The Arizona Fall League is in full swing down here in Phoenix, but today we’re not here to discuss top prospects or future Mariners; rather, I’m interested in which coaches teams have opted to send in order to burnish their resumes and gain them experience with a diverse array of players from all different organizations. The Mariners are represented by long-tenured Mariner Jordan Cowan, acting as the hitting coach for the Javelinas, and pitching coach Dylan Gargas; look for stories on them later in the week.

Several big-league managers have experience helming an AFL crew: Kevin Cash, AJ Hinch, Torey Lovullo, Derek Shelton, and Warren Schaeffer have all managed AFL teams in the past. Generally there’s a bit of experience-building in between the two – Schaeffer managed the Salt River Rafters in 2022 before becoming interim manager of the Rockies in 2025 – but at the very least here are some names to put on your radar as the Mariners reassert their desire to look out of the organization for new voices on their coaching staff. (As such, I have left off Surprise’s manager, one-time Mariner and Sporcle remember-some-guys stumper Daniel Robertson.)

Billy Facteau (Bench coach, Peoria Javelinas)

Age: a literal infant

Current role: Development coach, Norfolk Tides (Orioles’ Triple-A team)

Relevant experience: 5+ years as development coach for the Orioles, played college baseball at Lynn University

Okay. OkAY. OKAY. I just need everyone to chill out and be cool for a moment and ignore the fact that Billy here looks like he came out of the beta version of the Orioles’ quirked-up-white-boy factory. And that his age starts with a 2. Remember we are scouting for the future here in addition to the current vacancies. And also, if you want a coach like this, someone who has been homegrown and nurtured in another organization, you’re going to have to dangle either more money or a bigger role (or both, ideally both) in front of them. It’d be too much to jump Facteau directly into a manager role – although he also has experience as a tech coordinator as an intern with the Orioles – but if the Mariners want to promote internally, I’d like to see an infusion of fresh perspective from outside the organization. As a former tech intern for the Orioles, he’s not only well-versed in tech like BlastMotion and Rapsodo but also how to translate that data to the players – including those who don’t speak English as a first language – and he has a special interest in coaching the outfield, a position in the Mariners system that’s maybe less robust than some other areas. A name to put on your radar.

Jeff Livesey (Hitting Coach, Surprise Saguaros)

Age: 60

Current role: Hitting coach, Reading Fightin’ Phils (Phillies’ AA team)

Relevant experience: Played professionally; 5+ years as MiLB hitting coach (WAS, PIT); two years as bench coach in NPB; one year as Marlins assistant hitting coach.

And now to the total opposite end of the spectrum. Livesey has the experience, but maybe not the fresh eyes the Mariners need. If you were a Kevin Seitzer fan, Livesey seems to have the same plainspoken approach to hitting, and the experience to back it up. Reading finished at the top of their division in the second half this season with the most runs scored in the Northeast division of the Eastern League.

Relevant quote:

(From his time with the Marlins):

“Sometimes with young hitters you get pitched tough, and guys get in-between pitches, and get kind of careful, We want to get to the point, we hunt our pitches. Good hitters hunt what they want to hit. When they get it, they take aggressive swings. That’s what we want to work towards. If they make two good pitches on us, we still have got something we can go to with two strikes. We can battle, and still be tough outs.”

Toby Nagel (Pitching Coach, Glendale Desert Dogs)

Age: ?

Current role: Pitching coach for the Blue Wahoos (Miami’s AA team)

Relevant experience: Driveline, Inspiration Academy

As you’d expect from someone who worked at Driveline, Nagel is a data-driven coach, but also adept at explaining that tech to players – you can see a ton of short videos he’s made explaining pitching tech and how to use it on TikTok. The Mariners are pretty rich in pitching coaches already but I wanted to throw Nagel onto this list just to get his name out there; his thoughts on command specifically make him a particular organizational fit (and make me dream about having him work with George Kirby).

