Category: MLB

Today’s Reflections

While watching the Yankees’ four-error performance Monday night …..

It made me GREATLY appreciate the Cubs defense we enjoyed this season.

I appreciate your reading.

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Cubs’ Pitching Questions/No Answers:

• Doug Schwamb (Chicago Cubs On SI): Who is a Lock for the Chicago Cubs’ 2027 Starting Rotation? “The Chicago Cubs have a lot of work to do this offseason to fill out their 2027 starting rotation.”
• Zach Cioffi (Just Baseball): Chicago Cubs Arbitration Projections and Tender Decisions. “A deep dive into the Chicago Cubs roster outlook, with projected arbitration salaries and tender decisions to be made this offseason.”
• Alexander Rosquez (LastWordOnSports): Cubs’ Kevin Gausman Trade Raises Bigger Questions About Chicago’s Pitching Plan. “The move now represents a larger offseason question about how the organization plans to build its pitching staff.”
• Elias Schuster (Chicago Cubs On SI): Cubs’ Kevin Gausman Trade Looks Rough, as Blue Jays Could Make Quick Reunion. “The Chicago Cubs could be on the verge of seeing several of their players suiting up in Toronto.”
• Jordan Campbell (Cubbies Crib): Cubs still appear open to Clay Holmes reunion after his season ended on an awkward note. “It was a weird end to the season, but Clay Holmes still is a fit for what the Cubs do best.”
• Steve Silverman (ClutchPoints): 2 radical changes Cubs must make this offseason after brutal playoff loss. “The Cubs were not consistent enough this year in the regular season or the playoffs and major changes must be executed.”
• Zoey Grossman (Chicago Cubs On SI): The Cubs Must Evolve in One Major Area This Offseason to Take the Next Step. ”The Cubs have a systemic issue that needs to be addressed this offseason.“

Cubs’ Hitting Questions/No Answers:

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): 5 questions facing Cubs this offseason. “The Cubs are now left to evaluate where things went wrong and how to best correct things for 2027 and beyond, starting with this offseason.“
• Jordan Sullivan (Cubbies Crib): Cubs should be watching Steven Kwan closely as Guardians move closer to offseason crossroads. “It’s an option, if nothing else.”
• Matt Sullivan (Sporting News): Cubs linked to trade idea with Guardians for Gold Glove OF that would be a mistake. “This trade idea for the Cubs would not be a good move for Chicago.”

Cubs Off-Season Possible FA/Acquisitions:

• Evan Altman (Cubs Insider): Cubs Probably Fall Short on Tarik Skubal, Still Need to Get ‘Dude’. “Between the truncated initial free agency period, the unknowns of the next CBA, and their general reluctance to play at the top of the market for premium pitching, adding one of the best arms on the planet seems anything but likely.”

PCA-Mania:

• Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Pete Crow-Armstrong is (Obviously) a Finalist for the 2026 Hank Aaron Award. “It’s how you wind up with a 10+ WAR season, but it still blows my mind that defensive superstar Pete Crow-Armstrong also happened to be among the best of the best bats in baseball this year.”
• Matt Eddy (Baseball America): Pete Crow-Armstrong: Baseball America’s 2026 MLB Player Of The Year. “Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong joins historic company with a season for the ages.”
• Paolo Mariano (ClutchPoints): Pete Crow-Armstrong rocking Caleb Williams jersey at Solder Field is pure aura farming. “Chicago Cubs star Pete Crow-Armstrong has formed a tight bond with Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams.”

Cubs’ Minors Stories:

• Sam Caulder (North Side Baseball): Assessing the Cubs’ Pitching Pipeline Heading Into the Offseason. “Pitching depth (or, rather, the lack thereof) became a major storyline for the Cubs in 2026, and their young arms could play a big role in preventing similar issues down the road. Here’s a look at some of the most intriguing pitchers in Chicago’s pipeline.”
• Jonathan Mayo (MLB.com): Road less traveled takes Cubs’ pitcher-turned-outfielder Kade Snell to Fall League. “If someone told Cubs prospect Kade Snell he’d be playing professional baseball when he first embarked on his college career at Auburn, he’d have believed it.”
• Andrew Wright (North Side Baseball): Chicago Cubs Minor League Pitchers Of The Year. “With the season in the books, let’s take a look at what Chicago Cubs minor-league pitchers shined this season.”

Assorted Stories:

• Matt Musico (MLBDailyDingers): 4 Pinch-Hitters Have Slugged a Postseason Grand Slam. Here’s Who Did It. “There’s just something about postseason baseball that makes me always want more of it.”
• Adam Harrington (CBSNews): Anthony Rizzo hosts kids’ sports clinic, prepares to run Chicago Marathon for first time. “Rizzo is embarking on a new challenge as he runs in this weekend’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon.”

Food For Thought:

Eddie Shaw (March 20, 1937 – January 29, 2018) was an American Chicago blues tenor saxophonist, arranger and bandleader. He led Howlin’ Wolf’s band, the Wolf Gang, from 1972, both before Wolf’s death in 1976 and subsequently.

Shaw was born in Stringtown, Mississippi. In his teenage years, Shaw played tenor saxophone with local blues musicians, such as Little Milton and Willie Love. At the age of 14, he played in a jam session in Greenville, Mississippi, with Ike Turner’s band. At a gig in Itta Bena, Mississippi, when the then 20-year-old Shaw performed, Muddy Waters invited him to join his Chicago-based band.

In Waters’s band, Shaw divided the tenor saxophone position with A.C. Reed. In 1972 he joined Howlin’ Wolf, leading his band, the Wolf Gang, and writing half the songs on The Back Door Wolf (1973). After the singer’s death in 1976 he took over the band and its residency at the 1815 Club, renamed Eddie’s Place. Shaw led the band on Living Chicago Blues Vol. 1 and Have Blues – Will Travel (1980) and recorded albums with different backing for Isabel Records, Rooster Blues, and Wolf Records.

Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series.

The Cardinals will not be getting Tarik Skubal. I know this, you know this, the most delusional and optimistic Cardinal fan you have ever met knows it too. In theory, every other free agent starting pitcher could be on the table. In theory. I’m not saying it’s a high percentage chance, but it’s enough of a chance that we should probably talk about them this offseason. Skubal is a 0.1% chance. Another writer can take a crack at writing about Skubal. It will not be me.

That starts with arguably the second best starting pitcher on the free agent market, Trevor Rogers. Rogers comes with some warts and is definitely not as good as you want someone with the label “second best starting pitcher on the market” to be, but he is certainly within the Cardinals’ price range. Rogers is the age that you want a free agent to be as he will be 29-years-old next season. That is frankly doing a lot of the work towards making him the next best after Skubal.

However, let’s not underrate Rogers. In his last 48 starts, spread across two seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, Rogers has been worth 7.3 fWAR, which is pretty easily in top of the rotation territory. He’s been a pretty extreme home run/flyball percentage beater, which would be more concerning if Busch Stadium wasn’t the home park of the Cardinals. It is still concerning however, because in 2026 at least, his home run luck is the difference between him being an above average pitcher and top of the rotation.

Rogers is a fastball pitcher, and in fact has three different fastballs according to Statcast. The one he uses the most is his four-seam fastball, which he throws 93.8 mph on average. He throws it 46.9% of the time, so he leans on it pretty heavy, but it seems like it is best utilized up in the zone or above the zone. It produces a whiff about 25% of the time and he gets a strikeout 19% of the time it’s used in a 2-strike count.

And then at this point, it depends on if the batter at the plate is right-handed or left-handed. Because for right-handed batters, his changeup is pretty easily his second-most used pitch. Of his 551 changeups he threw, 89% of them were against right-handed batters. So it’s barely a pitch when a lefty is at the plate. So against righties, he wants to throw the four-seamer high and the change low or below the zone. Pretty old school strategy. His change isn’t typically used as a strikeout pitch though, putting away hitters only 10% of the time on 2-strike counts in which he throws it.

His third most used pitch is his sweeper and he does not appear to change his usage based on what hand the batter is, which is a little surprising for a lefty. This is his strikeout pitch. It produces a whiff 31.7% of the time and produces a strikeout on 23.9% of 2-strike counts, the highest of all his pitches. His sinker replaces his changeup against left-handed batters. So he uses the sweeper at about the same 14% rate against lefties, but abandons the change in favor of the sinker. You’d think he’d want to throw the sweeper more against lefties. He also throws the cutter more against left-handed batters.

