Category: MLB

At least one Dodgers player isn’t worried about being booed in Milwaukee.

The Dodgers are staying at the historic Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee for their National League Championship Series showdown against the Brewers. This hotel, which opened in 1893, is iconic for allegedly being haunted.

There have been numerous stories about ghost sightings at the hotel, including multiple from professional athletes who are staying there to face one of Milwaukee’s pro sports franchises.

Mookie Betts once booked an Airbnb in Milwaukee instead of staying there, and Teoscar Hernandez avoided it during last year’s NLCS.

But Max Muncy is unbothered about dealing with a potentially spirited stay in Milwaukee. He was asked about the supposedly haunted hotel when speaking to the media on Saturday.

“No, I let it go,” Muncy said when asked whether the haunted stories have ever kept him from staying at Pfister Hotel, per Jack Harris of the California Post.

“If there’s a ghost there, come on in. If the TV turns on, I know he’s friendly. Hopefully he’s just not there to disturb me. I welcome them. If there’s a ghost, let’s have a good time with it, come on in. It is what it is,” he added.

It’s one thing for Muncy to say this now before he has a potentially haunted encounter.

Perhaps the Muncy-branded prayer candle that the Dodgers have been keeping in their dugout will ensure any ghosts stay away.

We have one game today, Game Five of the Guardians/White Sox series. Winner moves on. If the White Sox lose, they will have to ask for forgiveness from the Pope. Historically, Popes were much for forgiveness.

The starters are:

White Sox: Sean Burke (3.34, 11-7)

Guardians: Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76).

Lineups:

I was sort of cheering for the White Sox, but I don’t really care. I don’t like or dislike either team.

Tomorrow we have game one between the Dodgers and the Brewers. Tarik Skubal starts for the Dodgers, Jacob Misiorowski Brewers. Go Brewers Go.

MILWAUKEE –– Dave Roberts delivered the speech. Teoscar Hernández supplied the punch line.

In the wake of their National League Division Series defeat of the Atlanta Braves last week, the Dodgers gathered around their manager at the start of a champagne celebration in Truist Park’s visiting clubhouse.

First, Roberts extolled their culture and competitiveness. He then declared that “we’re smarter, we’re better and we’re tougher” than their postseason competition.

"We're smarter. We're better. And we're tougher."

– @Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts pic.twitter.com/0DNCJNLV4C

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 8, 2026

That’s when, from the corner of the room, Hernández chimed in with one more observation.

“And we’re dinosaurs!” he shouted.

Cretaceous creatures, who have once again found the fountain of October youth.

Throughout the regular season and leading into the playoffs, the Dodgers’ aging roster loomed as their biggest area of concern. Their average lineup age of 30.9 years old, according to Baseball Reference, was the oldest in the majors.

Their grizzled veteran core has played more games (and traveled more miles, including two season-opening Asia trips) than any other club in baseball the past two years.

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That’s why the team could help but notice the recent “dinosaur” comment made by new Padres owner José E. Feliciano –– even if he was trying to refer to the actual collection of fossils kept by Dodgers owner Mark Walter.

To the two-time defending champions, it still qualified as a perceived slight.

“We’ve heard it,” 36-year-old third baseman Max Muncy said. “But you can’t focus on the outside stuff for us.

Indeed, the Dodgers do not need any extra motivation this postseason, as they continue their quest for a third-straight World Series title in the NL Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers.

“You worry about yourself,” Muncy said. “You worry about how you’re getting ready for the game, how you’re preparing for the series.”

But talk about their age has nonetheless added some fuel to their competitive fire.

“Los Viejitos!!!” Kiké Hernández captioned on an Instagram photo of him, Muncy, Miguel Rojas, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman earlier this week –– playfully using the Spanish term for “old folks” to describe the club’s five eldest statesmen.

not los viejitoskilé really said unc still got it pic.twitter.com/MucctPTpDh

— (@myfriendteo) October 6, 2026

“I like our dinosaurs,” Roberts also joked with AM 570 earlier this month. “Our dinosaurs have come through in the biggest spots.”

