Category: Sports News

Entering 2027, there are going to be a few position battles to watch. There should be plenty of competition on the pitching staff in particular. However, one spot that intrigues me is the first base/DH position. It looks like there will be at least three players battling it out for that first base spot and I wanted to break things down.

For most of the season, there has been a lot of rotation at the first base and DH spots. Until he was traded, Luis Garcia Jr. got the at bats against righties. His platoon partner varied. At one point it was Curtis Mead, before the Aussie grabbed the third base role. Then it was Andres Chaparro, who had a great second half. With Garcia gone, there is now a lot of uncertainty.

Following the Garcia trade, the plan was for Abimelec Ortiz to slide into that role of being the first baseman against righties. However, that has not gone according to plan. Ortiz is hitting just .194 with a .592 OPS in 42 games. Despite having some promising batted ball data, Ortiz has not done enough to take the spot.

I am not giving up on Ortiz, but you also cannot hand him a big role unless he shows a lot next spring. He has really gotten exposed after a hot start. In his last 28 games, Ortiz is hitting just .143 with a .390 OPS. The 24 year old has not been able to make the adjustments after pitchers figured out how to attack him.

However, the Nats have shown that they like to platoon a lot and Ortiz is the only left handed bat in the mix. This could give him a longer leash and put him in the mix for playing time. It also means the Nats could look to go outside the organization for a left handed first base option. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of left handed corner infield profiles set to hit free agency.

That either means they will give Ortiz more runway, or they will give more responsibility to their right handed bats. I think that second option is the way to go. Andres Chaparro has finally broken out of that Quad-A label this second half and has established himself as a big league slugger.

Since the break, Chaparro is hitting .292 with 10 homers and a .962 OPS. The 27 year old has consistently provided clutch hits and a lot of power. He has arguably been the team’s best hitter in the second half. Given his production, I would feel confident in giving Chappy a larger role, much like what the team did with Curtis Mead.

Chaparro has also shown an ability to hit right handed pitching when given the opportunity. In 71 AB’s against righties, Chaparro is hitting .296 with an .888 OPS. His numbers against righties are actually better than they are against lefties. That is impressive for a guy who is mostly known as a lefty crusher.

Obviously, Chaparro has locked down a roster spot for next season. However, I think he has made a strong case for every day playing time. Platooning is part of this front office’s philosophy, but I think the gap between Ortiz and Chaparro is wide enough to ignore that. Unless Ortiz takes a big offseason leap, Chaparro needs to be playing more next season.

There is also a third name that is making his case. For most of the season, Yohandy Morales was dominating in AAA. His surface level numbers in Rochester were better than Ortiz’s. However, some underlying concerns with Morales made the front office hesitant to call him up. Morales chases a lot, whiffs more than you would like and hits the ball on the ground quite a bit.

That is usually a very bad combination. However, Morales made it work in the minors thanks to how hard he hits the ball. The Nats finally gave Morales a shot in September, and he looks a lot like he did in AAA. Morales has yet to draw a walk and he strikes out a lot. He has still been productive thanks to his power though.

In 15 games, Morales is hitting .279 with 4 homers and a .930 OPS. That raw power is making up for some of the holes in his profile. So far, Morales has a 92.5 MPH average EV, a 64.5% hard hit rate and a 16.1% barrel rate. 

All of those numbers are elite and his power has been super impressive. The home run he hit yesterday was an example of his truly elite raw power. It is rare to see a righty hit one out the other way in a big ballpark like Comerica but that is exactly what Morales did.

He has put his name in the mix for a roster spot in 2027. The difficult part is finding a way to fit both Morales and Chaparro. Ideally you would want a lefty to be part of a platoon. However, these two right handed bats have looked so much better than the left handed Ortiz.

This creates a bit of a dilemma for Paul Toboni this offseason. It was mentioned on the broadcast that the Nats are working on Morales’ third base defense. However, Brady House also needs playing time and has looked good since being recalled from AAA. 

