The Toronto Maple Leafs earned their first win of the 2026-27 season with a 2-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Wednesday. This result on the second night of a back-to-back at Scotiabank Arena is Jim Hiller's first win as the Maple Leafs' head coach.
It was a much cleaner performance compared to Toronto's season opener against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday, when they lost 3-2 at home.
With that said, here are the four main takeaways from the Maple Leafs' first win of the campaign.
Anthony Stolarz Looks Sharp
Goaltender Anthony Stolarz made his first start of the season for the Maple Leafs on Wednesday.
There was a lot for him to prove going into this season, given the numbers he produced last year. He posted an .893 save percentage and a 3.28 goals-against average, which was a significant decrease from the .926 SP and 2.14 GAA he registered in his first year with the team, 2024-25.
Against the Islanders, Stolarz stopped 26 of 27 shots, getting a .963 SP. That's the best the 32-year-old has performed, statistically, since recording a .966 on Oct. 16 of last year.
"It was good," Stolarz said of his first performance of the season. "I think it's a great feeling and something for our team to grow on and expand on, and continue to work forward. Obviously, you want to win the first one last night, but to come out the way we did and respond the way we did was extremely encouraging for sure.
"The guys did a great job of boxing guys out. Let me see the first shot. Obviously, we knew that they have a lot of skilled defensemen who they like to pound the puck. So it's kind of up to me just to smother that rebound. And obviously, we did a great job blocking shots, getting sticks in lanes. And if you do that consistently as a team, you're going to come out on top most times," he added.
If it wasn't for Stolarz's spectacular outing, Easton Cowan certainly would've been the star of this contest. The 21-year-old was noticeable all game long and contributed to both of Toronto's goals. He recorded an assist on Colton Sisson's first goal of the game and scored on the power play, which turned out to be the game-winning goal for the Leafs.
"He was feeling it tonight," Sissons said of Cowan. "Just a dynamic player. He has the puck on his stick a lot and makes a lot of good plays. So really blessed to be playing with him right now.
Cowan and the third line with Sissons and Nick Paul were arguably the best line in the game against the Islanders, and probably for the Leafs against the Canadiens in the first game, too. There's lots of positivity surrounding that trio in terms of their play, effectiveness, and early chemistry.
"Sky's the limit with that kid," Sissons said. "Yeah, he's got all the potential in the world."
Aside from Jack Roslovic's power-play assist on Cowan's goal, among Maple Leafs forwards, the third-liners were the only ones on the scoresheet, with Cowan's two points, Sissons' goal, and an assist from Paul.
Outside of producing offense, that trio were great at keeping possession in the offensive zone, executing low cycles, and they were very responsible in their own zone as well.
The right-handed blueliner was all over the place on Tuesday, giving the puck away five times on his own, and was on the ice for all three goals. On Wednesday, it was a much cleaner performance from him, Rielly, and the D-corps as a whole.
The entire Maple Leafs defense only gave up the puck a collective four times against New York, and not one Toronto D-man had more than one giveaway.
That pair didn't set the game on fire and dominate, but it was good that they were a little quieter. That means there was less of an issue breaking out the puck, and very few breakdowns in their own zone.
And to add to that, Rielly got an assist on a pretty impressive play on the power play.
"What a play by Morgan," Hiller recalled of Toronto's second goal of the night. The 32-year-old picked off a clearance from the Islanders' penalty kill, controlled it at the blueline, and was able to make a play that led to Cowan's goal.
The Maple Leafs killed all four power plays that came the Islanders' way. Toronto did a great job of obviously keeping the puck out of the net, but also limiting dangerous chances when New York had the man-advantage.
The Isles were held to just three high-danger chances on the power play, according to Natural Stat Trick. Among the forwards, the Leafs' penalty kill was led by Teddy Blueger and Brandon Duhaime, playing 3:52 and 3:43 of ice time shorthanded, respectively. Duhaime had three blocks in this game, more than any Islander.
"When you kill them all off, you give yourselves a pretty good chance to win a hockey game," Sissons said, who had 2:33 of ice time on the PK. "And yeah, it was sharp. Obviously, not a lot of time to kind of work out your system and work out some of the kinks. So it's been big thus far."
The efforts of defensemen Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev can't be ignored either, as they combined for a total of eight blocks, and each led the team in time on the penalty kill in this contest.
So far, Toronto is six-for-six in killing penalties after two games this season.
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SAN ANTONIO, TX -SEPTEMBER 28: Keldon Johnson #3 of the San Antonio Spurs poses for a portrait at the San Antonio Spurs Media Day at Victory Capital Performance Center on September 28, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ronald Cortes/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Normally, middle names are saved for when a parent is calling a child (usually loudly and from a distance) to inform said child that he is, in fact, in trouble. If I heard “Jeffrey David Duarte” a tinge of fear shot through my entire body. (In fact, any time I’ve been referred to as “Jeffrey” I was either in trouble with a family member or a government entity. Family was the usual culprit throughout my childhood, traffic court from sixteen to present.)
So when members of the Spurs video team decided to address members of the team by their “government” names on Media day, the players did a double-take.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the members of your 2026-2027 San Antonio Spurs: Stephon Javonte Castle, Tobias John Harris, Julian Kymani Champagnie, Carter Dayne Bryant, Luke Francis Kornet, Harrison Bryce Jordan Barnes, and Keldon Wilder Johnson.
Tobias corrected stating that his middle name is “John Lee, bet you didn’t know that.” We didn’t…and his Wikipedia page does not list the “Lee” either.
Not introduced: Devin Anthony Vassell, Dylan Robert Harper, De’Aaron Martez Fox, and Victor Nonga Wembanyama-de Fautereau-Vassel. Bet you can’t say Wemby’s full name five times really fast. I’ll wait.
It’s a good thing the players don’t have their full name on the back of their jerseys. Victor’s would need sleeves.
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Sep 30, 2026; Cumberland, Georgia, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Andrew Painter (24), designated hitter Kyle Schwarber (12), catcher J.T. Realmuto (10) and outfielder Brandon Marsh (16) celebrate after a win against the Atlanta Braves in game two of the Wildcard round for the 2026 MLB Playoffs at Truist Park. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
After a rollercoaster of a ballgame yesterday, the Phillies lived to fight another day, forcing this series with the Braves to a decisive Game 3. Not enough can be said about the performance of 23-year-old Andrew Painter who threw three scoreless innings in relief to win the game. That’s the kind of stuff that makes everyone forget his early season struggles and can grant a young rookie a boatload of confidence. No matter what happens today, Painter answered the call when the team needed him most.
BRONX, NY - SEPTEMBER 30: Luis Garcia Jr. #26 of the New York Yankees hits a solo home run in the fourth inning during the New York Yankees game against the Boston Red Sox in game 2 of the American League Wild Card Playoff Series at Yankee Stadium on September 30, 2026 in the Borough of the Bronx, New York. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It doesn’t get much better than The Rivalry, especially in postseason baseball. Having this series for the second year in a row is a true treat for the game of baseball, even if this one was much less cinematic than the last one. There’s something poetic about a guy making his postseason debut in this rivalry, something we saw across the board with guys like George Lombard Jr. and Spencer Jones this year, and even Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice last year. It’s not just rookies who can experience this; vets can too.
Take Luis García Jr., a seven-year major league vet. He might only be 26 years old, but he’s experienced plenty of empty Octobers as a big leaguer, being unlucky enough to make his big league debut for the Washington Nationals in 2020, just after their World Series championship.
He played 708 games as a National, all in the regular season. He never experienced a competitive team. So imagine the joy he must’ve felt when he, a Yankees fan growing up in the Dominican Republic after being born in New York City, was traded to the contending Yankees in early August ahead of the Trade Deadline. Was the fit a bit wonky? Sure, but on a team that was drowning offensively, any help was nice.
He did well as a Yankee down the stretch, albeit trading blistering hot and ice-cold stretches. He got a raw deal entering his first-ever postseason as a big leaguer with his struggles against left-handed pitching and the presence of Paul Goldschmidt as the steady platoon bat at first base. Hence, he spent Game 1 on the bench, except for one at-bat against Wyatt Olds in which he hit into a double play with the bases loaded.
