Hull maintained their unbeaten home record but their winless run stretched to eight games after Julio Enciso earned Ipswich a 2-2 draw at the MKM Stadium.
Ipswich had the lion’s share of possession in the first half, cutting through Hull’s defence repeatedly and eventually leaving both Nobel Mendy and Konstantinos Tzolakis unable to prevent Florentino Luis’ 22nd-minute opener as he sliced through on the right unhindered.
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The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions in 2026. It took a lot of things going right over the course of the regular season and the postseason in order to make that happen. These Brewers were a very young team, with a lot of players who were rookies just making their debuts in 2026 playing significant roles down the stretch.
Successfully implementing prospects like Cooper Pratt, Luis Lara, and Shane Drohan into the team was a key part of the Crew’s success. Pratt made a run for World Series MVP, Lara saved multiple games with his glove and had some big hits, and Drohan helped stabilize the rotation during the season and proved to be a versatile, reliable arm.
The Brewers rely on a constant stream of young players coming up and producing to keep the team competitive and strong. Winning the World Series is not going to change that strategy. 2027 will be no different. Milwaukee has the best farm system in all of baseball and more players from that system are going to come up and produce in 2027.
These four Brewers prospects could be that next combo of Pratt, Lara, and Drohan that help the Brewers repeat as World Series champs in 2027.
I’m very high on Blake Burke and there’s a possibility he’s the long-term solution for the Brewers at first base. Jake Bauers is a free agent and his 2026 campaign has likely priced him into a very lucrative multi-year deal in free agency. While the Brewers could possibly retain him, those kinds of deals haven’t generally been the type they make. Meanwhile Andrew Vaughn was relegated to platoon duty this year and is projected to earn $8.5MM next season in his last year of arbitration.
At the very least, it appears unlikely that both Bauers and Vaughn will be back next year, leaving open room for someone else to enter that first base picture.
Blake Burke was named the Double-A Southern League MVP in 2026, and earned a late-season promotion to Triple-A. On the season, Burke hit .263/.350/.538 with 28 doubles, 34 homers, 97 RBIs, and 29 stolen bases. He has immense raw power, but is also a talented hitter, making consistent contact and keeping his strikeout rate relatively low for his profile, at about 25%.
Burke struggled initially upon his promotion to Triple-A, but that experience will be valuable for him to make adjustments over the offseason. He could come into spring training with a legit opportunity to put himself in the roster mix. Even if it’s not for Opening Day, Burke is likely to see big league time in 2027 and he can play a big role as a masher in the middle of the lineup.
Jesus Made is the number one prospect in all of baseball. The ceiling is crazy high as the Brewers may have found themselves another Jackson Chourio-type of player, a young Venezuelan phenom that can flip games on a dime. Made has followed the Chourio path through the minor leagues so far, with some aggressive promotions and spending the year in Double-A as a 19 year old, when most prospects are a freshman in college.
Made’s elite bat speed and exit velocities lead to very high projections for his bat as he matures. In Double-A this year, Made hit .271/.344/.430 with 24 doubles, 14 homers, 91 RBIs, and 37 stolen bases. He dropped his strikeout rate from 20.5% in 2025 to just 14.3% in 2026.
Made didn’t quite make Triple-A this year, but that’s because the Biloxi Shuckers made it to the Southern League Championship Series and the Brewers didn’t want to take him away from helping that team and having that postseason experience.
There’s a real chance the Brewers offer to extend Made this offseason. That’s what they did with Chourio after his age-19 season in Double-A and that deal has worked out well so far. Chourio spent just six games in Triple-A. He had to prove himself to Pat Murphy to make the Opening Day roster, and Jesus Made will have to do the same, but it won’t be long until Made is up in 2027.
It was mostly the Brewers hitting prospects that made the noise in the farm system in 2026. But the pitching development pipeline is still solid and the development of former 12th round pick Tyson Hardin has been fantastic to watch.
Yes, the 5.34 ERA looks bad. But there’s more to pitching development than just ERA. Hardin struck out 139 hitters in 119.2 IP, that’s good for 10.45 K/9. He also walked just 37 batters, a 2.78 BB/9, which is very strong.
The pitch metrics on Hardin are very good. He comes from a lower release point, which adds to his deception on his mid-90s fastball. He gets good ride on that pitch, allowing him to pepper the top of the zone. Hardin has a full arsenal with three different fastball variations and six total pitches. The Brewers do love pitchers with multiple fastballs and have proven to be able to find ways to make these pitchers effective by mixing and matching them
It’ll certainly be a crowded rotation picture in Milwaukee next year with so many young arms the team has acquired and has under control for several years. But injuries always happen and opportunities always arise for young pitchers in this organization. The Brewers are the “land of opportunity” for young players as Pat Murphy has said. There will likely be an opportunity for Hardin in 2027 and he has a good chance to take it and run.
There was no way a list like this could be made without mentioning Andrew Fischer. The Brewers minor league player of the year in 2026, Fischer hit bomb after bomb, slugging 50 home runs in total between the regular season and postseason for Double-A Biloxi.
Across High-A and Double-A, Fischer hit .273/.413/.654 with all those home runs, 114 RBIs, 102 walks, and nine stolen bases.
However, he also struck out 185 times, a 33% K rate. That’s incredibly high. Fischer has a contact rate of just 63.4%, which would be one of the lowest in MLB. The strikeout concerns are the thing dragging down his profile, but to this point, even against Double-A pitching, it largely hasn’t affected his production.
