Category: Baseball

After a very good 2024 season (especially the second half of it) and signing a huge, long term contract, we really were hoping for another step forward. Yeah, this will be less than fun.

We didn’t get it:

The 2026 regular season marked the fourth straight year that Major League Baseball has seen overall attendance rise. As Sports Business Journal noted at the end of September – coinciding with the end of the regular season itself – MLB teams averaged 29,601 fans per game through their 2,429 games, a mark that was up a half-percent year over year from 2025.

The Reds, though, saw their average attendance decline some 8.1% in one of the worst year over year declines, and at 24,589 per game they failed to top 2,000,000 million fans at all during 2026.

There are endless theories as to why the Reds stepped backwards. The obvious one is that they went from a team chasing a playoff spot (and eventually waltzing into it) to a team that collapsed early. There’s also the notion that ‘Reds Country’ is an expanse that depends upon the smaller metro areas an hour, two hours away that watch and listen and show up when the goings are good but ditch the idea of a six, or seven hour round trip to catch meaningless weekday games in August and September.

One place firmly entrenched within Reds country still perpetually finds a way to get in front of some incredibly sound baseball, however. Perhaps it’s the idea that the future of the Reds hasn’t yet been spoiled that draws them out on the regular, or perhaps it’s just that the minor league game that is played in their brilliant stadium is just simply a better overall product than what the Castellinis put on the field in Great American Ball Park year after year after year.

That, of course, is up the road in Dayton. Their Dragons drew in over 511,000 fans across the home slate of their regular season, and as Baseball America noted today that was the fourth most of any minor league club across the sport during the 2026 season.

While that’s overly impressive in its own right, context is key here. Ranking in spots one through three on this list are all AAA clubs with significantly larger home stadiums, while only the Richmond Flying Squirrels (of the AA Eastern League and ranking seventh) join the Dragons as non-AAA clubs within the Top 10 in attendance overall.

And Richmond, you may recall, is a city that hosted AAA baseball for nearly 35 years before the Richmond Braves relocated to Gwinnett, Georgia.

It rarely matters how good the Dragons are to draw out their fans, either. Back in 2011 they famously broke the record for the most consecutive home game sellouts by a pro sports club y packing Day Air Ballpark for the 815th consecutive time, and the 2026 iteration of the Dragons only posted a 67-63 overall record. In other words, it’s not the winning that matters so much to the Dayton fans, it’s the baseball itself, especially since in the Midwest League they’re often viewing insanely talented prospects (such as Alfredo Duno for the first half of 2026) playing alongside and against 19 and 20 year olds who are about as un-finished as professionals as it gets.

Props to Dayton and Dragons fans for another year of incredible partnership. Maybe they can give the Reds themselves a few pointers!

Guy Conti, a longtime Mets instructor and advisor, has died after a lengthy illness, The Post confirmed. He was 84.

The Tarentum, Pa. native served as Mets bullpen coach from 2005-08 before becoming a minor league advisor within the organization. Conti previously worked for the Dodgers and was instrumental in Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez’s early development.

The Dodgers had earlier signed Pedro’s older brother Ramon, and Conti was dispatched to the Dominican Republic to scout the younger Martinez, who was very generously listed at 5-foot-11.

“I got there, I was presented with 20 pitchers and there was no 6-foot pitcher in there, never mind 6-foot-4 like Ramon was,” Conti told The Post in 2015. “All of a sudden when Pedro got on the mound and started throwing the ball, it just exploded. He just jumped off the page after that and, ‘Oh my goodness, this must be him.’ And it was history from that point.”

After signing with the Dodgers, the younger Martinez referred to Conti as his “white daddy.” Conti helped Martinez begin throwing a changeup, and perhaps just as importantly to speak a new language.

“Pedro, of all the kids that came from the Dominican, knew that he had to learn English as soon as he could,” Conti said. “My wife was a high school librarian, and I said, ‘Go to my wife, and learn the language.’ He would go to her and get a word in the morning and at 4 o’clock, he knew how to spell it, how to use it, how to write it and he wanted another one.”

The two were reunited with the Mets from 2005-08 after Martinez signed with the club.

Conti, after his major league coaching tenure concluded, served as the Mets spring training coordinator for several years. His friendship with Sandy Koufax helped bring the Hall of Famer to camp on several occasions.

“Guy was the first one to arrive at camp every morning and the last one to leave,” former media relations director Jay Horwitz said.

Here are the key dates to keep an eye on during the 2026-27 MLB offseason...

5 DAYS AFTER WORLD SERIES ENDS: FREE AGENCY BEGINS

Teams have an exclusive five-day negotiating window with their internal free agents. Once that day passes, free agents are free to sign with any club.

