Earlier this week, MLB officially announced the finalists for the major end of season awards. The Phillies have some representation despite the disappointing end to their season, as Cristopher Sánchez, Don Mattingly, and Jhoan Duran all are among the nominees. Here’s the full layout of who is a finalist for what award:
NL MVP
Pete Crow-Armstrong, Chicago Cubs
Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers
Brice Turang, Milwaukee Brewers
AL MVP
Yordan Alvarez, Houston Astros
Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays
Bobby Witt Jr., Kansas City Royals
NL Cy Young Award
Jacob Misiorowski, Milwaukee Brewers
Cristopher Sánchez, Philadelphia Phillies
Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves
AL Cy Young Award
Dylan Cease, Toronto Blue Jays
Parker Messick, Cleveland Guardians
Cam Schlittler, New York Yankees
NL Manager of the Year
Don Mattingly, Philadelphia Phillies
Pat Murphy, Milwaukee Brewers
Walt Weiss, Atlanta Braves
AL Manager of the Year
Kevin Cash, Tampa Bay Rays
Chad Tracy, Boston Red Sox
Will Venable, Chicago White Sox
NL Rookie of the Year
Carson Benge, New York Mets
Sal Stewart, Cincinnati Reds
JJ Wetherholt, St. Louis Cardinals
AL Rookie of the Year
Kevin McGonigle, Detroit Tigers
Parker Messick, Cleveland Guardians
Payton Tolle, Boston Red Sox
NL Reliever of the Year
Jhoan Duran, Philadelphia Phillies
Trevor Megill, Milwaukee Brewers
Mason Miller, San Diego Padres
AL Reliever of the Year
Bryan Baker, Tampa Bay Rays
Cade Smith, Cleveland Guardians
Louis Varland, Toronto Blue Jays
So, what are your predictions for the winners? Will the Phillies bring home any individual awards?
May 18, 2026; St. Petersburg, Florida, USA; Baltimore Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman (35) runs the bases after hitting a home run against the Tampa Bay Rays in the seventh inning at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
May 21, 2022. That’s the day that was supposed to forever change the course of the Orioles’ franchise.
It was the day that Adley Rutschman, the Orioles’ wunderkind catcher, made his major league debut. The 24-year-old received a raucous standing ovation from the Camden Yards crowd as he took the field, and few could forget the indelible image of Rutschman doing a 360 to soak in the atmosphere before donning his mask, giving a slight nod as if to say, “Yeah, I belong here.”
Rutschman brought the kind of pedigree that few O’s rookies could ever match. He was a former #1 draft pick, only the second in Orioles history, and was the top-ranked prospect in baseball as he destroyed minor league pitching all the way up the ladder. In an O’s minor league system that had been replenished with young talent since the hiring of Mike Elias in 2018, Rutschman was the leader of the pack, the franchise cornerstone who would usher in an era of perennially contending Orioles teams. The future of Baltimore baseball was incredibly bright.
Now look at us. Four years later, the Orioles still haven’t won a postseason game in the Elias era. And Rutschman, the linchpin of the Birds’ expected renaissance, is gone, traded away to a division rival while he was on the injured list. All that’s left in Birdland is a big old mess.
It’s safe to say that the Adley Rutschman Experience in Baltimore didn’t turn out as anyone expected. Which is not to say he was a bust. In fact, the first three years of his career could hardly have been more successful in terms of his on-field production. Adley racked up 12.9 bWAR from 2022-24, the third-most in Orioles history for a player in his first three seasons (behind Gunnar Henderson’s 15.8 and Nick Markakis’ 14.0). Rutschman was AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2022, and collected a Silver Slugger award, two All-Star selections, and two top-12 AL MVP finishes in that three-year span.
You could make a legitimate case that Adley was the best catcher in baseball at the time, or at least the one with the brightest career in front of him. And his arrival did, indeed, usher in an era of homegrown O’s prospects who brought postseason baseball back to Baltimore for two years, including a 103-win season and an AL East crown in 2023. But in both seasons, the Birds were swept out of the postseason.
As Orioles fans are all too painfully aware, though, Rutschman’s career — and the Orioles’ fortunes — took a nosedive starting in mid-2024. From June 22 to the end of the season, Rutschman batted a horrendous .192 with a .574 OPS in 77 games as the O’s limped into the playoffs. A prevailing theory among O’s fans is that Adley was battling a secret injury during that time, though Rutschman never admitted as much. Distressingly, his 2025 was even worse: oblique strains in both his legs landed him on the IL twice, and in 90 games he batted just .220/.307/.366 with nine home runs, a major reason why the Orioles collapsed to a last-place finish.
Rutschman entered the 2026 season with something to prove. A few things, actually. He needed to prove he could still hit like the Adley of 2022-23. He needed to prove he was still the Orioles’ go-to catcher even after the O’s committed an eight-year contract to Samuel Basallo in 2025. And he needed to prove he could still be the bedrock of the Birds’ return to contention.
Rutschman was unsuccessful on the last of those points and only somewhat so on the other two. He played the lion’s share behind the plate while he was on the team, starting 49 of the Orioles’ first 98 games. And his bat was the best it’s been in three years. He posted a 116 OPS+ for the Birds, batting .251 with a .764 OPS, sparking gleeful cries of “Adley is so back!” from O’s fans who’d been long awaiting his return to form. His defense, too, was vastly improved over the past couple of years, particularly when throwing out basestealers. Rutschman’s 33.9 CS% was the best mark of his career and far outpaced the MLB average of 22.7. He led all AL catchers with 21 caught stealings.
Adley’s early-season heroics earned him his third career All-Star selection, serving as the Orioles’ lone representative at the Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia on July 14. It turned out to be his third-to-last game in an O’s uniform. During the Birds’ series in Houston to start the second half, Rutschman suffered left wrist inflammation that landed him on the 10-day IL — and, though we didn’t know it at the time, wrapped up his Orioles career.
As the O’s continued to wallow in mediocrity at the Aug. 3 trade deadline, Rutschman’s name was bandied about as a trade candidate. Logically it made sense, due to the Orioles’ commitment to Basallo and Adley’s 1.5 years until free agency, but still it came as a shock to much of Birdland when Elias actually pulled the trigger on a deal. Especially shocking is that the O’s traded him to division rival Boston, of all places, for Carlos Narváez and four prospects.
And just like that, it was over. Adley Rutschman, the one-time face of the franchise, was unceremoniously jettisoned by the Birds while on the injured list, leaving so much unfinished business with the team he was supposed to lead to the promised land. He’ll always be remembered fondly by most O’s fans, and his up-and-down five-year Orioles career brought more highlights than lowlights. Ultimately, though, Adley Rutschman never quite lived up to the inordinate hype that accompanied him. And the Orioles’ early success after his arrival in the majors didn’t last.
