SCOTTSDALE, AZ - SEPTEMBER 30: Vance Honeycutt #25 of the Baltimore Orioles poses for a photo during the 2026 Arizona Fall League media day at Scottsdale Stadium on Wednesday, September 30, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Anyone could be forgiven for having written off Vance Honeycutt heading into the 2026 season. His was a familiar story: Late first-round pick runs into a speedbump in his development and never recovers. In Honeycutt’s particular case, the speedbump was one that any draft evaluator would not have been surprised to see in the road. The guy struck out too much. He’s always struck out too much. Surprisingly, even in the middle of a season where he spent most of it failing in predictable ways, Honeycutt ended up having a 2026 campaign that’s at least worth some discussion.
The interesting part started in spring training. Although the Orioles did not invite Honeycutt to major league camp, they kept bringing him over to hang around as a “just in case” guy who might get an at-bat later in games, especially early in spring training. They put him in a game and he hit a homer. Fast forward some days and they put him in and he hit a homer.
This didn’t happen just once or even twice. Honeycutt took ten at-bats over ten spring games and he hit four home runs, leading all O’s in Grapefruit League action. Even a hard-hearted non-believer like me couldn’t help but wonder, what if something interesting clicked over the offseason?
The Orioles assigned Honeycutt to High-A Frederick to start the season, the same level that he played all last season while striking out an eye-popping 40.9% of the time. It was apparent that nothing had changed. By the end of June, he was batting .190/.282/.360 with a 42.4% strikeout rate. Nothing much else to see here. Right? Bust. Move on. Maybe think harder about drafting such a high-risk guy with a first round pick next time.
Except, actually, some things had changed. That’s an ugly batting line. There’s no getting around that. It was better than 2025 in this way: Honeycutt was actually hitting home runs for the first time as a professional. He cracked ten homers in 63 games with Frederick after hitting just five in 101 games with Aberdeen a year ago. Add in continually intriguing speed – he stole 28 bases in 32 attempts – and reports on his defense that remain incredibly positive about his being able to play center field at a high level.
What’s interesting about this compared to before is that, before he wasn’t even showing some of his strengths while having terrible overall numbers. There was nothing redeemable at all. Now, he’s at least putting a good foot forward, sometimes, which creates more of a tantalizing possibility of, what if he can mitigate his flaws just enough to be a good player?
It’s hard to quit on a guy like that, especially at a point in his pro career where there’s little downside to letting him keep trying. If only there could be something figured out to cut down the swing-and-miss… the Orioles player development people must have been thinking about this a lot. As they should have been! Developing Honeycutt into a 20/20 HR/SB center fielder – if you could ever be optimistic enough, maybe even 30/30 – who plays strong defense would be a huge coup for the team.
In July, Honeycutt was placed on the injured list with an oblique injury. I figured that was probably the end of it. He would come back from that, nothing would be different, and he could be written off.
The Orioles thought otherwise. Not long after Honeycutt returned from the injured list, despite absolutely nothing about his overall High-A performance seeming to warrant it, the team gave Honeycutt a promotion to the Double-A level, giving him the chance to play the last month with Chesapeake. There, in defiance of everyone who gave up on him, Honeycutt made things interesting again. Over 20 games with the Baysox, he hit five homers and batted .288/.381/.616, with a perfectly-livable strikeout rate of 25%.
What the heck was going on there? Could there be any possibility of that being something real? The Athletic’s Keith Law wrote a little later that Honeycutt had apparently done some work with a hitting instructor outside the organization when he was on the injured list. So, maybe something did get figured out, something that the Orioles development people were incapable of figuring out. Or maybe it has nothing much to do with anything. I am very curious what newly-hired general manager Jared Banner, and the people Banner helps to hire, is going to make of this situation.
I’ve put off writing about Honeycutt until last for me in this prospect series, because Honeycutt is out in the Arizona Fall League. Maybe there would be something interesting to say about him! Alas, he has only played in eight games. That’s a small sample size even by AFL standards. He’s homered three times and stolen three bases in those games, which is nice for him. He is striking out a lot, though less than his times of total failure. It adds up to a .217/.457/.652 batting line.
The AFL schedule will be ongoing through November 14, so maybe there will be a little more worth saying about Honeycutt by then. Or maybe he will continue roughly on this path: A low batting average while walking a lot, hitting for power, and striking out a lot.
What a confusing guy. That he’s at least become interesting to be confusing is, actually, an improvement for him compared to what Honeycutt was before this season. It still doesn’t mean he’s on track to be a real prospect, or even a half-decent prospect. There are a lot of outfield prospects coming up from below. If they catch up and start going by him, there probably won’t be anything to say about Honeycutt beyond right now.
TUCSON, ARIZONA - OCTOBER 10: Ike Irish #10 of the Baltimore Orioles bats during a game between the Mesa Solar Sox and the Peoria Javelinas at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium on Saturday, October 10, 2026 in Tucson, Arizona. (Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Good morning Birdland,
As we wait for the World Series to begin on Friday, there may be a baseball-sized hole in your evening entertainment. That reminded me that the Arizona Fall League does, in fact, exist, and there are a handful of intereting Orioles prospects in action. So, I wanted to check in on them.
All of the players that the Orioles send to the AFL are on the Peoria Javelinas, alongside youngsters from the Cardinals, Mariners, Padres, and Reds. Through 14 games, the Javelinas are 7-7, though they lead the league with a +25 run differential.
Vance Honeycutt is tied for second in the league in home runs (three) and is sixth in slugging percentage (.652). That has been accompanied by 11 strikeouts and 10 walks against 23 at-bats, so any hope of him shaking the “three true outcomes” label has fallen short. But at least he is getting more of the positive outcomes than he was early on in the regular season.
Ike Irish has been one of the top overall hitters in the league so far. Across 34 at-bats the former first-round pick has a .353/.421/.559 slash line with two homers, three walks, and five strikeouts. It’s been an encouraging recovery from the torn meniscus that ended his regular season in late July.
Brandon Butterworth is hitting .233/.410/.433 with three doubles, nine walks and 10 strikeouts. The 24-year-old spent about a month at Triple-A this year, but saw his bat fall off after the promotion. He could be in the mix for a utility role at the big league level in the near future.
The pitching stats are a bit less interesting to look at, because the volume of innings is pretty low across the board. But here are some highlights: Braxton Bragg has thrown six shutout innings. Patrick Reilly has a 1.29 ERA across seven innings and was named Pitcher of the Week just a couple of days ago. Kiefer Lord has allowed four runs in three innings of work. Teddy Sharkey has two strikeouts and three walks across 2.2 frames. And Kailen Hamson has four walks and four strikeouts in three innings.
The AFL is an interesting rung on the developmental ladder that usually serves to give extra in-game looks to players that missed time with injury. The workloads are truncated because the rosters are packed with players from all 30 organizations trying to accomplish the same thing. So, you don’t want to overreact any which way. But it is interesting baseball nonetheless.
Orioles Sign Jayvien Sandridge To Minor League Deal | MLB Trade Rumors Sanbridge, born in Hagerstown, is a a 27-year-old lefty that spent most of the year injured, but did pitch in six games with Norfolk. The Yankees called him up to the big leagues in 2025 for a cup of coffee, so this would seem to be another depth signing aimed at reinforcing the bullpen.
This, that and the other | Roch Kubatko Not much to talk about here. Kubatko mentions that Cade Povich had a left elbow debridement procedure, in case you missed it. The southpaw is an interesting figure heading into 2027. He’s had some intriguing moments as a starter, but not with the consistency that the Orioles would need start to start. For me, he fits well as a “swingman” type, making shorter spot starts or providing length out of the bullpen a couple of times a week.
