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Seattle Mariners star catcher Cal Raleigh has slugged his way into the history books.
Raleigh hit his 55th and 56th home runs of the season during the Mariners’ 12-5 win over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium. Raleigh broke New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle’s record for most home runs by a switch-hitter in a single season.
Raleigh, 28, also tied Mariners great Ken Griffey Jr. for most home runs in a single season in franchise history.
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The All-Star catcher hit his 55th home run from the left side of the plate. He demolished Royals pitcher Michael Wacha’s 79-mph curveball deep into the right-field seats to put the Mariners up 4-0 in the top of the third inning.
His second home run of the game came in the fourth inning, this time from the right side of the plate. Raleigh laced Royals pitcher Daniel Lynch IV’s changeup over the center-field wall to put the Mariners up 9-0.

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With the Minor League season winding down — the Triple-A regular season ends this week while the other leagues are either in the playoffs or have crowned a champion — we decided it was time to start reviewing how some of the top prospects performed in 2025.
Later this month, a number of awards for those performances will be announced on the MiLB Awards Show on MLB Network. For now, we wanted to drill down a bit and look at each team’s system and pick out a breakout prospect for each organization.
Blue Jays: Gage Stanifer, RHP (No. 6)
A 19th-round pick in 2022, Stanifer posted ERAs above 6.00 in each of his first two full seasons. He opened this campaign back with Single-A Dunedin as Trey Yesavage’s piggyback partner and has been one of Toronto’s many pitching success stories in 2025. The 21-year-old righty closed out the season at Double-A New Hampshire and finished with a 2.86 ERA with 161 strikeouts (fifth-most in the Minors) in 110 innings. Stanifer shows two plus pitches in his mid-90s fastball and mid-80s slider.
Orioles: Nate George, OF (No. 8)
The Orioles took George in Round 16 of the 2024 Draft and signed him to an over-slot $455,000 bonus. The multisport standout from the Illinois high school ranks exceeded expectations, and then some, by playing his way from the Florida Complex League to Single-A Delmarva and then up to High-A Aberdeen. Still only 19, he hit a combined .337/.413/.483 with 50 steals (in 75 attempts) over 80 games to lead the system with 159 wRC+ and go from unranked into the organization’s top 10.
Rays: Jose Urbina, RHP (No. 12)
A $210,000 signing in January 2023, Urbina entered this season as Tampa Bay’s No. 29 prospect, mostly for his as-yet-untapped potential. He turned that promise into results in his age-19 season, posting a 2.05 ERA with 96 strikeouts in 92 1/3 innings for Single-A Charleston before making a late-season cameo with High-A Bowling Green. The 6-foot-3 right-hander relies heavily on a 95-97 mph fastball that can touch triple digits and a mid-80s slider with good sweep.
Red Sox: Payton Tolle, LHP (No. 2/MLB No. 27)
A second-round pick out of Texas Christian in 2024, Payton Tolle reached the big leagues during his pro debut this year and has some scouts believing he’s the best left-handed pitching prospect in the game. He uses his 6-foot-6 frame to create elite extension, making his mid-90s fastball unhittable and backing it up with a sweeping mid-80s slider. He posted a 3.04 ERA, .203 average-against and a 133/23 K/BB ratio in 91 2/3 innings at three Minor League stops before joining the Red Sox.
Yankees: Carlos Lagrange, RHP (No. 2/MLB No. 77)
After missing most of last year with back inflammation and battling the strike zone in the Arizona Fall League, Lagrange has bounced back to become the Yankees’ best pitching prospect. Signed for just $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2022, he overpowers hitters with an upper-90s fastball, sweeping mid-80s slider and upper-80s cutter. He logged a 3.53 ERA with a .191 average-against and 168/62 K/BB ratio in 120 innings between High-A and Double-A.
Guardians: Alfonsin Rosario, OF (No. 12)
When the Guardians acquired him from the Cubs in exchange for Eli Morgan last November, Rosario was known for loud tools (well-above-average raw power and arm strength, plus speed) but also an extremely aggressive approach at the plate. He cut his strikeout rate from 32 percent in 2024 to 27 percent this season, during which he slashed .251/.345/.461 with 21 homers and 14 steals in 115 games.
Royals: Kendry Chourio, RHP (No. 8)
Few pitchers in recent memory have surged up the ladder and the rankings quite like Chourio has in 2025. Signed for $247,500 out of Venezuela this past January, the 17-year-old righty zoomed stateside after only five Dominican Summer League appearances and even rounded out his season with six starts, the most by a pitcher 17 or younger since Julio Urías made 18 in 2013. The Royals got aggressive with Chourio because of his impressive mix of stuff (mid-90s fastball, above-average curveball, promising changeup) and control (five walks in 51 1/3 innings). He’s well on his way to becoming a Top 100 prospect at a very early stage in his career.
Tigers: Max Anderson, 2B/3B (No. 9)
Anderson was drafted as a bat-first second baseman out of Nebraska in the second round of 2023, and while he’d been a solid but not stellar performer in his first full season, he took a massive leap forward at Double-A Erie, where he hit .306/.358/.499 with 14 homers in 90 games. His 146 wRC+ ranks fifth-best among Double-A qualifiers. Upon his promotion to Triple-A Toledo, Anderson has seen equal time at second and third base, now that he has an improved chance at playing into Detroit’s infield plans, and that work will continue in the Arizona Fall League.
Twins: Gabriel Gonzalez, OF (No. 9)
It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for Gonzalez, who once was a Top 100 prospect with the Mariners. He fell off the radar a bit when he hit .255 with a .707 OPS in his first year with the Twins after coming over in the Jorge Polanco deal. He erased that this season while putting a lower back issue that limited him in ‘24 behind him, raking across three levels and reaching Triple-A. Gonzalez finished with a system-leading 149 wRC+, a .330/.397/.514 slash line and a K rate of just over 14 percent.
White Sox: Tanner McDougal, OF (No. 7)
Signed for an over-slot $850,000 as a fifth-rounder out of a Nevada high school in 2021, McDougal missed 2022 following Tommy John surgery and got rocked for a 6.04 ERA last year. He did a better job of harnessing his mid-90s fastball and high-spin, upper-70s curveball to compile a 3.26 ERA with a 136/49 K/BB ratio in 113 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A this season.
Angels: Ryan Johnson, RHP (No. 2/MLB No. 96)
It’s been an unusual path for Johnson, the Angels’ pick at No. 74 overall in 2024. He made the big league team’s Opening Day roster as a reliever, but got sent down to High-A after 14 appearances so he could develop as a starter. That went very well as he posted a 1.88 ERA, .196 BAA, 0.89 WHIP and 9.8 K/9 rate. He has more people believing he can start long term and he’s jumped into our Top 100.
Astros: Zach Cole, OF (No. 19)
Since the Astros drafted him in the 10th round in 2022 out of Ball State, Cole has displayed some of the best tools in the system (his raw power, speed, arm and center-field defense all grade as plus or better) but had difficulty staying healthy and making consistent contact. He shook off an oblique injury and strikeout woes early in the season to bat .279/.377/.539 with 19 homers and 18 steals in 97 games between Double-A and Triple-A. That earned him a promotion to Houston, where he went deep on the first big league pitch he saw and has gone 6-for-16 with two homers in his first five contests.
A’s: Gage Jump, LHP (No. 3/MLB No. 56)
A Competitive Balance Round B pick out of LSU, Jump began the year at No. 15 on the A’s list. He made it clear that he was underranked right out of the gate with a 45/5 K/BB ratio and a 2.32 ERA over his first six pro appearances with High-A Lansing to earn a bump to Double-A. He finished the year with a combined 3.28 ERA and .214 BAA over 112 2/3 IP, and while his walk rate went up a bit with Midland, he still had a 131/34 K/BB ratio. He’s catapulted to the middle of our Top 100 and is firmly entrenched on our Top 10 LHP prospects list.
Mariners: Ryan Sloan, RHP (No. 5/MLB No. 41)
It’s not that we didn’t think Sloan was talented. He was in the Mariners’ top 10 to start the season as a 2024 second-rounder who got an over-slot $3 million to sign. But you never know how a high school arm is going to react to a first pro season, especially from a cold-weather state like Illinois. Well, Sloan handled things pretty well with a 3.44 ERA and an impressive 5.18 K/BB in the hitter-friendly California League to earn a taste of High-A late in the year. Now in our overall top 50, it should surprise no one if he jumps into the top right-handed prospect conversation in 2026.
Rangers: Caden Scarborough, RHP (No. 8)
More of a basketball player as a Florida high schooler, Scarborough nevertheless commanded an over-slot $515,000 bonus as a 2023 sixth-rounder. After a lat strain delayed his pro debut until July 2024 and he pitched just 10 1/3 innings last season, he dazzled with a 92-97 mph fastball with carry, a low-80s slider and more polish than anticipated this year. He recorded a 2.45 ERA, .181 average-against and an 114/21 K/BB ratio in 88 innings at two Class A stops.
Braves: JR Ritchie, RHP (No. 2/MLB No. 99)
The further removed from Tommy John surgery Ritchie gets, the better he’s been. He had the elbow work done in May 2023 and shook the rust off in 2024. This year, he showed just how effective he can be as a starter, pitching his way from High-A to Triple-A and compiling a 2.61 ERA, .173 BAA and a 0.99 WHIP over 25 starts. The starter for the NL in the 2025 Futures Game, Ritchie was just added to the Top 100 for his efforts.
Marlins: Jakob Marsee, OF (graduated from Marlins Top 30)
Marsee first broke out while winning MVP honors in the Arizona Fall League in 2023, but he slumped badly after the Padres sent him to the Marlins in the Luis Arraez trade the following May. He regained his plate discipline this year and once again looked like an on-base machine who can make things happen on the basepaths and in center field, hitting .246/.379/.438 with 14 homers and 47 steals in 98 Triple-A games. He has been one of baseball’s best rookies since Miami called him up in August, slashing .319/.388/.540 with 10 steals in 44 contests.
Mets: Nolan McLean, RHP (No. 3/MLB No. 36)
Ranked No. 5 in the New York system in the spring, McLean was certainly on the radar entering his first professional season as a full-time pitcher but has skyrocketed up the Top 100 with continued domination using his high-spin, east-west repertoire. He finished with a 2.45 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 113 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in the Minors, and he now sports a 1.19 ERA in the Majors — the best all-time mark by a Mets hurler through his first six career starts. McLean’s combination of stuff and MLB results has pushed his stock further up since our midseason update and has him in the conversation for best pitching prospect in all of baseball.
Nationals: Sean Paul Liñan, RHP (No. 15)
A $17,500 signee out of Colombia in 2022, Liñan wasn’t on the Dodgers’ Top 30 to begin the season but thrust himself into that territory with dominant showings at Single-A and High-A (and even two brief appearances at Triple-A). The Nationals acquired the arrow-up righty at the Deadline in a deal for Alex Call, and with his plus-plus changeup (one of the best in the Minors), Liñan factors comfortably into the middle of the Washington prospect list. He’ll head to the Arizona Fall League, and with that cambio, the extra work could slide him up a few spots more.
Phillies: Aroon Escobar, 2B (No. 5)
Escobar served notice that he was worthy of attention after hitting .338 with a .974 OPS during his U.S. debut in the Florida Complex League in 2024. His surface numbers during his move to full-season ball were a little more modest (combined .270 average with a .774 OPS), but he did finish with an impressive 121 wRC+ while drawing walks and limiting strikeouts. He also played across three levels, finishing the year at Double-A at age 20, and then jumping into the organization’s top five after flirting with our overall Top 100 earlier in the year.
Brewers: Luis Peña, INF (No. 2/MLB No. 16)
With apologies to Marco Dinges and Josh Adamczewski, Peña gets the nod here for going from an 18-year-old without stateside experience to a top 20 overall prospect in the entire sport. Peña joined Jesús Made in jumping over the Arizona Complex League to open at Single-A Carolina and hit .308/.375/.469 with six homers and 41 steals in 71 games. He might have hit a speed bump at High-A Wisconsin late in the summer, but his improved exit velocities and continued plus-plus speed would make Peña the top prospect in many other systems.
Cardinals: Rainiel Rodriguez, C (No. 4/MLB No. 93)
Rodriguez was certainly great in 2024 with a .683 slugging percentage and a 1.145 OPS, but in proving he could carry his trademark power to not only stateside ball but also Single-A, he jumped into the Top 100 and set himself up for further leaps in future rankings. Dating back to 2006, Rodriguez (145) is one of only three age-18 catchers with a wRC+ above 140 over 250 plate appearances or more — Samuel Basallo (151) and Jesus Montero (147) are the others. His 20 homers on the season were tied for seventh-most among all Minor League backstops this season.
Cubs: Jaxon Wiggins, RHP (No. 4/MLB No. 79)
The Cubs hoped Jaxon Wiggins could take a significant step forward in their pitching-thin farm system, and the 2023 supplemental second-rounder from Arkansas did exactly that. Now fully recovered from Tommy John surgery during his Draft year, he misses bats with an upper-90s fastball and an upper-80s slider and changeup. He has posted a 1.95 ERA, .158 average-against and a 91/32 K/BB ratio in 74 innings while climbing from High-A to Triple-A.
Pirates: Edward Florentino, OF (No. 5/MLB No. 97)
Konnor Griffin’s season deserves a hat tip here, but there were some expectations for the first-round pick. Florentino gets this nod because of how far he’s jumped in 2025. He began the year at No. 23 on the Pirates’ Top 30 and had yet to make his U.S. debut. We started getting a heads-up about how hard he was hitting the ball in extended spring training and really took note of his 1.084 OPS in the Florida Complex League. That earned him a bump to full-season ball where he kept producing and he finished the year with a combined .948 OPS, 16 homers and 35 steals (good for 159 wRC+). He’s also worked hard to become a good center fielder and has a big up arrow next to his name heading into 2026.
Reds: Tyson Lewis, SS (No. 4/MLB No. 80)
Highly regarded coming into his first full season of pro ball after the Reds took him in the second round of the 2024 Draft and signed him for just over $3 million, Lewis made a very strong first impression in 2025. He showed he needed a better challenge after posting a .928 OPS in the Arizona Complex League, then held his own with a bump up to Single-A Daytona, helping the Tortugas reach the Florida State League championship. Now firmly on the Top 100, he finished with a 127 wRC+ at age 19.
D-backs: Carlos Virahonda, C (No. 24)
Virahonda wasn’t on anyone’s radar after hitting .156 with a .510 OPS in 49 games during his second Dominican Summer League season in 2024. Arizona still sent him stateside for the first time as a 19-year-old in ‘25, and he was a different hitter, producing a .347/.464/.455 line and 11.8 percent K rate in 37 games in the Arizona Complex League before getting a promotion to Single-A Visalia. He projects as a high-contact bat from the right side with good mobility and arm strength from behind the plate.
Dodgers: Mike Sirota, OF (No. 5/MLB No. 62)
A likely first-rounder before slumping during his junior season at Northeastern in 2024, Sirota dropped to the Reds in the third round, then went to the Dodgers in the Gavin Lux trade last January before even making his pro debut. The grand-nephew of Hall of Famer Whitey Ford batted .333/.452/.616 with 13 homers in 59 games between two Class A stops and looked like a potential 20/20 center fielder before injuring his right knee on a slide in July.
Giants: Argenis Cayama, RHP (No. 10)
Several young international pitchers have stood out at the lower levels of the Giants system this summer, including Cayama, who signed for $147,500 out of Venezuela in 2024. He led the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League in average-against (.191) and WHIP (1.06) while ranking second in ERA (2.25) in his U.S. debut, then moved to Single-A in August at age 18. He has two- and four-seam fastballs that sit at 92-94 mph and touch 97, as well as a tight low-80s slider and a promising mid-80s changeup.
Padres: Miguel Mendez, RHP (No. 5)
Unranked at the start of the season, Mendez was facing roster purgatory ahead of his Rule 5 Draft eligibility this offseason but looks like a must-add now after showing a 95-98 mph fastball and a plus slider over the Single-A, High-A and Double-A levels. He wrapped up his 2025 campaign with a 3.22 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 118 strikeouts in 95 innings while dropping his seasonal walk rate from 15.5 percent in 2024 to 11.2.
Rockies: Kyle Karros, 3B (graduated from Rockies Top 30)
Karros had been on the back half of the Rockies’ Top 30 list as an intriguing fifth-round pick out of UCLA in 2023, and his .311/.390/.485 line in 2024 certainly didn’t hurt. Still, he was ranked No. 21 on the list entering the 2025 season, but improved his stock immensely when, after shaking off an early injury, he hit .301/.398/.476 mostly between Double-A and Triple-A (an OPS of .861 in Hartford is impressive). That led to him getting called up to the big leagues in early August and his feel for hitting along with his outstanding defense give him the chance to man the hot corner in Colorado for a long time.