Game 2 was going to be his opportunity, at least in this series. With Ranger Suárez looming in Game 3, if the Yankees couldn’t close out their biggest rivals, this was the only game he knew he was going to have at least three at-bats to set the tone for his postseason legacy. You could tell he was dialed in from the start, as even when his first at-bat ended in an out, it was laced at 108.5 mph right at Wilyer Abreu in right field. All good, just need to get more air under it.
I’m not sure if that was his prerogative in his second at-bat, but that’s exactly what he did off Sonny Gray to break the ice in the fourth, walloping a 1-2 sweeper that stayed just high enough for him to belt it over the fence for a short porch homer to give the Yankees a lead they would not relinquish.
In his next at-bat, he was put into a tough situation. A quick hook by Chad Tracy saw Boston’s nasty lefty, Erik Miller, come into the game in a big spot in the fifth inning. Aaron Boone could’ve made the call to put Paul Goldschmidt in, but he elected to stick with García. Whether it was his personal trust in the matchup or acknowledging a higher-leverage situation was possible against a guy like Garrett Crochet or Aroldis Chapman, we’ll never know. García smacked a 0-1 sinker into left field for a single, but the inning ended on an aggressive send by Luis Rojas. That kind of swing is what you love to see in a tough matchup.
He wouldn’t come up again in any type of leverage, but would add another scorched single off a demoralized Garrett Whitlock at the end of a six-run sixth inning. All in all, García finished 3-for-5 with the home run, one of several great outings on the roster, but it was the tone he set with his fourth inning home run that earned him these honors.
When you’re playing a team facing elimination, it’s absolutely necessary to throw the first punch so they start to feel the pressure. Both Max Fried and Gray were on their game to start, so it was clear that whoever could make one of them blink first would be on their way to a Wednesday night win.
For García, his homer that broke the ice put even more pressure on a comatose Red Sox offense that only felt like they had life after Willson Contreras’ first-row homer with two outs in the sixth. Even then, the Yankees buried two of Boston’s best pitchers, Crochet and Whitlock, in one of the best offensive innings of the season immediately after.
This was an absolute mugging of a series. One where the superior team, with home-field advantage, played like they were disgusted they even had to share a field with the team on the other side, knowing they were better than this. Starting on Saturday, they’ll truly get a chance to prove they are better than the Wild Card team they were through 162.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 23: Chris Bassitt #40 of the Baltimore Orioles looks on during game one of a baseball doubleheader against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 23, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Hello, friends.
There are 174 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game. We are about two months away from the point where the league’s owners will get greedy and lock out the players in a negotiating tactic that the commissioner himself likened to shooting the players with a .45. At that point, there will be a giant question mark as to when the next MLB game will be played, with nothing firm again until a labor deal is reached.
There will be at least one playoff game today. Perhaps only one. (This is being finished off before the west coast Cubs-Padres game has wrapped up.) Yesterday’s postseason action saw the White Sox dispatch the Astros and the Yankees wipe the floor with the Red Sox, each completing the two-game wild card series sweep.
Good riddance to a .500 team that made the postseason. That team advancing would have been a shame. So long to the Red Sox. Too bad for Adley Rutschman still remaining winless in the playoffs in his career. Maybe next year. The Phillies did even out their series by beating the Braves in extra innings. I honestly don’t care who wins that series. My wife, who hates Bryce Harper, wants the Phillies to lose.
It’s an interesting article because most of it consists of players are actually on the record talking about issues under their own names. Beat writer Andy Kostka says that he spoke to 10 players, and by my counting, there’s exactly one anonymous quote here, with a small number of additional anonymous paraphrases. Getting guys to speak frankly, even in just a general way, is good work by him.
One thing that stands out is that most of the quoted players here are either guys who arrived in 2026, are about to be free agents, or both. There is a lot of Blaze Alexander, Pete Alonso, Chris Bassitt, and Trevor Rogers. There are no direct quotes from guys like Colton Cowser, Gunnar Henderson, and Coby Mayo.
A dramatic example of how it had to be the new arrivals offering leadership is recounted by Alexander, who explained that there had been an early August players-only meeting initiated by catcher Carlos Narváez. As Alexander related things to Kostka, it took Narváez mere days of being around the Orioles to recognize some similar problems to what plagued his old team, the Red Sox, early in the season, and after apparently explaining some of that (Alexander didn’t say exactly what,) he conluded, “The players, it’s up to us.”
This was, according to the article, one of four or five players-only meetings called through the season. Whatever people were trying to get going just wasn’t taking. In a quote that was already widely shared on social media before this article was published, Pete Alonso laid the blame squarely on the players:
“We need to do a better job as players. That’s what it boils down to. At the end of the day, you can have all the help, all the coaching, all the information, but it’s about getting it done between the lines, and collectively as a group, we didn’t do that.”
Bassitt’s quotes in this article also hit on the players needing to be the ones who step up. He said that it needs to be the key players the team has invested in – specifically naming Alonso and Henderson for position players and Shane Baz and Kyle Bradish for pitchers – who set the standard not just at the major league level but all the way down into the minors. Bassitt’s message is that everyone in the organization should feel like, if you’re not doing it the right way, you’re not going to make it to the majors or stay there for long.
Among the problems were players “going through the motions” (again, you’ll be disappointed if you want him to say who) in drills rather than actually trying to use them to sharpen up. That’s also in what Bassitt said.
I am again left wondering about first-year manager Craig Albernaz, who needs to be sat down in the conference room like in Office Space with the two Bobs and asked, “What would you say… ya DO here?” If there’s an obvious effort problem in the drills, what was the manager doing about it? Apparently not enough for things to stick. And if he can’t make it stick, why is he here?
One could wonder the same, to some degree, about Mike Elias. What does it say about the organization that, now eight years after he has been hired, there is still not a top-down standard all the way down to the lowest levels of the minors, such that players have good habits instilled all the way up the ladder and arrive at the major league level with fewer of these problems? That’s a colossal screwup!
If I was the billionaire owner of the Baltimore Orioles, I would not count on Elias being the guy to fix that mess, even if, belatedly, he has identified some of the deficiencies. Yet it seems that Rubes is giving him another year to sort it out. One thing that can be said about Elias is that he did shift gears in building out his roster for 2026, and it’s clear there are changes coming to the front office as well, even if the guy at the top is staying the same. Will it be enough? I don’t know. But, he’s clearly not stubbornly plowing ahead with a failed plan. Critiques of the O’s situation should acknowledge that.
Orioles stuff you might have missed
With Mike Elias still in charge, the Orioles remain stuck (The Baltimore Banner) The Banner’s hot taker is back from covering the Ravens in Brazil to weigh in on the end-of-season presser and the state of the organization generally, musing whether Mike Elias is like Sisyphus. I might apply the myth differently, myself. Mike Elias is the guy rolling the boulder back down the hill every night so Sisyphus has to do it all over again.
Looking at important context to this year’s minor league numbers (Orioles On The Verge) The folks at the Verge are looking at minor league park factors to see whether or how much that should change what to think about some Orioles prospects and how they did this season.
2026 All-Prospect team includes Eyanson, Dzierwa (MLB Pipeline) There might really actually be a wave of interesting Orioles pitching prospects right now, for the first time in the Elias tenure.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1997, the Orioles beat the Mariners in game 1 of their division series, scoring five runs off Randy Johnson and four more off reliever Mike Timlin on the way to a 9-3 victory. Mike Mussina allowed two runs in seven innings to get the win for the O’s. This game featured six future baseball Hall of Famers. It was a stacked series.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2025-26 two-game catcher David Bañuelos, 2018-25 outfielder Cedric Mullins, 2026 two-game reliever Lou Trivino, 2011 three-game pitcher Mitch Atkins, 2000-01 pitcher Chuck McElroy, and 1956-60 infielder Bob Boyd.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: Boeing founder William Boeing (1881), Bonnie and Clyde outlaw Bonnie Parker (1910), 39th president Jimmy Carter (1924), actress Julie Andrews (1935), baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew (1945), actor Zach Galifianakis (1969), and gymnast/social media star Livvy Dunne (2002).
