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With the 2026 season officially behind us, Camden Chat will spend the next several weeks reviewing the performances of some of the Orioles’ most prominent players this year.

But before that, let’s pour one out for all the non-prominent players who made an appearance for the 2026 Orioles. The blink-and-you-missed-them, “wait, that guy was an Oriole?” kind of roster fillers who spent only a couple of weeks — or days — with the club before vanishing into the ether.

The Orioles used 60 different players this season, an almost paltry number compared to a year ago when they set an MLB record with 70 (which was broken days later when the Braves used their 71st). So here’s a quick look at the members of the 2026 Orioles who didn’t play enough, made too little of an impact, or just were too darn forgettable to merit an individual post in our upcoming series.

The injury-stricken veterans

For a second straight year, injuries were a key factor in the Orioles’ underperformance. Quite a few players that the O’s were counting on to contribute ended up missing significant time. And one of the cruelest blows came in the first week of the season, when Zach Eflin — who’d made an outstanding return from 2025 back surgery, dazzled in spring training, and won a rotation spot — left his season debut with elbow soreness and was forced to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery after just 3.2 innings of work. For that to happen after he’d battled so hard to come back, you have to feel for the guy. The Orioles might have interest in re-signing Eflin, who should be ready to return sometime early next season.

Also suffering an all-too-early injury was Ryan Mountcastle, the second-longest tenured Oriole (he debuted a week after Keegan Akin in 2020). It was a surprise when the O’s brought back Mountcastle for a $6.7 million deal instead of non-tendering him last offseason, and he was an even worse fit once the Orioles signed Pete Alonso, but the idea was that Mountcastle could serve as a right-handed power bat against lefties. In just his 15th plate appearance, Mountcastle broke his foot while running the bases in April, then strained his oblique while preparing to rehab in July. He never returned, and that’s likely the end of his seven-year tenure in Baltimore.

One guy who did return, quite unexpectedly, was Félix Bautista, whose torn rotator cuff and torn labrum in Aug. 2025 were expected to sideline him for the entire 2026 season. The big right-hander worked his way back in late September, albeit after the O’s were out of contention, and gave up three runs in two appearances. His velocity was noticeably down, but maybe having a full offseason will help him come back stronger in 2027. We can only hope.

The random relievers

The Orioles’ Opening Day bullpen included a number of unheralded names. Two of them didn’t last long. The 35-year-old lefty Dietrich Enns, who’d pitched well down the stretch for the Orioles the previous season, issued 11 walks in 16 innings and was banished to Triple-A. He continued to pitch so poorly with Norfolk — a 6.13 ERA in 31 games — that the O’s never brought him back. And right-hander Yaramil Hiraldo was dreadful, coughing up nine runs and 10 walks in 9.1 innings in three stints in the majors.

Anyone remember Lou Trivino? The veteran righty pitched twice, was bombed for six runs, and then returned to the Phillies from whence he came. Lefty Nick Raquet made four appearances; righty Jose Espada made one. And the O’s employed not one but two right-handers named Cameron: Cameron Foster, part of the Gregory Soto trade return, pitched six uninspiring games, and Cameron Weston tossed a scoreless inning in his major league debut before the Mets claimed him on waivers.

The hapless fill-in catchers

When Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo weren’t behind the plate this year, boy, did things get ugly. We’re going to have a separate post about the disaster that was Carlos Narváez, but a few others also tried their hand, with terrible results. Who could forget the painful experience of watching Sam Huff step to the plate? He had the swing of someone who had never held a baseball bat before. The O’s also brought back Chadwick Tromp for a second straight season, but jettisoned him after he went 3-for-24.

Third catcher Yohel Pozo brought good vibes to the Orioles but spent most of his time glued to the bench. He appeared in only 16 of the Orioles’ 51 games in August and September. We’ll toss Maverick Handley into this category even though he never actually caught an inning for the Orioles this year, making one pinch-hit appearance before the O’s waived him. And the Orioles briefly brought in longtime Tiger Jake Rogers to help their catching situation, but then threw him into the Rutschman trade with Boston after just three games. Rogers ended up playing with four different teams in less than two weeks.

