Category: MLB

For the fifth time in six years, the Minnesota Twins clocked out at the end of September—eschewing October overtime. On many occasions I was in the trenches with them, attending 27 contests (most at home, some away). My personal 11-16 record wasn’t exactly sterling—but neither was the club’s. You know the old mantra: “a bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work”? Swap amateur angling for stadium spectating and a lot of fun was still had at the ballpark(s) this particular 162 slate.

The beginning of the season brought cold, cold, and—you guessed it—a little more cold. I wasn’t done lugging the parka from the parking ramp until late-May. But I bundled up and even convinced some family to shiver along with me. On April 14 we saw two Buck Truck bombs and an Abel/Rogers/Sands shutout of the BoSox!

As April showers (and cold) turned into May flowers—the dogs ate them. I kid, I kid…just trying to scare gintzer more about Bark at the Park Night (when Bailey Ober inexplicably twirled a complete game shutout against the Miami Marlins!). To be fair, I also consumed my share of cased-meat dogs.

June 12 brought me a wild 9-8 win over the St. Louis Cardinals where Buxton doubled twice, homered—and the Twins still needed long balls from Royce Lewis & Brooks Lee in B8 to take a lead!

A few weeks later, I attended the big Joe Ryan versus Shohei Ohtani pitching matchup in front of a sold-out Target Field crowd. The Twins lost and were swept by True Blue—but years from now someone will be impressed at me seeing Ohtani pull double duty (even if that someone is me!).

When the calendar flipped to July, I saw Alan Roden walk off the Cleveland Guardians—then paused to enjoy the All-Star festivities with my unaccustomed-to-billed-headware niece.

Alas, July brought some epic frustrations—like being 2-hit shutout by the Unaffiliated Athletics & 5-hit shutout by Randy Dobnak and the Kansas City Royals.

Fortunately, I was able to pull off two more baseball stadium trips: Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. and Chase Field in Arizona. Great times—like a Buxton salami—in both locales!

As the non-canine and non-sausage dog days of August commenced, I saw the first MLB game and knock from Walker Jenkins.

For the first time, I was also at Target Field without a baseball game—instead, the Tim McGraw concert! My sister and I had a great time and it’s a tribute to Son-of-Tug that his music can bridge a 13-year sibling gap.

A 15-2 victory (featuring a 10-run inning!) over the Tigers was somewhat of a September salve for another late-season collapse. My final night under the North Loop skies was another high-scoring fun affair!

At least there was no Curse of Kyle Lohse (seeing him at the Dome when I pined for Santana, Radke, or even Silva)—my SP distribution was remarkably even…

• Joe Ryan: 7 starts
• Zebby Matthews & Taj Bradley: 4 starts
• Bailey Ober & Connor Prielipp: 3 starts
• Simeon Woods-Richardson & Mike Paredes: 2 starts
• Mick Abel & Dean Kremer: 1 start

Sometimes I complain about the traffic—or the ushers—or the folks oblivious to the water fountain button in the bottom right corner. Sometimes my baseball glove gets stolen out from under my seat. But I still enjoy getting out to the ballgame. There’s a song about it, after all.

Today’s Reflections

Sunday’s game didn’t matter. The playoff positions had been solidified. It was a good day to rest your players as the team heads to the playoffs.

It wasn’t an off day for Alex Bregman. After his miraculous return on Friday, Bregman does what he does best — viewed videos of his hitting. After he saw something that he could correct, he didn’t just go to the batting cage to work it out. Nah. He texted Craig Counsell and said “LFG.” That meant he wanted in the game to see if his hitting correction worked.

A two-run home run. A solo home run. A single. An RBI-double.

4-for-4, three runs scored and four RBI. That is a man determined, a man that is a leader. That’s why he’s on the Cubs team.

There were several substitutions during the game. After Pete Crow-Armstrong knocked his first-inning single to right field, Tyrone Taylor entered the game and went 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Michael Conforto was 2-for-5 with a double and an RBI. Pedro Ramirez and Miguel Amaya both went 2-for-4. Amaya doubled and scored a run.

It was a bullpen day after a Shōta Imanaga first-inning appearance. We got our first look at Braxton Garrett. He started out rough in the second inning, with a pair of singles, a HBP and a run-scoring fielder’s choice, tying the game with the Red Sox at 2-2. But after that, Garrett went four innings of scoreless ball, but allowed two hits and three walks while striking out two. The last three innings pitched were perfect, one by Jacob Webb, the last two by Colin Rea.

Off to San Diego!

I appreciate your reading.

Complimentary Starting Pitcher Solo Home Run*

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Sunday’s Game Stories:

• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Fresh off facial fractures,, “Bregman mashes 2 homers in 2nd game back. “Even without any postseason implications on the line on Sunday, Alex Bregman told Cubs manager Craig Counsell that he wanted to be in the starting lineup.”

• Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Alex Bregman homers twice in season-finale win, Cubs head to playoffs aiming to ‘make some noise in October’. “Bregman had a monster day at the plate just a week after taking a foul ball to the face, continuing to marvel teammates on the eve of the postseason.”

• Tony Marchese (OnTapSportsNet): Bregman Homers Twice as Cubs Close Season With 6-2 Win at Tropicana. “Alex Bregman went 4-for-4 with two homers and four RBI as the Cubs beat the Red Sox 6-2 at Tropicana Field to finish 89-73 and reach the Wild Card.”

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Playoff Pitching Stories:

• Jordan Campbell (Cubbies Crib): Cubs may have to consider Clay Holmes role change that once seemed impossible to believe. “They may have no other option.”
• Jake Misenser (Cubbies Crib): Cubs need to lock in on one specific Michael King pitch in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Round. “It’s time for Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Chicago offense to dial in at the plate.”
• Jordan Bastian (MLB.com): Counsell playing Cubs’ postseason rotation close to the vest. “Cubs manager Craig Counsell likes to have as much information in hand as possible before announcing any plans for his pitching staff.”
• Vinnie Duber (Chicago Sun-Times): Cubs’ Kevin Gausman, with nagging shoulder, unsure if he’d be ready for possible Game 1 start vs. Padres. “Gausman’s left shoulder is still affecting him after he banged it on a tag play last week, making it a mystery whether he’ll be available to pitch in the Cubs’ best-of-three playoff series against the Padres.”
• Meghan Montemurro (Chicago Sun-Times): Chicago Cubs’ wild-card rotation plans in flux as they monitor Kevin Gausman’s left shoulder injury. “The Chicago Cubs’ pitching plans for the opening round are expected to come together Sunday.”

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Playoff Hitting Stories:

• Mike Petriello (MLB.com): The best defender in baseball? (Almost) the best offensive player? It’s the same guy! “Here’s another way Pete Crow-Armstrong’s season was an extreme outlier.”
• Matt Snyder (CBSSports): Ranking the offenses of all 12 MLB playoff teams: Can anyone out-power the Cubs? “Home runs play in the postseason, but slugging isn’t everything when it comes to October success.”
• Paul Sullivan (Chicago Tribune {$}): Column: Can Alex Bregman be the difference for the Chicago Cubs in another wild-card showdown with San Diego? “The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres meet again in the wild-card series, which moves this year from Wrigley Field to Petco Park.”