NOV. 9-12: GM MEETINGS IN LAS VEGAS

The annual meeting of general managers could be more interesting this time around due to the expectation that a lockout will begin on Dec. 1.

These meetings usually serve as a prelude of sorts to the Winter Meetings, but it's possible that -- due to the likely truncated offseason -- free agent and trade action could already be percolating by the time the GM Meetings begin.  

MID-NOVEMBER: DEADLINE FOR PLAYERS TO ACCEPT OR REJECT QUALIFYING OFFER

Teams have until the fifth day after the World Series ends to extend a qualifying offer to eligible players.

Any player who receives the QO has 10 days to decide whether to accept it or reject it.

If a player accepts, he returns to his current team for the 2027 season.

If a player rejects and signs elsewhere, his former team receives draft pick compensation.

NOV. 17-19: OWNERS MEETINGS IN NYC

The Owners Meetings could be especially notable this year given the expectation that there will be a work stoppage when the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires on Dec. 1. 

NOV. 20: NON-TENDER DEADLINE

Players on the 40-man roster who have fewer than six years of major league service time must be tendered a contract each offseason by the non-tender deadline. This includes players who are due raises via arbitration. If a club non-tenders a player, he immediately becomes a free agent.

DEC. 7-10: MLB WINTER MEETINGS

The Winter Meetings are set to take place in Orlando, but there is a giant asterisk next to this one since the lockout is expected to begin on Dec. 1. The same can be said for the MLB Draft Lottery and Rule 5 Draft, which take place at the Winter Meetings. 

DEC. 8: MLB DRAFT LOTTERY

The lottery will determine the order for the 2027 MLB Draft. 

DEC. 9: RULE 5 DRAFT

The Rule 5 Draft takes place at the Winter Meetings, with certain minor leaguers who are not on the 40-man roster available. If a team selects a player, they must keep that player on their 26-man roster (or the IL) for the entire season or be forced to offer him back to the team he was selected from.

FEBRUARY: ARBITRATION FIGURES EXCHANGED

Once a player is offered arbitration, the team and that player's agent have a decent amount of time to come to terms on a new contract. If that doesn't happen, both sides submit salary proposals and the player's salary is determined by independent arbitrators during hearings.

MID-FEBRUARY: SPRING TRAINING BEGINS

Mets and Yankees pitchers and catchers report in mid-February. The first spring training games begin roughly a week after pitchers and catchers arrive in camp.

With his contract to manage the Houston Astros expiring at the end of this month, Joe Espada was granted permission by the club to interview with the Seattle Mariners for their open managerial position.

A baseball official with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that Espada will interview with the Mariners. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Espada is still under contract.

Espada recently concluded his third season managing the Astros, leading them to a second American League West title in that span, even as they finished with an 81-81 record, the worst in major-league history for a division winner. The Astros' streak of eight consecutive playoff berths was broken in 2025; Espada was the club's bench coach or manager in seven of those seasons.

MLB.com first reported Espada was going to interview with Seattle.

Bouncer up the middle. Betts to the bag – over to first! To beat the champ, you gotta knock ‘em out! The Dodgers stand tall and win back to back titles!

-Joe Davis, Rogers Centre, November 2, 2025

So go the best-laid plans of mice and men, as the Dodgers flop in Game 2 of the NLCS, going into a 0-2 hole.

From a game where everything went to plan except winning, to a game basically handwrapped for the taking before the bottom fell out in dispiriting fashion, using Davis’ iconic call, the Dodgers suffered the indignity of a standing eight count in the second round of this bout.

The team has had its figurative bell rung as it returns to its own corner for round 3. Now the Dodgers have to climb out of a hole they have largely dug for themselves.

The good news is that the last time to dig themselves out of a 0-2 LCS hole was the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays in last year’s ALCS. The bad news is that those Blue Jays were the gooberiest goobers to ever goober, which are adjectives that are so far away from this iteration of the Dodgers, they might as well be antonyms.

Still, stranger things have happened.

Plenty of ink will be spilled on the lack of performance from Shohei Ohtani, the one-man argument to bring full ABS to Major League Baseball by Will Smith, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto having his worst postseason start since his debut against the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the NLDS in 2024, and that will be done by others.

To quote the famous Bob Dylan song, it’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there.

If Milwaukee had to have Game 1, the Dodgers needed Game 2, if only to keep themselves from now facing the specter of being eliminated in front of their home fans at Dodger Stadium.

The math is pretty simple

Respectfully, I disagree with Max Muncy’s assessment of the NLCS: yes, there is a lot of series left, provided that the Dodgers actually start playing better and winning.

