Category: MLB

End of an error? Dave Dombrowski puts shortstop Trea Turner on notice originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Earlier this week, Dave Dombrowski summoned Trea Turner to Citizens Bank Park for a face-to-face meeting.

Just five years earlier, Dombrowski had convinced Turner to come play shortstop for the Phillies on a mammoth $300 million deal.

Now, the team’s president of baseball operations was looking the 33-year-old player in the eye and putting him on notice.

“We were very clear,” Dombrowski said. “He knows he has to be better at shortstop. I told him that’s really mandatory.

“If he plays shortstop like he did in ‘25, he can play shortstop. But if he plays it like he did in ‘26, he can’t.”

Dombrowski’s directness when commenting on the Turner situation was the big takeaway from his annual end-of-season news conference Thursday. Dombrowski acknowledged that the news conference came later than usual – a full two weeks after the Phillies were eliminated by Atlanta in the first round of the playoffs. He said he needed the time to address the team’s managerial situation – Don Mattingly, who posted a 79-55 record as interim skipper was retained on a two-year deal – and speak with players about what would be expected from them in 2027.

His message to Turner was so serious that he asked the player to fly from his Florida home to Philadelphia for a frank conversation that lasted two hours.

“Trea did not have a good year,” Dombrowski said. “He does not think he had a good season, offensively or defensively. He takes complete accountability.”

Offensively, Turner went from winning the National League batting title (.304) in 2025 to hitting .242 in 2026. Hitting first and second in the batting order, his on-base percentage plummeted from .378 to .297. His strikeout rate climbed from 16.7 percent to 21 percent. He led the majors with 507 outs made.

Turner’s struggles were equally notable in the field, where he tied for the major-league lead with 21 errors. By almost every metric, he was one of baseball’s worst shortstops. According to Fangraphs, he ranked a minus-17 in defensive runs saved, the worst mark among big-league shortstops.

Turner made a total of 40 errors at shortstop in 2023 and 2024, his first two seasons in Philadelphia. He tightened things up in 2025, recording plus-17 outs above average, according to Statcast measurements. But that number dipped to minus-10 (the bottom three percent of all defenders) in 2026.

In a game where strength up the middle is vital, the Phillies cannot live with that.

Dombrowski made that clear to Turner.

“He totally understands that,” Dombrowski said.

For now, Turner remains the Phillies’ starting shortstop. It is the position he wants to play. But, according to Dombrowski, Turner will have a short leash. He will have to show improvement as early as spring training to avoid being moved to second base or the outfield. The team would be willing to make a move on the fly while giving looks to Aidan Miller and Bryan Rincon, two minor-league prospects.

“We went through the scenarios,” Dombrowski said of his honest chat with Turner. “If you’re not playing well at shortstop in spring training and things don’t work in that regard … We do have a couple of young players. Will they be ready? I don’t know. And I don’t know what other additions we may make this winter. We needed to leave it, if he doesn’t play shortstop, he’s willing to do what’s best for the Philadelphia Phillies organization. So that’s how we left it. He’s determined to show us that he can play it, and I said, ‘You have to show it. You cannot play shortstop like you did defensively in ‘26 going into ’27.’ “

Essentially, as soon as spring training or whenever the team assembles to prepare for the 2027 season, Turner will be on an almost daily tryout for his shortstop job. That could create some pressure on the player.

“He’ll work hard and be open-minded and we’ll just have to make a wise decision on what position he plays,” Dombrowski said. “I can’t control the daily banter about what takes place. He’s not the first player I’ve been around (in a similar situation). Trea’s a smart guy. He knows he needs to get better, and I think he’ll deal with it. He’s got a long time to be here, but I think he still has it. The reason we signed him in the beginning compared to some others was not only was he a good player, we thought he had the ability to continue to be a good player for a long time because of his quick-twitch muscles, the type of athlete he is. He led the lead in hitting (in 2025). I was as surprised as he was by the offensive year he had this year. So, it’s up to us to try to fix all those things.”

The Phillies have 190 million reasons to want to see improvement from Turner, on both sides of the ball. He is signed for seven more years at $190 million. He negotiated a full no-trade clause when he signed with the Phillies, so there’s no moving on from him.

Turner will have two new voices trying to help him improve. The Phils fired Kevin Long on Wednesday and will have a new hitting coach in 2027. Infield coach Bobby Dickerson was also let go. He was quickly replaced by former New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza. In addition to overseeing infield defense, Mendoza will coach third base.

“Carlos will be responsible for working with Trea,” Dombrowski said.

Improvement must come quickly. If it doesn’t, Turner could find himself under the tutelage of Pablo Figueroa. He’s the team’s outfield instructor.

Well, we’re officially eight days away from the beginning of the 2026 World Series. Next Friday’s series opener looks like it’ll be a battle between a pair of low-payroll teams that aren’t Los Angeles or New York. You gotta know that makes commissioner Rob Manfred and the other owners mad. If you ask any actual baseball fan though, it’s going to be glorious seeing a team that hasn’t won the World Series in decades finally be able to lift that trophy. We got a few more games before we find out the matchup, but if the right team wins today we could know at least have of the teams in this year’s Fall Classic by tonight.

Rays at Guardians (10:00 AM PST)

Based off the first two games this series looks like it could go the distance. What else would you expect from two scrappy young teams like these two? Both organizations are absolutely desperate for the chance to hoist the Commissioner’s Trophy. The Guardians are on a 78-year drought, which is longer than the Rays have even been in existence. Still, they’ve never tasted that final win of the season and won’t let Cleveland get an easy trip to the Fall Classic. This’ll be a critical Game 3 as the team that wins this morning is in the driver’s seat.