Honestly, this is a position to watch in the offseason. I could see a world where one of Chaparro, Morales or even House get traded this offseason. There is a lot of overlap with their offensive skillsets. Maybe they give Ortiz another shot or they try to find a left handed corner bat. 

I don’t necessarily think you have to have a left handed bat in the mix. However, from everything we know about this front office, I am not sure they agree with that. The impressive showings by Chaparro and Morales, combined with Ortiz struggling has put the Nats in an interesting position this offseason. Paul Toboni will have to figure out what he wants to do with these corner bats.

Entering the 2026 season, the introduction of the automated balls and strikes challenge system was a major topic. Throughout the early part of the season, we were heavily focused on who was winning or losing challenges, and what the best strategies for hitters and for pitcher and catchers were to get the most calls in their favor without squandering challenges in low leverage spots. As the season went on, the whole process became more natural and integrated into the approach on both sides of the ball. In low leverage situations, you absolutely better be correct. In higher leverage situations, it’s more reasonable to take a shot at a pitch the hitter or catcher feels is really a borderline call. And so, the game of baseball changes and keeps moving.

Having watched the evolution of the technology unfold in Low-A and Triple-A, there was less of an adjustment period for fans who do follow the minor leagues. Indeed, the real annoyance for prospect writers now is the dark mode at High-A and Double-A, where there is no public Statcast data, and players who broke into full season ball using the system are then left up to the widely varying skills of minor league umpires through two levels, before getting back to ABS ball in Triple-A. Evaluating hitters in particular through those changing rule sets is a bit trickier.

Overall, the league did a really good job developing and implementing the ABS system. It’s quick enough not to impede the flow of the game much, and the two challenge allotment keeps it from being used excessively. We could argue about whether there should be one challenge allowed or three, or whether teams should automatically get an additional challenge in the eighth and ninth innings to help insure that in the highest leverage situations and most pressure packed moments, that the game isn’t decided by the umpires, but overall I’d call it a pretty solid success.

As a somewhat older fan now, do I love every aspect of it? Not really. Catchers used to be able to expand the zone with their target, and if the pitcher hit the glove without much movement required, you could expand the edges of the strike zone, which rewarded pitchers with good command. On the other side of it, if that catcher set up inside and you missed your target by two feet, it was never a strike even if it techically caught the by the book strike zone. Those differences have really taken some getting used to over the past few years as the system was tested in the minors.

And of course, this impacts how the game is played and how it will be taught and played moving forward. The strict zone now enforced really puts even more emphasis on raw stuff, because you have to be able to draw whiffs and weak contact in the zone. The emphasis on velocity, spin, and nasty offspeed stuff over precision command is only going to continue to grow, and the soft tossing command artists of the past have very little space in the game at this point. Such is the way of things as ambiguity becomes a problem to be solved rather than just a fact of life.

The benefits are there as well though. Watching a game end on a really bad ball or strike call was one of the more infuriating things in sports. Perhaps that sort of thing does build character, but it always felt brutal to be on the wrong end of one of those calls. Taking more of the umpire’s discretion out of the game was necessary, and it doesn’t help that the explosion of legal sports gambling has only added suspicion about games or individual pitches or plays in the major sports being rigged somehow. This short-circuited a lot of those concerns in baseball, at least in terms of the umpires.

What do you think? After a year of the ABS, do you like it or not? What would you change if you were running the Show?

It’s been an exciting September for Austin Wells off the field — and the Yankees hope there will be a thrilling October on it to match.

The Yankees catcher got engaged to girlfriend Caroline Nielson earlier this month, according to photos she shared of the proposal on Instagram.

Nielson posted Wednesday photos of a touching beach scene with Wells down on one knee before the couple embraces.

The “forever and ever” caption suggests that the proposal took place Sept. 3 — an off day for the Yankees between series in California against the Angels and Padres.

They also included a photo of their daughter, Lucy, as part of the joyous moment.

Several significant others of Yankees teammates were quick to toast the couple in the comments section.

“My heart!!!!! Let’s get these two married!!! ” wrote Ava O’Connor, who is dating outfielder Spencer Jones.

“The best off day in the history of off days,” wrote Carlos Rodon’s wife, Ashley.

