Category: MLB

SAN DIEGO — The last time the Chicago Cubs laid eyes on the San Diego Padres they had to refrain from laughing aloud in their faces.

It was July 1 at Wrigley Field.

And the Cubs humiliated the Padres, winning 23-3, with No. 9 hitter Dansby Swanson hitting three home runs and driving in eight runs, handing the Padres their worst loss in the 58-year history of the franchise.

It was the Cubs’ fifth consecutive victory, and the Padres’ fifth consecutive loss, leaving the Padres’ season on the brink.

Well, here they are meeting again, and, oh, how so much has changed.

The Padres these days just so happen to be the hottest team in baseball, winning 17 of their last 20 games, to not only storm into the postseason, but clinch the top wild-card spot, hosting the Cubs in the best-of-three wild-card series.

It’s a rematch of the wild-card series a year ago, only this time the games will all be played at raucous Petco Park and not Wrigley Field.

The Padres (91-71) are in the postseason for the third consecutive year, fifth time in the last seven years, and believing this time around they could go where they have never gone before in franchise history.

That’s winning a World Series.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns met with the media Monday in his end-of-season news conference. From first base plans and Pete Alonsofallout to the starting rotation's outlook and second base's starter, Stearns' 2026 reflection and 2027 outlook were covered extensively on SNY.

"I'm always under pressure," Stearns said. "My job is to put a winning team on here, on the field, every single year. That hasn't changed from the day I sat up here for my introductory press conference to when I'm sitting up here right now."

What other key topics did Stearns discuss? From the Mets' roster to New York's retooled coaching staff and front office, here is a closer look.

Bo Bichette's opt-out decision remains ongoing

Bichette has time to opt in or out of his contract with the Mets. He and Stearns "have not had those discussions."

"I have not had those discussions with Bo," Stearns said of Bichette, who slashed .260/.312/.390 with 18 home runs and 78 RBI in 160 games. "He's got the right now to take some space, discuss with his family and his agent, and I'm sure he'll get back to us."

Brett Baty's September momentum

Baty slashed .333/.417/.608 with three home runs and 16 RBI in September, capping his fourth full season since his Aug. 17, 2022, debut. Will he take another step in 2027?

"The truth is we won't know," Stearns said of Baty, who slashed .236./.309/.371 with 11 home runs and 56 RBI in 143 games. "I do think, having been around Brett for multiple years now -- I think where he is from a mindset perspective, his level of belief in himself and how he works through an at-bat, is different right now. But as with any player, until you see it for an extended period, very difficult for me to sit here right now and have complete certainty on that."

Ronny Mauricio's 'flash'

Mauricio, who broke out with two home runs this past weekend to cap a 20-game sample size with the Mets this season, has a pivotal offseason entering the 2027 campaign.

"He's among them," Stearns said of Mauricio, who slashed .220/.258/.441 with four home runs and eight RBI. "Ronny goes into next year out of options. We saw the flash of potential over the last couple days. That was exciting for us to see -- I think great for him to experience going into the offseason, and so he's among them. I think he comes into spring training next year competing for a spot."

Francisco Alvarez's 'really encouraging' second half

Alvarez slashed .233/.311/.399 with 16 home runs and 43 RBI in 113 games but left Stearns impressed elsewhere.

"Probably up and down," Stearns said of Alvarez's fourth MLB season. "But we've seen, I think -- again, the second half Francisco behind the plate was really encouraging. I think his defense took a step forward behind the plate. His command of the pitching staff and game-calling took a step forward in the second half. Really a credit to him for not getting down and frustrated, and a credit to our coaching staff for getting him there."

Kodai Senga's to-be-determined role

Senga started 8 of 31 games and moved to the bullpen. Will he remain a reliever or return to his role in the starting rotation?

"I think we'll make that determination as we get into spring training and see where we are," Stearns said. "We know where Kodai's passion is. He's been very honest with that. We also understand that we need a level of production, in whatever role he's going to be in, to contribute to a winning team. And so, we'll ultimately make that role determination as we get into next year."

Bullpen options

Whether or not the Mets' bullpen includes Senga, Stearns sees options among the returning arms.

"I give Devin (Williams) a lot of credit for working his tail off to getting back here and being able to pitch a couple games in September," Stearns said of Williams (right shoulder strain) returning from a late-season stint on the injured list to make two relief appearances. "I think that was important for us. It was important for Devin. He's now going to have a completely normal offseason. He's healthy, he feels great and we expect him to be a big part in the back end of the bullpen going forward.

"We also feel really good about some of the younger guys who stepped up in a big way over the last two months, whether that's aNate Lavenderor (Dedniel Núñez) coming back or (Daniel) Duarte taking some leverage innings. We saw flashes from (Jefry) Yan that make you believe that there's a level in there that he can be one of the better left-handed relievers in baseball. Again, we need to see consistency, and we recognize that, and there's inevitable volatility in bullpens. But I think what we saw out of that group collectively was very encouraging."

Reed Garrett, Tylor Megill eye spring in Tommy John rehabs

Garrett and Megill are set to enter the spring at 100 percent after missing the 2026 season due to surgeries in 2025, Stearns said.

"They've both been around the team over the last couple weeks," Stearns said. "Great to see them. We expect them to be full go in spring training."

Stearns did not say whether Megill, a starter before he went down with his injury, would be a reliever when asked.

"I think he's going to come and compete, and we believe he can contribute on the team," Stearns said of Megill, who is a career 26-26 with a 4.46 ERA in 88 games (81 starts). "He'll ramp up for starter workload over the offseason and come to spring training, compete."

Jared Young's concussion recovery 'going well'

Young, who sustained a concussion in the past two weeks, is doing "well" after the "scary" incident against the Philadelphia Phillies.

"Concussions are serious, and obviously that was as ugly as it gets on a baseball field and scary," Stearns said of Young, who slashed .266/.330/.429 with nine home runs and 39 RBI in 103 games. "Right now, everything seems to be going well. But concussions are serious, and we've got to see how this goes."

Derek Falvey's addition to front office

The Mets added to the front office this past week when they hired Falvey as their senior advisor for baseball operations.

"Derek's in the office today," Stearns said. "He's up and going. Derek, in my estimation, is one of the better executives in our sport. He's got a tremendous amount of experience. He's touched every aspect of baseball operations over the course of his career. He ran the business side in Minnesota as well. So, I think he's going to help us everywhere. He's a great thought partner, can provide some different life experiences and different perspectives, and I'm thrilled that he's on board right now."

Falvey's career includes stints in the front offices of the Cleveland Guardians (2008-16) and Minnesota Twins (2017-26).

"I think you can add to front offices in a variety of different ways," Stearns said. "I think the important part is getting people here who are ready to contribute and want to contribute and can offer us perspectives that will help."

Stearns did not "close the door on" adding to the front office further.

"There's always executive movement in October," Stearns said. "I'm open to adding, as I've always been, if we find the right complements and the right people. So, I wouldn't close the door on anything right now."

Staff movement

Andy Green is the Mets' full-time manager, and "conversations on" his coaching staff will come in the near future.

"Andy and I are going to have conversations on that this week, and we'll get to a decision point here over the next week or so," Stearns said.

