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Connor Wong Undergoes Hand Surgery

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Red Sox catcher Connor Wong went under the knife for a right hand carpal boss excision. The procedure, which the team described as “successful,” was performed earlier this morning by Dr. Matthew Leibman at Mass General Brigham Hospital. The Red Sox have not yet provided further details about the timeline for Wong’s recovery.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, a carpal boss is a benign “bony overgrowth or lump” found on the back of one’s hand or wrist. The condition doesn’t always cause pain, but the fact that Wong had his carpal boss removed suggests it was causing him at least some degree of discomfort. Most people return to “typical activity” within two to six weeks following a carpal boss excision. While that timeline could be longer for a professional athlete, it seems likely Wong will be back to full strength by the time he reports for training camp next spring.

The 29-year-old, who bats and throws right-handed, spent four weeks on the injured list early in the season after fracturing his left pinky finger. However, this is the first time the Red Sox have mentioned any sort of issue with his dominant hand. Wong started behind the dish on the final day of the regular season, and while he did not appear in the playoffs, that decision seemingly had more to do with his poor performance all season than any injury concerns. As for how much his poor performance might have had to do with the carpal boss? Wong can only hope it played a significant factor and that having it removed will help him rebound in 2026.

After significantly outperforming his expected stats (en route to a .280/.333/.425 slash line) last season, Wong saw his luck take a sharp turn for the worse. Through 63 games in 2025, he hit below .200 with zero home runs. The 42-point gap between his wOBA and xwOBA is a good sign for Wong going forward, but that said, even his xwOBA would have ranked him among the bottom 3% of hitters in the sport if he had enough plate appearances to qualify. He grounded into seven double plays, drove in just seven runs, and finished with -0.7 FanGraphs WAR. It certainly didn’t help that, once again, he posted negative defense metrics across the board.

Wong wasn’t Boston’s only backstop who spent time at Mass General Brigham recently. Carlos Narváez, who usurped Wong as the team’s starting catcher this year, went in for a left knee meniscectomy yesterday. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow previously described the procedure as a “cleanup,” clarifying that he expects Narváez to be back at full strength by spring training. Narvaez will presumably slot in as Boston’s primary catcher for 2026, while Wong’s status with the organization is up in the air. He is projected to earn $1.6MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility, and after the season he just had, it wouldn’t be entirely surprising to see the Red Sox non-tender him instead.

Carlos Narvaez Undergoes Knee Surgery

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October 9: The Red Sox announced this morning that Narvaez underwent a successful left knee meniscectomy and that the procedure was performed by Dr. Eric Berkson at Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center (Waltham).

October 6: Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez will undergo a “cleanup” procedure on the meniscus in his left knee, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow announced Monday at his end-of-season press conference (link via Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald). He’s expected to be ready for spring training.

Narvaez played through much of the second half with pain in his knee. He missed four straight games in early August due to the injury. Narvaez’s splits from the season generally reflect that the catcher was playing at less than 100 percent down the stretch. From Opening Day through July 9, he slashed .280/.354/.453 in 274 turns at the plate. From that point through season’s end, Narvaez turned in a lowly .181/.229/.369 batting line. His strikeout rate climbed in each of the season’s final three months and reached a boiling point by mid-September; Narvaez fanned in a bit more than 23% of his plate appearances through the season’s first three months but went down on strikes in 13 of his final 44 plate appearances (29.5%).

Even with the ugly finish to the season, Narvaez’s overall 2025 campaign was a roaring success. Acquired from the archrival Yankees in exchange for pitching prospect Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, Narvaez broke camp as the backup in Boston but quickly laid claim to the starting catching job. He finished out the year with a roughly league-average batting line of .241/.306/.419 (97 wRC+) and swatted 15 home runs in his first big league season. Narvaez also graded out as a plus defender, thwarting 28% of stolen-base attempts against him while delivering above-average grades for pitch framing and blocking balls in the dirt (via Statcast).

Narvaez’s ascension dovetailed with regression from former starter Connor Wong. Assuming all goes well with Narvaez’s knee procedure, he’s the favorite to head into spring training as the Red Sox’ starting catcher next season. Boston has an additional five full seasons of club control remaining, and Narvaez won’t even be eligible for arbitration until after the 2027 season.