The visiting Rays will have right-hander Griffin Jax (8-10, 3.53 ERA) taking the ball for this critical contest. A mid-season acquisition last year, Jax converted to a starter this year to solid results. He was remarkably consistent throughout the year for someone converting to the rotation for the first time in five years. Jax will now be pitching in the biggest game of his life to date as he seeks to get the Rays to within two games of the World Series. Tampa might have a short leash with him though; he only went two innings in his lone postseason start this year, when he allowed just one run on a hit and a walk against the Yankees.

Here’s the Tampa Bay lineup this morning:

As for the Guardians, they have their own righty in Gavin Williams (14-8, 3.76 ERA) taking to the hill this morning. Williams has already made two starts (plus one relief appearance) this postseason, all against the White Sox in the previous round. The 27-year-old has stepped his game up at the perfect time for the Guardians. He’s gotten double-digit punchouts in his two starts but he’ll now be facing a much harder lineup with the Rays. And like Jax, it’s not hyperbole to say this is the biggest game of his life… so far.

And Cleveland’s starting nine, courtesy of skipper Stephen Vogt:

Brewers at Dodgers (5:00 PM PST)

While the Rays-Guardians series looks like it’ll be a battle through the weekend, the Brewers are in complete control over the reigning champion Dodgers, up 3-0 in the series and just one more win away from their first World Series appearance since 1982. Like the Rays, they’ve never tasted the glory of a World Series win so they’re coming into tonight’s game as motivated as you can imagine. The Dodgers just don’t look like they have it this year as injuries and age are finally catching up to them. You never to say it’s a done series prematurely but there’s only ever been one team to come back from an 0-3 deficit and this Dodgers team doesn’t seem like they have the same energy of the ‘04 Red Sox.

The Dodgers will hope that veteran Tyler Glasnow (5-2, 3.53) can prolong their season a couple more days with a strong start. The right-hander has, once again, battled injuries all year but is healthy for when it matters most. He looked like he was ready for the moment in his lone postseason start to date. Glasnow pitched into the fifth inning against the Braves in the previous round, allowing just one run on one hit. His outing wasn’t without its warts as he also issued five free passes to Braves batters. If he does that again then this series might not make it back to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee meanwhile has yet to announce their plans for tonight’s game so stay tuned!

We could find out one team in the World Series by the end of the day. Stakes are getting higher and higher for everyone still alive! Should be another great day for playoff baseball!

It has been a roller coaster career for Michael Massey so far. He flashed good power for a middle infielder in 2023, but not much offensively. He came into his own in 2024, flashing great defense and finishing fifth on the team in home runs with 15, frequently hitting leadoff in the playoffs. But injuries piled up last year – a left ankle sprain, a right wrist fracture, and back issues that caused him to miss over two months of action, and limited him to just 77 games. He came into his first arbitration-eligible season at a crossroads.

And in 2026, Massey had his best season as a big leaguer. One factor was health. While he did begin the season on the injured list with a calf strain, and missed a week with a concussion in September, he generally stayed on the field, appearing in a career-high 131 games. When he played, he contributed, posting a line of .272/.303/.428 with 13 home runs. He was sixth among American League second basemen with a career-high 2.3 fWAR. He was also a finalist for his first Gold Glove Award, after finishing second among all AL second basemen in Outs Above Average and Defensive Runs Saved.

Massey has never been shown significant platoon splits, and this year he actually hit lefties much better than righties. He has shown good plate coverage and a high contact rate of 82.3 percent. His 16.6 percent strikeout rate was third-lowest on the team among semi-regulars, behind only Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino.

While he is good at making contact when he swings, he does swing a LOT. Out of all hitters with at least 450 plate appearances, he was 25th in swing rate at 52.9 percent (joining two other Royals in the top 25, Salvador Perez and Jac Caglianone). His walk rate went up this year, but was still just 4.6 percent, tied for seventh-lowest in the league. He did post a career-high in on-base percentage, but making outs almost 70 percent of the time still puts him near the bottom of the league in that category.

So through four and a half seasons and 489 MLB games, we have a good idea of what Michael Massey is. He will be 29 by next Opening Day, and the Royals can likely count on him as a good glove at second base, with good pop for a middle infielder, a good lefty bat with no platoon split, but very low walk rates and a propensity to get injured. He is eligible for arbitration for the second time this winter, and will likely earn over $3 million next season.

There is an argument the Royals should look to trade Massey while his value is high, although the team shouldn’t expect a big return. The Royals could “replace him in the aggregate” through some combination of Nick Loftin, Tyler Tolbert, and Isaac Collins, or even look to make a big move to upgrade at the position.

More likely, Massey will begin next year as the team’s starting second baseman, hitting sixth or seventh in the lineup. You can win with a guy like that in your lineup – the 2024 Royals are evidence of that. He is a productive offensive player in his prime, who is a plus on defense, and is still cost-controlled.

But his low on-base skills may cap the impact he can have offensively, and in a lineup full of fellow free-swingers, the Royals need someone who can work a count and get on base consistently. Massey is a useful piece, but if the Royals want to take the next step offensively, they may need more production from second base. Michael Massey took a step forward, but if he wants to be more than a stop gap measure, he will need to take his game to the next level.

Carlos Mendoza has a new job — and it’s in the National League East.

The former Mets manager, who was fired during the team’s miserable first half the 2026 season, was hired as the Phillies third base and infield coach. 

The move was announced Thursday by Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski as the team made a string of coaching changes upon signing Don Mattingly to a new two-year deal to remain as manager without the interim tag. 

Mendoza, 46, spent two-plus years in the Mets dugout after being hired by president of baseball operations David Stearns. He led them on a surprise run to the NL Championship Series in 2024 before losing to the eventual champion Dodgers, but the Mets then had an ugly collapse following a strong opening two months in 2025. 

With high expectations heading into this past season, the Mets were a mess early and suffered through a 12-game losing streak in April. Injuries to Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto didn’t help. 

Despite playing better for part of May, a six-game losing streak in June sealed Mendoza’s fate, and he was fired after a June 25 loss to the Cubs. 

