It’s a feel pitch for me,” Lambert said of his new sweepier breaking ball. “It comes off my fastball pretty dang good.”

Around the National League East

After signing Evan Phillips to bolster their bullpen, the Braves are still interested in Rasiel Iglesias, who is also drawing interest from the Tigers.

Meanwhile “relievers who command multiple years and significant money are probably off the table” for the Nationals, despite Washington having one of the league’s worst bullpens last season.

Alex McFarlane had a strong rookie campaign for the Phillies in what was otherwise a pretty dismal year for their bullpen. He is looking to cement himself as a long-term option in 2027.

The Marlins have hired Trayce Thompson—brother of Miami Heat guard Klay Thompson—to their baseball operations department.

Around Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is running ads on its social media platforms representing the league’s proposed changes to the game as we hurtle toward a potential lockout.

Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic covered the latest offseason storylines and rumors, including the Red Sox operating as a big market team should with the addition of Jake Bauers, the Brewers’ potential options at first base now that Bauers has departed, the Braves’ possible next moves, the case for Jazz Chisolm, and more.

Diamondbacks officials met with Ketel Marte’s agent during the GM meetings this week, but did not come away with a clearer picture regarding which teams for which Marte would waive his no-trade protection to approve a deal, according to reports.

The Arizona Fall League handed out its annual awards.

The 2026 MVP campaign in both leagues represents a cautionary tale when it comes to trading top prospects, writes Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com. But the executives he interviewed understand that big mistakes, like the Mets made when they traded NL MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong as a prospect, come with the territory.

Yesterday at Amazin’ Avenue

Vasilis Drimalitis took a look back at Christian Scott’s bounce back 2026 season.

This Date in Mets History

Darryl Strawberry (inexplicably) finished second in the MVP voting to Kirk Gibson on this date in 1988.