Category: Sports News

The Milwaukee Brewers are just one win away from clinching their first-ever franchise championship, putting pressure on the Tampa Bay Rays as they head into a do-or-die matchup at Tropicana Field on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

The Rays, looking to keep their championship hopes alive, are turning to franchise legend Evan Longoria for inspiration, as he is set to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

The iconic third baseman was selected third overall by the Rays in the 2006 draft. During his decade-long tenure with Tampa Bay from 2008 to 2017, Longoria collected numerous accolades and consistently delivered standout performances both at the plate and in the field.

His impressive resume includes being named the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year, earning three All-Star selections and capturing Gold Glove Awards in 2009, 2010, and 2017 for his impressive defense. Longoria also finished sixth in AL MVP voting in both 2010 and 2013, and he claimed a Silver Slugger Award in 2009.

How will this year's World Series play out? Using the Dynasty League Baseball online simulation, USA TODAY Sports' Steve Gardner and DLB designer Mike Cieslinski will pre-play each game to provide some insight into the key matchups and strategy fans can expect to see in the Fall Classic.

Game 4 in a best-of-seven series is frequently an outlier, especially when it comes to pitching strategy.

Teams may have two, sometimes three good starting pitchers. But what do they do when it's too early to bring back their ace?

In Game 4 of USA TODAY Sports' annual Simulated World Series, the Milwaukee Brewers turned to an old war horse, veteran Brandon Woodruff. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays chose to go with an opener in lefty Ian Seymour, with right-hander Griffin Jax waiting in the wings.

But pitching strategy ultimately took a back seat to the Brewers' bats as Milwaukee slugged four homers to back Woodruff's outstanding outing in a 9-1 rout.

Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters!

The World Series is rolling on, and it’s starting to look like the Rays just can’t hang with the Brewers. The first two games were close, both one-run wins for the Brewers. But that changed last night in a big way. The Brewers had scored double digits by the fifth inning, fueled by eight two-out runs in the fifth. They went on to win 10-1.

Not only was the Rays’ pitching unable to contain the Brewers’ offense, but their own offense was unable to get anything going. They had no hits in innings two through eight! And their defense has looked much worse than I’d expect of a team that made it this far. Last night, they did not look like a team good enough for the World Series. They did look like a team that lost the season series to the Orioles.

One nice thing about the Rays being down 10-0 was that we got to see Cedric Mullins and Jorge Mateo as back-to-back pinch hitters in the ninth. Mullins got the team’s second hit, an infield single. Mateo struck out.

So now the Rays are down 3-0, and the Brewers have a shot at a win tomorrow if they can dispatch the Rays as easily as they did last night. I’m not hoping for a sweep. I want more baseball! Hopefully the Rays can figure out how to win and keep this thing going for a while longer.

If you watched the game last night, you probably noticed the crowd roaring when the Brewers did anything good. It almost felt like a Brewers’ home game. That’s because the tickets for the World Series in Milwaukee this year are the highest-priced tickets in World Series history. Those baseball fans are starved for a championship and are willing to pay for it.

According to The Athletic, the average ticket price for game one in Milwaukee was $2,338. For game three in Tampa? $556. That has Brewers fans flocking for Florida, where the baseball teams are notorious for small crowd sizes.

That article got me wondering how much I would be willing to pay to see the Orioles in the World Series. Would I pay $2,338 for one ticket? I honestly can’t say. Logically, I can’t fathom spending that much money on one ticket to anything. But I also can’t imagine the World Series coming to Baltimore and not going. It would be really cool if I had to make this decision in the near future. Like, maybe, next year?

Links

Podcast: The good and bad from the Orioles infield
Mark continued his postseason review by looking at the infield’s performance this season. Once again we all have to thank our lucky stars that we have Pete Alonso

Orioles ‘wrecking crew’ hopes to hit more homers, win more games in 2027 – Baltimore Baseball
Just win more games, regardless of homers. Ok?

