Category: MLB

Coming into 2026, the last season of his six-year, $150 million contract with the Jays, we really didn’t know what to expect. He had a couple of very good seasons, a couple of fairly average season and a poor season. In 2026, coming off his best season of the five, who knew what would happen at age 36?

Well….

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

Today we are looking at pitcher Nolan Kingham.

One of the difficulties in doing this series is deciding who to write up in any given post. Early on, one can be overwhelmed by all the choices available — there’s a phenomenon known as “choice overload,” where a whole lot of things to choose from can overwhelm a person and make it harder for them to pick anything at all. Folks who are especially vulnerable to this, I have to think, stay away from the Cheesecake Factory.

There’s also the question as to who should be the first player to be written up. In previous seasons, when the Rangers were eliminated before the regular season was over, and I started the write-ups in the last week or two of the season, that was easier, because I could pick someone who was on the injured list or who had been traded or released. If I’m doing seasons in review with a week and a half left in the season, guys still on the active roster, or who could be activated or called up, are excluded, simplifying the issue.

The Rangers weren’t eliminated until the final day of the 2026 season, however, so that isn’t an option here.

So what to do? Pick someone prominent? Someone who had a really good season? Someone who disappointed? Someone who I have lots to say about? Someone I’m indifferent to? Do I jump immediately in the deep end with someone controversial who there’s going to be a lot to say about?

Ultimately, the decision was to ease into things. Start off with a write-up that isn’t going to get people mad or worked up or cause controversy, to better whet the appetites of the LSB faithful for the previews to come.

Do you remember Nolan Kingham? I’m willing to bet that, a few years from now, he’ll be one of the least-guessed answers on the 2026 Texas Rangers Sporcle quiz. Hell, I am betting that some of you read the headline and said, who? Is AJM making up players now? Did he stroke out at the keyboard? AJM, do you smell burnt toast?

Nolan Kingham was one of 34 Texas Rangers players who pitched for the team in 2026. Three of the players who pitched were actually position players, though, so we can say Kingham was one of 31 pitchers who the team rostered and who appeared in a game for the Rangers in 2026.

The Rangers, as a team, had 1419.1 innings pitched in 2026. Nolan Kingham threw one of those innings, representing .07% of the total innings thrown for Texas on the season. The Rangers allowed 719 runs in 2026. Kingham allowed one of those runs, meaning he allowed .13% of the total runs allowed by Texas in 2026.

Kingham was the #223 prospect on the Baseball America board in 2015, coming out of Desert Oasis High School in Enterprise, Nevada. I had never heard of Enterprise, Nevada before now. It is, per Wikipedia, an unincorporated town that is part of the Greater Las Vegas metropolitan area. It had 14,676 residents in 2000, per the U.S. Census, and 221,831 in 2020, which is kind of remarkable. That’s, like, Collin County on steroids levels of population growth.

The “Notable People” section of Wikipedia has a surprisingly lengthy and eclectic list of residents, including, among the athletes, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Baron Davis, Reggie Jackson, the Big Hurt, and Chris Carter. I had assumed that Chris Carter had been retired for years, but he’s actually been playing in the Mexican League since 2019. He slashed .237/.370/.486 in 219 plate appearances for Saltillo in 2026, at the age of 39. Nick Carter is listed, as is Toni Braxton, and seeing her name reflexively makes me think back on, and lament, the Three J’s.

Someone named Terry Fator is also listed in the “Notable People” category. It says “Terry Fator, ventriloquist.” He’s from Dallas, incidentally — was born there, anyway — but I take issue with his being listed there. The only ventriloquists who are Notable People are Edgar Bergen and Jeff Dunham.

Also, I can’t think of ventriloquists without thinking of this. Fun fact — Choo Choo, the Herky Jerky Dancer, is played by Jay Johnston, who was convicted of a felony in connection with the January 6 Capitol attack. Less fun fact — Professor Murder is played by Sam Sarpong, who took his own life in October, 2015, by jumping off a bridge in Pasadena.

Anyway, back to Kingham…Kingham was by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 39th round of the 2015 MLB Draft. As was the case with most 39th rounders, he didn’t sign, opting to go the college route, and pitched for the University of Texas for three seasons. BA had him as the #100 prospect in the 2018 draft, with a disappointing junior season dropping his stock, and the Atlanta Braves selected him in the 12th round, giving him a $150,000 bonus, $25,000 more than the $125K amount that you can sign a player in the 11th and later rounds without dipping into your bonus pool.

Kingham made it to AA in 2019, his first full season as a pro. 2020 happened, and we won’t talk about all that. 2021, 2022 and 2023 saw him shuffle between AA and AAA in the Braves’ system, providing organizational depth but not missing enough bats to have any sort of real success. He was released late in spring training in 2024 by the Braves, and was not picked up by a major league team.

Another fun fact — Nolan’s brother, Nick, was also a major league pitcher. A former consensus top 100 prospect in the Pirates’ organization, Nick appeared in 43 games for the Pirates and Blue Jays in the 2018-19 seasons, then pitched in Korea from 2020-22, then briefly in China and Mexico in 2023. Nolan, having seen his brother’s path, opted to do something similar, spending the next two-plus years pitching in the Mexican League and in the Mexican Winter League.