Kyle Schwarber and Munetaka Murakami the most successful hitters right now in MLB with contact rates that low. Could he perform like those guys have? Sure. Could he also fall short of that against the advanced pitching he’ll face in the big leagues? Also very possible.
But even with the strikeouts, Fischer is just going to keep pulverizing baseballs like this until he reaches a level where pitchers figure him out enough or are able to execute enough to slow him down. So far, that hasn’t happened. Fischer will likely start in Triple-A next year and if Triple-A can’t slow him down, then it’s on to the big leagues to see if big league pitchers can slow him down. And if they still can’t? Then the Brewers just might have their next big masher in the middle of the lineup for years to come.
Provided that Fischer can mash against Triple-A pitching in 2027, we’ll see him in the big leagues next year and he could propel the push to get back to the World Series.
Update, 5:15 p.m.: Jaylen Brown has been upgraded from questionable to available. With LeBron James and Joel Embiid out of the lineup, this is still a very winnable game for the Sixers. Tacko Fall is also active for the first time this season, while Jabari Walker will make his return to the lineup. We’ll see if Nick Nurse uses Fall and/or Walker in his center rotation.
It’s likely time for the first game driven by VJ Maxx of the season.
The Sixers released their injury report ahead of their Halloween showdown in Charlotte and have unsurprisingly ruled out Joel Embiid and LeBron James. Jaylen Brown, Jabari Walker and Tacko Fall are all listed as questionable.
Brown missed Friday’s game against the New York Knicks with patellar tendinopathy in his left knee. Nick Nurse did not have any more information other than he wasn’t available. James and Embiid will get the second leg of the back-to-back off as expected. James is again listed with lower back/sciatica management, and Embiid again with plantar fasciitis management.
The end of the bench remains banged up as well. Walker could miss his fourth straight game, also with patellar tendinopathy or jumper’s knee, as it’s typically referred to. Dominick Barlow remains out with his spine injury, but we could get out first look at Fall who’s been nursing a quad injury.
For the Hornets, who are also playing the second half of a back-to-back, they’ve yet to see Kon Knueppel, Colby White or Grant Williams play this season thanks to preseason injuries. Knueppel appears close to a return, having been assigned to Charlotte’s G-League team to practice. The Hornets will be without them for this one, but will essentially trot out the same team that lost to the Washington Wizards Friday night in D.C.
It should an interesting game. If the trio of James, Embiid and Brown are unable to play, we should see a whole lot of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons. That trio has been excellent coming off the bench so far this season. What Nick Nurse does at center is anyone’s guess and will largely be dictated by the availability of Walker and Fall.
SAN FRANCISCO — It took less than a minute Friday night for the chants to start.
Lu-ka sucks! Lu-ka sucks! Lu-ka sucks!
Anytime Luka Doncic touched the ball, boos rained down from the rafters inside Chase Center, a response to the villain created on Opening Night with his spat with Warriors rookie Yaxel Lendeborg.
Some 48 minutes later, however, it was Doncic’s newly minted archrival who felt like the boos should have been directed his way after, as he put it, “the worst game of my life.”
Hyperbole or not, the highly anticipated rematch with Doncic and the Lakers was without a doubt the worst game of Lendeborg’s young NBA career — six games into it.
A few days earlier, Lendeborg said he was “absolutely” looking forward to seeing Doncic again, after culminating their back-and-forth Oct. 21 by saying he “lost all respect” for him.
When it came time to back up those words, he got absolutely pulverized.
“He’s a really confident guy,” coach Steve Kerr said of Lendeborg. “Tonight just didn’t go his way. Everybody has nights like this. The key is to bounce back with aggression and confidence.”
While Doncic went off for a game-high 37, including more than a few when matched up against Lendeborg, the Warriors rookie was contained to single digits for the first time in his career.
In a 112-95 win, the Warriors were outscored by 20 in Lendeborg’s 24 minutes. He attempted only three shots, got to the foul line once and finished with six points. He didn’t dish out a single assist, turned the ball over five times and eventually fouled out with 2:45 left.
“We’re asking a lot of him,” said Steph Curry, who picked up the slack with 31 points on eight 3-pointers. “He has a lot of responsibility. He’s playing a ton of minutes. He’s got the ball in his hands a lot. So there are going to be highs and lows to it. … It’s a tough demand, but I think he’s built for it, and I’m pretty sure he’ll respond extremely well the next game.”
Going into it, Lendeborg said his goal was to remain poised and keep his cool.
Mission accomplished, maybe a little too much. Lendeborg let the crowd do the talking, but he was passive and out of sorts when it came to the actual game on the court.
“There were a lot of moments where I could have crashed out,” Lendeborg said. “But I stayed calm — a little too calm I feel like in order to get myself into a groove.
“I was just in my head the whole time.”
Every game is a lesson for a rookie still getting his feet wet in the NBA.
Lendeborg’s biggest takeaway from his worst night as a pro?
“Jesus,” Lendeborg said. “Man, honestly, I don’t even know. Try not to wet the bed as bad as I did. Or when you’re having moments like that, try to lean on your teammates a little more.”
While Lendeborg described himself as “pretty much the only Debbie Downer on the team,” Curry had a different perspective.
“What I love is he’s really established an even-keel kind of presence and mentality that it helps on nights like tonight [that] don’t go his way because he doesn’t kill the energy on the team,” Curry said. “We have his back through all of that.”
