ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 19: Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrates after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in game six of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on October 19, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Hello and happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope you’re hanging in there with no Sox ball to talk about.
We do have World Series ball to talk about, though. Our divisional foes, the Tampa Bay Rays (while donning those lovely Devil Rays unis; I hope they go back to that look full time) clinched the American League pennant last night. With Milwaukee’s pennant sweep completed a few days ago, we’re in line for a Brewers-Rays Fall Classic: a pairing that you’d only see 15 years into your MLB The Show franchise mode simulation.
My open-ended question to you, dear reader, is this: What lessons from Milwaukee and Tampa Bay can the Red Sox take away with them heading into the winter? This could mean anything you’d like it to be, but I’m curious to read your thoughts. I think the Red Sox should consider having a starter who can throw 105 miles per hour or installing an aquarium of their own in the outfield at Fenway, but I’m open to other ideas as well.
Monday night withstanding, as Cleveland threw a hodge-podge of relievers at the Devil Rays, just think if the Cleveland pitching and Cubs defense got together. Messy defense at key times, Cleveland. Good try, though. I’ll cheer for you if I can again next year.
I’ll just sit back and watch a relaxing World Series*.
*(Subject to sudden changes. This page is not responsible for erratic WS thoughts)
I appreciate your reading.
*means autoplay on, (directions to remove for Firefox and Chrome). {$} means paywall. {$} means limited views. Italics are often used on this page as sarcasm font. The powers that be have enabled real sarcasm font in the comments.
Brett Taylor (Bleacher Nation): Japanese Slugger Teruaki Sato is Officially Being Posted. “In a market thin in impact bats – ironically, Seiya Suzuki is probably right there at the top in this very same class – Teruaki Sato will find plenty of bidders out there.”
Randy Holt (North Side Baseball): Did Ryan Rolison Do Enough for a Higher-Leverage Look in 2027? “As injuries mounted in the Cubs’ 2026 bullpen, Ryan Rolison took on an increased role. Did he do enough to not only make it permanent, but become even more important in 2027?”
Sam Caulder (North Side Baseball): Why Josiah Hartshorn is Now Cubs’ Top Prospect, and What He Still Needs to Work On. “Josiah Hartshorn’s first full season in professional baseball deserves another look. After a dominant 2026 season, he’s gone from a mid-round draft pick to the organization’s top prospect, with an exciting future ahead.”
Robert Petway (born c. 1903, date of death unknown) was an American blues singer and guitarist. He recorded only 16 songs, but it has been said that he was an influence on many notable blues and rock musicians, including John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Jimi Hendrix. There is only one known picture of Petway, a publicity photo from 1941. Like many bluesmen from the Mississippi Delta, Petway traveled as a musician, playing at parties, roadhouses, and other venues. Petway and Tommy McClennan often travelled and performed together. After McClennan had been in Chicago for a few years, Petway travelled north to join him and cut records, as did Georgia’s Frank Edwards, who had met them in Mississippi.
Petway recorded the song “Catfish Blues” in 1941. Among many other musicians who played variations of the song, Muddy Waters used the arrangement and lyrics of “Catfish Blues” for his song “Rollin’ Stone” (the song from which the Rolling Stones took their name). The composition credit given to Petway is based entirely on the recording date of his version of the song, but it cannot establish that his version was the original and the source of later versions. There is no record, official or unofficial, of Petway’s death. The last record of his public life is a quote from Honeyboy Edwards: “nobody I know heard what become of him.” In his autobiography, Edwards stated that he had heard that Petway may have moved to Chicago, where Edwards himself lived, but that he never met him there.
Please be reminded that Cub Tracks and Bleed Cubbie Blue do not necessarily endorse the content of articles, podcasts, or videos that are linked to in this series.
ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - OCTOBER 19: Tampa Bay Rays players and staff members pose for a photo after defeating the Cleveland Guardians in game six of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field on October 19, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The World Series is set.
Last night after the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Cleveland Guardians, 7-3, they punched their ticket to meet the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. It should be a good contest of teams that are built on exceptional execution, small ball, and big analytics staffs.
This was a post making the rounds on social media yesterday.
If nothing else, it’s a sign of improvement that the Colorado Rockies, while still understaffed, are no longer worst in MLB — that honor goes to the Athletics and the Arizona Diamondbacks.
President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta said in his remarks earlier this month that they intended to keep growing their staff in the offseason, so that will be a story to watch going forward.
The data suggests that spending on analytics pays. Now to see what the Rockies do next.
In the meantime, here is the news from 20th and Blake as well as the rest of the league.
Jake Smith looks at catcher Jack O’Dowd (HM PuRP) and his baseball life given that he spent his formative years around the Rockies. His two favorite players? Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton.
Should the St. Louis Cardinals make a change in center field, and if so, who would be some good candidates? Rockies center fielder Jake McCarthy makes Jake Woods’ list. “Perhaps on days the offense struggles to get going, as it did at times in ‘26, a spark plug like McCarthy to wake the guys up a little might be something worth investing a couple of resources in,” Woods writes.
“It’s fair to say the trade has not been a good one for the Yankees,” write Ben Stinar, contrasting the first baseman’s season with that of relief pitcher Angel Chivilli
As Troy Crumpton puts it, “For Cubs fans who remember Bryant as a cornerstone of Chicago’s historic 2016 championship team, his injury-plagued tenure with the Rockies has been an unfortunate turn for the former MVP.”
I’ve come to think of “Mile High Territory” as the best weekly baseball analysis Rockies fans will see during the offseason. This one is worth listening to for Ryan Spilborghs comments on why the Rockies may have decided to end their relationship with pitching coach Alon Leichman — and the possibility of revisiting pitch calling with a new (and interesting) twist.
Look for my Rockpile on TJ Rumfield’s Gold Glove chances later this morning.
This is big news. Teruaki Sato is a “superstar infielder.” The 28-year-old won the Central League Triple Crown in 2006. (A .306 batting average, 39 homers, and 106 RBIs will do that.) Tomoyuki Sugano, if you could put in a good word for your former team, we’d appreciate it!
The Athletics have hired their new PBO, Taylor Smith. What do we know so far? Smith is young but also has a background with the Tampa Bay Rays and the Boston Red Sox. Watch our sister site for new developments.
It’s hiring season, and the Baltimores went with Jared Banner, who brings with him experience with the Chicago Cubs in addition to the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox. “However, in hiring Banner, the O’s have brought in someone from outside the organization who is supposed to have a lot of influence in player development, an area where Elias has obliquely acknowledged that he’s been lacking in recent seasons,” writes Mark Brown.
If the Rockies sign any free-agent pitchers, Colorado native Kevin Gausman is probably at the top of their list. Our Blue Jays sister site reviews his 2026 season.
This week on the internet
Since we’re off to Milwaukee for the first game of the World Series, this seemed timely.
Reader, I watched in fascination wondering how all the pieces would fit.
But they did — clearly, this is not The Sausages’ first rodeo.
Outro
I almost went with the Loverboy song, but let’s kick off this on with some Mötley Crüe:
HARRISBURG, PA - AUGUST 27: Anthony Eyanson #18 of the Chesapeake Baysox pitches during the game between the Chesapeake Baysox and the Harrisburg Senators at FNB Field on Thursday, August 27, 2026 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Casey Saussaman/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)
Now arguably the Orioles No.1 prospect, Anthony Eyanson wasn’t even in the Orioles organization when the 2026 season began. In fact, outside of Ben McDonald, I doubt hardly anyone in Birdland knew who Eyanson was seven months ago. However, there is no doubt that the former LSU Tiger is primed for big things after delivering a ‘26 as good as any minor league pitcher.
How Eyanson came to the Orioles organization was, and still is, a sore point for those throughout Birdland. The 22-year-old right-hander spent 2025 as the No. 2 starter on the LSU team that won their second national championship in three years, sitting just behind future No.3 overall pick Kade Anderson. Eyanson was drafted by the Red Sox in the third round of the 2025 MLB Draft and spent the early part of 2026 rocketing up Boston’s prospect rankings.
Then, on August 3rd, the Orioles did the seemingly unthinkable; Mike Elias & Co. traded franchise cornerstone Adley Rutschman to the division rival Red Sox with Eyanson (then Boston’s No. 2 prospect) as the headliner of Baltimore’s return.
Split between Boston’s High-A Greenville affiliate and Double-A Portland, Eyanson had amassed a first half almost too good to belief: a 1.32 ERA and .152 BAA while punching out 94 batters across 68.1 innings. The Orioles hadn’t had a truly elite pitching prospect since Grayson Rodriguez back in 2023. That changed with the arrival of the righty from Southern California.
The 6’2” flame-thrower was just as dominant after getting into the Orioles system. In six starts for the Baysox, Eyanson pitched to a 2.03 ERA, .221 BAA and struck out another 47 hitters over 31 innings. His best outing for Chesapeake came agains the playoff-bound Richmond Flying Squirrels, with Eyanson completing seven innings for the first time as a professional and finishing with a final line of 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB and 8 Ks.
His debut professional season brought a fair share of recognition for the Orioles’ new top pitching prospect. Eyanson was named Portland Sea Dogs Pitcher of the Year and was a the finalists (along with winner Anderson and Orioles’ prospect Joseph Dzierwa) for Minor League Pitcher of the Year. After finishing the year with a 1.54 ERA and 141 Ks over 99.1 IP, such superlatives were more than deserved.
Anthony Eyanson was one of the best pitchers in the minor leagues in 2026.
2026 (A+/AA) 99.1 IP 1.54 ERA 0.96 WHIP 9.2% BB 37.1% K .175 BAA 18.7% SwStr (#1 in MiLB, min 80 IP)
The only reason to temper expectations at all with Eyanson is the relatively few innings pitcher in the minors. Fellow Pitcher of the Year finalists. One minor league season, no matter how amazing it was, does not usually provide enough reps to prove your ready to take a major league mound.
And yet, the right-hander may not have to wait long for a call up to Baltimore. Fellow LSU alum Paul Skenes only pitched 34 minor league innings before making his way to Pittsburgh, with an ERA (1.85) and K/9 (14.6) that were pretty similar to Eyanson’s 2026 numbers (1.54 and 12.8). Anderson only needed 93.1 innings, all in Double-A, before getting the call to Seattle two months ago. However, presumptive Cy Young winners Jacob Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler both logged over 200 minor innings before debuting at 23 and 24 respectively.
