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The first major trade Paul Toboni made as Nationals POBO was to acquire Harry Ford in exchange for Jose A. Ferrer. Ford was expected to emerge as the Nats catcher of the future without an elite backstop like Cal Raleigh blocking him. However, this season did not go according to plan for the 23 year old catcher.

It was a bit of a surprise when Ford did not make the team out of camp. Clearly, the Nats thought he needed more time in the minors. Despite that, I still expected Ford to quickly show he belonged in the big leagues. That did not happen though, as Ford struggled mightily in AAA to start the year.

This was very surprising given the fact that Ford posted an .868 OPS in AAA last year. To start this season, Ford looked rough at the plate. His power was not showing up and he was striking out more. On May 10th, Ford was hitting .188 with a .557 OPS.

That is not exactly an ideal start to life in a new organization. Outside of his usual plate discipline, Ford just did not look like the player the Nats thought they were getting. Meanwhile, Jose A. Ferrer looked like a borderline elite reliever at the start of the season.

Let’s actually talk a little bit about Ferrer because it provides some important context. Nats fans wondered a lot about what the bullpen would look like with Ferrer. That narrative made a lot of sense at the beginning of the year, but even as Ferrer struggled, fans did not adjust the way they talked about him.

Ferrer’s 4.18 ERA and 4.09 FIP in 73 outings would be an upgrade on most of the guys the Nats had. However, those numbers are mediocre. It is not like Ferrer proved to be some major loss for the Nats this season. Even if things stay the same, a backup catcher for a mediocre reliever is not some awful deal.

Getting back to Ford, he did start to turn the corner in AAA. His OPS rose each month he was in the minors and was over .800 in both June and July. Following Drew Millas’ injury around the All-Star Break, Ford finally got his chance.

When Ford got to the majors, the results were not amazing, but not totally awful either. He only hit .190, but his 14.4% walk rate led to a .664 OPS. Ford struggled with his blocking, but he was not a total disaster defensively with a -2 FRV and a -1 DRS. That is not good by any means, but for a backup catcher, you can do worse.

This will be a big offseason for Ford though. There are a lot of things for him to work on. The biggest point of emphasis needs to be finding his power. In 2025, Ford hit 16 homers and showed solid power. It was not just the homers. Ford’s 88.8 MPH average exit velocity and his 103.4 MPH 90th percentile EV were rock solid.

We did not see that sort of power from him in the minors or the big leagues. In AAA, Ford’s average EV was 85.2 MPH and his EV90 was 101.8. That only got worse when he faced better pitching in the big leagues, with Ford posting an 84.9 MPH average and a 101.2 MPH EV90. To become a starting caliber catcher, that power needs to come back. There were reports that Ford had some nagging shoulder problems this year, so maybe his power will come back with a healthy offseason.

Ford’s super power is his plate discipline. That translated to the big league level, with the Nats catcher only chasing 18.7% of the time. However, with his limited power and mediocre contact skills, it is tough to be a good hitter. We saw some flashes, including a homer against the A’s in one of his first games. However, there was not enough consistency.

With the lower offensive ceiling of the catcher position and Ford’s ability to draw walks, there is a path to success. There is a world where he can be around a league average hitter with solid defense as well. At catcher, that is very valuable. They have very different offensive profiles, but I could see Ford producing like Keibert Ruiz did this year, just with walks carrying his profile.

However, this year did not go as planned and it did lower my view of Ford’s potential. He should be a solid big league catcher, though I am not sure he has the juice to be an above average full time starter. I can see Ruiz and Ford splitting reps and becoming a solid tandem. 

The biggest key to Ford’s success will be recapturing his power stroke. I think he needs to find a way to improve his bat speed this offseason. We saw a lot of Nats hitters swinging faster this year, and hopefully Ford is next. His average bat speed was 69.2 MPH and I thought his swing looked noticeably slow. 

It was a sluggish campaign for Ford, but he still posted 0.4 fWAR and 0.3 bWAR. Even right now, Ford is a decent backup catcher, but we know he can be more than that. Hopefully he can return to form in 2027 and show why Paul Toboni invested heavily into him.

Season Grade: D+/D

Welcome to the 2026 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2026. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.

No. 42, Chad Stevens (-0.3 rWAR)

During the 2025-26 offseason, the Colorado Rockies were busy trying to fill out the depth of the roster with a variety of minor league signings. Players capable of playing multiple positions while being able to raise the talent level, specifically in Triple-A Albuquerque, were a key component of the first offseason under president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta.

In December, the Rockies signed 27-year-old infielder Chad Stevens to a minor league deal. Stevens ability to play nearly every infield position, along with his  .281/.354/.459 slash over the last two seasons that translated into a 110 wRC+ and 28 stolen bases. Stevens also had a brief five-game stint with the Los Angeles Angels in 2025 where he picked up a pair of singles and seven strikeouts in 14 at-bats.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the Rockies infield situation, the door was wide open for players like Stevens to make an impact and perhaps find a home with the rebuilding Rockies.