Oriole fans have Rays’ rooting interest in World Series | Baltimore Baseball Every team in the AL East has at least made it to the World Series in the last decade, except for the Orioles. The Rays this year, the Blue Jays in 2025, the Yankees in 2024, and the Red Sox in 2018. So far, only the Red Sox have won the thing. Am I going to root for a division rival, even one with a bunch of familiar faces on it, to do the same? I’m torn.
Orioles birthdays
Is it your birthday? Happy birthday!
Matt Krook turns 32 today. The lefty pitched in one game for the Orioles back in 2024.
The late Valmy Thomas (b. 1925, d. 2010) was born on this day. He spent eight games as a catcher with the Orioles in 1960.
This day in O’s history
Nothing of note has happened in Orioles history, according to Baseball Reference. So, here are a few things that have occurred outside of Birdland:
1940 – The first edition of Ernest Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
1959 – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opens to the public in New York City.
1973 – Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safties in the same game.
1983 – The meter is defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458 of a second.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - MARCH 30: William Contreras #24 of the Milwaukee Brewers rounds third base after hitting a two run homer in the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at American Family Field on March 30, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The ALCS is over, and in many ways, we’re about to witness the Spider-Man meme of World Series. The Brewers and Rays are opposite-league doppelgängers, teams that come from similar backgrounds (Matt Arnold came to Milwaukee from the Rays’ front office), have crossover in their past (the Drew Rasmussen-Willy Adames swap looms large in this series), face many similar challenges (they both come from small-ish markets and are in the bottom half of the league in revenue and payroll), and have exceeded expectations to the point that their success could even disrupt the owners’ push for a salary cap in collective bargaining negotiations this winter.
Because of the ways in which these teams have to approach team building, this will be a very different series from the one that the Brewers just finished with the Dodgers. While there are plenty of familiar names for baseball diehards, the series lacks the Q-rating that a series with wealthier teams might provide. Still, there are young superstars on both sides, solid and interesting pitching, big bullpen figures, and a couple of the best managers in modern times.
As we did before the Dodgers series, let’s break down each position to see which team has the advantage. Since I already talked about the Brewers players a bit in the Dodgers preview, I’ll focus more on the Rays here.
Manager
Brewers: Pat Murphy
Rays: Kevin Cash
I won’t give an advantage to either team, here: I just wanted to point out that only three managers have ever won back-to-back Manager of the Year awards, and two of them are in this series (Murphy has won each of the last two years and has a good shot at a third in a row; Cash won in 2020 and 2021). Cash was known early on as an analytics guy; he famously pulled Blake Snell earlier than Snell would have liked during the 2020 World Series, another one of those stupid moments that put “analytics” under the microscope. This is Cash’s second World Series appearance, and he’s now completed 12 years as Rays manager — assuming he comes back next year, he’ll surpass 1,000 wins early in the season.
Murphy, as mentioned, has a good shot at winning a third straight Manager of the Year, which has never been done, so it is perhaps needless to add that Murphy has only been an MLB manager for three years (outside of a half season as interim manager of the Padres back in 2015).
Murphy and Cash go about things in different ways, but they’re pretty clearly two of the top managers working in the league right now.
Liam Hicks (LH): 3.3 WAR, 126 OPS+ (0.7 WAR, 129 OPS+ in 41g with Rays); PS: 31 PA, .222/.300/.259
Nick Fortes (RH): 0.8 WAR, 89 OPS+; PS: 3 PA, 0-for-3
Hicks has had a really nice season — he was hitting .282/.363/.432 with 14 homers in 101 games with Miami when the Rays acquired him at the deadline, and he was even better in Tampa, with a .288/.379/.440 line in 41 games. He has struggled during the postseason, but he’s a good hitter. Fortes is unlikely to see much action.
Contreras has been the Brewers’ best hitter in the playoffs. He hit .375 with two homers in four games against San Diego, then hit .357 with a homer and a double against the Dodgers. If he continues to hit like he has, the Brewers will be in really good shape.
Advantage: Brewers. Hicks had a better regular season than Contreras, but Contreras has been far superior in the postseason, so we’ll let recency bias rule.
Andrew Vaughn (RH): 1.5 WAR, 130 OPS+; PS: 9 PA, .286/.444/.429
Rays:
Jonathan Aranda (LH): 2.2 WAR, 121 OPS+; PS: 40 PA, .257/.333/.343, 1 HR, 5 RBI
Bauers won NLCS MVP after going 4-for-14 with two of the biggest at-bats in team history: a 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 and an 11-pitch two-run home run off of Blake Snell in Game 3 that flipped the scoreboard. In a continuation of his regular season, Bauers has been taking a whole bunch of walks (seven in 34 plate appearances this postseason) and doing damage when he puts the bat on the ball. He’s been huge.
Vaughn has also recreated his regular season: his appearances have been limited, but he’s played well when given chances. He’s only got nine plate appearances in the postseason, but he’s got a couple hits and a couple walks in there, including a double. Vaughn’s appearances are going to continue to be limited in the World Series, as none of the expected starters for Tampa Bay are left-handed, but he can definitely play a major part as a high-leverage pinch-hitter.
Aranda is a good hitter. He had 22 homers and 27 doubles this season, and he walks a little. He’ll hit near the top of the Rays’ lineup, and he’ll get his hits; Milwaukee will just have to try to limit the damage.
Advantage: Brewers. As I said, Aranda is good, but Bauers won NLCS hardware, and Vaughn is a potential weapon in this series.
Ben Williamson (RH): 0.8 WAR, 74 OPS+; PS: 11 PA, .125/.364/.125
At 29 and in his fifth season, Palacios is one of the more experienced Rays. He’s been really good this postseason, but he’s definitely been outperforming his about-league-average numbers of the regular season. Williamson is a defensive specialist who will probably get a few at-bats against left-handed pitching.
Turang, of course, is one of the league’s best players. After struggling in the NLDS versus San Diego and continuing a worrying offensive trend from last postseason, Turang had a great series against the Dodgers: he was 4-for-11 with a double, a homer, and five walks for a sterling .364/.563/.727 batting line. He’s also one of the best defensive players in the sport.
Ortiz and Hamilton are a solid platoon. Ortiz has looked lost most of the postseason at the plate, but he looked much better in Game 4 of the NLCS, when he picked up an RBI single and hit the ball hard a couple other times. Hamilton was a surprising spark plug during the NLCS, when he had a couple of huge moments and was a major catalyst.
That being said: Caminero is a superstar. He’s only 23 and he’s hit 87 home runs across the last two seasons, and he will probably finish in the top five in MVP voting in the AL this season. He might have the quickest bat in the league. He’s Tampa Bay’s Jackson Chourio, the catalyst for everything they do offensively. Caminero’s defense is a little sketchy and he’s led the majors in double plays grounded into in each of the last two years, so there are some holes in his game, but he’s the most dangerous offensive player left in the playoffs.
Advantage: Rays. Ortiz and Hamilton should do fine, but Caminero is one of the main characters of the series.
Shortstop
Brewers:
Cooper Pratt (RH): 1.7 WAR, 99 OPS+; PS: 30 PA, .310/.310/.345
Rays:
Taylor Walls (SH): 3.5 WAR, 71 OPS+; PS: 31 PA, .148/.233/.148
Jorge Mateo (RH): -1.0 WAR, 8 OPS+ with Rays; PS: 4g, 0 PA
Walls is one of the league’s best defensive players — he led the majors in Baseball Reference’s dWAR this season — but he can’t hit at all. Mateo has appeared as a defensive sub a couple times but hasn’t had an at-bat this postseason; it is hard to blame the Rays after he hit .141/.181/.205 in 84 plate appearances after the Rays picked him up following a release by the Braves.
