Category: Baseball

I realize that I’m cheating a bit here because it was probably more on folks’ minds yesterday, but 17 years and one day ago, the Yankees won the 2009 World Series. In one sense, it’s not that long ago. Talk to your local Knicks or Jets fan if you want to hear about a real drought. But the Knicks and Jets also don’t make nearly as big a deal about their history as the Yankees do, and they also keep giving themselves bites at the apple while constantly coming up short — especially in the past decade under Aaron Boone. Anyway, we’re now at the point where there are kids in college who have no concrete memories of the Yankees winning. Zoinks. The living embodiments only make it feel more distant.

Today on the site, Kevin will grade Gerrit Cole’s 2026 season and Jonathan will celebrate the 53rd birthday of one of the key members of that aforementioned 2009 championship team, Johnny Damon. Later, Andrés will ponder the fate of Jasson Domínguez.

Questions/Prompts

1. How aggressive do you think the Yankees should be on the free agent relief market beyond David Bednar? Or do you not consider it a priority?

2. How are you adjusting to Daylight Savings Time this fall?

Five recently retired umpires including Joe West – who officiated more games than anyone in baseball history – have filed a federal lawsuit against Major League Baseball claiming they were wrongfully underpaid in the MLB umpires’ retirement income plan.

The 44-page complaint was filed Sept. 29 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

There were at least two dozen retired umpires who were not provided the proper sum of money in their pension plan (“The American and National Leagues of Professional Baseball Clubs Retirement Income Plan for Umpires’’), according to attorney Paul Holmes, who’s representing the umpires along with Mark DeBofsky. Yet, only five umpires are part of this suit – all who have at least 25 years of major-league service and retired after the age of 65. They were underpaid the most, Holmes said, a total potential loss of about $2 million.

The umpires involved in the suit are West, Gerry Davis, Tom Hallion, Larry Vanover and Jerry Layne, who umpired a combined 21,063 regular-season games over 179 seasons, and retired after 2021. All five umpires were “paid far less than the full benefit earned under the Plan," according to the lawsuit. West and Vanover received their pension benefit in a lump-sum payment while the three others received annual payments.

“Those five are the ones who basically were the most adversely affected," Holmes told USA TODAY Sports. “They retired in their mid-to-late 60’s, and under the unique structure of the umpires' pension plan, MLB tried to short-change them."

MLB declined to comment because it’s an active lawsuit.

The umpires went through an administrative process in which their appeals were denied after complaints that began in November 2021, but when an MLB executive informed the umpires that “if you don’t like it, sue us," they decided to file suit.

The suit claims that there was a legal defect and misapplication of the retirement plan in calculating benefits, “including, but not limited to, a failure to provide actuarial increases to plan benefit amounts when the commencement of plan benefits is deferred beyond the umpire’s normal retirement age."

It also reads: “MLB was trying to hide the greater benefits under the 2005 Benefit Table after age 62 to encourage retirement at that age and to discourage umpires from continuing to work for MLB beyond age 62."

“MLB came up with a very unique and confusing benefit formula," Holmes said. “So, it was hard to tell what was exactly being promised. They then implemented several different administrative procedures and flat-out made mistakes.

“We’re pretty sure they were not accidents, they were intentional. When the same mistake is made for multiple people, over and over again, especially when we pointed out the mistakes, it’s not a mistake. Once is a mistake, ten to 12 times is a pattern.

“It was intentional underpayment hoping they wouldn’t get caught."

MLB readily admitted mistakes, Holmes said, and made an offer to reimburse the umpires for some of the money lost, but the umpires rejected the offer, believing it was inadequate.

“The table schedule in pension amounts were wrong," Holmes said. There were reductions, showing benefits going up until 62, and then down for three years. You can’t have one high pension at one age and then lower as you get older. Multiple umpires were paid the wrong form of payments.

“It was a problem that never got fixed.’’

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Retired umpires sue MLB claiming they were underpaid pension money

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The Pittsburgh Pirates have yet another budding star developing into one of the sport’s best prospects, as Wyatt Sanford has earned an invitation to the Arizona Fall League All-Star team.

Sanford has been one of the best hitters in the AFL this season and that started from his very first contest with the Glendale Desert Dogs. In his first game in Arizona the Frisco Texas product went deep for his first homer of the Fall league. Sanford would match that power with the longest homer of his career on October 22 when he hit a 454 foot shot to centerfield off a 95 mph fastball. Sanford’s power has been on display all year as he went from only hitting five last season to clobbering 19 in 2026.

In addition to his power at the plate, Sanford has been a consistent threat at the plate and has been very efficient during his time in the desert. The 20-year old shortstop is hitting 283/.386/.417 through 15 games. In that span he’s scored 13 runs and has had 17 hits, two doubles, nine RBIs and was walked nine times. For a predominantly defensive first infielder, he’s grown very quickly into a confident hitter.