If it’s a right-handed batter, he’s primarily fastball-change with a few sweepers to throw off your game. Against left-handed batters, he pretty much uses three different fastballs and sometimes a sweeper. Whenever he throws the sweeper, it’s effective, so maybe they figured out that throwing it less makes it a more effective pitch. It was an even better pitch in 2025 with a 39% whiff rate, so maybe he just doesn’t have a feel for it in some games.

As for how effective these pitches were, well it’s safe to say his fastball is truly an elite pitch. It was in 2026. It was in 2025. He used it a lot for a reason. It was worth one run per 100 pitches thrown and it was actually worth 2.4 runs per 100 pitches in 2025. Hitters have trouble with his four-seamer. His change took a nosedive this past season, although it was a very good pitch in 2025. I don’t quite know why, but it was as bad of a pitch for him as his fastball was good in 2026. His sweeper is not terribly far behind his fastball, being worth 0.8 runs per 100 pitches in 2026 and 2.7 runs per 100 pitches in 2025. His sinker is a perfectly average pitch and his cutter might be a bit better than that. You don’t mind a fastball heavy pitcher if the fastball is this good.

He is not necessarily the safest pitcher when it comes to health, but looking at his stat page, it’s not as bad as it looks. He made 25 starts in 2021, missed the minimum 10 days from a back spasm and later missed half a month from a family emergency/family death of some sort. He had back spasms again in 2022 and later his season ended about a week early from a lat strain. He still made 23 starts. He missed nearly all of 2023 from a left bicep strain. In 2024, the Marlins traded him to the Orioles and he actually made an additional 5 starts in AAA, so he made 30 starts that season. His 2025 season started late, but I think he made too many starts for it all to have been rehab, because he had 7 starts in AAA in addition to his 18 starts at the MLB level. Basically with the exception of 2023, he’s made about 25 starts per season.

The big question for Rogers, for me at least is: is this HR/FB% thing for real? He was a 4 fWAR pitcher last season, but his ERA was only 4.03 and his xFIP was 3.92. In fact, for his career, his ERA is closer to his xFIP than it is to his FIP. This was also the case last season. Fangraphs might be overrating him in two different ways: there’s the obvious way in which we can expect a higher HR/FB% moving forward and then there’s the other way where he might have a worse ERA than his FIP for whatever reason.

With that said, Oriole Park at Camden is a pretty great place for hitters to hit homers. On Statcast Park Factors, it rates as a 109, which makes it the 6th best park for homers in baseball. He was also in a division with the Yankees (2nd place), Jays (10th), and Rays (12th). Fenway is surprisingly bad for homers. I suddenly understand the Sonny Gray season a lot more now. Anyway, Busch Stadium was literally dead last, so it would be odd if he didn’t at least continue to have his career 9.1 HR/FB% by moving to a much more favorable pitcher’s park.

So what we have is a 29-year-old left-handed starter who has been a little bit inconsistent. His official rookie season got him placed 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting thanks to a 2.64 ERA and 4.3 fWAR in just 25 starts. He wasn’t a good pitcher again until four years later when he had changed teams. He at least has the benefit of repeating his breakout 2025 – although I don’t know if you can call it a breakout if he already had a great season before that.

Last season was frankly a little odd. I mentioned his FIP was a lot lower than his ERA, and most of that was from a below average 69.3 LOB% (left on base), so runners ended up scoring more often than expected once they reached base. His career LOB% of 71.7% is more in line with the average rate that pitchers have. And his 84.2 LOB% in 2025 was always unsustainable (as well as his .226 BABIP).

Rogers will get tagged with a qualified offer and thus the Cardinals would lose a draft pick if they signed him. I know that’s already a deal breaker for a lot of you. When I write these profiles, I’m not advocating to sign them. I’m working it out myself in fact. I actually do like the fact that he has a very good fastball that he can lean on all the time. Makes it feel more likely he can continue. And there’s some potential future where he leans on his sweeper more, which at least to me seems underutilized. Who am I to argue with success though?

If there wasn’t an incoming lockout, I’d say Rogers was virtually guaranteed for 5 years on this deal, but teams may operate differently in the coming months. The qualified offer will also assuredly hurt him. He didn’t come saddled with a qualified offer, but Eduardo Rodriguez signed for 4 years, $80 million entering his age 31 season. Rodriguez didn’t have the floor that Rogers reached, but he wasn’t super consistent himself and had little injuries along the way as well. Feels like Rogers should be able to beat that. Of course, QO attached and lockout incoming very much complicate things for him.

Quick and dirty estimate for his price. I’m going to list him as a 2.7 WAR pitcher. Fangraphs depth charts has him with 3.2 over 181 innings, but that inning total would not be his projection. I think 150 innings is reasonable given his history. If that is to be believed, a “fair” price for him over a 5-year-contract would be 5 years, $85 million. He should get more than Rodriguez, but he also didn’t have a QO attached which is a big deal.

The tough thing with Rogers is that he feels like a very small step removed from being essentially average. I don’t know how many more peak seasons he has in him. I would take the 2025 and 2026 version of him absolutely. I don’t know how much longer that pitcher will exist. Rogers is the first free agent starting pitcher I have taken a deeper look into and I feel like I need to see the others first before I make a determination on if I want Rogers. So my official answer right now is I don’t know, but I don’t love that I’m not thrilled at the idea of him for 5 years, $85 million.

The Orioles signed pitcher Luis De León out of the Dominican Republic in December 2021. His signing bonus was just $30,000. A high-strikeout, high-walk pitcher, De León struggled in the Dominican Summer League in as a 19-year-old, but slowly began working up the ranks of the minors. By the end of 2025, he had worked his way up and finished the season with three games with the Double-A Baysox.

The 2026 season brought big changes for De León. He returned to Double-A and made 19 starts with disappointing results. Now 23, De León struck out nearly 30% of batters but walked over 11%. He had a good ground ball rate, but allowed a ton of baserunners.

Despite his troubles, De León was promoted to Triple-A Norfolk on August 1st. He made three starts at that level before the Orioles moved him to the bullpen. The move made sense. De León didn’t look capable of rising above the starting pitchers in Baltimore, and the Orioles needed bullpen help. With his hard slider and strikeout ability, the bullpen seemed like a good place for him. He made just four bullpen appearances with Norfolk before being called up to the big leagues.

It was a rude welcome for De León, who was inserted into a high-leverage situation on his first day. He gave up a home run, took the loss, and probably felt like a real Oriole for doing so (I kid…or do I?). He also took the loss in his second career MLB game; he took the loss again after Yennier Cano allowed his inherited runner to score. After watching the first two games of his time, I was ready for De León to go back to the minors to work on some things.

But then, things got better. De León got into six more games before the end of the season. He gave up four hits and two walks. He didn’t allow another run. It was a very small sample size, but he started to look like a good pitcher. His emergence was a nice part of a mostly frustrating end of season.

So what is in store for De León next year? The Orioles might try him as a starter again, with a longer stretch at Norfolk. But I believe his future is as a relief pitchers as he has continually struggled as a starter in the minors. A hard-throwing lefty is valuable out of the bullpen, and De León gained about a mile per hour on his fastball as a relief pitcher in the majors.

De León has the talent to succeed; it’s just a matter of if he can control the strike zone. He did so in his 10 MLB games, though it’s foolish to draw conclusions from 9.1 innings. If you were going to, you’d also have to worry about his strikeout rate being half what he had in the minors. Even so, the performance was a nice early audition for next year, when you expect he’ll get the chance to make the team out of spring training.

Until the recent influx of talent into the farm system, De León was the highest-ranking pitcher on the Orioles’ prospect lists. Back in May, FanGraphs ranked him as the team’s third-best prospect overall, with this to say about him:

De León still has command-related relief risk and a bit more because of his fastball’s vulnerability against righties, though it eats lefties alive. His delivery is atypical for a big league starter and it detracts some from his strike-throwing, but it also makes hitters uncomfortable

…

[W]e know De León can hold big velo across as lot of innings and that his secondary stuff (especially his splitter) can finish hitters.