The minor league roster limits that were implemented in the last CBA mean that teams aren’t able to sign and roster random depth arms like Kingham like they used to, which means that, when injuries strike in the minors, teams are now having to turn much more often to the independent leagues to find someone to fill in. And so Kingham, who was sporting a 1.82 ERA in 6 starts for Monterrey to start the 2026 season, was snagged by the Rangers when they needed an available arm for the rotation at Round Rock in late May.

Back where he played college ball, Kingham did what was asked of him, going out every fifth or sixth day for the Express and giving them some innings. The innings were not necessarily good innings — after eight starts he had an 8.41 ERA and was allowing opposing hitters a whopping 1023 OPS — but, you know, they didn’t have to be good innings at that point for the Express.

A relief appearance, where he threw a scoreless inning, was followed by a pair of five inning starts where Kingham allowed three runs total. In the second of those starts, he struck out nine batters, the most he’d fanned in an affiliated game since pre-COVID. Whether because he impressed in that outing, or previous outings, or just because the Rangers needed an arm, he was brought up to the big leagues on August 1, replacing Luis Curvelo, who had given up four runs in two innings the day before in what would turn out to be Curvelo’s final appearance in the majors for the Rangers.

Kingham — who I keep wanting to call Kingman, a problem I have had since the Rangers signed him four and a half months ago — made one appearance for the Rangers. The game, against the Giants, was a memorable one, due to clownball by the Rangers resulting in five errors, and Texas scoring just one run despite Ezequiel Duran going 4 for 4 and coming a triple short of the cycle.

Kingham loaded the bases with one out on a pair of walks sandwiched by a single. Jung Hoo Lee hit a sac fly before Kingham got Willy Adames to strike out swinging to end the inning.

The Rangers won the following game, which featured several relievers, by one run, and so one can argue that Kingham being able to come in and pitch an inning in a game the Rangers lost contributed, in a small way, to a Rangers win.

Kingham was designated for assignment a few days later, and was claimed by the Seattle Mariners, who optioned him to AAA. By my count Kingham got 10 days of major league service time, which is 10 days more than most baseball players get. Kingham was DFA’d by Seattle at the start of September, waived and outrighted, so he will be a free agent in a couple of weeks once the season ends. At that point, he might sign a minor league deal with another team — maybe Texas! — or he may return to toiling in one of the independent leagues, waiting for a major league team to need an innings sponge at their AAA affiliate.

Kingham is 30 years old, and so he will have the opportunity, should he choose, to continue his professional baseball career in one form or another. He could make it back to the majors, in a similar situation to this year, when a team needs a fungible arm in the bullpen who can give them innings in a lost cause and be designated for assignment soon thereafter. Or he could continue to toil in AAA, or one of the indy leagues here, or in Mexico, or overseas.

But Nolan Kingham made it, even if he never makes it back. He will forever have an entry in the major league records. He will forever get to say he faced a guy making $182 million and struck him out swinging.

That’s pretty cool.

Sean Sullivan (No. 21 PuRP) had an up-and-down season.

He made his MLB debut on June 12th in the Las Vegas heat (while battling illness) and shined. But that was about the high point for Sullivan, as he bounced between Triple-A and the majors, and also battled an elbow injury.

“It was originally my elbow. It was just, like, some posterior impingement – just some inflammation and stuff like that. Nothing really too serious,” he said. “I got it obviously MRI’d and everything, and it came back fairly clean. So I just got a cortisone shot and just rehabbed it and took some rest and was able to come back for those last two weeks of the season.”

Sullivan made 14 total starts in Albuquerque, posting a 5-3 record and 5.31 ERA. He was on the injured list from August 3-September 16. In three starts at the end of the year — including one rehab start — Sullivan pitched 6.1 innings across three starts and posted a 2.84 ERA and 1.58 WHIP.

In five big league starts between June 12-July 4, Sullivan went 0-3 with an 8.87 ERA. But he learned a lot during the 2026 season.

“I feel like there were a lot of ups and downs throughout the year,” Sullivan said.

“This year for me was definitely a year of growth and learning. Obviously, the debut day was a pretty special day in my life. But … I think just every day I was up there [was a highlight] — just being able to live that experience. And even when I got sent back down, just knowing what I need to get back to and what I’m missing out on.”

He continued, “It was a great learning experience, but I take it all for granted, and I’m very blessed to be in the position I am.”

His favorite moment? Facing his hometown Boston Red Sox at Coors Field on June 23rd.

“That was pretty cool for me, just being from the Boston area,” he recalled. “I grew up loving that team and seeing a lot of those names and facing that lineup was pretty cool for me. So I would say that was probably a special day for me.”

But of all the lessons Sullivan learned, he said many of them stemmed from his injury.

“I felt like my body just wasn’t in a position where it needed to be physically,” he said. “I felt like I was running on fumes almost when I was up there, and I think you could kind of see that with some of my velocity and just my stuff overall wasn’t performing as well as it usually does.

“And that ended up showing when I got injured and stuff like that. So I think just getting my body in a better position to where I can go out there for 30 starts and be able to pitch for a full season.”

But that also gave him the opportunity to spend some time in Arizona, and now he’s back with a plan in place.

He has made two starts so far with the Salt River Rafters, allowing five runs on 10 hits across 5.2 innings with one home run, one hit batter and eight strikeouts.