The bench (lack of) depth

The Orioles’ obsession with stockpiling right-handed outfielders for the bench, presumably to match up against opposing southpaws, had one tiny flaw: none of them could actually hit. Rece Hinds may have cemented his status as one of the worst short-term Orioles in history with a truly galling final game last Friday in which he struck out in all five at-bats and committed multiple misplays in the outfield. You can’t make this stuff up. Hinds was 5-for-28 as an Oriole, and if you include his stints with the Reds and Marlins, he was 2-for-28 against lefties. Seriously, do the O’s even know how to check platoon splits? They’re right there on Baseball Reference.

Also failing to deliver against lefties was rookie Christian Franklin, acquired at the trade deadline from the Nationals. His .180 overall batting average in 21 games was bad enough; his .167 mark against southpaws was worse. The Orioles did finally acquire a guy who might’ve helped against lefties, veteran Luis Robert Jr., only for him to get injured after just three games. Their $3 million gamble in claiming him on waivers was a bust.

Long before those guys came along, the first-half Orioles tried their luck with utility man Weston Wilson, who played 19 games and even made three mop-up pitching appearances. He spent the rest of the season with the Mariners, where he was an even worse hitter (and pitched once more, for old time’s sake). But perhaps the most bizarre experiment was that of Johnathan Rodríguez, a marginal minor league hitter whom the Orioles immediately installed as their cleanup hitter on three different occasions. You’ll never believe this, but the O’s lost all three games.

Poor Heston Kjerstad clearly has no future in this organization. The O’s left him in Triple-A almost all season, then went out of their way not to play him once they finally called him up in September. He got just 19 at-bats, with four hits, and could become a 40-man roster casualty this winter.

Three other position players appeared in just one or two games each. Pop quiz! See if you can match these first names — Luis, José, and Michael — to these last names: Barrero, Siani, and Vázquez. Give up? Me too.

Some of the players discussed in this article might find their way back to an Orioles roster in the future. Most of them we’ll never see again. They won’t be missed.

Game 162 doesn’t hit quite like it used to with the proliferation of Wild Card spots, but as long as there are still some stakes, it offers some excitement. Selfishly, I always prefer when the Yankees don’t have stakes and I can just neutrally watch the chaos, which is what yesterday at least partially offered — just with an unnecessarily long stay of execution waiting for a Yankees rain delay to officially turn to cancellation. The AL West Rock Fight between Houston and Texas came to its beautifully dumb, record-low conclusion, and there was still a Wild Card spot up for grabs in the Senior Circuit as well. Beyond that, it was a day of tune-ups.

So while Game 162, Here’s what went on among the final American League contenders.

Houston Astros (81-81) 9, The Athletics (64-98) 0

Well, we’ve reached the end of the long, dumb road of AL West baseball in 2026, where no one had a positive run differential. The Astros are your first .500 division champion in MLB history, beating out the 82-80 Padres of 2005 and the 82-79 Mets of 1973. Those Padres immediately got bounced in a Cardinals sweep, but those Mets upset the Big Red Machine and then took the dynasty Oakland A’s to Game 7 of the World Series, even holding a 3-2 series lead at one point. You just have to get in, and you never know! So while we’ve had our chuckles with this awful division in 2026, look: the Astros will home-field advantage over the overachieving White Sox in the Wild Card Series. If they get past them—which would be no great shock—then they only have to beat an 85-win Guardians team in the ALDS to go to the ALCS, and who knows what happens from there?

The franchise is a cockroach. It was delightful when Detroit dusted them in two in 2024 and when they missed the playoffs outright in 2025. But they’re not dead yet. Technically, they already knew that they were AL West champions a couple innings before the final out of this one because the Rangers lost first to clinch it, but as is probably evident by the score, their in-state rivals were rendered a nonfactor. It’s Houston’s eighth division title in the last decade.

Houston dropped four runs on A’s reliever Brady Brasso in the third, and a pair in the sixth and seventh all but put the champagne on ice. Christian Walker homered and was joined by Jeremy Peña, Yainer Diaz, and Cam Smith with multi-hit games. Yordan Alvarez fell short to Pete Alonso in his Triple Crown bid since the latter led the AL in homers (43) and RBI (113), but Yordan took home the batting crown with a .316. His 6.8 fWAR and 181 wRC+ will likely help him to an MVP as well come November.