Relevant quote:

Rafael Neda (Manager, Scottsdale Scorpions)

Age: 38

Current role: Manager, ACL Brewers

Relevant experience: 5+ years of playing professionally, 5+ years of managing the ACL Brewers

Bonus points: bilingual (born in Mexico, played at UNM)

The ACL Brewers have been to the playoffs twice under Neda, winning the ACL championship in 2023. Neda is another one who is deeply engrained with the organization he played for professionally, but hasn’t progressed past the complex level yet – maybe because he’s young enough that searching his name still provides stories about his playing days. As a player, Neda was a super utility player who played all across the diamond – including catcher, so a true super-super utility player. As a collegiate at UNM he was named to the Johnny Bench Award watchlist, with his coach calling him the best catcher in the country for his work on and off the field.

Ted Tom (Manager, Salt River Rafters)

Age: ? Older than Billy Facteau, for sure.

Current role: manager of the Wilmington Blue Rocks (Nationals High-A)

Relevant experience: 20+ years of coaching at the college level

Another one for those of you who value extensive experience, although Tom’s mostly comes at the college level. He has experience working with future big-leaguers at that level, though, such as Alex Freeland, now playing for the Dodgers; he also has a Mariners tie-in, having coached Dylan Moore during his time at UCF. At UCF, Tom mentored six all-conference selections, and after being promoted to hitting coach in 2019, helped the team reach the NCAA tournament.

Relevant quote:

There are lots because this man loves a podcast interview, which I love. I really enjoyed his thoughts on failure here and also “You need to fall in love with the monotony of every day” from this unfortunately very business-brained podcast.

Danny Worth (Manager, Peoria Javelinas)

Age: 41

Current role: infield coordinator with the Padres

Relevant experience: 8+ years of pro baseball plus a stint in the KBO; coached at Pepperdine before moving to MLB.

Worth is in his first year of MLB coaching, so he’s in the shallower end as far as MLB experience, but he has some of the most playing experience out of anyone on this list. He’s also got some college-to-big-league pipeline experience; he worked with current Tigers prospect John Peck at Pepperdine, helping him with his swing mechanics in addition to his infielding. At Pepperdine, Worth also mentored the 2018 WCC Player of the Year, Jordan Qsar, as well as five MLB Draft picks from the positions he coached.

The Milwaukee Brewers are looking to take a 2-0 series lead in an LCS for the first time in franchise history. They’ve had two chances in the LCS before (2011 and 2018) and they lost both of those games. Today is their chance to change that.

It’ll be a tough task with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Brewers faced Yamamoto in Game 2 last year and he threw a complete game three-hitter while striking out seven. Yamamoto faced the Brewers twice this season. The first time was in May and Yamamoto threw 7 IP and allowed just one run. Then he faced the Crew again in August and went 6 IP, allowing just one run.

Yamamoto is as good as it gets, especially in the postseason. In the NLDS against the Braves, Yamamoto went 7 IP again, allowing just one run and striking out 10. Over 11 career postseason outings over the last three years, he has a 2.14 ERA.

On the other side, the Brewers will have Logan Henderson, the 24-year-old rookie who has yet to allow more than 3 ER in a single start in his career. Henderson was solid in Game 2 in the NLDS against the Padres, going 5 IP allowing just one earned run. He did have some shaky command, allowing three walks, but he kept the Brewers in the game.

“I don’t know what the secret sauce is, man, but he’s in the clubhouse now chopping it up with some of the guys like he doesn’t have one of the biggest starts of his life tonight. That, I think, reflects when he’s one the mound. You can just feel it,” Jake Bauers said on Henderson.

Pat Murphy is changing up his lineup a little bit again from Game 1. Christian Yelich and Sal Frelick are back in the lineup today to face the right-handed Yamamoto. David Hamilton is also in the lineup starting at third base.