LOS ANGELES — The last time the Phillies had a celebration like the one Monday night at Dodger Stadium was in October 2008.
It’s well-known how that story ended, with a parade down Broad Street after the Phillies’ second World Series title. Along the way, they knocked off the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series, and the champagne started to flow in the visitors’ clubhouse.
That happened to be the same year that David Robertson made his major league debut with the Yankees. Robertson was 23 at the time, and only just beginning a career that would take him to the center of the Phillies’ next Dodger Stadium celebration, 17 years later.
“Look around here. It’s a fun group,” Robertson said Monday night, gesturing to the throng of Phillies players puffing from cigars and chugging out of a beer funnel. “I know we’re celebrating tonight, but it’s almost like a celebration every night when we win.”
Robertson remained a free agent for most of this season, until the Phillies signed him in July to bolster a bullpen that at the time had a 4.33 ERA, eighth-worst in the majors. Dave Dombrowski brought back 40-year-old Robertson for a third stint with the Phillies, a move that proved to be the first step in his overhaul of the relief corps.
Following the addition of closer Jhoan Duran, the bullpen that was once a major concern in the first half has now become a strength.
But that first step, the midyear addition of Robertson, came with other considerations beneath the surface.
The Phillies are paying Robertson approximately $6 million of a prorated $16 million, one-year deal. But the signing also costs them an additional 110% tax penalty for carrying a payroll in excess of the fourth luxury tax threshold.
» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Brad Lidge on the impact of Jhoan Duran, today’s closer entrances, and more
For Phillies owner John Middleton, it was a no-brainer.
“I say, Dave, there’s no prospects we’re giving up,” Middleton said. “There’s no draft picks. Of course we’re going to do it. Money’s easy. That’s the easy part.”
And so it had been Robertson who threw the pitch to clinch the National League East on Monday. He escaped a bases-loaded jam in the 10th inning against the Dodgers, stranding the tying run at third base by getting Max Muncy to ground out.
“Experience,” said manager Rob Thomson. “His heart rate doesn’t change. The moment isn’t too big for him. He just bears down. And you got a guy behind the plate, and his heartbeat doesn’t change either. So good combination.”
The Phillies had turned to 40-year-old Robertson in the 10th after their closer blew a save in the ninth. Duran shook off catcher J.T. Realmuto on a 0-2 count to Andy Pages, and then hung a curveball that resulted in the first homer he’s given up since July 22.
Robertson bailed out his teammate an inning later. And the next night, when Robertson gave up Shohei Ohtani’s 50th homer of the season and had to be lifted for Tanner Banks, who let another run score, Duran returned the favor. He tossed a 1-2-3 ninth against the Dodgers to push the Phillies closer towards their next goal of a first round-bye.
Over their current streak of six straight series wins, the Phillies offense has been passing the baton and picking each other up. The bullpen has been doing the same.
“It’s a great group of guys,” Robertson said. “This group that Dombrowski has put together is unbelievable. The deadline pickups. The core group that has been here for a while. I hope it stays together for a while, because this is a fun place to play and this is where I want to be.”

DETROIT — Forty-one years ago Thursday, Randy O’Neal was a 24-year-old rookie pitcher getting ready for his first Major League start, just called up by the Tigers from Triple-A Evansville. He’d made his MLB debut for the Tigers in relief in Baltimore, where his first two batters were Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray. Now, he was preparing to start against a Brewers lineup featuring a leadoff hitter named Robin Yount. And O’Neal was starting for a Tigers team that was one win away from clinching its first division title since 1972 and finally putting away a Blue Jays team that had lingered in the rearview mirror for much of the summer.
“I walked the hall for three hours,” O’Neal recalled. “I’m so nervous. But when you had the players we did back then, with Lance [Parrish] behind the plate instilling confidence, and then Robin Yount struck out, I’m like, ‘Whew, I can do this.’”
Forty-one years later, almost to the day, the Tigers delivered for O’Neal. As he slipped the World Series ring onto his finger, presented by Ilitch Sports + Entertainment president Ryan Gustafson, the 65-year-old O’Neal closed one of the great mysteries of the incredible 1984 Tigers: How did O’Neal not get a ring?
“Obviously, it’s from a long time ago, [and it] should’ve been righted a long time ago,” said Hall of Famer Alan Trammell, who joined fellow ‘84 Tigers Lance Parrish and Dan Petry in a quiet ring presentation ceremony in the Champions Club before Wednesday’s game. “But it’s done.”
O’Neal was a September callup for the Tigers. He pitched in two more games down the stretch and then spent the postseason on the taxi squad, ready to be called up in case of injury. He was in uniform and in the bullpen for the World Series run. Among the photos from that October is a snapshot of right fielder Kirk Gibson chasing a Kurt Bevacqua double into the visiting bullpen in foul territory at Jack Murphy Stadium, and O’Neal getting out of the way.
These days, virtually everyone who plays at some point during the season for a World Series champion gets a ring. Back then, it was not guaranteed. Still, other Tigers who were not on the playoff roster received rings. It could’ve been a business decision, or a simple slight.
O’Neal spent two more seasons as a swingman on the Tigers’ staff, including 122 2/3 innings in 1986. He enjoyed a seven-year Major League career that included a stop with the 1987 National League champion St. Louis Cardinals, for which he and his mom got rings. After retirement, O’Neal and some friends purchased a bat company in Florida, which he ran for four years before selling it to Easton. He later got into teaching and coaching, and reconnected with the Tigers as a part of their fantasy camps. But whenever anyone asked if they could see his World Series ring, he’d have to say that he never got one.
Every October, O’Neal would hear about the quest for a ring, and it was a reminder. He wrote a letter to the team a few years ago. Parrish and longtime Tigers beat writer Tom Gage mentioned the omission in the book they co-authored on the 1984 champs, “The Enchanted Season.”
Word got around to Tigers senior vice president of communications Ron Colangelo, director of player and alumni affairs Jordan Field and eventually chairman and CEO Christopher Ilitch. Petry, Trammell and other ex-teammates agreed: O’Neal deserved a ring. What followed was a two-year quest to get a new ring made, a more complicated process than replacing one.
When a player who got a ring loses it, there’s almost always a mold somewhere to remake it. To make a new ring altogether, the Tigers had to find the original manufacturer of the 1984 rings, Balfour, work off an old mold and create something new.
Originally, the Tigers hoped to give O’Neal his ring at the team’s 40-year reunion last season, but it wasn’t ready. When they finally got it earlier this season, Field arranged for a presentation ceremony around the anniversary of his big win.
O’Neal hopes this year’s team has a chance to experience getting that ring. Now that he has his, he said, “It means a lot to me. It’s like a validation. I earned it, and I’m glad I received it.”

There is a crop of players — more than 200 deep — who will always remember 2025 as the year they got that precious first call to the big leagues.
So let’s take a look at one player from each position who has made the most of that initial opportunity, focusing here on those who have been around more than a month.
Baldwin, who made the Braves out of Spring Training camp, led our final Rookie of the Year poll in the NL for a reason. It’s been a frustrating year for the Braves, but Baldwin’s emergence behind the dish has been a big positive and gives them a big building block. This well-rounded player is slashing .266/.334/.437 with 16 homers and 14 doubles.
That said, it’s been a strong year for catcher debuts. The Marlins have a new slugging centerpiece in Agustín Ramírez (20 homers, 29 doubles), and he’ll be all the more dangerous if he can get his strikeouts under control. The White Sox have rolled out both Kyle Teel (.810 OPS in 69 games), one of their acquisitions in the Garrett Crochet trade, and Edgar Quero (.715 OPS in 101 games).
Well, duh. Kurtz debuted on April 23, less than a year after he was drafted out of Wake Forest, and he’s already been worth five Wins Above Replacement, per Baseball-Reference. He’s got a 1.014 OPS, 32 homers and 24 doubles, and he already has a four-homer, 6-for-6 game. Just a remarkable season for the player who will be the AL Rookie of the Year.
The Twins traded, well, almost everyone from their going-nowhere team at the Deadline to get a better look at players like Keaschall. He’s responded to the opportunity with a .313/.396/.454 slash through 43 games.
The White Sox might also have a keeper up the middle in Chase Meidroth, another Crochet trade acquisition who has provided good defense at the keystone to go with league-average production at the plate. He’s had multiple double-digit hit streaks.
It’s an easy year to get overlooked as a slugging rookie in the AL with Kurtz doing what he’s doing — especially on an out-of-contention club like the Sox. But Montgomery, who entered the year as Chicago’s No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline, arrived in early July and has already smacked 18 homers in 61 games.
Durbin should factor into the NL Rookie of the Year voting given his impact on the first-place Brew Crew. The Division III product and 14th-round Draft pick has been one of multiple pleasant surprises for this club (fellow rookie Isaac Collins is another, but he debuted last September), banging out more than 100 hits, driving in 50 runs and swiping 16 bags since his April 18 arrival.
The Roman Empire in Boston began in early June, when Anthony, the No. 1 prospect in all of MLB at the time, was promoted just prior to the Red Sox dealing Rafael Devers to the Giants. Anthony almost instantly became the focal point of the club’s lineup, and his absence in recent weeks with an oblique strain has been deeply felt. It took the 21-year-old Anthony only 71 games to accrue 3.1 bWAR while posting an .859 OPS and 27 extra-base hits.
More recently, the A’s Carlos Cortes, who debuted in late July, has needed only 34 games to bang out 11 extra-base hits, C.J. Kayfus has had some huge hits for the Guardians (13 extra-base hits in 35 games) and Jeremiah Jackson has given the Orioles a lift (.803 OPS in 39 games). The Astros’ Cam Smith and the Royals’ Jac Caglianone haven’t fared as well in the rate stats, but they’ve had moments when their potential certainly shone through.
You can see that the Rays’ Chandler Simpson is going to be a capital-P Problem for opposing teams on the basepaths (42 steals in 101 games) so long as he can keep getting on base at a good clip (.325 OBP). And the A’s Denzel Clarke made probably the Catch of the Year, alongside many other epic defensive gems.
But here, let’s give some shine to a player providing a late-season spark to a club that obviously doesn’t get much attention. Marsee has only been up since Aug. 1, yet he’s hit five homers, 15 doubles and three triples with 10 stolen bases in 44 games. This was not an especially high-profile prospect (rated No. 10 in the Marlins system), but he’s got really good control of the strike zone and has simply been one of the best position players in MLB since his arrival.
Mangum, though, gets this slot on account of delivering solid production and good defense all year after cracking the Rays’ Opening Day roster. He’s an old rookie at age 29, but his .291 average, 17 doubles and 25 steals have made a mark.
But since we already mentioned him above, let’s carve out a place for Lile, a corner outfielder and sometimes-DH whose 128 OPS+ this season is second only to Kurtz among debuting players who have been around for at least half a season (81 games). He debuted on May 23 and already has the franchise single-season triples record (10)!
The Guardians’ Parker Messick, the A’s Luis Morales, the Red Sox’s Connelly Early, the Nationals’ Andrew Alvarez and McLean’s Mets teammate Brandon Sproat are among the other young starters who have put up terrific numbers since their late-season callups. And if you want to argue that the Royals’ Noah Cameron (2.98 ERA in 22 starts) or the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler (3.41 in 12) should be in this spot — or that Brewers whiz kid Jacob Misiorowski merits mention after making the NL All-Star team amid an up-and-down first season — you are well within your right.
But I wouldn’t feel right not giving the starting job to Horton, who has a very strong case to be the NL Rookie of the Year, with an 11-4 record, 2.66 ERA and 145 ERA+ (best among debuting starters with at least 40 innings pitched) in 115 innings across 22 appearances. He gets the nod on account of his heavy, reliable workload for a contending Cubs club.
All that said, could we look back and say 2025 is remembered in part as the year McLean arrived to rock our world? Sure looks that way!
Really, an impossible choice, because there are always young relievers with sick stuff who come up and dazzle from their debuts onward. This season has no shortage. If we put in a limit of at least 40 innings pitched, then the Cardinals’ Matt Svanson, White Sox’s Mike Vasil, Blue Jays’ Braydon Fisher, Padres’ David Morgan, Marlins’ Cade Gibson, Rays’ Ian Seymour and Rockies’ Juan Mejia all have strong cases, with adjusted ERA+ marks well above the league average.
The 26-year-old Dreyer, though, is worthy of this particular brand of love because of the large workload (72 1/3 innings) and reliable relief work (1.05 WHIP, 2.86 ERA) he’s provided for a first-place Dodgers team that has a behemoth roster but has often been scrambling in the bullpen. Dreyer has a calmness that belies his inexperience.

