Category: Baseball

The Milwaukee Brewers are fresh off a huge series sweep of the Chicago Cubs that, had there been any doubt remaining, all but locked up the NL Central division. It also put the Brewers on the precipice of officially clinching a playoff spot, which they can do tonight: a win (or losses by both San Diego and Arizona) clinches the Brewers’ eighth postseason berth in the last nine years. For you kids out there, the Brewers didn’t make the postseason for the first 20 years of my life… and that streak was already six years old when I was born!

While they’ve more or less taken care of their business on a team level this regular season, some questions remain about how the postseason pitching staff will shake out. Many of those questions revolve around two currently underperforming players who could claim a rotation spot with strong finishes to the season, Dustin May and Kyle Harrison. If either finishes strong, it could provide a lot of clarity for how the Brewers will approach their playoff rotation. May makes his first bid at showing something, as he makes his seventh start as a Brewer tonight. May got off to a good start as a Brewer, but things have been rough lately; in two starts since leaving after his first pitch was lined off his back on August 26, May has allowed six runs in eight shaky innings.

The Reds counter with lefty Andrew Abbott. Abbott is in the fourth year of a solid career, but in his first three seasons he was a player who tended to outperform — sometimes drastically — his peripherals. This year, he hasn’t. With 29 starts and 152 1/3 innings, Abbott has been one of the more durable pitchers in the league this season, but he’s pitched to a pedestrian 4.43 ERA and 4.78 FIP while not striking out many batters (7.1 K/9) and walking too many (4.1 BB/9). Abbott’s results against the Brewers have been a bit better, though: In two starts, he’s gone nine innings and allowed three earned runs, with eight strikeouts to five walks.

Today’s roster note, which came out in phases over the last couple of days, is that Brandon Sproat, after his poor outing on Wednesday, was sent back to Triple-A Nashville while Garrett Stallings, who didn’t allow a run and struck out nine in eight innings across four appearances for the Brewers earlier this season, was recalled.

The Brewers are fielding a strong lineup versus the left-handed Abbott tonight. Jackson Chourio leads off and is joined in the outfield by Garrett Mitchell in center and Luis Lara in right. Jake Bauers, Brice Turang, Cooper Pratt, Joey Ortiz, and William Contreras make up the infield, while Andrew Vaughn is the designated hitter.

Let’s see if the Brewers can get a little bit of revenge on the Reds, to whom they dropped two of three to in Cincinnati last week. Tonight’s game is exclusively on Apple TV (my apologies on baseball’s behalf), but of course you can hear it on the Brewers Radio Network. 6:45 p.m. first pitch; see you in the comment section.

Back on Apple TV tonight

📺: Apple TV
📻: WTMJ#ThisIsMyCrewpic.twitter.com/59z1HNQjqv

— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) September 11, 2026

First of three in Milwaukee.

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/qd0DIffgeP

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 11, 2026

Brett Batyisn't in the Mets' starting lineup Friday against the Yankees, but that's by design.

Although Baty left Wednesday's series finale with the Marlins with knee pain, interim manager Andy Green assured that Baty "is going to be just fine" after he underwent an MRI on Thursday, and that the left-handed-hitting Baty wouldn't be in the lineup against southpaw Carlos Rodon anyway. But Green expects Baty to be available off the bench.

The Mets, who come into the Subway Series winners of four straight and five of their last six, could use Baty's hot bat. In his only at-bat Wednesday, Baty hit a single to extend his hitting streak to six games. Over his last seven games, Baty is batting .375 with two home runs and 10 RBI. 

Before Friday's game, Green was asked what has changed with Baty of late and the Mets skipper said that the youngster is using the whole field, which he's done more over the last month than he did when Green was first announced as interim manager. 

"The consistency of the at-bat wasn’t at the level where he is right now, where he’s using the entire field," Green explained. "The best version of [Baty] uses the whole field... Brett has the capacity to do all of it. Understanding what your strengths are. He’s just been really good using the whole field."

Later, Green said that Baty's defensive versatility makes him valuable to the Mets and that the next step in Baty's development is to unlock the consistency at the plate, which the organization hopes he can figure out for the rest of this season. 

"Having someone who can move around [the diamond] like that and have the offensive upside that he has is rare in this game," Green said. "You want to get away from words like ‘upside’ and flip it over to ‘consistent production.’ That’s what he’s done over the last month and that’s what we want to see carried forward through the rest of this season and onto next season."

Well, when it comes to potential AL East playoff opponents, the majority want nothing to do with the New York Yankees.

For this week’s Rays Reacts poll, I asked which AL East team you least wanted to face, and the result was clear. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they do not want to face the Yankees in the postseason among the AL East options.

The result tracks with my own sentiments, which are familiar mix of respect, rivalry fatigue, and hard-earned wariness, although the numbers this season offer some encouraging context: The Rays currently lead the season series against the Yankees 6-3 (all in the first half), including an early-season sweep at the Trop.

Yet the Yankees remain the Yankees, capable of explosive offense, deep pitching, and that perennial October pedigree that has frustrated Rays fans for years. Even a favorable regular-season mark doesn’t fully erase the memory of high-stakes series that have gone the other way in the past.

Compare that to the other AL East clubs. Against the Toronto Blue Jays, the Rays have been dominant at 9-4. The Blue Jays have been the division’s soft underbelly this year, and the Rays have not missed their opportunities against the Canadians.

Against the Boston Red Sox, the season series sits even at 5-5, and the matchups have competitive and sometimes frustrating, but not nearly as strong of a problem with visiting fans as the Yankees pose at the Trop.

With the Rays sitting atop the AL East at 87-59 and the Yankees three games back at 84-62, the division race remains very much alive. The Red Sox at 80-67 are solidly in wild card contention, while the Blue Jays at 73-74 trail the playoffs by one game back.

Playoff matchups are never guaranteed: seeding, wild-card results, and the whims of October baseball will decide who lines up against whom. But if the Rays do clinch the East and earn a first-round bye or favorable bracket, the fan preference is unmistakable.

Given the current standings and remaining schedule, which includes a late September series in the Bronx, the preference may end up being tested one way or another. And when playoff time comes, you are welcome to put your money where your vote is with our friends at FanDuel, who sponsored this post.

For now, the message from the poll is simple: give us the Blue Jays or even the Red Sox. Keep the Yankees on the other side of the bracket, if possible.

Go Rays!

Three games for the San Francisco Giants Minor League Baseball affiliates on Thursday, as the season nears an end for everyone. Here’s everything that happened.

Link to the 2026 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the position played in that particular game.

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News

Some good news on the injury front. AAA Sacramento outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) was in huge amounts of pain on Wednesday when he fouled a ball off his foot, and had to leave the game with the trainers. But the Giants are officially calling it just a contusion, rather than a fracture. Hopefully that means he can still return before the season ends.

In transaction news, AA Richmond RHP Manuel Mercedes was placed on the Development List, while Low-A San Jose outfielder Peyton Bonds was activated off the Injured List.

