Category: Baseball

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 2025. 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.

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Honorable Mention: Kris Bryant (N/A rWAR)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Colorado Rockies held a press conference in early spring training in 2022 to announce that they had signed former MVP and World Series champion Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract.

After Nolan Arenado’s public divorce from the club a year earlier, Rockies owner Dick Monfort wanted star power. So once the Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified and baseball was able to resume after the lockout, he made a splash and helped orchestrate the signing of Bryant.

While plenty of skeptics and red flags surrounded the signing, there was at least some optimism that Bryant could help bring a winning culture to the Rockies and provide the clubhouse leadership this team desperately needed.

The sad reality is that the signing has been a disaster, as Bryant’s body betrayed him, and injuries rendered him a shell of his former self.

Over four seasons with the Rockies, when he was actually able to suit up, Bryant has played just 170 games, worth -1.6 rWAR. In 2025, he managed to play just 11 games before the lumbar degenerative disk disease he was diagnosed with in 2024 made it too difficult to play, and he landed on the 60-day injured list.

2026 was the first year in which Bryant did not play a single game of baseball in his professional career. It didn’t take long for him to land on the 60-day IL as the Rockies placed him on the IL the first chance they got when such roster moves could be made in spring training. Bryant reported to camp when full-squad workouts began, but it was simply to make an appearance, get his physical, and check in with the team before heading back home to work with doctors.

In the past, Bryant was at least on our minds throughout the season as he would occasionally pop up in the dugout and talk to the media once or twice during the regular season. This year, Bryant talked to the media while he was in camp, and made an appearance in the dugout when the Rockies played in Las Vegas in June, but we otherwise haven’t heard much from him. The message we did receive back in February was not a hopeful one.

His message was simply about the pain he has been dealing with as a result of the back issues. There was also a clear subtext of his frustration about his physical well-being and inability to play baseball.

“Any time my feet hit the ground, I feel like I could probably fall over,” Bryant said to the media. “It’s unfortunate and obviously not how I want this to go. I’m here to figure things out and find out if there is a way to get better.

“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

He then went on to share about his path forward heading into the start of spring training and the reality that little to no progress has been made to get back on the field any time soon.

“Usually in the progression you start with the exercises, then you move to running,” Bryant said. “Any time my feet hit the ground, I just feel like I could probably fall over.

“I don’t really have the best answer for [returning to the field], because I haven’t really determined a plan, but I just am following advice and [the trainer’s] guidance, and obviously meeting with doctors. I met with doctors in the offseason, just to get opinions. They pass them on to the training staff, and then we determine how we go.”

The reality of not having Bryant for the season was not a surprise for manager Warren Schaeffer and the new front office, and the best path forward was to plan that he wasn’t going to be part of the equation at all.

“There’s really not much to say about it other than the guy’s back really hurts, and he’s having a tough time progressing,” Schaeffer said. “We have to prepare like he’s not going to play. That’s just the way we have to go about it, hoping that he has a recovery and a breakthrough. But as of now, his back really, really hurts. It’s a real thing. He just can’t play baseball.”

If Bryant is physically unable to play baseball, what’s the next step? At the time of his interview, he skirted around the question of retirement, instead holding onto hope a solution could be found.

“I honestly try not to let myself get there, because when you’re going through it every single day, you just try to make it day to day,” he said. “A lot of people out there with chronic pain, you don’t want to think so far in the future because you’re just trying to get through the day. So I haven’t let myself get there.”

But that was six months ago, and change happens.

There are still two years and $54 million of guaranteed money left on Bryant’s contract. Any sort of solution to rectify the situation is a tough puzzle to solve, especially now with a ticking clock of roughly 30 days before the offseason begins and Bryant would have to be added back onto the 40-man roster.

The simplest answer is that the Rockies take the hit and pay him the full amount left on his contract, and he retires or is released, much like the Denver Broncos did with Russell Wilson. That parallel became more of a reality when the Penner Sports Group bought a 40% ownership stake in the club last April, bringing an influx of cash to help pay off debts for the club.

The more likely alternative that would make the most sense is that the Rockies work with Bryant and his agent, Scott Boras, on restructuring the deal to defer the remaining $56 million over several years. The Los Angeles Angels did that very thing with oft-injured Anthony Rendón in January, spreading out the $38 million he was owed this season over the next three-to-five years.

While there has been no news on the Kris Bryant front this season, there is no doubt in my mind that Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes have been looking into a solution to bring this disastrous union to a close.

After five years, it’s time to put this chapter of Rockies history in the rearview mirror.

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With the regular season coming to a close, we’re already getting our first glimpse of what awaits on the horizon of awards season. The All-MLB Team is starting to gain some footing and now, the nominees for the 2026 All-MLB Team have been announced. As such, the Braves are going to have plenty of opportunities to have at least one represenative on this year’s First-and-Second-Team squads.

The Braves have nine nominees — Drake Baldwin at catcher, Matt Olson at first base, Ozzie Albies at second base, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris II in the outfield, Chris Sale as a starter, and Didier Fuentes, Raisel Iglesias and Dylan Lee as relievers.

A lot of these players have experience with this particular honor. Chris Sale made the All-MLB First Team in 2024, Ronald Acuña Jr. made the Second Team in 2019 and 2020 and the First Team in 2023 and Raisel Iglesias made it onto the second team as a member of the Angels in 2021.

If I had to guess, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II and Chris Sale may have a shot to make it onto the squads and I’d imagine that Chris Sale could have a real good shot at making the First Team as part of the “rotation.” Outside of that, I wouldn’t harbor too many hopes but who knows, we shall see. It’s also pretty impressive that Didier Fuentes even got nominated, so well done to him for even being considered.

Voting will take place at MLB.com/AllMLB until October 9 at 2:00 p.m. ET and the teams will be announced on November 11 at the MLB Awards Show in Las Vegas.

The Texas Rangers’ 2026 season has come to an end, which means it is a pretty good time for us to check in on the state of the Rangers’ 40 man roster.

The 40 man roster currently is full, and in addition, there are six players — Carter Baumler, Jalen Beeks, Jose Corniell, Jack Leiter, Cal Quantrill, and Cole Winn — on the 60 day injured list. Those six players will have to come off the 60 day injured list at the end of the regular season, which means we have 46 players to account for on the 40 man roster.

Now, two of those six players — Jalen Beeks and Cal Quantrill — will be free agents at season’s end, which means we don’t have to concern ourselves with finding a 40 man roster spot for them. In addition, the following players are also set to hit free agency at the end of the season:

Tyler Alexander

Elias Diaz

Kyle Higashioka

Jakob Junis

Nicky Lopez

Jordan Montgomery

Joc Pederson

Trevor Williams

Yes, Higashioka and Pederson technically have mutual options, but since either side can decline, we can treat the pair as being pending free agents.

That gets us down to 36 players on the 40 man roster at the end of the season. So unlike, say, the San Francisco Giants — who have a full 40 man roster, 16 players on the 60 day injured list, and only one pending free agent — the Rangers won’t have to immediately put a bunch of guys on waivers once the season is over.

That said, there are some players currently on the 40 man roster who are not pending free agents, but who are going to end up being waived or non-tendered to create 40 man roster spots. The Rangers are going to have to once again build their bullpen from almost scratch, as well as likely add one or more minor leaguers to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. We will go over who is Rule 5 eligible and who is likely to be protected in a future post.

The Rangers’ arbitration-eligible players are:

MacKenzie Gore — Arb 3

Logan O’Hoppe — Arb 2

Jake Burger — Arb 2

Josh Jung — Arb 2

Ezequiel Duran — Arb 2

Wyatt Langford — Arb 1

Robert Garcia — Arb 1

Jacob Latz — Arb 1

Cody Bradford — Arb 1

Evan Carter — Arb 1

As far as potential non-tenders go, most of these guys would appear to be safe from a potential non-tender. The two guys who strike me as possibilities for a non-tender would be Jake Burger and Logan O’Hoppe.

Burger has two seasons of team control remaining, and made $3.2 million in 2026. I’m guessing he’s looking at around $5.5 million in 2027. That’s cheaper than what you can get a similar player for on the open market — Josh Bell, for example, is a DH-only whose OPS+ the past four years has been 104, and assuming the Twins buy out his $10 million team option, he’ll have been paid $7 million for his one season of work for them.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Burger will be a Ranger for 2027, though. Josh Jung, who has never been great defensively and who has put up an aggregate -18 DRS the past three seasons (-12 in 2026) and an aggregate -6 FRV (-4 in 2026) could be moved to first base in anticipation that Sebastian Walcott will be, if not the third baseman to start the 2027 season, the third baseman for the Rangers at some point in 2027. In that case, the Rangers would have to decide whether to make Burger a DH or trade him. Its possible that, with the uncertainty surrounding the labor situation, neither the Rangers nor any other team want to take a risk on what Burger might get in arbitration under a new CBA, and thus Burger could get non-tendered. But I think its more likely the Rangers tender him and then decide what they want to do with him from there, if he’s not traded before then.

As for O’Hoppe, acquired from the Angels with Chase Silseth at the deadline for Angel Arredondo, he made $2.63 million in 2026, and still has three years of team control remaining due to the time he spent on optional assignment in the minors in 2026. O’Hoppe’s defense, both statistically and per reports, has regressed significantly, and other than one inning behind the plate, the Rangers only used him as at DH during his time in the majors with them. He split his time at Round Rock roughly between catcher and DH.

