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There’s a school of thought which suggests that the Diamondbacks “broke” the Dodgers, by beating them in the 2023 National League Division Series. Not just by the defeat, but by the manner of it. It was a sweep, with Arizona outscoring Los Angeles 19-6, never trailing in any game at any point, and leading by two runs or more, at the end of 25 of the 27 innings played. That winter, the Dodgers engaged beast mode, giving contracts worth over a billion dollars in total to Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto alone, and haven’t stopped spending since. Including a staggering $183 million in luxury tax penalties – more than a dozen teams paid in payroll – their 2026 salary bill was over $616 million.

I can’t argue they have not spent effectively, winning three division titles, and averaging 97 wins. But it has been in the post-season where their dominance has become near-total. Remember, in the playoffs, you’re facing the best teams the rest of baseball has to offer. But since the Diamondbacks gave them the bum’s rush out of the 2023 post-season, the Dodgers have won eight consecutive playoff series, and are 27-10, a .730 win percentage. Again, this is not facing the Colorado Rockies, but other division winners and wild-card teams. If the Brewers or (probably) Rays can’t stop them, they’ll become the first team to three-peat since 2000.

Under normal circumstances, I would be cheering wholeheartedly for their opponents, as has been the case in the last two seasons. #TeamAnyoneButLA. But this year, there’s a concern that might over-ride this. Specifically, that if anyone except the Los Angeles Dodgers wins the World Series – especially a relatively small-market team like the Brewers or the Rays – it might mute demands for a salary cap in the upcoming CBA negotiations. That’s something I feel is essential to the basic survival of major-league baseball, in terms of competitive balance. But a Rays/Brewers victory could potentially be used by the players as proof everything is fine. “See? You can’t buy success!”

It’s not really the case. The problem has never been the post-season, where randomness plays a significant factor. Let’s be honest. The 2023 Diamondbacks who won 83 games were not a “better” team, by any objective measure, than the 92-win Brewers, 100-win Dodgers or 90-win Phillies. But Arizona went 9-3 against that trio, including 6-2 on the road, on their way to the World Series. This is baseball. Get “hot” at the right time, and who knows what can happen. The issue is the regular season. The NL West has turned into six months of grinding and irrelevant tedium, a procession where non-Dodger fans look at the Central and East standings more than their own division.

This predates the 2023 NLDS. The Dodgers have taken 13 of the last 14 division titles – and won 106 games the sole season they didn’t come first. It’s only when you look at the standings since 2013, that the degree of Los Angeles’s domination becomes clear. Over the roughly 13 1/3 seasons in that time (2020 being the one-third), they have won over a hundred games more than any other team. Not “any other NL West team”, any other team. The second-placed Yankees are closer to the tenth-placed Cubs, than they are to the Dodgers. Here’s the average standings in the NL West, from 2013-2026.

1. Los Angeles Dodgers: 99-63
2. San Francisco Giants: 80-82
3. San Diego Padres: 80-82
4. Arizona Diamondbacks: 78-84
5. Colorado Rockies: 69-93

Over a fourteen-year period – bold font, please – the Dodgers have averaged 99 wins per season, while every other team in the division is below .500. Their win percentage of .610 over that time is the best in the integrated era. To find anything higher, you need to go back to the 1947-1960 Yankees, who had a .622 win percentage in the regular season, and won eight World Series during that span, including five in a row. In other words, the Dodgers under their current ownership are the most powerful major-league team in over sixty years. Arguably more: that Yankees dynasty failed to win their division twice, in 1954 and 1959; the Dodgers only once.

That’s what “competitive balance” looks like, according to the players’ union. The Brewers winning the World Series is not going to change this, or the fact that the Dodgers’ current television deal alone [$8.35 billion over 25 years, an AAV of $334 million] is worth more, according to Forbes, than every revenue stream the D-backs possess. The LA Times reports, “By the time the deal ends in 2038, the Dodgers will be getting more than $500 million per year” – and making things worse, it’s largely exempt from revenue sharing.

