Category: MLB

The San Francisco Giants' social media team accidentally posted a video with a nude player in the background of the clubhouse, which was deleted shortly thereafter.

The video was highlighting the postgame return to the clubhouse for Bo Davidson, who made his MLB debut on Monday night, becoming the first Giants player to record a hit, steal a base and score a run in their first game.

But when the door to the locker room opened for Davidson to enter, an unknowing teammate was briefly caught unclothed on video. The player dashed to cover up and get out of the shot, but the Giants deleted the video about 15 minutes after it was posted, according to multiple reports.

More: San Francisco Giants broadcasters Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper's best moments

Under rookie manager Tony Vitello, San Francisco is missing the playoffs for the fifth season in a row and has failed to put together a winning record since 2021.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: San Francisco Giants post video of naked player in social media mishap

The countdown to October means different things across Major League Baseball.

Some teams are battling for division titles, playoff berths and postseason seeding. Others have already been eliminated from contention and turned their attention toward the offseason. With just days left in the regular season, there's still room on the bench for a few more clubs to join them.

Here's every MLB team that has been mathematically eliminated from the 2026 postseason race.

MLB PLAYOFFS LOOM: 4 series that could shape the final field during final week

What MLB teams have been eliminated from playoff contention?

American League

• Athletics
• Detroit Tigers
• Kansas City Royals
• Los Angeles Angels
• Minnesota Twins

National League

• Cincinnati Reds
• Colorado Rockies
• Miami Marlins
• New York Mets
• Pittsburgh Pirates
• St. Louis Cardinals
• San Francisco Giants
• Washington Nationals

Which MLB teams are closest to elimination?

• The Seattle Mariners have been eliminated from wild-card contention but are not yet mathematically eliminated from winning the AL West. The Mariners hold the tiebreaker over the Houston Astros but lose the tiebreaker to the Texas Rangers. Seattle is five games behind Texas and Houston with five to play, giving it an elimination number of 1.
• The Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays have an elimination number of 1 in the AL wild card race. The two AL East rivals continue a three-game series at Camden Yards with a doubleheader on Wednesday.
• The Arizona Diamondbacks' elimination number in the NL wild card race is 2.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Which MLB teams are eliminated from the 2026 playoff race?

In what will likely be his last regular season start for the Atlanta Braves this season, Chris Sale will be facing off against Andrew Abbott and the Cincinnati Reds.

Chris Sale is not the front runner for the Cy Young award, but will most certainly get some second and third place votes with his 2.18 ERA, 30.3 percent strikeout rate, and league leading strikeout to walk ratio of 6.13. Sale also leads the NL is best HR rate of 0.5 per nine innings, and best walk rate in the NL of 4.9 percent.

Side note, Chris Sale has the best career strikeout to walk ratio of all-time. Sale has also pitched 157.0 innings thus far this season, which is hurting his Cy Young chances to guys like Jacob Misiorowski. It could be argued that he has passed his fellow competitor Cristopher Sánchez, but Sánchez has a whopping 200.0 IP which is second in MLB behind Sandy Alcantara.

The Braves got a scare yesterday when Ronald Acuña fouled a ball off his shin, but luckily all the tests came back negative. The Braves have already clinched the division so a loss to the Reds yesterday was not a huge deal except the chances of a playoff bye are quickly fading. The offense looked bad again, so hopefully they can catch a spark again before the playoffs take off.

No Braves player has faced Abbott more than five at-bats. Ha-Seong Kim has a HR in his four at-bats and Ozzie Albies has a .600 average. Michael Harris has struggled to an OPS of .400 in his five at-bats, and Mauricio Dubón and Mike Yastrzemski are hitless in their three at-bats. Austin Riley is also hitless in five at-bats.

It is hard to make any type of prediction on such a limited history, but we can look at Abbott’s numbers and see his 4.70 ERA is approximately eleven percent below average and his 1.472 WHIP is the worst of his four year career. This season he has struggled with walks giving up 4.2 per nine innings. The Braves need to be patient this even and take advantage of his weakness. It is no secret that the Braves struggle in the walk department. Their 7.7 percent is the third worst in MLB. To be fair, they strike out at a lower rate than the average team this season, but walks get runners on base to knock in.