The Rangers have Danny Jansen — who was pretty solid overall when he was healthy in 2026 — under contract for 2027, but no other realistic option in the system to be Jansen’s backup for 2027. If the Rangers were, say, the Dodgers or Yankees or someone like that, they’d tender O’Hoppe, who has options remaining, and send him to AAA to be their third catcher if they don’t think the glove and/or bat warrants a backup role, and find some veteran free agent to be the primary backup for Jansen. Because this is the Rangers, I’m not so sure that they’ll do that. They may, instead, offer O’Hoppe something similar to what he made in 2026 — or a slight reduction from that amount — and threaten to non-tender him if he doesn’t agree to that before the deadline.

Speaking of Silseth, he has two years and 105 days of service time. That should have him short of being a Super Two, but we won’t know for sure until the official numbers from MLB come out.

So that gets us to 34 to 36 players on the 40 man roster. The Rangers will probably need to pare another 4-6 players at some point in the offseason. Here’s who I see as being potential 40 man casualties:

The Injured Rule 5 Pick — Carter Baumler

Carter Baumler was acquired by the Texas Rangers as a Rule 5 selection from the Baltimore Orioles this past winter. The Orioles left him exposed because of concerns about Baumler’s inability to stay off the injured list. The righthanded reliever impressed in spring training, made the Opening Day roster, and was on the active roster before he went on the injured list, where he spent the rest of the season (although he did make 11 rehab appearances for the Express — three in late April before he was shut down again, and eight at the end of the AAA season).

Baumler will have to spend, by my math, 80 days on an active major league roster before he can be optioned to the minors, so if Baumler does stay on the Rangers’ 40 man roster until Opening Day, he’ll have to be carried on the active roster for 80 days or be put on waivers (assuming he doesn’t land on the injured list in the interim, in which case the service time calculation for Rule 5 purposes would be paused until he returns from the injured list).

If the Rangers had a crowded 40 man roster situation, Baumler would seem to be a no-brainer to be dropped — and he could be dropped anyway. If the Rangers feel good about what he showed in the final month with Round Rock and think he’s not a lost cause from a health standpoint, though, it would seem likely that they’d hang onto him and see how things go this spring.

The Up-and-Down Relievers Added in 2026 — Robby Ahlstrom, Gavin Collyer, Adam Macko, Ben Peoples

Four pitchers who were not on the 40 man roster to start the 2026 season, but who got a decent amount of time in the major league pen during the 2026 season. All of them except Macko have at least two options remaining after the 2026 season.

Ahlstrom, acquired from the Yankees all the way back in April, 2022, in the Jose Trevino trade, was exposed and went undrafted in the Rule 5 Draft in both 2024 and 2025. This year, the Rangers brought him up in June, and he got off to a very good start, allowing one run in 9.1 innings in his first nine appearances. He allowed 25 runs over 27.2 innings over his final 33 appearances, and ended up bouncing up and down between Round Rock and the majors over the final couple of months.

Ahlstrom ended the year with an ugly 6.08 ERA in 37 innings over 42 appearances in the majors, though with a more respectable 5.18 FIP and 4.31 xERA. He is also a lefty, which probably works in his favor.

Macko, 25, was acquired at the deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays for Josh Stephen and Josh Smith in what was basically a salary dump of Smith. He made just eight appearances covering nine innings for the Rangers post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA, and six appearances covering nine innings for the Express post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA. Like Ahlstrom, he’s a lefty, which helps, but I don’t know that the Rangers would keep both Ahlstrom and Macko on the 40 man roster, and with him being out of options, he seems like someone who could end up on the DFA carousel this winter.

Collyer is a righthander who was the Rangers’ 12th round draft pick in 2019. A free agent after the 2025 season, the Rangers re-signed him to a minor league deal, and after a strong camp, he was called up to the majors in mid-April. Like Ahlstrom, he got off to a strong start, not allowing a run in his first 11 appearances, covering 9.2 innings. Also like Ahlstrom, he had issues after that, allowing 16 runs over 15.1 innings in his final 13 appearances, walking and striking out 15. And like Ahlstrom, he ended up shuttling between AAA and the majors over the final few months, though he spent most of the second half in the minors.

Collyer put up a 2.37 ERA in 30 innings for Round Rock, with 42 Ks against 18 walks. His improved command was what got the team’s attention in spring training and got him promoted in the majors early. The failure to throw strikes in his later appearances with the team got him returned to Round Rock. The arm is legit — he was in the 84th percentile in fastball velocity, per Statcast, and elite at avoiding hard contact — but he’s not going to be more than an emergency up-and-down guy if he doesn’t tighten up the command and throw more strikes.

Peoples, acquired from the White Sox at the end of June for organizational depth A ball catcher Ben Hartl, is similar to Collyer in that he’s a righthander with a big fastball (75th percentile) and elite at avoiding loud contact, but who struggles to throw strikes. But while Collyer is mediocre at striking out batters, Peoples is near the bottom of the league, with just a 14.7% K rate.

Peoples was up for a month and a half after being acquired, was sent down in mid-August, and made just two more appearances in the big leagues for Texas after that. He ended the year with a 2.76 ERA in 16.1 innings over 16 appearances, but with just 10 Ks against 8 walks. He had an ugly 5.92 FIP but a respectable 3.92 xERA.

The Reliever Without Options Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Cole Winn

Cole Winn ended the 2026 season on the injured list, which is the same way his 2024 and 2025 seasons ended. He had two stints on the injured list in 2026, the same number of stints on the i.l. he had in 2025. He was out of options in 2026, and if he hadn’t been out of options, he probably would have been sent down to AAA at some point for a reason other than a rehab assignment.

Winn had a 7.79 ERA in 2024, a 1.51 ERA in 2025, and a 5.63 ERA in 2026. His xERAs (5.35, 4.19, 4.88) and FIPs (4.26, 3.90, 4.02) have been much more consistent and largely pretty pedestrian. His splitter and slider generate whiffs, but his command of his fastball and cutter in the strike zone results in those two pitches being punished too often.

I can’t see the Rangers keeping all four of Winn, Baumler, Collyer and Peoples. There’s only so many iffy righthanded middle relievers you can carry on your 40 man roster, especially given that the Rangers are going to add some (hopefully less iffy) righthanded middle relievers as free agents this offseason. It may be that the Rangers are going to be willing to carry either Winn or Baumler — two guys who can’t be sent down without clearing waivers — to start the 2027 season, but not both, and I’m not sure both stick on the 40 man roster all offseason.

The Nolan Ryan Winner Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Jose Corniell

Jose Corniell was the Nolan Ryan Pitcher of the Year in the Rangers’ organization for 2023, a season which saw him put up a 2.92 ERA in 101 innings between low-A and high-A. He missed all of 2024 and most of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery, but pitched very well upon his return in 2025, with a 1.89 ERA in 13 appearances in the minors before making his major league debut in game 162 of 2025.

2026 was a disaster, as he put up a 6.37 ERA in 10 appearances in AAA, and allowed 10 runs in 4.1 innings in two appearances in the majors when he was pressed into emergency duty. He went on the 60 day i.l. after his final major league appearance in July, and his status for 2027 is unclear.

Corniell technically is out of options, though he is most likely eligible for a fourth option. Given his health issues, however, I think there’s a good chance he is non-tendered and re-signed to a minor league contract.

The Disappointing Upper-Level Minor League Righthanded Arms — David Davalillo, Leandro Lopez, Winston Santos, Emiliano Teodo

Davalillo and Lopez were added to the 40 man roster after the 2025 season. Santos and Teodo were added after the 2024 season. None of them have pitched well since they got added, and if they were not on the 40 man roster currently, they would almost certainly not be added this offseason.

Davalillo is a control artist who, for much of 2026, failed to throw strikes, and had a 4.59 ERA in 100 innings between four levels in 2026, mostly at Frisco and Round Rock. Lopez missed three months of 2026 and was awful when he did pitch for much of the season, though he put up a 1.15 ERA and 431 OPS allowed in his final eight appearances, working mostly in relief. Santos missed most of 2025 due to injury and put up a 6.80 ERA in 25 appearances covering 83.1 innings between Frisco and Round Rock in 2026, as well as getting a couple of emergency call-ups to the majors, with Santos allowing two runs in one inning in his one major league appearance. Teodo also missed most of 2025, and while his surface numbers for Round Rock in 2026 were better — 3.73 ERA, 4.71 xERA, 4.50 FIP — he was still walking batters at a 16.8% rate. To put that in context, none of the 389 major league pitchers who threw at least 40 innings in 2026 had a walk rate higher than 15.3%.

Santos, who turns 25 next season and is coming off two straight disappointing seasons, would seem to be the guy most in danger of losing his roster spot. Lopez and Teodo are would seem to be the safest, as they have the stuff to potentially be quality bullpen arms, and Lopez, as noted above, pitched well over the last six weeks or so working out of the pen.

