ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA - AUGUST 31: Kodai Senga #34 of the New York Mets celebrates with teammates after defeating the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 at Tropicana Field on August 31, 2026 in St Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Earlier today, when addressing the media from the General Manager Meetings in Las Vegas, David Stearns told reporters that Kodai Senga will use the offseason and spring training to prepare to be a starting pitcher in 2027. In related news, Ken Rosenthal reported over at the Athletic that ‘multiple teams’ have expressed interest in trading for Senga.
Senga, who was demoted to the bullpen mid-season in 2026 and thrived in his new role, has one year, $14 million left on his contract, plus a club option for 2028.
The 33-year old right hander has been a mixed bag for the Mets, with a stellar rookie campaign, followed by two injury plagued seasons, and then this year’s bullpen transition. When he is on, he is an electric pitcher whose ‘ghost’ forkball is one of the most devastating pitches in baseball. When he’s off, he is both walk and home run prone.
The Mets’ 2027 rotation is very much in flux, with veterans like Senga and Sean Manaea under contract, Tylor Megill coming off of Tommy John Surgery, and the quartet of young starters in Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Zac Thornton, and Jonah Tong all vying for a rotation spot. With the Mets reportedly interested in upgrading their rotation and with a meeting planned with Tarik Skubal, the team will likely look to unload a veteran starter.
The two have talked publicly about their relationship and have indicated that they have not communicated since the deal.
During the moments right before tip-off Tuesday, Nov. 10, Tatum approached Brown and tapped Brown once on the right arm and twice on his chest as he walked past him. Brown, who was spinning the basketball on his finger, barely acknowledged Tatum and did not reciprocate the greeting.
As soon as the game tipped off, Brown was matched up guarding Tatum, and Tatum eventually forced Brown into a turnover on the other end when he swatted the ball off Brown’s leg; there was significant contact on the play, but Tatum was not called for a foul.
Seconds later, after Brown had argued with officials, he committed a foul on Tatum.
After the game, which the Celtics won 123-101, Brown greeted many of his former teammates, but was not seen on the broadcast exchanging any pleasantries with Tatum.
“I’m just focused on coming out and doing what’s best for my team,” Brown told reporters after the game. “Everything else was just, to be honest, I wasn’t paying attention, but credit to Jayson; he played well tonight. Credit to the Celtics; they executed, shot the hell out of the ball. They were the better team tonight.”
Tatum, for his part, also downplayed the entire narrative.
“Listen, it’s not about that,” he said, when asked about the pregame interaction. “Tonight was a good team win. (Paul George) was incredible. That’s all there really is to talk about.”
George scored a game-high 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting.
Brown, who got into early foul trouble, scored just 13 points and Tatum dropped 21.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 27: J.P. Crawford #3 of the Seattle Mariners and Cole Young #2 of the Seattle Mariners point from the dugout during the game against the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park on September 27, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Olivia Vanni/Getty Images) | Getty Images
As the off-season moves on and the 2027 Mariners roster takes shape, it will apparently be lacking the longest-tenured Mariner. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times reports that the Mariners have informed J.P. Crawford the team doesn’t intend to bring back the 32-year-old shortstop, who just completed the final year of a five-year contract extension. He’s been a Mariner since 2019, the longest-tenured player in the clubhouse since Dylan Moore departed in 2025.
At the end of the 2026 season, Cal Raleigh talked about how seeing Mitch Haniger’s go-ahead single from Game 161 in 2021 in a video package on the big board reminded him of his first year in the big leagues, coming up and watching Crawford who was in the midst of what was at the time his best career season.
“J.P.’s been here the entire time I’ve been in this organization…he’s been a great person, a great leader, a great staple in this clubhouse. It’s been a pleasure being his teammate.”
“I love J.P. the player, I love the person. It was a little emotional seeing him walk off the field, not knowing what’s going to happen. It’s just tough. You spend so much time with these people, you invest yourself and your livelihood with them…it’s just hard. It’s hard turning that page.”
Assuming this is the end, Crawford’s 974 games rank as 10th most in team history. Crawford’s final game as a Mariner was marked by a long and loud standing ovation after he was removed from the final game of the season in the fifth inning.
“The ovation, the love that he got, there’s a reason for it,” said Bryan Woo. “He means to much to the team, the organization, the fans, everybody. He was a huge piece in the turnaround of this organization and so he got recognized for that.”
After arriving in 2019 in a major trade with the Phillies, Crawford was the face of the youth movement in the Mariners under Jerry Dipoto, memorably present for the passing of the torch at both Félix Hernández’s final game as a Mariner and Kyle Seager’s. 2019-2021 were turbulent years for the growing-pains Mariners, churning through players as Dipoto sought to overhaul an aging and expensive team, but Crawford was a steady hand, anchoring the team at shortstop, and taking home a Gold Glove in 2020.