On this day in history…
In 1791, the revolutionary French Legislative Assembly had its first session. More radical members were seated on the left side of its hall, where more conservative or reactionary members were seated on the right. This is the origin of “left” and “right” as political descriptors, which has continued with some evolutions on into today.
In 1903, the first modern World Series game was held, taking place between the Boston Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Boston triumphed in what was then a best-of-nine with a 5-3 series victory. Pittsburgh took Game 1, though, by a 7-3 score where Cy Young was the losing pitcher.
In 1938, Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland region was annexed by Nazi Germany. This action was permitted by the previous day’s agreement in Munich, which European leaders at the time believed would prevent a war on the continent. This agreement is not so well-regarded today, rather instead an infamous instance showing that appeasement of a dictator never works.
In 1971, Walt Disney World opened in Florida. At its pre-COVID peak, Disney World was drawing nearly 60 million attendees annually. It’s just recently rebounded to about 50 million annually. (Exactly 11 years later, EPCOT Center, part of the Disney complex, opened to the public.)
**
And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 1. Have a safe Thursday.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - SEPTEMBER 28: Brice Turang of the Milwaukee Brewers attends Monday Night RAW at Fiserv Forum on September 28, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Michael Marques/WWE via Getty Images) | WWE via Getty Images
On Monday, MLB revealed their All-MLB ballot, and we covered the Brewers who were included. This is a fun exercise for me, because I’ve been keeping my own personal All-MLB teams for years, since before it was an official thing that the league did (they started bestowing the honor in 2019).
My own personal teams don’t look exactly like the ones MLB uses—they specify outfield positions instead of just choosing three outfielders, I only include one starting pitcher and one reliever, and if the situation calls for it, I’ll throw in a Wild Card selection (this is where I’ve put Shohei, and when I’ve gone back to look at historical seasons, that designation can be used for great two-way seasons). In my own exercises, I also used a “DH” spot not for a player who necessarily actually played most often at designated hitter, but instead I just gave that position to the next-best offensive player who did not make it at any other position. These choices were made mostly because I made All-MLB teams for each season going way, way back to before there was a DH, but I still wanted to honor players who sometimes had truly great seasons but were edged out because, for example, Jimmie Foxx and Lou Gehrig were playing the same position at the same time.
In any case, I’ll stick to the “rules” that MLB has put forth for this exercise, but I’ll rank my pitchers based on preference, so you’ll know which two would’ve made my personal team. I’ll also add that I’d include Shohei as a two-way player this year in my “wild card” pick; it was a “down” season for him, but he was still awesome.
On to the selections!
Catcher: Gabriel Moreno, Diamondbacks
Moreno was a big-time prospect a few years ago—he was the #7 prospect via Baseball America and MLB Pipeline before the 2022 season. He’s been a solid player as a pro—DRS really likes his defense, and he had a solid 108 OPS+ across 316 games in his first four (really three plus a handful of games near the end of 2022) seasons.
This year, he broke out offensively. He won the NL batting title by hitting .311, he hit for decent power, with 16 homers and 33 doubles, and he walked at a solid 10.4% rate. Moreno’s 143 OPS+ was the best of any catcher with real playing time this season by a pretty solid margin, and he played in 130 games, all of which led to 6.7 WAR via Baseball Reference. FanGraphs is a little more down on his defense, but he still led all catchers with 5.4 fWAR. Even if Dillon Dingler is a way better defensive catcher than Moreno (FanGraphs thinks so, Baseball Reference doesn’t), there was a huge gap between the two of them offensively this year, and this was a clear choice.
A nod also to Madison product Drake Baldwin, who basically recreated his Rookie of the Year campaign from last season. For stretches, he was Atlanta’s best offensive player, and that team won 94 games.
First Base: Pete Alonso, Orioles
Alonso played in 161 games this year; he’s played in at least 152 games in every season he’s been in the big leagues except 2020, when he played in 57 of the Mets’ 60 games. In his first season in Baltimore, Alonso was as good as he has ever been. He hit 43 homers and knocked in 113 runs, both of which led the American League, his second time leading his league in each stat category. His 149 OPS+ was the best of his career, and by WAR he had either his best (5.0 fWAR is a career high) or second-best (4.9 bWAR, slightly behind his 53-homer rookie season) season. Alonso is not a perfect player, but he’s become a metronomic source of 40-ish homers, and don’t look now, but he’s got a real shot at hitting 500 in his career despite not debuting until he was 24.
The players with the best case behind Alonso are both also in the American League East: the Yankees’ Ben Rice and the Red Sox’ Willson Contreras. Contreras, a BCB favorite, had what was probably his best overall season: he set career highs with 27 homers, a 153 OPS+, and 4.6 bWAR/4.0 fWAR. Rice, in just his second full season, carried the Yankee offense in the absence of Aaron Judge and hit 41 homers with a 146 OPS+ in 154 games.
Brief shout-outs to three other guys who had really good seasons but were a tick below the others mentioned here: the human metronome, Matt Olson; Rafael Devers, who after a drama-filled 2025 season quietly put together a monstrous offensive season in San Francisco; and Milwaukee’s own Jake Bauers, one of the nicest stories of the year.
Second Base: Brice Turang, Brewers
This is an easy one, and not just because Turang is Our Guy. Via bWAR, Turang was the second-best position player in baseball with 7.3, and while FanGraphs doesn’t view him as favorably (5.9) he’s still way ahead of the second-place player who is actually a second baseman (Brandon Lowe, 4.9; Fernando Tatis Jr. did play 50 games at second base this year, but that would be stretching it).
Turang, as we all know well, is just a complete player. He posted a .268/.366/.450 batting line (124 OPS+, 128 wRC+), showed power (37 doubles, 21 homers), knocked in runs (100 RBI), stole bases (19 stolen bases at a 79% success rate), and played defense that seems likely to win him the second Gold Glove of his career. No other second baseman—really no infielder in the league this season—can boast that diverse a skillset.
It also just wasn’t a great year for second baseman in the non-Brewers division. Lowe was quite good—he hit 35 homers and knocked in 96 runs, and the numbers suggest he played the best defense of his career; his 5.4 bWAR were a career high. St. Louis’s rookie megaprospect JJ Wetherholt played great defense and held his own at the plate, but he fell off quite a bit down the stretch and finished the season as basically an exactly league-average hitter. Luis Arraez was really bad after switching from San Francisco to Philadelphia, which tanked any chance it looked like he had early in the season.
Third Base: Junior Caminero, Rays
Ah, finally, a tight race. Caminero was fourth among third basemen in fWAR if you include Detroit rookie Kevin McGonigle, who split his time almost exactly evenly between third and shortstop, but I’m going with him here because those four are very tightly packed and because it’s a bit of a “team success” choice. The Rays spent most of the season as the clear best team in the American League, and Caminero was their best player.
Caminero—who was only 22 for much of the season!—has become one of the best offensive players in baseball. He hit .276/.360/.524 (144 OPS+) and popped 42 homers while knocking in 101 runs and walking 79 times. Sure, he’s the undisputed champion of the double play (it was his second consecutive season leading baseball) and he’s probably somewhere between “mediocre” and “pretty good I guess” defensively. But the man who was once traded straight-up for Tobias Myers is a bonafide star who will hit his 100th career homer well before his 24th birthday.
There’s a very real argument for Alex Bregman here, and who knows, if I wasn’t a Brewers fan I might have gone in that direction. Bregman started badly but hit .304/.389/.658 over the season’s last two months, and by defensive WAR on Baseball Reference, he had the best season of his career. He finished with 5.8 bWAR, the best season he’s had since he was a legitimate MVP candidate in 2018-19.
On the South Side, Miguel Vargas had an outstanding season for the White Sox, serving as that team’s “veteran presence” even though he’s only 26. He hit 31 doubles and 33 homers, stole 22 bases in 24 tries, and just had an all-around great season. But defensively he was worse even than Caminero, and he’s a pretty clear third for me. I’ll discuss McGonigle a bit more in the shortstop section.
Shortstop: Bobby Witt Jr., Royals
This is another hard one!