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Assorted Stories:

• Tyler Courtney (LastWordOnSports): Who Needs to Step Up for the 2026 Cubs Playoff Run. “Postseason baseball is always different, and Chicago will have to put the past behind. If they wish to move on to face the Brewers, a few players need to step up.”
• Curt Bishop (Fastball On SI): Ranking the NL Wild Card Series Teams from Worst to Best. “The National League had a very packed wild card race this year, and the final spot came down to the last day of the regular season.”
• Michael Canter (Cubs Insider): The Rundown: Postseason Road Games Could Help Cubs, Bregman Swinging Hot Bat, PCA’s Historic Season, Playoff Predictions. “All things considered, going to San Diego to play a Wild Card series against the Padres is not as bad as it seems.”
• David Adler (MLB.com): Cubs-Padres position-by-position breakdown. “It’s a rematch — the Cubs vs. the Padres in the National League Wild Card Series for a second straight year.”
• Thomas Domol (North Side Baseball): Cubs Week In Review: A Wild Card Test In San Diego Awaits After Limping To Finish Line. “Pete Crow-Armstrong and his Chicago Cubs are on their way to San Diego, California for their best-of-three Wild Card Series with the Padres. Can they survive a tough test in the first round of the playoffs?”
• Jake Misener (Cubbies Crib): Boog Sciambi has a new job, but it doesn’t mean he’s leaving Cubs broadcasts. “The TV voice of the Cubs has a new gig heading into the offseason.”

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Food For Thought:

Deitra Farr (born August 1, 1957) is an American blues, soul and gospel singer-songwriter. Farr was born in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and began singing in the mid-1970s with various soul bands. She converted to Catholicism as a child and sang in the gospel choir at Holy Angels Catholic Church on the South Side. She graduated from Kenwood High School (Academy) in Chicago. She studied vocal music there with Lena McLin and was a member of the Kenwood Choir. At the age of 18, she recorded the lead vocals on “You Won’t Support Me” with the Chicago group Mill Street Depo. That song made the Top 100 R&B list with Cashbox magazine in 1976.

She began singing the blues in the early 1980s. From 1993 to 1996, she was the lead singer for Mississippi Heat and recorded two albums with them, Learned the Hard Way and Thunder in my Heart. In 1997, she released her first solo album titled The Search is Over. In 2005, Farr released her second JSP album, Let It Go. The blues guitarist, Billy Flynn, played on Let It Go.

Since 1990, she has toured internationally, so far performing in over 40 countries. Farr is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She has a regular column called “Artist to Artist” in Living Blues magazine.

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.

Since being drafted in 2021, Creed Willems has steadily worked his way up through the minor leagues. An eighth-round draft pick out of high school, Willems hung around on the Orioles’ prospect lists in the mid-levels, but never did enough to really cause a stir (if you don’t count his kickass mullet).

Willems spent all of 2025 with the Double-A Baysox, where he hit ..253/.338/.441 in 105 games. Just as he had done throughout his time in professional baseball, Willems hit righties pretty well but was lousy against lefties. After the season he was eligible for the Rule 5 draft. The Orioles did not protect him, and no team selected him. That’s good for the Orioles, who got to keep him in the system without putting him on the 40-man roster, but maybe a bummer for Willems that no team wanted him badly enough to give him a shot.

Willems started the 2026 season with the Norfolk Tides and stayed there for the rest of the year (except for two rehab games with Frederick). At age 23, Willems was about three years younger than the league average. The C/1B/DH came out of the gate hot, cooled a bit, then had a scorching month of May. On May 31st, Willems had an .846 OPS through 47 games and people were starting to notice. When will Creed get a chance, we wondered.

The hot hitting cooled off, but Willems was still going well enough overall that it seemed like he might actually get to the majors that year. On June 30th, Willems was OPS’ing .798. On July 1st, the Tides were on the road at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and Willems suffered a freak injury. He slipped on a mat in the dugout and pulled a hamstring, landing him on the IL for about two weeks.

If you remember July in Baltimore, the situation got pretty ugly, catcher-wise. Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo were both injured around the middle of the month. Then, of course, Rutschman was traded to the Red Sox while Basallo was on the injured list. That’s how the Orioles spent a month with catchers like Chadwick Tromp, Sam Huff, Yohel Pozo, Jake Rogers, and eventually Carlos Narváez making starts. It was an ugly scene. And yet, Creed Willems was not recalled.

There are a couple ways to look at that. One is that Willems was on the IL from 7/2-7/20 and missed his opportunity to make the big leagues due to poor timing. Rutschman went on the IL on 7/20 and Basallo went on the IL on 7/22.

So yeah, timing could have been it. Or it could have been that Mike Elias had no intention of adding Willems to the 40-man roster and bringing him up. In fact, Elias went out of his way to acquire new catchers rather than turn to Willems. He selected Pozo off waivers from the Cardinals on July 23rd. He traded for Jake Rogers on July 30th. He brought Tromp into the organization in early July. And of course, Narváez came back in the Rutschman trade and spent the rest of the season being terrible.

We’ll never know if Willems would have gotten his chance if he hadn’t been injured. It was probably for the best that they didn’t add him to the team right after his injury because he was terrible at the plate for the rest of July and all of August. His overall numbers plummeted, though he rebounded nicely in September to make his overall numbers look more respectable.

Willems finished 2026 with 113 games played and a hitting line of .260/.351/.434. He hit 21 home runs but just five doubles. One interesting thing about his batting line is that, for the first time in his career, he did not have a large platoon split. In fact, he hit lefties and righties almost evenly, with just a bit higher OBP against righties.

Due to the impending owners’ lockout, we will not need to worry about Willems being subject to the Rule 5 draft. In all likelihood, there will not be one.

The problem for Willems is that he doesn’t hit well enough to be a starting catcher, but he doesn’t play defense well enough to be the backup catcher. He is also a first baseman and designated hitter, but the Orioles are pretty full up on players to fill those roles.

FanGraphs is a Creed fan, however, ranking him as the Orioles #15 prospect back in May. He has surely been pushed down that list with the influx in talent from the trade deadline deals, but that is still a pretty good ranking for Willems. Eric Longenhagen likes Willems’ bat and predicted in May that Willems should have been ready to debut in the summer. As for his defense, Longenhagen says:

Willems isn’t great behind the plate. He isn’t an especially smooth receiver or blocker, and it takes him awhile to get out of his crouch and release the ball on stolen base attempts. You can play him there occasionally, but it’s hard to see a team starting him there every day even if he hits his offensive ceiling. Willems thus projects as a hybrid sort of bench bat, a Mitch Garver type who catches once per week while playing a little first base and DH and pinch-hitting when he’s not in the bucket. 

Willems did join the Orioles on the taxi squad at the end of the year, but he was never activated and will have to wait to make his MLB debut. Steve Melewski caught up with Willems during that time and posted a nice interview with him on his website.

If Willems is not shipped off via trade this off-season, I expect he’ll be back at Triple-A Norfolk to start the 2027 season. Basallo is committed to the Orioles long-term, Willems isn’t strong defensively behind the plate, and the Orioles are awash in 1B/DH types. That doesn’t bode well for him. But I hope he will force his way up when given the chance.

The MLB playoffs are here.

