Category: Baseball

One of the biggest names remaining in the Mariners’ managerial search has reportedly withdrawn from contention, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic: Rocco Baldelli has reportedly taken himself out of the running, citing “family considerations.”

Baldelli, 45, is originally from Rhode Island, and spends part of his time there, but also has a home in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he was based during his seven-year professional playing career as a member of the Rays. For the past year, he’s been working with the Dodgers as a special assistant/advisor to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman. Perhaps that was enough being cross-coastal for Baldelli, who has three children under age five, including three-year-old twins.

Baldelli has been a popular name in the Mariners’ coaching search thanks to a strong reputation for facility with analytics. He joined the Rays front office shortly after his playing career ended and was with the organization – arguably the most analytics-friendly front office in the sport – until he departed to take the Twins’ managerial vacancy. Baldelli was with Minnesota from 2019-2025, overseeing the Twins in three playoff appearances but also a deeply disappointing 2024 where the team finished fourth in the AL Central despite being favored in preseason odds. The Twins parted ways with Baldelli after 2025, when the Twins again finished fourth in the Central.

Baldelli’s playing career was unfortunately cut short because he battles mitochondrial channelopathy, a rare genetic condition that affects how mitochondria in your cells produce energy, which can cause a host of issues, from fatigue to diabetes to persistent muscle weakness or pain.

The Mariners will now turn their attentions elsewhere as they continue to narrow their pool of candidates, as reportedly they were hoping to make a hire before the end of the month. They’ll have plenty of competition in attracting said candidates even in just the AL West, with both the Astros and the Angels looking for new managers. The Astros made a hiring move today, hiring Conner Watson away from the Cleveland Guardians, to be hitting director. Watson served as the Guardians’ assistant director of hitting development for the past two years; previously he was with Driveline in their Arizona location, serving as the Hitting Lead for four years after coming out of the small-college coaching corps.

Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability). 

The Padres’ Failed Starter

As the Padres’ general manager A.J. Preller tends to do each offseason, he went bargain hunting. in 2026, this came in the form of several lower-tier free agents being signed to ridiculously low contracts with the hopes that one or two of them would pan out. One of these was Griffin Canning. Canning was coming off of a career year with the New York Mets, posting a 3.77 ERA across 76 1/3 innings pitched. Unfortunately, a ruptured tendon in his left Achilles ended his season prematurely. That allowed San Diego to pick him up on a measly one-year, $2.5 million deal.

Overall Grade: C

He performed roughly to those expectations. In 30 appearances (11 starts), Canning posted a 5.68 ERA, 1.52 WHIP and .276 opponent batting average. Putting it kindly, he struggled to limit runs. Putting it less kindly, he pitched like a guy who didn’t want to play baseball any longer. Canning simply couldn’t record outs.

His first start was quite good, surrendering just one run across five innings against the Chicago White Sox. Then the illusion came crashing down. Canning would surrender three or more runs in seven of his ten starts. He surrendered more runs than innings pitched seven times. He also surrendered more runs than strikeouts recorded five different times. It was tough going for quite some time.

However, those early struggles make it hard to discern his later success. After failing to pitch in the starting rotation, Canning transitioned into a bulk relief role, where he flourished. The righty pitched his final start for the Padres on July 18 against the Kansas City Royals. After that, Canning only surrendered more than two runs twice with a 2.70 ERA after July 23.

Junior Caminero doesn't say much in the Tampa Bay Rays clubhouse. He lets his bat do the talking.

So, when the 23-year-old third baseman started screaming in the visitors' dugout during Game 2 of the World Series on Saturday night, his teammates noticed.

"When he speaks, everybody listens," Rays infielder Richie Palacios said Sunday.

Fox cameras caught the outburst after the sixth inning of Game 2. Moments earlier, Chandler Simpson had a Christian Yelich fly ball bounce off his glove for what should have been the third out. A 4-0 Rays lead was gone, and the clip spread fast.

So did the assumption that Caminero was tearing into Simpson.

Junior Caminero was fired up back in the Rays dugout after the Brewers tied up the game in the 6th pic.twitter.com/QmJljvYFMo

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 25, 2026

The Rays said that was not the case.

"Yesterday, he was just encouraging us to lock in, lock in and not worry about what's behind us but to worry about what's ahead of us," Palacios said. "We all took it as a positive."

Tampa Bay needs that message to stick. The Rays lost 5-4 and trail the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0 heading into Game 3 on Monday, Oct. 26 at Tropicana Field.

What Junior Caminero said about his World Series dugout reaction

Caminero never named a teammate. Speaking through interpreter Kevin Vera after the game, he pointed at the whole defense.

"We had to get outs," Caminero told reporters. "At the moment, we weren't doing our job."

Simpson certainly wasn't the only one not doing his job. Jonathan Aranda let a routine grounder go through his legs in the fourth inning with a runner on third, costing the Rays a run. In the sixth, Simpson's misplay was scored a single, not an error, but it put runners on the corners and forced manager Kevin Cash to pull Ian Seymour. The play didn't directly lead to a run, but the Brewers tied the game in the sixth anyway.