The top four spots remain unchanged with Jackson Chourio, Brice Turang, William Contreras and Jake Bauers getting things started. Yelich is the DH and batting fifth. Garrett Mitchell and Cooper Pratt are in their same spots of sixth and seventh. Frelick is batting eighth in right field and Hamilton bats ninth.

The Dodgers lineup also will have a few changes. Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández have flip-flopped in the No. 3 and 5 spots in the lineup. Also, Tommy Edman will be starting at second base and batting ninth in place of Kiké Hernández, who got the start last night. Still, the group of Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Shohei Ohtani make up the No. 1, 2, and 4 spots in the lineup.

Milwaukee hasn’t gotten a ton of length from their starters this postseason, putting quite the toll on their bullpen. The multiple days of rest has helped, and an off day on Tuesday will help as well. But the more looks the Dodgers get on the Brewers top relievers, the more of a chance familiarity could breed success for the hitters.

“Sometimes there’s nothing else you can do. You have to give your team the best chance to win. Familiarity, as we know, as the numbers tell us, does provide an edge when you know them better. So, what we try to do is make sure they don’t face the same guys the next time they pitch if they’re the one-inning guys. Can’t always do that, but we try like hell. I do think it’s an advantage, but what were we to do last night differently?” Pat Murphy said.

The Brewers will be hoping for length, and perhaps a larger lead than they’ve enjoyed to this point in the postseason as every single inning has been within two runs so far for the Crew. But runs will be hard to come by against Yamamoto.

First pitch is at 4:08 p.m. CT on Fox and the Brewers Radio Network.

The rosters are out for the American League Championship Series between the Tampa Bay Rays and Cleveland Guardians.

The Rays look to keep the good times rolling after sweeping the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series as they’ve kept the group of 26 players mostly the same. In fact, the Rays only made one change and that was to add their top pitching prospect, Brody Hopkins, to the active roster and dropped LHP Garrett Cleavinger.

Brody Hopkins has the arsenal of a sure fire 100% first ballot Hall of Famer but the command of someone that could only enter Coopertown with a paid admission ticket. The 24-year former 6th round draft pick is still relatively new to being a full-time pitcher as he didn’t fully make the conversion until he was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2023. The Rays acquired him a year later as part of the return for Randy Arozarena and quickly looked like they had pilfered another team in a deal as Hopkins quickly developed into one of the top starting pitching prospects in baseball.

However, his command issues quickly became apparent with a promotion to Triple-A to start off the 2026 season. There were times when Hopkins was absolutely unhittable on the mound, but the reasoning at times could either be due to his incredible pitch repertoire or his inability to throw within the zone. The Rays eventually tinkered with Hopkins mechanics and moved him from the starting rotation to try and see what they could do solve Hopkins command woes. While pitching in relief, Hopkins BB% did drop while he remained very effective so in late September, and the Rays decided to bring the talented flame thrower up to the big leagues in a trial run for the postseason.

The results were disastrous.

Hopkins did demonstrate just how ridiculous his aresnal is as FanGraphs rated his stuff as elite, albeit in a small sample size of 5 IP.

However, it doesn’t matter how jawdropping your fastball is when you can’t locate it. Over those 5.1 IP, Hopkins 6 of the 24 hitters he faced (25%) while also throwing 3 wild pitches. A bright spot is that Hopkins threw in the zone on 49% of his offerings, which is above league average.

Unlike the ALDS where the Rays only used 8 of their rostered 12 players, the ALCS will likely call for each arm that Kevin Cash has in his deck, meaning that Hopkins will make an appearance at some point.

Will that be tonight?

Technically speaking, the Los Angeles Dodgers are not facing a must-win game after losing to the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

But the odds will be stacked against them if the Dodgers lose Game 2 against the Brewers on Monday, Oct. 12, in Milwaukee.

Only six teams have fallen behind two games to none and still won a best-of-seven NL or AL championship series, according to MLB.com.