Pratt has gotten his hits this postseason — a good thing, as his typically solid defense has been shaky, especially early in the playoffs. The Brewers are hoping that Pratt is past the defensive hiccups that he’s had already; if he can keep up his hitting (nine hits in 29 at-bats, one double) it would be a bonus.
Advantage: Wash. Pratt’s offensive upside is probably higher and he’s feeling it at the plate. Walls is a defensive stud, but if Pratt can avoid the mistakes he’s made so far this postseason, he could be just as good.
Outfield
Brewers:
Jackson Chourio (RH): 4.9 WAR, 129 OPS+; PS: 38 PA, .171/.211/.343, 2 HR, 7 RBI
Ryan Vilade(RH): 0.8 WAR, 108 OPS+; PS: 7 PA, .200/.429/.800, 1 HR
The Rays have an interesting mix in the outfield. Simpson is perhaps the league’s fastest player, a left-handed slap hitter who has zero homers in over 1,000 career plate appearances. He doesn’t walk as much as you’d like for a player with his speed, but he gets a ton of infield hits and bunt hits, and once he’s on the bases he steals bases (he led the AL with 46 this season). Simpson has also worked hard to improve his defense, and is a plus defender in left field.
Mesa Jr. is a 24-year-old rookie who played well for the Rays after he was called up in late May. He only played in 79 games this season, but Mesa’s 127 OPS+ was second on the team. DeLuca is a 28-year-old in his fourth season, and he splits his time between center and right. DeLuca has reverse platoon splits this season — he’s better, fairly significantly, against right-handed pitchers — and has some pop, with 11 homers and 24 doubles in 370 plate appearances during the regular season.
Vilade is a utility presence for this team. He’s just 27 but is already playing on his fifth MLB team, even though he’d played just 28 games at the big-league level prior to this season. Vilade was a positive offensive presence this season while appearing at both corner outfield positions, first, second, and third. Mullins is this group’s veteran presence: he’s in his ninth big-league season and once finished in the top 10 in MVP voting when he was in Baltimore. That was five years ago, though; Mullins has lost a step and hasn’t had an above-average offensive season since 2024.
On the Brewer side, Chourio and Mitchell have both had huge moments this postseason. Chourio has managed to be productive despite what could be the worst batted-ball luck I’ve ever seen; he’s been killing the ball all postseason, he’s just been hitting it straight at people. Mitchell, of course, had huge homers in the third and fourth games of the Dodger series, including the one that put Milwaukee in the lead in the clincher.
Advantage: Brewers. No one on the Tampa side has anywhere close to the level of star power that Chourio has, and I think you’d rather have Mitchell than any of the Rays’ outfielders, too. It would be nice if Milwaukee could get some production from whoever plays right field, but thus far solid defense has been enough.
Designated Hitter
Brewers:
Christian Yelich (LH): 0.1 WAR, 91 OPS+; PS: 27 PA, .292/.370/.333
Díaz, quietly, has been one of the league’s best hitters for some time now: since he became a Ray in 2019, he’s a .291/.370/.448 hitter (130 OPS+) in almost 1,000 regular season games, he won a batting title, he’s made a couple of All-Star teams, and he’s gotten MVP votes three times. He led the American League in hits this season while putting together another typically solid season. Díaz doesn’t hit with a ton of power but he’s got plenty of pop (as evidenced by his big home run in Game 6 of the ALCS); he’s what we once would have called a “professional hitter.”
Yelich had a poor season, but he’s been holding his own this postseason. He hasn’t shown any power, but he’s gotten timely hits, most notably the two-run single that immediately followed Bauers’ epic 12-pitch walk against Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Game 2 of the NLCS.
Rasmussen and Peralta, both players with ties to the Brewers, have been, by far, the best 1-2 punch in the postseason thus far. Rasmussen, who the Rays acquired from the Brewers in the Willy Adames swap in 2021, has averaged seven innings per start — no Brewer has gone even six innings in a start this postseason — and has allowed just three runs while picking up 23 strikeouts to just three walks in those 21 innings. He threw an absolute gem against the Yankees in the ALDS: eight shutout innings, one hit, 1o strikeouts. This caps a season in which Rasmussen emerged as one of the league’s best pitchers: after injury issues over his first five seasons, Rasmussen has reached 150 innings two years in a row and has made back-to-back All-Star Games, and he led the AL in WHIP and strikeout-to-walk ratio this season. He could finish in the top five in AL Cy Young voting this season.
Peralta, one of the most popular pitchers in Brewers history, suffered through an awful four months in New York and was acquired by Tampa Bay at the deadline. What followed was perhaps one of the more embarrassing turns in a series of embarrassing moments for that Mets front office: after a couple of starts to settle in, Peralta has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball since September started; he won the Pitcher of the Month award in the season’s last month, and has been fantastic in the postseason, taking home ALCS MVP honors.
Martinez has been a solid presence all season. The 36-year-old has been around a long time — he debuted in 2014 with Texas, pitched there for four seasons, spent the next four years in Japan, and returned stateside as a much better pitcher. He made his first All-Star Game this season when he had a 3.10 ERA in 31 starts. He doesn’t walk anyone — he led the majors with just 1.3 walks per nine innings — but he also doesn’t strike batters out, and there are some underlying metrics here that might give the Brewers some confidence.
Jax has been one of the more extreme “good FIP, bad ERA” pitchers in baseball over the last seven years. He was a high-leverage reliever for the Twins before the Rays acquired him at last year’s trade deadline; this year, they converted him into a starter, where he had moderate success. He’s made one start and one relief appearance this postseason but has walked three batters and given up four runs in six innings.
The Brewers will, of course, hope that the long layoff between starts will give Misiorowski a chance to look more like the pitcher he was during the regular season. He hasn’t been bad, but his ability to miss bats has diminished in the postseason and he has struggled to put batters away, leading to a ton of foul balls and extremely high pitch counts, limiting him to just 8 1/3 innings across two starts. He’s still been relatively effective, but he hasn’t looked like the guy who is going to win the Cy Young Award.
Henderson and Gasser have filled important roles for the Brewers; Henderson hasn’t been quite as good as he looked for most of the regular season, but Gasser has made two huge starts for Milwaukee. May hasn’t been good; he might start Game 4, but he’s had his issues in the postseason and isn’t likely to play a major role.
Advantage: Rays. This isn’t the gauntlet that the Dodgers could boast in the NLCS (whom the Brewers handled quite easily), but Rasmussen and Peralta are both pitching quite a bit better than any starter on the Brewers right now. But they’ve also faced two offenses — the Yankees without Aaron Judge and the Guardians — who didn’t pose nearly as big a threat as the Brewers do. You have to give the Rays the advantage based on postseason results thus far, but if Misiorowski and Henderson benefit from their rest and the Brewer offense continues to whir, this could easily flip.
Baker is the linchpin here. He led the majors with 41 saves (tied with Cleveland’s Cade Smith) and pitched to a sparkling 1.44 ERA. The 3.07 FIP number is a little less scary, though; Baker isn’t as overpowering as some closers (he sits at 96 mph with has fastball and has relatively pedestrian strikeout numbers) but he did a great job all season at keeping hitters off balance and limiting hard contact. At this point, the 31-year-old Baker is a one-year wonder: over five previous seasons, he’d pitched to a 3.86 ERA and 3.47 FIP in over 200 appearances, but the magic certainly hasn’t worn off yet, as he has five saves in seven scoreless appearances this postseason.