Over his eight years in Seattle, Crawford grew into a clubhouse leader, establishing relationships with every player regardless of position or level. After signing his contract extension, he purchased a home in Woodinville that is the de facto gathering space for team parties, like the annual “Crawchella” he hosts.
“That’s my brother, man,” said Julio Rodríguez at the end of the season.
“Like, even before I got to the big league club I got to play with him and actually, we got tight. We always had a great relationship before, but after I started playing with him, he became my brother. We’re always gonna be brothers. Baseball is one thing, but the person he’s shown me that he is, that’s a special person, and that’s the least I can say here in front of the cameras. But I love him and I wish him the best. He’s my boy.”
Even as the Mariners drafted and developed Crawford’s eventual replacements – shortstop Colt Emerson and Cole Young, who slid over to second base – Crawford poured energy into the younger players. He batted away questions at spring training about whether it was strained or uncomfortable to play with his own replacements, saying he was a decent person doing what a decent person does in mentoring the younger players.
Crawford developed an especially close relationship with Young, who he played with for two seasons, although Young says their relationship started even earlier than that.
“He’s been awesome to me,” said Young. “I’m not saying just saying that to say it. Even since day one of big-league spring training camp when I was still in A ball, he was always friendly towards me – I guess knew I would be up one day – and he became a friend when I was 19 years old. So that was the first thing I saw, how humble he is and how much he cared about the organization.
And then once I got called up, he’s been a great mentor. Every day he holds me accountable to be the player I can be and the person I can be. And he’s been a really good friend, too. It’s funny because every time in the infield if I’ll say something negative, he’ll find a way to switch it back and make it positive. It just shows how much he cares about his teammates.“
The shape of the Mariners clubhouse – which consistently draws praise from players who arrive via trades or waiver claims – has undoubtedly been strongly influenced by the personality of the California-born, reggae-loving, come-as-you-are Crawford, whose example empowered other players to be themselves.
“Since I got here, I feel like he’s always had my back, and that’s something I want to continue to carry for the people that come here,” said Julio. “Some people want to put others in a box, but we’re all different. We all come from different places. And there are some people that don’t get that, and try to push whatever they want onto somebody else. But he definitely represents being who you are, representing where you come from, and that’s – I can say that about myself, too. Whoever you want to be, just make sure you’re aligned with us, and that’s fine.”
Appreciating people’s differences while making a unified whole is what Young says he’s learned from Crawford and what he plans to do going forward.
“I’ll come to the field every day and go about my business and do all my routines and play the game hard but I’ll also be a friendly person,” Young said. “I’ll take the time to get to know someone and be friends with them. Talk through every situation. Be friendly and open. Everyone approaches the game differently, and everyone is a different person, and just having that open mindset of like, okay, this person’s this way, just being open to everyone and friendly to everyone. That’s so important. In baseball you meet so many different people from so many different backgrounds. It’s so important to be open-minded and get close to your teammates and have a good vibe, especially on the field and in the clubhouse, be friends with them.”
The separator for Crawford, his teammates say, is the genuine care he shows for his teammates, on and off the field.
“I think it’s a different outlook than most people,” said Young. “Like it’s more person-based, which is very unique. A lot of people just look at the numbers, all that stuff. But I think J.P. just really cares about the person in the clubhouse. I’m not just saying that.
The way that J.P. has interacted with me, he’s just a good friend. Not just someone you come to the field with and see them for whenever you’re on the field and then never talk to them after that. He’s an actual friend. And when you come to the field and have that – especially when you first get called up – you feel more welcome. You feel like you have someone in your corner.”
Now Young and his teammates will have to move on without J.P. in their corner – literally, there will be a notable absence in the clubhouse where Crawford’s locker (and nearby lockers that occasionally get annexed) has been a fixture for the past eight years. But Young will take the lessons he learned from Crawford – about including younger players from the jump rather than hazing them, showing genuine care and friendship for teammates, and treating everyone equally while also letting them be themselves – into the next iteration of the Mariners clubhouse.
“Yeah, you carry the speaker because you’re a rookie, but it’s just fun. It’s fun stuff,” said Young. “He’s just always been a good friend. There are a lot of things I’ll take from him, but that’s one of the biggest takeaways. No matter who you are, how established you are, he’ll treat you the same and show you respect, and even if you’re not established at all, he’s still going to be friends with you. It just shows how good of a person he is.
That’s what I learned from J.P., how important it is to know your teammates and be a good person. That’s what I’m going to do, lead by example, the same way that he did.”
