After winning Game 1, the Chicago White Sox can finish off the Houston Astros in the best-of-three American League wild card series on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Daikin Park.
Chicago's 6-3 victory in the opener was a slog with both teams opting to use an opener, though rookie White Sox southpaw Hagen Smith went three innings to start things off. Houston used eight pitchers in the Game 1 loss after sneaking into the playoffs with an 81-81 record, the worst mark for a postseason team in MLB history.
Sean Burke (11-8, 3.34 ERA) will start Game 2 for the White Sox, while right-hander Hunter Brown (6-4, 3.19 ERA) takes the mound trying to save the Astros' season.
The winner of the series advances to face the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Division Series, beginning Saturday, Oct. 3.
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The Philadelphia Phillies have their backs against the wall after a crushing Game 1 loss against the Atlanta Braves, and send ace Cristopher Sanchez to the mound to save their season on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at Truist Park.
Austin Riley hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth in the opener off ace reliever Jhoan Duran, the latest bullpen failure in the Phillies' run of five consecutive postseason trips.
Sanchez went 18-7 with a 2.91 ERA in the regular season for the Phillies. Right-hander Tyler Mahle gets the start for the Braves, who would clinch the best-of-three series with a win and advance to the National League Division Series against the reigning champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
If the Phillies win Wednesday, the winner-take-all Game 3 of the wild card series will be played on Thursday in Atlanta.
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Steve Kerr had noticed something about Warriors’ star Steph Curry for years. He just never knew what it actually was.
Curry recently told “People Magazine” he was diagnosed with keratoconus, a rare and progressive eye condition, back in 2018 — disclosing it with a joke about his eventual memoir title. Speaking with NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke, Kerr was asked to react to the revelation and to Curry’s own line about the diagnosis.
“He said it would be ‘The Whole Time I Couldn’t See,'” Burke relayed to Kerr, asking what he made of Curry’s accomplishments as the greatest 3-point shooter in NBA history knowing he had been dealing with blurry vision.
“It’s funny, because over the years, I’ve seen him at times kind of squinting — either back at me in the huddle or on the court — and nobody ever came and told me, ‘Yeah, he’s got this eye condition,'” Kerr said. “I don’t think anybody really knew. So yeah, I was shocked when that story came out. But imagine how good he’d be if he could see straight.”
The numbers make Kerr’s shock understandable. It was actually former general manager Bob Myers, not Kerr, who first noticed Curry’s squinting on television broadcasts and urged him to get examined during the 2018-19 NBA season.
At the time of his diagnosis, Curry was already a two-time champion in the middle of a stretch where he averaged nearly 27 points per game on close to 50-percent shooting and 43 percent from three — performing at an MVP level while relying almost entirely on muscle memory to compensate for a condition that was actively distorting his vision.
Seven seasons removed from his diagnosis and treatment, Curry has been remarkably consistent, shooting 92.3 percent from the free-throw line and 40.3 percent from three since. He now manages the condition with biannual checkups and has worn corrective contacts throughout that stretch — meaning the version of Curry Warriors fans have watched break record after record was never actually seeing the court the way everyone assumed he was.
Baseball is a numbers game, but when it comes to payroll and the playoffs, teams didn’t simply have to pay to reach the 2026 postseason.
While eight of MLB's final 12 teams are in the top 10 end-of-season payrolls, based on figures from the MLB Labor Relations Department and obtained by USA TODAY, the remaining four are among baseball’s lowest spenders.
That includes the teams with the best records in each league, the Milwaukee Brewers and the Tampa Bay Rays. The Brewers’ payroll entering the postseason is $143.5 million, good for 19th in MLB. The Rays’ $98.3 million total is No. 25.
The two top 10 payrolls that didn’t make the playoffs this year are the New York Mets — the highest in pro baseball — and 2025 World Series runner-up Toronto Blue Jays, which have the fifth-most expensive roster.
The two leagues’ postseason stables look drastically different.
The New York Yankees’ $304.6 million payroll is nearly a third of the league’s $1.03 billion total. And then the three lowest payrolls in the playoffs — the Rays, White Sox and Guardians — are all below $100 million.
On the diamond, though, do payrolls matter as October heats up?
USA TODAY looked back at the 10 previous World Series winners’ opening-day payrolls, per The Baseball Cube, a statistics website founded in 2003 that covers college and professional baseball.
While there has been some variance, seven of the 10 started the season with a payroll of at least $200 million once adjusting to 2026 dollars. And all 10 were above $160 million.
The league’s highest opening-day payroll won the World Series twice — the Dodgers in 2025 and the Boston Red Sox in 2018. While the Mets finished 2026 with baseball’s biggest payroll, Los Angeles entered the season with the biggest payroll on The Baseball Cube’s ledgers and could be the third such instance if they complete the threepeat.
