After three seasons in Philadelphia, Taijuan Walker remains one of the harder players on the roster to evaluate. Brought on to bring stability to the rotation, he’s been serviceable at times and frustrating at others. Now, he enters 2026 in a gray area between reliable and replaceable.
An average start
When the Phillies signed Walker to a four-year, $72 million deal in December 2022, the expectations were clear. He was coming off his best season in the bigs — a 3.49 ERA across 29 starts for the Mets — and was expected to be a steady option behind Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola.
In his first year in Philadelphia, Walker largely held up his end. He tallied 15 wins and logged 172 ⅔ innings, both career highs. But when October came, the Phillies failed to give him the ball one time across 13 postseason games that year. This expressed the questionable trust the organization had in the right-hander.
Underwhelming results since
Injuries and inconsistency followed. Walker battled injuries throughout 2024 and in 2025, he shifted between the rotation and bullpen. He made 21 starts and 13 relief outings, finishing with a 4.08 ERA and a 108 ERA+ — eight percent better than league average.
The tough reality has always been who Walker succeeds against. Since arriving in Philadelphia, Walker has a 6.67 ERA in 21 starts against playoff teams, with opponents hitting .306. Against non-playoff opponents, he owns a 4.17 ERA across 46 starts. For a club with postseason aspirations every season, that split is challenging to ignore.
The outlook for 2026
With Zack Wheeler recovering from thoracic outlet surgery and expected to miss around the first two months, the Phillies’ rotation remains unsettled. Ranger Suárez’s return in free agency appears unlikely, leaving Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo and Aaron Nola as the only locks for 2026.
Top prospect Andrew Painter is inching closer to the Majors after missing two full seasons with a torn UCL. He returned in 2025 but struggled across 26 starts between Single-A and Triple-A, posting a 5.49 ERA. The organization still believes in his upside, but command remains a concern — he averaged 3.6 walks per nine innings — which could make it tough to hand him a rotation spot out of Spring Training.
Walker’s situation feels similar to Marcus Stroman’s with the Yankees last season. Stroman, in the final year of an $18 million deal, opened the year in the rotation largely out of necessity after injuries to Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil. The results were uneven, but the Yankees had little choice but to ride it out until reinforcements arrived.
Where he fits, the path forward
Given the Phillies’ current rotation outlook, Walker could stick around out strictly out of need. He’s owed $18 million in the final year of his deal, and with the front office unlikely to spend heavily on another starter, his ability to take the ball every fifth day might keep him in the mix by default.
His limitations are obvious, but his value lies in stability. If he gives the Phillies 15-to-20 starts with an ERA around 4.00, that’s enough to steady the back end until Wheeler returns and Painter is ready.
If another team calls looking for pitching depth, Philadelphia could explore a trade while covering part of the salary. But for now, keeping Walker as a short-term bridge makes the most sense.
One of the top needs for the Mets this winter is to acquire a frontline type of starter. I look at that as getting a No. 1 or No. 2 type of arm that could pair with Nolan McLean atop the rotation.
I know there is an infatuation with the concept of the Mets needing an ace. That would be nice, and trading for Tarik Skubal would be getting an ace. Outside of that? I am not sure there is going to be another true ace available. I believe that term is thrown around too loosely on some pitchers, but that is a conversation for another day.
Among the many intriguing possibilities in the trade market, one of the standouts is Marlins right-hander Sandy Alcantara.
Here are the pros and cons of trading for him…
PROS
In 2022, Alcantara won the National League Cy Young award after posting a 2.28 ERA in 228.2 innings and throwing six complete games, which is unheard of in this era. He clearly looked like he was on the shortlist to be considered the best pitcher in the sport.
After undergoing Tommy John surgery in October of 2023, the now 30-year-old Alcantara returned in 2025 and continued to improve as the year went on. From July 18 through the end of the season, he posted a 3.33 ERA in 13 starts across 83.2 innings with 71 strikeouts. In seven of those 13 starts, Alcantara pitched 7.0 innings. In that span, opposing batters hit only .217 against him.
The starting pitchers’ inability to pitch deep into games was one of the downfalls of the 2025 Mets. Alcantara would be a boost to that.
As would be expected, Alcantara’s control and command steadily improved as he readjusted to being back on a normal rotational turn. He slashed his walk rate from nine percent in the first half to six percent in the second half, which would be just a touch higher than his Cy Young season.
Mar 27, 2025; Miami, Florida, USA; Miami Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara (22) looks on against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at loanDepot Park. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Alcantara’s strikeout rate also rose from 17.3 percent to 21.3 percent in that stretch, which isn’t an elite number, but it is closer to average. He has always been a ground ball merchant, and his ground ball rate of 48.1 percent was not far off from 2022.
From a stuff standpoint, his average fastball velocity of 97.8 mph in the second half of 2025 is exactly the same as his average fastball velocity in 2022. By all accounts, he had a perfectly normal, expected return from Tommy John, where things got gradually better as his first season back wore on.
From a contractual standpoint, he is a tremendous fit. Unlike Skubal, for example, who would be a free agent at the end of the 2026 season, Alcantara would be under team control through 2027. He is owed $17 million in 2026 and there is a club option for 2027 at $21 million. A two-year $38 million dollar deal for a pitcher with this type of potential would look nice on a payroll sheet that includes some hefty, long-term contracts.
CONS
Yes, Alcantara won the Cy Young in 2022. But in 2023, he was more or less an average pitcher -- with a 4.14 ERA accompanied by a 4.03 FIP in 28 starts before his season ended in the beginning of September, leading into his Tommy John surgery.
When he returned from Tommy John in 2025, from Opening Day through July 9, Alcantara posted an ERA of 7.22. That stretch did come with a 4.22 FIP, which implies some bad luck.