Oh, Yeah, He’s Still Here— Michel Otanez, Michael Helman

The Rangers claimed Otanez on waivers last November. He was optioned to the minors early in spring training, was designated for assignment in June, went unclaimed, was outrighted, and then was added to the 40 man roster and brought back up for one day in mid-September. The Rangers initially sent him back to Round Rock the next day, but that move was negated when he had to go on the injured list with an undisclosed viral illness. Otanez was bad for much of the year, but improved over the final month or two. Still, with no options remaining and the fact he’s been outrighted once before, I can’t see him sticking on the 40 man roster all offseason.

Michael Helman turns 31 early next season, put up a .207/.296/.360 slash line in 42 games for Round Rock last year after putting up a .231/.294/.406 slash line in 71 AAA games in 2025. He had a nice run late last season for the Rangers, but had a .250 xwOBA that indicated it was fluky, and had a .167/.235/.300 slash line in 35 plate appearances in the big leagues this year (with a .200 xwOBA). If you have an open 40 man roster spot, he’s an acceptable depth piece who can be called up in an emergency to play some center field and pinch run off the bench, but he’s not someone who you are going to going through machinations to ensure you can keep him on the 40 man. He’s another guy I could see the Rangers non-tendering and then re-signing to a minor league deal.

Okay, got all that? You will be tested on this next week.

I’m thinking of a baseball team.

With a little more than a week to go in the season, they were comfortably in a wild card spot, having gotten there with multiple long winning streaks. Then… they just stopped scoring runs. They went on the road at the end of the season and could barely muster anything crossing the plate. The team’s fans were beside themselves. What would happen to this club that at times seemed so dominant?

Oh, you think I’m talking about this year’s Cubs.

Nope, I’m talking about the 2022 Phillies, who with 12 games to go were 83-67 (psst… so were this year’s Cubs after 150 games). Then those Phillies lost five in a row. That streak included coming into Wrigley Field and being swept by a bad Cubs team and scoring just three runs in that series. I vividly remember talking to a couple of Phillies fans at Wrigley after that series was over and, well, I can’t post the language they used referring to their team.

Those Phillies then righted their ship, a little, winning four of five. Then they got shut out 10-0 by the Astros on the season’s penultimate day (in fact, they nearly got no-hit by Justin Verlander and two Houston relievers, including old friend Hector Neris, finally breaking up that effort in the ninth). They lost the next day, too, backing into the postseason when the Brewers lost.

Those Phillies then traveled to St. Louis for a Wild Card series and were losing 2-0 with one out in the ninth in the first game when seven of their next eight hitters reached base. They scored six runs in that inning and won 6-3.

That was the first of 10 wins in 12 games for Philadelphia, which included winning Game 1 of the World Series in Houston, against that same team that had nearly knocked them out entirely a few weeks earlier.

Ultimately the Astros won the World Series that year. (Incidentally, Alex Bregman batted .294/.379/.569 with three home runs in 12 postseason games for Houston in 2022; his solid postseason performance is one of the reasons the Cubs signed him.)

Now the Cubs are in a similar situation to those Phillies. Not identical, of course, but the clubs are quite similar. The 2022 Phillies were a slugging team near the top of MLB in offensive categories. They had a mediocre pitching staff that ranked 23rd in reliever ERA and had 22 blown saves, and their save leader — Corey Knebel, remember him from his Brewers days? — had just 12, with four of those blown saves.

This pretty much describes the 2026 Cubs, no? In fact, this year’s Cubs rank even higher than the 2022 Phillies in almost every offensive category. They were first this year in runs, SLG, OPS, OPS+, total bases and walks (a franchise record 674), and rank third in home runs. They also rank first in runners left on base, and I could cite RISP numbers but leaving a lot of runners also means that, well, you have a lot of runners in the first place. That’s what happens when you lead the league in walks and are sixth in hits.

This sort of offense shows in the Cubs’ record in “blowout” games (defined at baseball-reference.com as games won by five or more runs). They are 35-16 in those games, which is excellent. But they’re just 23-21 in one-run games, and that’s on the pitching staff, which has been horrific most of the year. How bad? This bad:

WAR by Team pic.twitter.com/YfnYk8NfKo

— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) September 28, 2026

The Cubs pitching staff is one of the worst in MLB (only four teams, then Nationals, Royals, A’s and Rockies had as bad or worse pitching WAR), and if they didn’t lead the league in hitting WAR by a significant margin — 11 WAR over the Dodgers! — they’d be down near the bottom of the list. Instead, they rank third overall, behind only the Dodgers and Brewers.

Injuries are a big part of that. Only Shōta Imanaga, of all the starters, didn’t have a single day on the injured list, making 31 starts and throwing 173.1 innings, producing 2.0 bWAR. Even at that, the Cubs’ leader in bWAR (2.2) was Ben Brown, who threw only 68 innings and didn’t throw a single pitch after June 19. Brown’s injury was one of the major factors in making this pitching staff so awful. This Cubs team had a franchise-record 14 different pitchers record saves this year, including Corbin Martin (!), who posted a 10.80 ERA in seven games for the team in 2026.

Many of you will rightly criticize Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer for this patchwork bullpen that posted just 35 saves, with 23 blown saves. Granted and stipulated, the signings of Phil Maton (who was awful thanks to a knee injury, which he pitched through instead of having it taken care of) and Hunter Harvey (who threw only four innings for the team this year) were both wasted money.

But you know what, relievers are fickle and fungible. Last year Hoyer was praised for putting together a solid relief corps that included castoffs like Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and Caleb Thielbar, all of whom were very good in 2025 (total 3.6 bWAR, which is half of what the entire Cubs staff put together this year). Hoyer tried a reunion with Thielbar this year; that didn’t work. Neither did six games of Pomeranz in 2026 after the Angels released him.

The larger issue is pitching development for the Cubs. Other teams seem to crank out endless lines of guys from their minor league systems throwing 98+. The Cubs don’t.

That’s a topic for another day, though. Today’s is: Why not the Cubs this year? We saw them run off a pair of 10-game winning streaks early in the year. (And then a 10-game losing streak.) We have seen them dominate games with their offense. They scored in double figures 21 times in 2026, the sixth-most such games for any Cubs team in the Modern Era (they also did it 22 times last year, and two of those years, 1929 and 1930, were juiced-ball offensive seasons). This sort of offense might, just might, be enough to overcome the shortcomings of this mediocre pitching staff.

When the postseason starts, things tend to reset from the regular season. Last year’s Brewers, for example, scored a bunch of runs in their first two Division Series games against the Cubs, then stopped hitting, scoring only 10 total runs in the next seven games, squeaking by the Cubs in that series, then getting swept in the NLCS by the Dodgers. There are tons of postseason examples just like this. In recent years, the 2024 Mets won a Division Series over a better Phillies team because Philly stopped hitting. The 84-78 Diamondbacks did it to the 100-62 Dodgers in 2023, outscoring them in a Division Series sweep 19-6.

Circling back to that 2022 Phillies team, they won two of the first three World Series games from the Astros and then… well, just stopped hitting, scoring only three total runs in the next three games as Houston won the Series. The point here is — at least the Phillies got to the World Series. I think this Cubs team can do that too, or even win the whole thing, if they hit like they are capable of. Let’s hope they start that tomorrow against the Padres. Go Cubs.

The Cleveland Guardians have made it to the American League Division series – how can they use this position to break the longest World Series championship drought in the sport?

The Guardians enter MLB’s playoffs as an underdog, as usual. They spent most of the season struggling to stay over .500, and then turned it on from the end of the August through September for the third year in a row. Their flaws are easy to see: they lack a 20-home run hitter (Jo Adell hit 23 this season but most of those were with the Angels), they are missing a strong third starter, and the loss of Emmanuel Clase due to a gambling scandal has winnowed the depth of their bullpen. With that said, the Guardians have some important assets baseball fans shouldn’t overlook when considering potential contenders for baseball’s biggest prize. Let’s take a look at some things that will likely have to happen for the Guardians to end their 78-year title drought:

Playoff Experience Buoys the Team:

This is now Stephen Vogt’s third time managing a playoff team. Growing edge mistakes he has made in the past – failing to intentionally walk an en fuego Giancarlo Stanton, going one to many times to the same relievers in a short series, and putting the worst defender you have ever seen in the field while facing Tarik Skubal – should be lessons learned for one of the best managers in the game. Additionally, Carl Willis’s steady hand will guide a playoff pitching staff for the umpteenth time.

On the field, World Series winners Austin Hedges and Nathaniel Lowe will provide needed voices of experience, and, because of the playoff runs of the past two years, Jose Ramirez’s vast amount of playoff experience is not the only source of familiarity with baseball’s biggest stage on the team. David Fry, Chase DeLauter, Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martinez, and almost the entire pitching staff have postseason memories to draw upon to anchor them for the current run. Vogt has the pieces in place to position his guys to last.

Gavin Williams, Parker Messick and Daniel Espino/Joey Cantillo Dominate:

The success or failure of the Guardians in these playoffs will ride on the top of their rotation asserting their abilities on their opponents. Williams has a 2.85 xFIP this season, Messick has a 2.56 ERA, and Espino (2.69 xFIP) and Cantillo (3.62 ERA) have allowed a total of three runs in their three appearances together as opener and bulk guy. All four pitchers are capable of missing a lot of bats, something that is crucial for playoff success.

