Still hoping for that bounce-back, Eric. | Michael Turner / MLB Photos via Getty Images
In reviewing Arizona Fall League rosters for the original draft of this article, Twinkie Town writer Matt Monitto was stunned into silence by what he saw.
“I’m scrolling through the rosters on MLB.com, and I come across Frank Mozzicato, Tate Southisene, and I have to sit back,“ Monitto said in an interview with a mirror. ”These are guys I came across in Out of the Park franchises, and I thought they were computer-generated names. But they’re real?“
Indeed, Royals prospect Mozzicato and Braves prospect Southisene are among those assigned to the AFL by their parent clubs.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve had Mozzicato on one of my teams,“ Monitto added, ”when I did a Royals franchise a few years ago. That just makes it odder.“
When reminded that such oddity did not stop him for rooting for the eventually-demoted Eric Orze in 2026, he simply shook his head.
“I guess there, I had him as a Twin for a good number of seasons, and then he became a Twin. I’m still pulling for him.
“But when it’s other teams,” he continued, “it’s always strange. It’s cool to see Jake McCarthy breaking out for the Rockies, yet it’s a bit weird because he was my Diamondbacks left fielder for a while. And guys like Yohendrick Pinango and Yanquiel Fernandez… I thought for sure the game made up those names. A few years later, they’re in the Show.”
Monitto did not know if the same concept applies to players of MLB The Show as he has not played that game.
“But if so,” he said, “I bet there’s just as much awe… after blinking to make sure the names and players are actually real, of course.”
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA - SEPTEMBER 27: Manager Skip Schumaker #55 of the Texas Rangers reacts to a 6-4 loss against the Minnesota Twins after the game at Target Field on September 27, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Morning, all!
Evan Grant wonders how the Rangers can stop being so mediocre, and settles on either spending money or getting young, bringing in the fences at Globe Life, and translating young talent into productive big league talent.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 06: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Los Angeles Dodgers shakes hands with Enrique Hernández #8 and Tommy Edman #25 after defeating the Atlanta Braves in game three of the National League Division Series at Truist Park on October 06, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Dodgers’ outlook wasn’t as dire as it might’ve looked after the Game 2 loss at home, just as it is not as ideal as it could appear following a Game 3 win on the road against the Braves’ ace. When it comes to their fate in this specific series, the Dodgers are well positioned to advance, but with the ultimate goal in mind of another World Series title, the problem remains the same: a team that right now seems only capable of winning with elite pitching and has yet to generate a run that hasn’t come via the long ball.
Three runs in five innings against Chris Sale is about the best-case scenario for a team that was shut out the last time it faced the future first-ballot Hall of Famer. And yet, they could have done a lot more damage off the left-hander, with him on the ropes for most of the game before Kiké Hernández’s two-run shot started the scoring in the fourth.
Whatever the offense did or did not do against Sale, it chased him off the game with just 15 outs, a crucial objective in this game. Against four different Braves relievers, though—not including Didier Fuentes, unused in this one after a masterful Game 2 performance—the Dodgers offense failed to add a single run of insurance, increasing the pressure on Yamamoto and their two star relievers, who finished this one out: Tanner Scott and Edwin Díaz, neither of whom has what you’d describe as unconditional trust.
Evidently, strong pitching has been a reality of this series on both sides, with these two offenses combining for a single hit with a runner in scoring position. For the Dodgers, though, it hasn’t looked like it matters who is on the mound for Atlanta—running into one or two is achievable even against the very best; in fact, they did it against Sale and Fuentes, the Braves’ two most talented pitchers. Stringing hits together for a big rally like this team is more than capable of doing and hasn’t been a part of their NLDS performance.
While for the Dodgers offense, it doesn’t appear like it matters who is on the mound; on the opposite side, it’s a different scenario. Tarik Skubal and Yamamoto were dominant, and that’s a big reason why the Dodgers won those two games. Now, can this Dodgers team win if Tyler Glasnow brings anything other than his A+ game, which we’ve seldom seen in the postseason? The bullpen, as we’ve seen, will likely be effective, but not bulletproof. It took very little for Game 2 to go off the rails, and for that scenario not to repeat itself, the offense must find a higher gear.
Perhaps if we’re to take a more positive view, the lack of damage in Game 3 had more than its fair share of bad luck. Teoscar Hernández, for instance, had three hard-hit balls and no hits to show for it—Freddie Freeman nearly had another home run, and Mookie Betts continues to get on at a terrific clip in the leadoff spot, even if he doesn’t have the runs to show for. Moving forward, though, the threat must be capitalized on more often.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 06: Yoshinobu Yamamoto #18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers throws a pitch during the third inning against the Atlanta Braves in game three of the National League Division Series at Truist Park on October 06, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Edward M. Pio Roda/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning everybody and happy Wednesday!
The Division Series continues across baseball, so let’s get you caught up on that and more.
Alex Cora told the Phillies he is not interested in managing in 2027. Philadelphia previously approached him about their opening mid-season but turned to Don Mattingly after Cora said no.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - SEPTEMBER 20: Starting pitcher Jack Perkins #50 of the Athletics signals for a review during the fourth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on September 20, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Happy Wednesday everyone.
Last night, the National League (NL) Division Series continued with two Game 3s. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Atlanta Braves 3-1 to take a 2-1 lead in the series, while the San Diego Padres staved off elimination with a 4-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers.
This afternoon, there is a full slate of playoff action. In the American League, the Chicago White Sox will attempt to sweep the Cleveland Guardians, while the New York Yankees will look to prolong their season as they welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to the Bronx.
On the other side of the bracket, the Dodgers and Braves will play Game 4 in Atlanta, with the Braves hoping to force a decisive fifth game. Across the country, the Padres will look to win a second consecutive game in front of their home fans and send the series back to Milwaukee for a winner-take-all Game 5.
With the Athletics not in the playoffs, the organization’s focus has turned to its first true search for a new general manager in nearly three decades. Aside from a few rumored candidates, there has not been much buzz about who will succeed longtime executive David Forst, a role the team hopes to fill by the start of the World Series.
While most A’s players are spending these days resting and preparing for next season, a handful of the team’s minor leaguers are playing in the Arizona Fall League (AFL), an annual showcase for some of baseball’s top prospects. Many youngsters use the opportunity to expand their skillsets or get crucial at-bats or innings they missed this season because of injuries.
Among the A’s contingent, catching prospects Davis Diaz and Cole Conn are two players to keep an eye on. Both versatile players advanced to Triple-A this season and could compete for the major league backup catcher spot next season.
Of the pitchers, only right-hander Kenya Huggins is currently ranked on MLB Pipeline’s list of the A’s top 30 prospects. Right-hander Jay Dill and left-handers Tucker Novotny and Grant Richardson could crack the list if they pitch well in the AFL.
Which A’s minor leaguer will perform the best in the AFL? What are your predictions for how the rest of the playoffs will unfold?