The Dodgers need to win four of the next five games in order to have the opportunity to defend their title for a second time, either against Tampa or Cleveland.

The Dodgers need to win at least two of the next three home games in order to earn a trip back to Milwaukee to try and do something they haven’t done all year: win in Milwaukee without Adric present. And before anyone asks, no, I have zero desire or budget to revisit Milwaukee in 2026.

If the team fails at this first hurdle, the streak of teams other than the Dodgers celebrating a championship at Dodger Stadium will continue, as the 1963 champions were the only team to clinch at Dodger Stadium. Yes, the 2020 title would have been a clinch of a title at home, but alas, everyone was quarantined due to COVID, with the series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX.

The last person to have this miserable a time in Milwaukee was David Vassegh in August 2022. As a fellow Slide Bro, I will now abstain from posting or linking to the footage you are now likely thinking of. Thankfully, no bones were broken this visit, as the Bernie’s Slide Experience is closed for the offseason.

There are no bad ideas right now, except standing pat

The Dodgers’ offense, regardless of how Mookie Betts would define it, has been a slog to watch this NLCS. Unless the plan is to stand pat and/or go down quietly, the time to brainstorm ideas and try to jumpstart a comeback is here.

The Brewers have turned the tables and taken the Dodgers’ best pitchers in stride. It’s not panic if things are actually growing dire. Speaking of dire, let’s address Shohei Ohtani’s contributions, or lack thereof, since Denver in August.

I have rightfully castigated the Dodgers’ handling of Shohei Ohtani in 2026. At this point, rehashing what was done and hasn’t been done is beating a dead horse.

As a weird happenstance of history, as things have turned out, I have been present for Ohtani’s final regular-season home runs in 2025 and 2026. Neat.

The problem with the latter is that the final home run in ‘26 was on August 18th in Denver.

Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic broke the story that the Dodgers were debating sitting Ohtani for Game 3 of the NLCS, while providing the following analysis:

Still, given [Ohtani’s] poor performance and questionable health, the possibility of sitting Ohtani should be on the table. Ohtani spent roughly two weeks on the injured list with left knee and right biceps pain before the end of the regular season. Before the postseason began, he said that although he did not feel 100 percent, he felt better than he did before the IL stint and was optimistic he’d be able to play through his ailments.

“I haven’t been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this,” Ohtani said ahead of the NLDS, through team interpreter Will Ireton. “I think that process is going to happen during the offseason when I’m going to have a little bit more time to be able to address it. But as of now, it’s something I’m just going to have to manage.”

The Dodgers have given Ohtani plenty of leash to do just that but can no longer ignore the glaring hole in the heart of the order. With their season closing in, the Dodgers must consider all options. That includes sitting Ohtani.

[Emphasis added.]

While I am generally skeptical of swing analytics as a panacea when folks are struggling, there is a key difference between Ohtani and his teammate Will Smith, who has also been a non-factor offensively this October: Smith doesn’t look like he is in physical distress while batting.

No one is asking, mockingly or otherwise, whether Smith has forgotten how to play baseball. I don’t think Ohtani has forgotten; I just think he’s that hurt.

Yes, one might be tempted to think that Ohtani is one at-bat from going on a hot streak. I sure did.

In the first nine games of the postseason last year, Ohtani had a woeful slash line of .158/.273/.368 with 2 HR, 3B, 6 RBI, and 6 BB to 17 K, while being smothered by the Philadelphia Phillies’ gamut of left-handed pitchers.

Yes, Ohtani had the greatest postseason game ever in 2025 NLCS Game 4, and if one were to exclude it from last year’s tournament, he had a slash line of .275/.431/.575, 3 HR, 3 2B, 5 RBI, 11 BB compared to 10 K.

Unlike last year, Ohtani was basically healthy but running out of gas on the mound. Here, I think the check on Ohtani’s injuries has finally come due and, if I were in a position to give counsel, it would be to not take a half measure when a full measure is due.

Ohtani didn’t roll his ankle or do something that can be mended in 24 hours. At this point, you either sit him in favor of either Josue De Paula or Teoscar Hernandez in the DH spot depending on the pitcher, or you openly ask him whether it is time to replace him on the roster, with Commissioner approval.

Yes, if there was an approved roster change, you would lose Ohtani for the World Series. Yes, if you did it carelessly, you would risk alienating your franchise cornerstone.

No one is guaranteed a tomorrow

Here’s the problem. As of now, there is no World Series; there is only tomorrow and the next day. The day after that isn’t even guaranteed unless the Dodgers win a game in this series.

There is now a non-zero chance that Tarik Skubal has pitched his final game as a Dodger.