Sanford spoke with Alex Stumpf of North Shore Nine and discussed his development as a hitter and the adjustments he made in the weight room and at the plate.

“This year was definitely a big confidence boost for sure. It felt really good coming up to the plate with an extra tool this year and I think it’s just going to propel me in my career with the years coming,” Sanford said. “Working on becoming a complete hitter down here. Had a lot of swing-and-misses here so trying to refine that while I’m here and if I can refine that, I’ll be a good little player.”

As the fifth-ranked Pirates’ prospect, there will be a lot of eyes on Sanford, especially after the showcase he’s put on in the AFL. He was the only Pirate to be selected to the AFL All-Star team this season.

The 20th annual AFL Fall-Stars Game will take place on Sunday, November 8, 2026, at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale.

MLB lockout tracker: What CBA talks mean for Phillies baseball originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

Free agency opened Monday, beginning an offseason that could be interrupted before the Phillies finish reshaping their roster.

Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement expires at 11:59 p.m. ET on Dec. 1. If the league and MLB Players Association do not reach another deal, owners are expected to impose a lockout that would halt major-league signings, trades and communication between teams and players.

That would not immediately cancel games. The previous lockout lasted 99 days before the sides reached an agreement in March 2022 and preserved a full 162-game schedule. Here is a complete explanation of how another lockout would work.

But the two sides remain far apart, primarily because MLB continues to push for a salary cap and floor that the union refuses to accept.

That disagreement carries particular importance in Philadelphia. The Phillies have consistently operated above the luxury-tax threshold under managing partner John Middleton, and MLB identified them as one of eight clubs that would have exceeded the cap in its latest proposal.

It also adds uncertainty to an offseason in which Philadelphia has needs at catcher, in the outfield and throughout its bullpen. Here are 20 free agents who could fit at different prices.

This tracker will be updated throughout negotiations, with the newest developments appearing first.

Last updated: Nov. 4

Where negotiations stand

• Current agreement expires: Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET
• Latest MLB proposal: A $258.2 million salary cap and $180.2 million floor beginning in 2028
• MLBPA response: The union remains firmly opposed to any cap
• Phillies impact: They could operate under the existing luxury-tax system in 2027 but would have to prepare for a hard ceiling the following year

Nov. 3: MLB pushes proposed cap to 2028; union rejects it

MLB’s revised offer did not remove the salary cap. It pushed its proposed implementation back one year.

Under the league’s latest proposal, the existing luxury-tax and revenue-sharing systems would remain in place for 2027. A hard cap of $258.2 million and floor of $180.2 million would then begin in 2028, accompanied by a 50-50 split of defined baseball revenue and centralized media revenue.

Teams could initially operate at 90 percent of the floor, or approximately $162.2 million, but would be required to reach the full amount over a three-year period.

Using 2026 payrolls, MLB estimated that eight clubs — including the Phillies — would have to reduce spending by a combined $528 million. Twelve others would need to add a combined $636 million to reach the floor.

Several other changes would begin in 2027 under the proposal:

• Players who have reached age 30 could qualify for free agency after five seasons rather than six, although their current club would retain an opportunity to keep them for another year.
• The qualifying-offer system would be eliminated for other free agents.
• The minimum salary would rise to $1 million for players with at least two years of service and $900,000 for those with less.
• The pre-arbitration bonus pool would increase from $50 million to $65 million.
• Optional assignments would be reduced from five to four, with additional limits placed on roster movement.
• Players would become eligible for the Rule 5 draft one year earlier.

Earlier provisions limiting free-agent contracts and eliminating new deferrals would also remain part of MLB’s overall proposal.

The MLBPA rejected the revision, saying a transition year would not change its objections to a cap. The union argued that MLB’s system would reduce player compensation, threaten guaranteed contracts through escrow and cut amateur signing bonuses.

For the Phillies, the delay is significant. MLB’s original proposal would have required them to become cap-compliant immediately in 2027. The revised version would allow them to spend under the familiar luxury-tax system for another season.

It would not make this winter’s decisions irrelevant to a future cap. Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper, Aaron Nola, J.T. Realmuto, Jesús Luzardo and Cristopher Sánchez are each under contract through at least 2028. Any multiyear addition the Phillies make this offseason would also remain on their books when the proposed system begins.

Zack Wheeler’s contract expires after 2027, meaning his $42 million average annual value would come off the books before the proposed cap takes effect.

Oct. 8: MLB proposes shorter season and different postseason format

MLB proposed reducing the regular season from 162 games to 154 beginning in 2029, with one scheduled off day each week. Player salaries would not be reduced, although contractual benchmarks would be adjusted proportionally.

The eight eliminated regular-season games would be offset partly by expanding the Division Series from five games to seven. MLB also proposed staggering postseason games to reduce weekday afternoon windows.

A more immediate change would begin in 2027. The No. 3 seed in each league would choose whether to face the fifth or sixth seed in the Wild Card Series. After that round, the No. 1 seed would select which Wild Card winner it wanted to play.