This thread breaks down how the A’s can make right-hander Jack Perkins more reliable.
🧵 Jack Perkins’ path to becoming a reliable Major League pitcher in 2027 may not be through the rotation.
Perkins has shown flashes of legitimate MLB stuff, but consistency and durability remain questions. A move to the bullpen could allow the A’s to maximize his stuff while…
What steps can the A’s take this offseason to improve their pitching staff and defense for 2027?
The A’s biggest issues this season
1. Pitching staff 2. Injuries 3. Defense
Offensive issues will be fixed with better injury luck. Pitching is expensive, and difficult to acquire. Better pitching development will take a few years to see results
— National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum ⚾ (@baseballhall) October 6, 2026
A’s in AFL update.
A’S IN THE AFL TODAY (10/6) C Davis Diaz: 1-3, 2B, BB, RBI LF Breyson Guedez: 0-4. HBP, R RHP Jay Dill: 2 IP/1 H/1 ER/1 BB/3 K RHP Kenya Huggins: 2 IP/2 H/1 R/0 ER/0 BB/1 K/Loss Mesa Solar Sox lose 4-3
— Bill Moriarity – A's Farm (@AthleticsFarm) October 7, 2026
Let me start by being absolutely clear about the headline to this article. On Dec. 1, when the MLB/MLBPA collective bargaining agreement expires, team owners are going to lock out players. A lockout, not a strike, so this is all on the owners.
“We’re meeting regularly, which is good,” Manfred told ESPN during the Little League Classic about the labor talks. “Every week, we’ve had days where we’ve met with the players. It’s early, but we’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’re at it.
“Look, our goal is to make a deal. We want to make a deal. We want to play baseball next year. We’re planning on playing baseball next year.”
So while much of Cubs fans’ focus recently has been on the postseason run that ended last week, there have indeed been some labor-related things that you might have missed, so I thought I’d put this article together to bring you up to date.
About two weeks ago, Evan Drellich and Andrew Marchand reported in The Athletic of an interesting potential twist depending on how far into the season a lockout goes:
No one knows whether a shutdown will shorten the sport’s 162-game regular season, but if it does, 60 games — roughly the end of May, by the current MLB schedule — will bring perhaps the most crucial leverage point.
If at least 60 games are wiped out in 2027, most of the league’s national broadcast contracts would extend another year, through 2029, people briefed on MLB’s rights agreements who were not authorized to speak publicly told The Athletic.
That means the big payday owners expect from new national TV rights deals could wind up delayed by a lockout.
Ah, ha. So if more than a couple of months of the 2027 season are delayed or wiped out by the lockout, that could cost owners money — maybe a year’s worth of money that they hope to get beginning when the current national TV deals expire after the 2028 season. Instead, that could be delayed until 2029. As you know, Manfred would love to have all local and national baseball TV rights available to sell in one package; owners think they could get a lot more money from TV partners that way. That remains to be seen — and also, teams like the Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox, Mets and Cubs, all of whom at least partly own their current regional sports networks, would be willing to cede those rights back to the league. In the current TV landscape, RSNs are going away, but those five teams are still making pretty good money with them.
To sum up, from the article in The Athletic:
If the entirety of the 2027 season were to be missed, the networks would pay nothing during 2029, the additional season they would get in return for their ’27 outlay. If MLB missed 60 games but still held a shortened campaign in 2027, the networks would have to pay some amount for 2029.
In either scenario, the networks might be pleased they’re receiving an extra year at a bargain rate. On the flip side, the owners would eventually feel some pain. The potential impact on their future earnings makes 60 games a key threshold in collective bargaining between players and owners.
So there is at least a clue as to how long owners would be willing to hold out on their stated desire for a salary cap until they begin to feel some financial pressure to make a deal.
Another interesting article in The Athletic appeared around season’s end, written by Ken Rosenthal. Rosenthal, who also appears on Fox-TV national games, has been seen as kind of a shill for ownership’s position. Not in that article, though:
Revenue disparity between large- and small-market clubs is a legitimate concern. The league and players’ union need to adopt significant measures to make the playing field more level. But the league’s argument for greater competitive balance, if not a red herring, is at least an argument of convenience.
Right there is an acknowledgment, if not an outright statement, that owners’ claim of a salary cap is needed for “competitive balance.” Just watching this year’s postseason so far tells you that isn’t true. The headline of the article, “Even if Rays or Brewers win World Series, competitive balance argument will endure,” kind of goes against Rosenthal’s statement. And as we stand here nearing the end of the Division Series round, that World Series matchup is still possible. And that would also probably make Fox-TV executives cry, because while baseball purists would love that sort of matchup, it probably would not generate the sort of ratings the network or baseball executives want, unless it wound up a seven-game series with compelling games.
The real reason owners want a salary cap is to increase franchise values. Period, full stop. That was noted as far back as last May in this article by Drellich in The Athletic:
Why, at a time when MLB has otherwise built positive momentum, would the league pursue such an acrimonious change, and risk alienating fans with a work stoppage? Many issues are at play, but none supersede the long game owners are playing. Their mission is to maximize the worth of their teams.
Baseball has always been a business, yes — but not like this. Private equity has flowed into the sport for the better part of a decade, and someday, those investors will want a return. And even though every team continues to grow in value, many owners believe that their clubs should command still-higher prices.
Speaking of that positive momentum, MLB enjoyed an attendance increase this season for the fourth year in a row:
MLB topped 70 million fans in attendance in each of the last three seasons and did so again in 2026 — hitting a total of 71,752,722.
The Rays moving back to Tropicana Field accounted for an increase of over 600,000, and the White Sox’ playoff season got them an increase of over 500,000. Teams with big drop-offs include the Mets (down over 470,000), Astros (down over 250,000) and Royals (down about 220,000). The Blue Jays had a disappointing 2026 on the field, but their 2025 World Series appearance likely sold a lot of tickets, as they were up about 480,000. The Cubs were down, but just slightly, about 48,000 fewer than 2025.
Overall, though, the sport is riding high. Owners mess with this at their peril.
And that was the subject of a well-written column by Britt Ghiroli in The Athletic, in which she said she was almost “dreading” the postseason instead of enjoying it, because:
I’ll miss this, I think. Or, I already miss this, even as it’s happening.
That’s how I’ll feel about this postseason. Better enjoy it because, in the face of a pending labor lockout, who knows when we’ll get actual baseball again.
May? July? February 2028?
Even if the Cubs had made it past the first round, I think that’s kind of how I would have felt. Sure, enjoy the Cubs’ run but… when are we going to see them after this October? Spring Training is scheduled to begin for the Cubs on Friday, Feb. 19, 2027, but I don’t know a single Cubs fan (myself included) who thinks that’s going to happen as scheduled. As Britt Ghiroli’s article concludes:
Baseball is a beautiful sport. One team will win it all, and then its fanbase will get a victory lap muted by the league’s deafening calls for a salary cap and floor.