What give Eyanson a chance to be really special at the big league level is a true four pitch repetoire. Like Kyle Bradish, he has a plus-plus slider that he can throw in an count to both lefties and righties. He backs that up with slower curveball that features sharper downward break. His fasbtall sits around 95 while touching triple digits and is often used to change eye levels at the top of the zone. He completes that devestating arsenal with a splitter he’s still refining, but has potential to be another above avearage pitch. At his best, he looks like a combination of Bradish and Félix Bautista in how he attacks hitters.
Whether or not there’s major league baseball in 2027 will likely shape where Eyanson begins his next campaign. With only Bradish, Shane Baz and Brandon Young locked in for next season, pitchers like Cade Povich and Trey Gibson could see a permanent promotion to the major like rotation. That would leave space at Triple-A for someone like Eyanson, though he’d be competing with Dzierwa and Orioles’ No. 4 prospect Caden Hunter for a promotion to Norfolk.
For years the Orioles have searched for outside reinforcements to bolster a rotation that’s often felt like the anchor holding Baltimore back from true contention. Now, if the O’s can bring back ace Trevor Rogers, the rotation is one of the few reliable aspects of this Orioles team. That means, for a prospect to really establish himself in Baltimore, he’ll need to be a type of special of young pitcher not often seen in the Orioles sysem.
Eyanson is that rare kind of special in that he has high expectations and seemingly has the goods to meet them. Most of Batlimore’s recent pitching success stories have come less heralded prospects. Bradish was the Orioles’ No. 10 prospect and no where near the MLB Top 100 before his debut in 2022. Young was Baltimore’s No. 19 prospect before his debut in 2025 and breakout last season.
The Orioles’ new No.1 pitching prospect has a chance to succeed where injuries ultimately caused Rodriguez to failed. Eyanson wasn’t an ace in college, but has proved to have ace-level upside based on his first professional season. The pending lockout means the right-hander is likely to spend his 2027 season further developing in Double and Triple-A. Come 2028, he should be ready to be unleashed on the big elagues and potentially give the Orioles their next Mike Mussina-level talent.
MINNEAPOLIS, MN - SEPTEMBER 26: Luke Keaschall #15 of the Minnesota Twins celebrates a triple during a game between the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers on September 26, 2026 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images) | Getty Images
In 2026, the Minnesota Twins were second in the American League in runs scored.
Take a moment and let that sink in. A team that finished 8 GB of the AL Central crown and couldn’t even compete down the stretch for the 3rd AL Wild Card spot was the second best run-producing squad.
It might be easy to think “hey, the offense isn’t the problem here!” based on that statistic—but to do so would be to rely on the AL to be as historically pedestrian as it was in ‘26. The Cleveland Guardians won the Central with 85 wins, the Houston Astros took the West at even-steven (81-81), while the 80-win Texas Rangers competed for the East and a WC berth until the season’s final weekend.
In short: it is unlikely for the Junior Circuit to be as mediocre in ‘27—evidenced by MN’s more understandable 9th-in-MLB runs scored ranking.
Though not a “problem” in the sense of being a team weakness, I am hopeful that Jeremy Zoll is given the a-okay to address some key aspects of the offense this offseason.
Five slots seem spoken for:
SS: Kaelen Culpepper
3B: Brooks Lee
LF: Emmanuel Rodriguez
CF: Walker Jenkins (unless/until Byron Buxton returns from hip surgery)
DH: Buxton + a rotation of breathers/platoons
The C position will of course be determined by whether or not a qualifying offer is made to incumbent Ryan Jeffers. I hope it happens, and if accepted it buys another year of time for Vahn Lackey to learn the ropes. If not offered or not accepted, it’ll likely be a Victor Caratini & Alex Jackson mix with another small-potatoes signing thrown in for depth/competition sake.
I view 2B & RF as a sort of “either or” scenario. Kody Clemens and Luke Keaschall can mix & match at one of those spots, and I’d like to see a new acquisition at the other. I don’t care which is which. I just don’t want Klobberin’ Kody & Young Master Luke inked in as starters for those two positions.
1B is perhaps the most fascinating position to posit. On one hand, cutting Royce Lewis loose after all his history would seem like a major franchise blow. On the other hand, he’s been a shell of that former self for two seasons now. A big bat at the first sack—plus one who can actually play the position—would slot into this roster perfectly to replace the almost-certainly-departing Josh Bell.
The bottom line is this: the Minnesota Twins have the makings of a strong offense, with young talent at multiple key positions. But instead of hoping for the American League to be as laconic as last season, ownership needs to keep pushing for improvement in order to retain a top-5 league finish in ‘27.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL - OCTOBER 19: Freddy Peralta #51 of the Tampa Bay Rays is named series MVP after Game Six of the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Guardians at Tropicana Field on Monday, October 19, 2026 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Well Cleveland, you gave it your all. The 85-win AL Central champions took two games off of the Rays in the ALCS, which is two more than the Yankees can say they got in the ALDS, but their run ended on Monday night as the top seed in the American League closed things out to set up a match against the top seed in the National League.
American League Championship Series Game 6
Tampa Bay Rays 7, Cleveland Guardians 3 (Rays win series 4-2)
Tampa could smell blood in the water with the Guardians forced to go with a bullpen game this late in the series, and after needing their bullpen to give them an overwhelming majority of the outs in Game 5 Cleveland’s relievers just ran out of gas. Shawn Armstrong was tasked with being the opener and got through the first inning unharmed, but Stephen Vogt knew he needed to stretch every arm as long as he could and thus let Armstrong go out to start the second inning. Junior Caminero greeted him with a single right up the middle and ended his night, Tim Herrin entering in his stead. Herrin got a forceout, but that put the speedy Chandler Simpson on base who promptly stole second, and Victor Mesa Jr. walked to put runners on for Richie Palacios who doubled them both home for an early 2-0 lead.
Herrin’s night was done after that, and Matt Festa allowed the bases to get loaded on a walk and hit by pitch but managed to evade further trouble in the inning by getting Jonathan Aranda to fly out. Joey Cantillo took over for the start of the third and wouldn’t fare as well though, loading the bases with no outs on a single, walk, and bunt single. Mesa then hit into a forceout at the plate, but Jonny DeLuca lifted a sac fly to bring in the third run of the game. Palacios was back up, but he couldn’t add on only grounding out to first to end the inning. It could’ve been a lot worse for Cleveland, but the game was already beginning to slip away with how many runs they were allowing.
On the other side, Freddy Peralta got the ball for Tampa Bay and he continued to put up zeroes like he has all postseason, though Cleveland did threaten. In the third inning Peralta had to strand a pair of runners, and in the fourth Jo Adell led off with a double followed by a walk to put runners on with nobody out. Travis Bazzana went after the first pitch he saw and lined out, and Patrick Bailey hit into a double play to end the threat with nothing to show for it. The fifth was uneventful for both sides, but Chase DeLauter led off the sixth with a double and came around to score on a Nathaniel Lowe single that ended Peralta’s night. Cam Booser entered and quickly put out the fire, but the Guardians were at least showing signs of life.
Unfortunately for them, it came too late. Caminero put his stamp on this game with a two-run home run in the seventh inning, and after Cleveland got those runs back in the top of the eighth via a bases-loaded walk and hit by pitch Yandy Díaz followed up with a two-run blast of his own. Now up 7-3, Bryan Baker was called on to close out the ALCS and sat the Guardians down in order to secure a trip to the World Series. For his efforts in winning Games 2 and 6 (as well as appearing in relief in Game 4), Peralta took home ALCS MVP honors, continuing one of the biggest turnarounds in a season after escaping the disaster that was the Mets. Now he’ll have to take on his former team if he wants to win a ring.
Tampa Bay will now get a few days off before flying out to Milwaukee to meet the Brewers for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. These two teams were the best in their respective leagues, and they’ll both be aiming for their first championship in franchise history. For Tampa, this is their third shot at it after losing to the Phillies in 2008 and the Dodgers in 2020, while for Milwaukee their only trip to the Fall Classic came in 1982 when they were an American League team, losing in seven games to the Cardinals. The city has seen a World Series championship, but it came when the Braves were located there before they moved out to Atlanta.
MIAMI, FLORIDA - MARCH 14: Teruaki Sato #7 of Team Japan hits a RBI double in the third inning during the game between Venezuela and Japan at loanDepot park on March 14, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Gene Wang - Capture At Media/Getty Images) | Getty Images
UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 15: Ryan Birchard #33 of the Scottsdale Scorpions pitches during the game between the Scorpions and the Javelinas at Peoria Sports Complex on Thursday, October 15, 2026 in Peoria, AZ United States. (Photo by Norm Hall/Minor League Baseball via Getty Images)
Now that we’re a couple of weeks into this year’s Arizona Fall League, let’s check in on the nine Brewers prospects playing for the Scottsdale Scorpions. As always with the AFL, these are small samples, so take the numbers with a grain of salt.
Hitters:
Braylon Payne: 6-for-27, 2 3B, 10 K
Payne is still hitting for power, with two triples in under 30 at-bats, but he hasn’t homered yet and has struck out 10 times. It’s not an auspicious start for the former first-rounder, but it isn’t necessarily concerning either, especially after the season he just had. There’s a lot more baseball to be played this fall.
— MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) October 6, 2026
Eric Bitonti: 5-for-30, 2B, HR, 5 BB, 13 K
Bitonti has a lot of swing-and-miss in his game, and that’s shown up so far in the AFL. But a higher walk rate was one of the drivers of his breakout season, so five walks in 35 plate appearances is a good sign.
Bitonti stings his first Fall homer 110.3 MPH 🦂
The Brewers No. 26 prospect pulls the Scorpions ahead with his first blast of the season! pic.twitter.com/9pVXui25Bu
— MLB's Arizona Fall League (@MLBazFallLeague) October 4, 2026
Jett Williams: 3-for-27, 6 BB, 10 K
To put it plainly, Williams has struggled. He’s drawn six walks, but he’s struck out as many times as Payne. It’s worth remembering that right wrist injuries cost him almost the entire second half of the season, so he’s still getting his feet under him.
Matthew Wood: 4-for-11, 10 BB
Wood has been getting on base like it’s nobody’s business, reaching in 14 of his 21 plate appearances for a ridiculous .667 OBP. With Jeferson Quero’s future somewhat uncertain, Milwaukee doesn’t have much catching depth in the organization, so it’s great to see Wood, who had an .890 OPS and 18 home runs at Double-A Biloxi this year, keep producing at the plate.
Matthew Wood was the only Brewers prospect in 2026 to hit at least 15 HR while keeping his K% under 15%. It was a career year for the Penn State product, recording a 134 wRC+ in a full season in Double-A.
