Category: Baseball

Kiké Hernandez is a free agent now that the Dodgers’ season has come to an end.

The fan favorite and Dodgers playoff legend addressed his future with the organization following Game 4 of the National League Championship Series Thursday night.

“Every time I look at my career, I go back to this place. I’ve been here the longest. I hope I get back. I feel like I have a lot left. I thought it was gonna be a big year for me on the personal side,” Hernandez said.

“I would love to be back. I would love to have one more try to win another one. I don’t really know what’s gonna happen.”

Hernandez is one of many Dodgers players that may not return following the team’s failed quest of a three-peat. Last offseason, the Dodgers brought back several veterans to create a seasoned roster.

Miguel Rojas and Hernandez returned on one-year deals for the 2026 season. Rojas announced his retirement Thursday, but at 35 years old, Hernandez still plans on continuing his playing career.

Whether that will be in a Dodgers uniform remains a mystery.

President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes will have to evaluate how to make the team younger, while also keeping a core group of players. Hernandez has been apart of all three Dodgers’ World Series championships in the six years.

There are already doubts surrounding the Dodgers dynasty and whether the Brewers have effectively ended the golden era in Hollywood, but a front office masterclass could very well keep the team competitive.

Less than 24 hours after the Dodgers were swept by the Brewers in the National League Championship Series, Mookie Betts addressed the fanbase.

“This season didn’t end the way we wanted, but I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported us along the way,” the Dodgers shortstop wrote in an Instagram post.

View this post on Instagram

“Through the ups and downs, you continued to show up and show love. I don’t take any of that for granted. Thank you, Dodger Nation.”

The Dodgers’ season came to an untimely end on Thursday night as the Brewers were awarded the National League pennant after a dominant four-game performance over the back-to-back World Series champions.

The Dodgers assembled one of the greatest rosters in baseball and spared no expense to do so. But the NLCS proved that while the Dodgers may be the richest team in the league, luxurious spending does not guarantee a championship.

Now, the juggernaut will be forced to evaluate how to approach the upcoming 2027 season. Will Shohei Ohtani pitch again? Should the Dodgers trade Teoscar Hernandez or Tommy Edman? Will free agent Tarik Skubal be back in LA? How do the Dodgers get younger?

All those questions and more will have to be addressed this winter as the Dodgers dynasty looks to recover from a failed three-peat attempt.

While the team ultimately fell short in 2026, there’s a chance the Dodgers could very well make another deep playoff run next year if the front office can assemble all the right pieces.

Apparently, getting swept out of the National League Championship Series wasn’t humiliating enough for the Dodgers. Now, some of their fans are trying to turn a good old-fashioned baseball beatdown into baseball’s next great cheating scandal. 

The evidence? A few long at-bats, a couple of unexpected home runs and a whole lot of sour grapes.

After the Milwaukee Brewers completed their four-game sweep of the two-time defending World Series champions with a 6-4 victory Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, conspiracy theories began circulating on social media accusing Milwaukee of knowing which pitches were coming.

Never mind that nobody has produced a shred of evidence of illegal sign-stealing.

The amateur detectives pointed to Jake Bauers’ grueling 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2, his lengthy battle against Blake Snell in Game 3 and another extended confrontation with Tyler Glasnow in Game 4.

Garrett Mitchell’s home runs against Snell and Tanner Scott in Games 3 and 4 only added fuel to the conspiracy theories. Mitchell only hit one homer off a left-hander in 107 at-bats during the regular season. He hit two in the series.

But apparently, battling through an at-bat and hitting a home run against a difficult matchup are now grounds for a federal investigation.

And who helped give this nonsense oxygen? AM 570 radio guy David Vassegh, whose devotion to the Dodgers occasionally makes objectivity seem like an opposing team’s scouting report.

Vassegh, the host of “Dodger Talk,” claimed multiple unidentified MLB players texted him during Game 2 suggesting the Brewers knew what Yamamoto was throwing. He subsequently asked former Reds slugger Joey Votto whether the Japanese right-hander might have been tipping his pitches.

“Sure, there’s a pretty good chance they caught something,” Votto said.

That’s where this entire controversy falls apart.

Recognizing a pitcher tipping his pitches isn’t cheating. It’s baseball.

For generations, hitters have studied pitchers’ grips, glove positioning, delivery and mechanics for clues. Modern technology, including sophisticated video analysis and artificial intelligence, has made identifying those tendencies even easier.

Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy has discussed that very practice himself.

There is an enormous difference between detecting a pitcher’s tell through legitimate observation and illegally intercepting or electronically relaying signs, as Houston did during its infamous 2017 scandal.

Even Dodgers manager Dave Roberts acknowledged the obvious after Milwaukee’s series-clinching victory.

“We got beat.”

Roberts didn’t make excuses. He didn’t spout conspiracy theories, and he certainly didn’t reference anonymous sources that told him the Brewers were cheating. 

The Brewers won 103 regular-season games, then dismantled Los Angeles with superior pitching, timely hitting, aggressive baserunning, fundamentally sound defense and relentless execution.

They didn’t need a secret camera, a trash can, a train whistle or a decoder ring.

They just needed to play better baseball.

And for four straight games, that’s exactly what they did.

The Dodgers’ dynasty may not be finished, but their reign atop baseball certainly took a beating this October.

Milwaukee is headed to its first World Series since 1982.

Instead of inventing excuses, Dodgers fans might consider doing what their own manager did and tip their caps to the better team this time around. 

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters

The 2026 Yankees won 93 games in a year in which superstar Aaron Judge played just 66 games. That’s not a bad total, but it feels like it could, and should, have been more. General manager and Senior VP Brian Cashman routinely builds contending teams, and he should get credit for that, but he and his staff should be aiming higher and doing more to bring the title back to the Bronx.

A Wild Card Series win against the Boston Red Sox was a nice way to start the postseason, but the sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays exposed many harsh realities that are directly tied to Cashman and his decisions.