So, enjoy it while it’s happening, enjoy it while it lasts. Just enjoy it. I’ll be telling myself that all month.
For all of us who love baseball, let’s hope we see it next spring… and not have things delayed, or cancelled. As always, we await developments.
NORTH PORT, FL - MARCH 16: Owen Carey #30 of the Atlanta Braves throws the ball back to the infield during the game between the Detroit Tigers and the Atlanta Braves at CoolToday Park on Sunday, March 16, 2025 in North Port, Florida. (Photo by Scott Audette/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
(1-3) Glendale Desert Dogs 4, (1-2) Mesa Solar Sox 3
Tanner Baumann, RP: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 11.57 ERA
Owen Hackman, RP: 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 3.38 ERA
Tyler LaPorte, RP: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 0.00 ERA
Logan Samuels, RP: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 3.00 ERA
It was a busy day for all of the Braves relievers that were sent to Arizona. Braves arms were responsible for 5 2/3 of Glendale’s ten innings with four pitchers making appearances, and the results for the crew were mixed. With a 1-0 lead on the table Tanner Baumann was brought in to try to keep Mesa at bay while insurance runs followed, and the inning got off to a concerning start. Baumann had trouble finding the strike zone with anything and walked the first two hitters he faced, but he wiggled out of it to maintain the lead. He forced two ground balls off of his sinker, one of which turned into a double play, and the fifth inning was a smoother affair. Baumann never really found any of his secondaries, but his sinker was an effective pitch for him and kept him mowing through batters with two strikeouts in the fifth inning. Owen Hackman came in during the 7th inning with a lead that had been extended to three runs, and it took every ounce of effort for him to keep any lead safe. Hackman started off hot with a strikeout, but after running the next count to 1-2 an errant fastball hit the batter and derailed the entire inning. Hackman gave up a solid single, then his own throwing error scored the first run and put the tying run on base. Another base hit on what was honestly not a bad pitch brought home the next run, but Hackman received his first dose of good luck with an assist from his buddy in right field. Owen Carey threw out the runner trying to go first- to-third, giving Hackman his second out and putting him in position to shut the door on the inning with a strikeout of the next hitter.
Tyler LaPorte escaped the eighth inning and held on to Glendale’s one run lead, but it was awfully close to going south for him. His pitch execution wasn’t awful, but the Solar Sox hitters were able to make good swings when they needed to and started the inning with a hit and a walk. LaPorte gave up his hardest contact to the third hitter, but the ball found the second baseman for a force out and saved a run from scoring for the moment. LaPorte’s best at-bat came with his dismantling of the next hitter for an easy strikeout on straight sliders, but he had to get lucky and escape thanks to a hard hit ball finding a glove after leaving a slider over the plate to the next hitter. It goes in the books as a scoreless inning, but LaPorte didn’t make it too easy. We can talk more good news/bad news with Logan Samuels. The good news is his whiff numbers. He diced up hitters with his changeup and totaled ten whiffs on 18 swings in his 1 2/3 innings of work. The bad news was that Mesa managed some hard contact against him. The first was on a sinker that stayed up in the strike zone, a pitch that was the worst Samuels made in the ninth inning and led to a hard-hit double to lead off the inning. The next is one that you would be hard-pressed to blame on him. An infield single, even on a hard hit ball, is rarely the pitcher’s fault, and it’s less so his fault when the batter had to golf a chopper inches off the ground and beat the ball to first base. Samuels made french toast out of everyone else, so even though the game goes on his record as a blown save it was ultimately a well-pitched game that happened to not go his way. Owen Carey made an appearance in this game outside of his defensive work, notching an infield single in the ninth inning. It’s still his defense that was the highlight, though. Carey saw a ton of fastballs in this game but still kept chasing pitch after pitch outside of the strike zone and it led to ugly results. He made a lot of contact but none of it was quality, and pitchers don’t even have to make particularly good pitches to get him to swing right now.
3 Mar 1999: Infielder Rey Sanchez #1 of the Kansas City Royals poses for the camera on Photo Day during Spring Training at the Baseball City Stadium in Davenport, Florida. Mandatory Credit: Scott Halleran /Allsport | Getty Images
During their history, the Royals have had several players who were overlooked, especially on a national level. David DeJesus comes to mind, as does Kevin Appier, who was criminally underrated.
Another player whose excellence slipped past us was shortstop Rey Sanchez, who unfortunately toiled for the Royals through some of their bleakest seasons. And for a team that has set the gold standard for bleak seasons, that is saying something.
Sanchez, a native of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, broke into the majors with a 13-game stint with the Chicago Cubs at the tail end of the 1991 season. He collected his first hit with an eighth-inning single off the Pirates’ Doug Drabek on September 17 at Three Rivers Stadium.
Sanchez spent most of the next six seasons as the Cubs’ starting shortstop, putting up steady but unspectacular numbers. The Cubs sent Sanchez to the Yankees in a 1997 trade deadline deal, and he hit .312 in 38 games for the Yanks and got a taste of the postseason.
He signed a free-agent deal with the Giants in the offseason and enjoyed a solid year in San Francisco, slashing .285/.325/.361 while playing his usual spectacular defense.
The Royals had been employing Shane Halter and Mindy Lopez at short, and in the offseason, Herk Robinson made one of his best free-agent acquisitions by bringing in Sanchez on a one-year deal.
Sanchez had the best year of his career as a Royal in 1999, slashing .294/.329/.370 over 134 games while finishing second in the league in Defensive WAR.
That was enough for the Royals to ink Sanchez to a two-year deal in the offseason, and he was even better in 2000 and 2001, leading the league in Defensive WAR both seasons. He wasn’t too shabby with the bat, either, hitting .273 in 2000 and .303 in 2001.
All told, his Kansas City tenure lasted for 377 games, and he was worth 9.3 WAR while hitting a combined .289. About that defense. Sanchez wasn’t an acrobat like, say, Ozzie Smith, though he did have some spectacular plays. Sanchez was smooth. He got to every ball in his zip code, made a slick pickup and threw sweet, chest-high throws to first each time. He made it look so routine that it was easy to miss the beauty of it.
I saw Sanchez play once, on July 25, 1999 , George Brett Day at the K. It was impossibly hot that day, as late July in Kansas City tends to be, at least according to Ichiro. Carlos Beltran melted early in the game and had to be removed. The Oakland A’s jumped out to a large early lead before the Royals found their footing. Down 11-5 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Royals tacked on three runs to make it interesting.
The Royals came up in the bottom of the ninth trailing by three. Jermaine Dye stroked a leadoff double off A’s closer Billy Taylor. Joe Randa sent the heat-stricken crowd into hysteria with his second home run of the day. Jeremy Giambi punched a single through the left side of the infield. At this point, manager Tony Muser elected to go for the loss. He had catcher Tim Spehr lay down a bunt. Now, you can imagine that Spehr, being a catcher, was not particularly fleet of foot. He wasn’t. He stole nine bases in an eight-year career. Didn’t matter to Muser.