“I think if we expand, it provides us with an opportunity to geographically realign.” Last month, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred stirred up a discussion by wishing to realign the league and adding two more teams. That time, he cited the NBA’s conference-based schedule. “I think we could save a lot of wear and tear on our players in terms of travel. And I think our postseason format would be even more appealing for entities like ESPN, because you’d be playing out of the East and out of the West,” Manfred was quoted as saying. While that is still under consideration, Manfred is back again with a new plan.
This time, he has benchmarked the NFL’s media rights deal. “If I had to guess today, we would have the availability of all 30 clubs.” Manfred is hoping that his new media rights plan for MLB would be interesting enough for all 30 teams to come on board. However, as per the latest reports, legacy teams like the Dodgers and Yankees would halt the plan. And they got their own reasons! “MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is confident in his conquest to take local broadcast rights for all 30 MLB clubs to market by 2028.” Awful Announcing cited the MLB commissioner about his plan.
MLB’s media rights structure has long been infamous for creating inequality among its teams. And guess what, the disparity is striking. For example, the Dodgers’ broadcast deal with SportsNet is worth over $8.35 billion for 25 years. Meanwhile, teams like the Rockies weren’t able to secure a deal last year with MLB managing their in-market broadcasting. So, Manfred is hoping to implement a change. A change long due…
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And here, the benchmark would be how the NFL works. For the unversed, since 1960, the NFL has made a deliberate choice to centralize its television contracts. How? Well, instead of allowing individual teams to cut their own local TV deals, they negotiated all national broadcast rights collectively. For instance, the NFL pulled in over $13.8 billion in shared revenue for the 2024 season, and it got split evenly across all 32 teams. That works out to about $432.6 million per franchise.
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However, the focus on delivering the best product over others and the motivation behind it might get diluted over time. In MLB, teams like the Dodgers and the Yankees would always be motivated to deliver the best, owing to their own media rights.
Here in MLB, big teams like the Dodgers and Yankees would surely halt Manfred’s push, as their major revenue is generated from their local media rights. The fan base and popularity they enjoy couldn’t be replicated by others. And hence they would unlikely give up their upper hand.
A little more than a broadcast deal would cut for Manfred
So, what would be the next step for Rob Manfred, considering the legacy teams would not agree to his terms? Maybe offering something more with a TV deal? If MLB ever tried to move toward a national TV model like the NFL, big-market clubs such as the Dodgers and Yankees would need to be compensated somehow. Honestly, those teams aren’t going to just hand over that advantage for the sake of league balance without getting something significant in return.
“The best I can do for you on that right now is to say we’re not going to centralize local media as a standalone deal,” Manfred said earlier this week at the Front Office Sports “Tuned In” conference. “There will have to be other give-and-takes that make sense for all the clubs.”
So, maybe Manfred needs to alter the revenue share of the teams as per their potential. That means the Dodgers will fetch more money from the consolidated media rights than the A’s. But that again dilutes the meaning of consolidated media rights. However, offering equal media revenue to all 30 teams, despite their stark difference in fan base and brand equity, would face hurdles.
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Still, if Manfred can make this change happen in MLB, the league would surely change forever and for good.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cal Raleigh broke Mickey Mantle’s record for homers by a switch-hitter and tied the Mariners record set by Ken Griffey Jr. when the Seattle star hit his 55th and 56th of the season in consecutive at-bats against the Royals on Tuesday night.
Raleigh doubled in his first at-bat on a hot, humid night in Kansas City. He came up again in the third inning and, batting lefthanded against Michael Wacha, fouled off a changeup and took a sinker for a ball before Raleigh sent a hanging curveball 419 feet over the right-field fence for his 55th home run of the season.
That broke the switch-hitter mark set by the Yankees star in 1961, which Raleigh had tied against the Angels on Sunday.
The All-Star catcher was back up in the fourth inning Tuesday night. This time, batting righthanded against lefthander Daniel Lynch IV, Raleigh sent the first pitch he saw 425 feet to straightaway center for his 56th homer.
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Griffey set the Mariners record when he hit 56 homers during the 1997 season and matched the mark the following year.
After both of the home runs, Raleigh got a standing ovation from a small group of Mariners fans behind the visiting dugout at Kauffman Stadium. Many Royals fans, who had turned out to watch a club fading from playoff contention, also applauded the home runs. It was Raleigh’s 20th career multi-homer game and his 10th this season.
There have only been nine 60-homer seasons in the majors. Aaron Judge had the last when he hit 62 for the Yankees in 2022.
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Laz Diaz was involved in yet another controversy this week.
The veteran MLB umpire Diaz was behind the plate as the crew chief for Tuesday’s game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays. During the third inning at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., Diaz gave the verdict on a bizarre call that benefited the Rays.
Tampa Bay second baseman Brandon Lowe got ahold of a pitch from Toronto’s Jose Berrios and skied it into right-center field (with two runners on an nobody out). Blue Jays right fielder Nathan Lukes attempted to make a leaping catch at the wall, but a fan in the stands stretched out to successfully glove the ball instead.
Replays showed that the fan seemed to very clearly reach out over into the field of play on a ball that Lukes had a legitimate play on. Diaz noted that there was indeed fan interference there … but said that it was a home run for Lowe anyway.
“After review, there is fan inteference,” said Diaz. “But the ball would have been a home run anyway. So it’s a home run.”
Here is the clip of the full bizarre sequence.
On the surface, it seems that the two points (1. that there was fan interference and 2. that the ball would have been a home run anyway if not for fan interference) could not both be true at the same time. But that is exactly the verdict that Diaz relayed on Tuesday.
For reference, Blake Murphy of SportsNet shared the relevant language on the fan interference rule in Major League Baseball.

Major League Baseball has called off its plans to hold two games in London next year after scheduling issues with the stadium arose, along with a lack of available broadcast slots with a TV partner because of another global sporting event.
Commissioner Rob Manfred confirmed that the games were not going to happen during Tuesday’s Front Office Sports’ “Tuned In” event in New York City.
MLB had been looking to have the Yankees and Blue Jays play a pair of games at London Stadium, home of West Ham United of the Premier League, on June 13 and June 14, 2026, but with the soccer team’s season finale against Leeds on May 24, there wouldn’t be enough time to convert the field to use for baseball.
Because of the World Cup taking place in June, Fox did not have available broadcast slots to push the game to later in the month.
It was the second European venture that had to be put aside by MLB after plans to hold games in Paris were called off after MLB and MLBPA couldn’t find a promoter.
The league first took baseball to London in 2019, when the Yankees played the Red Sox for two games there.
Most recently in 2024, the Mets and Phillies played a pair of games in West Ham’s stadium.
During the event, Manfred reaffirmed MLB’s commitment to breaking into the European market.
“We remain interested in Europe. We think London is an important jumping off point for us,” Manfred said, according to the Associated Press. “We have a facility that has come a long way since the first Yankee-Red Sox game. It’s a much better ballpark now than it was due to their willingness to make investments in that. We continue to believe that there’s an opportunity there and that we can get at the developed economies in Europe through that London entree.”
Tuesday’s Front Office Sports event also saw Manfred confirm that the league was nearing deals for its media rights. NBCUniversal is in line to get the wild-card playoff round and Sunday night games during the regular season, while Netflix would get the Home Run Derby.
ESPN, which will not retain Sunday night games, would get weekday regular-season games.
“They are the agreements that have been reported publicly and we hope to push them across the finish line,” Manfred said.

MILWAUKEE — What seemed likely, then inevitable, finally became official Tuesday night in Milwaukee: for the 10th consecutive season, the Angels will finish with a losing record.
A 9-2 loss to the National League-leading Milwaukee Brewers clinched the dubious distinction and also extended the Angels’ losing streak to five games.
It’s the longest active streak of sub-.500 finishes in MLB and the longest in the franchise’s six-plus decades.
The Angels (69-82) last had a winning season in 2015, when they finished 85-77 and third in the American League West. Their last postseason appearance was the season before, when they won 98 games and were swept by the Kansas City Royals 3-0 in an AL Division Series. It has been 16 seasons since they reached an ALCS and more than two decades since they last played in the World Series, when they won their only championship in 2002.
The Angels had seven consecutive sub-.500 finishes from 1971-1977.
Right-hander Caden Dana (0-2) found himself in trouble early, issuing a one-out walk to Jackson Chourio and an RBI double to Caleb Durbin in the opening inning. Milwaukee tacked on a run in each of the next two innings before striking the big blow in the fourth on a two-run home run by Christian Yelich that brought Dana’s day to an end after just 3⅔ innings of work.
He was charged with five runs on eight hits and three walks with four strikeouts and has allowed 10 earned runs over his last two starts, covering just 7⅔ innings in those outings.
Milwaukee added an insurance run in the seventh on Andrew Vaughn’s RBI double then broke the game wide open with a three-run eighth, with all four runs coming against left-hander Sammy Peralta.
Offensively, the Angels were stymied by Brewers starter Freddy Peralta (17-6). The All-Star right-hander allowed just a pair of hits and two walks while striking out 10 over six innings for Milwaukee (92-59).
The Angels’ lone bright spots came via solo home runs from rookies Denzer Guzman and Christian Moore while Mike Trout remains one home run shy of 400 for his career after going 0 for 3 with a walk and two strikeouts.
More to come on this story.

Caleb Bonemer’s first full season of professional baseball has ended with major accolades.
The 2024 Okemos graduate was named the Most Valuable Player of the Single-A Carolina League by Minor League Baseball on Sept. 16 after his success with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers.
Bonemer, a shortstop who was selected by the Chicago White Sox in the 2024 MLB draft, batted .281 with 30 doubles, four triples, 12 home runs and 64 RBI and had 75 walks in 96 games between stops at Kannapolis and Winston-Salem this season. He spent the final 11 games at High-A Winston-Salem after earning a late-season promotion.
The 19-year-old Bonemer emerged as a top-100 prospect with his success this season. MLB Pipeline ranks him as the No. 83 prospect in baseball and the fourth-best prospect in the Chicago White Sox farm system.

Modern-day baseball is all about power hitting, and how many home runs a player hits in a season is the defining factor of this skill. The record for most home runs in a single season currently sits with Barry Bonds, who hit a whopping 73 HRs in 2001. So far, no one has come close to breaking that record. But will someone do it this year?
Considering how the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Mariners’ Cal Raleigh are going, one cannot put it past them to at least get close to it. Let’s look at the list of players who have scored the most home runs in a single season in MLB history.
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What is the MLB single-season home run record? Who holds it? All to know
Barry Bonds still holds the single-season home run record with an incredible 73 bombs in 2001, a mark no one’s been able to touch since. Before Bonds, Mark McGwire had set the bar with 70 homers in 1998. That’s the same year Sammy Sosa made it a showdown by blasting 66. And then for a while, it was McGwire vs. Sosa in the home run race, until Bonds came along.
Fast forward to 2022, Aaron Judge made a serious run at it, finishing with 62, the closest anyone’s come in years. However, the chase for that legendary 73 is still very much alive. Now, with this year witnessing an intense battle between Judge and Raleigh for the batting leader title, fans are hoping that either one of the duo can break the 24-year-old record. Moreover, with nearly 12 games still left for each team to complete the regular season, there is still time for it to happen.
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Where do Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh rank on the list?
Well, Cal Raleigh’s 2025 season has been nothing short of historic. Notably, he’s already become the first primary catcher in MLB history to hit 50 home runs in a season. On Tuesday against the Royals, Raleigh added two more HRs to his resume. Thus, standing with 56 HRs till now counts for the single-season franchise record for the Mariners.
And now, Raleigh’s got his eyes on even bigger marks like Aaron Judge’s American League record of 62 from 2022. Speaking of Judge, he’s sitting at 48 homers right now. That’s not quite in Raleigh’s neighborhood, but it’s hard to ever count him out. That said, Barry Bonds’ all-time mark of 73 still looks pretty safe. Let’s see if Raleigh can touch the milestone this year.
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Is switch-hitter Cal Raleigh on pace to break it? A look at all the possibilities
Undoubtedly, Cal Raleigh is a man on a mission this year. He just burst onto the scene the break the power-hitting duopoly of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. With his 56th home run, he went past Mickey Mantle’s 1961 mark for the most home runs ever by a switch-hitter in a single year. And that’s not all, Raleigh also tied Mariners legend Ken Griffey Jr. for the franchise’s single-season record. For context, Griffey hit 56 in both 1997 and 1998. So, before touching Barry Bonds’ record, there are a few more to be broken by Raleigh in between.
There are still 12 games left for the Mariners in the 2025 regular season. And to touch Bonds’ record, Raleigh needs to hit another 17 home runs. 17 HRs from 12 games surely looks like an uphill task. And with the remaining games to be played against the Astros, Rockies, and Dodgers, the challenge is on for the Big Dumper.

The postseason — which is so, so close now — is more than anything a way to make new memories, ones fans will hold onto for the rest of their lives. But the postseason is also something else: It is a way to try to erase old memories that aren’t so pleasant.
Of the 18 legitimate contenders for a postseason spot, 10 of them — the Dodgers, D-backs, Giants, Cubs, Phillies, Yankees, Red Sox, Rangers, Royals and Astros — have won World Series this century. That means there are eight who have not. All eight of those teams have gotten close, or at least gotten close enough to have their hearts broken. Right now, the memories of those losses, and that pain, are still fresh in the minds of their fans. But there’s nothing like a World Series title to turn those frowns, forever, upside down.
Blue Jays
Series that still stings: 2015 ALCS vs. Royals
Blue Jays fans certainly have a lot of postseason pain to choose from: They’ve lost seven playoff games in a row, after all. But no team since those back-to-back champs in the early ’90s ever captured the hearts of Toronto fans like the stacked teams of a decade ago, led by José Bautista, Edwin Encarnación and Josh Donaldson. They reached the ALCS in both 2015 and ’16, but that 2015 loss to the Royals in six games definitely still sticks in the craw the most. The Jays were fighting to stave off elimination in Game 6, and after falling behind, they tied it in the eighth on a dramatic two-run homer from Bautista. But in the bottom of the eighth, Eric Hosmer lined a base hit down the right-field line and Lorenzo Cain scored all the way from first to take the lead. The Jays put runners on first and third with no out in the ninth, but then went down 1-2-3 after that, leaving pinch-runner Dalton Pompey stranded at third. A year later, they’d fall to Cleveland in the ALCS in five games, and they haven’t won a postseason series since, having been swept in the Wild Card round in 2020, ’22 and ’23.
Brewers
Series that still stings: 2018 NLCS vs. Dodgers
The 2025 Brewers may be the best team this franchise has ever had, but it’s strange how many seem to think they came out of nowhere: This team has won the division two straight years and made the playoffs seven of the last eight years. In 2018, the Brewers won Game 6 of the NLCS against the Dodgers, putting them one win away from their first World Series since 1982, and they even took a 1-0 lead in front of a deafening crowd at Miller Park in Game 7. But Cody Bellinger responded with a two-run homer in the second, Yasiel Puig hit a three-run shot in the sixth and Clayton Kershaw, three days after winning Game 5, came in to close it out to end the Brewers’ hopes.
Guardians
Series that still stings: 2016 World Series vs. Cubs
What more can be said about this one? In an alternate universe, Rajai Davis’ game-tying homer in the eighth inning of Game 7 is an all-time classic homer, up there with Joe Carter and Kirk Gibson and so many others. Instead, it ends up a footnote to the even more historic events that would happen a couple of innings (and a legendary rain delay) later. Guardians fans will forever feel like this one got away. And for good reason.
Mariners
Series that still stings: 2001 ALCS vs. Yankees
This 116-win team is the best Mariners team of all time. It is also one of the greatest baseball teams of all time … and almost certainly the greatest one never to even reach the World Series. This team was almost absurdly fun, with Edgar Martinez and John Olerud and Mike Cameron and a 38-year-old Jamie Moyer and Bret Boone racking up 141 RBIs and, of course, Ichiro Suzuki taking the whole sport by storm in his rookie year. (And remember: This was the year after A-Rod left.) This was supposed to be the team, which made the five-game blitzing the Yankees gave them in this series all the more inexplicable. It would be 21 years until the Mariners sniffed the postseason again, and that ended with a three-game Division Series sweep at the hands of the rival Astros.
Mets
Series that still stings: 2006 NLCS vs. Cardinals
Lord knows the image of Carlos Beltrán taking that third strike off Adam Wainwright is burnt into the brains of every Mets fan who ever saw it. That 2006 team felt special at the time, tying the Yankees for the most wins in MLB (97), nine more than the next-best NL team (Padres, 88 wins). The Mets have had some October thrills since then, such as their surprisingly deep runs in 2015 and 2024, but you can argue that 2006 was the last time they felt like legitimate World Series favorites.
Padres
Series that still stings: 2024 NLDS vs. Dodgers
It has only been a year, but many people have still forgotten how, heading into this series, it really did feel like the Padres’ year. They had played fantastic down the stretch, swept the Braves in the Wild Card Series, beaten the Dodgers in the 2022 NLDS, and they just looked, all told, like the more complete team. They also had a 2-1 lead heading into Game 4 in front of a levitating Petco Park crowd with the Dodgers putting forth a bullpen game … only to lose 8-0. When they went back to Dodger Stadium, they managed only two hits in a 2-0 loss to the eventual world champions. The Padres haven’t been to the World Series since 1998, and one suspects, if they’re going to do so this year, they’ll have to go through the Dodgers to get back there.
Reds
Series that still stings: 2012 NLDS vs. Giants
How long has it been since the Reds won a postseason series? Well, Elly De La Cruz was seven years away from being born. (It was 1995. Frank Viola was on that team.) Poor Joey Votto never won a single playoff series. The closest he came — and he was so, so close — was in 2012, when the Reds jumped out to a 2-0 series lead against the Giants, with both wins coming in San Francisco no less. Three heartbreakers would follow, all in Cincinnati: An extra-inning Game 3 loss, Tim Lincecum vexing the Reds in Game 4 and a six-run Giants fifth inning to clinch the series in Game 5. The Giants won the World Series that year. Votto, who had a .500 OBP in that NLDS, would only play in three postseason games the rest of his career. The Reds would lose all three.
Tigers
Series that still stings: 2013 ALCS vs. Red Sox
The Tigers have made the World Series twice this century, but they were both over with quickly: Down in five to the Cardinals in 2006 and swept by the Giants in 2012. Their two ALCS losses, to the Red Sox in 2013 and the Rangers in 2011, were probably more painful. That 2013 loss looks worse now, considering that was peak Miguel Cabrera, with Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer in the rotation. But if you want to pick one of those World Series flops to be worse … I won’t argue with you.

