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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 2025. 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.

Honorable Mention: Kris Bryant (N/A rWAR)

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Colorado Rockies held a press conference in early spring training in 2022 to announce that they had signed former MVP and World Series champion Kris Bryant to a seven-year, $182 million contract.

After Nolan Arenado’s public divorce from the club a year earlier, Rockies owner Dick Monfort wanted star power. So once the Collective Bargaining Agreement was ratified and baseball was able to resume after the lockout, he made a splash and helped orchestrate the signing of Bryant.

While plenty of skeptics and red flags surrounded the signing, there was at least some optimism that Bryant could help bring a winning culture to the Rockies and provide the clubhouse leadership this team desperately needed.

The sad reality is that the signing has been a disaster, as Bryant’s body betrayed him, and injuries rendered him a shell of his former self.

Over four seasons with the Rockies, when he was actually able to suit up, Bryant has played just 170 games, worth -1.6 rWAR. In 2025, he managed to play just 11 games before the lumbar degenerative disk disease he was diagnosed with in 2024 made it too difficult to play, and he landed on the 60-day injured list.

2026 was the first year in which Bryant did not play a single game of baseball in his professional career. It didn’t take long for him to land on the 60-day IL as the Rockies placed him on the IL the first chance they got when such roster moves could be made in spring training. Bryant reported to camp when full-squad workouts began, but it was simply to make an appearance, get his physical, and check in with the team before heading back home to work with doctors.

In the past, Bryant was at least on our minds throughout the season as he would occasionally pop up in the dugout and talk to the media once or twice during the regular season. This year, Bryant talked to the media while he was in camp, and made an appearance in the dugout when the Rockies played in Las Vegas in June, but we otherwise haven’t heard much from him. The message we did receive back in February was not a hopeful one.

His message was simply about the pain he has been dealing with as a result of the back issues. There was also a clear subtext of his frustration about his physical well-being and inability to play baseball.

“Any time my feet hit the ground, I feel like I could probably fall over,” Bryant said to the media. “It’s unfortunate and obviously not how I want this to go. I’m here to figure things out and find out if there is a way to get better.

“I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

He then went on to share about his path forward heading into the start of spring training and the reality that little to no progress has been made to get back on the field any time soon.

“Usually in the progression you start with the exercises, then you move to running,” Bryant said. “Any time my feet hit the ground, I just feel like I could probably fall over.

“I don’t really have the best answer for [returning to the field], because I haven’t really determined a plan, but I just am following advice and [the trainer’s] guidance, and obviously meeting with doctors. I met with doctors in the offseason, just to get opinions. They pass them on to the training staff, and then we determine how we go.”

The reality of not having Bryant for the season was not a surprise for manager Warren Schaeffer and the new front office, and the best path forward was to plan that he wasn’t going to be part of the equation at all.

“There’s really not much to say about it other than the guy’s back really hurts, and he’s having a tough time progressing,” Schaeffer said. “We have to prepare like he’s not going to play. That’s just the way we have to go about it, hoping that he has a recovery and a breakthrough. But as of now, his back really, really hurts. It’s a real thing. He just can’t play baseball.”

If Bryant is physically unable to play baseball, what’s the next step? At the time of his interview, he skirted around the question of retirement, instead holding onto hope a solution could be found.

“I honestly try not to let myself get there, because when you’re going through it every single day, you just try to make it day to day,” he said. “A lot of people out there with chronic pain, you don’t want to think so far in the future because you’re just trying to get through the day. So I haven’t let myself get there.”

But that was six months ago, and change happens.

There are still two years and $54 million of guaranteed money left on Bryant’s contract. Any sort of solution to rectify the situation is a tough puzzle to solve, especially now with a ticking clock of roughly 30 days before the offseason begins and Bryant would have to be added back onto the 40-man roster.

The simplest answer is that the Rockies take the hit and pay him the full amount left on his contract, and he retires or is released, much like the Denver Broncos did with Russell Wilson. That parallel became more of a reality when the Penner Sports Group bought a 40% ownership stake in the club last April, bringing an influx of cash to help pay off debts for the club.

The more likely alternative that would make the most sense is that the Rockies work with Bryant and his agent, Scott Boras, on restructuring the deal to defer the remaining $56 million over several years. The Los Angeles Angels did that very thing with oft-injured Anthony Rendón in January, spreading out the $38 million he was owed this season over the next three-to-five years.