For the Yankees, 93 wins is not enough. They need to be the best team in the division, because that would bring them additional benefits in postseason play, such as home-field advantage and a ticket straight to the AL Division Series. Everybody in the organization is responsible for how the season plays out, but the spotlight will always point to the head of baseball operations.

Offseason moves and decisions

Cashman didn’t have a particularly bad offseason, but there were some notable holes when the season started. He didn’t find proper replacements for the rehabbing Anthony Volpe and the underwhelming Ryan McMahon: the former ended up being demoted in early August when the organization promoted George Lombard Jr., and the latter posted a 78 wRC+ and just 0.5 fWAR in 124 games. Volpe eventually returned and played an important role in the stretch run and during the postseason.

Extending Trent Grisham a qualifying offer was seen as a moderate risk when it happened, but it was a reasonable one since the outfielder had hit a career-high 34 homers in 2025. The outfielder declined this year, particularly on defense, but at least it wasn’t a long-term commitment.

The trade for Ryan Weathers was universally acclaimed, and it was a good piece of business on Cashman’s part. He ended up posting career-bests in ERA (3.60), fWAR (2.5), and innings pitched (137.1). The executive also brought back Paul Blackburn, Ryan Yarbrough, Amed Rosario, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger.

Some of them were nice additions, particularly the 2019 NL MVP, but Cashman left the roster exposed to injuries and underperformance in many spots, and that’s on him, too. The bullpen was a bit thin, as some of his past trade experiments, such as Jake Bird, Ángel Chivilli, and Camilo Doval, just didn’t work. The same can be said about Rule 5 pick Cade Winquest. We are more than willing to give Cashman a pass in the bullpen, since the unit finished with the second-best ERA in MLB, though.

Trade Deadline activity (or lack thereof)

The Bombers entered the deadline with a few notable needs, which Cashman was very much aware of. They could have used a catcher given Austin Wells’ season-long slump up to that date, a reliever or two, a starter, and a right-handed outfielder.

They flirted with several backstops, but ended up empty-handed on that front to the frustration of fans. They did bring in Luis García Jr., who had been enjoying an amazing year in Washington with 23 homers and a 133 wRC+.

Heliot Ramos’ arrival was met with mixed reviews, and he posted a disappointing 93 wRC+ in pinstripes. He did have a 184 wRC+ vs. lefties during his time in the Bronx, which was one of the main reasons behind his acquisition. Giving up left-handed pitching prospect Henry Lalane to get him hurt, though. Speaking of…

Prospects and young core

Yes, you could say that the Yankees’ deadline was a disappointment, although some might disagree. However, they managed to keep most of their top prospects, including Lombard, Dax Kilby, Carlos Lagrange, Elmer Rodríguez, and Ben Hess. The promising Lalane was the lone exception.

They represent, together with Cam Schlittler, Ben Rice, Spencer Jones, Weathers, and Will Warren, the next wave of young talent that will, theoretically at least, keep the team highly competitive for the next 3-7 years. Keeping them all, particularly Lombard when half the league was asking for him in trade conversations, was a win for Cashman.

The rest of the farm, however, needs work. A lot of work. The Yankees will need to draft well and be active in the international market in the next couple of years to revamp their depleted system. At least Cashman took a step towards solving the situation, dismissing longtime international scouting director Donny Rowland and replacing him with Mario Garza in January.

Player development wins and losses

As every general manager, Cashman had some player development wins and losses when looking at the final picture of the 2026 campaign. He and his staff managed to turn Blackburn into a very useful reliever with his 1.59 ERA in 85 innings, and he got a nice season from Weathers, too.

Schlittler took a step forward into stardom, and Brent Headrick and Warren also improved in 2026. On the other hand, they couldn’t fix Doval, Luis Gil, McMahon, or Volpe, and Jasson Domínguez remains a fringe player. Grisham and Wells were also subpar for their standard.

The offense, generally speaking, had a mediocre year with a 101 wRC+ that ranked 14th in MLB. Yes, injuries to Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and other key hitters certainly hurt, but the feeling is that Cashman could have done better, or more.

Bottom line

We have said it multiple times in this space: the Yankees need new voices. They need to listen to more prepared people. They can’t keep doing the same things in personnel decisions, player analysis, research and development, and scouting and expect different results. Unless the ownership decides to part ways with their longtime executive, it will be on Cashman to push that change within the organization: does he have that in him, though? It’s at least a fair question.

For Nationals fans accustomed to watching promising innings disappear on the basepaths, 2026 offered a welcome change. The Nats played aggressive baseball, but with better results. Stealing bases and taking the extra bag became meaningful strengths, giving them another way to generate offense.

The improvement also deserves to be counted among the successes of manager Blake Butera’s coaching staff, particularly first-base and baserunning coach Corey Ray.

The Nats finished with 178 stolen bases and 40 caught stealings, succeeding on 81.7% of their attempts. In 2025, the Nationals stole 132 bases and were caught 48 times, a 73.3% success rate. That means they added 46 steals while making eight fewer outs trying to steal. More attempts produced substantially better efficiency.

The comparison with 2024 is revealing, too. That team piled up 223 steals but was caught 73 times, converting 75.3% of its attempts. The Nats 2026 club finished with fewer steals, but its success rate was more than six percentage points higher. There is value in putting pressure on the defense. There is also value in keeping a runner available for the next hitter.

The progress extended beyond stealing. Baseball-Reference’s extra-base-taken percentage measures how frequently runners advance more than one base on a single or more than two on a double when opportunities arise. The Nats rate climbed from 40% in 2025 to 47% in 2026, exceeding its 45% mark from 2024 as well. Those advances can turn an ordinary single into a first-and-third situation or bring a runner home without requiring another hit.

Advanced metrics reinforce the picture. Baseball-Reference credited the Nationals with nine baserunning runs above average in 2026, with another six runs credited separately for avoiding double plays. These measures put a run value on contributions that batting average and home run totals miss. The Nats were creating advantages between contact and the next plate appearance.