Caminero said his goal was "trying to create some energy and get some life back into us."

There’s no doubt that the first two games of the 2026 World Series have been nothing short of incredible. The City of Milwaukee has waited 44 years for this and is now two wins away from its first World Series in 69 years.

With any team that’s making a run to a championship, many different factors go into a team’s success; for the Brewers, it’s so difficult to narrow it down to just one. Of course, you’ve got the bullpen, the relentlessness of the offense, and a manager’s trust in the midst of adversity.

For once, the Brewers’ starting pitching, clever defense, and small-ball approach aren’t holding down the fort. Rather, the monotonous, tedious at-bats mixed with the ability to feed off one another have been driving the boat, and that’s what we saw in last night’s tumultuous 5-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Of the many storylines to come out of last night, it was the Brewers bullpen once again, dominating the mound. Specifically, Aaron Ashby improved his postseason line to a whopping 15.2 innings pitched, five hits allowed, and 17 strikeouts, the best line of anyone on the team. He is now second in MLB history with the most consecutive scoreless innings pitched to start the postseason, trailing only 2016 Andrew Miller with the Cleveland Indians by .1 innings.

While the Brewers pitching got 27 outs in a high-stress volume, the Brewers offense put far more pressure on the Rays pitching staff by prolonging at-bats. Beginning at surface level, the Brewers were retired in order just once last night, which came in the bottom of the second inning. Outside of that, the Brewers sent at least four batters to the plate in each inning.

The at-bats that jolted the Brewers offense awake weren’t lengthy, which is astonishing. But the punches that were landed, meaning at-bats where runs were scored, batters took longer in the box. Chourio and Bauers saw a collective of five pitches to get the offense started; after that, each at-bat that resulted in a run, the Brewers offense saw at least six pitches.

From that point on, the narrative wasn’t just Bauers’ ability to put together long at-bats but rather the entire lineup. During those long innings for the Rays pitching staff, they struggled to put away the Brewers hitters. Even in the “shortest” inning of the night for the Rays pitching staff, the Brewers forced Drew Rasmussen to throw 18 pitches to go 1-2-3. A large chunk of those pitches were thrown to Jackson Chourio, who quickly fell into a 0-2 count before fouling off five pitches, mixed in with three balls. Not that Rasmussen had his A+ stuff last night, but this at-bat was quietly underrated despite it resulting in a groundout, as that had pushed his pitch count to 48 through two innings.

Once Logan Henderson settled into the game, the Brewers offense began chipping away, slowly and methodically. After a lengthy bottom of the second inning, none other than Bauers stepped in and picked up right where the offense left off. Bauers went to the plate and saw seven pitches to open the bottom of the third. Christian Yelich followed up with a six-pitch at-bat himself.

To some, seeing Rasmussen come out for the fourth inning was a bit of a shock, but to the Brewers, they saw an opportunity: to break into the Rays bullpen before hitting the halfway mark of the game. Cooper Pratt settled into the game nicely after his first-inning error and proved it after his not-so-rookie-looking at-bat. After a called strike to open his plate appearance, he swung at a pitch quite far outside of the zone, then came three straight takes. All three were on a fastball, until he fouled one off before walking. After a few quicker at-bats from the bottom of the lineup, Bauers landed the final blow to Rasmussen with another six-pitch at-bat to load the bases.

Throughout the 2026 postseason, the Brewers have faced a handful of the best pitchers with the highest Whiff percentages in baseball. Whiff% measures how often a batter swings and misses the ball compared to the total number of swings they take. So far in the postseason, they have faced five pitchers that all rank in the top 50 among qualified starters. Rasmussen was one last night, Nick Martinez the other, and of course Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the NLCS.

If you lower the Whiff% to a minimum of 50 innings pitched, the number of pitchers that the Brewers have seen in the postseason spikes to 10 out of the top 100. This goes to show that the quality of pitching that the Brewers have seen throughout this run, with all the comebacks involved, is among the top in baseball.

Cam Booser had the most efficient inning from any Rays pitcher that we’ve seen at any point in the World Series, as it took him just 10 pitches to get through the fifth inning, and that’s with allowing a one-out walk. The next inning, though, you could see the tide change. Sal Frelick isn’t known for his power, until it comes to tying the game in big moments. First, in college, when Boston College trailed by three, what’d he do? Take Auburn deep to right-center field to tie the game. The next? Game three of the 2024 Wild Card Series to extend the Brewers’ lead over the New York Mets. Finally, in the biggest and best at-bat of his career, he hits a home run straightaway to center field to tie the game.

How’d he get there? By making Ian Seymour throw eight pitches. After getting ahead 0-1, Seymour threw him two straight balls. Then the foul barrage came. Four of them, all by just a flick of the bat. Then, he got a gift of a fastball left over the plate, and he didn’t miss. It was his first home run since July 11th. This season alone, most of his hits were either pull-side or opposite-field; his hits up the middle were groundballs, rarely line drives; he had five total all season.

