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Last season, the Royals faced a crossroads with Seth Lugo. As they approached the trade deadline, there was healthy debate over whether the Royals should trade Lugo and try to acquire younger talent, or whether they should keep him to finish the year and bring him back for 2026. Just a few days before the trade deadline, the Royals and Lugo reached a deal on a two-year, $46 million extension with a vesting option for another year at $23 million per year. Lugo was going to remain a Royal.

Lugo’s performance dipped significantly after he signed the extension, but he also pitched with a back injury for a while before being shut down by the team. The hope coming into the season was that he was healthy and would be able to help lead the Royals back to the playoffs on the strength and depth of their starting pitching. His 2024 season was spectacular, but it was unrealistic to assume he would get back there production-wise. Still, an ERA around four while picking up the ball every fifth day would provide the value the Royals paid for in his contract.

The veteran started the season hot. Through April, Lugo sported a 2.63 ERA with a nearly 3:1 K:BB ratio. It looked like the back issue might have been all that held him back, and that bringing him back was the right decision. For the rest of the year, however, Lugo alternated between being a back-end starter or 2005 José Lima. Here are his remaining ERAs by month:

May: 4.59
June: 6.52
July: 4.32
August: 8.31
September: 6.38

The right-hander did miss some time in June on the concussion – IL after getting struck in the forehead by a Brandon Nimmo fastball. Given the bump that appeared on his head, it’s a miracle that the injury wasn’t worse than it was. Besides that, Lugo was quite healthy this year, tossing 172.1 innings. Unfortunately, he had a 5.17 ERA over those innings.

Lugo has been an “out-pitching-his-peripherals” guy in previous seasons, but this year he actually had a 4.38 FIP, which was better than his 2025 FIP of 5.09. In some ways, he had the inverse of his 2025 season: an okay ERA and bad FIP last year, but a bad ERA with okay FIP this season. I don’t really know what to make of that, but I ask that we all be consistent in our arguments. If you are a “Lugo can out-pitch his peripherals consistently” kind of guy, please don’t turn around and argue, “But his FIP was better this season!”

The veteran really struggled against lefties this season, surrendering an .874 OPS against opposite-handed batters. That OPS mark would have led all Royals batters this season. His curveball, four-seam fastball, and sweeper were all terrible against lefties this year, combining for -32 runs of value against southpaws alone. They also represented 46% of his usage against lefty batters. Compare that to two years ago, when Lugo’s fastball held its own against left-handed hitters while his curveball was worth +8 runs, and it’s clear that something has changed in his ability to fool hitters, particularly lefties, and keep them off balance. Whether Lugo can find that again or we are watching an aging player rage against the dying of the light remains to be seen.

It will be interesting to see how Lugo is deployed next season. If Lugo throws 162.2 innings next season, his 2028 option will vest at $20 million. If not, it becomes a $17 million club option. The Royals have a $3 million buyout if Lugo’s option doesn’t vest and they don’t want to pick up the club option.

If Lugo pitches as he did in 2026 next year, the Royals may want 2027 to be his last season. Of course, if he throws as many innings as he did in 2026, his 2028 salary is guaranteed. Kansas City doesn’t have a stable of starters lined up for 2027, so I expect Lugo will be one of the starting five and not shifted to the bullpen. There could be tension between the team and the player next year if it’s August and Lugo has a 5-run ERA and is closing in on his innings limit. For now, this is just something to monitor, but I don’t love seeing financial incentives that could put a team and a player at odds over his playing time.

As it stands right now, I think the Royals would have been better off trading Lugo last season versus bringing him back for this one, but I admittedly don’t know what was on offer. What I do know is that Lugo was able to pick up the ball every fifth day, but he was also part of the Royals’ pitching problems this year that led to the second-worst ERA in the American League. The starter comes across as a real craftsman, and I have no doubt that he will work on his issues against lefties in the offseason. I wonder if that will be enough, or if we all witnessed the beginning of the end of Lugo’s career as an effective starter.

Good morning friends and happy Friday!

Yesterday brought plenty of MLB postseason excitement. Let’s get to all of that and more.

MLB Postseason scores…

• The extraordinary happened: The Dodgers were swept at the hands of the Brewers in a 6-4 comeback victory. The Brew Crew advances to their first World Series in 44 years where they hope to capture their first-ever pennant.
• Rookie outfielder Petey Halpin was the hero for the Guardians in yesterday’s 3-2 win over the Rays, hitting the go-ahead homer with a bat flip to match. The Guards lead the series 2-1.