Starting on Tuesday, September 29, 12 teams remain alive in the chase for the World Series. But by the middle of October, only two teams will be left standing.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are chasing an elusive three-peat, as only four teams — and two organizations — have pulled off that accomplishment. The New York Yankees have done this three times (1936-1939, 1949-1953, and 1998-2000), while the Athletics pulled off a three-peat from 1972 through 1974.

If the Dodgers join this exclusive club, they would be the only National League team to pull off a three-peat.

Here is the MLB Playoff Bracket, as well as the times for every game leading up to the ALCS and NLCS.

MLB Playoff Bracket

Here is the playoff bracket for the 2026 MLB Playoffs. You will see that the Tampa Bay Rays secured the top seed in the American League and have a bye, as do the Cleveland Guardians as the No. 2 seed. Tampa Bay will face the winner of the Wild Card Series between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, while the Guardians will take on the winner of the series between the Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox.

In the National League the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers are the top seeds, and will wait on the wild card winners. The Brewers will face the winner of the series between the Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres, while the Dodgers will take on the winner of the series between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves.

Bracket courtesy of MLB.com:

National League schedule and scores

Here is the schedule for the National League playoffs. All times listed are Eastern.

Scores will be updated as games go final.

Wild Card: Phillies vs. Braves

Game 1: Braves 5, Phillies 3 (Braves lead series 1-0)
Game 2: Phillies 4, Braves 3 (F10) (Series tied 1-1)
Game 3: Braves 6, Phillies 2 (Braves win series 2-1)

Wild Card: Cubs vs. Padres

Game 1: Padres 8, Cubs 0 (Padres lead series 1-0)
Game 2: Padres 4, Cubs 1 (Padres win series 2-0)

NLDS: Padres vs. Brewers

Game 1: Padres at Brewers, Saturday, October 3, 8:30 p.m., FS1
Game 2: Padres at Brewers, Sunday, October 4, 4:00 p.m., FS1
Game 3: Brewers at Padres, Tuesday, October 6, 9:30 p.m., FS1
Game 4: Brewers at Padres, Wednesday, October 7, 10:00 p.m., FS1*
Game 5: Padres at Brewers, Friday, October 9, 4:30 p.m., FS1*

NLDS: Braves vs. Dodgers

Game 1: Braves at Dodgers, Saturday, October 3, 4:00 p.m., FOX
Game 2: Braves at Dodgers, Sunday, October 4, 8:00 p.m., FS1
Game 3: Dodgers at Braves, Tuesday, October 6, 6:00 p.m., FS1
Game 4: Dodgers at Braves, Wednesday, October 7, 6:00 p.m., FS1*
Game 5: Braves at Dodgers, Friday, October 9, 8:00 p.m., FOX*

NLCS

Game 1: NL Lower Seed at NL Higher Seed, Sunday, October 11, TBD, FOX or FS1
Game 2: NL Lower Seed at NL Higher Seed, Monday, October 12, TBD, FOX or FS1
Game 3: NL Higher Seed at NL Lower Seed, Wednesday, October 14, TBD, FOX or FS1
Game 4: NL Higher Seed at NL Lower Seed, Thursday, October 15, TBD, FOX or FS1
Game 5: NL Higher Seed at NL Lower Seed, Friday, October 16, TBD, FOX or FS1*
Game 6: NL Lower Seed at NL Higher Seed, Sunday, October 18, TBD, FOX or FS1*
Game 7: NL Lower Seed at NL Higher Seed, Monday, October 19, TBD, FOX or FS1*

* If necessary

American League schedule and scores

Here is the schedule for the playoffs on the American League side of things. All times listed are Eastern.

Wild Card: White Sox vs. Astros

Game 1: White Sox 6, Astros 3 (White Sox lead series 1-0)
Game 2: White Sox 7, Astros 3 (White Sox win series 2-0)

Wild Card: Red Sox vs. Yankees

Game 1: Yankees 9, Red Sox 0 (Yankees lead series 1-0)
Game 2: Yankees 9, Red Sox 2 (Yankees win series 2-0)

ALDS: Yankees vs. Rays

Game 1: Yankees at Rays, Saturday, October 3, 6:30 p.m., TBS
Game 2: Yankees at Rays, Monday, October 5, 8:00 p.m., TBS
Game 3: Rays at Yankees, Wednesday, October 7, 8:00 p.m., TBS
Game 4: Rays at Yankees, Thursday, October 8, 8:00 p.m., TBS*
Game 5: Yankees at Rays, Saturday, October 10, 8:00 p.m., TBS*

ALDS: White Sox vs. Guardians

Game 1: White Sox at Guardians, Saturday, October 3, 1:00 p.m., TBS
Game 2: White Sox at Guardians, Monday, October 5, 5:00 p.m., TBS
Game 3: Guardians at White Sox, Wednesday, October 7, 4:00 p.m., TBS
Game 4: Guardians at White Sox, Thursday, October 8, 5:00 p.m., TBS*
Game 5: White Sox at Guardians, Saturday, October 10, 5:00 p.m., TBS*

ALCS

Game 1: AL Lower Seed at AL Higher Seed, Monday, October 12, TBD, TBS
Game 2: AL Lower Seed at AL Higher Seed, Tuesday, October 13, TBD, TBS
Game 3: AL Higher Seed at AL Lower Seed, Thursday, October 15, TBD, TBS
Game 4: AL Higher Seed at AL Lower Seed, Friday, October 16, TBD, TBS
Game 5: AL Higher Seed at AL Lower Seed, Saturday, October 17, TBD, TBS*
Game 6: AL Lower Seed at AL Higher Seed, Monday, October 19, TBD, TBS*
Game 7: AL Lower Seed at AL Higher Seed, Tuesday, October 20, TBD, TBS*

World Series schedule

Here is the schedule for the World Series:

Game 1: Lower Seed at Higher Seed, Friday, October 23, TBD, FOX
Game 2: Lower Seed at Higher Seed, Saturday, October 24, TBD, FOX
Game 3: Higher Seed at Lower Seed, Monday, October 26, TBD, FOX
Game 4: Higher Seed at Lower Seed, Tuesday, October 27, TBD, FOX
Game 5: Higher Seed at Lower Seed, Wednesday, October 28, TBD, FOX*
Game 6: Lower Seed at Higher Seed, Friday, October 30, TBD, FOX*
Game 7: Lower Seed at Higher Seed, Saturday, October 31, TBD, FOX*

Another year another Red Sox vs Yankees Wild Card round at Yankee Stadium.

I think it’s safe to say we’d all like something different but if that’s not possible, for the Red Sox to win this year. They almost pulled it off in 2025 but with the offense and pitching (minus Garret Crochet) both depleted it was just too much to overcome. This year, while Crochet is at most a bullpen arm, the Sox acquired veterans Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez to bolster a playoff rotation. And watched Payton Tolle surge to the top anyway and become the obvious choice for Game 1.

Game 1

Tolle made his brief MLB debut and playoff debut (1 out) last year but is still very much a rookie. This year he’s been fantastic while putting up an ERA right about 3.00 and striking out 171 in 148.2 innings of work. It’s wild to think that he didn’t make the team out of Spring Training. But they wanted a little more development out of Tolle and when he returned in late April he looked MLB-ready starting from 6.0-inning, 11 strikeout tour de force against these same Yankees. Tolle made a second start against the Yankees in June during The Turnaround Homestand where he struck out 7, allowed 1 hit, and 0 runs.