It has been a tale of two almost equal, but opposite, stretches of time for Alcantara. From 2022 to 2025, he had an excellent year and a half stretch (2022+2025 second half) and a well below average or worse year and a half stretch (2023+2025 first half).
The question is, which version of Alcantara would the Mets be buying?
While the fastball velocity is there, Alcantara has never generated swings and misses at a rate more than average. In 2025, his chase percentage of 29 percent was in the 57th percentile. Previously, he carried elite numbers in chase percentage. In 2023, he was in the 97th percentile and in 2022, the 94th percentile. That chase number will have to rise to sustain success, given his profile of not missing a ton of bats.
That team-friendly contract also means the Marlins will have the right to have a very high asking price. Dealing Alcantara was an option for them at the 2025 trade deadline, but the general asking price for him was described to me as "massive."
After a great second half, what would be the Marlins' motivation to lower the asking price? Is there an in-division tax?
This likely means having to trade two of the Mets' top five prospects and possibly another piece or two on the back end.
Miami Marlins starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara (22) pitches against the Colorado Rockies during the sixth inning at loanDepot Park / Sam Navarro - Imagn Images
VERDICT
There is a very real chance the Tigers hang onto Skubal, who should be the Mets' top priority, and make a push for a World Series in 2026. They can decide to deal with the future in the future.
Either way, the Mets cannot come up empty handed in the rotation this winter.
Could they look at a different arm in the trade market? Absolutely. There will be at least a few real options out there. Do the other options possess the same potential that Alcantara does? That is debatable, but I do not believe so.
If the asking price is one of Jett Williams or Carson Benge plus someone like Brandon Sproat, is that worth doing?
I would lean against making the blockbuster for Alcantara. While the upside is there, the downside is a lot of risk to be willing to part with multiple high-end prospects.
Vitello gets the chance to coach the organization’s top prospect, 21-year-old Bryce Eldridge. During an interview on 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs”, Vitello revealed how Eldridge can improve.
“Physically, he’s still growing into that body,” Vitello noted. “And body control is so important. Part of that is adding in agility stuff and things to become more athletic.”
Eldridge stands at 6-foot-7, weighing 240 pounds. He is the tallest position player to wear a Giants uniform since first baseman Damon Minor (2000-04).
At just 21-years-old, it probably hasn’t been long since Eldridge stopped growing. Getting more comfortable with his body, as Vitello says, will help him at the plate.
“With those guys, it takes longer to gain true core strength and control your body and just make things easier to repeat,” Vitello explained. “When he does that, it’ll be a higher percentage of success he has at the plate.”
Eldridge, called up from Triple-A in mid-September, had just three hits in 28 at-bats in his 10 games played with the Giants. Despite his quiet late-season major league stint, he was a force in the minor leagues, which earned him the call-up. In 102 games played across three minor league levels, Eldridge batted .260 with 25 home runs and 84 RBI.
Learning how to play in his body will help him with more than just hitting, Vitello notes.
“Defensively and on the bases, I think he’ll become a more complete player and more of a complete athlete,” Vitello said.
Eldridge’s new major league coach also praised the young prospect’s foundation that will help with his development.
“I wouldn’t by any means call him raw. He knows what he is doing,” Vitello said. “He played at a very high level in some competitive areas and on a great team when he was in high school even. And now he’s been through the system a little bit.”
Eldridge’s development could prove to be Vitello’s keystone project in his new job, given the manager’s expertise, and he clearly is excited about the prospect’s potential.
“What a blessing, to see a guy that is ultra-talented and can make an impact at a high level right away. But also, you can legitimately dream on what is to come,” Vitello said.
SAN DIEGO — Right-hander Yu Darvish will miss the 2026 season with the San Diego Padres after surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow.
The 39-year-old Darvish also got an internal brace in the surgery performed last week, the Padres announced Tuesday.
“I will be working hard on my rehab to be able to throw a ball comfortably again,” Darvish wrote in Japanese on social media.
Darvish had Tommy John surgery in March 2015 and returned to a major league mound on May 28, 2016.
The five-time All-Star went 5-5 with a 5.38 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 15 starts for the Padres last season after missing the first three months due to elbow inflammation. Darvish started the decisive Game 3 of San Diego's wild card series against the Chicago Cubs, but he took the loss after allowing two runs on four hits and failing to record an out in the second inning.
Darvish has completed three seasons of the $108 million, six-year contract he agreed to in February 2023 wkth the Padres, who acquired him before the 2021 season. Darvish led the AL in strikeouts in 2013 and led the NL in victories in 2020.
His injury is a blow to a Padres rotation that was already in flux after San Diego made the playoffs for the fourth time in six seasons, but failed to advance. Right-hander Dylan Cease is a free agent, and right-hander Michael King became a free agent Monday after declining his option for 2026.
The Padres' remaining proven starters are Nick Pivetta, Randy Vasquez and Joe Musgrove, who is scheduled to return next year from Tommy John surgery. San Diego also acquired JP Sears in the deadline trade that also brought vaunted reliever Mason Miller, a starter earlier in his career.
Darvish will have plenty to keep him occupied during his year away from the mound: His oldest son, Shoei, has committed to play baseball at UC San Diego after he graduates from high school next year.
The move comes after what was a down season for the Japanese southpaw. Imanaga went 9-8 with a 3.73 ERA across 25 starts in 2025. But those numbers don’t tell the entire story. The one-time All-Star had a second half to forget, with a 4.70 ERA over his final 13 starts.
His struggles continued into the postseason, where he pitched to a 8.10 ERA in two starts, including a dreadful NLDS outing against the Milwaukee Brewers in which he allowed four earned runs over 2 2/3 innings. Imanaga allowed at least one home run in each of his final 11 starts of 2025, regular season and postseason. Chicago chose not to start him in its winner-take-all NLDS Game 5, opting for a bullpen game instead — a telling reflection of the Cubs’ lack of confidence in the southpaw.