MLB Pipeline placed De León as the #8 prospect in 2026, with the following to say:

De León has always had inconsistent command, and his control can unravel when his mechanics fall out of sync. But his stuff plays up when he’s repeating his delivery and staying on top of his release, and he’s shown improvement in the free-passes department, slicing his walk rate every season as he’s matured. If he can consistently throw all of his pitches for strikes and limit the walks, his weapons give him the ceiling of a mid-rotation starter, with the raw stuff to impact a big league bullpen even sooner.

He fulfilled that last part, but time will tell if he finds his way to being a competent starter.

Angeibel Gomez and Kendry Chourio were named the Royals Prospects of the Year, by MLB.com.

It’s not common for a player to earn organizational hitter of the year honors after a Dominican Summer League campaign, but Gomez’s season (.361/.467/.653, 156 wRC+) was too impressive to look past, and the Royals thought enough of him to make him the second-youngest player ever to compete in the Arizona Fall League.

One of the best pitching prospects in the game pitched like it as an 18-year old across two levels of A ball, topping all Royals with at least 90 IP in ERA (2.48), BAA (.193), WHIP (0.89) and K/BB (5.35).

Carter Jensen was named first team, All-Rookie team by MLB.com as well.

Jensen made the Royals’ Opening Day roster as MLB’s No. 18 overall prospect and immediately showed he was one of the better all-around catchers in the game. He ranked third among all backstops with a 3.7 WAR and fourth among all rookies with 27 homers as he slashed .239/.323/467. The Kansas City native also made great strides on defense, where he showed off above-average framing skills and pop times.

David Lesky looks are what went right for the Royals in 2026.

Philip Ruo of Royals Keep looks back at last year’s pitching acquisitions.

Kevin O’Brien gives out his awards to the Northwest Arkansas Naturals.

The Brewers and Dodgers will meet in the NLCS again this season.

Manny Machado was robbed of a potential tying homer.

The Rays swept the Yankees, (hahahaha, perfect.)

Anthony Volpe was maybe robbed of a potential tying homer… by a fan.

It’s now been 17 straight years since the Yankees have won a World Series, hahaha, I hope it never ends.

José Ramírez was huge yesterday, in keeping the Guardians season alive, as all eyes turn to the only divisional series still going.

Here is your song of the day: Some Nights by Fun.

Would you or anyone you know be interested in managing a major league baseball team? If so, you just may be qualified to take on the job in Philadelphia! Preference shown if your name includes “Alex” or “Don” or if you hold Canadian citizenship.

On to the links.

Phillies news:

• ICYMI, Alex Cora turned down the Phillies managerial opening for the second time this year.
• In the wake of getting spurned by Cora again, the Phillies may once again turn towards Don Mattingly. ($)
• The Athletics are targeting Phillies president of business operations Sam Fuld, who previously served as GM under Dave Dombrowski from 2021-2024, for one of their top executive roles. ($)

MLB news:

• Miguel Rojas did not play in last night’s Game 4 against the Braves as the Dodger infielder is dealing with lower back soreness.
• How Manny Machado and a sushi dinner helped revitalize the Padres. ($)
• MLB is testing an experimental new rule in the Arizona Fall League that involves outfield positioning in a similar manner as the new infield positioning rules.

The New York Yankees’ World Series drought extended to 17 years on Wednesday when the Tampa Bay Rays ended their season with a sweep in Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. The Yankees have plenty of missed opportunities to think about over the offseason after scoring only five total runs in the series, but a fan interference call that robbed New York of the potential game-tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning will linger as the biggest sliding doors moment of the series.

There were two outs in the frame when Anthony Volpe stepped up to the plate. On a 1-0 count, he drilled a ball to left field that was originally called a home run. As pandemonium took over Yankee Stadium, the umpires reviewed the play and determined a fan caught the ball before it cleared the fence. The play was ruled a ground rule double with the runner on first base scoring. That would be the final run of the game on either side. The Rays beat the Yankees, 4-3, and it’s possible it could have been a different game with the fan interference.

Ultimately, it looks like the umps got it right, and awarding the Yankees with even one run on the play was probably a little bit generous. We’ll never conclusively know if Volpe’s ball would have gone over the fence, though. Watch the play here and judge for yourself:

Every baseball fan of a certain age immediately thought of Jeffrey Maier when they saw this play. It was 30 years ago when the 12-year-old Maier reached over the wall to grab a Derek Jeter fly ball before it cleared the fence, which was ruled a homer. The Yankees went on to win the World Series. This time, they were caught on the wrong side of fan interference — though, again, you can make the argument that the runner from first may not have scored depending on how it all played out without the interference.

Here’s another angle. To me, it looks like the umps made the right call — but I can’t say it with 100% certainty. Would this ball have gone over the wall? Judge for yourself:

Here’s the official statement from the MLB Replay Center, via long-time New York Post columnist Joel Sherman:

MLB statement from the Replay Center: “After viewing all relevant angles, the Replay Official definitively determined the spectator interfered with the ball over the field of play. The ball would not have left the playing field nor would it have been caught. The call is OVERTURNED, there was spectator interference and no home run. Additionally, the Replay Official scored one run and placed the batter-runner at second.

The fan was escorted out of Yankee Stadium after the play:

The reality is that the Yankees blew a golden opportunity this season. The American League was down all year, and New York clearly had the best pitching rotation in the league. Aaron Judge’s injury certainly hurt, but the Yankees’ payroll is still $308 million compared to just $95 million for Tampa Bay. The team with the No. 3 payroll in baseball shouldn’t be getting swept by the team with the No. 28 payroll under any circumstances.

Yankees fans were not happy after the game:

The Rays advance to the ALCS to face the winner of the Chicago White Sox vs. Cleveland Guardians series. The Yankees are home for winter.

Making a list of all the things that should be on the Houston Astros offseason agenda:

Hire a GM

Dana Brown is now out of the organization. The idea of a caretaker GM who can just keep the machine running is long gone. They need a team builder. A visionary with a plan of what the team should look like, how it can best function, to bring it back to true prominence and once again be a real World Series contender.

Extend or replace Joe Espada as manager

The fact the organization hasn’t yet decided on Joe Espada’s fate is simply cruel. He’s been a loyal employee for 9 years, beloved by coaches and players. He deserves to know if he is staying or going. Many of the coaches’ fates are tied to Espada’s fate, and stringing them along isn’t right. Make the decision, and the either get Joe in on the GM meetings or let him get to interviewing elsewhere.

Extend or trade SS Jeremy Pena

The Astros really should have landed this extension last season, and maybe they were going to before Pena switched agents and hired Scott Boras. Boras likes to take his guys to free agency.

Pena is the team’s catalyst at the top of the lineup. They really have no in-house replacement defensively or offensively. Carlos Correa came here to play 3B, and we have no idea what the result of his torn ankle ligament will have on his mobility. Playing shortstop will put the most strain on Correa’s body. Their young shortstops in the minors aren’t ready yet, with their best prospects still in A ball.

Is Pena the next guy in the line with Biggio, Bagwell and Altuve s an Astro for life, or is he the next guy in line with Springer, Correa, Bregman, Cole and Tucker who were great players with championship pedigree who were allowed to walk away?

Find a new home for 1B Christian Walker

This is not meant to be a Walker hit piece. Simply, the Astros have too many infielders and not enough spots, and Walker is the most expendable. Whether its Isaac Paredes at 1B or Carlos Correa at 1B, or maybe even Jason Schiavone at 1B, it cannot be Walker again next season. The HR and RBI are valuable, but the awful average, low on base, the strikeouts, the missed opportunities – he just hasn’t lived up to expectations and Paredes has exceeded expectations. When Correa has been healthy, he has performed, and his injury this season was a complete freak accident.

They will have to eat significant money to move Walker, but since he only has one year left on his deal, it should be reasonable enough to make this move. They will have to work with him on a new home as he does have a limited no trade, but this relationship needs to end.

Adjust the responsibilities of Jose Altuve defensively

Altuve is a franchise icon, but Father Time started winning the battle with future Hall of Famer in 2026. Altuve’s defense regressed badly, and his offensive stats are better when he DHs than when he plays 2B. He needs to be alleviated of the toll playing the field takes on his body to keep his bat at the best level he is currently able to perform at.