Cam Schlittler is the Game 1 starter for New York.

Compared to Tolle’s 16 MLB innings in 2025, Schlittler threw 73.0 in the regular season. He bumped that to 193.3 in 2026 on his way to, unfortunately, probably a Cy Young award. Not bad for a guy drafted in the 7th round. The Red Sox selected Caleb Bolden with the pick immediately preceding him. Win some, lose some. He faced the Sox four times this season with the Yankees winning three of the four. That’s just bad luck. April he was dominant: 8.0 inning, 4 hits, 2 runs. Early June he lasted just 5.2 innings, 4 hits, 1 run. Honestly most of the time the Sox might win this one but it featured that 5-run eighth inning bullpen collapse. In Boston during late June was another 5.0 inning effort with 4 runs (0 earned) on 5 hits. Sox win this game. Then back in NYC in August 5.2 innings, 2 hits and 0 runs. Hopefully the coaches have been working on this. Third time through the order and he’s a .691 OPS allowed pitcher vs. ~.500 which is huge. The Blue Jays also faced him in four games and put up a total OPS of .686 against Schlittler to the Sox .560 mark. So, it can get better.

Game 2

Game 2 features Sonny Gray, the elder statesman of the rotation. Gray faced the Yankees twice this season, the Sox won both matchups. In early June he went 6.1 innings while allowing 3 runs on 8 hits. During The Weekend he was even better: 7.1 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs. The Sox did have to wait until the 10th inning to walkoff the game but it was a masterpiece against (probably still) Aaron Judge-less Yankees.

Max Fried was rumored to be starting Game 1 for a bit over the weekend, although that seemed kinda nuts to everyone. Is it good or bad he tossed only 112.2 innings this year? Is he fresh or rusty? Fried was originally drafted by the Padres in 2012 and traded with a package for Justin Upton. Did you forget the Justin Upton era (1 year) in San Diego? (I sure did). Despite this limited workload, Fried faced the Sox twice. One was 8.0 innings of 3 hit, 0 run ball. The second was a 3.2 inning return from the IL during the August doubleheader in the Bronx. Three hits, 1 run. That one run? A Nick Sogard homer. Just about 12 innings and 1 run. Maybe they should have opened with this guy?

Game 3

Hopefully there is no Game 3 because the Sox go 2-0. But if they can only win one of the first two games then Ranger Suarez will start the third matchup of the Wild Card series. The Sox signed him in part because he’s been excellent in October. Well, he had a pretty good September. He’s allowed just 3 runs all month putting up a 1.09 ERA in that span. Batters hit just .182/.250/.284 during the last month of the regular season. In his introduction to the rivalry in April, Suarez lost 4-1, hit hard through 4.2 innings of work including a crushing homer. Then in early June he held the Yankees to 1 run in 6.1 innings but the bullpen couldn’t hold them back. Sox lost 6-1. Then he allowed 6 runs as part of the 16-1 drubbing in August. He might not be the guy you want starting in this series but then again, he’s in a groove now and has recovered from various IL stints so he might just be in a better place pitching-wise than August.

Gerrit Cole used to be the ace. Now he’s the number three. Cole missed all of 2025 with injury but came back for 127 innings this year. Despite no longer having Rafael Devers, Cole was hit hard by Boston: 5.1 innings, 7 hits, 2 homers, 4 runs. Masa and Anthony Seigler hit the bombs, and, clearly neither will e playing this fall. So someone else will need to emerge as the hero.

Aaron Judge is probably out but he’s trying to play anyway.

Giancarlo Stanton is possibly out but he’s been on the IL since April. If he’s healthy is that even the way to return? We might find out!

Trent Grisham is also a possibility.

Ben Rice ended up with 41 homers but didn’t even lead the American League. Thanks, Pete! Alonso also robbed Yordan Alvarez of a chance at the Triple Crown by winning RBI as well. Just doing service all over the league.

Probable Pitching Matchups

Tuesday, September 29: Payton Tolle (3.03 ERA / 3.04 FIP) vs. Cam Schlittler (1.95 ERA / 2.56 FIP)

Wednesday, September 30: Sonny Gray (2.72 ERA / 3.47 FIP) vs. Max Fried (2.80 ERA / 2.65 FIP)

Thursday, October 1: Ranger Suarez (3.22 ERA / 3.16 FIP) vs. Gerrit Cole (3.41 ERA / 3.93 FIP) (If needed)

When/Where to Watch

Tuesday, September 29: 8:00 PM ET on NBC / Peacock

Wednesday, September 30: 8:00 PM ET on NBC / Peacock

Thursday, October 1, 8:00 PM ET on NBC / Peacock (If needed)

Jaylon Thompson wrote about the now-wrapped season.

The Royals have a long way to go.

Their 2026 campaign was an utter disappointment. The Royals entered the year with high expectations but fell short of their intended goals. A slow start and a slew of injuries sent them tumbling down the American League Central standings.

KC suffered through a rough spring. As the calendar flipped to June, the Royals were 22-37, well behind the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Guardians in the division race.

This week, both of those competitor teams made the playoffs. The Royals had to watch from their own dugout as their AL Central rivals clinched postseason berths at Kauffman Stadium.

Jackson Stone at MLB mothership turned an eye toward 2027.

The Royals have been here before. A large part of this team was here when they turned 106 losses in 2023 into a postseason run in 2024. There will most likely be a few changes to the coaching staff and free-agent signings to bolster the bullpen and rotation — but the core is here to stay, including starters Michael Wacha and Seth Lugo.

It’s up to that group to get back to the winning baseball of years prior.

“From my end, I feel like we have the pieces to be able to do it and we didn’t do it this year,” Pasquantino said. “Like I said, that’s a failure. That doesn’t mean I have any less confidence going into next year. … I’m walking into next season expecting us to be in a playoff push the whole year. Those are just words; they don’t mean anything right now, but those are my expectations. We just gotta go do it.”

David Lesky pointed toward the last game in August as the last gasp of a team falling apart.

I sort of think September, and this weekend on a smaller scale, was just a team that ran out of gas. Specifically, it was about a pitching staff that ran out of gas. That’s an issue, of course, but it’s a bigger issue when they weren’t good enough on a full tank. I will never stop believing that when they got the band back together in mid-August and went on that run, they saw that Sunday loss against Cleveland that dropped them to 7.5 back with 24 to play and realized the longshot dream was dead. They went 7-17 from there. I have a hard time thinking they could have continued the run they were on with this pitching staff, but none of them are stupid. They knew that they almost had to win that last game of August. And when they didn’t, it completely fell apart.

Former Royals broadcaster Buddy Blattner (1969-1975 for the Royals) is on the ballot for the 2027 Ford C. Frick award.

Brian Burrows at Kings of Kauffman took a look at departing free agents.

The case for each team to win the World Series.

Luis Arraez will not be on the Phillies Wild Card roster due to injury.

The Mariners are cleaning out some coaching staff, which includes firing former Royal Kevin Seitzer from his post as hitting coach.

The Twins fired their pitching coach and assistant pitching coach.

The Rays returning to the Trop juiced 2026 MLB attendance numbers.

Barry Petchesky wrote about the other former Tiger who might also be ending his career – psycho Max Scherzer.

Sporting KC has filed a countersuit against former coach Zoran Savic in the dispute about youth soccer in Kansas City.