Imanaga finishes his tenure in Chicago 24-11 with a 3.28 ERA over 54 starts. He signed a four-year, $54 million deal with the Cubs the winter before the 2024 season. Now Imanaga, 32, will look for a new opportunity elsewhere. He becomes an interesting addition to a starting pitching market that lacks quality left-handers beyond Ranger Suárez.
With Imanaga’s departure, Chicago’s rotation is notably thin. While All-Star Matthew Boyd and NL Rookie of the Year finalist Cade Horton return, there are a lot of questions behind them. The Cubs will get left-hander Justin Steele back at some point in 2026, after he finishes recovering from Tommy John Surgery early in 2025. Other internal options include Javier Assad and Ben Brown, but the Cubs will surely need to acquire another arm or two this winter. — Dorsey
What to make of Imanaga’s free agency?
The complex, four-year contract Imanaga signed with the Cubs two years ago featured a crucial decision point following the 2025 season, when Chicago could opt to guarantee Imanaga three more seasons at $57 million or decline to do so, instead affording Imanaga the opportunity to exercise a $15.25 million player option for 2026. Chicago declined to extend Imanaga for three more years, and Imanaga then declined his own one-year option, adding him to the intriguing pool of free-agent starting pitchers.
Brilliant as a 30-year-old rookie in 2024, Imanaga regressed in his second major-league season in terms of both durability and effectiveness, missing several starts due to a hamstring strain midsummer and seeing his ERA rise from 2.91 to 3.73. While he remains an elite strike-thrower who doesn’t allow a boatload of baserunners — his WHIP actually improved in his second season — Imanaga is troublingly susceptible to opponents’ slugging, with a 1.93 HR/9 that ranked second-highest among pitchers with at least 100 innings thrown in 2025. That bugaboo proved costly in the postseason, when he surrendered two key long balls against Milwaukee in NLDS Game 2.
It’s an imperfect profile, but there is still a lot to like about what Imanaga brings on and off the field. Whether he ends up securing a deal in excess of the three-year, $57 million structure that Chicago declined to exercise is suddenly one of the more interesting subplots of this offseason. — Shusterman
When it comes to the lineup and rotation of the 2026 Boston Red Sox, the unknowns may outweigh the knowns. With trade possibilities looming and free-agent decisions to be made, Craig Breslow and Co. have a lot of work to do in the coming months to try to build a winner.
Some clarity came on Tuesday, though, when Trevor Story opted in to the final two years of his contract, according to several reports.
The decision was largely expected, as Story is due $25 million in each of the next two seasons. His deal also has a $25 million club option for 2028, with a $5 million buyout if the team opts to move on from the shortstop. Essentially, Story and his agents believed a guaranteed $55 million was a safer bet than going to market and seeking more.
For a soon-to-be 33-year-old who just had his first healthy season since 2021, that’s surely a smart move.
From the Red Sox’ perspective, it at least provides one sure thing in an infield full of question marks.
Alex Bregman, who shared the left side of the infield with Story last year, opted out of his contract. Bregman and agent Scott Boras are banking on a team willing to go above and beyond the $80 million that was left on his Red Sox deal. And even though Bregman will be 32 years old in March and missed seven weeks with a quad injury last season, he was productive and played exceptional defense at third base, potentially making him pricier than the Red Sox are willing to go this winter.
The backup plan if Bregman gets a big-money deal elsewhere is most likely Marcelo Mayer, who was called up to the majors after Bregman’s injury last May. Though the fourth overall pick of the 2021 draft got off to a slow start, he posted a .788 OPS in June and registered 11 extra-base hits over the final 100 at-bats of his season. He may be ready to play every day … if he can stay healthy.
A wrist injury (suffered on a check swing) limited him to just 87 games between Triple-A and Boston last year. He played in just 77 games in 2024 and 78 games in 2023. The Red Sox haven’t indicated their level of concern for Mayer’s proclivity for injury, but it’s a worthwhile question to wonder if they’d be motivated to trade Mayer if it helped land a frontline starting pitcher like Joe Ryan.
Either way, while the Red Sox might like to pencil in Mayer at third (or second) base next season, it doesn’t feel like a sure thing.
And all of that only covers one side of the infield. The other side’s even messier.
Six players spent time at second base in 2025.
One of them — Ceddanne Rafaela — just won the Gold Glove in center field. He should get the Rafael Devers treatment of being told to put his infielder’s glove away permanently.
One was David Hamilton, who posted a .590 OPS. Another was Romy Gonzalez, who’s primarily a platoon player who can hit lefties. One was Nick Sogard, and the other was the biggest question mark of them all: Kristian Campbell.
Campbell, of course, started the season in the majors, batted .423 in his first eight games, signed a long-term contract, and then struggled mightily offensively and defensively before getting sent down to Worcester in mid-June. He never made his way back to the big leagues.
Just like with Mayer, the Red Sox would like to pencil in Campbell as an everyday big leaguer in 2026, but his .799 OPS in 73 Triple-A games last year doesn’t indicate that he’s necessarily ready for that role.
And then there’s first base.
Triston Casas manned the position before his season-ending knee injury, though he was hitting just .182 through 29 games when he went down. At this point in his career (he made his MLB debut in 2022 and has played 251 games), Casas may simply not be the player the Red Sox hoped he’d be by now.
Gonzalez and Abraham Toro tried to hold down first base in the months that followed, but it wasn’t until the DFA’d Nathaniel Lowe was signed in August that the position was somewhat stabilized.
The Red Sox will surely be looking for an upgrade from “somewhat stabilized” at first base next year. With a number of free agents available — with Pete Alonso, Josh Naylor and Ryan O’Hearn atop the list — the Red Sox could solve this one with money. Just like with Mayer and Campbell, the team can’t feel overly confident relying on Casas.