In Mariners news…

• Adam Jude at The Seattle Times wonders how the Mariners will replace the stellar production they got from outfielder Randy Arozarena.
• Eric Sanford posed an interesting hypothetical: if the Mariners had made the playoffs, how far would they have gone?

Around the league…

• Following the Dodgers’ elimination, infielder Miguel Rojas announced his retirement from the sport.
• Orioles left-hander Cade Povich underwent elbow surgery. He is expected to be back in time for spring training.
• The Rockies fired pitching coach Alon Leichman after just one season on the job.
• Michael Clair previewed this winter’s NPB-to-MLB class, which features four stars.
• The Phillies reportedly reached out to former stars Chase Utley and Raúl Ibañez about their managerial opening, but both players declined to be interviewed for the role.
• Joey Votto and Alex Bregman broke down why hitting has been a challenge in this postseason.

• Mikhail Klimentox at Readergrev reported on Polymarket’s paid quote-tweet esports program, which is more sophisticated than you may think at first glance.

Over the last few years — ever since the 2024 World Series, to be honest — the Yankees have had a reputation for defensive sloppiness. In truth, that is a tad overstated: as mentioned earlier this week, when we previewed the Yankees’ defensive highlights from the 2026 season, the team has finished in the middle third of the pack, according to most defensive metrics, in each of the past three seasons. Nonetheless, even the most optimistic of us (and I certainly count myself among that group) cannot deny the fact that the Yankees have repeatedly stuck their foot in their mouth over and over. And so, in an exercise in catharsis, let’s look back at some of the worst of the worst errors, misplays, and miscues from the 2026 season. We won’t be ranking them, because they all frustrate me in all sorts of different ways, but don’t let that stop you: let us know what you think about our list in the comments section below!

Slow Jazz

You know a defensive miscue is bad when the broadcaster in the opposing dugout says, “What on Earth is he doing?” Well, that’s exactly what happened to Jazz Chisholm Jr. back in April, as the second baseman took forever to throw the ball, allowing the speedy Otto Lopez to reach on an infield single to start the frame. While, ultimately, it didn’t end up costing the Yankees anything other than some damage to David Bednar’s ERA, as the team still wound up winning 9-7, this type of mistake is, in my opinion, among the most frustrating — this should have been an easy out, and yet, it wasn’t.

Houston, We ARE a Problem

Following his strong start to his big league career, George Lombard Jr. did his very best to erase all goodwill toward him by making errors in six consecutive games — no easy feat. Of these, the final one, from August 27th, is the one that sticks with me the most. First of all, not only does Lombard boot the ball, but then José Caballero, who catches the ricochet, compounds the problem by airmailing first base instead of just eating it; the damage was already done, there was no need to make it worse.

Inside-the-Park

I was at this game — in fact, I was out on the terrace when the play occurred, so I have a fairly unique vantage point. To some extent, it feels a tad unfair to put this on the list. While it’s hard to see on the video, the fly ball was hard to track, as it was knuckling in the wind (if you recall, this was the CC Sabathia game, which was moved from Saturday night to Friday afternoon due to inclement weather — and even then, hours before the storm hit, the wind was beginning to blow). Spencer Jones then slams into the outfield wall hard, with a very loud thud that made me actually a tad concerned about a potential injury. Then, it bounces in the worst possible direction, i.e., towards center field, and thus, away from the player responsible for backing up Jones. Last, and certainly not least… honestly, it was kind of cool. I had never seen an inside-the-park home run in person before, and now, the only things left on my baseball bucket list are to see a no-hitter, perfect game, and a cycle.

Still, an inside-the-park homer is an inside-the-park homer. No matter my own personal feelings, it belongs here.

Disaster at the Trop

Tropicana Field is cursed — or at least, the New York Yankees think so (after all, Andrew McCutchen said last week that the Yankees have not believed they could beat the Rays at the Trop as far back as 2018). I’m not going to get into their psyche (I’m a Latin teacher, not a sports psychologist), but I can confirm that they made a lot of errors down in St. Petersburg this year. The worst occurred, of course, with Cam Schlittler on the mound during Game 2 of the ALDS, as the team tried (and failed) to erase a 1-0 series deficit with the 2026 Cy Young favorite on the mound. It is, perhaps, unsurprising that our own Andrés Chávez listed this game as one of the worst moments of the season.

He’s Here! He’s There! He’s Every-Bleepin-Where!