Spehr laid down a beauty and somehow, someway, beat it out. Runners on first and second, down by one, no outs and Rey Sanchez coming to the plate. This is what I wrote about that at-bat several years ago.
Now the crowd was going nuts. Probably heat delirium. Muser, never one to go for the win, had Rey Sanchez bunt the runners over. This is just an insanely stupid move. Nobody out, runners on first and second, the crowd and your team going nuts…and you bunt one of your best hitters into a sure out. Sanchez could handle the bat. The man hit .294 in 1999 over 479 at-bats. Let. Him. Hit.
After the Muser out, the A’s gave Johnny Damon an intentional pass. That brought Carlos Febles to the plate. He did what you would expect, looking at a third strike right down the middle. Bases loaded, two outs, down by one. Scott Pose came to the plate and bailed out Muser with a single to center. Hansen scored to tie it, but pinch-runner Steve Scarsone was thrown out at home in a close play to end the inning. The crowd was still going bananas.
The Royals ended up winning in spite of their manager when Jermaine Dye blasted a two-run homer over the right-field wall in the 10th.
In July 2001, the Royals traded Sanchez to the Braves, where he got into the playoffs. Sanchez bounced around a little after that, spending 2002 in Boston, where he primarily played second base, before splitting 2003 between the New York Mets and the Seattle Mariners. He spent 2004 in Tampa before ending his career with a 23-game stint with the Yankees in 2005.
Overall, it was a pretty darn good career: 15 years. Almost 1,500 games with a career batting average of .272 and almost 21 career WAR. I know people scoff at batting average today, but to me, it still means something, especially when you play defense like Sanchez did. Over his career, Sanchez handled 6,632 chances with only 112 errors. That’s a smooth .983 fielding percentage. Unbelievably, he never won a Gold Glove.
Omar Vizquel won the 2000 and 2001 awards for shortstop. Tough competition in those days.
Despite only playing two and a half seasons in Kansas City, Sanchez’s production places him among the best shortstops, not named Witt, that the Royals have ever employed.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 06: Jake Cronenworth #9 of the San Diego Padres rounds the bases after hitting a home run in the fifth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers in game three of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on October 06, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It was only fitting that Christian Yelich hit a ground ball to shortstop where Xander Bogaerts fielded the ball and completed an unassisted double play to help the San Diego Padres secure a 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on Tuesday night.
Bogaerts was instrumental at multiple points throughout the game. His diving stop deep in the hole at shortstop in the top of the fifth inning did not take away a hit, but it did keep the Brewers from scoring a run. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Bogaerts hopped over a ground ball off the bat of Miguel Andujar. Bogaerts also avoided the broken bat of Andujar which was right behind the ball. The play by Bogaerts combined with the distracting broken bat caused Milwaukee shortstop Cooper Pratt to throw short to first base. The ball skipped past Jake Bauers and went into foul territory. Andujar reached safely and Bogaerts slid into home to give San Diego a one-run lead on what proved to be the winning run.
Michael King took the mound in relief in the top of the eighth inning and got through the top half of the frame without much trouble. The Padres were unable to add to their lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. On a night when San Diego did not have Mason Miller who was placed on paternity leave prior to the start of the game, and Adrian Morejon who seemed to be unavailable, King returned to the mound in the ninth and got the first two outs. He then allowed a walk to William Contreras and a walk to Bryce Tourang. Yelich came to the plate and on the first pitch after a mound visit from Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla, King got the Brewers captain to ground into a game-ending double play to help San Diego stave off elimination.
Xander Bogaerts turns the double play, Michael King locks down the save, and the @Padres live to see Game 4! pic.twitter.com/vYXcWkxjJ3
Nick Pivetta started on the mound for the Padres and left the game after 4 1/3 innings with a 2-1 lead. There were runners at second and third base and Jason Adam was called on to try to strand them there. Adam induced a shallow fly ball to left field that was caught by Dustin Harris for the second out, but Pratt tested Harris and raced home and slid in safely well ahead of the throw to make the score 2-2. Jake Cronenworth changed that with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning which put the Padres back in front, 3-2.
Bogaerts was not the only San Diego player to make game saving plays on defense. Jackson Merrill took away extra bases when he ran deep into the left-center gap and made a sliding backhanded catch to take away extra bases from Jackson Chourio. Merrill followed that up with a play in the top of the third inning with a play in the right-center gap to take away an extra-base hit from Sal Frelick, prompting a response from Brewers manager Pat Murphy.
DETROIT, MI - SEPTEMBER 22: Max Clark #15 of the Detroit Tigers looks on during the game between the Washington Nationals and the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Izzy Rincon/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
The Arizona Fall League is only a few games into its five week schedule. The Tigers have some players to follow out there, including top prospects Bryce Rainer and Zyhir Hope, infielder John Peck, hard-throwing relief prospect Jalen Evans, along with starting prospect Win Scott. We’ll be updating their progress weekly throughout the Fall League season. However, the most interesting note from the fall developmental league is an unannounced experiment with defensive positioning for outfielders.
The Fall League is generally designed to provide competition and development for prospects who missed time during the regular season. At times, players will go out there even when they didn’t miss much time if there’s something specific, like a positional change, that they’re working on. The Fall League has also been used as a laboratory for a lot of rule changes the league has implemented over the last few years.
Banning extreme infield shifts started as a Fall League experiment, as did the pitch clock and the ABS challenge system. MLB uses it as a testing ground, and other rule changes, like checked swing challenges, have been tried but not implemented in the major leagues, or anywhere else in the minor leagues. At least not yet.
Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs is out covering the AFL and reported today that the league is experimenting this season with restricted positioning for outfielders this time around. You should read his full description, and the league’s response to his inquiries here. Essentially though, they seem to be experimenting with forcing corner outfielders to stay within a certain distance of their respective foul lines, while playing relatively shallow as well.
It was back in 2023 that MLB decided to limit shifts for infielders, requiring all of them to stand on the dirt until the pitch is delivered, and stopping the second baseman and shortstop from shifting to the other side of second base. These changes haven’t had any noticeable effect on ground balls going for hits.
One would assume that the league wouldn’t have implemented the shift limits if they didn’t at least work in the AFL, but that’s just an assumption, as it hasn’t changed the amount of ground balls going for hits in the big leagues. Perhaps teams simply positioned their first baseman a little more toward second base or slightly deeper to help make up the difference. Maybe they started favoring defensive ability as a bigger part of their first base equation. Whatever the league thinks up, teams and players are going to adapt.