It is worth noting that the 2026 final figures can’t just be directly compared with the historical opening day payrolls. However, after adjusting the previous 10 champions’ opening-day payrolls to 2026 dollars, this year’s opening-day payrolls for Milwaukee, Tampa Bay, the White Sox and Cleveland would all be below every World Series champion since 2016.
This means that if any of those four clubs win this year’s Fall Classic, their opening-day roster would be cheaper, in 2026 dollars, than any other recent champion.
Adjusted for inflation, we'd have to go back to 2005 to find a World Series champion with a smaller opening day payroll than the Brewers' Baseball Cube opening-day $139 million. That year, the Chicago White Sox won the title with a $75.2 million roster that adjusts to about $127 million in 2026.
Methodology: USA TODAY obtained final team payrolls heading into the playoffs from MLB’s Labor Relations Department. Historical opening-day payrolls for World Series champions via The Baseball Cube; inflation adjustments using U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U.
2026 MLB postseason payrolls
Final payrolls among playoff teams, via MLB Labor Relations Department
BOSTON — Jayson Tatum spent part of his Media Day press conference on Monday recounting how much he learned from Paul George on his basketball journey. He saw George thriving with a similar build, so he pulled from George’s style and emulated his mannerisms. As he looked back on those childhood memories, he looked up and saw George (wearing the No. 13 he acquired in a trade from Ron Harper Jr.) awaiting his own interview. They embraced as George approached the podium.
“As you get older in this league, it’s a weird cycle where you come in as a young guy and you throw on this shield to go against your idols,” George said. “You carry this ultra-competitive spirit, and then when you get older and you become the veteran and the older guy, I feel more and more guys have appreciated what I’ve done in my game, that have taken a liking to my game, the more I’ve leaned into that, helping them become better versions of what I am. That’s been the case with JT, Brandon Miller … whatever I can do to help them.”
George enters his 17th NBA season focused on helping Tatum, while at times pulling from his newfound health to produce at the level he had prior to the string of injuries he dealt with in recent years. The Celtics also know he and free agent addition Mike Conley Jr. will prove invaluable as mentors for the team’s ascending talent. While many of them grew up, George battled with LeBron James in back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals with the Pacers, triumphantly returned from a gruesome broken leg and sported one of basketball’s signature shoes.
Alongside Kevin Durant, James and Kobe Bryant, George represented the superstar Tatum aspired to becoming. And he wasn’t the only one. When the Celtics acquired George in July, Jordan Walsh immediately attempted to contact George and work out. They did so several times, and Walsh already learned several moves and tips from the veteran that he plans to utilize this season while attempting to become more of a threat offensively.
“We all, us younger guys, grew up watching these guys play,” Walsh said. “It was funny, the other day I was talking about how LeBron got drafted the year I was born, and I got to play against him, which was crazy. So having moments like that where it’s like, somebody you watched growing up, who was a legend in the game and now you gotta change your lens and look at them as an opponent. It’s a special thing. It’s a gift, but it’s also something that comes with a little more respect and humility to go out there and compete against them.”
Walsh said Brown also took time to mentor younger players and given his age, Tatum and Brown served as inspirations for him as much as the oldest remaining players in the league. Tatum bridged that gap by inviting players, including Walsh, to work out in Los Angeles during the summer and begin the process of getting to know each other’s games. They golfed, went out to dinner and held workouts with many of the Celtics’ players, who joined the workouts when they could. Those continued late in the summer into September in Auerbach Center.
Payton Pritchard gravitated toward Conley, who chose Boston out of a desire to play for one of the league’s most historic franchises before his career ends. They bonded over their love for golf, with Conley beating Pritchard 2-1 during their LA matchups, and talked about ways Pritchard could learn from the veteran entering his 20th year. Conley, older than his head coach Mazzulla, believes he still has more left to contribute on the floor, and stressed that the Celtics can follow he and George’s urgency to win their first championship late in their career. Ultimately, his greatest contributions could come off the court. Pritchard plans to pick his brain constantly.
“It’s just about giving them more and more to their plate every day I can,” Conley said earlier this month. “If there’s something I see, I’m not quiet about it. I’m just gonna say, hey, do this next time or look at this option, how many options do you got out of that? Me and Payton work a lot one-on-one with our workouts before practice or before five-on-five we play on a hoop or whatever. We’re talking the game all the time, ‘I shoot a floater, you should shoot a mid-range shot,’ … I’m excited to get my hands on different opportunities and give my brain to as many of those guys that are willing to listen and willing to learn from any input I have.”