FanGraphs’ BsR, which expresses baserunning value in runs above average, also shows how widely those contributions were distributed. CJ Abrams finished at +4.7, Dylan Crews at +3.6, Jacob Young at +3.5, Daylen Lile at +2.0, and James Wood at +1.6, as the Nationals finished first in baseball in total BsR at +15.7, all the way up from -0.6 in 2025.

That is where the coaching deserves attention. In February, Mark Zuckerman reported in Nats Journal that Ray was physically positioning himself near first base during drills, requiring runners to make tighter turns around the bag. Butera emphasized foot placement, efficient routes, and the difference even an unnecessary extra foot could make. The staff was teaching specific, repeatable details from the beginning of camp.

No statistic can assign an exact share of the improvement to Ray, Butera, or third-base coach Víctor Estévez. The players deserve the largest share of the credit for executing. Still, the connection between the staff’s documented emphasis and the season’s results is a reasonable one. Better baserunning was an explicit priority, and the Nats delivered it.

There were rough edges. The Nats recorded 59 non-steal outs on the bases, up from 47 in 2025, so this was hardly a mistake-free team. But the broader gains were substantial: more successful steals, fewer failed attempts, and more extra bases taken. For a young club trying to establish better habits, that represents tangible progress—and something worth carrying into 2027.

It’s been 44 years since the Brewers went to the World Series, a fact Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito will recall.

It might seem like a random connection.

When the Brewers were last in the Fall Classic in 1982, Zito was a bat boy for the team, NHL writer Matt Larkin revealed. Zito spent the 1981 and 1982 seasons working for Milwaukee while he was in high school.

In a past interview with Larkin, Zito discussed the impact of then-Brewers general manager Harry Dalton on his career.

“He took me under his wing,” Zito said. “It was the 1982 Brewers, who went to Game 7 of the World Series. He was so kind to me and afforded me the opportunity. I could go up to his office whenever I wanted, I could learn scouting. He took the time to explain everything to me and always encouraged me to get into the management side.”

Zito’s background in sports started long before he won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Panthers in 2024 and 2025.

His father, William Zito Sr., played football for the University of Pittsburgh and the Steelers before the family moved to Wisconsin.

Bill Zito then played college hockey at Yale before returning to the Midwest and completing law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He then spent several years as an agent before moving into team management, joining the Blue Jackets in 2013.

He was hired by the Panthers in 2020 and has been a four-time finalist for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award.

The Brewers are chasing their first World Series title in franchise history after sweeping the back-to-back defending champion Dodgers in the NLCS.

Dodgers left-hander Blake Snell, sitting next to soon-to-be free agent Tarik Skubal at their lockers in the aftermath of their team’s elimination from the National League Championship Series elimination, made a promise:

“I’ll be recruiting,” he interjected with a smile, as Skubal declined to comment on free agency, saying it was too soon to try to predict what the future would hold for him.

That would be Snell’s side project between rounds of video games — 2K specifically. (Skubal admittedly “sucks” at the game, but Snell says his teammate “has heart, though.” The rest can be taught.)

Read more:It wasn't just Brewers dominance. There's a simpler explanation for the Dodgers' demise

The Dodgers, after falling short of a three-peat, will look a little different next year. Skubal, whom they acquired at the trade deadline to boost their chances at a World Series title, is set to hit free agency. So are perennial postseason performer Kiké Hernández and high-leverage relievers Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen. On Thursday, clubhouse leader and 2025 World Series hero Miguel Rojas announced his retirement.

The expected lockout, and MLB’s insistence on a salary cap in their CBA proposals have also cast doubt on what the system will look like next year — whenever the season begins.

Not to mention, the stars in the Dodgers lineup, already the oldest in the majors (weighted by at-bats and games played), will be another year older.

Could this be the end of an era?

“I don’t feel that at all,” Skubal said. “It’s hard to win the World Series, and this group has done it the last two seasons. Obviously, not this year, but … I think that this group is incredibly talented. And the preparation and the work ethic that this group has — I don’t buy into that narrative.”

Said Snell: “We’re only getting better.”

Plenty of people outside of the Dodgers’ downcast clubhouse Thursday evening saw the Brewers’ four-game sweep of the defending back-to-back champions as the fall of a dynasty. But the players inside fervently disagreed.

Read more:Plaschke: The Dodgers had everything needed to three-peat. This is why they failed

“When you have Shohei Ohtani on your team, Yoshinbou Yamamoto, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and the years ahead of these guys, you can never think that it’s going to be the end,” Rojas said. “And I know this organization so well, they’re not going to be satisfied with this loss. I think they’re going to move forward and continue to improve the team in any capacity, and I believe that we’re going to be even better next year.”

Said Hernández: “I don’t know what’s going to happen with me personally, moving forward for next year. But this team is well-positioned to keep winning and keep competing deep into October. So not only is this locker room very talented, but there’s a lot of guys knocking on the door in the minor-league system that can be really impactful players. So the organization is in good hands.”

Rookie Josue De Paula showed down the stretch, and with his plate discipline even in high-octane moments in the postseason, just how impactful the young players in the Dodgers’ system could be. And there are more behind him.

This offseason, the Dodgers front office will try to strike a balance between continuity and fresh faces. For some of their impending free agents, who spoke highly of the organization, that meant uncertainty in the immediate aftermath.

“I love this place,” Hernández said. “I’ve played for three other teams, but every time I look at my career, I obviously go back to this place. I’ve been here the longest. I hope I get back. I feel like I have a lot left. … I would love to have one more try, trying to win another one. But I don’t really know what’s going to happen.”

Vesia, too, said he’d love to return.

Read more:Shaikin: Questions about Shohei Ohtani's health, a salary cap and Mark Walter loom for Dodgers

“From the coaching staff, to the front office, to the players that have taken me under their wing, have helped mold and shape me into who I am and how I carry myself, how I go about my business,” Vesia said of his six years in the organization. “And if it wasn’t for the people in the room in this room, I would not be where I’m at today. So, very thankful. This whole experience has been life-changing.”