Though we’re still a couple weeks away from the start of the postseason, it’s never too early to start talking about the topic that captures our attention every winter: free agency. In this roundtable, MLB.com examines the possibilities for Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, who will enter free agency for the first time this offseason.
Alyson Footer, editor/moderator: The Blue Jays’ focus is solely on their playoff push, but whenever the postseason ends for them – and obviously, with the roll they’re on, it could be a while before their offseason starts – it’ll be back to business. And atop their list of items to address will be Bo Bichette and his free agency. Let’s start with this: How likely is it that he signs a long-term deal with Toronto?
Mark Feinsand, senior national reporter: Bichette has had a big bounce-back season after a poor 2024, setting him up for a big payday this winter. Toronto took care of its top priority earlier this year when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. signed his $500 million deal, making it clear that contending in future seasons is the plan. But will the Jays have enough money to bring Bichette back while also addressing their other holes? Chris Bassitt is a free agent this year, while Kevin Gausman has only one year left on his deal. The guess here is that another team will ultimately offer more money/years, so it will be a matter of whether Bichette wants to stay in Toronto.
Keegan Matheson, Blue Jays beat reporter: Bichette isn’t a complicated guy, even though there’s been a lot of time wasted trying to get inside his head and analyze his body language. He wants to win and play for an organization that supports that. Right now, the Blue Jays check off both of those. The unspoken part is that he, like anyone else, will want the top contract available to him. Teams are going to have drastically different valuations of Bichette, but no one knows him better than the Blue Jays, and I expect them to be legitimately involved.
They just proved that they’re willing to play with the big boys by signing Vladdy to his extension. In doing so, they also showed they’re willing to step outside of their rigid projections to land a player who matters. The Blue Jays have the money, have the motivation and have the winning environment. If Bichette wants Toronto, Toronto will want him.
Footer: Things seem to have changed for the Jays from one year ago to now. It wasn’t that long ago we were talking about them possibly taking a few steps back, maybe trading away a few of their commodities to trigger a reset. It seemed like they were always the team that were labeled as

With about 10 games remaining in the 2025 Major League Baseball season, the pennant races are heating up with several divisions and both wild-card races going down to the wire.
The red-hot Seattle Mariners overtook the Houston Astros atop the American League West, with the two teams squaring off in a season-defining series Daikin Park that begins Friday, Sept. 19.
The Los Angeles Dodgers try to continue fighting off the San Diego Padres for the NL West lead, while a six-game winning streak for the Toronto Blue Jays may have put the AL East to bed. In the NL wild-card standings, the New York Mets’ eight-game skid opened the door for the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants to get back into contention.
Here’s the latest look at the 2025 MLB playoff picture:
Entering play Wednesday, Sept. 17
MLB playoff bracket if season ended today
American League
Byes: Blue Jays, Tigers
AL wild card series
Astros at Yankees
Red Sox at Mariners
National League
Byes: Brewers, Phillies
NL wild card series
Mets at Dodgers
Padres at Cubs
AL wild card standings
Top three reach playoffs
New York Yankees (84-67): +2.5 games
Houston Astros (83-69): +0.5 games
Boston Red Sox (82-69)
Cleveland Guardians (79-71): 2.5 games back
Texas Rangers (79-73): 3.5 GB
Kansas City Royals (75-76): 7 GB
NL wild card standings
Top three reach playoffs
Chicago Cubs (87-64): +9 games
San Diego Padres (82-69): +4 games
New York Mets (78–73)
Arizona Diamondbacks (77-75): 1.5 GB
Cincinnati Reds (75-76): 3 GB
San Francisco Giants (75-76): 3 GB
St. Louis Cardinals (74-78): 4.5 GB
AL East
Toronto Blue Jays (89-62)
New York Yankees (84-67): 5 games back
Boston Red Sox (82-69): 7 GB
AL Central
Detroit Tigers (85-66)
Cleveland Guardians (79-71): 5.5 GB
Kansas City Royals (75-76): 10 GB
AL West
Seattle Mariners (83-68)
Houston Astros (83-69): 0.5 GB
Texas Rangers (79-73): 4.5 GB
NL East
Philadelphia Phillies (91-61) – clinched NL East title on Sept. 15
NL Central
Milwaukee Brewers (92-59) – clinched playoff berth
Chicago Cubs (87-64): 5 GB
NL West

How to serve poetic justice? Ask the Blue Jays, and they will serve it hot. Well, the Tuesday game between the Blue Jays and the Rays got it all, from the Blue Jays being stripped of a home run robbery to hitting the same place when at bat, they are redefining what a winning campaign looks like. And if you remember how the Blue Jays previously responded to Michael Kay for his jibe, you know they will let any injustice go unanswered.
Well, Tuesday saw the Blue Jays edging the Rays 6-5, but not without a little drama. Reportedly, in the third inning, Brandon Lowe hit Jose Berrios’ 2-2 changeup deep to right. But just as outfielder Nathan Lukes leapt at the wall, a fan reached out and snagged the ball. Toronto immediately challenged, arguing interference. Verdict? There was indeed fan interference, but the ball was going out anyway, so the home run stood! The Blue Jays couldn’t do anything, but it took little time for them to give it back in style.
“NO REVIEW NECESSARY!” The Blue Jays’ official X account shared this brief caption along with a clip of Joey Loperfido hitting a home run. Now, if you know, you know…
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In the fifth, Joey Loperfido hit a solo home run off Kevin Kelly, and guess what, the ball hit the exact spot where Nathan Lukes missed due to fan interference before. This time, the ball was so high that it flew uninterruptedly. So, the Blue Jays’ captain denotes how they gave it back.
Typical Blue Jays stunt, and suits right when you are leading the AL East. But while Toronto won the game, the controversy is far from over.
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And what’s more, the George M. Steinbrenner Field further added to the confusion in the play. Since it’s the Yankees’ spring training home, it doesn’t have the same advanced camera setups you’d find in a regular big-league park. However, the Blue Jays came out victorious, as usual this year.
The Blue Jays are inching closer to the division title
It was last in 2015 when Toronto won its last division title. Till then, it was either they’re missing the postseason or entered with a Wild Card. However, this time, the tide is strong with them, and with their latest win against the Rays, they secured a 5-game lead over the second-placed Yankees. So, all set to see the Jays winning the AL East. Well, maybe!
However, it looks like the Blue Jays are rushing to secure their first place.
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Well, the Jays are looking to lock up the AL East crown well before their regular-season finale on Sept. 28 against the Rays. Because if they clinch early, manager John Schneider would get the luxury of resting his everyday players and lining up his rotation exactly how he wants for the playoffs. And on top of that, they are pushing to hang on to the top seed in the American League, which would guarantee home-field advantage through at least the championship series.
Hence, finishing in the top two would also mean a first-round bye straight into the division series. With the current trajectory, it’s all with the Blue Jays; the fans can bet on them this time.

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The Milwaukee Brewers became the first team in MLB this season to clinch a postseason berth following a 9-8 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Before celebrating in the locker room, the late Brewers broadcasting legend Bob Uecker, a Ford C. Frick Award recipient and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, was the focus of the moment.
Manager Pat Murphy told his

With one of the most dominant pitching debuts in Blue Jays history, Yesavage didn’t just nail the first impression, he gave a country of baseball fans permission to dream. The 22-year-old right-hander struck out nine Rays batters, a franchise record for an MLB debut. For five innings, you didn’t want to blink.
Being dropped into the middle of an AL East chase as a No. 1 prospect who’s touched every level of the Minor Leagues this season — and dominated each one — Yesavage’s debut is the biggest since Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked into Rogers Centre in 2019.
When Guerrero debuted, though, the World Series was a dream in the distance. Yesavage just joined the best team in the American League in the middle of September and gave the Blue Jays one of their most impressive pitching performances of the year. With talent like this, Yesavage could be more than just the kid riding shotgun. He could be another piece that helps take the Blue Jays over the top.
Immediately, we saw what hitters through the Minor Leagues have been baffled by all summer long. From Single-A to High-A, Double-A and Triple-A, Yesavage has made opponents look foolish, striking out a whopping 160 over 98 innings. Yesavage’s slider is a legitimate MLB weapon already, but when his fastball and splitter were dancing together, it’s a wonder how hitters have touched them at all.
Yesavage has one of the highest release points in pro ball at any level, going straight up over the top of his tall frame. This means that everything is already plummeting downhill on the hitters, who are left — often hopelessly — to decide whether it’s going to be a 95 mph fastball or tumble down and out of the zone as a splitter. Over and over, the Rays’ hitters chose wrong. Yesavage got 11 whiffs on 14 swings against his splitter, a stunning number.
This was just the 10th time in 2025 that an MLB starter got at least 11 whiffs on a splitter. And yes, five of those were Kevin Gausman. The 19 total whiffs also tied Yesavage for the fifth-most by a debuting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (since 2008), and he did this on just 69 pitches.
This is just the beginning for Yesavage. Not all days will look like this one, given all of the adjustments and challenges of life in the big leagues that lie ahead, but we just got a glimpse of what he’s capable of. It’s incredible, and as the Blue Jays chase their first World Series since 1993, it’s just another reason to believe.

The present is looking pretty nice for the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, and after Monday, so does their future.
Right-handed starting pitcher Trey Yesavage, 22, shone in his MLB debut, pitching five innings in a 2-1 extra-innings win over the Tampa Bay Rays (73-77).
Yesavage, Toronto’s No. 1 prospect, allowed three hits and one run with nine strikeouts in 69 pitches. Per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, his 19 swings and misses were tied for the fifth-most by a pitcher in his major-league debut since 2008.
Of his nine strikeouts, eight came via splitter or slider, with Yesavage quickly showing off his devastating off-speed pitches.
Why Trey Yesavage won’t be in Blue Jays’ playoff rotation
By being a mid-September call-up, Yesavage won’t factor in Toronto’s postseason plans. Per MLB rules, only players who were on the 40-man roster or 60-day injured list on Sep. 1 at noon are eligible for the playoffs. But his stellar performance is an excellent sign for 2026 and beyond.
Starting pitchers Chris Bassitt, 36, and Max Scherzer, 40, are free agents at the end of the season, while Kevin Gausman, 34, is only under contract through 2026. The sooner Yesavage can lock down one of the spots in the rotation, the easier it will be for the Blue Jays to replace their aging starters.
The Blue Jays (88-62) have a five-game lead over the New York Yankees (83-67) for first in the AL East and are the frontrunners at sportsbooks to win the AL pennant. As much as they have to play for the rest of 2025, Yesavage’s promising debut is a sign that the stakes could be just as high next year.

TAMPA, Fla. — Trey Yesavage struck out nine to set a Toronto record for a major league debut, and George Springer hit a tiebreaking single in the 11th inning as the Blue Jays beat the Rays 2-1 on Monday night to open a five-game AL East lead behind their fifth straight win.
Yesavage, a 22-year-old right-hander taken 20th overall in last year’s amateur draft, allowed one run, three hits and two walks in five innings, throwing 49 of 69 pitches for strikes. He averaged 94.6 mph with 32 fastballs, and threw 19 splitters and 18 sliders. Six of his strikeouts were on splitters.
Springer hit a two-out, two-strike single in the 11th off Kevin Kelly (2-4), helping Toronto improve to 10-4 in extra-inning games.
Rookie Braydon Fisher (7-0) got six outs. He allowed Yandy Diaz’s leadoff single in the 11th, which put runners at the corners, then struck out Brandon Lowe, Junior Caminero and Josh Lowe. The Rays struck out 18 times, their most since 23 against Arizona on Aug. 28, 2019.
Tampa Bay drew 8,972 to 10,046-capacity Steinbrenner Field, their 17th non-sellout in 75 games at their temporary ballpark. The Rays lost for the eighth time in 10 games, dropping to 73-77 and falling 8 1/2 games back of Houston for the last AL wild card.
With family from Boyertown, Pennsylvania, and former Dunedin teammates in the stands, Yesavage gave up a leadoff single to Chandler Simpson and an RBI double to Díaz in the first, then retired 15 of his next 18 batters. He struck out the side in the fourth.
His father, Dave, fought off tears as he watched from the stands.
Ernie Clement doubled in the seventh, advanced on a sacrifice and scored on Andres Gimenez’s sacrifice fly.

With Marcus Semien, Nathan Eovaldi and Corey Seager all potentially out for the remainder of the Texas Rangers’ regular season, the team’s odds of sneaking into the MLB playoffs looked slim at best.
However, since many of the team’s stars have gone down, the Rangers have managed to string together some wins and put themselves firmly back in the mix for a postseason berth.
Follow along below with our Rangers playoff and standings tracker.
Latest Rangers stories
— Texas Rangers’ crucial series vs. Astros begins with miscue-filled loss
— Will Rangers be able to thread needle with returns of Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, others?
— The battle for the Silver Boot: How has the Rangers-Astros rivalry gone over the years?
— Scoreboard watching: Rangers fans need these teams to win this week amid playoff chase
— 5 things we learned about the Rangers this week: A new, but familiar, target emerges
How the MLB playoffs work
The best team in each of the three divisions in the American League and National League earn an automatic berth into the MLB playoffs, plus the three best remaining teams in the AL and NL get Wild Card spots. In total, 12 teams qualify for the postseason.
The playoffs begin with Wild Card series, where the Wild Card team with the worst record plays the division winner with the worst record and the two Wild Card teams with the best and second-best records face off. All series in the Wild Card round are best-of-three games.
The two division winners in the AL and NL receive byes into the divisional round, where they await the winners of the Wild Card round.
Rangers’ current standings
American League West standings
American League Wild Card standings
Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