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 29: Fans cheer as Cam Schlittler #31 of the New York Yankees walks back to the dugout after being pulled against the Boston Red Sox during the seventh inning in game one of the American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium on September 29, 2026 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For much of the week or so building up to the beginning of the MLB playoffs, there was a lot of chatter going on about the postseason format and how goofy it was (to use a kind word) for the second-best team in the American League to be shunted to a Wild Card Series while one with eight fewer wins got a first-round bye and another that was flat-out .500 was given equal treatment with home field in the Wild Card.
The Yankees can’t do anything about it. It is absolutely fair to say that they had chances to avoid this fate by simply the AL East over an upstart Rays team, and despite a more impressive club on paper than Tampa Bay—which finished under .500 in 2025—they fell short of that. If you don’t win your division, then you are subject to the vagaries of the Wild Card. That’s just how it goes, and if the Yankees are fortunate to advance, then they’ll have other repercussions down the road. But the Dodgers were the lower seed in every playoff round last year after the Wild Card Series. In 2023, the Rangers were never the high seed in any of their four series. They both managed; the Yankees must do the same.
Anyway, the Yankees did at least know that by outplaying the Red Sox in the regular season, they were assured of hosting all three potential games of their Wild Card Series showdown at Yankee Stadium. Sometimes, home-field advantage can be overstated, it’s true. In this particular head-to-head, however? Even beyond getting last at-bats, it feels like a world of difference between playing it at Fenway Park and the Bronx. Weird things tend to happen at Fenway with the Green Monster, very limited foul territory, the triangle in center, the sharp turn of the right-field wall up from Pesky Pole, and more. That “weird” axiom holds true in seasons when the Red Sox aren’t good; they can still win those games. So if nothing else, it was a comfort to know that aside from the occasional surprising Short Porch Special, the ballgames would be more straightforward.
Then, of course, there’s the crowd energy. Baseball players live off of it, and though the new Yankee Stadium has had its ups and downs in that department across its 17 years of existence (I was still in college when it opened, yikes), when it brings the vibe, it brings the vibe. Alex Rodriguez’s game-tying homer off Joe Nathan in the 2009 ALDS. Hideki Matsui erupting against the Phillies in the Fall Classic. Raúl Ibañez sending shockwaves throughout the Bronx in 2012. Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird, and more providing huge hits during the 2017 playoff run. Giancarlo Stanton dropping taters on the Guardians in the 2024 ALCS. The crowd was such a huge part of making those moments indelible.
Ben Rice brought the power to a Yankees lineup that was a little uneven until later on. Don’t be fooled by the final score if you happened to miss it! This was a tense, low-scoring affair for most of the night. Payton Tolle was very good for Boston, stymieing the Yanks, stranding runners, and making the platoon adjustments against him look poor. The bottom of the order scratched out a run in the second and Rice went 423 feet to dead center for a second run immediately after Boston skipper Chad Tracy pulled Tolle.
The man responsible for making that hold up was a familiar nemesis to the Red Sox: Cam Schlittler. He brought the stamp to one of those past huge Yankee Stadium moments in 2025 when he broke out to send Boston home in the winner-take-all Game 3 of that Wild Card rumble, firing eight shutout innnings with a dozen strikeouts on 107 pitches. Schlittler was not as efficient this time around, but that didn’t mean the Red Sox had much of an idea about what to do with him.
Schlittler deviated from his standard all-fastball-focused approach, deploying his curve 27 percent of the time to help generate 10 strikeouts and 24 swings and misses. He shook off a lost 10-pitch battle against Adley Rutschman in the first without a sweat and kept steamrolling through the Red Sox lineup.
Aaron Boone was so confident in how he looked that he let Schlittler hang out there for 117 pitches—not that strange a figure from my days of growing up as a fan but nearly unheard-of these days. It was the highest pitch count for a Yankee in the playoffs since CC Sabathia almost single-handedly eliminated the Orioles in 2012 ALDS Game 5. But Cam kept feeding off the crowd and frustrating the Red Sox batters, and in a short series, it was understandably tempting for Boone to see how much of the bullpen’s best he could avoid. That’s a dude.
It worked out, as only Paul Blackburn relieved Schlittler; Brent Headrick warmed up but didn’t pitch, and thanks to Rice, David Bednar never got that far. The Red Sox bullpen let the game get away from them, with Rice tallying an RBI knock during a two-run seventh before really slamming the door with a grand slam off Brayan Bello.
Let’s keep the energy going tonight at 161st and River and see if the Yankees can end this series without needing to sweat out another potential Wild Card Series elimination game. The crowd can only do so much if the guys on the field aren’t capitalizing, but the Yanks sure did a great job of it on Tuesday night.