Pat Murphy from first-time World Series champion Milwaukee is the NL Manager of the Year, making him the first skipper from either league to win the award three years in a row.
Milwaukee has won the NL Central in all three seasons with Murphy as its manager after he spent eight seasons on Craig Counsell’s staff. The Brewers led the majors this year with a franchise-record 103 wins during the regular season, then in the playoffs swept the two-time defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and beat Tampa Bay in a five-game World Series.
Murphy, who turns 68 on Nov. 28, was in a hospital bed recovering from hip replacement surgery when he did interviews on MLB Network before and after the announcement.
Will Venable is the American League Manager of the Year after the Chicago White Sox became the first team in MLB history to reach the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons. Only the third of those came under Venable after he took over in 2025. Chicago went 84-78 this year.
Balloting by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America was conducted before the postseason and announced Tuesday night.
The other NL finalists were Philadelphia’s Don Mattingly and Atlanta’s Walt Weiss.
The Brewers play in Major League Baseball’s smallest market and have a payroll in the bottom half of the majors, but have had the best record in the big leagues each of the past two seasons.
After sweeping the NLCS for their first World Series berth since their only other one in 1982, Murphy celebrated by saying the Dodgers had Hall of Famers but his team had gamers.
Only three other managers have won the award three times in the same organization. Bobby Cox, one of three four-time winners along with Buck Showalter and Tony La Russa, earned three with the Atlanta Braves (1991, 2004 and 2005). Cox is also the only other back-to-back NL winner.
Terry Francona was a three-time winner with Cleveland (2013, 2016 and 2022), while Dusty Baker won three times with the San Francisco Giants (1993, 1997 and 2000).
Murphy got 20 of 30 first-place votes and finished with 124 points. Weiss came in second with seven first-place votes and 86 points.
Venable received 15 of 30 first-place votes and 111 points in BBWAA balloting. The other AL finalists were two-time winner Kevin Cash of the AL champion Tampa Bay Rays, and Chad Tracy, who took over the Boston Red Sox in April and led them to the playoffs.
Cash was runner-up with 12 first-place votes and 98 points. Tracy got three first-place votes and 47 points.
Venable, a former big league outfielder, got his first managerial job when the White Sox were coming off 121 losses in 2024, a record for the most since 1900, after 101 losses the previous season. They went 60-102 in Venable’s debut and followed that this season by making the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
After sweeping Houston in two games on the road in the AL Wild Card Series, they had a 2-0 series lead before losing a five-game AL Division Series to Cleveland.
Before he was hired by the White Sox, Venable was on manager Bruce Bochy’s staff in Texas and was part of the Rangers’ only World Series title in 2023.
Venable is first White Sox manager to win the award since Ozzie Guillen in 2005.
ATLANTA, GA - OCTOBER 07: Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts (30) reacts during the NLDS game 4 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves on October 7th, 2026 at Truist Park in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t get shut out in National League Manager of the Year voting this year, at least, unlike in 2025 when he did not receive a first-, second-, or third-place vote from any of the 30 voters in the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Pat Murphy, whose Milwaukee Brewers stopped a Dodgers three-peat by sweeping them in the National League Championship Series, completed a three-peat of his own, winning National League Manager of the Year for a third consecutive season. He’s the first manager to capture the honor three straight times in the 44-year history of the award.
Murphy was named on all 30 ballots, including 20 first-place votes. Walt Weiss of the Atlanta Braves got seven first-place votes and finished in second place. Philadelphia Phillies manager Don Mattingly was third place and received one first-place vote, while Craig Stammen of the San Diego Padres got two first-place votes and finished in fourth place.
Roberts got two second-place votes and one third-place votes for seven total points, and finished fifth in the voting. Five points are awarded for a first-place vote, three points for second place, and one point for third.
Weiss, Mattingly, and Stammen were in their first year managing their respective teams, which is usually a solid paths to votes for Manager of the Year with any sort of on-field success. Roberts won NL Manager of the Year in 2016, his first year on the job with the Dodgers, and finished second in 2017. He has finished higher than fourth place only once in the nine years since, and it took 111 wins in 2022 to do so, the most wins by a National League team in over a century, to finish in second place.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 25: Taira Uematsu #99 of the San Francisco Giants prepares for the game during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park on May 25, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images) | Getty Images
There are some coaching changes coming for the San Francisco Giants. Last week, in a surprising move, Giants hitting coach Hunter Mense departed the organization after a single year, opting to take the same job with the Kansas City Royals, a move that appears to be driven by a desire to be closer to family. In the aftermath of Mense’s departure there wer numerous reports that the Giants would likely make a few other moves, which is fairly standard stuff for a team coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
On Tuesday, at the opening of the GM Meetings, Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey revealed that the organization is very close to announcing Mense’s replacement, so we’ll likely have a new name to dissect shortly. Until then, however, Posey left us with three nuggets for the 2027 staff: Ron Washington and Gary Pettis are returning in their same roles, and Taira Uematsu has been promoted to first base coach.