Skubal is in a unique situation. In line to be the top free agent pitcher in this year’s class, he held his cards closer to the vest. But he gave a glowing review of his time with the Dodgers.

“It was an honor and a privilege to be here and compete with these guys, and to wear LA across your hat and across your chest,” he said. “It’s something that I took a lot of pride in. And, obviously, didn’t end the way that I wanted it to. But that’s life. That’s baseball. I had a ton of fun here, and I loved competing with these guys.”

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

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers did not have a save of at least three innings in 2026, their first full season without one since 2016. They also did not win or reach the World Series this year.

Coincidence? Yes, of course. Let’s not be daft.

But three-inning saves are still cool as hell, as I’ve explainedmany a time here and in audio form elsewhere.

We nearly saw a four-inning save at Dodger Stadium in the National League Division Series, when Braves right-hander Didier Fuentes retired 11 in a row before allowing a two-out home run in the ninth inning. That pulled the Dodgers to within a run, and Atlanta manager Walt Weiss went with his closer Raisel Iglesias for the final out.

The Braves won that night, but never again this season.

The back end of the Brewers bullpen — Trevor Megill, Aaron Ashby, and Abner Uribe — is one of Milwaukee’s great strengths, with that trio this postseason having allowed three runs (two earned) in 24 1/3 innings, with 23 strikeouts. Ashby has pitched in six of Milwaukee’s eight games, totaling 12 1/3 scoreless innings, with 11 strikeouts.

In the NLCS, Ashby pitched two scoreless frames in Game 1, then got a five-out save to close out Game 2. Even before Game 4, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman extolled the virtues of the Brewers bullpen, and specifically mentioned the left-hander.

“Ashby — I don’t understand that. It’s 98 to 100 from up here and sinking and curving,” Freeman said. “They’ve just got a lot of weapons.”

In Game 4 on Thursday, Ashby allowed doubles in the seventh and eighth inning, each of which represented the potential tying run. But he stranded them both.

“I was just praying for a little peace in the chaos, because with this crowd and this team, things can happen fast,” Ashby told Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports on the field after the game. “I was just trying to be calm out there, that’s pretty much it.

Then Ashby got the ninth inning as well, his 31st relief appearance involving multiple innings this season, tied for most in the majors. He retired the Dodgers in order in the ninth, with Jackson Chourio making a nice running catch in left field to clinch the Brewers first pennant since 1982.

Ashby recorded just the fifth save of three innings or longer in a postseason clinching game since saves became an official statistic in 1969, and the first since Lance McCullers Jr. with a four-inning save for the 2017 Astros in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

Working backward retroactively, two other postseason clinchers before 1969 had long saves as well.

In 2025, there were 49 saves of at least three innings in MLB, 15 more than the previous season and the most in any year since 1999. In 2026, there were 50 saves of at least three innings. This is a new golden age of extended saves, but the Dodgers did not take part this year.

The Dodgers for much of the season didn’t really have a long man in the bullpen, like at times in recent years. Eric Lauer seemed destined for this role, but he kept sticking around in the rotation as various other starters were either injured or optioned.

Jonathan Hernández pitched in a lot of mop-up roles but mostly topped out at two innings. Plus after June, the Dodgers mostly stopped collecting blowout wins, which tends to pave the road toward a three-inning save.

Landon Knack has recorded one save in each of his three major league seasons to date, including an 11-out save on the final day of the regular season in 2025. He had the best shot on the Dodgers for a three-inning save in 2026, as he was warming in the bullpen on August 12 after Lauer pitched six innings at 107 pitches, eight more than his second-most this season.

But Lauer instead got one more batter to open the seventh inning, and struck out Josh Rojas. Then, Knack entered and got a save of 2 2/3 innings, protecting a 4-2 lead. It was the Dodgers’ first eight-out save since Brian Holton in 1987, so that was something, at least.

But it was no three-inning save. At least Dodger Stadium, in seeing its third consecutive National League pennant clinched on Thursday, got to go out with a very cool pitching outing to put a cap on 2026.

We’ll always have the six-inning save by Jackson Ferris on September 9 for Tripe-A Oklahoma City though to tide us over through the winter.

Last night the Brewers swept the Dodgers in Los Angeles. It was the perfect answer to the Brewers’ 2025 playoff exit, when they were swept by the Dodgers. This year, everything came up Brewers. It didn’t matter that likely Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski only went 4.1 innings in his start, because Aaron Ashby threw 6.2 scoreless innings of high leverage relief across three games. Even when they were down four runs in Game 4, you could almost feel that they were going to come back. Of course NLCS MVP Jake Bauers got the comeback started [VIDEO].

But there’s another battle looming in baseball, one with even higher stakes than which teams will play in the 2026 World Series: this year’s renegotiation of baseball’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. The terms of that fight have been coming into focus for over a year now, with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and company laying the groundwork to make their case for a salary cap with fan focus groups, citing survey results showing fans want a cap, trips around the league to try and break union solidarity and a relentless barrage of content on the disparities between the big and small market teams.

The Dodgers All-Star team that costs $339 million in 2026 (with more than a billion dollars in contract deferrals) being summarily swept out of the playoffs by MLB’s smallest market Milwaukee Brewers was clearly not part of the plan.

Meanwhile, the American League Championship Series is a battle royale between the team with the smallest payroll in MLB, the Guardians, and the team with the 28th smallest payroll in the league, the Rays. That’s right, one of the analytics darlings who don’t spend enough and are supposedly hamstrung by the massive salary differences in the league that make competitive balance impossible is guaranteed to win the 2026 World Series. It undermines the very core of the argument MLB and billionaire owners have been making for more than a year.

The question is, does it matter?

It certainly weakens the fan rationale for a salary cap. Manfred has been front and center for the better part of a year building his case for a cap around fans in Cleveland, Tampa Bay, and Milwaukee who deserve a shot at a championship. Those poor fans in Milwaukee who might have seen their team extend the Freddy Peraltas of the world rather than trade them if only baseball’s economic system mirrored the other big sports in America. Take for example, Manfred’s remarks during a media availability at the All Star Game:

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred says the gap between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the lowest-spending clubs in baseball is the reason he’s pushing for a salary cap.

