Category: Sports News

What if I told you that a pitcher that was picked up off the scrap heap at the end of the season to provide innings to a staff that could be described as beleaguered at the time and would end up finishing top ten on the team in WAR? Would you believe that that was the story of the Phillies pitching staff towards the end of the season?

Would you believe that it was Jose Urquidy?

2026 stats

2 G (1 GS), 7 1/3 IP, 9 K, 0 BB, 3 R (3 ER), 10 H, 0.4 fWAR

What went right

Listen, being brought in off the waiver wire at the end of the year to give the team a bulk outing and a start in the final week of the season isn’t easy. You’re expected to be effective enough that the team would want to keep you in the game long enough to save other more valuable arms, but also so that the team might actually have a chance at winning a game mostly assumed to be a loss.

Urquidy did just that though. Facing a Mets team in a game that the Phillies kind of had to win, he was the bulk guy in a September 18th start in which he threw 4 2/3 innings of shutout ball. He struck out six, scattered five hits and kept the Phillies in the game long enough that they could make something of a run. The problem was that Tim Mayza essentially salted the game away early by being an opener that couldn’t get anyone out. Urquidy earned a start for the team in the final week that wasn’t all that great, but hey – baseball seasons are long and sometimes, unexpected performances are needed. At that time, Urquidy gave them an unexpected performance that they really needed.

What went wrong

He kind of stunk in his only scheduled start and showed why he was on the scrap heap in the first place.

Final grade: B

Listen, I’m not going to fault a guy for being rough in these kinds of circumstances. Asking Urquidy to do anything was nigh impossible, yet he looked serviceable in both of his appearances. He’s not going to be a member of the 2027 Phillies unless he somehow gets a minor league deal and decides to ply his trade in Lehigh Valley for half a year, but at the very least, we have this.

Now you have a permanent answer for an Immaculate Grid square.

The 2026 World Series shifts to Tropicana Field when the Tampa Bay Rays host the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 on Monday, Oct. 26, and it will bring one of baseball's most peculiar stadium quirks into the spotlight.

The catwalk system suspended beneath Tropicana Field's roof has already played a role during Tampa Bay's postseason run. During Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees, a high popup by Spencer Jones struck one of the catwalks in shallow right-center field and remained in play, allowing the Rays to record an out.

That unusual scenario is one of several Tropicana Field ground rules that could affect the World Series and become a factor in determining a world champion. The Rays return home trailing 2-0 after dropping the first two games in Milwaukee, but Tampa Bay will host the next three games, giving baseball's only fixed-roof stadium a chance to become part of the World Series.

Here's a look at Tropicana Field's one-of-a-kind ground rules as it gets set to host the Rays and Brewers for three-straight games, including what happens when a batted ball strikes the catwalk system.

Jared Thomas (No. 8 PuRP) played in the Arizona Fall League last year and hit .302/.343/.524 through 17 games despite battling a hamate bone injury discovered late in the season. After the season ended, he got it repaired but then hit a snag with his recovery, resulting in him not making his 2026 debut until July 6 with the ACL Rockies.

Thomas played four games for the ACL team, including the championship game, before finally making his way back to Double-A Hartford. There, he played in 28 games and managed to hit .270/.341/.405 with seven extra-base hits (three doubles and four homers), 15 RBI and 11 stolen bases.

That proved to be highlight of his season.

“The highlight was getting back up and playing,” Thomas said. “When the clock reset a couple times, you never see the light at the end of the tunnel. At least I didn’t. It’s the most I’ve ever spent away from the game, so I learned a lot. But the highlight was definitely getting back out and being in a good environment, going back to a clubhouse with a bunch of guys that I know. It was fun.”

During his recovery, Thomas had a lot of downtime. But it made him realize, “The game doesn’t stop for you.”

“The game doesn’t stop, no matter who you are, no matter what you’re going through,” he emphasized. “So just being diligent, going about your business every single day and really trusting the process — I think that was one thing that I learned. There’s a lot of time to think bad or good things. The more you can keep telling yourself the good, the easier it is. So I think patience was a big thing, and just a positive attitude.”