Quezada pitched at all four full-season levels this year, finishing with 77 strikeouts in 61 innings. The strikeouts have followed him to Arizona, where he’s fanned five in three innings, though he’s also allowed four hits and two runs.
Miqueas Mercedes: 6 2/3 IP, 8 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 8 BB, 6 K
Mercedes (2.61 ERA in 79 1/3 innings between Single-A and High-A this year) has the stuff to be a major league pitcher someday, but not yet the command. Walks were an issue during the season, and eight in 6 2/3 innings is far from ideal, as are the four earned runs. He’s still striking out nearly a batter an inning.
Jose Meneses: 2 1/3 IP, 0 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 K
Meneses, a lefty reliever who posted a 2.21 ERA this season between Single-A and High-A, hasn’t allowed a hit. He has been a bit wild over his first three appearances, though.
Ryan Birchard: 3 2/3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, 7 K
Birchard has had two hitless, scoreless outings, including a three-strikeout inning last week, but gave up three runs in his third. His seven strikeouts and four walks in under four innings are about what you’d expect after this season, when he struck out 35% of the batters he faced but also walked nearly a quarter of them.
Ryan Birchard (@TrentonThunder '23) locked it down for the Scottsdale Scorpions on Thursday night, striking out the side in order for the save. ⚡ 🔒
Peyton Niksch: 6 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 HR, 1 BB, 8 K
Niksch has kept pretty much everything in check except the long ball. Both runs he’s allowed came on solo home runs, and he’s given up just one other hit while walking only one batter.
Peyton Niksch was promoted to High-A Wisconsin after a dominant stretch for the @wilsonwarbirds 🔥
Niksch allowed 0 earned runs in 4 of his last 5 games and struck out 14 batters while only allowing 1 XBH in the 11.2 innings pitched ‼️#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/c3NG74Dn0I
— Brewers Player Development (@BrewersPD) June 19, 2026
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 19: The Baltimore Orioles mascot The Oriole Bird performs in the seventh inning of the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 19, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The World Series is set! Last night, the Tampa Bay Rays defeated to the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 to advance to their third World Series. They lost to the Phillies in 2008 and to the Dodgers in 2020.
On Friday, the Rays will travel to Milwaukee for game one of the World Series. Neither the Brewers nor the Rays have won it all in their franchise histories. In a nice turn of events, the World Series will take place between the best team in the National League and the best team in the American League.
As for the Guardians, they’ll have to wait at least one more year to bring home their first World Series title since 1948.
It’s not as exciting as having a team in the postseason, but the Orioles had news of their own yesterday. President of Baseball Operations Mike Elias finally hired himself a General Manager. We’ve all been loosely calling Elias the GM since he was hired, even though he received a secret promotion to POBO prior to the 2025 season.
In the latest and biggest shakeup in Elias’s front office, he added Jared Banner as GM to lead player development and coaching and assist Elias with more strategic efforts. This follows his moves at the end of the regular season, when the Orioles parted ways with Matt Blood, the vice president of player and staff development, and reassigned Sig Mejdal. Mejdal had been an assistant GM in charge of the team’s analytics; his new role will focus on emerging technologies.
Banner comes to the Orioles from the Cubs, where he had been since 2020. Starting in 2024, Banner served as assistant GM. As Mark Brown said in his story yesterday, none of us really know much about Banner. The successes and failures of an assistant GM from another city aren’t necessarily made clear to even baseball sickos.
One thing this front office shakeup shows is that Mike Elias realizes that his regular way of doing business did not work. Now, my opinion is that Elias should have been fired after his failed rebuild. But he was not fired and we are stuck with him going forward. I approve of him making moves and bringing in outside voices to provide different ideas and perspectives. The Orioles’ front office has been notoriously insular.
Is this hire the right move? None of us knows. But while I cannot applaud Elias for the pick, I do applaud him for making changes. The cynics will have other opinions on the matter. They’ll say that Elias is just adding another fall guy for when it all goes wrong, or that there is no way Elias could make a good choice given his overall failure. I don’t think that is true. And honestly, since he is sticking around, I’ll choose to hope for the best.
Baltimore Black Sox sculptures will complete the city’s baseball story – The Baltimore Banner If you don’t know Toby Mendez’s name, you definitely know his work. Mendez sculpted the statues of Orioles legends located behind center field at Camden Yards. Now he’s sculpting 10 players from the Baltimore Black Sox of the Negro Leagues. The statues will be placed in the new Westport Waterfront Park.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have two Orioles birthday buddies. Bobby Floyd (83) started his career with the Orioles and appeared in 47 games with the team from 1968-70. And Ty Blach (36) pitched in five forgettable games for the Orioles in 2019.
On this day in 2015, the Vance Worley era for the Orioles began. They claimed him off waivers from the Pirates. He appeared in 35 games for the Orioles in 2016, mostly out of the bullpen.
That’s about it for Orioles history, if you can even call it that.
On this day in 1982, the Milwaukee Brewers played game seven of the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. The Brewers led 3-1 going into the bottom of the sixth but could not hold the lead. The Cardinals scored three times in the bottom of the sixth and twice in the eighth to back and capture the title. In just a few days, the Brewers will get to make new World Series memories.
In 1990, the Reds completed a sweep of the A’s in the World Series. Pitcher José Rijo allowed just one run on two hits over 8.1 innings. Future Oriole Randy Myers got the last two outs for the save.
In 2002, Francisco Rodriguez (also a future Oriole) became the youngest player to get the win in a World Series game. K-Rod had just 15 games of MLB experience when he pitched three shutout innings in game two of the World Series. He was 20 years, 286 days old. If you’re wondering about Jim Palmer, he was 20 years and 356 days old when he won game two of the 1966 World Series.
Much has been made of the Cardinals’ efforts over the last several months to grow their player development side and infuse it with young, exciting, high-upside talent. One of the men in charge of contributing to that process is Cardinals Assistant General Manager and Head of Player Development Moises Rodriguez. Along with Tyler Gettinger, who writes for CardinalsProspects.com and operates under the online name Redbird Farmhands on all of his social media platforms, we had the privilege of sitting down with the point man when it comes to International scouting. In his time with the St. Louis Cardinals, Rodriguez has helped identify and sign names like Carlos Martinez, Alex Reyes, the late Oscar Taveras, and current Cardinals C/DH Ivan Herrera and Leo Bernal.
Third-party evaluators like MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, and others have started to rank some of the Cardinals’ ascending International talent, including top prospect Rainiel Rodriguez, Yairo Padilla, Emmanuel Luna, Sebastian Dos Santos, Miguel Hernandez, Xavier Cruz, Branneli Franco, and many more. Thus, getting valuable insight into what the team is doing on the international side, in order to help further expedite the Cardinals return to MLB relevance, felt very important to obtain the opportunity to highlight an under-discussed element and bring you all this conversation.
00:00 Introduction to the Viva El Birdo’s Podcast 00:12 Meet the Hosts 00:23 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests 01:42 The Evolution of International Scouting 04:39 Identifying and Acquiring Top Talent 08:37 Differences Between International and Domestic Scouting 11:33 The Debate on International Draft 14:36 Incorporating Biomechanics in Talent Evaluation 17:25 Leadership Changes and Their Impact 20:40 Evaluating Player Adaptability and Makeup 23:15 Investment in the Asian Market 27:25 Navigating Free Agency and Scouting Challenges 28:42 Success in Caribbean Scouting 33:16 Emerging Talents in the Cardinals System 40:09 Evaluating International Pitching Prospects 44:28 The Rise of Emmanuel Luna
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Jake Wood (00:23) Welcome to the Viva El Birdos podcast. My name is Jake Wood, and I write for Viva El Birdos.com. I am the host of the show, and I am joined by special guest host Tyler Gettinger, also known as Redbird Farmhands on all of his socials. Tyler, thanks for hopping on and helping me out today.
Tyler Gettinger (00:40) Yep. Glad to be here.
Jake Wood (00:42) Please be sure to like and subscribe to our channel. We are available on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all of your favorite audio streaming platforms. Just a quick side note: if you or someone you know is interested in becoming a sponsor of the show, please be sure to reach out to me via social media. We would love to begin a partnership with anyone interested in sponsoring the show. The Cardinals Minor League system has a major up arrow next to its name, and there are several areas of talent flowing into the organization. Thanks in part to our guest of today’s show, Cardinals Assistant General Manager and Head of International Scouting, Moises Rodriguez.
Moises, thank you so much for the time today. We really appreciate you hopping on and talking some Cardinals baseball with us.
Moises (01:42) Yeah, no problem. Thank you, Jake and Tyler. Appreciate you guys having me here, and yeah, looking forward to talking some international scouting with you guys.
Jake Wood (01:50) You know, you came to the Cardinals in two thousand seven, and you know, you’re closing in on twenty years with the St. Louis organization. You’ve been a part of identifying and signing names like Carlos Martinez, Alex Reyes, current Cardinal Ivan Herrera, you know, and even the late Oscar Taveras. You know, are there any talents that you have brought in over the last couple of years of international cycles that kind of remind you of some of those guys that were listed previously?
Moises (02:19) Yeah, that’s always tough, right? That’s a pretty high bar. Some of those names that you mentioned, our scouts at the time identified some unbelievable talent in some of those names that you mentioned. But, you know, we are now in a part of the cycle where we feel we’re restocking; we’re getting back to producing impact players, and some of these guys that you’re starting to see at the upper levels, some that are reaching the big leagues now, kind of remind me of that wave of success that we had early on and even in the mid 2010s. Guys like Rainiel, Bernal, a lot of the names that you guys know. Some guys in the pipeline are really low levels that maybe haven’t, you know, performed, but we like some guys in the DSL as low as that level that we’re really excited about. So yeah, really feel that what we have in the pipeline now resembles a lot of the early success that we had here, you know, in the late two thousands and mid two thousand tens.
Tyler Gettinger (03:16) Moises, you’ve been in the org since two thousand and like seven, right? So like, how has international scouting overall just changed since you entered the org to where it is at this point?
Moises (03:25) Yeah, it’s a great question. I’d say the most nota noticeable difference in the industry is just how many teams are competing, how many teams have built out their departments; everybody’s got a robust, you know, staff operation. When I started in 2007, I’d say maybe there were a handful of teams that were like super, super active. You know, you fast forward nineteen years later, everybody’s got scouts in every country. Everybody’s got a Dominican Republic Academy where guys are placed as soon as they’re acquired. Everybody’s got technical assist tech assistants; everybody’s got video people; everybody’s got analysts. It just feels like everybody’s competing because the international arena is one you can’t ignore if you want to have a really thriving organization. So I would just say the amount of competition, the amount of structure, the amount of attention that is now being paid to the international side is something very prominent and something that we need to, you know, not only keep up with, but build upon, innovate, and try to be the best at.