The playoff fever continues today on the site. Matt will name his Player of the Game for the Wild Card opener, Jonathan will preview tonight’s Game 2 matchup between Max Fried and Sonny Gray. Both will return when Matt recaps the full postseason action across the majors yesterday and Jonathan celebrates the 122nd birthday of 1932 Yankees World Series champion Johnny Allen. Scott will also be back for one last fond farewell to the RailRiders Era. And keep an eye out for Dani throughout the afternoon as he tackles any notable news that comes across the ol’ transom.
Freddie Freeman hit only one home run in September, this one, against St. Louis on Sept. 2. (Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers’ back-to-back World Series championships each have been punctuated by the Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.
It is the flair for the dramatic. It is coming through in the clutch, at the clutchiest of times. When you tell your friends about the game the next day, it is the first thing you mention.
Did you see that?
Did you see Freeman hit the walkoff grand slam in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series, the one that sucked the hype out of the New York Yankees? Gibby, meet Freddie!
Freddie Freeman hits a walk-off grand slam against the Yankees in Game 1 of the 2024 World Series. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers don’t really know what you might see out of Freeman when they open this postseason Saturday. For Ohtani and Freeman, two of the top four batters in their lineup, the second half has been a struggle amid injuries.
Ohtani’s odyssey is headline news, and a matter of international intrigue. But Freeman’s inability to hit with power over the final two months, hampered by tendinitis in his right knee, raises this concern: If postseason opponents pitch around Ohtani and dare Freeman to beat them, can he?
“I’m not going to make an excuse,” Freeman said. “I will never blame my knee. I didn’t play very well, and that’s just how it is.”
Freeman’s 16 home runs this season are a career low for a full season.
In the second half, Freeman hit one home run, with a .339 slugging percentage. Miguel Rojas, better known for his glove, also hit one home run in the second half, with a .345 slugging percentage.
Freeman’s career slugging percentage is .505. Since becoming an everyday major leaguer in 2011, Freeman has slugged below .400 in either half of a season just once: in the second half of 2015, when he hit six home runs and slugged .395, amid wrist and oblique injuries.
Teammates await Freddie Freeman after his walk-off homer in Game 3 of the 2025 World Series. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
“I think that the mechanics have changed because they were compromised because of his right knee,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “and so now that his right knee is getting back to full health, I think he’s got to recalibrate the swing, and that’s where we’re at.”
It is one of baseball’s eternal challenges: Some part of your body hurts, you make an adjustment — consciously or subconsciously — so your body doesn’t hurt so much when you play, and all of a sudden your swing is out of whack. Not by much, maybe, but by just enough to miss that 100-mph fastball or that breaking ball you find yourself lunging to reach.
“My body feels good,” Freeman said. “I think that’s the main thing. I feel like it’s in a good spot to be able to do the work and hopefully fix my swing and everything that’s been going on the last couple months.”
In Sunday’s game, Freeman pulled a line drive, close to becoming a home run before it veered foul. Freeman said he mentioned to Roberts that was the kind of drive that had gone missing.
On Tuesday, Freeman talked about a plan for day-to-day work this week, to make the adjustments in his swing to restore the production. He thought back to the days before Game 1 of that 2024 World Series, when ankle and rib injuries affected his play so obviously that the Dodgers scratched him from the final game of the National League Championship Series.
Then, as now, the Dodgers enjoyed a long break before the next series. This bye might be nice in terms of arranging a pitching rotation, but it is critical for allowing Freeman — and Ohtani — time to make adjustments by day without rushing to try them in a game that night.
“A couple of Octobers ago was probably 100 times worse, ailment-wise,” Freeman said. “I truly feel good right now, physically. So it’s on me now to figure out the mechanics of the swing in the next five days, and I have all the confidence in myself that I will figure that out by Saturday.”
Freeman is 37, with one year left on his contract with the Dodgers. He said the ailing knee should not require offseason treatment.
“I have no pain in my knee right now, so I’m not gonna have any doctor’s appointments or anything,” he said. “So hopefully I’ll be ready to go by spring training next year.”
Spring training is in jeopardy because of the looming lockout. So let’s focus on this postseason, and the opportunity for another Freddie Freeman Signature Moment.
The last team to three-peat: the 1998-2000 New York Yankees. You might have heard of the most valuable player of that 2000 series. If Freeman leads the Dodgers to a parade this October, we can already hear Joe Davis on the call: Freddie, meet Jeter!
Since returning to the Dodgers in 2023, Miguel Rojas has been part of two championship teams and was the World Series Game 7 hero last year. (Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Miguel Rojas has remained composed at the field. But away from it, on the precipice of what could be his last postseason run as a player, he hasn’t been able to hold back the tears.
