Category: MLB

The good news for Connor Thomas is that he’s appeared to have figured it out as a reliever and he should be able to find somewhere to pitch once the smoke has cleared with the upcoming labor war that’s looming over all of baseball. The bad news is that he figured that out with the Kansas City Royals instead of the Atlanta Braves.

Connor Thomas didn’t make too many appearances for the Braves in 2026 but he did somehow manage to become the focus of a rival broadcast’s pity based on his final outing as a Brave this season. Just how badly did it go for Connor Thomas in Atlanta? Let’s get into it, shall we?

How Acquired

The Braves signed Connor Thomas to a minor league deal back in early November of 2025. This came after he elected free agency when the Brewers outrighted him off of their roster oncer their season came to a close. That came after he was selected in the Rule 5 Draft by the Brewers ahead of the 2025 season, so that tells you that something was certainly there for Thomas if a team was willing to pick him in that particular draft. With that being said, it mainly didn’t work out for Thomas in Milwaukee because bone spurs in his elbow wrecked his 2025 season, so Atlanta was certainly taking a bit of a flier on bringing in Thomas.

What were the expectations?

Well, Thomas ended up starting the season on the Injured List due to the surgery that he underwent in the previous year and while he did make a handful of appearances with the Rome Emperors in High-A, it wasn’t until May 22 when he was finally activated and sent to the Gwinnett Stripers. That’s where he stayed until he got called up in early-July, so the Braves really did kind of have Thomas tabbed as organizational depth during his time here.

Honestly, there wasn’t much of a reason to think differently. He was getting 35+ future value grades on FanGraphs, which is very definitionally a fringy prospect. He was a fifth-round draft pick with a modest signing bonus, hadn’t pitched well in all of two appearances with the Brewers in 2025, and had fairly unimpressive numbers from 2022-onward, after he ascended full-time to Triple-A. Largely the only thing he had going for him was running a low-ish ERA relative to his peripherals in some minor league stints, but that does not a pitcher above organizational depth make.

2026 Results

Connor Thomas finished with 19 1/3 innings pitched under his belt during this particular stint, as he proved to be a bit of a ground ball machine (finishing with a 64.4 percent ground ball rate) while also doing a good job of keeping runs at a premium. He ended up finishing with a 2.33 ERA (54 ERA-) and a 2.43 FIP (58 FIP-) across 19.1 innings pitched and 17 appearances — for the Kansas City Royals. When it came to his time with the Braves, well, it was disastrous.

Thomas only made two appearances totaling 6 1/3 innings while he was with the Braves. We all know about the second and final appearance that he made (which we will discuss later) but his first appearance still ended with some poor results. Thomas gave up the first of four homers that he’d somehow end up giving up in such a brief amount of time with Atlanta during his first appearance on July 7 against the Pirates. He wound up giving up four runs while he was out there, so this was certainly a rough experience for Thomas while he was here.

What went right?

The only good thing I can say about Connor Thomas’s time with Atlanta is that he ate some innings. The guy who entered the game after Thomas was done with both of his appearances was none other than Jorge Mateo, who is not a pitcher. Thomas’s job while he was here was to be on mop-up duty unless there were no other options available out of the ‘pen at any given moment.

Unfortunately for Thomas, that scenario came to fruition three weeks later.

I guess, one thing we can say went “right” for Thomas is that he pitched so much better in an extended stint for the Royals that he actually finished with positive fWAR for the year. Seriously: -0.4 fWAR across 40 batters faced for the Braves, and +0.5 fWAR across 78 batters faced for the Royals. Well done, sorta.

What went wrong?

Thomas’s second and final appearance for the Braves was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Walt Weiss brought him in for the sixth inning of a tie game against the New York Mets on July 27, which was a sign that the bullpen was definitely a bit gassed at this particular moment in time. Thomas gave up a single and a two-run homer to kick off his outing and at that point, it became clear that Thomas was going to have to wear one for the team.

Sure enough, he ended up facing 23 batters and getting charged with 10 hits (three of which were homers bashed off of him) and walking five batters in order to give up a grand total of 11 runs over 78 pitches. You know it was bad when the Mets’ TV commentary team was actually feeling bad for the guy instead of cheering on the onslaught.

Anyways, Thomas did indeed receive his ticket back to the minors after this and two days later, the Athletics claimed him off of waivers. Oof.

2027 Outlook

Considering that he did end up sticking around with the Royals through the end of the season and what the Royals were able to get out of him while he was there, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see him pitching somewhere once the 2027 season rolls around. He’s a left-hander, he’s under 30 and he’s shown an ability to induce ground balls at a pretty high rate and his stint with the Royals ended up going pretty well. He’s never going to blow anybody away with his velocity but maybe some organization will decide that it’s worth it to see if he can keep on getting opposing hitters to keep it on the ground instead of the air by relying on the varied movement of his pitches. It probably won’t be the Braves giving him another shot, though.