As with the MVP and Cy Young Awards, the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards will often feature familiar faces, as certain players’ reputations continue to shine. But sometimes, new names join the mix to stake a claim among the best defenders in the game.
That could happen again this season, as a mix of usual suspects and fresh faces have made compelling cases to take home hardware after the season. That’s reflected in a vote of MLB.com experts, who made picks for the players they think will win the honor this season. Here are the results.
Kirk would become the sixth different AL catcher to win the award in as many years, but it’s not as if he hasn’t earned it. He remains an elite framer (98th percentile) and blocker (100th percentile), and has been worth a Fielding Run Value of plus-19, easily the top mark in the AL. Though Kirk’s pop time and throwing arm are each just a little above average, the rest of his defensive game makes for a high-level total package for a backstop.
Bailey has been the best defender in baseball by Fielding Run Value, at plus-29, which would also be one of the greatest defensive seasons tracked by Statcast (since 2015). That’s because he’s elite at just about everything. He’s the best at framing (100th percentile) and near the top in pop time and caught stealing above average (97th percentile in both), and is solid at blocking, too (78th percentile). Bailey is the king of Catcher Framing Runs, with 24 on the season — 10 more than anyone else.
France has never been known for his defense. In fact, in 2024, he ranked in the first percentile with -12 Outs Above Average; he had accumulated negative OAA in each of his first six seasons in the Majors. In Spring Training, France reiterated that he was proud of his defense and expected to show that this season. Sure enough, he’s delivered on his promise: His +10 OAA leads all first basemen, positioning himself to capture his first career Gold Glove.
​​This would be Olson’s third career Gold Glove, but his first in the NL and his first since 2019 as a member of the A’s. His plus-7 Fielding Run Value is tied with France for the best mark among MLB first basemen. Meanwhile, Olson’s 16 Defensive Runs Saved are easily the best mark among the group, as are his 133 assists — which double as a career high.
Giménez is the gold standard at second base: Since the start of the 2022 season, no one has more Outs Above Average (62), and he’s won three consecutive Gold Gloves. A fourth seems in order this fall. The 27-year-old has missed time with an ankle sprain and a quad strain this season, but he’s been his usual self when healthy, with 11 OAA slotting him in the 97th percentile.
Hoerner, a 2023 NL Gold Glove winner, has arguably become MLB’s pre-eminent defensive second baseman. His plus-12 Fielding Run value is the best mark among all second basemen, as are his 14 Outs Above Average and his 17 DRS. He paces the position with 233 putouts, too.
Kansas City had two players win a Gold Glove last season, and the same may very well happen this year. Garcia, who is having a breakout season with the bat, is equally adept with his glove. He leads AL third basemen with a plus-11 Fielding Run Value and 14 Outs Above Average. Paired with shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (more on him soon), Garcia is a keystone of one of the game’s best left sides of the infield.
As with some other names on this list, Hayes has emerged as the definitive standout at his position. The 2023 Gold Glove winner is far and away the third-base leader in DRS, with 19, and in Fielding Run Value, at plus-16. Meanwhile, his 20 Outs Above Average are well ahead of all other MLB players at the hot corner. He also leads all MLB third basemen with 276 assists.
Witt looks primed to win his second straight Gold Glove, as he leads all players with 23 Outs Above Average — surpassing his OAA (16) from 2024. As things stand, Witt is on pace to post the highest single-season OAA from any player since Jonathan Schoop (27 OAA) in 2022. Plus, only Patrick Bailey and Pete Crow-Armstrong have a higher Fielding Run Value than Witt’s +19.
Winn has some of the surest hands at shortstop. He’s made just three errors all season, which is the fewest among players with at least 400 chances at the position. Meanwhile, his 22 Outs Above Average ranks as the top mark among NL shortstops and the second-best mark among all shortstops. Not to mention, his plus-17 Fielding Run Value is also tops among his peers in the Senior Circuit.
Kwan is hoping to become the first Cleveland player to win four straight Gold Gloves since Omar Vizquel won eight straight from 1994-2001. And he’s in a pretty good position to do so. Kwan has posted a plus-9 Fielding Run Value — leading all left fielders — and he’s consistently made opposing baserunners look foolish, with an MLB-best 12 outfield assists.
Collins, who’s still in the hunt for NL Rookie of the Year, leads all NL left fielders with five Outs Above Average, while his plus-3 Fielding Run Value also leads the way. A Gold Glove win for Collins would give the Brewers two straight outfield winners, as Sal Frelick won in right field last season. He would also join a growing list of rookies to win a Gold Glove.
Rafaela has split time between second base and center field, but injuries to Wilyer Abreu and Roman Anthony have shifted the 24-year-old back to center on a full-time basis. That’s good news for the Red Sox, because he’s elite in the outfield. He’s been worth +19 Outs Above Average, tied with Pete Crow-Armstrong for the most among outfielders. Much of his value derives from his excellent jumps, as his average jump is 5.2 feet better than average.
Crow-Armstrong has a habit of making the seemingly impossible look routine, hauling in outs that would fall for hits in front of most other outfielders. He’s converted 14 five-star plays, six more than the next closest outfielder, compiling one of the best defensive seasons that Stacast has on record. His plus-20 Fielding Run Value is the best among all outfielders, while his 19 Outs Above Average are tied for most among the group.
Seeking his second straight Gold Glove, Abreu touts an elite combination of range and arm strength. Abreu has made more five-star catches (eight) than anyone not named Pete Crow-Armstrong, an impressive accomplishment for a corner outfielder. Not to mention, his average arm strength is 94.3 mph, good for the 98th percentile. Should Abreu and Rafaela each win a Gold Glove, they would become the first pair of Red Sox outfielders to win Gold Gloves in the same season since Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. in 2018.
Tatis remains an elite outfielder in terms of both range and arm strength, and, bottom line, he makes plays. Tatis leads all MLB right fielders with 334 putouts, 64 more than the next-highest total. He also leads with 18 DRS, has a right-field-best plus-9 Fielding Run Value and is tied for the lead for double plays turned in right field, with three. He also has a serious homer-robbing habit that causes fits for the opposition.
Dubón is the epitome of versatility, having started at every position but catcher and pitcher this season. Beyond that, it’s not a stretch to call him one of the game’s best fielders: His plus-16 Fielding Run Value and 17 Outs Above Average are each in the 98th percentile or better of MLB. He’s been worth zero or positive OAA or better at all seven positions that he’s played, too.
Lopez has been mostly a shortstop this season (95 starts), but he’s also spent significant time at second base (32 games). And he’s gotten it done in both spots. His six DRS as a second baseman rank sixth in the NL, despite his part-time role, while his six at shortstop are the fourth-best total in the league. Combined, Lopez’s 12 DRS are tied for the seventh-highest mark among all MLB infielders.
Having won three Gold Gloves as a member of the Braves (2020-22), Fried would become the fourth pitcher to win the award in both leagues after Mark Buehrle, Jim Kaat and Bobby Shantz. His crafty pickoff move continues to successfully catch runners off guard, as he led all AL pitchers with seven pickoffs entering play Monday. He makes plays, too, so it’s no surprise that Fried led all MLB pitchers with nine Defensive Runs Saved through Sunday.
Webb’s six DRS are tied for the most among NL pitchers. It makes sense, too, given some of his more traditional stats. He leads NL pitchers with 31 assists and has turned three double plays, the most of any MLB pitcher. He would be the fourth NL pitcher to win the award in as many years, after a long stretch that was mostly dominated by Fried and Zack Greinke. Webb would also be the first Giants pitcher to win a Gold Glove since Rick Reuschel in 1987, and just the second ever.

The 2025 postseason is approaching. As you keep an eye on the standings, here is everything you need to know about how the playoff field is shaping up, as well as info about potential tiebreakers and clinch scenarios for each contender.
IF THE SEASON ENDED TODAY
Here is a look at how the postseason field is shaping up, entering Tuesday. (Teams listed in order of seeding.)
AL playoff teams: Blue Jays (AL East), Tigers (AL Central), Mariners (AL West), Yankees (Wild Card), Red Sox (Wild Card), Astros (Wild Card)
NL playoff teams: Brewers (NL Central), Phillies (NL East), Dodgers (NL West), Cubs (Wild Card), Padres (Wild Card), Mets (Wild Card)
For a look at the full bracket, see the top of this page.
Each of the best-of-three Wild Card Series are set to begin on Sept. 30, while each of the best-of-five Division Series are set to begin on Oct. 4.
TIGHTEST RACES
AL West: Mariners lead Astros by 1/2 game
NL Wild Card: Mets lead D-backs by 1 1/2 games for final berth
NL West: Dodgers lead Padres by 2 games
AL Wild Card: Astros lead Guardians and Rangers by 3 games for final berth
3 KEY GAMES TODAY
Padres at Mets, 7:10 p.m. ET | Get tickets
Rangers at Astros, 8:10 p.m. ET | Get tickets
Giants at D-backs, 9:40 p.m. ET | Get tickets
TIEBREAKERS
Since 2022, all playoff tiebreakers have been determined mathematically, rather than via tiebreaker games. That means ties for division titles and postseason berths, as well as for seeding, come down first to head-to-head record between those teams during the season, with other tiebreakers available if needed.
Read here for a full explanation.
Below, MLB.com is tracking the progress of relevant tiebreaker scenarios for contenders (defined here as within five games of a playoff spot).
AL: Astros | Blue Jays | Guardians | Mariners | Rangers | Red Sox | Tigers | Yankees
NL: Brewers | Cardinals | Cubs | D-backs | Dodgers | Giants | Mets | Padres | Phillies | Reds
AL EAST
Blue Jays (1st in AL East; 5 games ahead of NYY)
Win tiebreaker vs: Mariners, Red Sox, Tigers, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker vs: Astros
Tiebreaker TBD vs: N/A
Toronto is in great shape if it ends up tied for a division title, having locked up the edge over both New York and Boston. If the Jays and the Tigers end up tied for the best record in the AL, Toronto owns the tiebreaker.
Yankees (2nd in AL East; 5 games behind TOR)
Win tiebreaker vs: Mariners
Lose tiebreaker vs: Blue Jays, Red Sox, Tigers
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Astros (3-3)
The Yankees hold a key Wild Card tiebreaker over the Mariners, but they’d lose out to either of their top AL East foes and the Tigers after Detroit defeated New York last Wednesday in the Bronx.
Red Sox (3rd in AL East; 6 games behind TOR)
Win tiebreaker vs: Astros, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker vs: Blue Jays
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Mariners (3-3), Tigers (0-3, 3 games left)
The Red Sox hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Astros and Yankees, but a tiebreaker with the Mariners for a Wild Card spot would come down to each team’s intradivisional record.
AL CENTRAL
Tigers (1st in AL Central; 6.5 games ahead of CLE)
Win tiebreaker vs: Astros, Yankees
Lose tiebreaker vs: Blue Jays
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Red Sox (3-0; 3 games left)
If the Tigers end up tied with the Blue Jays for the best record in the AL, Toronto would hold the tiebreaker after going 4-3 against Detroit this season.
AL WEST
Mariners (1st in AL West; 0.5 games ahead of HOU)
Win tiebreaker vs: Rangers, Tigers, Guardians
Lose tiebreaker vs: Blue Jays, Yankees
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Astros (5-5; 3 games left), Red Sox, (3-3)
The Mariners currently have the higher intradivision record, meaning that, if they ended the season with the same record, the Astros would be relegated to a Wild Card berth. Seattle still has a chance to officially win a tiebreaker over the Astros during a road series from Sept. 19-21.
Astros (2nd in AL West; 0.5 games behind SEA)
Win tiebreaker vs: Blue Jays
Lose tiebreaker vs: Red Sox, Tigers
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Mariners (5-5; 3 games left), Rangers (5-6, 2 games left), Yankees (3-3)
A Sept. 19-21 series against the Mariners at Daikin Park will determine a crucial head-to-head tiebreaker in the AL West.
Rangers (3rd in AL West; 3.5 games behind SEA)
Win tiebreaker vs: Red Sox
Lose tiebreaker vs: Mariners, Yankees
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Astros (6-5; 2 games left), Guardians (3-0, 3 games left)
The Rangers would lose out to the Mariners on a tiebreaker, but they still have the chance to win the tiebreaker against the Astros — and pick up some ground in the standings — if they can avoid a sweep in their final matchup with Houston, which began with a loss on Monday.
AL WILD CARD
Guardians (3 games behind HOU for 3rd AL Wild Card)
Win tiebreaker vs: N/A
Lose tiebreaker vs: Mariners, Red Sox
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Rangers (0-3; 3 games left), Yankees (3-3)
The Guardians’ three-game series with the Rangers to close out the regular season from Sept. 26-28 could be crucial.
NL EAST
Phillies (Clinched NL East)
Win tiebreaker vs: Cubs
Lose tiebreaker vs: Brewers
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Dodgers (3-1; 2 games left), Padres (3-3)
After losing the season series to the Brewers, the Phillies’ three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles that began with a win on Monday could be crucial for NL postseason seeding.
NL CENTRAL
Brewers (1st in NL Central; 5 games ahead of CHC)
Win tiebreaker vs: Dodgers, Phillies
Lose tiebreaker vs: Cubs
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Padres (1-2; 3 games left)
The Brewers own the best record in baseball and the pivotal tiebreakers against the Dodgers and Phillies, should Milwaukee finish the regular season with the same record as one of those clubs.
Cubs (2nd in NL Central; 5 games behind MIL)
Win tiebreaker vs: Brewers, Dodgers
Lose tiebreaker vs: Phillies
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Mets (1-2; 3 games left), Padres (3-3)
If the Cubs can erase their deficit in the NL Central, they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Brewers.
NL WEST
Dodgers (1st in NL West, 2 games ahead of SD)
Win tiebreaker vs: Padres
Lose tiebreaker vs: Brewers, Cubs, Mets
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Phillies (1-3; 2 games left)
By winning nine of the 13 games between the two clubs, the Dodgers have secured a huge NL West tiebreaker over the Padres. After losing the season series to the Brewers, the Dodgers’ three-game series against the Phillies in Los Angeles that began with a loss on Monday could be crucial for NL postseason seeding.
Padres (2nd in NL West; 2 games behind LAD)
Win tiebreaker vs: Giants
Lose tiebreaker vs: Dodgers
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Cubs (3-3), D-backs (5-5, 3 games left), Mets (3-0; 3 games left), Reds (3-3)
The Padres’ relevant Wild Card tiebreakers are all yet to be determined. Division record would break any tie with the Cubs or Reds, and San Diego opens a big road series against the Mets on Tuesday at Citi Field.
NL WILD CARD
Mets (Currently hold 3rd NL Wild Card position)
Win tiebreaker vs: Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants
Lose tiebreaker vs: Reds
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Cubs (2-1; 3 games left), D-backs (3-3), Padres (0-3; 3 games left)
The Mets hold the tiebreaker over two of their closest competitors in the Wild Card race (Giants and Cardinals), but they don’t have the tiebreaker over the Reds and a tiebreaker with the D-backs will depend on intradivision record at the end of the season.
D-backs (1.5 games behind NYM for 3rd Wild Card)
Win tiebreaker vs.: N/A
Lose tiebreaker vs.: Reds
Tiebreaker TBD vs.: Cardinals (3-3), Giants (6-5, 2 games left), Mets (3-3), Padres (5-5, 3 games left)
The D-backs have climbed back into the Wild Card race and still have head-to-head matchups remaining against the Giants and Padres.
Reds (2 games behind NYM for 3rd NL Wild Card)
Win tiebreaker vs: D-backs, Mets
Lose tiebreaker vs: N/A
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Cardinals (5-6, 2 games left), Giants (3-3), Padres (3-3)
The Reds own important tiebreakers against the Mets and D-backs, should they end the season with the same record as one of those clubs for a Wild Card spot.
Giants (2 games behind NYM for 3rd NL Wild Card)
Win tiebreaker vs: N/A
Lose tiebreaker vs: Mets, Padres
Tiebreaker TBD vs: Cardinals (1-2, 3 games left), D-backs (5-6, 2 games left), Reds (3-3)
After losing the series opener on Monday, the remaining two games the Giants have against the D-backs in Arizona this week will be crucial.
Cardinals (4.5 games behind NYM for 3rd Wild Card)
Win tiebreaker vs.: N/A
Lose tiebreaker vs.: Mets, Padres
Tiebreaker TBD vs.: D-backs (3-3), Giants (2-1, 3 games left), Reds (6-5, 2 games left)

In one of the most commanding pitching debuts the Blue Jays have ever seen, the 22-year-old right-hander nailed his first impression. “It’s rewarding to see silly swings at pitches.” Trey Yesavage said after striking out nine Tampa Bay Rays hitters over five innings in Toronto’s 2-1, 11-inning win. Thanks to the Yankees’ loss on the same day, the Blue are five games up in the AL standings.
With his family and friends in attendance, Yesavage allowed only one run on three hits and two walks before Brendon Little took over after 69 pitches in the sixth inning. Hitters swung and missed at 52.8% of his pitches. It marked the highest whiff rate for any Blue Jays starter since 2009.
After a leadoff single to Chandler Simpson and an RBI double to Díaz, Yesavage smoothly retired 15 of his next 18 batters. Watching him drawing cheers from all around, Yesavage’s father, Dave, clad in a Blue Jays T-shirt, was captured wiping away his tears.
The Boyertown native also had his friends from minors in the stands. The 22 year old phenom was called up in the middle of a tough AL East race as Toronto’s top prospect. He had dominated each level of the Minor Leagues before his debut at Rogers Center.
Now, his debut is established as the best one yet since Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s 2019 debut. However, when Guerrero Jr. debuted, the World Series didn’t feel within reach. Yesavage came when the Blue Jays were already the best team in the American League. And now, with Vladdy and Bo Bichette, he could be another piece that helps take the Blue Jays straight to the top.
In fact, this fastball averaged 94.6 mph and also touched 96.4 mph. Both paired with his deadly splitter undoubtedly earned him another start. Until that happens, let’s see what the Blue Jays manager has to say about him.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider’s reaction to 22 year old’s debut
We will eventually know Trey Yesavage’s future in Toronto. However, after watching him strike out nine Rays batters, fans have already dreamt of watching blue jays holding the trophy.
After delivering an incredible outing, Yesavage said, “It was as special as I thought. It was almost like there was some sort of trance put over me with a feeling of peace out there.” the way he pitched, for all five innings, you wouldn’t want to blink.
Meanwhile, manager John Schneider was just as impressed. “That’s a boost. It’s a boost. I don’t want to say it’s a ‘risky’ thing bringing him up because we talked about it a lot. We thought he could help us win, which he did tonight. With that being a little unorthodox at this time of year, a young kid making his debut and where we’re at in the season and the standings, it’s good for everyone else here to see what he can do.” The Blue jays have kept an eye on him all along. Starting from Single-A to High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, he has always been consistent with his command on the mound.
He has struck out 160 batters in only 98 innings. The blue jays knew his slider was already good enough for the majors. Plus, if he mixes it with his fastball and splitter, it’s hard to see how hitters manage to make contact at all. Safe to say it’s just a beginning for him. Maybe all his outings may not look like this one. but the Blue jays have gotten a glimpse of what he’s capable of.