The Chiefs are a totally different team this September compared to last September.

The New York Giants gave up an actual draft pick (2027 5th) to acquire J.J. McCarthy from the Vikings.

Miami Dolphins star RB (and fantasy top pick) De’Von Achane suffered a torn ACL in the game against the Chiefs and is out for the season. Football is brutal.

USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino is mad about Manchester City’s financial chicanery, of which they’ve apparently been found guilty.

Atlanta’s NWSL expansion club starting in 2028 has been revealed to be Atlanta City FC.

The Senate passed a bill containing regulations over college sports by a 77-22 vote yesterday.

Your song of the day is Audioslave with Yesterday to Tomorrow.

The Dodgers are in their bye period, getting everyone healthy and their pitching lined up how they want it for the NLDS that will start this Saturday at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers will play the winners of the Braves/Phillies Wild Card Series.

Fans of other teams often accuse the Dodgers of buying their championships, and does one player who joined the Dodgers this off season need to have a great October to wipe out his dismal regular season? Kyle Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million contract in the offseason. He proceeded to have the worst offensive season of his life, with a slash line of .233/.330/.385 and OPS of .715.

Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register talked to Tucker, Dave Roberts, and Andrew Freidman about Tucker’s season:

“Oh, for sure,” Friedman said. “Like if you said, Player X can have a down regular season as compared to his previous performance but a really good October – I couldn’t pick it across the board because then we wouldn’t get a bye. But with one-offs, I would absolutely take that.”

Katie Woo of The Athletic ponders the Dodgers NLDS roster decisions, and predicts Josue De Paula should make the team as a pinch-hitter over Daulton Rushing who is just coming back from the IL. The club optioned him with the exact number of days needed to be added to the postseason roster last week:

“He’s done everything he can to put himself in a position to be in the conversation for us as we’re making our postseason roster,” Dodgers president Andrew Friedman said at the time.

De Paula added a lot of pop and swagger to a team that at the time was coasting to the finish line of the regular season. His youthful exuberance could buoy the oldest team in the playoffs.

The Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies open the 2026 Major League Baseball postseason on Tuesday, Sept. 29 with Game 1 of the National League wild card series at Truist Park in Georgia.

Atlanta won the NL East while Philadelphia got into the postseason as a wild card team, nearly coughing up a fifth consecutive playoff trip struggling down the stretch. But everyone's slate is now wiped clean with the best-of-three series running through Thursday, if a Game 3 is necessary.

"Guys played a lot of postseason games and know anything can happen this time of year," Phillies shortstop Trea Turner told reporters. "It looked ugly, but that's behind us, and I think we feel good. We feel like we can beat anybody."

It's the third postseason meeting between the rivals in five years, with the Phillies upsetting the Braves in the 2022 and 2023 NL Division series. Philadelphia had won the division each of the previous two seasons, snapping Atlanta's six-year streak from 2018-2023.

Where to watch Phillies vs Braves today

• Game time: 2 p.m. ET
• TV channel: NBC
• Live stream: Peacock

Watch MLB playoffs on Peacock

What time is Braves vs Phillies today?

First pitch in Game 1 of the NL wild card series is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.

Phillies vs Braves schedule

Wild card series at Truist Park in Atlanta. Game 3 time subject to change.

• Game 1, Tuesday: Phillies at Braves – buy tickets – 2 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock
• Game 2, Wednesday: Phillies at Braves – buy tickets – 2 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock
• Game 3*, Thursday: Phillies at Braves – buy tickets – 2 p.m. ET, NBC & Peacock

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Where to watch Braves vs Phillies today: Time, TV channel for MLB Game 1

Our editors independently choose our recommendations. Some content is produced with paid support from a third party, however our editorial decisions remain independent. If you buy through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices and availability may change.

Let the quest for the World Series begin.

The MLB playoffs begin Tuesday, Sept. 29 with the wild card rounds, two in each league. The winners will advance to the divisional series and face the teams that earned a bye.

Teams with the top-two records in the National and American leagues were awarded first-round byes, where they wait to see who they will face in the best-of-five Divisional Series.

The wild card series features the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves, Chicago White Sox vs. Houston Astros, Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs vs. San Diego Padres.

Here's are the teams in the MLB postseason that were awarded a first-round bye:

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers are a title favorite, coming off of back-to-back World Series. They can become the first NL team to three-peat with three consecutive titles. L.A. looks to be a strong opponent and made a clear case to defend its titles, finishing the season 100-62. However, they had the second-best record in the National League.

Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers believe it's their year. They believe that every year, but after they topped the National League with 103 wins and 59 losses, there's more indication that this actually might be their year. It was the first time the organization has reached 100 wins. They have Cy Young Award favorite Jacob Misiorowski. There's a lot going in their favor.

Cleveland Guardians

The Guardians are itching to have their "Cleveland! This is for you" moment by raising a World Series trophy. They clinched the AL Central title for the seventh time in the last 11 years. Don't expect a lot of home runs. The Guardians rank 27th in the majors in homers – only Milwaukee hits fewer among playoff teams – and 26th in OPS.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays got used to playing in the wild card round in their last two playoff appearances – 2022 and 2023 – but graduated to a first-round bye this year. After getting bounced in the wild card series those last two appearances, a rest between the regular season and playoffs could bode well for the Rays. One thing's for sure, the need Nick Martinez to play like an All-Star.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which MLB teams have first-round byes into the division series?

Breathe. The regular season is over, we’ve made it to the postseason, and we have a bye week. It’s all positive over here.

Clinching’s So Nice, We Did It Twice

Thanks to a 1-0 win against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, the Guardians clinched a postseason berth for the third year in a row. It was all Angel Martínez as he took a 79 mph changeup from Ranger Suarez into the right field seats. A combined two-hit effort from Daniel Espino, Joey Cantillo, Hunter Gaddis, Erik Sabrowski, and Cade Smith secured the one-run win and postseason spot. While the Kansas City Royals took an early three-run lead on Saturday, the Guards answered with four runs of their own in the second inning. They secured the win with a four-run ninth inning and locked down the American League Central. They’ll have a first round bye and will play the winner of the Wild Card series.

Ingle Earns MVP

The Guardians’ number four prospect, Cooper Ingle, brought home the hardware on Saturday when Minor League Baseball announced that he earned International League MVP honors. On top of hitting 20 home runs this season, he topped the league in OPS with a .952. He was also in the top-five for runs with 85, walks with 86, batting average with .297, and BABIP with .362. In 21 at bats with the Major League club this year, he hit just .095/.208/.095. However, with nearly a full season of Triple-A experience under his belt and a fresh start just six months away, he has the opportunity to blossom in 2027.

ClevelandRox Gives Back

Thanks to two home runs from catcher Hunter Goodman, the Colorado Rockies took down the Chicago White Sox on Saturday which secured the AL Central for the Guardians. Fans took to Twitter to show their gratitude, especially user @GuardsJoey. They quoted the Rockies’ win graphic asking if they could set up a GoFundMe for Goodman’s favorite charity. Goodman selected Kids of Denver which provides school clothing for children in Denver. By Sunday, fans had donated $2,500 to Kids of Denver to show their thanks to the catcher.