Retaining Washington and Pettis is big for the Giants. Not much went well for them in 2026, but the presence of those two was an unquestioned positive. Washington worked his defensive wizardry across multiple players, most notably Luis Arráez, who blossomed from one of the league’s worst defensive second basemen to one of its best under Washington’s tutelage. Pettis, who was born and raised in the Bay Area, was hired during the season to replace Hector Borg as the third base coach, slid into the role admirably, and turned a huge talking point early in the season into something the team didn’t need to worry about.
As for Uematsu, he replaces Shane Robinson at first base, with Robinson staying in the organization, but moving to the Minor League side of things. Uematsu, who has been with the Giants for a while and is very well respected, will become the first Japanese-born base coach in MLB history.
WILLIAMSPORT, PA - AUGUST 23: Manager Walt Weiss #22 and Manager Pat Murphy #49 of the Milwaukee Brewers shake hands prior to the 2026 Little League Classic presented by New York Life between the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers at Journey Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field on Sunday, August 23, 2026 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Awards Week continues on and sadly for the Atlanta Braves and Walt Weiss, there won’t be any Manager of the Year celebrations going on locally.
In fact, Milwaukee Brewers manager and 2026 World Series Champion Pat Murphy will be busy celebrating his third-straight NL Manager of the Year Award win in the hospital, as he accepted the award live on MLB Network from a hospital bed as he recovers from hip surgery. The voting ended up being a bit lopsided, as any rumors of voter fatigue were clearly exaggerated. Weiss did finish as the runner-up, with Philadelphia Phillies manager Don Mattingly coming in a distant third place.
To be honest, it’s not a crazy sentiment. The Brewers have constantly been counted out going into any given season and this year the outdid themselves by winning over 100 games and being the best team in baseball from start to finish. While the Postseason has no bearing on award voting, looking at how the Brewers won their games was clear that Murphy was not just in charge of a talented team but a team that may be exploring a brand new way of winning ballgames going forward — not just for Milwaukee but for the entire sport as well.
Weiss ended up getting seven first-place votes, sixteen second-place votes and three third-place votes for 86 points but again, he was a distant runner-up in favor of Murphy. Weiss did a fine job of managing the Braves in his first season as a big league skipper since the 2016 season with the Colorado Rockies. The Braves had a tough season in 2025, so Weiss deserves a ton of credit for helping to lead this team back to the Postseason and the status of being a contender in the National League.
Over in the American League, Chicago White Sox manager Will Venable took the honors as the AL Manager of the Year. Despite Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash being in a similar position as Murphy when it comes to the style of play possibly being revolutionary as far as the current state of baseball strategy and tactics go, it’s hard to look past what Venable did as manager of the White Sox. Plain-and-simply, if you take a team to the Postseason after their most recent two seasons beforehand saw them lose 100-plus games, you’re going to receive honors for that season.
Will Venable is well-deserving of his award and so is Pat Murphy as well. Walt Weiss came up just short but I’d imagine that plenty of Braves fans are still pretty happy with having Weiss as their manager right now. All’s well that ends well.
Stay tuned, as Awards Week continues on tomorrow with the Cy Young Awards, along with the MLB Awards in Las Vegas. Chris Sale is a finalist but he’ll certainly be a long shot for the NL Cy Young Award. We’ll see what happens, though.
Baseball: World Series: Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy is interviewed following victory vs Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Game 5. St. Petersburg, FL 10/28/2026CREDIT: Erick W. Rasco (Photo by Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X164973 TK1)
Pat Murphy, the sometimes-cranky-sometimes-kindly grandfather figure at the helm of the Milwaukee Brewers, has won his third straight Manager of the Year award in his third season with the team. He is the first person ever to win three times in a row.
The Brewers have been smashing preseason expectations for several years. In 2024, Murphy’s first season in charge, the Brewers — who’d won 92 games and the NL Central in 2023 — were projected by FanGraphs to go 78-84 and finish fourth in the division. Instead, they won 93 games and finished 10 games ahead of second place in the Central. In 2025, FanGraphs’ projections pegged the Brewers for 84 games and second place. Milwaukee instead led the majors with 97 wins and again handily won the division.
The 2026 season was the cherry on top. Even after leading the majors in wins the previous year, Milwaukee was projected for 85 wins and, again, second place in the division. Instead, they blew past the franchise record with 103 wins, more than anyone else in the league, and marched to a World Series victory in dominant fashion.