That was not always the case during the second half of this year’s regular season, when the Dodgers’ offense slipped into such a glaring funk –– highlighted by an inability to consistently slug the ball –– that one rival scout remarked in late August: “This is the oldest they’ve ever looked.”

Since then, however, they have rediscovered a jolt. They scored the fourth-most runs in the majors in September. They outslugged the Braves in the NLDS by belting eight home runs, all but one of which came from players age 33 or older. 

Now, they are banking on their experience to give them an edge in this week’s NLCS, starting with a showdown against 24-year-old flamethrowing Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski in Game 1 on Sunday.

“The toughest part about age is [managing it during the regular] season,” Roberts said. “But once you get through the marathon and you get to the sprint of the postseason, advantage goes to us in the sense of the experience.”

Father Time, of course, will eventually win out at some point.

Even Muncy acknowledged that there has been “some talk” of this being a potential final ride for this version of the roster.

“For us, it’s about playing for each other, and that’s what makes it so special,” Muncy said. “A lot of us have been through a lot of moments together –– good, bad, in the middle –– and I wouldn’t want to share those with anyone else, that’s for sure.”

For now, however, the Dinosaur Dodgers just want to keep on roaring.

Eight wins away from another World Series, age is the least of their concerns.

“I don’t like thinking that this could be towards the end [of our run], because I don’t think it is,” Muncy said. “I think we still have a lot of good baseball left in us. Hopefully we can keep going.”

This is definitely not a pretty playoff series. But I’ll give it this: at least it’s going the distance and providing us with baseball to fill the time between now and the League Championship Series. While the Braves and Padres folded in four to the Dodgers and Brewers, and the Yankees got unceremoniously dusted by the Rays, the Guardians fought back from down 0-2 and going on the road to win two in Chicago and force a decisive fifth game.

If the Guardos pull off the comeback, it’ll be the first in the Division Series since the 2017 Yankees turned the trick at Cleveland’s expense. It’ll also be just the fourth ever in a best-of-five where the team lost the first two games at home, joining the 2001 Yankees, the 2012 Giants, and the 2015 Blue Jays. If the White Sox survive, however, then they’ll play for their first pennant since 2005.

I’ll just repeat what I said the other day about these two likely hapless teams: Yes, I’m hoping for a miracle in the ALCS and that one of these underwhelming AL Central teams can pull off an upset over Tampa Bay. Baseball’s a silly sport. You never know! (I have far more hope in Cleveland making it a series than Chicago since I don’t think the White Sox have any remotely rested pitchers, but we’ll see what happens.

Today’s Matchup:

American League Division Series Game 5

Cleveland Guardians vs. Chicago White Sox(winner-take-all)

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV: TBS/HBO Max, TruTV, Univision

Venue: Progressive Field, Cleveland, OH

The White Sox and Guardians are the only teams to take their ALDS all the way to the limit. It’s been a battle of bad offenses to this point, with the Guardians exploding all over White Sox postseason hero Grant Taylor in Game 4 to force the winner-take-all finale.

Gavin Williams, the veteran ace of the Guardians, will take the ball in the top of the first inning. The White Sox, who have mostly leaned on their bullpen through the first six games of their 2026 playoff experience, will turn to the closest thing they have to their own ace in Sean Burke to start things off. This is a series finale, though, so expect all hands on deck and to potentially even see guys who pitched a lot on Thursday night like Parker Messick and Erick Fedde take the ball.

I can’t promise the baseball will be good, but it should at least be fun!

Alright, Game 5 in Cleveland.

White Sox at Guardians.

Let’s talk about it.

So far, the road team has won all four games in this series. Will that continue tonight in Cleveland?

7 p.m. CT: White Sox at Guardians (Series tied 2-2)

TV: TBS, truTV, HBO Max (streaming). Announcers: Alex Faust, Ron Darling and Lauren Jbara.

Sean Burke, RHP vs. Gavin Williams, RHP

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com preview

The final spot in the best-of-seven League Championship Series will be decided tonight as the Cleveland Guardians face the Chicago White Sox in Game 5 of their Division Series. The winner will advance to face the Tampa Bay Rays for the American League pennant. In the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers will look to avenge last fall’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the same round. That series begins Sunday, with the ALCS starting Monday.