The overarching issue the league can’t seem to solve to its satisfaction is the strikeouts. They would do well to stop bothering to try. Teams, notably the Tigers among them, have gotten a lot better at training batspeed with their hitters. With that is likely to come a greater emphasis on contact hitters. If you know you can build light hitting contact guys into major leaguers with at least average raw power, then contact is going to become a lot more valuable commodity in the draft, and that might be the only antidote to the reign of swing and miss stuff around the game. The Tigers already have Kevin McGonigle and Max Clark in this vein, and teenaged shortstop prospect Jordan Yost and others might follow suit in time.
Young players in top shelf high school competition and in college are already seeing velocity that would’ve blown the hair of major league hitters back years ago. It’s going to take time to see if the younger crop of hitters coming up is better suited to put more balls in play. Instead of drafting pre-fabricated sluggers with major swing and miss issues, teams might be able to take light-hitting young players with elite hand-eye coordination and bat control into more power threats, keeping power in the game while also getting some ways toward defeating the tyranny of the whiff.
My only point here is that everything the league does to manipulate outcomes and increase offense has failed, and the sharpest teams quickly adapt and exploit changes. Sticking outfielders close to the foul lines would certainly be a much more difficult change to deal with from a pitching and defensive standpoint. Of course, so would simply making outfielders play without gloves. You want old school? We can go all the way back. This kind of thing can get silly in a real hurry.
The shift bans did nothing of note. Forcing pitchers to abandon their sticky substance of choice didn’t help offenses. Nor did the pitch clock. Nor has the ABS system. The league says they want more offense, but since they dejuiced the baseball, they don’t want crazy home run numbers and a full, three true outcomes, style of game either. What they really want is fewer strikeouts, and nothing they’ve tried has been remotely successful. Trying to manipulate defenses to allow more balls in play to go for hits is just gimmicky in my book, but more importantly it just hasn’t done any good, and probably won’t unless they go to some real extremes.
So far, this is very much just the experimental phase of any changes to outfield positioning. Probably we’ll see them experiment with some different ideas in the next few years. Maybe nothing will ultimately come to pass. The question is still just what people actually want to see, and how any of these things can actually accomplish what the league seems to want to accomplish when so many competing changes are going on all at the same time. We’ve seen more stolen bases with the bigger bases in use, and stolen bases are great action plays. Won’t that lead to prioritizing catcher defense over offense? There’s always a reaction. We might add stolen bases, but cut into catcher offense due to greater demand for arm strength and accuracy.
Personally, I would like the league to just chill out for a while and see how teams and players adapt to the enormous amount of changes they’ve already made. Throw in the varying springiness of different batches of baseball, and the league has created all sorts of little mini eras over the last decade. Comparing say, Justin Verlander’s career to Cy Young’s, is already kind of impossible. In the future, all this artificial manipulation of game elements is only going to add more and more layers of complexity to those sorts of evaluations.
We’re only four seasons from the National League adopting the designated hitter full-time. Now we have shift bans, bigger bases, pitch clocks, sticky stuff checks, the three batter minimum rule for pitchers, the Pitchcom system, the ABS challenge system, and a planned checked swing challenge system coming soon. There was a time when replay was controversial. Rapidly changing rulesets have come fast and furious ever since.
Some of these changes have been positive, and some haven’t, and we might all have different views as to which is which. There’s nothing wrong with experimenting in the Arizona Fall League or in the independent leagues, looking for ways to improve the game. It would just be nice to have a moratorium at some point so we can actually let things play out. Give teams time to study things and adapt and innovate on their own. The Brewers more than anyone, but the Rays as well, started bunting way more often this year. Maybe that will be part of the equation as well. Baseball often provides its own adaptations and counter balances if we just give it time, but it still looks like the league intends to keep trying to manipulate the game to make it look the way some in MLB committees want it to look. We can only hope for a point at which the players are allowed to just play the same game for a few years. They might come up with better, or at least more organic solutions, but only if there is finally an era with some consistency.
Down two games to none to the Rays is the worst possible spot for the Yankees to be heading into Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. But there are a few positives – not with their play so far, obviously – that they can cling to as they try to save their season.
They have lefties scheduled to start Game 3 and Game 4 (should they make Game 4 necessary, anyway). They’re at home and, let’s be honest, there’s really no chance they play as poorly as they did in Game 2’s flop fest. Right?
Right?!!?
Here are three things to watch in Game 3 as the Yankees try to prevent the Rays from a second big celebration in the Bronx, where they cliched the AL East last month:
Friendly confines
Can the Yanks take advantage of home field and prove the resiliency they’ve been talking up since their Game 2 humiliation? The Rays had a clear advantage in the first two games at Tropicana Field – the speedy turf plays to their strengths, they know the backdrop the dome’s roof gives to fly balls, and they were awfully difficult to beat there, going 55-26 at home.
The Yankees were 46-34 at Yankee Stadium this season, including 4-2 against Tampa Bay. So they weren’t as dominant a home squad as the Rays were. But they’re also built to thrive on the short right field porch. They hit the most home runs at home this season and had the eighth-best home OPS.
Of course, the Yankee offense has been stymied by Rays pitching this series – Ben Rice and Austin Wells have two hits apiece, but the rest of the lineup is an unfathomable 1-for-46 (.022). The Rays are starting road warrior Nick Martinez, a Fordham product who had a 2.38 road ERA this year, including a 2.25 in two starts in the Bronx.
A loud, supportive crowd behind them should help. At least at first. Boot a few early, like Game 2, and that atmosphere will likely change.
Fried factor
Homers are not really the Rays’ game, but it’s worth noting they only hit 36 of them against left-handed pitchers this season, tied with the Marlins for the fewest in MLB. Only five teams had a worse OPS against southpaws than Tampa Bay. The put-it-in-play Rays batted 15 points lower against lefties than righties during the regular season. Still, they’re so good that they were 31-17 in games started by left-handers.
Aug 7, 2026; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees starting pitcher Max Fried (54) pitches against the Atlanta Braves during the first inning at Yankee Stadium. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images
And Max Fried, of course, is not your average MLB lefty. Neither is Game 4’s scheduled starter Carlos Rodón. Fried allowed one run in six innings in his start in the Wild Card Series and the Yanks could use a repeat in Game 3.
Tampa Bay likely will insert righty Ryan Vilade into the lineup – he hit seven homers and had an .818 OPS against lefties this year. Junior Caminero hits every kind of pitcher (eight homers, .916 OPS against lefties) and Yandy Díaz (eight homers, .780 OPS against southpaws), will be his usual challenge.
Decisions, decisions!
Aaron Boone said on Tuesday’s off-day that he was "considering a couple of things" in terms of lineup changes. He’s used eight lefties and George Lombard Jr. so far in the series, but the huge platoon tilt has not worked. The Yanks have scored just twice, both on Rice solo homers, own a .369 OPS, and are striking out more than usual.
Oof!
They could use José Caballero at third instead of Ryan McMahon, who made an error on the first play of Game 2 and is 1-for-7 in the postseason. After Jazz Chisholm Jr.'s poor-judgment night at second base in Game 2, does he come out? Anthony Volpe could start there.