There is now a non-zero chance that Yoshinobu Yamamoto has pitched his final game of the year.

Win Game 3, and you guarantee another day with Skubal. Win two games, and you both guarantee another day with Yamamoto and a return trip to Milwaukee. Do otherwise and go into the long offseason wondering “what if?”

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

No. 44, Braxton Fulford (-0.3 rWAR)

Had the Colorado Rockies not signed free-agent (and left-handed bat) Brett Sullivan, Braxton Fulford probably would have had a very different 2026.

Not signing Sullivan might have resulted in Fulford spending much of 2026 as the Rockies’ backup catcher.

But that’s not what happened, and as a result, the 2021 Rockies draft pick spent the bulk of his season with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes. Yes, Fulford was with the Rockies a bit too (more on that in a moment), but this was another year in which the Texas Tech alumnus did not make a significant developmental step.

First to his Triple-A numbers.

While with the Topes, Fulford had 201 plate appearances that resulted in a slashline of .251/.363/.468, including eight home runs and a 101 wRC+. That means that his hitting performance was slightly better than replacement level — in hitter-friendly Albuquerque.

He also caught 374.0 innings and had four errors. (He spent four innings at first base, which was not a significant part of his defensive portfolio.)

Contrast that, then, with his Rockies showing.

The Rockies called up Fulford when they needed a right-handed bat or when Hunter Goodman went on the injured list.

The Rockies gave him 85 plate appearances, which led to a .176/.259/.270 slashline, one homer, and a 36 wRC+.

Granted, those are small sample-size numbers, but the early indications are that Fulford has failed to adjust to MLB pitching.

Defensively, Fulford caught 95.2 innings for the Rockies compared to 249.0 innings in 2025. He finished the MLB season with two errors, -2 DRS, and a FRV of -2 as well.

Here’s what Sam Bradfield wrote last year: “Overall in his rookie year, Fulford had a bumpy year. He showed flashes of brilliance, but also had incredibly cold stretches.”

That largely seemed unchanged in 2026, save that Fulford was given fewer opportunities to show what he could do given Brett Sullivan’s success.

The question, then, becomes what’s next.

At this point, it appears that Goodman will remain the starting catcher for the Rockies while Sullivan continues in his role as backup (with occasional stints on the mound).

There’s really no place in this equation for Fulford. It seems unlikely the Rockies will change anything given that Fulford remains under team control until 2032 and has one option remaining. Too, the front office probably is focused on Jack O’Dowd (HM PuRP), Daniel Jackson (No. 12 PuRP), and Jack Natili (No. 20 PuRP), the latter two being catchers they drafted in 2026.

Clearly, it’s too soon to count Fulford out. But in 2027, he will need to show he can be a big-league catcher.

Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!

The Dodgers find themselves in an unfamiliar underdog position after losing their first two NLCS games against the Brewers.

Not only is Los Angeles struggling to find cohesion at the plate but the Brewers also are firing on all cylinders.

This is what MLB legend Derek Jeter alluded to when speaking about where the Dodgers stand after their Game 2 loss on Monday.

“It’s tough, man. It’s tough to turn around your team, the entire team offensively, when you’re going up against a team like the Milwaukee Brewers,” Jeter said, per Fox Sports.

He then praised the Brewers’ pitching staff before adding, “So you really don’t get a chance to exhale when you’re at the plate, and relax, and try to find your swing and find confidence.

“I agree: The Dodgers are in trouble, unless they can figure out how to string together some hits because on top of them being in a little bit of trouble, now the Milwaukee Brewers’ offense is getting hot,” Jeter continued.

“It’s gonna be a tough task. This is the biggest hurdle they’re gonna have to overcome, if they want to go back and win a third championship in a row.”

The Dodgers definitely need to figure things out fast against Milwaukee. The good news is that they have three straight games at their home field, which could provide the momentum boost needed to get them on track.

Joe Espada has been with the Houston Astros for nine years as bench coach and then manager. There does not appear to be a tenth year in his future.

Last week, former Fox 26 Houston sports director Will Kunkel reported that the Astros would begin the search for both GM and manager after October 31:

Today, a new report from MLB.com states that Espada will actually be interviewing for another job with a division rival:

Back on August 24, Bob Nightengale had initially reported that a senior Astros official had said that Espada was told he wouldn’t be returning at the same time Dana Brown was fired as GM, but that he agreed to stay on the rest of the year. The team would later deny that, but the chain of events seems to indicate that the denial had more to do with the information leaking at the same time Espada was away from the team with a family emergency and not that the information was incorrect.

The Astros look like they will have a full regime change for 2027.