Taken together, the Red Sox have a number of unresolved situations around the infield. And that’s ignoring the fact that they have four starting-caliber outfielders in Rafaela, Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran, and a designated hitter in Masataka Yoshida with a sub-.700 OPS.
As previously stated, a busy winter begins now for Breslow and the front office. But at the very least, they know for now that their shortstop will be Trevor Story.
That is, unless like he did in 2022, and again in 2023, and again in 2024, he suffers a significant injury.
In that sense, the only real sure thing learned on Tuesday is that the Red Sox will continue to pay Story a boatload of money while hoping for the best.
Opening Day is a mere 142 days away. The clock is officially ticking.
Clayton Kershaw hoists the World Series trophy at Rogers Centre on Saturday after the Dodgers' 11-inning win in Game 7. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
With confetti at his feet, a drink in his hand and a smile of equal parts relief and elation planted on his face, Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy gave the question of the night only a cursory thought.
Over the last six seasons, Muncy had been one of six Dodgers players to have a hand in all three of their recent World Series championships. He had become one of the faces of a team that elevated itself to historic all-time heights.
But when the topic of the club’s legacy came up, as he stood on the field in the wake of the Dodgers’ Game 7 thrill ride in Toronto on Saturday night, the 35-year-old veteran’s mind was occupied by another thought. The pride he felt emanated from a different source.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is the culture that we have created,” he said. “I hope that’s what’s talked about the most.”
In the public discourse, of course, it won’t be.
These Dodgers, with their star-studded roster and record-setting $415 million payroll and long-established reputation as big-spending villains who might be ruining baseball, have only further fueled debates about the financial inequities of the sport.
With a labor battle looming next year, they will be turned into a proxy — the prime example, critics will argue, of what’s wrong with the only major professional sports league in North America without a hard salary cap.
Some of those concerns will be justified (the Dodgers are spending at levels MLB has never before seen, and well beyond most of their competition). Others will be exaggerated (they are also spending within the league’s rules, and re-investing revenues back into their roster at a higher percentage than almost all other franchises).
The players themselves, however, really couldn’t care less.
Money, after all, might have given them the talent to win back-to-back World Series. But it took something else to help them get to, and especially conquer, the mental and physical test they faced in Saturday’s Game 7.
“When you come to the Dodgers, and you put on that Dodgers uniform, it’s all about, ‘How do you do what you need to do to win the game? How do you help the team win the game?’” Muncy said, his hoarse voice beginning to crack. “I seriously can’t put into words how much it means to me that we’ve created something that’s that special. that everyone knows about now.”
Dodgers second baseman Miguel Rojas, right, celebrates with Max Muncy after the team won Game 7 of the World Series. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Culture and camaraderie might be clichéd traits easy to point to in the wake of any World Series championship, but they were nonetheless present in the Dodgers’ quest to repeat this year.
Take the first big turning point of this postseason: The iconic “wheel play” the Dodgers ran to defend a bunt in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
That maneuver was suggested and executed by Mookie Betts — a player the Dodgers signed for $365 million five years ago to be a Gold Glove right fielder, but who moved to shortstop out of roster necessity on a full-time basis this season and transformed into a Gold Glove finalist.
Dollars might be the reason Betts now plays in Los Angeles. But it was his tireless daily routine of taking infield grounders, and his ability to learn from and overcome early-season growing pains, that made that moment possible.
“For him to play that caliber of shortstop, I think, is underappreciated,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “I don't think people are paying enough attention to how difficult that was.”
Clinching the NLDS required contributions from another star talent serving in an unexpected new role.
When rookie Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers this offseason, it enflamed the external worries about their hoarding of talent. Sasaki, however, struggled as a starter, missed most of the year with a shoulder injury, then faced a decision ahead of the playoffs about whether or not to move to the bullpen.
He accepted, despite having never been a reliever in his professional career before. And in the playoffs, he fulfilled the team’s gaping hole at closer, highlighted by the three perfect innings he pitched in their NLDS-clinching Game 4 win.
From left, Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki celebrate after winning the World Series. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“For Roki to come through in that spot after the year he’s had,” Muncy said at the time, “that was just so huge for us.”
The NL Championship Series was the one time the Dodgers clearly outclassed a playoff opponent, rolling past the overmatched Milwaukee Brewers behind historic starting pitching performances from Blake Snell (a $182 million signing last offseason), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (a $365 million signing the winter before) and Tyler Glasnow (a $136.5 million acquisition), then an all-time two-way showing in Game 4 from Shohei Ohtani (the $700 million man who has been at the center of the consternation over the Dodgers’ spending).
The World Series, however, brought an unexpectedly stiff challenge from the Toronto Blue Jays — who were heavy underdogs to the Dodgers despite their own top-five payroll of $278 million.
In the Fall Classic, the Dodgers’ sheen of invincibility was shattered. Their lineup struggled. Only Yamamoto maintained his previous level of dominance in the rotation. A long-suspect bullpen finally faltered. And in many facets of the series (in which the Blue Jays outscored the Dodgers 34-26 and hit .269 to the Dodgers’ .203 team average), the Dodgers looked second-best.
“I mean, big picture-wise, we didn't play very well,” Friedman said. “But those big pivotal moments is where our guys really showed up … Which I think gets at who they are, the compete, how much they care about each other, how much they care about bringing a championship back to LA in back-to-back years.”
There was Game 3, when the Dodgers prevailed in an 18-inning marathon by getting an unforeseen boost from little-known reliever Will Klein, who was willing to sacrifice his arm in a grueling four-inning outing despite spending most of this year stuck in the minors.
There was Game 6, when the team survived a potential season-ending, ninth-inning jam thanks to the veteran defensive instinct Kiké Hernández (the high-energy October stalwart who started every game of the playoffs after limited playing time in the regular season) and Miguel Rojas (who has become one of the emotional leaders of the team since being acquired in a 2023 trade for a minor-league prospect, despite also serving in a depth role for most of the summer) flashed on a victory-sealing double play.