Mendoza was replaced by Andy Green on an interim basis before Green accepted the full-time job and a three-year contract near the end of the season. 

Prior to joining the Mets, Mendoza coached in the Yankees minor league system from 2011-17 before moving to their major league coaching staff in 2018. He was Aaron Boone’s bench coach from 2020-23. 

Mendoza finished his tenure with the Mets with a 206-199 record and now moves to Mattingly’s staff, which saw former Mets and Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, as well as infield coach Bobby Dickerson, let go this week. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one: A Dodger left-hander, who put video game-like numbers in the regular season, had a colossal dud in arguably the most important game of the year, in no small part by being left to hang out to dry in the seventh inning, before a back-breaking, likely season-breaking, home run. And then, the bullpen let whatever hope still in the building out with great alacrity.

The fact that this paragraph could apply to either Clayton Kershaw or Blake Snell is one of life’s little ironies. Snell became the second pitcher in history to start a playoff game by giving up a home run and have his last pitch in that same game go for a home run. The other pitcher was John Smoltz in Game 3 of the 1991 NLCS.

Considering Snell hadn’t previously allowed a home run all year, the timing is terrible.

If this current era of Dodger baseball started because Rays’ manager pulled Snell too early in 2020, the bookend image of Dave Roberts leaving Snell in too long in 2026 is striking.

Unless you have been mercifully under a rock, the Dodgers have failed, so far, with aplomb in this NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers. Not to take any flowers away from the Brewers: they have played hungrier, angrier, and more effectively than the Dodgers. And now Tyler Glasnow and an offense that has mostly been absent stand between the Dodgers and Cancun.

If you told me that the poor play in this series was from this past July, I wouldn’t disagree. The Dodgers look like they would probably drop a series to the Colorado Rockies right now if given the opportunity. Again, it’s not an unknown problem. Over the past two seasons, you’ve seen this movie; you’ve heard this song.

It’s just unusual to see it in the most important games of the year, this year.

Time is a flat circle

Like the bad, old days, the Dodgers have reacted to adversity in this round by being “confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head.” President Lincoln used that turn of phrase to describe one of his generals after the Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that the situation is likely going to resolve itself, one way or another, in less than eight hours after you read this essay.

Five of the last six times there has been a rematch in the LCS in consecutive years, the loser in the first year wins the rematch. The Brewers are one win away from making that bit of recent history, six out of seven times. Moreover, with a win today, the Brewers would be the first team ever to repay a sweep one year by sweeping in the rematch the following year.

The last time the Dodgers were down 0-3 in the playoffs was the 1966 World Series: Koufax’s last ride. The Dodgers ended up being swept and shut out over Games 2 through 4. In a bit of historic irony, last year’s championship team had the lowest batting average for a winning team since the 1966 Orioles.

Sarah Langs reported via EliasSports that there have now been six times when a team has gotten a 3-0 advantage on the reigning champion. Four of these instances have involved the Dodgers: 1963, 1966, 2017, and now. Four of the last five times, the series ended in a sweep. Only the 2017 Dodgers allowed a game five.

Getting ready to look for loose change

The Dodgers have been bad in this LCS; you don’t have to take my word for it. Once again, Max Muncy is singing a slightly more urgent tune than he did after the dud to end Game 2.

I applaud Muncy’s candor, but I must politely disagree on one point: excrement, in a pinch, can be useful.

Based on what we knew then, you can even use it to grow a potato. There’s nothing useful here from the Dodgers over these past three games, no silver lining, no green shoots to build upon, no fun moment with young phenom Josue De Paula to obsess over or expand upon for the pending long winter. Sure, let’s use the most exciting prospect since Cody Bellinger as a decoy.

The figurative harvest has come back with blight, and everything looks dead. But technically, it’s not dead; it’s only mostly dead, and unless you’ve forgotten — shame on you — there’s a big difference between “mostly dead” and “all dead.”

Only one single solitary team has ever climbed the Everest that is a 0-3 best-of-seven hole in baseball: the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Yes, Dave Roberts sparked the comeback; that’s not the point here. He’s not running. He’s not playing. Heck, last year in Toronto, he badly lost a footrace to Hyeseong Kim, which kept the team loose.

The fact to remember from that ALCS is that Boston took the figurative belt to its bottom in Game 3, losing 19-8 in Boston. The Red Sox looked beyond dead, and it took two extra-inning games to force Game 6 back in the Bronx and returned the belt with aplomb in Game 7.

Yes, the 2004 Red Sox turned it around. There is nothing in the past three games of play to indicate the 2026 Dodgers are about to go on a similar run. But again, the Red Sox looked mostly dead until they weren’t.

The only thing left to lose is pride

In all likelihood, the series and the season are hours away from being over. The Dodgers can either roll over or get mad and finally start punching back. The Brewers have played well, but they haven’t played perfect baseball. There have been opportunities.

A good team finds a way to win. A bad team finds a way to lose. A mediocre team attempts to convince itself and you that they are a good team, only to underachieve until their season ends.

Yes, the 2026 Dodgers won 100 regular season games. That fact and a cookie leaves you with a cookie and a likely forgotten notation in Baseball Reference, unless things drastically turn around.

Talk of a threepeat and talk of history have become a yoke around this team’s neck. So throw it out. It’s like eating a whale: you do it one bite at a time. If the series extends past today, the teams will be playing for free. Why not give everyone something to talk about?

If I had to work for free, I would make a spectacle of it.

Truthfully, I’ve been on house money mode since I was fortunate enough to be at last year’s Game 7. My only fear that game wasn’t a defeat; it was that the team laid an egg and made me feel dumb for making the effort to get to Toronto and back in 48 hours.

Losing is one thing; getting embarrassed is another. The play and the results over the last three games have been the latter. The moments where I haven’t thought that this team was underachieving or skimming by on pedigree and reputation have been far fewer than I would have preferred.