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AAA Sacramento (77-61)

Sacramento River Cats lost to the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) 6-2
Box score

After back-to-back excellent pitching games from the River Cats, they finally fell prey to the offensive environment of Las Vegas.

It was RHP Trystan Vrieling whom the Aviators got to, as the soon-to-turn 26-year old once again got beat up. The 2022 3rd-rounder got rocked for 10 hits in 5 innings which, along with 2 walks, put 4 runs on the board. Needless to say, 12 baserunners in 5 innings isn’t a good game, but it was notable that Vrieling struck out 9 batters. That’s a large number for the Gonzaga alum, as he is not really a strikeout artist: he had just 8.3 strikeouts per 9 innings in AA this year.

Vrieling has really struggled since a recent promotion which, admittedly, was due more to roster logistics than merit, as he only had a 4.23 ERA and a 5.06 FIP in Richmond. Through 3 games with Sacramento, Vrieling has given up a staggering 28 hits in just 13 innings, with 8 walks and 16 earned runs, though he does have 18 strikeouts.

RHP R.J. Dabovich also had a tough go of it, as he gave up a walk and a 2-run home run in an inning of work, with an error, though he struck out 2 batters. Dabovich has been quite good since returning to health, so this was a rare not-great game for him. RHP Wilkin Ramos was the lone bright spot on the mound, as he pitched 2 shutout innings with 1 hit and 2 strikeouts.

The offense did very, very little. The best performance came from first baseman Charlie Szykowny, who hit 3-4 with a double. Szykowny, a 26-year old lefty taken in the 9th round in 2023, is, like Vrieling, likely in AAA more because of roster needs than because of AA performance. But he’s certainly making the most of his opportunity: he has an 8-game hitting streak going, and in 10 games with Sacramento has an .885 OPS and a 128 wRC+. It will be fun seeing him have a full year at the level next season.

Bericoto comes around to score on Charlie Szykowny’s single to right! 👏 pic.twitter.com/aMmcPcFb2i

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) September 11, 2026

Quiet games for the top prospects: third baseman Parks Harber (No. 17 CPL) hit 1-4 with 2 strikeouts, while center fielder Scott Bandura went 0-4 with a strikeout. Outfielder Bo Davidson (No. 4 CPL) didn’t play, after injuring his foot on Wednesday. Designated hitter Victor Bericoto (No. 35 CPL) made his 2nd rehab appearance, and hit 1-4.

AA Richmond (73-60)

Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Chesapeake Baysox (Orioles) 8-2
Box score

The struggles continue for the Squirrels, who have seen their losing streak creep all the way to 8 games. The regular season ends on Sunday, so they’re certainly limping to the finish line, but hey … at least they’re guaranteed to finish, at minimum, 10 games above .500, even if they end the year with a double-digit losing streak!

This was another fairly uninteresting game for Richmond, save for one player: third baseman Sabin Ceballos (No. 43 CPL). The just-turned 24-year old put on quite a show in the batter’s box, going 2-3 with both a home run and a double, while also drawing a walk and striking out once.

SAAAAAAY GOODBYE-OS 💪 pic.twitter.com/ifdMsXz2xM

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) September 10, 2026

With the big fly, Ceballos has now tripled his home run output over last year, which was spent at the same level (and he only has 76 more plate appearances this season). That’s pretty notable, as you need a good chunk of power to survive at an infield corner.

Yet despite that, Ceballos’ wRC+ has only gained 3 points year over year (102 to 105), the result of both struggling to get hits that aren’t homers, and the improved offensive environment in the Eastern League this year (his OPS has risen from .670 to .750).

As I’ve written about many times this year, Ceballos is just … an odd offensive profile. In both of his years in AA, he’s done a great job making contact … his strikeout rate and swinging strike rate have gone a little backwards this year, but they’re still just 17.9% and 10.3%, very good numbers. And yet, despite all that contact, Ceballos has a miserable .225 batting average. He’s basically doing 3 things at the plate: hitting home runs, drawing walks, and hitting into a whole bunch of outs. It’s a little odd.

No one else had particularly good offensive days. Center fielder Trevor Cohen (No. 15 CPL) had the only other multi-hit game, as he went 2-5 with a strikeout, while designated hitter Dakota Jordan (No. 5 CPL) had a rough game as he continues to shake the injury rust off, going 0-4 with a strikeout hat trick. Cohen, who turns 23 in December, has a .745 OPS and a 101 wRC+ in 47 games since getting promoted; Jordan, who turned 23 in May, has a .707 OPS and a 90 wRC+ in 20 games.

RHP Niko Mazza’s 2nd game in AA was rough on his ERA, though he pitched better than the 4 runs he allowed in 4 innings. A run per inning is a bad ratio, but a baserunner per inning? Well, that’s mighty fine, and it’s exactly what Mazza did, as he gave up just 3 hits and 1 walk, with 4 strikeouts. Unfortunately, one of those hits (a double) immediately preceded the walk, which immediately preceded another one of the hits (a 3-run home run). The 3rd and final hit (also a double) opened up the 5th inning, and immediately preceded a rain delay, which immediately preceded Mazza being replaced by RHP Manuel Mercedes, who allowed the inherited runner to score.

LHP Jack Choate (No. 37 CPL) continued the trend he’s had for a few years now, of getting far more strikeouts than one would expect out of a soft-tosser, but also not pitching all that well. He struck out 4 batters in just 2.2 innings in this game, but also gave up 3 hits, a hit batter, and a run. The 2022 9th-round pick, who turned 25 at the start of the season, has a 4.38 ERA and a 4.17 FIP this season, despite a fantastic 11.4 strikeouts per 9 innings.

RHP Marty Gair made his 3rd appearance since getting promoted and it didn’t go super well, as he allowed 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 hit batter, and 2 runs in just 1 inning of work, though he struck out 2 batters.

Low-A San Jose

San Jose Giants beat the Stockton Ports (A’s) 3-1
Box score

And with that, the Baby Giants are championship bound. After ending the regular season with 20 wins in their final 22 games, San Jose swept the best-of-3 divisional series against their northeast neighbors, and will now face the Lake Elsinore Storm of the Padres organization for the Cal League championship. That series, which is also best of 3, starts on Sunday in Lake Elsinore, and continues in San Jose on Tuesday and, if necessary, Wednesday.

Now that’s how you celebrate being North Division Champions. 😎 pic.twitter.com/9bvSiVeZGD

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) September 11, 2026

The big news in this game was that RHP Jackson Flora made his 2nd career appearance (and, thanks to the Giants advancing, we’ll likely get to see him pitch a 3rd time). Flora was impressive if a little shaky in his professional debut last Friday, which was the only official appearance he made in his debut season, as only regular season stats count in the record books.

But his follow-up performance, in Thursday’s playoff game, was where Flora really showed why he was the No. 4 overall pick in the draft, and immediately becomes the top pitching prospect in the system (and one of the best pitching prospects in baseball). Flora was utterly dominant, striking out 4 batters in 2 no-hit innings, while touching triple digits with his electric fastball. The command still isn’t quite there — he walked 2 batters and only threw half of his 32 pitches for strikes — but that’s also very understandable given that he went a few months without pitching.