Jake Wood (04:39) You know, last spring training there kinda began a buzz about two international prospects that, you know, Baseball America, as just one third-party outlet, identified as, you know, these guys to watch out for. Those, of course, were like the aforementioned Raniel Rodriguez and another kid named Yairo Padilla. You know, obviously, you fast forward about twenty-four months later and Rodriguez is now near a consensus top-ten prospect in the sport, you know, and Padilla, when he was able to stay on the field, flashed some of those raw tools that had evaluators excited. You know, what did you guys see in the Cardinals system that, you know, screamed, you know, gotta have these guys?
Moises (05:16) Well, I’m assuming you’re talking about the acquisition process. So, you know,
Jake Wood (05:19) Correct, yes.
Moises (05:20) Rainel was an i Rainell was an interesting story. He was going to a high school in Pennsylvania in the spring of his sophomore season. He decided, you know what, I want to try something else. He had a contact in the Dominican Republic and left Pennsylvania. So when he got to the Dominican Republic, where we scouted him and completed our evaluation, he was a little bit of an unknown, right? Like we had reached out to some of our Northeast scouts, and just because some of the things that he was doing when we invited him to our tryouts were freakish, right? He was hitting the ball hard. It wasn’t just pull-side hitting the ball in the air, just doing damage, and you know, it was a little short, a little out of shape. You know, the offense and the bat were definitely ahead of his defense. But, you know, again, just sort of unknown on the circuit. We really had a solid relationship with his agent. kept seeing him, kept not believing what we were seeing with our eyes as far as, like, how hard he was hitting, hitting the ball, performance, and you know, we got to a point where we needed to ignore the profile ’cause I think sometimes you get a little too hung up on, you know, how good of a defender is gonna be. And we’ve learned from some prior mistakes, you know, looking at players through that lens a little too much. So we’re right now, it was just a special bat from the beginning, and you know, every time he’d do something, we’d look around as though to say, Hey, did you see that? And fortunately, you know, we hammered something out with the agent and got it done. As far as Padilla, Padilla’s a really good P D success story. When we did see him, he was projectable; he was a premium position, you know, shortstop that can defend, had really good hands. You could tell he was gonna stick at the position, really balanced from both sides of the plate, really liked that. Not a ton of impact in his swing, but made a ton of contact. Always put the ball in play, was a little bit on his front foot, was a little weak, but just kind of like oozed projection, and you know, really speed was a big part of his game. So just a really interesting package that you could dream on. And you know, once we got him into the system, he put on some strength. He’s battled some injuries as of late, as you mentioned, but you know, this year he’s starting hitting the ball a lot harder. He’s always made contact. He’s, you know, borderline reckless on the bases. He just plays really hard. It’s not a knock. That’s actually a compliment. Love the way he competes, and you know, still a lot of still a lot of upside there, and somebody that we should really hone in on because if he puts together a healthy season, the sky’s the limit for him.
Tyler Gettinger (08:17) Yeah. Moises, when looking at, like, international scouting, especially when compared to its domestic counterpart, you know, obviously domestically you’re scouting mostly like college kids, maybe some high schoolers, but you have like the perfect game events and obviously the college season. But internationally, with the signing period and just how the academies work, how is that different from, you know, the domestic draft counterpart?
Moises (08:37) Well, it’s huge. Fundamentally, obviously, on the international side, it’s free agency, and the draft is, you know, a selection process, right? So huge differences on the free agency side. In theory, you can agree with a ten-year-old, right? As long as you secure a verbal commitment in the draft, you’re not always gonna get the guy that you love, that you scout, that you’re all in on because you’ve got to wait your turn. So that’s the exciting part on the international side: as long as you’ve got your process complete, in theory you can reach a verbal agreement with anyone. The huge difference is the youth baseball infrastructure; obviously here in the draft you’ve got high school, you’ve got college, you’ve got, you know, much more organized like youth baseball like entities. In a lot of these countries, you don’t have high school baseball. In fact, in the majority of where we scout, there isn’t high school baseball. So you’re very dependent on trainers. A lot of these inde independent, Buscon- that’s a term that you’ve heard a lot- academies. So we count a lot on those relationships, access to players, and that’s really what drives our strategy is like accessing the best players, and the way that you do that is being really tapped in. Our scouts gotta have networks, you gotta maintain relationships, and you know, at the end of the day you’ve gotta close deals, right? So that’s the exciting part about it: you go out, you see a player you like, and you’ve gotta be responsible; you’ve gotta check the boxes, make sure your evaluation is complete, within what you’re doing internally, within your systems. But that’s the biggest difference. It’s just free agency versus draft, and you know that’s the thrill of it, that at any time you could show up, come across a player that’s eligible and shake his hand and hope it materializes, you know, two years later. And that’s also a dynamic that’s very unique to the international space: you not only have to, you know, reach an agreement, shake hands with the trainer, the family, the player, but you’ve got to be able to see that commitment through the day that they’re actually eligible to sign, right? So it’s a very complex process. You shake hands, yes, we’ve got a deal in place, but you’ve also got a window between that deal and the time they sign, they put ink to paper, where you’ve got to take advantage of development time. You’ve got to make sure that other teams aren’t trying to jump in there and offer more money. So that’s where the relationship part comes in. You’ve got to have really sound relationships. So when you shake hands with a player, with an agent, it stays in place.
Jake Wood (11:33) No, and I don’t want to ask you directly about the CBA because obviously that’s just a little bit above you, right? But you know, one of the topics that frequently is talked about when negotiations are present is the idea of an international draft. And, you know, kind of on the topic of what you were talking about, is that a concept for you specifically that you would support? Obviously, you know, kind of like you mentioned, we see stories from around the league being talked about where some Latin-born players are agreeing to pre-arrange deals at like 12, 13 years old. You even mentioned as low as 10. You know, some around the industry raise the question of the morality in doing so; you know, would this be a responsible step on behalf of Major League Baseball and curtailing some of those issues altogether?
Moises (12:15) Yeah, so the international draft topic has been around since my MLB days over twenty years ago. It seems to come up in every CBA negotiation. As far as our position on it, yes. I think we’d love to have a more structured system so you’re not out scouting an age range between twelve and eighteen. I mean, that puts a lot of pressure on, and by the way, all teams are dealing with this pressure, right? Everybody’s competing, as I mentioned earlier. But it puts you in a position without a draft where you’re hurrying, you’re rushing to scoop up sort of quote-unquote whatever talent is left. And it just accelerates the evaluation process to the point where you’re scouting twelve-year-olds. So I do think it’d be healthy for our industry to have a draft, where it ends up obviously above my pay grade, as you said. But I think it would be beneficial. I think internally we’ve been preparing for that scenario, just by the way we operate, how we go about reporting evaluations or scouting formats. I think a lot of the tools that we’re using, a lot of the ball tracking, data points that we’re incorporating. A lot of that we’ve been preparing for a couple of years, even I think during the last negotiation five years ago. But I do think it’d be healthy. I look at it; it used to be that if you reached a verbal deal with a player one year before July second, when July second was the signing eligibility day, that was considered early. And now again we’re seeing that four years before. And when you think about high-risk category, for example, in the draft, we talk about how the high school pitching demographic is such high risk. Well, put that into context with what we’re doing, right? Which is even way riskier. You add on attrition rates, and it’s just like it’s a very difficult thing that we do as an industry. So yeah, to answer your question, I think a lot of people would support it. I don’t think anybody enjoys getting up at three in the morning to go scout a thirteen-year-old. And as responsible as you wanna be, we’re gonna make mistakes. Again, not just the Cardinals, but as an industry, and I think we just wanna be in a position where we’re scouting guys that are closer to maturity than we are now to make better decisions.
Tyler Gettinger (14:46) So you guys brought in Jacob Buffa this last off-season to be part of the international group, and and I at the time I thought that was an interesting h hire because he’s big into the sports science and biomechanics of it all. And can you speak to Jacob specifically or just as a whole, like how does biomechanics play into evaluating, you know, such young talent, you know, teenage talent since, you know, they are far away and there is a lot of projectability there?
Moises (15:09) Yeah, that’s an evolving area. That’s a good point that you’ve noticed. So the one thing I would say is when Chaim came in we just wanted to make sure that in every acquisition area we were leveraging all our areas of expertise, be it player development, by way of, like, coaching assessments when we’re looking at some of these players, incorporating that. On the performance science, you know, we call it performance internally, physical assessments, like leveraging the expertise of people that we have in-house that can assess physical traits of some of these players. Jacob does have that background, which is beneficial; it’s super valuable. So that’s a work in progress, but it’s definitely an edge; it’s definitely something that we’re using to make decisions. And look, we need to be ahead of the game. And, you know, Chaim is always challenging us with, you know, what could we do to be better? And bringing people in like Jacob with different perspectives and combining him with our scouts that have had success here for many years, just kind of meshing that in addition to a lot of these new tools that we’re incorporating into our decision-making, it’s only gonna make us better. But yeah, the physical assessment part is something that is evolving. We are using it to, you know, within our evaluations, whether it’s getting guys on force plates, whether it’s movement screens, and just trying to, like, more objectively, you know, document a lot of these physical traits and trying to learn how those, you know, traits age over time, right? Like we’re just learning how to gauge a lot of these traits, these physical characteristics in fourteen- to fifteen-year-olds, and like what happens four years down the line? Like what you measured at fourteen, fifteen, is that something that’s gonna age out in a certain way, whether it’s twitch, whether it’s a strength profile. So again, an evolving area, and it’s something that we’re spending a lot of time trying to get a better handle on.
Jake Wood (17:26) You know, obviously, so you came into the organization around two thousand seven, which was right around the same time that John Mozeliak took over as, you know, general manager, then elevated to president of baseball operations, and now Chaim came in in twenty twenty four. Can you kind of talk about how, like, not only has your or at least your element of the organization changed since Chaim, you know, transitioned and took, you know, point to kind of what it was like under John Mozeliak, because like you had mentioned, you know, in the mid twenty tens the international team was having a lot of of success and, you know, I don’t I think there was still a relatively steady stream of international talent coming into the organization, but clearly it’s not on the same level of what it is right now that w that we’re kind of seeing and that obviously that’s a credit and a testament to the work that, you know, your team is doing. But just kinda, can you kind of talk about the differences under the two different leadership structures?