Cleveland Guardians vs Chicago White Sox (8:00 PM EDT)

Tonight, the MLB spotlight will be on Cleveland, where the AL Central rivals will meet in the most important game of their season. The White Sox won the regular-season series against the Guardians 7-6, as the two teams struggled to gain an edge over one another down the stretch.

It is fitting, then, that this series comes down to a winner-take-all Game 5. The road team has won each of the first four games. Will the Guardians buck that trend and win in front of their home fans, or will the White Sox win their third straight playoff game in Cleveland?

Guardians right-hander Gavin Williams, who came out of the bullpen Friday to record the final three outs of Game 4, will make his third appearance and second start of the series. He started Game 2 and received a no-decision after allowing two runs on four hits over five innings while striking out 11.

Why not us?#GuardsBall | #StandGuardpic.twitter.com/7APBFg7cAZ

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 10, 2026

After failing to clinch a postseason series win at home for the first time since 1906, the White Sox are dropping the opener strategy for the first time this round. Right-hander Sean Burke, who was Chicago’s best starting pitcher this season, will start for the visitors. He outdueled Williams in Game 2, allowing one run on one hit over 5 1/3 innings of bulk relief following the opener.

Time to battle pic.twitter.com/8koCzZbCEB

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 10, 2026

How deep both starters go into the game will likely depend on their performance and the score. As this series has shown, White Sox manager Will Venable and Guardians manager Stephen Vogt are willing to turn to their bullpens early and often.

Which team will win? Will it be a blowout, or a close, dramatic game?

It would be hard to find a Washington Nationals fan who would be against the idea of adding pitching this offseason, especially with the emergence of multiple key offensive pieces.

The free agent pool isn’t filled with many high-tier arms outside marquee starter Tarik Skubal, but it does include a handful of the exact type of pitcher Washington would love to add: middle-of-the-rotation veteran starters.

Names like former San Diego Padre Michael King and former Chicago Cub Kevin Gausman have already been floated as potential fits. Still, one player whose recent play could skyrocket him up the Nats’ wish list is 32-year-old Tyler Mahle.

Injuries severely threatened the righty’s MLB career in recent years, causing him to throw just over 100 innings from 2023-2025. His attempt at a career revival with the San Francisco Giants in 2026 got off to a rough start with an ERA above 5.00 through 18 starts, but everything changed after he was dealt to the Atlanta Braves prior to the trade deadline.

Atlanta needed any healthy arms to add to the rotation, but Mahle gave them so much more than just that. Averaging over 6.00 innings per start, his 9 regular-season appearances with the Braves were simply spectacular, throwing to a 1.99 ERA in the second half. He took it to another level in his first career taste of the postseason, shutting down two of the most feared lineups in baseball (Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers) with 13.1 innings of 2-run ball.

Tyler Mahle, Filthy Splitters. 😷 pic.twitter.com/Dsu2wXNkUz

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 30, 2026

Going into the 2025 season, it wasn’t a guarantee that Mahle would be pitching in MLB for much longer, but now, he may be just what Washington needs. The revamped pitching development program flexed its muscles with the reclamation project that was Foster Griffin, and they have all the tools to repeat their success by carrying Mahle’s second-half performance into 2027 and beyond.

His price tag undoubtedly rose after he proved the October stage wasn’t too big for him, and the high demand for pitching could result in him landing a sizeable deal. The Nats will certainly have competition for Mahle, but, just like him, their 2025 season proved that they’re worth investing in.

Tyler Mahle might not have the best stuff anymore, but he has the willingness to throw his best pitch in any situation and the mentality to step up when the stakes are highest.

The Braves asked for the world from him tonight, and he delivered when they needed him most. pic.twitter.com/oVLpIapUOL

— Pitch Profiler (@pitchprofiler) October 8, 2026

Washington’s front office should be all over him once free agency opens up. The question marks are still there, with his lengthy injury history and lack of extended recent success. Opening the checkbooks and making a legitimate push to raise the ceiling of the rotation needs to be the top priority this offseason.