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have five Orioles birthday buddies:

• Rubén Tejada (37) is best known for his time with the Mets, but he got into 41 games with the Orioles in 2017.
• Jason Johnson (53) spent five of his 11 Major League seasons with the Orioles. He made 120 starts (133 games overall) between 1999-2003.
• Pedro Swann (56) was an Oriole in 2003, with eight games and 15 plate appearances.
• Eric Bell (63) pitched for the Orioles from 1985-87. He made 29 starts in ‘89, second on the team to Mike Boddicker.
• And Del Rice (b. 1922, d. 1983) played in the Majors for five teams over 17 seasons, including one at-bat with the Orioles in 1960.

On this day in 1972, the Orioles traded Frank Estrada to the Cubs for Elrod Hendricks. They had just traded Hendricks to the Cubs two months earlier. It was their second time acquiring Hendricks; they took him from the Angels in the Rule 5 draft in 1967. They would later trade him to the Yankees, re-sign him, release him, and sign him one more time.

Also on this day in 1972, the Minnesota Twins traded Rick Dempsey to the Yankees. Dempsey would later come to the Orioles in the Hendricks trade I mentioned above.

As the Astros continue their search for a new general manager and manager, one familiar name could tell us everything we need to know about the direction of the franchise.

Astros fans, as the long, excruciating wait continues to find out who will be running your baseball team next season, a few things are becoming increasingly clear. First, it appears the Astros are determined to hire their next general manager before choosing a manager. Second, and perhaps most importantly, Jim Crane is still firmly in control of everything happening inside the organization.

And if you look closely at some of the moves already being made, along with the latest name to surface in the general manager search, you might get a pretty good idea of exactly what Crane is looking for.

The Astros have already made two interesting additions to their player development department. Connor Watson, formerly the assistant director of hitting development with the Cleveland Guardians, has been hired as director of hitting. Clayton Thompson, who spent the past three seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, has also been brought aboard as assistant director of player development.

What makes these hires particularly interesting is that both men previously worked for Driveline Baseball, one of the premier data-driven player development organizations in the world. Driveline has been at the forefront of using technology, analytics and advanced evaluation methods to help players maximize their abilities.

Those additions would seem to indicate that the Astros are moving toward a younger, more analytically driven front office, perhaps one led by an up-and-coming executive who embraces the modern approach to building and developing a baseball team.

But then there’s Mike Rizzo.

The former Washington Nationals general manager has emerged as an intriguing candidate for the Astros’ opening, with reports indicating that he has significant interest in the position and could interview with the organization as early as Monday.

And when you consider everything we know about Jim Crane and the way he prefers to operate, Rizzo might make more sense than anyone else being mentioned.

At 65 years old, Rizzo brings an extensive baseball résumé and a track record of identifying, acquiring and developing talent. He was responsible for drafting franchise players like Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg and orchestrating the blockbuster Juan Soto trade that helped replenish Washington’s farm system and reshape the organization’s future.

Rizzo represents something of a perfect blend between old-school baseball evaluation and modern analytics. He’s a baseball lifer who understands the importance of scouting, player development and relationships, but he also recognizes the value of the numbers and technology that have transformed today’s game.

More importantly, he might be exactly the kind of personality Jim Crane wants running his baseball operations.

And I don’t think that should be overlooked.

We’ve seen Crane’s willingness to involve himself in baseball decisions, and there’s little reason to believe that’s going to change. While the Astros have reportedly explored younger assistant general managers around the league, including Milwaukee Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine, I keep coming back to the same conclusion.

Mike Rizzo seems like Jim Crane’s kind of guy.

He’s experienced, established, respected throughout baseball and probably more comfortable working with an owner who wants to remain actively involved in the decision-making process than a younger executive looking to build an organization entirely in his own image.

That doesn’t necessarily mean Rizzo would be willing to surrender control or simply serve as a figurehead. You don’t build the résumé he has without strong opinions and a clear vision. But there is something to be said for hiring someone who has already experienced the highs and lows of running a major league franchise and understands the realities of working with ownership.

The next question becomes what happens with the managerial search.

You would certainly think the Astros want their next general manager to have significant input in choosing the manager he will be working alongside. That’s the logical approach, and it would explain why the organization appears focused on filling the front-office vacancy first.

Of course, with Crane involved, nothing should be taken for granted.

If Rizzo ultimately gets the job, my expectation is that he would look to keep the majority of this roster intact rather than initiate some massive overhaul. He has enough experience to recognize that the Astros still have a talented core capable of competing, even if there are obvious areas that need improvement.