Moises (18:24) Yeah, it’s a good question. I would say, you know, a lot of what we’re seeing now, part of it is a result of some initiatives and some things that we’re implementing around two thousand twenty-two, two thousand twenty-three, where we started using more tools a pr as part of our evaluation process. And sometimes, you know, these things are in the pipeline. You put these things into practice, and it takes a little bit to get some results. So I would say we started adding a lot of these new methods and incorporating more of that around two thousand twenty-three. We had some internal staff restructuring at the leadership level, at the country level, on the technical level, that kind of got us moving forward in a more positive direction around two thousand twenty-three. But you know, time would tell. Look, Chaim has a lot of experience. He’s been with two organizations that were very strong internationally. Chaim was very present with Tampa when they were super successful in Venezuela. So he’s very familiar with the international space. He’s very supportive, and you know we have a solid foundation to build on that we’ve, you know, had here. You know, we’ve had dry spells, no question about it. But I think what we’ve seen from Mr. DeWitt and our ownership group throughout the years is that they’re willing to spend in this area, and you know we keep heading in a very positive direction. But yeah, I would say, like, around two thousand twenty-three just started incorporating a lot more data. We started, you know, subscribing to more, like, ball track packages outside of the academy, right? Because at the academy we’ve got all the tools in the world, but you can’t get in, you know, 13, 14-year-olds at that age. So you’re scouting these guys outside of your environment. You know, what tools can you take a look at and use to, you know, fine-tune those evaluations. So definitely heading in a great direction, a lot of analysis, using a lot of our areas of expertise to get better. And at the end of the day, look, we’re doing this with fifteen- to sixteen-year-old kids. We’re gonna make a lot of mistakes as an industry, and our goal is really to, you know, in some ways make fewer mistakes than our competitors.
Tyler Gettinger (20:54) Yeah. I’ve always thought like these Dominican and Venezuelan kids, you know, they have one of the hardest jobs to do, which is moving from the Dominican Republic Academy to stateside. So how can you guys, like, evaluate makeup, and is there any way to, like, evaluate whether this, you know, a certain player might make it that transition smoothly or if they have the personality to ad adapt to, you know, li living a thousand miles away from, you know, where they’re originally from?
Moises (21:17) Well, that’s where Academy comes in, right? A lot of times you’re agreeing with these guys at fourteen, fifteen years old. You may have access to the player a year before they, like, report to the academy to be there on an everyday basis, and be under contract. So the process of acclimation, the process of what it takes to be a pro starts very early on. So a lot of that work, as soon as you shake hands with the agent, there’s an agreement in place; you start that process. And Joseph Cesado, who’s our assistant director of international operations, is very locked in from the time we shake hands with these players. Okay, where are these guys educational-wise? Where are these guys instruction-wise? I mean, those are all assessments that take place right away. And wherever those guys need support, we implement it immediately. And once they get to the academy, a lot of times you’ll have these guys in the academy one or two years before they travel. And for those not familiar with the academy, it’s a mini campus. These guys live there; they’ve got dormitories, they’ve got their classrooms, they’ve got obviously all their baseball facilities and spaces, they’ve got a training room, they’ve got a weight room, they’ve got admin spaces. So those guys, pretty much for a year, year and a half before they travel to the US, are just being poured into by our support staff. And by the time they jump on a plane, you know, we want to make sure they’re comfortable enough. And there’s nothing like landing in the US, living a new culture. You can only prepare them so much for it, but at least by the time they land, they’re in a better position to succeed. And hopefully you’ve taken away some of the anxieties that you know a normal human being has. For example, I travel to Asia, and you know, I’ve been around for a while; I’m an educated person, I’m bilingual, and I’ll go to Asia, and not being able to speak Japanese or Taiwanese, it’s very intimidating. I mean, so, you know, our job is to put these guys in the best position possible so they can focus on their on-field progress, their on-field development, and the more support staff you’ve got in-house specializing in those areas, the better job you’re gonna do with that.
Jake Wood (23:44) You know, you brought up the internal or the Asian market. And I apologize. I kinda screamed there for a second. Just ’cause I’m so excited about this topic. The international side specifically, you know, Matt Slater was someone who was in charge of kind of the Asian side of things for a long time, and obviously he left the organization a couple of years ago. And so now that we’re seeing not specifically Shohei Ohtani, but a lot of these likely high-impact Asian players coming over, kinda like like Murakami, like Kazuma Okamoto, like all of these different names that are coming over from the Asian market. And obviously there’s some young asian players who may be available this offseason as well that a lot of Cardinals fans are very interested in. You know, what would you say is the level of investment the Cardinals have in the Asian market currently? And I think a lot of Cardinals fans would be curious to know about, like, just, I guess, the direction of that because obviously we haven’t had, I believe, a Japanese player since, like, KK back in, like twenty twenty, twenty twenty one. So, like, you know, w where where does the status of the Cardinals’ investment might be the wrong word, but you know, involvement in the Asian market stand today?
Moises (25:04) Wow, KK, that’s a good name. I think he started game one of our playoff series against the Padres, if I’m not mistaken, in two thousand twenty, two thousand twenty-one. So
Jake Wood (25:12) Yep. I believe so. I think that’s correct, yeah.
Moises (25:14) Good success story there. Yeah, broad topic. The one thing I would say is we’ve got two areas in Asia, right? You’ve got your pro market, which is pretty much major league free agency if you want to look at it and simplify it that way. And then you’ve got your amateur market. The latter is a lot harder to tap into because a lot of these young amateur players have a professional league in their country, whether it’s the NPB, whether it’s actually college underneath the NPB, right? So a lot of these amateur players that are just as talented, maybe more talented than some of the guys on this side of the world, they’ve got options, right? There are protocol agreements; it’s very hard to pry them away; it’s very difficult. Even for some of the teams that have had like longstanding relationships and and successes in Asia, getting a lot of these amateur players is very difficult. So that’s not a broad population of players. That said, over the last few years, you know, we do have a scout in Japan that monitors both the pro and the amateur space. And over the last five years, I mean, we’ve been in on a lot of the small number of amateur players that have flirted with MLB- a lot of the guys that you’re probably reading about on Twitter right now, we’ve we’ve engaged, we’ve been doing the work, and sometimes it doesn’t go our way, and sometimes those guys just stay in Japan. So a lot of work is being put behind the scenes on the amateur side. On the pro side, which is probably what a lot of our fans really are interested in. You know, you touched on a couple of success stories, KK in Korea,
Mikolas is an expat, not really a sort of true international
Jake Wood (27:01) Right.
Moises (27:02) story, but that was a big hit. Seunghwan Oh, a Korean guy that ended up playing in the NPB. So, you know, we’ve had some successes with moderate investments, guys that returned a whole bunch. You know, once you start getting into the Yamamotos and the Sasakis, that’s where, you know, it becomes a little challenging. We do our work, we engage agents, we send scouts there annually. I go there once a year; we’re tapped in, and at the end of the day it’s like How much do you want to pay for a free agent? What we’ve done a better job of is putting ourselves in a better position to have these conversations, but a lot of times our geography, where we are physically in the United States, doesn’t help us. But look, we’re not taking a back seat; we’re not conceding. We we we’ve got a brand; we’ve got a very historic franchise to sell. And I’ve always got the, you know, pedal to the metal, so to speak. And I never want to give in to those narratives that we can’t compete. But, you know, it does become a game of, you know, how much you want in the stomach when it comes to free agent acquisitions, and a lot of what we’ve done over the years is try to understand how the Asian performance will translate into the US. So we feel like we’re in a good position there, understanding, you know, how some of that’s gonna carry over. And, you know, again, a lot of the exercises that we do with major league free agents are what we’re doing in this market as well.
Tyler Gettinger (28:42) Yeah, I’m gonna flip it back to the Caribbean. You guys have had really good success in both Panama and Nicaragua lately. You obviously got Kenley Hunter from Nicaragua and then Leo Bernal, Ivan Herrera, and Juan Rujano from Panama. But like, is that something you guys are actively scouting those, you know, not those top two countries of the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, or are those players coming to the Dominican Republic or Venezuela and going to tryouts or going to, you know, events in those countries?
Moises (29:11) Yeah, Panama, that story is fascinating. So when you think about where all the players in Latin America come from as far as, you know, signing on the international side, I think we counted the other day somewhere around eighty-seven percent of the signings come from two countries, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. And that’s where we spend a lot of our time. We’ve got robust operations as far as Panama, so that leaves thirteen percent for a lot of other countries, right? Including the small ones that come from Asia, but mostly Panama, Mexico, Cuba. You can’t scout in Cuba, but Cuban players are all over the place. Not sure if I mentioned Colombia. But Panama, when I was at Major League Baseball and even in my early days here with the Cardinals, fascinated me because I made a visit to Panama. I fell in love with the country; I fell in love with the youth baseball infrastructure. They’re crazy about baseball. They hold the youth tournament every January for 14- to 16-year-olds; it’s on TV, it’s carried on radio; it’s televised. It’s got a little bit of an NCAA vibe to it. And you see players playing under the lights. I was just fascinated by how s how sound the Panamanian player was, fundamentally. I’d laugh because w when I went to one of these tournaments and I saw Edmundo Sosa for the first time, and Edmundo Sosa didn’t start the game that I was scouting that day, and the shortstop was actually the coach’s son. Who was not a prospect. You know? He was just a solid player that was making plays, but you know, when you start projecting and checking the boxes that we do with Scout, he wasn’t a prospect. And Edmundo Sosa comes in in the eighth inning of the game as a defensive replacement, plays second base, and makes a crazy instinctual play. And I’m like, whoa, kind of like it opened my eyes. Then he comes to the plate, takes a great at-bat. But I saw that within a super competitive environment. Now we didn’t make a decision to sign Edmundo Sosa based on that, but that environment, the little things that I saw in that environment, led us to invite Edmundo Sosa to a tryout in the Dominican Republic. We flew him over, completed our evaluation, and the rest was history, and you know he added value, and that’s a great success story. But the other thing about Panama is I always felt when I started in this job is that it would be great to have a cross-checker live in Panama because it’s so centrally located to the rest of Latin America that I always thought that was like the ideal place to have an international cross-checker. So, you know, we ended up hiring a gentleman locally by a scout of ours who’s now our assistant director of international scouting, Damaso Espino, as a local scout there who eventually grew to be a cross-checker, and he was the guy behind Ivan Herrera’s evaluation among other people, but he was the guy that worked with Ivan and, you know, put us in a great position to sign him. The same with Bernal, the same with Rujano. So kinda I’m not gonna say fell into success. I mean we sort of designed it over the years, but you’ve got to be really fortunate. You’re competing against 29 other teams and just really fortunate to have a presence with a good employee on the ground that put us in position to sign these guys and just keep going back to the well, right? We’ve done well there
Tyler Gettinger (33:00) Yeah.
