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2026 was the most successful season in Brewers history, culminating in the franchise’s first World Series championship. Still, even the best teams have off days.

Just like last year, I’ll be ranking the five best and five worst Brewers games of the season, and since there was a lot more good than bad in 2026, I’m starting with the worst and saving the best for last.

#5: April 23, 2026 — Tigers 5, Brewers 4

The Brewers fell behind early in this one, but took the lead in the seventh on a two-run double by Blake Perkins and an RBI single from David Hamilton. However, Angel Zerpa gave up a game-tying solo homer to Jahmai Jones in the eighth. Abner Uribe came on in the ninth and struck out the first batter he faced, but then fell behind Spencer Torkelson 3-1. Torkelson sent the next pitch over the fence for a walk-off home run.

On top of the pain of a walk-off, this loss makes the list because it came in the middle of a stretch of five losses in six games. There’s plenty of time to bounce back from April losses, but it’s never great to start the season with a losing streak.

#4: June 20, 2026 — Braves 4, Brewers 3

For most of this game, it looked like the Brewers were going to escape with a win against Braves ace Chris Sale. Sale didn’t allow an earned run, but the Brewers scratched out two unearned runs against him on five hits. In the ninth, Aaron Ashby came in for what would have been his first save of the season and instead took his first loss. He got one out, then gave up a single to Matt Olson and a walk-off homer to Ozzie Albies.

This game was uniquely frustrating because Albies didn’t exactly square up Ashby. His homer traveled just 339 feet and had an expected batting average of .090, per Statcast. This was a game the Brewers should have won; instead, it became their third straight loss.

#3: October 27, 2026 (World Series Game 4) — Rays 4, Brewers 3

The two worst losses listed in last year’s article were both playoff games, which made sense given that the Brewers were swept in the NLCS. This year, their playoff run featured just two losses altogether: Game 3 against the Padres, and this one.

Milwaukee entered this game up 3-0 in the World Series with a chance to keep their foot on the gas and sweep the Rays for the first championship in franchise history. The Rays took an early lead, but the Brewers tied the game on a home run by light-hitting third baseman David Hamilton. Pat Murphy used closer Trevor Megill to get one out in the eighth, then brought in Aaron Ashby for what would be his last outing of the season, and Ashby delivered 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

Unfortunately, by the eleventh inning, the bullpen was running on fumes. Antonio Senzatela came in for Ashby after the first out of the eleventh, and while he managed to send the game to the twelfth, the only pitchers left in the bullpen were Kyle Harrison, Brandon Woodruff, and Shane Drohan. Milwaukee finally took the lead in the top of the twelfth courtesy of a homer from Cooper Pratt, but a throwing error from Joey Ortiz put Junior Caminero on first to start the bottom half. Drohan then came in and gave up four straight hits to lose the game.

It was the only World Series game the Brewers lost on their way to a five-game series win, which certainly softens the blow. Still, it makes the list because of how painful it was in the moment and how great a win would have been. If the Brewers had swept the Rays on a twelfth-inning homer from their rookie shortstop, and Drohan, who’d made just one other playoff appearance, had closed it out, it would have made for an incredible story. Instead, Milwaukee needed one more game.

#2: July 29, 2026 — Giants 16, Brewers 3

This one makes the list simply because it was, statistically, the worst loss of the season, a 13-run defeat. Starter Thomas Pannone allowed a three-run homer to Daniel Susac, but the Brewers clawed back to make it 3-2 heading into the sixth. Then things went off the rails. Chad Patrick and Ashby combined to give up seven runs in the sixth, and by the eighth, infielder Andrew Vaughn was on the mound. Just one of those days.

#1: April 10, 2026 — Nationals 7, Brewers 3

This game takes the top spot because, even more than the others, it was a game the Brewers should have won (or at least shouldn’t have lost this badly).