Witt might be getting a little bit of a legacy vote, here. He’s been what I’d consider the league’s best shortstop for three years running, now, and while this season wasn’t quite as good as either of the last two, it was still in the same universe. Witt hits (.281 batting average), hits for power (18 homers, 33 doubles), runs (45 stolen bases in 53 attempts), and plays great defense (he’s got a good shot at winning his third straight Gold Glove). None of the other players who Witt is contending with here do everything quite as well as he does. Via WAR, Witt is second among shortstops via Baseball Reference (6.7) and first on FanGraphs (7.0).
There is stiff competition, though. First, let’s talk about McGonigle, who led American League position players in bWAR this season. A rookie, McGonigle led the AL in plate appearances and hit .278/.376/.430 (126 OPS+) with 18 homers, five triples, and 28 doubles, and he walked 95 times, which added a lot of value. He’s not nearly the baserunner that Witt is, though, and there’s some disagreement about his defense; the DRS based BRef numbers think he was outstanding, while the OAA based FanGraphs numbers think he was merely “okay.” This disagreement is enough for me to give the edge to Witt, who was almost as good a hitter but was pretty clearly better as a runner and fielder.
Elly De La Cruz is also in this conversation. The Reds’ shortstop had his best season by far at the plate, where he hit .283/.365/.515 with 30 homers, 30 doubles, 5 triples, and 30 stolen bases (he was a fan of round numbers, I guess). He was caught stealing a lot, though (eight times), and his defense did not grade out all that well. Still, FanGraphs had him with 6.4 WAR, second to Witt.
The last guy I want to mention here briefly is Otto Lopez. He was definitely behind these other guys, but it was a great season nonetheless—Lopez is a good defensive shortstop and he hit .305 and led the majors with 191 hits, and was a menace on the bases (34 steals in 39 tries).
There’s also no “team success” consideration here: all four of these guys played for disappointing teams who missed the playoffs. So in that respect, it’s an even playing field!
Left Field: Randy Arozarena, Mariners
By happenstance, it just so happens that the three best outfielders in the league this year slot nicely into a left-center-right alignment, so I can stick to my non-generic outfield preferences while also choosing the three guys I’d have picked anyway if I was doing the MLB style “OF” that appears on their ballot.
Let’s start with Arozarena. The Mariners were an immensely disappointing team this year, but that can’t be put on their left fielder. Arozarena has, at times during his eight-year career, looked like a superstar, but he’s never really been able to sustain it for a whole season. That changed this year. He hit .281/.381/.484, by far the best batting line of his career, and he hit 34 doubles and 26 homers while playing in the extremely pitcher-friendly T Mobile Park in Seattle. His 113 runs scored led the AL, and he added 26 stolen bases, giving him his sixth straight 20/20 season (surprising to me!).
The guy who should get this second-team selection is a familiar face: Jackson Chourio. Chourio was fourth among all outfielders in fWAR this season (he is a more modest eighth in bWAR), and he played only 127 games; if he’d played the 154 games that Arozarena had, this very well may have been his award. He’s got a real case purely as an outfielder to make that second team, but if you’re strict about left field, I think he’s a pretty obvious selection.
Center Field: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Cubs
This is an extremely obvious choice. Via Baseball Reference, Crow-Armstrong’s 9.8 WAR were 2.5 more than any other position player in the league, and via FanGraphs, that gap was 3.6 (10.6 to Witt’s 7.0). Sarah Langs tells us that he was the first player under Statcast (since 2016) to finish in the 99th percentile in all of batting, fielding, and baserunning run value; I wonder if that would still be the case if we had Statcast for another 100 years prior to 2016. He led the majors in homers, led the NL in OPS+, stole 41 bases, and was arguably the top defensive player in baseball. It was a truly historic season.
Even if PCA’s season was only “great” instead of “historic,” there was no one else close in center. The next best options include Ceddanne Rafaela, who was only a slightly above-average hitter but played excellent defense, Andy Pages who started out incredibly strong but faded a bit in the second half, and Michael Harris II, who is a good but imperfect player.
Right Field: Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres
There could be some debate here, because our two major sites have vastly different views of Tatis’s defense. FanGraphs views him as solid defensively at both right field and second base this season; Baseball Reference has a similar view of his defense in the outfield but saw him as atrocious at second base. Of course, we’re choosing a right fielder, so even if Tatis was bad at second base, maybe it shouldn’t be a huge demerit against him here, even if it weighs down his WAR numbers (4.3 bWAR vs. 5.4 fWAR).
If we can’t agree on defense, let’s look elsewhere, then: Tatis, who played in 159 games this season, finished with a 131 wRC+ despite not hitting a home run until May 30th, one of the season’s weirdest stories. They kept coming once he hit them and he finished with 25 homers, 83 RBI, and 38 stolen bases (though he led the NL in CS with 13). He was San Diego’s best player as the Padres turned their season around, and he hit .295/.372/.563 in the season’s final three months.
If Tatis is not the answer here, the other contenders probably include the Cubs’ Seiya Suzuki, who has become a consistently good hitter, or Boston’s Wilyer Abreu, another player who has vast differences in defensive value between BRef and FanGraphs.
Designated Hitter: Yordan Alvarez, Astros
Alvarez was the best hitter in baseball this season, and it was not close. Alvarez’s OPS+ this season was 190; second place was Crow-Armstrong at 156. The gap between Alvarez and PCA was the same as the gap between PCA and 35-year-old Nolan Arenado.
The numbers are eye-popping. he led all of baseball in every slash category (.316/.432/.601). Despite walking more than anyone else in the league (109 times), he still managed to lead the AL in total bases (341). He was intentionally walked 33 times; the only player to be intentionally walked that many times in the last 17 years was Aaron Judge last season. He didn’t quite finish with the triple crown—he was probably walked too many times, and finished second in the AL to Alonso in homers and RBI—but he was in that race the whole season.
The only other player to really mention here is Ohtani, who played 19 fewer games than Alvarez and had his worst offensive season since 2020, posting “only” a 143 OPS+ while hitting 30 homers. Combined with the excellent pitching he was able to do when he was healthy, Ohtani still had a notable season, but this was clearly Alvarez’s spot.
Starting Pitchers (5): Jacob Misiorowski, Brewers; Cam Schlittler, Yankees; Dylan Cease, Blue Jays; Chris Sale, Braves; Cristopher Sánchez, Phillies
This wasn’t all that hard for me to choose five, though there are several other guys right on the outside, who I’ll list in a moment. Misiorowski I have covered; he would be my All-MLB pitcher if, like I traditionally do in my personal lists, I only chose one pitcher.
Schlittler was incredible for the Yankees, and deserves some real consideration for American League MVP. He led the AL in ERA and you’ve likely heard that he set a Yankee record in starts in which he allowed zero or one runs (21), and that doesn’t include three starts in which he allowed more than one run but only one of them was earned.
People haven’t been talking about Cease much because the Blue Jays were incredibly disappointing in their pennant defense this season. But Cease, a former Cy Young runner-up, had his best overall season, in my opinion: in 169 innings, he had a 2.40 ERA (184 ERA+) and AL best 2.56 FIP, and he led the AL in hits per nine, homers per nine, and strikeouts per nine.
Sale is going to the Hall of Fame—he had a borderline case even before he joined the Braves three years ago, but his three seasons in Atlanta, which have come from age 35-37, have been masterpieces that locked him in as a bonafide inner circle Hall of Famer. He was every bit as good this season as he was when he won the pitching triple crown and the Cy Young in 2024, he just had the misfortune of being in the same league as Misiorowski.
The last spot becomes a little complicated. Sánchez is ultimately my choice; he was the leader by a lot in WAR by a pitcher on Baseball Reference this year, with 8.1, but there’s some controversy in those numbers—they’re heavily buoyed basically because the Phillies defense is bad. He does also have an innings advantage on the other players I’ve mentioned here; Sánchez’s 207 innings are second this season only to Miami’s Sandy Alcantara, a pitcher who wishes so badly that he could’ve pitched in the 1970s when the Atlanta Braves would’ve let him throw 375 innings. Sánchez’s rate stats aren’t quite as good as the rest of these guys, but they’re still great—2.91 ERA, 2.80 FIP, 5.13 strikeouts per walk—and he played a major role for a Phillies team that needed someone to step up.