The return package for Rutschman, which featured top Red Sox pitching prospect Anthony Eyanson and several other highly-regarded youngsters, was widely praised. Still, to see a much-ballyhooed #1 draft pick come and go from Baltimore without the O’s ever winning even one playoff game is a rather damning indictment of Elias’s vision for the organization, and if I were the owner of the team he’d have gotten his pink slip some time ago. But David Rubenstein doesn’t see it that way, and so Elias remains, albeit with a heavily restructured front office. Perhaps someday the Orioles will finally find that cornerstone player who can return to the franchise to championship glory.
As for Rutschman, he’s surely got more years ahead of him to torment the Orioles, as he did in his return to Camden Yards with the Red Sox on Sept. 3 when he smacked two home runs to beat the Birds. He’ll be under contract with Boston for 2027 before reaching free agency at age 30, and I’ll be fascinated to see what kind of contract he gets. How much will teams be willing to pay for an aging catcher whose offense has fluctuated wildly from year to year?
It’s strange to think that the Orioles will open the 2027 season without Rutschman behind the plate for the first time in five years. And it’s frustrating that his tenure with the Birds didn’t pan out like we’d dreamed of. But thanks for the memories all the same, Adley.
ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 4: Tim Hyers #80 of the Atlanta Braves gives a high five in the eighth inning during the game against the Miami Marlins at Truist Park on August 4, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Well, Tim Hyers has survived another season presiding over a not-particularly-good Atlanta Braves offense.
His predecessor more or less fired himself. (Or resigned, I guess, you could say.) Other coaching staff turnovers often happen when a team brings on a new manager, but that already happened and Hyers was the one holdover.
So, what will it take? A third not-particularly-inspiring offensive season? A teamwide collapse that takes Walt Weiss and his coaching staff down?
Maybe the answer, the only answer, is “Tim Hyers resigns like Kevin Seitzer did.”
Maybe the Braves are just waiting for the bottom to drop out of the aggregate. Across 2025-2026, the team is still ninth in xwOBA, though they’re 15th in wOBA / 16th in wRC+ due to underhitting their inputs a bit. (The park effect probably isn’t a particularly big deal for two-year teamwide input ranks.) They’re also just inside the top ten across those two years in runs, and nearly dead average in walk and strikeout rates.
I think the issue is the feeling of, “The Braves are fine-ish, but not as good as they could be.” So, I guess things have to get not-fine for there to be a change. If you look at the arc of team batting stats over the past two years combined, it feels amoeba-y in terms of still ranking towards the top in various metrics a la exit velocity, but no longer at pretty much the apex of MLB in all of them.
Anyway, now that the Braves have apparently opted to retain Hyers despite a middling offensive performance in 2026, it’s just interesting to think about what marker would need to change substantially for them to not do so in the future.
The Florida Panthers defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in Sunrise on Wednesday night. The NHL broadcast this 5-3 loss on TNT. Overall, it turned out to be a game that put national negativity on the Hawks.
The TNT panel, which consisted of Ryan Reaves, Paul Bissonnette, Liam McHugh, Anson Carter, and Henrik Lundqvist, blasted the Blackhawks at multiple points throughout the show. They were on during the pregame, intermissions, and postgame, going to town on all the shortcomings that Chicago is dealing with.
“I don’t see a lot of identity,” Bissonnette said. “I see a soft team. They don’t check well; they don’t forecheck well. They don’t really do anything well.”
The man known as "Biz" used other terms like "Mickey Mouse", "soft", "horrible", and "pathetic", among others.
That is the national perception of the Blackhawks, who are off to the worst start, 4-11-3, during the Kyle Davidson rebuild era. Nothing he said is incorrect, and now a larger audience will be influenced by that opinion. Jeff Blashill, after the game, did comment on what was said.
"I like Biz, I respect Biz, I don’t agree with his opinion,” Blashill said. “I don’t think that we’re soft. I don’t think we’ve won enough games, so when you have the record that we have, you put yourself in a position to be criticized. We’re going to have to accept that criticism. I don’t agree with his verbiage. I’m sure he doesn’t break our tape down on a regular basis, but again, we’re subject to that criticism.”
Bissonnette was an enforcer who did not score goals or make plays on a regular basis, but he was a plus player in 202 games played. Plus-minus is not a great stat in 2026, but he managed to be +7 as a 4th liner on mostly bad teams. He was also either an All-Star or a champion at every pro level in North America below the NHL. He has a smart hockey mind in a lot of ways.
At the same time, this take can come off as a bit performative, but the results are the results. Perhaps people will like what Henrik Lundqvist, who is a very level-headed former Hall of Fame goaltender, has to say.
"When you’re in a rebuild and you try and get out of it, it’s not about being the best team every night,” Lundqvist said. “You have to be smart and have awareness."
The conversations around the team making changes are growing louder and louder with each loss that piles up. Things won’t get much easier as the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes are the next two teams on deck for the Hawks. Thursday night will see them in the second half of a back-to-back vs Tampa, their first such situation of the season.
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Dallas Stars- 9-5-1 - 19 Points - Won 2- 3rd in the Central
Columbus Blue Jackets - 6-7-0 - 10 Points - Won 1 - 6th in the Metro
Player Notes Per CBJ PR
Damon Severson has 3-9-12 in 22 career GP vs. DAL, including points in 4 straight (1-3-4) and scored on Oct. 1.
Adam Fantilli has 2-5-7 in seven career matchups against Dallas, including notching points in two of his three career games at Nationwide Arena (1-2-3).
Conor Garland has notched 5-13-18 in 20 career games against the Stars, with 2-6-8 in 10 career home matchups.
Kent Johnson has tallied 2-5-7 with points in six of eight career contests against the Stars and has points in two of his three outings vs. Dallas at Nationwide (1-1-2).
Sean Monahan has posted 6-12-18 in 30 career games against Dallas and has tallied 2-4-6 in his past 11 overall.
Zach Werenski has notched 5-9-14 in 22 career GP, with points in eight of 12 career contests vs. Dallas at Nationwide Arena (5-6-11) with goals in four of his past six on home ice (4-2-6).
Blue Jackets Stats
Power Play - 17.1% - 24th in the NHL
Penalty Kill - 72.5% - 24th in the NHL
Goals For - 35 - 31st in the NHL
Goals Against - 41 - 6th in the NHL
StarsStats
Power Play - 23.5% - 11th in the NHL
Penalty Kill - 90% - 2nd in the NHL
Goals For - 43 - 24th in the NHL
Goals Against - 35 - 1st in the NHL
Series History vs.Stars
The Blue Jackets are 35-36-7 overall, and 19-16-5 at home vs. Dallas.
Columbus lost to Dallas on 10-31.
Columbus has won three of the last four games in the series, outscoring Dallas 13-8 since Feb. 25, 2025.