“SCREAMING CRYING,” wrote Ben Rice’s girlfriend, Sara Falkson.

It is unclear when the couple first started dating. They announced that Nielson was expecting a child last November in one of the first public signs of a relationship.

Before the big day, Wells has an important postseason in front of him.

The 27-year-old catcher has somewhat rebounded from a miserable start to the season, pushing his average up to .185 after dipping down to .150 in July.

Wells, who is respected by the Yankees for his skills behind the plate, will likely be a mainstay in the lineup during the postseason.

That will begin next week when the Yankees in all likelihood will take on the Red Sox in a best-of-three wild card series in The Bronx.

Wells did have perhaps his biggest moment in pinstripes when the rivals met last season in the same round, driving home the game-winning run with an eighth-inning single in Game 2.

The Yankees evened the series that night and went on to win Game 3 the following evening.

Now, Wells and the Yankees will look for an even deeper postseason run with Nielson no doubt cheering him on from the stands.

A’s catcher Brian Serven left Wednesday’s game after fouling a pitch straight into his face and underwent a CT scan, according to manager Mark Kotsay.

It’s possible he could miss the team’s final four games.

“We’re not sure,” Kotsay said about Serven’s availability, per USA Today. “Right now, he’s getting a CT scan and they’re taking a look at the swelling area on the face. Scary moment for sure.

“Fortunately, looking at the video replay, the ball hit the bat, it also bounced off the earpiece. So we’re hoping that with the combination of that, in that direct impact area underneath the eye … There was a good amount of swelling.”

In the sixth inning of the A’s 7-3 home win over the Angels, Serven squared up to bunt a 94-mph changeup from righty Jose Fermin.

The ball ran in on Serven and went straight off the bat and into his face, dropping him to the ground immediately while he touched the left side of his face.

Kotsay and a trainer immediately attended to him.

“Oh, no,” one A’s broadcaster said after watching the scary scene. “Goodness.”

Serven remained on the ground for a lengthy period before returning to his feet, and Jonah Heim replaced him mid at-bat and flied out to center for the first out of the inning with the A’s leading 5-3.

Kotsay reportedly said the team will know more Thursday morning about his status, with the team beginning a season-ending four-game home set against the Astros later that night.

Serven, 31, is in his fourth season in the majors and first with the A’s.

He’s slashed .179/.220/.385 across 28 games.

The former 2016 first-round pick of the Rockies has appeared in 129 career games and has tallied 11 homers and 34 RBIs while posting a .554 OPS.

He previously spent time with the Rockies from 2022-23 and the Blue Jays in 2024.

October isn't about six months of numbers. It's about who is hot right now, for three days or seven, and that can be anyone from a slumping star, a middle reliever nobody outside the clubhouse has heard of and a player coming back from an injury – (Aaron Judge, anybody?).

Here's the X-factors for each playoff contender, the ones who could swing a series.

Tampa Bay Rays

Freddy Peralta was a disaster for six weeks after Tampa Bay acquired him from the New York Mets on Aug. 3, a 7.17 ERA over his first four starts with the Rays. Over his last five starts, he's allowed just three earned runs in 28 ⅔ innings (0.94 ERA). He's not entirely fixed, though. His outing on Sept. 13 was a near no-hitter against the Houston Astros, but it still took 86 pitches to get through five innings because he walked three. If the newer version of Peralta shows up in October, the Rays have three dependable arms when including Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez. If the wild version shows up, the Rays might be walked out of the playoffs. If the version from August shows up, they are in trouble.

New York Yankees

The Yankees postseason hangs on the health of Aaron Judge. Just back after missing three months with a broken rib, Judge seemed to be getting back into form when he left the series finale against the Twins on Sept. 16 with a right calf strain. Manager Aaron Boone said the team is planning for Judge "not being a part" of the Yankees' wild-card series, but Judge insists he shouldn't be ruled out. New York has to hope it's just part of the ramp-up process, because without Judge in the lineup, the Yankees' October could be very short.