With the Mets' 2027 blueprint already taking shape, Green and Stearns look to build on the 2026 season's improved second half.

"I think the manager is always an integral part of that, and I think Andy did a really nice job creating an environment that facilitated that level of connection," Stearns said. "I also think players are responsible for that, and both the players we had here and the younger players and the Triple-A players who joined after the deadline made real effort of that and I'm appreciative of that."

Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young addressed the media today in the wake of the team’s disappointing 80-82 finish.

I am not sure if this was broadcast live or not, but if it was, I didn’t hear it, because I was busy working. I haven’t seen the DMN or the Rangers website put up any stories about Young’s comments yet, as I’m typing this, but the beats did live-tweet things.

Young said, per the beats, that the Rangers have not exuded enough “toughness and [] grit” the past few seasons, and that has shown in the team’s poor road performance. Young said, per the beats, that “[t]here are some things we need to change in terms of bringing out that grit and toughness . . . that it takes for a team to go on the road, into an opposing city and play in front of opposing fans.”

This year, across MLB, home teams won 52.9% of games, and away teams won 47.1% of games. Last year, it was 54.3% and 45.7% across MLB. The Rangers in 2025 won 59.3% of their home games and 40.7% of their road games, and in 2026 won 55.6% of their home games and 43.2% of their road games. I’m not sure if the issue is grit or toughness or something else, but the Rangers have underperformed on the road the past two years (or overperformed at home).

Something else that jumped out at me is Young saying that the team needs to be more athletic, needs be better defensively and on the basepaths, needs to be younger. I thought that was an interesting comment.

Back in June, I wrote about how the Rangers were epically unsuccessful in going from first to third in the first half of this season. The extreme station-to-station aspect of their baserunning, along with their miserable performance in bases loaded situations (a 549 OPS in 139 plate appearances with the bases loaded, compared to a 746 OPS leaguewide) were two of the biggest reasons why the Rangers’ run scored lagged behind what their overall offensive performance would have suggested that they should have scored.

But its worth asking how it is that the Rangers ended up with a group of position players that are not particularly athletic or good defensively or on the basepaths.

Let’s look at the position player moves the team has made over the past two years, since the end of 2024.

In December, 2024, they signed catcher Kyle Higashioka. Higashioka turned 35 in April of 2025, and wasn’t (and still isn’t) particularly fast or athletic, even for a catcher — he was 62nd out of 83 catchers in sprint speed in 2025, and 76th out of 87 catchers in sprint speed in 2026.

Also in December, 2024, they traded three players for Jake Burger to replace Nathaniel Lowe at first base, desiring more power at the position. Burger is actually just a little below average in sprint speed among MLB players, but he isn’t going to be described by anyone as particularly athletic, or gifted defensively or as a baserunner, and despite how little major league experience he has, he turns 31 at the beginning of 2027.

At the end of December, they signed Joc Pederson to a free agent deal, in what was really the one major move they made in an effort to upgrade the offense. Regardless of the merits of making your big offseason position player move the signing of a platoon DH to a big contract, Pederson — signed for his age 33 and age 34 seasons — is near the bottom of the league in terms of athleticism, defense, and baserunning.

They did add the 36 year old Kevin Pillar as a bench player. He was, once upon a time, a very athletic player, a quality defender and baserunner. There was still some athleticism there, I think, but it was hard to notice when he was slashing .209/.209/.256. I don’t think I realize until now he never ended up drawing a walk in 2025.

There was also Sam Haggerty off the bench, and he had a little of that speed and athleticism Young was talking about, but he was also a role player, and though he came back in 2026, he got quickly released because he couldn’t hit.

When Jake Burger got hurt, and the team needed to get someone to play first base, they signed free agent Rowdy Tellez, who, well…let’s put it this way. In 2025, there were 579 players with at least 10 opportunities for Statcast to measure their sprint speeds. Tellez was faster than two of them — Sam Huff and Martin Maldonado — and tied with Giancarlo Stanton. The other 575 players were ahead of Tellez.

Come the 2025-26 offseason, once again, the Rangers only made one really big move in regards to the lineup: they traded Marcus Semien to the Mets for Brandon Nimmo. Again, whatever the other motivations and positives that deal provides, its a downgrade in terms of speed, athleticism and defense.

And they added 39 year old Andrew McCutchen, who once upon a team fit the speed/defense/athleticism mold, but not in 2026.

They did add Danny Jansen, who probably has above-average athleticism for a catcher. Then when Jansen and Higashioka got sidelined they signed Einar Diaz out of the free agent scrap heap. Fun fact — Diaz was 80th in sprint speed out of 87 catchers in 2026, one of the few catchers actually slower than Higashioka.

No wonder the organization was so excited about Nicky Lopez’s presence — he’s not, at this stage in his career, someone who is elite in terms of speed or athleticism or defense, but he’s average to a little above in those categories, and on this team, it makes him look like Jim Thorpe.

If you’re identifying position players who you think of as regulars or semi-regulars on the Rangers, Evan Carter, Wyatt Langford, and Ezequiel Duran are the only three who you fit that triumvirate of attributes Young says the team needs. Of course, Carter and Langford also have not been able to stay healthy — and one of the other things that Young said that the team needed to improve upon is its health.

Otherwise…Corey Seager is Corey Seager. You know what he is. Josh Jung is not particularly athletic, is slow, has regressed defensively, and can’t stay healthy. Justin Foscue is much the same.

Here’s the thing that kind of stuck with me when I read those quotes from Young today, though, that prompted me to sit here and pound out what is now over 1000 words on the topic.

If you feel, Chris, that the Rangers are not young enough, not athletic enough, not good enough defensively, then whose fault is that?

How did it happen?

How is it that you would put together a lineup on the position player side over the past two years with moves that have prioritized the team going after primarily older, slower, unathletic players who are limited defensively, and then act surprised that your team is not athletic enough and not good enough on the basepaths and not good enough defensively?

Happy Wild Card eve to all who celebrate. How are we feeling?

Firstly, a hype video for you. This year’s campaign theme and accompanying hashtag? LET IT FLY.

Are you hype enough yet? Let us know the creative ways you’re playing hooky with work or school for tomorrow’s 2 pm ET contest. We can write you a permission slip if you need.

It’s been a busy day for Demetrius and company with today’s team workout and other new info on tomorrow’s matchup. ICYMI…

• Demetrius’s report from Truist Park today: Braves stay loose and focused on Workout Day ahead of Wild Card Series against Phillies
• Ivan’s last deep dive for the regular season: Braves biweekly: a cromulent clincher

Tomorrow night’s home plate umpire has recent Altercations against both teams:

Tomorrow’s starter for Philly is Jesús Luzardo. But they’ll be without their main trade deadline piece:

And that’s what you missed on BP. The floor’s yours for your hopes, fears, predictions, prayers to baseball gods, and whatever else is on your mind tonight.

If you’re reading a Red Sox blog, you’re probably a bigger baseball fan than most. Still, baseball is a regional sport, and it can be hard to get eyes on other teams throughout the season. We see the American League East teams a few times, the other American League teams twice, and the National League teams once each. The team the Red Sox were in April is far from the team they are now. The same goes for every other team.