Craig Breslow Discusses Red Sox’s Offseason Plans

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The Red Sox are in offseason mode after being bounced by the Yankees last week. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow met with reporters on Monday to discuss the upcoming winter (links via Tim Healey of The Boston Globe and Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic). Like many baseball operations leaders, Breslow spoke mostly in generalities but provided a few hints to the front office’s plans.

Starting pitching should be a focus for a second straight offseason. The Sox pulled off the most impactful rotation move of last winter, trading four prospects for Garrett Crochet and signing him to a six-year extension just after Opening Day. Crochet was everything the team could have hoped for and should land a top two finish in Cy Young balloting.

“Every team gets better if you can bring in a starter or develop a starting pitcher who can pitch at Garrett Crochet’s level,” Breslow said. “We will be as aggressive as we can when trying to chase that down while also ensuring we are doing everything we can to develop our players internally.” Crochet can go toe to toe with any other pitcher in MLB during Game 1 of a playoff series, but the Sox are arguably lacking a true #2 starter.

Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito were their second and third best starters this past season. Bello turned in a career-best 3.35 ERA across 166 2/3 innings. He has a ground-ball heavy approach and posted personal lows in both strikeout rate (17.7%) and swinging strike percentage (8.6%). Bello overcame that to post a sub-3.00 ERA each month between June and August. The lack of whiffs seemed to catch up to him at the end of the season, as he allowed a 5.40 ERA with a 16:12 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his five starts in September. Bello surrendered two runs on four hits without escaping the third inning in his lone playoff start.

Giolito didn’t factor into the playoffs at all and might not be back in 2026. The veteran righty went down with a season-ending elbow injury during the waning days of the regular season. That came shortly after he’d reached the 140-inning vesting threshold to convert what had been a $14MM club option into a $19MM mutual provision.

Giolito was trending towards a three- or four-year deal had he finished the season healthy. The elbow issue clouds his future, but he recently told Chris Cotillo of MassLive there’s nothing structurally amiss with his UCL. He’ll probably decline his end of the mutual option and look for a multi-year deal, and if the elbow injury were more serious than initially expected, the Sox would have passed on their side of the option either way.

A few of remaining in-house options are injured or coming back from significant issues. Patrick Sandoval should be in the mix after spending this season rehabbing last summer’s UCL surgery. Kutter Crawford missed the whole year due to knee and wrist injuries, undergoing season-ending surgery for the latter in June.

Tanner Houck underwent Tommy John surgery in August; the Sox could non-tender him in lieu of a projected $3.95MM arbitration salary. Hunter Dobbins tore his ACL around the All-Star Break. He’s unlikely to be ready for Opening Day. Dustin May will be a free agent and didn’t pitch well after being acquired as part of a bizarrely quiet trade deadline. Richard Fitts had an even 5.00 ERA over 11 appearances.

Internally, that’d place a lot of pressure on the Sox’s younger arms. Connelly Early and Payton Tolle each had breakout minor league seasons and were pressed into late-season MLB action. Early was very impressive over his first few starts; Tolle had a rockier first impression. Both have plus stuff from the left side and can compete for rotation spots in Spring Training, but they have a combined eight MLB starts (postseason included) between them. Kyle Harrison will be in the mix as well, yet the Sox kept him in Triple-A until they’d essentially run out of other healthy starting pitchers.

Framber Valdez, NPB righty Tatsuya Imai and Dylan Cease are among the top free agent starters available. Trade candidates include MacKenzie Gore, Joe Ryan, Pablo López and Sandy Alcantara. The Red Sox were linked to Ryan more frequently than any other team at the trade deadline. It’d be a surprise if they didn’t reengage with the Twins (though Minnesota will of course hear from plenty of teams about the talented right-hander).

Breslow also alluded to a couple goals on the position player side: adding power and improving the defense. The Sox ranked 15th in MLB with 186 home runs. Breslow noted that the longball can take on greater importance in the postseason, where it becomes more challenging to string together hits against higher-level pitching. He didn’t say the Sox were going to sell out for power bats, of course, but called the tougher October scoring environment a “consideration” when building the roster.

Free agency features a few sluggers. Kyle Schwarber, Pete Alonso and Eugenio Suárez are all hitting the market and have at least 40-homer potential (quite a bit more in Schwarber’s case). Japanese corner infielder Munetaka Murakami will be available via the posting system. He’s strikeout prone and not a great defender, but he has a 56-homer season in NPB under his belt. He drilled 22 homers and hit .273/.379/.663 over 56 games despite battling an oblique injury this year.