“The gap is $441 million,” Manfred said, per ESPN’s Jesse Rogers. “It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top end.”

Manfred added, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale: “I have an ownership group that is more united than any group in my entire time in baseball.”

However, the degree to which fan sentiment has always just been a useful canard for billionaires who are really looking for labor cost certainty in their investment cannot be overstated. Evan Drellich made this point emphatically when he reported on the real motivations behind the league’s salary cap push in May for The Athletic:

Why, at a time when MLB has otherwise built positive momentum, would the league pursue such an acrimonious change, and risk alienating fans with a work stoppage? Many issues are at play, but none supersede the long game owners are playing. Their mission is to maximize the worth of their teams.

Baseball has always been a business, yes — but not like this. Private equity has flowed into the sport for the better part of a decade, and someday, those investors will want a return. And even though every team continues to grow in value, many owners believe that their clubs should command still-higher prices.

The average baseball team is worth $2.9 billion, more than double MLB’s $1.3 billion average from a decade ago, per Forbes’ annual estimates. But some franchises are appreciating at a much slower rate than others. When they put their teams up for sale in recent years, the owners of the Los Angeles Angels, Washington Nationals and Minnesota Twins were disappointed by the bids that came in.

Admittedly, that piece of reporting predates Angels owner Arte Moreno selling LA’s second most valuable MLB franchise for $4 billion. It’s quite the return on a $182.5 million purchase in 2003. If only all of our retirement accounts could produce a profit of 22 times the original investment. To be clear, Moreno was one of the four holdouts who voted against ratifying the 2022 CBA, citing, amongst other things, concerns about the luxury tax levels:

Four Major League Baseball owners — Bob Castellini of the Reds, Chris Ilitch of the Tigers, Ken Kendrick of the Diamondbacks and Arte Moreno of the Angels — objected to raising the competitive balance tax to the levels the league ultimately proposed most recently, three people briefed on an owner-wide call held this week told The Athletic. MLB moved forward with the proposal anyway, moving its offer on the first threshold to $220 million — up $10 million from where it was in 2021, and $6 million from its previous offer, but still far below the players’ ask of $238 million.

The luxury tax’s rate of growth has not kept pace with the overall revenues growth in the sport, making it one of the main concerns for the players.

The resistance of the four owners reveals at least some of the hard-liners who are likely influencing perhaps the single-most contentious issue in negotiations that have already cost the sport games. One person briefed on the call noted that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, a hawk in the 1994-95 dispute, was not among those to stand in the way. Not all small-market owners — owners who theoretically would be most disadvantaged by an increase in the luxury tax, which curtails high-end spending — were opposed to the raise, either. Rather, at least some of the four owners took stances based on their personal feelings toward costs and baseball’s economic system, sources said.

Apparently, an original investment appreciating from $182.5 million to $4 billion in 23 years just isn’t enough for the wealthiest people among us. They want more, they always want more. You don’t become a billionaire who owns one of only 30 MLB franchises without demanding even more for yourself, your investments and your interests.

And frankly, with that type of money, billionaires have a tendency to build their own reality. Which gets to the core of the real reason it probably doesn’t matter that the last three teams standing eviscerates the case MLB and the owners have made for the better part of a year for a salary cap. They’ll just abandon that specious argument and pivot to some other justification for a salary cap. Afterall, it’s all about maximizing profits for their investors at the end of the day.

Meanwhile, the Brewers might have to face their former ace Freddy Peralta if Tampa Bay beats Cleveland. It’s quite the turn of events after the team with the highest payroll in baseball, the New York Mets, couldn’t win enough to justify holding onto the flamethrower at the trade deadline. Yet another player who keeps thriving in smaller markets with robust analytics departments staffed by humans, jobs that apparently aren’t quite ready to be turned over to yet another billionaire dream of reducing labor costs, AI.

Amidst all of the gamesmanship around the future of the sport, I can’t help but return to this year’s NLCS MVP, Jake Bauers. While the titans of industry argue about who should reap the riches of America’s multi-billion national pastime that saw franchise valuations rise more than 50 percent to $87 billion from 2021 to 2026, his heroics at the plate weren’t the only reason Bauers was front and center throughout the Brewers v. Dodgers series. MLB on Fox just couldn’t resist the sharing the anecdote that Bauers thought about retiring, but then his wife got pregnant, and, well, like a lot of us, he needed his job to make sure he had healthcare:

A small market World Series is probably not going to save us from an offseason of billionaires risking chopping off the head of their golden gooses in the interest of making even more money. But seeing our own financial precarity, and the types of decisions we all make about jobs and healthcare, in the face of the NLCS MVP might be enough to move more fans into the Major League Baseball Player’s Association side of this fight. Who among us hasn’t stayed at a job longer than we probably should have to make sure we have healthcare?

Every season has the good and the bad, and 2026 was no different. The worst thing obviously was missing the playoffs despite winning 86 games. Goes without saying. But why did this team miss the playoffs? We as fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks are no strangers to missing the playoffs and having a whole laundry list of items to stew over for the offseason. However, I wanted to limit this list just like in my previous article to just the top 5 things. In order to do this in the most fair and balanced way, I chose an analytical approach. I ranked the list of things that went wrong and tried to quantify each by WAR against preseason projections (Steamer and ZIPS average), or in other words what went wrong relative to expectations. So ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here is stack ranked what went most wrong for the Dbacks in 2026:

1. The Projected Rotation Collapsed: 7.8 wins lost

This one is ugly. 4 of the 5 starters they planned around combined for about -0.6 WAR against 7.2 projected. This aspect of the team far and away takes the crown for the biggest thing that went wrong for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2026. Merrill Kelly had the worst underlying numbers of any regular starter in baseball with an xERA and a K-BB% that both ranked dead last amongst qualified starters. And he took the ball every 5th day for 162 IP so those innings did real damage to this team.