The baseball postseason has a way of breeding stars. Starters who go on short rest, relievers who perform Houdini-like escape acts, and utility players who come up with big hits. I won’t pretend to watch every game every night, but I do typically turn on a few innings during the day when they’re available, and flip over to another game on MLB.TV when the Red Sox game ends. That, combined with being chronically online with a Twitter algorithm that serves me baseball highlights, means I have a pretty solid lay of the land.

So if you haven’t had much opportunity to watch the rest of the playoff field yet, here is one player from each of the other Wild Card round teams to keep an eye on.

Tristan Peters, Chicago White Sox

FanGraphs projected the Chicago White Sox for 67 wins entering the season. They flew past that mark by recording 84 wins and securing the final American League Wild Card spot. FanGraphs isn’t infallible, but exceeding projections by 17 wins usually requires some breakout stars. One of those for the White Sox is center fielder Tristan Peters.

Peters played for the Savannah Bananas in 2021, before their popularity exploded and before he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. He was traded to the Giants, and then to the Rays in 2022 before debuting for Tampa in late 2025. He went 0-12 and was designated for assignment this past winter. The White Sox acquired Peters for cash, and he took off from there. His bat is solid but unspectacular; he hit .265 with 12 home runs and a low strikeout rate, but his fielding is excellent. If not for Ceddanne Rafaela, Peters would be a frontrunner for the Gold Glove in center field. The White Sox have been one of the better defensive teams in the league this season, and he’s a large part of that.

Hayden Wesneski, Houston Astros

The Astros are full of familiar faces: Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Jose Altuve, and Josh Hader, to name a few. Their offense kept them afloat, posting the fourth-best wRC+ on the way to the worst regular-season record ever by a postseason team. In the playoffs, they’ll need to pitch to make a run. Hunter Brown is their ace, but you’ve heard of him, so how about Hayden Wesneski?

Wesneski made his season debut in July after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery and was a huge boost to the Astros’ rotation. In 11 starts, he was 6-2 with a 3.25 ERA. He’s not at all overpowering; his fastball averages 93 mph and gets hit hard, but he throws enough pitches to keep hitters off it. He leads with a huge sweeper with over 20 inches of horizontal break and commands a cutter well to generate weak contact. If he commands his changeup to lefties, he can get quick outs and eat innings for an Astros team that doesn’t want to lean on its bullpen.

Alex McFarlane, Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies nearly pulled off a historic collapse in September, losing four of their final five games. They gave the Diamondbacks a glimmer of hope, but ultimately beat the Rays to clinch on the last day. If Philadelphia makes a run during the postseason, it will likely be due to their pitching. They had the second-best team xERA in the second half of the season. A large part of that was thanks to the rotation, full of pitchers that you know: Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Zack Wheeler, and Aaron Nola. Jhoan Duran is at the back of the bullpen, but there’s another electric arm in the pen as well — Alex McFarlane.

McFarlane debuted in July and was nearly perfect for most of the season. He didn’t allow a run in 17 of 19 appearances, striking out 25% of opponents on the way. He’s got a huge fastball that averages 99 mph and gets up as high as 102. It’s from a low release that creates an uncomfortable look for hitters and racks up whiffs. He pairs it with a sinker that’s just as hard, plus two breaking balls. He’s your classic hard-throwing reliever, and he’ll likely find himself in a big spot against the Braves this week.

Ethan Salas, San Diego Padres

Ethan Salas is the youngest player in the majors. His bat isn’t anything special, although he’s performed better at the plate in a short sample than I think most expected. He’s got an absolute cannon behind the plate, though. It’s awesome.

He’s 0-5 on throwing runners out in the majors. In my unprofessional opinion, the bases were stolen on the pitchers more than Salas, though. Moving on.

Alex Bregman, Chicago Cubs

This one is a deep cut, but a great story. Alex Bregman is playing for the Cubs just days after taking a foul ball off the face. You’ve probably heard of him because he hit two home runs against the Red Sox on the final day of the season. He’s really good.

Didier Fuentes, Atlanta Braves

The Braves are always in the mix, and they’re always kind of boring if you ask me. They have one of the best lineups in baseball (though they’ve slumped in the second half), a solid rotation led by Chris Sale, and a good bullpen. Ronald Acuna, Matt Olson, Michael Harris, and Drake Baldwin are all back this season, as is Rasiel Iglesis in the bullpen. Someone who hasn’t been in the mix this season is Didier Fuentes.

Fuentes debuted early this season and made one start before transitioning to the bullpen. He’s third on the team with 58 pitching appearances and has been the Braves’ top bullpen arm besides their closer. His 31% strikeout rate is among the best in baseball, while he limits walks as well. It’s a simple approach from Fuentes, who throws 70% four-seam fastballs and dares hitters to hit it. When he isn’t throwing fastballs by hitters, he’s pulling the string and dropping in mid-80s sliders to get ugly swings. He’ll likely move back to the rotation at some point, but for the next month, he’ll be a top arm in the Braves bullpen.

Cthulhu, New York Yankees

Last but not least, we have the New York Yankees. We play them 12 times a season, so you’re likely familiar with most of their players. Cam Schlittler is the ace, and Ben Rice is the best hitter. You’ve seen George Lombard debut and you know Gerrit Cole from years past. You probably haven’t seen Cthulhu, a cosmic entity that seeks to regain control over the world and whose presence drives humans mad. Seriously, he’s on the Yankees, and the players support his motives. Pretty messed up, right?

It’s award season in Major League Baseball, and the first thing we’ve got to bring to your attention is the All-MLB team. As a quick reminder, the fans are included as one of several entities (media, broadcasters, former players, “other officials”) who have a say in who ends up on the league’s All-MLB teams, which award the best players at each position.

Finalists in this award don’t necessarily work the same way that they do in the other awards—this is a much more open field. But it’s still cool to see Brewers players among the finalists at several positions. Here’s a quick rundown of who you can vote for amongst Brewers.

Jake Bauers, 1B

Bauers, who finished second in the National League in wRC+, is up against 13 other options at first base. Bauers had his best season by far, and finished with 26 homers, 86 RBI, and the second-best on-base percentage in the National League, aided by a Soto-ian 16.3 walk percentage. Bauers stands out among the nominees but has some tough competition; others who figure to factor heavily at first base include Pete Alonso, who led the AL in homers (43) and RBI (113), Alec Burleson, who led the majors with 116 RBI, Willson Contreras, who hit a career-high 27 homers and had a career best 153 OPS+, and Ty France, who had a surprising career-best year for the Padres at age 31.

Brice Turang, 2B

Turang should be the heavy favorite at second base after finishing his season with a 124 OPS+, 37 doubles, 21 homers, 100 RBI, 19 stolen bases, and Gold Glove-caliber defense. He had a 7.3 WAR season via Baseball Reference, which is getting close to MVP territory in many seasons. His primary competition probably comes from Pittsburgh’s Brandon Lowe, who hit 35 homers and played some of the best defense of his career, and JJ Wetherholt, the St. Louis rookie who played some of the league’s best defense while putting up a slightly above average offensive season.