It’s simply impossible for anyone else in the NL West to compete under the current system, A third consecutive Dodgers’ World Series win would underscore this, and hopefully make it almost impossible for any eventual agreement between the owners and players not to include a salary cap (and floor, of course). Would LA coming up short make a difference? Hard to say. ESPN recently had an interesting article looking at this very topic, asking executives and players what impact (if any) the results of the World Series would have on negotiations. The general opinion: a three-peat for LA would entrench positions. To quote an NL player:

It’ll be bad. The league is going to dig in a lot more. And we know the union isn’t going to go for a cap, so it’s going to get really bad. Nobody wants to see the Dodgers win. No owner does. None of the fans do. But I think it’s going to make this all worse.

Conversely, an NL executive said, “A small-market club [with a strong front office] winning the World Series going into an adversarial offseason would likely allow players to make the argument that the game is in a healthy place from a parity standpoint.” Personally, I’ve already reached acceptance that, if it’s necessary for us to lose games next year – or even the entire season – in order to get significant change, then so be it. It’s a price I’m willing to pay. I’m beginning to feel that, if the Dodgers winning the World Series helps achieve the necessary change, then I might be forced to suck it up, hold my nose and – in a thoroughly non-political sense – “Vote blue, no matter who.”

It’s that time of year where teams are shaking up their front office structure and interviews are happening. We know that Sam Fuld was in the running to take the A’s president of baseball operations position, but that has apparently not come to pass.

Being tasked with leading the A’s into Las Vegas was apparently something that Fuld was not interested in, so he will remain with the Phillies. Of note, he is still the president of business operations with the Phillies, not baseball operations. One wonders if that job will be his if/when Dave Dombrowski decides to finally hang them up here in Philadelphia.

It felt inevitable even in the early stages of the season that the two best teams in MLB would be on a collision course for a seismic encounter in the NLCS. The Brewers and Dodgers were the only two teams to finish with at least 100 wins, and by the time both teams jumped out to comfortable leads atop their respective divisions by mid-July, you could sense we were destined for a rematch of last season’s NLCS. It should be a far more competitive series than last October, when rampant Dodgers squad swept the Brewers by holding Milwaukee to just one run in each of the four games.

There’s no easing into this series — all signs are pointing to a dream matchup of Tarik Skubal vs. Jacob Misiorowski in Game 1, pitting the two-time defending AL Cy Young against this season’s presumptive NL Cy Young winner. There was a not insignificant chance that the two aces could have shared a rotation, Milwaukee showing legitimate interest right up until the Dodgers swooped in and acquired Skubal from the Tigers at the deadline. Los Angeles has also tabbed 2025 World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start Game 2 while the Brewers have yet to select a starter beyond Game 1.

This year’s Dodgers remains the juggernaut they’ve been during this World Series-winning run, but make no mistake, this is a young Brewers squad with an extra year of experience under their belts and the hunger to avenge last year’s sweep and make it to their first World Series since their one and only appearance in 1982.

Los Angeles Dodgers

Regular season record: 100-62 (1st, NL West)

(Beat Braves in NLDS, 3-1)

This is just as complete a Dodgers team as the one who secured back-to-back World Series titles, Los Angeles keeping their championship core largely intact while making a Cy Young-sized upgrade to the starting rotation. Their offense placed second in MLB behind the Cubs in wRC+ (111) and fWAR (26.9) and is a blend of contact and power, their .257 team batting average and .424 slugging also second-best in MLB. Their starting rotation was tops in the Majors in fWAR (18.7) and second behind the Yankees in ERA (3.43) and FIP (3.69), the group of Skubal, Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow posing comfortably the highest ceiling of any starting staff in the land. The biggest improvement over last year is their bullpen, which ranked second in MLB in strikeout rate (26.2-percent) and third in FIP (3.67).

Offense

The Dodgers advanced past the Braves pretty handily despite Shohei Ohtani remaining mostly absent for the series. It was part of a protracted slump to end the year for the four-time MVP, Ohtani mustering just a 72 wRC+ in September and a 106 mark in the second half. His last home run was on August 18th, the downturn in form likely the result of left knee and right biceps injuries that convinced the Dodgers to remove him from the rotation to DH full time in early July. He went 2-for-13 in the NLDS and will have his streak of three straight NL MVPs snapped by Pete Crow-Armstrong.

Also largely absent from the NLDS were Mookie Betts and Andy Pages. Betts got red-hot to end the regular season but couldn’t carry that into the series against the Braves, where he had a 75 wRC+ in 17 plate appearances. Pages established himself as one of the game’s premier center fielders this year and last, but was only good for a 77 wRC+ in 15 plate appearances.