“That's what makes us really tough,” Rojas said. “[We’re] competing every single day, and regardless of what the situation is, I think everybody [is able to] just kind of forget about the past and focus on the moment right now.”
The Dodgers trailed early, with Rogers Centre shaking after Bo Bichette’s third-inning three-run homer. They couldn’t lean on Ohtani, who looked gassed while starting the game as a pitcher on short rest. They had to claw their way back instead, playing from behind all the way into the ninth inning — when their season was two outs away from ending in failure.
“We just kept going and going and going,” Muncy said. “I’m just really proud of all the guys for not giving up hope.”
It would’ve been easy to do so. After two exhausting years — full of deep postseason runs and season-opening international trips and the daily pressure that came with their heavy offseason expenditures — the club’s tank appeared to be teetering on empty. Sheer talent, after all, can only sustain for so long.
“It's been a long journey for the team, for the organization, for every player out here,” Rojas said before Game 6. “It's been really stressful and everybody's mentally tired.”
But this, Muncy declared, is where the Dodgers’ culture kicked in.
“It’s all about the team. It doesn’t matter about yourself,” he said. “When you’re coming in off the field and you have a whole group of guys in [the dugout] saying, ‘Hey, great inning. Let’s scrap something together. Let’s get a guy on base. Let’s get a run in,’ that kind of means everything.”
In the end, the Dodgers conjured their most heroic moments for when they needed them most.
With one out in the ninth, it was none other than Rojas — who was uncertain to even play in Game 7 after aggravating an intercostal injury the night before — who tied the score with a miraculous home run swing.
“When you play the game right, treat people right, are the teammate like Miguel is, I think we said it in there, the game honors you,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Just doing whatever he could to help this team win.”
From there, the Dodgers (turning to their fourth traditional starter out of the bullpen on the night) summoned Yamamoto, who did something no record-breaking contract could have ever predicted by throwing 2 ⅔ scoreless innings on zero days’ rest after his 96-pitch start in Game 6.
“Can’t evaluate that,” Friedman said.
“That’s going to go down in history as one of the best championship performances in any sport,” pitching coach Mark Prior added.
Will Smith, one of the few homegrown talents on a team of hired guns, delivered the winning swing with his home run in the 11th.
“To me, he kind of epitomizes a lot of the success that we've had looking back,” Friedman said. “In terms of our scouting process, our player development process, how well they work together, and then him coming through and having the impact he's had at the Major League level."
And fittingly, it was Betts who recorded the championship-clinching outs on a double-play chopper hit to him at short.
“A perfect bow on what was an incredible season for what he did at shortstop this year,” Friedman said.
All of it, Muncy proudly noted, exemplified what the Dodgers maintain was the ethos of their team; the kind of intangibles that won’t show up on a balance sheet or payroll list, even with all the money they’ve spent.
“That’s what we’ve created here,” Muncy said. “And that’s what I’m most proud of.”
“We kept going, and we persevered,” manager Dave Roberts echoed. “And we're the last team standing.”
On the latest episode of The Mets Pod presented by Tri-State Cadillac, Connor Rogers and Joe DeMayo welcome the official beginning of the offseason, as the 2026 Mets begin to take shape.
First up, the guys recap the World Series and look for lessons to learn from the Dodgers' success, then discuss the free agencies of Pete Alonso and Edwin Diaz, the return of A.J. Minter, as well as the prospect of Justin Willard as the team’s new pitching coach.
Then, Connor and Joe do a deep dive into several free agent options for the Mets in the position player group.
The show then goes Down on the Farm for a report on pitcher Jonathan Santucci, and answers Mailbag questions about the bullpen, the Dodgers being a threat to sign Diaz, trading for Vinnie Pasquantino, pursuing Alex Bregman and Josh Naylor, and which Mets player should enter the tournament to be John Cena’s final opponent in WWE.
Be sure to subscribe to The Mets Pod at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
This will be the second managerial gig of Weiss’ career. The 14-year big leaguer and 1988 AL Rookie of the Year helmed the Colorado Rockies, for whom he played four years, from 2013-16. That tenure was decidedly unfruitful, as Weiss posted a 283-365 record with an undermanned roster in Denver. After a year off, he joined the Braves as Snitker’s right-hand man for the 2018 season. Since then, the goateed 61-year-old has been a steady presence and key character during this extremely prosperous period of Atlanta baseball.
As such, his hiring represents cultural continuity for a Braves team coming off its worst season since 2017. Atlanta finished a distant fourth in the NL East, with a paltry 76-86 record. In an embarrassingly weak National League field — the Reds made the playoffs, despite being just four games over .500 — the Braves concluded the campaign seven games adrift in the standings.
Injuries and underperformance were dual culprits behind Atlanta’s disappointing 2025. Ronald Acuña Jr., Sean Murphy, Austin Riley, Chris Sale, Spencer Schwellenbach and Reynaldo López all missed significant chunks of time. Michael Harris II and Marcell Ozuna took steps back offensively. Spencer Strider failed to rediscover his peak form after missing all of 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Major free-agent signing Jurickson Profar was limited to 80 games after being hit with a PED suspension late in spring training.
So now Weiss is tasked with getting things back on track for a franchise that made seven consecutive postseasons, including winning six NL East titles, between 2018-24. It certainly doesn’t look like the most imposing turnaround job in MLB history; this Braves roster still has a plethora of enviable pieces. Simply put, another October spent on vacation would be considered a massive disappointment.
By promoting from within, the Braves and president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos are effectively doubling down on the status quo. Weiss is a known commodity. He knows the organization, and the organization knows him. He has been with the big-league club longer than every current Braves player except Ozzie Albies.