Of course, the Royals still control him, given his low service time, so all of this only matters if they decide to move on. Which, given how he pitched for them down the stretch, isn’t a certainty. Still, he looks like a replacement-level reliever on balance until he shows otherwise for more than a couple of months. But, maybe the Royals helped him figure something out that goes beyond serving as a sacrificial lamb to the long grind of an MLB season.

Does the Colorado Rockies lineup currently hold the foundation for a playoff-contending team if the pitching were much better, or would it need a major makeover before they would be able to contend?

All previous Rockies playoff teams have been anchored by an MVP candidate or two:

• Larry Walker in 1995
• Matt Holliday in 2007
• Troy Tulowitzki in 2009
• Nolan Arenado in 2017 & 2018

It’s possible that one of the Rockies current crop of core young players hits their 90th-percentile outcome and turns into a superstar, but looking at the data right now, there isn’t anyone the low minors that has that sort of ceiling.

But do they need an MVP candidate in order to field a competitive team?

First, we need to define what competitive means in the context of MLB.

Since the third Wild Card spot was introduced for the 2022 season, the bar for making the playoffs has ranged from 81 wins (2026 Houston Astros) to 89 (2024 Atlanta Braves). Based on that, let’s say that a team with a real shot at fighting for a playoff spot in late September needs to be aiming for around 85 wins.

A team of entirely major league “replacement level” true talent players is estimated as one that would win 48 games.

So, to be a true playoff contending team, the sum of all of your players’ value would need to add up to roughly 37 Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

The actual exercise of building a contending team would need to be much more nuanced and in-depth than this oversimplification, but for some quick back-of-napkin math, this will suffice.

With that goal in mind, let’s break down where on the Rockies roster those wins would need to come from

We need to take into account the fact that the pitching talent level in the organization is currently far behind that of the offense. We should not assume they will be able to go from one of the worst pitching teams in the league to that of an average playoff team anytime soon.

Instead, let’s be a bit more realistic and look at the lowest pitching fWAR totals of playoff bound teams in each season since the third Wild Card spot was implemented:

• 2022: 12.9 Seattle Mariners
• 2023: 12.9 Arizona Diamondbacks
• 2024: 12.3 Milwaukee Brewers
• 2025: 11.3 Toronto Blue Jays
• 2026: 7.5 Houston Astros

Other than being further proof that the American League West was truly dreadful this season, the list above gives a decent indication about where the minimum bar is for the pitching staff of a potential playoff team.

Until the Rockies can field a pitching staff around the 12-13 fWAR mark, it likely won’t matter how good the offense is. If they are able to achieve that mark, though, the lineup would need to reach 24-25 fWAR for the team as a whole to have a legitimate chance at the playoffs.

Continuing the oversimplifications: The line for what qualifies an MVP candidate most years starts at around six fWAR. All-Stars generally sit around four. Quality starters somewhere around two.

If the Rockies were able to fill all nine of their lineup spots with quality starters they would be sitting at 18 fWAR from the lineup… well short of the 24-25 we’ve established as the goal. Without finding an MVP-candidate type of player, they’d need to both fill the lineup with quality starters and get three of them up into that clear All-Star tier.

How far away from that were they this past season?

The 2026 Rockies only had five players reach anywhere near the quality starter benchmark:

• Jake McCarthy at 2.7
• TJ Rumfield at 2.5
• Hunter Goodman at 2.5
• Kyle Karros at 2.0
• Cole Carrigg at 1.7

There were, however, many reasons to believe better days could be ahead for this lineup core.

• Goodman was worth 3.5 fWAR just a season ago.
• Carrigg was on pace for roughly four wins before slumping near the end of the season.
• In short stints for the Major League team, both Adael Amador and Connor Norby were on pace for at least quality starter-worthy full seasons.
• Before he got hurt, Mickey Moniak was also on pace to be in that quality starter tier.
• Ezequiel Tovar appeared to break out of his extended slump in the final two months of the season.
• The Rockies still have some potentially impactful hitters at Triple-A including, most notably, Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP).

Without needing to wait for the core of the farm system (which currently resides in the low minors) to be Major-League ready, the Rockies could soon field a full lineup of two-ish win starters with a small handful of four-ish win All-Stars.

That is within the realm of possibility with the current core. However, it would require a lot of things to go right.

The best feature of the Rockies lineup is how many potentially decent options it now contains. The team doesn’t have all of its value concentrated in just one or two superstars. They have nearly a full starting nine of solid starter options.

That depth, however, means that there are fewer spots available to upgrade cheaply. It’s much harder to find an improvement on a two-win player than it is to find one for a “replacement level” one.

Tallying all of that up, if the Rockies upgraded their pitching sufficiently, and everything broke right on the offensive side, they could have a playoff caliber roster without finding or developing a superstar.

The margin for error on that path, however, is incredibly slim. They would need essentially every starter on the roster to perform up to expectations.

The more plausible route back to contention is to develop or acquire a star (or two) that can put up MVP worthy numbers and reduce pressure on every other portion of the roster.

That’s easier said then done.

Sadly, the players in the organization that most realistically have that sort of upside are all down in the lower levels of the minor leagues. The team will need wait to see if any of their high-ceiling prospects at Single-A hit the higher end of their projections in order to start planning a stable contention window around them.