Zac Gallen went from having an elite 4 seamer in 2023 (98th percentile by run value) to 8th percentile in 2026 at the same velocity. Hitters simply stopped chasing as the league adjusted to Gallen in a big way and Gallen has simply failed to make an adjustment back. Because he signed the big contract in the offseason, he got waaaay to much leash this season pitching 105 innings of 6.07 ERA baseball. Ouch.

Corbin Burnes was sold to the fanbase since spring training as someone who was going to come back and provide this team a real shot in the arm. The actual results? He basically didn’t even pitch logging just 10.1 innings and looking like he was most certainly rushed back too fast.

As a team, the starters allowed the 3rd hardest contact in MLB (xwOBA .341) and ranked 28th in K-BB% despite throwing the 5th most innings. Put plainly, if it wasn’t for Eduardo Rodriguez and Michael Soroka (+3.5 WAR over projection combined) this season would’ve been an absolute disaster. And to add even more doom and gloom, ERod’s 2.89 ERA came with a 4.27xERA (41 st percentile) so the Dbacks need to really do something this offseason with Soroka becoming a free agent to drastically sure up this rotation.

2. Dead AB’s at 1B, LF, and DH for half the season: about 5 wins lost

Lourdes Gurriel Jr, Max Kepler, Pavin Smith, and Carlos Santana were combined -5.4 WAR against projection. Gurriel alone was -1 WAR and add Adrian Del Castillo to the mix and that group took 665 PA below a 60 wRC+. Ouch. This group drug the team down so much that the offense went from 19th in runs per game before the break to 4th after the break and about 85% of that rise came from changing who batted. This was a massive miscalculation by Hazen and co. in the offseason when they built this team. Several people such as our good friend Jack Sommers called out in the offseason that this team badly needed an impact left handed bat this offseason.

However Hazen shrugged those concerns off when asked about them before the season started and it really came back to hurt this team. To make matters worse, the coaching staff was still trying to coach this group as if they were the thumpers from seasons before having them sell out for pulled fly balls and the result? Production on pulled fly balls and line drives ranked 30th or dead last in the league. Put another way, Hazen and co. constructed a lineup full of guys who lacked the pure bat speed to make the pull fly ball approach work, and the coaching staff continued to coach to it despite disastrous results. Yuck.

3. Marte’s Lost second half and the ‘big 3’s’ step back: about 2 wins vs expectations (about 7 vs 2025)

The chart below says it all. At least where Carroll and Perdomo fell flat with the bat they were able to add value on the bases and the field, however Ketel Marte was the real miss here (-1.9 WAR vs expectations). Marte’s chase rate jumped from 25% to 32% before any injury. After the all star break his xwOBA fell from .364 to .307 and his hard hit rate went from 45% to 36%. And that was aside from all of the extra negative attention he brought this team after the break which if I was in charge I’d add another -1 WAR for that alone! Carroll was close to his projection, although his swing got longer and loftier as the season went on and the pitchers just attacked it with more fastballs. His whiffs per swing on fastballs rose 3 straight years to 25.5% in 2026. He did begin to adjust in the second half as the fastball whiffs dropped down to 21.9% but his results simply didn’t follow. There is something to be optimistic about there at least.

4. Injuries Especially to the Arms

Now, I know what people will say, every team has injuries. And that is certainly true. The Dbacks actually had some good injury luck in 2026 relatively. However I have stuck to the plan this long taking an analytical approach and so I need to stay with it. If we look at the injuries from the standpoint of total IL days, the Dbacks actually ranked 6th most in MLB with 2,107 IL days. MLB median was about 1,660. Here is the list:

Not really that much to say here except for another year it seems like this team’s replacement depth got tested with guys like Mitch Bratt and Jose Cabrera pitching meaningful innings. Hazen and co need to anticipate these injuries rather than point to them as an excuse and build more depth into the organization so that when they happen, its more of a minor drop in production not production falling off a cliff. Expect injuries.

5. The Left Handed Core Stopped Hitting RHP and they Didn’t Acquire a Bat TWICE

You guys lnew this was coming. And it partly underlies #2 on this list. However, it was so bad, it definitely deserves its own spot. The overall read: This team went from being one of the best hitting teams against right handed pitching in the league to being one of the worst and finishing about 4 wins below average against righties. This matters so much because righties pitched against the Dbacks in 73% of their plate appearances. Against lefties, they were 2nd in MLB at +44 runs. The root cause of their offensive struggles is pretty simple.

What’s strange however is that the ‘big 3’ all bat left handed against righties and usually perform pretty well. The collapse of the ‘big 3’ against RHP is something that I don’t think anyone really saw coming in all fairness. So what happened to them? Here is the frustrating part: mostly bad luck. As a group, the lefties had a wOBA of .300 against an expected of .313. Marte and Carroll account for much of this bad luck however which is good news for 2027.

In addition to the core not producing against RHP, Hazen also whiffed on acquiring a left handed impact bat not once but twice. Before the season it felt more like hubris, at the trade deadline it came down to just more bad luck with multiple reported deals falling apart at the last minute due to medicals. Unfortunately it just seemed like destiny that this team was going to struggle against righties in 2026. Fortunately it appears as to most of that being due to bad luck so although this team definitely needs to acquire an impact left handed bat this offseason, they already have 3 who seemed to just get really unlucky all at once.

And so with that, let’s end this terrible exercise of doom and gloom with that little bit of optimism towards 2027!

A wise man once said you can’t predict baseball. That doesn’t stop us from trying. Ahead of every season, just about every baseball-related publication tries to glimpse the future and predict the outcome of the year ahead. And at the end of the year, we realize again and again how futile the exercise can truly be. Even for a season that develops according to expectations, there will always be contours to the road that you didn’t have mapped out.

The 2026 Yankees washed out to an AL East rival in the Division Series for the second straight year; not an unforeseen fate for a team that was largely running it back with a nearly identical roster. As such, as we mark off the biggest surprises of the season, that end result isn’t all you’ll find similar with the last time we did this exercise.

