We are entering the final week of the regular season. The playoff field is mostly set, with, realistically, just the Rangers battling the Astros for the AL West – the loser stays home – and the White Sox battling the Guardians for the AL Central – the loser gets the final Wild Card spot. The Royals, obviously, are not included in this year’s field.
And yet, I discovered last year that having your local team miss the playoffs doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The Royals also missed the playoffs that year, and yet I became invested in the Seattle Mariners. Cal Raleigh was such a fun story last year, and they had all that amazing pitching. Plus, they’d had one of the most exciting trade deadlines, acquiring Eugenio Suarez and Josh Naylor. So when it came time for the playoffs to start, unlike most seasons, I kept watching.
And what I found was an absolutely liberating experience. When the Mariners managed to scrape past the Tigers and Tarik Skubal, it was nearly as much fun as watching the Royals win. But when the Phillies lost on the terrible defensive play, I didn’t feel the crush of defeat the way I normally do. When the Mariners blew the late lead in game seven of the ALCS, I felt a small twinge, but rebounded very quickly. I was even able to transfer my temporary allegiance to the Blue Jays and the exciting story of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. smashing every single ball thrown near him. When they also blew a late lead in game seven of the World Series, again, a small twinge, but then I was able to simply enjoy how cool Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s postseason performance had been.
Every season, 18 teams stop playing after the regular season ends. From that point on, it’s constant attrition until there can be only one winner. It seems silly that only 1/30 of the fans get to enjoy the season based on their team winning the whole thing. So I highly recommend giving temporary fandom a shot. It can be rewarding without being nearly as punishing as the usual thing.
That said, I think even temporary fandom has to be a bit organic. If you try to force it, it simply doesn’t work. That’s what I found out last year when I tried to transfer my Phillies fandom to the Brewers. Milwaukee just wasn’t able to appeal to me for whatever reason, and so I became an AL-only fan. But to give you all the best chance I can to find that organic excitement, let’s go over some of the storylines for each of the playoff contenders, and hopefully you’ll find at least one team you can vibe with!
The Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in the American League, and they’ve done it on the backs of two young position players who could hardly be any different. Junior Caminero has battled with Yordan Alvarez for the AL lead in home runs for most of the season; he leads all of MLB in swing length and bat speed. He leads the American League in EV90 – a stat that averages the top 10% hardest-hit balls by a player. On the other end of the spectrum is Chandler Simpson. Simpson doesn’t have a single barrel to his name in the entire season, though he squares the ball up better than anyone; he just doesn’t hit it very hard. He almost never walks or strikes out. But he has the fourth-best batting average in MLB and leads the AL in stolen bases. He’s basically what you would get if you took Luis Arraez and traded away what little power he has for elite defense and speed.
Drew Rasmussen leads the rotation, but Griffin Jax and Shane McClanahan (who will miss at least the ALDS) have been good too. Freddy Peralta has been rejuvenated after being acquired at the deadline. Nick Martinez has been solid. Ian Seymour has been significantly better than his ERA, but might end up in the bullpen for the playoffs, where he could really dominate. If he does, he’ll join Bryan Baker – battling for MLB saves leader – and Kevin Kelly – 24th in MLB for reliever fWAR.
The New York Yankees are probably a tough sell for most Royals fans, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about them a little. Aaron Judge is a generational talent. Ben Rice is having the kind of breakout season we all hope to see from Jac Caglianone next year. Cody Bellinger is still very good; Paul Goldschmidt is having a heck of a last hurrah. Giancarlo Stanton is trying to come back to attempt more playoff heroics.
On the pitching side, Cam Schlittler is probably going to win the AL Cy Young Award. He somehow overshadows Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, and the breakout of Ryan Weathers. They have two relievers who have topped 2.0 fWAR in setup man Brent Headrick and closer David Bednar.