Seymour couldn’t find a way to get rid of the Brewers; Hamilton followed up with a nine-pitch at-bat, then Chourio saw eight pitches, and Bauer saw six. The Brewers were in control.

The seventh inning wasn’t as lengthy as what we saw, but it was still effective as Cooper Pratt hit the go-ahead single. The bottom of the eighth inning was the final blow. The Rays needed two pitchers to get through the inning; three of the five batters to appear in the inning saw five pitches or more.

Overall on the night, the Brewers fouled off 44 pitches; 22 of those were with their backs against the wall in two-strike counts. The series is far from over, and the Brewers still have yet to face a couple more of the Rays pitchers who are high in Whiff%, that being Freddy Peralta and Griffin Jax.

Patience has been a key approach for the Brewers all season, and it somehow has gotten better in the postseason among the league’s best. The Brewers will seek to continue their success in this department Monday night against their former teammate.

It’s Sunday once more, and you know what that means — it’s time for our weekly social media roundup! With the untimely end of the Yankees season now more than a week and a half behind us, we begin to settle into what looks to be a long, long, loooooong winter. The offseason doesn’t mean that life stops, however, and this week, we have a jam-packed social media roundup. And so, without further ado, let’s get started!

Raise the Banner

This past Tuesday, the 2026-2027 NBA season went underway, and with it came one last celebration for the New York Knicks. The 2026 NBA Champions received their championship rings and raised a banner at Madison Square Garden, before unfortunately losing to the 76ers in the first game of the new season. A pair of Yankees fan favorites, Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler, were in attendance.

They weren’t the only ones from the Yankees family there, though. YES researcher James Smyth was also in the Garden, although since he didn’t mow down the Red Sox lineup or lead the league in postseason home runs and RBI (seriously, that’s how dominant Rice’s postseason was), he didn’t get a seat on celebrity row.

Two Best Friends

Former Yankee infielders Gleyber Torres and Gio Urshela, along with their wives, were spotted on vacation together in Europe. Although they no longer don the pinstripes (and although Urshela has retired from the sport entirely), it’s nice to see they still find time to hang out.

The Pride of Somerset

The Somerset Patriots, as always, take great pride in the big league performance of their former players; this week, they celebrated the season totals of Yankees rookie shortstop George Lombard Jr.

Wedding Reflections and Outdoor Fun

Two weeks ago, Luke Pettitte — not only the son of a Yankee legend, but himself now a Yankee prospect — celebrated his wedding. This past week, his mother Laura took to Instagram to reflect on the occasion. She and Andy also went on a hike.

End-of-Year Reflections

Brendan Beck sat down with the Somerset Patriots to discuss his Major League debut and his dominant season with the Triple-A Scranton RailRiders.

Everything Must Go!

The Scranton No-Longer-The-RailRiders are hosting a yard sale on November 1st, if anyone is in Scranton, PA, and interested in buying RailRider merchandise.

For the World Series, we’re bringing you some of the key quotes and storylines from each game following the postgame press conference.

Pat Murphy

The Brewers erased an early 4-0 deficit to win 5-4 and take a 2-0 series lead. Murphy again spent most of the press conference discussing what impressed him most, including rookie shortstop Cooper Pratt. Pratt made an error on the first play of the game that snowballed into the Rays’ four-run first inning, but he bounced back to deliver a go-ahead RBI single in the bottom of the seventh.

“That speaks to Cooper, what type of individual he is, being able to hang in there when things didn’t go great for him early, even early in that at-bat. That guy is super tough on right-handers. For him to put that ball in play, we spent a lot of time on that reliever and talking about how to face him. He’s outstanding, and Coop just put together a great at-bat, a great teacher for every young person in the room that the game doesn’t start a certain way, doesn’t mean it has to end that way.”

As a follow-up, Murphy was asked about this team’s mentality and its ability to come back from deficits over and over again:

“We’re down to the end of the season here. They’re going to tap us on the shoulder here at some point and tell us no more. Guys just, they don’t give up. They believe, and they don’t give up. They just keep going. That’s a great club across the way, it really is.”

In a game full of quality at-bats, Murphy shouted out several, starting with Brice Turang.

“His day didn’t start exactly the way he wanted. He had a line drive caught, but he put together four quality ABs today. Numerous guys (did). Sal put together four quality (at-bats), hit four balls on the screws today. Bauers put together quality (at-bats). Chourio gets two knocks. Contreras two knocks.”

Another at-bat Murphy highlighted was William Contreras’ RBI single in the first inning.

“It’s a huge at-bat. Huge at-bat. We set (Contreras up), and he came through with a knock, and then Mitchell got a big knock. That first inning meant something that we bounced back against a pitcher that good. I mean, that guy (Rays starter Drew Rasmussen), he’s as good as there is out there. We got his pitch count up and got him out of there.”