The San Diego Padres host the Chicago Cubs in the best-of-three National League wild card series beginning Tuesday, Sept. 29, a rematch from a year ago – won by the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

"I'm looking forward to playing a really good ballclub and getting another crack at them and starting this playoffs off on a high note," Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong said Monday.

Crow-Armstrong will likely be the National League's MVP after becoming just the seventh player in MLB history with 40 home runs and 40 steals in a season and the 24-year-old finished tied for the MLB lead with 45 home runs.

"This place is super fun to play in in the regular season, and it's rocking and it's a party," Crow-Armstrong said of San Diego's Petco Park. "I'm just looking forward to year two of playoff baseball."

The Padres are one of five Major League Baseball franchises to have never won a World Series, last reaching the Fall Classic in 1998. The Cubs last won it all in 2016, snapping a 108-year championship drought.

Where to watch Cubs vs Padres: TV channel, streaming

• Time: 10 p.m. ET
• TV channel: NBCSN
• Streaming: Peacock

Watch MLB playoffs on Peacock

What time is Cubs vs Padres today?

First pitch is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET at Petco Park in San Diego.

Padres vs. Cubs predictions

• Bob Nightengale: Padres in 2
• Gabe Lacques: Padres in 3
• Kristie Ackert: Cubs in 3
• Jesse Yomtov: Padres in 3

Padres vs Cubs schedule

Game 3 time subject to change

• Game 1, Tuesday: Cubs at Padres – buy tickets – 10 p.m. ET – NBCSN/Peacock
• Game 2, Wednesday: Cubs at Padres – buy tickets – 10 p.m. ET – NBCSN/Peacock
• Game 3*, Thursday: Cubs at Padres – buy tickets – 10 p.m. ET – NBCSN/Peacock

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What time is Cubs vs Padres today? Where to watch, MLB playoffs Game 1 channel

Our editors independently choose our recommendations. Some content is produced with paid support from a third party, however our editorial decisions remain independent. If you buy through our links, the USA TODAY Network may earn a commission. Prices and availability may change.

The 2026 MLB postseason begins on September 29 and as excitement builds for October baseball, the postseason brings a few key rule differences compared to the regular season, especially in how extra innings are handled.

During the regular season, if a game goes to extra innings, the so-called 'ghost runner' rule is in effect: starting in the top of the 10th inning, each team begins its half-inning at bat with a runner automatically placed on second base.

However, in the postseason, the "ghost runner" rule does not apply.

Extra innings in the playoffs are played under traditional baseball rules, with no automatic runner starting on second base.

Extra innings continue until one team leads at the end of a completed inning, or the home team scores the go-ahead run in the bottom half of an extra inning, ending the game immediately.

More: Who's in? Every MLB team that has clinched a playoff spot in 2026

When does the MLB postseason start?

The MLB postseason kicks off on Tuesday, Sept. 29, with Game 1 of each of the four wild card series. If needed, a decisive Game 3 will be played two days later on Thursday, Oct. 1.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MLB playoffs extra-innings rules: Is there a ghost runner?

Hello, friends.

There are 176 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game. Whether a game happens on that date is not something that is certain at this time, and it will probably not be known until February, due to the coming ownership-induced lockout that will halt baseball until the owners either scale back the scope of their greed or inflict such suffering on the players that the players give up.

For today, the start of the playoffs is around to offer some possible entertainment. Both the AL and NL wild card series get going today. There will probably be continuous (or very close to it) playoff baseball from 2pm until after midnight. That’s fun. It will be more fun if the right teams lose. Game start times are at 2 (Phillies-Braves), 5 (White Sox-Astros), 8 (Yankees-Red Sox), and 10 (Cubs-Padres).

**

The day after the season ends is typically the time where loser, non-postseason teams have post-mortem press conferences for local media. For some teams, this involves the owner coming out and saying the GM isn’t coming back, or the GM coming out and saying the manager isn’t coming back. That is not what happened with the Orioles. Mike Elias and Craig Albernaz came out and did the presser. Like it or not, they’re coming back.

I don’t like it! One thing that Elias said yesterday is an acknowledgement that “this is the second year in a row that (the results) haven’t been there” adding, “we’re tired of it.” Among the things that Elias promised is a “full organizational review” regarding areas where the team is deficient. He was vague about it, which is fine. Can’t go giving away trade secrets just because the fans aren’t happy.

The main problem for Elias is that he was saying similar stuff last year about doing a whole organization look at what didn’t work and the product of that was the 2026 Orioles. They were, collectively, an underachieving disappointment. Even with the injury problems they suffered through the year, they should have been better than this and they weren’t.

I have no confidence that Elias is the guy to get all of that figured out. I don’t think it really matters whether he hires a subordinate general manager from outside the organization or not. He hired Albernaz from outside the organization, and look what that was worth. The amount of stupid, not-prepared-for-the-game mistakes was almost unbelievable.

Beyond that, the issues with the offense and the collective fizzling of the players Elias has invested substantial amounts of his early draft capital in have now been going on for about two and a half seasons. What is Elias going to do about it? Is there a person who can steer Gunnar Henderson back in the right direction? Jackson Holliday? Can anybody hypnotize Colton Cowser into chasing changeups out of the zone just a little bit less often? How in the world is he going to go about fixing the defense from the mess that it was this year?

There will be some semblance of a clue as to Elias’s thinking on these things when considering his roster moves over the offseason. Last offseason, one clear priority was to increase the team’s home run potential. The signing of Pete Alonso and the trade of Taylor Ward were clearly made to this end. That initiative resulted in eight more home runs for the 2026 Orioles compared to last year. That was even with Pete Alonso showing up and hitting 43 when last year’s team leader had 17! The Alonso signing was a success. Other things were less successful.

**

Some news also came out of the press conference. The Orioles said that Kyle Bradish is getting surgery this week for a sports hernia. Albernaz indicated that Bradish was ailing from that injury during his final three starts. If that’s what it is, then it’s not like this destroyed his season numbers; he had a disappointing 4.03 ERA before those final three starts.

Additionally, Jordan Westburg is starting a hitting progression this week as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery. These guys both being cut off from team facilities during the lockout might end up being unfortunate. Hopefully they can each bounce back with their own resources.

Orioles stuff you might have missed

The simple – yet complicated – path forward for Craig Albernaz and the Orioles (The Baltimore Banner)
My takeaway from this Jon Meoli article is that Albernaz is going to have to live up to the reputation he brought over with him, something about which I have little confidence after what transpired this season.

Five takeaways from the Orioles press event: Biggest buzzword, Henderson’s wrist, and more (The Baltimore Banner)
More from the news side of the event, Andy Kostka noted the buzzword was “execution.” The Orioles were bad at it at times this year!

A wonderful season for Alonso in a challenging season for the Orioles (Baltimore Baseball)
The Polar Bear was so much better than I ever could have hoped! And the rest of the Orioles more or less wasted the best year he’s had since his rookie season.

Notes and quotes from the Orioles end-of-season presser (Steve on Baseball)
Other things discussed in the presser range from meaningful (Luis De León will be stretched out as a starter next season) to meaningless (Elias says he’ll talk to Trevor Rogers’s reps before and during free agency).

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1996, Brady Anderson hit a solo home run, scoring the only Orioles run in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto. This was his 50th home run of the season. He was just the 14th player with a 50+ homer season at the time; this mark now is tied for 49th place on in the record books. Anderson never hit more than 24 home runs in any other season of his career.