Good morning, good afternoon, good night.

Jackson Flora strikes out the side, and reminds the crowd to tip your beer batter responsibly. pic.twitter.com/5HsmG5NlyQ

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) September 11, 2026

Seeing Flora overwhelm Single-A hitters like that made it pretty clear, in my eye, that he belongs in High-A to start the 2027 season, though I suppose there’s a chance the Giants give him the Carson Whisenhunt treatment (Whisenhunt was similarly dominant after being drafted in 2023, and returned to San Jose for his first full season, but only spent 4 games there before getting promoted to High-A … where he only spent 6 games before getting promoted to AA).

After Flora, the bulk innings went to LHP Ricardo Estrada, who gave up 5 hits, 0 walks, and 1 run over 4 innings, with 3 strikeouts. Rounding out the pitching performance were RHPs Chen-Hsun Lee and Samir Chires, who each had no-hit, no-run showings (Lee gave up 1 walk in 1.1 innings, while Chires allowed 1 walk in 1.2 innings, with 2 strikeouts). Lee, who is finally healthy after losing all of 2024 and 2025 to injury, posted a 1.42 ERA in 14 appearances for San Jose this year, those his strikeout and walk numbers weren’t particularly good and, as a result, he had a 4.73 FIP. Chires, who had struggled with both performance and injuries for 3 years in the Complex League before finally dominating the league in his 4th attempt, had a 1.82 ERA and a 3.36 FIP in 15 Low-A games this year. Counting the playoff performance, the Venezuelan, who turns 23 next week, had 29 strikeouts to just 6 walks in 26.1 innings.

Despite this being a low-scoring game, and despite the big story being Flora, the star of the game actually came on the other side of the ball, as designated hitter Drew Smith carried the team to victory. Smith was the team’s 15th-round pick in July, and signed for a very modest $25,000 out of Oregon. But my goodness has the 23-year old right-hander fit right in. He wasted no time making his mark on this game, as he bopped a 2-out, 2-run double in the 1st inning, which proved to be all the offense the Baby Giants would need.

Drew Smith with a two-run, two-out double, and the Giants take an early 2-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/0W6fSpH8QA

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) September 11, 2026

But as the game grew tense, Smith — who finished 2-4 with a strikeout — provided the insurance. In the 8th inning, with San Jose clinging to a 2-1 lead, Smith bashed a solo home run to increase the margin.

Have a series Drew Smith! His second HR in as many games is a HUGE insurance run. To the ninth we go. pic.twitter.com/9pTddilBVB

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) September 11, 2026

Smith hit just 3 home runs as a freshman for Oregon, just 4 as a sophomore, and just 5 as a junior. But he exploded for 16 home runs in his senior season, and it seems he’s carrying that into the pros: he only got into 3 regular season games, but hit a home run, and now has smacked big flies in both of San Jose’s playoff appearances. 3 dingers through 5 career games! Hard to argue with that!

Catcher Rod Barajas Jr. also had a nice game, as he went 2-4 with a double. Shortstop and uber-prospect Josuar González (No. 2 CPL) went 1-4 with a double and a strikeout. Right fielder Peyton Bonds, the team’s 3rd-round pick who hadn’t played in quite a while due to injury, returned to the lineup for half the game, and hit 1-2.

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Home run tracker

18 — Sabin Ceballos — [AA]
3 — Drew Smith — [Low-A]

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Friday schedule

Sacramento: 7:05 p.m. PT at Las Vegas (SP: TBD)
Richmond: 4:05 p.m. PT vs. Chesapeake (SP: Jacob Bresnahan)
Eugene: 6:35 p.m. PT vs. Vancouver (SP: Hunter Dryden)

Reminder that almost all MiLB games can be viewed on MLB TV

Your 2026 New York Mets: Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.

“I was looking for a good pitch in the zone and he threw it there. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose and today was my turn [to help us win].” -Francisco Lindor [MLB]

It’s been a tough year for a number of players, but I’m glad Tobias Myers worked hard and made it back to the big leagues.

“[Tobias Myers] just lost a little bit of the stuff.” -Andy Green [MLB]

“Time’s kind of flown, honestly. I haven’t really noticed how long I’ve been down here [in AAA].” -Tobias Myers [MLB]

“Not an easy inning any time [Rafael] Devers is the middle of your inning. Had to go through the heart of their order and did a really nice job.” -Andy Green [MLB]

This does feel like it’s been a running theme for the Mets…

“It’s unfortunately not that uncommon where some guys get a little bit lost, and that’s such a hard level to fix things. You just feel that pressure to go out there and perform all the time. Sometimes, they come down here and it just allows them to take a breath. I think [Myers] was able to do that.” -Syracuse Mets pitching Coach A.J. Sager [MLB]

…everyone just needs to take Chet Steadman’s advice and ‘deal from the have to’…

“The last couple of weeks, it’s definitely gotten back to just being free. No thinking up there. Just pitch, and gradually I’ve gotten better and better.” -Tobias Myers [MLB]

…‘the have to is what you use when you’re afraid’.

“Last year, I felt like a kid going out there every time, just being shell-shocked by a lot of things. Now, it’s more like [my] feet are more set … and just going out there just trying to do my job.” -Jonah Tong [MLB]

At least it’s just Tong being nitpicky about himself…

“[I felt] good. Just one walk and a couple of pitches here and there, but it’s just me being nitpicky. Happy with it, [the] team won.” -Jonah Tong [MLB]

…oh and his catcher…

“The home run pitch was a good pitch. It was a pitch on the black, away. [Pauley] just had a good swing on it and that happens. [Tong] executed, the walk was the only thing.” -Francisco Alvarez [MLB]

…but Tong’s manager has his back and Green’s right that it was a good outing with some bad luck.

“[I’m] really pleased with [Tong’s] outing. The second inning is one of those things that just the only hits he gives up all day are sequenced together right there, and then the home run bites pretty hard at that point in time.” -Andy Green [MLB]

“To watch [Tong] be a cutthroat competitor, get in there and just go right back at them for the next three innings, it was really good. … I know he’s not going to love the line at the end of the day, with the four runs coming in, but the way he pitched today was way better than that line is going to indicate.” -Andy Green [MLB]

I think Andy Green might be really into boxing.

“We’ve put pressure on the other team. Not waiting for them to throw the first punch. We have gone out there and thrown it and we threw a lot of them today.” -Andy Green [MLB]

Lindor’s positive energy continues unabated.

“Everyone is like, ‘If I don’t do it, the next one will.‘ And that is contagious.” -Francisco Lindor [MLB]

In case you missed it, Will Sammon had an insightful interview with Eric Jagers.