This means Altuve should be DHing half the games he plays. That means Yordan Alvarez will need to DH only half the games he plays, and not the overwhelming majority. Yordan’s offensive numbers are actually even better when he plays OF, Altuve is better as a DH.

To get Jose through 3 more years relatively healthy, help him on his quest for 3000 hits, and keep him at his potential best, this needs to be the play forward.

Sign a legitimate outfielder who can hit

After season in which the offensive production the Astros got from their outfielders was disgracefully low, they need to find at least one legitimate outfield bat. Ideally, this person can at least play a capable LF. They cannot be a total slug in the field.

They will need a CF who can really go get it, and they have a few options in their system who could be that guy if they can get their bats straight. The team had hopes for Zach Cole last season, but he followed his breakthrough season with a disaster of a year, though he seemed to finally find his bat in September. It’s possible they could experiment more with Cam Smith in CF as well. Whoever plays CF has to be able to cover a lot of ground, because adding Yordan to the field for 70+ games will put extra area to cover for their CF. Getting another OF who can really hit will be important this offseason.

Find a number two starter

They tried Mike Burrows, he failed. They tried Tatsuya Imai, he failed. They hoped Cristian Javier would have returned to his 2022 form, but he has not and maybe won’t ever.

This team needs a real number 2 starter behind Hunter Brown. Adding a legit 2 along with Hunter, Javier, Wesneski and Lambert allows you to make a competition for the final spot, and not be stuck with multiple pitchers who failed you in 2026.

Extend or replace Bryan Abreu

Despite his brutal start to the season, Abreu was very solid from May 1 on. There’s a good chance he wants to go on the free agent market and get a chance to be a closer somewhere on lucrative multi-year deal. So re-signing him is unlikely.

If Abreu leaves, they need a new 8th inning bridge to Josh Hader, and turning that over to either AJ Blubaugh (inexperienced) or Steven Okert (whom they have to re-sign as well but is far more likely) isn’t going to suffice. They need a legitimate high leverage reliever to be the new setup guy.

Solidify the bullpen

Blubaugh is likely to have a more important role in the pen, as a single inning reliever who will probably have some high leverage. Blubaugh could possibly be the new 7th inning guy.

The team needs to re-sign Okert, who established himself as the team’s stopper this season. He was crucial to the team as the guy who slammed the door to stop a rally, regardless of the situation or inning.

They could likely have other young/inexperienced arms in the pen like Logan VanWey, Miguel Ullola, and Roddery Munoz. With all those young arms, they need some veterans with experience, and they need to be capable of at least being a mid-leverage guy.

I don’t expect all of those young guys to be in the pen, and I do expect at least one of the starting pitchers who doesn’t make the rotation to be in the pen as a swingman/long reliever.

It’s a long list. Let’s see how many of these things they actually get through.

Once again, the Yankees season ended not with a bang, but a wet fart and a whimper. This current era of the Yankees under the helm of Aaron Boone just cannot seem to get out of their own way in the games that matter most. For whatever reason, be that mentality, clubhouse culture, individual makeup, what have you, these teams largely perform during the regular season but wilt when the lights are the brightest. There are no quick or simple solutions; it doesn’t feel like something you can fix with an addition here or a managerial change there.

Before we attempt to solve this existential crisis of identity, perhaps we can dull the throb of our open wounds by remembering the final positive moment of what was a more painful than pleasurable Yankees’ 2026 season. Our Player of the Game from ALDS Game 3 goes to Anthony Volpe.

Volpe endured a brutal fourth season in the big leagues. He missed the first month-and-a-half while rehabbing from an offseason surgery to repair a partially torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder. He found playing time hard to come by upon his return with José Caballero performing decently enough at short. He hit to roughly his career averages while managing to rein in the errors for three months, but with the Yankees desperately needing an injection of energy amid a late summer swoon, he found himself demoted to Triple-A for five weeks with top prospect George Lombard Jr. making an immediate impact upon his MLB debut.

A mechanical tweak in the minors seemed to unlock something, and he tore the cover off the baseball to force his way back to the majors. In his final 14 games he posted a 95 wRC+ while taking reps at second and third, creating an opportunity to be added to the postseason roster. He appeared in just two playoff games but made the most of his opportunity, going 3-for-7 with an RBI.

Following Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s mental lapses in Game 2, the Yankees had to make a change, and Volpe got the nod to start at the keystone. His first opportunity to bat came with two outs in the second of a scoreless game. Lombard stood on second following a one-out single — the Yankees’ first baserunner off Nick Martinez. To put it bluntly, the approach wasn’t great. He took a called strike one on a cutter that just nipped the top rail of the strike zone, but then chased a sinker in off the plate to quickly fall behind, 0-2. He fouled off a four-seamer off the top rail to stay alive, but then was miles early whiffing through a mistake changeup that Martinez grooved middle-middle to strand Lombard at first. To be fair to Volpe, you can understand why he was early swinging at that changeup after seeing three straight elevated fastballs. However, in the playoffs you have to punish the limited number of mistakes you get, and Volpe failed to do so here.

Volpe’s next opportunity arrived in fourth. Ryan Vilade reestablished the Rays’ one-run lead with a solo shot off Max Fried in the top half. Lombard led off the bottom of the frame with a single, but an Austin Wells GIDP immediately erased it. This time, Volpe was able to work a deeper count, spitting on a sinker and a changeup just off the corner low and away and fouling off a sinker on the corner just under his hands while also missing another mistake from Martinez, fouling off a center cut 2-1 sinker. Martinez attempted to climb the ladder with a four-seamer, but it was one high fastball too many. Volpe made the necessary adjustment to his swing path and lasered a line drive single off Martinez’s back to keep the inning alive and force Martinez to exit the game with the trainer. That proved to be a critical blow in more than one sense as Spencer Jones ambushed lefty reliever Ian Seymour for an opposite field double, Volpe racing home from first to score the tying run.

The next AB is the one that cemented Volpe as the Player of the Game. The Rays hit their second home run of the night off Fried in the sixth, this one a two-run blast from Victor Mesa Jr. to grab a two run lead with four innings to play. Lombard reached for the third time, this time on a successful ABS challenge to earn a one-out walk. That brings Volpe to the plate facing a tough matchup against hard throwing hybrid starter/reliever Griffin Jax.

Jax attempts a get-me-over breaking ball to steal a called strike one, but the sweeper lands low for ball one. It appears Volpe completely sells out for the fastball on the next pitch, because he spins on a 96 mph sinker off the plate inside, getting the bat head out early to pull the ball with power in the air to left. The deep fly ball was initially ruled a game-tying two-run home run as it appeared to barely scrape over the wall in left just over Mesa’s leaping attempt. However, the side angle replay view definitively showed a Yankee fan in the first row reach into the field of play and deflect the ball into the crowd. The Yankees had to settle for an RBI double to cut the deficit to one.

In his final AB, Volpe struck out swinging in a seven-pitch AB against AL saves leader Bryan Baker to lead off the ninth as he once again whiffed through a pitch in the heart of the zone. It was a disappointing end to a battle of an AB as Volpe was late on the heater and got his barrel path all wrong after seeing three changeups and guessing wrong. All the same, the Yankees do not score two of their three runs if not for their much-maligned infielder.

On a personal level, I am really happy for Volpe that he was able to contribute in such a meaningful way in the Yankees’ final game of the season. There has never been any doubting that Volpe cares or the work he puts in. As a homegrown shortstop from the New York metro area, there is a subsection of the fanbase that will never be satisfied with anything less than Derek Jeter levels of production.

That is not to glaze over the undeniable shortcomings in his game. After four straight seasons posting a wRC+ between 82 and 88, we can say with more than a little confidence that we have seen Volpe’s true talent level as a below average bat. He lacks the range and arm strength to be much better than league average with the glove at short.

However, his commitment to helping the team however he is asked should be commended and opens doors for him to be a net asset in the future. Even in limited reps, he looks way more comfortable at second than at short, and if the mechanical adjustments from his demotion stick, it is not out of the question that he could approach league average production at the plate.