Instead, the onus was on Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman, and Kyle Tucker to carry the load against Atlanta. Ever-reliable postseason performer Max Muncy led the way with three home runs and three RBIs to extend his lead atop the franchise postseason home run list to 19. Freeman hit a pair of home runs and drove in a pair against his former team to earn a 174 wRC+ while Tucker batted .333 with a 151 wRC+.

Starting rotation

The Dodgers provided a blueprint for how they might deploy their four-headed rotation monster of Skubal, Yamamoto, Snell, and Glasnow with each pitcher making one start in the NLDS. With Skubal and Yamamoto already lined up for the first two games, I imagine Snell and Glasnow will start Games 3 and 4, respectively, based on rest.

Skubal pitched to a 2.61 ERA and 2.36 FIP in ten regular season starts for LA and allowed a run on two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in six innings in the Dodgers’ Game 1 win over the Braves. Yamamoto was even better in Game 3, holding Atlanta to a run on four hits and a walk with ten strikeouts in seven innings following a brilliant regular season in which he went 14-9 in 28 starts with a 2.53 ERA, 3.33 FIP, and 182 strikeouts in 185 innings. Snell was limited to just nine regular season starts in another injury-plagues season, but was dominant to the tune of a 1.90 ERA and 1.72 FIP without giving up a home run in 42.2 innings. He started their lone loss of the NLDS, lasting just 3.2 innings in Game 2 after allowing a run on three hits and five walks. Like Snell, Glasnow was largely unavailable in the regular season, making just 13 starts with a 3.53 ERA and 2.74 FIP, but he helped seal the series in Atlanta by pitching 4.2 innings of one-run ball on one hit and five walks with five strikeouts in the decisive Game 4.

Bullpen

Often the one shaky unit of their playoff runs, the Dodgers bullpen has looked far more settled this postseason. Edwin Díaz returned from a disastrous regular season that saw him demoted from the closer role and suffer elbow and neck injuries to make three scoreless appearances and secure two saves against the Braves. Roki Sasaki, Brock Stewart, and Alex Vesia didn’t allow a run in their combined five innings of relief while Edgardo Henriquez’s fastball has touched as high as 104 mph. Only Tanner Scott struggled, allowing two runs in 2.2 innings, but he still struck out four of the 11 batters he faced.

Milwaukee Brewers

Regular season record: 103-59 (1st, NL Central)

(Beat Padres in NLDS, 3-1)

The Brewers were the class of MLB, pacing the league with 103 wins. They are what every team aspires to be, blending a cutting edge analytics department with robust player development successes to both produce homegrown cornerstone talent and squeeze as much surplus value out of every player who joins the organization — proof that you do not need a salary cap to make small market teams competitive.

Their offense remained remarkably consistent relative to last year. In 2025, they posted a .257 average, .736 OPS, 166 home runs, a 107 wRC+, and 28.4 fWAR. In 2026, they posted a .257 average, .743 OPS, 154 home runs, a 107 wRC+, and 26.1 fWAR, their offense ranking third right behind the Dodgers in wRC+ and fWAR. Their starting pitching took a big step forward as you might expect when led by a historic campaign from The Miz, the unit finishing fourth in MLB in FIP (3.73) and fWAR (15.6) and fifth in ERA (3.61). The bullpen remained an undeniable strength as it does every year, placing in the top-four in ERA (3.40) and FIP (3.70).

Offense

The Brewers were led by ascending superstar Jackson Chourio, who became the all-time franchise leader with five postseason home runs at only 22 years old. Despite just a 73 wRC+ in the series overall, he hit the game-tying two-run homer in Game 1 and the walk-off RBI single with two strikes and two outs off Padres closer Mason Miller in Game 2. He batted .291 with 25 home runs and a 130 wRC+ in the regular season and drove in six in just four games against San Diego.

Their most consistent contributor against the Padres was William Contreras, who went 6-for-16 with two home runs, two RBIs, and a 225 wRC+. Christian Yelich was 5-for-14 with a 162 wRC+ while Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick were on-base machines in that series. Brice Turang, Garrett Mitchell, Joey Ortiz, and Cooper Pratt were all above average by wRC+ during the regular season but none of that quartet did much of anything in the NLDS. If Turang in particular can find his swing after posting a 6 wRC+ in 18 PAs, you’d like their chances a lot more against an LA starting rotation that’s in a league above the Padres.