The Phillies entered the 2026 postseason as the National League’s sixth seed. Under the proposed format, their opponent would have selected them rather than being determined automatically by the bracket.

The union said it would review the scheduling changes but objected to MLB making the proposal contingent upon the acceptance of a cap-and-floor system.

Aug. 27: MLB proposes weekly rosters and condensed free agency

MLB presented several changes aimed at reducing roster movement.

Teams would set their 26-man roster each Monday and generally be unable to make changes during the week, with exceptions for injuries, trades, waiver claims and family leave. Clubs would be allowed to carry 14 pitchers, one more than the current limit.

The injured-list minimums would shift to one full week for position players and two weeks for pitchers. The 60-day injured list would become a 12-week list.

MLB also proposed a new offseason calendar. Following the option-decision period, teams could negotiate with free agents but could not finalize agreements until the opening day of the Winter Meetings. A concentrated signing window would last until Dec. 21, followed by a freeze on major-league transactions until the first Monday in February.

The MLBPA argued that compressing free agency would reduce player leverage by forcing players to compete for contracts within the same narrow window.

All of MLB’s proposed changes were tied to the union accepting a salary cap.

July 21: Players respond with their amateur draft proposal

The MLBPA proposed retaining the current 20-round domestic draft and preserving eligibility for high school and junior-college players. It also sought to make college sophomores eligible.

Other elements included:

• Increasing the amount available for signing bonuses
• Continuing to allow players to negotiate their bonuses
• Preserving competitive-balance selections for lower-revenue clubs
• Allowing teams to trade draft picks under certain restrictions
• Moving the draft from July back to June
• Providing additional bonus-pool money to lower-revenue teams that reach the postseason

The proposal was the union’s response to MLB’s attempt to overhaul both the domestic and international entry systems.

July 14: The divide becomes public in Philadelphia

No formal proposal was exchanged during All-Star week, but commissioner Rob Manfred and MLBPA interim executive director Bruce Meyer outlined the growing divide in separate news conferences in Philadelphia.

Manfred said the owners were more unified than at any point during his time in baseball. Meyer rejected the league’s argument that MLB needed a cap to preserve competitive balance, pointing instead to rising attendance, television audiences and franchise values.

Their comments made clear that the cap was not one of several secondary issues. It had become the central fight.

July 1: Union proposes roster and data protections

The MLBPA proposed expanding active rosters from 26 to 28 players for the first 15 days of the regular season, with a 14-pitcher maximum.

The union also sought to:

• Reduce optional assignments from five per season to three
• Allow teams to use the 60-day injured list before the tender deadline
• Accelerate Rule 5 eligibility and ensure the draft is held every year
• Protect the salary and service time of pitchers optioned around the All-Star break or after lengthy appearances
• Give players access to non-proprietary performance data and video collected by their clubs

Those protections would affect how the Phillies handle prospects and pitchers moving between Philadelphia and Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

June 25: MLB proposes limits on free-agent contracts

MLB added proposed restrictions on individual contracts to its cap-and-floor framework.

A player signing with a new organization could receive no more than five free-agent years, with his first-year salary limited to 15 percent of the cap. A player remaining with his current club could receive six years and 16 percent under a proposed “cornerstone player” provision.

Based on MLB’s original cap figure, the maximum guarantees would have been approximately $202 million over five years with a new team or $265 million over six years with the incumbent club. Annual salaries could increase by no more than 5 percent, and new deferred contracts would be prohibited.

MLB also accepted elements of the union’s opening proposal, including earlier free agency for certain players and the elimination of the current qualifying-offer system.

The Phillies recently declined to extend Alec Bohm the $23.15 million qualifying offer. Under MLB’s proposal, that mechanism and the accompanying draft-pick penalties would no longer exist.

The MLBPA responded that the potential gains were tied to accepting a cap and accompanying contract restrictions. Existing contracts would not be changed, but future deals resembling those signed by Harper and Turner would no longer be possible under the league’s proposal.

June 18: MLB proposes separate domestic and international drafts

MLB proposed separate 12-round domestic and international drafts, each beginning with a $200 million signing-bonus pool. Both would use hard-slot bonuses, although teams could trade selections under certain restrictions.

Under the domestic proposal, high school and junior-college players younger than 20 would no longer be draft eligible. The international signing age would rise from 17 to 18.

The MLBPA opposed the plan, estimating that it would remove more than $1 billion from amateur compensation over five years, including a $400 million reduction from 2026 to 2027. The union also objected to eliminating an entire international signing period during the transition.

May 28: MLB makes its initial cap-and-floor proposal

One day after the union presented its opening economic package, MLB proposed a seven-year agreement running through 2033.

The original plan included a $245.3 million cap and $171.2 million floor beginning in 2027. MLB said 12 clubs would have to add $617 million in combined payroll, while eight clubs — including the Phillies — would have to remove $578 million.