I could see him making a couple of calculated moves to address weaknesses, improve roster flexibility and position this team to remain competitive over the next several seasons. He’s not someone I would expect to come in and immediately tear everything apart simply to put his own fingerprints on the organization.

And that could be exactly what Crane wants.

The Astros are at an interesting crossroads. They’re trying to modernize their player development operation while also determining who will lead the next chapter of the franchise. The hiring of Watson and Thompson suggests a commitment to analytics and technology, but the potential hiring of Rizzo would bring a proven baseball executive with decades of experience into the equation.

In many ways, that combination could make a lot of sense.

The bigger issue, as I’ve said before, is whether the next general manager will truly be given the authority and freedom to do the job the way he believes it needs to be done.

Because regardless of who gets hired, we already know one thing.

Jim Crane isn’t going anywhere, and neither is his influence over baseball operations.

The question now is whether Mike Rizzo is the man Crane trusts to help guide the Astros into their next era of winning baseball.

And based on everything we’re seeing, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is.

With Halloween just a few days away, it feels very appropriate for the moment to pull this dead body of a Cardinals 2026 roster out and start dissecting what lies beneath the skin. Get your scalpels, bone saws, and retractors out, and let’s dig into what we can find!

Offense

This past week, we learned the Cardinals had decided to part ways with hitting coach Brant Brown, and for some, that came as a shock, not only because President of Baseball Operations Chaim Bloom had conveyed that the Cardinals were “status quo” on the coaching staff, but there also wasn’t major fan pushback to have Brown removed from his position like recent previous coaches like Turner Ward or Jeff Albert. However, when you look across the board at where the team ranked in several major offensive team categories, the motivation to part ways and not renew Brown’s contract starts to make more sense. 22nd in team average, 22nd in team OBP, 29th in team OPS, 24th in Home Runs, 28th in ISO, 28th in wOBA, 26th in wRC+, and 25th in O-WAR. They finished in the bottom 10 in most statistical categories. There’s a lot of speculation around Casey Chenoweth, who was promoted this season from the Double-A squad because of his work with Cardinals breakout RF Jordan Walker, that he could wind up being the Cardinals’ next primary hitting coach. I would also expect Brandon Allen to get some serious consideration after being on the staff for several years and having an intimate familiarity with all of the Cardinals’ hitters.

So, what was the “Cause of Death” for this squad? When you have multiple organ failures occur all at once, it’s pretty difficult to identify one main cause; however, I would point to the power. It’s just an indisputable fact that teams that don’t slug the baseball consistently don’t win a ton of games on average in the modern game. When we look at the statistic ISO, or Isolated Power, which is the SLG% – BA, it tells you how often you’re generating extra-base hits and power, not just empty calories from singles. MLB average for ISO is .140, and the Redbirds had 7 players with a minimum of .140 ISO; that list included Baez, Walker, Burleson, Bernal, Urias, Crooks, and Herrera, who came in at exactly the league average of .140. The first 4 names listed are undeniably the Cardinals’ core of power producers. Urias was DFA’d in August, and Jimmy Crooks struck out 32% of his at-bats and struggled to make consistent enough contact for his power to be a relevant element in his game.

Ivan Herrera is one of the more unique cases, given that we know the power potential is real with him, but underlying metrics in terms of xSLG were down .101 points, Hard Hit% down 7.1%, and barrel% down 5%. We saw him trying to make several in-box tweaks to his setup over the course of the 2nd half of the season, and with Rainiel Rodriguez footsteps starting to get louder and louder behind him, the questions of his long-term viability in the organization, especially as he begins his trip through arbitration and his salary continues to grow, are how soon he is viewed as expendable.

Herrera was far from the lone letdown in this regard, JJ Wetherholt was impressive with the power in the 1st half of the season and the tendonitis in his wrist really zapped his impact until it was to the point where he could no longer even swing his bat competetively that the Cardinals forced Wetherholt out of the lineup and onto the IL, despite his persistent pleas to remain in the lineup daily. His and Jordan Walker’s 2nd half power fall-offs really created glaring issues with the squad’s ability to consistently score runs. Nathan Church’s .118 was 28th out of 31 CF with a minimum of 350 PA this season, and Masyn Winn’s was 30th of 33.