In the meantime, a realistic goal at the Major League level is probably just to prove that they can continue to raise the floor and to ensure that when/if they are able to find their next MVP candidate, they have sufficient depth surrounding them on the roster to capitalize on the opportunity.

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In 2023, just three years ago, the Atlanta Braves had just completed what is statistically recognized as the greatest single-season of team performance at the plate in a 162-game season. The Braves as a team hit .276/.344/.501 with a wOBA of .359, an astonishing xwOBA of .364, a mind-boggling 307 home runs and a team wRC+ of 126. There is no other offense in the history of baseball that was that consistent over the course of 162 games. If the Braves had gone deep into that year’s Postseason instead of falling flat on their face against the Phillies (for the second season in a row, mind you), that team would be a lot more fondly remembered by not just Braves fans and media but the baseball universe as a whole.

Instead, it feels like one of those things that’ll be left as a footnote to history — especially considering how Atlanta’s offense has looked since then. Despite the fact that six of the core players from that 2023 lineup (Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Michael Harris II, Sean Murphy, Matt Olson and Austin Riley) are still around and only two of them are currently over 30, the Braves have largely been average in the three seasons since that historic 2023 performance.

Across the three seasons, he Braves have been a completely average ballclub at the plate — they’ve hit .245/.313/.408 with a .315 wOBA, a .321 xwOBA and a wRC+ of exactly 100, placing them in 15th place (exactly middle of the road) among big league ballclubs from the 2024 season through the 2026 season. 2024 saw the Braves go down to a 101 wRC+ (13th overall) before they somehow managed to repeat the trick in 2025 with the same number in that regard and then 2026 actually saw Atlanta’s offense fall down to a 20th-ranked offense in wRC+ with 97.

One thing that’s remained somewhat constant is the home run rate. In 2024, the Braves hit 213 homers (4th overall), hit for .172 in Isolated Power (5th overall) and slugged for .415 (9th overall). In 2025, their homers went down to 190 (14th overall), .155 in Isolated Power (15th overall) and slugged for .399 (14th overall). In 2026, the homers went back up to 204 (7th overall), their Isolated Power went up as well to .162 (9th overall) and they tied with the Yankees for sixth place overall in slugging at .409.

Since the NL Champion Milwaukee Brewers and the AL Champion Tampa Bay Rays are both the talk of the town right, let’s compare Atlanta’s offense in 2026 to theirs. The Braves hit more homers than either the Rays (169) or the Brewers (154, fewest in the NL), Atlanta slugged at a higher rate than either Milwaukee (.403) or Tampa Bay (.402), and the Braves had a higher number in Isolated Power than either the Brewers (.144) or the Rays (.143). So when it came for hitting for power and hitting the long ball, the Braves were clearly better at doing that than any of the two teams who will be playing for that nice gold trophy this Fall.

Despite that, the Brewers (.328) and Rays (.320) both easily cleared the Braves in terms of wOBA and the Brewers did the same in xWOBA (.321) as well. Milwaukee ended up finishing third in wRC+ (107) and Tampa Bay finished in sixth with 104 wRC+.

So what gives, here? I’d imagine that all of y’all who are over here at this particular website are smart enough to realize that there’s more ways to take bases than simply hitting for power and putting ‘em over the fence. Where the Brewers and Rays did a ton of damage this season was from wreaking havoc on the basepaths. According to Statcast, the Brewers finished with a Baserunning Runs Value of 9, which was tied for third in all of baseball. The Rays weren’t all that far behind, as they finished with a BRV of 4. The Braves wound up tied for 21st with a BRV of negative-4. The Brewers led baseball in Extra Bases Taken Run Value and the Rays placed in the Top-10 in that regard — the Braves finished in 23rd in that category.

This wasn’t just a case of Milwaukee and Tampa Bay picking their spots, either — the Brewers attempted to advance baserunners at a less-than-one-percent above average rate while the Rays were only one percent above average in their attempts. The Braves were one-percent above average in that regard and still put up worse numbers on the basepaths.

If you like to think that the Rays and Brewers are on the cutting edge of where the on-field aspect of baseball is heading in the future, then it could be safe to assume that figuring out a way to extract value on the basepaths is going to be the way forward. I’m not saying that the Braves should just forget to hit homers and start bunting everywhere — I am saying that it’s clear the the Brewers and Rays figured out by owner-caused necessity that home runs are expensive and you’ve got to figure out different ways to put runs on the board rather than simply swinging for the fences and putting runs on the board via the long ball.

It doesn’t just mean bunting or eschewing “analytics” or giving up on power hitting altogether, since both the Rays and Brewers have still been able to do that well during the Postseason — it means smart, efficient baserunning and putting pressure on not just the opposing pitcher to make their pitches but also on the defense to stay locked in and make plays in the field against your baserunners. Contact and speed may be the next frontier that we see teams try to maximize on going forward into the future, as both of these teams have proven that if you can put the ball in play and bust it around the basepaths, good things can happen. That appears to be the way forward for the more analytic-minded teams and it’s not going to take a long while for other teams to catch up.