William Contreras, C

Contreras is right in the mix amongst a strong group of catchers despite going through a brutal offensive slump for much of the summer. A strong finish to the season meant Contreras finished with a .270/.341/.417 batting line (108 OPS+) and 27 doubles, 18 homers, and 94 RBI. By WAR, this was Contreras’s worst season as a Brewer, though, so he’s not the favorite this season; this should be Arizona’s Gabriel Moreno (143 OPS+, 6.7 bWAR, led the NL in batting average at .311), who will see competition from Colorado’s Hunter Goodman (41 homers), Detroit’s Dillon Dingler (4.9 fWAR, 27 homers), and Atlanta’s Drake Baldwin (.284/.358/.459, 25 homers).

Jackson Chourio, OF

Chourio is the Brewers’ one candidate in the outfield this season (a little harsh on Garrett Mitchell, in my opinion), and he would surely have had a great chance had he not missed six weeks at the beginning of the season. Chourio has looked like a superstar for the past couple of months, but with only 127 games played, he’s likely to get overlooked. The strongest contenders here include the presumptive NL MVP, Pete Crow-Armstrong (45 homers, 41 stolen bases, league-leading 156 OPS+, best defense in league), Seattle’s Randy Arozarena (AL leading 113 runs scored, 26 homers, 148 OPS+), the Dodgers’ Andy Pages (.274/.343/.468, 23 homers, excellent defense), Atlanta’s Michael Harris II (26 homers, 36 doubles, .294/.321/.491), Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela (great defense, solid offense) and Wilyer Abreu (AL leading 38 doubles, 24 homers, good defense), and Fernando Tatis Jr. (who overcame a very slow start to finish with a 130 OPS+, 25 homers, and 32 doubles).

Jacob Misiorowski, SP

Five pitchers make the All-MLB first team, and Miz is a lock to be one of those five (he would probably be a lock to be the only one if there were only one). Misiorowski is the only nominated Brewer; those who might join him on the first team include Cam Schlittler of the Yankees, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, and Zack Wheeler of the Phillies, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal of the Dodgers, Dylan Cease of the Blue Jays, Chris Sale of the Braves, and maybe a surprise like Eduardo Rodríguez of the Diamondbacks or Parker Messick of the Guardians.

Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe, RP

Both Megill and Uribe are finalists this season, deservedly so. After a rough first couple weeks, Megill was dominant for months; he converted 30 of 33 save opportunities and finished with a 2.63 ERA and 1.85 FIP. Uribe was just as good: in 61 outings, he had a 1.97 ERA and 2.68 FIP, converting six saves along the way. Either Brewer reliever could conceivably make it, but the favorites here figure to be Tampa Bay’s Bryan Baker, who tied for the league lead with 41 saves and had a 1.44 ERA (though his 3.07 FIP will give pause to those who prefer FanGraphs’ WAR); San Diego’s Mason Miller, who looked like the league’s best reliever for essentially the entire season, tied for the NL lead in saves, had a 1.67 ERA and an eye-popping 1.17 FIP; Toronto’s Louis Varland, who had a 1.27 ERA in 78 innings (more than the other contenders here) and converted 35 saves; Philadelphia’s Jhoan Duran, who pitched to a 1.82 ERA 1.42 FIP in 59 1/3 innings; and the ageless Aroldis Chapman, who had 35 saves for the Red Sox while pitching to a 1.92 ERA.

Who do you think should make it? Drop your All-MLB team in the comments. You can vote through Friday, October 9, and teams will be announced All-MLB teams will be announced on November 11 at the MLB Awards Show.

After parting ways with manager Dan Wilson yesterday, the Mariners announced sweeping changes to their coaching staff today. While pitching coaches Pete Woodworth and Trent Blank will return, the Mariners have now moved on from their hitting coaches with the exception of franchise legend Edgar Martínez, who Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto said would return “in some capacity”, as well as bench coach Manny Acta, and defensive coaches Perry Hill and Eric Young Jr. At a post-season press conference at T-Mobile Park on Monday, Dipoto spoke about the need for a “culture reset” across the organization.

“We need to reset our culture and refocus ourselves on what we need to do to to get back to an efficient, clean, crisp brand of baseball like the Mariners have played for a number of years.”

Some were surprised to see coaches Perry Hill, who has overseen two Gold Glovers in J.P. Crawford and Dylan Moore and will have a third if Cole Young wins one this winter, and Eric Young Jr., who oversaw part of Josh Naylor’s historic back-to-back 30 steals campaign, let go. But Dipoto was especially emphatic on how poorly the team played defensively, and how much that impacted the overall fortunes of the team given a pitching staff that is focused on throwing strikes and putting the ball in play.

“Being a bad defender is a choice,” said Dipoto. “Being a good defender sometimes requires a skill set that some players may or may not have. Our players have the skills to do it, and and for a five-year stretch, they’ve somewhere between a slightly above-average to, in some areas, a well above-average major league defense, and we didn’t beat ourselves. This year we led the league in throwing errors. It was awful to watch, and and it was awful for the players.”

The fault wasn’t just on the players underachieving defensively, Dipoto seemed to suggest, but on defensive positioning that didn’t set them up for success.

“We led the league in the least likely team to convert a double play that we started. That’s not helpful to our pitchers. A starting pitching staff who attacks the strike zone and has the ball put in play is harmed by by the lack of range and positioning our team, and we can solve some of that through more focus, more demanding and challenging practice, but especially in the positioning of those players. That’s something that we, as a scouting advance team, can can provide our players that we need to to implement more effectively than we did this year.”

The defense, particularly, was a letdown, but the overall poor performance served as a red flag to the front office that performance standards once upheld in the minor leagues were slipping. The Mariners model has for a long time been about connecting minor league standards of excellence to the major leagues, creating a pipeline of success with consistent messaging and, ideally, consistent performance. That wasn’t the case this year.

“The performance on the field this year has made us question a lot of the things that we are doing at the major league level, and I will say multiple of our major league players who came through our system have referenced what they learned in player development that that got abandoned in the big leagues this year. And not just the players who came up for the first time, but we have a host of players who’ve come through our system, and they saw a difference. We need to get back to to what we believe is a Mariners baseball process.”

“You can’t be the worst defensive team in baseball. You can’t make the mistakes that we made constantly throughout the year. You need to be better prepared and in line with a process that leads to winning.”

But the defensive downturn is just a symptom of a larger problem with the 2026 team: a lack of accountability, and a slipping of standards, as also expressed by Cal Raleigh in some of his postseason remarks. Like Raleigh, Dipoto dismisses the idea that injuries waylaid the 2026 Mariners, noting the Mariners had fewer injuries to deal with than many teams that were able to play to the end of the season and into the post-season. Instead, the problem was one of passivity and a lack of accountability. Dipoto defined what he sees “holding accountable” to mean.

“[It] looks like culture. It is, what are you willing to tolerate? Are you willing to tolerate less than full effort? Are you willing to tolerate less than full focus? What we saw in mid-season was a team playing with limited urgency and waiting for the water to turn on. And it just didn’t come on, instead of turning it on ourselves. And we saw it unfolding. Our players saw it unfolding. We talked about it a lot as the season went along. And again, it’s where I would count myself most at fault. You can talk about it or you can just go out and do it.”