There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2022 pitcher Jake Reed, 2019-20 pitcher Branden Kline, 1998-99 first baseman Calvin Pickering, 1992 pitcher Craig Lefferts, and 1963-64 pitcher Mike McCormick.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Roman general Pompey (106 BC), British admiral Horatio Nelson (1758 AD), author Elizabeth Gaskell (1810), nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi (1901), musician Jerry Lee Lewis (1935), and Maryland-raised basketballer Kevin Durant (1988).

On this day in history…

In 1364, a civil war between factions in Brittany in modern-day France was settled in the Battle of Auray, in which a French-backed claimant to the dukedom was killed by forces supporting an English-backed claimant. However, the winner of this War of the Breton Succession, John of Montfort, pledged his loyalty to the French king Charles V instead of the English.

In 1829, London’s Metropolitan Police – these days colloquially called “the Met” – was founded.

In 1907, the cornerstone for the Washington National Cathedral was laid. Construction of what is officially known as the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in the City and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington was not completed until 1990 – also on this day. The building was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places 16 years before it was even completed.

In 1918, the Allies launched attacks in the Battle of St. Quentin Canal that proved to be the real, final offensive of World War I. Two American divisions participated in the battle, which ultimately breached the German Hindenburg Line. Also on this day, the German Army told the Kaiser to begin negotiations about an armistice to end the war.

**

And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 29. Have a safe Tuesday.

The 2026 Major League Baseball regular season is fully in the rear view mirror and the playoffs begin today. Four games are on deck, starting with Braves and Phillies reigniting their postseasonrivalry in Atlanta at 2pm ET. Next up is the .500 AL West champion Astros hosting the most surprising playoff team, the just-recently-doormat White Sox at 5pm ET. If you’re a Yankees fan and reading this, you already know about Yankees/Red Sox at 8pm ET, and the late game at 10pm ET has the Padres welcoming in the Cubs for a 2025 Wild Card Series rematch, this time at Petco Park.

So now that we’ve all had a day to take in the field, it’s time for some predictions. We asked the staff for their thoughts! Here’s how the Wild Card Series should go:

Look, we’re not going to apologize for unanimously thinking that the Yankees will get past the Red Sox in the first round. Do we all likely have varying forms of uncertainty about the Yankees and at least a partial fear of them bouncing theemselves? Sure. But the Yanks are the favorites here for a reason.

Most of the staff thinks the Braves will take care of business with a Phillies team that almost backed into October, though Jake, Dan, and Kento think there’s still some of that 2022-23 Philly magic left. They may be right! As for the other two series, the margins are very close, but consensus has the White Sox trouncing the Astros for their first playoff series victory in 21 years and the Padres capitalizing on home-field advantage to get vengeance on the Cubs.

Next up, the Division Series:

Although it may be a more cautious optimism, we think that unlike in 2025, the Yankees will dispatch the team that beat them out for the AL East. If they can, it will certainly help to have a better starter than 2025 Luis Gil in Game 1.

Most are envisioning a Dodgers/Brewers NLCS rematch with Milwaukee hoping that at minimum it’s far more competitive than the four-game sweep last October. (Shouts to Dan for believing in the Phillies quite a bit.) In the other ALDS, it’s a dead heat between the Guardians and White Sox to advance. Once again, it is very silly that at best an 85-win team is locked into an ALCS spot. So it goes.

The majority are keeping the faith with a Yankees return trip to the World Series after a mere one-year hiatus, with future Cy Young Award winner Cam Schlittler earning ALCS MVP honors, perhaps à la 2009 CC Sabathia. In the Senior Circuit, the Dodgers and Brewers each received seven votes. Maybe it’s wishful thinking for a Brew Crew revenge given all the star power that the Dodgers have at their disposal, but the subset believes in Da Miz and co.

Plan the parade, pals, and pick your own heroes. That being said, while the Yankees were the common championship pick, they only earned the pluraility. The oh-so-slight majority (9-8) is taking the field.

That’s how we foresee October and beyond. Tell us what your playoff bracket looks like though, and don’t forget to vote in our Feed poll on your specific Wild Card Series prediction!

End of season press conferences are by definition lacking in substance. Nothing Scott Harris or AJ Hinch was going to say would change anything for the 2026 season now past, and they aren’t going to address the impending offseason with any specifics. Questions about extensions for Riley Greene and Max Clark were rebuffed, as it’s Harris’ policy not to talk about potential contract issues or talks. Like all front offices, their policy is to talk about what they want to talk about. Scott Harris probably deserves a bit of credit for even doing one of these considering how many front offices around the league hide entirely and leave things up to the manager to explain. Watching the Seattle Mariners front office send manager Dan Wilson out for a press conference to announce his own firing was a good example of the shady conduct that goes on when the blame game begins.

Largely, these conferences are an exercise in trying to control the context of the questions, refusing specifics except where they favor the front office, and otherwise filling the air with a lot of general answers that muddy the water more than really clarifying anything. That’s not even a criticism. It’s just how these things go.

Harris spent a lot of the opening of the presser doing that annoying thing he does where he very pointedly lays out the obvious issues and mistakes during the season like he’s delivering a lecture. Of course, the point is to assert his own narratives, not to tell us anything we don’t already know. He said that the thing he’s struggling with the most is that the team was actually very good for much of the season, posting one of the best run differentials in the game. He pinned a lot of the season’s issues to the 6-22 record in May, which is certainly accurate. He blamed himself for not building enough depth into a roster whose flaws were laid bare entirely in that month-long collapse, saying repeatedly that he has to do better. And then he went on sounding like he wasn’t going to do much this offseason because there is so much young talent on this team and they need the opportunity to play.

There’s a middle ground there that does make sense, because having a lot more young, optionable players makes it a lot easier to shore up holes and swap in hotter hitters when one of the others is struggling. The lack of talented, optionable players on the pitching side has been a crucial problem we’ve highlighted the last two years as the Tigers have tried to patch the pen with guys like Tommy Kahnle, Kyle Finnegan, and Kenley Jansen. Unfortunately, unlike the positional side of things, the Tigers are still a year or two away from graduating a whole slew of pitching talent.

This is a problem that is really hard to resolve through free agency, but the best teams in the game consistently resolve it with trades for pitchers, and by converting starters to relief and otherwise developing internal options. Four years into Harris’ tenure they finally graduated their first Harris drafted arm in Andrew Sears in September. There remains little to nothing of note at the Triple-A and Double-A levels behind Sears other than an interesting starting pitching prospect in RHP Lucas Elissalt, and a few lively arms like Yilber Diaz, Moises Rodriguez, and Yoniel Curet, none of whom have refined their command enough yet to break out. The situation is infinitely brighter in the A-ball levels, it’s true, but those guys may still be 2-3 years away from really impacting the major league roster, especially if the Tigers continue to keep everyone as a starter as long as possible.