Starting rotation

If the Brewers are going to have any chance of advancing to the World Series, it’s going to come down to pitching, specifically Jacob Misiorowski. He will likely run away with the NL Cy Young after leading MLB in ERA (1.80), FIP (2.17), strikeouts (252) and fWAR (6.6). He allowed two runs on four hits and a walk with six strikeouts in four innings in the Brewers’ Game 1 victory, and in all likelihood will have to start twice and probably make a relief appearance against the Dodgers. He struck out nine in five innings of two-run ball in Game 3 of last year’s NLCS against LA.

The quality of options in the rotation after him thins out significantly with Robert Gasser, Logan Henderson, and Dustin May each making one start in the NLDS. Henderson pitched to a 2.47 ERA and 3.32 FIP in 18 regular season starts, the rookie holding the Padres to two runs on two hits and three walks in five innings of a Game 2 walk-off win. Gasser posted a 3.87 ERA and 4.23 FIP in 20 regular seasons starts and held San Diego to a run on three hits and a walk in four innings of the series-clinching Game 4 win. May is the clear black sheep of the bunch, struggling mightily in ten starts after joining from the Cardinals at the deadline and getting tagged for two runs on three hits and two walks of a Game 3 loss.

Bullpen

In my opinion, the X-factor of this series will be the Brewers bullpen, who was taxed heavily in their four games against San Diego, yet have still posted the second-lowest bullpen ERA of any playoff team at 1.80. I expect Milwaukee to continue to lean on the high leverage, high velocity dual threat of Aaron Ashby and Trevor Megill, the pair combining to toss nine scoreless innings and secure two saves against San Diego. DL Hall, Anthonio Senzatela, and Abner Uribe might not strike out ten-percent of batters they faced but the three held San Diego scoreless across 7.2 combined innings. The unit as a whole is a groundball-generating machine facing a Dodgers team that posted the third-lowest groundball rate in the majors.

Today’s Matchup:

National League Championship Series Game 1

Milwaukee Brewers vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Time: 8:00 p.m. EST

TV: Fox, Fox ONE, Fox Deportes

Venue: American Family Field, Milwaukee, WI

Well the list of potential new GM’s for the A’s got a little smaller on Saturday morning. Jeff Passan reports that Phillies General Manager Sam Fuld has turned down an offer by the A’s to take over the front office, opting to instead remain in Philadelphia where he’ll be second fiddle to Philly President Dave Dombrowski:

Fuld was considered one of the stronger candidates to take over the A’s operations but evidently he’d prefer to stay put and wait for a different opportunity down the line. It’s never a good feeling to see your team rejected like this. The A’s apparently made not only the offer of General Manager, but offered the title of President of Baseball Operations. He would have been able to staff out an entire front office to his vision, but evidently the Athletics’ job was one that he did not want to take.

While Fuld is now out of contention, there’s a name that is gaining traction, again according to Passan. Red Sox AGM Taylor Smith may now be the option as of now:

Smith began his career with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2018 with their research and development team but was poached by the division-rival Red Sox in 2024, getting the title of assistant GM to Craig Breslow. Over the past couple of years he’s been in charge of their analytics department. That Tampa organization really does pump out staffers to other organizations at an incredible rate, and Smith was among those that was highly regarded and viewed as a future GM, even by the Red Sox. He has been one of several lieutenants for the former A’s reliever-turned-GM in their collaborative front office approach.

He wouldn’t have anyone else to report to if he does end up getting the A’s job since the Passan report indicates he’d be given the President title. That’d mean he’d have free reign to shape the team as he sees fit and hire who he wants to staff his front office. Presumably the first order of business will be to address the pitching, or lack thereof. That’ll be the top priority for whoever the A’s select but Smith seems like as good as any candidate to bring in fresh outside ideas into the organization, something the organization could certainly use. He’s a bit on the younger side in his early 30’s (there’s no public information on his exact age), and he doesn’t have the most experience, but if the A’s feel he’s their guy then what are we waiting for?