The Reds are in the bottom six in RP ERA this season. The Braves have feasted on RPs all season long. The key to the game tonight seems to be be patient against Abbott because he gives up a lot of walks. Get to the bullpen, and strike. Chris Sale should keep the runs low to make this a pretty easy win on paper. The question is how many players will be resting today, especially with a high likelihood that Acuña will be letting his leg heal.

First pitch is at 7:15 EDT.

Game Info

Game Time: Wednesday, September 23rd, 7:15 pm EDT

Location: Truist Park, Atlanta, GA

Watch: BravesVision

Radio/Audio: 680 AM / 93.7 FM The Fan

The Tampa Bay Rays and Milwaukee Brewers have both clinched playoff spots, and both are currently on pace to be the top seed in their respective leagues. They have done it despite each having a lower payroll than the Royals. The Brewers spent $145.6 million – less than half what the last place Mets spent – while the Rays had the third-lowest payroll in baseball at $96 million.

Whether those financial limitations will limit their postseason success remains to be seen. But there is no question the Royals should be looking at what both teams have accomplished during the regular season. After two modest winning seasons, the Royals have regressed badly into a last place finish. Tampa Bay and Milwaukee have shown that it is possible to win a lot of games without spending like a large-market team, a model the Royals should try to emulate.

A different approach to offense

The Brewers are second in baseball in runs scored while the Rays are eleventh. They have scored runs despite a lack of power. The Rays are tied with the Royals for 22nd in home runs, and the Brewers are dead last. Instead, they score runs the old-fashioned way – by hitting the ball on the ground, getting on base, and stealing bases. Batting average has become a bit passé, but the Brewers and Rays are tied for tops in baseball in that category.

How are they hitting for average in an era where batting averages are near historic lows? First of all, they put the ball in play. While strikeout rates climb, the Rays lead baseball in contact rate at 81.8 percent, while the Brewers are ninth. The Royals are fourth in contact rate, yet don’t score as many runs. Why not?

The Rays and Brewers put the ball on the ground. The Brewers lead baseball in groundball rate at 46.9 percent, the Rays are fifth. The Royals are second-to-last at 39 percent. The Royals moved in the fences, and while it has led to more home runs, the team is not suddenly putting the ball over the fence at a high rate. The Brewers are hitting .260 on ground balls (second-best in baseball), while the Royals are hitting .258, not far behind. But the Brewers have over 300 more plate appearances that have resulted in a ground ball. Meanwhile, the Royals are hitting .203 on fly balls and have the second-most plate appearances that have resulted in a fly ball. If your flyballs aren’t leaving the park, they’re likely not helping much.

The Brewers and Rays also hit for average by using all fields. As the league has increasingly become pull-happy, they have made a habit of going the other way. The Brewers are deliberately letting the ball travel deep before making contact, as measured by their bat orientation, allowing them to slap the ball to the opposite field. They have the lowest flyball pull rate in over a decade. And as Mike Petriello writes, by using all fields, the Brewers make themselves impossible to defend against.

Putting the ball in play, on the ground, and going to the opposite field may also be part of why the Rays and Brewers are two of the top three teams in hitting with runners in scoring position. It may also represent a bit of luck. One-third of Brewers home runs have come with runners in scoring position.

A higher batting average combined with a healthy walk rate gets at what teams need to win – runners on base. The Brewers lead baseball with a .340 on-base percentage and have the highest walk rate at 10.6 percent. They have just one hitter with at least 150 plate appearances with a walk rate under 8 percent (Sal Frelick at 7.8 percent). The Royals have five such hitters (Jac Caglianone, Starling Marte, Michael Massey, Kyle Isbel, and Salvador Perez). The lone Rays starter with a low walk rate is Chandler Simpson, who is hitting .309. The Royals have historically eschewed the ability to get on base as a skill. They have finished in the top half of the league in on-base percentage just twice in the last 20 years, with one of those coming when they won a championship in 2015.

When runners get on base, they wreak havoc on the bases. The Rays and Brewers are both among the top four in baseball in stolen bases. Seven different Brewers players are in double digits in steals.