Luckily for Thomas, he had other rehabbing players to sympathize with and help him get through everything. Infielder Blake Wright was someone he leaned on.

“He was going through his own stuff, too, but he kept a great attitude about it and that forced me to do the same thing,” Thomas recalled. “So being able to have guys like that and other guys around the Complex going through the same struggles, I guess, really helped me out. So just being present in the moment and finding people who care.”

Coming into his second Fall League, Thomas had a clear plan.

“First and foremost, just getting back to being comfortable in the box,” he said. “[I’m] still going through a couple hiccups, but just getting more at-bats under my belt — some that I missed at the beginning of the year when I was out. So just feeling like myself in the box, just being more comfortable and then getting out of here healthy and good into a good offseason.”

This was something that Rockies senior director of player development, Chris Forbes, also emphasized about Thomas.

“Jared Thomas needs the at-bats desperately,” Forbes said in September, “and I know it’s kind of a relapse back into that league, but we just asked him, ‘Do you want to go to Puerto Rico? Do you want to go to the DR or Mexico? Or do you want to stay here?’ Because he really wants to lock in with our strength coaches, too, and we’re hosting on our side, so I think that’s huge.”

So far through 14 AFL games, Thomas is hitting .239/.327/.457 with three doubles, two triples, a home run and five stolen bases. Many of those stats were added this past week, as he went go 5-for-13 with four runs scored, two of his three doubles, both triples, nine RBI, two walks, four strikeouts and a stolen base. That was enough for him to be named among the AFL’s top performers for Week 3.

In addition to getting his swing back, Thomas is also having to adjust to the new outfield positioning rules that are being experimented with at Salt River Fields.

“It’s different, man. I think they’re trying to make the game more offensive, which is interesting to see,” he said.

“The gaps are bigger. Obviously, we’re playing a lot more shallow in the outfield, so it makes you definitely work a little bit harder in the outfield. You’ve got to be on top of your game. Everybody in center, right, left… they’re all going to be center fielders at the end of the day. You’re going to have to have some speed and have good reads on the ball. It’s cool that they’re experimenting with different rules like that. I don’t really have any good or bad feelings about it.”

Thomas is also looking forward to getting back on the field and interacting with fans, as he’s very “personable.”

“I enjoy having conversations with people, especially kids when they come up to [me],” he said. “I was one of those kids. I loved the game growing up, and I loved being able to have a chance of talking to a kid that was playing professional baseball, so I look forward to those conversations. I’m a pretty open book. I like when guys come up and ask questions.”

There’s one fan in particular that he’s built a great relationship with in Hartford.

“There was this guy – I don’t really recall his name – in Hartford, even last year and going into this year when I showed back up, I always did a really good job of signing for him. And he would trade me Josh Hamilton baseball cards,” he said. “That was my hero growing up. So (I’ll) sign a couple cards for him, give him some broken bats, and he’s always tightening me up with some Josh Hamilton cards.”

But most of all, Thomas is, “excited to feel good again in the box.”

“I know I’m close. I feel like I’m getting closer by the day. So just being able to go up there with, like, uber confidence and going up there (with) just I mean true belief in what’s going on. I’m ready to feel really, really, really good again.”

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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. 35, Ryan Ritter (-0.1 rWAR)

Good news! We’ve made it to the final player in the rWAR negatives. From here, we’ve got a couple neutral 0.0 rWAR players before the upswing into positive territory.

The final player toeing the line is 25-year-old infielder, Ryan Ritter. The prospect continues to show sparks at the minor league level but hasn’t been able to translate that into production in the majors in limited chances.

Ritter started 2025 strong, putting up fantastic numbers with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes. Over the course of 55 games, he slashed .303/.405/.610, adding 16 homers and 50 RBI on 66 hits. His scorching run set him up for a promotion and his major league debut. In total, he posted 60 games with the Rockies, mostly at second base, missing some time with injuries. His numbers didn’t quite match his minor league output but were still very respectable for a rookie, with a slash line of .241/.296/.337.