So, let’s get started. Who could’ve predicted…

…that Cam Schlittler would be this good, this quickly?

We all saw glimpses of the ace starter Cam Schlittler could be when he carved up the Red Sox in the winner-take-all Game 3 of last season’s Wild Card Series, but I don’t imagine anyone anticipated the 25-year old would become the top pitcher in the American League the following year. Cam’s 14 start-run in 2025 showed a pitcher with tantalizing talent but plenty of room for refinement—namely a 10.2 percent walk rate which is the calling card of volatile and inconsistent pitchers from sea to shining sea.

That makes it all the more incredible that Cam was not only incredibly dominant, but consistently so. Schlittler didn’t really have his first bad start until June, and lest you thought that would be the moment the other shoe dropped, he didn’t let his ERA climb above 2.26 from midsummer onward. The 1.95 mark he finished with was good for a bronze medal in all-time Yankee lore. And the command troubles he flashed as a rookie vanished—he struck out 239 batters and walked only 49, a nearly 5-to-1 ratio. As of this writing, Schlittler has not yet been given the Cy Young award, but it’s a foregone conclusion. Even my most bullish preseason prediction for him probably would not have ended with him accepting that hallowed honor, but he electrified everyone and surpassed every test in 2026.

…that the Yankees would not grab a catcher at the deadline?

The vibes around this team were going sour with the June rib injury to Aaron Judge—which kept him out until September, when a quad strain would sideline him for the all-too-short remainder of the season. Brian Cashman had to act to shore up a roster which was suddenly emitting about seven distress signals. He added more offense where he could, bringing aboard Luis Garcia Jr. and Heliot Ramos while calling up reinforcements from the minors—more on them later.

Not included on his shopping receipt, however, was a catcher, which was seen as the Yankees’ biggest need. That, of course, was because of the abysmal year Austin Wells had been enduring to that point. Wells had managed just a .504 OPS through the first half—unplayably bad even if it accompanied his generally solid defense. But the task of adding a new backstop was quickly complicated by their own closest rivals, who added two of the best catchers on the market. The Red Sox made a splash by trading for Adley Rutschman from the Orioles, and the Rays dealt with the Marlins for Liam Hicks.

As the hours toward the deadline ticked down, the Yankees were stuck with a bunch of poor options. The Twins’ Ryan Jeffers was coming off a recent injury and would be expensive; so would Colorado’s Hunter Goodman. The other remaining names were lateral moves at best. So, the Yankee braintrust ultimately chose to stick with Wells.

Thankfully, this was a problem that ultimately sorted itself out, as Wells found his swing at long last in the second half. He actually became one of the more consistent bats for the Yankees in the final two months and played to a second-half .787 OPS, more than doubling his home run and RBI total in the process. Unfortunately, Wells’ season would conclude with one more surprise, and a deeply unpleasant one: getting thrown out at third trying to leg out a triple in ALDS Game 1.

…that calling up the rookies actually worked?

If you told me that Spencer Jones and George Lombard Jr. would be key planks in the Yankees’ second half lineup, I would have assumed their season had completely gone down the tubes. Jones, the powerful but whiff-prone outfielder, had not made waves in his first little Major League stint, hitting .167 in May before being sent back down to Triple-A. Lombard, the precocious shortstop, was a known commodity in the field, but a mystery at the plate—and awfully young to be thrown into the most pressure-packed spot in the league: the little patch of dirt between second and third in the Bronx.

The aforementioned injury to Judge—and later an injury to Trent Grisham—quickly brought Jones back into the fold, and the lefty picked up three hits in his first game back in the Show. Jones raised his level in June, hitting to an .808 OPS before a second brief demotion; then Cody Bellinger got hurt and he came back again, this time for good. He didn’t set the world on fire at any point in his rookie year, but Jones proved he could be a productive Major Leaguer, for at least the few months they needed him to be one. Another surprise with Jones was the somewhat ridiculous reverse splits he put up: a 1.107 OPS against lefties as opposed to just .647 off righties.

Lombard received the call to the Majors directly after the Trade Deadline, as the Yankees searched for more talent to ignite their slumbering offense. In a memorable MLB debut, Lombard made a handful of stellar plays at short, then homered in his second Major League at-bat—the same night his brother Jacob went yard in the low minors. Lombard turned a great first game into a great first week, showing composure beyond his years and an advanced approach at the plate.

The 21-year old’s offensive numbers soon dipped to pedestrian levels, and he had his defensive hiccups as well. But he never relinquished the starting shortstop position, even when Anthony Volpe—whom the Yankees had surprisingly optioned to make room from Lombard—returned to the roster. He acquitted himself well in the playoffs as well, going 6-for-18 overall. While neither he nor Jones are looking like perennial All-Stars, they may yet become mainstays on a roster in need of retooling this offseason.

On Wednesday, the Houston Astros officially announced they would not be renewing the contract of manager Joe Espada, one day after the Seattle Mariners were granted permission to interview him for their vacant managerial role.

The move follows three seasons and two AL West titles for Espada in orange and blue. Espada had a strong lineup, but big shoes to fill in taking over for the retiring Dusty Baker after serving as Houston’s bench coach since 2018. Inheriting a strong roster with some glaring flaws, he led the club to a 256-229 record in his tenure. Previously, Espada spent time on the coaching staffs of the New York Yankees and Florida/Miami Marlins stretching back to 2010 in the role of third base and/or infield coach. Houston had already fired general manager Dana Brown in August, leaving the future for Espada murky at the end of his contract this year.

The 51 year old Puerto Rican was selected 45th overall in the 1996 draft by the Oakland Athletics, an impressive feat as he’d starred at the University of Mobile in Alabama, competing at the NAIA level of college athletics. Espada spent a decade playing in the minors, including stints with the now-defunct Low-A Southern Oregon Timberjacks in Medford, OR and later in then-Triple-A Vancouver with the Canadians as an A’s prospect. Espada bounced around to the Rockies, Marlins, Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, and Rays before returning to his alma mater to coach and play indy ball. His coaching path took him up through the minors when he was hired as a hitting coach in the Marlins system, eventually joining the Marlins big league staff in 2010. Espada has been a coach on the staff for the Puerto Rican national team in the World Baseball Classic since 2013.