“I think the idea was to get me innings, but obviously while I’m pitching, I’m always working on something,” Sullivan said. “Right now, me and Owen Cuffe have been working on my slider, just kind of changing the shapes a little bit from more of, like, a sweeper to more of a traditional slider, and working and kind of tinkering with different grips and stuff like that with my changeup, as well.

“But I’ve definitely seen some great progress so far,” he continued. “I think taking some of these adjustments into the game has been kind of nice in a less-intense environment rather than in the big leagues where it’s hard to make those adjustments.”

That was something that senior director of player development, Chris Forbes, said before the AFL season started.

“He missed quite a few starts, so I think we’re hoping to get his innings up, and I’m hoping this ends up being a blessing in the sense that once we got him down here, as were kind of letting that calm down, he was able to kind of get to, ‘OK, we’re going to focus on strength. Let’s get the strength back up,’” Forbes said in September.

“He’s one of those guys that, during the year, just has trouble maintaining weight. He can come in at 205 (pounds), and now he’s pitching at 187 or something at some point. So you’re hoping with him that he’s able to get some innings back in and get some feel back, and then ultimately make a better decision on how does he play in next year’s club. Does he come out of the bullpen as a length guy? Is he doing a spot start? I don’t know. But that’s the plan with Sean. I’m just looking at five healthy starts and going into the offseason feeling really good about it.”

And Cuffe shed some light on Sullivan’s new pitch.

“We decided to use this time during the Fall League to work on adding a pitch to his arsenal,” Cuffe said via text message. “The goal is give him another pitch to make hitter decision making tougher and have another tool to help him platoon hitters. We wanted to keep the cutter and sweeper in his arsenal and to add a more traditional gyro slider that’s more in that 80+ mph range to give him another breaking ball.

“So far, he’s had some success with throwing it in our pitching lab, so we will see how it performs to hitters. He’s also been working on his movement quality on the mound, which has allowed him to get about 92 mph for the first time in a game this year. Overall, Sean has been working hard and seeing some of the payoffs, so I’m excited for him!”

In the midst of executing his new pitch and overall plan, Sullivan is also enjoying the opportunities afforded to him in the AFL, such as playing with players and coaches from other teams.

“It’s really special,” he said.

“I think that’s one of the coolest parts of this is just being able to kind of pick everyone’s brain. And other teams have coordinators in town, and obviously just talking in the dugout and on the bench and stuff, just trying to hear how other teammates do it in their processes and organizations, and I think it’s a great way to learn and stuff.”

Planning ahead, Sullivan is looking forward to continuing to get better and compete.

“I missed some decent chunks of time this year, and it’s never fun,” he said. “So I think continuing to get to play – potentially before a lockout, too – is exciting. Whenever I get to take the mound is awesome.”

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Happy 2026 Battery Power Player Review season to all who… celebrate?

This particular season was ripe with weirdness and what-ifs. It seems only fitting that we will kick off this year’s series with one of the most polarizing of players to don a Braves uniform this year: infielder and presumed Opening Day shortstop Ha-Seong Kim.

How acquired

In a low-risk waiver claim for the final month of 2025, Kim played 24 games with the Braves and seemed to be trending upward offensively from his injury-plagued time with the Rays (.253/.316/.368 with a .301 wOBA/92 wRC+ with three homers). Emboldened by that improvement and a dire shortstop market, he declined the $16 million player option to test the waters of free agency.

But the faith in Kim in his “trial period” and mutual interest paid off, as he and the Braves reunited to the tune of a one-year, $20 million deal in mid-December.

What were the expectations?

The South Korean infielder was given a pretty penny to shore up a premium position in place of glove-first players like Orlando Arcia and Nick Allen in years past. At minimum, it was an exciting short-term upgrade if Kim’s production was even close what it was in his time with the San Diego Padres. In the longer term, this could have paid off in an extension that got us closer to bridging to our potential shortstop of the future in Tate Southisene.

Kim was tabbed to be the primary shortshop with earlier offseason acquisiton, infielder Mauricio Dubón, serving as a versatile utility man.

At the time of the signing, we were pretty excited about the upgrade to our infield and looking forward to what Kim could bring to the Braves in a full season. The projections were fairly solid despite his poor 2025, with Steamer seeing a 1.4 WAR, league-average bat with subpart shortstop defense in a half-season, and ZiPS more sanguine at 2.1 WAR over about two-thirds of a campaign. Both projection systems saw him as a league-average bat, which makes sense given that he had a 99 wRC+ coming into the 2026 campaign.

2026 Results

Kim played in 51 games with Atlanta, racking up single-digit wRC+ (7) negative fWAR (-1.2) with a .116/.219/.140 slash line. Defensively, his Statcast-based value was also negative (-3, as in, three runs below average despite playing in less than a third of a season).

What went right?

Once reactivated from the injured list on August 3, he stayed up with the big club for good and was available through the end of the season, even making a couple starts in the postseason.

Can a walk-off single be worth $20 million if it’s against the two-time World Series Champion Los Angeles Dodgers? In a series full of unreal scenes (and second only to Chris Sale’s complete game shutout), he entered with two on and two out in a tie game to pinch-hit for pitcher Victor Mederos. Kim saw seven pitches before lacing a ball to left field to win the game and the series for the Braves in electric fashion.