I harbor no illusion that this essay will change anything. Nor am I trying to annoy or aggravate or any other cardinal sin of this profession. I operate under the delusion that the right words can move mountains, or at the very least, make one smile when everyone is frowning.

The 2026 Dodgers could do better and should do better. They have at least one last chance to do so. Again, the Brewers have been better on the field simply by being watchable. If there was a time for this team, our team, to live up to its pedigree, its design, it would be to acknowledge the cold, hard truth that there is no tomorrow unless they outright take it.

Keep clawing and fighting until they tell you to stop. Maybe you become a legend. Maybe you get one last road trip to Milwaukee? Maybe you get to see Tarik Skubal one last guaranteed time in a Dodger uniform? Maybe you get to prevent the indignity of seeing your home fans, some of whom paid $75 for parking, watch another team celebrate at Dodger Stadium?

And if not? Well, then it doesn’t matter what this team did. It simply underachieved when it mattered most, and the rest from them would be silence.

Contracts will expire. Players will move on. Time will move on, and ripping the bandage off with critical analysis can start. Calling out an offense built like a supercar and performing like a busted Honda Civic, calling out a rotation that has underperformed when it has mattered most, and calling out a manager who literally panicked and resuscitated jokes and memes from 2018, 2019, and 2021 that he successfully put to bed over the past two seasons?

Now is not the time for postmortems and requiems. We likely have a lengthy, miserable lockout-aided offseason for those essays. But first, I am a slave to the bit, and we are going to press on, much like I hope that the Dodgers do today.

Because if not now, when?

The Los Angeles Dodgers have dug themselves into quite a deep hole.

The Dodgers are now down 3-0 in their NLCS series against the Milwaukee Brewers after Wednesday night’s 6-2 loss.

The last time the Dodgers were down 3-0 in a postseason series was 60 years ago, when they lost the first three games of the 1966 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles won Game 4 of that World Series by a score of 1-0, cementing the sweep against Los Angeles. The legendary Don Drysdale was the losing pitcher for the Dodgers in that fateful Game 4.

In fact, history has been historically bad for MLB teams who were down three games in a best-of-seven series. Only one team has ever crawled out of that deficit to win a series: the Boston Red Sox, who famously did so against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

Aside from that, 41 of the other 42 MLB postseason series where a team went up 3-0 has ended with that team advancing. 32 of those have ended in a sweep.

At least Dodgers fans won’t have to wait long to see whether this NLCS series becomes No. 33 that ended with a sweep, as Game 4 is arriving on Thursday night.

Three days after the Orioles agreed to a five-year deal with Pete Alonso last December, the Mets signed Jorge Polanco to a two-year, $40 million contract. At the time, the Mets’ front office clearly thought that the switch-hitting veteran would give them good production at the plate, and in the team’s press release about the signing included a comment from David Stearns that the expectation was that he’d spend time at first base and designated hitter while “bouncing around to other positions as needed.”

None of that happened. After a slow ramp-up in spring training that was designed to ease him into the long season because of past injury issues with his legs, Polanco played first base just two times: in the first and second games of the Mets’ season. He started having issues with his lower legs, as his Achilles tendon and heel were mentioned in injury reports in early April, and he spent the rest of the season as a DH.

A variety of injuries kept Polanco sidelined for several long stretches of the season, too, and when he did play, he was historically bad. In just 145 plate appearances over the course of 37 games, Polanco hit .148/.201/.230 with a 20 wRC+. He was worth -1.4 fWAR, which was tied with Noelvi Marte of the Reds for the worst mark in all of baseball. And while that wasn’t the worst single season in Mets history, it’s the only one of the ten worst seasons by fWAR to have happened this century. The last time a Met was that far below replacement level was in fifteen years ago, back when Ronny Paulino put up a -1.2 fWAR season for a very bad Mets team, thought it’s worth noting that Mark Vientos nearly tied Paulino with a -1.1 fWAR of his own this year.

So what went wrong? Having struggled in his first season with the Mariners in 2024, Polanco thrived at the plate as he got the team shifted the vast majority of his playing time to the DH role in 2025. Yes, he had played shortstop, second base, and third base in the past, but the Twins began moving him off short in 2021 and had fully moved him off the position in 2022 with the exception of 30.0 innings that he played there that season. Primarily a second baseman from that season through 2024, he occasionally played third base, too.

That track record, combined with what the Mariners got out of Polanco when they reduced his playing time in the field even further, seemed to suggest that Polanco was moving toward a full-time DH role sooner rather than later. Sure, the Mets might’ve been able to have him cover other infield positions in a pinch, but it would’ve been surprising to see him get significant playing time around the infield. If his legs hadn’t been such a mess on the injury front, maybe he’d have been able to play about as often at first base this year as he played second base for the Mariners last year, but even that would’ve given the Mets a whole lot of innings and games to cover at first.

Even for those of us who were concerned about the Mets’ apparent plan to play Polanco in the field regularly, though, what wound up happening was far worse than what had seemed like the worst-case scenario back on Opening Day. Leg injuries forcing him to move to DH even more than he had last year in Seattle, well, that seemed fairly predictable. You wouldn’t have expected him to fall off a cliff at the plate, though, and you wouldn’t have expected him to last just two games in the infield before he was too hurt to play defense again.

Entering his age-33 season, Polanco presents a massive question mark for the Mets, assuming the team doesn’t decide to part ways with him as it manages its 40-man roster this winter. If he sticks around, a best case scenario would be an injury-free spring training spent exclusively as a DH and something resembling a return to form in that role once the regular season gets underway. The underlying metrics as measured by Statcast don’t paint any more of an optimistic picture than his 2026 stats do, though, and it would a major shock if he were to rebound significantly enough to avoid joining Jed Lowrie and Frankie Montas as one of the Mets’ most infamous signings of all time.

Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor’s wife, Katia, gave him a hilarious basket of treats for undergoing a vasectomy, she revealed in an Instagram post Wednesday.

“Three beautiful children later, we decided our family is complete. ” Katia wrote, including a behind the scenes video of her assembling a snack basket with jokes referencing the procedure. “I’ve carried the babies, now it was his turn to take one for the team. Love you, babe! ”

The couple are parents to daughters Kalina Zoé, 5, and Amapola Chloé, 3, and 18-month-old son Koa Amani.

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This surgery comes after Lindor and the Mets finished last place in the National League East with a 74-88 record and missed the postseason for the second consecutive year.

Katia showed a handmade card that said, “Snip snip hooray it’s vasectomy day!” with the date of Oct. 14, 2026.

Another card said, “It’s a whole new ballgame Happy Vasectomy Day!”

Inside, it read, “Paquito, Thank you for taking one for the team! Blessed with the best teammate,” including the message, “No more babies.”

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Katia’s post was set to the song, “Bye Bye Bye” by NSYNC.

Katia included some snacks with a few jokes such as, Chips Ahoy, which she switched to “Snips Ahoy” — and a box of Sour Patch Kids that had a “No more” sign on it.

She also packed cooling boxer briefs for the five-time MLB All-Star.

Lindor flashed a big smile as he read the cards.

“Yeah, done,” he said.

“He’s home and we’re giggling together,” Katia wrote.

The Phillies made a trade with the San Francisco Giants this trade deadline in which the headliner was Luis Arraez. With an offense that would be considered “moribund” at the time of the deal, getting Arraez was supposed to help revive them (narrator: it did not help revive them). To make the deal happen, the Phillies had to part with a solid prospect in Ramon Marquez, an overpay when considering just those two names. Yet there was a third name there in the deal, one Caleb Kilian.

Did you remember him?

What went right

Well, he helped them get Arraez. That’s something, right?

Oh yeah, he has team control. That’s basically why they traded for him.

What went wrong

He got hurt.

That’s basically it. There was something the team saw in him that made them want to make sure Kilian’s name was included in the deal for Marquez, something they saw and liked. However, an oblique strain basically ended Kilian’s season as he was unable to recover in time to help the team down the stretch and into Atlanta.

Final grade: Incomplete

You can’t really grade anything Kilian did as he threw 48 pitches wearing Phillies red. He was abjectly terrible in one of his appearances with the team, so saying that there is something to build on for future seasons might be a bit of wishcasting. It could end up being in the same vein of the Jonathan Bowlan trade where the team saw the unmolded clay of a relief pitcher that they feel they can turn into a piece of art worthy of a major league bullpen, but we’ll just have to put a pin in it for now.

Before he had a chance to grow up and become affectionately known as “Babe Ruth’s Legs,” Samuel Byrd was known to his family as Dewey. While growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Byrd excelled at basketball and baseball for Simpson High School. During his high school days, Byrd also found another sport to love, as he grew up close enough to the golf course to work as a caddie. Remarkably, both played a role in his long-term future.

Samuel Dewey Byrd
Born: October 15, 1907 (Bremen, GA)
Died: May 11, 1981 (Mesa, AZ)
Yankees Tenure: 1929-1934

Following his graduating from Simpson High, Byrd worked as a bricklayer like his father while playing sandlot baseball. That changed in 1926 when the Southern Association’s Birmingham Barons signed Byrd to a contract and promptly sent him to the Jonesboro Buffaloes in Arkansas. In 59 games, Byrd posted a .348 average and led the league in hits.

Following that successful debut, the Barons tried Byrd out with the Knoxville Smokies for the 1927 season. Byrd caught fire again in the hills of Tennessee, batting .331 with 15 home runs. This performance landed him his big break. The New York Yankees purchased Byrd’s contract and assigned the right-handed outfielder to the Albany Senators for the 1928 season.

In Albany, Byrd kept rolling. His batting average jumped to .371, and he hit 18 home runs in 130 games. After that season, it was clear Byrd had a future in the big leagues. The Yankees invited him to spring training, and he made the club to start the 1929 season. The rookie had trouble finding playing time, as the Yankees’ outfield included Ruth, Earle Combs, and Bob Meusel. Wearing number 27 on his jersey, Byrd finished his rookie season with 202 plate appearances and slashed .312/.409/.471.

Meusel vacated left field prior to the 1930 season, but the Yankees used a rotation of players alongside Ruth and Combs. In his second big league season, Byrd appeared in 30 more games than he had as a rookie but only netted 52 more trips to the plate. Of the 92 games he appeared in, Byrd started only 54. This was when the nickname and honorific of being “Babe Ruth’s Legs” took hold, as Byrd was often used to pinch-run or serve as a defensive replacement for Ruth late in games.

The Yankees experienced some change prior to the 1931 season, as Joe McCarthy was brought in to lead the club and Ben Chapman was moved out of the infield to cover the spacious “Death Valley” in left. Byrd was locked in as the team’s fourth outfielder and continued to serve as Ruth’s late-game replacement. Byrd appeared in 115 games that year while starting only 45. In that role, he produced a .270/.349/.395 slash line.

The 1932 season was a magical one for the Yankees. The team won 107 games and went on to sweep the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. For Byrd, the season was much of the same: another solid year serving as the team’s fourth outfielder, batting .297 with a career-high eight home runs in pinstripes. Byrd appeared in one inning of the World Series, as you guessed it, a defensive replacement for Ruth in the final inning of the final game.

Byrd spent two more seasons in the Bronx, continuing to serve as the team’s fourth outfielder and primarily taking over for Ruth at some point during games. In 1933, he appeared in 85 games with 18 starts; in 1934, the numbers were 106 games and 42 starts. Perhaps not coincidentally, once Ruth’s time in pinstripes ended, so did Byrd’s, as the Cincinnati Reds purchased his contract ahead of the 1935 season.