“Accountability is just a word, unless you are accountable to a standard that is preset. Everybody understands what that standard is, and then we hold ourselves accountable to it. You know, the bigger issue is the standard itself, and that’s on me. The one person who has the ability to to drill down to the bottom, say we are not upholding these standards, we need to do better. I did an ineffective job of making sure that we held one another accountable, because we started with standards and it faded. And that’s not just on our players. That’s on that’s on me. It’s on our front office group. It’s on the staff and and the players collectively.”

“We had a tendency this year to just shrug it off, to [think] ‘oh, we’re more talented than the teams around us. Don’t worry, it’ll happen.’ Instead of going out and making our own thing happen, and that’s that’s what accountability looks like. It’s calling that out in the moment. It’s stopping it before it gets rolling any further. It’s being truthful in our discussion with one another, and for years our program has always been built on truth. We tell the truth with love, and and sometimes you might get your nose out of joint for a moment, but you wake up the next day and you realize that you’re loved, and you’re just trying to help one another.”

Despite Bryan Woo’s assertion that his most appreciated aspect of Dan Wilson as a manager was his ability to do exactly that – tell the truth – it seems that messaging got lost somewhere between Dipoto’s understanding of the standard and the players’ execution of that standard. Dipoto described the hiring of Wilson as looking for someone “who could bring levity to the environment” after nine years of a more severe tenure under Scott Servais, and someone who had built-in trust with the players, which Wilson did. For a new manager, Dipoto was explicit about wanting to look outside of the organization to get new eyes and new ideas about what went wrong this year.

“We will go outside to hire our manager,” he said. “We need fresh thought. We need something new. It could be a shift in programming. It could be a shift in messaging. It could be a shift in language. We’ll collaborate with whoever our future manager is, and and try to find the right person. If that person has major league managerial experience, that would be preferred. But generally speaking, we’re just looking for someone who has high character, growth mindset. You know, has the ability to think strategically in in the context of a major league game.”

“There are a lot of good people out there, and most of what we’ve done in recent years, especially, has been insular, and I think this year’s failure requires that we look outside to find someone who might be able to poke holes in what we’re doing and help us see something that perhaps we’re blind to. Because you know, obviously, this is this has not been what we intended nor what we expected from our team.”

Dipoto says he and Justin Hollander are beginning the process of seeking a new manager – making calls and looking into available candidates – but refuses to put a timeline on the managerial search, saying it will take “as long as it takes.” As much as he’ll have full autonomy in determining candidates, Dipoto also says whoever takes the job will have autonomy in choosing a coaching staff, hence part of the reason for the vast turnover announced today.

“We thought it was important that whoever we hire as the manager come in and have the ability to to have his hand on the wheel in creating his own staff. Handing a new manager [the task of] ‘we want to get better culturally. We want you to show us where we might be doing this wrong’ – with our people, seems to be a very difficult needle to thread. So that that manager, whoever it is, will have the ability to point us in the direction of the people he wants, if we can access them.”

Several players – Bryan Woo and Cal Raleigh among them – have expressed interest in having a voice in this cultural reset. Considering employee feedback during management changes isn’t an uncommon practice in the business world, although less common in the baseball world. Dipoto said this past week they’ve spoken with players – both long-tenured Mariners and those who are more recent additions – but declined to commit to how much players’ opinions will be weighted in the hiring process.

“I will say Cal’s been invested in this for years now. You know, I’ve joked around that he’s like an assistant GM, but we bounce all this off Cal, and he’s very communicative with us. He knows what we’re doing before we do it with player personnel,” said Dipoto.

“How much we will factor their opinions in on who the manager is, that remains to be seen. I think there’s also a danger zone there, but they’ll be in tune as to what we’re doing, and and they will give us the feedback that that is required to make sure that this is a good fit, but we’re not going to ask them to be a part of an interview process. I think that’s unfair. It’s unfair to the candidate as much as it is unfair to to the organization.”

The biggest question fans might as is how much of a culture reset can this be when there’s no change at the very top – Jerry Dipoto, the de facto architect of the team’s culture, will return in 2027. Dipoto – who says he thinks of his tenure in two stages, the first five years and what’s been the second six years – says the team culture is the foundation of the success they’ve seen in that back half of his tenure; the problem is having gotten away from that team identity in 2026.

“For the last five years, we’ve been one of the winningest teams in Major League Baseball. This year, we stunk, and it never got on track. And again, that’s on me first, and I’m trying to find solutions. I feel proud of what we’ve built organizationally over these years. You know, 11 years, it’s two different tenures that I’ve had, and and in the last six years, I feel proud of what we’ve accomplished on the field, if incomplete.”

“This year was an opportunity to take that next or final step, and we just didn’t. And if I didn’t have a job today, it’d be justified. You know, we failed, and again, we’re going to attempt to learn from that failure, and and lean into what I think is a great foundation to build on with homegrown players up the middle, a complete rotation that I think many in the league would love to have, and just reset our culture and refocus ourselves on what we need to do to to get back to an efficient, clean, crisp brand of baseball like the Mariners have played for a number of years.”

For fans hoping for a total teardown, that won’t be the case. It’s a reset, not a remodel. The overall vision remains in place: a team built around a young core of homegrown pitching that suppresses runs and up-the-middle players that plays clean defense, runs the bases well, and can score runs both via the small and long ball. That wasn’t the team that took the field in 2026 with any degree of consistency; towards the end of the season, they maybe checked none of those boxes on any given night.

It was an unacceptable performance that prompted sweeping personnel changes – although notably, not at the top. How fans feel about that depends on if they still believe in Dipoto’s vision and ability, give the financial limitations imposed upon him, to put the pieces in place that can bring that vision to life. The first, and maybe most foundational piece, will be identifying a manager who can bridge that gap between front office expectations and the actions of the players on the field.

Tyler Wade, the former Los Angeles Angels utilityman who famously dated Alix Earle, has retired from MLB.

The 31-year-old announced the career move in an emotional post on X on Monday afternoon, writing, “it’s time to move on.”

“Thank you, baseball,” Wade said. “You gave me more than I could have ever dreamed of.”

Wade was picked by the New York Yankees in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB draft and he went on to make his big league debut for the club in 2017.

He donned the pinstripes until 2021, when he was traded to the Angels.

Wade went on to play for the Oakland A’s and the San Diego Padres, before he attempted to make the Texas Rangers’ major league roster this season.

In his retirement announcement, Wade thanked all of the teams he played for as well as “all the coaches, staff, trainers and fans who played a part in my career.”

“And lastly,” Wade added in his statement, “to my teammates: I’m going to miss the grind, the clubhouse, the competition, and being in the jungle every day with the guys.”

Off the field, Wade was perhaps most known for his short relationship with Earle.

The two dated for several months in 2022 before splitting. Earle said during a 2023 episode of her “Hot Mess” podcast that they broke up because he had issues with her budding social media career.

Wade played in a total of 506 games across nine MLB seasons.

With the 2026 regular season wound down, the Mets have officially turned their attention toward the future.

Their first order of business? According to David Stearns, bolstering their starting pitching.