That was part of a brief stretch of unexpected heroics from Kim: he had that huge hit, had a three-hit game against the Nationals a few days later, and then played a critical role in one of the division-defending wins against the Phillies in September, singling with two outs to tie the game in the 11th and then madly dashing around the bases to score the walkoff run a few minutes later.

What went wrong?

Basically the whole thing, but you knew that. We seemed to run out of synonyms for “nightmare” when talking about Kim’s 2026 season. You almost couldn’t have drawn it up any worse. It was historically terrible.

A dastardly patch of ice derailed things early. A month after signing with the Braves, the news broke that he’d sustained a hand injury while slipping and tore a tendon in his right middle finger and putting him on the shelf for at least four months. Once activated in May, he was Not Right. He struggled and he hit the Injured List again for inflammation in that same finger in early July. He largely lost out on the starting shortstop job, getting the occasional rep as matchups allowed or entering games late as a pinch-runner. He earned a little more regular playing time after the walk off hit above and showed some signs of life, but still never put it all together.

All in all, Kim finished with the lowest wRC+ among anyone with 140 or more PAs this season, as well as the lowest xwOBA. Somehow, he was only bottom five in value (thanks, Jorge Polanco and Noelvi Marte!). Nor did anything really get better in the postseason, as Kim managed just a 20 wRC+ in eight PAs. It’s also not like the Braves were able to bury him in a way that kept his struggles from leading to losses, either. Or, at least, not soon enough for it to matter. One of his most damaging games came in his fifth contest of the year: he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and up with two out and the bases loaded in a one-run game, hit a measly groundout to Aroldis Chapman to end the game.

Even his defense graded out poorly, though this was a case where most of the damage was done early, as he was a positive defender after May (though not enough to counterbalance how poorly he played in the field in May).

2027 Outlook

Kim headlines another thin shortstop class in this uncertain offseason, and it’s anybody’s guess as to who might take a chance on him if baseball is played in 2027. On one hand, that’s two truly terrible years in a row (albeit with some bad luck of the injury persuasion in there). On the other, there is a chance he can get back to being a ~2 WAR player, as he was projected to be in 2026… though the path as to how he gets there is a bit unclear given that it will have been at least three years since he was last productive by the time he next takes the field.

Walt Weiss lauded Kim for his hard work and team-player attitude amidst his struggles this season. With no real internal options and Dubón also hitting free agency, there may be an opportunity for a return to the Braves. If he does, there’s truly nowhere to go but up. At least it won’t be for $20 million this time — it’s hard to see a team guaranteeing him more than $5 million at this point, even if the spending situation associated with the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is relatively unchanged. The Braves, though, will probably want to move on from this specific sense of failure.

Wrapping up the season with the second worst record in the California League, it was a tough year to be a 66ers fan. In their first year in the Mariner organization and needing to replace the dominant Modesto Nuts affiliate, the 66ers shortcomings were largely caused by factors out of their control; with the Mariners drafting heavily from the college ranks in the 2025 draft, many of the typical contributors one would expect to fortify the A-ball roster bypassed the level entirely and made their way to Everett to start the year. Despite the struggles in the win column for much of the year, this team still had a ton of strong performers that made the season incredibly exciting (particularly in the second half), and many of the system’s top 20 prospects appeared on this roster at some point in time this past year. Led by a strong pitching staff all season, the Mariner’s A-ball affiliate kicks off LL’s series of minor league “year in review” that we’ll have for you in the upcoming weeks.

Team Performance

First Half Record: 28-38 (-52 Run Differential)

Second Half Record: 31-34 (+39 Run Differential)

Final Record: 59-72

Team ERA: 5.04 (second in Cal League)

Team OPS: .755 (seventh in Cal League)

Stat to Know: Led California League in K/BB ratio (2.80)

Season Stars

Mason Peters

Easily the biggest riser of any Mariner prospect over the course of the 2026 season, Peters had a sensational first season as a professional and dominated his way through the Cal League. With as impressive a resume as any arm at the level, Peters posted 50.1 IP at the level and recorded 68 punchouts to just 12 walks, dominating his way to a 1.43 ERA and earning a promotion up to Everett late in the summer. Peters is an undersized pitcher with a slight frame and does not overwhelm with velocity, but his innate ability to spin the baseball and immense feel for his fastball-breaker combination make him one of the most exciting prospects in the entire system. He’s still a ways behind system-leading hurler Ryan Sloan, but he’s got a rather strong argument for the second best arm in the organization’s minor league ranks and should be primed for a strong 2027 season at High-A.

Ace Reese

One of, if not the strongest performer of anyone drafted in the entirety of the 2026 MLB draft, Ace Reese made it clear he had little to prove at the A-ball level, making mincemeat of opposing pitchers and smashing his way to an OPS of nearly 1.200. A line of .440/.530/.667 is obviously impossible to ignore, and even though Reese arguably would have been more appropriately placed in High-A or even Double-A, his dominance is quite assuring of his acumen at the plate. The defense at third base (a position he’s still rather new to) left a lot to be desired, and he’ll have to put in a substantial amount of work if he wants to dispel the 1B/COF archetype many have already lumped him into, but regardless of where he ends up, Reese is going to hit, and he’s going to hit a lot.