It’s time for Paul Toboni and company to begin shelling out serious money for free agents who can take this team back to the playoffs, and that comes with taking chances. Mahle has proved that he can be an integral part of a playoff rotation, and that should be exactly what the Nats are looking to build.

The path to a successful offseason begins with adding a quality arm, and Mahle checks a lot of boxes for what this team is missing.

After a detestable start to the season, logic-defying climb to .500, command of the AL Central after the All-Star Break, September swoon, desperate attempt to claw back to first place, dominant start to the playoffs and utter collapse in front of a rabid and hungry home crowd, the White Sox head to Cleveland for only the second winner-take-all postseason game in their history and a chance at the first win in such a game.

No biggie, White Sox, just 126 years of history on your backs.

But, thanks to the strange twist at the end of Cleveland’s Game 4 rout, Guardians manager Stephen Vogt opted to use Cade Smith unnecessarily for a second straight two-inning stint (OK, the eighth inning of Game 3 made some sense), burning his closer for two innings again. The decision came back to bite him, and now not only has Vogt exposed Smith’s stuff to the White Sox needlessly (for the record, I don’t buy into a “book” hitters write on elite high-leverage arms like Smith and Grant Taylor, certainly not when the bigger factor is overworked pitchers getting tired and losing sharpness, something Taylor seemed to directly acknowledge after Game 4), but he forced Game 5 starter Gavin Williams in “close out” a 9-3 win.

Remember when Cleveland had such an “advantage” heading into the end of the series, with starters Parker Messick and Williams on full rest to finish things up? Well, throw that advantage out now, as a full inning of pitches on Wednesday certainly will affect Williams today — if not in efficiency, in durability. What could have been a six-innings target for the K machine is a more realistic four-five inning “open” now.

Therefore it’s advantage, White Sox, as Sean Burke (a better starter in the regular season than Williams, to begin with) starts Game 5 on full rest and coming off of the best outing of five-plus innings anyone’s had in this series.

Burke set a White Sox postseason record with 13 straight batters retired in Chicago’s Game 2 win in Cleveland, going 5 ⅓ innings total and allowing just one run on one hit. If that is the Burke we get on Saturday, the Guardians are in trouble.

Not sure it Miguel Vargas murdering Williams offsets Steven Kwan having great numbers against Burke, but perhaps Andrew Benintendi owning Williams as well flips some of the key matchups in our favor?

As you well know, though, advantages are all relative in 2026 between the White Sox and Guardians. Through 17 games, the White Sox still lead the season series, 9-8, but with the “blowouts” in Chicago the Guardians now have outscored Chicago in 2026 by all of five runs. Thirteen of 17 games in 2026 between the two clubs were decided by three runs or fewer, eight were one-run games and four ended on walk-offs. The White Sox were in first place for 96 days in 2026, Cleveland 89. And of course, the two teams finished one game apart in the standings after Cleveland’s hot finish to the season.

With Williams pitching, the White Sox will utilize their (stronger) lefty-heavy lineup, taking away any temptation to play Tommy Pham for significant innings and rendering him a pinch-hitting bat off the bench. However, in a twist, Braden Montgomery is benched for Game 5 despite facing a right-handed pitcher.

Cleveland, licking its chops at getting a righty starter in Burke, hopes to prove tonight how wise it was for Venable to dance with four consecutive lefty openers in the series — or, if the Guards fall back to the punchless offense they were in Games 1 and 2, expose such paranoid thinking as a ruse.

As to the pressure of the game, it’s hard to determine whose backs are more against the wall. Given that only three teams have ever rallied back to win after losing two straight home games to open the series, you’d think the pressure is weighing heavily on the White Sox. But here’s where their frat-boy dopeyness could help: If Colson Montgomery didn’t realize he was on the precipice of an infamous season strikeout record or that such a record even existed, do we think the clubhouse cares a whit about “pressure” to win in Game 5?

This idea was addressed, as much of this game thread was, in our pregame podcast, if you care to have a soothing voice calm your nerves as we near game time:

So friends, here we are, with a third chance to close out the Guardians. Let’s make it stick tonight.