The Royals have been seemingly chasing more home runs. It makes sense, home runs score runs immediately! But home run hitters are expensive. The philosophy of Moneyball was to zig while others zag. If high-contact, opposite-field, groundball hitters who can run are undervalued and can help score runs, the Royals need to be on that train.

The point isn’t even that this is the approach the Royals should follow. It’s that they need to be ahead of the curve. There are many different ways to score. The Brewers and Rays are showing that taking a different approach than the big-market teams can succeed.

Find gems in other organizations

Hall of Fame executive Pat Gillick frequently talked about the “many rivers” that teams must find talent in. Teams that win without high payrolls can’t rely on expensive free agents as their primary means of improving the roster. Instead, the Brewers and Rays are looking for underrated players in other organizations and acquiring them through shrewd trades, minor league free agency, waiver claims, and the Rule 5 draft.

Jake Bauers and Andrew Vaughn were each first basemen for other teams that had failed to live up to expectations. The Brewers acquired each in separate trades and this year they lead all teams in offensive production from first base. All-Star closer Trevor Megill was acquired from the Twins for a non-prospect. Chad Patrick, a 2.1 rWAR reliever, was acquired from the A’s for journeyman infielder Abraham Toro.

The Rays have been equally shrewd. They grabbed former Cuban outfield prospect Victor Mesa Jr. from the Marlins for a lottery ticket prospect, and he has become a 2.8 rWAR player in just 74 games. Reliever Kevin Kelly was a Rule 5 pick. Starting second baseman Richie Palacios was a journeyman acquired from the Cardinals for veteran reliever Andrew Kittredge.

But their biggest steal came at the expense of another smart organization, the Guardians. Little reported at the time, the Rays acquired a hard-hitting 18-year-old infielder for a promising young pitcher named Tobias Myers. The hitter blossomed with the Rays development team, and now Junior Caminero is an MVP candidate.

There is no silver bullet to finding talent. The advantage comes from being willing and able to look everywhere. You can see the Royals trying to do this in a lost season as they rotate different arms into their bullpen, looking for a solution. But it shouldn’t take a losing season to look for more talent. The Brewers and Rays have built organizations that constantly search for players they believe are undervalued, then rely on their scouting and development departments to figure out what they can do with them. They don’t need every bet to pay off because they keep making bets.

Sell high on players

What is perhaps most surprising about the success of the Brewers and Rays is that it has come after they recently traded away some major parts of their rosters. Last winter, the Brewers traded star pitcher Freddy Peralta, starting third baseman Caleb Durbin, outfielder Isaac Collins and reliever Nick Mears to the Royals. The Rays traded All-Star second baseman Brandon Lowe, outfielders Josh Lowe and Jake Mangum, and pitcher Shane Baz over the offseason.

The Caleb Durbin trade is perhaps the best example of how the Brewers operate. Milwaukee acquired Durbin from the Yankees in 2024 after selling high on All-Star closer Devin Williams and shipping him to New York. Durbin then had an excellent rookie season, finishing third in NL Rookie of the Year voting after hitting .256/.326/.404 with 11 home runs, 53 RBI and 18 stolen bases. Rather than becoming attached to a player they had just developed into a valuable major-leaguer, the Brewers traded Durbin to Boston this winter for pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton. Harrison and Drohan are now part of Milwaukee’s pitching staff, while Hamilton has contributed as a versatile infielder. In other words, the Brewers essentially turned one year of Devin Williams into a major-league closer’s replacement, a promising young starting pitcher and additional organizational depth.

Not all of these trades have produced immediate major-league value for either organization. Many of the returns consist of prospects who are still in the minors or players who have made relatively little impact in the majors. The Brewers also sold high on Isaac Collins after one surprisingly good rookie year, but they received Angel Zerpa from the Royals, and he has been hurt most of the year.

And yet the Brewers and Rays haven’t fallen apart. They have continued to win because their organizations are built to absorb the loss of established players, while building for sustainable success over the long term. In recent years, the Rays have traded away Isaac Paredes, Randy Arozarena, and Jason Adam, while the Brewers have traded away Williams and Corbin Burnes. They are constantly adding players, developing them and creating enough depth that they can afford to trade from the major-league roster when the opportunity arises.