"I do think it is necessary for us to add to our rotation," Stearns said. "We can do that in a variety of different ways. We've talked about this plenty before -- you'd always love to add to the top of your rotation, any team would love to do that -- over the long term, what we need to do is develop pitchers at the top of our rotation, and I think we are proving we can do that, and we'll continue to do that."

This season, the Mets boasted a slew of young up-and-comers on the mound, beginning with Nolan McLean.

In his first full season with the Mets, McLean posted a 3.16 ERA across 31 starts (179.2 innings), eighth-lowest in the NL, and stood as the only Mets starter who didn't miss a single start. Known for his consistency, the 25-year-old followed an impressive 2025 debut campaign in which he became the first Mets pitcher to earn a win in his first four starts.

Behind McLean lie Zac Thornton, Jonah Tong, and Christian Scott, who are all fighting for a solidified spot in the starting rotation. Thornton, 24, earned a permanent call-up July 12, finishing the season with a 3.42 ERA and 63 strikeouts across 84.1 innings. 23-year-oldTongcapped a strong season in which he bounced between the majors and minors by allowing just one run and striking out a career-high nine batters over five innings against the Washington Nationals Sept. 26. Pitching in the big leagues for the first time since 2024, Scott tallied 134 strikeouts to 47 walks in 110.0 innings, which works out to 11 Ks per nine innings and a 2.85 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Then there's Sean Manaea. Manaea saw his velocity dip during spring training and was relegated to a bullpen role to begin the year. Some success and openings in the rotation bumped him back into the mix, and he flashed a return to form but ultimately faltered, finishing the year with a 4.78 ERA and 1.30 WHIP across 33 appearances (19 starts). It'll be interesting to see what the Mets do with the veteran in the offseason, as he's owed $25 million next year. 

While the group has plenty of promise as it now stands, Stearns hinted that he'd still like to a reliable ace to the mix, all while continuing to develop the pitchers currently in the Mets system.

"There are many ways to add," he said. "You can add at the super top end; everyone would love to do that. You can also add players with some flexibility that provide overall depth and length to the rotation as a whole. I do think -- partially through internal development, partially through what we did at the deadline -- we're probably going to have more options in our minor league system going into next season than we've had here previously, which is great."

One worthy target may be lefty Tarik Skubal. The two-time Cy Young award winner finished his final regular season appearance with the Los Angeles Dodgers this year with 10 strikeouts, no walks, and just three hits across seven innings and 75 pitches, 21 of which were swings-and-misses. Skubal, 29, is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2026 postseason, making him a perfect fit for Stearns' "aggressive" hopes for the offseason.

"There are points where you are selectively very aggressive in free agency," Stearns said. "This is an ownership group that has proven that we have the capability of doing that. Doesn't mean you're always going to land the player, and I think we've demonstrated that here -- whether it's for pitchers or position players -- that when the time is right, we have the resources and the willingness to be that aggressive."

I admit that I didn’t watch as many non-Giants games as I have in the past nor did I really consume much news about the field, so I suppose this feeling of mine is absent many facts, but, it didn’t feel like the 2026 season was a particularly below average run-scoring environment or a strange year in that record. And yet, Rotoworld’s Matthew Pouliot posted some facts to social media yesterday that caught my eye:

Ignoring strike years/2020…

.316 average is lowest to lead the majors ever
45 homers is lowest total to lead the majors since 2014
116 RBI is lowest total to lead the majors since 2014
119 runs scored is lowest total to lead majors since 2014
40 doubles is lowest total to lead majors since 1972

There was also a note about how just three qualified hitters had an OPS of .900 or better, tied with 1976 for lowest of the live ball era. But seeing that trio of 2014s stacked on top of each other reminded me of this 30 Rock joke:

Somehow, Buster Posey and Zack Minasian have made it 2014 again through science or magic. The 2026 Giants look a lot like the last San Francisco squad to win the World Series. So, for comedy and trolling purposes, I took a look at the team statistics for both seasons (ranked by the 27 seasons in Oracle Park)…

Okay, so, there are really only some superficial similarities when it comes to the lineups and the pitching doesn’t really twin out. The biggest, and most meaningful, difference is in the defense, where this putrid 2026 wound up being, effectively, 9 games worse than the 2014 team just from their poor glove work alone. This year’s team was the second-worst of the Oracle Park era, behind only the Joc Pederson Giants of 2022 (-66.2).

The defense and league average offense is how the Giants were able to get into the postseason, while the 2022 Giants tried to overcome their terrible defense with stellar pitching (20.3 fWAR — 7th in MLB) and a lineup they thought would be quite a bit better than league average (102 wRC+ — 14th). The 2026 squad seemed to be setup to follow a similar pattern to that… but if you’re a mean guy like me who thinks it’s funny to imagine Buster Posey basing his team management philosophy on sitting back and recalling what they did from 2010-2014, then it feels more likely that the Giants said, “Well, in 2014, it was Madison Bumgarner and some guys plus timely hitting and solid defense.” Slide Logan Webb into the Bumgarner role with younger pitchers around him than what MadBum had in 2014 and envision Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Ron Washington-enhanced Luis Arraez, and Devers/Eldridge at first base snatching up all those grounders. And Bader in the outfield running down everything else. It was a perfect plan… for trying to recreate that specific season of San Francisco Giants Baseball.

But, as we know, it didn’t work out. Instead, the 2026 Giants were 18th in runs scored out of 27 seasons at Oracle Park (yes, the 60-game 2020 season is included and, of course, comes in last at 299 runs). Sure, just slightly more than a World Series team, but balanced against that is a team that allowed more runs than the 2005, 2007, and 2018 teams. The attempt to 2014-ify the pitching staff failed completely. They struck out 1,204 hitters, just 7 fewer than the 2014 team, sure, and that was bad enough for that time period (21st), but they were 27th in MLB this year behind only the Rockies (1,113), Diamondbacks (1,140), and Royals (1,173). The team ahead of them? The Cubs, but with 1,260.

In the prior front office’s heyday of 2021-2024, the Giants 8.74 K/9 as a team was merely 16th in MLB. But the past two seasons has seen a steep decline in what’s the coin of the realm in the sport these days — the one big skill that can help out a team with poor defense: strikeouts! Last year, the Giants were down to 8.52 K/9, and you see where they landed this season on the chart above.

Just in looking at this data, a real stinker like me could pitch an argument that Farhan Zaidi, the computer programmer with the allegedly poor people skills and who had never played the game at a professional level before, had a better sense of building a pitching staff than Hall of Fame-bound catcher Buster Posey, guider of one of the best pitching staffs the Giants franchise has ever had. Here are the top 10 strikeout seasons since 2000:

2009: 1,302
2016: 1,309
2011: 1,316
2010: 1,331
2025: 1,358
2023: 1,359
2019: 1,368
2022: 1,370
2021: 1,425
2024: 1,436

It is a great irony that the top strikeout pitching staff of the Oracle Park era so far was led by Bryan Price. He is a pitching coach from the prior era Buster Posey seems to be harkening back to whenever he considers how to construct his teams. But you see on this list Dick Tidrow & Brian Sabean Michael Jordan & Scottie Pippening a post-Bonds pitching staff along with Farhan Zaidi, Andrew Bailey, Brian Bannister, and a bunch of supercomputers running regression analysis.