NIGHTENGALE: Yankees watch Rays party but NY is still AL's team to beat without Judge

For most of the Mets, taking on the Rangers in Texas this week just marks the second to last series of the season.

For two of them, though, it serves as a homecoming. 

It’s an actual homecoming for Brett Baty, who was raised just hours away from Globe Life Field.

For Marcus Semien, the circumstances are a bit different. 

Semien, of course, spent the last four years manning second base for the Rangers before being shipped to the Mets this offseason in the Brandon Nimmo deal.

While it’s two different situations, both had a very similar feeling after hitting big homers late to help the Mets pull ahead of the Rangers and play spoiler once again on Wednesday night. 

“It was cool to go out there and greet the people who came to support me,” said Baty, who crushed a dagger pinch-hit grand slam. “You only get to play in Texas so many times in a year playing in New York, so it was really cool."

“Go-ahead homer in the eighth is obviously a good feeling,” Semien added. “Coming back here after four good years -- I really enjoyed playing here, it’s a place I love to play, so it felt really good doing that in that last at-bat.”

The 36-year-old Semien is now up to 15 homers and a .625 OPS in what he perfectly summed up as a “roller coaster” first season rocking the orange and blue. 

He knows it’s much too late to salvage it, but is simply looking to finish the year strong. 

That’s exactly what the red-hot Baty has been able to do over the past 50-plus games. 

After an up-and-down start of his own, the lefty-hitting slugger has settled into a groove at the plate, hitting .282 with 21 extra base-hits and a .850 OPS since the end of June.

“He’s a weapon for us,” Semien said. 

“This is who he is,” manager Andy Green added. “Our goal will be to get to that earlier in the season, but he’s having confident at-bats, has a ton of power, and is using the whole field -- he’s just had good at-bat after good at-bat.”

Over the past two seasons, Carlos Rodón has been one of the best pitchers in baseball. After winning 18 games and finishing sixth in Cy Young voting in an All-Star 2025, he’s been even better when healthy this year, posting a 2.67 ERA that would be fourth-best in the AL if he had enough innings to qualify. Since returning from the IL in mid-August, it’s 1.89. Come October, most teams would be thrilled to hand him the ball in Game 1 of any series. The Yankees are expected to bounce him to the bullpen for the Wild Card round. So deep is their rotation, fronted by Cam Schlittler, Max Fried, and Gerrit Cole, that Rodón is expendable.

When Aaron Judge went down last week with a calf injury, it was a gut punch. After holding the line without him for most of the year, the excitement of the Yankees captain returning for the stretch run was immediately punctured. Aaron Boone relayed that Judge is expected to miss the Wild Card round. While Judge himself pushed back on that assessment Wednesday, given the timing of his injury and narrow margin for recovery, it’s fair to question when he’ll be able to contribute. Judge is one of the premier difference-makers in the sport — by whatever metric you use, he’s been one of the two best players in the league for the past decade. When a team loses a player of that caliber, it’s easy to lose hope. But not only is this Yankees team still competitive, it should still be considered the favorites in the AL.

The rotation is the primary reason why. Schlittler has the Cy Young wrapped up and is squarely in the MVP conversation, leading the league in ERA while punching out 234 (and counting). He’s the kind of dominant hurler that can take over a playoff series—as he did last October—giving even a dormant offense a massive leg up. Fried, who won 19 games last year and finished fourth in Cy Young voting, has a 2.80 ERA through 20 starts and remains the game’s most consistent run preventer. And, despite concerns during a slump in early September, Cole has mostly looked like the same pitcher he was before missing a year and a half to Tommy John surgery. The Yankees’ bullpen, led by quietly elite closer David Bednar and boosted by reclamation projects Brent Headrick and Paul Blackburn, has the second-lowest ERA in the game. On the strength of those two units, the team has allowed the fewest runs in baseball. If good pitching beats good hitting, the Yankees are already well on their way.