Trading players away when their value is at its greatest takes being realistic about future projections and player evaluations of your own team. In finance, the disclaimer is “past performance is no guarantee of future results.” That applies to baseball player performance as well.

Develop a great farm system

The Rays and Brewers also demonstrate why a strong farm system is about more than finding the next superstar. Building depth gives an organization options. Both teams have been able to trade established major leaguers, graduate prospects to the big leagues and use prospects in trades to address major-league needs without exhausting their supply of talent. The Rays traded eight prospects from their Top 30 at the deadline this year to acquire Freddy Peralta, Liam Hicks, and Tyler Wells, yet MLB Pipeline still ranked their farm system second in baseball afterward. The Brewers have graduated several players to the majors this year and traded prospects while still maintaining one of baseball’s deepest systems.

How do they do it? Neither organization relies solely on high draft picks. Milwaukee hasn’t had a top-10 pick since 2017, yet MLB Pipeline ranked its system #1 entering this season. Cy Young favorite Jacob Misiorowski, a fireballer who grew up in the Kansas City area, was selected with the 63rd pick in the 2022 draft and is already a two-time All-Star in just his second year. Cooper Pratt was a sixth-round pick out of high school in 2023, and he is already their starting shortstop. The international scouting department signed star outfielder Jackson Chourio to a $1.8 million bonus when he was just 16 and the organization has been aggressively spending in Latin America. Baseball America writes that it is “hard to find a team that has done as well as the Brewers in Latin America over the last five years” despite avoiding some of the highest price free agents in that market.

The Royals have been criticized for their first-round busts, but the Rays have their share of misses as well. But they continue to find value despite those misses. Assistant general manager Kevin Ibach explained that their model is to churn the roster, bringing in more prospects for the pipeline.

“We have to be hyper-transactional. We have to always have a pipeline of talent that we can infuse into the big league level. Every offseason brings new faces and I think that getting to know those players, it’s exciting to see them and get them acclimated in camp here.”

Organizational depth creates flexibility. The Brewers and Rays have each been hit by injuries this year. Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester have missed significant time from the Brewers’ rotation, and Chourio and Sal Frelick each missed significant time. The Rays have missed outfielder Gavin Lux and pitchers Shane McClanahan, and Ryan Pepiot. Those injuries are inevitable over the course of a 162-game season. What separates organizations is how well they can absorb them.

The Royals aren’t going to suddenly become the Yankees or Dodgers. Their payroll will always have limitations, and those limitations make it even more important that they maximize the resources they do have. There is no “one secret trick” that will lead to winning. It takes a complete organizational approach, great talent identification, and a willingness to constantly look for ways to improve. This offseason will test whether the Royals can get closer to that approach or whether they will continue to backslide into obscurity.

I figured this would be Max Scherzer’s last MLB start, but the Jays are talking about having him start (on short rest). I don’t see the point. Why would that be an idea? Is it some idea he can pass Justin Verlander for eighth on the all-time strikeout list. Verlander is 10 ahead of Max.

I guess it doesn’t matter, Max will have long rest before his next start. I wonder if he is thinking of another season?

Vlad is out for game one, but apparently might play in game two. Again I don’t see why, give him an extra day.

Well…..cross that out, Vlad is now in the lineup for game one batting second.

Yohendrick Pinango, Chase Lee, CJ Van Eyk and John Klein are all with the team. One or some of them could be active for game two. I’d imagine Pinango would be dependent on Bateman’s status. Van Eyk would be the one who could give them the most innings, so I’d say he’s the most likely to be active for game two.

GO JAYS GO.

Today is almost certainly going to be the day that the Orioles are mathematically eliminated from the postseason. It could happen as soon as this first game of their doubleheader. The tragic number is one. Next time the Orioles lose, it’s over. Next time the White Sox win, it’s over. Chicago doesn’t play until 7:40. The Orioles could lose twice before the White Sox game finishes. Maybe they will surprise us and win both games, which would be fun because then they will have eliminated the Blue Jays, whose tragic number is also 1.