In spring training, Stevens made a decent impression. Despite hitting just .200 in 40 at-bats, it was his on-base percentage of .429 along with his 13 walks against 18 strikeouts that must have given the Rockies hope that he could have been a steal of a signing and useful depth piece.

Heading to Triple-A Albuquerque, Stevens settled in nicely with the Isotopes, where he was on fire. Through his first 168 plate appearances, he slashed .362/.435/.523 (.958 OPS) with three homers, 13 doubles and a triple. He also set an Isotopes franchise record on May 19 with his 39-game on-base streak.

When Brenton Doyle was placed on the injured list with an oblique strain on May 21, the Rockies had no choice but to reward Stevens with a call-up to the big leagues, where he started at second base against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Unfortunately, the red-hot bat that Stevens showcased in Albuquerque didn’t carry over to his second big-league stint. He appeared in 16 games and batted .036/.176/.036 in 28 at-bats, collecting just one hit and three RBI while striking out 13 times with five walks. That hit for Stevens came in his second game with the Rockies, meaning he went 0-for-23 over his next 14 games.

While the bat didn’t show up for Stevens, the glove definitely did. Across 78 innings in the field, primarily at second base, he recorded 1 Defensive Runs Saved and had a perfect fielding percentage. In 63 innings at second base, he had 2 DRS as well as 2 Outs Above Average and 2 Fielding Runs Value. Had the offense followed Stevens, he very likely could have gotten more opportunities to utilize his glove to make more stellar plays.

Unfortunately, because of the lack of offense, Stevens was optioned back to Albuquerque when Tyler Freeman came off the concussion list on June 14.

He continued to thrive with the Isotopes through the rest of the season. In the 59 games after his return to Triple-A, Stevens slashed .284/.392/.423 with 10 doubles, four triples, and four home runs with 28 RBI. He also drew 35 walks against 74 strikeouts while collecting 11 stolen bases.

In total, Stevens hit .316/.409/.464 with 23 doubles, five triples and seven home runs in 423 plate appearances over 99 games. He struck out 118 times, but managed 51 walks and was a key contributor to the Isotopes’ improvement as a club this season.

It’s hard to tell what the future holds for Stevens. Should the Rockies retain him on the 40-man roster, he can continue to serve as a utility infield depth piece with minor league options intact and several years of team control. On the other hand, 40-man roster spots are precious, and he may end up on the chopping block if the Rockies decide they want more room to protect players. The glove definitely demands big league opportunities, but the bat needs to follow and replicate some of the success in the minors.

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The Dodgers’ Game 3 NLCS loss to the Brewers on Wednesday hit hard for fans and players alike.

Beloved Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández seemed to take this loss especially tough, given how he looked when speaking to the media postgame.

“We didn’t expect to be in this situation, this position. But this one sucks,” Hernández said, per Santiago Gil Sam.

“We’ve got to find a way to turn the page quick, because tomorrow is gonna be here pretty fast. And, yeah. We lose, we’re done. So we gotta go on one-game winning streaks for four games in a row and see what happens. But, yeah, this one sucks,” he added.

Hernández’s eyes were noticeably watery throughout the interview, and he looked like he was about to cry when realizing that the Dodgers likely lost their one opportunity to salvage this NLCS.

Hernández doesn’t need to be reminded that history has not boded well for MLB teams down 3-0 in a series. Only one of 43 teams has won a series from this position, and Los Angeles’ uninspired performance to this point doesn’t make it seem like they will be No. 2.

The 35-year-old Hernández hasn’t tallied a hit in five NLCS at-bats. He’ll be a free agent after this season, which could mean Thursday will be his last game wearing a Dodgers uniform.

Perhaps that played in to his emotional reaction to Los Angeles’ Game 3 defeat.

The Yankees have a lot of uncertainty at multiple positions heading into the offseason, but there’s one potential newcomer to the league who could solve third base.

MLB insider Jon Heyman reported before the final stretch of the regular season that Teruaki Sato could be a good fit with several MLB clubs, including the Yankees. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman also said that he could be “in play” for the Yankees, though they might want to be confident that he can handle third base.

Sato led the Central League in the Nippon Professional Baseball Organization, batting .306 with 39 homers and 106 RBIs, and became the first Hanshin Tigers player in franchise history to win the Triple Crown. The lefty hitter also finished the season with a .991 OPS, 383 OBP, and a .600 slugging percentage, so it’s safe to say that he can easily conquer the Short Porch when the time comes. Once the free agency frenzy starts, there’s no doubt that Sato will be one of the targets that the Yankees should keep an eye on (and we’ll have more to come on him at that time as well).