That World Series, of course, has no bearing on this award, as votes were cast before the postseason. But the Brewers under Murphy have, at least to the outside world, been defined by a stubborn refusal to abide by preseason narratives, and Manager of the Year votes often go to guys whose teams most outperformed expectations. In this case, it’s a combination of factors: not only did the Brewers outperform their expected win total by anywhere from 18 to 23 games, depending on your source (which, for some perspective, could’ve turned an American League team from a 100-loss projection into a playoff team), but they were definitively and unquestionably the best team in the league. How could your vote go to anyone else?
Manager of the Year was first awarded in 1983. When Murphy won his second consecutive award last year, he became just the third manager to win twice in a row after Bobby Cox in 2004-05 and Kevin Cash in 2020-21. Murphy becomes the 10th manager to win the award three times, joining four-time winners Cox, Tony La Russa, and Buck Showalter, and three-time winners Dusty Baker, Terry Francona, Jim Leyland, Joe Maddon, Bob Melvin, and Lou Piniella. Three of those men (Cox, La Russa, Leyland) are Hall of Famers, and three more are finalists this year; Francona is the only other manager on the list who is still active, though Melvin was still managing as recently as 2025.
The other finalists in the National League were the Phillies’ Don Mattingly, who took over for the fired Rob Thomson in April when the team was just 9-19 but led them to 88 wins and a playoff spot, and Walt Weiss, who, in his first year with the Braves, improved on last year’s win total by 18 and returned them to the top of the NL East.
In the American League, the award went to the Chicago White Sox’s Will Venable. Just two years after arguably the worst regular season since the dawn of the American League in 1901, Venable led the White Sox, who’d lost at least 101 games three years in a row, to an 84-78 record, a spot in the postseason, and a series victory over the Houston Astros in the Wild Card round.
Venable’s competition was Cash, who failed to win his third Manager of the Year Award despite his Rays’ wire-to-wire performance as the best team in the AL, and another manager who took over mid-season, Boston’s rookie manager Chad Tracy. Tracy oversaw the stretch in which the Red Sox went 31-5 between late June and early August, and after taking over when his team was 10-17, went 77-58 (largely on the strength of that run) over the rest of the season and earned a Wild Card berth.
Pat Murphy was 64 when he finally got a full-time managing job in the major leagues. Three seasons later, the Milwaukee Brewers manager has an award nobody else in baseball has ever won three consecutive times.
"I think of it as we're all under construction and as long as we can keep ourselves under construction and maybe we can impact somebody. And then these types of things happen, and sometimes they don't," Murphy said recounting his journey. "I don't necessarily think I'm deserving, to be quite honest with you. But it's more a matter of just keeping everything in perspective.
"But I am just super, super, super, super grateful."
And in true Pat Murphy style, he accepted it in unique fashion. He was live from a hospital bed after hip surgery, sporting a green hospital gown.
No joke, Pat Murphy is joining MLB Network from his hospital bed after having hip replacement surgery.
"I had the hip replaced, feel good and very grateful," Murphy said.
Murphy was named National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday, Nov. 10, taking 20 of the 30 first-place votes and 124 points from the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Atlanta's Walt Weiss finished second with 84 points , and Philadelphia's Don Mattingly finished third with 25.
Bobby Cox won the award in 2004 and 2005. Kevin Cash had won it back-to-back in 2020 and 2021, and Murphy and Cleveland's Stephen Vogt both won in 2024 and 2025.
Nobody had won three in a row until Murphy this year.
Murphy keeps getting recognized because the Brewers keep getting better every season under Murphy. They won 93 games in 2024, 97 in 2025 and the 103 this year. Capped by the franchise's first World Series title, 2026 not only saw Milwaukee finish with the best record in baseball, but they finished three wins better than the Los Angeles Dodgers, who outspent almost everyone in the sport.
Why did Pat Murphy win NL Manager of the Year again?
The Brewers don't win by outspending anybody. Their opening-week payroll of $125.5 million ranked 19th in the majors, according to figures obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
They won anyway. Milwaukee went 55-26 at home and 22-8 its last 30 games.
The Brewers did not sneak up on anybody this year. They beat good teams, going 45-30 against clubs with winning records, and they outscored opponents by more than a run a game.
The talent was there as well. Jacob Misiorowski went 16-5 and led the majors with a 1.80 ERA and 252 strikeouts. Second baseman Brice Turang is a finalist for NL MVP. Closer Trevor Megill is up for the new NL Reliever of the Year award.
Who is Pat Murphy?
