Category: Sports News

For an affiliate whose primary role is to serve as the last checkpoint for MLB readiness while having some fun along the way, the Charlotte Knights delivered much more on the latter than the former. Finishing tied for second place in the International League East with an 81-68 record and +126 run differential, Chicago’s Triple-A club exhibited remarkable growth from 2025’s frustrating 65-85 finish and -100 run differential.

Charlotte’s success this year is even more impressive considering the strength of its division. The Rochester Red Wings dominated the field with 90 wins, helped by a lights-out 45-29 road record. If the Washington Nationals swapped rosters with their Triple-A affiliate, they might have an easier time reaching 81 wins. Syracuse and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre also caused trouble in the East, each winning more than 77 games, while the top three teams in the West finished with more than 80 wins. Falling short of the playoffs in such a competitive division makes the Knights’ season that much more impressive.

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Charlotte consistently had a rotating set of key offensive contributors, but one guy played the most consistently.

Ryan Galanie, 1B

After tying up loose ends in Birmingham, Galanie became a pivotal member of Charlotte’s lineup. He slashed .283/.343/.516 and hit a career-high 19 homers for Charlotte, including five in June, when he batted .355 with a 1.083 OPS. Galanie’s ability to get on base and move runners around the diamond, and not just crack home runs, stands out as a first baseman. Although he’s not a top-30 prospect in the farm system, Galanie’s a guy to monitor this fall.

May was Galanie’s lone stumble at the plate, though even then he hit .213/.295/.479 and drew nine walks. That batting average might look familiar to a couple of current starting infielders. Yes, Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery, I’m looking at you two.

Though they were less steady, a few other bats regularly earned South Side Sox’s game MVP or runner-up honors.

Rikku Nishida, 2B/OF, No. 29 Prospect (MLB Pipeline)

The Knights made good use of Nishida’s patience at the plate. He batted leadoff 105 times and posted a .289 average and .422 on-base percentage. Even during a slower second half, his plate discipline made him a threat regardless of the score or the number of outs.

Nishida may be a 4A player, but he stepped into Jacob Gonzalez’s role in Charlotte and helped spark several needed rallies.

Andy Weber, INF

Called up from Birmingham in late spring, Weber made an immediate impression in June, collecting 29 hits and driving in 20 runs. He finished his time in Charlotte with a .251/.312/.423 slash line, 15 homers and 35 walks. His production tapered off late in the season, but his hot bat at the bottom of the order helped keep the offense moving.

Weber’s defense at shortstop needs work, and his strikeout total climbed, but his versatility on the left side of the infield could make him one of Charlotte’s first call-up options if injuries hit the White Sox in 2027. Whatever next season brings, he should have another chance to show off his bat-to-ball skills with the Knights in April.

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While the offense often received the most recognition this year, Charlotte’s pitching also deserves applause. The pitching deck got shuffled several times throughout the season, largely because the parent club mismanaged its bullpen, but two guys thrived by staying with the Knights nearly the entire season.

Jairo Iriarte, RHRP

It took Iriarte two years to settle into the Sox after leaving the Padres in the Dylan Cease exchange, but better late than never. He spent 17 games proving that he was ready to face higher-caliber hitting than what Double-A could provide, and he followed through. Iriarte finally dropped his ERA below 3.00, giving up just 18 earned runs and 28 walks in 64 1/3 innings. He also dramatically cut his WHIP from nearly 2.00 to 1.18 since last year, and he held hitters to a .207 batting average. When Iriarte entered the game this year, a sigh of relief followed, rather than a groan.

The jury is still out on whether Iriarte will rejoin the Sox or remain in the minors. The jump from Charlotte to Chicago is steep, but this season gave him a stronger case for making it.

Garrett Schoenle, RHRP

Schoenle was a go-to option for the Knights in the late innings. He posted a 3.12 ERA and 1.27 WHIP, catching hitters looking and keeping runners off base. After spending nearly a month on the injured list, he showed little rust upon his return in May, allowing three runs on 10 hits and four walks over 10 1/3 innings.