While there has been no news on the Kris Bryant front this season, there is no doubt in my mind that Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes have been looking into a solution to bring this disastrous union to a close.

After five years, it’s time to put this chapter of Rockies history in the rearview mirror.

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With the regular season coming to a close, we’re already getting our first glimpse of what awaits on the horizon of awards season. The All-MLB Team is starting to gain some footing and now, the nominees for the 2026 All-MLB Team have been announced. As such, the Braves are going to have plenty of opportunities to have at least one represenative on this year’s First-and-Second-Team squads.

The Braves have nine nominees — Drake Baldwin at catcher, Matt Olson at first base, Ozzie Albies at second base, Ronald Acuña Jr. and Michael Harris II in the outfield, Chris Sale as a starter, and Didier Fuentes, Raisel Iglesias and Dylan Lee as relievers.

A lot of these players have experience with this particular honor. Chris Sale made the All-MLB First Team in 2024, Ronald Acuña Jr. made the Second Team in 2019 and 2020 and the First Team in 2023 and Raisel Iglesias made it onto the second team as a member of the Angels in 2021.

If I had to guess, Matt Olson and Michael Harris II and Chris Sale may have a shot to make it onto the squads and I’d imagine that Chris Sale could have a real good shot at making the First Team as part of the “rotation.” Outside of that, I wouldn’t harbor too many hopes but who knows, we shall see. It’s also pretty impressive that Didier Fuentes even got nominated, so well done to him for even being considered.

Voting will take place at MLB.com/AllMLB until October 9 at 2:00 p.m. ET and the teams will be announced on November 11 at the MLB Awards Show in Las Vegas.

The Texas Rangers’ 2026 season has come to an end, which means it is a pretty good time for us to check in on the state of the Rangers’ 40 man roster.

The 40 man roster currently is full, and in addition, there are six players — Carter Baumler, Jalen Beeks, Jose Corniell, Jack Leiter, Cal Quantrill, and Cole Winn — on the 60 day injured list. Those six players will have to come off the 60 day injured list at the end of the regular season, which means we have 46 players to account for on the 40 man roster.

Now, two of those six players — Jalen Beeks and Cal Quantrill — will be free agents at season’s end, which means we don’t have to concern ourselves with finding a 40 man roster spot for them. In addition, the following players are also set to hit free agency at the end of the season:

Tyler Alexander

Elias Diaz

Kyle Higashioka

Jakob Junis

Nicky Lopez

Jordan Montgomery

Joc Pederson

Trevor Williams

Yes, Higashioka and Pederson technically have mutual options, but since either side can decline, we can treat the pair as being pending free agents.

That gets us down to 36 players on the 40 man roster at the end of the season. So unlike, say, the San Francisco Giants — who have a full 40 man roster, 16 players on the 60 day injured list, and only one pending free agent — the Rangers won’t have to immediately put a bunch of guys on waivers once the season is over.

That said, there are some players currently on the 40 man roster who are not pending free agents, but who are going to end up being waived or non-tendered to create 40 man roster spots. The Rangers are going to have to once again build their bullpen from almost scratch, as well as likely add one or more minor leaguers to the 40 man roster to protect them from the Rule 5 Draft. We will go over who is Rule 5 eligible and who is likely to be protected in a future post.

The Rangers’ arbitration-eligible players are:

MacKenzie Gore — Arb 3

Logan O’Hoppe — Arb 2

Jake Burger — Arb 2

Josh Jung — Arb 2

Ezequiel Duran — Arb 2

Wyatt Langford — Arb 1

Robert Garcia — Arb 1

Jacob Latz — Arb 1

Cody Bradford — Arb 1

Evan Carter — Arb 1

As far as potential non-tenders go, most of these guys would appear to be safe from a potential non-tender. The two guys who strike me as possibilities for a non-tender would be Jake Burger and Logan O’Hoppe.