For some context on how the system works, NPB players who have fewer than nine years of experience can be posted to pursue contracts with MLB clubs during the November 1 to December 5 window. If they don’t sign a contract with a team by the end of the 45 days, they’ll return to the NPB and won’t be eligible for posting until the following season.

The 27-year-old primarily played third base for the Tigers, but he also appeared in right field during the most recent World Baseball Classic. He went 3-for-10 combined through five games in the tournament, recording three doubles with two RBIs before Team Venezuela defeated Team Japan in the quarterfinals.

His versatility could be just what the Yankees need to bolster confidence at third base, especially after the options this season were, to say the least, disappointing. With Rosario entering free agency, fans aren’t eager to have Ryan McMahon in the starting role again, especially since he made little impact on offense and committed costly defensive errors that put the Yankees at risk throughout the postseason. It is at least within the realm of possibility that the Yankees could outright cut ties with McMahon, as well.

Anthony Volpe and José Caballero, who also made appearances at the position this season, are eligible for arbitration, and if either or both end up parting with the pinstripes, it could give the Yankees enough room to give Sato a decent deal — though neither salary figure will be so onerous that it should hamstring a pursuit.

Munetaka Murakami, who played alongside Sato at the World Baseball Classic, was a standout for Team Japan and hit a grand slam to secure their spot in the quarterfinals as the Pool C winners. After witnessing his inspiring success story with the White Sox this season, it’s possible that adding Sato to the Yankees’ roster could reignite a seemingly dying flame in the clubhouse and propel the Yankees to extend their postseason run next year.

Dave Dombrowski can’t take another seven years of watching Trea Turner handle shortstop like he did in 2026 — likely since that would cost him his job.

The Phillies’ top baseball executive issued a stern warning to the regressing $300 million veteran in his first comments since the team’s season ended in a three-game wild-card loss to the Braves.

“From a defensive perspective, we are very clear. He knows he has to be better at shortstop. And I told him that it’s really mandatory that he’s like that,” Dombrowski said Thursday.

“He feels he can play and if he plays shortstop like he did in ’25, he can play shortstop. But if plays it like he did in ’26, he can’t. He totally understands that.”

He also offered a tepid endorsement for Turner being the team’s Opening Day 2027 shortstop.

“At this point, but we’ll see what happens,” he said. “It’s up to him to show us he can do it and we’ll see — we’ll have fallback opportunities and some of them may come back for the young players we have.”

It’s not a good sign that Turner isn’t even halfway through his 11-year, $300 million pact and discussions are already being had about whether he can still handle the the premium defensive infield position.

Dombrowski said he met with Turner face to face to discuss the matter, and his season overall, for several hours earlier this week.

Turner posted negative marks in both outs above average (OAA) and defensive runs saved (DRS) in his first two seasons with the franchise from 2023-24 before making a stark improvement in 2025.

He posted plus-2 DRS and plus-16 OAA marks that year.

That uprise lasted just one season, with Turner regressing to minus-17 DRS and minus-8 OAA metrics this past year while committing 21 errors.

With Turner’s struggles standing out, the Phillies recently dismissed infield coach Bobby Dickerson.

Dombrowski said the team has provided Turner with information they believe can help him, and new third base coach Carlos Mendoza — the former Mets’ skipper — is being tasked with aiding him.

Turner does have experience manning the outfield, but the team is giving him a chance to show that he should remain at shortstop.

“He is very willing to do — if he doesn’t play shortstop — to do what is best for the Philadelphia Phillies organization,” Dombrowski said of the 12-season veteran. “So, that’s how we left it with him and he’s determined to show us he can play it and I said, You have to show it. You cannot play shortstop like he did defensively in ’26 going into ’27.”

Dombrowski praised Turner for owning up to his poor overall season, which also included an uncharacteristic down offensive campaign.

Turner, 33, posted career-lows in batting average (.242), on-base percentage (.297), slugging percentage (.378) and OPT (.675) for any non-rookie season.

He finished fifth in MVP voting in 2025 while logging an .812 OPS.

“Trea does not think he had a good season offensively or defensively. He takes completely accountability on that and is already working on his swing, and I’ve told him to kind of slow down, you don’t have to do it that quickly, make sure he gets with some people,” Dombrowski said.

“I think Trea still has his fast-twitch muscles, he did not have a good year but I think he can bounce back from an offensive perspective, he needs to fix things with his swing.”

The offseason is here and plenty of folks have opinions on what the Atlanta Braves should do during the offseason. Because there’s no such thing as having enough pitching and the fact that Braves President/GM Alex Anthopoulos recently stated that both Spencer Schwellenbach and Spencer Strider may not be reliable options to get a ton of innings in 2027, that does apparently open up the Braves to pursuing some pitching options going forward.