The cap would be calculated using luxury-tax payrolls, which include player benefits in addition to contract average annual values. MLB also proposed sharing defined baseball revenue equally with players and centralizing media revenue.

The union opposed the offer, arguing that MLB’s definitions of revenue and expenses would reduce the players’ existing share despite the advertised 50-50 split.

The Nov. 3 proposal superseded the original cap and floor amounts but retained the basic structure.

May 27: Players present their opening economic proposal

The MLBPA opened formal economic bargaining without proposing a hard cap.

Its plan included:

• Raising the major-league minimum from $780,000 to $1.5 million in 2027
• Increasing the base luxury-tax threshold from $244 million to $300 million
• Expanding salary-arbitration eligibility and guaranteeing arbitration salaries
• Increasing the pre-arbitration bonus pool from $50 million to $180 million
• Allowing qualified free agency after five seasons for players who have reached age 30
• Eliminating the qualifying offer for traditional free agents
• Creating a “competitive integrity tax” for clubs that remain below payroll benchmarks
• Guaranteeing each small-market club at least $240 million in annual revenue
• Requiring revenue-sharing recipients to use those funds toward improving their teams

MLB responded that the proposal would weaken competitive-balance protections and increase the spending gap between clubs. The union maintained that its plan would preserve the sport’s open market while penalizing organizations that collect shared revenue without investing in their rosters.

May 12: Formal negotiations begin

MLB and the MLBPA formally opened negotiations more than six months before the current agreement’s expiration.

The early start has not produced agreement on the largest issue. MLB continues to condition many of its proposals on the installation of a cap and floor. The union continues to treat a cap as a nonstarter.

Unless that changes before Dec. 1, the Phillies’ offseason could be paused before their roster is complete.

Tate Southisene is rapidly becoming an extremely exciting prospect and it would not be a surprise if he was a consensus top 50 prospect in baseball to start 2027. That’s a fantastic return for what was a well-underslot pick in 2025 that enabled the team to go out and get prospects like Briggs McKenzie and Connor Essenberg in the later rounds, who are also looking extremely promising. Southisene becoming a top prospect in his own right while also enabling the acquisition of other top prospects is an absolute coup and seems to be the keystone to a very promising 2025 draft class for Atlanta.

Braves News

Tate Southisene and Briggs McKenzie were named to the Fall Stars team in the Arizona Fall League.

The Braves are reportedly set to return their entire coaching staff, despite questions regarding baserunning, offensive production, and ABS decision-making in terms of coaching.

Sam reviewed the brief tenure of Ian Hamilton in Atlanta.

MLB News

Take a look ahead at the next class of free agents for the offseason following the 2027 season,

The Angels are in a holding pattern of being unable to hire a new GM until their sale is approved.

A serious bout of catcher injuries struck the Atlanta Braves during the first half of the season, and desperate times called for desperate measures. One of those measures, of the band-aid variety, ended up being Austin Wynns, who spent two weeks with the club in June and appeared in six games.

How Acquired

The Braves added Wynns in the middle of the season, while both Drake Baldwin and Sean Murphy were down with injuries. They sent cash considerations to the Angels in exchange for Wynns’ services, and designated longtime third-string catcher Chadwick Tromp in a corresponding move. The reasoning was a bit weird, though it was all meant to be a temporary fix anyway: Sandy Leon was getting the bulk of playing time anyway, so the Braves opted to acquire a backup-to-Leon instead of using Tromp in that role for whatever reason.

One silly thing about the Wynns acquisition is that the Braves kind of prompted it with their own DFA of Jonah Heim earlier in the season. The Athletics, who acquired Wynns in a midseason trade in 2025, DFAed him three days after trading for Heim. He was released and signed with the Angels, but didn’t get promoted to their big league team. Three weeks later, the Braves traded cash considerations (which is what they received for Heim) to Anaheim for Wynns.

What were the expectations?

There weren’t any real expectations, to be blunt.

Coming into 2026, the 35-year-old Wynns had a career 74 wRC+ that featured a pretty sizable xwOBA overperformance (.282 wOBA, .265 xwOBA) in 783 career PAs spanning parts of six major league seasons. He had never topped 180 PAs in a single season, nor 1.0 fWAR. He came kind of close in 2025 riding a massive xwOBA overperformance (.365 wOBA, .295 xwOBA), though. He also wasn’t highly regarded defensively, with just one good defensive year (2023) behind the plate and some substantially below-average performance in other seasons.

He wasn’t doing much of anything in 2026, either — a -47 wRC+ (yes, a negative sign) in 43 PAs in Sacramento before getting released. Basically, the Braves acquired a guy who had 0.6 career fWAR in 826 PAs at the big league level.

While it’s not entirely clear what the Braves were thinking in swapping Tromp for Wynns, it was a fairly inconsequential shuffle to try and survive until Baldwin and Murphy returned.