The good news for the Braves is that they appear to be set up pretty well when it comes to the defense and pitching. The Braves have continued to figure out a way to keep their pitching staff afloat despite not having a full-strength starting rotation for a long time now, their bullpen is usually reliable and according to Fielding Run Value, the Braves were top-10 in that category and were better than the Brewers and the Rays. They’ve got the tools to do some good work at run prevention and I’d imagine that that could be the new way for the Braves to consistently win games going forward.

That’s because due to the fact that they’re currently locked in with their core set of batters, the Braves appear to be stuck in a 2023 philosophy due to their personnel limitations. While Walt Weiss, Antoan Richardson, Tommy Watkins and the rest of this staff have been trying their best to make baserunning a strength of this team, they may be limited by the fact that this squad just isn’t exactly adept when it comes to running the bases effectively.

Sprint Speed isn’t everything but it’s pretty tough to be very effective on the basepaths when you’re currently stuck with the 29th-fastest team in baseball according to Sprint Speed. The Braves averaged a Sprint Speed of 27.0 ft/sec in 2026 — the Rays came in 11th at 27.5 ft/sec and the Brewers led baseball at 28.1 ft/sec. In terms of competitive runs (according to Statcast), the Rays and Brewers were both in the Top 3 — the Braves came in at 18th.

This team just may not have the horses to run the track meet in this new era that baseball may be entering into. If that’s the case, then Alex Anthopoulos’s job of getting this offense up to speed (for lack of a better term) may be even trickier than we thought. A lineup that seemed locked in for greatness not even five years ago might find itself left in the dust if Milwaukee and Tampa Bay’s version of baseball turns out to be the way forward for baseball going into the near future.

I’m not going to turn into that guy who says “JUST BUNT IT” whenever there’s even a decent amount of space on the infield but at the same time, it’s fair to ask whether or not the Braves may have found themselves getting left behind at a very inopportune moment in time as far as the future of the sport goes. We’ll see what happens, though.

Dodgers pitcher Will Klein had surgery on Wednesday to remove bone chips and clean up a bone spur in his right elbow, the team announced. The right-hander is expected to be ready for spring training.

Klein was acquired by the Dodgers from the Seattle Mariners in June 2025 and pitched his way onto the World Series roster. The right-hander pitched five scoreless innings over two games against the Toronto Blue Jays, the highlight a career-best four-inning effort in the marathon Game 3, which needed 18 innings to survive. It was the kind of game that earned Klein recognition in and around Los Angeles, and even occasional free drinks.

Those good feelings continued into 2026, with Klein making the opening day roster, and he was a mainstay in the bullpen for the first four months of the season, fifth on the team with 36 appearances and fourth in the bullpen with 41 2/3 innings through July 31.

Klein on the season had a 3.67 ERA and 3.47 xERA with 49 strikeouts and 21 walks in his 41 2/3 innings, and recorded his first two major league saves. He was placed on the injured list on August 1 with right elbow discomfort and was moved to the 60-day injured list on September 2. The latter ended Klein’s regular season, though he continued to rehab through the last week of the regular season and into October, facing hitters in simulated games.

“With Will it’s more get healthy, show that you’re healthy, throw to some hitters,” manager Dave Roberts said on September 22. “He’ll throw during the week off, then we’ll kind of see if there’s an opportunity later on in the postseason, sort of like last year.”

That opportunity never came this postseason for Klein. He’ll begin next season with one year, 81 days of service time and one option year remaining, having used options in 2024 and 2025.

In the wake of the Dodgers’ elimination in the National League Championship Series last week, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said one of his first offseason phone calls was with team owner Mark Walter.

His takeaway from their chat?

“It’s been business as usual,” Friedman said this week.

Over the previous five months, of course, things had hardly been as usual in Walter’s larger business empire.

There was the ongoing federal investigation into the dealings of several insurance companies he owns. His sudden, and troubling, sale of the Lakers in June. Questions about whether he would have to sell the Dodgers next. Uncertainty about whether his Guggenheim Baseball Management group could continue to fund the team at the same historic levels it has in recent years.

However, Friedman said that when he spoke to the embattled billionaire businessman following the team’s sweep against the Milwaukee Brewers, Walter was “obviously really disappointed” but also already focusing on the future.

“What can we do? What are our plans? What are our thoughts for the offseason?” Walter said, as Friedman recounted.

“Our brains weren’t quite there yet,” Friedman added with a chuckle, while speaking at an end-of-season press conference on Wednesday. “But so much of his focus was, ‘How do we put ourselves in the best position to win in ‘27?’”

Friedman’s phone call was the latest indication that, for now at least, nothing about Walter’s ownership of one of MLB’s flagship franchises has tangibly changed.

Team president Stan Kasten made that point repeatedly during the season, downplaying concerns on multiple occasions about the investigation into Walter and any speculation that he might need to sell the Dodgers.

Walter’s holding company, TWG Global, insisted the same in a lengthy statement it put out in August, saying then that “the team is not being sold” while denying allegations of fraud related to so-called “affiliated” loans made from Walter-owned insurance companies to other entities in his business portfolio (including several connected to the Dodgers). 