None of those players would provide any kind of defensive value. Boston led the majors with 116 errors. An outfield featuring Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu should be strong defensively. The infield wasn’t nearly as good.

Trevor Story’s range has declined sharply at shortstop. It doesn’t seem out of the question that the Sox could look to move him to second base in deference to Marcelo Mayer at some point (assuming Story doesn’t opt out of the remaining two years and $55MM on his deal). Kristian Campbell struggled on both sides of the ball as a rookie and doesn’t have a clear season-opening role despite signing an eight-year extension last spring.

Suárez and Murakami could play third base, but they’d be defensive downgrades compared to Alex Bregman — who’ll almost certainly opt out in search of a six or seven-year deal. Schwarber and Alonso have even less positional flexibility. The Sox already have their glut of outfielders that’ll lead to more trade rumors involving Duran and Abreu. Masataka Yoshida is a bat-only player in left field or at DH. First baseman Triston Casas is coming off a major knee injury. Breslow dodged a question about the roles for any of those players, especially Casas. “I don’t think it makes a ton of sense on October 6 to say someone is or isn’t our first baseman. We’ll see how things play out,” he said (via Healey).

10 Players Elect Free Agency

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Now that the season is over, we’ll start seeing several players choose to become minor league free agents.  Major League free agents (i.e. players with six-plus years of big league service time) will hit the open market five days after the end of the World Series, but eligible minor leaguers can already start electing free agency.

To qualify, these players must have been all outrighted off their team’s 40-man rosters during the 2025 season without being added back.  These players also must have multiple career outrights on their resume, and/or at least three years of Major League service time.

We’ll offer periodic updates over the coming weeks about many other players hitting the market in this fashion.  These free agent decisions are all listed on the official MLB.com or MILB.com transactions pages, for further reference.

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Infielder

Outfielder

Pitchers

Red Sox Notes: GM Search, Toboni, Story, Bregman

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The Red Sox made clear nearly a month ago that they planned to hire a GM this offseason. At the time, Paul Toboni was an assistant GM for the club and immediately appeared to be the logical choice for the role among internal candidates and perhaps even the overall favorite. It didn’t take long, however, for that option to come off the table. Toboni was hired by the Nationals to serve as their president of baseball operations, taking over as their top executive. According to The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey, Toboni was not only the “heavy favorite” to serve as Craig Breslow’s #2 in Boston, but the club now plans to “take a step a back” this offseason to evaluate what they want to do with the role now that he is no longer an option.

That seems to leave the door cracked open for the possibility that the Red Sox will go without a GM serving under Breslow for a third consecutive season in 2026. That would be something of a shock given the club’s comments last month, but given the club’s apparent focus on Toboni for the role it’s at least possible that their decision to hire a GM was largely a way to promote him and keep someone viewed as a rising star around the game in the organization’s fold. That’s no longer an option, so perhaps the Red Sox could decide to once again leave the job vacant headed into 2026.

Of course, that’s hardly guaranteed and may not be the most prudent option. As Healey notes, Breslow called Toboni’s departure “a big loss” for the organization and noted that he had a hand in all areas of player development in both the majors and minors. Those responsibilities will presumably need to be taken over by someone else, and while Boston’s three remaining assistant GMs (Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero, and Mike Groopman) could share some of that load or a lower-level member of the staff could be promoted to fill Toboni’s shoes, an external hire who could be brought in by the allure of that vacant GM job could perhaps kill two birds with one stone by filling the job of Breslow’s #2 with someone who offers some of the same strengths Toboni would have offered.

In any case, the Red Sox likely won’t be in a rush to hire their next GM in the coming days. While they’ve been eliminated from postseason contention themselves, Breslow suggested that they’ll figure out how to handle the loss of Toboni and the vacant GM role “once things quiet down” and the postseason starts to wind down. That’s sensible enough, given the fact that potentially intriguing candidates from other organizations could be hard to pluck away until that team is eliminated from postseason contention.