Kerr’s best advice for the rookie was to flush this game as quickly as possible. They have another one Sunday against the Clippers, another Monday against the Suns and 74 more after that. The unrelenting pace of the NBA schedule is one of the biggest adjustments for a rookie.
“You can’t dwell on tough games,” Kerr said. “Young players tend to dwell on things a little bit. And then all of a sudden there’s another game and another game after that. You can’t let anything build up. You have to move forward.”
Informed of the words of wisdom Kerr had passed on at the podium a short while earlier, Lendeborg couldn’t help but flash that charismatic grin and let out a chuckle.
He had just admitted that he was “a big dweller on bad games.”
“I don’t know how long that’s gonna take to get out of that habit,” Lendeborg said. “But I’ll see what I can do.”
The Pittsburgh Penguins will face another tough test against one of the NHL's best teams on Halloween night.
They'll play the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre and will try to end the Habs' four-game winning streak. The Canadiens have only allowed four goals during this streak and are 8-3-2 overall.
Forward Cole Caufield has been electric to start the season, compiling eight goals and 12 points in 13 games. Nick Suzuki is also tied for the team lead in points with 12, but will be out for this game. It's a big deal because he's one of the league's best players and can shut down each team's top line.
Defenseman Lane Hutson does it all and is one of the best at his position. He has three goals and 11 points in 13 games and can take your breath away with his skating.
Don't forget about forward Juraj Slafkovsky, either. He's a fantastic player, and it doesn't take much to get him going.
Goaltender Jacob Fowler will start for the Habs and he's been on fire lately. He leads the NHL with 10.1 goals saved above expected and is 6-1-0 with a .942 save percentage to start the season.
As for the Penguins, Sergei Murashov will start in goal, and it will be his first start in two weeks. Arturs Silovs has been fantastic since Murashov last started, but there's no reason to overwork him.
Murashov has been patient and has had an opportunity work on certain things at practice. It's also a big game. Let's see what he can do.
Here's a look at the expected lines and pairs:
Forwards
Novak-Crosby-Rakell
Chinakhov-Kindel-Malkin
Kuzmenko-Lapierre-Koivunen
Dewar-Lizotte-Robertson
Defense
Stastney-Karlsson
Girard-Korczak
Carlile-Letang
Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET on SportsNet Pittsburgh. You can also listen to the game on 105.9 'The X.'
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The Buffalo Sabres finish up their four-game road swing in Los Angeles, in an afternoon tilt against the Kings, who with a 4-6-2 record reside near the bottom of the Western Conference standings. Buffalo is coming off a pair of victories against the young San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks, and faces a Los Angeles roster that has the oldest average age in the NHL.
In the aftermath of the Connor Hellebuyck melodrama, the focus of chatter throughout the NHL has shifted to a pair of the Sabres Atlantic Division foes, the Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Wings have had an issue with former captain Dylan Larkin and defenseman Simon Edvinsson since the summer, but they were paralyzed after the firing of GM Steve Yzerman and the promotion of assistant GM Shawn Horcoff to interim GM.
Larkin, unlike Hellebuyck, reported to training camp and played 10 games after recovering from an injury, but earlier this week, the 30-year-old informed the Wings that he would no longer play for them and would await a trade, for which Detroit suspended him without pay.
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The Sabres, according to both Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and David Pagnotta of the Fourth Period, have expressed interest in Tage Thompson’s Team USA teammates, but Larkin at this point is not willing to expand his trade list to include Buffalo or the Montreal Canadiens. The Wings also face a staring contest with RFA defenseman Simon Edvinsson, who has to be signed by December 1 or he cannot play for Detroit or any other NHL club this season.
On Friday, a shock wave hit the league, as reigning Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov revealed that he will not be signing a contract extension with the Tampa Bay Lightning and that he has requested a trade. Lightning GM Julien Brisebois’ reaction to the announcement was that he did not intend to trade the franchise’s leading scorer, who will be an unrestricted free agent at season’s end.
Both situations will have a detrimental effect on a pair of the Sabres divisional foes, as moves such as this rarely result in the club moving a core player for equal value. Trading Larkin and Edvinsson, the Wings top center and one of their top pairing defensemen, could force Detroit into a second rebuild in less than a decade, similar to what the Sabres were forced into when Jack Eichel, Sam Reinhart, and others asked out of Buffalo.
With Kucherov, the ultimatum could be a tactical move made by the 33-year-old and agent Dan Milstein to force a trade and go to another team to get the payday he is looking for. If Brisebois is true to his word and keeps Kucherov for the rest of the season as an own rental, the reign of the Lightning as a top three club in the Atlantic the last decade is likely over.
Follow Michael on X, Instagram @MikeInBuffalo
The Vancouver Canucks are 15 games into their 2026–27 season and currently sport a record of 3–11–1. Their next game takes place today, on Halloween, when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the spirit of Halloween, here’s a little Canucks-related Trick-or-Treat game.
The game works as so: each prompt includes two statements about the 2026–27 Canucks — one a trick (more of a negative stat), and one a treat (a more-positive stat). Only one of the statements is true.
Continue reading for some Canucks trick-or-treat.
Trick-Or-Treat: The Canucks Are Currently Within The Bottom-Half Of The NHL In 5-On-5 Scoring (Trick), Or The Top-Half Of The NHL In Overall Goals-For (Treat).