The Jackets have won the past two games against the Stars played at Nationwide Arena.
The winning team has won by multiple goals in seven of the last eight meetings of the series, including three by three goals or more.
The Blue Jackets have gone 29-of-32 (90.6 pct.) on the penalty kill in the past 16 games of the overall series.
Who To Watch For TheStars
Mikko Rantanen leads the Stars with 8 goals, 10 assists, and 18 points.
Jason Robertson has 8 goals and 18 points.
Jake Oettinger is 8-3-1 with a SV% of .909. His last start was on 11-3.
Casey DeSmith is 1-2-0 with his last start being on 10-27.
Injured Reserve & Other Injuries
Isac Lundestrom - Achilles Surgery - LTIR - 13 Games Missed - Lightly skating. Could return soon.
TOTAL MAN GAMES LOST: 37
How to Watch & Listen: Tonight's game will be simulcast on The Blue Jackets Hockey Network and 97.1 The Fan, with Steve Mears behind the mic doing the play-by-play.
TV: CBJHN - Spectrum HD Ch. 320/1320; IP Ch. 349; Prime Video, Fubo. DirecTV Ch. 660 (streaming), 660-1 (satellite). U-Verse (1735/735)
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SAN DIEGO, CA - APRIL 2: A.J. Ellis #17of the San Diego Padres walks from home plate in the the game against the Colorado Rockies at PETCO Park on April 2, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Andy Hayt/San Diego Padres/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** A.J. Ellis | Getty Images
Tom Curry has emerged as a major doubt for England’s autumn opener against Australia on Sunday, handing Steve Borthwick a huge blow before a crucial November campaign, with twin brother Ben leading the race to start at openside flanker.
It is understood that Tom Curry sustained his latest injury during Wednesday’s full bore training session, throwing Borthwick’s plans for his back-row configuration into disarray. Borthwick will finalise his team selection before announcing it on Friday afternoon but as things stand, Ben is in pole position to wear the No7 jersey.
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 4: OG Anunoby #8 of the New York Knicks dunks the ball during the game against the Chicago Bulls on November 4, 2026 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
As the second quarter started last night between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden, Josh Giddey was bringing the ball up for the team from the Windy City. He tried to maneuver through a high pick-and-roll when all of a sudden a large human named OG Anunoby appeared in his path. The Australian must have thought he’d run into a boxing kangaroo, as he was so freaked out that he immediately lost his dribble. As the ball was bouncing away from him, Anunoby lunged after it but couldn’t quite grab it. So Mikal Bridges joined the scene as well for the orange and blue, also diving on the floor to ultimately force the refs to call a foul on poor Mr. Giddey.
Just for the record, the Knicks were leading 43-21 at that point.
The game was essentially over long before both of New York’s high-priced wings draped themselves across the shiny Garden floor, but this is exactly what makes the symbolism of the aforementioned play so much more distinct. The Knicks decided to show up last night. They decided to put it together and be the hard-nosed, all-out championship team we all love so much. Not only for the layup lines or the press conference but for the entire game. They not only cut up the Bulls into sirloins, briskets and ribs, they surely also took their hearts. And announced, if not to the league, then to their fan base, what Keef so aptly commented in Russell’s Postgame Thread: “We are so back…”
Knicks play complete game against Chicago
A critical comrade might point out that it had more to do with Chicago being gone than with New York being back, but this isn’t the day for such rationality. It’s a day of basking in the glory of being a good basketball team and showing it for 47 minutes and 58 seconds, maybe even longer. It’s exactly what this Knicks team needed after sluggish weeks to start their championship defense, and some of us fans might have needed it even a bit more. We all knew they were good enough to win it all, we all knew that there’s a level to their quality that might be unrivaled across the Association. At some point you have to see it, though, and we sure did last night.
From Jalen Brunson to Landry Shamet, from OG Anunoby to Mohamed Diawara, even from James Wiseman to Dalton Knecht, there basically was no Knick who didn’t look like his very best last night, at least not if we ignore garbage time and a rusty Jose Alvarado being dealt the thankless job of driving the party boat into the harbor. Maybe our Finals hero was a bit tired from all the clapping and cheering he did for a seemingly gazillion beautiful basketball plays from his teammates—even if SGA Anunoby gave him plenty of breaks standing at the charity stripe. All in all, the Knicks definitely played at a completely different speed than the Bulls, who only a week ago had raced out to a 19-point lead against New York. Watching this game, you wonder how that ever happened.
Dalton Knecht (10 PTS, 7 REB, 4-6 FGM) made his Knicks debut in their win vs. Chicago 🗽 pic.twitter.com/CGtDZhyyYS
No matter what conclusion you might come to answering that question, last night proved that it’s a lot more fun to bring your A-game and best effort from the get-go than midway through the fourth, fueled by desperation. Jalen Brunson danced through the Bulls D like he was Barry Sanders playing a high school team early on and also had no mercy shooting the ball. As so often in the past, it inspired his team to follow him. The Knicks did it all the way to the highest-scoring half in their history, tying a 38-year-old franchise record. It’s nice to be back doing historical things just as they routinely did last season. And just like your starters and stars diving on the floor in a lopsided game, it is a reminder that these Knicks are still those Knicks.
Young Knicks make a good impression
Whether they might be even a bit more here or there could start to show itself in games like last night’s laugher. It is here where younger, unproven bench players like Mo Diawara, Dalton Knecht or James Wiseman will get their chances to make an impression on Mike Brown and the coaching staff. All of them have a ways to go, but watching last night, you at least feel a little intrigued by Mo’s and Wiseman’s physical profiles. Their length could give New York a different defensive dimension (5 blocks between them), and Diawara once again looked like the promising role player he teased last season. The herky-jerky is still there, yet he also flashed strong playmaking ability (tied for the team lead with 4 assists) and defensive awareness against supposedly strong wings like Caleb Wilson or Matas Buzelis. Maybe he can be a specialist for matchups like that, who knows? We’ve got 74 games to see more of it and figure out if it can really be a factor in important games.
We’re not going out on a limb saying that it will take some time before the Bulls get to experience such games again. This doesn’t diminish what our Knickerbockers did last night, playing as complete a basketball game as you dare to imagine. As beautiful as some of the passes, shots or dunks were, in the end, the foundation was the little things, many of which are exactly what a large part of the team’s identity is built upon. Things like boxing out your opponent, making the right rotation or flying hard around a screen. Things like making the pass that leads to an assist or pushing the ball when it truly makes sense.