Despite a bumpier-than-expected path, the Los Angeles Dodgers might still repeat as World Series champions, becoming the first team to do so since the New York Yankees of the late 1990s. If that comes to pass, few would be surprised. At the same time, based on what we’ve seen since Opening Day, few would be surprised, also, if they fall.
Thus the Dodgers’ season can’t yet be labeled a success or a failure. If the Dodgers win another title, that’s an obvious success. Failure is a little harder to define, but consider that L.A. is one of five teams on pace to finish more than 10 games under their preseason baseline forecast. They’re also leading the tough National League West. Success or failure?
The answer is complicated. Baseball is the most quantifiable and projectable of the major sports, and forecasts are invaluable in setting our expectations for what might happen, and how to react to what actually comes to pass. Yet baseball is also paradoxically and wonderfully unpredictable.
Teams and pundits alike enter the season with a good idea of what each club’s strengths and weaknesses are, yet those observations tend to fly out the window when confronted by the reality of an actual season.
Using preseason expectations as our guide, we’re going to identify the biggest success — and failure — for all 30 teams. Plan and project all you want. In the end, the fates will have their way.
Jump to a team:
AL East: BAL | BOS | NYY | TB | TOR
AL Central: CHW | CLE | DET | KC | MIN
AL West: ATH | HOU | LAA | SEA | TEX
NL East: ATL | MIA | NYM | PHI | WSH
NL Central: CHC | CIN | MIL | PIT | STL
NL West: ARI | COL | LAD | SD | SF
Arizona Diamondbacks
Biggest success: Geraldo Perdomo
Most of the good news for Arizona this season has been on the position player side, led by a career year for Perdomo. After signing a four-year extension that doesn’t kick in until next year, the 25-year-old went out and put up the best season by a shortstop in franchise history. Already a defensive standout, Perdomo entered this season with 14 career home runs. This year, he has 19 and is on pace to drive in 100 runs. He also might get to 100 runs scored and 30 steals. It has been an MVP-level showing.
Biggest failure: The rotation
Arizona entered the season with an on-paper rotation that looked loaded — Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Eduardo Rodriguez and Brandon Pfaadt. That quintet has gone 47-39 with a 4.37 ERA. Burnes went down for the season in June. Kelly was traded. And the other three all have ERA+ figures well below league average. The Arizona bullpen has been even worse, but the roster and the payroll were built on a foundation of elite starting pitching that has not held up.
Athletics
Biggest success: Nick Kurtz
That Kurtz is good isn’t a surprise. That he’s this good this fast is stunning and exhilarating. After an aggressive promotion in late April, Kurtz didn’t hit his first homer until his 17th big league game. He then went deep 19 times over 49 games with a 1.078 OPS and that was only the lead-up to his 6-for-6, four-homer outburst on July 25 in which he tied the MLB record for 19 total bases in a game. In his age-22 season, Kurtz is on track to become the eighth rookie with an OPS over 1.000 (minimum 400 plate appearances) and of the eight, only Ted Williams and Albert Pujols had a younger baseball age. The A’s have found their cornerstone player.
Biggest failure: Luis Severino
The A’s made a rare splurge in last winter’s free agent market, inking Severino to a three-year, $67 million deal. Year 1 has been disappointing. Severino has gone 6-11 with a 4.82 ERA and an 87 ERA+ while posting the lowest strikeout rate (17.6%) of his career. His struggles in Sacramento have been epic: Severino is 1-9 with a 6.51 ERA over 14 starts at Sutter Health Park.
Atlanta Braves
Biggest success: Hurston Waldrep
Successes have been few and far between for the Braves, but Waldrep’s trajectory seems to be one of them. The sample remains small, but Waldrep went 4-0 with a 1.33 ERA over his first seven starts in 2025 before being roughed up by Houston. He looks like a keeper, if the Braves can keep him healthy.
Biggest failure: The entire season?
The Braves are on pace to miss their forecast by 24 games, a plummet so severe that it’s hard to blame it on any one thing. Injuries have played a part, but other teams are headed to the postseason with plenty of those — the Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers and Brewers among those with worse health metrics than the Braves. The collapse on the pitching side has been more acute than on offense, but no one is without culpability. Perhaps worst of all, the Braves have baseball’s second-worst organizational record. Things haven’t been any better in the minors.
Baltimore Orioles
Biggest success: Trevor Rogers
The Orioles have underperformed across the board, so it could be that we’re damning Rogers with faint praise here, but he has been a genuine revelation. Rogers began the season in the minors and wasn’t that great there, going 0-3 with a 5.51 ERA in eight starts. In the majors? The former Marlin is 8-2 with a 1.43 ERA over 16 starts with solid peripherals. Go figure. Going into what Baltimore hopes will be a bounce-back 2026 season, the Orioles’ rotation needs a lot more success stories like this.
Biggest failure: Adley Rutschman
You hate to pick on one player when the Orioles have disappointed in so many areas, but Rutschman is an avatar for a number of shortcomings. He has underperformed: Baltimore entered the season with the third-best WAR projection at the catcher position but instead rank 25th. He has been injured: According to an injury impact metric based on data from Baseball Prospectus, the Orioles rank 29th in baseball. After two straight disappointing seasons for Rutschman, and considering the arrival of elite prospect Samuel Basallo, the future of the Orioles at catcher looks a lot different than it did a couple of years ago.
Boston Red Sox
Biggest success: Pitching acquisitions
You really can’t choose between Cy Young candidate Garrett Crochet or reliever-of-the-year candidate Aroldis Chapman, neither of whom was with Boston at this time last year. Crochet has blossomed with the Red Sox, matching the dominance he showed per-inning with Chicago with the workload of a true ace. Chapman, at 37, is on pace to record a career-best ERA (1.26) and his second-best bWAR (3.3, just shy of his 3.4 in 2012).
Biggest failure: In-season roster work
The Red Sox have received great production from their rookie class, headlined by Roman Anthony and Carlos Narvaez. But a team in position to challenge for the American League East title ranks 29th in my in-season acquisition index, a metric that looks at the quality and quantity of the production from players signed or traded for during the season. Boston has dealt with a lot of injuries (27th in injury impact) but has been too passive about compensating for them.
Chicago Cubs
Biggest success: The offense
Things have slowed over the second half, but the Cubs’ attack has been one of baseball’s most productive and exciting over the course of the season. Chicago leads the majors in secondary average (patience and power), isolated power and team-level power-speed number. The production has come from up and down the lineup, giving the Cubs one of their deepest offenses in years.
Biggest failure: The bullpen
The Cubs’ rotation has picked up the pace over the second half, which has helped pick up the slack from the regressing hitters. But as October nears, the Cubs still lack clarity in the bullpen. With Daniel Palencia out, the relievers still lack a clear end-of-game hammer. Since the All-Star break, the Cubs’ relief ERA (4.40) is middle of the pack. For the most part, Craig Counsell has pieced things together, but the lack of impact acquisitions during the season, with the exception of Andrew Kittredge, might undermine the Cubs once the postseason arrives.
Chicago White Sox
Biggest success: The rookies
According to my rookie contribution metric — basically adding up the consensus WAR figures for first-year players — the White Sox (11.61 rookie WAR) have four more wins than any other team. In Kyle Teel, Colson Montgomery, Chase Meidroth, Mike Vasil, Shane Smith, Edgar Quero and Wikelman Gonzalez, Chicago has graduated some bona fide building blocks to the majors. With a decent finish, the White Sox can avoid another 100-loss season. That might seem like a low bar for excitement, but when you’re coming off a 121-loss debacle, that’s a huge improvement.
Biggest failure: Luis Robert Jr.
The season began with reports of Roberts’ revamped approach at the plate, but 2025 proved to be another step back for one of the game’s most talented players. Robert did improve his strike-zone indicators, but it didn’t pay off at the bottom line, as his OPS+ dropped two more points off his career-low of 86 in 2024. And it looks as if he’ll end the season where he has spent far too much time during his career: on the injured list. Whether you view Robert as a White Sox building block or the team’s last-best chance to generate impactful return in the trade market, none of this is good.
Cincinnati Reds
Biggest success: The rotation
The Reds’ pitching, in general, has kept the team on the fringe of the playoff chase all season, but the starters, in particular, have been rock solid. According to my AXE metric used in the Awards Watch series, six of the top nine Reds performers this season have been starting pitchers, led by Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo and Hunter Greene. Only three teams have compiled more quality starts.
Biggest failure: The flagging offense
Cincinnati’s hitters are on track to finish around their preseason forecast of 660 park-neutral runs scored. But at the midway point of the season, the Reds were on pace to finish at 693, and during the span of the regression, a trade deadline passed. Miguel Andujar has helped, when he has played, but it hasn’t been enough. The Reds rank 19th or worse at five of the nine positions by OPS, and that’s with the baked in boost of Great American Ballpark.
Cleveland Guardians
Biggest success: The stretch-run rotation
After years of forging a reputation as a starting pitcher factory, the Guardians’ actual performance in that area over the past couple of years hasn’t lived up to it. Until recently, that is. After ranking 18th with a 4.17 rotation ERA through Aug. 25, Cleveland is second with a 2.78 mark since. The Guardians have hung in the playoff race with a 14-5 record during that span, despite ranking 22nd with only 4.16 runs scored per game.
Biggest failure: The offense
Take your pick, really. Whatever the offensive metric, the Guardians stink in it. They’re 29th or worse in each of the slash columns, last in BABIP and 24th in isolated power. They rank 29th in OPS at catcher and shortstop, and 30th in center field and right field. There is only so much Jose Ramirez can do.
Colorado Rockies
Biggest success: Attendance
The Rockies are in the pack, drawing 29,676 fans per game, down just 1,211 over last season. They are outdrawing the first-place Detroit Tigers. The world is a very strange place sometimes.
Biggest failure: Everything else
Assuming the Rockies don’t lose out — which could happen, of course — they won’t end up matching or surpassing the 2024 White Sox’s season record for losses. Still, this marks the Rockies’ third straight 100-loss season, fourth straight last-place finish and seventh straight season of finishing fourth or worse in the NL West. The Rockies are long overdue when it comes to asking hard questions about how they do things.
Detroit Tigers
Biggest success: Tarik Skubal
The Tigers are closing in on their first division title in 11 years and second straight playoff berth. They are built largely on internally developed players and hold baseball’s best overall organizational record. In other words, lots more talent is on the way. Still, Skubal stands out on a team full of success stories by replicating or even bettering his Cy Young-winning 2024 campaign. He has become one of baseball’s biggest stars and the face of what Detroit has been building — and this edifice has a lot of faces.
Biggest failure: The rotation depth
Skubal’s is but one turn through the rotation, and the Tigers’ run prevention has lagged over the second half of the season. Since the break, Skubal has a 2.31 ERA with eight quality starts in 10 outings. The rest of the Detroit rotation has a 5.32 ERA with only 10 quality starts in 43 outings. If this bites the Tigers in the postseason, there will be questions about why Detroit didn’t take a bigger swing at the trade deadline.
Houston Astros
Biggest success: Front office improvisation
The Astros are almost right at their preseason forecast, but their path to those 87-88 wins has been less than predictable. Because of that, much of the story of Houston’s season can be told in two of the measures we keep mentioning. First, the Astros rank last in the injury impact metric, meaning no team has been more affected by player absences (Yordan Alvarez especially). Second, the Astros rank first on the in-season acquisition leaderboard. Carlos Correa, Jesus Sanchez, Ramon Urias, Craig Kimbrel and others have helped keep Houston’s contention window ajar as we enter the home stretch.
Biggest failure: Christian Walker
The Astros’ offense is much less dynamic than it has been in a long time. No one player is to blame, and Alvarez’s long stay on the IL has to be kept in mind. But things wouldn’t be quite so severe if Walker had plugged what has become a longstanding hole for Houston at first base. It’s always dicey signing free agent hitters who are well into their 30s, and so it has been so far for Walker, whose OPS+ has slipped from a three-year average of 123 in Arizona to 95 in Houston. He has been better since the All-Star break, so we should hold off final judgment on the signing for now, but the bottom line is that, at the moment, Walker is barely over replacement level on the season.
Kansas City Royals
Biggest success: The starting pitching
Last season, the Royals got 151 starts from their top five starters. This season, they’ve had 12 pitchers make at least two starts and depending on when, and if, Michael Wacha returns before the end of the season, none of them might qualify for an ERA title. The injuries have affected the rotation performance during the second half, but it hasn’t fallen off a cliff, and for the season, Kansas City has MLB’s sixth-best rotation ERA. Whether it’s converting relievers (Kris Bubic), developing midlevel prospects (Noah Cameron) or identifying trade targets (Ryan Bergert), the Royals have become adept at finding rotation answers that fit their system.
Biggest failure: The offense
Bobby Witt Jr. remains a superstar. Maikel Garcia has been one of baseball’s most improved players. Vinnie Pasquantino remains a high-level run producer. But other than a midseason surge, the Royals have just not been able to score consistently enough to hang in the playoff chase, despite their elite pitching-and-defense combo. They’ve tried to paper over their holes with trades during the season, but the baseline for the lineup is just too low to fix on the fly.
Los Angeles Angels
Biggest success: Zach Neto
With a second straight five-WAR season, Neto has become one of baseball’s top shortstops at age 24. He sat out time early in the season and his numbers for the most part are similar to 2024, save for a non-trivial uptick in slugging. As he has matured, Neto has hit the ball harder more often, while still shining in the field and on the bases.
Biggest failure: Mike Trout
During the four-year period from 2021 to 2024, Trout averaged just 66.5 games per season. But on a per-162-game basis, he had rates of 46.3 homers, 109 runs and a 160 OPS+. If he could only stay in the lineup. With a move to DH this season, Trout has indeed been more available, but his impact has ebbed. Trout’s OPS+ is 115 — solid, but not Trout-like — and his slugging percentage is a shocking .417. Maybe it’s just the adjustment to DHing, which isn’t always smooth. Trout, after all, is still only 34 years old.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Biggest success: Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Remember, we’re dealing with expectations here, so Shohei Ohtani doesn’t get credit in this context for doing the incredible things he already was doing. But it has been a banner season for Yamamoto, the most stable part of a deep Dodgers rotation that has again been riddled with injuries. Yamamoto has lived up to his pre-2024 hype but ramping up the volume, at least for a Dodgers pitcher. Already over the 162-inning minimum, Yamamoto is the first Dodgers pitcher to qualify for the ERA title since 2022.
Biggest failure: Health
Health has continued to be a general problem for the Dodgers, but it continues to be especially bad on the pitching side. L.A. is baseball’s deepest team but despite that, the injuries have come so frequently that the Dodgers have kept the transaction wire spinning all season. They’ve used 39 different pitchers, 16 of whom have started at least one game and 10 of whom have earned at least one save. How does manager Dave Roberts keep it all straight?
Miami Marlins
Biggest success: An emerging lineup
Between young players who have hit the ground running (Agustin Ramirez, Jakob Marsee) and young veterans improving as they enter their primes (Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards and, especially, Kyle Stowers), the Marlins increasingly look like a team that can field an exciting lineup in 2026.
Biggest failure: The rotation
Injuries over the past couple of years have rocked a talented group of Marlins starters. Other than a midseason surge when the Marlins’ pitchers got hot as a group, Miami’s starters have been lit up for most of 2025, ranking 28th in rotation ERA with the second-lowest total of quality starts. Yet the talent of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Edward Cabrera, Max Meyer and an interesting wave of coming prospects remains tantalizing. Maybe next season it’ll all come back into focus.
Milwaukee Brewers
Biggest success: Brice Turang
Turang’s ascension into an All-Star-caliber player is undeniable now that he has added power to an already full toolkit. He’s one of the game’s best second basemen, but more than that, he typifies Milwaukee’s transformation into MLB’s top regular-season club. He’s young, athletic, great on defense and gets on base. And he’s exciting, standing out as one of baseball’s most aesthetically pleasing players to watch.
Biggest failure: Reliever health?
Most everything has gone right for the Brewers, so it’s hard to term anything as a failure. Even the bullpen has been excellent over the course of the season. But a spate of late-season injuries has made things a wee bit more interesting as we edge toward the playoffs.
Minnesota Twins
Biggest success: Joe Ryan
The Twins’ right-hander made the leap from solid midrotation starter to top-of-the-rotation ace this season. Ryan will finish with a career-high innings count and will likely match that volume with his best ERA+ (currently 126) and bWAR (4.5). Ryan’s season isn’t out of line with what he has done before on a per-inning basis, but he has done it more often. Now, as Ryan stands to earn a jump in pay per the arbitration system, we’ll see if the frugal Twins pay him or trade him.
Biggest failure: The midseason unloading
The Twins pulled the plug on their season at the trade deadline and the results since have not been pretty, on the field or off the field in terms of fan reaction. Since then, Minnesota has baseball’s second-worst record and has been drawing attendance figures lately indicative of a fan base that entered the season already annoyed by the Twins’ passive offseason. News that the franchise is no longer on the market hasn’t helped. The trajectory is bad.
New York Mets
Biggest success: Juan Soto
No, Soto hasn’t reinvented baseball during his first season as a Met, but he has been Juan Soto, and that has been a reminder of why he was so coveted. Soto is having a down season in the average category thanks to the vagaries of BABIP, but everything is vintage Soto. And it feels as if we forget this part: He still hasn’t turned 27. Soto has more seasons like this ahead of him, but he has some even better than this in his hip pocket. In any event, any concerns that Soto’s huge contract would be his ruination ought to be alleviated by now.
Biggest failure: The collapsing rotation
The Mets’ pitching freefall has been one of the most stunning stories of the season. Through the end of July, the Mets had baseball’s fifth-best rotation ERA (3.44). The starters ranked 27th in quality starts and 25th in innings, so they weren’t going deep, but they were effective while out there. Since then, New York’s starters have a 5.40 ERA (24th), further taxing a bullpen that has arguably been just as bad or worse. The avatar is Kodai Senga, who went from Cy Young candidate to minor leaguer in about six weeks. Maybe the rookie trio of Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat will save the day, but this is not how the Mets drew it up.
New York Yankees
Biggest success: Bronx bombing
This isn’t a perfect Yankees team, but they’ve bashed their way back into the World Series picture in a very literal way. A stunning 59% of the Yankees’ runs this season have come via the home run. When Anthony Volpe hits his next homer, the Yankees will feature a regular lineup in which every slot is occupied by a player with at least 20 homers this season. That includes Ryan McMahon, who hit most of his dingers for Colorado, but it’s still going to be amazing to see.
Biggest failure: Devin Williams
Across the past three seasons before coming to New York, Williams gave up 26 earned runs over 148 games with a 1.66 ERA. In his first Yankees season, he has given up 33 earned runs in 61 games with a 5.30 ERA. With a strikeout rate down around 5% off his career figure and 10% from last year, Williams just hasn’t been the same pitcher, and as the season has progressed, the numbers just keep getting worse.
Philadelphia Phillies
Biggest success: Kyle Schwarber
Already one of baseball’s most dangerous sluggers, at 32 Schwarber has never been better. He already has joined Ryan Howard as the only Phillies in the 50-homer club and leads the majors with 128 RBIs, 24 above his previous career best. He has done this with his best strikeout rate in six years and his typically high walk rate. Good timing, too: Schwarber will be a free agent this winter.
Biggest failure: Aaron Nola
Nola has always been a little up and down, but his downs have never been like his injury- and performance-plagued 2025 showing. Nola’s 6.44 ERA over 15 starts has him under replacement level, and while the Phillies’ overall rotation has been dynamite, Nola’s struggles are more pressing with Zack Wheeler gone for the season. Nola has shown flashes and remains in the rotation, but he’s running out of time before a playoff season that the Phillies will enter as one of the favored teams.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Biggest success: Paul Skenes
Yes, we expected Skenes to be this good, but who else are we going to put here? Skenes has been even better in Year 2, somehow bettering (so far) his sub-2.00 rookie ERA, dropping from 1.96 to 1.92 even while ramping up his innings total. The Pirates are 27-17 when Skenes starts so far in his career, which translates to a 99-win team over 162 games. In the non-Skenes games, they’ve won at a rate of 69 games per 162. He’s pretty good.
Biggest failure: An anemic offense
The Pirates’ lack of any kind of spending or success in developing hitters has left them with a tragic attack. The median run total for a team in a game is four. Let’s say any time a team scores more than four, it’s a win for the offense and a loss for the defense. Finishing at exactly four runs represents a push, or a tie. Using this framework, the Pirates’ pitchers have a record of 77-55-18, giving them the fifth-best winning percentage in the majors. The hitters are 44-88-18, ranking last. That’s your 2025 Pittsburgh Pirates.
San Diego Padres
Biggest success: Winning the deadline
The Padres haven’t launched since A.J. Preller’s frenetic activity at the trade deadline, but his work then was still crucial. Rather than finishing the roster as Preller probably hoped, the newcomers have helped cover for drop-offs and injuries from those already on hand. That has been especially true for the bullpen, where Jason Adam was injured and Jeremiah Estrada has hit some speed bumps. But acquisition Mason Miller has been even more electric than expected. Meanwhile, Freddy Fermin has solidified the catcher spot and Ramon Laureano, brought in to raise the floor of a struggling outfield slot, has been San Diego’s best percentage hitter since arriving.
Biggest failure: Xander Bogaerts
At 32, Bogaerts has posted his second straight subpar offensive season. His OPS+ (98) is up from last season’s 92 but remains well off the 130-ish level he reached in Boston. The change in ballparks has been more severe for Bogaerts than expected. His career slugging percentage at Fenway Park is .496 but is just .402 at Petco Park. This season, only three of Bogaerts’ 10 homers have come at home.
San Francisco Giants
Biggest success: A revamped lineup
The Giants were subtractors at the trade deadline, particularly when it came to emptying out the back of the bullpen. Yet San Francisco remains on the cusp of a wild-card slot, and it’s not all because the Mets went into a spiral. The Giants have featured a top-10 offense since the end of July, featuring a stable everyday lineup that has coalesced into a nice unit. After a slow start, Willy Adames has come on strong, Rafael Devers had adapted to his post-Boston life, and Matt Chapman has been mashing. A new outfield mix featuring ex-Met Drew Gilbert and Jung Hoo Lee has become a gas to watch. The Giants are fun.
Biggest failure: Defensive range
You have to get specific, because the Giants’ overall defensive metrics are above average because of Patrick Bailey’s off-the-charts work behind the plate. But out in the field, the Giants rank 27th in Statcast’s outs above average, a disappointing result for a club with flashy defenders up the middle and at third base with Chapman.
Seattle Mariners
Biggest success: Cal Raleigh
This is perhaps the most obvious selection on the board. Raleigh is having one of the most shockingly historical seasons we’ve ever seen. To be sure, Raleigh had been plenty good before this season, one of the best all-around backstops in the game. But this? The best homer season ever by a catcher? The best by a switch-hitter — even Mickey Mantle? It’s unreal. Using the FanGraphs version of WAR, which is more laudatory of Raleigh’s framing skills, his 2025 total (8.0) ranks seventh all time among primary catchers, and he’s still going.
Biggest failure: The rotation
Again, let’s remember that we’re keeping preseason expectation at the forefront of our minds. Seattle’s rotation has been solid, very consistent. The M’s rank 17th in rotation ERA (4.08) and fifth in quality starts. But before the season, Seattle figured to have a top-five rotation at the very least. The group was supposed to be the strength of the roster. Bryan Woo has been great, but everyone else has been worse than projected, either because of injuries, performance drop-off or both. Yet the Mariners regained first place with two weeks to go. If the rotation had been what we thought it would be, they would have already clinched the AL West.
St. Louis Cardinals
Biggest success: Matthew Liberatore
Well, we have to put something down. Frankly, even though the Cardinals have managed to stay around baseball’s middle, this has felt like a disheartening season. With just a little boost from the front office, the low bar of postseason contention in this year’s NL might have been cleared. St. Louis hasn’t received much in terms of breakout performances, though some of the younger players have shown progress. That pretty much describes Liberatore, the touted prospect St. Louis acquired way back on Jan. 9, 2020, from Tampa Bay for Randy Arozarena. Until 2025, Liberatore hadn’t been able to establish himself as a rotation regular, but he has made 27 starts and stayed within shouting distance of league average. His strikeout rates don’t scream