Critically, the players respect Weiss and listen to what he has to say. For an outside hire, that would have been an open question — or at least a process. Instead, the Braves can plug and play. It’s a sign that Antholopolous and his very small inner circle view 2025 as an aberration, not the start of a trend.
Weiss and his predecessor are, obviously, their own men. But both are cut from a gruff, hold-no-punches, old-school cloth. Like Snitker, Weiss is direct, honest, unapologetic. But while Snitker was no dinosaur, expect the new guy to be a bit more nimble with the analytical intricacies of modern baseball. Weiss’ hiring also means that Atlanta’s 2026 coaching staff will likely feature many of the same characters as in years past, though his bench coach role will need filling.
That it took more than a month between Snitker’s stepping down and Weiss’ stepping in is undeniably compelling. This was far from a preordained succession plan, even though Snitker was at Weiss’ introductory news conference on Tuesday. In the time since Snitker announced his retirement on Oct. 1, the Rangers, Angels, Giants, Twins, Nationals and Orioles all introduced new managers. That implies that Anthopoulos and Co., at the very least, discussed and considered making an outside hire.
But while a number of coaches were linked to this job — Tigers bench Coach George Lombard, Dodgers bench coach Danny Lehman, former Mets bench coach and big-league skipper John Gibbons — the buttoned-up nature of Atlanta’s front office has thus far prevented news of any interviews from leaking to the public.
That is, from a pessimist’s perspective, the biggest critique of Weiss’ promotion. The Braves have grown increasingly insular in recent years. That consistency can be valuable, but it also heightens the risk of an institution growing stale and stagnant. Weiss isn’t likely to arrive with any groundbreaking, new ideas — something that might have been helpful for an Atlanta team trying to keep pace in a rapidly evolving baseball world.
He is more of the same, which, considering how successful the Braves have been in recent years, might a good thing.
The Mets continue adding to their pitching depth early this offseason.
The team announced on Tuesday that they are bringing back LHP Brandon Waddell on a one-year major league deal.
Waddell returns to Queens after making 11 appearances with the team last season.
The 31-year-old southpaw spent the majority of the year down in Triple-A Syracuse after signing on a minor league deal, but he was called upon to make spot starts and provide innings out of the bullpen down the stretch.
He pitched to a 3.45 ERA and 1.27 WHIP with 22 strikeouts across 31.1 innings at the big league level.
Waddell will now compete for a spot as a bulk arm in what figures to be a revamped Mets bullpen in spring training.
Fans lined the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the Dodgers' World Series championship parade and celebration. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Out in Wisconsin's state capital, where the orange leaves are falling and every other person seems to wear the red and white of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the pride and pain of rooting for the Dodgers in 2025 played out in the household of Carolina Sarmiento and Revel Sims.
They're urban planning professors, Southern California natives — he's from Eagle Rock, she's from Santa Ana; they met at UCLA — and longtime friends of mine who have lived in Madison for a decade but are still involved in immigrant and anti-gentrification activism back home. I visited them recently as part of a speaking tour of Midwestern colleges and found myself in the middle of a debate that passed through the lives of too many people we know back home.
It's one that's unlikely to completely fade away no matter how many rings and parades the Boys in Blue rack up:
Is it OK to, well, revel, in this year's World Series champs?
On one hand the Dodgers won back-to-back titles for their first time ever and became the first team to do so in a generation. The squad looked like Los Angeles at its best: people from across the world who set aside their egos to win and bring joy to millions of Angelenos in a most difficult year for the City of Angels.
L.A., a city long synonymous with winning — the weather, the teams, the people, the food — has suffered a terrible losing streak that started with the deadly and catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires and continues with mass deportations that the Trump administration vows to escalate.
That's where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans. For them, the actions and inactions of the team this year have been indefensible.
"For me, it started when the Dodgers went to the White House," said the 45-year-old as we drove to their blue-and-white house. She especially took issue with shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 when he was with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox but shook Trump's hand this time around, describing his previous snub as "very selfish."
"Who got in his ear?" she exclaimed, bringing out dried mangoes for us to snack on as we waited for Sims to come home. "Since when has standing up for injustice been about you?"
Sarmiento didn't grow up a Dodgers fan but bought into the team once she and Sims became a couple. They and their two young sons usually attended Dodgers games on trips back home and regularly caught the Dodgers in Milwaukee whenever they played the Brewers. One time, manager Dave Roberts "happily" signed a jersey for them when the family ran into him at a hotel, Sarmiento said.
In Madison, she long wore a Dodgers sweatshirt emblazoned with the Mexican flag that Sims bought for her because "it was a way to represent home. But not anymore. I tell Revel, 'Babe, I'm not asking you to boycott the Dodgers forever, but they gotta give us something back.'"
Sure, the Dodgers blocked federal agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in June just after la migra raided a Home Depot facility. Shortly after, the team donated $1 million to the California Community Foundation to disburse to nonprofits assisting families affected by Trump's deportation Leviathan.
But as the summer went along, Sarmiento grew frustrated that only Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández spoke out against immigration raids and Trump's deployment of the Marines and National Guard. She also wondered why Dodgers chairman Mark Walter wouldn't address charges that companies he has investments in do business with Trump's deportation machine. One has a stake in a private prison company that contracts with the federal government to run immigrant detention centers; another has a joint venture with Palantir, which ICE has contracted to create data surveillance systems that would make the Eye of Sauron from "The Lord of the Rings" series seem as innocuous as a teddy bear.
"After a while, it's like a woman who knows her partner is a cheater but keeps saying, 'He's not a cheater, he's not a cheater' and then gets upset when he cheats on her again. At that point, all you can say is, 'Girl...'"
I brought up how many Dodgers fans I know saw the team's World Series win as a giant middle finger to Trump.