Granted, only time will truly tell if the Dodgers will indeed be unaffected by Walter’s not-yet-resolved legal saga –– especially after setting MLB payroll records of $415.2 million and $432.8 million the last two years, respectively, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts’ calculations for luxury tax purposes.

For now, though, “business as usual” remains the company line, going into an offseason in which the team will try to retool for a return to World Series contention.

Seattle baseball fans surely know it already — the Mariners are among five teams in baseball to have never won a World Series title. Heading into the 2026 season, there were plenty of people (including myself) that felt the M’s were in position to make a run at not only reaching their first World Series, but potentially even crossing their name off that short list of teams whom have never reached the sport’s highest pinnacle.

As it turned out, this was not the year for the Mariners. They did not make the playoffs — you, dear reader, surely do not need the reminder. However, with the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays making it out of their respective leagues, 2026 is now guaranteed to produce a first-time World Series champion for the second time in four seasons. The list of teams to have never won the Fall Classic is about to dwindle even further, down to four.

Both teams have a host of connections to Seattle, including former Mariners players on each roster (Jake Mailhot has more on them right here). The franchise that would become the Brewers started out in Seattle as the Pilots for one season in 1969 before moving to Wisconsin. Their departure spurred the lawsuit that would eventually result in Major League Baseball awarding Seattle another team, the one we now call the Mariners. The Rays on the other hand, while never calling Seattle home, have made more trades with Jerry Dipoto’s Mariners than any other team during his tenure. They may as well be the Mariners’ younger, more successful sibling by the similar fashion in which they run their organizations. It also can’t go without mentioning that Jeff Sullivan, the founder of this very blog, is currently a senior analyst in the Rays baseball operations department.

All this is to say…somebody’s gotta win it all. It’s not going to be the Mariners in 2026. So, without further ado, I present the following discussion prompt:

Who are you rooting for, the Rays or Brewers, to win their first World Series title? And why?

Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!

With the offseason underway, we are taking a look at every player who appeared for the Texas Rangers in the 2026 season.

Today we are looking at outfielder Sam Haggerty.

That didn’t work out as we had hoped, did it?

Brought in to camp in 2025 on a minor league deal after having been released by the hated Mariners of Seattle, Haggerty was brought up in May of 2025 and filled a much needed role on the team, that of a righthanded outfield bat. It was anticipated that Haggerty would be able to provide value in that role in 2026, as well.

We maybe should have been clued in that the Rangers weren’t completely sold on Haggerty by how they handled his contract situation in the offseason. Haggerty was entering his final season of arbitration eligibility, and normally arb-eligible players are signed in early January, close to the deadline for the team and the player to submitted numbers for arbitration. Haggerty’s deal, for $1.25 million, was announced on the day of the deadline to non-tender players, which suggests the Rangers were going to bring him back at their number or else they’d cut him loose rather than risk paying him more in arbitration. Not exactly a vote of confidence in his ability to be a quality righthanded bat.

And, yes, if you want to be pedantic, Haggerty isn’t a righthanded bat, he’s a switch-hitter, but for his career he has a 765 OPS against lefthanded pitchers and a 548 OPS against righthanded pitchers, the kind of platoon split that makes you think maybe he should junk the switch hitting thing and just hit righthanded all the time.

In any case, I regret to inform you that Sam Haggerty did not provide value in that aforementioned role in 2026. He did not provide value in any role in 2026, in fact. Haggerty slashed .159/.213/.182 in 47 plate appearances in 35 games, which is pretty terrible.

I thought that a 395 OPS might be the worst the Rangers have gotten from a player in that many plate appearances in a season, at least recently, and of course I was wrong. Doing a search on Stathead for players with a sub-400 OPS in at least 45 plate appearances in a season for the Rangers, I discovered that the 2024 Rangers had two such players — Davis Wendzel and Andrew Knizner. Wendzel had a 397 OPS, so he at least edged out Haggerty, though Knizner’s 394 OPS put him just behind Haggerty. Knizner put up his putrid OPS in 93 plate appearances, which is pretty impressive, if you think about it.

Curtis Terry had a 279 OPS in 48 plate appearances in 2021, which is the lowest for any player with at least 45 plate appearances for the Rangers since 1973, at the second lowest for the Rangers if we exclude pitchers (Dick Bosman and Pete Broberg qualify in 1972 if we do include pitchers). Robinson Chirinos in 2020, Hanser Alberto in 2016, Mike Carp in 2014 and Cristian Guzman in 2010 are the other qualifiers in the 21st century.

I’m now reminded that the Rangers traded Tanner Roark to the Nationals for Guzman, and am irked.

The most memorable part of Haggerty’s 2026 season is probably the circumstances surrounding his release. Haggerty went on bereavement leave on June 1, and then was designated for assignment a few days later, when he returned from bereavement leave. Unfortunate timing, that.

Haggerty is also a bit noteworthy because he wore number 0. Only three other players in Rangers history have sported a 0 — Al Oliver, Oddibe McDowell, and Junior Ortiz.