The Seattle Mariners have received permission to interview Houston Astros manager Joe Espada, per reports.

In normal circumstances, this would be quite unusual — a team granting a division rival permission to interview their manager for the rival team’s open managerial spot. However, this is the Houston Astros we are talking about, where circumstances are rarely normal.

This is the final year of Espada’s current deal with Houston. After spending six years as a bench coach for the club, he was named the team’s manager after Dusty Baker retired following the 2023 season. Houston has not met expectations during Espada’s time at the helm — the club has won 88, 87 and 81 games the past three seasons, and though they won the division twice, they were swept in the Wild Card round each time.

The Astros failing to meet owner Jim Crane’s expectations would seem to have more to do with the failings of the front office than Espada, however, and Crane did fire general manager Dana Brown in late August. Brown, like Espada, was in the final year of his contract. Crane announced when Brown was fired that he (Crane) would oversee baseball operations until a new general manager was hired.

Espada is technically under contract with the Astros until the World Series ends, which is why the Mariners need permission to interview him even though the Astros’ season is over. The fact that the Astros are granting permission would seem to indicate that they are not planning on Espada returning for 2027.

The Mariners are seeking a new manager after firing Dan Wilson after their disappointing 2026 campaign. Wilson was named the manager for the Mariners late in the 2024 season after the M’s fired Scott Servais, who had been their manager since 2016. Wilson, who had spent parts of 12 seasons with the Mariners as their catcher, is described in the link at the start of this post as a “franchise icon” in Seattle, and after leading Seattle to the ALCS in 2025 — just their second postseason appearance since 2001 — he seemed to be on solid footing.

But the Mariners were seen as one of the biggest underachievers (non-Mets category) in the majors this year, ending the season at 76-86, despite being the consensus favorites to repeat as division champs in the West.

The first game of the American League Championship Series was going splendidly for the Tampa Bay Rays, until it wasn’t.

The Rays offense took a 2-0 lead early and Drew Rasmussen battled through a tough Cleveland offense for six innings. He was hit around a bunch, but worked around trouble. Unfortunately, the Guardians were able to launch a pair of solo homeruns to tie the game and boot Rasmussen from the game. Then the Rays bullpen, which was absolutely nails in the ALDS, unraveled and allowed the Guardians to score five runs over the final two frames and Cleveland cruised to a 7-3 game one victory.

Tonight the Rays will look to even out the series before it heads to Cleveland on Thursday and they’ll rest their hopes on Freddy Peralta.

Not many pitchers produced better results than Peralta over the last month of the season. The league certainly didn’t think so as Peralta was named the American League Pitcher of the Month in September.

During the ALDS, the Rays called upon Peralta to start the second game against the New York Yankees. Following Drew Rasmussen’s dominance from the day before, Peralta was excellent as he held the Yankees hitless over the first three frames. The unstoppable Ben Rice ended that in the 4th when he launched a solo homerun and then Peralta’s command abandoned him in the 5th inning leading to Kevin Cash going to the bullpen. Overall, Peralta worked 4.2 innings, allowing a run on three hits, while he walked one and struck out three.

The Rays offense will have a tough challenge as Cleveland sends southpaw Parker Messick to the mound. Messick was fantastic during his brief run with the Guardians towards the end of the 2025 season. In 2026, Messick proved that was no fluke as he dominated opposing lineups. Over 32 starts, Messick compiled a 2.56 ERA | 3.07 FIP with a 25.8 K% & 6.6 BB% over 186.1 IP. He finished among the league leaders in most important pitching categories.

During their ALDS, the Guardians called upon Messick twice. Usually Messick has impeccable command but it faltered during his two outings as he walked 19.4% of the opposing hitters he faced over 6.2 IP. Overall, Messick allowed 4 runs on 6 hits, while he walked 6 and struck out 11 over his appearances. He most recently pitched on the 8th in game four, where he was pulled in the third inning after allowing two runs on two hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

The Rays offense continues to sputter in the playoffs and the team will need more from their offensive stars if they hopes to advance further. The team as a whole currently has a 67 wRC+ and is hitting .209/.261/.341 over their four playoff games thus far, averaging just over 3 runs a game.

Will the Rays be able to overcome Parker Messick and rediscover their offensive footing? We’ll find out later tonight.

It’s time to bench Shohei Ohtani.

Do it delicately. Do it with respect. But just do it.

“I think for me, it’s having a conversation with him tomorrow, kind of try to figure out what’s best for him, what’s best for us,’’ Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic after the Dodgers fell behind the Milwaukee Brewers two games to none in the National League Championship Series. “He certainly has earned that conversation and deserves it.”