Anyway, here’s the Astros celebrating in the A’s visitor batting cages because, well, their clubhouse is literally a minor-league clubhouse and there’s not enough room. That’s small potatoes compared to other things, but we must not be desensitized to the fact that John Fisher made this once-great franchise a joke.

Texas Rangers (80-82) 4, Minnesota Twins (77-85) 6

We’ll keep it snappy here since you already know the story. The Rangers never had a lead to make the Astros sweat at all in this one as offseason addition MacKenzie Gore looked gassed from the jump and cramping forced him out in the third. Chase Silseth gave up a two-run shot to Josh Bell and Minnesota kept the runs coming. They led 5-1 for a good chunk of this one, and though Elías Díaz hit a solo shot for Texas in the eighth, former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis went yard in what could be his final game with the Twins. And while Corey Seager went yard for a two runs in the ninth, Andrew Morris fanned Jake Burger and got Ezequiel Duran to fly out to put the Rangers to bed. Their championship 2023 was a high-water mark for the franchise, and yet it represents a true baseball anomaly, as that remains the only season in the past 10 in which they made the playoffs.

Boston Red Sox (87-75) 2, Chicago Cubs (89-73) 6

This game was relocated from Boston to St. Petersburg due to the nor’easter, and the assumption was that they would have to play it because there were NL Wild Card stakes for Chicago. As it turned out, the Cubs were already locked into the No. 5 seed by Saturday night, so they just had to play a meaningless game at the Trop because, well, they were there already, might as well scrimmage?

If anyone was happy about the situation, it was Alex Bregman because he hadn’t had many reps since returning from a scary facial fracture. Bregman clobbered a pair of homers to give Chicago a 3-2 lead by the third, and there the score remained until the ninth, when the former Red Sox third baseman was at it again. An RBI double marked his fourth hit and RBI of the afternoon, and two more runs scored. Unsurprisingly, none of Boston’s primary cast of characters from the pitching staff appeared in this one as they rest up for Tuesday in the Bronx.

Tampa Bay Rays (98-64) 3, Philadelphia Phillies (88-74) 7

The Phillies did their best 1964 Phold impression over the past couple weeks with 10 losses in their last 15 games entering Sunday and four in a row to keep the Wild Card-contending Diamondbacks alive heading into Game 162. They should have clinched days ago! But they kept putting up duds, even against a Rays team that didn’t have anything to play for outside of staying healthy as they await their Division Series for next weekend.

The Phils finally (phinally?) got it together on Sunday with old standby Zack Wheeler on the bump. He fired six innings of one-run ball while his offense woke up after days of malaise, scoring four in the first two innings off Nick Martinez with the last two on an emphatic two-run Kyle Schwarber double. Three more scored against Jesse Scholtens, two on homers by Bryce Harper and Edmundo Sosa. Starter Jesús Luzardo also returned from the IL and contributed a scoreless inning in relief. The party was on at Citizens Bank Park, and like Houston, they rendered their foe’s final score irrelevant (Arizona lost to San Diego shortly after this one went final anyway). They’ll go down to Atlanta and face the Braves in what couldbe another great playoff series between these division rivals; the winner there draws the tough task of dethroning the two-time defending champions in LA.

Cleveland Guardians (85-77) 2, Kansas City Royals (68-94) 3

After clinching the AL Central and a first-round bye on Saturday, the Guardians got to sit in cruise control on Sunday, rest regulars, and make sure no one got hurt. Mission accomplished in Game 162, an unimportant loss in Kansas City. Jo Adell and Daniel Schneemann both homered and likely Game 1 or 2 playoff starter Parker Messick threw three good innings before departing. Vinnie Pasquantino hit a pair of dingers off Austin Peterson to secure the win for the Royals, with his eighth-inning shot putting them ahead at the end of a tough season.

Chicago White Sox (84-78) 4, Colorado Rockies (58-104) 2

The Pale Hose didn’t have much to play for on Sunday either, but they still won because hey, the Royals are bad, but the Rockies are the worst team in baseball and will have the best odds for the No. 1 overall pick in 2027 come Draft Lottery time. Speaking of, remember how the White Sox had the No. 1 overall pick this year? It’s still wild that they are already in the playoffs, even in this unimpressive expanded field. They end the year with a 24-win improvement that would’ve impressed almost anyone anyway. Randal Grichuk and Brenton Doyle both homered to give them the win on Sunday.