Treat. Surprisingly enough, despite their recent struggles on offence, the Canucks still sit within the top-half of the league in goals-for at 5-on-5 with 28. Their 28 5-on-5 goals-for currently ties them with the Montréal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres for the 14th-most in the league. Vancouver sits higher-up on the list in overall goals-for with a total of 45 on the season, which puts them at 11th in the NHL.
Trick-Or-Treat: Vancouver’s PDO Rating Is Lower Than The Montréal Canadiens’ And Nashville Predators (Trick), Or Higher Than The St. Louis Blues’ And New York Rangers (Treat).
Trick. The Canucks’ current PDO rating of 1.002 is lower than all four teams listed. The Rangers currently lead this particular group with a rating of 1.014, followed by Canadiens with 1.008, St. Louis Blues with 1.006, and the Predators with 1.005. Teams currently below the Canucks include the Dallas Stars (0.998), Tampa Bay Lightning (0.990), and Utah Mammoth (0.897).
Trick-Or-Treat: The Canucks Do (Trick) Or Do Not (Treat) Have The Lowest Overall Shots-For In The NHL.
Treat. Vancouver is currently not dead-last in the NHL in overall shots-for. That said, they’re not terribly far off. Their 316 shots-for currently ranks 30th in the league in this category, with only the Chicago Blackhawks and Columbus Blue Jackets (281) recording less than them.
Trick-Or-Treat: No Abbotsford Canuck Has Scored Five Goals To Start The Season (Trick), Or Three Are Averaging A Point Per Game (Treat).
Treat. Two members of the Abbotsford Canucks have scored five or more goals through the team’s first nine games of the season — Ty Mueller (6) and Jacob Quillan (5). Three AHL Canucks are currently averaging exactly one point per game. Mueller has the team’s lead in points with 10 in 10 games, while 2025 first-round pick Braeden Cootes, who is currently out due to a lower body injury, has put together three goals and three assists in six games. Defenceman Kirill Kudryavtsev has six assists in five games played, giving him the team’s highest points per game (1.20) thus far.
Trick-Or-Treat: Vancouver’s Combined SV% Is Lower (Trick) Or Higher (Treat) Than .860%.
Trick. The Canucks’ current SV% sits at the bottom of the NHL, with Vancouver logging a collective percentage of .859% — barely under .860%. Kevin Lankinen currently sports a .812 SV%, while Leevi Meriläinen’s has dipped to .898%. Other notable goaltenders around the league with a SV% of under .900% include Maple Leafs goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky (.885%), Karel Vejmelka of the Mammoth (.881%), and 2026 Stanley Cup winner Brandon Bussi (.865%).
Trick-Or-Treat: Which Home Record Was Better Through 15 Games — The 2025–26 Canucks (Trick) Or 2026–27 Canucks (Treat)?
Trick. Understandably, the 2025–26 Canucks had the better home record through their first 15 games of their season, playing six of their matchups at home and logging a record of 2–4–0. That said, they only registered one more home win than this year’s team after 15 games, with the 2026–27 team putting up a record of 1–5–0.
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Signing MJ Melendez was a very interesting idea that simply was relied upon a little too much for the Mets; which was very much a microcosm of the offseason David Stearns had prior to the 2026 season.
Melendez was exactly the type of signing a team makes to try and win on the margins. Melendez, who was 27 going into the season, was a former Top 100 prospect by all three major publications (Baseball Prospectus, Baseball American and MLB Pipeline). He had two around league average offensive seasons in 2022 and 2023 as a rookie and season year player with the Royals respectively. After a worse 2024 and a disastrous 2025 for Melendez, he was released from the Royals and made his way to Queens.
Melendez, on the whole, was not that bad for the Mets. His .191 batting average pops out of the page for all the wrong reasons, but he got on base more than you think (.315 OBP). He slugged .350 0n the season, and all in all had a 91 WRC+ on the year. While obviously not a starting caliber player, he did enough as a bench guy to keep his career afloat.
The weirdest part of the season for Melendez was, at one point, he was a shining beacon while the Mets could not hit water from a boat. Due to a myriad of injuries, the Mets played Melendez a lot in April, and to his credit he delivered. He had a 191 wRC+ that month, though he had literally no help, as the team notched a league-low 77 wRC+ that month with Melendez’s 191 wRC+.
He fell off a cliff after that month, earning a 54 wRC+ in May, a 71 wRC+ in June, and spending the rest of the year in Syracuse. Melendez elected free agency in October, but he likely did enough to, at the very least, sign a minor league deal somewhere.
Melendez is a very apropos story of the 2026 New York Mets. His hot streak was poorly timed, just like the team deciding to look like a pretty decent professional baseball club well after the season was over.
We’re heading down the stretch in Arizona, as less than two weeks remain in the regular season for the six teams playing in the desert. The Salt River Rafters have fallen to 11-10 after a hot start and seem doomed to have to get through the postseason the hard way, but there’s still plenty of time to fix that. They’ll need the Yankees’ contingent to be a big part of it; they had an up-and-down week headlined by some titanic tanks from Kyle West. As a reminder, if you want a quick rundown on who’s in the desert this month, check here.
October 24 (Rafters 3, Saguaros 5): The Rafters started the week with a sluggish, seven-inning loss that was shut out until pretty late. Dax Kilby got things started by going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles and a stolen base. On the mound, JT Etheridge struggled with command, allowing two runs on four walks in three innings. Mack Estrada worked around a pair of walks in a scoreless fourth, as did Antonio Gomez in the fifth, as he got his fastball up to 98. The highlight of this game was West, who annihilated his first home run of the spring at 111.9 mph and 409 feet late in the game.