“It’s been hard,” Rojas said in a recent conversation with The Times. “I’m not going to lie. I’ve been crying by myself at home.
“Every time I take a little time to post on my social media about saying thank you, it’s because I don’t want to do a full press conference of telling people, ‘Hey, this is the day that I’m retiring’ because I don’t think I’m good enough. I didn’t play a career that I’m good enough to do that. I’m not going to end up in the Hall of Fame or anything like that. So I’m just going to do it my own way. And whenever I go, I just want the fans, the people around baseball, [to know] how grateful I am for all the moments.”
His last Instagram post was a series of photos of him looking up at the applauding crowd in the Dodger Stadium left-field bleachers. He put it up during the Dodgers’ final regular-season homestand with the caption, “Thank You Dodger Fans” and a blue heart emoji, taking a moment to let it sink in that it could be his last before hanging up his spikes.
Rojas hasn’t finalized his retirement decision just yet, however. He’ll reflect more on his future after the final out of the Dodgers’ postseason run.
“From this moment on, it will be kind of like a day-to-day thing,” he said. “And you might get to know that I’m stepping away from the game in an Instagram post, or from me just saying goodbye on a video. I don’t know. I don’t know how it’s going to be, but at this moment, I’m not 100% [certain].”
When Rojas first returned to the Dodgers, he didn’t necessarily expect this chapter of his career to be so meaningful. He’d debuted with the club in 2014 but spent the next eight years with Miami. Then in 2023, the Marlins traded him.
“I came here as a protection piece,” he said. “Like, ‘OK, we’re going to bring this guy in, he can play different positions, he can be our security blanket if something happened with any one of our infielders.’ I didn’t think too much of it. As a player, I was thinking that this is great that is happening to me. I’m coming to the best team in baseball with an opportunity to win a championship, late in my career. I mean, what’s better than that?”
Well, two championships, and a quest for a third.
Over the past four seasons, not only has Rojas established himself as a clubhouse leader, winning the Roy Campanella award three years in a row, but he also became a 2025 World Series hero.
“I’m living proof that you never know when good things are going to be happening to you,” Rojas said. “It can be at the beginning of your career, or it can be when you’re like 20 years into your professional career.”
He’s set to become a free agent this winter, once the one-year, $5.5 million deal he signed last December expires. So, the 37-year-old has had to grapple with the reality that his 13-year MLB career could be coming to a close.
“There’s days where I feel like I shouldn’t be retiring,” he said. “There’s days where I wake up in the morning and I say, ‘Yeah, it’s time.’ I’m still going back and forth. I’m not 100% sure that this is the right decision, of stepping away from the game. … When I think about what will be the deciding factor, it will be if this is enough for me, just walk away with what I have. I don’t want to be a bother. … If I’m going to be here next year, it’s going to be because we’re looking for something.”
No matter what, he pictures his future with the Dodgers.
“I wouldn’t play for another team,” he said. “After what happened my last couple years, after winning two World Series here, after becoming a big part of the 2025 season, it would be kind of stupid for me to go anywhere else and part ways with this organization.”
If Rojas doesn’t come back as a player, he’s lined up to join the Dodgers’ player development department, with managerial aspirations down the line.
That vision of the future includes a milestone in his personal life: becoming a citizen of the United States. Rojas is scheduled to take his naturalization test this week, as he first told the Orange County Register.
“I’m really excited about this opportunity and this part of my life, where I become a United States citizen,” he said. “Both of my kids were born in Miami and grew up in the United States. And obviously, my ties with Venezuela will always be where I’m coming from, and I will never forget that. But this is a great opportunity for me, especially after my [playing] career, and I’m looking forward to continuing my career after baseball here in the United States.”
Rojas’ appointment was originally scheduled for January, he said. But relations between his home country of Venezuela and the United States froze the process.
A series of memos from the Department of Homeland Security put a hold on immigration applications from nationals of countries on the department’s “high risk” list, including Venezuela. In early January, the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in a covert military operation.
Rojas has been waiting all year for a letter rescheduling his naturalization test, he said. Finally, last week his wife texted him with the new date: Oct. 2. He’d have to fly to Miami the day before.
That was another advantage of claiming a first-round bye: Rojas won’t have to miss an if-necessary wild-card Game 3.
Instead, he’ll have that final big step in the citizenship application process done before the Dodgers begin their postseason run with Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday. Rojas will be there as they shoot for a third straight World Series title, a feat no NL team has ever achieved.
“We’re not going to play until we’re 50 and be this good,” Rojas said of the veteran-heavy Dodgers. “But if this is a window that we have to be great, why not try to go after it?”
The NHL season is underway! Let us now enjoy all the ups, the downs and endless absurdities that are sure to follow with the “transition” 2026-27 New York Islanders, including an extra two games of angst in the expanded 84-game schedule.