2026 results

Wynns was only with the Braves for two weeks, acquired on June 3, recalled on June 4, and granted free agency on June 16, the day after Baldwin returned from the Injured List.

During his time in Atlanta, he appeared in six games and was 1-for-14 at the plate. He had just one single and no walks, leaving him with a sad .071/.071/.071 slash line that was somehow even worse than his -47 wRC+ with the Athletics. In what would be his final game with the team, he went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts against the Mets. It wasn’t much better behind the plate, where he allowed six stolen bases and didn’t throw a single runner out, and lost nearly a run of defensive value despite barely playing, even after accounting for the massive catcher positional adjustment. In total, he put up -0.3 fWAR in 14 PAs, which by far his worst stint-with-a-team-in-a-season of his career, small sample size and all.

At least the baseball gods threw him a bit of a bone: after he rejected the Braves’ outright assignment and became a free agent, he signed a minor league deal with the Rangers, spent a month playing in their minor league system, and then got promoted for a month on the big league roster. In 32 PAs in Arlington, he somehow managed a .312 wOBA with a .195 xwOBA, and his defense improved-ish. All in all, Wynns finished 2026 with -0.7 fWAR in 89 PAs, but it would’ve been worse without that stint in the Lone Star State. The Rangers outrighted him in August, and he once again elected free agency, and spent the tail end of the season in the minors with the Cubs.

It wasn’t a fun season for Wynns, as he tied his career-worst in fWAR, had a sub-100 PA season for just the third time, and had a career-worst wRC+ (2).

What went right?

Per Statcast, his defense was commensurate with being in the 73rd percentile in blocks above average? That’s about the only good thing you can say for his season, and it’s largely negated by the fact that he was below average in caught stealing above average, framing and pop time.

In somewhat fitting fashion, Wynns’ “best” game as a Brave was the beginning of their downfall — that 6-5, extra-inning loss to the White Sox. Wynns’ hit was a one-out single that put runners on the corners on with one out while the Braves already had a one-run lead. They didn’t end up scoring in the frame, in part due to a fielder’s choice that threw the runner trying to go home out, and, well, you know how that game and the rest of June went for the Braves.

What went wrong?

Not to be harsh, but, pretty much everything. He wasn’t expected to be a plus bat but one could have at least hoped he could’ve improved on his -47 wRC+ from earlier in the year. That’s how you get a career-worst year.

If you had to pick a specific game from his six as a Brave, well, the day after that horrible loss to the White Sox, Wynns really faceplanted. He flew out with the bases loaded and two out in the second. Then he flew out with the go-ahead run on second and two out in the fourth. Then, after the leadoff man reached in the seventh and Wynns represented the tying run, he lined out. He didn’t get another chance in that game, as Eli White pinch-hit for him and drew a walk in the ninth, representing the tying run, but the Braves lost that game, 2-1.

2027 Outlook

With Wynns set to turn 36 in December, it seems quite possible this is the end of the road for his major league career. He may get another chance with a team if they pick up a rash of catcher injuries, but it’s hard to imagine that would be the Braves again. There are also enough catchers out there on the waiver wire that a guy who neither hits nor fields the catcher position particularly well doesn’t seem like anyone’s first choice, but… the Braves did deliberately acquire him last year, so you never know.

Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability). 

Yuki Matsui

The Padres signed Matsui to a five-year, $28 million deal heading into the 2024 season after the left-hander became an international free agent. He was the first free agent they signed that offseason to bolster their pitching staff after dealing away superstar Juan Soto to the New York Yankees. Matsui gave them modest results in 2024 and ‘25, posting sub-4.00 ERAs over 60-plus innings in both years.

Overall Grade: A+

He took that to new heights in 2026. Matsui posted a blistering 1.83 ERA and .171 opponent batting average across 64 innings of work. Since coming over from Japan, Matsui has struggled with command (1.22 career WHIP). In spite of that, he managed to work out of jams in 2026, regularly recording outs in key situations. Matsui was especially dominant down the stretch with a 1.42 ERA in his final 30 appearances and a 0.68 ERA in his last 15 outings.

Some of that may have been due to luck. Matsui’s expected ERA (3.03) was more than a full run above his actual mark (1.83). However, his expected opponent batting average (.170) was almost the exact same as his actual, so it’s hard to make heads or tells of it. Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) is a metric used to determine how dominant a pitcher is on his own (using homers, walks, hit-by-pitches and strikeouts). Essentially, it measures how good a pitcher is without his defense. Matsui’s 4.18 FIP isn’t exactly sterling, so the defense may have had something to do with it.

All that said, his season with the Friars was incredible. Matsui surprised just about everyone by being one of the most dominant left-handed relievers in the game. He was even better than his teammate Adrian Morejon (though he certainly doesn’t have the same track record as Morejon). Matsui decided earlier this week to remain with the Padres for the 2027 season, choosing not to exercise his opt-out. He’ll fill an important role in the Padres’ bullpen with the potential departures of Morejon and Jason Adam on the rise.