The New York Yankees look to beat the Boston Red Sox for the third straight game Sunday at 7 p.m. ET. Garrett crochet is on the mound for Boston, with Will Warren starting for New York.
Yankees vs. Red Sox will air on ESPN, and can be streamed on DirecTV (free trial).
Here’s what you need to know:
What: MLB Regular Season
Who: New York Yankees @ Boston Red Sox
When: Sunday, Sep. 14, 2025
Where: Fenway Park, Boston, Massachusetts
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Stream: DirecTV (free trial), fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, Sling
Yankees @ Red Sox schedule
Fri, Sep 12: NYY @ BOS, 7:10 p.m. on YES (4-1 Yankees)
Sat, Sep 13: NYY @ BOS, 4:10 p.m. on YES (5-3 Yankees)
Sun, Sep 14: NYY @ BOS, 7:10 p.m. on ESPN (STREAM)
Yankees gear, including new hats for the 2025 MLB season, can be found on Fanatics.com. Get cheap Yankees tickets from SeatGeek.
Here’s a recent MLB story via The Associated Press:
BOSTON (AP) — Max Fried earned his major league-leading 17th win and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had three hits — including a solo homer that moved him to the brink of the 30-30 club — leading the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Fried (17-5) permitted two runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He was working on a shutout before Alex Bregman went deep with two down in the fifth.
Jarren Duran hit a solo homer in the eighth for Boston, but the Yankees added one in the ninth against closer Aroldis Chapman when Aaron Judge singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Cody Bellinger’s double.
David Bednar pitched the ninth for his 24th save.
Chisholm had his third straight multihit game and drove in three runs. He stole his 29th and 30th bases of the season on Friday night and needs one home run to become the third player in franchise history with at least 30 homers and 30 stolen bases. Alfonso Soriano (2002 and ’03) did it twice.
The Yankees tagged Brayan Bello (11-7) for two runs in the first, sending eight men to the plate and scoring on Bellinger’s sacrifice fly and Chisholm’s infield single.
Key moment
The Red Sox chased Fried in the sixth with three consecutive singles that cut the deficit to 4-2. But Luke Weaver came in and struck out Ceddanne Rafaela and Romy Gonzalez to end the inning.
Key stat
The Yankees have beaten Boston three games in a row since losing eight straight against their AL East rivals. With Saturday’s win, New York pulled 2 1/2 games ahead of Boston in the race for the AL’s top wild card, which would give the Yankees home-field advantage in a possible first-round matchup with the Red Sox.
Up next
Yankees RHP Will Warren (8-6) will face Boston LHP Garrett Crochet (15-5) in the series finale on Sunday.

Two historic rivals meet under the lights on Sunday Night Baseball, as the New York Yankees get set to take on the Boston Red Sox to round out their three-game weekend series.
The Yankees have managed to keep the good times rolling after a tough couple of games against the Detroit Tigers. The Bronx Bombers have managed to reel off three wins in a row, including a 4-1 win over the Red Sox on Friday night, snagging a 5-3 road victory over their hated rivals on Saturday afternoon.
MLB STREAMING OPTIONS
The Yankees and Red Sox are in the midst of jockeying for position in the ever-competitive American League East. Thanks to the solid run for the Yanks, they sit three games back of the Toronto Blue Jays for first in the division, while holding the first Wild Card spot. Boston, which is third in the East, 2.5 games back of the Yankees, is hanging on to the second Wild Card spot.
The Red Sox are 8-4 against the Yankees this season.
PROBABLE STARTERS
NYY: Will Warren (8-6, 4.22 ERA)
BOS: Garrett Crochet (15-5, 2.57 ERA)
MLB BASEBALL
New York Yankees (83-65) vs. Boston Red Sox (81-68)
When: Sunday, September 14
Time: 7:10 p.m. ET
Where: Fenway Park (Boston, Mass.)
Channel: ESPN
Check out the MLB standings and results on MLB.com

The New York Yankees take aim at a much-needed road sweep of the Boston Red Sox as they get set for a Sunday night finale at Fenway Park. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. ET with TV coverage on ESPN and streaming on-demand.
How to watch Yankees (83-65) at Red Sox (81-68) on TV and stream Sunday’s game without cable:
When: Sunday, Sept. 14 at 7 p.m. ET
Where: Fenway Park, Boston, Mass.
TV channel: ESPN
Streaming on: FuboTV (free trial) | DirecTV (free trial) | SlingTV (50% off first month) | ESPN Unlimited ($29.99/mo.)
Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees: Streaming Comparison (detailed descriptions below)
Yankees vs. Red Sox: The matchup
While the Yankees haven’t gained ground on the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, they have helped their playoff position with back-to-back wins Friday (4-1) and Saturday (5-3) in Boston, now opening up 2.5 games of separation for the No. 2 spot in the division.
Set to start the series finale will be right-hander Will Warren (8-6, 4.22 ERA) for the underdog Yankees (+130) opposite Red Sox ace lefty Garrett Crochet (15-5, 2.57 ERA). With just 14 games remaining in the regular season, every game is likely to count for both these teams.
Check out more MLB coverage on PennLive
The Yankees and Red Sox are set for a 7 p.m. ET start on ESPN. Live streams are available from FuboTV (free trial), DirecTV (free trial) and SlingTV (low intro rate).
Watch Major League Baseball on ESPN: Know your live streams
FuboTV (free trial) – FuboTV scores high marks for viewer experience with a huge library of live sports; the monthly rate after trial starts at $54.99 with a $30 off promotion. ESPN Unlimited included free in the base plan. NFL Red Zone available on SportsPlus ($74.99 first month with promotion).
DirecTV (free trial) – First month after the 5-day free trial starts as low as $49.99 with current $35 off promotion. ESPN Unlimited and NFL Red Zone included with add-on packages and sports plans. Genre Packs and other lower-priced alternatives are available.
SlingTV (low intro rate) – Sling’s half-price offer is perfect for those in the market for 1+ month of TV;.monthly plans start at just $29.99 with the introductory rate. A comparison of plans, including daily and weekly passes, can be found here.