Murphy had high praise for Aaron Ashby, who pitched the final 1 2/3 innings of the win, comparing him to legendary relievers Goose Gossage and Rollie Fingers.

“He does what it takes. It’s unconventional. Multiple innings in relief. It’s Goose Gossage-like. I guess we had a guy like that here too, Rollie.”

He was also asked about starting pitcher Logan Henderson, who gave up four runs (three earned) in that first inning.

“I think he was a little jittery again in the first inning. I think in his mind he thinks he’s tired because it’s the end of the year and it’s a lot, but this is where you’ve got to learn that lesson that you’ve got a lot left. You pick yourself up. You’ve got a lot left. He’s got to come to that realization because we need him going forward.”

Finally, Murphy was asked if he’s a “big Sal fan,” referring to Frelick. Murphy responded by saying he named his son’s dog Sal.

Sal Frelick and Cooper Pratt

Frelick, who hit the game-tying home run in the sixth, and Pratt, who hit a go-ahead single in the seventh, broke down their performances after the game.

Frelick on his approach against Tampa Bay reliever Ian Seymour prior to the home run:

“He’s pretty much a sinker guy. Was fouling them off. Missed a few good ones. And then late in the at-bat, he started throwing four seams and kind of caught me by surprise. Was able to spoil a few of those and was just really hoping, because I had seen the sinker earlier, that he would maybe leave one over the plate, and yeah, he did.”

Pratt on baseball being a redemptive game:

“I need to be better defensively, but it’s always awesome when you have an opportunity to kind of redeem yourself and make up for it. Yeah, probably wasn’t the best swing, but it did the job and gave us the opportunity to score a run. I’m not going to complain.”

Frelick on this team’s comeback mentality:

“It seems like we’ve had a lot of experience with it in the postseason so far. It feels like kind of down early almost every game so far. I’m not sure what the actual numbers are on that. Our offense is built to kind of chip away and wear on pitchers, which I think can be good when you’re trying to come back. At the same time, if we’re up, it’s the same exact approach.

I think just having an offense built like that is really good for when you’re down. Again, today we go down four. We know how good that guy (Rasmussen) is over there. Let’s just wear on him, see if we can get him out of the game, get to their bullpen and really break the thing open.”

Frelick on being a competitor:

“I don’t know, I just grew up playing a ton of different sports. I wasn’t always the most gifted athlete. Murph will tell you firsthand that it’s never pretty watching me take a swing or run or field or whatever it might be. I just always felt like that was where I was able to get my edge was just kind of turn everything into a competition. Put myself in the box and iso me and the pitcher. Or on defense, just iso me and the ball. How can I beat it?

I just feel like that’s how I’ve always played. I know Murph always tells me I can’t look flashy, I can’t look cool. That’s not me. He doesn’t want that. Not that I do either, but I’m glad that he allows me to play that way.”

And Frelick on Pratt:

“Just to highlight this guy real quick… has a little mistake early in the game, doesn’t slam a glove, doesn’t hang his head, nothing. Comes off the field and later in the game has a big at-bat and maybe swings at a ball or two, locks it back in. This is a rookie, like people forget. This is our shortstop. This is a rookie, and we trust him. I just hope that if there’s people, young kids watching, that was just really cool for me to see. Coop has grown up a lot — I don’t know if you would have done that maybe your first game, but it’s cool to see.

I just hope everybody understands how hard that is, especially in the moment. All you want to do is throw something or get mad, but you’ve got four at-bats. I was just proud of that.”

Frelick and Pratt on whether they thought Frelick’s deep fly out in the seventh inning had a chance to make it over the fence:

FRELICK: “Did you think it was gone?”

PRATT: “I thought it had a chance or at least off the wall.”

FRELICK: “I’ve never hit a homer that I thought was gone, so, no, I didn’t.” (Laughter.)

PRATT: “It looked good off the bat.”

Entering 2026, the catcher position was one the Nationals were dying to get more production out of, as their catching room ranked dead last in fWAR in 2025 with -1.3. Keibert Ruiz had steadily been declining ever since being extended in early 2023, and Drew Millas and Riley Adams each had something to offer in a backup role, but probably not in a starting role. The acquisition of Harry Ford for Jose A. Ferrer in the offseason provided the Nats with a little more long-term clarity about the position, but probably not an immediate solution.

Turns out, the answer to the Nationals’ catching woes was just a commitment to better coaching; with the new staff in charge, the Nats’ catching room took a major leap, going from last in fWAR in 2025 to 17th in 2026. Now, as the Nationals enter a critical offseason for setting them up for success in the near future, let’s take a look at the Nats’ catching unit as a whole, and make sense of where playing time makes the most sense to go to in 2027.

Keibert Ruiz

Keibert Ruiz took the biggest leap of perhaps any National under the new coaching staff in 2026. He hit .280/.316/.443 with 10 home runs and a 105 wRC+, making him five percent better than the league-average hitter after adjusting for league and ballpark. His 1.9 fWAR was a considerable improvement from his -1.1 mark in 2025, and made him a completely viable starting catcher option for the Nats.