The White Sox finished with a record three games better than the Astros, but because seeding rules are seeding rules, they will have to win two out of three in Houston to advance to the Division Series and a date with Cleveland.

The Playoff Field

The Phillies and the Braves appear to be postseason-linked in the same way that Martin Perez and I are — perhaps not inextricably, but… annoyingly? Yeah, that’s the right adverb.

On the plus side for the Braves, the Phillies are neither particularly good, nor did they really get a chance to set things up for a playoff round. Among the four possible teams the Braves could have conceivably faced in the first round, the Phillies are:

• Last in position player value (26th overall);
• First in pitching value (second overall); and
• Have less combined fWAR (35.7) than the Cubs have position player fWAR (37.8). The Padres are about three wins ahead in terms of fWAR, and the Cubs nine wins ahead, but the Diamondbacks finished about three wins behind. (I would’ve preferred to play the Diamondbacks.)

The Braves dominated the Phillies this year, but the Braves are also aren’t very good on paper (+5.4 position player fWAR, -8.2 pitching fWAR), and a lot of that split in record occurred because these two teams played seven of their 13 games when the Phillies were foundering and the Braves were destroying all (baseball) life on earth during the first two months of the season. So, eh.

The other consideration has to do with the narrative. In 2022, the Braves finished with 14 more in-the-standings wins than the Phillies, and went 11-8 against them during the season, but lost the NLDS, three games to one. In 2023, the Braves finished with 14 more -in-the-standings wins than the Phillies, and went 8-5 against them during the season, but lost the NLDS, three games to one.

In 2026, the Braves finished with six more in-the-standings wins than the Phillies, and went 9-4 against them during season, and… I dunno.

In reality, there’s not too much be drawn from whatever happens in a best-of-three, especially when these two teams aren’t really even all that different. But, it’d probably be less of a weight on my soul if there wasn’t even the opportunity for people to draw a line through three, instead of two, points of anecdata and present as incontrovertible proof of… something. Sure, the Braves could also pull off a pseudo-exorcism of a not-particularly-real demon by just winning a coin flip-ish best-of-three, but I don’t think that’d be as gratifying as “bUiLt FoR oCtObEr” is annoying.

Anyway, what do you think — are you in the, “Yes, let’s play the Phillies!” camp, or somewhere else?

The regular season is over, the playoff matchups are set, and now the excitement really begins.

Get ready for October baseball as MLB's postseason kicks off with wild card quadrupleheaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. (Even though those games are being played in September.)

The Los Angeles Dodgers have their sights set on a third consecutive World Series championship, a feat last accomplished by the New York Yankees from 1998-2000. But there are several other worthy challengers looking to knock them off.

The Milwaukee Brewers had the best regular-season record in the majors at 103-59, followed by the Dodgers at 100-62 and the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL at 98-64. But as we all know, anything can happen in the playoffs.

This Milwaukee Brewers team is different.

I know people have been saying that for a couple of years now, but I really think this year is different.

This team does the little things. They play solid defense. They rarely make mental mistakes. They score runs and don’t rely on the long ball. They’re disciplined, both by themselves and by Pat Murphy, who has, on more than one occasion, benched a player for not showing hustle.

Rather than analyzing the team over the last 162 games, we can just look at this weekend’s sweep of the Cardinals.

The “why the 2026 Milwaukee Brewers can win the World Series” discussion begins even before Friday’s series opener against St. Louis. Just before the game, the team was forced to place first baseman Andrew Vaughn on the injured list due to illness. Shortstop Cooper Pratt was also scratched from the lineup, as a banged-up Joey Ortiz had to replace him.

Now, Vaughn and Pratt are by no means the leaders of this team, but they’re key pieces nonetheless. But here’s the thing about the Brewers — they’re built for absences like those. More on that later.

Looking at the first inning of Friday’s game, William Contreras — who was pulled late in Thursday’s game against Philadelphia after not hustling out of the box on a botched grounder — hit a grounder into the hole at short and slid into first base. Not only did he slide, but he slid headfirst. Any baseball person will tell you sliding into first is a big no-no, but here’s the thing — Murphy liked it.