That sounds dangerously wishy-washy.

Forget about figuring out what’s right for Ohtani, the Dodgers superstar. It’s time to focus on what’s right for the Dodgers – and that was eminently clear on Tuesday, Oct. 14 in Game 2 of the NLCS.

Ohtani, the team’s designated hitter, went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. His postseason batting average dropped to .150. That’s 3-for-20 at the plate without a single extra-base hit. He has also managed to draw three walks to score two runs, and that’s not nearly enough for a designated hitter with a team in dire straits.

Every year during the Winter Meetings, teams hold the Rule 5 draft, which allows them to select eligible minor leaguers who have not been added to their organizations’ 40-man rosters. With the current labor deal set to expire on December 1 and a work stoppage looming, it is unclear whether the draft will take place as scheduled. In 2021, the major league phase of the Rule 5 draft was postponed indefinitely during the lockout, although the minor league phase proceeded as scheduled. MLB and the union could agree to hold the major league draft before the current labor deal expires.

The Royals currently have a full 40-man roster, plus eight players on the 60-day Injured List that will need to be activated once the offseason begins. Carlos Estévez, Jonathan India, Craig Kimbrel, Luke Maile, and Josh Rojas will all come off the roster as free agents after the World Series. That will mean a lot of additional roster clearing just to get the roster back down to 40, let alone enough to clear spots to add new players.

Players are eligible after four seasons in the minors if they signed at age 19 or later, or after five seasons if they signed younger than age 19. That means this year, the college draftees from 2023 become eligible, while all signees from 2022 and before are eligible. Selected players must stay on the MLB roster all season or be offered back to their original teams. Teams can protect eligible players by placing them on the 40-man roster by late November.

Teams overwhelmingly select pitchers more than hitters, and if they do choose hitters, it is usually guys who can come off the bench – utility players, backup catchers, and speedsters. The caveat to adding any player to the 40-man roster is that the player would be unable to have contact with the club, participate in spring training, or even play in games if there is a prolonged work stoppage. Assuming there is a Rule 5 draft, and assuming the rules won’t change, who do the Royals need to consider protecting?

Will be protected

Lucas Braun was acquired from the Braves in the Lane Thomas trade, and the right-hander could be in the mix for a rotation spot at some point next year. He had a solid 4.16 ERA with 8.2 strikeouts-per-nine innings across Double-A and Triple-A. The 25-year-old won’t blow anyone away with velocity, but he uses command, deception, a deep arsenal of pitches, and a lower arm angle to generate good results.

Carson Roccaforte is a slam-dunk to be added after a 35 HR/32 SB season in which he hit .257/.338/.519 across Double-A and Triple-A. Roccaforte turns 25 in late March, and he should be in the outfield mix for next season, although he is a left-handed bat and the Royals are already lefty-heavy in the outfield.

Could be protected

Felix Arronde flashes good stuff, but his inability to miss bats really hurt his performance this year. He started out okay, but was awful in the second half with a 9.76 ERA in his last nine starts. Overall he posted a 6.49 ERA in 105.1 innings with Northwest Arkansas, after a promising season the year before. The Cuban right-hander is still just 23 years old and has a mid-90s fastball with a curve and split-fingered changeup. He is ranked #15 in the farm system by Baseball America and could be seen as a good project for an organization good at developing pitchers.

Gavin Cross has had a very enigmatic career, but he seemed to turn a corner this summer. The former first-round pick turned it on in mid-May and hit .291/.334/.535 with 17 home runs in his last 82 games. He has the pedigree and the power, but the strikeouts are still a big concern. Like Roccaforte, he is left-handed, so the Royals may find him expendable.

Brett Squires smashed 31 home runs last year, hitting .277/.351/.549 with 24 steals to boot. The undrafted free agent has hit in the minors, but will be 27 years old by next spring. Older hitters who rake in the upper minors are typically unprotected, and only two first basemen have been selected in the Rule 5 draft in the last decade – Mike Ford (2017) and Ryan Noda (2022).

Long shots to be protected

Jacob Berry was acquired from the Marlins midseason and hit .251/.350/.416 overall at Triple-A with 12 home runs and 19 steals. He’s a former first-round pick whose power has never materialized, but displays good contact rates. He’s a switch-hitter and the Royals had him play second, third, and outfielder, so he could have some value as a utility player.

Austin Charles is an intriguing, toolsy athlete who combines power, speed, and a terrific arm. He has also had trouble staying on the field, and was limited to just 45 games at High-A this year. He is just 22 year old, and jumping to the big leagues is a big stretch considering his lack of a track record, but he did look impressive this year, hitting .285/.353/.491.