The other players who could be considered for this last spot and should be on (or in consideration for) the second team include Sánchez’s teammates Jesús Luzardo and Zack Wheeler; the Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto; Cleveland’s Parker Messick; Tampa Bay’s Drew Rasmussen; Boston’s Sonny Gray; and Arizona’s Eduardo Rodríguez.
Relief Pitchers (2): Mason Miller, Padres; Louis Varland, Blue Jays
Miller was the most unhittable reliever in baseball this year; he had a 1.67 ERA and 1.17 FIP, struck out a mind-boggling 16.6 batters per nine innings (129 in 70 innings), and allowed only 4.8 hits per nine innings, and he tied for the NL lead in saves with 38.
Varland, playing for a worse team, had “only” 35 saves. But he pitched a ton for the Blue Jays (78 innings in 71 outings) and pitched to a 1.27 ERA, the best for any player who threw more than 45 innings this season, and backed it up with a 1.83 ERA. Varland had 97 strikeouts to 23 walks and was just a solid presence all season for a team that needed him.
There are a couple of tough cuts. Bryan Baker’s advanced metrics aren’t as good—he had a 3.07 FIP—but he tied for the major-league lead with 41 saves and had a 1.44 ERA, better even than Miller. Jhoan Duran had a 1.82 ERA and 1.42 FIP, struck out 84 batters, and walked only 10 (a minuscule 1.5 per nine innings). Garrett Whitlock and Abner Uribe were both great in setup roles, Cade Smith tied Baker’s league-leading saves mark, and the ageless Aroldis Chapman worked to another outstanding season as Boston’s closer.
The full list:
C: Gabriel Moreno, ARI 1B: Pete Alonso, BAL 2B: Brice Turang, MIL 3B: Junior Caminero, TBR SS: Bobby Witt Jr., KCR LF: Randy Arozarena, SEA CF: Pete Crow-Armstrong, CHC RF: Fernando Tatis Jr., SDP DH: Yordan Alvarez, HOU SP: Jacob Misiorowski, MIL SP: Cam Schlittler, NYY SP: Dylan Cease, TOR SP: Chris Sale, ATL SP: Cristopher Sánchez, PHI RP: Mason Miller, SDP RP: Louis Varland, TOR
With NBA Media Days taking place this week, let’s take a look at some of the notable stories involving former Kentucky Wildcats.
Milwaukee Bucks
We’ve seen in the past that professional organizations tease some of their players by sneaking in a hat or shirt from another team for them to sign, and the reactions are always priceless.
This edition of that is the Bucks sneaking in the players’ college rivals’ sayings or slogans, and Kentucky was featured in two of them.
Tyler Herro was prompted to say “Go Cards!” and he responded, “No, sir. I don’t say that.”
Boy Wonder wasn’t going to be fooled by saying that, and was holding strong to his old Kentucky home and the school he had tattooed on his body. This is coming on the heels of Herro making some noise this offseason after he recreated the iconic TJ Ford pictures. Good offseason so far for the bucket.
Nate Ament, a former Tennessee Volunteer, was given the saying, “Go Big Blue!” and he said it, and it sounded incredible. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Nate!
Otega Oweh is prepared to start his professional basketball career with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and at his first-ever NBA Media Day with the Thunder, he was asked a question that people could see coming from a mile away.
“We know you spent time at OU and then Kentucky. They’re playing each other in a couple of weeks. Are we going to see you at the game in, like, the split-down-the-middle jersey, or are you going to pick a side?
Oweh’s response may shock some people, he said: “It’s crazy; I was just talking about that, like, I want to say yesterday. I probably don’t have enough time now to get a split jersey, but I’ll be supporting for sure. I’m not going to say who, but I just want to see a good game.
Well, Big Blue Nation would prefer an answer somewhere in the Ballpark of “What’s a Sooner, I’m a Wildcat”, or “No question, I’m Big Blue all the way”. It’s a 26-minute drive from Paycom Center, where the Thunder play, to Gaylor Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, where the Sooners play football, so I would say it’s easier said than done.
Hopefully, Oweh is there in a T-shirt with one of his buzzer beaters against the Sooners on it, but that may be wishful thinking. Very thankful for his time in Lexington; now we need to see him rep the blue and white.
With Kentucky and Oklahoma facing off in a couple of weeks, I asked former Wildcat/Sooner Otega Oweh whether he might attend the game in a split jersey of the two schools.
“Crazy, I was talking that about that today. Probably don't have enough time to get a split jersey, but… pic.twitter.com/te6NmiISR9
The offseason NBA news has been all about the move of LeBron James leaving the Lakers to join the 76ers, and rightfully so. With that, Kentucky fans get to celebrate, or not, the fact that James now has a couple of Wildcats as his teammates and could potentially cut down the nets with them. Tyrese Maxey and Justin Edwards are now partnered up with the King and have high hopes for the city of brotherly love.
My favorite takeaway from 76ers Media Day, though, is the pair of shoes Justin Edwards decided to wear for the special day. He chose to don the Kobe 5 Grey Kentucky PE’s in his pictures. As a lifelong, die-hard Kentucky fan and a big-time sneakerhead, this made me smile. Such a beautiful shoe on a player that all of BBN and I are rooting for this year; love to see it.
Justin Edwards rockin’ the Kentucky Kobe 5s during Media Day with the Philadelphia 76ers! 🔥😸 pic.twitter.com/x6ybrImOcq
Lotta chaos around our net, just sayin’. | Getty Images
The Islanders and Maple Leafs treated us to a savagely uninteresting Isles 2-1 loss in Toronto to open the season, and one can only hope it’s not a harbinger, like one hopes the AI swarms don’t escape the lab and kill us all.
Victor Eklund played his second NHL game, so that was neat, and he got his first NHL penalty by crosschecking John Tavares on his butt, so that was funny, but the Leafs scored what proved to be the winner late on the ensuing power play, so that was not.
The Isles had a bit of jump early in the opening period, with Toronto playing on back-to-back nights, but penalty trouble and chaotic defensive zone chasing killed that vibe. After a series of dangerous chances on Ilya Sorokin both at 5-on-5 and the Leafs power play, the Isles were trailing 2-0 by the 12:00 mark. They didn’t rally a promising response until well into the third. Their special teams, a long-running thorn, were no help.
Other than Matthew Schaefer skating like the wind, the lone highlight was Emil Heineman outracing William Nylander on a shorthanded break to convert Bo Horvat’s pass and make it look close. There was also one line mix late, with Anthony Duclair being promoted while Matias Maccelli ended on the Casey Cizikas-Ondrej Palat line, aka This Thing That Should Not Be line.
They’ll learn, they’ll “tighten things up,” they’ll get better at what Pete DeBoer wants them to do, they had a short training camp, and it’s just one, opening game. Yada yada, etc. For three hours of your life on what is supposed to be an exciting night, however, it was not fun, not at all. The home opener Saturday provides an opportunity for redemption and renewal.