Potential internal boosts from guys like Jesus Baez and Rainiel Rodriguez next season should provide this group with the added thump they’re desperate for, though I don’t anticipate those guys being real options until maybe June at the earliest.

Defense

The St. Louis Cardinals have always prided themselves on their ability to play strong fundamental defense and suppress opposing offenses from scoring in lockstep with a pitch-to-contact-heavy approach. Chaim Bloom and the revamped front office group have shifted some of that approach to a more swing-and-miss-heavy dynamic among the pitchers they’re seeking through the draft, in trade, and international free agency. Pairing that with well-above-average to plus defenders on the diamond, along with playing 81 games in the offensive wasteland that is Busch Stadium, one Cardinals source posed the question, “Is run suppression and leveraging Busch Stadium really a bad way to build a ball club?” to me. The Cardinals have won a lot of games in the past with that approach, but my counter to their perspective is that fans come to the park to see offense too. That not just winning, but how you win as well, should be an important factor. Glavine and Maddux watched Big Mac hit balls out of Busch 2 and said, “Chicks dig the long ball,” and they’re right!

But getting off that soapbox, the Cardinals were a very strong team on the defensive side of the ball. The team ranked 3rd in outs above average (OAA), 18th in defensive runs saved (DRS; this one is strange to me), 3rd in fielding run value (FRV), and 5th in D-WAR. Fangraphs also has a metric, rGDP, that measures a team’s 2B/SS combo and their ability to save runs with double plays, and the Cardinals rated out as the number 1 middle infield unit at a +7 in 2026.

Side tangent number 2 on this topic. I know some Cardinals fans have inquired about the idea of moving JJ over the 3rd base, and I’m not at all, and neither are the Cardinals, inclined to consider moving Wetherholt off of a more premium defensive position up the middle. Furthermore, what he displayed this season in tandem with Masyn Winn up the middle has the potential to be incredibly special, foundationally special even.

Winn, Wetherholt, and Starting Pitcher Michael McGreevy are all Gold Glove finalists this season, and there are cases to be made for all 3 to take home hardware.

“Cause of Death” – N/A; this patient is still alive and well and should be for several years to come, barring a catastrophic accident.

Pitching

Let’s start with the rotation and call it like it is. This was a group that was mostly comprised of bridge starting pitchers and short-term placeholders for the inevitable high-upside, high-octane, swing-and-miss-generating demons that are ascending through the minor leagues at a rapid pace. Dustin May was a 1-year flier the Cardinals were able to get the most out of and flip for more high-upside young talent. Andre Pallante has 2 years remaining, and that’s right around when the Cardinals expect to be entering their next contention window. Kyle Leahy is over the age of 30, and while it’s not guaranteed to be an immediate or steep decline in his career, there are historical markers that suggest that he won’t be a focal point of the rotation by that time as well.

Michael McGreevy is a prototypical back-of-the-rotation starter. When he enters arbitration within 2 years, are the Cardinals going to pay him above the league minimum if guys like Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts, Mason Molina, Cooper Hjerpe, Tekoah Roby, Daniel Eagan, Teegan Kuhns, Jacob Odle, or Cade Crossland exist? That’s not even mentioning the big elite arms like Liam Doyle, Tanner Franklin, Jurrangelo Cintje, Brandon Clarke, or Yhoiker Fajardo. To go along with a Quinn Mathews who has already emerged from the farm. My answer would be no, and the smart money would be to bet against it. So, I and other Cardinals content creators have been kicking around the idea of when, not if, McGreevy eventually becomes someone the Cardinals can leverage in order to obtain the next needed piece to add to their ever-restocking farm system at a below market level rate with years of team control remaining.

This is the process the Brewers, Guardians, and Rays champion. Cycling young, inexpensive strikeout arms rather than committing 6 years at a 30 million AAV that most couldn’t stomach, with the possibility of a missed season due to TJ or any of the other laundry list of injury pitchers’ experience.