The Reds let the 27-year-old Byrd start 111 games in 1935. In the full-time role, he slashed .262/.322/.406 with a career-high nine home runs. The 1936 season was not as kind to Byrd, as he returned to a reserve role, but he did achieve the rare feat of hitting a Jason Giambi-esque “ultimate grand slam,” a walk-off slam that turned a three-run deficit into a one-run victory against the Pirates. The Reds traded Byrd to the St. Louis Cardinals after the season, but he opted to retire rather than return to the minor leagues and started to pursue golf full-time.

Byrd’s passion and talent for golf were known throughout the majors. Byrd, along with Ruth and other teammates, played as much as they could, and many players at the time agreed that the Yankees’ odd man out in the outfield was actually the leader on the links. After just a few years, Byrd found himself competing at golf’s highest level. He finished third in the Masters in 1941 and fourth in 1942.

When he retired from professional golf in 1949 (incidentally, one year after Ruth’s passing), he had won six times on the PGA Tour while playing in 20 majors with four top 10 finishes. Today he still holds claim as the only person to ever play in both a World Series and the Masters Tournament.

After all his playing days were over, Byrd became a golf instructor. He taught people how to swing a club using a drill he picked up from the Babe himself, keeping a cloth pinned between his arm and body. In 1974, Byrd was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and got to enjoy those honors for seven years before passing away in 1981.

Whether you call him Dewey or Sammy, we wish him a happy birthday!

See more of the “Yankees Birthday of the Day” series here.

David Peterson came over from the Mets in a trade made well before the deadline, in late June. The Cubs gave up 23-year-old infielder Cole Mathis, who was the team’s second-round pick in 2024 and who has yet to play above A ball.

Peterson made 16 appearances (15 starts) for the Cubs and overall his numbers were good, not great: 3.70 ERA, 1.369 WHIP, 0.9 bWAR.

That ERA is decent, but even that was skewed by a horrific start against the Cardinals July 3, when Peterson was tagged for 10 runs in 3.2 innings. In 14 games (13 starts) after that his ERA was 2.66 and he allowed only seven home runs in 71 innings, with a 3.83 FIP.

Those numbers would play, I think, in the Cubs rotation going forward. It’s still a bit of a mystery why the Cubs didn’t start Peterson in one of the Wild Card Series games. He wound up throwing 1.2 scoreless innings in Game 2 once the Cubs were already behind 4-1.

In some ways Peterson became the forgotten man of the Cubs rotation. He was even shuffled into a relief role when Edward Cabrera made his first disastrous return to the rotation in mid-August. Even then he was productive, getting this important out in the eighth inning Aug. 17 against the White Sox [VIDEO].

Peterson turned 31 in September. He’s another ground-ball type like Clay Holmes and generally keeps the ball in the ballpark (2.3 percent career HR rate). He made $8.1 million in 2026.

I would not be opposed to offering him, say, a three-year, $35 million deal. I think Peterson is much more worth keeping around than, say, Matthew Boyd, who will be 36 in February.

Who says no to that?

Former Mets manager Carlos Mendoza is back in the NL East, joining the Phillies as their third base and infield coach.

Mendoza was fired by the Mets this past June and replaced by Andy Green, whose interim tag was removed near the end of the season.

In three seasons with New York, Mendoza had a 206-199 record. The Mets reached the NLCS in his first year at the helm and had a slow collapse in 2025 that resulted in them being eliminated from postseason contention. In 2026, a 12-game losing streak in April knocked the Mets out of contention early.

Before joining the Mets, Mendoza was a coach for the Yankees from 2018 to 2023.

In Philadelphia, Mendoza will work under manager Don Mattingly, who was given a two-year deal earlier this week after finishing the season with the interim tag. 

Before hiring Mattingly, Philadelphia reportedly reached out to Alex Cora, Raul Ibañez, and Chase Utley to gauge their interest in the position.  

The Dodgers were in a prime position to sucre a win at home in Game 3 of the NLCS, but Blake Snell couldn’t endure the wrath of Milwaukee’s lineup in a 6-2 loss on Wednesday.

Snell faced a similar fate as he did in Game 5 of the 2025 World Series, as he allowed a first-pitch home run to Jackson Chourio to start the scoring. From there until the seventh inning, Snell was exactly what the Dodgers had ordered, tossing six innings of scoreless ball while striking out nine hitters.

The Dodgers were able to give Snell some semblance of run support, as a two-run double from Will Smith helped put them up a run against Milwaukee. It looked like the Dodgers had enough momentum to come back in the seres, until the top of the seventh inning occurred.

Snell allowed a leadoff walk to Andrew Vaughn to put the tying run on base, and it seemed as if Snell was able to work around the situation. Instead, Snell got into a deep at-bat against Jake Bauers. and the Brewers first baseman was able to catapult Milwaukee to a 3-2 lead. Two pitchers later, center fielder Garrett Mitchell blasted his first postseason home run to put the lead evidently out of reach.

Snell spoke with Kirsten Watson of SportsNet LA, where he mentioned how he was able to bounce back after the leadoff home run to Chourio.

“It was just wild, the fact that t happened in back-to-back postseasons, It’s part of the game. It’s not gonna define me, but it’s frustrating. I was really locked in because I was focused. I knew what I needed to do, and that’s part of the game. To give up a home run to start the game was just frustrating, and I’ll learn from that.”

In a start where the Dodgers needed all the run production they could get behind Snell, the two-run double from Smith was the only help that the southpaw was able to get. Snell looked to be on the upswing before Bauers and Mitchell both got to him in the seventh inning.

When speaking with Watson, Snell spoke about his dominant performance over his first six innings on the mound, until the two Brewers lefty bats lit him up in the seventh. It was a moment that Snell reflected particularly on Bauers, whom Snell shared parts of his career with in Tampa.