Coming into this year, Ritter kept that momentum going with a strong 2026 Spring Training, where he worked to diversify his playing portfolio with some reps in outfield positions. That was not called upon in his regular season appearances given the number of outfielders on the roster competing for time. Instead, he primarily played second base again with the Rockies. Ritter appeared in 13 MLB games in 2026, with 10 games at second base. He also appeared in three games at shortstop and had limited action at third base, shifting there to close out a game after starting at second.

His Triple-A production continues to be strong. He went .323/.430/.460 in 60 games with the ‘Topes. He flashes some power in the minors, with five home runs, 12 triples, and two doubles on 73 total hits. His main struggle is maintaining that power and consistency against major league talent.

On the offensive side of the ball with Colorado this season, he had 19 at-bats that were mostly ineffective. He logged three hits (all singles), scored two runs, and notched one RBI. With no extra-base hits, his batting average and his slugging percentage were both only .158. He ended the year with more strikeouts (eight) than hits. He was ultimately optioned back down after a short stint with the big-league club.

Reviewing Ritter’s season at the end of last year, the big question for Paul DePodesta was whether Ritter had made a strong enough case to stay on the roster. That question remains, and perhaps is even bigger, after 2026. Ritter has shown that he has the talent and he’s also shown that he’s willing to adapt and grow. Unfortunately, it is seems like that talent might have a minor-league ceiling. With his strong on-base production in Albuquerque providing some encouragement, Ritter remains an intriguing depth option for the Rockies and may earn another look, but his path to a consistent major league role is becoming less clear.

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The offseason will begin next week, and it will likely be a sprint on transactions until the collective bargaining agreement expires and transactions cease at the beginning of December. The Royals will have to make some moves to upgrade a team that took a disappointing step back in 2026, and that could mean creative trades to reimagine the roster.

One way the Royals could reshape their roster is by trading veteran first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino. Writing for MLB.com, Perla Paredes raised the possibility last week.

Pasquantino remains the club’s primary first baseman, but he could be among the position players Kansas City considers moving if a trade provides an opportunity to address its pitching needs. Such a move could open the door for Caglianone to return to first base on a more permanent basis.

The idea of trading Pasquantino would have been difficult to imagine a year ago, when he hit .264/.335/.477 with 32 home runs and 113 RBIs. But the 29-year-old took a step back in 2026, batting .249/.333/.428 with 17 home runs in 114 games. The Royals need his bat, but his regression has raised questions about whether he is part of the future of this club, particularly considering he has just two more years before he hits free agency.

The idea of trading Vinnie stems from three arguments.

First, Jac Caglianone has blossomed as a big leaguer. He was originally drafted as a first baseman out of Florida, but moved to the outfield to accommodate Pasquantino. His transition to the outfield has been about as smooth as you can expect for a 250 pound-Adonis, but Caglianone still rated poorly in defensive metrics such as Outs Above Average. Playing the outfield also cost Caglianone playing time due to injuries. He injured his shoulder crashing into the outfield wall in June, reinjured the shoulder making a diving catch in July, then injured his elbow making a throw in September.

However, Caglianone is all of 23 years old and is still learning the outfield. The Royals shouldn’t give up on his development there after one injury-plagued season. His defensive metrics may be poor now, but he has the athleticism to improve with experience. Bobby Witt Jr. was a poor defender in his first year at shortstop and is now a Platinum Glove winner. He has the perfect arm for right field, a cannon that can fire the ball in the high-90s. If he can learn to play with passable range, he could be an asset in the outfield.

The second case for trading Pasquantino is his record of injuries that have kept his bat out of the lineup. He missed the second half of the 2023 season with a torn labrum. A collision at first base cost him the final month of the 2024 season when he fractured his thumb. Back and wrist injuries cost him nearly 50 games this season.

Injuries suck, but Vinnie’s injuries stem mostly from bad luck, not a chronic condition. The fact that the offense fell off so much without him is a testament to how important he is to the lineup. The Royals went into a tailspin in September of 2024 once he got hurt, nearly missing the playoffs. Vinnie’s injuries also illustrate that moving Caglianone to first is not necessarily a solution to keeping him healthy – injuries can strike anywhere.