Going into the top of the ninth, the score was 3-3. Brewers manager Pat Murphy brought in his closer, Trevor Megill, to send the Brewers to the bottom of the frame with a chance to win. Here’s a chronological recap of the beginning of the ninth inning:

• Megill hit leadoff man CJ Abrams.
• Joey Wiemer reached on the first bunt hit of his career, partially because Luis Rengifo was playing way too far back.
  • Per Pat Murphy, “it wasn’t even a good bunt.”
• Luis García Jr. singled into center field, scoring Abrams and sending Wiemer to third.
• Jorbit Vivas laid down a safety squeeze but bunted it right back to the mound. Megill tried to get Wiemer at home but instead shoveled the ball past catcher William Contreras, and Wiemer scored on the throwing error.
• Drew Millas laid down yet another bunt, right at Megill, but Megill, perhaps still rattled from the previous play, took way too long to throw it home. Pinch-runner Nasim Nuñez scored to make it 6-3, Nationals.
• Murphy pulled Megill for Easton McGee, who gave up a 115.3-mph RBI double to James Wood.

For a team that preaches (and practices) sound fundamentals, this game was hard to watch. It was a very un-Brewers-like way to lose, which makes it, in my opinion, the worst loss of the season.

So, what do you think? Did I miss any losses that should have made the list? Let me know in the comments.

When the new GTA game drops in two weeks, don’t expect to find Mariners second baseman Cole Young in Vice City.

“I know it can be very addicting,” he laughed on a media call earlier today. “I don’t want to get addicted to that game.”

The disciplined Young has plans for his off-season that don’t involve boosting virtual cars (or, one presumes, collecting fairy bottles). Instead, he plans to build on the season that ended with a significant piece of hardware, as Young took home his first career Gold Glove yesterday.

A steady performer in the minor leagues who made an equally steady climb up to MLB, Young has gotten to where he is largely thanks to his ability to be the same person every day: never getting too high or too low, his gift is his consistency. But even Young couldn’t deny how much he wanted to win the Golden Glove when his name started emerging as a candidate mid-season, a vision that sharpened until becoming reality on Sunday night.

“Just talking with [Mariners infield coach] Perry Hill, we were talking about if I had a chance or not,” said Young the day after his big win. “Honestly, I had no idea. I knew it was a close close run, and I’m super grateful to be in that position.”

Young put himself into that position thanks to the same thing that’s propelled him steadily through his professional career: his top-tier discipline. In identifying areas he could improve in from his rookie year to his sophomore campaign, Young put refining his defense front and center, honing in on it as one of the things over which he could exert the most control in a sport that often feels out of a player’s hands.

“The thing I’ve noticed with defense is that you can control a lot of the stuff,” said Young. “You can control your pre-pitch routine. You can control where you think the ball is going to get hit. There’s just so many controllables on defense.”

Young was maybe a dark horse in the second base race compared to the other candidates, the Royals’ Michael Massey and Chase Meidroth, who went to the playoffs with the White Sox. Both had better numbers by MLB’s in-house stat, Outs Above Average (OAA), a range-based stat, but Massey had significantly fewer games at second base than the other two. However, Young outperformed Meidroth in Sports Info Solutions’ Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), racking up 17 – best among AL second basemen and eighth-best overall – to Meidroth’s 0.

For Young, the award is a partial reward for an off-season spent attacking and correcting the flaws that limited his playing time in his rookie season. Young realized that in baseball, everything begins with the body, and applied himself to both overhauling his conditioning and improving his feet and his hands, using as a basis Perry Hill’s “six Fs” of fielding (feet, field, funnel, footwork, fire, follow).

“The number one thing for me this past off-season was getting my body in good shape, just so I could move better, get my body in better position so I could make difficult plays. That was number one for me,” said Young, who said this year he felt like he could have gone on playing well past the end of the season thanks to a better focus on conditioning and taking care of his body to withstand the rigors of a 162-game season.

“The second one was improving my hands. So I did a lot of stuff I learned from ‘Bone’ (Hill), the six F’s, and worked really hard the past season so when I show up to spring training, I’m able to play every single day. Hold my own on defense and not be a liability.”

Young said he noticed the difference immediately upon arriving at spring training, and that confidence carried forward as he stacked strong innings in spring on both sides of the ball that carried over into the regular season.

“Once I got to spring training, that’s when I noticed – once I got out on the field I just felt like I was able to move better. I felt really good in spring and that gave me some confidence going into the season that I could play every day in the big leagues and be good defensively. But I think it started in spring training, getting a lot of reps and making myself feel comfortable, that’s when I noticed I made a leap forward and it gave me a bunch of confidence.”