When we reviewed the team’s best highlights, we took a look at José Caballero, who as the team’s Swiss Army Knife played literally every position on the diamond outside of pitcher, catcher, and first base. And while he was never quite a liability at any position…well, spending so much time bouncing around the diamond does result in a fair number of errors scattered around the diamond. We already saw one of his misplays at the hot corner above, so let’s check out some of his miscues elsewhere.

While playing the keystone on September 25th — the same game as the above inside-the-park homer, in fact — Cabby botched a ground ball, then simply couldn’t find it, thus allowing the run to score.

Back in May, he allowed the speedy Chandler Simpson to reach on this error that, uh, I’m not quite sure exactly how he managed to send the ball scurrying in that direction.

In August, he made two errors on the same play, bobbling the ball on the transfer trying to turn two, then throwing the ball low so that it skips away from Luis García Jr. (to be fair, García probably should’ve had that, but still).

Playing some center field on June 21st, he fields a grounder that went under the glove of Chisholm, then proceeded to throw the ball over everyone’s head when Spencer Steer tried to stretch it into a double, allowing the leadoff batter to reach third on what should have been a routine groundout up the middle.

Dishonorable Mentions

Lombard’s Other Five Errors in the Streak

The Final Cut from the Bottom Five

Amed Rosario in Fenway

It is always a difficult decision once your team is knocked out of the playoffs. Do you root for the team that knocked your team out to go all the way or do you stop watching altogether.

This season was certainly an exception if you were a San Diego Padres fan who decided to continue watching the MLB playoffs as no fan of the Padres would want to see the Los Angeles Dodgers advance to yet another World Series. The moment San Diego was knocked out of the postseason by the Milwaukee Brewers and it was determined the National League Central champions would be taking on the Dodgers the Friar Faithful adopted the Brewers as their team, at least in the NL.

Milwaukee made San Diego and likely many fans around baseball happy when the Brewers took Game 4 from the Dodgers by a final of 6-4, completing a four-game sweep of baseball’s Goliath. For Padres fans, it was bittersweet. You have to love seeing the Dodgers eliminated, but you have to wonder what might have been. If just a few things in the NL Division Series had gone differently, San Diego could have been the team to “slay the dragon,” but that was not to be.

The Padres will have to wait for another opportunity to reach the precipice of the sport and they are hoping that comes in 2027 with new owners Jose E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones saying they are all-in to bring a championship to the City of San Diego. What that means and what it will look like is unknown, but under a first-year manager and with a constricted operating budget to build a team in the 2025-26 offseason, the Padres built a team that came up just short. There is work to be done, but there is reason to believe San Diego is closer than ever to reaching its ultimate goal.

Padres News:

• Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors recaps the end of season news conference from Padres manager Craig Stammen and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.

• Padres prospect Alex McCoy connected on a 118.2 mph home run in the Arizona Fall League.

• Padres pitcher Michael King will have the opportunity to test free agency should he choose to do so and Thomas Conroy of Gaslamp Ball says the Padres should lock him up if he does.

Baseball News:

• Cheri Bell of Gaslamp Ball believes MLB has a CBA problem and explains why.

• Milwaukee’s Jake Bauers was named NLCS MVP.

• The Cleveland Guardians regained the ALCS series lead with a comeback win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

• With their season over, the Dodgers can turn their focus to soon-to-be free agent pitcher Tarik Skubal.

• Miguel Rojas, who helped Los Angeles win the 2025 World Series, is set to retire.

• Here is all the game information for Game 4 of the ALCS.

• For the first time in six years, a Will Smith will not win the World Series.

Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy had just watched his club dismantle Los Angeles for a fourth straight National League Championship Series game. Standing with his team in the Dodger Stadium clubhouse, he was ready to celebrate. But before popping his champagne and setting off a stream of celebratory suds, Murphy had a message.

“They got a bunch of Hall of Famers. We got a bunch of gamers.”

Murphy had nailed the Dodgers to the wall, ending the season of a juggernaut who came into 2026 with eyes on becoming the first NL team to win three straight World Series titles.

He also nailed the postgame speech.

Related: Brilliant Brewers reach first World Series since 1982 as Dodgers blow 4-0 lead

The Dodgers are dead, and instead, it’s Milwaukee who made history, becoming the first team to avenge an NLCS sweep by returning the favor against that very same team, the very next season.

Making history, it seems, is a theme with these Brewers, who racked up a franchise-best 103 wins during the regular season, and have now dethroned a team who seemed a shoo-in to become baseball’s first true dynasty since the millennium.