Seymour finished the season as a member of the Rays’ rotation but has moved into relief work in the postseason. He’s been their most-used lefty so far this October — he gets a lot of strikeouts, but he’s given up a couple of homers in seven outings this postseason. Cam Booser (not to be confused with Cam Boozer) will be another prolific lefty for Cash, but he’s more of a LOOGY type.
Wells is the other player here who has had a lot of success. He started the season with Baltimore and pitched to a 2.67 ERA in 54 innings, then got even better when the Rays acquired him at the trade deadline; after the trade he gave up just three earned runs in 18 innings (1.50 ERA).
Sulser, Matz, and Hopkins are the Drohan, Patrick, and Harrison of the Rays’ pen this postseason: they’ve combined for two appearances in nine games. Hopkins has pitched only six times in the majors: he was a top 40 prospect via Baseball America coming into the season but didn’t have a great year for Triple-A Durham and clearly hasn’t yet earned a place on Cash’s trust tree.
The big question remaining for Milwaukee: will Brandon Woodruff take one of these spots? That’s been covered on our website, but it’s really the only remaining roster question for this team. If he does work his way into the mix, expect him to take the roster spot of either Harrison or Patrick.
Advantage: Brewers. The Rays have one of the game’s best closers, but so do the Brewers, and the Brewers are in better shape in front of Megill than the Rays are in front of Baker; I’d take Uribe and Ashby before any non-Baker reliever on the Rays, and I’d consider Hall in that conversation, too.
Wrapping Up
Here’s the tl;dr version:
Catcher: Brewers, slightly First Base: Brewers, slightly Second Base: Brewers, big time Third Base: Rays, big time Shortstop: Wash Outfield: Brewers Designated Hitter: Rays Starting Pitching: Rays Bullpen: Brewers
I’ve got the Brewers as better in five areas and the Rays better in three, with shortstop being more or less a wash. The Brewers appear to me to be a more complete team, and even in some of the areas where I favor the Rays — starting pitching being the primary example — it’s not hard for me to imagine a situation where the Brewers outperform their opponents. The great equalizer is Caminero, who is the best hitter in the series, though one could say the same about Misiorowski on the other side.
Happy birthday to George Bell, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1975 – Carlton Fisk breaks up one of the best games in World Series history with a home run in the 12th inning to give the Boston Red Sox a 7-6 victory against the Cincinnati Reds, forcing a seventh game to decide the winner of the 1975 World Series, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
1925 – Marv Goodwin, a former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals who joined the Cincinnati Reds at the end of the season, is killed in a plane he is piloting. At age 34, Goodwin is the first active player to die from injuries sustained in an airplane crash. Goodwin was one of the original spitballers who was “grandfathered.”
1964 – After just 11 years in Milwaukee, the Braves’ Board of Directors votes to ask the National League for permission to move to Atlanta. Milwaukee County officials sue to block the move.
1976 – With a 7-2 victory, the Cincinnati Reds win the World Series, completing a four-game sweep of the Yankees. It is the Reds’ second straight World Championship. Johnny Bench hits two home runs for five RBI. He finishes with a .533 batting average and is named Series MVP. Yankees catcher Thurman Munson has six straight singles to tie a World Series mark. Cincinnati becomes the first and only team to win a World Series using the identical batting lineup in every game of that Series, with no pinch-hitters, pinch-runners, or defensive replacements making an appearance. Cincinnati also becomes the first team ever to go through an entire League Championship Series and World Series without a defeat.
1995 – Atlanta beats Cleveland, 3-2, in Game 1 of the World Series behind star pitcher Greg Maddux. Fred McGriff homers for Atlanta, while Kenny Lofton of Cleveland becomes the first player since 1921 to steal two bases in one inning of a Series game. The two teams combine for only five hits, tying a World Series record for fewest hits by both clubs.
2015 – The Mets complete a sweep of the Cubs in the NLCS with an 8-3 win at Wrigley Field. They score four runs in the first and two in the second to run away with the game, while Daniel Murphy, who is named MVP of the series, sets a new postseason record by homering in his sixth straight game.
2017 – The Astros win Game 7 of the ALCS, 4-0, over the Yankees to clinch their-first ever American Leaguepennant. Having also won one in the National League in 2005, they become the first team to have done so in both major leagues. In the game, the Astros get a great combined pitching performance by Charlie Morton, who goes the first five innings, and Lance McCullers, who pitches the last four, limiting the Yankees to just three hits. Evan Gattis and Jose Altuve hit solo homers and Brian McCann drives in two runs, as CC Sabathia is charged with the loss.
1520 – Explorer Ferdinand Magellan and his fleet reach Cape Virgenes after transiting the Strait of Magellan between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, becoming the first Europeans to sail into the Pacific.
1797 – The USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) is launched in Boston.
1959 – Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, opens in New York City.
1964 – Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia runs a world record 2:12:11.2 to beat Briton Basil Heatley by more than 4 minutes and win the men’s marathon at the Tokyo Olympics; he is the first athlete to win the Olympic marathon twice.
1973 – Fred Dryer of the Los Angeles Rams becomes the first player in NFL history to score two safeties in the same game.
2024 – Findings are published of a massive collision of Earth with a large meteorite, four times the size of Mt. Everest, 3.26 billion years ago, so big it boiled the oceans and may have kickstarted early life.
Today in music history:
1858 – Jacques Offenbach’s operetta “Orpheus in the Underworld” (Orphée aux Enfers) premieres in Paris and includes “Infernal Galop” (can-can tune).
1975 – Asylum Records releases “Nighthawks at the Diner,” the third studio album by singer-songwriter Tom Waits; the double LP was recorded with a live audience in a simulated nightclub setting.
1978 – Rock musician Frank Zappa serves as both host and musical guest on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, appearing in several sketches and performing his songs “Dancin’ Fool,” “The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing,” and “Rollo.”
2001 – “United We Stand” benefit concert for September 11, 2001, terrorist attack victims is held at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., organized and headlined by Michael Jackson and featuring Aerosmith, Mariah Carey, and The Backstreet Boys.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Bryce Harper #3 of the Philadelphia Phillies reacts in the outfield against the Atlanta Braves during the seventh inning in game two of the National League Wild Card Series at Truist Park on September 30, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Let’s not kid ourselves. The World Series featuring two of the best, yet smallest market, teams in the game really isn’t going to have much of an effect on the labor negotiations. Team owners are not going to continue crying poor, that they can’t spend any money to keep up with the Dodgers. Maybe it slows down the momentum of missing games, but that’s about it.
PHOENIX — Hall of Famer Robin Yount knew that a luxurious 12-day cruise to Italy had been scheduled long ago by his wife, but it wasn’t until he was nearly aboard the ship that he realized the timing.
The Major League Baseball playoffs were underway and his beloved Milwaukee Brewers, were smack in the middle of it.
Damn. He wanted to be there.
At the least, he wanted to be able to watch on TV.
Well, you try catching a TV signal while bobbing along the waves in the Atlantic.
“I hadn’t paid attention to the timing of this cruise," Yount tells USA TODAY Sports. “I pulled up the schedule, and it was the start of the playoffs. The first two games [of the NL Division Series], I couldn’t get the games on anything, but the ESPN app.
“So here I am, it’s 2:30 in the morning, and I’m lying in bed for three hours, watching stick figures of balls and strikes, and the lights where the ball was going until 6 in the morning. Then, I remembered, 'Hey, you idiot, you can use the Sirius app to listen.' Then I’m lying in bed all night with an earpiece listening to the broadcast.