Murphy never reached the majors as a player. He spent four years in the minors before turning to coaching.
Counsell brought Murphy to Milwaukee as his bench coach in 2016. When Counsell left for the Cubs after the 2023 season, Murphy got the job, a couple of weeks shy of his 65th birthday.
And in a game that is dominated by youth, Murphy has become a star, because his journey has been so interesting.
"To be or not to be," that is the question," he said. He gave a few more lines, cracking up the media, before he stumbled. "I'll stop. What is that, Hamlet? Was that pretty good?"
Mattingly took over a mess. The Phillies fired Rob Thomson on April 28 with the team at 9-19 and handed the job to Mattingly, their bench coach. Philadelphia went 79-55 the rest of the way and made the playoffs as a wild card.
Mattingly won this award with the Miami Marlins in 2020. His son, Preston, is the Phillies' general manager
How is NL Manager of the Year voted?
Two BBWA members from each National League city's chapter cast ballots, ranking three managers. A first-place vote is worth five points, second is three and third is one. Ballots are due before the postseason begins.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA - FEBRUARY 01: Brook Lopez #11 of the Los Angeles Clippers drives to the basket against Oso Ighodaro #11 of the Phoenix Suns during the second half at Mortgage Matchup Center on February 01, 2026 in Phoenix, Arizona. The Clippers defeated the Suns 117-93. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images) | Getty Images
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - OCTOBER 03: Adrian Morejon #50 of the San Diego Padres pitches against the Milwaukee Brewers during the seventh inning in game one of the National League Division Series at American Family Field on October 03, 2026 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Welcome to our series grading every member of the San Diego Padres’ 40-man roster. The roster being evaluated is current as of Oct. 18, prior to the end of the World Series. Because of that, it will include players who will be free agents once the postseason concludes. Each player will be graded on their performance in the 2026 season, including the playoffs. That performance will be weighted based on how much time the player spent with the team (availability is the best ability).
Adrian Morejon
When the Padres signed Adrian Morejon out of Cuba in 2016, it was a big deal. At the time, the left-hander was ranked second overall among international prospects. The 17-year-old came over and began to pitch quite well as a starting pitcher, posting a sub-4.00 ERA in his first two minor-league seasons. Morejon made his debut in 2019 and struggled to find his footing. His stuff never quite played out as a starter, so San Diego transitioned him into the bullpen. Injuries held him back, with Morejon throwing just 47 2/3 big-league innings from 2021-23.
Overall Grade: A-
Then, everything changed. In 2024, Morejon became one of the most dominant relief pitchers in baseball. He took it to another level in 2025 and was nearly as good in ‘26. Morejon twirled a career-high 86 innings, posting a 2.83 ERA, 1.08 WHIP and .205 opponent batting average. He accumulated 107 strikeouts and 1.9 bWAR in that time. His only problem were blips in April (6.43 ERA) and September (4.50 ERA).
His underlying metrics are even better. Morejon’s expected stats (xERA and xBA) are both roughly 50 points lower than his actual marks. His sinker was one of the best in baseball (+11 Pitching Run Value), ranking him fifth among all relievers in PRV. Among all pitchers (starters and relievers) who threw more than 500 sinkers, Morejon ranks sixth overall in PRV.
Morejon was issued a $23.15 million qualifying offer last week. He has until Nov. 17 to decide whether he will remain with the Padres another season or decline and test free agency. Morejon is high on San Diego’s wish list out of their departing free agents. Many of the Friar Faithful hope that he’ll remain a Padre for his whole career. Only time will tell if ownership is willing to spend what is required to retain the lefty’s services.
Catcher Ivan Luciano might just be the only option at DH, literally
Introduction
If you haven’t read any of the previous articles in my D-backs Prospect All-Star series, I’ve been breaking down the best 2026 seasons at each position in the D-backs Farm system since the MiLB regular season ended. Just to recap, in part one, we looked at our starting pitcher, catcher, and the infield corner positions. TLDR: That gave us Carlos Virahonda as the starting catcher, David Hagaman as starting pitcher; At the hot corner, we have Danny Serretti as our third baseman, and across the diamond we have at first base, Manuel Pena.
Last week, we looked at my reliever of the year Joe Ariola. That just leaves us with one position unaccounted for, and if you hadn’t figured it out from the title, it’s designated hitter.
It is truly sad that we have to have this conversation but..
DH Prospects aren’t really a thing
I should really address the massive elephant in the room: a “Designated Hitter prospect” is a borderline oxymoronic term. If you’re an actual ranked prospect and you are a primary DH, this can only be for a few reasons, some of which are borderline or outright hypothetical.
You are so bad defensively that everyone else decided that you don’t need that baseball glove anymore, but your bat is that good.