In other Red Sox news, the club is facing two significant looming opt-out opportunities on the left side of their infield. Alex Bregman, of course, will have the opportunity to forgo the final two years and $80MM ($40MM of which is deferred money) on his contract and return to free agency. After a season where Bregman slashed .273/.360/.462 with 3.5 WAR according to both Baseball Reference and Fangraphs in 114 games, it seems like a fairly good bet that he’ll be taking that opportunity. For now, though, Bregman is staying mum about his plans. He told reporters (including Chris Cotillo of MassLive) on Thursday that he was “not even thinking about” his impending free agency in the aftermath of the club’s loss to the Yankees in Game 3 of the AL Wild Card series.

The same is true of shortstop Trevor Story, who told reporters (including Cotillo) that his impending decision was “not at the top of mind,” though he did acknowledge that he came to Boston in hopes of sticking around for a “long time.” Story has two years and $55MM guaranteed left on his contract, with $5MM of that coming in the form of a buyout on a $25MM club option for the 2028 season. While Bregman’s banner year seems likely to make him a lock to opt out, Story is a much more borderline case. He played just 163 games total for Boston between 2022 and 2024 with below average offensive numbers, but enjoyed a 2025 campaign where he played in 157 games while slashing .263/.308/.433 with 25 homers and 31 steals in 654 plate appearances as Boston’s starting shortstop. He also improved as the season went on, hitting .291/.336/.490 in 75 games from July 1 onward.

That’s the sort of production that makes it easy to imagine Story beating his current guarantee in free agency, particularly in a market with few quality shortstops outside of Bo Bichette. On the other hand, he’s headed into his age-33 season and has a long injury history that could raise some eyebrows about offering a long-term deal, while his roughly league average offense (101 wRC+) isn’t the sort of impressive production that spurs teams to invest a massive average annual value in a player. If both Bregman and Story were to walk this winter, that would leave the Red Sox with a deeply unsettled infield, though Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, Triston Casas, and Ceddanne Rafaela are among the young players in the organization who could theoretically pick up a glove somewhere on the dirt next year.

Lucas Giolito Unlikely To Pitch Again This Season

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9:02 pm: There is no structural damage to Giolito’s UCL, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. He is dealing with flexor irritation as well as a bone issue, which will require rest for a while.

3:51 pm: Right-hander Lucas Giolito is likely out for the year with an elbow injury, manager Alex Cora told reporters at today’s media session (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic). The elbow issue had already kept Giolito off the Wild Card roster. It will now seemingly cost him the rest of 2025. Cora told reporters that rookie Connelly Early will likely draw the starting nod in Game 3 against the Yankees, if needed.

The elbow injury will bring an untimely end to a resurgent season for Giolito. The 31-year-old shuffled between three different MLB organizations in 2023, posting a 4.88 ERA across 33 starts with the White Sox, Angels, and Guardians. He then missed the entirety of the 2024 season following surgery to repair his UCL. Giolito bounced back with a 3.41 ERA over 26 starts with the Red Sox this season. His 4.59 xFIP and 4.65 SIERA suggest he performed above his head, but his contributions helped solidify a staff that dealt with injuries all year.

Boston inked Giolito to a two-year deal ahead of the 2024 season, with the second season being a player option. After missing the entire year, Giolito picked up the option. By triggering that player option, he gave the club a $14MM option for 2026, though with a vesting clause that would convert it to a $19MM mutual option if Giolito reached 140 innings pitched. He exceeded that mark in his second-to-last outing of the regular season. Giolito seemed destined to decline his end of the option and return to free agency, but the elbow injury could lead Boston to reject it on their end.

If either side balks at the mutual option, Giolito would enter free agency in a peculiar position. He’d be coming off his best season in terms of run prevention since his breakout 2019. While he fell short of the above-average strikeout numbers he posted during his White Sox tenure, Giolito cleaned up the home run issues that plagued him in his wayward 2023 season. On the other hand, this is the second elbow problem in two years for Giolito. Even if this specific injury is minor, anything elbow-related is a red flag, especially for a pitcher who will be 32 years old next summer.

Early starting a playoff game would’ve seemed like a long shot heading into the season, but he’s now the clear top candidate to fill Giolito’s vacated spot. The rookie has impressed in four big-league starts, allowing two earned runs or less in every outing. He burst onto the scene with 11 strikeouts against the Athletics in his debut and has continued to rack up punchouts at an above-average clip. After posting a strikeout rate above 30% at each minor league stop, he’s at 36.7% through 19 1/3 innings with the Red Sox.