Or diving on the floor after a loose ball, for that matter.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - NOVEMBER 04: Baylor Scheierman #55 of the Boston Celtics drives to the basket against Kyle Kuzma #18 of the Milwaukee Bucks during the second quarter at TD Garden on November 04, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Milwaukee Bucks’ 22-point comeback fell short in Beantown, as they lost to the Boston Celtics 109-102 after leading in the fourth quarter. If the Bucks could just avoid one horrendous quarter each game, they’d probably have three or four wins by now. The fight and character the team showed was pleasing, to be sure, but fans want to see the team not just be in games, but win them, no matter the opponent. And as I’ll get to, the difference between winning and losing is razor-thin; it is about recognising moments and understanding what the team wants to achieve in those moments; unfortunately, the Bucks have some guys who seem incapable of doing that. On a completely unrelated note, I am officially retiring from inserting sarcastic/self-deprecating dinosaur-related Easter eggs into my writing until I can make it clear to readers that they are, in fact, sarcastic/self-deprecating dinosaur-related Easter eggs! Read our full summary of the game here and catch a six-minute audio recap on the Bucks+ podcast, Bucks In Six Minutes, below.
Finally, Rollins had what I think everyone would call a solid game (minus the turnovers). His shot still isn’t falling as we’d like, but man, Rollins was a menace on defence. Just terrific on that end. He was given the primary assignment on Derrick White and forced him into a 7/18 night. Rightfully got the close alongside Herro.
Herro’s night was highlighted by a white-hot third quarter in which he scored 17 of his 23 points on 6/8 shooting (after failing to score in the opening quarter). It felt like Herro’s aggression flipped a switch at halftime: he came off screens with more vigour, his crossovers were more violent, and he had a stronger will to get to the hoop. Unfortunately, Herro took just one shot in the fourth; not sure whose fault that is, but he needed to be more involved (at least in the final few possessions, Mr Kuzma).
On the plus side, Jaquez continues to be money from three this year (although he did take a horrendous one late, as Turner was wide open on the extra pass). On the negative side, he went 0/5 in the fourth quarter and couldn’t get anything to go inside the arc. Still, I thought Jaquez was solid in his possessions guarding PG.
If you looked at the stat sheet, you would think Kuzma played just a meh game, and I suppose he did, but I can’t get over how incredibly frustrating some of his decisions are. As I’ve said before, no matter how he plays overall, Kuzma is guaranteed to give you 2-4 make-you-want-to-pull-your-hair-out plays per game. Most notably, he shot a three off one pass with 18 on the shot clock while down two with three minutes to play. Why!? He also had a play in the third—as the Bucks are desperately trying to string stops together—where he flopped off a slight push-off from Paul George; the refs (rightfully) didn’t fall for it, and he was on the ground when George shot and made the three. He had another pathetic defensive possession on PG late, where he was effectively standing straight up—not in a defensive stance at all—as the 36-year-old zipped past him with ease. Kuzma was rightfully pulled for AJ Green to finish, and I honestly think they win if he didn’t play in the fourth. Just an infuriating player to watch sometimes.
I thought Turner got monstered on the inside a few too many times—as he is wont to do—but overall, it was another well-rounded game where you really felt his presence. Shooting the ball much better of late. Just keep stacking good games.
Tough game for Jakucionis, who didn’t play in the second half and had by far the worst plus/minus on the team (the next-worst was -8). I don’t think he necessarily did too much wrong in his minutes; it’s more that I don’t think Jenkins liked how the team operated when he was running it, and he loved how the team ran in the second half with someone else handling the rock. Things were going well, and as the old saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
We still haven’t seen Burries explode on offence in the extended minutes that come with starting (granted, his two starts have been against top-10 defensive teams), but he still did a bunch of typical Burries stuff. He has a knack for impacting the game regardless of whether his shot is going in, a quality I absolutely love. Burries was super active and impactful defensively and pursued each rebound like his life depended on it. Also, the rook was on the bench for most of that electric third-quarter run, but I noticed him up and encouraging his teammates the whole time—brownie points.
I feel like a bit of a broken record with Green when I say that even when he doesn’t hit shots, it never feels like he impacts the game negatively the way it does with a certain someone. He generally does his job on defence, even if he is undersized in a lot of matchups, and it’s just make-or-miss as to how much he plays. Had a killer defensive possession guarding Paul George in the first half.
As has been the case a few times this season, Ament had a meh first half and a much better second. He started the game with a major rookie moment, trying to take on Mitchell Robinson and getting it emphatically thrown back in his face, which earned him a seat on the bench immediately. Then in the second half, Ament was just… existing more as part of a coherent unit that was playing extremely well? Like, he took his chances when they came to him instead of forcing stuff, but he also contributed on the other end, which matters to me much more than his scoring. Now, Ament still has a little too much tunnel vision, and I’d like him to set screens and not slip them as much as he does—which will generate scoring chances for him—but hey, encouraging signs.
Grade: C+
Taylor Jenkins
On the one hand, I totally get going back to your veterans to close a game on the road against a good team—and there are certainly other considerations—but Jenkins closing with Kuzma and Jaquez may well have cost them the game. Maybe Ament should have stayed in (though I reckon he’d played a fair stretch by that point), but definitely Green. Heck, Jenkins could have dusted off Jericho Sims, who played well the game before. Other than that, credit to the Bucks coach for getting the team in the right mindset—and with the right game plan—to mount that comeback.
Grade: D+
Limited Minutes: Ousmane Dieng, Jericho Sims
DNP-CD: Bogoljub Markovic, Caris LeVert, Gary Trent Jr.
Inactive: Kam Jones, Cormac Ryan, Pete Nance
What We Learnt
The team is guaranteed to lose its collective mind for one quarter of each game.
Bonus Bucks Bits
Jenkins on his team’s fight: “Can’t overlook that we were down 22 to the Celtics and came back and took the lead… the energy, the life was there… A lot of growth, a lot of progress. This was awesome by our group. We have to continue to not dig ourselves holes… Overall, our guys’ resilience was the biggest thing from this game.”
Regarding my comments about Brayden Burries’ ability to impact beyond scoring, I want Nate Ament to learn from that; it feels like Ament is much more “out there” a lot of the time, rather than you feeling his presence from possession to possession. Now, the fact that Ament is even playing regular NBA minutes at this point is huge in and of itself, so I don’t want to put too much on the kid, but it’s just something I’d love for him to be thinking about when he’s out there.
I found it notable that Brayden Burries matched up with Derrick White, and many draft analysts used White as his player comparison. I wonder if Burries was thinking the same thing.
The Bucks averaged one turnover per minute in the opening six minutes of the game. Crazy.
Tyler Herro started the first quarter scoreless; the same thing happened against the Wolves.
The Bucks shot 14/42 in the first half, and by the halfway mark of the third quarter, they were 10/12. Also, they had just one turnover in the entire third.
4th time this season the #Bucks have lost despite it being a one possession game in the 4th quarter. The fight they showed to crawl back from 20+ down in the second half was impressive and shouldn’t be lost among reactions to tonight.