Brendan Burke reaches a decade as voice of the Islanders. (Although he was on national duty last night.) [Newsday]
Elsewhere
Wednesday’s scores included
Our Saturday opponent has a grizzled mentor and a delayed up-and-comer in the crease. [NHL]
I confess I will root for Amadeus and his whole amusingly named family. [NHL]
After giving up six goals in their opener, Mike Babcock says the Oilers have “serious work to do.” At least when all else fails, they can fall back on Tristan Jarry. [NHL]
Five young players poised for breakouts. [Sportsnet]
William Karlsson signed a two-year extension to keep him in Vegas until they ship him out for the latest sexy trade target. [NHL]
Matt Duchene, starting on the injured list, has gotta be the oldest 34-year-old out there. [Sportsnet]
Tee-hee-hee J.T. Miller thinks he will lead a revival in Manhattan. [NHL]
Reliving a Flames-Ducks melee from 2001 that involved former Islanders Craig Berube (suspended) and Greg Gilbert (as coach, also suspended). The video montage is a beauty. [Sportsnet]
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates his goal with Filip Hallander #11, Kaedan Korczak #6 and Samuel Girard #49 during the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena on September 30, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
It’s hard to draw up a much better start to the season than what the Pittsburgh Penguins had on Wednesday night with a 7-0 beatdown of the rival Philadelphia Flyers on the road. Nick Robertson scored twice for the Penguins and Filip Hallander recorded three points in the blowout victory. In goal, Artur Silvos recorded his second opening night shutout in as many seasons to backstop the win. [Pensburgh]
Pens Points…
Top goal scorer? Breakout player? Playoffs? Those are all predictions to be made for the Penguins as the 2026-27 begins. Egor Chinakhov is a popular pick to lead the Penguins in goal scoring while seeing the Penguins back in the playoffs feels like a 50-50 toss up. [Pensburgh]
For the past few seasons, the Penguins fan base has been waiting for an inevitable youth movement to arrive. While the prospect pool is being refilled by Kyle Dubas, many of those young players have yet to breakthrough. This needs to be the season where it starts to happen. [PPG]
After being acquired in the offseason, David Gustafsson made the Penguins opening night roster. That was no guarantee when he came to Pittsburgh, so he’s going to relish any time he gets to spend in the NHL this season, no matter how long or short the stint may be. [Trib Live]
Set to play in his 22nd NHL season, Sidney Crosby will make history as the longest tenured Pittsburgh athlete of all time, surpassing Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates whom he previously shared the title with at 21 seasons in black and gold. [The Athletic $$]
Another all time mark Crosby is set to break this season is being the longest tenured captain in NHL history. This season will mark No. 20 for Crosby with the “C” on his chest, surpassing Steve Yzerman. [Daily Faceoff]
NHL News and Notes…
Casey DeSmith has been a reliable backup for the Dallas Stars in recent seasons and will continue in that role for at least the next two after he agreed to a contract extension with the team on Wednesday. [NHL]
After missing the entirety of the Washington Capitals preseason slate with a lower body injury, Alexander Ovechkin expects to be ready for action when the team opens its season on Friday night. [NHL]
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 30: Cody Bellinger #35 of the New York Yankees celebrates in the clubhouse after defeating the Boston Red Sox in game two of the American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium on September 30, 2026 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images) | Getty Images
You can’t take anything for granted in the playoffs, especially a short series like the Wild Card. In the short time that it has existed, the Wild Card Series has humbled several teams that stood a head above the rest of the first-round field by record, and it’s had a habit of favoring teams that strike first — all but one series has seen the team that wins first advance, with only their own performance in last year’s Wild Card Series against Boston standing out (though the Phillies still have a chance to change that this year). Playing in it is meant to be a punishment, a risk, and it has acted accordingly, but the Yankees faced little challenge this time around in embarrassing their archrivals to open the postseason.
The Red Sox kept it close early again on Wednesday, and there was definitely some tension for the first hour or so of each of these two games, but much like Game 1 as soon as Chad Tracy went to his bullpen it became a party for the Yankees’ offense. A plethora of batters contributed this time around, from Luis Garcia Jr. getting it started with a solo home run to George Lombard Jr. coming up with an RBI knock as the lone right-hander starting in last night’s lineup to Austin Wells and Ryan McMahon providing productive outs before Cody Bellinger delivered the death blow with a three-run porch job: the entire offense had a part in the dismantling of the Sox bullpen.
Sonny Gray commented after the game that he wasn’t pleased with his manager pulling him in the middle of the fifth inning set to face the top of the order for the third time with the score still 1-0, and perhaps he and Payton Tolle could both make that argument after they were forced to watch the game unravel right after they left, but at the end of the day the Red Sox offense was completely flummoxed by the Yankees’ pitching and the dam that was Boston’s bullpen seemed destined to burst eventually. Cam Schlittler reasserted his dominance over the Sox on Tuesday, but Max Fried took the baton and continued shoving with six innings of one-run ball to make it miserable on Boston. The Yankees were the better team, evidenced by the record entering play before this series as well as the results during it. Now the team with the second-best record in the American League will get to move on, and they couldn’t have drawn it up any better.
Critically, New York won this series so handedly that they can effectively line themselves up again for a fresh start against the Rays instead of needing to scramble towards their next destination like they had to last year. Needing all three games against Boston in 2025 pushed them into the scenario where they had to start Luis Gil in Game 1 of the ALDS, the first of several unsuccessful moves that didn’t pan out as their pitching simply couldn’t handle Toronto’s bats. This time around, they’ve got Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodon both waiting in the wings and can make a decision on which of them they want to start opposite Drew Rasmussen before slotting their presumptive Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler in for Game 2. Since Cole was named the ALWCS Game 3 starter ahead of time, I’m going to assume they’ll stick with him for Game 1, and if you told Aaron Boone before the season started that you could guarantee him he’d get to start Cole, Schlittler, and Fried in a row to open the ALDS he’d probably take that deal, even if it didn’t come with home field advantage. The blowouts also allowed the team to avoid taxing their bullpen, Boone tossing Brent Headrick and David Bednar to close out Game 2 simply to get them some work with minimal stress involved.
Nothing is guaranteed in the playoffs, but the opportunity for the Yankees right now is massive. Their offense picked the perfect time to break out and did so without Aaron Judge, who may or may not be active for the ALDS (for the sake of his health, he probably shouldn’t play yet but it’s only going to get harder to tell him no). Their pitching looked as lights out as they have all year, and the biggest road block on the American League side of the bracket is now directly in front of them in another short series. Win this one, and all that stands in your way of returning to the World Series is the winner of an AL Central matchup between two of the weakest teams in the whole dance. You can’t get caught looking ahead, but the path is right there. The Yankees didn’t break a sweat denying the Sox from playing in October, and it may have just been the jump start they were looking for all year. We’ll see how well they can carry this momentum into the Trop on Saturday.
We’re basking in the high of the Wild Card sweep to open the day, as Michael gives us his Player of the Game from the Game 2 victory. Jeremy then previews the ALDS matchup against the top-seeded Rays, Andres discusses how the young core has made their mark on this postseason run already, and Peter recaps the action around the rest of the Postseason as two other Wild Card Series wrapped up alongside the Yankees. Nick reminisces on the man who patrolled center before Burnie arrived in the Bronx in Roberto Kelly on his 62nd birthday, and then Peter will return to break down Cam Schlittler’s latest postseason gem in the Sequence of the Week.
SAN ANTONIO, TX - JUNE 3: Miles McBride #2 of the New York Knicks dribbles the ball during the game against the San Antonio Spurs during Game One of the 2026 NBA Finals on June 3, 2026 at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Seasoned Knicks fans have doctorate degrees in roster construction, with a primary focus on asset management. For over a decade, we spent countless hours discussing expiring contracts, tracking picks, and praying the day would come when all the “futures thinking” translated into a legitimate championship window.
Well, we made it. Like the driver-side door on my red Nissan Rogue, the window is now open. But now that repeating as champions is the goal, New York’s roster-building approach is shifting again. That shift directly brings our focus to Miles “Deuce” McBride and his future with the Knicks.
Entering the final year of his contract, it is no secret that talks between Deuce and the Knicks have stalled. All signs point to him wanting to stay in New York. The fan base would love him to remain as a key piece of the rotation. However, ownership and the front office are fretting about wearing two aprons while making their prize-winning pizza, especially with Jim Dolan looking over their shoulders.
Because of that fearful culinary attire (too many second-apron jokes?), a growing segment of the fanbase is convinced the Knicks must flip him before the trade deadline. Whether it’s to recoup a draft pick or fill a worrisome hole at center, Deuce cannot simply walk away for nothing. OK, sure he can. And maybe he does. Regardless, trading him away because of that worry would be a majorly short-sighted mistake.
New York finds itself in a bit of a financial gridlock. After sacrificing about $113M to help the team, Brunson will be extension eligible next summer (ka-ching). Anunoby and Bridges are secure for now (on ascending contracts), Hart would like to extend now, and throw in a monster contract for Towns, and there’s not much wiggle room.
In the old NBA, James Dolan could scribble out a luxury-tax check to keep a fan favorite around. Then the 2023 CBA introduced a first apron (roughly $8–9M above the tax line) and a second apron (roughly $17–21M+ above the tax line, depending on the year; e.g., ~$221.7M for 2026-27). Crossing that damned second apron doesn’t just trigger a tax penalty; it hijacks a team’s roster-building. If you cross the line, you lose trade flexibility, the ability to aggregate salaries, and future first-round picks get frozen like Jack Dawson at the end of Titanic.