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The Dodgers, Brewers, and Rays are all into the league championship round. On Saturday night at 8:00 p.m. ET on TBS, the final team will be decided in Cleveland in an AL Central matchup as the White Sox square off with the Guardians in a decisive Game 5.

Like any Game 5 scenario, this is a real toss-up as RHP Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76 ERA) takes on the White Sox’s RHP Sean Burke (11-7, 3.34 ERA). Williams boasts one of the highest strikeout rates of any starter in the game, but he is a little more home run prone than Burke. Things aren’t as flashy on Burke’s side of the equation, but he had a really good season as well and has tended to keep the ball in the park more effectively. Like most games, there’s a good chance this comes down to who gives up homers and who doesn’t.

The White Sox offense is theoretically much better, as the Guardians were one of the worst scoring teams in baseball this season. However, with Jose Ramirez perking up after a rough season in which he dealt with a hook hamate fracture and surgery at mid-season, the Guardians lineup is probably better than it looks on paper.

Everyone is getting gassed this time of year, but the White Sox have also had to lean really hard on their bullpen in this series, and it hasn’t gone well for them after taking a 2-0 series lead. They’ll need to build a lead and keep it, as coming back in the late innings against the Guardians bullpen is no easy task.

The NLCS will get underway on Sunday with a heck of a pitching matchup as Tarik Skubal squares off against Jacob Misiorowski and the Brewers.

Time to battle pic.twitter.com/8koCzZbCEB

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) October 10, 2026

Why not us?#GuardsBall | #StandGuardpic.twitter.com/7APBFg7cAZ

— Cleveland Guardians (@CleGuardians) October 10, 2026

The National League Championship Series starts Sunday. The series could have been decided on Aug. 1.

That was the day the Dodgers traded for Tarik Skubal. The Milwaukee Brewers wanted him badly, but they declined to include a promising young pitcher in the deal.

So, on Sunday, the scenario the Brewers most hoped to avoid comes true: Instead of starting for them in Game 1 of the NLCS, Skubal starts against them.

If the Dodgers win the series, the Milwaukee winter could be cold and long, with fans tortured by visions of Skubal and presumptive Cy Young winner Jacob Misiorowski starting four games in the series.

Read more:By not overextending itself vs. Braves, Dodgers' rotation primed for success vs. Brewers

“Obviously, that wouldn’t be very fun to come in here and face Miz then Skubal,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said.

Instead, the Dodgers could get four starts out of Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

“Every night when you play these guys, you know you’re going to face a Cy Young-caliber pitcher,” Brewers captain Christian Yelich said. “It’s the reason why they’ve been so good as a team.”

In the alternate reality, the Dodgers start Yamamoto — perhaps the world’s best big-game pitcher — followed by Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow and maybe Emmet Sheehan. Snell and Glasnow each starred last October, but each walked five in his division series start while failing to complete five innings.

In actual reality, the Brewers are expected to follow Misiorowski with rookie Logan Henderson, with whom they would not part in the Skubal trade. That’s no easy assignment for the Dodgers: Henderson posted a 2.47 earned-run average in 18 games this season, better than Yamamoto (2.53) and Skubal (2.72).

If Henderson can outshine the bigger names, the Brewers could be OK. But, if the Brewers fall behind in the series, they could be faced with coming back behind the likes of ex-Dodger Dustin May and rookie Robert Gasser.

Not surprisingly, Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold had little to say about his team facing Skubal in Game 1 rather than trading for him — and keeping him away from the Dodgers.

“Every team was looking to acquire good players at the deadline,” Arnold said, “and, ultimately, they landed a really good one there in Tarik Skubal.”

Said Misiorowski: “The dude’s insane. I’m just hoping that these guys can do their job and handle business with him and let me do my thing and try to get that side taken care of.”

Read more:'I just want chaos.' Don't expect Dodgers to sweep Brewers again in NLCS

It is entirely rational that the Brewers decided six years of Henderson would be more successful and certainly more cost-effective than two months of Skubal, who is eligible for free agency and is likely to receive the largest contract ever awarded to a pitcher (the current record: Yamamoto’s $325-million deal with the Dodgers).