Despite the valiant fight back, the efforts to extend the season fell just short. For the third year in a row, the Yankees were forced to watch their postseason opponents celebrate on their own home field in Yankee Stadium. The question for the offseason and indeed a fundamental question for ownership and the front office is whether this is an acceptable outcome. Does simply making the playoffs qualify as a successful season? It depends who you ask.

Hello, friends.

There are now 167 days until the next scheduled Orioles game. Developments this week are a further signal that the chances of the 2027 season beginning as scheduled are not 100%. The Orioles, as you’ve probably already heard, laid off a bunch of business operations and game day staff, including the person who performs as the Oriole Bird.

The Baltimore Banner’s sources offered what I think is an obvious falsehood that this is unconnected from the coming lockout. That’s laughable. Every owner knows they are going to lock out the players on December 1. The commissioner himself likened this negotiating tactic to shooting the players with a .45.

Cutting whatever expenses they can when they are about to interrupt their actual baseball revenue is another way they are hoping to gain leverage to inflict enough pain upon the players that the players are forced to accept a bad deal in the coming labor negotiations. These greedy people do not care whose lives are disrupted along the way to that destination, be they team employees or fans.

They have tried various schemes to expand their own coffers before they do the lockout as well. Consider this year’s new business of forcing season ticket plans to be either 20- or 40-game plans instead of the old 13- and 27-game plans. One supposed “perk” of the expansion is that you could sell back roughly a third of your tickets for credit next year. Oh, how convenient! Now the Orioles have that money in the bank whether there are games or not.

There is nothing that you or I can do about any of this except to use what little platform that we have to say that it sucks. It sucks that the team has done this. The easily-guessed cynical motives for doing it suck. They are bad and they should feel bad. They will not feel bad, and that also sucks.

For now, there are a few more weeks of playoff baseball to divert some attention from that reality.

The Dodgers wiped out the Braves last night. I’d like to see their quest for a three-peat halted as soon as possible. I’ll have to wait for the NLCS. Brewers-Padres finished after I went to sleep, but that series is either over or traveling today, leaving the spotlight on the American League. I hope the winner is up to the task of keeping LA out of the World Series.

The Guardians were able to keep themselves alive by winning on the road yesterday, avoiding a sweep with a 9-3 victory over the White Sox. Chicago can still finish off Cleveland with a win today. That will be the only game happening today, since, fortunately for all of us, the Yankees were eliminated in a sweep last night. What at one point seemed to be the tying run was taken off the board on replay due to fan interference with a home run. Let us all shed a tear or two as we wonder what might have happened if this replay existed in 1996.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

Jon Meoli’s information about the Orioles general manager search (The Baltimore Banner)
Meoli’s reporting is that “the candidate set includes up-and-coming player development leaders from other organizations” – which is what I want to hear – and then this goes on to add, “to help reinforce (manager Craig) Albernaz’s agenda of raising the standard.” If that was and is the skipper’s agenda, he did mighty poorly in enacting it in year 1 in the organization.

Are Orioles shortcomings a matter of focus or talent? (Steve on Baseball)
Steve Melewski notes that the veteran players on the team strongly suggested, without naming specific names, that it’s more about focus than about talent.

Weddings in. Holiday cards out. Internal MLB memo sets rules for lockout. (The Athletic)
The league is making sure everything is lined up to do it. No Christmas cards for players from teams this year, unless they get mailed around Thanksgiving, before the lockout happens.

Early Orioles action in the Arizona Fall League (Orioles On The Verge)
They are liking what they are seeing from the Orioles prospects out in Arizona in the first few days.

Could Coby Mayo play in right field? Jim Palmer floats the idea. (The Baltimore Sun)
Prospect writers have been banging this drum almost since Mayo was drafted, and the Orioles have steadfastly refused to make any attempt to implement it. Could that change before next season?

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 2012, the Orioles evened the ALDS against the Yankees with a 3-2 victory that saw Wei-Yin Chen pitch well, Chris Davis deliver a two-run single, and Mark Reynolds drive in what proved to be the game-winning run in the sixth inning. This left the best-of-five series at 1-1.

In 2023, the Orioles did not even the ALDS against the Rangers. Texas obliterated Grayson Rodriguez and had a 9-2 lead after three innings. Though the O’s made it interesting late, with an 11-8 final score, the bad outing from Rodriguez just dug too much of a hole for them to get out of. The series left Baltimore with the O’s in a 2-0 hole.

There is one current Oriole who has a birthday today. Or have they designated him for assignment lately? No, he’s still on the 40-man roster. Happy 37th birthday to Albert Suárez, who takes his revolving door a lot better than I would. Former Orioles who were born today: 2021 three-game pitcher Manny Barreda, 2005 outfielder Keith Reed, 1988 pitcher Mike Morgan, 1972-74 infielder/outfielder Enos Cabell, and 1960 two-game pitcher Bob Mabe.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker (1890), author Frank Herbert (1920), civil rights activist Jesse Jackson (1941), actress Sigourney Weaver (1949), and singer-songwriter Bruno Mars (1985).

On this day in history…

In 1871, a series of fires broke out across the Midwest following months of drought. Among these was the Great Chicago Fire, which killed over 300 people and left as many as 100,000 homeless in its aftermath.

In 1918, then-Corporal Alvin York led an attack against a German machine gun nest that led to 35 enemy soldiers killed and another 132 captured. York, eventually promoted to sergeant, received the Medal of Honor for this action. Six of the 17 Americans who were in York’s patrol were killed in the fighting.

In 1956, Yankees pitcher Don Larsen pitched a perfect game in Game 5 of the World Series, giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven against the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. It took seven games to settle it, with the Yankees, unfortunately, going on to win Game 7 by a 9-0 score.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 8. Have a safe Thursday.

The 2026 season is officially in the books for the New York Yankees. They were 93-68 in the regular season, swept the Boston Red Sox in the Wild Card Series, and then promptly got swept by the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS. It’s the second straight year only going this far into the Postseason, both times getting bested by a rival that took the division by storm after sitting near or outright in the cellar the previous year, and it stings much like every elimination does even if it felt like a foregone conclusion heading into Wednesday night.

The actual game feels more like a backdrop to the opening dialogue of what will be a tedious and lengthy offseason, but let’s get through the facts of the matter first. Max Fried took the mound looking to extend his team’s season by one more day and instead took the loss as he kept surrendering the lead back over to Tampa Bay. The back-breaker came in the sixth as a two-out single rocketed just past Fried’s head to extend an inning where he finally looked in control, and moments later he coughed up a two-run shot to Victor Mesa Jr. Aaron Boone went out to collect his starter after that, but he got out of the dugout one batter too late to make it matter.

The offense was slow to get going against Nick Martinez, but they posted their best collective effort of the ALDS for what it’s worth. Ben Rice went 1-for-4 and knocked in the first of the Yankees’ three runs in the third inning, Spencer Jones walked twice and drove in the second run with a double in the fourth, and Anthony Volpe had a two hit night including a fly ball to the wall in left that a fan illegally brought over the fence briefly making us all think he’d tied the game. Volpe would have to settle for an RBI double after review, but it was nearly the biggest hit of the season and he deserves his flowers for showing up after Aaron Boone inserted him into the starting lineup looking for a spark of life. George Lombard Jr. also deserves to be in the positive side of the ledger after going 2-for-3 with a walk and run scored, rebounding well defensively after the disastrous Game 2 performance that he played a role in.

Unfortunately, the Yankees had no home runs in the cards compared to the Rays launching a pair of them, and the long ball was the difference maker last night. They also got nothing from the remaining five spots in the lineup: Luis Garcia Jr. had the only hit of the bunch, Austin Wells had a quiet 0-for-3 night after being one of the only bats alive in the Trop portion of the series, Cody Bellinger completed a dreadful ALDS showing with an 0-for-4 capstone, Jose Caballero didn’t find his footing with the two at-bats he got starting at third, and then there was Trent Grisham. The Yankee center fielder got placed in the leadoff spot by Boone ahead of Rice to work some tough at-bats and get potentially get on board for the team’s offensive MVP to have someone to drive in. Instead, mirroring the results he gave the team all season after accepting the qualifying offer over the offseason, he proved inadequate for the role he was suddenly given — 0-for-5 with three strikeouts including whiffing badly to end the game with the tying run on base and Rice standing in the on-deck circle.