Another reason why some fans are open to trading Pasquantino is his penchant for getting off to a slow start. Vinnie is a career .207/.300/.382 hitter in the month of April. He has had pretty pronounced first-half and second-half splits.

• Pre-All-Star break: .247/.318/.409
• Post-All-Star break: .289/.353/.521

The Royals got off to a slow start in 2026, and much of that can be attributed to the lack of offensive production early in the year from Vinnie and Salvador Perez.

However, it is not as if early games count for more than games later in the year. Had Pasquantino reversed his splits and hit well at the start of the season, only to go into a slide in the second half, the Royals’ fortunes would not have appreciably changed. And while Pasquantino’s April numbers are concerning, monthly splits don’t necessarily predict future performance. The Royals shouldn’t trade a productive middle-of-the-order hitter simply because he has historically struggled early in the season. The bigger question is whether his overall production justifies his place in the lineup, not whether he delivers it consistently from April through September.

When judged on a year-by-year basis, Pasquantino has been a steady, above-average bat. Even after his slow start this year, he ended with a line of .249/.333/.428, an OPS+ of 113, perfectly in line with his past two seasons. Despite missing seven weeks, his 2.5 fWAR was 13th among all first basemen.

If the Royals were to trade him, it would leave a hole in their lineup that they would have to fill in the outfield if Caglianone moves to first. Can the Royals find an outfielder that can put up an OPS+ of 113? Only 26 outfielders with 300+ plate appearances did that last year. How many will be available? The team also needs upgrades in left and center field. Can they revamp all three outfield positions in one offseason with a mediocre free agent class and an overall decline league-wide in quality of right-handed hitters?

There should also be something said about the leadership Pasquantino provides on the club. Intangibles can be overrated, but they aren’t meaningless. Pasquantino has been the face of the team, the voice of the players during tough times. After this season, he called the year a “failure” and said the team needed to live up to the expectations placed on it. When the team struggled last year, he took responsibility, saying, “It starts with me.” He addressed the media when Carter Jensen missed a game for oversleeping, saying, “It can’t happen.”

Young players like Caglianone and Jensen need leaders who hold the clubhouse accountable and lead the team through tough times. Bobby Witt Jr. is more reserved, a star who leads by example. Vinnie is clearly the kind of player teammates gravitate toward, making him a valuable presence in the clubhouse beyond what he contributes at the plate.

The Royals should of course, be open to trading anyone under the right circumstances. The Brewers and Rays show how being transactional and unafraid to trade anyone can yield results. Trading Pasquantino might make sense if it brings back a major piece, but moving him just to solve a positional puzzle or capitalize on a down year could create more problems than it solves. Sometimes the best move is recognizing what you already have.

Saying “I told you so” seems like it might be cathartic… but really, most of the time you end up saying it, it’s because something bad — foreseeable, but bad — happened. Wouldn’t you rather just not have the bad thing happen in the first place?

That’s how I feel about Joel Payamps. The Braves apparently felt confident enough to give him a guaranteed, non-league minimum deal in the offseason, and I just didn’t get it. Payamps barely made it to May with the Braves, and after they cut bait, no one else bothered. Sure, I told you so… but it’d have been better if they just went in another direction in the first place.

How Acquired

The moribund 2025 Atlanta Braves claimed Payamps on waivers during the twilight of their horrible season. Though Payamps could have been retained given his lack of service time, the Braves opted to remove him from the 40-man roster in November, and he elected free agency. But, about two weeks later, the Braves handed him a one-year, $2.25 million contract.

What were the expectations?

A 32-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic, Payamps has been well-traveled as a journeyman relief arm. He was originally signed as an international free agent by the Rockies, released and signed by the Diamondbacks, had a stint in DFA/waiver limbo with the Red Sox and Blue Jays, got traded to the Royals, got claimed by the Athletics, oh, and somewhere in there he found an opportunity to be involved in the yes-some-people-are-still-super-mad-about-it trade that sent Sean Murphy to the Braves and William Contreras to the Brewers. (Payamps went from Oakland to Milwaukee in the deal.) The Brewers held on to him for a few seasons, including a post-trade breakout, but moved on late in 2025.