And one more tidbit from Passan is that St. Louis AGM Rob Cerfolio is likely to remain with the Cardinals. That’s not especially surprising considering what’s going on over there. Chaim Bloom is ascending to President, meaning that Cerfolio will get his own promotion to GM. He’ll still be the second-in-command but that was always expected.

The wait to find out who will be the next voice of the Athletics’ front office seems to be winding down. We should hopefully know the choice by the end of the weekend, or at the latest early next week. Who do you guys want to be the selection?

Veteran infielder Miguel Rojas took ground balls and hit in a few rounds of batting practice during the Dodgers workout at Dodger Stadium on Friday, still nursing back and hip pain suffered Tuesday in Atlanta, with the hope he could be ready to go for the start of the National League Championship Series on Sunday in Milwaukee.

“Today was encouraging. He had imaging, and a lot of it was stuff that he’s had prior history. We’ve still got a flight to get on, and we’ll see how he comes in [Saturday] for the workout there. So there’s nothing definitive, but I will say today was a step in the right direction,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said on a Friday Zoom call. “That was good to see.”

Rojas left Game 3 of the NLDS in the middle of an at-bat in the eighth inning after feeling something on a swing while hitting a foul ball. He still felt sore on Wednesday and was not available for Game 4.

The veteran Rojas was one of the Dodgers’ most effective batters against left-handed pitchers this season, hitting .293/.340/.469 with a 121 wRC+. Rojas started twice in the NLDS, both against left-handed starting pitchers (Ray Kerr opened Game 2, followed by Chris Sale in Game 3).

The 37-year-old also led the team with 40 pinch-hit plate appearances, 15 more than any other player on the team. His presence among the reserves is felt, and the Dodgers will have a shorter bench in the NLCS, as the team plans to carry 13 pitchers in the best-of-7 NLCS after only using 12 pitchers in the Division Series, Roberts confirmed on Friday.

During the NLDS, the Dodgers bench included Rojas and Kiké Hernández, each of whom started twice during the series, plus backup catcher Hunter Feduccia, who did not play, rookie Josue De Paula, used twice as a pinch-hitter, and speedster Hyeseong Kim, who was used as a pinch-runner in Game 5 and played the final inning at second base.

Rojas spent the last few days getting treatment for his injury, and the Dodgers still have until Sunday morning to determine whether he’ll be on the NLCS roster.

“We’ve just got to be certain that if he do have him on [the NLCS roster], he can stay healthy, so you don’t lose him for the potential World Series,” Roberts said Friday. “We certainly have a couple other good options if it doesn’t happen, and he can’t post. But I’m encouraged with what I saw today.”

If the Dodgers were to put Rojas on the NLCS roster but need to replace him due to injury within the series, Rojas would then be ineligible for the next round, which in this case is the World Series.

The Dodgers have three options if Rojas isn’t available for the NLCS. They could keep the same rest of the bench as the NLDS, without Rojas: Hernández, Feduccia, De Paula, and Kim. Or they could replace Kim with Alex Freeland, a switch-hitting infielder who hits better from the left side. Outfielder Alex Call could be the choice over Kim, offering a right-handed hitter on the bench. Either way, the versatility of Hernández and Tommy Edman gives the Dodgers flexibility when making late-inning defensive replacements, moving around the infield or outfield as needed.

NLCS rosters are due Sunday morning.

Batting order alone doesn’t dictate a team’s fortune, but it does make a difference. This is especially so in short series, where even the tiniest edges and flaws are magnified. And no place in the lineup matters more than the top spot. Suffice it to say that Aaron Boone and the Yankees faced an extremely important decision when choosing the leadoff man for Game 3 with the season on the line.

So why in the world did they land on Trent Grisham? 

To state the obvious, Grisham did not have a good year in any shape or form. He had a .308 OBP. His wRC+ was 98. And these numbers are what he recorded before landing on the IL at the start of September with a strained hammy. To his credit, Grisham did record two hits during the party against the dregs of the Red Sox bullpen in Game 2 of the Wild Card Series, but he was a non-factor in Games 1 and 2 of the Division Series. This isn’t the resume of someone to whom you’d like to entrust the leadoff spot in an elimination game . And yet, that’s precisely what the Yankees did.