There are better players at your competent positions, and nowhere else to play you where you aren’t a liability, but your bat is legitimately good enough that the team will fit your bat into the lineup.
You are an injury risk and/or coming off a serious injury.
You are a successful amateur two-way player, but the team doesn’t think you’re good enough at pitching to continue doing both.
All of the above
You are the proverbial unicorn, an actual two way player, who would completely dominate the league’s batters/pitchers if you’d just wasting your talent trying to do both.*****
“No the team isn’t going to have you playing the field, in-between your starts, making diving catches in left. I don’t care that you’d be a better right fielder“^
*****No one in Arizona or any other MLB team’s farm systems is this, or even looks like they might be this right now, thanks to the current two-way player rule
^Ohtani actually suggested this to all the professional teams he has played for (citation Needed).
Signing an amateur prospect who’s exclusively a DH is basically unheard of, at least in my experience. Even when converting a two-way DH/Pitcher to DH, that player is going to be given every chance to learn how to play the field. The Diamondbacks have generally used the DH position in the minors as a way to give the regulars a rest, and have mostly avoided having DH-exclusive hitters.
Finding our D-backs MiLB All-Star DH
There are a few ways we can go about finding a DH for our MILB All-Star team. We could just go with highest wRC+/OPS in the D-backs farm. That would be Weber Neels, a 19th round pick in this year draft who hit .365/.411/.750 with a 179 wRC+. That guy smashed eleven doubles and three homeruns in the span of twelve games in his professional debut with Low A Visalia. Pack it up and go because we find our guy.
What’s that? He only played 12 games total and played the field in every game so you think he doesn’t count? Well then, I’m sure if I go with Tim Tawa and his .320/.409/.733 triple slash with a 161 wRC+ for Triple A Reno, you’re going to complain that twenty games isn’t much better and then I’ll point out he wouldn’t count anyway since he’s not a prospect anymore and I excluded any player with MLB service time in this discussion.
Okay, fine, we’ll go back to taking this seriously. The Diamondbacks have just three qualified hitters at DH in their entire MILB farm system. Two of those hitters, 17 year old catcher/DH Jhosep Villarroel and 1B/OF/DH Manny Almonte played in the Dominican Summer League, which has a very short season and a bunch of other issues that compound the difficulty of evaluating prospects. That leaves with only one qualified hitter in the in upper levels of the minor leagues in the Dbacks organization that had enough plate appearences to qualify at DH, and that’s Catcher Ivan Luciano.
Jhosep Villarroel had a extremely impressive debut season, putting up triple slash of .303/.500/.485 with a 148 wRC+, it was in only 47 games AND in the DSL. Manny Almonte’s batting line of .255/.372/.465 with a 92 wRC+ was squarely below average, so he’s out as an option at DH, on top of the same reasons as Villarroel.
That leaves us with just the one option to plug in at DH, the aforementioned Ivan Luciano. Luciano is a legit catching prospect, but he had to share time with a plethora of other (arguably better) catching prospects like Carlos Virahonda. If there weren’t better options on Visalia or Hillsboro’s rosters, I dont think he’d have spent as much time DHing as he did in 2026.
In 85 games with the Low A level Visalia Rawhide, the 19 year old Luciano hit .264/.375/.441 with a 109 wRC+. Luciano spent the remaining 12 games of his 2026 season playing for the High-A level Hillsboro Hops, where he hit .279/.380/.465 with a 122 wRC+. In 97 games combined across the two levels in 2026, Luciano hit .266/.376/.444 with a 111 wRC+.
Luciano isn’t a bad pick to DH, just like he wasn’t a bad pick for an honorable mention/runner up for all-star to Virahonda at catcher. Villarroel’s season was as worthy of a mention here just like it was when going over the catching position, but Luciano gets the nod, from playing twice as many games at a higher level on the minor league ladder.
Not Every Team Treats MILB DHs like the D-backs
While finishing up the research for this article, I found a rather surprising piece of information: There’s actually 96 total qualified DHs in MiLB. Out of the thirty MLB franchises there were two teams who didn’t have a qualified hitter at DH, along with four teams that have just one. Seventeen other teams match the D-backs with at least three hitters qualified at DH. The Cincinnati Reds lead the way with seven.
Out of the 96 qualified designated hitters in Minor League Baseball, 67 of them have a 100 wRC+ or better. Jhosep Villarroel’s 148 wRC+ looks even better when compared to his peers; his 2026 season was the fourth best out of all the qualified DHs, and the three hitters who had better seasons were old for the levels they were assigned. Meanwhile, Luciano’s 111 wRC+ is tied for 43rd, which doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but like Villarroel, there are quite a few hitters ahead of him who were old for their assigned level, or are just outright not a prospect.