With Fried -- a groundball pitcher -- on the mound, the Yanks need defense.
New York might be giving up a couple of supposed platoon edges by replacing two lefties with two righties against the righty Martinez, but it might be worth it. Martinez thrives on soft contact, so maybe Caballero’s speed translates into an infield hit that could jump-start an inning.
MLB divisional series action Wednesday, Oct. 7 is headlined by the Tampa Bay Rays, who are just one win away from sweeping the New York Yankees in Game 3 and securing their spot in the American League Championship Series.
Game 2 saw the Rays capitalize on the Yankees’ defensive struggles, with Richie Palacios delivering a clutch two-run single in the fifth inning. The Rays won 5-2 for a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
Now, the Rays have a chance to clinch a spot in the ALCS with a win, while the Yankees are fighting to avoid elimination and keep their playoff hopes alive.
SAN DIEGO, CA - OCTOBER 06: Jake Cronenworth #9 of the San Diego Padres rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning during Game Three of the National League Division Series presented by Booking.com between the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on Tuesday, October 6, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Rob Tringali/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Monday night was a brutal one for the Yankees as multiple defensive miscues and missed chances at the plate cost them Game 2 of the ALDS against the Rays. Now, they’ll have to return home and win twice just to get the series back to Tropicana Field for a decisive Game 5. At least in Yankee Fan Land, morale is low. The team, though, got Tuesday off for the travel day to go back to the Bronx, and hopefully they used it to get in a new mindset ahead of Wednesday’s Game 3.
However, the playoff still rolled on Tuesday, with both NL series in action. Let’s take a look at what went down on the other side of the bracket.
National League Division Series Game 3
Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Atlanta Braves 1 (Dodgers lead series 2-1)
The Dodgers snatched home-field advantage back in Game 3, thanks to a strong outing from Yoshinobu Yamamoto to outduel Atlanta ace Chris Sale, who succumbed to more playoff heroics from Enrique Hernández.
The marquee pitching matchup between Yamamoto and Sale mostly delivered. For LA, Yamamoto went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, while striking out 10. The difference between him and Sale came down to one inning where the Dodgers’ offense struck.
With the game still scoreless in the top of the fourth, Sale allowed a leadoff single to Andy Pages. While Sale got the next out, Hernández came up with another big playoff moment, homering to give the Dodgers the lead. Freddie Freeman hit a solo shot a couple batters later to add on to LA’s lead. The former Braves fan favorite had been robbed of a shot to left by Mauricio Dúbon earlier, but this one was out of reach of anyone in uniform.
The Braves got on the board themselves in the fifth when a run scored on a Drake Baldwin groundout. The issue with that was that Atlanta had the bases loaded with only one out, but that single run on the grounder ended up being the only one they scored from that spot — against Yamamoto or the Dodgers’ bullpen. Much-maligned relief signing Edwin Díaz nailed down the save for LA, which can advance to its fifth NLCS this decade with a win today behind Tyler Glasnow or on Friday with Tarik Skubal. The defending champs are now in excellent shape.
San Diego Padres 4, Milwaukee Brewers 3 (Brewers lead series 2-1)
Needing a win at Petco to keep their season alive, the Padres staved off elimination, albeit in a very close game that went down to the final at-bat.
The Padres jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning, but the Brewers clawed back those runs over the fourth and fifth inning to even things back up. However, San Diego answered back themselves, with Jake Cronenworth hitting a go-ahead homer in the bottom of the fifth. Then in the sixth, a costly error from Cooper Pratt — whose speed had helped Milwaukee tie the game up earlier — not only kept the third out from being recorded, but allowed Xander Bogaerts to race home, having started the play at second base.
Throughout the game, the Brewers had plenty of chances. They ended up outhitting San Diego 11 to six. However for the game, Milwaukee left 11 runners on base. Some of those came in the ninth as well.
In the late stages, the Padres turned to ace Michael King out of the bullpen, with Mason Miller on paternity leave and Adrian Morejon’s shoulder barking. He got through the eighth without much issue, but then walked two batters in the ninth, setting up Milwaukee with one last chance. However, King induced a game-ending double play out of Christian Yelich, allowing the Padres to keep the series alive. San Diego will try to do it again tonight to send the series back to Wisconsin for a winner-take-all Game 5.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 27: A general view of Oracle Park before the season finale between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Oracle Park on September 27, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Scott Marshall/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The count drags on. Basic numbers revealing basic problems.
6 — Six wins against the Colorado Rockies. That number should be read with added emphasis: just six. Italics needed. The Giants had double-digit win totals against Colorado in 2025 and 2024, but in 13 confrontations in 2026 against the bottom dwellers of the division, of the Majors, the Giants were 6-7. It was San Francisco’s first losing record against Colorado since 2020.
While the years wandering east of 2021’s Eden have been disappointing, there’s a significant difference between 80 and 65. That difference can be explained by looking at the head-to-head record against Colorado. The 2024 and 2025 Giants certainly weren’t the Rockies. The 2026 Giants…well, if you lose more often than you win against a bad team, you probably are one as well.
7 — Seven ejections for first-time manager, Tony Vitello. TV bagged that league-leading lucky number in the 3rd inning of game 162.
Home plate umpire Ryan Blakney took exception to Vitello taking exception to not getting a strike call on a Mookie Betts check-swing. Upon review, Vitello was pretty animated. Upon review, he was justified. Betts should’ve been ruled out, he wasn’t. The Giants manager made his frustrations known on the matter, and his offseason started early for it.
One last Tony Vitello ejection on the last day of the season
Ejections are all about messaging. Managers argue because they want to show their players that they have their back. When they spew expletives at umpires, they’re really holding each player to their chest and whispering: Listen to my heart, it beats for you.
For Vitello, the “losing control” was one of the only things he could control. Six of his seven ejections came after July 1st. The Giants season was half-way done and fully lost — but obviously there were still relationships to foster and maintain with many of the players that will be returning in 2027. No matter how bad the team is, how meaningless the outcome, it’s the manager’s job to try and win that game. While we’re still iffy on the in-game decisions, Vitello seemed at ease with the performative bluster of spitting into an umpire’s mouth. So he huffed and he puffed, making himself an easy target for those boys in blue.
8 — Eight players that started the 2026 season at the Double-A level or lower. By September, a more accurate name would’ve been the San Francisco Giant Flying Squirrels.
Jonah Cox initially made the leap on May 31st, flying over Sacramento entirely to reach San Francisco from Richmond. Yunior Marte similarly hurdled the River Cats with the Giants selecting his contract in late-August. Three months prior he was playing A-ball in Eugene.