He hit a rough patch in mid-August, allowing four runs in three games after rarely giving up more than four in an entire month. The stumble was brief, though, and Schoenle finished the season much as he started it.

It should be a roster management crime that Schoenle didn’t spend a single day on the 40-man roster, let alone the 26-man. Given how well he pitched early in the season, continuing to turn to Huascar Brazobán in August and hoping he wouldn’t give up a run was a baffling choice.

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Charlotte missed the playoffs by five games in the first half and 5 1/2 in the second, but the Knights still put together a solid season. They didn’t send as many players to the majors as expected, though David Sandlin and Sam Antonacci have made their mark on the Sox while working through the usual learning curves. After last year’s wave of promotions depleted Charlotte’s talent pool, that shortfall is understandable.

The Knights grew stronger as the season went on, bolstered by players arriving from High-A and Double-A, including Riley Unroe and Nick Altermatt. With a talented roster and several players on the cusp of reaching the majors, Charlotte is well positioned to be the team to beat in 2027.

It’s never a good idea to get into arguments with a Deacon at your home parish, but that’s exactly what transpired after mass on Wednesday morning between myself and Deacon Glenn. 

The topic of “happy to be there” was on the sports debate missal. My contention was that of my experience of Senior Prom, “just happy to go”, whereas Deacon Glenn paraded around as Prom King.

This centers around the Astros and my sentiments are simple, after all they’ve endured, if playing next week it’s nothing short of a divine miracle. Before you’re quick to judge and cast the first stone, consider the following:   

Hunter Brown spent 75 days on the IL.

Mike Burrows last win in the big leagues came back on June 30th during a subpar outing vs. Minnesota in which he allowed 4 runs over the course of 5 innings.   

Tatsuya Imai just recently cracked 75 innings of work.    In Japan’s Nippon Pro League, he logged 829 innings over portions of 8 seasons.   

Lance McCullers dazzled with a 7 inning performance back in March during a victory over Boston, little did we know the eventual ending weeks later.  

Followed by May 5th, which was one of the darker moments. Carlos Correa tore a tendon in his left ankle.    Instead of leading the club to a postseason run, he’s reclining back in commercials with Mattress Mack, unable to contribute.  

Then there’s the division, the lone saving grace being the record against the Texas Rangers which might ultimately decide things in the end. Houston has won just 25% of their contests vs. the Seattle Mariners this season. They dropped a total of 11 games to the lowly Los Angeles Angels & (Sacramento?) A’s.    

Outside of the division, there are plenty of warts. Baltimore took 5 of 6 meetings. Along the way, there were even lost series to the Cincinnati Reds and Colorado Rockies who are going nowhere fast.   

Fortunately, against the Boston Red Sox and both clubs in Chicago, 13 of 16 wins were posted or all of this would be a moot point.    

I’m just content in the moment to potentially be stepping into the limo that will bring me to the postseason after a one year hiatus.    

For Deacon Glenn, it’s simply not good enough.  

The Mets are “moving toward” adding Derek Falvey to their front office, per a report by Will Sammon and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The 43-year-old mutually parted ways with the Twins at the beginning of this year after having served as their president of baseball operations for years. There’s no word yet on what Falvey’s title will be, assuming he’s officially hired by the team.

Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns and Falvey worked together in Cleveland’s front office in 2011 and 2012. There’s been talk of the Mets adding to their front office in recent months, and the report from Sammon and Rosenthal notes that Falvey is expected to have “a significant role in the Mets’ decision-making process.”

The Mets are, of course, playing the last few games in one of the most underwhelming seasons in franchise history. Despite entering the year with a payroll well over $300 million, their best-case scenario—winning all five of their remaining games—would see them end the year with 77 wins. Coming off a disappointing 2025 season that saw them start the year as one of the best teams in baseball before struggling mightily and missing the playoffs, the team’s moves ahead of the 2026 season did not work out.