“Was [Tong’s] major-league experience last year a good thing in hindsight? A bad thing? How do you view it, essentially one year removed from it?” -Will Sammon

“It’s hard to put a label on it. One, it was a really cool opportunity that he earned at the time. So in that part, it’s cool. It’s good. He had some fun moments, right? The debut was pretty good. He punched back against San Diego, and that was pretty good. And then he had some more unfortunate outings and appearances and things like that that certainly left a little bit of a sour taste in his mouth, I’m sure.” -Mets vice president for pitching Eric Jagers [The Athletic]

Mets Tweet of the Week

David Wright, John Franco, Todd Zeile, and Robin Ventura visiting 25 Hook & Ladder as we honor our first responders leading up to the 25th anniversary of 9/11. pic.twitter.com/zPXaMdlBuA

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 8, 2026

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, catcher Jose Trevino was once again pitcher Jose Trevino as the Cincinnati Reds wrapped up a 14-1 drubbing at the hands of the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers. The Reds managed just 6 hits in total on the night, their lone run coming off the bat of superstar Elly De La Cruz as he launched a moonshot off Yoshinobu Yamamoto to log a home run in his fifth consecutive game.

The loss sunk the Reds to the third worst run differential in the sport behind only the hilarious Colorado Rockies and homeless Athletics. Not exactly where you want to find yourself when you’re supposedly on the upswing of one of Nick Krall’s infamous rebuilds.

Now, the Reds head into Milwaukee to face the mighty Brewers, off whom they managed to take two of three in Great American Ball Park just last weekend. Safe to say, I expect there to be some revenge on the minds of those beermakers.

Lefty Andrew Abbott looks to turn the tide on his wayward season with the start in Friday’s series opener at American Family Field that I still choose to call Miller Park. Dustin May takes the mound for the Beers, meaning this may well be Cincinnati’s best chance to sock some dingers and actually take home a win in the series.

First pitch is set for 7:40 PM ET. Here’s how the Reds will line up to start:

First of three in Milwaukee.

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/qd0DIffgeP

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 11, 2026

The Yankees could be getting a nice boost in their bullpen soon. 

Clarke Schmidt will make one more rehab appearance this weekend, manager Aaron Boone said pregame Friday.  

The team will wait and see how that outing goes, but if Schmidt is able to get through it okay, then the skipper said a return during the next road trip could be in play. 

Schmidt has thrown 5.2 innings through four appearances to this point.

He's been slowly building himself up to rejoin the club in a relief role after missing 400-plus days following the second Tommy John surgery of his career. 

The righty hasn't pitched in a big-league game since last July. 

Schmidt could be a nice weapon for the Yanks when he does return, though, as he's pitched to a 3.18 ERA out of the bullpen in his career. 

WEATHERS ON THE MEND

Ryan Weathers could be joining Schmidt in that bullpen down the stretch, as well. 

The left-hander is said to be doing extremely well during his throwing progression, and Boone said that it's possible he'll be able to return during the final week of the season. 

He could make his way back onto the mound as soon as next week, per Boone. 

Weathers has been sidelined for just about three weeks now due to a left forearm flexor strain. 

While there was initially some concern watching him leave his start, the expectation has been that he'll be able to help the Yanks again down the stretch in some capacity. 

What do you do when you lose the back-to-back National League MVP for the home stretch of the regular season? If you're the Los Angeles Dodgers, you simply call up the No. 6-ranked prospect in all of baseball.

With Shohei Ohtani headed to the 15-day injured list, the Dodgers are bringing up their top prospect Josue De Paula for his first shot at the big leagues. The 21-year-old will make his MLB debut on Friday, Sept. 11, against the Miami Marlins at LoanDepot Park.

Though normally an outfielder, De Paula will take the "lion's share" of reps at the designated hitter spot left open by the absence of Ohtani, who has been hampered by multiple nagging injuries since June and will now be out until at least the Dodgers' final series of the regular season.

"Talking to Shohei, the doctors, the training staff, it’s the right thing to do," manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the Dodgers' 14-1 blowout win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. "I think that we tried to kick the can as much as we could, but we are going to bring Josue."

Roberts added that De Paula might get opportunities in either of the corner outfield spots, but those might be few and far between for a couple reasons. Teoscar Hernández has heated up with a 1.329 OPS and 12 RBIs in September and Kyle Tucker will try to get some momentum going into the postseason. De Paula as a prospect is still raw on the fielding side of things as well, but with Ohtani out, it leaves plenty of runway for De Paula to make the most of his biggest strength – his bat.

At 6'3, 185 lbs, the Brooklyn native has evoked comparisons over the last couple years to a "slightly smaller but more athletic version of Yordan Álvarez," according to MLB Pipeline. He's extremely selective with his swings – he swung at just 14% of pitches outside the zone in 2025 – but when he does, he makes hard contact and can drive the ball a very long way.

Why Josue De Paula never played Triple-A baseball

In his first full season at Double-A, De Paula has slashed .303/.401/.547 with 27 home runs and 104 RBIs. He's also stolen 81 bases despite his speed being graded as below average. According to The Athletic's Katie Woo, some evaluators within the organization believe De Paula has the Dodgers' best pure-hit tool since Corey Seager. That kind of production – and ceiling – made the front office brass more comfortable having him jump from Double-A straight to the big leagues and skip Triple-A entirely, the first time a position player has done so in the Andrew Friedman era.

"I think that our player development group is very confident in his ability to conduct an at-bat," Roberts said. "You could argue that the talent in Double-A is similar to Triple-A, as far as pure arms and arm talent. I think that we’ve seen him in camp for two or three years. He doesn’t run from velocity. He controls the strike zone. And I think this is just a good opportunity for him to kind of cut his teeth in the big leagues."

Who is Josue De Paula?

Born and raised in Brooklyn, De Paula moved to the Dominican Republic at the age of 15 when COVID-19 restrictions shut down baseball in New York. He enrolled at El Niche Baseball Academy in Santo Domingo, which has produced big leaguers such as Juan Soto, Elly De La Cruz, Otto Lopez and Angel Martínez, among others, and signed with the Dodgers for $397,500 in 2022.

One of his earliest highlights as a prospect came during the MLB All-Star Futures Game in 2025 in Atlanta, when he was named the game's MVP after crushing a towering three-run bomb off of Noah Schultz, who was then the No. 1 prospect in the Chicago White Sox organization.

De Paula has trained with Soto and De La Cruz, but because he's so confident in the physical side of his game, the biggest takeaways were what he learned from the pair of All-Stars off the field.

"Just a lot of things on the mental side," De Paula said. "I feel like with time, as long as I can dominate my mental, that I'm gonna be in a really good spot for a very long time. I got a few mental tips in just how they go about their work, how they go about their day, their routine, and just how to handle yourself in a full season."

He's done the work. He has the confidence and trust in his game. Now, in the last three weeks of the regular season, De Paula has a chance to show what he can do at the big-league level.

"The advice they gave me (in the Dominican Republic) has served me very well," De Paula said. "Now, it's time to put it into practice."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Josue De Paula? Dodgers' top prospect replacing Shohei Ohtani in lineup

The San Diego Padres are back in the postseason! They’ll likely go back and forth as the season continues before they face off against the Arizona Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot. The Friars swept the Washington Nationals after Jackson Merrill’s two homer day. He finished a double shy of the cycle, with a single, a triple and two home runs. That production led the Padres to a 9-2 win in the series finale.