They have an incredible Calder-winning defenseman who’s sure to be a Norris candidate through much of his career and delight us on even the darkest nights, a Vezina-caliber goalie whose peak may nonetheless behind him, a 38-year-old backup trying to come back with two (partial) new knees, and a bunch of aging players who will be “transitioned” out in the next few years as this season’s (hopefully) emerging youngsters take the reins.
There is a lot to scratch your head about and wonder, “How’s this gonna work?” about their opening roster, but there’s also Matthew Schaefer and Victor Eklund, two youngsters who provide hope today and should be part of the next generation if the roster one day gets out of this middling state.
PROGRAMMING/GAME THREAD NOTE: I’ll do my darndest to make sure we have a separate game thread/chat for each game. With the new SB Nation app, there is a “game chat” functionality that is supposed to work pretty well. I am not an app person and sure as Avery am not a salesperson, so I’m comfortable telling you the app is pretty useful for accessing this site and jumping around comments on mobile.
COMMENTING NOTE: And that brings up another note…the lifeblood of this site is fun, informed(???), fan-driven commentary. I know you (or at least many of you) don’t come here for my unsourced prose; you come here for the laugh or the reality-check or the well-meaning banter in comments. So please don’t abuse it, don’t abuse each other, don’t hammer the same point (whether its genius or tinfoil) 20 times per day. To help prevent trolls and bots, there is network-wide comment moderation, which means certain words or antagonistic comments toward each other may get filtered or blocked, and I won’t know about the injustice until long after the moment has passed.
Sometimes the filters or moderators overreact (don’t mention that you graduated summa cum laude!), but by and large it shouldn’t be hard to have basic, human discourse here. (Remember: The enemy isn’t each other, it’s…Isles management, or something.) There are options to mute your least favorite commenters or simply skim on by the stuff you find dumb, so consider doing that and channel your blood pressure spikes to what happens on the ice.
Victor Eklund has switched to number 38, which I really don’t like but I guess it’s okay, as it’s what he wore in Sweden. Still, ick. [Isles]
The Islanders will have four alternate captains — different guys for home and road — in addition to new captain Bo Horvat. I’m not going to pretend to think this means anything significant, but I’m glad Schaefer gets an A since he’ll one day lead this next generation. [Isles]
ONLY in Newsday! What can Schaefer accomplish in his second season? [Newsday]
It’s going to be a work-in-progress as the Isles acclimate to what Pete DeBoer wants. [Post]
Exhausted by click bait headlines, I made 32 BOLD predictions about this season. [LHH]
Elsewhere
Last night’s NHL scores included the defending champs raising their banner but falling to the previous champs, the Leafs falling at home to the Canadiens, and the vaunted Babcockian Oilers and Islanders playoff hero Tristan Jarry giving up five goals on the first 20 shots in an OT loss to the Canucks. They got a very friendly call to help them tie it up late and force overtime, making Evan Bouchard’s hat trick worth something.
During the game broadcast, ESPN paid modest tribute to Barry Melrose. [NHL]
The Blue Jackets are happy to be done with the Kirill Marchenko drama. [NHL]
Speaking of whom, thank GOD Carson Soucy has found work. [TSN]
Who else here is thrilled that the Leafs “look like a new team in emotional loss”? [Sportsnet]
Who needs AI? Jakub Dobes proved he can get a robot to express emotion. [Sportsnet]
Elliotte Friedman returns with some 32 Actual Written Thoughts. [Sportsnet]
Hockey: A general view of the logo displayed on center ice during the Pittsburgh Penguins vs Edmonton Oilers game at PPG Paints Arena. Pittsburgh PA 1/9/2025 CREDIT: David E. Klutho (Photo by David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X164658 TK1)
Here are your Pens Points for this Wednesday morning…
Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas said his focus entering the new season remains on improving the team rather than setting a specific goal such as a playoff berth or Stanley Cup title. Dubas said Pittsburgh will continue seeking young impact players while developing its current prospects and improving defensively. [Trib Live]
The Penguins will celebrate their 60th anniversary throughout the 2026-27 season with special events, giveaways and ticket packages. The yearlong celebration begins with a pregame ceremony on Oct. 3 before the Penguins’ home opener against the Montreal Canadiens, and the team has also unveiled a retro-inspired 60th anniversary logo. [KDKA]
Forward Egor Chinakhov is getting an opportunity on Pittsburgh’s top power-play unit after Bryan Rust was placed on injured reserve. Chinakhov, who scored 18 goals and 36 points in 43 games with the Penguins last season, is expected to skate alongside Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, Rickard Rakell and Tommy Novak.