Burger has two seasons of team control remaining, and made $3.2 million in 2026. I’m guessing he’s looking at around $5.5 million in 2027. That’s cheaper than what you can get a similar player for on the open market — Josh Bell, for example, is a DH-only whose OPS+ the past four years has been 104, and assuming the Twins buy out his $10 million team option, he’ll have been paid $7 million for his one season of work for them.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Burger will be a Ranger for 2027, though. Josh Jung, who has never been great defensively and who has put up an aggregate -18 DRS the past three seasons (-12 in 2026) and an aggregate -6 FRV (-4 in 2026) could be moved to first base in anticipation that Sebastian Walcott will be, if not the third baseman to start the 2027 season, the third baseman for the Rangers at some point in 2027. In that case, the Rangers would have to decide whether to make Burger a DH or trade him. Its possible that, with the uncertainty surrounding the labor situation, neither the Rangers nor any other team want to take a risk on what Burger might get in arbitration under a new CBA, and thus Burger could get non-tendered. But I think its more likely the Rangers tender him and then decide what they want to do with him from there, if he’s not traded before then.

As for O’Hoppe, acquired from the Angels with Chase Silseth at the deadline for Angel Arredondo, he made $2.63 million in 2026, and still has three years of team control remaining due to the time he spent on optional assignment in the minors in 2026. O’Hoppe’s defense, both statistically and per reports, has regressed significantly, and other than one inning behind the plate, the Rangers only used him as at DH during his time in the majors with them. He split his time at Round Rock roughly between catcher and DH.

The Rangers have Danny Jansen — who was pretty solid overall when he was healthy in 2026 — under contract for 2027, but no other realistic option in the system to be Jansen’s backup for 2027. If the Rangers were, say, the Dodgers or Yankees or someone like that, they’d tender O’Hoppe, who has options remaining, and send him to AAA to be their third catcher if they don’t think the glove and/or bat warrants a backup role, and find some veteran free agent to be the primary backup for Jansen. Because this is the Rangers, I’m not so sure that they’ll do that. They may, instead, offer O’Hoppe something similar to what he made in 2026 — or a slight reduction from that amount — and threaten to non-tender him if he doesn’t agree to that before the deadline.

Speaking of Silseth, he has two years and 105 days of service time. That should have him short of being a Super Two, but we won’t know for sure until the official numbers from MLB come out.

So that gets us to 34 to 36 players on the 40 man roster. The Rangers will probably need to pare another 4-6 players at some point in the offseason. Here’s who I see as being potential 40 man casualties:

The Injured Rule 5 Pick — Carter Baumler

Carter Baumler was acquired by the Texas Rangers as a Rule 5 selection from the Baltimore Orioles this past winter. The Orioles left him exposed because of concerns about Baumler’s inability to stay off the injured list. The righthanded reliever impressed in spring training, made the Opening Day roster, and was on the active roster before he went on the injured list, where he spent the rest of the season (although he did make 11 rehab appearances for the Express — three in late April before he was shut down again, and eight at the end of the AAA season).

Baumler will have to spend, by my math, 80 days on an active major league roster before he can be optioned to the minors, so if Baumler does stay on the Rangers’ 40 man roster until Opening Day, he’ll have to be carried on the active roster for 80 days or be put on waivers (assuming he doesn’t land on the injured list in the interim, in which case the service time calculation for Rule 5 purposes would be paused until he returns from the injured list).

If the Rangers had a crowded 40 man roster situation, Baumler would seem to be a no-brainer to be dropped — and he could be dropped anyway. If the Rangers feel good about what he showed in the final month with Round Rock and think he’s not a lost cause from a health standpoint, though, it would seem likely that they’d hang onto him and see how things go this spring.

The Up-and-Down Relievers Added in 2026 — Robby Ahlstrom, Gavin Collyer, Adam Macko, Ben Peoples

Four pitchers who were not on the 40 man roster to start the 2026 season, but who got a decent amount of time in the major league pen during the 2026 season. All of them except Macko have at least two options remaining after the 2026 season.

Ahlstrom, acquired from the Yankees all the way back in April, 2022, in the Jose Trevino trade, was exposed and went undrafted in the Rule 5 Draft in both 2024 and 2025. This year, the Rangers brought him up in June, and he got off to a very good start, allowing one run in 9.1 innings in his first nine appearances. He allowed 25 runs over 27.2 innings over his final 33 appearances, and ended up bouncing up and down between Round Rock and the majors over the final couple of months.

Ahlstrom ended the year with an ugly 6.08 ERA in 37 innings over 42 appearances in the majors, though with a more respectable 5.18 FIP and 4.31 xERA. He is also a lefty, which probably works in his favor.