BOSTON, MA - NOVEMBER 4: Paul George #13 of the Boston Celtics handles the ball during the game against the Milwaukee Bucks on November 4, 2026 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2026 NBAE (Photo by Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
When the notification hit that Jayson Tatum would be resting Wednesday’s game against the Bucks, I couldn’t have been less moved.
Milwaukee is bad. The Celtics shouldn’t have any problem taking care of business, right?
Ultimately, they managed to get across the finish line, but the path there wasn’t as pretty as many would’ve hoped. The Cs found themselves in a fourth-quarter dogfight despite leading the one-win Bucks by 22 points earlier in the game.
This scenario was more suprising than it should’ve been. Tatum has done a lot for this Boston team. Key role players like Payton Pritchard and Derrick White haven’t played at the height of their offensive abilities so far this season, and you’ve felt it.
Take Monday’s loss to the Rockets in Houston for example. Paul George had the night off on the second leg of a back-to-back, and the vet was dearly missed. Whenever Tatum headed to the bench, Houston gained more and more leverage until they were in complete control of the matchup in the second half.
In a game where the Celtics lost by 16, Tatum was still a +1 when he was on the floor.
Flash forward back to the matchup with Milwaukee. Boston was forced to fight their way out of a tough situation without their offensive hub.
They did it.
A Brayden Burries floater gave Milwaukee a 96-95 lead over Boston with 4:54 to play in regulation. All of the momentum was with the Bucks as they continued to light the nets on fire with their efficient shot-making. Anytime the Cs squandered opportunities on the offensive end, it felt like it came back to bite them with a Bucks bucket.
It felt like it was going to be a classic “the Celtics can’t close out close games” game. But instead of squandering what should’ve been a surefire win, they let their vets lead the way and finished the night with a 14-6 run over the final five minutes.
George and White weren’t perfect, but they were good enough. The two combined to score 20 of Boston’s 22 fourth-quarter points, and each made some tough shots to ice the game.
Look, I’m not going to try and spin a narrow win against one of the league’s worst into a monumental victory. But it’s not nothing. If this Celtics squad is going to reach its potential, then other players besides Tatum have to be effective in tense spots. Those spots, by the way, don’t just happen in the fourth quarter.
Clutch moments happen all the time. It could be making a big shot to cool off a second-quarter run, getting a big stop on a player who’s starting to heat up, or simply making the opposition pay for their mistakes and capitalizing on turnovers and extra possessions.
Those opportunities are undisputedly going to arise during the non-Tatum minutes, too.
The fact that Boston has been able to depend on Paul George thus far feels tremendous. It can never been mentioned enough how great he’s been on both sides of the ball. Even today, one of the biggest moments in the game came when he turned defense into offense.
George jumped a weakside pass for a steal, then went coast-to-coast for an and-one finish in transition to give the Cs a six-point cushion early in the fourth.
The moment sent a message. The Celtics weren’t just going to roll over because things hadn’t been going their way.
So far, they’ve buckled down quite well when push has come to shove. Wednesday’s win makes the Cs 4-1 in clutch situations, which the league defines as games within five points with under five minutes left. This one just happened to be an opportunity to flex their depth.
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - SEPTEMBER 21: Gunnar Henderson #2 of the Baltimore Orioles celebrates after hitting a home run during the sixth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 21, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Caleb Bowlin/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Recently, there have been reports that the Baltimore Orioles are open to trading just about anyone on their roster with the exception of Pete Alonso. Which is kind of a weird player to say you’re not trading, but realize it has a lot to do with the contract. They wouldn’t get much for him. Specifically mentioned in fact was that Gunnar Henderson is on the table. He’s not on the block, but if they are blown away, they will trade him. But the title of this post does not mention Gunnar Henderson, because he is not the only potential 3B on the Orioles the Cardinals could trade for. I’ll look at every possible option.
Gunnar Henderson
Steamer projects Henderson for 4.8 WAR in 632 PAs, which seems fair to me. Last season was a down season at just 3.6 fWAR, but before that was a 4.8 fWAR season and a 7.6 fWAR season. He will be 26 next season. He is projected for a 125 wRC+. Despite not reaching that mark in the last two seasons, that is his career wRC+. Given his age, and I do feel slightly uncomfortable about doing this, I will project a slight decline in the second season, but not half a win like I normally do. So I will project his 2028 season at 4.5 WAR. He will be a free agent after 2028, so that means the Cardinals will be trading for 9.3 WAR.
What is his salary? MLB Trade Rumors projects $14.1 million in 2027. That is a rock solid estimate. His 2028 season could more accurately be called a guess. An educated one, but a guess. Using the 25/40/62 method calculated by Point of Pittsburgh, that would make his 2028 salary $22 million. I don’t think it would realistically be much lower than that, and has a good chance to be higher. But the lower it is, the more value he holds in a trade, so we’re only hurting what the Cardinals have to give up if we have a low salary. 9.3 WAR for $36.1 million is $56.9 million. Let’s call it an even $60 million in trade value.
I will be using Fangraphs updated prospect valuations, released in the middle of this most recent season. Thank you to Ben Clemens and that group for doing so, because I had been relying on former VEB site manager Craig Edwards’s methods, which predated the pandemic. So now it’s not outdated thankfully.
So right off the bat, we’re giving up Liam Doyle in this trade. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a non-negotiable, but the other option is Rainiel Rodriguez. I am for sure going with the pitcher when faced with that choice. Good news: that’s over half the value in this trade! Other good news: the rest of the value we have to make up is not another top 100 prospect. Doyle is, according to the above article, worth $45 million in trade value.
Then I’ll pick the next most obvious player to include in this trade: if we’re getting a 3B for at least the next two years, it makes sense to trade what everyone assumes is the heir apparent to the position, Jesus Baez. I’m not exactly sure what to label Jesus Baez as far as future value goes. I don’t think he’s a 50 FV guy. I’m not sure if he’s 45+ or 45. It almost doesn’t matter, because 45 is worth $14.5 million. That’s pretty much the trade.
Because we are such a good fit, overpaying for Henderson should be a lot easier than for most teams. Our overpaying will come in the form of a catcher, because their backup catcher had a 33 wRC+ last season – not a typo – and they really don’t have any noteworthy catching prospects. Cardinals need to trade their catchers anyway. This is easy. They can take either Pedro Pages or Jimmy Crooks. I would assume Crooks, because he has offensive potential. But they might prefer Pages’ defense and might prefer a great defender behind offense-first Samuel Basallo. Crooks has to be worth the equivalent of a 45 FV prospect, despite his underwhelming MLB performance. He will be 25 and had a fantastic season in AAA.
So this is, by the numbers, a pretty decent overpay. It doesn’t feel like it because Crooks feels like spare parts and the loss of Baez is easy to take when he doesn’t have anywhere to play, making it feel like Doyle is the only real loss. Imagine if Baez was a surefire SS and Masyn Winn didn’t exist, and the Cardinals had Pedro Pages and Jimmy Crooks and nobody else at catcher. This would feel like too much right? A function of how well these two teams match up is why it feels like a no brainer trade. This if course does not mean the Orioles accept this.