NY Daily News | Gary Phillips: The Yankees’ organization lost one of the cogs of their farm system on Wednesday, as news broke that their Triple-A manager Shelley Duncan had accepted a job with the Boston Red Sox to join their major league staff. Duncan has been the skipper of the RailRiders for the past four seasons, earning International League Manager of the Year honors in 2025, and oversaw the leap of several key faces on the current Yankees’ roster from fringe prospects to outright stardom in the case of Ben Rice and Cam Schlittler. With his contract expiring though, Duncan was free to explore new roles and he found a decent promotion landing in Boston. Duncan’s new role on the Red Sox is still to be determined, though based on the gaps on their staff it is likely that he’ll serve as either their first or third base coach.

MLB.com | Sam Dykstra: The Arizona Fall League is nearing the end of its run, and the Fall Stars Game is set to kick off this weekend on Sunday. The game features plenty of blue chip prospects, and last year’s class saw some names that immediately made an impression the next year in MLB. Ten of MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects will be on the field, and the Yankees will have one of them as Dax Kilby will get an invite to the game after he posted a .980 OPS in 15 games thus far. Chris Veach will join Kilby as the other Yankees representative at the game, the pitcher having tossed 9.2 innings in six appearances with a 3.72 ERA.

FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: A few days ago the ballot for the Hall of Fame Era Committee came out, and as Nick outlined for us, there were a number of people with Yankees ties up for election. Jaffe is working his way through the cases for each candidate, and his latest stop took him to Lou Piniella’s career. Sweet Lou came oh-so-close to election in previous ballots, but a stacked crowd this time around and a career that weighs heavily on his longevity rather than triumph beyond his early days managing in Cincinnati could hold him back from enshrinement.

The Cincinnati Reds once again find themselves as a provider of players for the Peoria Javelinas in this year’s Arizona Fall League. While not all of the work has come at their farm system’s expense, the Javelinas do find themselves atop the six-team standings at 14-10 at the moment, and that’s where they stood when the participants in Sunday’s AFL Fall Star Game were announced.

Three prospects off the Cincinnati farm were included on the roster for the National League side, including promising powerful young outfielder Yerlin Confidan. He sits tied for 10th in the league with 20 hits to his name to date, and he’s hitting .339/.371/.627 (.998 OPS) through 59 PA in what’s become a showcase for his toolsy repertoire. He’s also going to participate in the AFL Home Run Derby on Saturday.

Joining Confidan is infielder Carlos Sanchez, who’s having an equally impressive run of form in AFL play so far. Through 17 games (58 PA) he has walked as many times (14) as he has struck out (14), and has popped 4 homers in route to a .259/.397/.534 line. Considering he’s still just 21 and mowed through High-A Dayton to the tune of .313/.409/.504 (.912 OPS) in 325 PA before a mid-season promotion to AA Chattanooga, I’m more and more believing the Reds may be on to something with him.

Righty Luke Holman is having his own breakout in AFL play so far. The oft-injured former 2nd round pick out of LSU has been stellar so far through 13.0 IP (5 G), allowing just a lone earned run while fanning 20 against just 7 walks. It’s great to see him not only back healthy, but also shining given a) his journey through surgeries and recoveries since being drafted in 2024 and b) how thin the pitching depth in the Reds system has become of late.

The game will be carried via MLB.com, with first pitch slated to be thrown shortly after 8 PM ET.

Shelley Duncan, who managed the Yankees’ Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate the past four seasons, is reportedly headed to their rivals, joining the Red Sox’s major league staff under manager Chad Tracy.

Duncan, 47, is the son of longtime pitching coach Dave Duncan.

He was the Yankees’ second-round pick in 2001 and played the first three seasons of his seven-year major league career with the organization. 

He managed or coached in the Diamondbacks, Blue Jays and White Sox organizations before taking the helm at SWB prior to the 2023 season.

Duncan was named International Manager of the Year in 2025.

His brother, Chris, also played parts of five seasons in the majors, all with the Cardinals. 

Duncan’s hiring by the Red Sox was first reported by MassLive.

Jason Kanzler’s young son dozed off during the 45-minute press conference introducing Kanzler as the new Mariners manager, but he was the only one. The rest of the room was abuzz with questions, for Kanzler as well as Mariners execs Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander, who surprised the rest of the baseball world when it was announced the 36-year-old Kanzler would be accepting his first managerial job with the Mariners. That seemed to stand in contrast to a reported desire from the front office to find a candidate with experience in a big-league managing role, and has drawn some early criticism around baseball when the hire was announced. But for Dipoto, the experience question wasn’t such a question.

“Experience is good,” said Dipoto. “In this case, we didn’t think it was good enough to dissuade us from all the traits that Jason brings to the table.”