The Giants were also far less successful at stymying home runs, too. The 160 allowed is the fifth-most in the Oracle Park era, trailing only 2004 (161), 2023 (173), 2017 (182), and 2019 (227) aka The Last Year of the Competitive Window with Bonds, Gabe Kapler’s Final Season, Bobby Evans’ Final Season, and Bruce Bochy’s Final Season. They also allowed the third-most walks of the Oracle Park era, trailing only the 2000 (623) and 2008 (652) teams.

Not saying that Zack & Buster can’t get there, but this year makes it seem like they have a loooooong way to go in that respect (developing a very successful pitching staff).

But back to the lineup, since this is where the comparison to 2014 really matters. From May 1st through July 31st, the Giants had a team wRC+ of 107, tied with the Tampa Bay Rays. They hit 104 home runs in 79 games. For basically half the baseball calendar, they were as good as any modern team on the hitting side of the ball. We know the injuries put an end to that over the final two months of the season, but you can see how close to the 2014 model this actually is: good hitting backed up by solid defense to stabilize shaky but not terrible pitching. The Giants’ bad defense made their shaky pitching genuinely one of the worst acts of labor ever enacted in the entirety of human history.

The Giants’ emphasis on contact isn’t a bad one, especially if they’re able to handle high velocity. To that point: they ranked 10th in batting average vs. 95+ mph (.247), but just 21st against 97+ (.214). But you can also look at the numbers and see just how devoted to the 2014 project they just might be. On the season, they bunted 67 times (11th in MLB), but 35 of those bunt attempts (52.2%) came after July 31st, when they traded everybody away and started ILing everybody and the offense tanked. Is this a shift in philosophy or simply strategic change based on personnel? It’s genuinely hard to know.

But also, it’s worth pointing out that the Tampa Bay Rays led MLB in bunt attempts this season (129). Second? The Milwaukee Brewers (89) — two of the best teams in the sport doing something most analysts had discounted more than a decade ago? The Giants hit 178 home runs this season (20th in MLB) to go along with all those bunt attempts and (yes, I’m cherry picking), before they lost their entire starting lineup to the IL, they had one of the lowest strikeout rates in the sport, too (6th in MLB through 7/31). It really does read like the Giants put together a lineup that is well equipped to compete in the modern game and it happens to be similar in a lot of ways to the type of lineup that worked when the Giants last won the World Series.

Of course, they didn’t totally pin down what made 2014 work so well. They forgot about the winning. But maybe that’s just my sense of entitlement as a fan and as someone who has watched the franchise sputter and basically die over the past decade (with apologies to that explosion of endorphins that was 2021). But this comparison is interesting to me. It turns out that I was trolled. Maybe everything old is new again, to the point that Buster Posey’s 2010s nostalgia recipe is just what the franchise needs.

In a perpetual rebuild situation, any clear idea is a good one.

David Stearns offered his first acknowledgement on Monday that moving on from the Mets’ all-time home run leader after last season may not have been the best plan.

Pete Alonso delivered 43 homers and an .884 OPS this season for the Orioles, while the Mets struggled to piece together a solution at first base.

In his season wrap, the Mets president of baseball operations was asked if he would do anything different regarding Alonso knowing what he knows now.

“I think that’s a very fair question,” Stearns said. “The truth is, in this job I don’t get mulligans. I also recognize Pete had a tremendous year and the totality of our production at first base wasn’t good enough, and so now it’s my job to ensure that we have got better success across our roster, but for the entire season, better production at first base as well.”

Alonso received a five-year contract worth $155 million from the Orioles last offseason after the Mets showed an unwillingness to offer a long-term deal to the first baseman.

Jorge Polanco, signed to a two-year deal worth $40 million as Alonso’s primary replacement, played only 37 games due to physical limitations and wasn’t a factor. Mark Vientos also provided underwhelming results at the position before Jared Young emerged later in the season to provide a semblance of stability at first base.

“We try to learn from everything, and I think the entire offseason last year was a learning experience for me,” Stearns said a day after the Mets completed a 74-win season. “I give Pete an enormous amount of credit. He went out and had a really good year. Throughout the entirety of our season our first base production wasn’t good enough, and now it’s my job to put a group together next year that plays better.”

Eight Dodgers on Monday were nominated for Major League Baseball’s All-MLB teams, an honor that has existed within the sport since 2019.

Fan voting for the honor will take place beginning Monday through Friday, October 9, with that fan vote counted alongside “a decorated panel of media members, broadcasters, former players and other officials throughout the game” in determining first and second All-MLB teams.

Shohei Ohtani is one of six nominees at designated hitter, Mookie Betts is one of 11 shortstop nominees, and Freddie Freeman one of 14 nominees at first base. All five have captured All-MLB honors in five previous years, with Ohtani collecting first-team All-MLB honors at DH in each of the last three years and four of the last five, plus second-team DH in 2022, to go with his two first-team All-MLB honors (2022-23) and one second-team All-MLB honors (2021) as a starting pitcher.

Betts is a four-time first-team All-MLB outfielder plus a second-team honor in 2019. Freeman has two first-team honors at first base, the last coming in 2023, and three second-team honors.

Max Muncy is one of 11 third baseman vying for All-MLB honors, looking for his first All-MLB selection, facing an uphill battle with Rays star Junior Caminero among those nominated at the position.

Andy Pages is the only Dodger among the 24 outfield nominees, seeking his first All-MLB selection.’

Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who garnered first-team All-MLB honors last year, and Tarik Skubal, a first-teamer in each of the last two years, are the two Dodgers starting pitchers nominated at starting pitcher this year.

Tanner Scott is one of 20 relief pitchers up for All-MLB honors.

All-MLB teams will be announced during the MLB awards show on November 11, which will begin at 5 p.m. PT on MLB Network.

It was the day before Postseason and all through the house, there were bats cracking all around as the Atlanta Braves officially got their pre-Wild Card Series workout underway for what they hope is a long, deep run into the Postseason.

There was plenty of activity from the Braves from outside of the actual workout. One of the big stories is that Bryce Elder threw live BP. While Joe Jiménez threw a live BP as well, the idea is that Jiménez may just be doing work ahead of the 2026 season and figures to be a longshot for potentially getting into action at any point before the NLCS. The same goes for Elder, who may also have the NLCS in his sights for his potential return — though his return seems far more likely this Postseason.

Elder talked with the media following his live BP and he didn’t exactly express a ton of confidence that he’d back for the NLDS if the Braves got that far. “I’m going to give it everything I have but also we’ve got the checklist and things I’ve got to hit and if the checklist is too long to get back then I won’t be able to go,” stated Elder when he was asked by Mark Bowman about potentially returning by the NLDS. “I’m going to try everything [the training staff] has got for me and try to be as good as I can at it and progress as fast as I can. We’ll see how early that is.”

With that being said, when I asked him to grade how he was feeling on a 0-100 scale (obviously not 100 just yet), he stated that he was feeling “Pretty high. For being three weeks out, I didn’t know that I’d feel this good. I feel really good and I’m just trying not to push it too much and have a setback.”