Korbyn Dickerson

The first-half hero of the lineup, Dickerson was routinely putting in work for this 66ers lineup in its darkest of times. Dickerson, a fifth rounder in 2025, manned center for IE defensively and showed off a compelling combination of power and speed that has him amongst the better bats in this system. Logging 35 steals (21 for IE) and 15 homers (9 for IE) on the year, Dickerson’s premium glove up the middle and tantalizing raw tools at the plate make him a must follow for the 2027 season; he’s struggled a bit with the bat-to-ball, but he started showing improvement after his promotion to Everett and was a key player for IE for much of the season. Given the wave of major league promotions that many of the top prospects in this system earned this season, don’t be surprised if Dickerson sneaks his way on to top ten prospect lists this offseason. He’s a really good player that’s got a bright future ahead of him.

Sleepers

Hayden Yost

Arguably the biggest breakout of the 2026 draft class thus far, Yost, a fifth round outfielder from the University of Florida, absolutely raked in his limited sample of professional baseball and looks like a potential steal as a mid round gem. The lefty slugged his way to a .999 OPS across 114 PA’s and showed off a blend of power and bat-to-ball that’s hard to teach. He’s able to maximize his thump with a good feel to pull the ball in the air, and his clear command of the zone and his barrel bode incredibly well for his future as he moves up the minor league ranks. He was a huge part of the second half resurgence for this roster and should be on his way to Everett next season.

Jackson Steensma

If it weren’t for some midseason injuries that derailed his outstanding start to the season, we may be talking about Steensma as one of the stars of this entire pitching staff. Steensma, who worked 43.1 innings of 4.57 ERA ball this season, looked like a far more superior pitcher for much of the first half. There was clearly something off with him after returning from a multi-month hiatus in July as his performance took a bit of a hit, but his ability to rack up K’s while limiting walks is incredibly intriguing regardless of his late season struggles. He’s physical, has good stuff, and looks like he could be a very intriguing arm; health permitting, he’s one of the better pitchers in this system.

Anderson Guevara

Maybe the deepest cut on this list, Guevara is a fun reliever pick that has some nasty stuff on the mound. Guevara’s K rates sit just under 38% for the year and though he can get wild at times, his diabolical slider is a true whiff-getter, and there’s enough bat missing potential to dream of a successful career as a reliever. He’s a name to know for the true prospect heads that can’t get enough of everything Mariners.

Good morning! There’s still baseball being played. There might be a lock on the gates at Fenway Park, but it is NOT yet the offseason, and not yet time for the return of our Pulitzer Prize-winning* Smash or Pass series.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t start dreaming about some big offseason signings.

The whole world knows that the Red Sox need to add some thump to the lineup. Unfortunately, the MLB free agent class isn’t looking too thumpy this year. The top power hitters on the market are guys like Randy Arozarena, Seiya Suzuki, Brandon Lowe, and Jake Bauers, all of whom are on the wrong side of 30. But a new, not-technically-a-free-agent-but-still-kind-of-a-free-agent name is now out there. Teruaki Sato, who just won the Triple Crown in Japan’s Central League, will be posted this offseason.

There are a number of similarities between Sato and Munetaka Murakami, who was posted last year. Both were primarily third basemen in Japan, both were/will be posted at age 25, and both of them strikeout a lot. Sato, though, is considered to be a better athlete and defender (he’s won the NPB equivalent of the Gold Glove), with better contact skills but worse on-base skills.

Obviously things didn’t work out as everyone hoped the last time the Sox dipped into the Japanese market, but it’s not as if there isn’t plenty of MLB All-Star quality out there.

Talk about Japanese sluggers, the ALCS, or whatever else you want in this space and, as always, be good to one another.

*I give out my own Pulitzer Prizes. You’re allowed to do that if you want.

The Rays are one win away from setting up a World Series matchup with the Brewers. Old friend Griffin Jax could be lining up for a Game 7 start (can you imagine saying that just last year?) if the Guardians do win Game 6.

In other Twins Territory news, the Twins also quickly moved on from former pitching coach Pete Maki, hiring Brian Reith, who was the pitching coach for the Rays’ Triple-A affiliate. In addition, Brooks Lee was named a Gold Glove finalist and will be up against Caleb Durbin and Nick Loftin for earning honors.

The Past Week on Twinkie Town:

• Check out The Feed, where you can add your discussions about the Twins!
• Zach Koenig looks back at 2026 to find the moments he knew that the season was lost.
• Matt Monitto highlights the old friends who will be hoping to hold up a trophy in a couple of weeks.
• Aidan O’Brien evaluates the prospects who could be a big part of the Twins’ 2027 season.
• Zach Koenig muses on his mixed feelings with the Savannah Bananas.
• We watched the Bride of Frankenstein last Friday, and James Fillmore will be continuing the Twinkie Town Movie Night this Friday with Beetlejuice!

Elsewhere in Twins Territory:

• Bobby Nightengale at the Star Tribune looks at why the Twins are very optimistic about Emmanuel Rodriguez making a big impact in the majors next season.
• Betsy Helfand at the Pioneer Press takes a first crack at predicting the Twins starting rotation next season.
• Nick Nelson at Twins Daily provides five interesting facts about new Twins pitching coach Brian Reith.
• Matthew Leach at MLB.com provides his Twins prospects to watch for 2027.