The Yankees will present a challenging task for the young lefty, especially in what would be a series-deciding game. New York led the league in OPS and wOBA against left-handed pitching in the regular season. They slugged 70 home runs off southpaws, matching the Dodgers for the league lead. The Yankees elected to roll out a lineup with just three left-handed hitters against Garrett Crochet in Game 1. That starting nine does not feature Jazz Chisholm Jr. While a strict platoon between Chisholm and righty Amed Rosario seems unlikely, New York appears willing to play matchups in this series. It’s a tiny sample, but Early has struck out an absurd 13 of the 22 lefties he’s faced this season. He’s held left-handed hitters to a meager .150/.227/.150 slash line.

Kyle Harrison and Payton Tolle are also on hand as potential options to replace Giolito. Tolle also impressed in his MLB debut, striking out eight Pirates over 5 1/3 innings. He’s posted a 7.36 ERA since that outing and has been used in a relief role in recent outings. Harrison came over from San Francisco in the Rafael Devers trade. He spent the majority of the season with Triple-A Worcester, but did make three appearances for Boston in September. Harrison tossed a quality start against Tampa Bay in his penultimate outing and is likely the most stretched-out member of the bullpen.

Liam Hendriks Undergoes Ulnar Nerve Transposition Surgery

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The Red Sox announced this afternoon that right-hander Liam Hendriks underwent successful right elbow ulnar nerve transposition surgery today, as relayed by MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. A timeline for Hendriks’s recovery was not announced.

Hendriks, 36, was shut down with forearm tightness earlier this month. The right-hander has recorded just 18 2/3 innings over the past three seasons due to a battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as Tommy John surgery. He returned to the mound in April of this year for the Red Sox, but was sidelined by what was initially described as hip inflammation, though Hendriks later clarified he was diagnosed with a hernia that eventually turned out to be an abdominal strain. Whatever the ailment that sidelined him throughout the summer was, Hendriks was on the way towards a return before the aforementioned tightness in his forearm cropped up.

That tightness led to today’s surgery, which is a somewhat common follow-up procedure after Tommy John surgery. As noted by Cotillo, Hendriks’s Red Sox teammate Zack Kelly underwent the same procedure in 2023. After going under the knife at the beginning of May that year, he returned to a big league mound just under five months later at the tail end of September. If Hendriks were to follow a similar recovery timeline, that would allow him to be only slightly delayed coming into Spring Training 2026 and may not impact his availability for next year’s Opening Day at all.

Whether that return to the mound will come with the Red Sox or in another organization is up in the air. The club and Hendriks hold a mutual option for the 2026 season valued at $12MM, but mutual options virtually never get exercised and it seems all but certain the Red Sox will decline their end of the option and instead pay Hendriks a $2MM buyout as he returns to the free agent market. Once there, it will be interesting to see how he’s valued by the rest of the league. The righty’s lack of innings in recent years, laundry list of injury woes, and ugly 6.59 ERA when he was healthy enough to pitch for the Red Sox this year might make him seem like an arm who won’t be able to garner more than a minor league offer.

Hendriks’s value cannot be so easily dismissed, however. After all, this is a pitcher who was on the shortlist for the very best relief arms in all of baseball the last time he was truly healthy. From 2019 to 2022, Hendriks made three All-Star games and twice received MLB’s Reliever of the Year award for his stellar work out of the bullpen. In that four-year stretch, Hendriks posted a dazzling 2.26 ERA with an even better 2.13 FIP, struck out 38.8% of his opponents, and collected 114 saves.

Even with Hendriks’s age and injury history, a player with a track record that elite is bound to garner some serious interest from bullpen-needy clubs. After all, Kirby Yates had a similar three-year stretch of injury woes from 2020 to 2022 before he turned things around to post a 2.21 ERA with Atlanta and Texas in his age-36 and -37 seasons. David Robertson threw just 18 2/3 innings between 2019 and 2021 before enjoying a resurgence with the Cubs in 2022 that has extended his career past his fortieth birthday. Kenley Jansen will celebrate his 38th birthday tomorrow, while Aroldis Chapman will do the same in February. Neither age nor years of injury woes are necessarily a death knell for an elite reliever’s career, and there will surely be teams interested in rolling the dice on Hendriks this winter to see if he can be the next injured hurler to recapture his All-Star form in his late thirties.