Once the workout was done, Chris Sale, Matt Olson and Walt Weiss all spoke to the media for a press conference and the vibe was generally positive surrounding the Braves and how they’re feeling about being able to play for an opportunity to go to the NLDS. I asked Walt Weiss about how important the home field advantage was, especially knowing that all three games would be played here in Cobb County and he responded that he thinks that it’s “huge” for them to be playing these games at home.

“You’ve obviously got to go out and play well,” continued Weiss. “If you don’t play well, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing — you’re not going to win. We play well here, though. It’s a great atmosphere, the guys really enjoy playing here in front of this crowd, so I think it’s a big deal.”

When he was asked about what it was like seeing nearly the entire team standing on the rail to watch Bryce Elder and Joe Jiménez throw their live BPs, Weiss talked more about the level of clubhouse harmony that’s existing at the moment. “The ideal clubhouse is one that’s loose and fun, but focused. I think that’s what they are,” explained Weiss. “I think they really look forward to getting here every day so they can be in that environment in that clubhouse because I think they love being together. When it’s time to play, the focus is good and that’s when they take care of it.”

Speaking of taking care of business, the Braves have certainly gotten it done on defense this season. As I mentioned in the preview, the Braves have graded very high on defense this season and that could make all the difference during this time of year. It could especially mean a lot when you have a guy like Chris Sale on the mound, who expressed plenty of confidence in his defense when I asked him about it during the press conference.

“I’ve felt confident in my defense all year,” stated Sale. “As a pitcher, strikeouts are cool but most of your outs are going to come either on the ground or in the air. Being able to lean on those guys and have confidence that if the ball’s on the ground, someone’s going to get there. Our outfield, those guys are unbelievable and have really strong arms.”

“You look at some of the plays that have been made throughout the season across the the entire infield, we have multiple Gold Glovers out there. It’s a nice thing to have as a pitcher and it gives you more confidence to keep throwing strikes and use those guys behind you.”

One of those guys is Matt Olson, who has provided another great season of defense at first base — which is what you’d expect from someone who has some Gold Gloves and Fielding Bible Awards in his personal trophy cabinet. He’s also been part of the machine that this lineup turns into late in games and in high leverage situations. I asked him about those late moments and he did explain that it’s like the confidence is interwoven into the team at this point.

“Sometimes it just kind of becomes your DNA a little bit as a season goes on,” explained Olson. “It’s not like you try harder or change anything in those scenarios. I think it’s just when it comes time to put up or shut up, some guys just show up and rise to the occasion.”

Lastly, the bullpen has also played a role in those late-game turnarounds that the Braves have benefited from some many times during the regular season. When Chris Sale was asked by Jesús Cano about the bullpen during the press conference, he was his usual effusive self when it came to praising the bullpen and particularly those who come behind him during his starts.

“You’re talking about the hardest outs to get towards the end of the game,” started Sale. “It just seems like whoever they hand the ball off to, it’s shut-down. I like to look at the box score at the end of a game so I can show some love to some guys who deserve it and I’ve been like ”Dammit, every time I look at these box scores, I’m the only pitcher to give up runs!“

“It’s me and then [Dylan] Dodd comes in after that and then [Raisel Iglesias] throws or it’s [Dylan Lee] and [Didier Fuentes] and whoever it is and it’s like me [giving up two or three] and then [the bullpen gives up] zero, zero, zero. You do that five-or-six times and it’s like ‘Man, I gotta step it up a bit!’ But that goes to show you how solid they’ve been throughout the year and how much trust we have in them,” continued Sale. “To be able to walk off the mound after putting everything you’ve got into it and hand the ball off to someone you have all the trust in the world in. Even if it doesn’t go well, you know that that was the right move and that they put the work in to be set up for success.”

As was mentioned by Weiss during his portion of the press conference, the ballclub definitely seems loose-but-focused when it comes to returning to the Postseason. They know they have a familiar opponent to deal with and they know that they’ve got the upper hand with home field advantage and also having been able to set things up ahead of time while the Phillies have only just clinched their spot in the Postseason. They’re also under no delusions that this will be easy but that comes with the territory of the Postseason.

Weiss has maintained that while the Braves are talented, they haven’t gotten this far on talent alone. We’re likely to see those intangibles at play once the Postseason gets rocking and rolling for the Braves on Tuesday afternoon.

The end of the 2026 season has been a rocky road for the Chicago Cubs. September was one of two months that saw them post sub-.500 marks on the season with an 11-13 record. They finished exactly .500 in their last 10 games. They dropped two winnable games against the Red Sox and two winnable games against the Marlins. It felt like they might be limping into the Postseason even before star third baseman Alex Bregman took a foul ball to the face, resulting in multiple fractures and multiple missed games for one of the Cubs best hitters in the second half.

Oh, you thought that was the bad news? There’s more! While that string of bad luck alone would have (probably) played the Cubs out of hosting a Wild Card Series at the Friendly Confines of Wrigley Field, Mother Nature wanted to get in on the action too. A freak September nor’easter descended upon Boston in the waning days of the 2026 season and MLB’s “solution” to this was the following itinerary for the Chicago Cubs:

• Thursday, Sept. 24: Day game at Wrigley, fly to Boston
• Friday, Sept. 25: Doubleheader in Boston, fly to Tampa
• Saturday, Sept. 26: Impromptu off day in Florida!
• Sunday, Sept. 27: Play one game in Tropicana Field to finish the season for #reasons, fly to San Diego
• Monday, Sept. 28: Workout day for the Wild Card Series
• Tuesday, Sept. 29: Begin best of three Wild Card Series in San Diego. First pitch scheduled at 10PM Eastern Time

It’s not particularly becoming in baseball to complain about certain things. After all, both teams have the same weather, the same umpires, the same roster rules and restrictions. They don’t have the same talent, but they did that to themselves and frankly, any difference in injury risk is likely a result of player decisions and tradeoffs someone made along the way as well. But this isn’t so much complaining as observing that MLB has chosen to deal the Cubs an absolutely brutal hand en route to the Postseason, which will kick off for them in San Diego tomorrow.

The question is, how will they handle it? You don’t have to look further than Bregman for answers. Bregman DH’d against the Red Sox and while it took a few at bats to get his timing back, he eventually did this [VIDEO].

It’s obviously an incorrect inference to suggest that two swings of the bat can salvage a downturn that likely reflects a depleted bullpen pitching on fumes. That said, stranger things have happened in this season that saw the Cubs win 10 games in a row twice and lose 10 straight in another stretch. It feels like the deck is stacked against the Cubs, but this isn’t really a team that has thrown in the towel or given up at any sign of adversity this season.

This team lost Cade Horton, Justin Steele had a setback, Ben Brown emerged as a legit TOR starter before being lost for the season and they kept winning anyway. Pete Crow-Armstrong looked like he was struggling early, only to emerge as the first 40-40 man in franchise history and the likely NL MVP. Alex Bregman hitting home runs with a broken face might just be the 2026 iteration of the Cubs channeling the 2016 team’s “We Never Quit.”

There’s no such thing as an easy road to a championship. The Cubs road continues tomorrow at Petco Park, and I doubt they’ll let something as trivial as jet lag define their season.