San Diego will now embark on a crucial road trip, facing the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies. Both are divisional opponents who are very beatable for the Friars. Not only that, but both teams have been eliminated from the playoffs so they aren’t playing for as much. The Padres should be able to clean up against the two clubs, with the Friars beating San Francisco, 6-4, in the season series.

Taking the mound

Anthony Molina (SF) v. Robbie Ray (SD)

In a short stint with the Giants, Molina has managed to immensely impress. In three appearances (two starts), Molina owns a 1.88 ERA through 14 1/3 innings pitched. Prior to that, Molina had been on the Atlanta Braves, where he pitched just five innings in relief before he was traded for starting pitcher Tyler Mahle.

Molina doesn’t have an abundance of experience at the big-league level. He’s spent two seasons with the Rockies, posting an ERA over 6.00 in both years. Molina worked primarily out of the bullpen but has worked as a starter for San Francisco. It’s worked to mostly solid results, with Molina surrendering three runs in his last three starts.

This will be Ray’s homecoming since being traded by the Giants at the Trade Deadline. The veteran lefty has pitched incredibly well this season but has struggled with the Friars. He’s coming off of a miserable start in which Ray gave up five runs in just 2 1/3 innings versus the New York Yankees.

This is the perfect team for Ray to face in order to turn his Padres tenure around. Not only does Ray know these hitters well, having shared a clubhouse with them, but they have struggled immensely to produce runs this season. That said, San Francisco is on a three-game win streak after sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals.

Batter up!

Apart from Merrill’s hot day at the plate, the San Diego lineup still looked fantastic on Wednesday afternoon. The offense (without Merrill) went a combined 12-for-33. Three of the Padres had three-hit games (Ty France, Merrill and Fernando Tatis Jr.) while five had multi-hit games.

1. Fernando Tatis Jr., RF
2. Jake Cronenworth, 2B
3. Manny Machado, 3B
4. Ty France, 1B
5. Jackson Merrill, CF
6. Luis Campusano, DH
7. Dustin Harris, LF
8. Xander Bogaerts, SS
9. Freddy Fermin, C

After Cronenworth’s day off on Wednesday, he’ll likely be back in the lineup for the series opener versus San Francisco. He’s spent most of the second half batting behind Tatis. That has worked pretty well for the Padres, but Craig Stammen could tinker a little bit after Merrill’s recent hot streak.

Relief corps

After Walker Buehler was pulled from the game early (perhaps accidentally), the Padres’ bullpen locked it down. With the bases loaded in the third inning, Kyle Hart stymied the Nats. Hart then pitched 1 2/3 more innings before David Morgan, Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta and Griffin Canning covered the final 4 1/3 innings.

With the off day on Thursday, San Diego will have all of its relievers available for the series opener. However, those who didn’t pitch in the series finale on Wednesday will be preferred over the rest. Mason Miller, Adrian Morejon, Bradgley Rodriguez and Randy Vásquez will be available out of the ‘pen for San Diego. Vásquez seems likely to pitch only if Ray struggles to work deep into the game.

The lineups are out for tonight’s series-opening showdown between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies. There’s no major shakeup but there is a return to the lineup for one familiar face after he started Thursday’s contest on the bench.

Ozzie Albies is back in the starting lineup for the Braves. Here’s how the rest of Atlanta’s lineup is looking:

Sale takes the mound tonight at @TruistPark 💪 pic.twitter.com/sZRngGjbvQ

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) September 11, 2026

Ozzie has hit .249/.304/.411 so far this season with a wOBA of .311 and a wRC+ of 95. His big triple against the Rays on Thursday helped push Atlanta past Tampa Bay and gave them what could amount to being a very crucial win if all continues to go well for the Braves as far as this particular series is concerned.

Outside of that, there are no major changes from yesterday and in fact, this is the same group of nine batters that squared off against Aaron Nola last week. The bottom of the order is slightly different but the players remain the same. For what it’s worth, Ronald Acuña Jr. has an OPS of 1.076 against Nola in 56 pat-bats. Austin Riley has done a similar level of damage as well with an OPS of 1.111 over 62 ABs. Mike Yastrzemski and Drake Baldwin have both been successful as well (1.046 and 1.056 OPS, respectively) against Nola but they both have much smaller sample sizes (16 and 8 ABs, respectively) to go with. Let’s see if that turns into a factor during tonight’s contest.

Meanwhile, here’s how the Phillies are shaping up:

Today’s Phillies lineup in Atlanta:

Schwarber DH
Turner 6
Harper 9
Arraez 4
Bohm 3
Sosa 5
De La Cruz 7
Realmuto 2
Hill 8

Nola RHP

— Lochlahn March (@lochlahn) September 11, 2026

Alec Bohm is the main one to watch out for tonight, since he was the only Phillies hitter who had any real consistent success against Sale when these two teams squared off last week. Bohm had an RBI double and a solo homer as both of the runs that Philadelphia scored on the night came of of his bat. Of course, it’s hard to overlook the rest of the lineup but hopefully Sale will be able to get the better of Bohm this time around.

So, what do y’all think? Tonight’s game is scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m. ET. There’s some inclement weather in the area so there is a chance that this one could get delayed, so that’s why I’m mentioning the scheduled start time. Either way are y’all ready?

The success of the Yankee pitching staff has been the team’s guiding beacon this season, but to say they’ve had their depth tested would be an understatement. The rotation has seen at least one expected starter sitting on the IL the entire season, whether it be Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, or Ryan Weathers, oftentimes with two of them simultaneously getting shelved. The bullpen has had to do a lot of heavy lifting to support the starters working themselves back into shape lately, and though the team has seen the trio of David Bednar, Paul Blackburn, and Brent Headrick take over the late innings, there’s still more than enough mileage that Aaron Boone has to get out of the rest of the staff.

The team opted against paying a premium for any relievers at the Trade Deadline, instead opting to rely on the arms who they knew were set to start rehab assignments soon to fill in the gaps as they fought through the dog days of summer. One of those arms being eyed for a bullpen spot was Luis Gil, the former Rookie of the Year back in 2024 who had missed most of the last two seasons with a series of injuries. Gil worked himself back into the fold at the start of the season following one tune-up start in Triple-A and made four starts in the majors back in April before hitting the shelf again with shoulder inflammation. It took a while for Gil to get back on a mound, but he began to ramp up in August and after a couple of appearances with the High-A Hudson Valley Renegades, the organization made the decision to use him in some relief appearances while rehabbing to transition him into that role since the big-league team needed bodies.

However, since getting back to the majors Gil has appeared just twice for the Yankees, and both times in blowouts. He made his return on August 31st against the Angels and soaked up the sixth and seventh innings in a game they were losing 6-1 when he entered, before getting an opportunity last night to pitch the final two frames against Colorado with a 10-2 lead. Neither outing was clean for Gil, as he allowed a run against the Angels (though he did strike out three batters) and allowed an unearned run against the Rockies with the potential for more as he loaded the bases in the ninth inning with no one out before getting some shallow fly balls to prevent any more from scoring. It’s clear from how little he’s seen the mound that Boone doesn’t exactly have much trust in Gil at the moment, and with the Yankees in the middle of a playoff push chasing the Rays for first place in the division he’s going to opt for his better relievers in close contests, but has Gil truly fallen this far down in the eyes of the organization at this point?