Texas Rangers lineup for September 23, 2026 against the New York Mets: starting pitchers are Cody Bradford for the Rangers and Nolan McLean for the Mets.

Texas did not play well yesterday. We shall see if they play better today.

The lineup:

Langford — LF

Seager — SS

Jung — DH

Nimmo — RF

Duran — 3B

Burger — 1B

Lopez — 2B

Jansen — C

Carter — CF

7:05 p.m. Central start time. The game is a pick ‘em.

The 2026 MLB postseason schedule is just about locked in, and it’s time to take a deeper dive into the Yankees’ current roster to determine who will make the cut to kick things off.

The Rays clinched the AL East after defeating the Yankees in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader, which means the Yankees will begin the postseason with the Wild Card Series against Boston. Unfortunately, it’s worth noting that the Yankees will be without Aaron Judge, who suffered a moderate grade right calf strain not too long after his lengthy IL stint.

Before we get into the ins and outs of the Pinstripes’ complex hitting dynamics, let’s begin with the starting rotation. Cam Schlittler had a standout season, finishing out the regular season with a 1.94 ERA and a frontrunner for the Cy Young Award. He also racked up an astounding 1.16 ERA on the road, the second-lowest in American League history, only behind Hall of Famer Walter Johnson, who recorded a 1.06 ERA on the road way back in 1913.

Schlittler will probably get the start for Game 1, and it’s likely that Max Fried gets the start in Game 2. Despite battling an elbow issue that limited him to 20 games this season, Fried finished the regular season with a 2.08 ERA and a 0.99 WHIP. The veteran lefty will look to bounce back after taking the loss in the second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against Tampa Bay, where he only struck out four and gave up four runs on six hits and two walks in 6.2 innings.

The Game 3 starter, if needed, will likely be either Carlos Rodón or Gerrit Cole, both of whom have enough postseason experience to help propel the Yankees to the ALDS. Rodón, who was limited to 16 starts this season after struggling with lingering elbow issues from his offseason surgery, finished the season with a 2.67 ERA, allowing only 25 earned runs. Even if he doesn’t end up making the start in the Wild Card, he’ll make a nice addition to the bullpen. Cole, on the other hand, finished the regular season with a 3.63 ERA, his highest in the last five seasons. He began the season taking rehab assignments in the minors and first rejoined the team in May after recovering from Tommy John surgery. Aaron Boone recently added that he expects to see Cole start in the postseason, but it’s not definitive.

The question of whether Ryan Weathers will return for the playoffs remains unanswered. It would’ve been nice to see him get some reps or even a rehab assignment in before the end of the regular season, but his return for the postseason shouldn’t be ruled out.

The outlook for the bullpen is overall positive after adding a few notable starters to pitch relief, including Clarke Schmidt, who recently rejoined the majors after a nearly season-long stint on the IL. However, the Yankees may not take a gamble on Schmidt so soon after he cut his bullpen warmup short on Sunday against the Diamondbacks due to bicep soreness.

As for the outfield, Trent Grisham has yet to make his return to the majors from the IL with a right hamstring strain. He’s not completely out of the question to make the cut, but Boone may rely on a different option. Spencer Jones has made an impact both on defense and at the plate, showing off his progress as the regular season comes to a close, so it’s likely he’ll earn a spot.

Looking at the position players, there’s a plethora of uncertainty about the state of the infield. Jazz Chisholm Jr. made his return from the IL during the second game of the doubleheader against the Rays on Tuesday, so he’ll likely be a solid weapon at second. Will Warren, who finished the regular season with a 4.02 ERA and 1.38 WHIP, has made enough of an impression that can put him in a relief role as well.

Who will play at third base is arguably one of the most circulated topics of conversation among fans going into the Wild Card. Boone relayed that he’s planning on putting Volpe at third this week and keeping George Lombard Jr. at shortstop, according to Talkin’ Yanks. If he can show off his agility and make clutch defensive plays, then it’s likely Volpe will stay at the position heading into the postseason. Amed Rosario and José Caballero are also options, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve impressed the front office enough to be considered starters.