In fact, the Dodgers did it in 2020 against the Atlanta Braves. The Dodgers then went on to win the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Historically speaking, not even a 3-0 deficit is reason to surrender. In 2004, the Boston Red Sox lost the first three games to the New York Yankees before storming back to win the ALCS in seven games.

Also, if the Dodgers fall behind 2-0, they’ll be headed back to Los Angeles for potentially three games in front of their home crowd before the series shifts back to Milwaukee.

Once again, the Dodgers clash with the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. Both teams were rested with comparable levels of health, and the end result of Game 1 was a 2-1 decision. Except this year, we’re not discussing Blake Snell’s dominant Game 1 performance or how Blake Treinen miraculously didn’t blow the save.

If you saw the warts of the 2026 Dodgers this year, a lot of them were on display last night without belaboring the point. The kicker is that the plan to wear down Brewers’ ace Jacob Misiorowski largely worked, sans the knockout punch.

Last year, I was fairly confident about the Dodgers’ chances in the NLCS. I would not have predicted a sweep, but it’s fair to conclude that those who predicted a tight, contested series in 2025 were not paying attention.

This year the consensus in punditry seems to be that we are on a collision course to a Milwaukee/Tampa World Series. It’s a hipster’s choice to be sure, considering that in that pairing, someone will be winning a World Series for the first time.

The fact that such a pairing would be a clash of less-than-average league payrolls is something that the owners would be doing their level best to ignore loudly in their dogged pursuit of a hard salary cap, but collective bargaining discussions are for another day.

Once again, the Dodgers are the bad guys of the NLCS and are trying to avoid the fate of Apollo Creed in Rocky II.

Personally, I still think we’re due to relive 2020 with the Dodgers and Rays, sans everyone living in quarantine at Globe Life Field. Personally, both fields are rather underwhelming. It’ll just take six games to get there.

Although now that the ALCS is set, Tampa should win in a walk. But a Dodgers/Cleveland Guardians World Series would be nothing less than a diabolical baseball summary execution of the Guardians.

The sports’ tiniest payroll versus the Dodgers? Comedies have been achieved with more believable scripts. It’s like making David fight Goliath without the sling.

If last night felt like a must-win (as Game 1s go), it felt more like a necessity for Milwaukee to finally best the Dodgers in postseason play, especially given the state of both rotations. This observation is due to the multiple emails I have received from the Brewers about the “tone-setting win.”

I chuckled.

Now the onus is on the Dodgers in Game 2 to do something that they haven’t been asked to do much so far this year: prevent themselves from going behind the figurative eight-ball.

If Game 1’s starting pitching matchup was the truest form of a toss-up, one would expect the Dodgers to have a nominal edge for the next couple of games, starting in Game 2 with Yoshinobu Yamamoto set to square off with Logan Henderson.

This observation is provided the team provides at least three runs of support, which is not a given. A nominal guess at what the pitching matchups would look like for the rest of this series is listed below.

• Game 3 (LA): Blake Snell vs. Robert Gasser
• Game 4 (LA): Tyler Glasnow vs. Dustin May
• Game 5, if necessary (LA): Misiorowski vs. Skubal
• Game 6, if necessary (MKE): Yamamoto vs. Henderson
• Game 7, if necessary (MKE): Snell/Johnny Wholestaff vs. May/Johnny Wholestaff

To prevail in a seven-game series, the Brewers are going to have to win four times in a series where Tarik Skubal and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are likely to pitch at least twice, which is a tall order on paper, to be sure.

Milwaukee is one quarter of the way there, and games aren’t played on paper. Also, two of the Dodgers’ aces (Snell and Glasnow) have played more like jacks so far this October. I dabble in poker, and the hand that often gets me in the most trouble is aces over jacks, because I frequently underestimate the strength of opposing players’ hands.

Considering I declined to travel to Milwaukee, in part because Bernie’s Slide is closed for the offseason, now is as good a time as any to dig a little deeper into a fleeting moment from the broadcast of Game 1.