Pretty much everyone else climbed the developmental ladder one rung at a time. Drew Cavanaugh got called up to Sacramento on May 12th and a month and a half later, he was in San Francisco to fill in as a back-up backstop. Matt “Tugboat” Wilkinson, started the year in the Guardian’s AA-affiliate Akron and then moved to Richmond in the Patrick Bailey trade. He was in San Francisco for good by the end of August. Turner Hill, Cesar Perdomo, Scott Bandura, and Bo Davidson all debuted in the final month, month-a-half of the season.
Jumping two farm levels from A to Triple-A in a single year isn’t all that crazy, but it’s definitely less common to hurdle from the middle Minors to the Majors. To have eight players start their year as Flying Squirrels (or an Emerald if you’re Marte) and end the year as Giants is quite the transformation. While we should applaud the grit of some, who not only floated but even swam after being thrown in the deep end, the fact that the top-tier of the organization had to reach so deep into their pockets to fill out a roster says a lot about how the year went.
This also complicates things in the near future. With the Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire December 1st, and a potential lock-out looming, adding some of these players to the 40-man meant they’ll be directly affected by the fall-out. They’ll be unable to play for the minor league affiliates, locked-out of team facilities, and barred from communicating with coaches, trainers, and other team officials.
9 — Nine innings in a baseball game. Nine Giants positioned on a baseball field. Nine games played before San Francisco emerged victorious against the Diamondbacks, which brings me to…
10 — Ten total losses to the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants were 3-10 against them. Good for a dismal .231 win-percentage — San Francisco’s lowest win-% in a season against Arizona since their formation in 1998.
2026 was the Giants’ fifth straight season with a losing records against AZ, but this one easily takes the cake in terms of embarrassment. The D-Backs swept them twice. They lost eight in a row before winning their first. Ketel Marte single-handedly beat them on multiple occasions. Arizona body-slammed them into the dust early on, and the Giants decided it was best to just lie there, bedded in the desert, baking in the impossible Phoenix heat.
While inter-division performance isn’t as weighted as it once was on this newish schedule. When the two-divisions were introduced to each league in 1969, the Giants played 90 games against the five other teams in the west — still nearly a third of their games are against the Dodgers, Padres, Rockies and D-Backs. 13 games each, and the Giants had a losing record against every one of them. A 17-35 spread over. Their 32.7 win-% good for another low, San Francisco’s worst in the Divisional era.
11 — eleven times swept in a series. Compare that to their one (1) sweep mentioned in a previous post. They were held winless in five different series against NL West teams (2 ARI, 2 LA, 1 SDP, and lost two of three twice to Rockies).
12 — a dozen different relievers with a blown save. That’s tied for the most in franchise history in a single season. This probably doesn’t shock you considering the merry-go-round that was the Giants bullpen. 2025 trade deadline sales and offseason roster construction pretty much ensured that San Francisco’s back-end would be a wishy-washy closer-by-committee / who’s-rested/ who’s hot/ who drew the short-straw. Unsurprisingly, this arrangement didn’t work out.
The trials and tribulations of the 2026 Giants bullpen have been well-documented. They will live on in infamy. As a team, the Giants recorded 27 blown saves in total, logging a low 52.6 Save%, which was the fourth lowest in Majors.
To be clear, these are not the same 12. Eight of the relievers who recorded a save also blew one, which means there were four arms who recorded a save and didn’t screw one up, and four arms who screwed one up and never made a save. That’s 16 different pitchers tasked with seeing a lead through to the final out. Employing the throw it at the wall and see what sticks methodology is less than ideal when it comes to bullpen managing — but can you blame Tony Vitello for employing it?
I vaguely remember him announcing Caleb Kilian would be the closer in mid-June, but the opportunities to actually save a game were few and far between. Kilian secured the save in his first opportunity. The next game he surrendered four in the 9th to the Athletics. He then bagged a couple more saves…then got lit up for three in the 9th against the Rockies…then he couldn’t maintain a tie in the 9th against Kansas City… Ten days later he was playing for the Phillies.
Vitello tried it all. He played the crappy hand he was dealt.
13 — Thirteen times the Giants were shutout by an opponent. To be fair, that’s not a particularly egregious amount. Seven other teams were held scoreless in more games this past season. In terms of California-era club history, 13 other (hey, another 13!) Giants teams were shutout in more games, the most being 18 in 1992.
I guess this number stands out more when you consider the hopes we had for the Giants offense. The 2019 Giants were shutout 19 times. The 2010 team, 16; and 2014, 15. On paper, this 2026 line-up was supposed to have more punch. They did, and they didn’t. They were as tempermental as a motel shower’s temperature control — red hot one day and ice cold the next. It took them forever to get going. They were 21 innings deep into the season before they scored their first run. By the first day in May, they had already been shutout six times.
14 — Fourteen players logged at least one defensive inning in left field.
Now, the number 14 isn’t particularly relevant or important. Is that a lot? Probably, but I just want to talk about what happened in left field; or, the real reason this Giants season was doomed from the jump.
This has nothing to do with roster construction, or below-average performance, or injuries — this goes back to one little decision made at the start of the year: the decision to start Heliot Ramos in left field. Perhaps an innocent, even obvious, decision for rookie manager Tony Vitello then, but a fatally myopic one in hindsight. When Ramos trotted out to position himself in the left corner of the diamond he became the first Giants player since Barry Bonds’s departure after 2007 to start consecutive Opening Days in left field. I was salty (in a cheeky way) about it at the time. I’m good-naturedly ticked-off now. It’s clear that the “curse” is bona-fide — a curse without quotation marks added. Respect wasn’t given where respect was due. Bonds required an offering. For just one day, one inning even, a player should have been sent out as an oblation.
Instead Ramos defiled sacred ground…and where is he now?
15 — Fifteen different lead-off batters. 15 different names penciled in at the top of the lineup to start a game. The tip of the Giants spear. Some teams had Pete Crow-Armstrong, or James Wood, or Shohei Ohtani — clear-cut lead-off leaders, no-brainers for the manager. Wake-up, and before even their first cup of coffee, write their name, in Sharpie, thick-tip and all-caps, it’s never going to change.
But Tony Vitello and the Giants, it wasn’t who’s on first, but who’s batting first? As the season progressed, it became another task completed by a committee based on a variety of variables. Overall, there wasn’t a ton of production from the spot. Their 96 wRC+ from their lead-off hitter ranked 25th in the league. The .296 on-base percentage — one of the more important metrics for a player averaging the most plate appearances in a game — ranked last.
Willy Adames and Luis Arraez both logged 31 games hitting first, tied for most on the team. Drew Gilbert, who fell into the role later in the season and served surprisingly well out of the top-spot, logged twenty starts exclusively against right-handed starters. Gilbert matured a lot over the year as he rose to the top spot. He hit .286 with a .557 slugging percentage and .378 OBP (82 PA). Arraez, Ramos, Adames, Lee — nobody was anywhere close to those numbers.