Anthony Volpe takes grounders at third base pic.twitter.com/BJH3XzGREe

— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) September 23, 2026

It’s all up in the air until next week, but experimenting with a few changes this weekend against Baltimore will hopefully make it obvious where everyone will end up.

The Atlanta Braves have fortunately gotten to a point in the season where they don’t have to go all out if they choose in terms of roster moves and lineups. The odds of getting the second seed has significantly dwindled and they have already clinched their division.

Because of this, and add in that Ronald Acuña just fouled a ball off his leg, there was no telling what the lineup was going to be before we saw it. Not knowing can make waiting for it fun in a way for some. Rather than assuming what the lineup will be based on matchups or other ideas, we are at the part of the season where some players may get rest to get ready for the postseason which can result in lineups that almost look random sometimes.

Sale with the start 🫡#BravesCountrypic.twitter.com/l6GGkz8cCe

— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) September 23, 2026

Today’s lineup, which is responsible for putting up runs for Chris Sale, will not have Ronald Acuña as many likely expected and he will be replaced by Brewer Hicklen. With Abbott being a lefty, that moves Mauricio Dubón to LF batting second.

The Reds have been terrible offensively. In fact, they have five of the bottom nine hitters in wRC+ of hitters with at least one-hundred-fifty at bats. Only three teams have scored fewer runs than the Reds. They have not been much better in the month of September with only five teams scoring fewer runs.

The one bright spot for the Reds has been Sal Stewart, the front runner for the ROY award. Somehow, with a team scoring so few runs, he has been responsible for one-hundred-ten RBI. RBI by itself can usually be argued to be an overrated stat, but when your teams is in the bottom four in runs, yet you are on the leaderboards in RBI, you can make a good argument for being clutch. He also has a wRC+ sixteen percent higher than league average. Only fifty-one qualified hitters have been better than him.

Game 2 in ATL.

Powered by @PNCBankpic.twitter.com/ppeCdg0bmI

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 23, 2026

First pitch is at 7:15 EDT

When I look back on the 2004 ALCS, the most visceral moments — and by “visceral” I’m talking about the moments I felt in my bones, the ones that changed my body chemistry as I was watching — had nothing to do with David Ortiz. They had nothing to do with Curt Schilling, either, or Johnny Damon, or even Dave Roberts. No. Those moments belonged to Tim Wakefield and Curtis Leskanic (cue Johnny Pesky voice: “Leskanic, you son of a bitch!”).

Leskanic’s moment came in Game 4, which he entered with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 11th. Leskanic had a 5.89 ERA in 2004. He walked 6.2 batters-per-nine. He was not remotely close to the best reliever on that team, but he was, unfortunately, the best option in that moment. Somehow, he got Bernie Williams to fly out to end the threat in the 11th. Then he returned to the mound in the 12th and worked around a leadoff single to keep the series alive. I still don’t understand how he did it.

Wakefield’s moment came in Game 5 (with a hat tip to his staff-saving bullpen work in Game 3). He entered the game in the 12th inning and, without Doug Mirabelli to pitch to, proceeded to throw the 43 most stressful pitches in the history of baseball. There were 3 passed balls in the 13th inning alone, including one that allowed Gary Sheffield to take first base after he’d struck out to lead off the inning. Jason Varitek looked about as comfortable behind the plate as someone waiting for the results of an STD test.

Wakefield did survive the 13th, of course, and went on to throw a relatively uneventful 14th. But the emotional scars that inning left on me are real. I’ve never felt like that watching a baseball game and I never will again.

October baseball is amazing. And October baseball is also terrible. And it tends to be at it’s most amazing/terrible when a shaky reliever is on the mound, desperately trying to keep his team in the game. So for that reason, I need to make something clear to Craig Breslow and Chad Tracy (assuming they kept reading past the STD joke): I want absolutely no part of Erik Miller in the playoffs. You can’t do it. Let him do anything — LITERALLY ANYTHING, UP TO AND INCLUDING PINCH HITTING — before you let him pitch in the late innings of a close game.