That search could include Atlanta potentially providing a home ballpark for a pitcher who could be making his way across the Pacific Ocean from Nippon Professional Baseball to Major League Baseball. Back in March while the World Baseball Classic was going on, Jorge Castillo of ESPN reported that RHP Hiromi Itoh of the Nippon Ham Fighters was widely expected to make the jump to MLB.

The Japanese season has come and gone and it’s still expected that Itoh will be coming over. The reason why we’re talking about it here is because in his International Beat newsletter for MLB.com (which you can subscribe to here), Michael Clair shared what he gleaned from an anonymous scout currently working in Japan and Clair stated that the Braves could be a “potential fit” for Itoh if/when he makes the move.

Here’s part of what Clair had to say about Itoh:

While Itoh has an extra inch on [Kaima] Taira, he’s also 40 lbs lighter and could be ticketed for a relief role. “He could be an up and down starter,” our scout said, “but maybe in relief he might show some more velocity. In the previous WBC, he came out of the bullpen and he was 94-96 with some nasty stuff.” However, what Itoh lacks in size, he makes up for with a deep pitch mix consisting of “10+ unique grips and shapes” as noted by Yakyu Cosmopolitan. 

Here’s the linked tweet from Yakyu Cosmopolitan (and if you’re on Twitter and you want to learn more about Japanese baseball, he is a fantastic resource to learn from)

Here’s some video of Itoh pitching for the Fighters this season, while we’re at it:

Itoh didn’t have as dominating of a season in 2026 as he did in 2025 which is when he won the Sawamura Award (basically the Japanese equivalent of the Cy Young Award) with an ERA of 2.52 (79 ERA-) and a FIP of 2.27 (73 ERA-) across 27 starts and 196.2 innings pitched — but he still produced an ERA of 3.23 (94 ERA-) and a 2.81 FIP (82 FIP-) across 172.2 innings and 26 starts in 2026. He also took a step back in the 2026 WBC when compared to his dominant effort during the 2023 WBC, so hopefully this isn’t a case of Itoh starting to really slow down now that he’ll be hitting his age-30 season in 2027.

With that being said, Japanese stars have continued to somewhat routinely over-perform their expectations and it’s fun to think about what, say, Jeremy Hefner could do with this guy if they got in the lab together. While the Braves have only been speculated as a potential fit, there’s real MLB interest here as Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported that the Giants were spotted scouting Itoh, so there’s plenty of smoke when it comes to the fire of seeing Itoh in a big league uniform soon.

Will the Braves be the team that decides to seriously pursue Itoh? There’s no telling as this is purely speculation at this point for everybody involved. It’s fun to think about and discuss, though, so let us know what y’all think about this.

The good news is MLB was proactive and moved up the start of Game 3 of the ALCS to 1:00pm this afternoon, where Griffin Jax will toe the rubber for the Rays against Gavin Williams and the Guardians.

The bad news is the system moving into Cleveland tonight will also have a backend to it tomorrow, and with potential precipitation enhancement off Lake Erie, it’s very possible Friday’s game gets washed out. Here’s a simulation of the HRRR model for tomorrow:

This is not a guaranteed postponement situation, but given the field will be messy even if they do play, and the series has a built in off day on Sunday (where it’s supposed to be gorgeous), it might make sense for MLB to realign things with Games 4 and 5 on Saturday and Sunday in Cleveland, and then continue with already scheduled Games 6 and 7 back at the Trop on Monday and Tuesday if the series goes the distance.

There’s a world where MLB may just choose to power through precipitation and play in less than ideal conditions, but either way, it should be one of those borderline calls.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, the Brewers and Dodgers may also not be playing a game tomorrow night, but for an entirely different reason. The Brewers have a 3-0 series lead and could send the Dodgers home with a win in Game 4 of the NLCS this evening.

If this occurs, it would be a nightmare for not just LA (so much to unpack there!), but also for the MLB owners, who desperately want to implement a salary cap this offseason. A Brewers win not only guarantees an all small market World Series, but would also leave an all small market ALCS to play out for (potentially) several more days. Imagine an ALCS that goes the full seven followed by a World series that also goes the full seven. That would leave MLB with 11 consecutive games of all small market teams in national windows to close the season, and given the way these teams play, it would probably be a good brand of baseball even if it wouldn’t include high ratings or sexier franchises.

In other words, the sport itself might be about to send the exact opposite message the owners want to present in the offseason, and I can’t help but giggle trying to imagine the scramble that must be going on behind closed doors right now.

Use this thread to discuss all the playoff action throughout the day as well as any other big picture items on your mind. As always, be good to one another! (For all the reasons listed above, this could be the last day with more than one MLB game for a long, long time. Savor it!)