It is unfortunate, too, in the sense that the Brewers are not some plucky underdog but the team that won the most games in the NL this year and last year.

“We’ve been expecting having to play them in this round since spring training,” Yelich said.

Flags fly forever. The Brewers, founded in 1969, never have won the World Series. If you’re not going all-in during a season in which you won a franchise-record 103 games, when are you?

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to compete against the Dodgers, because they obviously have proven to be a dominant baseball organization,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You can complain or explain or say it’s this or it’s that, but the opportunity to get in the ring and do that is pretty special.

“That’s the way you’d want this storybook ending — when you’re writing the last words of the Milwaukee Brewers championship, you’d want it to go through the Los Angeles Dodgers. It’s the way it has to be if it’s an incredible story, for lack of a better adjective.”

The Brewers should be offended at the premise behind the owners’ push for a salary cap. The owners claim small-market teams cannot compete effectively or consistently without one. The Brewers — the team that plays in baseball’s smallest market — have won a division championship for four consecutive years, and five out of six.

“Nobody here is worried about that right now,” Arnold said. “We’re focused on trying to win, and I think we have for awhile. Regardless of what the economics look like, the guys in there believe, and so do I.”

The owners have argued the system needs reform because a small-market team has not won a World Series in 11 years. Do the Brewers consider their run of success as a failure?

Read more:Shaikin: In NLCS, four reasons to believe in Dodgers, and four reasons for concern

“I wouldn’t,” Arnold said. “I would consider it an opportunity to go win it this year.”

In the big picture — what this all means to Major League Baseball — this series makes no difference. The owners are hell-bent on their demand for a salary cap whether the underdog Brewers win, or the big, bad Dodgers do.

In the local picture here, the Brewers have to ask what every manager or coach does: Did we put our players in the best position to win?

If the Brewers win this series, good for them. If they don’t, they got their answer on Aug. 1.

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Just because the Atlanta Braves are done for the year here in 2026, that doesn’t mean that the rumor mill needs to stop. In fact, apparently we’re still learning new details about trades that didn’t happen all the way back in August around the Trade Deadline.

We learned a while back that the Braves were reportedly willing to send Spencer Strider out to Texas in exchange for Jacob deGrom and now we’re learning about a player who they were willing to keep when trying to swing a deal for the biggest name of the deadline, Tarik Skubal.

According to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe, the Braves refused to include Didier Fuentes in any trade talks with the Tigers for Skubal. The words that Abraham used is that the Braves “wouldn’t part” with Fuentes. I’d imagine that if Alex Anthopoulos is unwilling to move the 21-year-old hurler for a pitcher the caliber of Skubal then that means that Fuentes is likely set to be here for the long haul and could be an important part of the team going forward.

The good news for the Braves is that it’s not like pitching was the issue for them – especially during their Postseason run. Sure, Fuentes had an up-and-down experience in October, himself, but that’s to be expected from someone as young as he was. Plus, the “up” was a massive flash of brilliance in Game 2 of the NLDS which is when Fuentes retired 11 batters in a row during a crucial part of the contest. Walt Weiss repeatedly contended that Fuentes was his “best” reliever and the faith that was placed in him during the playoffs was proof of that belief.

It also seems to indicate that the Braves have bigger plans for Fuentes. After all, he did initially start life as a big leaguer in 2025 as a starter and this appears to be an indication that Fuentes could return to that role in some point. I don’t think they’d be willing to hold on to him if they figured that he was simply going to be a high-leverage reliever going forward.

There’s also no telling as to who all else was involved in the trade talks – though MLB Trade Rumors did name JR Ritchie and AJ Smith-Shawver as prospects who were deemed to be available. We’re likely not going to hear Anthopoulos lay out the whole trade discussion between the Braves and the Tigers unless he decides to randomly drop a bombshell during some random appearance on the radio (similarly to how he sort of randomly revealed earlier this Summer that the Braves were close to acquiring Kyle Schwarber a few years ago) so we likely won’t get to know whether or not Fuentes was the difference between Skubal wearing navy blue-and-red instead of Dodger blue any time soon.