It’s not often you see that kind of buy-in from a star player after he’s been benched. I would argue, rather, that most star players would have a negative reaction, especially at the major league level. But Murphy has proven over the last three seasons that he doesn’t care if you’re in your MLB debut or in your 13th season in the majors — you better be hustling and bringing your A-game.

Fast forward to the eighth inning of Friday’s game, and you’ll see another example of why this team is different. Remember how Pratt was scratched from the lineup and Ortiz had to replace him? Well, Ortiz looked a bit rough throughout the game (even while going 2-for-3 with a walk), and he was pulled in a 4-4 tie game. Pratt, who probably didn’t feel the greatest, took over, and while he grounded into a double play in his lone at-bat, the fact that he was able to come off the bench at all is a testament to this team’s depth and “next man up” mentality.

Speaking of next man up, in the bottom of that same eighth inning, with the game still tied at four runs apiece, here’s how the Brewers rallied:

Jackson Chourio single
David Hamilton hit by pitch
Garrett Mitchell sac bunt (reaches on error)
Brice Turang two-run single
William Contreras one-run single
Jake Bauers sac fly
Christian Yelich walk
Pratt double play

How about that? Three hits — all of them singles — but four runs on the board. For most teams, that would be a strange inning, but for the Brewers, that’s basically an everyday occurrence. They finished the season with the third-best OPS in baseball (.744) and scored the second-most runs (832), and yet they had just 154 homers, ranking tied for 28th in the league (and just two ahead of the Blue Jays, who had an MLB-worst 152 homers). That’s insane.

Let’s jump to Saturday now.

Ahead of the second game, the Brewers named Christian Yelich team captain, the first time in franchise history Milwaukee has had a captain. Why? Because this team is different. There are several players who one could argue were deserving earlier in franchise history — Robin Yount and Ryan Braun are the first two that come to mind. But Yelich, who is in his ninth season with Milwaukee, is the first one to get that honorary “C” on his chest. And he deserves it, too.

In the game itself, Dustin May got the start, and he didn’t look great, going three innings with two runs allowed on three hits and a walk. But here’s where the next part of our “why the Brewers can win the World Series” argument comes in — Murphy then gave Kyle Harrison another chance.

Harrison can only be described as dismal since late August. Entering Saturday, his last six appearances (three starts) totaled 9 1/3 innings, allowing 25 runs (22 earned) on 31 hits, nine walks, and two hit batters while striking out 10. But Murphy, who clearly hasn’t fully settled his postseason pitching staff yet, continues to give the young lefty chances. And Harrison delivered.

Harrison went two scoreless innings, throwing 20 of 29 pitches for strikes and allowing just one baserunner via a hit by pitch. He struck out four to earn his 11th win of the season and first since August 18.

The lesson here is similar to the one about Pratt above — that “next man up” mentality is exactly what a team looking to win the World Series needs, and Murphy’s faith in his guys is just the cherry on top.

Then, in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game, Turang launched his 21st homer of the season, bringing in Chourio and giving the Brewers a 3-2 lead they would hold onto for the rest of the evening. Remember how I said the Brewers don’t hit lots of homers? Well, they still have a couple of home run threats — Turang, Chourio, Bauers, to name just a few — and there’s always a time and place for homers. Half of the battle in the postseason is delivering in clutch moments, and the Brewers have guys who can hit both singles and homers, meaning they’re ready for any situation. That’s something the rest of this postseason field might not bring to the table.

OK, last piece of the puzzle: Sunday’s game.

This is perhaps the biggest reason why the Brewers have what it takes to win a World Series: the monster that is Jacob Misiorowski.

Misiorowski went 5 1/3 scoreless innings in Sunday’s regular-season finale, wrapping up what is almost certainly an NL Cy Young-winning campaign. He finished the year among league leaders in virtually every category, including at the top of the leaderboard in strikeouts (252), ERA (1.80), WHIP (0.80), and batting average against (.157). He also drastically dropped his walk rate from a year ago, going from 4.23 BB/9 to 2.27 BB/9.

Lastly, late in Sunday’s game, Chad Patrick was struggling to maintain what was an early 6-0 lead. He entered to pitch the eighth and recorded just one out, allowing two walks and two hits, including a three-run homer to cut the lead to 6-4.