I am not a big uniform number guy — I would be hard pressed, off the top of my head, to give you the uniform number of any Ranger — but I do have opinions on uniform numbers. One of them is that 0 is an acceptable number, but only for certain players. There should be some flava to you and your game if you are going to wear number 0.

Al Oliver and Oddibe McDowell? Good 0s.

Junior Ortiz? Anonymous backup catcher. If he were a mediocre starting catcher, I’d say no, but I think a backup catcher who doesn’t play much can be a number 0.

Sam Haggerty as a bench guy who plays a number of positions in the infield and the outfield is an acceptable 0. But in 2026, he was basically a platoon left fielder, and you can’t be a platoon left fielder and wear number 0 unless you’ve got a lot of spice in your game, unless you’re an energy guy.

Of current Rangers on the 40 man roster, Alejandro Osuna and Cody Freeman would be good number 0s. Someone tell one of them to change their number for 2027.

Previously:

Nolan Kingham

During the playoffs, teams that aren’t participating usually fade from the spotlight. MLB discourages any team from making headlines that might take attention away from postseason action. Of course, it’s also quite possible the Blue Jays wouldn’t provide us with much to discuss regardless.

Let’s try a question:

Which Blue Jays player did you have the highest hopes for, only to see them fall short of your expectations?

There are plenty of possible answers, but right now, mine is Travis Snider. Snider was the organization’s top prospect and made an encouraging debut. In 2008, at 20, he appeared in 24 games and and hit .301/.338/.466.

The next year, at 21, he played 77 games and hit .241/.328/.419—not bad for someone his age. In 2010, he posted a .255/.304/.463 line over 82 games.

Some decisions didn’t make sense to me. He was a top prospect on a team that finished 11 games out of first place—so why not let him play every day? At 22, he posted a .767 OPS. Why not give him a regular spot in the lineup?

In 2011, he played just 49 games for Toronto. On July 30, the Pirates traded him.

He spent three seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .244/.314/.388 over 311 games, and later spent a year with the Orioles.

I always felt he was a bit mismanaged. If you call up a player at age 21, you need to commit to playing him regularly. But the Jays had their struggles with developing young talent at that time, often opting for veterans like Kevin Millar, Brad Wilkerson, and Kevin Mench instead. When a young player arrives at 20 or 21, you have to let him play.

Now it’s your turn. You don’t need to write 400 words—just share your pick and your reasoning.

The World Series starts tomorrow in Milwaukee at 8PM. First World Series against two teams who have never won a title since the 1980 title match.

Tim Stebbins wrote about offseason questions for the Guardians.

Zack Meisel wrote about the hitting and pitching issues that led to the Guardians losing three games straight in the ALCS. Of most note, Tanner Bibee said he is ready to make any changes needed to improve from his 2025-2026 performances.

The Angels fired manager Kurt Suzuki after one disastrous season.

When the Yankees announced they were bringing back Paul Goldschmidt for 2026, it went down somewhat like a lead balloon. He had gotten off to a nice start in 2025, but fell off down the stretch. That along with Ben Rice’s emergence seemingly made him expendable for 2026.

However, the Yankees opted to give him another year. In fairness, he did hit lefties quite well. He just ended up playing a bit more than ideal, dragging down his overall numbers. That being said, he was more than servicable in 2026 and hardly the roster’s main problem.

Grade: B

2026 Statistics: 105 games, 380 plate appearances, .252/.313/.452, 18 HR, 52 RBI, 111 wRC+, 1.6 fWAR

2027 Contract Status: Free agent

Initially, Goldschmidt was used mainly in just a platoon fashion. Through the end of May, he had appeared in 34 of the Yankees’ 59 games. Once again, he got off to a very nice start, posting a .261/.354/.496 slash line. Between injuries elsewhere in the lineup and the Yankees relying on him more after that hot start, he ended up appearing in 71 of the final 102 games.

In the end, the breakdown of his number of plate appearances against different handed pitchers didn’t end up being that drastic a difference. Of his 380 PAs, 183 were against lefties and 197 against righties. He was never going to only ever face lefties because that’s generally just not feasible, but the ideal plan probably wouldn’t have included that many against righties. Further evidence of that is that he posted a genuinely very good .967 OPS against lefties, compared to .590 against righties.

Goldschmidt had his moments over the course of the season. On June 13th in Toronto, he hit a go-ahead home run off the Blue Jays’ Louis Varland that ended up providing the final difference in a win.

It should be noted that Varland is a righty, so while his splits were drastic this season, playing him against righties wasn’t completely irredeemable. Additionally, Varland was also one of the best relievers in all of baseball this season and will probably get a non-zero number of votes in the AL Cy Young Award race this year. In general, Goldschmidt was a perfectly fine bench bat/platoon guy to have around. He just ended up getting used more than the Yankees planned on.

Now as we look ahead to the future, it’s difficult to make any legitimate argument to bringing Goldschmidt back again. His contract for 2026 was only one year. Goldschmidt himself wants to play on past this season. Between the way he hit lefties and the fact that he’s still a perfectly solid defender at first base, there will still probably be teams out there willing to give him another one-year contract for 2027.