But let’s not bury the Yankees offense yet, either. To be certain, it’s been an uneven year. In addition to spending nearly the whole season without Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr. has underperformed, Ryan McMahon has been an offensive black hole (even after last night, his season wRC+ is just 76), Yankees catchers have hit below the Mendoza line, and Anthony Volpe played his way out of the starting shortstop job. Still, among AL playoff teams, only the White Sox have scored more runs. Ben Rice is tied for the AL lead in homers with 41 and has been one of the best hitters in baseball, Luis García Jr. and Paul Goldschmidt form a strong platoon at first, and Cody Bellinger has been his usual All-Star caliber bat. Murderers’ Row, this lineup is not. But they stack up perfectly fine against the rest the AL has to offer, even without their best hitter.

Central to the Yankees’ chances is the state of their competition. The AL was taken to the woodshed this year by the NL, who dominated interleague play and stacked up four teams with a run differential above 100 to the AL’s one. That one is the Yankees, who came out 48 runs ahead of the Rays despite losing out on the AL East title. Eighty-five wins or so should carry the day in the AL Central while the AL West leader will likely land right around .500. The Rays’ extreme overperformance of their Pythagorean win total this year surely speaks to their ability to play together as a team and manager Kevin Cash’s knack for playing matchups. However, it also leaves open the question of how their style of play will transfer to October baseball, where they’ve really succeded with Cash just once (in the COVID-affected 2020).

The Yankees will face the Red Sox in the Wild Card round, a team that’s arguably also without its best playoff weapon, starter Garrett Crochet. At best, he’ll be in the bullpen, likely rusty. As Jon Morosi notes below, the Yankees’ pitching staff has held Boston at bay throughout their matchups this season.

There’s also precedent for teams making deep playoff runs while their superstar watched from the bench. Ronald Acuña Jr. missed the entire 2021 postseason as his Braves (buoyed by six shutout innings from Fried in the decisive Game 6) took the title. The 1972 A’s lost Reggie Jackson to a torn hamstring in the ALCS while winning their first pennant in 41 years but still bested the Big Red Machine in the Fall Classic. The Yankees have also found ways to win in October without much from Judge. While his presence surely impacted how opposing pitchers tackled the Yankees’ lineup, Judge batted .161 through the first two rounds of the 2024 playoffs as the Yankees nonetheless won the pennant. And while they had a red-hot Giancarlo Stanton and another all-world hitter, Juan Soto, to pick up the slack that year, the Yankees also had a significantly weaker pitching staff.

A lot can happen quickly in the postseason, and a resurgent and hungry Red Sox squad is certainly a threat, particularly in a best-two-out-of-three series. The Rays loom as well, with the regular-season standings telling a compelling story about their winning formula, and whatever teams rise from the ashes of the Central and West cannot be dismissed. Teams like the 2006 Cardinals and 2023 Rangers prove that anything can happen if you just get into the dance. But the Yankees have a formula of their own that’s even more compelling, even without their captain. In a lackluster AL, the Yankees still have the strongest pitching staff and most talented roster overall. Let the games begin.

Good morning everyone!

The Mariners won a thrilling 6-5 extra-innings contest against the rival Astros last night. The team’s final series of the season begins tonight against the Angels with first pitch set for 6:40pm PT.

In Mariners news…

• Cal Raleigh brought our favorite broadcaster a retirement gift.

• Rookies Lazaro Montes and Michael Arroyo are such good pals they even made friendship T-shirts.

Around the league…

• Aaron Judge pushed back against manager Aaron Boone’s comments that he won’t be ready in time for the postseason.
• Jackson Holliday, who has been hurt for much of the year, is getting wrist surgery in the next week.
• Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela, who just returned from the injured list with a quad strain, is headed to the IL once more with a hamstring injury.
• 42-year-old right-hander Max Scherzer says he will make a decision about his future in the next couple of days.
• The Mets have hired former Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey in a front office role.
• Major League Baseball has raised the private equity ownership limit to 20%, though they’re still not allowed to be a club’s controlling owner.
• The LA Queens shut out the SF Fireballs 2-0 to become the first-ever WPBL champions.
• We’re only just scratching the surface of the wave of talent coming over from Japan, writes Rob Arthur at Baseball Prospectus. ($)