What do the Brewers have a lot of that many other teams don’t? Reliable length arms that can lock things down when other guys get in trouble.

Shane Drohan came in and pitched the final 1 2/3 innings, allowing no baserunners and recording a pair of strikeouts for his second save of the year. In fact, the Brewers had five wins this week, four of which had a save credited to them. Know how many different players got a save? Four. The usual closer, Trevor Megill, Drohan, Antonio Senzatela, and Aaron Ashby. For the season, 10 players had at least one save, and seven players had multiple. MLB bullpens only carry eight arms. That’s a well-balanced bullpen.

This weekend’s sweep of the Cardinals is a microcosm of the 2026 Brewers season as a whole. The Crew is balanced, hungry, and ready to win. They have several players who are in the very early stages of what are hopefully long careers — Pratt, Chourio, Luis Lara, Logan Henderson, Misiorowski, etc. — but they also have veteran leadership in the form of Yelich, May, Senzatela, JoJo Romero, and Brandon Woodruff, who you may have forgotten is still in that clubhouse, even if he isn’t on the field.

This Brewers team can win the World Series. Now let’s see if they can make it happen.

Meet the Mets

The Mets played their final game of the 2026 season, putting an end to a team we’ve grown to dislike in various ways and will end up missing as the days and weeks of the offseason pass.

Choose your recap: Amazin’ Avenue, MLB.com, Newsday, New York Daily News, New York Post, The Athletic

Francisco Lindor connected, at long last, for his 300th career home run and in the process became the first shortstop in major league history to reach the 300 home run/200 steal plateau and the second switch hitter.

Nothing will be set in stone until after the World Series ends, but Bo Bichette can at least envision himself coming back to the Mets for the second year of his contract.

It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the NL Rookie of the Year Award was going to Sal Stewart. Did Carson Benge do enough to swoop in and claim it for himself?

The sole benefit of the Mets being as dreadful as they were, the team’s increased draft lottery odds won’t get to pay off until at least the end of the lockout or, perhaps, never.

Around the National League East

They went right up to the edge of having one of the worst collapses in the history of baseball, but a Diamondbacks loss and a 7-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays has sent the Phillies to the Wild Card to face off with Atlanta.

Jesus Luzardo made his return to the team after three weeks on the sidelines with shoulder inflammation and threw four pitches along with assuring the team he is ready for whatever they need him for in the playoffs.

Ending up just a game under .500, Sandy Alcantara threw the first pitch of the season in March and the final pitch of the season yesterday as the Marlins said goodbye to 2026 with a 5-3 win over the division champion Braves.

Around Major League Baseball

With all playoff spots clinched and the regular season finished, MLB announced the dates and times for the AL and NL Wild Card series.

Now that regular season analysis has come and gone, it’s time for postseason analysis!

He didnt’ quite catch Justin Verlander in career strikeouts, but Max Scherzer went seven innings, struck out seven, and got to yell at his manager one more time in what may be the final start of his Hall of Fame career.

Earlier in the same game, George Springer played his final game of the six-year contract the Blue Jays gave him after 2020 and left to a well-deserved standing ovation.

Old Friend Pete Alonso is the first player in Major League Baseball history to lead both the National League and the American League in RBIs in different seasons.

Setting whatever the opposite of a new standard is, the Houston Astros eclipsed the Rangers and finished their .500 season as the worst team in Major League Baseball history to win their division.

Jacob Misiorowski ended his obvious Cy Young season with some of the best rate stats that we’ve seen since prime Pedro Martinez.

As the Boston Red Sox went to Tropicana Field to finish their season away from the rainy northeast, the Yankees simply canceled their Sunday afternoon game against the Orioles, ending their season at 161 games.

With their win over the Giants, Dave Roberts won 100 games for the sixth time as manager of the Dodgers, putting him one more triple-digit-win season away from being the first manager to even preside over seven such seasons.

At two points on Sunday, Dan Wilson announced that he would not be returning as manager of the Seattle Mariners in 2027 and the team announced that he would not be returning as manager in 2027.

This Date in Mets History

On this date 18 years ago, Shea Stadium closed its doors for good.