That confidence was hard-fought and built over the off-season where Young focused intently on improving his turns at second base, trying to master the switch to the other side of the bag and the different body positioning needed. But even as a (now Gold Glove-winning) second baseman, Young says he still carries a shortstop mentality, trying to think about being rangy and having a strong arm, something he said he wants to focus especially hard on training this off-season just in case he’s needed at shortstop, as he was called upon to do a few times this season.

“I’m so used to the second base throws, so just making sure throughout the season that I’m maintaining my arm strength, and that starts in the off-season…just building the arm strength and being versatile.”

“It’s weird, because coming up in the minor leagues I was a shortstop, and you work on having a ton of range [at that position], so I feel like I’m always training like I am a shortstop, so when I do go to second base I can still have that range and have a strong arm. So deep down, I try to look at myself as a shortstop, just to like, not limit my range or anything like that.”

Positional versatility is something Perry Hill preached constantly, both in general and to Young as an individual. With the coaching staff overturn, the Mariners opted not to bring Hill back with one year left on his contract, so Young will have to make another adjustment this upcoming season after spending years building his relationship with “Bone” – although he’s quick to say this isn’t the end of their friendship.

“I feel like me and Bone in the past couple years have developed such a good relationship, and I know it’s not going to be the end of the relationship,” said Young. “I’ve talked to him a couple times this off-season, and I know we’re definitely going to stay in touch. But it’s just, I learned so much from him, and he’s changed me defensively in such a positive way, and I definitely would not have won this award if it weren’t for him. So we’re definitely going to stay in touch forever. He’s meant so much to me.”

Perhaps sensing that a coaching change was coming, Young allowed himself to want to win the Gold Glove – something over which he had no control, except with the defensive effort he put out on the field every day.

“It’s hard,” he admitted. “You have to come up every single day and have that mentality, and it takes a lot of discipline. So for me, I feel like I worked really hard on defense to make those improvements, and I feel like I was disciplined every single game, and I was on top of that, so it means a lot to win this award. I’m happy all the work I put in this past off-season paid off, and the discipline this whole year – I’m glad it paid off.”

Appropriately, the low-key sophomore second baseman had a low-key celebration at home with his dad in Pittsburgh, where he spends the off-season in the snow and the cold rather than retreating to Florida or Arizona like many of his other baseball peers. Rather than attending a fancy training academy, Young works out with two pitchers: Pittsburgh-born Mason Miller and Mariners farmhand Scott Effross.

His other training partner: dad Rick, who he says is always willing to hit ground balls or feed the fielding machine for him. That’s apparently where the Gold Glove trophy will reside, as well, with Young’s dad:

“He’s already got a spot picked out in his room,” said Young.

Today, the Houston Astros announced they has exercised their club option on 3B Isaac Paredes.

Paredes, 27, posted his second straight strong season with the Astros and his second career 4+ WAR season. Despite a slow start to the season, Paredes hit a career best .262 and posted a career best .360 OBP. His 27 doubles were also a career high mark, while his 25 HR and 94 RBI were the second highest totals of his career in those categories.

Paredes contract for 2027 is worth $13.35M. He is a free agent after the 2027 season.

After a special rookie season, including becoming the Mets rookie hit leader, Carson Benge is being recognized for his performance.

Benge was named a finalist for the National League Rookie of the Year Award on Monday night.

The 23-year-old dazzled in his first season in Queens, hitting .282 with a .776 OPS over 156 games. He became the first Mets rookie to record a 20-20 season, finishing with 20 home runs and 22 stolen bases, in addition to his 22 doubles, three triples, and 65 RBIs.

Not only did Benge impress at the plate, he was one of the best defenders in baseball. He was worth seven DFS and one OOA, plus he recorded 10 outfield assists (tied for sixth in MLB) and had a .982 fielding percentage.

Overall, Benge finished his rookie season with a 4.3 WAR.

The two other finalists for NL ROY are the Cincinnati Reds' Sal Stewart and the St. Louis Cardinals' JJ Wetherholt.

For those comparing stats, Stewart hit .263 with 32 home runs, 25 doubles, and 111 RBI, posting a 1.8 WAR. Wetherholt owned just a .242 batting average with 17 homers, 15 doubles, and 51 RBI, but was strong on defense with a .996 fielding percentage over 131 games to give him a 4.5 WAR.

The NL Rookie of the Year winner, voted by the BBWAA, will be announced on Monday, Nov. 9.