October 26 (Rafters 20, Saguaros 4): Do you think Salt River was angry about how the game on Saturday went? They put up a staggering 20 runs in a blowout on Monday, partially from the Yankees’ contingent. Core Jackson went 0-for-5 with a walk, RBI, and four strikeouts; Anthony Mena tossed a pair of scoreless innings late in the blowout, but the star was once again West. He pummeled a pair of home runs a combined 912 feet. He ended the day with three hits, two homers, a double, and four RBIs with exit velocities of 112.0, 109.2, and 100.4.
October 27 (Rafters 0, Desert Dogs 1): One day after scoring 20, the Rafters were shut out across nine innings. That’s baseball, Suzyn! Kilby went 0-f0r-4 and Chris Veach tossed two scoreless innings to continue a strong month down in the desert. Not much going on here.
October 28 (Rafters 4, Scorpions 0): A second straight day of strong pitching vaulted Salt River to a shutout victory on Wednesday. Kilby went 1-for-3 with two walks and a few hard-hit balls, including a roped 107.9 mph single. Jackson went 0-for-2 with a walk and a strikeout, West went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, and Gomez had his best day in a while on the mound, striking out two in a scoreless inning. His velocity was a lot more stable around 98 and generated a lot of called strikes.
October 29 (Rafters 5, Solar Sox 21): Ouch. Not a great way to finish the week, especially after the games were cancelled on Friday. Fortunately, the Yankees weren’t really at fault. Kilby tripled twice, including with a 109.3 mph, 409-foot booming shot off the wall in center field. He did make a pair of errors at shortstop in an ugly game for Salt River’s defense that included one from West as well. In an ugly game for pitchers, Estrada didn’t allow a run in two-thirds of an inning.
Dax Kilby: 17-53 (.304), 2 HR, 8 RBI, 6 2B, 3 3B, 6 BB, 7 K, 5 SB
Core Jackson: 5-40 (.125), HR, 3 RBI, 2B, 3B, 14 BB, 16 K, 10 SB
Kyle West: 11-46 (.239), 3 HR, 10 RBI, 2B, 7 BB, 11 K, 3 SB
JT Etheridge: 9 IP, 7 H, 6 R (5 ER), 7 BB, 13 K
Mack Estrada: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 7 BB, 2 K
Chris Veach: 9.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 12 K
Anthony Mena: 9.2 IP, 9 H, 4 R (3 ER), 5 BB, 7 K
Antonio Gomez: 5.1 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 6 BB, 5 K
Manchester City have lost two consecutive league games but no alarm should be sounded. Enzo Maresca’s fast-passing team were defeated on Saturday because Yasin Ayari took one of Brighton’s rare chances, the 11th-minute winner deriving from what appeared a wrongly awarded free-kick for Elliot Anderson’s “foul” on the same player.
Fabian Hürzeler’s side can be proud of victory here – and of being third. They are worth the lofty position and who would bet against Champions League qualification for them?
Continue reading...
The Texas Rangers have purchased the contract of righthanded pitcher Aidan Curry, the team announced today. Had the Rangers not added Curry to the 40 man roster, he would have become a free agent.
Curry was signed as an undrafted free agent in the summer of 2020. The 24 year old has worked as a starter through his professional career, though he hadn’t pitched above A-ball before 2026, when he started at high-A but spent most of the season at AA Frisco, with one start for Round Rock. For the season, he had a 4.93 ERA in 104 innings over 23 appearances at the three levels, with 128 Ks against 55 walks.
When I wrote earlier this month about the Rangers’ Rule 5 decisions, I mentioned that Curry could be added to the major league roster, but anticipated that the team would instead opt to re-sign him to a minor league deal, as they did with Gavin Collyer when he became a free agent last season. The Rangers apparently didn’t want to risk the possibility of Curry departing.
One of the main schools of thought stemming from the “there’s only one ball to go around” critique of this year’s Sixers team was that it would hinder the development of VJ Edgecombe, especially going into a crucial second season.
Five games into his sophomore season and that hasn’t been a problem at all for the guard from Baylor. The Sixers have won all five games he’s appeared in and he’s made big plays down the stretch in just about all of them.
As the New York Knicks looked prime to pull off a devastating comeback in Philadelphia, Edgecombe hit a three to extend the Sixers’ one-point lead to four with 32 seconds remaining. It’s the type of clutch shotmaking the coaching staff has come to expect from Edgecombe after he made a habit of it his rookie year.
“He just does that, it’s really who he is,” head coach Nick Nurse said after the game. “We all know it.”
Nurse, nor any Sixer, had a problem with Edgecombe taking that shot despite missing his previous three attempts from deep on the night. He plays with a level of fearlessness and confidence that’s earned that trust from his teammates.
Even some of his newest teammates have picked on Edgecombe’s knack for big moments.
“He doesn’t shy away from the moment,“ LeBron James said. ”[He’s a] young, young kid, but thrives in the moment.“
It was a bit relieving that it was a three ball from Edgecombe that saved the day. For all his contributions this season, shooting the ball from deep has been one of his rare struggles. He’s shot just 29% from three through his first five games of the campaign.
“Early I haven’t been making a lot of threes, but they’re gonna fall, and I’m gonna keep shooting the ball,” Edgecombe said. “Tonight, even though I was 0-for-3 at the time, I still shot it. That’s just the confidence I have in myself.”