Those traits were on display in today’s introductory press conference. Kanzler gave thoughtful, concise answers that expressed his viewpoint, sprinkled in with a couple more quotable aphoristic slogans that it’s not hard to see catching on in the clubhouse (or in the marketing department; at one point Kanzler said, regarding the atmosphere at T-Mobile Park, he wanted to “ride the lightning” and Kevin Martinez, sitting behind me, made a noise that made me think we’ll be seeing that on t-shirts by the weekend). He even cracked some jokes, referring to the Astros, his former employers, as “the team who shall not be named.” For a team that had well-publicized communication breakdowns last year, with that quality being at the top of my personal wishlist for a manager, it was an encouraging introduction.

“The way he communicates is very clear,” said Dipoto. “You won’t be confused as to what the directive is when you leave the station, and I think our players will pick up on that.”

Hollander noted the Mariners had actually interviewed Kanzler before, back in 2021 for a potential additional hitting coach job, but ultimately couldn’t pry him away from the Astros. But Hollander said Kanzler’s interview was so impressive that his name continued to be brought up on and off over the years, until finally landing in the Mariners’ managerial search this year.

“I think he left us no choice throughout the process,” said Hollander. “It was just round after round, conversation after conversation. He dominated the process to the degree that I think we would have been foolish to take all the hard work and throw it out the window and not choose him.”

Kanzler said he actually realized he wanted to manage during the interview process, when he had an epiphany moment that directing a farm and managing a team aren’t all that different – both are concerned with developing players on the micro and macro levels and figuring out how to help people be the best version of themselves.

“This came about quickly, and I realized equally quickly throughout it that managing a major league club is just the pinnacle of what I was already doing as a farm director, where I had to manage an entire minor league system. This is just a way higher magnitude, with brighter lights and a third deck, but in the end, it’s the same. I want to win. I want to develop people. I want to develop players. And I want to achieve something with a collective and a great group of people around me.”

Kanzler said that what he’s focused on right now is getting to know the players he’ll be managing and building relationships with them, a process he said he’s started and he describes as being of “the utmost importance” to him. For Kanzler, everything starts with those relationships before anything else can be accomplished.

“It’s important to have connection with the players. It’s most important to have connection throughout the entire thing. The entire organization needs to be connected towards the common goal of winning the World Series…I like to think that the sign of things going well is when people start using the word ‘we’ more than ‘me’ or ‘I.’ When the group starts talking in ‘we’, then I know that things are going well.”

The 2026 Mariners lost their way, something that was largely attributed to a lack of solid clubhouse culture or identity: too much passivity, players not moving in a unified direction. While Kanzler says he wants the identity of the Mariners team to surface organically (the most specific vision of identity he’d give was “step on their throats”), Kanzler’s view of what the 2027 Mariners could be surprisingly starts with what the 2027 Mariners will not be.

“Culture is, in my opinion, all the things that you don’t allow. All the things that don’t happen. It’s the things that you hold the line against. It’s doing, obviously, the big things right, it’s doing all of the little things right all of the time, but most importantly, it is not doing the wrong thing as much as humanly possible. What we allow is what we stand for, and that’s what culture means to me.”

For a team that played some of the worst defense in MLB, made embarrassing baserunning gaffes, and overall didn’t play disciplined, consistent baseball, that vision has appeal: firm guardrails to keep things from going off the rails as they did last season.

“Accountability” was a popular buzzword after the disappointing 2026 season, but Kanzler is quick to clarify that accountability first and foremost requires communication and a clear definition.

“My view [of accountability] is that it requires clarity,” he said. “People need to understand what they’re accountable for before you can hold them accountable. So it starts with clarity, simplicity. Even when the things we’re talking about might be complex, they need to be understood. When people understand what the goal is and they have a clear path to get there and they understand how to get there, then all the stuff in between takes care of itself, and it makes those conversations much eaiser.”

Those hard conversations are ones Kanzler has been having with players for years, at multiple levels, and like his approach to building culture – not imposing it but allowing it to develop organically – he doesn’t force things on players, but rather sees himself as someone who can facilitate the player to coming to better decisions.

“It doesn’t necessarily land well with anyone when they’re told, like, you need to do this, you need to think this. So the way I challenge players and people is I ask questions. I listen a lot. I hear them. I propose alternate ways of thinking or looking at a problem. With players in this game, they are going to be faced with an unending slew of problems, small ones and big ones. They’re going to have to make adjustments. They’re going to have to get better at certain parts of their game. They’re going to have to maintain other parts of their game. They’re going to have to deal with so many things. And I think the ability to help them come to the more correct behavioral outcomes and decisions to make themselves better, and to work themselves through those situations, the better.”

But even if his method is more hands-off – the old “praise publicly, criticize privately” – Kanzler indicates he’s not afraid to get in there and tear things up when the time calls for it.