“I got a strike pitch one, and then I left a fastball over the middle to Bauers. I’ve known him since he got drafted with San Diego and then was with the Rays. I’ve seen all the ups and downs he’s been through. For him to go through this, he’s earned it.”

The Dodgers starting pitching so far has failed to live up to expectations, as they’ve been responsible for allowing nine earned runs allowed over 14 2/3 innings. The Dodgers will send Tyler Glasnow on the hill for Game 4 on Thursday, looking to avoid being swept by Milwaukee. This is the firs time the Dodgers have been down 3-0 in a playoff series since the 1966 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles.

We’re going to try something a little bit different today. With Boston out of the playoffs and anniversaries of awesome Red Sox postseason moments popping up on a daily basis during this stretch of the calendar, it got me thinking about some of the greatest games in franchise history.

Specifically, I started a little exercise in my head highlighting these magical moments, and by the end of it, I wanted to play the game with other Red Sox fans and the OTM community. The task is simple: Create the best Red Sox 7-Game series using the franchise’s rich catalog of postseason roller coaster rides. In doing so, you have just two limitations:

1. Each selection within your best 7-Game series must correspond to the actual game it was during the series played. (So you can’t use a Game 5 and place it at Game 1 or Game 7 or whatever.)
2. You can only use one game per series, meaning you have to dip into seven different series to create the full list. (This means you’re going to have to make some hard decisions when it comes to the 2004 ALCS.)

So with that, I’ll get everybody started with my list.

Game 1:2004 World Series

You can actually go a few different ways here. For a while I thought the one-game Wild Card win over the Yankees in 2021 was the answer since that’s the only Game 1 that’s winner-take-all and it came against the detestable Yankees. But it was also so early in the postseason, was a good — not great — game, and it has some surprisingly stiff competition.

I also almost went with Game 1 of the 2018 World Series (great game and an easy way to lead off with the most dominant Red Sox team of all time). But I landed on Game 1 of the 2004 World Series because even 22 years later, I can still remember exactly how I felt watching every inning of that surreal experience. The euphoria at the start of the game coming off the ALCS comeback, the wild twists and turns, the errors, and of course the sound of the Mark Bellhorn home run hitting Pesky’s Pole.

There’s also been some extra legend added to this game and moment in recent years now that we know the ESPN crew accidentally pulled down the pole and moved it just hours before the World Series got underway. What are the odds the decisive home not only ends up near, but off Pesky’s Pole in the aftermath? Just another incredible tidbit from a time in Red Sox history full of them.

Game 2: 2013 ALCS

For me, the 2013 ALCS was the easiest selection on the whole list. I don’t think there’s any other Game 2 in MLB history that so completely and decisively swung a best-of-7 series. That series felt like it was headed down a one way street before the Ortiz grand slam, and then it morphed it into a different universe. Add on the indelible image of Tori Hunter flipping over the bullpen wall in front of the cop celebrating, and you have a photo that will grace the walls of Boston bars forever. Special game, special player, special moment, special series, special season!

Game 3: 2003 ALDS

Here’s where it gets tricky, but I went with Game 3 of the 2003 ALDS for multiple reasons. First off, it was just peak bizarre baseball, which I love! But also, I’d argue this game was the catalyst of the entire epic saga that was the 2003-2004 postseason. If the Red Sox lose, they get swept by the A’s, the Red Sox vs. Yankees ALCS never happens, the Pedro/Grady Little controversy in Game 7 never happens, and that entire core is less battle tested and probably constructed a little bit different when the face the Yankees the following year.

It also had some of my favorite dumb baseball moments of all time with Eric Burns shoving Jason Varitek and Miguel Tejada stopping on the basepaths when Oakland had the Red Sox on the ropes.

Oh, and then it went 11 innings and featured a Trot Nixon walk-0ff. Man, the entire 2003 postseason was just nuts!

Game 4: 2004 ALCS

The 2004 ALCS. This one doesn’t need an introduction or video (we’ve all seen the highlights a million times). It’s the ultimate dividing line between the past and the present. I almost went off sequence here and wanted to save my 2004 ALCS bullet for the next game, but I couldn’t because …

Game 5: 2008 ALCS

This is by far the toughest pick! Despite my last answer, I’d actually argue that Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS is the better game from that series (and I’ve done so here at Over The Monster before). But here’s the thing: There is no team in baseball — and for that matter all of sports — that has a more impressive catalog of stunning Game 5s than the Boston Red Sox. It’s not even close!

There’s the Dave Henderson home run in 1986. There’s Pedro coming out of the bullpen against Cleveland in 1999. There’s the Andrew Benintendi catch to close out the 2018 ALCS. There’s the nail biting ninth inning of Game 5 of the 1967 World Series that nearly sparked a 3-1 comeback. There’s Derek Lowe stranding the bases loaded to end the 2003 ALDS. There’s even this beauty to close out the 1915 World Series in which the Sox rallied down 4-2 in the eighth.

But for this exercise, I’m going with the seven run comeback in Game 5 of the 2008 ALCS.

The Sox failing to close out this series in Game 7 is one of the biggest missed opportunities in franchise history! Game 5 very nearly set off a dynasty with what could have been the franchise’s ultimate comeback game, and it was the eighth straight Red Sox win in the LCS when facing elimination (appropriately dating by Game 4 of the 2004 series against the Yankees). Mathematically, Boston’s odds to win the 2008 ALCS were lower in the seventh inning of Game 5 of this series than they were in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS, and they took that all the way to an early lead in Game 7.

It probably won’t be the most popular answer among the masses because of how the series turned out, but I’m obsessed with what this game could have set off if Game 7 went differently.

Game 6: 1975 World Series

Even after all these years and four championships, it’s still Game 6 of the 1975 World Series. It’s a damn near perfect baseball game!