The Boston Red Sox might be the poster children for the idea that good things can happen when an underachieving team fires its manager, even if the manager is widely regarded as quite good at his job. Roman Anthony was one of the best prospects in baseball last year and is starting to come back into his own again after battling injuries all season. Mickey Gasper was a waiver wire pickup who has nearly carried the offense. Willson Contreras is having the best season of his good career at age 34. Cedanne Rafaela has been electric in center field, though he injured his hamstring and his availability for the playoffs is in question.
Rookie Payton Tolle might have stolen the show with his tremendous pitching, but Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez are no slouches. Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman have always been very good, but Brayan Bello has been a revelation since being bumped from the rotation, and Erik Miller has turned out to be a very good deadline pickup. Collectively, the Red Sox have had the most valuable bullpen in the AL, and it isn’t particularly close.
The Chicago White Sox are this year’s version of the 2024 Royals. They lost 102 games last year and this year they’re battling with the Guardians for the division and will settle for a Wild Card. And that’s just the very beginning of why they’re going to be my favorite team to start the 2026 playoffs! They also have Team Italy contributors Sam Antonacci and Kyle Teel. They have Munetaka Murakami being way better than people expected. They have two young sluggers named Montgomery who are not related to each other. They have a huge surprise in Tristan Peters and a young veteran taking yet another step forward in Miguel Vargas, and somehow Chase Meidroth has exploded.
They don’t have much of interest in their rotation, but Grant Taylor has been pretty good in the bullpen. They recently promoted top pitching prospect Hagen Smith to the bullpen and demoted top pitching prospect Noah Schultz from the rotation to the bullpen, and both have been utterly dominant.
I don’t want to spend the time to go over the Texas Rangers or the Houston Astros. We’re still not sure which of them will even make it; the Astros are still stained by the cheating scandal of nearly a decade ago in many minds, and the Rangers do everything they can to be political and on the wrong side for my taste. The Rangers have Nicky Lopez, and the Astros have Yordan Alvarez. Either team could be the first-ever MLB team to make the playoffs with a sub-.500 record, and maybe you want to root for the chaos and gnashing of teeth that such a team winning the World Series would lead to. And who would I be to stop you?
The Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be a hard sell for many, but they have a certain appeal. They’re going for the first threepeat since the Yankees did it from 1998-2000. Shohei Ohtani won’t be pitching, but he should still be hitting, and that’s still worth the price of admission. Josue De Paula earned a promotion to the bigs when Shohei was hurt a couple of weeks ago, and he did well enough that I absolutely would not count him out of postseason appearances even after he was demoted upon Shohei’s return. Max Muncy is still Max Muncy. Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Teoscar Hernández are no longer as good as they once were, but they’re still good. Enrique Hernández is somehow still around and has always been a monster for LA in the postseason.
Their pitching, as usual, is just silly. Tarik Skubal is taking up all the oxygen, but Blake Snell has won a pair of Cy Young Awards; Yoshinobu Yamamoto almost single-handedly won the World Series for them last season; Tyler Glasnow would have won a Cy Young if he could have ever pitched a full season; Justin Wrobleski, Emmet Sheehan, and Roki Sasaki have all been very good. In their bullpen, Edwin Díaz has been a disappointment, but Tanner Scott has rebounded in a big way, and they have old friends Will Klein and Kris Bubic to help carry the load, too.
The Atlanta Braves have Ronald Acuña Jr. – he’s always fun. Drake Baldwin is an exciting young catcher. Ozzie Albies has bounced back. Matt Olson has hit 40 home runs for two straight seasons. And old friends Lane Thomas and Mike Yastrzemski are role players who could be key pinch-hitters on the nights they don’t start.
On the pitching side, it’s Chris Sale and then everyone else. Chris is 37, a future Hall of Famer, and somehow he’s still dealing so well that if it wasn’t for the next starting pitcher we’re going to talk about, he’d be a strong candidate for the Cy Young Award this year.