Macko, 25, was acquired at the deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays for Josh Stephen and Josh Smith in what was basically a salary dump of Smith. He made just eight appearances covering nine innings for the Rangers post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA, and six appearances covering nine innings for the Express post-trade, with a 6.00 ERA. Like Ahlstrom, he’s a lefty, which helps, but I don’t know that the Rangers would keep both Ahlstrom and Macko on the 40 man roster, and with him being out of options, he seems like someone who could end up on the DFA carousel this winter.

Collyer is a righthander who was the Rangers’ 12th round draft pick in 2019. A free agent after the 2025 season, the Rangers re-signed him to a minor league deal, and after a strong camp, he was called up to the majors in mid-April. Like Ahlstrom, he got off to a strong start, not allowing a run in his first 11 appearances, covering 9.2 innings. Also like Ahlstrom, he had issues after that, allowing 16 runs over 15.1 innings in his final 13 appearances, walking and striking out 15. And like Ahlstrom, he ended up shuttling between AAA and the majors over the final few months, though he spent most of the second half in the minors.

Collyer put up a 2.37 ERA in 30 innings for Round Rock, with 42 Ks against 18 walks. His improved command was what got the team’s attention in spring training and got him promoted in the majors early. The failure to throw strikes in his later appearances with the team got him returned to Round Rock. The arm is legit — he was in the 84th percentile in fastball velocity, per Statcast, and elite at avoiding hard contact — but he’s not going to be more than an emergency up-and-down guy if he doesn’t tighten up the command and throw more strikes.

Peoples, acquired from the White Sox at the end of June for organizational depth A ball catcher Ben Hartl, is similar to Collyer in that he’s a righthander with a big fastball (75th percentile) and elite at avoiding loud contact, but who struggles to throw strikes. But while Collyer is mediocre at striking out batters, Peoples is near the bottom of the league, with just a 14.7% K rate.

Peoples was up for a month and a half after being acquired, was sent down in mid-August, and made just two more appearances in the big leagues for Texas after that. He ended the year with a 2.76 ERA in 16.1 innings over 16 appearances, but with just 10 Ks against 8 walks. He had an ugly 5.92 FIP but a respectable 3.92 xERA.

The Reliever Without Options Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Cole Winn

Cole Winn ended the 2026 season on the injured list, which is the same way his 2024 and 2025 seasons ended. He had two stints on the injured list in 2026, the same number of stints on the i.l. he had in 2025. He was out of options in 2026, and if he hadn’t been out of options, he probably would have been sent down to AAA at some point for a reason other than a rehab assignment.

Winn had a 7.79 ERA in 2024, a 1.51 ERA in 2025, and a 5.63 ERA in 2026. His xERAs (5.35, 4.19, 4.88) and FIPs (4.26, 3.90, 4.02) have been much more consistent and largely pretty pedestrian. His splitter and slider generate whiffs, but his command of his fastball and cutter in the strike zone results in those two pitches being punished too often.

I can’t see the Rangers keeping all four of Winn, Baumler, Collyer and Peoples. There’s only so many iffy righthanded middle relievers you can carry on your 40 man roster, especially given that the Rangers are going to add some (hopefully less iffy) righthanded middle relievers as free agents this offseason. It may be that the Rangers are going to be willing to carry either Winn or Baumler — two guys who can’t be sent down without clearing waivers — to start the 2027 season, but not both, and I’m not sure both stick on the 40 man roster all offseason.

The Nolan Ryan Winner Who Can’t Stay Healthy — Jose Corniell

Jose Corniell was the Nolan Ryan Pitcher of the Year in the Rangers’ organization for 2023, a season which saw him put up a 2.92 ERA in 101 innings between low-A and high-A. He missed all of 2024 and most of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery, but pitched very well upon his return in 2025, with a 1.89 ERA in 13 appearances in the minors before making his major league debut in game 162 of 2025.

2026 was a disaster, as he put up a 6.37 ERA in 10 appearances in AAA, and allowed 10 runs in 4.1 innings in two appearances in the majors when he was pressed into emergency duty. He went on the 60 day i.l. after his final major league appearance in July, and his status for 2027 is unclear.

Corniell technically is out of options, though he is most likely eligible for a fourth option. Given his health issues, however, I think there’s a good chance he is non-tendered and re-signed to a minor league contract.

The Disappointing Upper-Level Minor League Righthanded Arms — David Davalillo, Leandro Lopez, Winston Santos, Emiliano Teodo

Davalillo and Lopez were added to the 40 man roster after the 2025 season. Santos and Teodo were added after the 2024 season. None of them have pitched well since they got added, and if they were not on the 40 man roster currently, they would almost certainly not be added this offseason.