The defensive improvement mattered just as much. In 2025, Ruiz finished with minus-six blocks above average, plus-one caught stealing above average, and minus-nine framing runs. Those numbers illustrate why catching defense requires more than counting runners thrown out. His throwing was respectable relative to his opportunities, but other parts of his game remained costly.

In 2026, Statcast credited Ruiz with plus-two catching runs, including plus-three framing runs, zero blocking runs and minus-two throwing runs, along with a positive ABS contribution. Blocking runs and blocks above average are different measures, but the broader improvement is clear. Ruiz became a more complete catcher, even with room to improve against the running game.

Ruiz’s contract went from practically unmovable last season to now not bad value, and raises the question of if another team called the Nats with an offer for Ruiz, should they consider it? Ruiz certainly now looks like at least a decent platoon option behind the plate, but the presence of some other catching options in Triple-A could make him expendable depending on how the front office feels.

Harry Ford

Ford’s first season with the Nats was hardly a declaration that the position belonged to him. In 38 major-league games, he hit .190/.314/.350 with three home runs and an 87 wRC+. His Triple-A performance also fell short of expectations: a .223/.370/.335 line and 96 wRC+.

There were encouraging details beneath those numbers. Ford walked in 14.4 percent of his major-league plate appearances, showing that his patience could survive the jump. But getting on base cannot carry the entire offensive profile. The Nats need more consistent contact and damage when he swings.

Ruiz and Ford are a sensible catching platoon, as Ruiz performs better against righties and Ford performs better against lefties. Still, Ford may need to take a step forward either offensively or defensively in 2027 to guarantee his starting role moving forward.

Maxwell Romero Jr.

Romero delivered the loudest power numbers of the group, hitting 23 home runs across Double-A and Triple-A while batting .253/.364/.515. He reached Rochester in July, putting himself close enough to matter in the 2027 discussion.

Minor-league production does not automatically translate into major-league success. Nevertheless, that combination of power and on-base ability deserves consideration at a position where the Nats have struggled to generate offense.

Romero should enter spring training with a chance to push the established options. Depending on how Romero performs, Ruiz may become a luxury rather than a necessity for the Nats, one they could move to upgrade other areas such as the pitching staff. At minimum, he gives the Nationals another potential answer if injuries or poor performance disrupt their plans.

Where do Drew Millas and Caleb Lomavita fit?

Millas faces a tougher argument after hitting .185/.277/.262 with two home runs and a 53 wRC+ in 50 games. A backup catcher can survive below-average offense, but that level of production leaves little margin elsewhere. He looks more like depth than someone the Nats should pencil into its preferred tandem.

Lomavita remains a longer-term consideration. He hit 14 home runs with a .244/.311/.453 line and 102 wRC+ at Double-A. The power increased considerably from his six-homer 2025 season, though his overall offensive production was only slightly above league average. His season also ended on the injured list.

Entering 2027, Ruiz offers the strongest immediate case, Ford remains the key development priority, and Romero supplies intriguing pressure from below. For the first time in a long time, the Nats seem to have some solid options for how they move forward with their catching unit, rather than hoping for the best from what they had.

ST. PETERSURG, FL — He’s one of their best friends, a beloved former co-worker, who now lives and works 1,200 miles away from Milwaukee.

They’ll forever cherish their memories together and still speak of him as if he’s family, but they realize it’ll be altogether different when they see him again Monday.

You see, he now is the enemy.

The Milwaukee Brewers, halfway to achieving their dream of winning the first World Series championship in franchise history, know that Freddy Peralta, now employed by the Tampa Bay Rays, is a huge obstacle standing in their way.

The Brewers will face Peralta on Monday at 8 p.m. ET at Tropicana Field knowing that if they win, they’ll have a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven World Series, an advantage that has never been squandered in World Series history.

And if the Brewers lose, it could flip the World Series script in a hurry, with the Rays having the best home-field advantage in baseball and certainly capable of winning three games in a row at "The Trop" and forcing the Series back to Milwaukee.

A few days ago, our good friends at The Good Phight in a similar boat—a star-studded, expensive squad that failed to live up to expectations—featured an article that resonates with every team of this profile, one discussing the hypothetical scenario of being able to amnesty a contract. After all, what big-market team is complete without the looming presence of at least one regrettable long-term deal, paying a former star a sum that’s not justified by their current production but more so the back of their baseball card? Read about it here as they argue for the merits of moving on from Aaron Nola in Philly.

Encouraged to run with the idea, we’ll look at who the Yankees would attempt to offload in a scramble to recoup some spending cash, having finished the 2026 season with a payroll of $313 million. First and foremost, as expensive as the Yankees’ active payroll is, the number of long-term commitments isn’t as large as you might expect. The likes of Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, and Carlos Rodón all see their contracts end in two years or fewer, and those signed to long-term deals are essential to this team’s current contending window: the likes of Max Fried, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger. In years past we might have had our pick of options in this exercise; happily, it’s slim pickings now.