Separate from anything that’s going on with this game itself, I think it’s a real insult to fans to pull a split doubleheader on the last home date of the season. They should have just done a single admission. It’s not like these are two sellouts where they would have a hard time squeezing everyone in. Paid attendance for both games might barely reach half capacity of the stadium; Monday’s game had 12,067 tickets sold. Alas, here we are.

There is not much that the Orioles can do over their final five games to make this season feel like anything other than a failure. That cake is baked. They have to run the table just to reach .500. That sucks, relative to preseason expectations.

This doesn’t mean they can’t play fun games in these five games and make us happy we watched that game. If Pete Alonso hits a couple more homers, Gunnar Henderson and Coby Mayo continue hot streaks to end their seasons, and so on, that could make the idea of next year feel a tiny bit better than it did after the team flopped at the beginning of this month.

The Orioles snuck one more roster move in ahead of the doubleheader. Samuel Basallo is now on the concussion injured list. Heston Kjerstad is back on the active roster.

News unrelated to this starting lineup: Jackson Holliday told reporters that he is having surgery on his left wrist next week. According to manager Craig Albernaz, it’s a TFCC tear. That stands for (I just Googled and learned this) a triangular fibrocartilage complex tear.

Orioles lineup

1. Dylan Beavers – LF
2. Pete Alonso – 1B
3. Gunnar Henderson – SS
4. Coby Mayo – DH
5. Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 3B
6. Colton Cowser – CF
7. Jeremiah Jackson – 2B
8. Leody Taveras – RF
9. Carlos Narváez – C

Chris Bassitt is the starting pitcher for the first game of the doubleheader. That means it’ll be another old guy starting pitching matchup: The Jays are starting Max Scherzer.

Blue Jays starting lineup

1. Nathan Lukes – RF
2. Josh Smith – LF
3. Kazuma Okamoto – 3B
4. George Springer – DH
5. Sean Keys – 1B
6. Andrés Giménez – SS
7. Brandon Valenzuela – C
8. Myles Straw – CF
9. Ernie Clement – 2B

Cito still sucks.

Detroit Tigers (74-84) vs. Washington Nationals (74-84)

Time/Place: 1:10 p.m., Comerica Park
SB Nation Site:Federal Baseball
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Pitching Matchup: LHP Framber Valdez (10-11, 4.06 ERA) vs. LHP Richard Lovelady (3-4, 3.86 ERA)

Aaron Judge will not play in the Wild Card Series next week. The Yankees spent a good chunk of Monday laying cloud cover for the announcement that was all but confirmed Tuesday morning. Aaron Boone told us the superstar has a moderate grade — which is not a medical term — strain of his calf, in particular the now-infamous soleus muscle, and a PPP injection would leave Judge off his feet for the next couple of days.

Judge himself had been far more coy than the inner circle of journos was willing to be, swearing he would be available for the team in the postseason. Maybe he genuinely believed that; pro athletes aren’t necessarily known for their introspection. Maybe he’s just incredibly canny with his responses; we’ve seen before that he’s perfected the non-answer to the degree that he could be a US Senator upon retirement. Either way, it’s become clear that Judge gets to operate under a different set of rules than the other guys on the roster.

It wasn’t long before we learned that Max Fried didn’t have any tendon damage, but instead a bone bruise in his elbow. We knew that Jazz Chisholm Jr.‘s thumb sprain was reasonably minor almost immediately, and indeed Jazz was activated from the IL while I wrote this. We get detailed info dumps on the physical health of men we’ve never met seemingly on demand, except from Aaron Judge.

I’m not sure we should fault him for that either. It’s always been a little weird that we know so much about these people’s bodies. If I call out sick from my day job, my boss is not allowed to ask what’s wrong with me unless there’s reasonable evidence that I’m abusing the system. Even if I need to go on short-term disability there are rules and regulations around what exactly is shared with my employer. Professional athletes are not regular boring employees like me, of course, but then again the reasons often trotted out for why we know the intimate details of a stranger’s anatomy so well are folly too.