The case for Seattle to pursue and hire Espada is straightforward. The Mariners have made it clear they are seeking a manager with outside perspectives, experience, and the ability to augment the existing programs in place. Espada has worked across several successful organizations, spent the past three years as an active manager with undeniable success, and is already quite familiar with the American League West. Espada would also be Seattle’s first Spanish-speaking manager since Lou Piniella, and the first full-time manager born outside of the contiguous United States (Cuban Marty Martinez, known for signing Edgar Martinez and Omar Vizquel as a scout, managed one game for Seattle in 1986 in the absence of full-time skipper Chuck Cottier). It goes without saying that the capacity to communicate fluently to the majority of the players on the roster is an extremely valuable skill, particularly when trying to communicate and deliver educational and instructive concepts while building buy-in and trust.

Houston choosing to not renew Espada could be seen as a red flag, but the decision appears most concentrated with their owner, Jim Crane, whose decision-making with personnel is more pockmark than not at this point. Espada has spoken about how the impacts of being steeped in two organizations (New York and Houston) highly inclined towards incorporating analytics and advanced data-tracking into their philosophies has helped him learn to be a better communicator and teacher, as well as his experience raising his children, including a daughter, Viviana, with an autism diagnosis. Astros beat reporter for The Athletic, Chandler Rome, described Espada as “[a manager with a reputation as a players’ manager who allowed Houston’s veteran clubhouse to function how it saw fit.” That may strike a workable balance for Seattle, who has valued player agency in Jerry Dipoto’s decade and change of tenure, but is in need of greater balance.

They’ll also need to navigate the elephant in the video room that comes with any former Astros hiree of a certain era.

After serving on the Yankees staff through the 2017 season, Espada joined the Astros in 2018, in the middle of their sign-stealing cheating scandal that helped accelerate their decade of success. It is not clear what involvement Espada had in the cheating scheme, which began prior to his arrival in 2017 per MLB’s investigation and continued through the 2018 season. Much blame was levied on his predecessor as Houston’s bench coach, Alex Cora, as well as veteran player Carlos Beltrán, but given Cora departed, it seems likely Espada was aware at a minimum. Nonetheless, he was named the interim manager in Houston upon the year-long suspension of manager A.J. Hinch.

MLB is not an organization nor a culture that values consequences if they impede what they want, however. Hinch was hired immediately after his suspension by the Detroit Tigers. Cora’s suspension led to him being immediately rehired, extended, and as recently as this month having the Phillies publicly pursue him doggedly to the point he chose to turn them down. Espada, like the rest of the Astros coaching staff, players, and organization save general manager Jeff Luhnow, saw little or no consequence for their decision to cheat to win. While this has long drawn frustration within the sport and outside of it, there is a genuine uncertainty that MLB’s investigation struggled to identify: who actually did what, and how do you determine responsibility?

Can Espada be the right fit for Seattle? We’ll know soon if the Mariners think so.

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

No. 41, Zac Veen (-0.3 rWAR)

Zac Veen (No. 6 PuRP) has had a lot of ups and downs in his tenure with the Rockies.

There was a lot of excitement when the outfielder was drafted ninth overall in 2020 out of Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, FL and he ended up making his MLB debut on April 8, 2025 after nearly breaking camp with the team.

It didn’t go very well.

Veen played 12 games with the Rockies in 2025, slashing just .118/.189/.235 with eight total bases and 14 strikeouts. He fared a little better in Triple-A Albuquerque — slashing .289/.354/.468 through 90 games — but it was revealed in spring training 2026 that Veen was dealing with substance abuse off the field.

When he arrived at Salt River Fields to start 2026, Veen was a different player.

He’d put on about 43 pounds from the end of last season, and was a new player both physically and mentally. Veen played in 11 spring games, hitting .250/.375/.550 with two homers.

He was optioned to Albuquerque to start the year, and absolutely tore through the Pacific Coast League. Ahead of his call-up on August 11th, Veen was hitting a scorching .327/.402/.635 with 24 home runs and 18 stolen bases. He was named PCL Player of the Month for June — where he hit .366/.385/.782 with 24 extra-base hits — as well as back-to-back PCL Player of the Week for the weeks of August 2nd and August 9th.

Veen was recalled on August 11th and made his MLB re-debut on August 12th against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He immediately made his presence known by hitting a home run into the pool at Chase Field in his first game back:

He doubled down by hitting a splash home run into McCovey Cove in San Francisco in the very next game:

He also had that wild play at home on August 16th:

Veen came back with a vengeance, but it didn’t last.

After about a week, he began to cool off both at the plate and in the field. He was primarily used as a late-inning pinch hitter, or he would be pinch-hit for late in games. He didn’t make much of a case for himself, though, as he also committed numerous blunders in the field (though only two were scored as errors).

The most egregious ones were on September 17th against the San Diego Padres, where Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts hit back-to-back triples, though they could’ve been scored as errors.

He also bobbled a few during the season-closing Diamondbacks series.

As shown by his -4 OAA and -5 DRS, Veen’s defense left much to be desired, especially late in the season.

Offensively, Veen slashed just .232/.312/.435 in 36 games. It’s not a terrible line, but it’s nothing to write home about either. The 39.2% strikeout rate is, though, as it was second only to Braxton Fulford (40.0%) and nearly double his strikeout rate in Albuquerque (20.4%).

Skyler Timmins wrote about Veen’s performance in early September, and not much has changed since then.

Veen’s torrid Triple-A season was rewarded, though, as he finished the year as Baseball America’s Triple-A Player of the Year, PCL MVP — the first Rockies prospect to win the award since Nolan Arenado’s cousin Joshua Fuentes in 2018 — and a postseason All-Star.

As the Rockies continue their rebuild, there will be some tough decisions to make.

Zac Veen’s future is one of them.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!