Moises (33:01) And you know, after Ivan it was Bernal. After Bernal it was Rujano. Rujano’s got a lot of work to do, but just a baseball crazy country with a great, you know, infrastructure that we love to scout in.
Jake Wood (33:16) You know, I wanna kinda use the rest of our time to kind of dive into some of the players that are starting to gain a little bit of steam in the Cardinals system. So, you know, we saw other talents take some really encouraging steps forward this season, like a Miggie Hernandez and a Sebastian dos Santos. You know, what should Cardinals fans know about these two guys who have some really loud upsides to both?
Moises (33:36) Well for so people for people who followed our system, it’s really rare to have a player go from the DSL one year to traveling for the first time to the US and playing in Low-A. That’s pretty unheard of. It’s becoming a little more common, right? Because we’ve eliminated short-season leagues, and there are a lot more tools now to assess where a guy stands in his development curve. But for those guys to go from the DSL one year to make it to Low-A playing Palm Beach, where they did this year, that’s just a huge testament to their skill set, to their development process, to their makeup. Quite frankly, Tyler talked earlier about, you know, how do you know when someone’s ready to travel? Both of these guys, like, exemplify preparation, solid makeup; they love playing baseball and, you know, obviously they’re talented. They could swing the bat. They’ve been getting stronger, which, you know, happens when you’re when you go from sixteen to your age-eighteen season; naturally, you’re gonna get stronger. You saw it in the exit velos for Dos Santos with Hernandez, and just really exciting two up the middle prospects that I think we’re gonna hear from, and I think we’re gonna get a lot of contributions from for years to come. But it’s funny because Tyler, you asked me earlier like, Hey, what do you see in this guy, or Jake, you asked me what you see in these guys when we scouted them? You know, Sebastian dos Santos w came from an academy. The academy is Cesar Izturis’ Academy. Cesar Izturis
Jake Wood (35:19) Mm-hmm.
Moises (35:20) was a ridiculously sound defender, you know, with the Dodgers, with the Blue Jays back in the day. At the end of his career, he was a Cardinal, right?
Jake Wood (35:27) I was gonna say I believe he moonlighted with Saint Louis, yeah.
Moises (35:33) So, you know, Sebastian came from that academy. What did we know about Sebastian? We knew he was getting great instruction from a former major league player that was an unbelievable in-house, clubhouse person, excuse me, and Cesar passed along unbelievable fundamental training to Dos Santos, and then when we scouted him, just a beautiful swing from both sides of the plate, very sure-handed, quality plate appearances was already, you know, barreling up the baseball and, you know, Santos just kinda ran with his opportunity. Now, when we signed him, he was sort of a boxy five-foot-eight middle infielder running a seven-two and the sixty-yard dash. And that’s probably why we were able to get him at a lower price and why these guys are on third-party lists. But again, he grew two inches, he got stronger, he took advantage of his opportunity, and here he is as one of our better, you know, prospects.
Jake Wood (36:37) Which kind of, you know, how you described him there in the end is also just another reminder of why, like, international scouting is a little bit both an art and a science, because there’s no way to perfectly project what these guys are eventually able to become, but you know, you take these measured risks and kind of project forward what they what you think they could be.
Moises (37:00) Yeah, that’s absolutely right. I mean, there’s a ton of projection and scouting of fifteen-year-olds. Now the tricky balance on our end is, you know, how much can you dream on that projection? Because you still gotta have skill. You still gotta have talent. Everybody’s looking for it. There’s a reason why we were all over Rainel Rodriguez and Emmanuel Luna. I mean, these guys have some present tools. So there are cases where you dream a little bit, and you know, I’ll t I’ll give you an example, like Hancel Rincon. We signed Hancel Rincon, who made the big leagues this year, throwing eighty-four, eighty-five, and, you know, had a good arm. Had some athleticism, had some traits that we liked, and we dreamed on him a little bit because he was, like, lanky, 6’2, and you know, there’s other guys that show you tools right away, like Luis Gastelum. Like, he had a good changeup. Now, Gastelum also had a good body; he also threw strikes. But there are different ways. You got to identify talent, skill. But there are times where you dream on a kid, and you take a shot on some athleticism and bet on the PD, yeah.
Tyler Gettinger (38:11) How how how difficult is it to like, evaluate international, you know, these sixteen, seventeen year old pitchers when you’re like scouting ‘Cause I I feel like we always talk about the the international bats ’cause those are the ones that kinda move quicker, but how difficult is it to like get the pitchers and, you know, dream on that projectability with them?
Moises (38:28) Yeah, pitching and scouting fifteen, sixteen-year-olds is, as I mentioned earlier, right? Like the high school pitching demographic is like that high-risk category in the draft. Put that in perspective with what you just mentioned, right? We’re doing this with fifteen,
Tyler Gettinger (38:44) Yeah, yeah.
Moises (38:45) sixteen-year-old kids. So I think the industry, and you guys may have the numbers, but as an industry, I think we’re paying less and less for the fifteen-, sixteen-year-old pitcher, and we’re moving toward, you know, spending a lot more of our money on the bats, on the position players. So what do we look for to answer your question? I mean, look, a lot of common denominators, right? Some good arm action, some athleticism, good delivery. Obviously, you want guys that have a feel for the strike zone, but you know, can they spin the baseball? A lot of these breaking balls aren’t gonna be defined, but like, you know, does their arm work in a way where you could dream on them developing or fine-tuning a breaking ball even more, right? We’re doing a lot of camera work where We’re trying to identify who pronates, who supinates, and look at the high-risk category of sixteen-year-old pitchers is one we’re scared to death of, and again just try to identify some athletes, some good arm actions, guys that fill up the zone and you know, there’s savvy that you wanna identify. There’s some poise, there’s some pitchability, and a lot of the things that we look for as scouts, but you know, definitely spending a lot more time and investing a lot more resources on the bats lately.
Jake Wood (40:09) There were a couple of arms that I, you know, I’ve read about that I wanted to ask you about. Specifically, one that Tyler talks about a lot is Xavier Cruz. And then another name who kinda came with a little bit of fanfare was Branelli Franco. You know, can you tell us a little bit about those guys? What drew your attention to the to those those talents who primarily, you know, work off the bump?
Moises (40:31) Man, Xavier, what an arm talent. Huge fastball. I mean, night and day from when we signed him. He was a converted shortstop, and he had just gotten on the mound when we scouted him. He went to our academy and was really mechanical in his delivery. But we knew he was a shortstop. So we knew there was some athleticism in there that we could get out of him. But he’s very upright in his delivery. Showed some fastball traits that have developed even further, spun the ball, had some good separation between his fastball and his breaking ball at the time, but just super raw, just super skinny, somebody that needed to add strength to his frame and a really great story. Injuries have really gotten in the way, but I think this year for, you know, a two-month period, you saw what we dreamed of when we signed him. I mean, upper nineties, fastball, big IVB, huge break on his slider and his curveball. I mean he he spends his curveball so much. I mean, he has a hard time landing it, right? So he’s kinda pitching people or steering him a little bit more toward the slider. But a lot to love there. Obviously the injury got him there at the end, but big, big arm talent when you speak to our pitching people, you know, he’s one of the names that they highlight and put up there with the likes of a Tanner (Franklin). As far as arm talent, obviously Xavier’s got a long way to
Jake Wood (42:04) Wow.
Moises (42:04) go and, you know, he’s still at the lower levels but can grow into a really huge, valuable pitching piece for us.
Jake Wood (42:15) Tyler, do you have any more questions for Moises? No? Okay.
Tyler Gettinger (42:18) No, I was I was gonna let you
I was gonna let Moises talk on Bernelli Franco if you wanted to.
Jake Wood (42:22) Yeah, yeah, sorry.
Moises (42:25) Man, Franco big Huge arm. Injuries got a little bit to him a little bit in the DSL his first season and beginning of his second season. Finished that DSL season strong, got in the strike zone more with his fastball, jumped on the plane here to the US, kind of struggled mechanically earlier in the year, was missing a ton on the arm side, was working through some mechanical adjustments, but look, huge, huge Fastball comes out super easy. Our staff and Branelli have done a good job of fine-tuning his breaking ball, adding some raw spin, really working on that, but high-octane stuff. You saw him a couple of times in Palm Beach and what he could do there. And again, with a lot of these young guys that have got arm talent, it’s all about consistency, right? You look at Velo, you look at some of the swing-and-miss, it’s great. And it’s more about getting in the zone, getting to trust their stuff. Xavier Cruz, going back to him, if you look at the rate at which he’s, you know, missing bats in the zone, it’s impressive. Now we just gotta get in the zone more, and the same with Branelli. But time will tell these guys at the lower levels, and make sure the health accompanies them, and see what we got.
Tyler Gettinger (43:52) When I was I went down to spring training earlier this year, the thing that surprised me Branelli is like he’s massive. Like, you, you, like, look at him; like, the guy’s jacked. Like like I was surprised, you know, just how big he was for you know, just in terms of strength-wise; he looked
Moises (44:07) He’s well built. You could put him in a big league clubhouse now, or you’re like, yeah, who’s that big leaguer? I mean, physically, you’re right. He’s just strong, durable, you know, six-three and kinda what you look for from a scouting eye, and yeah, you see him, and you point to him, you’re always like, Who’s that guy?
Tyler Gettinger (44:23) Yeah.
Jake Wood (44:28) Well, you know, talking about guys who are well built, you know, I want to go back to a name that you kind of referred to a little bit earlier. It’s not often that you hear someone referred to as the “Dominican Aaron Judge,” right? But that’s the moniker
Moises (44:38) Ha ha ha.
Jake Wood (44:39) around in Emmanuel Luna, who was one of the highest-paid international signings in recent memory for St. Louis. And, you know, he’s kind of the last name I wanted to touch on before we we gros close out the show. You know, from what you were able to observe before signing him. What immediately stood out to you, probably besides his size, that your team just absolutely loved about Emmanuel Luna?