However, when it comes to the Yankees, they got an even bigger breakout season from Ben Rice. They also acquired Luis García Jr. at the Trade Deadline. While García has opposite splits to Goldschmidt, he’ll also be getting games at first base. The team still hasn’t made a decision in regards to Giancarlo Stanton, and they’re also coming off a season when Aaron Judge missed a lot of time, so they might use him more at the DH spot. While the Yankees figured it out in 2026, there will be more to figure out in regards to Goldschmidt’s playable spots for 2027. I could totally picture Goldy OPSing .800+ against lefties again next year, but it’s probably for the best if he does so elsewhere.

Paul Goldschmidt is a likely future Hall of Famer. While his time with the Yankees was far too brief and far too insignificant compared to the rest of his career for him to go in as one, he’s been nice to have around for the past two seasons.

See more of the Yankees Roster Report Card series here.

outfield (noun): 1) the part of a baseball field beyond the infield and between the foul lines, 2) a position on a baseball team which the Phillies have trouble developing players.

There was a point in the season in which Felix Reyes was considered an outfielder.

Felix Reyes.

Then the team decided to give de la Cruz a shot and what do you know? He actually started to produce a bit once he made it back to the major leagues. Too little, too late?

2026 stats: 86 PA, .280/.349/.413, 2 HR, 12 RBI, 8.1 BB%, 20.8 K%, 108 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR

What went right

The biggest thing that de la Cruz brought to the team was adequacy. Putting Edmundo Sosa out in the outfield was fine as a one or two game thing, but depending on him as a true part of a platoon was not great planning. It was done because they didn’t have any real options to do that…..except that they did.

He was fine at the plate, taking a few walks, striking out less than the league average, even popping a couple of home runs. He was a fine fourth outfielder.

What went wrong

Remember how de la Cruz was supposed to be the right handed part of a platoon in the outfield? Turns out, even in a limited setting, he wasn’t actually that good against left handed pitching. He had an .891 OPS against right handers, a .623 OPS against left handers. Neither number was with more than 50 plate appearances, so the small sample size argument is ripe here, but that does seem kind of impossible to do.

Final grade: B

In his limited time here, de la Cruz was at least productive. As stated previously, as a fourth outfielder, he’s a fine option. The issue is not with him; it’s about timing.

Why did it take so long for the team to bring him up?

While with Lehigh Valley, de la Cruz posted an .806 OPS in 356 plate appearances. His strikeout rates were fine, his walk rates were fine, his defense was….fine. What took so long for the team to bring him up? They were willing to try others ahead of him, Reyes included, for reasons known only to the team. Would he have helped them win games earlier in the season? Maybe. Maybe having a more competent outfield option helps them get through some of the early season doldrums they had on offense. By the team he was brought up, Bryce Harper was the regular right fielder and de la Cruz played more games in left. He wasn’t producing so much that the decision to keep him down was so egregious, but it was more of a roster construction head scratcher.

It highly unlikely he’d be brought back unless he takes another minor league deal. If he did that, the team should consider it. As a starter on a major league deal? They had better upgrade everywhere else first before considering that idea.

Another year, another World Series without the Phillies in it. Weeks after the Phillies’ inglorious defeat in the Wild Card round, both the National and American Leagues have crowned their champions who will now face off to determine MLB’s ultimate champion for 2026.

The Milwaukee Brewers will take on the Tampa Bay Rays. While some people will cry that the “glamour” teams aren’t involved, these two teams were the best in their respective leagues for most of the season and the matchup should make for an excellent World Series.

Since many Phillies fans may have tuned out since the Wild Card round or been distracted by such things as LeBron James and blood clots, here’s a quick guide to catch you up on this year’s series.

Milwaukee Brewers

How they got here

They led baseball with 103 wins to win the NL Central, then defeated the Padres 3-1 in the NLDS and swept the defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS.

Who you should know

Jacob Misiorowski – The second year righthanded starter is very likely to win the NL Cy Young Award. He throws very hard and strikes a lot of guys out.

Brice Turang – He had already established himself as a great fielder, winning a Gold Glove in 2024, but he’s improved as a hitter every year as well. He had an OPS of .816 with 21 home runs this season.

Logan Henderson – The rookie starting pitcher had a strong season and was unbeatable when pitching at home.

Jake Bauers – Previously a journeyman, Bauers unexpectedly hit 26 home runs – more than double his career high – at age 30. He was just named the MVP of the NLCS thanks to five RBIs over the final two games.

What are they good at?

Quite a bit. Despite a lack of notable offensive superstars, they were second in baseball in runs scored thanks to their best in baseball on-base percentage. They also had the second-best team ERA in baseball thanks to a stellar top of their rotation and lockdown bullpen.

What are they not good at?

Hitting home runs. Their 154 home runs was the second-lowest figure in baseball. While it’s nice to be able to get on base with regularity, rallies can be harder to sustain in the playoffs, and sometimes you need that one big blow.