This series was potentially decided on August 2

While it’s not ideal to be down 0-1, it’s borderline catastrophic to go down 0-2 in a best-of-seven series. Since the start of LCS play, teams that go up 2-0 have prevailed 79 out of 95 times. The last time a team was able to dig themselves out of an 0-2 hole was last year, when the 2025 Toronto Blue Jays dropped the first two games against the Seattle Mariners.

The Blue Jays clawed all the way back to clutch victory from the confused jaws of defeat by winning in seven games. The victory partly arose through clutch hitting and partly through managerial blunders from Seattle that really should have led to a pink slip then, rather than a year later after a wasted year.

If Los Angeles can snag home field from Milwaukee, it has one more opportunity today, and there’s probably no better pitcher on the mound to try to snare that outcome than Yamamoto.

Still, there was a hypothetical briefly alluded to in the broadcast by Joe Davis: what if the Brewers had ended up with Tarik Skubal instead of the Dodgers? Considering the Detroit Tigers wanted young pitching, let us presume that Logan Henderson went to Detroit instead of River Ryan from the Dodgers, and everything else (results, schedule, injuries, etc.) remained equal.

Under this scenario, odds are we’d have something like below:

• Game 1 (MKE): Blake Snell vs. Tarik Skubal
• Game 2 (MKE): Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs. Jacob Misiorowski
• Game 3 (LA): Tyler Glasnow vs. Robert Gasser
• Game 4 (LA): Justin Wrobleski vs. Dustin May
• Game 5, if necessary (LA): Snell vs. Skubal
• Game 6, if necessary (MKE): Yamamoto vs. Misiorowski
• Game 7, if necessary (MKE): Glasnow/Johnny Wholestaff vs. May/Johnny Wholestaff

Yikes. It’s as the saying goes: it can always get worse.

Personally, I would have used Emmet Sheehan in Game 4, but he’s not on the roster, so I’m not going to cheat him in. If one were looking for a silver lining from last night, because moral victories are the refuge of lesser clubs, it’s that the worst-case scenario was likely averted on August 2.

The Dodgers getting Tarik Skubal preserved the status quo; the Brewers ending up with Skubal likely changes the game, regardless of the overreacting from Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic:

What’s done is done, and Skubal landing in Los Angeles was supposed to maintain the clear gap between the two National League powers. Except that gap might no longer exist, not after the Brewers won every margin to take the opener of this National League Championship Series, 2-1.

“We didn’t necessarily expect a sweep,” Kiké Hernández said. “It’s gonna be a good series.”

The decisive blow? A taste of “Brewer Ball” — a walk, a bunt and a knock. The go-ahead single came from Luis Lara, one of the promising young players Milwaukee didn’t trade for Skubal. He hit a Skubal changeup back up the middle to make it 2-1 in the fifth.

“It’s kind of what we envisioned the series was going to be,” Freddie Freeman said.

Skubal landing in Los Angeles was to fill the gap left by Shohei Ohtani in the rotation due to injury. As it stands, Ohtani threw his most consequential innings in Houston and San Francisco in May. How badly do you think the front office wants a do-over with the benefit of hindsight?

It’s a moot point. Either these Dodgers find a way to play their way, or the second title defense ends in the next week, simple as that. Once again, Mr. Ardaya:

“[The Brewers are] a good baseball team; they do that type of stuff,” Skubal said.

This is what Milwaukee does. The Dodgers are still searching for their own formula.

“We should play Dodger baseball,” Betts said. “Whatever Dodger baseball is, that’s what we should do. We should not try to play Milwaukee Brewers baseball.” …

…The only way to stifle Milwaukee, Roberts said this week, is to play from ahead.

“How do you combat that?” Roberts said. “You try to get them to play from behind, to get them out of their game.”

The Dodgers led all but one inning of last year’s NLCS. They led for just two innings on Sunday.

[Emphasis added.]