Jesus Baez, Jimmy Crooks, and Liam Doyle for Gunnar Henderson
Jordan Westburg
Oh man do I wish I had ZiPS for Westburg. Westburg missed the entire 2026 season to Tommy John surgery and no he is not a pitcher. I have no idea what to project him for. Steamer has him with 421 PAs, which would be generous in my mind. He missed last year, had 352 PAs in 2025, and 447 PAs in 2024. In those 421 PAs, they project a 116 wRC+ and 1.8 WAR. I would be shocked if ZiPS has this good of a projection personally.
Westburg is 27 though, and to make up for what I feel is an optimistic projection given his injury history, knocking off half a win should even things out. So while Steamer has a 1.8 WAR projection, I expect ZiPS to be lower, but more stable if that makes sense. By the way I’m not even low on Westburg, I’m just looking at his history and Steamer almost pretends he didn’t miss 2026. His projection makes sense if this was for the 2026 season. Anyway, that is 3.9 WAR across three seasons.
Again MLB Trade Rumors provides us with his salary next season. It’s only $1.5 million. Past this upcoming season, that number could vary wildly. Showing health, regardless of how the season goes would be a big deal. If he bounces back, I think his second arbitration season would be about $5 million and his third arbitration year would be worth $10 million. But this is highly variable based on his performance. That’s 3.9 WAR for $16.5 million in three seasons. That would be $22.5 million in trade value.
I have two proposals, one of them is reflected by Westburg being currently somewhat of an unknown due to injury. Come on down Brandon Clarke! I’m not sure if he’s a 45+ FV prospect or a 45 FV prospect at this point. If the Orioles consider him the former, I’m teaming him with… Jimmy Crooks again yes. If the Orioles aren’t interested in a catcher, a trade with them makes much less sense frankly.
Now, if Clarke’s status as a 45+ FV prospect have ended and he is in fact now a 45 FV, I’m switching the pitcher to Daniel Eagen. I feel fairly comfortable saying he’s 45+ FV. Pairing him with Crooks is too much value however. Let’s take advantage of that. Let’s improve the bullpen. 32-year-old Rico Garcia had a good season last year, and has an okay projection. That should roughly make up the difference. Garcia has four years of team control, but is also 32 and a reliever.
Brandon Clarke and Jimmy Crooks for Jordan Westburg
OR
Daniel Eagen and Jimmy Crooks for Jordan Westburg and Rico Garcia
Coby Mayo
I’m going to cheat on these last few guys. I can calculate prospects. I can calculate arb eligible guys where I have an idea of their future salary. But the pre-arb guys who aren’t really that established? No idea. If you did a strict WAR and then salary, you’d probably end up with more trade value than they actually had. Not to mention the difficult with projections past this season. So I’m going to use a site I’m not actually a big believer in, but they’ve done more research into this than I have, and I trust their number for pre-arb guys more than whatever number I can come up with. I’m using Baseball Trade Values.
Accordingly, Mayo has $15.7 million in trade value according to their site. Great. (If you want to compare it to the previous two guys, they think I way overstepped with just $46.8 million for Henderson, but I came pretty damn close to Westburg, who has $25.3 million)
The future value prospect numbers being really outdated is making this very inconvenient. Also, I’m learning I don’t want really want Mayo. I can’t come up with a pitcher I’m willing to part with. You know what? I got it. You guys won’t like it. I’m cashing my chips on Cooper Hjerpe in this trade. And then the second piece could be either Jimmy Crooks or Pedro Pages, depending on how much value Hjerpe actually has. In theory, Crooks is too much, but I could see Hjerpe not really having much value. Unless it’s Mayo for Crooks straight up, I don’t really want Mayo. If we have to give up anything but a blocked prospect, I’m passing.
Cooper Hjerpe and Pedro Pages (or Jimmy Crooks) for Coby Mayo
Christian Encarnacion-Strand
BTV is not a believer in this dude’s season. They value him at just $6.1 million. And to be fair, it is a grand total of 218 PAs following two absolutely dreadful seasons. And though he had a good OAA last season, the scouting for his defense is not positive and he’s been a below average 1B in his career, so to say I don’t trust that 3B defense would be an understatement. But it must be said he was quite good in a small sample (+3 in 411 innings). But all this does explain his low trade value.
I actually think I have a fair trade. CES is not necessarily the safest bet, so in response to that, I will give them a prospect that is not exactly the safest bet. Some of you will not like this. I’m sending Tekoah Roby in this trade. By Fangraphs, CES is worth roughly a 40+ FV pitching prospect. I think that describes Roby with his injury history. If you are not at all a believer in Roby’s health, this might be a good trade.
Tekoah Roby for Christian-Encarnacion Strand
Blaze Alexander
According to BTV, Alexander has $12.8 million in trade value. I’m going to be lazy and do a very similar trade. For Mayo, I suggested Hjerpe and either Crooks or Pages depending on how valuable Hjerpe was. Well, I’m going to do Hjerpe with Pages for this one. Alexander is worth less than Mayo by a few million, which more firmly puts him with what Hjerpe might be worth. Pages isn’t worth a whole lot, but is worth something. I think this is fair.
Cooper Hjerpe and Pedro Pages for Blaze Alexander
Conclusion
The Cardinals and Orioles are great fits, but it is predicated a lot on the Orioles actually being interested in a catcher. They may very well be fine rolling with Basallo and the random backup of the year. That was the Cardinals strategy with Yadier Molina. If they don’t want a catcher, the fit is not quite as clean. There’s also a good argument to be made that there’s not a whole lot of point to making some of these trades if it’s not Henderson and maybe Westburg. But I don’t know why the Orioles would trade Westburg right now, after a missing season, at his lowest value.
Blaze Alexander’s profile is more suggestive of a bench player, which is why he’s already been traded once. Both CES and Mayo have rather significant swing-and-miss in their game. And neither is expected to be all that good defensively, despite CES’ positive numbers in 2026. We kind of already have the unproven version of these players in Blaze Jordan. So I could see the Cardinals being uninterested in giving up value to players who are still kind of unreliable with not a large sample of proven success. They are only marginally more proven than Jordan. I kind of want Westburg, but again if I’m the Orioles, there’s no way I’m trading him after a lost season.
Book Corner
I mentioned I was reading a short book and a long book at the moment. The short book I’m reading is Playing Hard Ball: A Kent County Cricketeer’s Journey into Big League Baseball. The title is almost longer than the book. The author is credited as E.T. Smith, but it’s Ed Smith if you google him. Not real sure why his author name is E.T. when he’s not exactly hiding his identity. I do not remember why I got this book or when I got it, but it very well could have been on the recommendation of a VEB commentator honestly.