Moises (45:02) My first reaction is raw power. I don’t think we’ve scouted a guy, or very few guys, who we’ve scouted over the years, who show the raw power that Luna showed us when we were scouting him, and it’s carried over and actually turned into game power. You know, in the DSL, and obviously hampered a little bit by some, you know, soft tissue injuries early on. But just the power. And when you combine his strike zone management, his strike zone awareness with how hard he hits the ball, and then you couple that with, you know, the premium position, power-speed profile in center field, it’s just like a really intriguing, super high upside piece. And I think I read the other day that he had the hardest-hit ball in the DSL th this year, had the highest EV on a swing, and it was actually a hard ground ball to second base, right? So this isn’t a guy that’s just running into balls, just trying to like pull pull everything. He hits it, you know, opposite-field backside as hard as anyone. And again, it’s gotta stay on the field and probably got less than fifty plate appearances between DSL and instructional league this far, but in fifty plate appearances I think he hit six or seven home runs. I mean, the power’s real. It’s there; he’s a great kid, and you know, when you talk about prospect upside, the makeup is a huge part of it and I remember the day that we signed him on January fifteenth, he pulled me over to the side, and he said, “Look, I’m not gonna disappoint you. You’re giving me a lot of money. I’m not gonna disappoint this organization. You’ll see.” And I was just like blown away by
Jake Wood (46:54) Wow.
Moises (46:55) You know, those words by a sixteen-year-old. And, you know, it wasn’t eyewash; it was very genuine, and just a very driven kid from a great family wants to be great, and it’s interesting because he came from the same academy. That Jasson Dominguez came from and Samuel Basallo came from. And you know, this goes back to my earlier comment on, you know, having strong relationships with agents. Like we were in on Jasson Dominguez; didn’t win that, but you know, maybe that pursuit showed the agent that, look, these guys are serious and you know, put us in a good position to sign Luna years after, right? So just a great talent, hoping he can have a healthy two thousand twenty seven. He’s gonna be promoted, you know, next year, and yes a a name we definitely should keep an eye on and track.
Jake Wood (47:53) So your expectation is that he will come stateside starting next year?
Moises (47:57) He will. That decision has been made, and he’ll travel to the US in two thousand twenty-seven, and we’ll see him in spring training, and you know, a lot of times players tell us as to where he’s gonna play. They’ll tell us, but he’ll report to Jupiter and we’ll take it from there.
Jake Wood (48:12) Very exciting.
Moises, I cannot thank you enough for taking some time out of your busy day to speak with us and, you know, shed some light on one of the more under-talked-about elements of the Cardinals’ talent acquisition side, at least, you know, from a media standpoint, of the farm system. So it continues to grow, it continues to improve, and, you know you’re in your team’s role is providing more high quality talent to it, and we we’re just so thankful again for you to take the time out to speak with us today.
Moises (48:38) Yeah, I love chatting with you guys, and any time you guys want to talk international scouting, let me know.
Jake Wood (48:43) Appreciate it. Tyler, thanks for stepping in and helping me out today, man. Obviously, you have your sources in the international scene and follow along with these guys as closely as you do. There’s nobody I could have thought of to help me with this conversation today. So thank you for your time as well.
Tyler Gettinger (48:56) Thank you, Jake, and thank you, Moises, for hopping on with us.
Moises (48:59) Yeah, good job, fellas. Appreciate the support. Take care.
Jake Wood (49:01) absolutely.
Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of the Viva El Birdos Podcast. Don’t forget to rate, review, and hit that subscribe button and notified every Monday morning for a new episode like this one. For Tyler Gettinger and Cardinals Assistant General Manager Moises Rodriguez, my name is Jake Wood, and we’ll talk to you all next week and bring you more great Cardinals content. Have a great day, St. Louis, and let’s go cards.
The jersey that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar wore in the opening game of the 2025 Tokyo Series broke the record for most expensive jersey worn by a baseball player in the 21st century.
The jersey sold for $2,055,700 in an auction from The Realest, the company said in a press release on Monday, Oct. 19. The uniform featured the first gold MLB logo in the league's history. Ohtani was one of six players in 2025 to wear the Logoman patch, which was given to the winners of the previous campaign's major awards. He won the 2024 National League MVP after becoming the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season. Several of the patches were removed and turned into trading cards, so it is unique that this one remains intact.
The jersey, which was certified by The Realest's authentication program, also has a Tokyo Series patch and the Fernando Valenzuela patch the Dodgers wore that season after they won the 2024 World Series. It was autographed by the MLB superstar in kanji characters to further celebrate his heritage and the culture of the city the 2025 season opener was played in. It was Ohtani's first Major League Baseball game in his home country. He went 2-for-5 with a double in the Dodgers' 4-1 win over the Chicago Cubs at the Tokyo Dome.
“The greatest collectibles are the ones that capture moments that can never be recreated, and this jersey represents exactly that,” Scott Keeney, also known as DJ Skee, who is the founder and CEO of The Realest, said in a statement. “Ohtani is redefining what’s possible in the collectibles market, and the global response to this jersey reinforces just how significant these historic artifacts have become."
The Realest put the Ohtani jersey on display at ComplexCon in Los Angeles earlier this month alongside the last No. 8 jersey that Kobe Bryant wore in the NBA Finals. The company said that the winner of the auction also received the custom shrine featuring Japanese motifs that the jersey was displayed in.
The previous record for most expensive baseball jersey worn in this century was held by a New York Yankees jersey that Aaron Judge wore in his MLB debut in 2016 when he hit a home run in his first at-bat. That jersey sold for a reported $1.792 million. It last went to auction in July at Sotheby's alongside Derek Jeter's game-worn jersey from "The Dive."
Earlier this year, Ohtani's game-worn and autographed New Balance cleats from the same Tokyo Series game were sold by The Realest for $440,055, making them the highest-selling baseball cleat ever. This number puts the shoes in the same conversation as sneakers worn by Michael Jordan.
Ohtani was the MLB Rookie of the Year in 2018 after he debuted with the Los Angeles Angels. He had two American League MVP seasons with the Anaheim-based team before joining the Dodgers in 2023, shattering history with a 10-year, $700 million deal. He won the National League MVP award twice and has two World Series titles with the Dodgers, and this summer he joined the 300 home run club.
The Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays are in the World Series, directly defying the narrative that small-market teams are bedraggled, woebegone, hopeless entities needing a white knight like Rob Manfred and his 29 billionaires (plus John Fisher) to swoop in and save them.
The timing is hilarious, coming just six weeks before the commissioner Manfred imposes a lockout that shuts down the industry at a time it is in relative boom mode, what with increased attendance, enhanced access to the playoffs and desperate networks, streamers and monopolists lined up to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to get a piece of it when the league’s TV contracts hit the market in two years.
Instead, for the second time in five years, we will get a plug-pulling winter with no transactions, no trades, no hope for fans of nascent teams to see how their club might become the next Brewers or Rays or Cleveland Guardians or Los Angeles Dodgers.
Yes, those were your final four teams standing this autumn, one of them not like the others. Yet in what surely came as a surprise to “Our Fans” that MLB continuously cites from its focus group work, three of them are of the lower-revenue variety.
It will be Milwaukee vs. Tampa Bay in the World Series. The Dodgers are free to join the Yankees and Phillies and Mets at the swankiest resort in Cancun.
If you pay enough attention to the game, this October – and the season at large – only reinforced your priors. Most notably: Spending on your roster helps, of course, but it is no guarantee.
A resourceful front office is no good, either, minus an ownership group that cultivates a creative, supportive culture within the organization. That is perhaps the biggest reason you see so many repeat contenders in October, the Brewers most notably among them.
Oh, the spin is already beginning and you’re bound to hear it a few more times between now and Dec. 1 and beyond: The 2026 World Series winner is the aberration, the first true “small market” team to win it all since the 2015 Kansas City Royals. Just two in 12 seasons. Looks bad!
Technically, sure. Yet since we’re now entering Arbitrary Endpoints Season, here’s another – number of World Series appearances since 2008:
The Dodgers have five pennants. The Houston Astros have four, fielding a payroll outside the top 10 both years they won World Series titles.
And then there’s a floating mass of franchises that looks an awful lot like parity.
Your three-time league champions since 2008: Tampa Bay, Texas, Philadelphia, San Francisco.
Two-timers? That’d be St. Louis, Kansas City, Boston and the New York Yankees. Yep, both teams from the Show-Me State have made as many World Series appearances since 2008 as the vaunted Yankees and Red Sox.
Milwaukee, Arizona, Atlanta, Washington, the Chicago Cubs, Cleveland, the New York Mets and Detroit – they’ve all made one Fall Classic appearance in the past 19 seasons.
That’s 19 of 30 teams. And 12 franchises winning World Series titles.
There’s a problem here?
Here’s a crucial bit of verbiage worth parsing: The league insists it must offer greater competitive opportunities to “small market” teams. A more accurate phrase might be “low revenue” teams.
Because what, exactly, is a small market?
Is it Miami, because the Marlins have made one brief playoff appearance since 2003? Or is that a Marlins problem, given that Miami ranks 18th in market size, and eighth if you include the adjacent West Palm Beach market?
Is it Pittsburgh, since the Pirates haven’t won a division title since 1993 and owner Bob Nutting can’t seem to find the cash to pay a free agent more than $39 million?
Or is that a Bob Nutting problem, since Pittsburgh ranks one slot above San Diego in market size, and the Padres have proven both potent and prosperous in signing marquee players to big contracts while making the playoffs five of the past seven years?
Is it Tampa Bay, which has long punched above its perceived weight thanks to smarts and resourcefulness?
Well, Tampa-St. Pete is technically the 11th-biggest market in the country, wedged between those barren outposts known as “Boston” and “Phoenix.” Certainly, the geographics of the Bay area have been a drag on the Rays’ revenue as bodies of water bifurcate the population mass, but a sweetheart deal to build a new stadium in Tampa should solve many of those problems.
We will begrudgingly note that Milwaukee and Cincinnati are pretty small – the only current MLB markets with less than 1 million TV households, per Nielsen. Yet the Brewers and Reds are also perfect examples that competence and desire matter almost as much as revenue – the Brewers making the playoffs eight of the past nine years while the Reds mock their fans by noting that they have no choice but to come watch their below-average product.
There simply aren’t that many “small-market” teams. This is the big leagues. There are no Mayberrys.
But for the sake of this exercise, let’s go ahead and rope the four smallest markets - Kansas City, Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Las Vegas (a self-inflicted market wound MLB gladly endorsed) into their own special little bucket. That’s just four of 30 major league teams, or 13%.