In the World of Baseball:

• Jared Greenspan at MLB.com looks at Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby and how he’s made a notable impact as the most dependable arm out of the bullpen.
• Just a few months ago, Freddy Peralta looked lost in a New York Mets uniform. Jorge Castillo at ESPN looks at how the Rays (somewhat predictably) resurrected his career and brought out his best right before a potential World Series appearance.
• Dan Szymborski at Fangraphs provides one free-agent target for every team that just missed the playoffs.
• The Dodgers were swept out of the NLCS, ruining their opportunity for a three-peat. Jake Mintz at Yahoo looks at the questions that Los Angeles faces in the offseason.

The American League Championship Series is returning to Tropicana Field and with it, the Rays will bring back another of the franchise’s greatest players to toss out the ceremonial first pitch prior to the game.

Earlier this postseason, the Rays have already called upon Kevin Kiermaier, Carlos Pena, and Carl Crawford to throw out the first pitch and now they’re bestowing the honor upon BJ Upton.

The Rays drafted BJ Upton with the 2nd overall selection of the 2002 draft. The franchise accelerated Upton through the system and had him make his big league debut just over two years later at just 19-years old. Despite his young age, Upton displayed offensive potential but his defense needed serious improvement.

Upton spent the entirety of the 2005 season and most of the 2006 campaign in Triple-A before making his way to the big league roster for good starting in 2007. With this advancement, Upton found a new home in center field where he showcased plus defense due to his elite speed and arm strength.

Over the next six seasons, Upton would be an above average offensive player and stellar defender. From 2007 through 2012, Upton hit .255/.338/.430 with 113 HR and 217 stolen bases, registering a 110 wRC+ and accruing 22.7 fWAR (3.8 fWAR per season).

Upton was an integral part of the Rays 2008 American League pennant run, providing the team with a historic offensive performance in the postseason as tied the record for most RBI in the ALCS and launched 7 HR during the playoffs. During game two of the 2008 ALCS, it was BJ Upton who lifted the walkoff sacrifice fly that tied the series for the Rays. At the end of the 2012 season, Upton became the first player in franchise history to hit for the cycle.

Following his departure from the Rays as a free agent following the 2012 season, Upton signed with the Atlanta Braves and eventually played for the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays, last playing in 2017 in the San Francisco Giants minor league system; Upton officially retired in 2019.

At the end of play in 2026, Upton currently ranks 5th among Rays position players all-time in fWAR, 6th in homeruns, and 2nd in stolen bases.

The other day a report came out that the Yankees have had interest in Jacob Young for a long time. This report brings up the interesting conversation of whether the Nats should trade their center fielder. On the one hand, the Nats have options to replace Young. However, Young’s defensive ability gives him a higher floor than the likes of Dylan Crews.

Young is coming off an excellent 2026 season where he took massive strides offensively. The 27 year old hit .252 with a .708 OPS this season. That is after hitting just .231 with a .583 OPS last season. The biggest reason for Young’s offensive improvements are a change in his approach. Young was looking to do damage this year instead of just slapping the ball on the ground.

We wrote a deep dive article into this approach change during the season. That article looked at his lower ground ball rates, his changing swing path and more. The results speak for themselves though. Young went from an awful hitter to close to an average one. With his defense, a .708 OPS makes him a very valuable player.

The most shocking thing about Young’s season was his power. Heading into the year, Young had only hit 5 career homers. This year alone, Young hit double that. He reached double digits, slamming 10 homers on the season. In a year with a ton of offensive surprises, this power surge was one of the biggest shocks.

Now that we covered that, would it be wise to trade Young? I don’t think Jacob Young should be untouchable or anything, but I’m not sure if I would actively be shopping him. If the Nats do move Young, they would be going all in on Dylan Crews as the center fielder despite not having the results to match his draft pedigree.

In a lot of ways, Young is a Dylan Crews insurance policy. With his defense and newfound offensive competence, Young has a relatively high floor. You know he will provide elite defense if nothing else. Crews is a good defender, but he is not on Young’s level. Based on Crews’ prospect pedigree and his power upside, I still think he has more offensive upside, but I have healthy skepticism about him.

This would be the time to sell high on Young though. It is not a guarantee that his offensive gains will stick, though I personally think at least some of them will. The center field position on the free agent market is also very weak this year after down seasons from Daulton Varsho and Trent Grisham. 

That could lead to a perfect storm scenario where a team like the Yankees gives you an offer you can’t refuse. Unless you think you are getting a great deal though, I would just keep Young. He provides relative certainty on a team with a lot of uncertainty. Young also has three more years of team control.

We know that defense is special. In the last three seasons, PCA is the only center fielder with more outs above average than Young. He gets insane jumps which make tough plays look easy. Young also has the flair for the dramatic, making some of the best catches you will ever see at the wall including this insane play against the Marlins.

If the Nats were to trade Young to the Yankees, I would want the package to be centered around one of the Bronx Bombers young arms. An arm like Elmer Rodriguez or Ben Hess would make sense. If the Nats wanted to make a bigger trade that involved Young and some other pieces, they would look to acquire Will Warren or Ryan Weathers. 

Getting Warren or Weathers in a deal involving Young would be something I would like. It would really set up the rotation nicely and bring certainty. The Yankees have a lot of pitching, but they could use outfield help. Of course, the Yankees are not the only team that could trade for Young. The Astros, Reds, Orioles and Rangers are other clubs that could use a center fielder. 