Rest Gives Jose Ramirez’s Hand a Chance to Regain Some Strength:

The Guardians only winning 85 games this season may seem like a disappointment coming off of two-straight division-title-winning years, but it stands as an amazing accomplishment because the Guardians’ perennial MVP-candidate only managed a 92 wRC+ and a .235/.320/.368 slashline, while accumulating only 2.2 fWAR (his lowest of any season since 2015). The lower numbers seem almost entirely attributable to Ramirez getting hamate surgery in June and trying to get his hand/wrist strength back while playing major league baseball games instead of receiving extended rest. Well, counting Sunday, Jose will now get a full week’s worth of rest. Can that enable his hand to regain enough strength to make him something closer to his career norms? His contact rates and plate discipline numbers have remained strong, so if he can find some of his missing power with the rest he gets this coming week… watch out, American League.

Tanner Bibee and Foster Griffin Help in Middle Innings:

The back-end of the Guardians’ rotation has not been great, however, both Tanner Bibee and Foster Griffin are talented enough pitchers to be dangerous in two-inning stints if needed in the middle of a game. After a bad start against the Mets (about which the Athletic’s Zack Meisel recently revealed that the Mets were able to hear his pitches on Lowe’s PitchCom device at first base), Griffin has had a 3.08 FIP with the Guardians. He’s able to get a groundball when needed, which can be immensely helpful in a mid-game situation. Meanwhile, Bibee is far too prone to the longball and unable to reliably get whiffs when needed, but, as demonstrated on Saturday, he is able to pull himself together to get outs when needed. If placed mid-game and told to let loose and not worry about going through a lineup more than once (at the most), he’s a pitcher with the playoff experience and moxie to make a huge impact.

The Volatility of Hunter Gaddis Swings Back to the Guardians’ Favor:

The Guardians should feel good about Cade Smith (more on him later) and Erik Sabrowski at the end of games, but Hunter Gaddis has been shaky down the stretch. In Gaddis’s last six innings, he has an FIP over 7. He is giving up too much contact and it’s LOUD contact. However, in Gaddis’s prior 15 innings, he had a 1.17 ERA and a 1.99 FIP. Was Gaddis tiring down the stretch? Can a week off spent in the warm embrace of Carl Willis and the restorative cocoon of talking through his pitch mix with Patrick Bailey and Austin Hedges get him back to the 9.39/2.93 K/BB/9 and near 50% groundball rate he flashed in his recent hot stretch? Gaddis has had huge splits in FIP this season, as well, with a 2.74 FIP vs. RHP and a 5.74 FIP vs. LHP. Leveraging Gaddis’s appearance in a game to ensure he faces two right-handed batters, if possible, will be key for Vogt to use him effectively.

The Guardians really have to hope there is an answer for Gaddis’s struggles, or that could prove their fatal flaw. It is possible that Colin Holderman, who has been treating a wrist injury, may get healthy enough to make the playoff roster this week, and that would be a huge boon if he can be something like the 2.73 ERA/3.16 FIP he put up in the Guardians’ pen this season, and if Vogt is willing to let Holderman be the primary 7th inning guy instead of Gaddis.

Chase DeLauter and Steven Kwan Perform Like Top 20 Hitters in MLB:

It is virtually impossible to win a World Series without a top 20 hitter in MLB performing as such. The Guardians’ Chase DeLauter is 19th in MLB with a 131 wRC+. DeLauter is more than capable of getting hot and carrying a lineup in a short series, or two. As mentioned before in this article, Jose Ramirez is, of course, still capable of putting up top 20-hitter numbers IF that wrist/hand manages to recover in a significant fashion during this period of rest. However, in looking at potential hitting heroes, it’s important not to forget about what Steven Kwan has done since the All-Star break; few midseason turnaround compare to Kwan’s pre-All-Star break slashline of .225/.332/.282 becoming a .353/.443/.438 slashline to end the season. Kwan’s 155 wRC+ after the all-star break is the eighth best performance among all qualified MLB hitters. Kwan has also put up a very good 129 wRC+ in 92 playoff plate appearances for his career. Kwan and DeLauter at the top of the Guardians’ lineup should be a difficult assignment for any playoff opponents.

I would be remiss if I left this section about “best hitters” on the Guardians without mentioning Angel Martinez’s run to end the season. Since returning from a broken foot, after the MLB trade deadline, Martinez put up a 151 wRC+. Will he see a single strike from the best pitchers in MLB during the playoffs due to his first percentile chase rate? I don’t know. Will he be able to resist chasing those pitches? I really don’t know. But, he has been a wildly valuable hitter under the radar to everyone except Cleveland fans.

Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio Display that Clutch is Real:

I’m not saying that “being clutch” is real… but I am saying that if it IS real, Patrick Bailey and Brayan Rocchio are probably clutch. Rocchio has a career 131 wRC+ and Bailey a career 114 wRC+ in high leverage situations. Neither have been quite an average hitter this season (or even close to average for their careers), yet both provide excellent defensive value at the most important positions on the field (shortstop and catcher, respectively) and have consistently found a way to come through with the bat when it really matters. Shoutout, also, to Austin Hedges for somehow being a 100 wRC+ hitter this season, which may come in crucial at some point this playoffs, as well.

Nathaniel Lowe and Jo Adell Perform:

The Guardians added reliever Craig Yoho, starter Foster Griffin, and hitters Nathaniel Lowe and Jo Adell to shore up their roster at this year’s MLB trade deadline. Yoho may or may not make the playoff roster, and Griffin can potentially help in middle relief or as the fourth starter in a potential ALCS, but it is Lowe and Adell who have the greatest chance to impact the Guardians’ playoff run of this bunch. Lowe has been unlucky at the plate since coming to the Guardians (.280 wOBA compared to .307 xwOBA), but can he still be the hitter who had a 123 wRC+ and a .351 xwOBA for the Reds prior to the trade deadline? If he can, that will immensely strengthen the Guardians’ lineup. Adell has struggled mightily against right-handed pitching this year (67 wRC+) BUT he has an insane 168 wRC+ against lefties. Teams love to try to neutralize the Guardians with southpaws; Adell and past-postseason hero David Fry are here to try to make sure that’s not an easy task.

Travis Bazzana Gets Hot:

It’s not unusual for rookie hitters to be hot and cold but Bazzana demonstrated this tendency in a fairly stark fashion this season. For example, from May 1st to June 3rd, Bazzana put up a 138 wRC+ and from June 4th-July 17th he had an 81 wRC+. From July 18th-August 2nd, Bazzana put up a 137 wRC+, and from August 3rd-August 31st he had a 45 wRC+. From September 1st-September 18th, Bazzana had a 244 wRC+ and from September 19th through the final game, Bazzana had a 35 wRC+. Bottom line, if former 1.1 pick Bazzana is on a heater, he can be one of those top 20 MLB hitters for this team and carry them through a playoff series or two.

Cade Smith Pitches Like the Best Reliever in MLB:

Smith’s dominance is well-known in the game. He has a 1.95 ERA and a 13/2.8 K/BB/9. I am almost 100% confident he is not betting on the results of his pitches. Vogt has repeatedly shown the willingness to let him pitch two innings to close out a game and may very well allow that multiple times in a short series. If Smith performs at the level to which he is capable, he and Erik Sabrowski have the potential to make at least three games each series 6-inning affairs.

There are never any sure things when it comes to the playoffs in MLB. We can say for certainty that not every of the plausible scenarios listed above will come into play for the Guardians, as much as I might wish they would. However, this list of ten ways that would make a World Series title-runs for Cleveland demonstrates that this team has a number of potential ways to beat oppponents that should not be underestimated. With the #2 seed in hand and a bye through the wildcard, the Guardians would also have homefield advantage should they advance to the ALCS if either the Yankees or Red Sox manage to beat the Tampa Bay Rays. Time to watch and see if these Guardians can continue another legendary September run into late October.

Quick Glossary:
100 wRC+ is league average offensive production, wOBA and xwOBA look are similar metrics with solid offensive production being .320 woBA or above, and xwOBA looking at expected results based on quality of contact.
FIP, xFIP and xERA look at ERA numbers without the influence of fielding differences and with the factors of quality of contact allowed.

They are in the playoffs. Let’s not dwell too much on the how; let’s just focus on the fact that they are in. That’s all they need to make some noise in the playoffs.

Three up

Zack Wheeler – Imagine this season without an Ace level Wheeler. He was always going to come back from the injury he had, if only because the trainers and medical staff of the Phillies were never really worried that it would end his career. How he would perform was an altogether different question. Would he be the Ace the team had relied on for many years, or something of a shell of himself? No one really knew until he actually started pitching….and then we knew. He was the one that the team would depend on each and every time. Many people outside of the organization point to the firing of Rob Thomson as the turning point of this season, but the real ones know: once Wheeler returned, that’s when it all changed.

Aaron Nola – I’m not going to get down on a guy that asked for the ball on short rest when the team needed someone to step up. Nola may have gotten blitzed in that start Saturday night, but good on him for wanting to do something to help the team. His resurgence this season was one of the reasons they are still playing baseball. Imagine if he was the bad version of Nola. Does this team make the playoffs at all?

Bryson Stott – The only bat worthy of this tier, Stott was good this week, boosted by his 3 for 3 performance on Sunday. While it will be how the stars fare against the Braves that determines if they are able to advance to meet the Dodgers, the complimentary bats like Stott and Alec Bohm also have to show something of a pulse if they expect to do anything.