Derlin Figueroa had the third-most home runs in the farm system with 26, behind Roccaforte and Squires. The 23-year-old left-handed hitter had a line of .252/.324/.515 with 18 steals in High-A for the Quad Cities River Bandits. He plays first and third, positions teams don’t typically take in the draft, and the big leagues would be a big jump.

Frank Mozzicato wasn’t protected or selected last year, and seems unlikely to be an option this year either after putting up an 8.04 ERA with 72 walks in 71.2 innings. And yet, is there a team out there that thinks they can work with his plus curveball, add some velo to his fastball and shape up his command? Probably not.

Spencer Nivens is a Columbia, Missouri native and former Missouri State outfielder who hit .280/.365/.446 with nine home runs and 17 steals in 104 games in his second tour of Northwest Arkansas. He has a really good eye at the plate with good walk numbers and low strikeout numbers. He is another left-handed outfield bat, so the Royals may not feel the need to protect him.

Hunter Owen has shown good strikeout rates the last two seasons, but was hit a lot more this year, causing his ERA to rise to 5.94 for Northwest Arkansas. He’s a lefty who can miss bats, a profile that teams frequently like to take in the Rule 5 draft, so I think the Royals would have to at least consider protecting him despite his poor ERA.

Jack Pineda did nothing but hit this year. He had an impressive line of .371/.443/.548 in 59 games at Double-A, then hit .302/.337/.488 in 22 games for Omaha. But he has never really done this before, with very weak offensive numbers prior to 2026. The 27-year-old is able to play all over the infield, which is attractive to teams, and he could be selected if a team feels he figured something out this year.

Daniel Vázquez is a glove-first shortstop who raised eyebrows last fall with a very impressive performance in the Arizona Fall League. But his offense fell flat this year at Double-A, with a line of .246/.315/.328 and just four home runs in 124 games. He is just 22 years old and his glove may be MLB ready, so a team could take a gamble on him if they think his bat will catch up eventually.

Peyton Wilson has been a good organizational soldier, hitting at every level and playing wherever the Royals ask him. That kind of versatility could be attractive to teams looking at him in the Rule 5 draft, but he will be 27 next year and his upside is low enough that I don’t think the Royals would sweat losing him too much. The switch-hitter batted .276/.359/.430 with seven home runs and 17 steals for Omaha, and does a little bit of everything well.

Jordan Woods was an undrafted free agent out of Canada who had Tommy John surgery early on. This summer he tossed six perfect innings with 14 strikeouts in an outing for the Columbia Fireflies. He was moved up to High-A Quad Cities, where he struggled with a 5.80 ERA with 44 strikeouts in 40.1 innings. He is very much a long shot, but his added velocity and flashes of brilliance make him intriguing as a young lefty who has been moved slowly due to his injury.

Other eligible players: Angel Acosta, Andy Basora, Ethan Bosacker, Roni Cabrera, Christian Chamberlain, Dustin Dickerson, Manuel German, Ricson Gonzalez, Tyson Guerrero, Jose Gutierrez, Josh Hansell, Chase Isbell, Brandon Johnson, Justin Johnson, Henson Leal, Chazz Martinez, Mason Miller, Shane Panzini, Hunter Patteson, Coleman Picard, Yimi Presinal, Henry Ramos, Ryan Ramsey, Oscar Rayo, Emmanuel Reyes, Ben Sears, Erick Torres, Luca Tresh, Hyungchan Um, Javier Vaz, Trevor Werner, Henry Williams, Jhosmmel Zue

Proximal interphalangeal joint reconstruction is a pretty intimidating way to say that Caleb Durbin finally got his pinky fixed. Durbin initially dislocated his pinkie way back on June 24 — literally the day before the Red Sox’ 15-game winning streak began — but the injury didn’t really effect his play and he obviously remained on the field for the rest of the season. “It doesn’t quite straighten or bend all the way,” Durbin told the media back in September. “There really is kind of a joint understanding [with the team] that we’ll get it looked at at the end of the season if we have to, because [whatever the diagnosis is], it’s not going to impact my decision to play at all.” (Tim Healey, Boston Globe)

Durbin’s pinky didn’t end up being a major injury, but the Red Sox had plenty of those nonetheless. And the fact that a few of those injuries — particularly the injuries to Garrett Crochet and Roman Anthony — were initially misdiagnosed as minor indicates this offseason might be a good time for the Red Sox to review the training and medical staff. (Sean McAdam, MassLive)