Tampa Bay Rays

How they got here

They won the American League East with 98 wins, swept the Yankees in the ALDS, and took out the Guardians 4-2 in the ALCS.

Who you should know

Junior Caminero – At 22 years of age, the third baseman has established himself as one of the top power hitters in baseball. With 42 home runs, he topped the 40 mark for the second straight year.

Yandy Diaz – The veteran designated hitter led the AL with 180 hits.

Drew Rasmussen – After a couple of injury shortened seasons in 2023 and 2024, he’s somewhat quietly become one of the best pitchers in baseball. He had a 2.64 ERA and a league-low 0.913 WHIP.

Freddy Peralta – After leading the league in wins for the Brewers in 2025, he went to the Mets and was having an awful season before being traded to the Rays at the deadline. Naturally, he pitched well down the stretch and was the ALCS MVP. (LOLMets)

What are they good at?

They had the second-best team batting average (behind the Brewers), third-best ERA from starting pitchers, and closer Bryan Baker was a game shortener, leading the AL with 41 saves.

What aren’t they good at?

Similar to the Brewers, their power numbers aren’t great, ranking 15th in team slugging percentage and 26th in isolated power. And aside from Baker, the bullpen isn’t all that impressive.

Who should we root for?

It’s a matchup of smaller market teams who have never won the World Series, so there’s no real “feel good” story or villain. However, the people of Milwaukee have suffered much longer than residents of the Tampa Bay area, which due to lack of fan support probably shouldn’t even have a team to begin with. I feel we also owe the Brewers some support since they not only prevented the Dodgers from earning a “threepeat,” but they did so in decisive fashion, sweeping them out of the NLCS.

If you’re the type who likes to root for former Phillies, the Brewers employ lefthander reliever JoJo Romero, who came up through the Phillies’ system and spent his first three seasons with them. He wasn’t very good for the Phillies but has had a solid career since they traded him. While the Phillies could use solid, homegrown relievers, they did get Edmundo Sosa for him, and everyone loves Sosa.

Obligatory note about the ratings

As happens when there are no teams from New York, Los Angeles, or Boston involved, there has been some consternation about what kind of ratings this year’s World Series will get. Coincidentally, these complaints are usually from fans of teams from New York, Los Angeles, or Boston.

Since I don’t work for MLB nor a TV network showing the games, I don’t care one fig about the ratings, and nor should any other normal fan.

Who will win?

The teams are rather similar to each other in that they score a lot of runs without relying too much on home runs and have excellent starting pitching. However, the Brewers seem to be just a little bit better at everything, and they appear to have a clear edge in relief pitching.

That will be enough to give the Brewers their first World Series title as they take down the Rays in six games.

The elbow injury that wiped out Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing’s final two months of the regular season and left him watching in October proved even costlier than previously expected. Rushing had surgery to repair the partially torn UCL in his right elbow.

Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times was first to report Rushing’s surgery:

To address a partial UCL tear, he was expected to undergo a hybrid internal brace procedure, which would set him up to return to catching full time in nine months. He would be able to hit well before then.

Nine months from now is after the All-Star break, which would likely limit Rushing’s first-half contributions to being a left-handed pinch-hitter off the bench.

Rushing suffered a flexor strain and partially torn UCL in early August, and missed a month on the injured list. He returned on September 1 but played in only four games, batting five total times as either a pinch-hitter or designated hitter before landing back on the IL. Though Rushing was not expected to catch again this season, he took part in throwing drills on September 5 and re-injured the elbow, which knocked him out for three more weeks.

Rushing returned for the final weekend of the regular season, but having played so sparingly — only eight plate appearances over the Dodgers’ final 51 games — his lone chance to play in October was as a left-handed bat off the bench, a role that was claimed by 21-year-old Josue De Paula, the Dodgers’ best prospect who made his major league debut in September.

The elbow injuries marred an otherwise important season for Rushing, playing in his first full major league season. When Will Smith went down with a neck injury in the first week of June, Rushing got the first real extended time behind the plate of his professional career, and he started 34 of 47 games at catcher through August 1.

On the season, Rushing hit .246/.328/.460 with 12 home runs and a 117 wRC+ in 80 games, his slugging percentage sixth among the 41 major league catchers with at least 250 plate appearances.

Rushing’s injury also likely clears a path for Hunter Feduccia, who returned to the Dodgers at this year’s trade deadline, to remain as the backup catcher to start the 2027 season. Feduccia was active for both the Division Series and Championship Series but did not play in the postseason and Smith caught all 70 innings behind the plate in October.

Morning, all!

The Brewers and the Rays have gone to the World Series on a budget, but there are ways the Rangers can change their approach on the field to get more out of what they have.

One of the things that Chris Young has said the Rangers need to improve is ““athleticism,” and the Rays and the Brewers are two of the league’s most aggressive teams on the basepaths.https://www.mlb.com/news/world-series-2026-brewers-rays-speed-stolen-bases-matchup

Three of the bright spots on the 2026 Ranger roster were 3 or 4 year players that had been developed by the Rangers internally.