I don’t want to be too harsh to Grisham in that spot specifically — he’d been out for all of September and clearly wasn’t adjusting well trying to jump back into the lineup. He probably shouldn’t have been given the task of leading off, but Boone felt he had to do something different after the offense minus Rice looked so atrocious in Games 1 and 2 and perhaps cooked too hard. Speaking of Boone, there will be plenty of discussion in the coming days about his performance this season and in October specifically and whether it is time to part ways. The manager remains an incalculable part of the equation in building a baseball team, but while the team and staff are clearly fans of his its hard to overlook the amount of disappointing results the Yankees have had under his stewardship. Many will say its time for a new voice if nothing else, and I can’t exactly argue against that even if I doubt it will come to it. The organization likes him, and they don’t see these failures as critically as those outside the org do. I can’t make a split second decision on how I feel about him — I thought he did a solid job guiding the team through one of the worst regular seasons they’ve had offensively in the Judge era, but the same flaws keep dooming them every postseason and they’ve just never looked capable of beating a team that they weren’t definitive favorites to beat. The possibility of losing Matt Blake should they part ways with Boone is very real though, and I think he’s one of the few coaches in the game that are genuinely game-changing to have on the staff.

There will be months and months to debate this and more about the Yankees, as they’re officially in offseason mode now. Several people said that the season really ended on May 31st, when Aaron Judge went on the IL with his rib injury, and they weren’t exactly wrong. The team nosedived offensively without him, and even though they were also rocking the best pitching staff they’d fielded in decades it wasn’t enough to balance the scales in the end. The me that watched this team throughout the summer probably would’ve been surprised they even won a round in the playoffs, but damn if I didn’t buy back in on fool’s gold with how they looked in the ALWCS. Boston was obviously a worse team than Tampa Bay, but the Yankees had torched Tampa’s bullpen in the season series as well and had found a winning formula wearing down Boston’s starters to get to that soft underbelly of a ‘pen. They couldn’t do the same here, getting worked over by Drew Rasmussen in Game 1 before failing to do much against the bullpen even after getting into it relatively early in Games 2 and 3.

It’s a bit maddening to say over and over again, but the Yankees’ season ends with them having tripped over their own shoelaces. Tampa was the better team this series, but I don’t think they looked unbeatable by any means. The prize was there for the taking, and they just couldn’t come close to rising to the occasion. Another ALDS flameout is in the books, and they’ll have to live with an extremely unsatisfactory showing being their lasting legacy.

Today the postmortem begins some closure as Peter provides the Player of the Game honor for Game 3, and then Kevin has the playoff roundup featuring the Dodgers and Brewers advancing to the NLCS. Jonathan covers Ping Bodie’s brief Yankees career on his birthday, and then Peter will return to go over how Gerrit Cole battled in his Game 1 start for the Sequence of the Week.

And you thought the bullpen was going to be the weakest branch.

In the four aces, you trusted. The Dodgers’ stellar starting rotation of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow? A quartet who can strong-arm anyone.

And you probably figured Freddie Freeman would get it going. You had faith in playoff risers Max Muncy, Kiké Hernández and Teoscar Hernández — and in the Dodgers’ playoff-proven offense overall.

You were not, however, so bullish on the bullpen.

Read more:'That's why he stayed in the lineup.' Andy Pages' clutch hit carries Dodgers back to NLCS

That was the proverbial, annual question mark entering the best-of-five National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves, whom the Dodgers vanquished with a 4-1 victory Wednesday at Truist Park to set up an NL Championship Series rematch with the Milwaukee Brewers.

Edwin Díaz, the Dodgers’ purported closer, had a disastrous, injury-marred first season with the team — or he was having one.

That left Tanner Scott — last season’s purported closer — handling the bulk of the ninth-inning duties this season, and he finished with a career-high 25 saves. But you were going to have to see him sustain that in the postseason to believe in Scott, whose first season with the Dodgers also was so disastrous that he wasn’t even included on the playoff roster.

The Dodgers are paying Díaz $69 million and Scott $72 million. A steep price and a sign of how badly the team wants to avoid having to turn to starting pitchers to finish off important postseason games, as they have in the past with Julio Urías, Walker Buehler and, last season, Yamamoto.

But until now, the Dodgers haven’t had much but frustration to show for their investment in Scott or Díaz — who were two names among four, including Roki Sasaki and Evan Phillips, that manager Dave Roberts suggested could close games in the playoffs.

It was a tangled trust tree that needed lots of water.

Or how about champagne? Maybe ice-cold beer?

Because after Alex Vesia, Edgardo Henriquez, Scott and Díaz combined to get the final 13 outs of Game 4 without giving up a run, they helped lead the charge in the clubhouse afterward, dousing one another to celebrate.

In the series, the Braves went one for 23 (.043) with runners in scoring position. That, according to OptaStats, is the second-lowest such batting average in a postseason series in history — and it doesn’t happen without a bullpen being locked in; the Braves went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position against the Dodgers’ relief pitchers.

In the deciding Game 4, Vesia took the baton from Glasnow with two outs and two runners on in the fifth, got the inning’s final out on one pitch and came back out in the sixth. He gave up a double but got Drake Baldwin to line out before handing the ball to the hard-throwing Henriquez, who hit 100 mph or higher on 11 of his 15 pitches, retired five of six batters and earned his first postseason win.

Then Scott had the inning of his Dodgers career in the eighth — sitting down the Braves’ 3-4-5 hitters with a nasty array of sliders and fastballs. He punctuated his performance with a fastball on the corner that ended the inning and wound up costing Atlanta its final ABS challenge.

And, finally, in closing, Díaz.

He earned his second consecutive save with an efficient, eight-pitch, 1-2-3 inning. He isn’t the closer, not officially. But, darn, is he important: “For us to win the World Series,” Roberts said, “he’s got to be a relevant part of this equation … I’ve got to trust him.”

The way Díaz is dealing, why wouldn’t he? Díaz has given up just one hit in three postseason innings. And he’s feeling good.

“The last two nights it’s been amazing,” Díaz said. “That’s why I came here, to win games and close games like this one. So I’m really happy.”

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, raved about Díaz’s resilience, referencing the roller coaster of a season that included an 8.68 earned-run average, neck and elbow injuries, a stint on the injured list and in triple A.

“He would say, ‘Hey, I’m ready to come back,’” Friedman said. “And it was like, ‘Hey, we need to see more, we need to see this really lock in.’ And at every turn, he said, ‘Whatever you guys need … anytime you want me to pitch, I’ll be ready.’

“It was never a question of the heartbeat and his ability to handle these moments. It was about just getting him right mechanically and getting back to the stuff that we’ve all seen over the years.”

Vesia is similarly impressed with his friend Scott’s resurgence.

Read more:Plaschke: He finally did it! Dodgers' Andy Pages ends two-year postseason slump at the perfect time

“Going back to last year with ups and downs and adversity and all that stuff, we definitely leaned on each other,” said Vesia, who missed the World Series after the October death of his newborn daughter, Sterling Sol.

“And, you know, for this year to watch [Scott] really take off and have a great year, it’s been awesome, you know? It’s really awesome. With the closing role being undefined and all that stuff, he stepped up. Every year, there’s always guys that step up.

“Now, we got eight more.”

Eight more wins to three-peat, and no weak links anywhere.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

As Dave Roberts delivered his victory address, dressed in a gray cap and a gray T-shirt that commemorate a triumph the Dodgers consider merely a speed bump on the road to the main event, the manager was not shy.

“There is no more talented team than the Los Angeles Dodgers,” Roberts told his players amid clubhouse floods of champagne and beer. “This is the best organization in sports, top to bottom. We’re smarter. We’re better. And we’re tougher.”

The Dodgers had eliminated the Atlanta Braves in the National League Division Series. For the three-peat, that’s one postseason party down and two to go.

“This one is going to be special,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “We have the motivation of winning three times in a row. That’s all we can think about right now. It’s never going to be easy in baseball. You have to go through tough things. But this team showed it before, and it showed it in this series.”