“So what was supposed to be a nice, relaxing cruise with stuff going on all day long, and I’m getting about six hours of sleep the entire trip. When the cruise ended, I was beat up."
Yount, who had that iconic motorcycle ride into old Milwaukee County Stadium after the 1982 season, retreated with his wife, Michele, to their Phoenix-area home to watch Games 3 and 4 of the NLCS at Dodger Stadium.
They watched every pitch of every inning, with the Brewers sweeping the Dodgers and winning the pennant for the first time in 44 years, when Yount won the American League MVP award. They fell in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals in that World Series, and haven’t been back, still seeking their first title in franchise history.
“When we lost in ’82, we all thought we’d be back to the World Series the next year," Yount says. “It took us 44 years. So when we won in LA, let’s just say I may have overserved myself a little bit. I guarantee you that every guy on that ’82 team was watching and celebrating, too."
This Brewers team reminds Yount of their ’82 team with the joy, passion and determination. Maybe they don’t stay in the clubhouse until 2 in the morning having a few pops and talking ball, with this new generation of Brewers going home to play video games. This team has a personal chef with a nutritional menu in the clubhouse and would be appalled at the notion of downing hamburgers and bratwurst before and after games like their ancestors. But, oh, does this team play the game hard with an emphasis on fundamentals, just like Yount’s.
“I love the way they play, but we may want this more than even they [the current Brewers team] do," Yount says. “We still believe we have some unfinished business to take care of. It’d be a huge relief to win this now with all of us still around to see it."
Yount, 71, robustly laughs. Hey, when you were drafted out of high school and raised as a Brewer, reaching the big leagues when you’re still a teenager, play your entire 20-year career with the Brewers, inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Brewer, and are widely regarded as the greatest Brewer player of all-time, that blue and gold stays in your bloodstream.
“Oh man, I live and breathe with these guys," Yount says. “I grew up in LA, but I was never a Dodger fan. We had so many years of disappointment and heartbreak against them. And then to beat them the way we did, it couldn’t have been a better script."
Now, 44 years later, here they are, playing in a different stadium, in a different league, and against a team that didn’t exist during Yount’s career, in the World Series beginning Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays at American Family Field.
“The fans, not just in Milwaukee, but the entire state of Wisconsin, they are all starving for this," Yount says. “They have as much passion as any fanbase in baseball. The city, all of Wisconsin, nobody’s missing this. The TV ratings won’t be low in Wisconsin, I guarantee you that."
Yount, who has been constantly exchanging text messages with his former teammates, certainly isn’t about to miss this World Series. He is taking 15 family members to Milwaukee where he will throw out the ceremonial first pitch Friday with Bud Selig, Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball, who brought the Brewers to Milwaukee in 1970 and made sure they never left.
Yount never left, either.
A two-time MVP and one of the most gifted all-around athletes of his generation, who even considered quitting baseball at one point to become a professional golfer on the PGA Tour or a Motocross rider, certainly had opportunities to depart. He twice was a free agent, heavily coveted by the Dodgers and Angels, but always came back to Milwaukee. He could have received more money on the free-agent market, gotten more fame, but his heart belonged with the good folks of Wisconsin, and particularly Selig, the Brewers’ beloved owner.
“It was the right fit for me," Yount says. “I was an extremely shy kid except for the baseball field and the motocross track. I was just always comfortable in Milwaukee. The smaller market was probably better for me. The only time I considered leaving is after that one taste of the World Series. That’s what motivated me, to have that shot again.
“But Mr. Selig was a car salesman before he bought the Brewers, and he did a pretty good sales job keeping me there. But you know something, he was absolutely right.
“If I had left, it would have been the biggest mistake I made in my career."
Yount, who amassed 3,142 hits, and joined Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg and Alex Rodriguez as the only players to win MVP awards playing two different positions (shortstop and center field), says the only regret in his career is not winning that World Series championship.
But, oh, did they ever come close.
They clinched the AL East on the final day of the regular season against the Baltimore Orioles when he hit two home runs off future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer. They trailed 2-0 in the AL Championship Series to the star-studded California Angels, with Reggie Jackson, Rod Carew and Don Baylor, before winning the final three games. And, with Yount batting .414 with three doubles, a homer, six RBI and a 1.072 OPS in the World Series – becoming the only player to produce two four-hit games in a World Series – they lost the seventh and deciding game when they blew a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning.
The Brewers, a team with four future Hall of Famers, was built on power with Gorman Thomas and Ben Oglivie hitting more home runs than the entire Cardinals’ team. The irony now is that this Brewers’ edition is built like the ol’ Cardinals. They hit the second-fewest homer runs in baseball and ranked fifth in stolen bases, while back in 1982 the Cardinals hit just 67 homers and stole 200 bases.
“We played hard, we played to win, just like this team, but our team was a total different team than this one," Yount says. “We had a lot of power through the lineup. The lineup was unbelievable. We scored a ton of runs. But those guys, man, they can run and beat you in so many ways.
“I’m just hoping this year’s team brings the same results as that Cardinals team."
Who knows, maybe this time around, Yount will be riding his motorcycle into Great American Family Field proudly carrying the World Series banner instead of riding his dirt bike to a Brewers’ rally he wanted no part of, still livid over their World Series defeat.
The Brewers had already arranged a downtown parade and celebration at County Stadium before the end of the World Series, and two days after losing Game 7 in 1982, they still went on with the ceremony with beloved Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker as the MC.
“We came back from St. Louis just after losing the World Series," says Yount, who sobbed in the back of the plane on the ride back to Milwaukee, “and they told us they were going to have parade for us. In every players’ mind, the last thing we wanted to do is have parade after losing the World Series. We had to be there at 8 or 9 in the morning.
“So, the little bit of rebel in me, I had a dirt bike in the garage, and even though it’s not street legal, I didn’t care about anything at that point. It was my way of showing I was upset. I rode 10 miles, parked the bike by the dugout, and did the whole parade, with the fans celebrating like we won.
“We’re done with the parade, and I’m walking downstairs, [teammates] Pete Vukovich and Ted Simmons see the bike, and say, “Is this yours? You rode it here? What’s it doing here?"
Then, came the challenge.
Vukovich and Simmons: “Why don’t you ride it on the field?"
The center field gate opened, Yount, wearing a leather jacket, jeans and dark sunglasses, jumps on the motorcycle, roared around the warning track, with no helmet and his hair flying, riding right up to home plate.
The crowd roared, and the scene became such an iconic memory that the Brewers created a bobblehead with Yount atop the dirt bike.
“It was quite the celebration for losing," Yount says. “It went over pretty good. It certainly wasn’t planned on my part, so blame it on Vuk and Simba."
Yount, who still rides his motorcycles on the streets and surrounding mountains in Phoenix, and loves working on his bikes even more, will gladly ride his motorcycle one more time into a ballpark.
But only in a victory celebration at American Family Field in front of a euphoric Brewers’ crowd.
“You have no idea how bad I want this, and so does everyone else on that ’82 team,’’ Yount says. “We’ve waited such a long time for this.
“I just wish Ueck was around, but I guarantee he’s got a front-row seat watching this. He’s with us. We can feel it.’’
And, with four more victories, the spirit of Ueck, Selig and every single member of that ’82 team, will be celebrating, long and hard, making a Milwaukee winter seem downright balmy.
“I never had the courage to spend the winter in Milwaukee,’’ Yount says, “but I’d love see that parade. We’ve had to wait 44 years.
“I just want to see my team win, at last, while we’re still alive to see it."