16 — Sixteen players on the 60-day injured list by season’s end. That’s just…crazy. It’s also created quite a headache for the front office now that those 16 names have been put back on the 40-roster. As of writing this, there are 56 names on a 40-man list — those numbers aren’t mathin’.
17 — Seventeen big league debuts, Seventeen debut patches. Seventeen sets of family and friends clustered in the stands, hanging on every pitch thrown as their son or brother or nephew or partner realizes their life-long dream. The Giants led the Majors in those moments. That’s kind-a cool. Also kind-a connected to the health issues that tore the roster to shreds.
71 — Seventy-one is seventeen but backwards, so it fits. Seventy-one is also the amount of players to represent the Giants in a baseball game during the 2026 season, tying a record set by the 2025 Atlanta Braves. The Giants reached this height in the second to last game of the season, with a familiar face in Camilo Doval.
Doval pitching in the 9th inning of a tie game against the Dodgers was not on my Giants’ season bingo card. Nor was a guy named Tugboat striking out Shohei Ohtani. But much like the 17 debuts, or 8 Double-A call-ups — the 71 different jerseys is a dubious honor, and an illustrative one. Teams don’t reach this kind of number if things are going according to plan. It wasn’t the plan to know the names Shay Whitcomb or Ryan Borucki or Jason Foley. I wasn’t dying to watch Andrew Knizner play baseball again. But by year’s end, what were we left with? What choice did we have? The roster churn generated some serious white water, and while the rapids were rough, they carried the rickety Giants raft down river.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: Chris Bassitt #40 of the Baltimore Orioles walks back to the dugout between innings during game one of a baseball doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 23, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s become an annual ritual for the Orioles front office. Every offseason, when fans are clamoring for the O’s to sign a top-tier ace pitcher, Mike Elias inevitably says “no thanks” and instead throws some money at an aging, back-of-the-rotation veteran. It’s a tried-and-true formula that Elias continues despite the fact that it basically never works.
Oh, sometimes the veteran will eat up innings and provide clubhouse leadership, like Kyle Gibson in 2023. But more often than not, the pitcher will show his age and get absolutely torched, like, well, Kyle Gibson in 2025. This past winter, after the O’s again failed to land a frontline starting pitcher, Chris Bassitt became the latest grizzled vet to engage in the Orioles’ yearly tradition. He signed a one-year, $18.5 million deal with the Orioles on Feb. 13, nine days before his 37th birthday.
It wasn’t much consolation for Orioles fans who’d had visions of the team landing a true #1 starter, but the signing of Bassitt made some sense. The former All-Star was an experienced AL East pitcher, spending the previous three seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays and posting an above-average 109 ERA+. And he said all the right things after joining the club, insisting that he signed with the O’s because he thought they had the talent to win the World Series.
Orioles fans, scarred by the team’s previous forays into the old-guy starting pitcher market, asked one thing above all of Bassitt: don’t be the next Charlie Morton. The O’s had been burned a year earlier when they handed a $15 million deal to Morton to coax him away from retirement, only for the 41-year-old righty to implode with a 5.42 ERA before being jettisoned at the trade deadline. You wouldn’t think it would be a high bar for Bassitt to clear. And yet, he crashed right into it.
Bassitt made a lousy first impression on Orioles fans when he coughed up four runs in 4.1 innings in his team debut, then got blistered for six runs in two innings his next time out. He didn’t even pitch five innings in an outing until his fourth start, a scoreless performance against the Guardians, but then went right back to stinking. After 10 starts in an O’s uniform, Bassitt’s ERA was 5.51 — even worse than the dreaded Morton mark. The Orioles, despite Bassitt’s bold claims, were nowhere close to winning a World Series, and Bassitt himself was a big reason why.
On June 3, Bassitt left his start at Fenway Park after three innings, and not just because he was struggling again. He exited the mound with low back discomfort, an ailment that landed him on the IL for more than two months. Ineffective and injured, Bassitt’s tenure with the Orioles was shaping up to be one of the worst in recent team history.
Fortunately, that wasn’t the end of his story. Bassitt returned to the Birds in mid-August and showed significant improvement in his second act, going 5-1 with a 3.74 ERA. The Orioles won six of his eight starts. Those numbers aren’t dominant, but they’re much more in line with the pitcher the O’s thought they were getting when they signed him. One wonders if the back injury was affecting Bassitt long before the Boston start. Whatever the case, the two months of rest served him quite well.
Bassitt’s overall season stats — a 9-5 record, 4.59 ERA, and 1.0 fWAR — weren’t as dreadful as they were shaping up to be during his awful first half. Still, time comes for us all, and nearly all of Bassitt’s numbers at age 37 were his worst in a decade, including his ERA+ (89), WHIP (1.549), H/9 (10.6), and K/9 (6.5). Bassitt wasn’t fooling many batters, ranking in the eighth percentile in K% and just the fifth percentile in chase percentage.
He wasn’t Charlie Morton bad, and certainly not 2025 Kyle Gibson bad, but Bassitt wasn’t worth $18.5 million. Based on FanGraphs’ general principle that 1 WAR is worth about $8 million in free agency, Bassitt’s performance merited less than half of the salary he got. The Orioles shouldn’t and won’t re-sign him, unless they’re convinced that the second-half Bassitt is the version they’ll get for a full season. We can only hope that’s not something they’ll talk themselves into.
I’ll say this about Bassitt: as a clubhouse presence, he provided the veteran leadership the Orioles badly needed. It wasn’t enough to transform the O’s into a good team, of course, but Bassitt was candid and forthright about the many flaws with the Orioles and what needs to be done to fix them. In The Baltimore Banner’s 2026 Orioles postmortem, Bassitt spoke about the need to address fundamentals up and down the organization.
“I think the most impactful and important changes for this organization going forward is the people like Shane Baz, [Kyle] Bradish, Pete Alonso, Gunnar Henderson to walk into a room next year with the entire minor league system, especially coming from Gunnar, who’s been through this minor league system, and say, ‘Hey, I know what we’ve done in the past. But what we’ve done in the past is not good enough. And we are about to make some small changes, some major changes, some things that are non-negotiables, some things that are not going to be tolerated anymore.’”
Bassitt emphasized that the Orioles need to focus on “all the little things. Rules off the field, rules on the field. Baserunning rules, hitting rules, your work, your game preparation, your lifts. Whatever it may be. Pick the subject, there’s rules for it.” Bassitt added, “I think players in this room have got to grab the reins and responsibility of what it takes to be a big leaguer who really wants to win.”
You know, I’m starting to think the Orioles should re-sign Bassitt after all — to be their new manager. (I’m kidding. Well, sort of. But Bassitt’s comments were more insightful and enlightening than anything I’ve ever heard Craig Albernaz say.)
In all likelihood, Chris Bassitt’s tenure in Baltimore was one year and done. But if the Orioles hope to pull themselves out of the malaise they find themselves in, they’d be well served to heed his advice for the future.