This season, the Cardinals’ starting pitchers had a bit of a mixed bag of results. 12th in ERA, 12th in FIP, 24th in K%, 11th in BB%, 26th in BAA, and 24th in WHIP. These results coincided with pitchers like McGreevy falling off in the 2nd half, Leahy having a weird April and September, Andre Pallante had 3 or 4 poor starts against the Brewers but was terrific against pretty much every other oppononent, Dustin May was dealt mid season and his spot was taken over by Hunter Dobbins whos season was derailed by injury, and then Quinn Mathews had only 1 real non competetive start in the final 2 months of the season but it wasnt enough to raise the tide, and Matthew Liberatore found a way to strike out more batters but had trouble stopping a spiraling inning from going out of control more times than not.

“Cause of Death” – It’s the strikeouts. 3 of the 4 teams that competed for the pennant this season were in the top 5 in K%, the only exception was the Tampa Bay Rays, who still came in at 13th. A lot of the earlier names I alluded to will help infuse the swing-and-miss stuff into the pitching staff over the next 2 seasons.

Now let’s move on to the bullpen, a group that, results-wise, was a bit of a night of the living dead. 20th in ERA, 19th in FIP, 23rd in K%, 26th in BB%, 19th in BAA, and 22nd in WHIP. Fundamentally, this was a bottom-10 position group in the sport, and that’s not good enough. Gordon Graceffo, armed with his new slider, really took some important strides forward this season; the emergence of Luis Gastelum was a fun jolt once he corrected the pitch-tipping issue. Justin Bruihl was solid if unspectacular and a true horse out of the pen. Riley O’Brien has closer-type stuff but clearly had moments that were less than brilliant, to put it kindly. Guys like Cade Winquest, Hancel Rincon, and Max Rajcic were able to show some things in their opportunties. Same with Ryan Fernandez though im not sure what his long term future looks like with St. Louis when they continued to not call him up down the stretch of this season.

Sandro Santana, so much of this guy’s stuff has been made such a big deal of, and for good reason. He has a real chance to make the club out of spring training, and that would instantly be a huge boost to the group going forward. I also think of all the places on the roster that Chaim Bloom might try to strike and improve with a big-league addition this offseason; it’s in the bullpen. So, I’ll be curious to see how this group is reshaped between now and opening day, whenever that is.

‘Cause of Death” – K-BB%, the strikeout-to-walk ratio was horrible, and you can get by with high walk rates if you also strike out a lot of guys, and similar with the inverse, though much tougher, that you can get by with fewer strikeouts if you don’t walk anybody. It’s really hard to have success if you walk too many and don’t strike out enough, especially for all of the high-leverage moments the bullpen has to perform in. This bullpen might as well have suffered from a gas leak because if someone struck a match (did damage), it usually resulted in a blow-up.

So, as the official VEB coroner, this Cardinals 2026 body has been on ice for over a month now, and the diagnosis would indicate that this St. Louis crew suffered significant muscle atrophy and asphyxiation, as the wind that filled their lungs in the first half of the season was quickly squeezed out of them after their failed 5-game series against Milwaukee in early July, and the thump and muscle from the offense in the first half atrophied and weakend due to injury and fatigue that ultimately slowed their offense down to a crawl in the 2nd half to the point it could no longer compensate for a less than stellar pitching staff as a whole.

I also want to add to the “notes” column of the examination chart that, though this team wasn’t expected to survive much of the season, the intention was not to do so but to see how long it could sustain itself under its own power, and we saw some important growth steps from players on the roster. I expect next season’s body of work to hold up much longer than this one was able to. It might even make it the whole season with a timely cortisone shot or 4 in the arm throughout the season to get it there. Alright, enough metaphors.

-thanks for reading

The suggestion caught Ross Newhan off guard.

The Angels had just reached the promised land, after more than four decades of wandering through baseball’s wilderness. Who better than Newhan, who had been there since Day 1, to write a first-person account of that long and winding road to their first World Series?

Newhan was reluctant. That would make the story about himself, which he despised. The editors prevailed, and within the story he delivered a sentence that struck deep within the heart of every loyal and long-suffering Angels fan.

“I can’t help but feel a sweep of emotions seep through the cynicism and dispassion that is the byproduct of being present for all or part of every Angel season,” he wrote on Oct. 14, 2002.

To this day, the Angels have one guy in the Hall of Fame: Vladimir Guerrero. The Times has two: Jim Murray, the Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist, and Newhan.