ICYMI: In an appearance on Mark Madden’s radio show on 105.9 The X, Sidney Crosby said the shortened preseason has limited his time to build chemistry with new linemate Nick Robertson, but he has been encouraged by their progress. The Penguins captain also said he hopes to play for several more years, while acknowledging that his retirement timeline will depend on how he feels physically and mentally. [PensBurgh]
News and notes from around the NHL…
Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber is out indefinitely after undergoing surgery for a skull fracture suffered when he was struck by a puck during Friday’s preseason game against Dallas. The 24-year-old had 51 points in 80 games last season, but the Wild have not established a timetable for his return. [NHL]
Thomas Chabot has been named the next captain of the Ottawa Senators. [TSN]
Newly acquired Columbus Blue Jackets forward Matthew Knies is glad to have the trade speculation surrounding him in the rearview mirror after being dealt by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Knies said the rumors had become tiring but is excited for a fresh start in Columbus. [Sportsnet]
‘They won the titles because cheating was going on’
Micah Richards says he is ‘devastated and heartbroken’
The former Manchester United captain Roy Keane said he would throw the “medals in the bin” if he were a Manchester City player after Premier League confirmation on Tuesday that the club were guilty of all charges related to their financial rules and boosted their income by more than £900m after arranging “sham contracts” with commercial partners.
City, who continue to deny any wrongdoing, won eight trophies, including three Premier League titles between 2009 and 2018, the period under investigation. Keane said the achievements of City’s players had become redundant because of the “cheating” that took place during that time.
I know you’re tired of reading about Amen Thompson’s jump shot.
The Houston Rockets aren’t immune to the usual offseason fare. Everyone’s stronger, everyone’s got the right mindset, and most importantly, everyone has improved their jump shot.
Until the season starts and it becomes apparent that some players have regressed. How is that possible? They spent all summer posting video footage of themselves beating non-NBA players in empty gym drills!
Cynicism aside, there’s reason to be optimistic about the Rockets. Many of their key players are young, so improvement is expected. Just don’t go into 2026-27 expecting Thompson to morph into a knockdown three-point shooter.
What is a reasonable expectation for the youngster?
Rockets’ Thompson can improve his shot
The Gold Standard for a wing improving his jumper is Kawhi Leonard, but actually, Leonard’s shot was never broken at the NBA level. He shot 37.6% from three as a rookie, and rarely (if ever) dipped below league average.
Of course, he worked with Chip Engelland before his rookie year.
In college, Leonard shot 25.0% from three-point range. So, that’s at least a bit of Engelland proof of concept that’s directly applicable to Thompson.
Skeptics will point out that Leonard is an outlier case, and they will be 100.0% correct. It’s rare for such a poor shooter to make such an improvement.
But it does happen.
How about LeBron James? He shot 29.0% from deep as a rookie (granted, this was what most NBA historians know as the Yao Ming Era), and didn’t start consistently shooting around league average until his 9th NBA season (age 27).
Need a less GOAT-ish example? Tobias Harris hit 26.1% of his rookie season threes and wasn’t very good until his sixth year (age 25).
Here’s where Thompson is a weird case. At 21, he was an older rookie. So he’s heading into age 24 season, and it’ll be his fourth year.
The (very limited set of) data here doesn’t know what to do with that. James and Harris both took longer to find their stroke, but if age is the more relevant variable, Thompson is close to where Harris was. He’s also worked with Engelland, but most who’ve found success with him started earlier, whether in college or their first couple of NBA seasons.
So, long and short, this has been an exercise in futility. It’s unknowable. Some will also point out that Thompson’s jumper will be perhaps Engelland’s greatest challenge yet.
The reality is that Thompson is likely to never be a “good” shooter. The objective is to get him to a place where a wide-open three is a good shot for the Rockets’ offense. Here’s a (not very) fun fact: Thompson shot 21.6% from deep last year. When he was designated as wide open by NBA.com? Yup:
21.6%.
That’s the same number. This suggests that the vast majority of Thompson’s threes were wide open. That’s likely to hold in 2026-27, but if he could get that number up to around 27-28%, it would be indicative of real improvement and a reason for optimism:
Although unfortunately, not reason enough to stop writing about it.
BRADENTON, FLORIDA - MARCH 20, 2026: Seth Hernandez #25 of the Pittsburgh Pirates throws a pitch during the first inning of a spring training Spring Breakout game against the Detroit Tigers at LECOM Park on March 20, 2026 in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images) | Diamond Images/Getty Images
The Pittsburgh Pirates top prospect Seth Hernandez found himself atop another prospect list as he was named the Florida State League’s top prospect for his body of work as a member of the Bradenton Marauders.