Overall, I would be open to the idea of trading Young, but I would have to be very moved by the offer. Young’s defense and high floor are something I value. He is also a very positive figure in the locker room. Those things make him someone I would like to keep around, but he is not untouchable by any means.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The 2026 MLB Playoffs continue today with Game 6 of the American League Championship series between the visiting Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have taken a 3-2 series lead, so the Guardians are in a must-win situation. We’ll see if they do.

As of the time this is being written, the Guardians have not yet announced a starting pitcher to take on Rays right-hander Freddy Peralta. Tonight’s game starts at 5:08 p.m. PT and will air on TBS/HBO Max, with national radio coverage available on ESPN Radio.

Personally, I’m rooting for the Guardians today. I would love to see this series go a full seven games so that the Milwaukee Brewers get to face a tired opponent, as I am rooting for them because they eliminated the Los Angeles Dodgers last week.

Who are you rooting for today?

Sandy Alomar would be a recognizable name in baseball circles if for no other reason than he fathered two major leaguers – his namesake Sandy, who caught in the bigs for almost two decades, and Hall of Famer Roberto, who also won a pair of World Series championships with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The elder Sandy had a major league career of his own though, one that included a brief stop in New York for a couple of seasons. He was gone before the Yankees broke a long World Series drought in 1977, but Alomar’s tenure in the Bronx did enable him to experience postseason baseball for the one and only time in his career.

Santos Alomar Conde
Born: October 19, 1943 (Salinas, Puerto Rico)
Died: October 13, 2025 (Salinas, Puerto Rico)
Yankees Tenure: 1974-76

In 1973, Sandy Alomar was 29 years old, playing for the California Angels, his fifth club since he debuted with the Milwaukee Braves in 1964. To that point, his durability was his claim to fame. By September, he’d appeared in 648 consecutive games. Unfortunately, he suffered a broken leg while turning a double play against the Chicago White Sox. That broken leg snapped his iron man streak. It also changed the trajectory of his career.

That offseason, the Angels brought in Denny Doyle from Philadelphia to man the keystone, relegating Alomar to a utility role for the Angels. That lasted until July 8, 1974, when the Yankees purchased his contract from California.

Alomar quickly acclimated to New York, hitting .269 for the Yankees in 1974. Unfortunately, the Yanks finished two games back of the pennant-winning Orioles, so instead of playing October baseball, Alomar returned to Puerto Rico as he did every winter to play ball there.

Alomar got off to a very slow start in ’75. By late July, he’d been mired in a four-month slump. Murray Chass wrote for the New York Times that:

“…physically he doesn’t really resemble Rip Van Winkle. For a while, though, it seemed as if the Yankee second baseman might challenge the Sleepy Hollow napper for the New York State sleeping title.”

But Alomar started to come out of his funk and carried a hot stick into August. Over a nine-game stretch that culminated in a three-hit, two-stolen base performance on August 7th, Alomar went 13-for-34 (.382), raising his batting average 23 points, safely above the Mendoza Line at .217.

Alas, there was no playoff baseball in ’75 either. The Yanks finished the season 12 games back of the Red Sox, who went on to lose an all-time great World Series to The Big Red Machine, depriving Alomar of playoff baseball yet again.

The 1976 season saw Willie Randolph come into his own as the Yankees’ second baseman. Accordingly, Alomar once again found himself the utility man. For the ’76 Yanks, Alomar played all over the field. He neither pitched nor caught but otherwise manned every position on the diamond. And the ’76 Yankees won the pennant, their first since 1964. For the first and ultimately only time in his career, Sandy Alomar got to play October baseball. He pinch-hit in Game 4 of the ALCS, flying out to end a Yankee loss to Kansas City. It was the only playoff plate appearance of his career.

He did have the best seat in the house though for Chris Chambliss’ famous pennant-winning home run in Game 5. Having pinch-run for DH Carlos May earlier in the game, Alomar was in the on-deck circle when Chambliss propelled the Yankees to the World Series.

Alomar did not appear in the World Series, which the Yankees lost to the Reds, who notched their second consecutive title.

That was it for Alomar in pinstripes. In February 1977, the Yankees dealt him to the Rangers in a deal that brought Brian Doyle and Greg Pryor to New York. Alomar played two seasons for the Rangers before they released him, ultimately ending his major league career. Baseball was not done with Alomar, however. He coached the Puerto Rican national team from 1979-1984 and, obviously, had two sons who went on to long and distinguished major league careers.

Sandy Alomar died less than a week before his 82nd birthday, on October 13, 2025, in his hometown in Puerto Rico.

Sandy Alomar was not a Yankee for long. But his stay in the Big Apple allowed him his sole taste of MLB postseason baseball, though his time came to end a year too early for him to win a championship. Happy birthday to the patriarch of one of baseball’s most famous families.

There are two questions about how we assess Justin Crawford’s rookie season. How is he impacting a club that intended to contend for a World Series title in 2026? And does his rookie season, even if it wasn’t perfect, show a player that can stick on the roster for 2027 and beyond?

Since the Phillies have not had many rookie position players to get significant playing time during this run, we have to go back to Bryson Stott’s 2022 season for a second. It wasn’t some great year. He had an 84 wRC+ for the season and looked ok at shortstop but not enough to stick there. But there were generally positive signs, he finished with 1.3 fWAR, and as the year went on he improved more and more with facing major league arms.

Justin Crawford’s rookie season was… not like that.