What Edgecombe has done a great job of this year is using the attention of his superstar teammates to cut into wide open lanes and scoop up easy baskets. He’s also become one of the best rebounders on the team while usually guarding the other team’s best player.
He’s done an especially good job cutting for Joel Embiid, a big reason Embiid is up to averaging 4.8 assists per game so far this season.
“When they go double him, obviously you know teams gonna rotate,” Edgecombe said, “and so I just try to find that gap where I can cut or just find a window for him.”
It’s the type of complementary basketball required to make a group with this much talent work together. Many worried before the season there wasn’t anywhere on the roster the Sixers would get those types of contributions from.
“It’s great to just have those guys, those complementary guys out there on the floor where we can all complement one another,” James said. “‘Rese getting double teamed, VJ has the confidence that Tyrese gonna give him the ball and he can knock down shots and vice versa.”
Edgecombe is clearly fifth in the pecking order in the healthy starting five when it comes to shot distribution, but that hasn’t stopped him from being one of their most important players when he’s on the floor. Being vital to helping a team with championship expectations pick up wins on a nightly basis has been just fine for his development so far.
Imagine you are a last place Major League Baseball club, one devoid of both recent success or generational success. You also find yourself without a ready-made farm system that’s poised to step up immediately and begin to pick up the pieces strewn across the floor.
You’ve got a bona fide ace, albeit one whose elbow gave out for the second time already since you lucked into him in the draft. He’s going to miss the entire season after you just finished in last place, again.
You have the worst hitter in the sport on your roster. You traded viable pieces to actively go get him just a year ago, and it has turned into one of the more egg/face deals in recent memory. You even bailed out your fellow divisional cellar-dwellar to facilitate it.
Your starting catcher walked into free agency. You’ve got a former 1st round pick at 2B in whom you continue to trust who is three full years removed from a shoulder surgery that rendered him a completely different player than he was before, yet you just can’t bring yourself to admit it.
You’ve got the worst hitting outfield in the sport.
It doesn’t take too much effort to look up and down what you possess to understand that it’s a walking, talking organizational failure. If a house has peeling paint, rotted sills, a leaky roof, toilets that run, squeaky floors, knob & tube wiring, and mice in the walls, it’s not the fault of the house itself – it’s the people tasked with taking care of the place who’ve simply let every single aspect of it fall by the wayside.
You have, though, perhaps the best shortstop in the game. A 30/30 player who oozes 40/70 upside, a guy who’s just 24 years old playing the premium position on the infield who has a full decade of sustainable promise ahead of him. How you lucked into getting him the baseball world may never figure out, but in him you have one of the most singular, most dynamic players in the sporting world right there on your roster.
Front offices often go entire careers without the chance to have such a player under their control. The nature of the baseball contract system means that star has even been cheap – cheap! – for three full years already, and will remain that way for another three relative to the prices of even the most average of free agents. Major League Baseball, both the sport itself and the salary system within it, has given you a literal gold mine of opportunity within this unicorn, a baked-in cheat code given that rosters fix at 26 players and funds, in your case, are finite elsewhere.
In theory, there should be no other player in the sport today around whom it is easier to build a competitive team than that. He plays the toughest position, hits in the most important part of the order day in, day out. He’s cheap. Still, you get to look at yourself sitting in last place in the standings from the most recently completed season while also seeing that the basement is right where you’re projected to be next year, too.
It’s the kind of environment that pushes free agents away. Who, in their right mind, would want to prioritize playing for such a club when given the option of playing for 29 other franchises? Not even a ‘hometown’ kid could be persuaded to ride in to the potential rescue. Your ballpark is so tiny no pitcher in their right mind would actively choose to pitch there in half their games, an unnecessary self-own you’ve handed yourself on top of all your other issues.
Yet there he is, your star shortstop – the one thing you somehow managed to get correct amid the rest of the shambles. He sticks out like a sore thumb within all this, so much so that it’s impossible for every other franchise in the sport not to notice. Not just notice, really – it’s impossible for the entire rest of the sport to do anything other than stare and gawk.
It had been the case for a series of years that it was impossible for them not to dream. At this juncture, though, it’s impossible for those other clubs to not stare reality in the face.
You have gone nowhere. You aren’t going anywhere. You’re not going to make it where you hoped before this one special player is eligible for free agency, and you’ve failed to sign him to a contract to further open than window. Your own organizational and tactical failures have now foisted themselves onto both of his shoulders, the weight of it all too much for even the most deserving and capable players out there.
You have failed to win with him. You have backed yourself into such a horrible corner that there’s zero chance you’ll win with him next year. It’s so obvious that every other team out there now realizes you’re cornered, the two lone moves being either thumb your nose and lose like an idiot out of spite or cave, the hope being in the latter scenario that someone gifts you the multiple pieces of coal out of which you can mold a few diamonds.
You are the Cincinnati Reds. You’ve gotten away with it to this juncture, but the gendarmes know right where you are. They’re circling, they’re barricading. They’re asking again for you to come out with your hands up, though their tone is getting a bit more focused.
Your gig, as they say, is up.
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While concrete rumors surrounding Cincinnati Reds superstar shortstop aren’t there, that hasn’t stopped the immediate rumblings across the baseballverse. He’s entering arbitration and will command a salary of some $8 million in 2027, with two more seasons after that remaining before reaching free agency. He has reportedly turned down a contract offer from the Reds already, and the Reds – without Hunter Greene yet again – have a roster that scares few AAA clubs heading into 2027.