Given that Crochet and Anthony both essentially had lost seasons, it isn’t surprising that they both landed on this list of six payers with the biggest questions entering the offseason. “[Anthony’s] potential remains sky-high, but he still needs to show what he can produce in a full, healthy season. Will the hand injury linger? Will it fully heal? Does he continue to split time between left field and designated hitter? What does a full season of Anthony look like?” (Jen McCaffrey, The Athletic)

Trevor Story also appears on the above list. But, unlike Anthony and Crochet, Story won’t the the only one who dictates how his season goes next year. That’s because Franklin Arias’ timeline for promotion will have a major domino effect on the whole roster. “If Story were to move positions, it would be to second, where he has experience. But where would that leave Curtis Mead?” (Ian Browne, MLB.com)

Arias is not participating in the Arizona Fall League this year, but a handful of other Sox prospects are, including Antonio Anderson, who hit a grand slam over the weekend and who has been one of the league’s top hitters so far. (Jim Crowell, Soxprospects.com)

And while we’re still a long way off from free agency, the news about Sonny Gray’s return to baseball has a lot of people already thinking about next year’s rotation. If Gray doesn’t re-sign with the Sox, here’s an early look at some free agent options to replace him. (Justin Leger, NBC Sports)

There was no shortage of problems for the Dodgers in a Game 2 loss that has seen the reigning champs return home trailing 2-0 in the NLCS. We might focus on the no-challenge that derailed Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s struggles; we could discuss the bullpen’s shortcomings, having been asked to carry the load after Yamamoto didn’t get out of the fourth—it is all pertinent. Nevertheless, the simple reality is that the Dodgers haven’t hit, and they’ve done that in the worst possible way, securing all of one extra-base hit through 18 innings.

Following Game 1’s loss, we talked here about the silver lining of consistently putting people on against a talented Milwaukee staff. And that if you’re able to sustain that, you’ll eventually run into a big hit or two that can change a game—this lineup is too deep to project otherwise, or so we thought.

Instead of building from the positives of Game 1, the Dodgers offense took a step back in the second game of this series. Were it not for the self-inflicted wounds of Brewers starter Logan Henderson, they could’ve easily produced nothing the whole game—nothing, which summarizes their output in five innings of work against the Brewers bullpen.

It’s well established that to get anything going against the likes of Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, and Trevor Megill is a lofty task. That’s now a secondary issue because, again in Game 2, the Dodgers offense had their shots against more vulnerable pitchers and produced very little out of it.

Brewers starter Henderson was nowhere near his most polished version, and multiple errors, including one of his own, contributed to the Dodgers scoring four runs off him in 4.0+ innings. It could’ve been far worse, though, had they been just the tiniest more effective in capitalizing on a clearly rattled arm. Two innings in particular deserve special attention: the third and fifth frames.

In the third inning, Freddie Freeman came up to bat after the first two reached with bullets off Henderson, and he hit one that looked headed to the gap before Sal Frelick ran it down in a phenomenal defensive play (Savant put it at an .840 xBA). The same defense that made errors to put the Dodgers in the game also made up for it with difficult plays that many others would not have made. Still, the Dodgers scored a run in that inning after a wild pitch—with only one out and hard-hit balls after hard-hit balls against Henderson, you’d figure Teoscar Hernández and Shohei Ohtani would capitalize on a runner in scoring position, but neither could, stranding Mookie Betts.

Shortly thereafter, Henderson came back out there for the fifth and allowed one more run due to an errant throw that left a runner in scoring position with one out. With the score tied at 3-3 and the Brewers up in the series, Pat Murphy did not push the envelope and bring one of his key guys in against the top of the order; instead, he went to Dustin May. And before you ask, no, the Brewers haven’t turned May into a dominant arm since acquiring him. In fact, May’s record in Milwaukee has been especially bad, with an ERA north of 5.00 and two runs allowed in three innings in his only playoff appearance, a start against the Padres in the NLDS.

Against May, the Dodgers played for the one run, and a couple of sacrifices later, they led 4-3, but the feeling of leaving May off the hook was evident—knowing full well how much tougher things would get as the Brewers brought in their top arms. One run to take the lead is not the worst thing in the world, far from it, but in that moment with that matchup—still needing five innings out of your bullpen and facing one of the worst arms the Brewers will throw your way—playing for a single run was underwhelming. And that’s factoring in the struggling offense.

Following that inning, the worst-case scenario set in for the Dodgers, as their bullpen had a few hiccups here and there, while the Brewers’ was, by all accounts, perfect—so much so that it gave itself the luxury of not utilizing Megill, adding two insurance runs in the eighth to go up 7-4. In an alternate reality, we might come here and complain they didn’t drive that run in off May on their way to losing the game 4-3, but you required more in that situation—particularly when the other side’s top relievers have done what we’ve seen against this Dodgers lineup.