So what does this all mean? I don’t think the presence or lack of DH “prospects’ really means anything other than what I wrote in the first half the article. They are clearly an afterthought in minor league player development. There is basically no correlation with being members of the the formerly DH-less National League.
I guess the real question here is should the D-backs put more into developing some full-time hitters at the DH position, or should they continue the approach of having no approach? Who would you put as THE DH on the 2026 D-backs Prospect All-Star team? Let me me know in the comments!
The interminable sandpaper scandal will drag on to the next press conference, social media post or book, until it festers into something much bigger than it needs to be
There are some stories that you look back on and wonder whether we lost our collective minds. In Australia, 2018 was not a good year for banking executives, for prime ministers, for oily lord mayors and for cardinals. But the greatest betrayal of trust apparently concerned our national cricket team. There was public bawling, righteous indignation, weasel words and sanctimonious pieties. Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, flanked by a doleful Angus Taylor and a nodding firefighter, called it a “terrible disgrace”. “They now have to make sure this great national game, this great international game that is synonymous with fair play, is once again played by champions that everybody can look up to.”
Turnbull was more of a sailing man anyway. His parliamentary tenure was the political equivalent of Graeme Hick’s cricket career. By the time he’d been punted from office four months later, the Australian cricket team was being reimagined. The Ethics Centre’s 116-page document used the “Everest Process” to ascertain Cricket Australia’s alignment with its ethical framework. There were lots of charts asking how well CA was adhering to this value or that. “Mostly not lived”, “sometimes lived” and “always lived” were some of the measures. One could have saved a lot of time, money and paper and simply concluded “don’t be a prick, don’t bark like a dog when an opponent is dismissed, and don’t shove sandpaper down your dacks”.
Anthony Santander’s anti-Muslim social media posts in the wake of Democrat Abdul El-Sayed’s U.S. Senate victory in Michigan did not sit well with his boss.
Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins spoke with reporters Tuesday at the GM Meetings in Las Vegas to say he had spoken with Santander about how displeased he was with the posts on his Instagram Story.
“There really aren’t words to express my level of disappointment with him making those comments. I’ve expressed that to him,” Atkins said, according to Sportsnet.
Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Anthony Santander hits a two-run single during the third inning against the New York Yankees on Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025. JASON SZENES/ NY POST
El-Sayed, in last week’s midterm elections, defeated Republican challenger Mike Rogers in the battleground state. Santander took to his Instagram Story and shared posts that slammed the Muslim faith. El-Sayed is the first Muslim-American ever to be elected to the Senate.
On his Instagram Story, the Blue Jays slugger shared at least two videos, one that included the caption, “America voted for Sharia last night!” Another said that “Muslims are not peaceful.”
Sen. Abdul El-Sayed, D-Mich., speaks to reporters in the Senate Subway at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
“Baseball is for everyone, and the Blue Jays have created an inclusive experience where all fans feel welcome at our ballpark,” the team said. “Individual comments do not represent our organization’s values and beliefs.”
Atkins said he spoke with Santander and that his social media posts did not have “awareness.”
Ross Atkins, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, stands ahead of an MLB game against the Baltimore Orioles at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Sept. 13, 2025. Getty Images
“Anything exacerbating some level of anti-Islamic hate is just extremely concerning, extremely disappointing,” Atkins added. “I also talked to Anthony about his lack of awareness.”
Santander, an All-Star in 2024 with the Orioles, signed a five-year, $92.5 million contract with Toronto before the 2025 season. He played just 50 games that year before missing the entirety of the 2026 campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery and later dealing with a back issue during rehab.
Tarik Skubal | (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
The Mets will meet with 29-year-old left-handed starting pitcher Tarik Skubal next week, per a report from Anthony DiComo that confirmed earlier reporting by Jon Heyman. Skubal is undoubtedly the best pitcher and player on the free agent market this offseason.
Over the course of his major league career, Skubal has a 3.02 ERA and a 3.03 FIP in 925.1 innings of work. He’s been significantly better than his career numbers in recent seasons, though, as he has a 2.42 ERA and a 2.48 FIP since the beginning of the 2024 season. He spent the entirety of his major league career in Detroit before the Tigers traded him to the Dodgers at the trade deadline this summer.
Having traded for Freddy Peralta to join the top of their rotation ahead of the 2026 season only to see him struggle mightily in his time in Queens, the Mets are known to be seeking starting pitching in free agency. At the moment, Roster Resource projects that the team’s rotation would include Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Zac Thornton, Kodai Senga, and Sean Manaea if the season were to start tomorrow.