Either way, it seems like everyone involved got their way. The Braves held on to a very talented hurler with a bright future, the Dodgers added to their constellation of stars and the Tigers got a return that they’re happy with. It’s a very interesting story and all we can do is wait to see how the long-term situation plays out.

Remember the line from “The Great Gatsby” in which the protagonist fights the notion of being unable to repeat the past? Although it is a slippery slope, the Yankees, more than any other team in baseball, must—in the first step towards a journey to the top spot in the sport—look to their past. It isn’t about trying to recreate exactly what we once saw because that can never be done; it’s a necessary effort to understand the disconnect between the fan base and management as to what exactly dictates desired success and how far off they are from each other.

Before the late ’90s dynasty, the Yankees had lean years as a trigger-happy team in the hands of George Steinbrenner. Winning it all was all that mattered, and the inability to see certain moves through created plenty of turmoil. That is not what we want, but nearly as disappointing is the current feeling that the front office is content with a ticket to the dance and let it be what it will once it arrives.

The Yankees are now coming up on nearly two decades without a World Series title. And with a winning club for the entirety of this run plus resources second to none in the American League, it is unfathomable that not only have they not won a title, but they also haven’t come close to one—going down 3-0 before losing the World Series in five in misery back in 2024, their sole appearance to the Fall Classic since 2009.

Plenty of the Yankee teams in this period have been good, even very good, but have any of them been great enough long enough that you could justify management’s conformism with just running it back enough times until they eventually pull through? There are tough breaks here and there, but if we look through the list of the most dominant teams in the sport over the past 10 years or so, how many Yankee teams could make the list? How many times did it truly feel like an injustice that they came up short? It has routinely seemed like the 2018 Red Sox, the 2020 Dodgers, and the 2022 Astros have been more well-rounded, naming a few.

So much of the focus is on Aaron Boone for continuously dropping playoff series against teams with a better record. Obviously he has a lot of blame there, but can we stop to figure out why the Yankees keep coming up against superior opposition in the postseason in the first place? Take these last two seasons, for instance: the Yankees couldn’t even be the best team in their division. And it’s not as if, outside of Aaron Judge’s missed time, you could point to a high level of underperformance in the regular season that’s a factor among other sustained contenders. In fact, several of the key players performed well above expectations, such as the likes of Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler.

Disappointment comes in different shapes and sizes. The one from the last two seasons is much more about the built-up frustration of a long drought than the letdown of a team you truly believed would win it all. The here we go again feeling has gotten a little too familiar.

That said, the Yankees don’t have a talent issue, but you can count on one hand the number of times during this run that they fell short of a title, and you truly felt like they got the short end of the stick as the top team. That should be the goal—not to build just one of the very good teams, but to be the absolute best, and then if you are, eventually the breaks are going to go your way—eventually you’ll make your own breaks.

There’s a school of thought which suggests that the Diamondbacks “broke” the Dodgers, by beating them in the 2023 National League Division Series. Not just by the defeat, but by the manner of it. It was a sweep, with Arizona outscoring Los Angeles 19-6, never trailing in any game at any point, and leading by two runs or more, at the end of 25 of the 27 innings played. That winter, the Dodgers engaged beast mode, giving contracts worth over a billion dollars in total to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto alone, and haven’t stopped spending since. Including a staggering $183 million in luxury tax penalties – more than a dozen teams paid in payroll – their 2026 salary bill was over $616 million.

I can’t argue they have not spent effectively, winning three division titles, and averaging 97 wins. But it has been in the post-season where their dominance has become near-total. Remember, in the playoffs, you’re facing the best teams the rest of baseball has to offer. But since the Diamondbacks gave them the bum’s rush out of the 2023 post-season, the Dodgers have won eight consecutive playoff series, and are 27-10, a .730 win percentage. Again, this is not facing the Colorado Rockies, but other division winners and wild-card teams. If the Brewers or (probably) Rays can’t stop them, they’ll become the first team to three-peat since 2000.