Harris repeatedly emphasized all the rookie talent the team added through the system this season, expressing optimism that there’s another strong wave of talent coming next year, and another big wave building beyond that group as well. On that point I don’t disagree on the position player side of things. The farm system is still in very good shape overall. Still, the lack of upper level pitching, which is what they need the most to build a homegrown bullpen, remains the glaring weakness. Harris obliquely addressed that in pointing out the pitching talent they were able to add at the trade deadline and in the draft. River Ryan, first rounder Cameron Flukey, Brady Smith, along with lefties Kash Mayfield and Jackson Wolf, was certainly a nice haul of pitching talent, while the emergence of A-ballers like Ben Jacobs, Cale Wetwiska, Charlie Christensen, Kelvis Salcedo, and others does lend hope a few years down the road.

Harris did circle back to say that none of that was meant to bury the lede, which is this failure of a season. He pointed out their lack of depth up the middle to start the year, and the lack of good high leverage relief options, particularly once Will Vest’s injury issues cropped up, as the major reasons behind their collapse in May. Still he remains optimistic that if they learn from some mistakes this year, they’ll ultimately get it right and achieve their goals of legitimately contending year in and year out. Hey, at least we have a dominant Drew Sommers to work with, I suppose. Here’s hoping Will Vest, drafted way back in 2019, can return healthy to save them next year.

A key point Harris made about the young talent emerging was that the way the Tigers play is going to change, with less pinch-hitting and matchups required, because they have a deeper group of good, two-way players who can affect the game with defense and speed as well as with their bats. The Tigers focus on up-the-middle athletic hitters in the draft over the last four years should play a big role in that change to the roster. This should allow them to be less reliant on very specific role players. Jahmai Jones was the unnamed subtext of most of this section of Harris’ comments.

In regard to their ever lengthening track record of bad, if small scale, signings, Harris argued that every offseason is “filled with land mines” and that every organization has a spotty track in free agency. He views that as the nature of the beast. In all senses, he refuted the idea that his front office has done poorly in free agency. He also reiterated that the organization is focused on building through development and always will be, arguing that free agency is just supplemental and largely guesswork. Ok then.

He pointed to Michael Lorenzen and Jack Flaherty as wins in free agency because of the prospects they acquired through trading them. He pointed to the fact that he wants to keep lanes open for young players and has largely looked for cheap, short-term help as the reason for their free agent track record, as opposed to pro scouting being poor. He later pointed out how many top 100 prospects they have already in the major leagues, and that they have more top 100 type players coming, saying that unless there’s a free agent that really stands out more than their internal options, they’re going to remain pretty low key in free agency.

On the topic of Framber Valdez’s first season in Detroit, Harris pointed to the huge volume of first inning runs, saying that they needed to get him off to better starts. He also pointed to defensive weaknesses earlier in the year hurting the extreme ground ball pitcher and extending innings. Hinch expounded on all this, talking about the adjustments Valdez made to get his curveball going and develop his slider, and some changes in approach they made to make him more unpredictable early in games. It’s pretty debatable whether Valdez actually pitched any better down the stretch, but certainly putting a better group of fielders behind him later in the year helped. At least Valdez’s stuff and durability are intact, and really he’s one of the least of the Tigers’ worries.

Rogelio Castillo of Tigers Minor League Report, and friend of the site, asked pointedly about the lack of obvious future Tigers relievers at the Double and Triple-A levels. Harris talked about the growing crop of starting pitchers in the minors, noting LHP Ben Jacobs and RHP Brady Smith as two pitchers with strikeout rates near the top of the entire minor leagues, name-checking RHP Lucas Elissalt and LHP Andrew Sears as starters who might start out helping out of the bullpen. saying that the plan is to continue to focus on acquiring as much starting pitching as possible over the next 3-5 years, and let that depth spill over into the bullpen to give them more high leverage relief options.

Everyone was no doubt thrilled to hear that four years in, we’re 3-5 years away from building a reliably excellent pitching pipeline. That’s not what he meant exactly, but it sure didn’t sound great, and he didn’t season it with thoughts on how the Tigers were going to build a much better bullpen immediately, as in next season, other than hoping to build up enough starting pitching to use the “overflow” in the bullpen. They still seem entirely obsessed with the starting rotation, with the bullpen an afterthought.

If you wondered if Harris or Hinch felt like they were on the hot seat next season, it absolutely did not feel like that at all. Instead, without going line by line through the entire hour-long press conference, we’ll just cut to the chase. This all sounded like staying the course.

Step A. Continue to draft and develop well.

Step B. Don’t worry about it.

Step C. Achieve those ALCS and World Series appearances we want to see.

As I have asserted since Al Avila first tore the team down in 2017, getting to the point the Tigers have reached the past few years is the easy part. A competent POBO or GM has all the advantages as a losing team to rebuild a farm system, acquire some filler talent around the margins of the roster, and become a respectable team again. The hard part is building a World Series contender from that point, and so far, my fears are all coming true. The Tigers got back to respectability, but failed to make the moves to get themselves to the next level. Now we’re spinning our wheels. A bad season in 2022 gave Harris and his staff the opportunity to land high end talent in the 2023 draft, and they did a great job on that front. But, even with an AL Rookie of the Year added, the team performed worse overall despite all the prospect talent that reached the major leagues this season. And the only answer from the front office remains building from within, refuting any criticism of their work in free agency or the trade market.

This just doesn’t add up. Without some great trades and signings, no one wins the World Series no matter how good a development pipeline they have going. Hopefully the Tarik Skubal trade turns out to be a great one, but Harris had a window to contend with Skubal, Riley Greene, and the rest, and failed to do much to build a winning roster out of the fairly stacked cupboard Al Avila left him.

Now his own draft picks are reaching the league, and on that side of things they’ve done a really good job. There’s plenty of talent on the Detroit Tigers, but unless they add to it through smart trades and opportunistic free agent signings, we’re probably going to see more of the same, with some postseason appearances and some down years, but never the kind of team that produces a dominant championship winning era.

The 2026 Detroit Tigers certainly had more than their share of bad luck. That must be acknowledged. Apart from May they were again a solid, wild card level team capable of getting really hot. Bullpens are fungible, and a similar group could return next season and do a lot better job holding leads. But no one wants to hear that we’re going to run it back and things will just work out differently. After the collapse down the stretch in 2025, Harris said that the team would remain much the same, but they would play better. Here we are again.

Fans would like to see some urgency, and to feel like team leadership is under pressure, but none of that comes across from Harris’ comments. He spent a lot of time talking about everything they’d added from the farm and in trade this year, but he didn’t really talk about what they’ve lost or squandered. Skubal is gone. Players like Dillon Dingler and Kerry Carpenter are closing in on 30 years old while Riley Greene closes in on free agency in two years. While you’re welcoming talented young players through the front door, talent is constantly leaving out the back door as well. Fresh waves of talent will keep the Tigers afloat for a long time to come, but four years in there’s nothing to suggest that Harris can build one of those waves up into the best team in baseball for a year or two, nor any sense that they really feel a need to adjust their thinking either.

Maybe they’ll be proven right. Kevin McGonigle at least, and probably Max Clark as well, are a different breed of prospect than even highly ranked prior prospects like Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Riley Greene. The Tigers are rapidly becoming a faster, younger, and more well rounded team. They do have a deep pool of athletic, versatile prospects with power all throughout the minor leagues, though there are no more top shelf, truly elite prospects to follow McGonigle and Clark right at the moment. They have the makings of a pretty good starting rotation heading into 2027. Just get the bullpen right and we’ll take our chances. But until that happens, skepticism of Harris and AJ Hinch’s leadership is only going to continue to grow.