Three down

Jose Alvarado – Let’s ask the true question when it comes to Alvarado: was Saturday night the final time we see him in a Phillies uniform? One can argue that there really is no reason to pitch him in the playoffs outside of a mop up appearance. Tanner Banks and Tim Mayza are more than likely ahead of him on the left handed pecking order if a southpaw is needed in the next week, so there really is no reason to call on him when the game is on the line. He might still have decent stuff (I’d argue he doesn’t), but the absolute loss of knowing where that stuff is going means he cannot be put into leverage situations, situations that abound in the playoffs. He was good when they needed him to be, but his time here is at an end.

J.T. Realmuto – Yes he had the big hit Sunday, arguably the biggest one, but boy is he bad right now. One could spin it in a positive direction and say he had bad luck, but that would be strictly looking at data and not watching with your eyes. He is not right at the plate.

Alec Bohm – Another that really isn’t swinging a good bat either, Bohm might be the key to the lineup outside of the big three. Hitting behind that trio, especially against Chris Sale, Bohm is going to have to have a key hit or two if they have a chance to steal Game 1.

Past summaries:

• So far, so good through mid-April
• Even better in late April
• May-be they’re just really good
• Late May just good, rather than absurdly awesome
• A June swoon so far
• Awful
• Fake it and maybe make it
• With some luck, back on the horse
• Dwelling in the dog days of August
• All we do is accumulate wins
• Slouching towards the NL East title

In September’s latter half, the Braves did a big thing: they clinched their first NL East title in three seasons (but seventh in nine seasons under the current Front Office). They did so with a sweep of the Astros in Houston, while dropping every other series they played. Of course, that sounds more woeful than it was, as it was really one series win against a contender, one series loss to a contender, and then six meaningless games where the Braves largely played their regulars but goofed around on the pitching end, and didn’t really do anything that well in the process.

So, as a result, the stats from their 5-5 end to the month (after a 7-7 start) are kind of meaningless. The Braves didn’t end their 2026 regular season on a high note, but… no one’s gonna remember that either way, given that the season’s story was pretty much written before these last few weeks, anyway. If the Braves have a postseason run, or if they don’t, these last two weeks won’t really matter to anyone either way.

Probably the biggest thing to note is that the Braves didn’t collapse. Collapsing is kind of hard to do when you win a bunch of games you shouldn’t in aggregate, but there was no karmic payback or anything. The 2026 Braves started with division odds of about 1-in-3, which shot up to 3-in-4 and higher in mid-April and stayed there until late June. They were coin flip-y with a slight edge around the All-Star Break, were up to nearly unity in mid-August, and then bounced around some more in the 70-95 percent range until becoming basically a sure thing once they fended off the Phillies. The clinch was just a formality, really.

How did the Braves do recently?

Keeping in mind that these stats don’t really tell a useful story given that the Braves largely mailed it in for six of ten games in this span, they were:

• 23rd in position player value — 21st in wRC+, 17th in xwOBA, 11th defensively
• 24th in pitching value (inclusive of goofing off, as noted) — 17th in ERA-, 26th in FIP-, and 11th in xFIP-, with no real difference between the rotation and bullpen.

So, what can you say, really? Of the four games that mattered, the Braves were favored in one but won three; if the remaining six, they were favored in five and won two. Eh.

How are the Braves doing on the season?

Well, they won 94 games and clinched the NL East with six games to go. They finished those same six games ahead of the Phillies, whom they’ll play in the Wild Card round best-of-three. 94 wins is good for MLB’s fourth-best record, and they also had MLB’s fifth-best run differential, but just the tenth-best BaseRuns-based record. (Only the Reds, Rays, and Phillies outperformed BaseRuns by more this season.) My own personal amusement is that if you went solely off BaseRuns, the NL playoff field would feature the Dodgers, Brewers, and Marlins as the division winners, and the Cubs, Pirates, and Braves as the Wild Card teams. (Of course, some of that would need to be rejiggered given that the Braves probably don’t goof off for six games if they trail the Marlins by a game.)

The overall team ranks are not kind to the Braves as far as the 2026 season goes.

• 21st in position player fWAR
• 20th in wOBA and wRC+; 14th in xwOBA
• Sixth in defensive value (yay)
• 13th in pitching fWAR (17th rotation, 12th bullpen)
• Fifth in ERA- (seventh, fourth)
• 15th in FIP- (17th, 12th)
• 11th in xFIP- (14th, 11th)

Yeah, this is not really a good team. While anything can happen in a short series, it’s easy to say that when the Braves lost those sets to the Phillies in 2022 and 2023, it was baseball being baseball, and the Braves were a better team. In 2026… sure, one or the other is better by some specific paradigm, but neither seems particularly good at all.

By the way, the 21st finish in position player fWAR was the team’s lowest since it also did so in 2017. The same goes for its hitting outputs (25th in 2017); hitting inputs had their lowest rank since the 2018 team finished 18th. I don’t know what’s going to happen this offseason, but this team needs a clear reinvention of its offensive wheel, with whatever strategic and personnel moves are needed to get there. Changes weren’t warranted from 2024 to 2025, and things somehow got worse this year, which I would never have guessed given how 2025 transpired.

How are the hitters doing?

Yeesh.

Three of the team’s good bats picked it up over these last two weeks. Mauricio Dubon decided to add some wild xwOBA overperformance for fun. Matt Olson could’ve had a better run, but whatever — he ended up with a really rough September in the end. But all the guys that struggled? Well, they pretty much struggled, except for seven PAs of Dominic Smith. Ozzie Albies absolutely collapsed. Austin Riley, Sean Murphy, and Ha-Seong Kim remained mired in their doldrums. Put this all together, and the seasonal lines look kinda nasty for a lot of these ten guys who crossed the 200 PA threshold.

Michael Harris II, Matt Olson, and Drake Baldwin were legit. No complaints about Ronald Acuña Jr. or Mauricio Dubon. I won’t even touch Murphy and Kim, who maybe could’ve solved things with enough time (Murphy’s bat speed is a real problem). But, the inability to do much to help Riley, to play Smith for 300 PAs despite obvious backsliding in his offensive approach that led to him hitting poorly, Mike Yastrzemski running into a career-worst year… like I said, there are a lot of issues to address.

At least almost everyone basically ended up where expected but for Dubon, and no one fell into some kind of horrendous xwOBA underperformance trap.

How are the pitchers doing?

Let’s also include the relievers, I guess.

Everyone got kinda shelled HR/FB-wise these last two weeks, but whatever. Chris Sale was still awesome, everyone else was meh or worse, especially when including the homers.

On the season, this was a team with Chris Sale, Tyler Mahle, and a bunch of standout relief performances… and that’s about it. Martin Perez was surprisingly helpful, even if he got there in an annoying way. Some guys were pretty awful; the Braves had the latitude to part ways with Tyler Kinley before he could do even more damage, but JR Ritchie and AJ Smith-Shawver really didn’t take any huge steps forward. Smith-Shawver only had like 30 innings, so not a huge deal, but it was kind of a bummer to not see more from Ritchie despite repeated chances.

If I had to give special shoutouts this season, I’d go:

• Michael Harris II — led the team in both fWAR thanks to his defense, but also WPA despite not having the best overall batting line. Harris had a weird year where he had an insane .442 xwOBA in April but then it declined every month afterwards, dipping under .300 in August… but he bounced back with a pretty big September (.337) despite some underperformance.
• Chris Sale – duh. While WPA does not really “accrue” to the pitcher because it includes defensive plays made behind the pitcher, it’s telling that Sale and the defense had a “shutdown” in 15 of his 27 outings, while only posting any negative WPA in seven outings, and a “meltdown”-level WPA in just three of them.
• Didier Fuentes, who finished second in actual shutdowns and meltdowns, but nonetheless tied Dylan Lee with 2.1 fWAR, which ranks second on the team overall behind Sale.

All that said, with all the various struggles, I do think this was basically the Season of Chris Sale for the Braves, as he was consistently, unequivocally good.

And now, we let the tournament take over.

The 2026 Royals season did not go as expected. After back-to-back winning seasons, the Royals felt they had the core of a team that could return to the postseason with a few minor tweaks to the roster. No team in the division won more than 85 games, so even a mediocre season would have put the Royals in the hunt. Instead, they limped to a 69-93 record, the fifth-worst record in baseball.

The record tells you the Royals had a bad season. The numbers can tell you why. Here are the statistics that defined the Royals’ 2026 season.

6.65

No lead was safe when Matt Quatraro called on his bullpen. Royals relievers had a 6.65 ERA in the ninth inning of ballgames, by far the worst in baseball.

In 2025, Carlos Estévez led all of baseball in saves, and the Royals were the only team in baseball not to lose a game they led going into the ninth. But this year, Estévez didn’t look right in spring training. The Royals rostered him anyway, and he immediately blew a lead in his first and only outing. He was quickly placed on the Injured List, never to return. Lucas Erceg and Matt Strahm also struggled mightily, and the Royals scrambled for late-inning options. Royals relievers were atrocious this year with a 5.07 ERA, second-worst in baseball, with 26 blown saves. The bullpen was so thin, the team had to pitch Alex Lange 59 times despite his 6.75 ERA.