Milwaukee transformed LA into a team of ghosts, and no more so than in Game 4. With the desperate Dodgers bidding to wake up the echoes with a 4-0 lead, the Brewers went to work. And again, it was Jake Bauers who broke LA’s back. In Game 2, Bauers tortured Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto with an epic 12-pitch walk that sparked a key rally. In Game 3, there was an epic 11-pitch at-bat, this time against two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell, concluding with a franchise-defining home run. In the fourth inning of Game 4, Bauers struck a double against starter Tyler Glasnow, cutting the Dodgers’ lead in half. An inning later, Bauers – the journeyman infielder who paused his retirement and returned this season because he needed health insurance for his soon-to-be newborn – drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game. Garrett Mitchell’s sixth-inning solo home run gave Milwaukee a lead that would hold up. An old-school, three-inning save by Aaron Ashby was the chef’s kiss.

Now Milwaukee will head to their first World Series since 1982. There will be plenty of time to ply the Brew Crew with pixelated plaudits as they await their American League opponents, the Tampa Bay Rays or Cleveland Guardians. First, though, comes the funeral.

The tight, young, dynamic and fundamentally sound Brewers made Los Angeles’s best look old, flat and incapable. And while it all seems somewhat sudden, perhaps the writing was on the wall all along.

The Dodgers, the team who have everything, lack for nothing and have more money than Davy Crockett, won 100 games this season, but were just 38-37 against teams above .500 and hit into an MLB-worst 128 double-plays. In ways, they looked more like another expensive but deeply flawed coastal superpower: the New York Yankees. The Bronx bombs also beat up on lesser opponents all season long while struggling against higher-end teams. It’s no coincidence that both teams are now out; baseball has a way of weeding out the suckers, even in what some believe is a “crap shoot” of a postseason.

Perhaps the most shocking spectacle was the undoing of the sport’s most prolific figure, Shohei Ohtani. The best two-way player in baseball, inside his category of one, showed signs of breaking down in the latter portion of the season. First injuries forced him to stop pitching. Then he went homerless from late August until Thursday. Ohtani said it was only his ability, not injuries, holding him back, but he was dropped to sixth in the batting order for Game 3, and that doesn’t happen to an elite player in his prime unless there are issues. In the seventh inning of Game 4, with Kiké Hernández 90ft away from tying the game at five, Ohtani waved at an Ashby slider that was closer to Fresno than the Dodger Stadium home plate. Ohtani, the four-time MVP, wasn’t alone. Former MVP Mookie Betts hit light; former MVP Freddy Freeman hit even lighter. The lineup, collectively, hit for a .590 OPS in the series, while the pitching was uneven at best.

After the game, manager Dave Roberts, who was out-skippered by Murphy all series, told Fox that “the great thing about what we do is, you can try as much as you want, want it as bad and there’s nothing you can do about it. There’s nothing guaranteed.”

And that, it seems, gets to the heart of where we are with the Dodgers and where we may be with baseball: nothing, at all, is guaranteed. Not even after signing Kyle Tucker and Edwin Díaz in the offseason for a combined $309m. Not even after trading for Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal at the deadline. And not after writing $340m worth of checks. The Dodgers’ payroll is more than the combined payroll of the Rays, the Guardians, and the Brewers, the club that sent home “the team that destroyed baseball”.

And so the Dodgers, always in the headlines, leave us with all sorts of questions. The most straightforward: how will they respond and retool? The bigger questions: can critics say they destroyed baseball when the Brewers and their 19th-ranked payroll just destroyed them? Is baseball, a game that involves both skill and luck and always keeps us guessing, really some kind of utopian paradise where paupers can actually compete for prizes against princes? Are high payrolls and all-star laden rosters the most important metrics when it comes to who can compete for a title? How much can a smart, deliberate team brass make up for small budgets? In other words: who can find the gamers, when they can’t afford the Hall of Famers?

The Dodgers 2026 season has ended, so it’s now time to focus on what figures to be a tumultuous offseason with the Major League Baseball collective bargaining agreement expiring on December 1. But before we get to the lockout, there are still roster decisions to be made, so let’s see how the Dodgers look at the start of their offseason.

The season ended with six Dodgers players on the 60-day injured list and thus 46 players on the 40-man roster. The morning after the World Series ends, that number will be reduced to 37, with nine players set for free agency.