Under normal circumstances, I would be cheering wholeheartedly for their opponents, as has been the case in the last two seasons. #TeamAnyoneButLA. But this year, there’s a concern that might over-ride this. Specifically, that if anyone except the Los Angeles Dodgers wins the World Series – especially a relatively small-market team like the Brewers or the Rays – it might mute demands for a salary cap in the upcoming CBA negotiations. That’s something I feel is essential to the basic survival of major-league baseball, in terms of competitive balance. But a Rays/Brewers victory could potentially be used by the players as proof everything is fine. “See? You can’t buy success!”

It’s not really the case. The problem has never been the post-season, where randomness plays a significant factor. Let’s be honest. The 2023 Diamondbacks who won 83 games were not a “better” team, by any objective measure, than the 92-win Brewers, 100-win Dodgers or 90-win Phillies. But Arizona went 9-3 against that trio, including 6-2 on the road, on their way to the World Series. This is baseball. Get “hot” at the right time, and who knows what can happen. The issue is the regular season. The NL West has turned into six months of grinding and irrelevant tedium, a procession where non-Dodger fans look at the Central and East standings more than their own division.

This predates the 2023 NLDS. The Dodgers have taken 13 of the last 14 division titles – and won 106 games the sole season they didn’t come first. It’s only when you look at the standings since 2013, that the degree of Los Angeles’s domination becomes clear. Over the roughly 13 1/3 seasons in that time (2020 being the one-third), they have won over a hundred games more than any other team. Not “any other NL West team”, any other team. The second-placed Yankees are closer to the tenth-placed Cubs, than they are to the Dodgers. Here’s the average standings in the NL West, from 2013-2026.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 99-63
2. San Francisco Giants: 80-82
3. San Diego Padres: 80-82
4. Arizona Diamondbacks: 78-84
5. Colorado Rockies: 69-93

Over a fourteen-year period – bold font, please – the Dodgers have averaged 99 wins per season, while every other team in the division is below .500. Their win percentage of .610 over that time is the best in the integrated era. To find anything higher, you need to go back to the 1947-1960 Yankees, who had a .622 win percentage in the regular season, and won eight World Series during that span, including five in a row. In other words, the Dodgers under their current ownership are the most powerful major-league team in over sixty years. Arguably more: that Yankees dynasty failed to win their division twice, in 1954 and 1959; the Dodgers only once.

That’s what “competitive balance” looks like, according to the players’ union. The Brewers winning the World Series is not going to change this, or the fact that the Dodgers’ current television deal alone [$8.35 billion over 25 years, an AAV of $334 million] is worth more, according to Forbes, than every revenue stream the D-backs possess. The LA Times reports, “By the time the deal ends in 2038, the Dodgers will be getting more than $500 million per year” – and making things worse, it’s largely exempt from revenue sharing.

It’s simply impossible for anyone else in the NL West to compete under the current system, A third consecutive Dodgers’ World Series win would underscore this, and hopefully make it almost impossible for any eventual agreement between the owners and players not to include a salary cap (and floor, of course). Would LA coming up short make a difference? Hard to say. ESPN recently had an interesting article looking at this very topic, asking executives and players what impact (if any) the results of the World Series would have on negotiations. The general opinion: a three-peat for LA would entrench positions. To quote an NL player:

It’ll be bad. The league is going to dig in a lot more. And we know the union isn’t going to go for a cap, so it’s going to get really bad. Nobody wants to see the Dodgers win. No owner does. None of the fans do. But I think it’s going to make this all worse.

Conversely, an NL executive said, “A small-market club [with a strong front office] winning the World Series going into an adversarial offseason would likely allow players to make the argument that the game is in a healthy place from a parity standpoint.” Personally, I’ve already reached acceptance that, if it’s necessary for us to lose games next year – or even the entire season – in order to get significant change, then so be it. It’s a price I’m willing to pay. I’m beginning to feel that, if the Dodgers winning the World Series helps achieve the necessary change, then I might be forced to suck it up, hold my nose and – in a thoroughly non-political sense – “Vote blue, no matter who.”