Unfortunately, Deuce is a potential casualty of math. He’ll undoubtedly earn a significant pay raise in his next contract. However, the Knicks can’t give him one without dismantling a starting five that just brought New York a championship… and appeared on Saturday Night Live. He isn’t a financial priority because the money could be spent more intelligently elsewhere. That’s just the reality of the business.
Irreplaceable Production
So, if the Knicks probably cannot pay the guy, why not trade him now? Well, that answer has two parts. First, what he does on the court can’t be easily replaced. Second, he gets paid very little (relatively speaking) to do it.
Deuce is making a “meager” $3.96 million this season. That kind of contract is a cheat code for a contending team. In the trade market, however, it is a major limitation. An outgoing $4 million salary doesn’t bring back a game-changing asset.
Consider how Deuce’s skill set impacts New York’s production on both ends of the court. Averaging 12 points per game last year and shooting roughly 40% from three, he spaces the floor well with Brunson and punishes defenses that try to double the captain. Defensively, he is relentless at the point of attack. He picks up opposing guards full court, navigates ball screens, and takes on the most tiresome defensive assignment to give the primary producers a break. You cannot find that level of two-way reliability for under $4 million.
The Center Trap
Yeah, Yeah, I hear you…
But John… We desperately need a center!
I mean, you’re not entirely wrong. Big Mitch is gone and glancing at the center depth chart is enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure. Looking at Deuce as the best trade chip is tempting and convincing yourself we can flip him for a big man is quite easy to do.
But trading an elite rotational guard for a stopgap center that potentially might not play a whole lot is terrible roster management. Do the math for a minute. If we trade Deuce’s contract, we have to bring back a $4 million center. That gets the Knicks a deepl flawed, third-string big man destined to get hunted in the pick-and-roll and become nonexistent come playoff time. Anyone willing to trade a guy who plays closing minutes in crucial games for a big who will consistently rock the warmup gear should not be employed by an NBA front office.
New York can survive the early schedule by signing a low-cost option and patch the center rotation by committee, and even have OG play a little five (as Mike Brown even mentioned.) It gives them time to evaluate the landscape and see what shakes out throughout the league. Panicking in October and trading our best bench piece does nothing but hurts the organization’s title odds.
There is also precedent to consider. The Knicks brass were probably well-aware that they would not be able to afford to re-sign Mitchell Robinson this summer—and his departure is the reason why we’re in this pickle at center. Leon Rose must have heard some interest in Mitch before the in-season trade deadline, but he held on to the asset. Unless there’s a too–good-to-pass-up offer, we suspect he’ll do the same with Deuce.
So Long Forward Thinking
Forward-thinking got the Knicks where they are today. Focussing on the present is how they hang another championship banner up in Madison Square Garden for the second straight year.
Letting a talented, 26-year-old guard hit unrestricted free agency without getting anything in return goes against everything we have been conditioned to believe. It might sting a little but the ultimate goal of asset management isn’t to pretty up the perfect spreadsheet. It is to win a championship. Miles McBride helps this roster win games this season.
If we have to accept the 2026-27 campaign is essentially a one-year, rental of Deuce, so be it. Keep him on the roster! Let him lock down the opposition and hit clutch threes for us as we look for two in a row. If another franchise throws $20 million at him next summer, we simply song that catchy Fall Out Boy song and tell the man, “Thanks for the memories.”
The window for winning is right now. You don’t close it early just to save a few bucks and appease the armchair analysts.
Apr 28, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Celtics guard Jordan Walsh (27) reacts after his basket against the Philadelphia 76ers in the second half during game five of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Jordan Walsh is entering an in-between stage of his Celtics career.
He’s 22 years old, which still makes him young enough to be discussed alongside Boston’s latest batch of developmental players. He’s also entering Year 4, wasn’t part of Boston’s Summer League group this July, has already been around a championship team and can casually cite things he learned from Jrue Holiday as part of his basketball education.
He’s not exactly the new kid anymore, but he’s also not Derrick White or Neemias Queta, whose places in the rotation are considerably easier to picture before the games even start.
That leaves Walsh somewhere in between. Listening to him at Media Day, he seems pretty aware of it.
“I’m trying to switch my mentality to having what I call a high role player IQ,” Walsh said, “of just affecting the game in ways without the ball basically.”
That phrase gets at what Year 4 probably needs to be for Walsh.
For most young players, development is easy to imagine in terms of adding things. Improve the jumper. Tighten the handle. Bulk up. Learn another counter.
Walsh certainly still has plenty to improve, but there’s a different challenge waiting for him now. The Celtics aren’t going to hand him the ball for 15 possessions and ask him to show them everything he worked on over the summer. If he earns real minutes, most of them will come while Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard or Paul George are doing considerably more attention-grabbing things with the basketball.
Walsh has to figure out how to matter anyway.
“I think the biggest thing that I’ve been working on is affecting the game without the ball, primarily on offense,” he said. “Trying to sprint the floor, trying to get in transition, trying to run and be an outlet guy, get on cuts.”
There’s nothing particularly glamorous in that list. There also might be a career hiding inside it.
The little things eventually become the job
During Media Day, Walsh brought up Holiday when he was asked where the idea of “role player IQ” came from.
“I felt like Jrue Holiday was a big piece of that, big representative of that,” Walsh said. “I’ve tried to take as much as I can from him, obviously on the defensive side.”
That makes immediate sense. Holiday is one of the best defenders of his generation, and Walsh entered the league with defense as the easiest way to imagine him sticking around.
But Walsh’s answer quickly moved beyond defense.
He talked about watching film and recognizing that the Celtics were better when players understood where the offense actually needed to go. In the previous version of this team, that often meant doing something that made life easier for Tatum or Jaylen Brown.
“Guys like Jayson Tatum and JB have to have the ball in their hands,” Walsh said. “So whether it’s going to find them on a pin-down screen or, like, passing up my shot to get them a shot, stuff like that is kind of just stuff I keep seeing.”
I asked Jordan Walsh how his work towards a new offensive identity is going. He said it’s going really well.
I also asked him about learning from Paul George.
“As soon as I saw him come here and get traded here, I really just wanted to reach out. Just trying to get a workout… pic.twitter.com/00Z1DX6gTt
That’s the part of NBA role-playing that can be hard to appreciate from the outside. Plenty of players can tell you what their role is. “Defend, run the floor, hit open shots” has probably appeared in approximately 40,000 Media Day interviews in the past few years.
Actually becoming useful inside that role? That’s much more complicated.
Can you recognize when cutting clears the lane for someone else? Can you make a defense pay for ignoring you without hijacking a possession? Can you screen somebody open and immediately find the next useful place to be? If Tatum gets doubled, are you standing where the next pass needs to go before it gets there?
Walsh has spent three years close enough to winning basketball to see what those decisions look like. Now he needs to make enough of them himself in order for Joe Mazzulla to trust him.
The physical stuff has never been especially mysterious with Walsh. He’s long, athletic and switchable, and when his energy is pointed in the right direction, he can make possessions uncomfortable in ways that are difficult to teach.
His offensive fit has always required a little more imagination.
Walsh sounded pretty confident about one important part of that equation Monday.
“I feel like I’ve come a long way with my three-point shot,” he said. “I feel like if I’m open and I catch the ball, it’s going in. And I feel like my team feels that way and I feel like the coaches and staff feel that way too.”
If defenses eventually feel that way too, Walsh becomes a lot more useful.
And if defenses have to respect him on the perimeter, a hard closeout suddenly gives him somewhere to send all that athleticism. He talked about attacking downhill, kicking the ball out, cutting after the pass, screening and slipping. Basically, making himself part of the possession instead of waiting for the possession to find him.
That may fit this version of the Celtics better than the previous one.
Walsh described Boston’s old offense pretty plainly: “swing the ball, stand still, watch JT ISO, watch JB ISO, set a ball screen, ISO.”
It wasn’t really a criticism. When you have Tatum and Brown on your team, watching Tatum and Brown do things is often a pretty good offensive strategy.
But Walsh believes Mazzulla wants this team playing with more movement and more interchangeable bursts of energy.