The heroes of Games 6 and 7, outfielders Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas, come respectively from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, a commonwealth Trump has neglected and a country he's salivating to invade. The team's most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, still proudly speaks in his native Japanese despite being in the U.S. for eight years and knowing some English. Tens of thousands of fans came out for the Dodgers victory parade and celebration at Dodger Stadium, many of them undoubtedly immigrants.
Isn't it OK to let folks be happy?
"It's like community benefit agreements," Sarmiento responded, referring to a tactic by neighborhood groups that sees them win commitments from developers on issues like open space, union contracts and affordable housing with the threat of protests and lawsuits. "You know what's coming, so you try to get something out of it. This year was a political moment that fans could've taken and they didn't, so the Dodgers gave nothing."
We greeted Sims as he walked in. The two of us walked down to the basement, where he watched the World Series in exile on a big-screen TV.
"It's a little lonely being a Dodgers fan out here," joked the 48-year-old, although he was heartened to have seen a fellow University of Wisconsin professor decked out in a Freddie Freeman jersey earlier in the day. Sims grew up going to Dodger Stadium with his father and remembered going to games on his own in the mid-2000s "when it wasn't a pretty time."
He brought up the Dodgers' owner from that era: Frank McCourt, who raised ticket and concession prices seemingly every year and who still partially owns the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. Fans responded to his disastrous regime by protesting before and during games. "It was disheartening to not see that in the stadium this year, when there was an even bigger problem going on."
Sims felt "conflicted" rooting for the Dodgers this year. He watched every game he could but admitted he found the team celebrating ethnic pride nights "hollow" as raids increased across Los Angeles and the Trump administration attacked the rights of groups that the Dodgers were honoring.
"It would've been easy [for the Dodgers] to make a bland statement — 'We're a team full of immigrants in a city of immigrants and we're proud of us all' — and you wouldn't have to go any further. They have a historical obligation to do that because of their history."
But not rooting for the Dodgers was never an option.
Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands onstage at the World Series celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday. (Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
"I want to see L.A. people happy. The parade! It's a free holiday. People just ditch work and don't get in trouble for it. We're the only city — not New York, not Boston, not San Francisco — with a chant against us. We're despised and misunderstood. So if the Dodgers win, L.A. wins."
Sarmiento joined us. "She's my better political half," Sims cracked. "Caro said to pick another sport."
"No I didn't!" she kindly replied. "I just said to take a pause, just for now. A political pause."
Sims admitted that that a vintage jacket that he used to bring out every October as the Dodgers made another playoff run and Wisconsin turns cold was still in the closet. "I haven't worn any gear all year."
"When you went to the game!" Sarmiento shot back, referring to a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year with his local softball team.
"I went with a Valenzuela jersey to represent L.A.," Sims responded as Sarmiento shook her head.
He laughed.
"I love the team. I just don't like this team for not saying anything. But it's what I signed up for."
CHICAGO — Left-hander Shota Imanaga became eligible for free agency when the Chicago Cubs declined an option to keep his contract by guaranteeing $57 million for the 2026-28 seasons and he turned down a $15.25 million option for 2026, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not announced the decisions.
Imanaga agreed in January 2024 to a contract guaranteeing $53 million. He wound up earning $23.25 million over two seasons, including a $250,000 escalator for 2025 by finishing fourth in 2024 NL Cy Young Award voting.
Chicago had to decide whether to exercise its option for $20.25 million each in 2026 and ’27 and $17.25 million in 2028, figures that increase by $250,000 each because of the escalator.
Once the team declined, he had the decision on a 2026 option. If he had exercised that option, it would have triggered club options for $24.25 million in 2027 and $15.25 million in 2028.
The Cubs could still extend Imanaga a qualifying offer of $22,025,000 for 2026. If he declines and signs with another team before the amateur draft, the Cubs would receive a draft pick as compensation.
Imanaga, 32, was an All-Star in 2024, when he went 15-3 with a 2.91 ERA, finishing fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.
He was 9-8 with a 3.73 ERA in 25 starts this year, when he was sidelined between May 24 and June 26 by a strained left hamstring.
ATLANTA — There were times during the Atlanta Braves’ 33-day search for a new manager that Walt Weiss thought “that ship had sailed” regarding his chances to move up from bench coach and replace Brian Snitker, who is transitioning to an advisor role with the franchise.
He got the call he was hoping for from Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos.
“We all know Alex, how thorough he is and how stealthy he is,” said Weiss, who spoke to reporters for the first time as Braves manager after eight years as bench coach. “He likes to work under the cover of darkness, and so you know this process would be like that at times. But yeah, I couldn’t be more excited yesterday when I got that call.”
In addition to his eight years as Snitker’s bench coach, during which the Braves reached the postseason seven times, Weiss played the final three years of his 14-year MLB career in Atlanta from 1998-2000. He was an All-Star for the only time in his career in 1998 under Hall of Fame manager Bobby Cox.
There was speculation the Braves would go outside the Cox tree for this opening after hiring Fredi González (2011) and Snitker (2016). Anthopoulos did not specify how many formal interviews he conducted, though he said he spoke to “a lot” of candidates and other people about the opening. Ultimately, he stayed in house.
“It is important for us to get it right,” Anthopoulos said. “It was a rare opportunity for us to really canvas the entire league, talk to as many people and do as much background work as we could. And ultimately, that search came back to Walt, and I couldn’t be more excited his experience, his character, his work ethic. (It) is exactly what we want here.”
Weiss won a World Series with Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa in Oakland and either played or worked under Don Baylor, Rene Lachemann, Clint Hurdle and Snitker. He said he has learned from all of them and will incorporate that into how he works his second stint as an MLB manager, which lasted from 2013-16 in Colorado. He had a 283-365 record (.437).
“I’ve evolved from my first job in Colorado,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot. The game has changed. I’m sure I’ve changed and hopefully (I’m) wiser.”