Free agents (9)

• Tarik Skubal
• Miguel Rojas
• Kiké Hernández
• Kris Bubic
• Eric Lauer
• Alex Vesia
• Evan Phillips
• Blake Treinen
• Brusdar Graterol

Because Tarik Skubal was traded midseason, he is ineligible to be tendered a qualifying offer, so the Dodgers won’t receive draft pick compensation should he sign elsewhere. Same for Kris Bubic and Eric Lauer, but they weren’t going to get a qualifying offer anyway. Miguel Rojas retired after 13 seasons as a player, and already has a spot waiting in the Dodgers front office, with a focus on player development.

The qualifying offer is a one-year offer, derived from the average of the top 125 salaries in the league that year. This offseason’s qualifying offer will be $23.15 million, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, up 5.11 percent from $22.025 million last year.

The Dodgers have no player or club options heading into the offseason, but let’s first look at the players under contract.

The salaries above are the amounts paid in the year in question. Several players have deferred salaries, most notably Shohei Ohtani, who for each season of his contract is paid $2 million, with the other $68 million deferred 10 years down the road.

Per the collective bargaining agreement, the present value of the deferred salary for a season must be fully funded by the second July 1 following said season. So for the $68 million earned by Ohtani in 2026 that will be paid in 2036 must be funded by July 1, 2028. Payroll for competitive balance tax purposes accounts for all deferrals, converting them into net present value and averaged over the life of the contract. For Ohtani, his CBT payroll number is just over $46 million.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto signed a 12-year, $325 million contract prior to the 2024 season. He received all of his $50 million signing bonus in 2024, and lower salaries in the first three years of the deal, hence the $12 million salary in 2026. That bumps up to $26 million for each season from 2027-29. The right-hander can opt out of his contract after either the 2029 and 2031 seasons or 2031 and 2033, depending on whether or not he experiences certain injuries and misses a certain amount of time.

Will Smith signed a 10-year contract in 2024 that runs through 2033. In both 2026 and 2027, his salary is $13 million, with $5 million deferred, with those deferrals paid annual from 2034-2043.

Mookie Betts prior to the 2020 season signed a 12-year, $365 million extension that started in 2021 and runs through 2032. His contract fits the rubric of many Dodgers contracts to follow, with a large signing bonus ($65 million, 17.8 percent of the total) as well as a sizable amount of deferred salary ($115 million, 31.5 percent). For both 2026 and 2027, Betts has a $25 million salary, of which $10 million is deferred, plus he gets $5 million of his signing bonus, for a total paid of $20 million in each of these two seasons.

Kyle Tucker’s four-year, $240 million contract included a $64 million signing bonus, of which $10 million will be paid on February 1, 2027. His salary for 2027 is $54 million, minus $10 million deferred. He can opt out of the final two years of his contract after the 2027 season.

Blake Snell’s five-year, $182 million contract included a $52 million signing bonus that was all paid in 2025. The remaining $26 million per year includes $13.2 million deferred each season, leaving Snell with $12.8 million per year. Snell’s contract also includes a conditional 2030 club option with $10 million depending should he suffer a qualifying injury.

Tommy Edman signed a five-year, $74 million contract ahead of 2025 that included a $17 million signing bonus already paid. His salary in both 2026 and 2027 is $12.25 million, of which $6.25 million is deferred annually. The Dodgers hold a $13 million club option on Edman for 2030 that includes a $3 million buyout.

Edwin Díaz last December broke his own record for highest average annual salary by a relief pitcher with his three-year, $69 million contract. In 2027, Díaz has a $23 million salary, of which $4.5 million is deferred.

Tanner Scott’s four-year, $72 million contract runs through 2028. His $20 million signing bonus is split evenly over the four years of the contract. Scott in 2027 has a $15 million salary, of which $5.25 million is deferred, plus $5 million of his signing bonus.

Freddie Freeman in 2027 enters the final year of his six-year, $162 million contract. He’ll get his $27 million, minus $12 million deferred salary.

Tyler Glasnow is under contract for one more year at $30 million in 2027. Then in 2028 he has a player option worth $21,562,500, but if he declines that player option the Dodgers have a club option worth $30 million.

Teoscar Hernández has a $14.5 million salary for 2027, of which $8 million is deferred, and the Dodgers have a $15 million club option for 2028 with a $6.5 million buyout. That’s $21 million in guaranteed money should the Dodgers try to trade Hernández and open up an outfield spot for Josue De Paula.