Don Mattingly is not a meteorologist, but he knows how to read the wind. He knows it was blowing in the direction of Alex Cora, knows that Cora was Dave Dombrowski’s guy, knows that he would not have received a two-year contract to manage the Phillies if Cora had interest in getting back in the game.
Mattingly, in the words of J.T. Realmuto, “turned our season around,” when he took over the 2026 Phillies as interim manager in late April. The team posted a 79-55 record under him, fourth-best in the majors from that point until the end of the season, and tied a franchise record by making the playoffs for a fifth straight year.
And, yet, Mattingly had to wait until Dombrowski felt out Cora and touched base with a couple of other potential candidates, before being named skipper last week.
Some baseball men, especially those of Mattingly’s accomplishment in the game, might not have handled Dombrowski’s tack well. They might have attached an ice pack to their bruised feelings, cued up Johnny Paycheck’s famous song from 1977, and moved on.
But Mattingly didn’t.
“I never felt slighted,” he said as his new deal became official last week. “I want what’s best for the Phillies. If Dave thought that was moving forward (with Cora), then I was going to be good with that. I don’t have an ego that says I have to be whatever. I just don’t need it. So, I’m thrilled to be back and honored that they have faith in me to do the job.”
It’s not difficult to believe Mattingly when he says he wants what’s best for the Phillies. His son, Preston, works under Dombrowski as the team’s general manager. What dad doesn’t want what’s best for his son? Don Mattingly managed the Phillies for just over five months in 2026. In that time, he was never anything but humble and sincere. When the man says he wasn’t slighted, you believe him. He has experience in being underestimated and has handled it well.
“You know, I was a 19th round pick,” he said. “I got passed over by a lot of guys before they drafted me, so there were a lot of players I was behind.”
Mattingly was a standout high school baseball and basketball player back home in Evansville, Indiana. He was ticketed to play both sports at Indiana State before the New York Yankees made him the 493rd selection in the 1979 draft. Pretty good pick, those Yankees made. Mattingly went on to win an American League MVP award and a batting title. He made six All-Star teams and won nine Gold Gloves. He earned the kind of nickname – Donnie Baseball – that they only give the great ones. He is one of the all-time beloved Yankees, a little like Chase Utley is in the 215 area code. His No. 23 is retired by the club. He’s received strong consideration for the Hall of Fame in recent Contemporary Era elections (he received eight and six votes, respectively, of a necessary 12 in the last two) and still might get there.
All in all, not bad for a 493rd pick.
“You just have to keep going and show them what you can do,” Mattingly said. “To me, it’s stay humble, keep working and worry about winning games.
“I have a lot of confidence in myself. I don’t talk like that. But inside, I’m confident in the way I go about my business. I’m probably not always perfect, but I’m pretty confident.”
Mattingly, 65, previously managed in Los Angeles with the Dodgers and in Miami. The 2027 season will be his 14th as a big-league skipper.
Prior to joining the Phillies as bench coach last winter, Mattingly was bench coach for three seasons in Toronto. He considered retiring after Toronto, but was talked into joining the Phillies by Dombrowski. At the time he was hired as Phillies bench coach, Mattingly said he was done managing, that he had no desire to do it again. He took over the role on an interim basis at Dombrowski’s request after Rob Thomson was let go in April. In time, his desire to manage again was rekindled.
“I’m excited about being in Philly,” he said. “I think it’s what made me want to manage again. I enjoy the environment. It’s kind of how I grew up playing professionally. I’ve been other places, but this feels more like my personality. What I feel inside, the fans, the fanbase, is more of what I feel about playing and how you should go about it.
“It’s not a cupcake environment. It’s an environment with a lot of expectations and a desire to know what’s going on. Why did you do this? Why did you do that? And I appreciate all of that.”
Though Mattingly experienced regular-season success in 2026, he said it never felt as if the team was fully his.
It will be in 2027, once there’s labor peace between the owners and the players.
He’d like to see the Phillies “play faster,” with players like Trea Turner and Justin Crawford looking to steal more bases. He will emphasize defense. That’s already a big offseason talking point with Dombrowski demanding better defense at shortstop from Turner – or else.
“There are things I want to do differently,” Mattingly said. “It’s hard to score in today’s game. So, defense is a premium. It’s an area I would really like to push.”
With Zack Wheeler, Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Andrew Painter “our starting pitching is as good as anyone in baseball,” Mattingly said. “So, we need to catch the ball, limit extra outs, play a game where we get as much as we possibly can out of our pitching.”
Mattingly will be part of organizational meetings this week as Dombrowski and his top lieutenants put together a plan to get the Phillies back to the postseason for a sixth straight year in 2027. Left unsaid is the team needs to last longer than one round in 2027. The goal remains simple: World Series or bust. Mattingly has never won one – as a player or a manager – and the desire to do so lives deep in his soul.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - MAY 9: General Manager Ben Cherington of the Pittsburgh Pirates looks on during batting practice before the game against the Atlanta Braves at PNC Park on May 9, 2025 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Pittsburgh Pirates made a big trade last offseason with the Houston Astros that landed them second baseman Brandon Lowe, outfielder Jake Mangum, and left-handed pitcher Mason Montgomery. All three players made significant contributions for the Pirates in 2026, so it might be in their best interest to make another deal with the team from Space City.
Bleacher Report writer Kerry Miller suggests the trade that would send Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes to the Pirates.
“Brandon Lowe’s one season with Pittsburgh was everything the Pirates could have asked for, playing in 150 games and hitting 35 home runs. Now he’s a free agent, though, and it’s back to the drawing board with several spots in the lineup that could use an infusion of offense. Third base, in particular, is looking bleak, and we’ve previously mentioned that Houston is probably going to be willing to move one of its infielders. And, come on, “Pittsburgh Paredes” is right there as an awesome nickname,“ Miller wrote.
While Paredes has primarily played third base in his first two years with the Astros, he also has experience playing second base. That is where the team might need some reinforcements if Lowe were to walk in free agency.
The Astros have a surplus of infielders, with Carlos Correa re-entering the fold after an original trade brought him back to Houston in 2025, when Paredes went down with a long-term injury.
It’s a trade that could make sense for both sides if there was interest, so Pittsburgh should at least give Houston another call this offseason.
BD community, how do you feel about the possibility of trading for Paredes? Let us know in the comment section below.
NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 07: Anthony Volpe #11 of the New York Yankees looks on during Game Three of the American League Division Series presented by Booking.com between the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by Michael Urakami/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: The Yankees have a decision to make regarding second base: stick with Anthony Volpe, or explore other options on the free agent and trade markets. Whatever ends up happening, Aaron Judge seems to have Volpe’s back. Following the Yankees’ ALDS Game 3 loss to the Rays, Judge had this to say about the embattled shortstop: “If we were going to win a World Series, we needed Anthony Volpe on the team.” I don’t know if I share that level of confidence, but Volpe did have a nice bounceback from a down 2025, accumulating 1.4 fWAR in just 70 games thanks to much improved defensive numbers. His bat, though, remains uninspiring, unless you believe his offensive resurgence since being called up from Triple-A in September was genuine. (I don’t.)
NJ.com | Randy Miller: Speaking of decisions, earlier in the week, the Yankees elected to retain Aaron Boone as their manager for the 2027 season — though he will not be getting an extension and will just manage the final year of his contract before the Yankees make any decisions on his future. Miller asked four anonymous baseball insiders about their opinion on whether the Yankees should have opted for change. While their conclusions vary, all sources touch on similar, familiar talking points: Boone being too much of a “player’s manager,” questions about clubhouse culture, shaky fundamentals, and concerns about now-free agent Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s behavior. Is it going to be more of the same from Boone and the Yankees in 2027, or will they opt for a more proactive approach in dealing with these issues? I’m leaning towards the former, but we shall see.