This was interesting, but I don’t really think I was the audience for this weirdly. This book feels made for cricket fans more than baseball fans honestly. I didn’t understand anything he was talking about whenever he was talking about cricket. And he would get into detail on specific matches, and I may as well have been attempting to read French.
And the blurbs on the back of the book suggest I am probably right about that. Not what they say, but their source: Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, Wisden Cricket Monthly, Daily Telegraph, and The Cricketer. I do believe these are all based in England. It was released in 2002 and he became a Mets fan, so it references the Subway series, 9/11, and the Yankees dominance.
You don’t have to be a cricket fan to like this book, but it probably helped if you were a Mets or Yankees fan or if I actually read this back in 2002, because this is pre-Moneyball, so it’s not like the baseball analysis or stats used are the greatest, not that I would expect them to be. The author clearly fell in love with baseball though and that does come across. He references Ball Four a few times, Ted Williams, has an extended section comparing Babe Ruth to the Babe Ruth of cricket, Sir Donald Bradman.
But whenever he started talking about cricket, I just could not follow what he was talking about. At all. I think you need a rudimentary understanding of cricket for this book. He tries to go through the basics of baseball to help non-baseball readers understand and either this book was really not meant for Americans and he just assumed you knew cricket or he is too ingrained in the game of cricket to realize that he didn’t do all that good a job of describing cricket to non-cricket fans.
Anyway, definitely interesting for time and place, seeing a skeptical cricket fan fall in love with baseball, and a newcomer’s perspective on baseball as a sport. I do think this was written to an audience of people who are not baseball fans more than people who are baseball fans though.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 30: Kevin Gausman #12 of the Chicago Cubs pitches in the National League Wild Card game against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on September 30, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images) | Getty Images
MLB free agency is underway, though you wouldn’t know it by the (lack of) moves being made. It figures to be a month-long period before it goes on holiday while the owners and players bicker and negotiate and draw up a new CBA, and then free agency will return.
It’s a rather uninspiring free agent class this year. Lefty ace Tarik Skubal figures to make about as much money as Elon Musk spent funding losing campaigns this year, but after that? There’s a chance that no one else clears nine figures. But there are some former Giants out there, and while most of them are likely not on the team’s radar for a potential reunion, it’s still fun keeping tabs on them.
Second baseman Luis Arráez, who was an All-Star for the Giants in his lone season with the team this year, before being traded for a very nice haul at the deadline, is the highest-ranked former Giant, as he comes in at No. 11 on Clemens’ list and No. 12 on McDaniel’s. Unfortunately for Arráez, his performance really slowed down after the trade, as he posted an 82 wRC+ in nearly 200 plate appearances with the Philadelphia Phillies, after having a 121 mark in more than 450 plate appearances with the Giants. This seems to have hurt his standing around the league, with Fangraphs projecting him for a two-year, $38-million deal, and ESPN for a three-year, $54-million contract.
Next up are a pair of righties: Kevin Gausman and Tyler Mahle. They’re back-to-back on the respective lists, albeit in different orders: Gausman is No. 15 to Mahle’s No. 16 on ESPN’s list, while Fangraphs is a little less amped, with Mahle at No. 26 and Gausman No. 27.
The two publications differ quite a bit on their expectations for Gausman, who is coming off his worst ERA since 2019, though his FIP was still quite solid. Fangraphs thinks Gausman will get a modest one-year, $17-million deal, while ESPN pegs him for three years and $51 million. I’d be pretty happy with the Giants do either of those deals.
While it’s easy to see the Giants targeting Gausman this offseason, they almost certainly won’t be going after Mahle, who struggled mightily on a one-year prove-it deal with San Francisco this year, before taking off after being traded to the Atlanta Braves (who promptly changed his pitch mix). That performance in Atlanta likely earned him a lot of money this winter, and Fangraphs thinks he’ll get paid $30 million over two years, while ESPN projects $49.5 million over three years.
Utility player Mauricio Dubón figures to have his pick from a lot of interested teams, given his defensive brilliance and versatility, and quality bat. It’s hard to imagine a reunion given that the Giants don’t have a pressing need at any one position, and he didn’t exactly depart on the best terms (though it seems his issues were solely with Gabe Kapler). McDaniel, who ranks Dubón as the No. 34 free agent around, projects two years and $16 million for Dubón, while Clemens ranks him No. 45, with a predicted contract of $8 million for one season.
Pitcher Matthew Boyd also made both lists (No. 48 at Fangraphs, projected for one year and $9 million; No. 50 at ESPN, projected for one year and $10 million), if you want to consider him a former Giant.
And those are the former Giants on the top free agents lists, though there are certainly plenty of other former Giants available on the market, including Robbie Ray, Steven Okert, Taylor Rogers, Joc Pederson, Jakob Junis, and Michael Conforto.
BRONX, NY - SEPTEMBER 29: Gerrit Cole #45 of the New York Yankees prior to the New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox in game 1 of the American League Wild Card Playoff Series at Yankee Stadium on September 29, 2026 in the Borough of the Bronx, New York. (Photo by Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
I think it is fair to say that the Yankee fanbase (and perhaps the club itself, deep in its heart of hearts) had a certain level of trepidation to go along with excitement as Gerrit Cole’s return from Tommy John surgery approached last season. At what level was Cole going to be able to perform? He was no spring chicken anymore.
Then he stormed out of the gate with 12.2 scoreless innings in his first two starts and all was right with the universe again. Obviously, Cole was never going to pitch to a 0.00 ERA all year. But he averaged a hair under six innings per start for the remainder of the season and provided a much-needed lift to a Yankee rotation that was hit hard by injury to multiple starters.
2027 Contract Status: Under contract for $36 million
It was actually the second of Cole’s starts that really signaled to everyone that he was back. Facing Kansas City, the 2023 American League Cy Young Award winner scattered four hits over 6.2 shoutout innings, issuing nary a free pass and whiffing 10 Royals hitters.
Avoiding the walk ended up being a major theme for Cole. His 1.77 BB/9 was the lowest mark of his career and bested his previous highwater mark as a Yankee by .26 BB/9. “Earn your way on” might as well have been the unofficial motto for Cole in 2026.
Unfortunately, his next start highlighted what ended up being Cole’s marquee bugaboo last season. At Yankee Stadium, Cleveland did not play GuardsBall against him. Cole surrendered three long balls in 5.1 frames and that ended up being an all-too-frequent occurrence.
The 1.56 HR/9 Cole allowed was the second-highest mark of his career, surpassed only by the COVID-truncated 2020 campaign. And it was not just home runs. When opposing hitters made contact off Cole this season, they made loud contact.