In six starts with Bradenton, Hernandez was nearly unstoppable. He amassed a 3-0 record and an ultra low 0.96 ERA. During his time in Bradenton the first-year pro only gave up three earned runs and had 50 strikeouts as a Marauder. He also had a 0.71 WHIP and held opposing hitters to an abysmal .135 batting average.
Hernandez was drafted sixth overall by the Pirates in 2025 and in his first professional season there were few Minor League pitchers as dynamic as he was. At just 20-years old the Corona High School product finished the season 6-1 with a 2.43 ERA and 118 strikeouts through 74.0 frames.
Over the course of his season, Hernandez’ performance caught the eyes of national attention as he started the year out as the number 26 prospect in baseball and will finish the season as the number seven prospect. While also being the Pirates’ top prospect, Hernandez also took home FSL Pitcher of the Week honor for his April 24 performance against Clearwater. Against the Threshers Hernandez finished the game with a career high nine strikeouts and allowed just one hit and two walks across five scoreless innings. That strong performance helped him earn Pitcher of the Month honors for the month of April as he went 2-0 with, had 17 strikeouts and had a 0.53 ERA through 17 innings.
Hernandez is projected to make his MLB debut by 2028.
Pat Cummins has made a shock call on Mitchell Marsh’s Test prospects on Australia’s tour of South Africa, declaring the veteran blaster should “keep some options open” ahead of the three-match series.
BOSTON — The Bruins knew they had to add more high-end offensive talent and speed to their lineup during the summer after failing to generate a ton of goals in their first-round playoff series loss to the Buffalo Sabres last season.
So general manager Don Sweeney made a bold trade with the with the Utah Mammoth on the day of the 2026 NHL Draft to acquire top-six winger JJ Peterka in exchange for two first-round draft picks.
Fifty-two seconds after Fraser Minten gave the Bruins a late third-period lead, Peterka showed off his puck-handling skills by dancing around Rangers defenseman Braden Schneider and beating all-world goaltender Igor Shesterkin to double Boston’s lead. The B’s held on for a 3-0 victory — a league record-tying 11th straight home opener win.
PURE FILTH BY PETERKA IN HIS BRUINS DEBUT AND THE B'S TAKE A 2-0 LEAD LATE 🔥🚨 pic.twitter.com/TFQh2ooJov
“That was nasty,” Minten said postgame. “That was a really nice goal. He’s got sick hands and sick skill.”
Peterka’s tenacity on the forecheck, the speed he plays with, his ability to transition the puck up ice — they were all on display against the Rangers.
But the offensive skill really stood out. Outside of David Pastrnak, the Bruins didn’t really have anyone last season who could produce a highlight-reel goal from a feat of individual brilliance. Peterka gives this team another top-six forward who can generate scoring chances at an elite level.
“That’s why we got him, right?” Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said with a smile postgame. “It was nice to see because he had some really good scoring chances in the preseason, in practice, and to make a move like that today and finish the way he did, I hope it helps him moving forward.
“I also know as a new guy on a new team in a new city, playing at home you want to be good and you want to be the guy. I think that part was really nice, too. He showed everyone you got me here for a reason.”
Peterka had a slightly disappointing 2025-26 season for the Mammoth. He scored two fewer goals and tallied 19 fewer assists than the year prior. But the Bruins are confident he can get back to, or exceed, the career-high 68 points (27 goals, 41 assists) he posted in 77 games for the Sabres in the 2024-25 campaign.
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
The Bruins celebrate JJ Peterka’s first goal with the team.
Playing with Pastrnak consistently should help Peterka reach another level as a goal scorer and hit the 30-goal mark for the first time. The Bruins generated six shots, seven scoring chances and one goal during the 13:55 of 5-on-5 ice time that Peterka and Pastrnak were on the ice together.
“It’s fun. I think we tried to look for each other a lot today,” Peterka said postgame when asked about playing on a line with Pastrnak.
“He’s playing with so much speed, so much poise with the puck. Makes a lot of great, great plays. It’s awesome. I think you guys have seen it. We have a lot of fun there together, and hopefully click in the future a couple times more.”
The strengths of that duo are aspects of the game that the Bruins as a team need to exhibit more often — speed, transition, maintaining offensive zone possession, wearing down opponents and creating scoring chances off the rush.
“Whenever we’re out there we can make something happen and it’s fun to be a part of,” Peterka said.
It was a great start for Peterka. Now the question is whether he can make this kind of impact on a consistent basis. If he can, the Bruins will be a much tougher team to play against, which was one of their goals over the offseason.
“I’m glad he’s on our team now,” Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman said. “That’s a goal scorer’s goal, and just the whole way it developed, the crowd is still buzzing from (Minten’s goal), a ton of credit to him and it shows the kind of player he can be.”
Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images