The Athletic | Chris Kirschner: Finally, Kirschner offers a useful, plainly laid out overview of the Yankees’ payroll situation for 2027 and the years beyond. While the team has often stated keeping payroll below $300 million as a goal, they currently have more than $200 million in guaranteed money for next year tied up in just seven players – Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodón, Ryan McMahon, and Max Fried. Of those seven, McMahon and Stanton stand out in terms of the paucity of value they bring to the team. As such, their future with the team is uncertain.
Lastly, the Yankees’ two best players from 2026 were in attendance last night as the Knicks raised their first championship banner in 53 years at Madison Square Garden. Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice are about as popular a pair of Yankees ambassadors as you’re going to find at this moment in time, so good move!
The best team in the National League and the best team in the American League have advanced to the World Series, which nonetheless qualifies as a stunner considering those teams’ identities.
Welcome to the Brewers-Rays World Series, in which, regardless of the result, an organization that scrimps on roster payroll and prides itself on outthinking its opponents will win its first championship.
Milwaukee has only played in one other Fall Classic — way back in 1982, 44 years ago — and Tampa Bay lost in 2020 and 2008.
Finally the brains, more so than the brawn, of one of the clubs will pay off in a matchup that begins Friday in Wisconsin. If this battle of technically sound and remarkably athletic players supported by brilliant baseball minds does not excite masses who wanted Goliaths such as the Yankees and Dodgers, maybe savor the game at its best while it is being played.
Which brings us to another storyline of the 122nd World Series …
This is poorly timed for the owners ahead of an expected lockout
The league’s billionaires soon will shutter the sport to argue that significant steps — namely, a salary cap — must be taken to achieve better competitive balance. Because how could a team like the Rays — with the 28th-highest payroll, according to Spotrac — and the Brewers — No. 19 — compete with the Yankees and Dodgers?
So yes, the owners’ case would have more greatly resonated if the annual winter winners became the October winners, perhaps with the Dodgers three-peating.
But to get this far, the Rays and Brewers acted differently than the bigger-market behemoths who more freely throw money at free agents. Each market and each owner operates distinctly in a system with a soft salary cap and no salary floor, and money spent is an inarguable advantage.
It is not just that they act differently, but …
Both teams play differently
They score differently than most. The Rays led the majors in singles, and the Brewers were second.
The Rays swing differently. They excel in putting bat on ball, best in the majors in strikeout rate and tops in bunts — for hits and sacrifices — laid down.
The Brewers swing differently. They are not as contact-driven but delight traditionalists in other ways, notably by using the opposite field more than anyone. They find gaps, take their walks, advance runners and figured out ways to score the second-most runs in baseball while hitting the second-fewest home runs in baseball.
Milwaukee starter Jacob Misiorowski is one of the stars in this Brewers-Rays World Series. Getty Images
Both teams run differently, the Rays with the slight edge in steals (second best vs. fifth best) but the Brewers overall faster (the fastest team in MLB, according to Statcast’s Sprint Speed).
They defend differently, both largely excellent with the gloves. The Rays outfield is particularly strong, and the Brewers’ all-around defense has vacuumed up ball after ball, helping their pitchers with a .229 Batting Average on Balls in Play in the postseason.
They pitch differently, the Brewers’ high-powered bullpen the best in October while the Rays rotation has led the way.
Both are cohesive, well-meshed teams that nonetheless feature …
Standouts whose stardoms are about to grow
It is not an exaggeration to say Jacob Misiorowski is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher in baseball history. At a time when velocity is king, the crown belongs to a wiry, 6-foot-7, 24-year-old with a boyish face, a love of Pokémon and a Cy Young Award in his future. The Mets staff threw nine regular-season pitches of at least 100 mph this season; “The Miz” threw 1,115.
Behind him, 22-year-old Jackson Chourio, having a quiet postseason, has the ability to instantly become a household name. As does Brice Turang, who is no longer among baseball’s most underrated stars.
On the Rays side, Junior Caminero — who, growing up in the Dominican Republic, successfully lobbied to name his little brother “Girardi” after the then-Yankees manager — announced himself in the ALCS-clinching victory with a shot off the left field foul pole, some chest-beating and a detour-filled slow trot around the bases. A 23-year-old MVP candidate for this year and a threat for years to come, Caminero has the talent to become one of the faces of the game.
And one the ALCS-losing Guardians will forever regret trading. Speaking of which …
Trade payback
In all likelihood, the Rays will turn to Drew Rasmussen and Freddy Peralta in Games 1 and 2 on normal rest. If they get shut down, the Brewers would have only themselves to blame.
Rasmussen, an oft-injured but promising prospect, debuted for the Brewers in 2020 and was traded to the Rays the next year in the Willy Adames swap that looked lopsided until it wasn’t. Finally healthy, Rasmussen has a combined 2.71 ERA in 61 starts the past two years.
Drew Rasmussen, who shut down the Yankees and Guardians, likely will start in Game 1 of the World Series for the Rays. Aaron Josefczyk/UPI/Shutterstock
The Peralta saga is more familiar locally, another walk-year Brewers player dealt before free agency, this time to the Mets. Peralta struggled, could not be fixed in Queens and was sent to the pitching-fixers in St. Petersburg, who have unlocked the ALCS MVP.
Speaking of recognizable faces, there are plenty of …
Local connections
For the Brewers, Gary Sánchez and Jake Bauers will be familiar to Yankees fans, and Trevor Megill is the brother of the Mets’ Tylor.
For the Rays, there is Peralta plus Steven Matz, short-time Mets Cedric Mullins and Cole Sulser and former top Yankees prospect Jorge Mateo.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 06: Michael King #34 of the San Diego Padres pitches in the eighth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers in game three of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on October 06, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
We’re open for business here at BCB After Dark: the coolest club for night owls, early risers, new parents and Cubs fans abroad. Come on in out of the fall chill. There’s no cover charge. We always have room for a friendly face. We have a few tables available. The hostess can seat you now. Bring your own beverage.
BCB After Dark is the place for you to talk baseball, music, movies, or anything else you need to get off your chest, as long as it is within the rules of the site. The late-nighters are encouraged to get the party started, but everyone else is invited to join in as you wake up the next morning and into the afternoon.
Last night, I asked you who you were cheering for in the upcoming World Series. The vote wasn’t as lopsided as I thought it would be, as “only” 63 percent of you said you were cheering for the Rays. For the other 37 percent, I guess you have your reasons.
On Tuesdays, I don’t normally do any movie stuff. But I always have time for jazz and you’re free to join us.
Tonight we’re featuring Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as a 1930s Cab Calloway-style jazz tune. And yes, that’s Wayne Brady on lead vocals.
OK, I’m cheating a little bit. The first name that Mooney and Sharma mention is Tarik Skubal, and if I put him in the poll he’d probably get at least 90 percent of the vote. But as Mooney and Sharma mention, signing Skubal would force owner Tom Ricketts to go way outside of his comfort zone as far as it comes to signing free agents. I’m not saying that there is no chance the Cubs sign Skubal. I do think there’s a chance that Ricketts and Hoyer decide to roll the dice on Skubal. But I don’t think it’s a big chance. Small chance. Really small chance. But I am saying there’s a chance. But not enough of a chance to include him here.