64

For the third consecutive year, Vinnie Pasquantino was ice cold in April. The Royals were depending on him to become the run producer he was in 2025 when he drove in a career-high 113 runs. Instead, he hit .165/.274/.320 in the first month, a wRC+ of 64, and the team limped to a 12-19 start.

The cold start may have been due to participating in the World Baseball Classic, and/or lingering injuries. He dealt with lower back soreness early in the year. Then he injured his wrist in June, then re-injured it in July. It wasn’t until August when he really started hitting, batting .289/.366/.617 with 11 home runs in 35 games after returning from the Injured List. If the Royals are going to compete in the future, they need Vinnie to be healthy and produce from the start of the season.

50

The Royals needed to lengthen their lineup, and were counting on their two youngest hitters – Jac Caglianone and Carter Jensen. Those two were terrific this season, combining for 50 home runs. Caglianone went on an absolute tear in August, hitting .411/.429/.684 and winning American League Player of the Month honors. He finished fourth in the American League in batting average, sixth in slugging percentage, and ninth in OPS. He was the first Royals outfielder to hit 20+ home runs in a season since Alex Gordon in 2013.

Carter Jensen also ended the season strong, his .788 slugging percentage in September is the best for any Royals hitter with at least 20 games in that month. He set the Royals rookie record for extra base hits and the most extra-base hits by a rookie catcher since 1947. He is also just the fifth rookie catcher with 25+ home runs and 75+ RBI.

If you would have known that Caglianone and Jensen would each finish with an OPS+ of 120 or better, you probably would have thought the Royals were having a pretty good season. And yet, here we are.

.598

The designated hitter position was created to give the game of baseball more offense, but the Royals did not get the memo. Their designated hitters collectively hit .204/.275/.323, a .598 OPS that was the worst in baseball. It was the tenth-worst OPS by a team at the DH position in the Wild Card era. And this is an ongoing problem – Royals DHs over the last three years are hitting a combined .209/.279/.344, worst in the game. The main culprits this season were Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen – each hit worse as a DH than they did behind the plate. Even Jac Caglianone hit worse in the 12 games he hit at DH. It could be a bit of a fluke, but the Royals can’t turn what should be an offensive position into such a liability.

2.58

A bright spot for the pitching staff was the performance of Noah Cameron in the second half. The lefty had mixed results in the first half, and decided to start calling his own pitches in late July. He allowed just one run over 23 innings in his next three starts, then won American League Pitcher of the Month honors in August with a 1.87 ERA that month. From July 24 on he had a 2.58 ERA, sixth-best in the league. He began using his cutter more and relying more on deception. His strikeout rate was still just 22 percent over that time, but if Cameron can continue his success as a crafty lefty, the Royals will have a solid mid-rotation starter to count on next year.

36

Salvador Perez was signed by the Royals as a skinny teenager 20 years ago. This year he turned 36, and Father Time has caught up to him. Salvy hit some big career milestones this year – he became the franchise all-time leading home run hitter, and became just the fifth catcher ever to hit ten 20+ home run seasons. But overall, he hit just .229/.274/.383, and his 74 wRC+ was fifth-worst among all qualified hitters.

Despite that performance, Matt Quatraro batted him third or fourth in the lineup 117 times. Salvador Perez will return next year for the final year in his contract, and he deserves a proper send off, but the Royals need to have a hard talk about reducing his playing time, such as a potential platoon.

200.2

Michael Wacha was the only pitcher in the American League to reach the 200 innings mark, a sign of how the game has changed in the role of starting pitchers. The 35-year-old continued to be the workhorse of the league, earning the second All-Star nod of his career. He had a team-best 3.32 ERA and had 21 quality starts in 32 games. The Royals have him signed to a very team-friendly salary next year, although some fans wonder if it might be better to get some value for him in a trade considering his age.

1,766

The Royals lost 20 players to 1,766 days on the Injured List, according to data compiled by Spotrac. The key injuries included:

• Carlos Estévez 184 days
• Jonathan India 163 days
• Cole Ragans 145 days
• Kris Bubic 121 days
• Nick Mears 124 days
• Maikel Garcia 80 days
• Kyle Isbel 53 days
• Vinnie Pasquantino 46 days
• Michael Massey 15 days
• Bobby Witt Jr. 15 days

However the Royals were in the middle-of-the-road in terms of total days lost to the Injured List, and a study by Dan Szymborski in August found that the Royals had only lost about 6.5 fWAR of expected production to injury, less than all but ten teams. Aside from Estévez and India, most of the injuries occurred after mid-May, when the Royals had already fallen well under .500.

5.17

The Royals were hoping starting pitching would be a strength, but it quickly turned into a weakness. Some pitchers fell to injury, but Seth Lugo was just ineffective for most of the season, finishing with a 5.17 ERA, worst among all qualified starters.

The Royals signed Lugo before the 2024 season, converting a rubber-armed reliever into an All-Star starter. They were rightly praised for such a shrewd move, but they tried to double down by signing him to a contract extension last summer, and it has gone terribly wrong. Since July 27, 2025, when he signed a two-year, $46 million deal, Lugo has a 5.67 ERA, the worst of any pitcher in baseball with at least 200 innings. He has one more year left on his deal, but he may have a short leash next year if he can’t turn things around.

7.0

Bobby Witt Jr. finished this year with 7.0 fWAR, second in baseball only to likely National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong. Bobby’s performance came despite his first-ever stint on the Injured List, and a career-low 143 games played. His slugging percentage was a career-low .441, but he finished tenth in the league in batting average (.281), ninth in hits (157), sixth in doubles (33), second in stolen bases (45), ninth in runs scored (94), and led all of baseball in Baserunning Runs. He also led all American League defenders in Outs Above Average with +23 and should be a candidate to win another Platinum Glove.

It’s another great season from Bobby, but it is also frustrating the Royals have squandered another terrific performance from him without making a postseason run.

Let’s start with the good news, because there is some.

Garrett Crochet threw a live BP this weekend and is traveling with the team to New York. Willson Contreras DHed in the finale after a hand injury that scared everyone—he’s healthy enough to swing a bat, even if nobody’s declaring him fully healthy yet. Ceddanne Rafaela was back in the lineup for the Cubs series. Tanner Houck made it back to the mound in Game 162. Those are real things.

Now the rest of it.

Mickey Gasper is dealing with a significant biceps injury from Friday’s doubleheader and is almost certainly not going to be available for the Wild Card Series. Tyron Guerrero—one of the four bullpen locks Boston was counting on in October—is also banged up and may not pitch again until next year. Eli White’s foot injury is in fact season-ending, having had Lisfranc surgery last week. Justin Slaten is out. Masataka Yoshida is out (though we’ve known that). The enigma that is Curtis Mead is down in Fort Myers, and nobody seems to know what his actual status is.

Garrett Crochet will be the only player down in Fort Myers joining the Red Sox on their trip to New York.

No Curtis Mead or Johan Oviedo. pic.twitter.com/IyvP741qDL

— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) September 27, 2026

That’s a utility man who provides quality at-bats against right-handed pitching, a back-end bullpen arm, a speedy outfielder, a late-inning reliever, a left-handed power bat, and a middle infielder—all gone or in serious doubt for a three-game series that starts Tuesday at 8.

Not to make excuses for this team. But damn. These guys are hurt.

The pitching is legit

Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suarez will start in some order. Chad Tracy says the current sequencing against Cleveland didn’t give anything away, and maybe that’s true. What matters is that all three are healthy and available, and that’s more than a lot of teams can say.

Brayan Bello and Jake Bennett give Boston a pair of genuine multi-inning options out of the bullpen. Bennett’s numbers against the Yankees this year—2-0 with a 0.73 ERA and 10 Ks—can’t be ignored even if he’ll be pitching out of the pen against them. Those two going two or three innings in the middle of a game gives the starters a real off-ramp. This is also where Garrett Crochet could end up—bulk innings behind your main starters to get to your true back bullpen weapons in Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman.

The back end hinges on Chapman. He last pitched on the 23rd—locking down three Ks and the save against the Guardians in a 1-0 win—but the question is whether a full week off means he comes back at his usual level. Nobody knows the answer until he’s on the mound.

Crochet and Houck: the upside bets

Houck back on the mound in Game 162 is the kind of moment you wanted to see. He wasn’t sharp, but he hasn’t pitched in a Major League game since July 2025—some rust is expected. It’s not clear whether he’ll make the postseason roster, but four solid rehab outings and then a real appearance in a real game is enough in my book to use him some time in the next two days. He’s not at his best, but compared to other options like Jovani Moran or Alec Gamboa, a healthy Houck in a short series could be a legitimate weapon.

We haven’t seen Garrett Crochet pitch at all, but he’s determined to make an impact. He’s the most talented arm on the Red Sox and one of the best pitchers in the world. It would be foolish to count someone like him out.

The position player math

Contreras DHing in the finale is the good news we all needed. The hand is healthy enough to swing. Whether he can handle the rigors of a full Wild Card series is a different question, but he’s available.

Rafaela back in the outfield means Boston’s defense gets considerably better (sorry not sorry to Jahmai Jones and/or Nate Eaton). He changes that center field situation completely, and in a series at Yankee Stadium with Max Fried and Carlos Rodón likely on the hill, having an elite defender out there to cut down extra-base hits matters more than people will think.