As rallying cries go, I have heard better, much better. But the Dodgers can let their play do the talking starting this afternoon.

As mentioned in the Arizona Fall League update earlier today, we are fortunate that Kate Preusser, manager of our sister site for the Mariners Lookout Landing, was down in Arizona to do some interviews. She kindly offered to interview a Cubs prospect for us and this past weekend, she spoke with outfielder Kade Snell.

Snell was the Cubs’ fifth-round pick in 2025 out of Alabama and he spent all of this past season with High-A South Bend, which had a kind of magical season until they got a rude awakening in the first round of the playoffs. That happens. But Snell was a key player for South Bend all season, hitting .269/.350/.426 with nine home runs and 19 steals in 81 games for the Cubs. I should say “all season except for the seven weeks he lost to a wrist injury,” which Kate addresses in the interview.

I gave Kate several questions to ask and she picked a few of them to ask him. I think she did a terrific job and if you’re over at Lookout Landing, thank her.

Here’s the audio file of her interview.

For those of you who don’t want to listen, we have a transcript.

Kate:

About the Mariners, but I’m here doing some legwork for my friend who runs the Cubs site for SB Nation. So asking questions by proxy. So if they suck, they’re not my questions. Okay. So your wrist injury. What was the rehab process like? How frustrating was it, and what’d you learn from going through that? Yeah,

Kade Snell:

I’m actually I’m super glad that they kept me in South Bend for the most part. Because I mean we had a good team. We clinched. I was able to stay there for that and I was able to stay there with my boys and that meant the world to me. I didn’t want to, we were kind of on a roll and broke my wrist. And it is what it is but I was able I was glad I was able to stay

Kate:

Kind of a freak accident, right? It was like an outfield collision.

Kade Snell:

Yeah.

Kate:

Does that is that in the back of your mind sometimes when you’re out there, you just can’t let that affect how you play?

Kade Snell:

No. I’ve always played kind of like my hair’s on fire, and I can’t let that stuff creep in, or that’s just not who I am. And you know, good Lord’s blessed me with a with a good mentality, and I normally don’t think about stuff like that, whenever I come back.

Kate:

How much did it help the rehab process along to just be there with it instead of being sent back to Arizona? And you know, it can be such a grind.

Kade Snell:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it helped me out a ton, especially just being around the guys. And you know, Josiah [Hartshorn] came up that week. I broke my wrist, so I was able to kind of talk to him, kind of see how his brain works, and I was able to stay close with Kep [Kane Kepley], and then he ended up getting moved to Double A. But yeah, just staying close and being like a glue guy, still being in the clubhouse, not able to hit or do anything, but try and make a difference when you’re not on the field.

Kate:

Maybe it helped you work on that aspect of your game a little bit.

Kade Snell:

100% Yeah. I think you can always bring something to the table, and for me, in that moment, was just be a good teammate and go work my tail off, and I think I did that.

Kate:

You feel like it could help you develop some leadership skills?

Kade Snell:

For sure. Yeah, and just figuring out how guys work. You know, everybody’s a little different, and you have to talk to everybody a little different. But yeah, the fact that they kept me in South Bend kind of shows me what they think about me and what I meant to that clubhouse. And man, I don’t take that stuff for granted.

Kate:

What have you enjoyed so far about being here in Fall League?

Kade Snell:

A lot of good players, a lot of good arms, a lot of good players. Like I said, picking their brain. I mean, we got studs all all across this team and just sharing a locker room with them. I think it’s the best.

Kate:

Now that you’re able to be back, like, what have you realized about maybe the gift of kind of having baseball taken away for a while?

Kade Snell:

Yeah, I mean for sure. I try not to take it for granted being out there, and you know God always works in weird ways. And if it took Him pulling me off the field to appreciate the game more, I think it did. And yeah, I don’t take it for granted at all anytime I’m out there.