The 2026 season is over and the next step for the Braves could not be more familiar and perhaps appropriate. The Braves will host their division rival, the Phillies, for a best of three Wild Card round setup at Truist Park this week. Both Tuesday and Wednesday games will occur at just after 2PM Eastern, with Thursday’s game to be determined (if necessary). For many reasons, it will certainly be an exciting atmosphere in which the Braves will hopefully find quick and frequent success.

Braves News

Atlanta dropped the series and season finale to the Marlins 5-3 on Sunday. With their fate already determined, Atlanta mainly made sure to preserve health over the season’s final weekend.

Mark Bowman looks at a few key factors that came together over the final week of the season that could impact the Wild Card round for the Braves.

MLB News

Along with the Phillies, the Astros were the other team to finalize their playoff spot on the final day of the season by winning the NL West over the Rangers.

The Mariners had one of the more disappointing seasons in baseball this year. As a result, Dan Wilson will not return as manager in 2027.

Good morning! There is no baseball today. Normally that’s a sad phrase to read and write. But when you’re gearing up for the playoffs, a day of rest isn’t the worst thing in the world. Especially when you’re gearing up to face the Yankees in the playoffs.

Having said that, we can all acknowledge that these Sox-Yankees series don’t have quite the same bite that they used to. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The world is constantly changing. And the reason these series once felt so draining is that we used to be terrified of pinstripes. We used to watch with cosmic certainty that the Yankees would find a way to come out on top, no matter what.

Suffice it to say, that’s not the case anymore. I’m worried about the 2026 Yankees because they’re a good baseball team with a strong starting staff and they’re standing in between the Red Sox and the World Series. I am NOT worried about the 2026 Yankees because I’m convinced they are agents of Satan. Like I said, the world is constantly changing.

So how much do you really hate the Yankees today, and how have your emotions evolved?

Talk about the rivalry and whatever else you want in this space and, as always, be good to one another.

The Dodgers finished the regular season with an even 100 wins, after a sweep of the San Francisco Giants over the weekend at Oracle Park. It’s the sixth time the Dodgers have won in triple digits under manager Dave Roberts, along with 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

In the first 132 seasons in Dodgers franchise history, before Roberts, the club won 100 games six times — 1899, 1941, 1942, 1953, 1962, and 1974.

Forty-nine of those 100 wins in 2026 came on the road, including all three in San Francisco over the weekend coming with the Dodgers wearing their gray jerseys with “Dodgers” on the front. Here’s the breakdown of the Dodgers’ 2026 road performance, broken down by uniform choices:

The Dodgers’ next road game will be Tuesday, October 6 in either Atlanta or Philadelphia.

Links

James Tibbs III was named to the Pacific Coast League All-Star team and was in contention for league MVP after his stellar campaign, hitting .287/.409/.532 with 30 home runs, 32 doubles, 109 runs scored, 107 RBI, and 108 walks. He and outfielder Zach Ehrhard — both acquired from the Boston Red Sox for Dustin May at the 2025 trade deadline — were instrumental in guiding Oklahoma City to both a PCL championship and winning the Triple-A championship game on Saturday.

Tibbs spoke with Rob Terranova of MLB.com about his time so far with the Dodgers organization:

“They wouldn’t have traded for me if they didn’t believe in me,” he said. “And I’m just forever grateful for the people who helped me develop my game thus far. There’s so many biometrics and weight training involved, there’s no stone left unturned here. They really emphasize being an all-around player, and that means getting the most out of your swing, defense, baserunning and going into every at-bat with a plan. It just allows me to be confident in what I need to do to be successful.”

Clayton Kershaw will be part of the NBC Sports broadcast team for the wild card series between the San Diego Padres and Chicago Cubs at Petco Park. Kershaw is an analyst along with Jim Deshaies and Mark Grant for the series, with Dave Flemming on play-by-play.

Old friend Kenley Jansen ended his season with the Detroit Tigers — his fourth team in six years since leaving the Dodgers — with 498 career saves, third on the all-time list. Jansen, who turns 39 on Thursday, talked with Julian McWilliams of CBS Sports about wanting to come back in 2027 to get his 500th save and beyond, and how Jansen’s perspective has changed since the death of his mother in 2025.