Michael Kay on his radio show Monday lamented the gambler, which is ironic because he does a pretty good job in the YES booth of downplaying the DraftKings ad reads he’s compelled to give. People are going to be betting on these games and they deserve to know the exact medical diagnosis of players we were all pretty sure weren’t going to be playing anyway, the Voice of the Yankees says. I don’t care about the gambler, and any moral hazard caused by someone within the Yankee org taking advantage of insider information would be resolved by not letting people bet on every single pitch thrown in an MLB season.

As to the fanbase and general interest in the last week of the season, as well as a Wild Card Series that is shaping up to be more of a whimper than a bang, the compelling factor is whether Aaron Judge will play or not. We know he won’t. Having the exact grade is irrelevant, Judge ain’t gonna be there. The exact grade of the strain will determine whether or not the Captain is back for a potential ALDS showdown with the Rays, but if you lose two of three to Boston next week, the grade of the strain becomes irrelevant again.

This isn’t to downplay the annoyance people can find in Judge’s coyness, but rather to encourage other players to adopt it. We need to know someone is hurt, and how long to reasonably expect them to be unavailable, since that informs whether someone might buy a ticket or tune into a given game. It’s probably a good idea to schedule out possible rehab assignments, as MiLB teams rely on those attendance boosts from a big-leaguer making appearances. That’s about it. I don’t need to know about the exact degree of testicular torsion from the backup catcher.

Prior to last night’s game, the Texas Rangers announced that outfielder Joc Pederson had been placed on the 10 day injured list due to the broken bone in his hand that he suffered on September 12. To replace Pederson on the active roster, the Rangers activated Michael Helman from the 60 day injured list. To make room for Helman on the 40 man roster, the Rangers moved Cal Quantrill from the 15 day injured list to the 60 day injured list.

It is a disappointing end to what was a very solid season from Pederson, who slashed .235/.329/.487 in 432 plate appearances covering 136 games as the team’s primary DH against righthanded pitching. The Rangers had held off on putting him on the injured list in the hope that he would recover to the point he could resume hitting, but that didn’t happen. The hope is that, if the Rangers make the playoffs, Pederson would be physically able to hit by then, and could be on the team’s playoff roster.

The Quantrill move to the 60 day injured list means that he is done for the 2026 season, and won’t be eligible to return even in any potential playoff series. This is disappointing but not surprising, as a lat strain, which is what Quantrill landed on the injured list with, is the sort of thing that is going to generally sideline a pitcher for a couple of months.

As for Helman, he last played in the majors on June 13, having gone on the injured list with multiple fractures in his hands and fingers. He played in five games for Round Rock on a rehab assignment prior to being activated from the injured list. He presumably is a late game pinch runner/defensive replacement option.

After last night’s rare low scoring win, the Nats are in position to claim a series win. This afternoon contest in Detroit will be the last road game of the season for the Nats. The boys will look to finish on a high note as they head home for a final series.

With a lefty on the mound, the Nats are loading up on right handed bats. James Wood and CJ Abrams are the only lefties in the lineup. Jacob Young and Harry Ford will return to the lineup in this contest. Dylan Crews moves to left field as Daylen Lile gets the day off. Richard Lovelady will be the opener in what will be a bullpen game.

lineup for your viewing pleasure

→ https://t.co/3oYxA8Hsm0pic.twitter.com/CeOqHnHo7o

— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 23, 2026

A couple big names are back in the lineup for the Tigers. After sitting yesterday, Riley Greene and Dillon Dingler are back. Zach McKinstry will also make his first start of the series. Javier Baez will be getting the day off. Framber Valdez has had an up and down first season in Detroit, but he has been better lately. He is on the mound this afternoon. 

159/162

⚾️ 1:10 PM ET
📺 @WatchDSN
📻 @971theticketxyt
🏟️ Comerica Park pic.twitter.com/yiRbyl6bOk

— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 23, 2026

Game Info:

Stadium: Comerica Park

Time: 1:10 PM EST

TV: Nationals.TV

Radio: 106.7 The Fan

It is wild that this is the last road game of the year, but here we are. Hopefully we can finish the road slate with a curly W. CJ Abrams has been swinging it well, so he is one to watch this afternoon. Follow along in the comments down below and let’s go Nats!