Trading a superstar for a blockbuster return must sound enticing to a Reds front office that has no other methods to build a team at this point. They have failed in so many other areas – the draft, in development, in free agency, internationally – that One Big Patch™ must be appealing to them at this point even if making that call would be just about the only other way in which they could disappoint those who’ve trusted in them all these years.
Those who’ve worked within the industry know it. Those who’ve never seen a baseball before know it, too, since why in the world is there a player this good still on a team that’s consistently this bad?
Leatherpants is getting a lot of credit for being the person breaking the concept that Elly could ‘absolutely’ be traded this winter, but let’s be real here – the consistent and thorough failings of the Reds front office and ownership group for the better part of two decades are what is ‘breaking’ this news as a reality. Absolutely nothing they have done whilst being in charge for 20 years has suggested they should, would, or could have any idea what to do with a player of his caliber, let alone one who is finally about to get paid what he deserves.
But they’re precisely the kind of front office and ownership group who knows they need not one, not two, not three lottery tickets to even attempt to replicate such a gold-mine find. They need four, five, six, and the longer they hold on to Elly the lesser the chances of asking for that much become. They are running steadfast into the tipping point of not getting peak value for the most talented player they’ve ever come across, as well as the realization that going beyond that point would be the latest, greatest failure on top of all the others.
I don’t know how they’ll rectify that. I don’t know if the spite will be so embedded that they’ll simply shrug it off, keep Elly around for another year of 90+ losses, and show the baseball world they still have the upper hand they think they hold. I don’t know if the Los Angeles Dodgers, or the Boston Red Sox can woo them with a toolsy prospect package big enough to make them flinch this winter.
What I do know, though, is this – the Cincinnati Reds never had any clue how to manage what they had in Elly De La Cruz, and they aren’t going to going forward. And giving him away for anything – anything – is as much an admission that they should be giving control of this franchise to someone else who knows how.
Carlos “Cookie” Carrasco made his MLB debut back all-the-way-back in 2009 with the Cleveland Indians. Coming into 2026, he’d made 335 appearances – including 284 starts in 16 seasons – and he’d add to that with the Atlanta Braves last season.
The Braves signed Carrasco on July 28, 2025 to a minor league deal and he’d end up making three starts with Atlanta across several big league stints with poor results. Despite his lack of success with the Braves in 2025, Atlanta signed him to minor league deal in early February 2026 with a Spring Training invitation.
Carrasco, who turned 39 prior to the start of the regular season, was veteran organization pitching depth but when injuries set the organization’s starting pitching depth aflame, Carrasco’s value increased as Spencer Schwellenbach, Joey Wentz and Spencer Strider were lost as option to start the season before and during Spring Training.
Carrasco’s 2026 results with Atlanta were less about the numbers he produced as it was about what he was able to provide the team by protecting other pitchers. He pitched in eight games with Atlanta, absorbing 16.2 innings allowing 21 hits, including three home runs, while striking out only seven batters. But, he finished six of the appearances he made; with six of those games including more than one inning pitched.
When all was said and done, Carrasco was selected to the big league roster eight times between April 23 and July 9, 2026. He’d opt to sign in the KBO where he’d make 11 starts for the LG Twins in late July.
Until his final MLB game, Carrasco had been effective as a junk-baller with a 3.68 ERA in 14.2 innings limiting damage in part by only giving up one walk. His only appearance in a Braves victory was his first, finishing the game in a 7-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on April 23. He twice allowed two runs in four innings of blow-out losses, saving the team’s bullpen from additional innings.
Although his performance was likley more appreciated by the organization and his teammates than Braves fans, Carrasco’s last big league game in 2026 – a possibly the final one of his career – was his worst. In two innings, he allowed five runs on five hits and a home run and walked twice as many batters has he had coming into the game.
Maybe the worst part about that contest was that he entered the game against the New York Metropolitans in the eighth inning with the Braves trailing 5-3. After working a scoreless eight, Braves manager Walt Weiss left him in the game in the ninth where he proceeded to implode, allowing five runs.
Atlanta would then rally for six runs in the bottom of the ninth, but couldn’t complete a miraculous comeback, falling 10-9.
Despite that final sour experience, it is hard to consider Carrasco’s overall season anything but helpful, despite his 5.94 ERA that was inflated by his July 5th appearance.
Despite never having been an All-Star, Carrasco has notable 17-year career that include leading the American League in wins and finishing fourth in the AL Cy Young Award in 2017, being honored with the Roberto Clemente Award and AL Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2019 after an in-season battle with cancer. He’s won 105 big league games and tossed 1,704 innings.
Was 2026 the last one for Carrasco?
Maybe, but if he wants to continue his professional career in the U.S., his effectiveness in Korea is likely to bode well for another minor league contract. Given how Atlanta’s organization prioritizes veterans who are good locker room, it shouldn’t be shocking if the Braves given him a minor league deal to at least be a mentor to the organization’s young pitchers in Triple-A.
With a young core of MLB ready players under team control for many seasons to come, a highly touted farm system, and a bottom of the league payroll, the Cleveland Guardians have many resources and means to improve a team that just went to game 6 of the ALCS against a legitimate contender. The Guardians have plenty of spending room (given payrolls we’ve seen the team run out in the not so distant past) to take on salaries of veteran players, and plenty of talented young players in the farm system to use as pieces to acquire controllable talent for the upcoming seasons.