Looking under the hood, the clear discrepancy in Gil’s arsenal from 2024 to now has been his fastball velocity, the right-hander dropping from a 96.6-mph four-seamer in his Rookie of the Year campaign to a 95.2-mph offering this year. Hitters have predicably been able to catch up to it with ease, slugging to a .512 mark against the heater compared to .395 a few years ago. Even more concerning has been his inability to end at-bats with the pitch, dropping from a 23.3-percent PutAway% to a 9.6-percent rate this year. Gil’s slider and changeup, while still seeing a slight uptick in the damage done against them, are nowhere near as out of whack as the four-seam has been, and Gil offers the heater 49.2 percent of the time to batters giving them plenty of opportunities to punish the pitch.

Now, Gil’s latest appearance didn’t do a lot for him in the box score to stand out, but there were some signs of improvement in this category. Gil noticeably dialed up the speed in his second inning of work, topping out at 97.9 mph in a three-pitch strikeout against Zac Veen to end the game. Gil threw just one fastball below 96 mph in that frame after largely staying in that range in the eighth inning, though two of the three singles he allowed were against that four-seamer and were smashed pretty hard coming back.

That finishing pitch against Veen is more of what Gil wants to accomplish with his heater, blowing it by hitters up in the zone. However, even though Gil was able to kick the speed up a notch on his heater to accomplish this, it did come with a considerable lack of command that went unpunished by a lowly Rockies team all but going through the motions the end of a blowout.

Consider this fastball Gil threw to TJ Rumfield to conclude the penultimate at-bat of the game:

Ali Sánchez is setting up for the pitch to come on the outer third of the plate, but Gil misses and offers Rumfield a cookie down the middle of the plate. Fortunately for Gil, the former Baby Bomber swung under this pitch and popped it up for a harmless out, but that was a mistake pitch that could’ve gotten tattooed had Rumfield timed his swing a little better. Now let’s look at the fly ball that Gil induced from Hunter Goodman for the first out of the ninth:

Another miss from Gil, Sánchez setting up up and away with Gil crossing the plate to find the inside corner of the plate instead. Goodman didn’t manage to get this ball deep enough to threaten a sacrifice fly, but that’s not good execution in a situation where the Rockies were a productive out or a base knock away from forcing Boone to use his closer in a game that Bednar never should’ve needed to warm up for.

So in total, Gil gave up two hard hits against the fastball in the ninth, collected two weak outs on pitches that he largely got away with making mistakes, and then locked in to deliver a good finishing touch in his final at-bat. It’s promising that the velocity was there to bail him out because it simply hasn’t been there previously, but if either command or velocity is going to be a question mark every time Gil steps on the mound it’s no surprise that Boone has only deployed him in mop up duty thus far.

On top of Gil’s struggles, the Yankees have collected several options who have gotten priority over Gil down the stretch. The team signed Michael Fulmer and John Schreiber at the end of last month to help eat up some innings and both have seen their fair share of work already, appearing in seven and five games respectively. Schreiber in particular looks to me like an arm that Boone and company could utilize in a postseason roster, as he has been elite in shutting down right-handers this season with a .401 OPS allowed in 113 plate appearances. On the near horizon, the team also has Clarke Schmidt putting together the finishing touches on his rehab assignment before he’ll return to the majors looking to add to the bullpen’s choice of weapons. Schmidt’s had a similarly difficult time staying healthy but has looked far more effective when on the mound than Gil has in recent memory, and then there’s the possibility of Ryan Weathers returning in time from the forearm strain he suffered to add himself into the mix as well.

If all goes according to plan, there just isn’t an avenue for Gil to get himself any further chances if the Yankees want to prioritize chasing the Rays down. They could risk working Gil into some low-to-moderate leverage situations as opposed to letting him be the guy that soaks up a couple innings every week or so, but what would they stand to gain? Gil still has a lot to work on, and it looks to be a situation where he needs time more than anything else — and there isn’t any of that left to give. Having backup options still matters at this stage and there’s always the possibility of another arm hitting the shelf, but the team also has Will Warren beginning to transition into a relief role as he looks to be the likely odd man out of the playoff rotation through no fault of his own. Looking at this roster as it stands*, Gil is in even more jeopardy than Ryan Yarbrough among pitchers on the chopping block who could be squeezed back in should a situation arise. Yarbrough has been in the ‘pen throughout the year, and while he has been mostly deployed in a low leverage long-relief role that wouldn’t see much use in October, he’s been consistent enough to be trusted over Gil.

*With Jasson Domínguez getting demoted last night, another bubble reliever is joining the active roster in Bradley Hanner.

Luis Gil’s future with the Yankees is overall extremely murky — the team passed on trading him in previous offseasons, but he’ll be arbitration-eligible for the first time after this season and he hasn’t had much to show for his last two years. This relief role was his best shot at recouping some stability with the team, but he’s been supplanted in that and the rotation seems fully out of reach for him in 2027. This could potentially be the last we see of Gil in pinstripes, but it would also be selling at rock bottom to pass on Gil right now and that’s not something Brian Cashman is fond of doing. Perhaps the likeliest outcome is Gil gets relegated to the minors to start next season and either serves as depth at Triple-A with a full offseason of rest behind him or continues to work on his evolution into a reliever with Scranton, but either way it’ll be a tough climb for Gil to make his way back into the team’s plans.

It is obligatory to include a reference to the 2023 World Series in every preview between these two teams, so let’s get that out of the way first. As we remember well, Texas prevailed in five games. But since then? Neither team has returned to the playoffs. It was the first World Series since 2006 where neither side reached the playoffs the following year – and, of course, it was considerably harder to make the post-season in 2007. Arizona narrowly missed out on tiebreakers, but Texas finished with a losing record in 2024, slumping to a 78-84 mark. The following year saw the Rangers with the better record, ending exactly even at 81-81.

This year, they’re there or thereabout again. Texas are currently 72-75. Normally, such a mediocre record would be well out of the post-season picture, but this is the American League in 2026. So the Rangers are still in the hunt for a spot, despite being below .500: they are two back of the Guardians for the last AL spot. Even winning the AL West is not out of the question. Texas are currently three games behind Houston there, and all told have a playoff percentage of 20.3%, per Fangraphs. While not as good as the Diamondbacks, I’ve no doubt the Rangers will still feel there’s a chance, and I’d expect them to play like it this weekend.

The season so far

No doubt about the star for Texas (hohoho) so far on the position player side. Ezequiel Durán’s remarkable flexibility – he has started at every position bar pitcher and catcher – combined with a 124 OPS+ has powered him to 4.6 bWAR. It’s kinda out of nowhere, considering his total over the previous four seasons and 362 games was only 1.7 bWAR. Interestingly, former Diamondback Alex Cintron, now a hitting coach for Texas, may have helped sustain Durán’s breakout campaign, with an adjustment in the player’s stance. Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager have also been having solid seasons, while Jake Burger easily leads the team in HR, RBI and strikeouts.