When you head to an MLB game, what do you expect? Apart from maybe the ninth-inning rally, maybe hot dogs and cheers for your team? Here is what you don’t expect—wake up in a hospital bed, and wonder how you’re still alive. But that has been the reality Kavan Markwood has been living with since April, when a celebration at PNC Park turned into his biggest nightmare as of yet.
Markwood, who was just 20 years old at the time, fell 21 feet from the right field wall onto the warning track. It was during a Pirates and Cubs game, and he had leapt to celebrate Andrew McCutchen’s single. However, he landed weirdly on the railing and then fell headfirst over the edge. The stadium had gone from cheers to silence, watching the young fan simply lie motionless on the field.
The paramedics rushed him to the hospital, and then the gruesome reality of the injury was revealed by the doctors. Markwood suffered a broken back, a broken neck, and a punctured lung, and had fractures to every rib. Markwood himself, in an early interview, mentioned that he had essentially “broken everything.” But against the odds, he survived, and not just that, he even came back to sit in the very ballpark where it all happened.
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Bob Nightengale reminded everyone how remarkable this feat actually is. “Remember the 20-year-old who fell over the 21-foot right-field wall onto the field at PNC Park in April? Well, Kavan Markwood is back attending baseball games, telling ‘Inside Edition’ that he’s still in pain and doesn’t have feeling in two of his fingers, but, hey, he’s alive.”
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Now, for sure, the physical pain and the scars are still there. Markwood mentioned that he still feels nothing in two of his fingers. But the emotional toll it took on him has no bounds, too. He admitted that he often relives that accident time and again. He also carries the burden of knowing that his close friend Ethan Kirkwood now faces misdemeanor charges connected to administering drinks to him that night. Although Markwood says that external influence was not a factor and that this was simply “a tragic accident.”
Through it all, though, MLB fans have come through and stayed true to their own. A GoFundMe campaign was raised to help with his medical bill, and it did great. A reminder that the Pirates community takes care of its own; all the while, Markwood came through to not let the trauma of the accident take over, but returned to PNC Park.
But is it always the same with the league?
When MLB is more business than heart!
Baseball is supposed to be about the heart, the community, and people coming together over a bigger game than just the score. But ever so often, you get the perspective that it’s all business beneath it all. And this time, regarding this entire accident, a reminder came in from David Samson, the ex-Marlins president, that highlights the same.
The former Miami Marlins president had lit a storm when he spoke about Kavan Markwood. Instead of focusing on the human side of the tragedy, he focused on the balance sheet; he mentioned that if he were the one running the Pirates, he wouldn’t cover Markwood’s medical bills. That is beyond the first aid and the hospital transfers. Anything else, Samson said, would be a seemingly PR move! Not just that, he even suggested settling potential legal fallout for no more than five figures.
This was unsettling to fans because Markwood was not just another name in the file; he was a young man, and he had no parents to lean on.
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But unlike Samson, the community stepped up, and Jennifer Phillips was the frontrunner. She organized a GoFundMe that raised more than $70,000, which went on to help the 20-year-old. Not just that, Phillips also reminded everyone, “Please be considerate during this tragic time. Also, thank you for all the other love and prayers that everyone is sending. I have created this fundraiser because of the tragedy that occurred a few evenings ago at PNC Park. This fundraiser will help to assist with any medical bills and financial hardships that this family is experiencing right now. Every donation, no matter how small, will make a big difference.”
And yes, a difference it did make, and now, finally, Markwood is well enough to return to PNC Park. So maybe this is the part that’s worth the spotlight, not the cold math!

The Los Angeles Dodgers won’t sniff the all-time wins record in 2025. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that they hit their lowest point of the season, stumbling through ugly losses to the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles.
And yet, despite their sixth-best record in baseball at 82-64, the Dodgers remain firmly planted in conversations about October glory. Bleacher Report recently pointed out that no team has truly supplanted Los Angeles as the de facto World Series favorite. That’s not just perception; the numbers reinforce it.
Baseball Reference currently tabs the Milwaukee Brewers with a 24.7% chance to win it all. FanGraphs lists the Dodgers at 17.3%, ahead of Philadelphia, which Baseball Prospectus gives a 14.4% shot. Taken together, the picture is clear: while the Dodgers have flaws, no one has wrestled away their place as the team to beat.
Pitching Finally Back in Place
Back in January, Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper dubbed the Dodgers’ rotation “MLB’s Deepest Pitching Staff Ever” after the club added Blake Snell and Japanese phenom Roki Sasaki. For months, that claim looked laughable. Injuries piled up, and the Dodgers’ ERA ballooned into the bottom 10 of the league by the end of July.
But since August 1, the script has flipped. Dodgers starters lead MLB with a 3.14 ERA, supported by a 3.88 mark from the bullpen. The full rotation—Snell, Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw, and Shohei Ohtani—is finally healthy and lined up as designed.
Relievers remain a question mark, though Dave Roberts has managed to extract consistency from Blake Treinen, Alex Vesia, Jack Dreyer, and others. Sasaki could soon add a boost of his own after hitting 98.6 mph during a rehab outing in Oklahoma City.
That matters because the Dodgers won the 2024 World Series despite lacking a true No. 1 starter. This October, they might enter with multiple frontline arms.
Offense Still Elite
While July was a disaster—ranking 26th in wRC+ and scoring just 91 runs—Los Angeles has otherwise been one of the most dangerous lineups in baseball. They lead the National League in home runs (215) and score 5.05 runs per game, tied with Milwaukee.
Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts are again functioning as a legitimate big three. Since August, the trio has combined for a 160 wRC+ with Freeman and Betts both heating up at the right time. Ohtani sits on 48 home runs, still pacing toward another 50-homer season.
The supporting cast has also returned to full strength. Max Muncy and Tommy Edman are back from injuries, and trade-deadline additions have given Roberts more lineup flexibility.
Why the Dodgers Still Have the Edge
Parity defines MLB this year. Even the Brewers, baseball’s best team by record, project to max out at 98 wins. Most wild-card teams are likely to enter with fewer than 90. Compared to recent seasons of super-teams, the field feels wide open.
That’s where the Dodgers’ mix of elite offense, resurgent rotation, and playoff-tested manager becomes decisive. Their rivals each carry glaring flaws—Milwaukee’s lack of power, Philadelphia’s pitching health, New York’s inconsistency—that make the Dodgers look steadier by comparison.
Yes, the bullpen could still implode. But Roberts has a history of deploying starters in relief when it matters most. With October looming, Los Angeles has the talent and track record to justify Bleacher Report’s assessment: even in a “down” season, the Dodgers remain the favorites.

We’re down to the final two waiver-wire runs of the week, but the exciting prospect promotions are still coming. Sunday we learned that the Blue Jays are calling up Trey Yesavage, their first-round pick from last year’s draft and he’ll make his MLB debut in a start Monday against the Rays. And I do think this is a situation where Fantasy players looking to make an addition this week could take advantage.
As of now, Yesavage is only confirmed for one start, but there’s a chance he ends up making two starts this week, with the second coming either Saturday or Sunday against the Royals. That would be two nice, soft landing spots for a talented young pitcher who very well could take the majors by storm. He’s posted a 3.12 ERA in his first season as a pro, and has maintained elite strikeout rates even as he has climbed the minor-league ladder – between Double-A and Triple-A, he has a massive 37.3% strikeout rate despite only turning 22 a few months ago.
Now, it’s always worth noting here that there is no guarantee, even for especially talented young prospects. Nolan McLean has emerged as a real difference maker for Fantasy down the stretch, but similarly rated guys like Jonah Tong and Payton Tolle have struggled to make an impact despite really exciting skills. The truth is we just don’t know who will make the transition smoothly and who will struggle.
But Yesavage is lined up for at least one good matchup this week and he’ll be backed up by a very good Blue Jays team, so you have to like his chances here. It’s not a sure thing, but if you’re looking for a streamer, I’d rather bet on Yesavage than a lot of the mediocrities on the waiver wire in most leagues.
Here’s who else we’re looking to add ahead of Week 26:
Week 26 Waiver Targets
Catcher
Kyle Teel, White Sox (45%) – I’m going to start working on 2026 rankings this week, and I’m starting to think Teel has to be a top-12 catcher. It’s a tough group to break into, but he just continues to get better, lately tapping into more power without sacrificing his excellent plate discipline. Teel has a great approach at the plate, and while he doesn’t have plus power, he has enough to avoid being a total zero. And there’s non-zero steals potential here. His profile works in both points and Roto leagues.
First Base
Kyle Manzardo, Guardians (39%) – Manzardo has started four of the past five against lefties, fixing the biggest limitation in his game. And it’s coming at a time of the year when the Guardians are desperately trying to fight their way into the playoffs. That’s a great sign for Manzardo’s long-term appeal, and could make him a very nice sleeper pick for next season if the market still values him as a platoon bat. And it makes him a viable starter in all leagues down the stretch.
Second base
Otto Lopez, Marlins (63%) – Lopez is solid. There have been times when he has looked more than solid (and his underlying numbers suggest he should be more consistently), but he hasn’t managed to be much more than solid. That’s okay for this week, because the Marlins get to play three of their six games at Coors Field, where you can always hope for big games. Lopez is eligible at either middle infield position and is a fine choice in any league this week.
Third base
Jake Burger, Rangers (39%) – I don’t generally love

If you thought professional athletes just “eat big and train hard,” the Nationals are here to complicate that narrative. Washington’s clubhouse reveals a wildly diverse culinary universe–a mix of high-performance nutrition, personal quirks, and “whatever works today” improvisation.
Daily calorie estimates mostly depend on position, level of activity, and how close they are to game time. But within that rough range, we see wildly different eating philosophies–even within the same clubhouse. Some players follow strict diets, while others treat the food situation more like a buffet with “eat what feels good” guidelines.
Diet by Personality: Josh Bell vs. CJ Abrams
Take Josh Bell, for example. The veteran opted out of processed foods midseason, swapping bread and junk carbs for fruits, rice, and potatoes. Bell says the result has been better sleep, more energy, and a simple realization: “What a concept: Eating fruit is good for you.”
Contrast that with shortstop CJ Abrams, who (when nobody’s watching) can be found walking to his locker with two cheeseburgers on his plate. Another player, Dylan Crews, once darted to the training room with a PB&J “Uncrustable” in hand. That’s not necessarily “bad,” but it shows a more relaxed approach to fueling.
Then there are the outliers. Infielder Paul DeJong famously experimented with a raw carnivore diet–eating almost exclusively raw animal products, butter, and milk. He ultimately moved away from it because it felt like a chore, although he admits to continuing a mostly meat-focused diet. On the flip side, reliever Clayton Beeter takes a “work hard, eat hard” approach: “If I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m getting fat,’ I’ll turn it down for a little bit,” he says.
Nutrition Science Meets Baseball
Behind the scenes, Nationals sports performance nutritionist Marie Spano is crafting individualized plans that range from laser-focused to pragmatic. She estimates that most big leaguers consume between 3,500 and 5,000 calories per day, but the composition of those calories varies wildly depending on role, timing, and preferences.
Breakfast? It’s optimized for protein, fiber, and slow-burning carbs. Pre-game meals lean lighter and easier to digest, especially for pitchers or players who might “take a nap” between warm-up drills and first pitch. That might mean fruit snacks, juice, or sports bars during games–quick, clean fuel with minimal stomach disruption.
After the game, players often lean into higher-protein, higher-carb meals–especially if they had a long outing or a night they knew they’d need recovery fuel. Spano keeps an eye out: if energy flags, it might just signal somebody needs more carbs, electrolytes, or better hydration.
Learning to Fuel Right
One of the most interesting parts of the story is how younger Nationals players–even ones with exceptional raw talent–are learning to eat smart as they climb the ladder. Take Robert Hassell III and Jacob Young, who reportedly had “poor nutrition” habits in the minors. They’ve refined things considerably since arriving in D.C. and being exposed to structured game-day fueling.
Outfielder James Wood, who once struggled to maintain weight in the lower levels, now targets 4,500 calories per day in the offseason. His go-to meals: heavy Taco Stand bowls and Chipotle, plus a steady diet of steak and potatoes when the season demands it. Young has his own path: lean proteins, minimal filler carbs, but even his wife teases him about how much he eats.
That kind of metabolic education is part of what separates a player who rides the bench from one who thrives in the big leagues. With proper fueling, recovery becomes more sustainable, fatigue is delayed, and swings stay sharp deeper into long seasons.
Fueling the Grind
The Nationals’ clubhouse food habits are a microcosm of modern baseball nutrition: deeply personalized, sometimes wildly different, and always evolving. One player’s burger might be another player’s fruit bowl, but the end goal is the same: keep enough energy in the tank to hit 130 mph fastballs, make diving catches, and run out grounders–even deep into September.
Spano isn’t trying to standardize everyone. Instead, she’s translating science into baseball. For some guys, that means ditching bread and embracing a fruit-forward carb strategy. For others, it means indulging a little when the body demands it, or when the mental reset calls for a cheeseburger.
If big league baseball is a war of attrition, good eating might be the unsung weapon. In a 162-game grind, discipline matters, but so does adaptability, and the Nationals seem to be figuring that delicate balance out, one burger, one fruit bowl, and one protein-packed breakfast at a time.

The Philadelphia Phillies may have lost to the Kansas City Royals on Sunday (box score), but they nonetheless became the second team to clinch a spot in the postseason thanks to some help from the team they’ll play next. Indeed, the Phillies secured a playoff berth when the Los Angeles Dodgers took down the San Francisco Giants by a 10-2 final (box score) on Sunday.
While the Phillies are now assured a spot in the tournament, they were denied their second consecutive division title for at least one more day. Philadelphia would have wrapped up the National League East crown with both a win and a New York Mets loss. The Mets defeated the Texas Rangers, however, snapping their own eight-game losing streak in walk-off fashion.
The Phillies and Dodgers will begin a three-game set on Monday that has obvious playoff implications. The Phillies will enter 4 1/2 games in front of the Dodgers for the second seed in the NL playoff field — an important position given the top two seeds both get first-round byes, and the compromised state of the Phillies roster.
Not only is Philadelphia without ace Zack Wheeler (thoracic outlet decompression surgery), but they’ll also have to go at it without high-leverage reliever Jose Alvarado (injured and ineligible for the playoffs because of a suspension earlier this year) and with both shortstop Trea Turner (hamstring) and third baseman Alec Bohm (shoulder) dealing with physical ailments.

George Springer’s resurgent 2025 season is a big reason why the Blue Jays lead the AL East by four games and are near locks to return to the postseason this year.
“I love these guys. It makes it easy to do my job every day and not do too much,” Springer said. “We complement each other well. Everyone understands how each guy hits and each guy’s strengths. Nobody is just trying to be the guy every single day. We just want to have a good at-bat and get on to the next guy.”
In 127 games in his age-35 season, Springer has a .949 OPS and 29 home runs, his best marks since a career-best 2019 season, when he had a .974 OPS and 39 home runs with the Astros.
Springer’s resurgence in 2025 after a career-worst year in 2024 — he had a .674 OPS and 19 home runs in 145 games — has been nothing short of incredible.
“We’ve done a lot of things that we hoped to do. We’re obviously in a good spot right now, but the job’s not over. You play the game to be in these moments,” Springer said.

The Giants are promoting first baseman Bryce Eldridge, the team’s top prospect, from Triple-A Sacramento to the majors, a source has confirmed to this news organization Sunday evening.
The team has yet to officially announce the news.
Eldridge, 20, will join San Francisco (75-74) in Phoenix on Monday with 13 games remaining in the regular season as they fight for a playoff spot. Entering Monday, the Giants are 1.5 games behind the New York Mets for the third and final NL wild card spot after dropping two of three to the Dodgers.
Eldridge’s promotion comes days after first baseman Dominic Smith suffered a right hamstring strain that will likely end his regular season. It is unclear what role Eldridge, who is still learning the nuances of first base, will have with the big-league team.
The Giants’ top pick in the 2023 draft — No. 16 overall — began the season with Double-A Richmond after dealing with a wrist injury, earning a promotion to Sacramento after hitting seven homers and posting a .862 OPS over 34 games.
Eldridge missed some time due to a hamstring injury of his own but has posted a .249/.322/.514 slash line over 66 games with 18 homers and 63 RBIs. In September, Eldridge owns an .846 OPS over 12 games with two homers and nine RBIs.
The Giants have two weeks left in the regular season, and their final road trip of the season features three games in Arizona against the Diamondbacks and four at Dodger Stadium. Then they’ll host the Cardinals and Rockies in the season’s final week. They are a half-game ahead of Arizona in the wild-card race and 2.5 games ahead of St. Louis.