Indeed it did. Rojas joked — or maybe he was not joking — that everyone expects the Dodgers to win every game by 10 runs. In this four-game series, they outscored the Braves by a total of six runs, and no game was decided by more than three runs.

Read more:'That's why he stayed in the lineup.' Andy Pages' clutch hit carries Dodgers back to NLCS

Now come the Milwaukee Brewers, the team that put up baseball’s best record this season, in a rematch of last year’s NLCS. The Brewers also put up baseball’s best record last season, and the Dodgers swept them in the NLCS.

Nothing is guaranteed in October, not even the Dodgers in the World Series. For the Dodgers, here are four positive signs and four warning signs:

Green flag

The Dodgers have the oldest group of position players in the league, so they cherished the bye that gave them five days off before the division series. By eliminating the Braves without needing the full five games, the Dodgers afforded themselves three days off, rather than one, before the league championship series.

“It is huge, to get us a little rest,” said shortstop Mookie Betts, who turned 34 on Wednesday. “We’re all old. So we need a little rest going into these postseason games. They’re a lot. They’re a lot more than what people think.”

Even better: Since the Dodgers did not need Tarik Skubal to start a Game 5 in the division series, they can start him in Game 1 of the NLCS, followed by Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2. The Dodgers need four victories in the NLCS, and that rotation clears the way for Skubal and Yamamoto to combine for four starts in the series.

Red flag

Hitting home runs is nice, but you’re unlikely to win a postseason series on home runs alone. In the first three games of the NLDS, the Dodgers scored all their runs on home runs.

In the series, they went one for 16 with runners in scoring position.

“It speaks to the multitude of ways we can win a game,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said, “but, from a quality of life perspective, it would sure help if we could cash some of those opportunities in. So that’s obviously something that stands out.”

Mitigating factor: The Braves went one for 23 with runners in scoring position.

Green flag

The Dodgers and Braves each hit 204 home runs this season. In the NLDS, the Dodgers outhomered the Braves, 8-2. Max Muncy hit three to do it all by himself.

The Braves scored eight runs in the four games, including one in each of the two games in their home ballpark, and collected a total of 18 hits. Michael Harris II had six hits in the series; none of his teammates had more than three.

The Braves batted .145 in the series.

“Let’s be real, right? Our postseason is going to rely on our pitching,” Muncy said. “It always is. It always will. You’re not going to go out there and get 15 hits a night in the postseason. You’re just not.

“So, if you can limit the amount of runs the other team is getting, you’re going to do a pretty good job. Our pitching staff was unbelievable this series. For us to continue on, it’s going to rely on the pitching staff.”

Red flag

Just as the Dodgers got to set their NLCS rotation by ending the NLDS early, so did the Brewers. So, just as the Dodgers get the chance to start Skubal, the Brewers get the chance to start flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski, the presumptive NL Cy Young Award winner.

Read more:Plaschke: He finally did it! Dodgers' Andy Pages ends two-year postseason slump at the perfect time

Misiorowski beat the Dodgers in his lone start against them this season, a 4-1 victory in which the Dodgers collected five hits — three by players who did not appear in the NLDS: backup outfielder Alex Call and backup catcher Hunter Feduccia.

Mitigating factors: Kyle Tucker and Will Smith did not play that day.

Green flag

Roberts has won more postseason games than any manager except Joe Torre — the man who managed the New York Yankees teams that were the last to three-peat (1998-2000).

This season was not smooth, but the NLDS displayed Roberts’ ability to integrate young players (Josue De Paula), long-injured players (Edwin Díaz, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow) and October players (Kiké Hernández) into key spots for a postseason series, as well as to get Shohei Ohtani to buy into batting as low as fifth after not batting lower than second in three seasons with the Dodgers.

It is not just about the “high-end talent,” as Friedman likes to say, or the money, as opposing fans like to say.

“Equally as important was the depth of talent we have,” Friedman said, “and the number of guys that had an impact on this short series, I think, speaks not only to the depth of talent but also to their level of preparedness and Doc’s willingness to use them in key spots, and the trust he instills in them.”

Red flag

The Dodgers got production from the bottom of their order in the NLDS: Tucker and Andy Pages came alive, the three home runs from traditional October hero Muncy, a home run from traditional October hero Hernández, even a clutch walk from rookie De Paula.

That still leaves a problem that cropped up time and again over the regular season and again in the NLDS: inconsistency atop the lineup.

Betts, Freddie Freeman, Ohtani, Teoscar Hernández and Will Smith combined for 13 hits in the series and a .176 batting average.

Green flag

In the month of July, Tucker never had a four-game hitting streak.

In the month of September, he had one.

In the four games of the playoffs, he has one!

Baseball!

That could be much more than a statistical oddity. This season, we heard more about his contract (four years, $240 million) than his home runs (17, a career low in a full season) his strikeouts (105, a career high) and his on-base-plus-slugging percentage (.715, just below Atlanta utility man Mauricio Dubón).

If Tucker sparkles in October, no one will remember the regular seasons, and Dodgers fans will remember him fondly forevermore. Ask Mickey Hatcher.

Red flag

The Dodgers still don’t know what to reasonably expect from Ohtani, gritting out the postseason despite discomfort in his left knee and right arm.

In 13 at-bats in the NLDS, Ohtani had two singles and struck out four times. He scored his only run of the series Wednesday, when he walked, stole second, took third on one error and scored on another error.

Ohtani still has not hit a home run since Aug. 18. The Dodgers prefer to say Wednesday’s game shows he can impact the game with his speed, and with his power threat.

“He’s the best player in the world,” Friedman said. “And at some point, it’s going to click for him, and the other team’s going to be in big trouble.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

CBS Sports | Mike Axisa: Another Yankees season has come to a disappointing end as the Rays swept them out of the ALDS, and the postmortem has already begun. There’s a whole host of questions to ponder about this team, ranging from the futures of Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman to where Aaron Judge slots back in on the field and how the offense around him can be improved. A lockout looms like a dark cloud on top of all of this speculation to boot.

FanGraphs | Davy Andrews: The Yankees were credited with four errors in their Game 2 5-2 loss at the Trop, but if you were watching the game, you’d know that the defense looked shoddy even beyond those four plays. Here, Andrews provides a holistic breakdown of the Yankees’ defensive performance for each position, including non-error misplays such as Luis Garcia Jr. failing twice to receive errant but catchable throws at first base. Warning: repeated viewings of this article may result in high blood pressure.

NY Post | Mark W. Sanchez: George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones looked like they might be long-term contributors against the Red Sox, but so far in the ALDS they’ve looked like rookies out of their depth. Lombard Jr. had a disastrous fifth inning when he failed to convert grounders from Chandler Simpson and Jonny DeLuca into outs. Jones was simply overmatched against Drew Rasmussen, going 0-for-3 with two Ks. One game is certainly far from enough to write these promising youngsters off, but there’s no denying that their first foray into postseason play has taken a turn for the worse.

The Athletic | Jayson Stark: ($) Finally, Jayson Stark has devoted the final section of his Weird & Wild column to discuss the historical significance of Yankees’ Game 2 error-palooza. Not to spoil it too much, but it turns out that committing that many errors that early in a game is quite rare in postseason history.

Now what? Where Phillies could turn as managerial plans reset originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

For the final two months of the season, almost every conversation surrounding the Phillies’ managerial future pointed toward one person.

That was Alex Cora.

It created what appeared to be an ultimatum for interim manager Don Mattingly. Take the Phillies on a deep postseason run and make a case to stay. Come up short, and the opportunity could disappear.

The latter happened when the Phillies were eliminated from the postseason for the fifth consecutive year. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski reportedly went back to Cora, just as he had after the Red Sox fired him in April.

For the second time this year, Cora declined the opportunity.

And here the Phillies are.

The club has yet to hold its end-of-season press conference. If part of the delay involved waiting for Cora’s answer, the Phillies now have it.

The decision extends beyond choosing the next available name. Dombrowski and managing partner John Middleton first must determine what type of manager fits an aging, expensive roster that still expects to contend in 2027.

Do they stay with Mattingly? Do they hire another manager with experience? Or do they turn toward a first-time candidate who could help guide the transition into the organization’s next core?