The Bernie Carbo home run fueled the dramatic eighth inning comeback, the Red Sox blew a golden bases loaded, nobody out opportunity to win it in the ninth, the Dwight Evans catch in right field in the 11th, Hall of Famers all over the place, and of course the iconic Carton Fisk home run where he waves it fair off the pole.

For decades, this was the best thing Red Sox fans had. It’s the closest many people ever came to tasting a championship, and it was savored so much by the region it was frequently mentioned in movies, books, and other literature for years.

Game 7: ???

And here’s where we get to the title of the article. For a franchise blessed with so much rich postseason history, the Red Sox don’t have a signature Game 7 win. Take your time. Dig. It’s not out there.

They have plenty of signature Game 7 losses, but all of their modern Game 7 wins tend to be exclamation points on other more iconic games from earlier in the series. (The 2004 ALCS is a perfect example of this.)

Oddly, they do have an easy pick for a Game 8. Back in the 1912 World Series, Game 2 ended in a tie, so Game 8 became the decisive, winner-take-all contest, and it ended up going to extra innings. The Sox fell behind 2-1 in the top of the tenth, only to score two in the bottom of the inning following an extremely costly error by Giants’ centerfielder Fred Snodgrass. What a way to close out Fenway Park’s inaugural season!

But anyway, back to the matter at hand. I’m going Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS to complete the comeback vs. Cleveland. It was more of a party than a great baseball game, but again, where else do you go with this exercise? (It also holds a special place in my heart personally.)

Here’s the most fun takeaway of this exercise for me: We have yet to see the best Game 7 in Red Sox franchise history. For all the records, all the heroics, and all the rhetoric about how we’ll never experience the same highs as 2004 again, any modern Red Sox team has a chance to go one last place no other Red Sox team has gone before. Make a deep postseason run and end it with an unforgettable exclamation point of a Game 7.

When it happens, that group will go right up there with all the other magical seasons we touched on throughout this list. In other words, there’s still new places to explore out there, and maybe — just maybe — our young stars will light the way.

So with that, I turn it over to you. What’s your best 7-Game Red Sox series?

The finish was frustrating. The power was undeniable. And the players who shared the field with Munetaka Murakami apparently saw plenty worth recognizing.

The White Sox first baseman was named one of three finalists for the American League Outstanding Rookie Award in the MLBPA’s Players Choice Awards on Wednesday, joining Detroit’s Kevin McGonigle and Cleveland’s Parker Messick. It’s an all-AL Central field. Apparently, the division had a few things going for it this year.

The winners will be announced the week of Oct. 26. Established in 1992, the Players Choice Awards recognize excellence on and off the field, with the voting handled by the players themselves. There’s something meaningful about getting the nod from the same guys trying to get you out. And for stretches of his first big-league season, getting Mune out was quite the assignment.

Murakami finished the regular season with a .207/.347/.478 slash line, an .825 OPS, 35 home runs, 77 RBIs and 92 walks in 127 games. Even with a right hamstring strain costing him roughly six weeks from late May into July, the slugger supplied the kind of power the South Side has spent far too long trying to find.

The batting average? Nobody is framing that one, but 35 homers and 92 walks will play, especially when they come with a 130 OPS+ and 2.3 WAR. There was real production underneath the strikeouts and the frustrating stretches.

His Baseball Savant profile tells that story in rather dramatic shades of red and blue. Murakami finished in the 100th percentile in barrel rate, the 99th percentile in hard-hit and walk rates, and the 98th percentile in average exit velocity. When he connected, pitchers generally had reason to turn around. Making that connection consistently was the problem.

His whiff and strikeout rates both landed in the first percentile, while his expected batting average sat in the second. Yet his chase rate ranked in the 91st percentile, a useful distinction: Murakami could lay off pitches outside the zone and still struggle mightily to put bat to ball. The power was elite. The patience was there. The contact remains a work in progress.

That combination made for a rookie season with some awfully high highs and a difficult landing. Through his first 74 games, Murakami had already launched 24 of his eventual 35 home runs and looked like someone the White Sox should be discussing a future with immediately. August and September were considerably less fun.

Those struggles followed him into Soxtober, when he hit .185/.258/.296 with a .554 OPS, one homer, five RBIs, three walks and 15 strikeouts in 27 at-bats. It was a rough ending for a hitter who had given the offense so much early electricity. Still, the entire season counts, and it gave Chicago plenty to build on.

When the Sox signed Murakami to a two-year, $34 million contract on Dec. 21, 2025, the surprise extended well beyond the South Side. This franchise isn’t usually the one landing an accomplished international slugger while the rest of baseball watches.

Mune arrived with quite the résumé: consecutive Central League MVP awards in 2021 and 2022, four NPB All-Star selections, the 2019 Central League Rookie of the Year award and a 2021 Japan Series championship with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. In 2022, he captured the Triple Crown by hitting .318 with 56 home runs and 134 RBIs. Those 56 homers established the single-season record for a Japanese-born player.

Questions about how his swing would handle major-league velocity and breaking stuff accompanied him to Chicago. His first season offered evidence of both the enormous upside and the adjustments still ahead.

There was a defensive transition, too. Primarily a third baseman in Japan, Murakami moved to first for the Sox and finished with -2 Fielding Run Value. The bat was always going to carry this particular investment.

Now, the question is how long Chicago can keep it around. According to Bruce Levine, general manager Chris Getz said Tuesday that extension discussions with Murakami’s representatives began in late summer and remain ongoing. A longer stay would give Mune time to make those adjustments — and Sox fans more opportunities to watch baseballs disappear.

The broader awards slate also includes several familiar names: Dylan Cease and Chris Sale are finalists for their respective leagues’ Outstanding Pitcher awards, Chris Bassitt is up for Marvin Miller Man of the Year and Jake Burger is a Philanthropist of the Year finalist. Plenty of former South Siders will be represented when the winners are revealed later this month.

This time, there’s a current one worth celebrating, too.