The Rangers lead the American League in OPS+ at 108, but that has largely been undone by the pitching side. They rank 13th among the 15 clubs there, with an ERA+ of 91. Weirdly though, only the Tigers and the Red Sox have more shutouts than the Rangers, who have blanked the opposition 13 times. One starter we won’t see is Jacob DeGrom, but nice to see him stay mostly healthy. He could post consecutive 30-start seasons for the first time since 2019, though had to leave his last start with groin tightness. We probably don’t want to be trailing going into the ninth, because Texas closer Jacob Latz has been their best pitcher by bWAR. He has a 1.85 ERA to go with 28 saves, and a FIP of 2.65 suggests he has been deservedly good.

Pitching match-ups

At time of writing, early Friday morning. MLB.com lists all six probable pitchers for this series as a thoroughly unhelpful, “TBA”. So what follows is a best guess, going off previous pitchers in each team’s rotation plus other sources online, and is subject to change. So don’t come whining to me…

Friday 11th: LHP MacKenzie Gore (8-10, 4.51) vs. RHP Merrill Kelly (9-13, 5.06)

We’ll be hoping for better this time, against the man whose name sounds like the villain in an eighties slasher film. For Arizona faced Gore on the road in May, and he tossed eight innings of one-run ball, allowing only three hits. It was his best start of the year by Game Score. But his ERA is more than two runs higher on the road: 5.63 vs. 3.36. Kelly has been showing some improvement; last outing was a quality start, and his first appearance without a walk since May 20. He’d walked 3+ each of his previous six. Merrill is 4-9 when issuing more than two BBs in a start, compared to a 5-4 record when he walks zero or one batters.

Saturday 12th: RHP Kumar Rocker (5-11, 4.61) vs. RHP Brandon Pfaadt (7-2, 3.53)

The #3 pick in the 2022 draft hasn’t lived up to expectations yet. Over his first 41 starts, he has an ERA+ of just 79. His last appearance came following an opener on September 4, and it did not go well, allowing nine hits over five innings. Though his first such “bullpen” outing, earlier this season, led to 7.2 shutout innings at Coors Field. Looks like a regular start here though. After a stellar month and a half, Pfaadt has come back to earth. He’s not missing as many bats, with only eight strikeouts over his last three starts, covering 19 innings. But he has thrown at least six innings each time, keeping Arizona in the games: all three ended up being decided by one run.

Sunday 13th: RHP Cal Quantrill (8-5, 2.89) vs. LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (15-5, 2.55)

If this does turn out to be the match-up, it’s likely the best of the series. With three – possibly four – starts remaining, ERod has 5.3 bWAR, and could end up surpassing his career high of 5.5 bWAR, back in 2019. Indeed, his total bWAR over five years and 114 starts from 2021-25 was only 5.6 bWAR. It has been a spectacular resurrection. Meanwhile, Quantrill started the year in the bullpen, but has been a revelation since returning to the Texas rotation in late June. He has a 1.70 ERA over his last six outings, with a K:BB ratio of 34:6 across 37 innings. While his FIP is somewhat higher, at 2.80, it’s hardly extravagant. This promises to be a tough one.

Prediction

When we faced the Rangers at Arlington in mid-May, we squeaked out the opener 1-0, but then lost the next two by margins of 4-7 and 5-6. With the D-backs now in a tough fight for a wild-card spot, they’ll certainly be looking to do better. Given the lack of certainty about the pitching match-ups, it’s hard to say how things might break. Saturday’s game is the only one where I feel there’s a definite edge, favoring Arizona. The others could go either way – and I’d not be surprised if that’s exactly what they do, the D-backs taking one and dropping the other. Just don’t ask me which! So, all told: the Diamondbacks win two out of three. Enough? We’ll have to ask the Giants about that…

The 2026 MLB trade deadline was almost six weeks ago, and as you may recall, the situation for the Texas Rangers was very fluid at the time. There were reports that the Rangers were saying that no one was off-limits and that they were listening on everybody after getting swept in Houston the weekend before the deadline. A complete seemed, if not likely, at least possible.

After a morning filled with angst, anxiety and uncertainty, news broke around 2 p.m. that Monday afternoon that Jacob deGrom would not be waiving his no-trade clause. A couple of days later, I did a lengthy post-mortem on the trade deadline that talked about deGrom’s decision, among other things. Everyone pretty much moved on.

The Jacob deGrom non-trade is a topic of conversation again, however, thanks to a column by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Feinsand, in a piece that went up yesterday entitled “An early look at 11 intriguing offseason trade candidates,” detailed, well, 11 intriguing offseason trade candidates, one of whom was Braves’ starter Spencer Strider.

This is the Spencer Strider section, in toto:

Spencer Strider, RHP, Braves

The Braves discussed sending Strider to Texas in a contract swap trade for Jacob deGrom before the Trade Deadline, and although deGrom blocked the deal with his no-trade clause, it’s clear that Atlanta is open to moving its former ace. Strider has been out since mid-June with right elbow inflammation, and while it’s unlikely that he will return this season, there is an outside chance he could be available out of the bullpen during the postseason. Strider is owed $22 million in each of the next two seasons with a $22 million club option ($5 million buyout) for 2029, so if the Braves can find a team willing to bet he can return to his previous form, they could look to move him.

127 words. A heading and three sentences about Spencer Strider, one of 11 individuals who was the subject of the story. Only one portion of one of those sentences had to do with deGrom, who was mentioned more or less in passing.

That particularly snippet on deGrom is noteworthy, and does provide for an interesting footnote on the whole Jacob deGrom trade deadline drama. But because this is used to provide background for the inclusion of Strider on Feinsand’s list, and is not a story on, you know, the Jacob deGrom and his potentially being dealt at the deadline, it is lacking in the sort of information that would provide clarity in regards to the details of the discussions between the Rangers and the Braves.

Years ago, on Twitter, I broke down what I called the “Hierarchy of rumor stage descriptions”:

Hierarchy of rumor stage descriptions, from least meaningful to most:

Have discussed internally
Have considered
Have interest in
Have contacted about
Have engaged with
Have had ongoing discussions with
Have had substantive discussions with
Have had advanced discussions with

— Adam J. Morris (@lonestarball) June 21, 2018

This is something I put together based on, at the time, a couple of decades of obsessing over online reports of rumors in the Big Four sports, dating all the way back to the turn of the century when MLB Trade Rumors would take ButtPirate69’s post on the ESPN Yankees message board* saying that the Yankees should trade Ricky Ledee to the Expos for Vlad Guerrero and turn it into a story with a headline like “Yankees, Expos rumored to be talking Guerrero trade!” There’s an element of tea leaf reading when digesting rumors being reported, something that became even more necessary when Twitter became the preferred medium for reporters to send little tidbits out in bite-sized form, leaving room for interpretation, or, at a minimum, requiring the reader to use context clues.