The other three starting pitchers mentioned by the pair are much more likely options for the Cubs. The three of them are:
Right-hander Michael King: King isn’t technically a free agent yet, but he has an opt-out clause that everyone is expecting him to exercise. As Mooney and Sharma note, the Cubs were interested in King last year, but didn’t want to match the Padres’ offer. For one, it would have cost the Cubs a draft pick as he had received a qualifying offer. Second, the deal for three years and $75 million with two opt outs meant that the Cubs would have been taking on all the risk and potentially getting only one year out of King.
But King had a good year in 2026, including shutting the Cubs down in the postseason, which you probably remember. The 31-year-old King went 12-10 with a strong 3.21 ERA over 185 innings this past season. He also kept the ball on the ground, which is good with the Cubs infield. The one warning sign is that King’s strikeout rate this past year dropped to a career-low 21 pecent in 2026.
Right-hander Freddy Peralta: The Cubs have been linked to Peralta for a while, mostly because of the long history between him and manager Craig Counsell in Milwaukee. With free agency approaching, the Brewers dealt Peralta to the Mets last winter and until the trade deadline in August, he was pretty freaking bad in Queens with a 4.99 ERA. Some of that was the Mets poor defense. Some of that was just Peralta being bad.
But Peralta was traded to the Rays at the deadline and after a disastrous start in Colorado when he got rocked for seven runs, Perlata was mostly pretty good for the Rays. He seemed to have rediscovered his old form from Milwaukee. In ten regular season starts with the Rays, Peralta had a 3.25 ERA. Then, of course, he dominated in the playoffs and was just named the American League Championship Series MVP last night after two terrific games against Cleveland. As Mooney and Sharma point out, Peralta’s velocity took a big step up during the playoffs, potentially indicating that his problems with the Mets are behind him.
The one potential yellow flag to Peralta’s time with Tampa Bay is that, like King, his strikeout rate dropped, striking out just 19.7 percent of batters. On the other hand, his walk rate dropped too.
Right-hander Sonny Gray: At 36, Gray is easily the oldest of the three pitchers we’re looking at tonight. But he really isn’t slowing down much at all. Gray had one of the best seasons of his career in 2026 and he led the league with 18 wins. Gray also had a 2.72 ERA, which was his lowest since his abbreviated rookie season in 2013.
Gray is also a strong ground ball pitcher, getting 46 percent ground balls last season and 49.4 percent over the course of his career. Gray also doesn’t walk batters, which allowed him to go deeper into games even as he ages. In 22 of his 29 starts last year, Gray went at least six innings. In six starts, he went seven innings or more.
The other advantage with Gray is that with his age, he’d probably be willing to settle for a much shorter contract of one or two years. That would mean a lot less risk if things go bad.
Mooney and Sharma mention the players and coaches on the Cubs with Vanderbilt connections, that might entice the Commodore alum. But I also wanted to mention that the Cubs drafted Gray out of high school in 2008 in the 27th round. Admittedly, Gray was a strong commit to Vandy and that draft pick was a kind of “Hey, if you change your mind. . .” pick, but the point is that the Cubs interest in Gray goes all the way back to the Jim Hendry era.
So which of these three pitchers would be the best fit for the Cubs in 2027?
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DENVER, COLORADO - JULY 22: A detailed look at the jersey of Kyle Karros of the Colorado Rockies during a game against the Washington Nationals at Coors Field on July 22, 2026 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Kyle Cooper/Colorado Rockies/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Since there’s no baseball until Friday, it seemed like a good time to bring back a Purple Row After Dark discussion.
I took this idea from a Denver Nuggets Instagram post I stumbled onto, and I thought it would be worth pursing here.
The Mets’ search for instructional help in the hitting department includes a coach with ties to president of baseball operations David Stearns from the Astros.
John Mallee, who has spent the past three seasons as Cubs assistant hitting coach, is among the candidates to join the Mets staff, MLB.com first reported Tuesday.
Mallee spent 2013-14 as Astros hitting coach, overlapping with Stearns’ stint in Houston’s front office.
John Mallee, who has been an assistant hitting coach for the Cubs the past three season, is on the Mets’ radar for a job in their organization. Getty Images
Mallee, in his first stint in Chicago, was hitting coach when the Cubs won the World Series in 2016.
He later was Phillies hitting coach and Angels assistant hitting coach before rejoining the Cubs.
The Mets have a vacancy after director of major league hitting Jeff Albert was fired last week.
Long has a relationship with Juan Soto from their time together in Washington, which included a World Series title in 2019. Long was fired last week by the Phillies.
Dax Kilby’s tremendous start with the Yankees organization came to a screeching halt this season, as he was limited to just 32 minor league games due to multiple hamstring injuries.
Kilby has been able to remain on the field thus far in Arizona Fall League action, though, and he’s back showing exactly why he’s the top-ranked prospect in New York’s system.
The 19-year-old former first-round pick out of Newnan High School made some changes to his swing in an effort to cut down his ground ball rate, and those appear to be paying off early on.
Kilby reached base safely two more times during Tuesday’s exhibition meeting.
He opened the scoring for the Salt River Rafters right out of the gate, crushing the fourth pitch of the game 107.1 mph to deep right-center for his second homer during Fall League play.
Dax leads it off with a solo jack!
The @Yankees No. 1 prospect hammers his second homer of the Fall 107.1MPH off the bat. Kilby is batting .313 this Fall https://t.co/UMY4rctmUQ
The youngster was retired each of his next three times to the plate, but he ripped an RBI double to center in the top of the ninth, evening things up at 10 runs apiece.
Kilby finished the day 2-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, bringing his average up to .306 and giving him a Fall League-leading nine extra-base hits through his first nine games.
He’s also swiped a total of four bases and has shown tremendous plate discipline over that span, striking out just four times while drawing a trio of free passes.
Kilby already sits as MLB Pipeline’s 78th overall prospect, and the middle infielder could quickly cruise his way through the Yankees’ system if he keeps this rolling into a healthy season.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 7: Luis Campusano #12 of the San Diego Padres swings and hits the ball in the fourth inning during Game Four of the National League Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers at Petco Park on October 7, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability).
The Breakout Backstop
Regardless of his lack of total work this season, Luis Campusano truly broke out this season. Much of that is due to manager Craig Stammen placing his faith in the 28-year-old to back up Freddy Fermin. Eventually, Campusano seemed to actually win the starting catcher job once Fermin’s bat proved anemic. Still, Campusano looked phenomenal behind the dish. It’s a wonder why former manager Mike Shildt ever kept him out of the lineup in 2024-25.
Overall Grade: B+
In 71 games, Campusano hit .265/.363/.433 with a .796 OPS. He hit eight home runs, 20 extra-base hits and 30 RBI. All-in-all, he ended the season with a 122 OPS+ (22 points above league-average hitters). It was by far the most successful season of his career. The only other year when Campusano had more than 200 at-bats came in 2024. He posted -0.7 WAR that season compared to 1.7 WAR in 2026.
His defense also improved. Compared to that 2024 season, his Throwing Value went up from -3 to +3 while his Blocking Value increased from -3 to 0. Framing has continued to be a less valuable facet of Campusano’s game (-4 Framing Value), however with the advent of ABS challenges, framing as an art has dwindled in the game. That said, his ABS challenges haven’t been particularly great (-2 value).
Campusano missed significant time with a fractured toe after fouling a pitch off his foot. He left the team in the first week of May and didn’t return until early July. Still, he helped win the Padres some games in that time. He hit two walk-offs late in the season that won the Friars significant games. If Campusano can build on that in 2027, it’ll be a major improvement for San Diego’s historically subpar catching tandem.