Well, if Milwaukee hoists the piece of metal at the end of this World Series, that will be two totally “small-market” teams winning titles in our 19-season sample size. That’s 10.5%.
Not exactly hopeless. And is that gap in access worth blowing up the salary structure of Major League Baseball, and imperil the 2027 season in service of a salary cap?
Far better to consider that the Royals and Reds and Athletics and Brewers are outliers, just as the Dodgers, Yankees, Mets and Phillies are. No, the wider swath of championships and pennants and playoff berths for these past couple decades have been claimed by what we might call “normal” markets and franchises – San Francisco and Houston, Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth, Washington and Boston.
None of those teams have blown up the game’s salary structure. Rarely do they dip very far over the luxury tax line, and most of them duck back under it shortly thereafter. They can splurge on free agents and win a World Series and then go into the fetal position for six years, should they desire.
Their successes and failures are relatively cyclical. The nature of competition in a free market, you might say.
That’s not to say there aren’t problems. The profligate spending of the Dodgers and Mets – spearheaded by two billionaires with boundary-pushingreputations, we might say – rightfully raises eyebrows. In the last collective-bargaining agreement, the league and the union agreed to what was informally known as the “Cohen Tax,” a fourth level of luxury tax aimed to punish extreme spenders such as the Mets owner.
This is a baseball problem that in a sense mirrors a societal one: Extreme income/revenue inequality.
In this arena, it is the 0.1% that’s creating the impression the game is rigged, even if Juan Soto can’t stay off the injured list and Kyle Tucker looked lost in his first season in L.A.
Yet baseball has some $13 billion flying around annually. This is a problem it can remedy, a solution already partway there as luxury tax penalties go toward player benefits and, to a degree, revenue sharing.
If the Dodgers are “ruining baseball” while teams like the Brewers watch helplessly as their best players leave (never mind that Christian Yelich is a Brewer for life and Jackson Chourio and Cooper Pratt are locked up for the long haul), simply eliminate the middleman.
Create another tax threshold – perhaps call it the Bezos Tax, in case he decides to get in the game. Funnel that money directly to whatever MLB wants to call “small market.”
And stipulate that the money must be spent on player retention or acquisition. Because right now, revenue-sharing recipients have significant leeway regarding how they can spend their welfare checks. Somehow it never shows up at the big league level – or perhaps they’re serving their minor leaguers caviar every night.
And if “Our Fans” fret about their teams losing their favorite players, they ought to take a look at the NBA right now.
That’s a place where the once-champion Celtics just traded beloved Jaylen Brown, bringing 6-year-olds to tears. Where the Thunder methodically and smartly built what looked like a burgeoning dynasty – only to be forced to deal three rotation players from their championship team for cap reasons even as a $1 billion taxpayer-funded arena rises in Oklahoma City.
Where the New York Knicks won their first championship since 1973 – yet are now a lot closer to a breakup than they are a repeat. Where four of the past eight NBA Finals MVPs changed hands in a three-week span this summer.
That’s the other side of the salary cap “Our Fans” might not consider. And that would hit every franchise, especially when you consider that for all the gold-plated items on the Dodgers roster, it’s often the Kiké Hernándezes and Will Smiths and Alex Vesias that resonate as much as Ohtani with some fans.
Naturally, “Our Fans” answered yes when MLB asked if they favored competitive balance. But you also better ask them these questions:
Does your owner actually care about winning?
Is your front office and executive leadership competent?
Would you be willing to bid some of your favorite players goodbye in the name of “cap space?”
In the months ahead, we’ll hear plenty about how a cap is the only way to make things fair. Yet we’ve still got Milwaukee-Tampa Bay in front of us, anyway.
Enjoy the games. It should be a great Series, even if TV ratings may not reflect it. And it might be the last game for a while, unless the league loses the actual labor war as swiftly as it lost the narrative.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - SEPTEMBER 2: Jared Triolo #19 of the Pittsburgh Pirates in action during the game against the San Francisco Giants at PNC Park on September 2, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Rawlings has announced the Gold Glove finalists for the 2026 season and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ utility man, Jared Triolo, once again finds himself in the mix.
Triolo is one of the three finalists for the National Leagues’ best utility defender, with two-time American League Gold Glove winner Maricio Dubon and Ildemaro Vargas being the other two up for the award. Since the addition of utility defenders being added to the award list, Triolo has been a finalist all three times. 2024 was the inaugural season in which utility players were recognized for the award, and Triolo was the National League’s first utility man to win a Gold Glove.
2026 was another stellar year for Triolo where he was was far in a way the best defender on the Pirates. He was incredible at shortstop in place of rookie Konnor Griffin who missed extensive amounts of time due to injury. At short Triolo racked up 4 DRS across 527.2 innings. He also saw a significant amount of time at third base and totaled 5 DRS in 260.1 innings. Triolo’s 5 DRS at third is just one short of the other two finalists’ totals.
Although he spent the majority of his time on the left side of the infield Triolo also made eight appearances at first base, six in right field and one in center. Third base was where he was rated the highest as a defender with his +5 DRS, a .975 fielding percentage and just two errors at the hot corner.
Triolo and Dubon have both received the award in the past, while this is Vargas’ first time finishing as a finalist for the award. The Pirates have two players receiving consideration for the award as second baseman Brandon Lowe is also a finalist in the NL. Staff writer Ethan Coulehan wrote a piece on Lowe and his stellar defensive season.
MIAMI, FL - MARCH 14: Teruaki Sato #7 of team Japan bats during the 2026 World Baseball Classic Quarterfinals game presented by Capital One between Team Venezuela and Team Japan at loanDepot park on Saturday, March 14, 2026 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Kelly Gavin/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
MLB Trade Rumors | Mark Polishuk: Third base will be one of the most scrutinized positions for the Yankees to upgrade this offseason after they got next to nothing from Ryan McMahon, and the biggest name on the market is Teruaki Sato from the Hanshin Tigers. The reigning Central League MVP and superstar in the NPB, Sato is will be 28 by the time next season starts and is high up on many teams’ wish lists this offseason, and the Tigers made it official that they will post Sato after the NPB season ends. Polishuk notes that the impending lockout could mess with Sato’s posting window, as all transactions would freeze on December 1st leading to the possibility that Sato has to sit through the lockout before resuming his posting window and the potential for him to stay in Japan for one more year should the lockout go long enough.
MLB.com | Brent Maguire: It comes as no real surprise, but reports have come out confirming that Aaron Boone will be the Yankees’ manager in 2027. The team was upended in the ALDS for the second consecutive season by the team that beat them out for the AL East crown, but with one year on his deal remaining it would’ve taken a real rift in the clubhouse or pressure from Hal Steinbrenner to actually fire Boone. Instead, he’ll get this next year to try and make it back to the Fall Classic, but if he falls short of the main goal again perhaps they’ll think about not renewing said contract and moving on.
The Athletic | Brendan Kuty: Austin Wells’ lost first half of the season was in no small part due to the cervical headaches he was suffering which prompted an IL stint in June. The cause of said headaches, though? Wells believes it was due to several hard foul tips that opposing batters lined into his mask, citing a couple moments against Boston and Milwaukee in particular. The perils of donning the tools of ignorance are no laughing matter, and Wells has done a fine job behind the plate when healthy. To all those who want to see Ben Rice spend time back there, take heed of Wells’ 53 wRC+ before that IL stint and ask yourselves if the Yankees should subject their newest star to potentially going through something similar.
Freddy Peralta was raised as a pro in Milwaukee, got lost in New York, found the greatest version of himself in Tampa Bay and now returns where it all began.
Only this time, he'll be climbing the biggest stage in baseball: Freddy Peralta and the Tampa Bay Rays vs. the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2026 World Series.
Peralta willed that scenario into reality Monday, Oct. 20, when he stretched his American League Championship Series shutout streak to 11 ⅔ innings and won Game 6 of this battle against the Cleveland Guardians, a 7-3 triumph that sent Tampa Bay to its third World Series in franchise history.
Peralta walked off with ALCS MVP honors, as he won Game 2, picked up two huge outs in relief in Game 4 and then won the clinching Game 6. It's just what he's been doing of late.
Since Aug. 26, Peralta has gone 7-0 with a 0.89 ERA in 10 games, including playoffs.
The Rays have won all 10 games.
"He's kind of put us on our back," Rays manager Kevin Cash acknowledged.
And who could have imagined that at the end of July, when Peralta was marooned in Queens with a 4.99 ERA after he was perhaps the most significant disappontment on a highly disappointing New York Mets team that thought acquiring him from Milwaukee was the last piece of a championship offseason.
They gave him a lifeline, though, dealing him out of last place in the NL East and into the penthouse of the AL East, acquiring three Rays minor leaguers in the deal. Suddenly, Peralta had new life, and no ill will toward his old employers.
"I’m very grateful for the Mets organization. They traded for me because they trusted my talent, trusted my career, and they support me," Peralta said in a postgame interview with TBS. "They were always taking care of me, trying to make me get my confidence back. They were really good about it.
"For some reason, it wasn’t able to click. But when I got here, everything changed."
Oh, did it.
Rays pitching coach Kyle Snyder has nearly an entire pitching staff of reclamation projects and optimized arms. Yet he had barely two months to work with Peralta before the playoffs.
No matter. Snyder gradually got Peralta to improve his extension down the mound and get his vaunted fastball up in the zone. Gradually, it kicked in and for the past nearly two months, Peralta has been unbeatable.
"You know, it feels so good," Peralta said in his MVP press conference, "because of the way that we've been working on the little things - not only the pitching coach and all that, I mean everybody, from the trainers, people that helped me to feel better with the massage and all that, it's been amazing, great communication.
"They've been awesome with me. They've been giving the best of themselves to make me feel good on the field every day."
This will likely be a short-hop stay in Tampa Bay. Peralta is a free agent at year's end, one reason why Milwaukee traded him with a year of control left. With this World Series matching lower-revenue clubs, it's likely Peralta will find his way to a club more willing to pay a premium.
But there's a World Series to play in the meantime. Peralta admits it will be a little emotional facing old mates, seeing familiar faces, his life as a two-time Milwaukee All-Star and a Tampa Bay ALCS MVP colliding.
"I think that they are great," says Peralta of the Brewers. "They are amazing and we are very similar teams. I don’t know how the people, the fans are going to take it. But I’m happy to go over there. I have a lot of people I love over there, people who care about me, who happen to be there.
"To be able to compete and...take a lot of pictures and videos. Because it’s something that probably won’t happen again."