Out of that group, the only one who arguably could get amnestied is Stanton, whose recent chapters of his Yankees tenure have been spent primarily on the injured list—sincerely placing in jeopardy the notion of him at any point being able to produce consistently in the Bronx. Before getting to Stanton’s contract, there is one more player who could feasibly fit as an amnesty candidate, even if his contract is only on the books for one more year: third baseman Ryan McMahon.

To assess which of these two gets the nomination neither would like, we must assess their respective contracts. Stanton is owed $25 million in 2027, of which $10 million will be covered by the Marlins. Stanton has a team option for 2028 worth $25 million, with a $10 million buyout, the exact figure the Marlins owe the Yankees for that year as well. In essence, the Yankees owe Stanton a minimum of $15 million. McMahon is entering the final year of his deal in 2027, with the Yankees owing their starting third baseman $16 million.

It’s not as simple as looking at those figures; although the Yankees may owe Stanton one million less, the luxury tax figure for his deal in 2027 is $22 million. Ultimately, that’s the number that would theoretically count toward whatever version of the tax exists next year, making moving on from Stanton a more appealing option than McMahon from a financial point of view.

On the field, Stanton seemed to move from an asset whose regular-season reliability is extremely questionable to one whose likeliest scenario is that of being a non-factor after spending nearly all of 2026 hurt. Given his postseason impact and reliable skill when healthy in recent seasons, Stanton would need very little to compete with McMahon here. However, even that very little seems unlikely to come at this point, or at the very least, it’s not a reasonable gamble to make.

For all of his faults, McMahon is still capable of bringing a plus glove at third, even if 2026 was a down year for him defensively. Push comes to shove, you might look at him as a reasonable bench option. With or without McMahon, the Yankees can look at third base this winter. Without Stanton, you free up the DH position to rotate and keep players fresh or acquire a standout bat—not to mention the extra money in the budget given the luxury tax figures. Put it all together, and the choice becomes clear that the contract to wipe clean would be Stanton’s.

There is no Jays news and I’ve got nothing to talk about, so lets have an open thread.

We had the second great World Series game in a row last night. I like watching baseball (or any sport) when I have no rooting interest. After a season of caring about every Jays game, I like watching without sweating the outcome. I have a friend who keeps telling me I need to pick an NFL team, but I’d rather just watch. If there is a good play, I’m happy.

I can watch almost any sport. I guess cause my dad would watch almost any sport. But he always picked a team, and that team was always getting robbed by the referees. I get now that it was stress relief, and likely healthier than yelling at his son, but it made watching sports hard. He got so worked up about it. I took to leaving the house when sports were on.

Every now and then, I feel that kind tension building up in me while watching the Jays, but I can bring it back down. As much as sometimes I hate an umpire’s call, I know they aren’t trying to mess with the Jays. The world isn’t out to get a team because I cheer for them.

Anyway, use the thread to discuss anything you like. Maybe the ugly orange/red jerseys the Texans are wearing in the game I’m watching. Or anything else.

After playing for the Atlanta Braves back in 2022-2023, Danny Young spent two seasons with the rival New York Mets before making his way back to Atlanta. He didn’t spend much time on the MLB roster for the Braves in his first tenure in the organization, so if you failed to realize that he wasn’t just a fringy minor league callup, no worries.

How Acquired

Way back in August of 2022, the Mariners designated Young for assignment and the Braves claimed him five days later. Eleven days after that, he got called up for a cup of coffee and pitched in 2 2/3 innings in his lone appearance. Interestingly, the Braves sent him back down after he surrendered zero runs and zero walks. He made eight appearances the following year for the MLB squad. After the 2023 season, Young elected free agency and signed a minors deal with the Mets. He stayed with the Mets for two seasons, though his 2025 was cut short due to Tommy John Surgery. The Braves reacquired him in the offseason by signing him to a one-year, split contract.

What were the expectations?

Based on his history, his recovery from Tommy John Surgery, and his contract, it is safe to say that the expectations for Young were never more than depth if injuries happened at the MLB level, though he had some upside. Despite barely pitching (more than 8 1/3 innings just once in four seasons leading up to 2026), Young had a career 100/80/80 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-), built largely on dominating lefties (FIP and xFIP around 3.00) while not being nearly as effective against righties (FIP closer 5.00 and xFIP closer to 4.00). Put that all together and you had a lot of uncertainty: would Young be healthy enough to return and be effective? Would there be space for him on the roster (pitching injuries are inevitable…)? Is there really a spot on an MLB roster these days for a lefty specialist?

Young was basically projected as a replacement level reliever, or slightly above, coming into the season. That made sense given that he was better-than-average but had fewer than 61 big league innings under his belt, and was coming off a serious injury.

2026 Results

After the Braves deemed him ready following some rehab outings, Young appeared in sixteen games, but only completed 12 1/3 innings. That 12 1/3 inning mark was actually the second-highest of his career.