Cincinnati Reds infielder Sal Stewart has been named one of the three finalists for the 2026 National League Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award. That’s not just obvious conjecture, either – it’s on the books, as Major League Baseball revealed on Monday afternoon that Sal, New York Mets outfielder Carson Benge, and St. Louis Cardinals shortstop JJ Wetherholt will each finish in the Top 3 of voting turned in by the Baseball Writers Association of America this year.

Your 2026 @officialBBWAA NL Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award finalists:

Carson Benge, Mets
Sal Stewart, Reds
JJ Wetherholt, Cardinals pic.twitter.com/lCjjJz9F2S

— MLB (@MLB) November 2, 2026

The writing had been on the wall for months that these three would likely end up the finalists, though each managed to make their way to this point in very different fashion.

Sal, of course, burst out of the gate with a fury in April, taking home NL Rookie of the Month honors after a torrid first month of the season. He hit a swoon mid-year, though, before once again rocketing to the same honor for the month of August to become the obvious frontrunner for the end of year award. He topped 30 homers and 100 RBI, thresholds that have made rookies virtual locks for winning in each season in which that has happened, though his September slump and defensive positional adjustment as a primary 1B has him lagging behind his peers in terms of WAR.

Wetherholt surged due to the latter, his defense at shortstop legitimately Gold Glove worthy. His offense doesn’t stack up as well next to Sal, but as a premium defender he’s already cemented a solid baseline value that may sway enough voters who lean on analytics his way. However, he finished the season in a slump (.619 OPS across his final 62 games) and even missed a pair of weeks due to injury in September.

If I were to be honest and remove my homer lense, I think it’d be hard for me not to suggest that it’s Benge that deserves the honor. His 118 OPS+ this season actually tops Sal’s 117 mark, and he did it while posting a 20/20 season that saw him hit .282 with a .346 OBP and solid positional defense all across the outfield. The former 1st round pick is, quite literally, precisely the kind of outfielder the Reds have been searching for over and over again for decades now, and the Mets stumbled right into him.

It’s a pretty classic stage for argument, really. The slugging 1B with piles of traditional counting stats. The defensive whiz whose value came from many places other than his bat. The all-around building block who does everything pretty well. And don’t forget that the team who’s rookie wins the honor gets draft pick compensation at the end of the 1st round of the 2027 MLB Draft (and the bonus pool money that comes with it)!

We’ll find out which one takes home the award next Monday, November 9th.

It’s official: Carson Benge has been named one of three finalists for the National League Rookie of the Year Award, along with the Reds’ Sal Stewart and the Cardinals’ JJ Wetherholt. The winner will be announced live on MLB Network on November 9.

The NL ROTY race is the most hotly contested of this year’s major awards cycle, with each of the AL awards having clear frontrunners and the other NL awards expected to result in a pair of unanimous decisions (the Cubs’ Pete Crow-Armstrong for MVP and the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski for Cy Young). Stewart led the field in offensive counting stats, posting 32 homers and 111 RBIs, the most by a rookie since Pete Alonso drove in 120 for the Mets in 2019. Wetherholt, despite a late-season trip to the 10-day injured list that that hindered his chances, still managed to lead all NL rookies with 4.6 fWAR on the back of his 100th-percentile Fielding Run Value and 91st-percentile Baserunning Run Value). 

Benge, the most well-rounded of the bunch, led the majors in Arm Value and became the 18th rookie to record a 20/20 season (the first was former Mets World Series champion Tommie Agee). Benge bolstered his case by batting .321 with an .896 OPS over his final 48 games, and .396 with a 1.080 OPS over his 13 games.

Nolan McLean, who posted a 3.16 ERA with 194 strikeouts over 179.2 innings after his cup of coffee in the majors in 2025, will likely finish in fourth place — just shy of finalist status. McLean was named a Gold Glove Award winner on Sunday night, becoming the first rookie pitcher ever to win the award.

The 23-year-old Benge is the Mets’ first finalist for the Rookie of the Year Award since Kodai Senga finished as runner-up to the D-backs’ Corbin Carroll in 2023. Benge is also the first Mets position player to receive any votes for the award since Andrés Giménez, who finished tied for seventh in 2020. The Mets have had six winners over their 65-year history: Tom Seaver (1967), Jon Matlack (1972), Darryl Strawberry (1983), Dwight Gooden (1984), Jacob deGrom (2014), and Alonso (2019).