Kate:

Has it changed at all? Like what you’re proudest of as far as like what you take pride in in your game? ,

Kade Snell:

Yeah, them seeing me as a good teammate, I think that that kind of helped me out a ton. Just because, like I said before, there’s always way to impact the game, whether you’re on the field or off the field. You can always be doing something for your boys, and I think that meant a lot to me personally that they wanted to keep me there. And man, I’m so thankful that they did.

Kate:

Does it kind of round you off off the field as well as on the field. What do you most want Cubs fans to know about you?

Kade Snell:

I have a firm faith in Jesus Christ, and I like. I need people to see that when I play, and also I’m a fierce competitor, and I love to go out there. And like I said before, I love to play like my head’s on fire, and yeah, I work my tail off.

Kate: 

Great, thanks so much. Thank you for talking.

So again, thank you to Kate Preusser for doing this. I fed her some questions and she picked the ones she liked and changed them and put them in her own words. She did a great job.

This interview just reaffirms what I’ve already thought about Snell. He’s an older prospect with skills that are solid but don’t jump out at you. But he’s also what we call a “baseball rat” who eats, drinks and sleeps the game and those guys often seem to find a way to get the most of what they have. No one is going to beat Snell because they outworked him. In any game I watched Snell play this past year in South Bend he was never not hustling, and he was always trying to be better. His walk-off home run in September was one of the highlights of the year for me.

Snell is also a player who takes as much pride being a good teammate as he does in being a great player. He has a chance to be a solid major leaguer but even if he falls short of that, he’s likely to make other players around him better. That type of mentality is good for everyone in the organization.

On this week’s episode, the guys are all back together! The return of Scott Plaza (again), and the guys were joined by special guest AJ Stone. AJ writes for Just Baseball Media and Redbird Rants. He is also a current University of Missouri student and is pursuing a career in journalism.

We will have some VERY interesting guests coming up throughout the remainder of the month of October! Be sure to keep an eye out for the podcast episodes; we have a front office member, a fan-favorite media personality, and ANOTHER Cardinals minor leaguer (an award winner, no less!) We are also searching for Podcast sponsorships. If you or someone you know owns a business, big or small, and wants to advertise with the show, we’d love to have a conversation to see what we can work out!

00:00 Introduction to Viva El Birdos Podcast
00:12 Meet the Hosts: Jake, Gabe, and Scott
00:23 Introduction and Guest Introduction
02:13 Value of Offense vs. Defense in Baseball
04:25 The Importance of Well-Rounded Players
06:48 Team Identity and Player Roles
09:27 Assessing Player Performance and Potential
15:18 Chase Hampton Acquisition and Its Implications
18:47 Depth in the Minor Leagues
22:06 Analysis of the Lars Nootbaar Trade
26:00 Building a Competitive Bullpen
28:19 Identifying Missing Ingredients for Contention
33:12 Future Steps for the Cardinals
34:56 The Rays’ Unique Approach to Player Development
37:40 Cardinals’ Future Strategy and Identity
39:42 Center Field Options for the Cardinals
44:51 Balancing Internal Development with External Acquisitions
52:32 Lineup Optimization and Player Roles

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No Transcript this week. There should be one available for our next episode when we meet with our front office member!

-Thanks for listening

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. 45, Sterlin Thompson (-0.3 rWAR)

2026 was simultaneously a breakout season and a disappointing one for Sterlin Thompson.

The 2022 31st overall draft pick had spent the previous three seasons slowly working his way up through the minor leagues one level at a time. In 2025 he spent the entire season at Triple-A Albuquerque where he hit well (118 wRC+) but not so well that he earned a call up the Major Leagues given his defensive limitations.

This season, Thompson put up the best numbers of his professional career in 92 games at Triple-A… but failed to have those results translate in a month long stay on the Major League roster.

Early season dominance

Thompson started off the year absolutely raking in his return to Triple-A. By mid-May, he had hit .344/.491/.496 with four home runs and eight stolen bases in 38 games for the Isotopes.