However, the overall results were not great: a 191 ERA-, a 186 FIP-, and a 146 xFIP-. “Not great” is a bit of an understatement — Young had a really rough landing after Tommy John Surgery. He finished with -0.5 fWAR, erasing all the positive fWAR he had accumulated previously in his career.

The Braves designated Young for assignment in August, and successfully outrighted him to the minors a few days later. They re-added him back to the 40-man roster earlier in the offseason — he’s out of options, but is still controlled at the league minimum rate (whatever it will be following resolution of the impending lockout), provided the Braves actually opt to carry him on the active roster going forward.

What went right?

Young somehow managed to skate by for his first 12 appearances of the season without much damage: a bizarre 49/141/137 line, which can definitely happen in a small sample. He was charged with runs in just two of those 12 outings. However, he had a nasty 8/8 K/BB ratio in that span… but we’ll skip past that for now. With luck on his side, he helped the Braves a fair bit in July, earning three shutdowns to one meltdown.

Two notable outings in that span included two strikeouts in an inning against his former employer on July 5, and an incredible stroke of luck on July 26 in Baltimore, when he was asked to pitch the tenth, went walk-wild pitch-walk, but then benefited from a lineout to first that allowed Matt Olson to step on the first base bag ahead of the runner as well. Young didn’t actually stick around after that close call, but that’s how those first 12 games went for him, pretty much.

What went wrong?

When you have a guy posting an 8/8 K/BB ratio during his “good” stretch, with his highest-WPA outing coming thanks to a fortunately-placed lineout after he walked two and had a wild pitch before getting any outs, well… it’s a miracle the bottom didn’t fall out sooner.

But as soon as the calendar flipped to August, it did. In four outings before the DFA, Young was charged with nine runs in 3 2/3 innings, surrendering two homers with a 7/5 K/BB ratio. He cost the team win expectancy in three of those four outings, though fortunately only one was in a close-enough game to count as a meltdown. The Braves moved on shortly thereafter.

Young’s issue wasn’t surprising at all given that he was back on a big league mound after 14 months after Tommy John Surgery: he simply had no command. His sweeper was all over the place, and even his sinker occasionally sputtered way too far armside across the plate. Given that he doesn’t throw hard, a lack of command completely killed his effectiveness, including against lefties.

Young’s most damaging outing of the season was actually one of the silliest — and came during his “dance through the raindrops” stretch. He was asked to pitch to two lefties at the top of the Cardinals lineup in a tie game in the eighth: no-hit backup catcher Jimmy Crooks, and potential Rookie of the Year candidate JJ Wetherholt. Then, two righties were due up. Well, you can already guess, or remember, what happened: Crooks hit a game-winning homer, and Young somehow got through Wetherholt and two good righties.

But, the thing that probably got Young canned was the combination of acquiring Brent Suter at the Trade Deadline, and the fact that Young failed to get through a mop-up inning against the Diamondbacks before extending a five-run deficit to seven, thanks to two walks and a homer. He actually struck out the side in that outing, but with Suter’s rubber arm and Young’s luck entirely evaporated, there was little reason to carry him in the short term.

2027 Outlook

Given his 2026, whether Young is worth rostering in 2026 depends on his continued recovery and return of his command. Pre-injury Young was at least interesting, even if his LOOGY nature made him hard to use effectively in a world of three-batter minimums. Post-injury Young? Well, who knows — he seems like call-up depth at this point, but he’s out of options. So, organizational depth with upside seems like the right tag to apply here. Will he even make it through the offseason without getting cut off the Braves’ 40-man roster? Probably not, but you never know.

There was a bit of a choice in who we could profile today as part of our ongoing Yankee Birthday Series. As far as playing careers go, the obvious choice would’ve been Juan Soto. However, even without factoring in his still recent departure across the city, I still think I would opt to instead write about today’s player.

There are few people who have ever had a wider and more well-traveled life than Bobby Brown.

Robert William “Bobby” Brown
Born: October 25, 1924 (Seattle, WA)
Died: March 25, 2021 (Fort Worth, TX)
Yankees Tenure: 1946-52, 1954

While he was born in the Pacific Northwest, Brown moved around with his family a lot in his youth. They eventually settled in San Francisco, where Bobby attended Galileo High School, which was the same as Joe DiMaggio and his fellow MLB brothers. (However, Brown was several years younger than any of the DiMaggios.)

In his youth, Brown was a standout athlete, but got a lot of shine for his baseball ability. His father had played baseball to a semi-pro level, even playing against a young Lou Gehrig. The younger Brown had MLB offers coming out of high school, but instead decided to attend Stanford University. While there, he and another student helped rescue a Coast Guardsman from a plane crash.

With the US having entered World War II in 1941, however, Brown soon enlisted in the Navy. He never ended up going overseas. He had stints in San Diego and New Orleans, which allowed him to also continue his studies, as he attended medical school and played baseball for UCLA and Tulane during that time. Brown was eventually discharged from the Navy in 1946 and signed with the Yankees shortly after.