Of course, it’s easy as an armchair manager to fall into the trap of hindsight. It would be wrong of me to point to Grisham’s 0-for-5, three-strikeout night and say, “I told you so.” But that’s not what I’m going to argue. My point is that hitting Grisham first was the wrong call, even if it had worked out, because the decision-making process had a fatal flaw — one that explains so much about this current era of Yankees baseball. 

That flaw is this: the Yankees’ way of evaluating players has become far too rigid. Once they make up their mind about a player’s true talent, they will adhere to it adamantly, even if the on-field results suggest that something is wrong. It takes a mountain of evidence to pile up for them to consider recalibrating their view of that player, and by the time that happens, the damage has already been done.

Trent Grisham is but the latest example. When asked postgame whether he regretted placing Grisham in the leadoff spot, Aaron Boone had this to offer:  

“No. I mean, look, obviously, we really struggled to score runs in the first two games, and I was pretty convicted on trying to find a way to be able to get Benny a chance to come up with runners on or be in a position to do that more often tonight…it’s a decision I made to try and create a little bit of traffic, and obviously it didn’t work. But you’re going to live with that.”

I get wanting to give Ben Rice more chances to hit with men on base. But even if that made sense, Grisham was not the answer. The man isn’t a high-OBP guy. Not counting 2020, his career high over a full season is the .348 mark he posted last year; in all other years he’s failed to reach .330. He’s a high-walk guy, I’ll give him that, but his abysmal batting averages have generally dragged his OBP down to unremarkable levels. To wit: Grisham’s career walk rate is a robust 12.1 percent, but his career OBP is a pedestrian .319.

Boone’s reasoning only makes sense if you assume that Grisham’s superb 2025 represented a new baseline for him, and that version of him was still somewhere within him, despite his subpar 2026 numbers and his late-season injury. It seems, in short, that Boone and the Yankees were clinging to the best version of Grisham in their minds, a version detached from reality.

When viewed in this way, the Grisham decision turns from an isolated blunder to the latest case of a widespread issue. Recall how the Yankees kept running Austin Wells out until June, despite him hitting for a 26 wRC+ for the entire month of May. The team only took action when Wells went to them, suggesting that they might have been unaware that something was ailing Wells if he hadn’t.

I don’t think it’s too farfetched to theorize that they viewed Wells’ disastrous offensive performance as merely a bad slump, and that they were planning on simply running him out there until he experienced positive regression, without making any inquiries into his health. The Yankees had an idea of how Austin Wells was supposed to hit, and when the on-field results weren’t there, they assumed that their idea of Wells would eventually translate to reality, rather than readjusting their evaluation of Wells given recent results.

Wells’ case is reminiscent of how the Yankees handled Anthony Rizzo’s concussion in 2023. It took 46 games of Rizzo hitting .172/.271/.225 for the Yankees to do anything, and even then, Rizzo had to go to the team, not the other way around. And this goes beyond how the Yankees have mismanaged injuries; in 2024, we saw them keep trotting out Alex Verdugo in left field when it was clear by mid-July that it wasn’t working out. In 2025, they stubbornly kept on using Devin Williams in high-leverage situations, a crucial factor in them losing the division race. Then there’s the ongoing shortstop question, with the Yankees being stubborn at various points about both Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Anthony Volpe’s abilities. Time and time again, the Yankees of recent years have shown a reluctance to change their minds about their own players.

Admittedly, there is something to be said for not overreacting to small sample sizes. Even superstars can have bad weeks and months; look at how Pete Crow-Armstrong and Fernando Tatis Jr. started their respective years, compared to the numbers they finished with. Closer to home in 2024, Aaron Judge followed an awful April with a preposterous .352/.488/.777 triple slash with 52 homers in 127 games as he won MVP. Making rash, drastic changes based on the tiniest fluctuations in performance is not a winning formula by any means.

However, there needs to be a balance. Teams can, and should, try to constantly update their understanding of players’ abilities based on new data, while keeping in mind that small sample size caveats apply. Right now, the Yankees’ modus operandi appears as though it’s set in stone. If that’s due to a philosophical stance about trying not to be influenced by granular data points, then that stance needs to be relaxed. And if that’s due to complacency and hubris, then I’d like to remind them that it’s been 17 years since their last title. Something needs to change.