Erik Miller has struggled with control his entire career. Earlier this season, when he was still with the Giants, he walked 3 batters while recording just a single out. He walked 6 batters over a stretch of 2 cumulative innings back in May. Hell, in the very first appearance he made in his career, he walked 2 and allowed 3 earned runs without recording an out.

For a while there, he looked like he’d figured something out. He only walked 3 hitters in his first 11 games with the Sox. With Miller looking elite, it was easy to dream on a 7-8-9 combo of Miller, Garrett Whitlock, and Aroldis Chapman effectively shrinking every game in the playoffs to 6 innings.

But it’s pretty rare for a pitcher who struggles with control the way Miller does to suddenly figure things out in the middle of a season, no matter how much you believe in the pitcher-whispering powers of Andrew Bailey. And, suffice it to say, the wildness is back. He’s issued 9 walks over his last 7 innings and was a key culprit of both last night’s loss and the loss to the Rangers last Wednesday.

So I’m out. I can’t do it. I can’t watch Erik Miller in the postseason. Give him the next 5 days to try to fix whatever is going on with him. If he can’t, then turn to Tyron Guerrero instead. Or Tanner Houck. Or even Garrett Crochet, regardless of whether he can get his velocity back. They’ll all be better options than Miller. I barely survived Wakefield in 2004 and my heart health has only degraded since then. Tread carefully, Chad.

For the 2026 Pittsburgh Pirates, the final week of the MLB regular season is a sprint toward the gaslight at the end of the tunnel.

The club enters play Wednesday with wins in its last five games. It’s already earned its most wins (80) since 2018 and could plausibly reach its fourth-best win total since 1992 if it can win three games by Sept. 27.

Most franchises would be embarrassed to trumpet stats like that. Turn on a Pirates broadcast between now and the end of the season, though, and you’ll find boundless enthusiasm about the year that was and the direction of the franchise that last changed baseball operations leadership nearly seven years ago.

The Pirates win their 80th of the year, 2-0 over the Cardinals. They've won 5-straight for the first time since April.

If you're under the age of 34, the 2026 Buccos, at worst, are the 5th best Pirates team of your lifetime.

— Dan Zangrilli (@DanZangrilli) September 23, 2026

That’s the Pirates’ pre- and post-game flagship radio show host previewing the petroleum-based glow that the front office will welcome its fans into the embrace of in the weeks to come.

Never mind what team president Travis Williams set as the bar before the season when he said the goal was to reach the MLB postseason. “Period. Full stop.” Never mind that they’ve already been mathematically eliminated for several days and functionally eliminated for nearly two months.

Required reading: The Pirates have gotten hot, and just might save GM Ben Cherington's job

Now glacial progress is enough for celebration. More than that, it’s historic, if you were metaphysically born both three and a half decades ago — and yesterday.

The Pirates won 69 games the year Neal Huntington was fired as general manager in 2019. If they get to 83 by the end of the week, that’ll be 14 games of progress over a seven-year odyssey with Huntington’s successor Ben Cherington. 

In between, they’ve lost 100 games twice, posted six losing records and come no closer than – as of Sept. 23 – seven games of reaching a National League playoff field that’s expanded by two teams since Cherington was hired. 

At that pace, they’ll approach the 100-win mark the Milwaukee Brewers are nearing in about a decade. Their division rival has already clinched a fourth consecutive NL Central title in a media market two thirds the size of Pittsburgh while spending approximately $40 million more on its roster, per Spotrac. 

Management will get away with that company line, too, because the fan base has essentially calcified into three camps.

The cynics stopped buying tickets years ago and have about as much influence on production as Statler and Waldorf as a result. The Pirates will finish somewhere around 25th or 26th in attendance and draw nearly a million fewer fans than they did in their last playoff season in 2015. 