The Gasper loss hurts the bench big time. Tracy loved having him available against tough righties. Hell, Tracy loved him more than Connor Wong, who really felt like he was on the outs with the way Evil Mickey was producing. With Gasper out, Jahmai Jones becomes even more important as a right-handed option to deploy against Fried or Rodón—and Boston will almost certainly see both of them. Not ideal, but Jones knows what his job is.

The bottom line

This roster is more battered than anyone would like going into a playoff series. The bullpen without a healthy Guerrero and with Chapman still proving he’s back to his expected level is thinner than the numbers suggested it would be a month ago. But Houck and Crochet could give the relief corps real upside if everything breaks right.

What wins this series isn’t going to be one player. It’s going to be Bello throwing three innings in the middle of a tight game, Bennett navigating a lefty-heavy Yankees lineup, Roman Anthony continuing to do what he’s done over the past 10 days (aka actually see the ball and put it in play), and Adley Rutschman being Adley Rutschman when it counts.

It’s going to be a total team effort or it’s not going to happen. That’s the honest take. No excuses, even with the sizable list of banged up players. The real season begins now.

The thing about chasing an object is that if it matches your speed, there is really nothing you can do. The New York Yankees learned this hard lesson down the stretch when any goals they had of running down the Rays to at least make it a competitive fight down the stretch fell flat — not because the Yankees underwhelmed in the final month of the season. In fact, one could hardly ask for more out of this team given the obstacles it had to face as the Rays left nothing to chance. Despite winning 15 of 23 games in September, the Yankees couldn’t gain a game on the Rays, who won 16 of 24 to wrap up their season.

What looked like the likeliest scenario for quite some time now, given the state of the other two divisions in the American League, has come to pass. The Yankees, who are the second-best team in the AL, will have to go through the most difficult of schedules to make it out of their league for the second time in the past three seasons. A three-game Wild Card round against the feisty Boston Red Sox and all the potential pitfalls a short series can bring await—one with a feeling of déjà vu, happening for the second straight season. Then, if they make it out, it’s a date with the Rays while the AL Central and AL West clubs battle it out on the inferior side of the bracket.

It hasn’t been the smoothest ride to get to this point, and based on how Brian Cashman has polled all year long, it’s safe to say expectations were not met — even if there are obvious caveats beyond his control as to why the Yankees are exactly where they are. Early in the season, when Cashman polled at 41 percent, the Yankees were battling with the Rays for the AL East title — but if you polled most fans, you would’ve been hard-pressed to find many who bought the Rays as a 99-win team. Frankly, there are probably those who, even now, don’t buy them at that level even now, but that’s an entirely separate conversation to have in the analysis of the gap between these two clubs, particularly at full strength. Cashman’s approval rating nosedived as did the Yankees’ chances of winning this division, partially due to questionable moves but overwhelmingly due to absences that all the money in the world couldn’t plan for.

For three months between June and August, the Yankees put up a wRC+ below league average, clearly struggling in the absence of the best hitter in the sport. The deadline acquisition of Luis Garcia Jr. in particular gave the offense a boost as he delivered an .842 OPS in August — even that wasn’t enough to take the team’s line over 100, coming in with a 96 wRC+ for the month.

In September, though, the offense came through with a 104 wRC+ that may not seem like much, but with this team’s rotation, it’s how you go about winning 15 of 23 games. All of this after starting off the month with the bad news of yet another Trent Grisham hamstring injury, this one keeping him out for the rest of the regular season. Spencer Jones continues to defy the laws of what can be described as sensible production coming with obscene strikeout rates, with a 110 wRC+ on the month despite a strikeout rate above 38 percent.

While Aaron Judge’s brief return before getting injured again helps, this September improvement boils down primarily to the work of Ben Rice, who, after a disappointing summer — given the high bar he set for himself — came alive in a big way. Still, if you’re wondering about the changes in impact from Rice with and without a fully stocked lineup, the Yankees first baseman delivered 21 RBI with seven homers in 24 games in May. The same Rice then hit six homers in 22 games this past month and only drove in 11. Those 11 RBI did not lead the team, with the distinction left to George Lombard Jr., who drove in 16 with five homers, providing more power than he had in the previous month. Back to the deadline acquisitions, though, as Garcia cooled off, Heliot Ramos finally showed up, proving a worthy presence in the lineup, specifically against left-handed pitchers.

It was business as usual for this ultra-talented staff, with Cam Schlittler wrapping up a likely Cy Young campaign with yet another sub-2.00 ERA month. Carlos Rodón was nearly as dominant as Schlittler, with both kind of showing up Max Fried, who had a solid September, and, lastly, Will Warren impressing; the only one who had more than his fair share of issues was Gerrit Cole. But looking forward to the Wild Card round in which he’ll start the third game, if needed, Cole impressed in his final regular-season start against the Rays.

About the Wild Card round, the Yankees already announced their starters versus Boston, with Schlittler going in game 1, followed by Fried and lastly Cole. While Boston hasn’t officially announced their starters, expectations are that Sonny Gray, the AL leader in wins this season with 18, will take the ball for Game 1 and likely be followed by left-hander Payton Tolle.

When it comes to transactions, not a lot stood out. With a plethora of utility options, the Yankees chose to designate Oswaldo Cabrera for assignment when they had to open up a 40-man spot for Clarke Schmidt. Cabrera was picked up by the Reds and was one of two players to leave the Yankees this month, alongside righty Chase Hampton — picked up by the Nats (and recently discarded) after being DFA’d early in the month. Hampton didn’t appear in the bigs for the Yankees.

It’s a simple yet loaded question whether you approve of Cashman’s job in September, depending on how much emphasis you want to give to certain merits and demerits in how the Yankees have been managed this season. In many ways, the déjà vu doesn’t come strictly from a playoff series against the Red Sox. It’s more so from yet another second-place finish in the AL East against a team widely regarded as inferior to the Yankees before the start of the season.

So with the regular season officially over and the playoffs immediately ahead, do you approve of Brian Cashman? As always, there’s a lot to factor into a “yes” or a “no,” and you might feel like your answer is more of a soft “yes” or “no” than a stamp of approval or a sharp rebuke. However, the binary question is the best way to get a direct read on fans’ thoughts.

Vote in the poll below and let us know! We’ll revisit the results at the end of October.

Note: This is the same poll that is currently appearing on the Feed, so if you’ve voted there, that should already be counted.

Another installment of Yankees-Red Sox in October? Yes, please! 

For the seventh time, these familiar rivals meet in the playoffs and, if the past is any indication, we’re due for more history, another slice of perma-angst for at least one fanbase, and maybe a new pejorative nickname or two. 

In this best-of-three AL Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, both teams must cope with injuries to huge hitters. Will Aaron Judge make the Yankee roster? Willson Contreras returned to the Red Sox lineup Sunday after missing eight games, but he’s got a bruised right hand that could hinder his thump.

Runs could be at a premium, because both teams have sharp pitching staffs. The Yanks (93-68) had the best starter ERA in baseball and the Red Sox (87-75) recorded the best bullpen ERA.

It may all come down to who melts in the October cauldron. Or who soars.

Each team has won three of the previous postseason meetings, so perhaps we can consider this a "Game 7" scenario? And nothing interesting ever happens in a Game 7, right? 

It’s so on. 

WHAT THE YANKEES HAVE GOING FOR THEM

Judge usually leads this department, but he’s iffy with a calf injury. He’s pledged to be on the roster, but even if he is, can he be impactful? 

With that swirling, the Yanks’ strength is clearly their starting rotation, led by Game 1 starter Cam Schlittler, the Massachusetts kid who shreds the Sox. You can expect the Twit-wits of New England to seethe at him on social media, but Schlittler seems built to handle online smoke. 

And he can certainly handle the mound. Schlittler, who will win the AL Cy Young Award after an amazing regular season, allowed one run or fewer in 21 of his 33 starts and became the fourth Yankee starter to finish a season with a sub-2.00 ERA (1.95). Over his last nine starts, he pitched to a 1.17 ERA.

Schlittler had a 0.74 ERA against Boston in four starts this season, and you might remember a certain October outing last year in which he was overpowering for eight shutout innings as the Yanks dispatched the Sox in a winner-take-all Game 3. 

The Yanks weighed whether Schlittler should start the first or second game — overthink much, Yankee braintrust? — before making the obvious choice. They’re loaded in Game 2, too, when Max Fried (2.80 ERA in 20 starts) goes. 

If Game 3 is necessary, Gerrit Cole will start. Cole has had some blips this season. But he’s been good his last two starts. Plus, it’s Gerrit Cole. 

The rotation is backed by a bullpen that had a strong regular season as Paul Blackburn (1.69 ERA) and Brent Headrick (2.18) emerged behind closer David Bednar. Will Warren will move from the rotation to the bullpen and could provide key length. Going into Game 1, the Yanks will have had three consecutive days off, thanks to last weekend’s Nor’easter, and the rest might mitigate some of the relief workload concerns that have bloomed late. 

With Judge only playing 66 games, Ben Rice (41 homers, .897 OPS) was the key cog in an offense that was eighth in runs per game (4.59). 

WHAT THE RED SOX HAVE GOING FOR THEM

Boston has both the best bullpen in baseball by ERA (3.00) and enough quality starters — Payton Tolle, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suárez — to make things very difficult for the Yankees. 