A quick glance at Cole’s Statcast contact metrics is both illustrative and horrifying. Average exit velocity (4th percentile). Barrel rate (22nd percentile). Hard-hit rate (4th percentile). A veritable house of horrors. Oh, and hitters weren’t clubbing those pitches into the ground. Cole’s ground-ball rate was in the ninth percentile. Getting hit hard in the air seems like a formula to give up a lot of long balls.
Luckily, Cole was still adept at missing bats. Although he’s no longer going to rack up 300+ strikeouts in a season as he did in Houston, Cole can still send opposing hitters back to the pine. His 70th-percentile strikeout rate was comfortably among baseball’s best. If you’re striking guys out and refusing to walk them, a lot of those aforementioned dingers should be of the solo variety.
The result, warts and all, was Cole performing like a top-of-the rotation starter in his return from injury. And for a team that features the presumptive 2026 AL Cy Young winner Cam Schlittler and lefty standout Max Fried, that’s all Cole needs to be moving forward … until the playoffs. Then he needs to throw eight shutout innings every start, for my mental health.
Cole has two seasons left on the contract he signed when Brian Cashman finally landed his “white whale.” Perhaps one of the biggest upsides to Cole’s 2026 is that it inspires optimism that Cole can be, at worst, a No. 3 starter in a rotation for what should be a serious contender over the next couple of years. And then we can deal with his free agency when we get there.
It’s also fascinating to think what those next couple of years could look like for Cole’s legacy. He finally notched the personal hardware he was missing when he won the Cy Young. He’s still bereft of a championship though. One (or more, let’s go back-to-back in 2027 and 2028) of those would really burnish his Cooperstown credentials.
Cole currently sits at 163 career wins. The two men ahead of him are either already retired (Justin Verlander) or likely soon to be (Max Scherzer). The closest hurler to him (Chris Sale) is two years older with an extra season worth of innings on his elbow. The nearest player to Cole who is younger than him (Michael Wacha) is one year younger and trails by 43 wins. On the right side of 30? The 29-year-old Logan Webb has 78 career wins.
With Verlander’s retirement, there are no potential 300-game winners in baseball’s short-to-medium term. Once Scherzer hangs up his spurs, there is a non-zero chance that Cole—if he can get there—could be baseball’s last 200-game winner for the foreseeable future.
That’s all in the future though. For 2027, I’d sign up in a heartbeat if Cole could replicate what he did in 2026 over a full season. The back of the napkin math for me suggests that would be roughly four-win season with innings and strikeout counts around 180-190 each. From my No. 3 starter. Yes, please.
As an aside, I’m just personally glad to have him back. Even an older Cole shows glimpses of the brilliance that made his so incandescent at his peak. Spring training can’t get here soon enough.
See more of the Yankees Roster Report Card series here.
This past season, second baseman Michael Massey finally showed what he can truly do as a Royal.
Michael Massey entered this past Spring Training fighting for a spot on the Royals’ roster after an injury-plagued 2025 campaign, with the possibility of splitting time between second base and left field.
But even with his role uncertain, Massey had made one goal clear: He wanted to be a Gold Glove-caliber defender.
Eight months later, the 28-year-old is coming off one of his strongest Major League seasons to date. His turnaround, which included improved offensive numbers and an American League Gold Glove finalist selection, has given the Royals a different outlook at second base heading into 2027.
In case you missed it, Bobby Witt Jr. is an MVP finalist again.
As the second-youngest player ever to appear in the AFL, the 17-year-old outfielder has held his own nicely in the jump from the Dominican Summer League with a .306/.390/.444 line over 10 games for Surprise. Gomez has true five-tool potential and has seen time at all three outfield spots this fall, though the bulk of his time has come in right.
Zion Rose and Justin Lamkin also were talked about in the article above.
Where does Carter Jensen rank on long-term value for 2026 rookies?
Brian Burrows of Kings of Kauffman ponders what it would take for the Royals to get Elly De La Cruz.
ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 28: Starting pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano (11) of the Colorado Rockies confers with catcher Hunter Goodman (15) during the Friday evening MLB game between the Atlanta Braves and the Colorado Rockies on August 28, 2026 at Truist Park in Atlanta, GA. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Good morning, Purple Row!
Here’s what’s going on with the Colorado Rockies and the rest of Major League Baseball.
Somewhat lost amidst the pitching coach turnover has been the impact on the Rockies catching staff. In addition to the standard duties of preparing themselves to hit and field, catchers are also tasked with building a rapport their entire pitching staff. Hunter Goodman makes the case that he feels better about his entire game when he is granted the opportunity call pitches rather than have them come from the dugout. This lends further credence to the idea that former pitching coach Alon Leichman was fired due to inability to get full team buy in for his vision of pitching strategy, which included dugout pitch suggestions.
Each year since 1996, Baseball Prospectus has published an enormous physical guide to the upcoming MLB season. This annual tome contains essays on every team as well as writeups on thousands of players. The Vogelsong awards are an attempt to recognize players that, despite not being deemed notable enough in the offseason to warrant a writeup in the annual, played exceptionally during the season. This season, BP tabbed Rockies rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield as the “clear-cut” winner of this award given his fabulous season and lack of representation in past annuals.
Rockies General Manager Josh Byrnes has brought in a former player that he worked with while with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a video advance scout. Andre Lipcius spent the 2024 season in the Dodgers minor-league season and impressed Byrnes so much that he was offered a coaching role as soon as his playing career ended this past season. The role itself is newly formed for the Rockies and will tie heavily into their game planning against the offenses of upcoming opponents.
It took less than a full day for the MLBPA to emphatically reject the latest CBA proposal from MLB. Among other considerations, the proposal maintained the leagues top priority, a salary cap, but delayed it’s implementation by a year. The union wasted little time in making it clear that they will not accept this sort of structure. Barring a miraculous turnaround in negotiations, the current CBA expires in less than a month, and the league is expected to enact a lockout on December 1.
In response to the league's revised salary cap proposal, the MLBPA says "MLB owners continue to propose blowing up the current system and replacing it with one designed to line their pockets and increase their franchise values." pic.twitter.com/D8sIgMuFcR
Another executive has been poached from the World Series champion Brewers front office. Cam Castro spent the past seven years with the Brewers in various roles starting as a minor league pitching coach and working his way all the way up to be their vice president of player development. Castro will serve as the second in command under Taylor Smith who was hired away from the Red Sox earlier this offseason to be the Athletics president of baseball operations.
The annual Fall Stars game, highlighting the best performers in the Arizona Fall League is set to take place this Sunday at 6 PM MST. The roster is always a fun assortment of the leagues best prospects alongside players that have previously had little national spotlight. This season the Rockies will be well represented with four prospects — Jared Thomas (No. 8 PuRP), Andy Perez (No. 25 PuRP), Jack O’Dowd (HM PuRP) and Fidel Ulloa — making the cut.