The Rockies front office, as evidenced by an early June conversation with Paul DePodesta, were looking for indicators that Thompson’s process at the plate had improved beyond just PCL inflated surface stats.

Thompson made sure the front office could not ignore his performance in the early goings of 2026.

Through his first 38 games both Thompson’s walk rate and strikeout rate had improved from where they had been the year prior. His walk rate in particular had jumped from 10% in 2025 all the way up to 18% in the first couple months of 2026. Thompson’s plate discipline had gone from solid to elite and it elevated his entire offensive profile.

This was enough for DePodesta and company to give Thompson the call to the big leagues on May 15th.

A month in the big leagues

On May 15, Thompson made his Major League debut as a pinch-hitter against Merrill Kelly of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kelly induced a one-pitch groundout to first in what would be indicative of Thompson’s short first stint with the Rockies big league club.

Four days after his debut, Thompson would be temporarily sent back down to the minors when Tyler Freeman returned from the paternity list.

That demotion was only a temporary setback, however, as he was clearly at the top of the minor league depth chart for the front office. Three days after being optioned to Triple-A, Thompson was once again called up to the Rockies after an injury to Mickey Moniak opened up a roster spot.

Late May was a very busy time for the 24-year-old outfielder.

Thompson’s second stint in the Major Leagues lasted a full month and allowed him an extended chance to settle into life as a big leaguer.

Having spent the early part of his minor league career being tried out at all of second base, third base, and the outfield corners it was an open question whether Thompson would be able to find a position where his glove would not be a liability. He managed to hold his own in the field with the Rockies and recorded only -1 Out Above Average in 86 innings split between left and right field.

At the plate, however, Thompson struggled to make an impact against big league pitching.

In total, Thompson hit for a .232/.312/.377 slash line in 27 games for the Rockies. Most concerning was that the plate discipline which had gotten him the call-up seemed to evaporate as soon as he arrived in the Majors. His 18% Triple-A walk rate fell to just 6.5% for the Major League club, and his strikeout rate jumped up to 27.3%.

Under the hood, however, it wasn’t hopeless for Thompson’s bat. His power numbers ticked upwards in June with a great 50% hard-hit rate on the month, which translated to a slugging percentage that spiked from .185 in May up to .500 in June.

This was elevated, in no small part, by his two home run game on June 17:

Ultimately, Thompson was not able to fully capitalize on that power due to a 52% ground ball rate paired with just a 16% line drive rate. Essentially, when Thompson was making contact, he was hitting it hard but on the ground.

This inability to get the ball off the ground mixed with his aforementioned plate discipline regression motivated the front office to option Thompson to Triple-A again on June 22 when Mickey Moniak returned from his stay on the injured list.

PCL All-Star

For some players, a return to the minor leagues can discourage and demotivate them. Thompson, however, picked up right where he left off with the Isotopes. Thompson’s OPS climbed in each of the final three months of the season at Triple-A from .912 in July all the way up to 1.194 in September.

As 2026 came to a close, Thompson was named one of the Pacific Coast League’s All-Stars for the season after hitting a combined .329/.475/.530 for a 153 wRC+ in 92 games.

Looking Forward

It would be easy to write off 2026 as proof that Thompson has been surpassed on the Rockies outfield depth chart. Players like Cole Carrigg and Zac Veen managed to make a larger splash and then stick with the Major League team longer than he did.

Thompson has, however, done enough at the Triple-A level to remain firmly in the Rockies’ crowded outfield conversation heading into 2027. Going into spring training, he will simply need to prove that he can elevate the ball and maintain, against Major League pitching, the plate discipline strides he showed off in Triple-A all season.

If he’s able to do those two things, he would force his way back onto the Major League roster, at least in a depth or platoon role, next season. If he isn’t, however, the future will be very uncertain for him as he already has nothing left to prove at Triple-A.

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