2026 stats: 465 PAs, .264/.309/.353, 3 HR, 41 RBI, 17 SB, 5.8% BB%, 17.6% K%, 80 wRC+, 0.2 fWAR

What went right

In a Phillies outfield that faced significant questions as the season went on, Justin Crawford played against right-handed pitching. It never quite got to the point it with Andrew Painter where he needed a AAA stint despite no other alternatives. Whether it was Adolis Garcia’s ineffectiveness at the plate, Brandon Marsh’s second half, or trotting out players like Gabriel Rincones jr, Felix Reyes, and Otto Kemp, Crawford was never the biggest question mark they had. In the month of August, he was the best thing going for them in the outfield.

His raw athleticism stood out on a team without a lot of it. He stole 17 bases, showed off a couple of bunt hits as time went on, and he sometimes showed off plus range in center field. There will be questions asked later about how often this stuff actually needs to happen but there are a few moments where he looked the part.

What went wrong

This is where it gets tough to separate what the Phillies needed him to be in 2026 and how to project him moving forward.

Objectively speaking, the Phillies needed better play in center field. He had an 80 wRC+ with concerning trends. Crawford’s swing and approach are polarizing but it just didn’t translate to the big leagues. He had a 57.5% groundball rate and carried a .317 BABIP in spite of it. The put it on the ground and win with your legs approach only goes so far in an age where infield defense is more important to teams than ever.

He did not walk nearly enough to make the profile work. He also didn’t hit for any power, which isn’t surprising given how often he is smacking the ball into the ground but a .089 ISO is not good enough.

The overall offensive profile doesn’t show enough proof of concept to expect much improvement over time without significant changes. He needs to hit more line drives and to walk more. Doing both of those things will better unlock his baserunning potential as well. No, I’m not asking Justin Crawford to try and hit 40 home runs but he does require significant changes. Changes the Phillies may not be willing to make.

Some of this would be a lot easier to justify if the defense was strong. Crawford graded out as one of the worst defensive center fielders in baseball. He ranked 27th in Defensive Runs Saved among 29 outfielders with at least 500 innings in center field. He finished 25th in Outs Above Average in the same set.

He just did not get consistent jumps or good enough routes. He has great speed but so does nearly every center fielder in 2026 so the technical issues are harder to handle.

Just taking a look at one play, Crawford took a banana route on this line drive hit by Brett Baty. This is a play every center fielder has to make, probably without a slide at all. He has to trap it in his glove.

If you want to look at it metrically, it had a 95% catch probability according to BaseballSavant.

Given how bad the Phillies were defensively, it’s not just Trea Turner who warrants a position change but if Justin Crawford is going to be on the Phillies in 2027, it should probably be in left field.

Final grade: C-?

I don’t feel great about it but I will grade on a curve because he is a rookie and it is just hard.

To me, the concern is in the numbers from his 2026 season but just looking at the bigger picture, what ceiling here can Justin Crawford actually obtain? That question just seems hard to answer because he just didn’t do enough well or put together enough underlying trends to feel good about.

Without significant changes that are different than anything he did in the minor leagues or in 2026 with the Phillies, this doesn’t look like a player to keep around long-term. Or even in 2027.

Some news and notes from the Arizona Fall League, in which Dodgers prospects play for the Glendale Desert Dogs.

Charles Davalan, the outfielder who was named 2026 Midwest League MVP for his work this season with High-A Great Lakes, had been playing second base in the AFL. He has just five hits in 30 at-bats — plus three walks and five times hit by a pitch for a .333 on-base percentage — but four of those hits came in the last week. That included a solo home run last Monday in Scottsdale.

Third baseman Chase Harlan has two home runs, a double, and seven walks in eight games thus far in Arizona, hitting .269/.444/.538 in his 36 plate appearances. His second home run of the season came last Sunday, October 11.

In that October 11 game, right-handed Sam Horn threw a scoreless inning. In four appearances for Glendale has five strikeouts in four innings, with one run allowed and six walks. You might remember Horn as getting drafted by the Dodgers in the 17th round in 2025, then also was the starting quarterback at Missouri in college but fractured his tibia in his first game last season.

The Arizona Fall League is the 23-year-old Horn’s debut as a professional pitcher, and Keith Law at The Athletic wrote about Horn among various Dodgers prospects he saw in person.

“Dodgers right-hander Sam Horn threw an inning in that game, working 94-95 mph with a slider at 82-84 mph. The fastball was fairly flat, and the curveball was mostly down and out of the zone,” Law wrote. “Seeing him throwing at all in the AFL was a positive. He showed a good pickoff move, for what that’s worth.”

Brooks Auger, the Dodgers’ sixth-round pick in 2024 out of Mississippi State, allowed two runs in two innings with three strikeouts last Monday in his second start thus far in Arizona. Law at The Athletic wrote, “ had the best arsenal among potential starters, showing five distinct pitches, highlighted by a 95-98 mph fastball and a plus changeup with a ton of fading action.”

The week ahead

• Monday: Glendale at Salt River, 1:30 p.m. PT
• Tuesday: Glendale at Surprise, 1:30 p.m.
• Wednesday: Glendale at Peoria, 1:30 p.m.
• Thursday: Glendale at Mesa, 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday: Glendale vs. Scottsdale, 6:30 p.m.

Most Arizona Fall League games can be streamed at MLB.com.