The Yankees never seemed to know what to do with Gray when he was a Yankee from 2017-18, but he’s been terrific everywhere else and tied for the MLB lead with 18 wins this year and had a 2.72 ERA. The mustachioed Tolle, a lefty who pitches with a nifty joie de vivre, allowed one run and four hits over 13 innings in two starts against the Yanks. Suarez, another lefty, had a 3.22 ERA during the regular season, but the Yankees bashed him (6.06 ERA in three outings).

Without Judge, the Yanks’ lineup tilts too left-handed, which theoretically should make them vulnerable to lefty starters. But they were 35-20 in games started by a left-hander. 

The Boston rotation usually features Garrett Crochet, who put the Yankees on the brink of a quick exit last October with a masterful Game 1 performance. But after an injury-plagued year, he won’t start in this series. Problem is, he could be part of the Sox bullpen arsenal, which is already lethal. 

Ageless closer Aroldis Chapman (remember him?) is still dishing heat and hard looks. He had 35 saves, a 1.92 ERA and a 12.4 K/9. Garrett Whitlock, whom the Sox plucked from the Yankees in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft, has a 1.72 ERA. The Red Sox bullpen gave up the fewest home runs of any relief corps in the majors this year.

THE YANKEES WILL WIN THE SERIES IF…

Their rotation continues to thrive and their power plays. The Yankees hit 223 home runs during the regular season, second in MLB to only the Houston Astros, despite missing Judge for so long. Home runs can dwindle in October, but they can also wreck a series, and if Rice slugs, watch out. If he doesn’t, there were 10 other Yankees who hit double-digit home runs this season and that doesn’t include Luis García Jr., who hit seven of his 30 with the Yanks after a deadline trade from Washington. 

Could Giancarlo Stanton finally return from injury and hit a big October laser? He’s done it before. 

Of course, as any Yankee fan will tell you, the pinstriped offense sometimes sputters if the ball isn’t soaring out of the park. But they’re capable of the speed game, too, after finishing sixth in stolen bases. Jazz Chisholm, Jr. had 41 steals and José Caballero added 34, so perhaps they can manufacture runs if their lightning sags.

THE RED SOX WILL WIN THE SERIES IF…

Yanks-Sox is fertile ground for a mega breakout (see Schlittler, Cam, from last October) and one of the most talented players on either team is Roman Anthony, the 22-year-old Red Sox outfielder. He’s had an injury-marred season but this might be his chance. Anthony had a 1.008 OPS over his final eight games. What if he goes bonkers at the Stadium? 

As noted, the Red Sox can really pitch. And they play strong defense, too — they were sixth-best in Baseball Savant’s Fielding Run Value. Can they score enough, though, especially if their best hitter, Contreras (.901 OPS) is compromised? Will Anthony help provide the answer? 

PREDICTION

Yankees in three. 

This is rivalry business, so there’s little chance of a sweep. Each team will face the brink, but the Yankees will shove the Red Sox over it by, well, shoving. Pitching, we mean.

The Red Sox averaged the second-fewest runs (4.25) of any playoff team and they’ll have a hard time plating enough against the Yanks.

The Yankees are comfortable at the Stadium, where they were 46-34 this season and 4-2 against the Red Sox, including winning three of four in late August.

Is that real intel or real insignificant? We’ll see, but it’s compelling that the Yankees blew out the Sox twice in that series and also won a 1-0 game that was started by, you guessed it — Schlittler.

The Cincinnati Reds just wrapped up the 21st regular season since the above note was penned by the then-new ownership group. It was a five-point plan built on the back of nebulous subjectivity aside from the one concrete declaration emboldened at the top – We will bring championship baseball to Cincinnati.

After 21 seasons, there are only two ways with which you can grade that singular, objective declaration. The ownership group, spearheaded by the Castellini family, is either officially lying, or officially a failure.

By no definition of championship baseball have they approached achieving said goal. Even if you squint, reduce the assertion to the divisional level, and parse through the annals of baseball history, you need to go back fourteen seasons to even find the Reds atop their own. There have been no World Series appearances, let alone titles. There have been no National League Championship Series claimed, and zero appearances there. They have not won a playoff series since back in 1995, which also coincides with the last time the team actually won a home playoff game in their own park.

Cincinnati hasn’t won a playoff game in Cincinnati in 31 years. Frank Viola turned 66 years old this year, and that 66 year old man played on the team that last won a playoff game in Cincinnati – in a stadium that was reduced to rubble 25 years ago.

This is not rekindling the Reds Nation spirit. This is the literal definition of resting while we are unhappy.

They have built one of the least respected organizations in baseball.

Sell the team, Bob and Phil.

Astros fans, after 162 games, your team is once again the champion of the American League West.

So how are you feeling? Excited? Relieved? Optimistic? Still concerned? Or are you simply hopeful that this team has another October run left in it?

Whatever your answer, here’s what matters most:

They’re in.

And once you’re in, you have a chance.

It certainly wasn’t pretty. This Astros team clawed, scratched, fought and struggled its way to the finish line. There were times when they looked exhausted. There were times when the pitching staff appeared to be running on fumes. There were stretches when the offense couldn’t find consistency and moments when it looked like all the energy required to dig out of another early-season hole had finally caught up with them.

But when they absolutely had to get it done, they did.

The Houston Astros are American League West champions.

Now the question changes. Can they get hot? Can they go on another October run? Can they somehow add another chapter to this incredible Golden Era of Astros baseball?

I don’t think it’s out of the realm of possibility.

Get In and See What Happens

The Astros aren’t entering the postseason as some flawless juggernaut. Far from it.

We’ve spent an entire season talking about their shortcomings. The roster construction. The revolving door in the outfield. The injuries. The inconsistent starting pitching. A bullpen that carried an enormous workload and at times looked completely out of gas.

None of those concerns suddenly disappear because Houston won the division, but neither does everything this team accomplished.

They were knocked down repeatedly and kept getting back up. They dug themselves another enormous hole and somehow climbed out of it. They reached the finish line battered and bruised, but they reached it as division champions.

There’s something to be said for that, and now none of the struggles that came before matter.

It’s October.

You Have the MVP

Here’s a pretty good place to start if you’re searching for reasons to believe:

The Astros have the American League Most Valuable Player. Yordan Alvarez has been the centerpiece of this offense all season, and now he gets the opportunity to do it on baseball’s biggest stage.

In October, one superstar can change a series. One swing can change a game. One hot hitter can carry an entire lineup for a week. The Astros have that guy.

The rest of the offense doesn’t need to suddenly become the greatest lineup in baseball. It just needs to continue doing enough around Yordan to score runs and give this team an opportunity to win.

That’s what they’ve done for much of the season. Now they need to do it when the games matter most.

It All Comes Down to Pitching

For all the discussion about the offense, I believe Houston’s postseason fate ultimately comes down to one thing: Pitching.

Which starting pitchers can Joe Espada trust? Who can give him five, six or seven quality innings? Who has the ability to take the baseball in a postseason game and dominate? Perhaps most importantly, which bullpen arms still have enough left in the tank?

The last question is the one that concerns me most.

The Astros asked an enormous amount from their bullpen this season. Those relievers were forced to cover innings when starters couldn’t get deep into games, and they helped keep this season alive while Houston fought its way back into contention. Now they’re being asked for more.

Postseason baseball magnifies the importance of every bullpen decision. Managers are quicker to pull starters. Matchups become more important. High-leverage relievers can be asked to pitch on consecutive days, and sometimes the difference between advancing and going home comes down to which bullpen can record the final nine outs.

Houston doesn’t need every reliever to suddenly become dominant, but it needs enough of them.

Give This Team Its Credit

I’ve been critical of this team throughout the season. I’ve questioned the roster. I’ve questioned the front office. I’ve questioned whether the bullpen could survive its workload and whether the Astros had enough left in the tank to finish the job. Those questions were fair.

But so is giving this team credit now. I’m proud of the fight they’ve shown. I’m proud of the veteran leadership that helped get them here. I’m proud of the way this group refused to allow its season to disappear when it easily could have.

Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, Yordan Alvarez and the other veterans in that clubhouse know what October baseball feels like. They know what it takes to win when every pitch matters. That experience means something now.

Joe Espada deserves credit, too.

He took an imperfect roster, navigated injuries, survived an inconsistent rotation and an overworked bullpen, and somehow got this team across the finish line as division champions.

That’s an accomplishment.

Why Not the Astros?

Do I think this is the best Astros team we’ve seen during this Golden Era? No. Do I think they’re entering October without legitimate concerns? Absolutely not.

But that’s not the question anymore. The question is whether they’re good enough to win a postseason series. Then another. And maybe another.

There’s a part of me that looks at the experience in this clubhouse, the presence of the American League MVP and everything this team survived just to get here and believes they have enough to at least make another run at the American League Championship Series.

After that? Who knows?

That’s the beauty of postseason baseball.

You don’t have to dominate for six months anymore. You have to be better than the team in the other dugout for a few days. The Astros survived 162 games. They won the American League West. They gave themselves a chance.

Now let’s find out if there’s one more October run left in this Golden Era of Houston Astros baseball.

Astros fans, how are you feeling?

Are you simply happy they survived and got in? Do you believe this team can make a run to the ALCS, or do you think they have enough left to go even further?

October is here.

Why not the Astros?