Brown spent most of 1946 with the Yankees’ affiliate in Newark. He was road roommates with Yogi Berra during his minor league career. That produced a famous story where Berra finished reading a comic book and asked Brown, who was reading a medical journal while continuing his med school studies, “So how is yours turning out?” On the field, Brown impressed with a .341 batting average, finishing only behind some guy named Jackie Robinson in the International League’s batting title race. That earned him a September call-up later that same season, where he hit well in a seven-game cameo.

The following season, Brown became an MLB regular, playing backup to Billy Johnson at third base while filling in elsewhere. He hit pretty well in general, but saved his best for the biggest stage. The Yankees used Brown as a pinch hitter on four occasions in the 1947 World Series, and he recorded three hits and a walk, reaching base every time. One of those occasions was in Game 7: down 2-1, he hit an RBI double in the fourth inning to tie the game. The hit also moved Phil Rizzuto to third, from which he scored on a Tommy Henrich single. The Yankees ended up winning the game 5-2, taking the series over the Dodgers.

Over the next two years, Brown’s playing time increased and he became the primary third baseman in 1949. He helped the Yankees to another World Series crown that year, this time hitting .500 in the five-game victory over Brooklyn. In total, Brown would win four World Series titles while a member of the Yankees. In 17 career games in the Fall Classic, he hit .439/.500/.707 with eight extra-base hits and a 1.207 OPS — though he missed out on the last two years of the Yankees’ five-peat as he was drafted to serve as a doctor in the Korean War.

Brown returned to the Yankees in 1954. However, he didn’t hit particularly well in his comeback. Following that, he decided to retire and go full time into the medical fields.

For the next couple decades, Brown worked exclusively in medicine, most of which came at a private practice that he opened in Fort Worth, Texas. In 1974, he briefly returned to baseball, serving as the interim president of the Texas Rangers. His friend, Brad Corbett, had purchased the team and asked for Brown’s help. His former Yankees teammate, Billy Martin, helped Texas to an above .500 record, but they missed the playoffs and Brown returned to his practice after the season.

Ten years after that, Brown returned to baseball in a more permanent way when he was named president of the American League. He served in the role until 1994. The league president jobs no longer exist today, with their previous duties now part of the commissioner’s responsibilities. Brown eventually retired to Fort Worth, where he lived until his passing in 2021. He was the final living member of several of his Yankees’ championship teams at that time.

Brown once told a story about the early days of his relationship with his wife, whom he remained married to for over 60 years. When his then-girlfriend asked Brown how she should describe him to her parents, Brown said “Tell your mother that I’m in medical school, studying to be a cardiologist. Tell your dad that I play third base for the Yankees.” The fact that both of those are true about the same person is remarkable and something we’ll probably never see again.

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

Here is a player who epitomizes the Cubs’ pitching infrastructure.

The Cubs don’t have a lot of guys who throw hard. But Hunter Harvey does!

Or… sometimes does, because he’s more injured than not. He was the Orioles’ No. 1 pick (22nd overall) out of high school in North Carolina in 2018. He’s got a pedigree — his dad, Bryan Harvey, was second in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 1988 and was a two-time All-Star, leading the AL in saves with 46 in 1991 — before he was injured and his career essentially ended at age 30. Bryan Harvey pitched in only a handful of games after that.

Hunter? Same thing. He wound up with the Nationals in 2022 and had two good years there, with 20 saves for them in 2023. But his numbers dived south in 2024 and since then he has pitched in 12 MLB games… which is exactly the number of games his dad pitched in 1994, his second-to-last season.

Bryan Harvey pitched in one game for the Marlins in 1995 and was done.

Hunter Harvey pitched in four games for the Cubs in 2026. Yes, really, he did! If you blinked while it was cold out, you probably missed it. Two of the games were at Wrigley Field, and the photo at the top is photographic proof of that, but you might have missed those too, as it was pretty cold both those days.

His last appearance was April 8, a scoreless inning against the Rays in a 6-2 win. Here’s the strikeout that was the final out in that game [VIDEO].

Hunter Harvey faced 18 batters in a Cubs uniform, recording 12 outs. For that they paid him $6 million. That’s $500,000 per out.

That’s $6 million wasted. Jed Hoyer should not have made this signing, knowing that this was a very possible outcome. There is a mutual option for $8 million for next year that Hoyer should decline at the first opportunity.

And learn the lesson to not to stuff like this anymore.

Good morning, folks…

The Brewers beat the Rays last night by a score of 5-4, giving them a 2-0 lead as the series now heads back to Tampa.

Cody Stavenhagen writes about how the presence Bob Uecker, who passed away in 2025, is still felt by the Brewers.

In non-baseball happenings, 20 year old Kimi Antonelli can clinch the F-1 Driver’s Championship this afternoon in Austin at the United States Grand Prix.

David Laurila has his Sunday Notes column up at Fangraphs.