Lucas Giolito Dealing With Elbow Issue, Will Not Be On Red Sox’ Wild Card Roster

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Red Sox righty Lucas Giolito is dealing with an elbow issue and won’t be included on Boston’s roster for their Wild Card Series showdown with the archrival Yankees, manager Alex Cora told reporters at today’s media session (link via Christopher Smith of MassLive.com). Cora did not provide a specific diagnosis or tip his hand as to whether Giolito would be available in subsequent rounds, should the Red Sox advance. Giolito would’ve been Boston’s starter for a potential Game 3 of the series. He’ll see a specialist today, MassLive’s Sean McAdam adds.

Giolito, 31, missed the entire 2024 season due to UCL surgery but returned with a flourish in 2025, firing 145 frames of 3.41 ERA ball. That number is inflated a bit by a poor start to the season; from June 10 onward, he made 19 starts with a 2.51 ERA. Giolito’s 19.7% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate contributed to more tepid evaluations from metrics like FIP (4.17) and SIERA (4.66), but his bottom-line results were unequivocally strong, even if their sustainability merited some skepticism.

Upon reaching 140 innings pitched this season, Giolito triggered a vesting clause in his $14MM club option that converted it into a $19MM mutual option. When he reached that threshold, it appeared all but certain that the right-hander would turn down his end of the mutual option and reenter the market. Suddenly, the health of his elbow clouds that decision. If the issue is serious, the Red Sox will surely decline their end and send Giolito into free agency anyhow, but he’ll return to the open market under very different circumstances than seemed likely even one week ago.

Giolito did experience a velocity drop of some note in September. After averaging 93.4 mph on his heater through the season’s first five months, he averaged 92.5 mph on his four-seamer over his final five appearances — including a season-low 92.1 mph in his final appearance. He still posted a 3.16 ERA over 25 2/3 innings in those outings, but he also issued 18 walks. At first glance, that could’ve been chalked up to fatigue for a pitcher who didn’t throw a single inning in ’24 but was pushing up toward 150 frames in the stretch run — but word of a possible elbow injury now makes that late slide all the more concerning.

The Red Sox figure to have more information on Giolito’s status later in the week, once he’s met with that specialist and discussed any findings with team brass. That’ll determine his availability — or lack thereof — for potential appearances in the ALDS, ALCS or World Series, depending how far Boston progresses in the postseason. For the series at hand, the elbow trouble for Giolito likely thrusts one of the team’s promising young lefties, like Connelly Early or Kyle Harrison, into that Game 3 start. Top prospect Payton Tolle was moved to the bullpen in early September and hasn’t pitched more than three innings in an outing since Sept. 29 as a result, so he’s not likely to get the nod.

Poll: Who Will Win The Wild Card Series?

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The 2025 regular season is in the books, and the baseball world is now gearing up for what might be a wild postseason.  It took until Game 162 to finalize the full slate of playoff teams and matchups, but now we know the eight clubs who will take part in the wild card round that begins on Tuesday, as “October baseball” gets started a bit early this year on September 30.  All WCS matchups are best-of-three, and will take place entirely in the home ballpark of the higher-seeded team.

The Guardians will meet the Tigers again after Cleveland posted a 5-1 record against Detroit over a pair of series in the last two weeks, contributing to the AL Central’s epic shakeup.  The Tigers held a 9.5-game lead in the division before going 3-13 over their last 16 games to barely eke out a wild card slot.  The Guards, meanwhile, went 19-4 over their final 23 games to overtake Detroit and claim Cleveland’s third division title in the last four years.

After all of that, the two clubs find themselves facing off in the postseason for the second straight year.  The Guardians needed the full five games to oust Detroit in the 2024 AL Division Series, as last season the Tigers were the team surging into the playoffs after a late-season hot streak.  All of the momentum is on the Guardians’ side at this point, and even though the Tigers will have Tarik Skubal going in Game 1, Cleveland’s pitching has been on such a roll that the Guards have the overall pitching advantage.  The Guardians held an 8-5 record against the Tigers in regular-season play this year.