When you have a transactions log like Payamps, it suggests that there’s enough to draw interest, but not enough for a team to really fight to keep you. His career stats suggest the same: Payamps came into the 2026 season with 2.2 fWAR in 269 career innings and an 81/95/100 line (ERA-/FIP-/xFIP-). That’s actually a pretty solid line for a low-leverage arm, but as you can see, no one was really all that invested in permanently employing it.

Perhaps the bigger issue was that of that 2.2 fWAR, over half came in a 2023 breakout as the Brewers worked their magic. Payamps hurled 70 2/3 innings in 2023, earning 1.5 fWAR with a 59/79/83 line. 2024 was notably worse, but still solid… but the worm turned in 2025, which is why the Brewers eventually just sent him packing in September.

Put all this together, and Payamps was projected for somewhere between replacement level (Steamer) and “playable but below average” (ZiPS). I don’t really know what about any of this convinced the Braves to give him a guaranteed major league deal, but that’s what happened. (I won’t pretend it was the two outings he had for the Braves in very late 2025, either.) I guess the Braves expected him to be a middle reliever, but the why of it all is still pretty hazy.

2026 Results

Payamps made it just about a month with the Braves. He made his season debut in the second game of the season, and was designated for assignment on May 1. In that span, he appeared in 12 games, completed 7 2/3 innings, bled -0.1 fWAR and was saddled with -0.58 WPA while pitching to a ghastly 196/138/116 line. His performance included one shutdown and four meltdowns: basically, he was used in something other than low leverage five times, and four of those went really poorly. (The Braves went 2-3 in those five games.)

I’m honestly not really sure what else to say here — Payamps just wasn’t around long enough, but that was sort of a blessing given how bad he was during the month that he hung around in the bullpen.

What went right?

His sweeper command was non-terrible? His four-seamer had a .191 wOBA-against and .247 xwOBA-against with a pretty high whiff rate?

It’s hard to say anything goes right when you melt down a bunch in the span of a month, and no one even gives you a minor league shot after you get DFAed.

I guess we can talk about Payamps’ sole shutdown of the season. He worked the eighth with the Braves holding a two-run lead over the Phillies on April 24, and got three flyouts to right, with an Alec Bohm single in there too.

What went wrong?

It’s hard to really diagnose issues in detail in the span of 12 outings. Payamps’ sweeper had crazy spin deflection, and he threw it at the bottom edge of the zone. However, its shape was lacking, and that may be why it didn’t miss many bats: when your sweeper both sweeps and drops less than average, it may not work as well. That said, he probably could’ve survived past May given the success he was having with his four-seamer despite some pretty terrible mechanics on the pitch… but the specific sequence of the batters he faced and the pitches he made (or didn’t make) gave him an ugly line without any really blatant markers in his plate discipline stats or otherwise for why things were so bad so fast.

In the end, there’s no question that a walk rate of 11 percent is pretty much unlivable unless you’re a strikeout demon, and that a combination of poor shape on one pitch and awful command of another is a combination worthy of a one-way ticket to DFAVille, and that’s pretty much what happened. The fact that Payamps couldn’t luck his way through more than one of his higher-leverage outings just made that ticket get issued faster.

Payamps’ worst outing WPA-wise was his last. He came into the eighth with a one-run lead. Kerry Carpenter greeted him with a barreled triple. Matt Vierling followed with a weak roller of a double. Payamps walked a guy, then struck out a guy. That was it — Aaron Bummer and Jose Suarez made things even worse from there, and the Braves lost 5-2. Payamps got shown the proverbial door the next day.

2027 Outlook

It’d be one thing if Payamps had signed a minor league deal somewhere and worked on getting back to his 2023-2024 form in Triple-A somewhere. But, that didn’t happen. As such, it’s not clear whether this is it for the journeyman, or whether he’ll try to latch on somewhere ahead of Spring Training or whatever its equivalent is next season. His situation isn’t really that much worse after 2026 than it was after 2025, and he was able to get $2.25 million from someone (the Braves) after 2025, so… there’s probably a path to at least short-term employment for him somewhere if he wants it. He just shouldn’t expect anyone to pony up a guarantee this time.