If Vin Scully provided the voice for the first half-century of Major League Baseball in Southern California, Newhan provided the words.

Newhan died on Sunday, at 89, after what his wife Connie called a “cardiac event.” His reporting — first at the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram, then over 37 years at The Times — distinguished The Times as a national source for baseball coverage.

He was so renowned within baseball that the Dodgers, MLB, and the players’ union posted condolences.

Bud Selig, the former commissioner and occasional antagonist in Newhan’s columns, told The Times: “I mourn the passing of Ross Newhan. He was an excellent sportswriter, and I always had a great amount of respect for him personally and for his work.”

In his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, he reserved a special mention for a teacher at Wilson High in Long Beach, the one that envisioned a writer blossoming within a student dozing in class.

“If a high school journalism instructor named John Gartner hadn’t hollered my name and pounded my desk one day, I might still be sitting there asleep,” Newhan said, “with no real clue what I wanted to do in my life.”

In the 1990s, as a young reporter at the Riverside Press-Enterprise, I was among a small group of writers talking with Tony Gwynn, the San Diego Padres’ Hall of Famer. Newhan was there too, and as the group dispersed, he told me: “You ask good questions.”

Talk about inspiration: It was as if Clayton Kershaw had seen a kid throw a curveball and said, “Not bad.”

Behind a gruff and occasionally intense exterior, Newhan had a heart of gold. Mike DiGiovanna, the longtime Times baseball writer, called Newhan “a security blanket” for colleagues needing a fact check, a phone number or an introduction to someone famous.

“He was a giant without the giant ego,” DiGiovanna said.

Newhan trained former Times colleague Jason Reid on how to cover baseball. Reid affectionately called him “Boss Ross.” The two were such relentless reporters that, amid the wild initial days of the McCourt family ownership of the Dodgers, Reid got co-owner Jamie McCourt so frazzled that she actually said this: “This is bad because you guys remember everything and you write everything down.”

Newhan and Reid had reported on concerns with the McCourt financing before the ownership deal closed, and six years before Frank McCourt’s divorce attorney admitted in court that McCourt had put “not a penny” of his own money into the deal. That did not make Newhan and McCourt the best of friends, but neither did it make them bitter enemies.

“He seemed to take a sort of pride in being the guardian of Los Angeles baseball, for lack of a better term,” said Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch, then the Dodgers’ publicist. “He had an ability to garner respect from people even when he was writing something you weren’t happy about.”

Said Mike Scioscia, on whom Newhan reported as a Dodgers player and Angels manager: “Ross was a true gentleman and had a real matter-of-fact way of asking questions that put you at ease.”

There was nothing flashy about Newhan, not in his writing, certainly not in the way he conducted himself. He let his work and its credibility speak for itself.

Newhan is survived by his wife, Connie; his son, David, and daughter-in-law, Karen; his daughter, Sara, and son-in-law, Mike; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

The story about David is the one most often recalled Monday, because it really was a story about his father.

David, the kid that tagged along with Newhan when the Angels held spring training in Palm Springs, developed into a major leaguer. He had joked with reporters that he hadn’t been sure if rumors of his call-up were true because “as everyone knows, you can’t believe what’s in the paper.”

In 2004, as Newhan and I covered a game at Dodger Stadium, David appeared as a pinch-hitter for the Baltimore Orioles against the Colorado Rockies, in his first major league at-bat in three years. Newhan was glued to his laptop, where these words suddenly appeared: “In play, run(s).”

Waiting, waiting, waiting … and then I heard one of the loudest screams I have ever heard. Rawitch heard it too. Everyone in the press box heard it.

“Home run.”

The scream was out of character for a professional writer, entirely in character for a proud father. He aced both, and we’ll miss him.

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Phillies News:

• What prospects could help bolster the Phillies bullpen next season?
• Why Tim Mayza wanted to re-sign with the Phillies ($$)
• Alex Cora may not want to manage the Phillies, but maybe another team!
• Aidan Miller has done quite well in his limited action in the AFL

MLB News:

• MLB continues to test new rules, this time outfield shifts in the AFL
• Mets’ Francisco Lindor was named the 2026 Roberto Clemente Award recipient
• Rocco Baldelli withdraws his name Mariners’ managerial search