Davalillo is a control artist who, for much of 2026, failed to throw strikes, and had a 4.59 ERA in 100 innings between four levels in 2026, mostly at Frisco and Round Rock. Lopez missed three months of 2026 and was awful when he did pitch for much of the season, though he put up a 1.15 ERA and 431 OPS allowed in his final eight appearances, working mostly in relief. Santos missed most of 2025 due to injury and put up a 6.80 ERA in 25 appearances covering 83.1 innings between Frisco and Round Rock in 2026, as well as getting a couple of emergency call-ups to the majors, with Santos allowing two runs in one inning in his one major league appearance. Teodo also missed most of 2025, and while his surface numbers for Round Rock in 2026 were better — 3.73 ERA, 4.71 xERA, 4.50 FIP — he was still walking batters at a 16.8% rate. To put that in context, none of the 389 major league pitchers who threw at least 40 innings in 2026 had a walk rate higher than 15.3%.

Santos, who turns 25 next season and is coming off two straight disappointing seasons, would seem to be the guy most in danger of losing his roster spot. Lopez and Teodo are would seem to be the safest, as they have the stuff to potentially be quality bullpen arms, and Lopez, as noted above, pitched well over the last six weeks or so working out of the pen.

Oh, Yeah, He’s Still Here— Michel Otanez, Michael Helman

The Rangers claimed Otanez on waivers last November. He was optioned to the minors early in spring training, was designated for assignment in June, went unclaimed, was outrighted, and then was added to the 40 man roster and brought back up for one day in mid-September. The Rangers initially sent him back to Round Rock the next day, but that move was negated when he had to go on the injured list with an undisclosed viral illness. Otanez was bad for much of the year, but improved over the final month or two. Still, with no options remaining and the fact he’s been outrighted once before, I can’t see him sticking on the 40 man roster all offseason.

Michael Helman turns 31 early next season, put up a .207/.296/.360 slash line in 42 games for Round Rock last year after putting up a .231/.294/.406 slash line in 71 AAA games in 2025. He had a nice run late last season for the Rangers, but had a .250 xwOBA that indicated it was fluky, and had a .167/.235/.300 slash line in 35 plate appearances in the big leagues this year (with a .200 xwOBA). If you have an open 40 man roster spot, he’s an acceptable depth piece who can be called up in an emergency to play some center field and pinch run off the bench, but he’s not someone who you are going to going through machinations to ensure you can keep him on the 40 man. He’s another guy I could see the Rangers non-tendering and then re-signing to a minor league deal.

Okay, got all that? You will be tested on this next week.

I’m thinking of a baseball team.

With a little more than a week to go in the season, they were comfortably in a wild card spot, having gotten there with multiple long winning streaks. Then… they just stopped scoring runs. They went on the road at the end of the season and could barely muster anything crossing the plate. The team’s fans were beside themselves. What would happen to this club that at times seemed so dominant?

Oh, you think I’m talking about this year’s Cubs.

Nope, I’m talking about the 2022 Phillies, who with 12 games to go were 83-67 (psst… so were this year’s Cubs after 150 games). Then those Phillies lost five in a row. That streak included coming into Wrigley Field and being swept by a bad Cubs team and scoring just three runs in that series. I vividly remember talking to a couple of Phillies fans at Wrigley after that series was over and, well, I can’t post the language they used referring to their team.

Those Phillies then righted their ship, a little, winning four of five. Then they got shut out 10-0 by the Astros on the season’s penultimate day (in fact, they nearly got no-hit by Justin Verlander and two Houston relievers, including old friend Hector Neris, finally breaking up that effort in the ninth). They lost the next day, too, backing into the postseason when the Brewers lost.

Those Phillies then traveled to St. Louis for a Wild Card series and were losing 2-0 with one out in the ninth in the first game when seven of their next eight hitters reached base. They scored six runs in that inning and won 6-3.

That was the first of 10 wins in 12 games for Philadelphia, which included winning Game 1 of the World Series in Houston, against that same team that had nearly knocked them out entirely a few weeks earlier.

Ultimately the Astros won the World Series that year. (Incidentally, Alex Bregman batted .294/.379/.569 with three home runs in 12 postseason games for Houston in 2022; his solid postseason performance is one of the reasons the Cubs signed him.)