Today we are going to look at a few players as trade targets that could be difference makers or reasonable improvements to turn the Guardians into a legitimate postseason threat for 2027 (if there’s a season) and beyond. For the purposes of today, we will just be going over some players and the advantages and disadvantages of bringing them on. Hashing out exact trade packages is not part of this exercise, as I firmly believe that the Guardians have the talent to acquire any of these players, and believe it’s best to leave hashing out the details of the transaction to the professionals.
Shortstops
Zach Neto
Neto is a RHH SS who’s posted a career 113 wRC+ and 12.0 fWAR in about 3.5 seasons with the Angels. He’s got 3 years of arbitration left on his contract, so he wouldn’t come cheap, but he would be a strong candidate for an every day player in the middle of the lineup. In 2026 he posted a well above league average 11.9 Barrel % and posted his 3rd consecutive 20/20 season, so he can steal some bases as well. His range at SS has been well below average, but the offensive production would almost certainly make up for it.
CJ Abrams
Abrams is coming off a career year offensively. He had his first career 30/30 season in 2026, and he was one homer in 2025 and 2 homers in 2023 short of having 4 straight 20/20 seasons (all of which he stole over 30 bases in). His wRC+ in 2026 of 124 was significantly higher than the 105 and 104 marks he put up in the previous 2 seasons, but even with some regression, he looks to be a reliable 20/20 guy that also could fit in the middle of the Guardians lineup nicely. Defensively he’s a weaker option than Neto, but if he can be more like the 2026 version of himself going forward, he could also make up for the weaker defense. Abrams also wouldn’t come cheap, as he has 2 years of arbitration left on his contract, but definitely is an option worth considering.
Jeremy Peña
Peña is in the final arbitration year of his rookie contract and is by far the most experienced SS on this list. In his last 2 seasons, he’s put up a 136 wRC+ and a 124 wRC+. The home run numbers don’t blow you away, but he’s missed almost 90 games in those 2 seasons combined, and having an .800 OPS both years is of course very good. He’s also below average defensively at SS, but like the others, if his bat can be as good as it’s been the last couple years, it should make up for the poorer defense. As long as he can stay on the field for this season, he could be another option to target in a trade.
First Base
Alec Burleson
Burleson has 2 years of arbitration and is coming off back to back 124 or better wRC+ seasons. He also played in 160 games in 2026, showing he’s able to play every day if needed. Burleson is a LHH who can’t hit LHP, but his thump vs. RHP cannot be denied. And with an offense that is consistently near the bottom of the league in all major categories, you’ll take every extra bit of power that you can. Burleson also was a well above average defensive first baseman in 2026.
Spencer Steer
Steer, like Burleson, also has 2 years of arbitration remaining on his contract. While I’ve listed him as a first baseman, he’s played all over the field for the Reds. He doesn’t have quite the defensive ability of a guy like Daniel Schneemann, but he does have that level of defensive versatility. Steer also mashes LHP. In 2026 he had a 188 wRC+ vs. lefties. His career splits are a little more modest at 128 wRC+ vs. LHP and 97 wRC+ vs. RHP, but both of those are very playable, and he could even be a serviceable bat vs. righties too.
Outfield
Brandon Marsh
Marsh is coming off a bit of a down year in 2026. After having wRC+ totals of 124, 106, and 115 the previous 3 seasons, he dropped to a 90 mark in 2026. He’s a bit in the Burleson class, as he’s a LHH who’s struggled vs. LHP in his career, but he’s on the final year of arbitration in his contract and could be a great addition if he can find his way back to his 2023-2025 form. He’s also been a solid defender (apart from in 2026), which he would also need to recapture to be a contributor to a contending team. But given multiple seasons of success in the past, it’s not unreasonable to think he can do that.
Wyatt Langford
Langford would likely be one of the most expensive pieces listed here, but it’s hard to deny he’s worth the price. With 3 years of arbitration still on his contract, he has a lot of team control. Despite dealing with off and on injuries this season, he almost had a second 20/20 season in a row, and ended with a 115 wRC+ in 2026 (right on pace with his career average). He has a career 126 wRC+ vs. LHP and 111 vs. RHP, so he’s very capable of being an everyday contributor. Langford is also a plus defender in the outfield.
Pitching
Reid Detmers
Detmers had a career season in 2026 and has 2 seasons of arbitration on his contract. He pitched 185 innings in 2026, with a 3.36 ERA, a 3.01 FIP, 211 strike outs, and just 48 BBs. The Angels have finally started to look like they’re willing to make more reasonable deals, and as far as SP options, there weren’t too many better than Detmers in 2026.
Logan Gilbert
Seattle is in a bit of an in between situation. They looked like they were poised to be a contender again with their SP, but after underperforming in 2026, a lot of their offensive pieces are headed to free agency, and Logan Gilbert is on the last year of his contract with them. Gilbert’s 2026 was a bit lower than average for him, but 186 innings with a 3.73 ERA and 205 Ks is hardly anything to scoff at. He would be a very nice compliment to an already solid looking Guardians rotation.
I’m not going to hold my breath on the Guardians’ front office going all out to acquire any of these guys, but if we’re talking hypotheticals, we might as well swing for the fences. If there was ever a time to unload the farm system and make a real run for the Guards, now is the time. The core is young, under control for an extended amount of time, and they all look Major League ready. It’s time to bring in some experienced players, round out the roster, and take a real shot at ending baseball’s longest active championship drought.