* 25 years ago today, I learned that what we now colloquially refer to as “9/11” happened by logging onto my laptop and going to the ESPN Rangers board right after waking up (I was in law school and had no morning classes) and seeing the board filled with replies on posts with subjects like “Second Tower Just Fell.”

Feinsand’s “discussed sending” would seem slot in around “engaged with” in the hierarchy above, though it could also be equivalent to as high as “advanced discussions with” at the top of the hierarchy pyramid (or at the bottom of the inverted ziggurat, as I structured the tweet). Again, because this is an aside in a piece that is only 9.09% about Spencer Strider, its hard to tell exactly where this fits in.

We do know, per reporting, that the Rangers apparently told deGrom that if he wanted to be traded to the Braves, the Rangers would make that happen. We don’t know whether there was a specific trade agreed to or in place between the Rangers and the Braves, or if the Rangers were simply at a point in the discussions where they felt that a deal was doable and they were letting their future Hall of Fame pitcher who is in the twilight years of his career know that they would facilitate such a move if that’s what he wanted.

“Discussed” has a wide range of possible implications, which gets us back to the lack of clarity surrounding reporting of rumors in general. One would think that if the Braves and Rangers had a deal worked out to swap deGrom for Spencer, Feinsand would have said “agreed to” such a swap. Of course, its possible there was such an agreement, and Feinsand couldn’t get it confirmed, or his source didn’t want him to acknowledge something that definitive (which, given the fact that Strider is still a member of the Braves, and the Braves presumably don’t want Strider thinking they had agreed to get rid of him, would be understandable). It could be that there were various permutations of a deal being discussed, with Strider going to the Rangers in some scenarios but not others. There is a lot of inherent uncertainty, given we are working off of less than a sentence in Feinsand’s report.

That hasn’t, however, kept folks from re-packing Feinsand’s story in more definitive and clickbaity ways.

Go do an internet search for Jacob deGrom and Spencer Strider and one of the first things you’ll see is a New York Post article with the headline “Jacob deGrom nearly traded for Spencer Strider in failed deadline blockbuster.” The article starts off thusly:

Add this one to the long list of blockbuster baseball trades that nearly happened.

Before this year’s trade deadline, Jacob deGrom nearly became a Brave.

Instead, the ex-Met declined to waive his no-trade clause, citing his desire to remain in Texas.

The Post’s Jon Heyman reported the potential deal at the time, but the return Atlanta discussed is only now coming to light.

The headline and opening paragraphs lead one to suppose that the New York Post is breaking some news here and not just aggregating the aside in the Feinsand story, right?

Wrong:

MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand revealed Thursday that Spencer Strider was discussed as part of a possible “contract swap” for deGrom.

The article then just goes on to talk about deGrom and Strider, and what the ramifications would have been had such a deal gone down.

I probably could have figured out that there’s no new independent scoop here from the outset if I’d looked a little more closely. The byline indicates the author of the piece is Dylan Svoboda, whose New York Post page describes him as “a sports gambling editor and producer for the New York Post,” rather than someone like Jon Heyman or Joel Sherman.

You’ll also see a headline from “theScore.com” stating: “Report: Braves tried to trade Strider to Rangers for deGrom.” Here’s the lede:

The Atlanta Braves attempted to deal right-hander Spencer Strider to the Texas Rangers for two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom before the trade deadline, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

Credit to the score for putting “Report” in their headline, indicating that they were simply relaying another journalist’s reporting, unlike the Post’s framing. Negative one million, though, for saying that “according to Mark Feinsand” “[t]he Atlanta Braves attempted to deal” Strider for deGrom.

Feinsand didn’t say that! That’s not true!

We get a similar treatment from Barstool Sports, with contributor “Big Tennessee” running a story with the headline “The Braves Were Reportedly Going To Include Spencer Strider in a Trade for Jacob deGrom.” Not that anyone expects original reporting from Barstool anyway, but if you were under the impression they were breaking a scoop, your misconceptions are put to rest immediately, since the very beginning of the story itself is an embed of a tweet from something called “SleeperBraves” with a 25 words or less summary that ends with “Per @Feinsand.”

And that’s before we get the myriad of social media aggregators that don’t even blog or do a story, but just choose to repackage whatever someone else reported in a Facebook or Twitter post with an exaggerated, misleading summary.

To be clear, there are plenty of folks who reported on this the right way. The SBN Braves blog Battery Power had a headline with “discussed” in quotes. MLB Trade Rumors used “discussed” in the headline of their story discussing the Strider, and even links to a Mark Bowman MLB.com piece from early August that said the Rangers “didn’t show initial interest in Strider,” further undermining the overly-excited “we almost had a deGrom/Strider swap” framing we see elsewhere.

But those more nuanced, and more accurate, headlines and pieces don’t catch the eyeballs that the clickbait does.

Don’t look now, but the Pirates are getting hot at the right time.

It’s been an uphill battle for the Bucs to erase a sizable deficit in the National League Wild Card race, but the team is looking to make this a September to remember. 

The Pirates have won four games in a row and their last five series after sweeping the White Sox on the south side. They are over .500 for the first time since July 29.

Pittsburgh has won eight of its last 10 games, and only the Dodgers (seven in a row) are hotter than the Bucs.

So what’s standing in their way? Shota Imanaga, who pitches like 2025 second-half Jake Arrieta against the Pirates… but better.  

In 38 career innings facing Pittsburgh, Imanaga has allowed only one run for a staggering 0.24 ERA. He is the Pirates’ version of kryptonite despite having a season ERA of 3.92.

The Pirates placed All-Star Braxton Ashcraft on the 15-day injured list on Thursday with right arm discomfort, and he won’t start against the Cubs on Friday.

Wilber Dotel will begin the game, but it will likely become a bullpen day. Khristian Curtis and recently recalled Antwone Kelly are also available to pitch in bulk roles. 

Refining Cy Young honoree Paul Skenes starts on Saturday against former Pirate Holmes, who was acquired from the Mets at the trade deadline. Holmes owns a 3.51 ERA through his first six starts with Chicago.

Bubba Chandler gets the ball, opposite Matthew Boyd, on Sunday in the series finale. All three games at Wrigley Field are at 2:20 p.m. Eastern.

The Pirates are 4.5 games back of the San Diego Padres for the final wild card with only 15 games left. It still feels like a nearly impossible feat for the Pirates to accomplish, and they dug themselves too deep a hole after being six games under .500 on both August 13th and 23rd.

Oneil Cruz drove in both runs on Thursday, including a solo home run hit 117.4 MPH as the hardest-hit home run of the season.

Oneil Cruz! 117.4 mph

That’s the hardest-hit home run in MLB this season https://t.co/iR4E50V3Pu

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 11, 2026

Since returning to the team on August 18 after missing two months with a hand injury, Cruz is batting .315 with a .404 slugging percentage, four homers, and 18 runs batted in. 

Konnor Griffin returned last weekend, and first baseman/right fielder Ryan O’Hearn may be back this weekend.

The arrow is pointing up for the Pirates, but the rival Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers are waiting for them. It may be too little, too late for the Pirates as their race to the postseason continues to take full shape.

The Pirates do have a chance.