Weiss said any team outside of the Dodgers would sign up for what the Braves have accomplished the last eight years under Snitker and he understands the brand of the franchise and what it means to the fanbase. He also said his familiarity with the players and the organization will allow him to hit the ground running during his first season when the Braves try to rebound from a 76-86 season that had a mix of costly injuries and some underperformance of established players.
“It takes a better part of a year to truly understand your team,” Weiss said. “I’m talking about getting to know them on a deep level. What makes them tick? What situations (do) they thrive in, even down to their body language? So that’s a process that takes the better part of a year. And I think the fact that I’ve been here, a lot of those things are already established.”
The Braves did not have any announcements regarding Weiss’s staff, but that is a “front-burner” issue for Anthopoulos, who said he has already discussed it with Weiss. He also made it clear what the expectations are moving forward.
“(Making the playoffs), that’s just a standard that we’ve set here,” Anthopoulos said. “And that’s a credit to Snit, to Bobby Cox, to (former general manager) John Schuerholz that have set the standard here. You know, you guys like Nick Saban, the standard is the standard, and it is. We expect to be in the playoffs year in and year out. So, you know, this is a real responsibility, and we owed it to make sure that we left no stone unturned and were as thorough as we could be, even if it was someone that was already internal.”
Much different than last season, Pete Alonso is entering free agency coming off a tremendous season at the plate. Will that be enough to finally get him paid though?
The league consensus seems to be that he’s destined to be a designated hitter sooner rather than later and that lumbering sluggers like him aren’t worth long-term commitments. Let’s see if that’s really the case.
Stars like Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Cody Bellinger join headliners Kyle Tucker, Dylan Cease, and Bo Bichette in a 2025–26 MLB free agent class loaded with impact bats and arms.
Don’t forget: Check out theRotoworld player news feed for all the latest news, rumors, and transactions as MLB’s Hot Stove gets underway!
▶ Alonso in Review
Alonso has been one of the most prolific run producers in the league since he debuted in 2019. He set the all-time rookie home run record that season with 53 and has never hit fewer than 34 in a full season since.
Overall, only Aaron Judge and Kyle Schwarber have more homers than Alonso since he entered the league and no player has driven in more runs.
Yet, he’s still had some major ebbs and flows in his overall consistency as a hitter. He put up career lows with a .217 batting average and .318 on-base percentage in 2023 with a shockingly low hard-hit rate that dipped below the major league average.
He followed that up with another lackluster season by his own standards setting career lows in homers and RBI. Many of his quality of contact metrics did tick back up though, just without enough consistent contact being made.
It was nice to see those regular season doldrums not carry into the playoffs where he had a .999 OPS, 10 RBI, and four homers in 13 games including this dramatic blast to give the Mets an improbable win over the Brewers to advance to the NLDS.
Despite those heroics, the two worst seasons of his career back-to-back didn’t put him in a good position as his contract expired after last year. He floundered on the market until early February before begrudgingly signing a two-year deal with an opt-out to return to the Mets.
This season was much better. Alonso got back to hitting the ball incredibly hard and was eighth in the league with a 141 wRC+ partially fueled by a career-best .272 batting average. He made more contact, that contact was consistently of higher quality, and he maintained what has always been elite bat speed plus elite swing decisions.
His future at first base is in question, but Alonso is still absolutely an elite hitter and can likely sustain as such through his mid-30s.
▶ Market Outlook
A huge bounceback campaign without being saddled by a qualifying offer will surely help Alonso get closer to the long-term deal he sought last offseason. Early word from agent Scott Boras is that they’re seeking a seven-year contract.
This will probably more serve as an anchoring point rather than a firm line. The only first baseman in the league who signed for more than three years are Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Alonso is either older, less consistent, or simply not on the same level as the members of that trio.
Still, a four- or five-year deal could make sense given a skill set – top of the league bat speed and excellent swing decisions – that should keep him as a high-end power hitter until his mid-30s.
A lot of the conversation will come back to his overall value though, which is dragged down by a poor glove. That likely makes him best fit as a part-time designated hitter now and possibly close to a full time one within a few years. Also, the way we’ve seen similarly built powerful first baseman fall apart quickly as they’ve aged.
Everything you need to know about MLB free agency, including key dates, the top names on the market, qualifying offers, and draft pick compensation.
D.J. Short
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▶ Best Fits
Mets: The most obvious fit given his long history with the club and lack of a fill-in at first base if he were to sign elsewhere. He’s the franchise’s all-time home run leader, a fan favorite, and is coming off one of the best seasons of his career. Yet, the Mets were unwilling to give him a long term contract last winter so it’s very possible they once again balk if a bidding war takes Alonso’s deal to five years or more.
Red Sox: Desperate for both a power bat and first baseman, Alonso fits the bill for a team that could be aggressive this winter after a surprise playoff appearance. Triston Casas is still (somewhat) in the picture though, so it’s unclear if they’d commit many years to Alonso.
Phillies: Let’s get crazy. Is there a world where Bryce Harper can move back to the outfield to acquiesce Alonso at first base? It was apparently on the table last offseason and the Phillies are desperate to get over the hump, with or without Kyle Schwarber. Taking a huge bat out of the Mets’ lineup would be an added bonus.
Then, it’s about whether certain power-hungry teams actually want to spend money.
ThePirates should be a great fit if they ever decide it’s time to try and win baseball games. Same goes for the Mariners if Josh Naylor winds up elsewhere and they’re willing to open up the checkbook. Maybe the Rangers as well if they believe they’re still in their competitive window. Do the Reds want to tie their lineup together with a true masher? Then boom, Alonso is a fit there too.
Yet, we’ll never be certain who is actually willing to spend money in any given offseason.
Contract Prediction
Once again, Alonso’s market could be softer than he and Boras hope and if they overplay their hand once again, the Mets will be sitting back and ready for a compromise. Plus, Alonso is so embedded in the Mets’ culture that all parties likely want to wind up back together.
Matthew Pouliot
D.J. Short