When you talk about the Milwaukee Brewers, you don’t start with the hitting; you start with Jacob Misiorowski. He is, as hinted above, a near lock for this year’s NL Cy Young at only 24. He has a 1.86 ERA, and he has a 31.7% K-BB%, which is higher than the K% of all but two other starting pitchers in all of baseball. They also have three flamethrowing relievers at the back end of their bullpen: Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, and Aaron Ashby.
But actually, their offense is pretty fun, too. Brice Turang has taken even a step above last year’s breakout. Jackson Chourio bounced back after taking a dip in his sophomore year. Jake Bauers has come out of nowhere at age 30. Garrett Mitchell has done the same, though he’s still just 27. And William Contreras is still a truly excellent catcher. Andrew Vaughn continues his career resurgence after arriving from Chicago last season. Christian Yelich is no longer the player he once was, but he used to be so good, and for some, it might be fun to watch him try to finally capture a championship.
The Brewers are also a small-market team and will finish the season with more wins than any other team.
The Philadelphia Phillies have the same exciting guys they’ve had for a few years. Bryce Harper might have some weird opinions, but he can hit a baseball. So can Kyle Schwarber, though I don’t know if he has any weird opinions.
Pitching has been their real calling card this year, though. Cristopher Sánchez was on a Cy Young track until the Royals roughed him up and he finished looking far more mortal. They also have Zack Wheeler, though he’s had a similar arc to his season. Jesús Luzardo was fantastic before he got hurt, though he promised to return for the playoffs and successfully threw a bullpen session recently. Jhoan Duran is still one of the best closers in the sport, and his sidekick is former Royal Jonathan Bowlan.
The Chicago Cubs start and mostly end with Pete Crow-Armstrong, the 40-40 center fielder who seems destined not just for this year’s Gold Glove, but also a platinum glove and an MVP Award. Seiya Suzuki and Alex Bregman have been adequate sidekicks for the guy who has basically been the best player in MLB with little to no competition. Bregman, unfortunately, suffered multiple facial fractures from an errant foul ball, and his availability for the playoffs is in question.
On the pitching side, I have to be honest: no one really stands out. Their best pitcher by fWAR has been Ben Brown, and he was ruled out for the remainder of the season at the beginning of the month. The next most valuable has been Shota Imanaga, and he’s been plenty good but simply cannot compare to the other studs around the sport.
The San Diego Padres have Fernando Tatis Jr., and you don’t need much more to be interested in them. But they also have Manny Machado still chugging along. Jackson Merrill has been enjoying a bounce-back campaign. Xander Bogaerts has been playing his best ball in years. Old friends Samad Taylor and Freddy Fermin have valiantly held down bench roles. But it’s old nemesis Ty France who seems to have boosted the Padres from “playoff contender” to “championship threat”, at least on the hitting side. He’s enjoying the best campaign of his career and treating all of MLB as he always has the Royals. At least now everyone else feels our pain.
Now, if you actually want to know what’s powering the Padres’ success…remember how I mentioned the Red Sox had the most valuable bullpen in the AL and it wasn’t particularly close? They lead the second-place AL team by 1.6 fWAR. The Padres lead the Red Sox by 1.4 fWAR. Mason Miller has had a nearly 4-WAR season as a reliever. Adrian Morejon has the third-best reliever fWAR in baseball at 2.8. Yuki Matsui has a sub-1.00 ERA over the past month. Michael King leads their rotation, and he’s been more “quite good” than “fantastic,” but if you want to see a team try to pull off the HDH victories of 2014 and 2015, these Padres might be the team to do it.
I won’t tell you which team to pick, though I’ve told you my favorite in the AL. After doing this exercise, I think I’m probably leaning toward the Padres in the NL, but maybe The Miz can attract me back to the Midwest. But really, it doesn’t matter which team you pick. Just that you pick one and give yourself an additional opportunity to feel some relatively risk-free joy in a world where it can be so hard to find.
Who are you rooting for in the postseason?