Now the Cubs are in a similar situation to those Phillies. Not identical, of course, but the clubs are quite similar. The 2022 Phillies were a slugging team near the top of MLB in offensive categories. They had a mediocre pitching staff that ranked 23rd in reliever ERA and had 22 blown saves, and their save leader — Corey Knebel, remember him from his Brewers days? — had just 12, with four of those blown saves.

This pretty much describes the 2026 Cubs, no? In fact, this year’s Cubs rank even higher than the 2022 Phillies in almost every offensive category. They were first this year in runs, SLG, OPS, OPS+, total bases and walks (a franchise record 674), and rank third in home runs. They also rank first in runners left on base, and I could cite RISP numbers but leaving a lot of runners also means that, well, you have a lot of runners in the first place. That’s what happens when you lead the league in walks and are sixth in hits.

This sort of offense shows in the Cubs’ record in “blowout” games (defined at baseball-reference.com as games won by five or more runs). They are 35-16 in those games, which is excellent. But they’re just 23-21 in one-run games, and that’s on the pitching staff, which has been horrific most of the year. How bad? This bad:

The Cubs pitching staff is one of the worst in MLB (only four teams, then Nationals, Royals, A’s and Rockies had as bad or worse pitching WAR), and if they didn’t lead the league in hitting WAR by a significant margin — 11 WAR over the Dodgers! — they’d be down near the bottom of the list. Instead, they rank third overall, behind only the Dodgers and Brewers.

Injuries are a big part of that. Only Shōta Imanaga, of all the starters, didn’t have a single day on the injured list, making 31 starts and throwing 173.1 innings, producing 2.0 bWAR. Even at that, the Cubs’ leader in bWAR (2.2) was Ben Brown, who threw only 68 innings and didn’t throw a single pitch after June 19. Brown’s injury was one of the major factors in making this pitching staff so awful. This Cubs team had a franchise-record 14 different pitchers record saves this year, including Corbin Martin (!), who posted a 10.80 ERA in seven games for the team in 2026.

Many of you will rightly criticize Cubs President of Baseball Operations Jed Hoyer for this patchwork bullpen that posted just 35 saves, with 23 blown saves. Granted and stipulated, the signings of Phil Maton (who was awful thanks to a knee injury, which he pitched through instead of having it taken care of) and Hunter Harvey (who threw only four innings for the team this year) were both wasted money.

But you know what, relievers are fickle and fungible. Last year Hoyer was praised for putting together a solid relief corps that included castoffs like Brad Keller, Drew Pomeranz and Caleb Thielbar, all of whom were very good in 2025 (total 3.6 bWAR, which is half of what the entire Cubs staff put together this year). Hoyer tried a reunion with Thielbar this year; that didn’t work. Neither did six games of Pomeranz in 2026 after the Angels released him.

The larger issue is pitching development for the Cubs. Other teams seem to crank out endless lines of guys from their minor league systems throwing 98+. The Cubs don’t.

That’s a topic for another day, though. Today’s is: Why not the Cubs this year? We saw them run off a pair of 10-game winning streaks early in the year. (And then a 10-game losing streak.) We have seen them dominate games with their offense. They scored in double figures 21 times in 2026, the sixth-most such games for any Cubs team in the Modern Era (they also did it 22 times last year, and two of those years, 1929 and 1930, were juiced-ball offensive seasons). This sort of offense might, just might, be enough to overcome the shortcomings of this mediocre pitching staff.

When the postseason starts, things tend to reset from the regular season. Last year’s Brewers, for example, scored a bunch of runs in their first two Division Series games against the Cubs, then stopped hitting, scoring only 10 total runs in the next seven games, squeaking by the Cubs in that series, then getting swept in the NLCS by the Dodgers. There are tons of postseason examples just like this. In recent years, the 2024 Mets won a Division Series over a better Phillies team because Philly stopped hitting. The 84-78 Diamondbacks did it to the 100-62 Dodgers in 2023, outscoring them in a Division Series sweep 19-6.

Circling back to that 2022 Phillies team, they won two of the first three World Series games from the Astros and then… well, just stopped hitting, scoring only three total runs in the next three games as Houston won the Series. The point here is — at least the Phillies got to the World Series. I think this Cubs team can do that too, or even win the whole thing, if they hit like they are capable of. Let’s hope they start that tomorrow against the Padres. Go Cubs.