“What Joe wants is it to be more of a five in, five out type of rotation where it’s like we’re all going super hard, four or five minutes, boom, switch out, come in, new five, and then fight, fight, fight for four or five minutes.”
For a player trying to build a career out of activity, that sounds like a pretty decent invitation.
The prospect phase is over
Walsh has also lived through enough change in Boston to recognize how different the room feels now. He talked about Al Horford and Luke Kornet being gone and how much the environment around him has changed.
Then he landed on the word that probably matters most to him.
“Opportunity.”
“I feel like a lot of the guys here who haven’t made a name for themselves, like me, have an opportunity here to take a chance at carving out a role, carving out, you know, a career,” Walsh said. “You can feel that in the air.”
Walsh has been in Boston long enough that “potential” can’t carry the whole conversation anymore. He knows what championship teammates look like up close. He’s had enough NBA minutes to understand how much harder it is to stay on the floor than it is to flash something interesting for three possessions.
And yet, at 22, there’s still plenty of runway left if he can put the pieces together.
Maybe that’s what Walsh means by “high role player IQ.” He isn’t trying to reinvent his game so much as make the game he already has easier to fit alongside his teammates.
The Celtics already know he can defend. They know he can run. Walsh believes the jumper is better than it has ever been. Now comes the harder part: knowing what to do during all the basketball happening in between.
Walsh already knows the role. Year 4 is about proving he knows how to be the player who fills it.
On the 592nd Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams speak with colleague Kurt Badenhausen about his latest list of NHL franchise valuations, the league’s looming expansion, and why the biggest-market teams tend to struggle to win Stanley Cup titles.
The Toronto Maple Leafs ($4.8 billion) are the most valuable franchise in the NHL, followed by the New York Rangers ($4.15 billion), Montreal Canadiens ($3.8 billion), Los Angeles Kings ($3.33 billion) and Boston Bruins ($3.31 billion). The Columbus Blue Jackets ($1.5 billion) rank 32nd.
The hosts break down the numbers, including a surge for Sun Belt franchises like the Carolina Hurricanes and the Florida Panthers, both of which have won recent championships. Those teams have better weather, and some are in states without income taxes, which many think helps them attract talent to their rosters.
Now the league is looking to expand in the American South, something that would have sounded insane a decade ago, when all the expansion conversations seemed focused around putting second teams in Quebec or Ontario or other cold-weather places. The get-in price for this round of NHL expansion, which will likely start in Texas, is probably around $2.5 billion.
They close by diving into the economics of expansion vs. relocation. At $2.5 billion, interested parties could likely buy a number of different existing NHL teams, which have infrastructure already in place. The hosts talk about why that is, how relocation fees help rebalance the calculus, and also why this conversation is different in some other leagues that are expanding, like the NBA, NWSL and WNBA.
(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)
Michael Jordan came out of retirement for two more seasons with the Washington Wizards from 2001-2003 [Getty Images]
A Michael Jordan jersey from his 'Last Dance' season has sold for $12.3m (£9.3m), a record for a piece of game-worn Jordan memorabilia.
He wore the jersey in game three of the 1998 NBA Finals, his last season with the Chicago Bulls.
Jordan helped the Bulls win the series 4-2 for his sixth and final NBA Championship. He was named the Finals' Most Valuable Player in all six.
The previous record for a piece of Jordan memorabilia was $10.1m (£7.6m) for his jersey from game one of the 1998 Finals.
The game three jersey was put up for sale by entrepreneur Ryan Gough and sold at Joopiter, Pharrell Williams' digital auction house, which gave it an estimated price of $10-15m (£7.5-£11.3m).
Jordan's 1997 Ferrari 550 Maranello was sold for $2.7m (£2m), four times the auction record for that model.
"Few objects in the history of sport embody greatness as completely as Michael Jordan's game three jersey from the 1998 NBA Finals," Joopiter said in the auction posting.
"Worn during the Last Dance... it marks the culmination of an era that transformed basketball into a global cultural phenomenon.
"Today it stands among the most important game-worn sports artifacts ever to come to market."
The record price for a piece of game-worn sports memorabilia is the jersey worn by baseball legend Babe Ruth when he "called the shot" during the 1932 World Series, which was sold for $24.1m (£18.2m) in 2024.
BOSTON, MA - MAY 2: Neemias Queta #88 of the Boston Celtics dunks the ball during the game against the Philadelphia 76ers during Round One Game Seven of the 2026 NBA Playoffs on May 2, 2026 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
After putting together the best season of his NBA career, big man Neemias Queta enters next year with a familiar mindset: there’s still room to grow.
The Celtics big man took a significant step forward last season, establishing himself as a reliable part of Boston’s rotation, but he isn’t treating that progress as a finish line. Instead, Queta is focused on continuing to round out his game and finding new ways to contribute.
During Media Day, Queta was asked about the areas of his game he has emphasized improving heading into the season. He pointed to his mobility as a particular focus, an area in which he believes he has already made significant progress.
“I’m working on my mobility. Obviously, I feel like I’ve taken great strides in that aspect, and I want to be able to keep on improving in that. Being able to be more versatile,” Queta said.
In a separate Media Day interview, Queta expanded on those comments.
“My versatility has gotten better, my ability to shoot the ball [has], too. Being able to be more of a mismatch killer too is going to be something that I’m trying to rely on this season,” Queta explained.
What particularly intrigues me about Queta’s developing versatility and mobility is the potential stress he can place on defenses with the ball in his hands, particularly as a handoff keeper and downhill driver. We saw flashes of this last year.
But when Queta says his mobility has improved over the offseason, I believe him. That progress was evident during his time representing his home country of Portugal in FIBA competition.
When discussing how playing in this setting can shape his development, Queta emphasized the opportunity to expand his role and experiment with different aspects of his game.
“When I go down there, I’m scoring the ball a little more… I see it as an opportunity to get better.”
Queta also highlighted the value of stepping outside his familiar structure of the NBA.
“You might be able to test different coverages and different methods that you’re not as used to doing over here [in the NBA] and check your comfort zone, too.”
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla has also noticed Queta’s development in this area, saying at practice that, “The area that he’s gotten more confident in is just making plays, whether he’s in the seam, catching in the paint versus a small, just when he has the ball in his hands, something happening and not getting rid of it because we want something else to go to.”
Queta, having a bigger impact as a handoff keeper/driver this year, aligns with the Celtics early intention on developing different ways to attack on offense.
During Media Day, President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens described the direction coming out of the coaches’ meetings, saying, “It seems like there’s a lot of leaning into different ways to attack and different ways of playing.”
Additionally, Stevens noted, “At times in the past…in the biggest moments we’ve had a tendency to be stagnant. I think this group can be more versatile in those ways.”
To me, this is ultimately about having as many viable counters as possible available at any moment. I don’t want Queta to start isoing and crossing over opposing fives every chance he gets, but I do think he is more than capable skill and athleticism wise, to make his own offense especially when these opportunities will be coming with premade advantages.
Playing alongside Jayson Tatum, Payton Pritchard, Paul George, and Derrick White naturally creates opportunities for Queta, as defenses are forced to devote significant attention to those perimeter threats. If Queta can consistently capitalize on the openings that attention creates, it gives the Celtics another layer to their offensive attack.
'We're Blessed With A Lot Of Good Depth': Maple Leafs' GM John Chayka Sets Roster For 2026-27 NHL SeasonThe Toronto Maple Leafs go into the 2026-27 NHL season with a tremendous amount of depth, with extra skaters or contributors down in the AHL. John Chayka speaks about what he likes about his roster.
'He Was A Puck Hound': Maple Leafs' Jim Hiller With High Praise On Easton Cowan, Reveals Standouts For First Day Of CampToronto Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller was pleased with how his group performed on the first day of training camp. He revealed who his standouts were, including some high praise for Easton Cowan.
'It's Not Hard': Maple Leafs' Morgan Rielly Doesn't See Issue With Offensive Tendencies With D-Partner Darren RaddyshThere is room for improvement from the Toronto Maple Leafs' pairing of Morgan Rielly and Darren Raddysh. But there is no panic regarding the offensive tendencies of the two blueliners.