“There are times where, you know, we have to rip ass with the whole team, and that’s fine. You just have to pick your spots. I’ve been in a major league dugout, I’ve been around major league players, I’ve been around major league clubhouses. I understand when that’s appropriate and when it’s not. But overall, we want to celebrate the things that we care about publicly to reinforce them, and I’d rather address things that need to be addressed privately, to start.”

For Kanzler, that desire comes from what he wanted during his brief minor-league career. His coaching career, culminating in becoming the Mariners’ manager, is a full-circle moment that allows him to pour into players what he craved from coaches as a player.

“I wanted to be coached extremely hard, I wanted things to be intentional, and those are things that have stood with me. I bring intensity to the things that I do, and I really want that delivered to the players. Each of these players is a human being, and they deserve individual, deep attention, especially at this scale, at this stage. We owe it to the fans, we owe it to the organization, and we owe it to the players themselves to give them what they need individually to help the collective win….These are people’s lives, and there’s a lot of people that care about what happens and how these players grow and how they perform.”

“I’m the right man because I believe that every player and every person can be better, and I believe these players so deeply want to be better, and to grow and to win as a unit, and I’m excited to get that out of them.”

Not a lot of traction in the nominations thread, with only a couple of comments, and one genuine suggestion! Consequently, I get to exercise my executive privilege and pick the five candidates out of the twenty-five originally included in the short-list. Except, I actually added another one from the infield, to make six in all. It’s good to be the King. 🙂

4/3 – Alek Thomas’ diving catch

Though first chronologically, this was the last one I added to the ballot, because choosing between the outfield plays was really hard. There was no obviously outstanding candidates, but there were a lot of very good ones. I will admit, a certain amount of nostalgic bias may have crept in, with Thomas delivering in his last full month as a Diamondback, after having been drafted by the organization back in 2018. He certainly had his moments. While he’ll be best remembered for his NLCS home-run against the Phillies in 2023, his defense rarely failed to show up, every day. He was always in contention for this category, and this full-speed dive is no exception.

5/12: Nolan Arenado’s crafty double play

I wanted to include a play from each of our Gold Glovers, but doing so would have meant no room for Arenado, who certainly deserved a mention. His signing was likely Mike Hazen’s best move of last winter, and in addition to the thirty home-runs, Nolan showed he could still flash the leather at the hot corner. There were a number of credible candidates from Arenado, but I particularly liked this one, which showcased his quick thinking. Immediately realizing how much time was available to him, Nolan first moved to tag the runner out going from second to third, before firing a strike over to first base to get the second out.

6/23: D-backs turn 6-2 double play

Nominated by Sighborg. The only suggestion was for the rather less conventional double-play Sighborg appropriately named “The Germinator.” Arguably, there was as much bad as good to be found there, even if the outcome was a highly satisfactory, inning ending double-play! But Geraldo Perdomo was blameless, and our Gold Glover deserves much credit for his presence of mind. After narrowly avoiding getting run over by Tommy Troy, who either didn’t hear or chose to ignore Perdomo’s call, Gerry still made the catch and then threw home to get the runner, trying to advance from third in the chaos. That proved decisive in what ended as a one-run win for the D-backs

8/7: Corbin Carroll ROBS a home run!

Five-star catches are those plays which Statcast assesses a typical fielder would make less than twenty-five percent of the time. According to this chart, in 2026 Carroll recorded seven such outs, behind only likely MVP winner Pete Crow-Armstrong and the Red Sox’s Ceddanne Rafaela in this category, among all MLB outfielders. I don’t know which plays of Corbin’s specifically qualified (I wish you could search Statcast data by catch percentage!), but I feel sure if this play was not one of the seven, it is certainly the equal of them. That it took a home-run away from the Dodgers is the icing on this particular cake.

8/7: Gabriel Moreno throws out Shohei Ohtani at second

Two Play of the Year candidates from the same game? Oh, alright: if you insist. Once more with feeling, because making the Dodgers look dumb always gave a case of the extra warm fuzzies. This perfect throw down to second base, demonstrates why Moreno is the only Arizona catcher ever to win the Gold Glove, now having two on his mantelpiece. Ohtani was just one of the fourteen baserunners Moreno nailed this year, and it was particularly amusing how he thought otherwise. Get your butt back to the dugout, Shohei! Moreno also picked off four base-runners in 2026 – no catcher in the majors had more.

8/25: Ryan Waldschmidt walks off the Cubs

For the home-run, I definitely wanted to go with one of the walk-offs. Each of the three had something to say for them. For example, Waldy’s one just 18 days earlier was against the Dodgers, always a bonus. But in the end, I had to go with his later one. The +85.5% Win Probability it was worth, made it the highest single play by a Diamondback for over fourteen years, since Ryan Roberts against the A’s in June 2012. [Marte’s walkoff against the Giants was almost as good, at +82.7%] Nick Ahmed had 2,897 at-bats as a Diamondback without a walk-off home-run. Waldschmidt hit a pair over a span of a mere 43 at-bats in August. “The Cubs comeback is complete.” 🙂