The casuals are happy to make the pilgrimage once or twice a summer to enjoy their IC Light Mangos with a pleasant view of Downtown Pittsburgh. They’re content to conceive of PNC Park more as a baseball theme park than a competitive venue.

Then there are the cockeyed optimists who will excuse practically anything because they “love baseball” as a substitute for the therapy they should have sought years ago to resolve whatever trauma results in perceiving this particular team to be an escape.

Bob Nutting has made more than enough bilking the latter two camps over his 19 years as principal owner to graduate from a local rich guy to a billionaire. So there’s no real need for him to reach too far for the excuses. 

Injuries are one. Shortstop Konnor Griffin, power-hitting outfielder Oneil Cruz, first baseman/outfielder Ryan O’Hearn and starter Jared Jones all missed significant time. Other organizations might have cultivated the depth to weather the attrition that every team faces over a six-month season. This one will want you to believe it got a uniquely raw deal, even as it sits fifth in runs scored anyway despite the absences. 

The unforeseen regression of Paul Skenes is another. The NL’s reigning Cy Young winner has seen his ERA balloon from 1.97 in 2025 to 3.91 in 2026. If only he’d continued throwing like the greatest pitcher of all time indefinitely, the Pirates would be right there. The plan would have been brilliant. Alas, Skenes has pointed to his World Baseball Classic participation as disruptive of his training regiment.

And, of course, the sport’s economic structure is always a crowd pleaser at this time of year. Nutting has bemoaned the collective bargaining agreement with players that he voted in 2023 because it enshrines an inherent economic disadvantage. The Pirates paid $106 million for their roster this year, per Spotrac. The Los Angeles Dodgers will pay $378 million, more than three times what the Pirates do. 

Ipso facto, this mediocrity will do until the owners conquer the players in new CBA talks this winter to institute a salary cap – and some kind of logic that explains why it’s the Dodgers’ fault that the Pirates can’t compete with the Brewers despite facing the same disadvantages.

Cherington’s job therefore appears to be safe. After all, he acquired rental Brandon Lowe last winter and got a 30-homer season as a payoff. He’s responsible for the successful first-round selections of Skenes, Griffin, Nick Gonzales and Seth Hernandez, the next great hope for the rotation currently ranked the No. 7 prospect in all of baseball. He developed starter Braxton Ashcraft into becoming an All-Star. And he’s presided over the unexpected power delivery from former prospects Esmerlyn Valdez (17 homers in 72 games) and catcher Rafael Flores Jr. (10 homers in 44 games.)

All is well if you don’t think too hard about actual results and instead spend the summer enjoying broadcaster Joe Block’s statistical fun house, where the implicit message at any given time is that half the team could be headed for Cooperstown.

Only Pirate with a longer single-season, consecutive-game extra-base hit streak than rookie Esmerlyn Valdez: pic.twitter.com/65v2y1T7QF

— Joe Block (@joe_block) July 21, 2026

Only younger player than #Pirates Esmerlyn Valdez in MLB history to have both an RBI and extra-base hit in 8 consecutive games (and he wasn't a rookie) pic.twitter.com/Oe5yc0RhHs

— Joe Block (@joe_block) July 21, 2026

Konnor Griffin joins Hall-of-Famer Jake Beckley (1888) as the only #Pirates to have 15+ steals and 15+ extra-base hits in their Age 20 season (or younger)

(via @StatsPerform) pic.twitter.com/8lviCmkYxx

— Joe Block (@joe_block) June 30, 2026

Most 4+ hit games, Pirates, before turning 21:

2 - Konnor Griffin
1 - Roberto Clemente
1 - Arky Vaughan
1 - Dale Coogan

(via @Stathead)

— Joe Block (@joe_block) May 21, 2026

Through that lens, this team struck the oil necessary to feed its mouthpieces' rhetorical flame through another chilly offseason. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: For Pittsburgh Pirates, 2026 was playoffs or bust. Then the season started | Opinion