Here are several directions they could explore:

Don Mattingly

The most realistic option might already be inside the organization.

Mattingly inherited a 9-19 team in late April and led it to a 79-55 record the rest of the way. It was the fourth-best record in baseball during that span. The Phillies reached the postseason despite an offense that ranked 19th in runs and a bullpen that ranked 21st in ERA.

That does not erase another early playoff exit, but it gives Dombrowski and Middleton more to evaluate than the result of one series. Mattingly steadied a season that was getting away from the Phillies and retained the support of the clubhouse. J.T. Realmuto called him “great” after the season ended, while Aaron Nola said, “We love Don.”

Mattingly also remains under contract through 2027 after originally signing a two-year deal to become the Phillies’ bench coach. The front office knows how he operates, and he has already spent a season building relationships with the players.

That familiarity could become more important this winter. Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1, creating the possibility of a work stoppage. If that happens, a newly hired manager would have only a brief window to speak with his players before communication is cut off.

Mattingly would not face that introduction period. He managed the club for five months, experienced its late-season slide and went through a postseason series with much of the roster expected to return in 2027.

The Phillies should not retain him solely because he is familiar. Between the team’s turnaround, his standing in the clubhouse and the uncertainty surrounding the CBA, however, Mattingly appears to be the most realistic option now that Cora is unavailable.

If the Phillies decide to look elsewhere, they could choose between managers who have already held the job and longtime coaches waiting for their first opportunity.

Rocco Baldelli

Baldelli offers an uncommon combination of experience and relative youth.

The 45-year-old managed the Twins for seven seasons, won American League Manager of the Year in 2019 and led Minnesota to three division titles. The Twins reached the postseason four times under Baldelli but won only one series before the organization dismissed him following the 2025 season.

Baldelli has since joined the Dodgers as a special assistant, giving him an opportunity to work inside another organization that has continued winning while introducing young players around an expensive veteran core.

He has already handled the daily demands of managing a contender and would not arrive with a previous connection to the Phillies’ front office. Baldelli would give the organization a different perspective without asking a first-time manager to learn on a team still expecting to win immediately.

Brad Ausmus

Ausmus has the clearest connection to Dombrowski, who hired him to replace Jim Leyland as Tigers manager before the 2014 season.

Detroit won the American League Central in Ausmus’ first year but was swept by Baltimore in the Division Series. The Tigers missed the postseason in each of the next three seasons, and Ausmus later spent one year managing the Angels.

He has since returned to the bench, first with Oakland and now as Aaron Boone’s bench coach with the Yankees. He also managed Israel during the 2026 World Baseball Classic.

Ausmus has not managed in the majors since 2019, but his relationship with Dombrowski makes him difficult to ignore. The Phillies’ pursuit of Cora showed that Dombrowski remains willing to turn toward people he trusted during his time in Detroit and Boston.

David Ross

Ross managed the Cubs for four seasons after replacing Joe Maddon in 2020. Chicago reached the postseason during his first year but never returned, and Ross finished his tenure with a 262-284 record.

The Cubs went 83-79 in 2023 and remained in the playoff race until the final weekend. They dismissed Ross shortly after the season when Craig Counsell became available.

Ross has remained interested in managing again. At 49, he could offer a longer-term option than Mattingly or Ausmus, although his four seasons in Chicago produced only one winning record and no postseason series victories.

The Phillies could also move away from former managers and consider someone whose résumé was built through scouting, coaching and player development.

Omar López

Few potential candidates have been as closely involved with the development of a championship core as Astros bench coach Omar López.

López joined Houston as a scout and instructor in Venezuela in 1999. He was among the scouts who recommended signing a little-known, 16-year-old José Altuve and later became Altuve’s first manager in the Astros’ system.

He managed for 12 seasons across Houston’s minor-league affiliates. His 2013 Quad Cities team, which included Carlos Correa and Lance McCullers Jr., won the Midwest League championship. López later managed Alex Bregman, Kyle Tucker and Yordan Alvarez during their climbs through the organization.

He was not responsible for building Houston’s farm system, but he worked directly with several generations of the homegrown players who helped turn the Astros into annual contenders.

López joined the major-league staff in 2020 and won a World Series as Houston’s first-base coach in 2022. He became Joe Espada’s bench coach two years later and strengthened his managerial résumé in March by leading Venezuela to its first World Baseball Classic championship.

The Phillies have not been publicly connected to López. His history with Houston, however, should interest an organization trying to keep its current window open while preparing for the next one.

Rodney Linares

Linares offers experience from two organizations that have consistently developed talent in different ways.

He spent two decades coaching and managing in Houston’s farm system before joining Kevin Cash’s staff with the Rays in 2019. Tampa Bay promoted him from third-base coach to bench coach before the 2023 season.

Linares also managed the Dominican Republic during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He has never managed in the majors, but his time with Houston and Tampa Bay has exposed him to both a championship organization and a club accustomed to competing with fewer financial resources.

George Lombard

Lombard has served as A.J. Hinch’s bench coach with the Tigers since 2021, working alongside him as Detroit developed a younger roster and returned to contention.

He previously spent five seasons as the Dodgers’ first-base coach and was part of their 2020 championship staff. Before reaching the major-league level, Lombard worked in player development with the Red Sox and Braves.

That background could appeal to a Phillies organization trying to bring Andrew Painter, Justin Crawford and eventually Aidan Miller into a clubhouse still led by its veteran core. Lombard would be managing in the majors for the first time, but he has spent more than a decade working alongside Dave Roberts and Hinch.

The Phillies have rarely made the type of hire that López, Linares or Lombard would represent. Since Charlie Manuel took over before the 2005 season, Gabe Kapler is the only manager they have brought in from outside the organization without previous major-league managerial experience.

Ryne Sandberg, Pete Mackanin, Rob Thomson and Mattingly were promoted from within, while Joe Girardi had already managed for 11 seasons. Choosing a first-time manager from outside the organization would require the Phillies to break from a pattern that has lasted more than two decades.

The Phillies do not need to hire the biggest name available. They need someone who fits where the organization is going.

Cora would have brought a clear change in personality and authority. With that option gone, the Phillies must decide whether Mattingly earned the opportunity to continue or whether their latest postseason exit requires them to try something different.

Austin Wells’ baserunning blunder in Game 1 of the ALDS understandably loomed over everything else he had done this postseason coming into Wednesday.

But otherwise, the Yankees catcher had spent the playoffs performing like the player the club was banking on all along even after a largely brutal regular season.

Entering Game 3 with the season on the line, Wells was 5-for-12 with two doubles, four RBIs and two sacrifice flies in four playoff games, which earned him a jump up the lineup Wednesday against the Rays.

As part of a slight shakeup to his lineup, Aaron Boone batted Wells sixth, which he had only done one other time this season, matching the highest he has hit in the order this year.

The move did not pay off as Wells went 0-for-3 before being lifted for pinch hitter Giancarlo Stanton with a runner on and two outs in the eighth. Stanton, though, struck out as the Yankees headed for a 4-3, season-ending loss.

Wells had been a staple in the bottom third of the lineup all season, including batting eighth or ninth in each of his four playoff games before Wednesday.

But in addition to the results, he had been putting together the kind of tough at-bats that he is capable of but did not always show during a regular season in which he hit .186 with a .624 OPS (much more of a threat in the second half than in the first).

Through all the offensive ups and downs, Wells has continued to handle his pitching staff well and earn their adoration.

“I think when baseball players talk about pros’ pros and guys really handling their business, [there is] a lot of respect inside the room for how Austin has gone about it and how he’s really continued to get better throughout the regular season,” Gerrit Cole said earlier in the series.

Boone also dropped Spencer Jones — the Yankees cleanup hitter in each of the prior three playoff games — down to batting eighth in the lineup, the lowest he has hit against a right-hander since May 19 (facing Dylan Cease).

Jones entered Game 3 batting 2-for-15 with a walk and seven strikeouts in the postseason. But he a good Game 3, going 1-for-2 with an RBI double, two walks and a run scored.

Before Game 3, a handful of Yankees took bunting practice against a pitching machine — something they have done from time to time this year, but certainly not regularly.

It came as they had mustered just two runs through the first two games of the ALDS, both on solo home runs from Ben Rice.