Max Muncy had a base salary of $10 million in 2026, then played in a career-high 149 games and batted 561 times. Incentives in his contract added $2.25 million to his base salary in 2026 ($15,000 for every plate appearance from 401 to 550), and also added $3.75 million to his 2027 base salary ($20,000 for every 2026 PA from 401 to 500, $35,000 for every 2026 PA from 501 to 550). Muncy’s contract originally called for a $7 million base salary in 2027 (now $10.75 million), and the Dodgers have a $10 million club option in 2028 with a $3 million buyout.

Hyeseong Kim is under contract for $3.75 million in 2027, and the Dodgers have a two-year club option for 2028-29 at $5 million in each season, with a $1.5 million buyout if declined.

All told, the 14 players under contract have a total competitive balance payroll of roughly $339.5 million for 2027. The caveat here is we don’t know if the competitive balance tax will remain in the current format with a new collective bargaining agreement, or if it will even exist at all. But that’s what the Dodgers have on the books for now.

The salary projections above are from MLB Trade Rumors. We’ll dive deeper into each case in the offseason, just like we did last January. But for now, if those projections hold, that would add six players for a guaranteed $12.9 million. Added to the players already under contract, that’s 18 players for about $351.4 million for competitive balance tax purposes.

Andy Pages is eligible for arbitration as a Super Two player, a player among the top 22 percent in service time for players with at least two but not yet three years of service time. It takes 172 days to accrue a full year of service time. Alex Call was a Super Two player last offseason.

If this were a normal offseason, the date for players and teams to exchange salaries for arbitration would be Friday, January 8, 2027. But MLB will almost certainly be in a lockout by then. In the 2022 season, some salary arbitration hearings were held well after the regular season began.

The major league minimum salary in 2026 was $780,000. The 2027 minimum salary hasn’t yet been determined, but will certainly be a part of the next collective bargaining agreement. The 22.7-percent raise from 2021 to 2022 (the first year of the current CBA) was the largest such negotiated increase in nearly two decades.

Minimum salary raise in first year of recent CBAs

• 2021-22: $570,500 to $700,000 (22.7 percent)
• 2016-17: $507,500 to $535,000 (5.4 percent)
• 2011-12: $414,000 to $480,000 (15.9 percent)
• 2006-07: $327,000 to $380,000 (16.2 percent)
• 2002-03: $200,000 to $300,000 (50 percent)

Other important dates

• October28-November 1: At 6 a.m. PT the morning after the World Series ends, players with at least six years of service time and/or at the completion of their contracts become free agents.
• November 2-6: Five days after the World Series ends is the deadline for teams to make qualifying offers to players. It’s also the end of the “quiet period” of free agency, during which players can only sign with their former team.
• November 17: 1 p.m. PT deadline for players to accept qualifying offers
• November 17: Reserve lists filed (prospects added to 40-man roster)
• November 20: Tender deadline

Josue De Paula would have been added to the 40-man roster by that November 17 deadline to avoid getting plucked in the Rule 5 Draft, but he was already called up in September. Players drafted or signed at age 19 or older in 2023 or players drafted or signed at 18 or younger in 2022 are newly eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this December. Dodgers top pitching prospect Christian Zazueta, signed by the Cubs out of Mexico in 2022, will need to be added to the 40-man roster by November 17. Zazueta has won the Branch Rickey Award as the Dodgers minor league pitcher of the yearfor two years running, and he just turned 22 last week.

Another potential addition is Jackson Ferris, a former top Dodgers pitching prospect drafted by the Cubs in 2022 who struggled for most of 2026 before a sublime final five weeks.

The collective bargaining agreement expires at 8:59 p.m. PT on December 1, after which the owners will lock out the players. But there’s still about a month that could be quite busy on the hot stove before the sport gets shut down for the winter.

There were a lot of comments at some point in the past eleven months or so that said something like, “Who cares about xyz, you’ll do it for a chance to lose to the Dodgers in October…” Well, it’s October, and… only the Braves lost to the Dodgers therein. Every other team either lost to someone else, didn’t make the postseason, or has their season still ongoing.

It’s fitting, perhaps, that with the Dodgers eliminated, none of the remaining teams still “in it” have a payroll in baseball’s top half. The Brewers are 20th (19th by luxury tax balance), the Guardians are dead last (29th), and the Rays are 28th (27th). So much for that narrative surviving the spin cycle that is MLB trying to shoehorn a short series playoff format onto this sport and league.

But, all of that doesn’t mean you don’t have feelings about the Dodgers bowing out. (Or, getting steamed out like a rug stain.) So, if you do, what are they?