One of baseball’s greatest rivalries will be renewed again in October when the Yankees host the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.  The Yankees lost the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Blue Jays to fall just short of the AL East crown, despite an eight-game winning streak to finish the regular season.  New York’s rotation and homer-heavy offense seem to be clicking at the right time, yet the Sox had seemingly had the Yankees’ number this year, with a 9-4 record in head-to-head play.

After falling short to the Dodgers in last year’s World Series, the Yankees are eager to return the Fall Classic and finally win the first championship of the Aaron Judge era.  Boston hasn’t quite been the same since Roman Anthony was lost to an oblique injury in early September and the rookie star’s status remains unclear for postseason action.  However, the Red Sox have a well-rounded roster and an ace of their own in Garrett Crochet, plus the organization is hungry for postseason success in their first playoff trip since 2021.

The Cubs have also just ended a mini-drought in reaching October for the first time since the shortened 2020 season, as Chicago stepped up to win 92 games after posting 83-79 records in both 2023 and 2024.  They’ll now host the Padres in the first postseason meeting between the two clubs since 1984, when San Diego fought back from a 2-0 series deficit to win a best-of-five NLCS and deny Chicago a trip to the World Series.  Forty-one years later, it’s the Padres who might feel slightly more cursed at the moment, since the club has yet to advance beyond the NLCS in their three previous playoff trips in the last six seasons.

There’s plenty of pressure on the Friars to finally reach the pinnacle of this era of success, though Chicago is hoping for more than just a playoff appearance after its win-now trade for Kyle Tucker last winter.  After starting 38-22, the Cubs have been more okay than elite (54-48) over the better part of the last four months.  The series’ Wrigleyville locale could be impactful, as the Padres were only 38-43 on the road this season.

The Dodgers host the Reds in a matchup of two teams with very different recent postseason histories.  Los Angeles has won 12 of the last 13 NL West titles, and is looking to become baseball’s first repeat World Series champ since the 1998-2000 Yankees pulled off the three-peat.  Cincinnati, meanwhile, is in the playoffs for just the fifth time in the last 30 years, and the Reds haven’t won a playoff series since all the way back in 1995 — when they beat the Dodgers in the NLDS.

Winning “only” 93 games counts as a relative disappointment by the Dodgers’ standards, and the club will need to navigate an extra playoff round.  This puts more pressure on the beleaguered L.A. bullpen, and Will Smith’s participation is a question mark due to a hairline fracture in his right hand.  The rotation is on a roll, however, and naturally there’s a lot of built-in playoff experience for the reigning champs.  The young Reds gained some seasoning in beating out the Mets for a wild card berth, and of course manager Terry Francona is no stranger to October.  Cincinnati’s rotation and bullpen will need to continue their excellent form to counter Shohei Ohtani and company, and the wild card series would be a great time for the inconsistent Reds lineup to get on track.

Which four teams do you think will reach the Division Series?  Vote now in our polls:

Red Sox Select José De León

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The Red Sox have selected the contract of right-hander José De León. They had a 40-man vacancy due to Ali Sánchez being outrighted last week. Left-hander Chris Murphy has been optioned to open an active roster spot.

De León, 33, is going to start today’s game for the Red Sox. Lucas Giolito was lined up to potentially take the ball today. He probably would have done so if they still needed to clinch a playoff spot. However, now that the Sox have a spot secured, it appears they will hold Giolito back so that he’s available for the Wild Card series.

Instead, they will give the ball to De León. Despite his age and former status as a top prospect, his major league track record is still limited. He debuted back in 2016 and has appeared in six different big league seasons but has thrown just 65 1/3 innings with a 7.44 earned run average. Injuries have been a major storyline in his career. His 2023 season was cut short by Tommy John surgery, the second of his career.

Due to that surgery, he missed the entire 2024 season, at least in terms of affiliated ball. He played some winter ball in Puerto Rico in 2024-25, demonstrating enough health for the Sox to give him a minor league deal heading into 2025. He made 22 appearances for the WooSox this year, 13 of them being starts, logging 75 1/3 innings overall with a 6.93 ERA. His 14.4% walk rate was quite poor but he struck out 24.6% of batters faced.

His last appearance was September 20th, just over a week ago, when he logged 4 1/3 innings, walking four but striking out eight. Presumably, the Sox will throw him out there to soak up as many innings as he can, so that they can save Giolito and some of their relievers for the Wild Card round. There is an off-day tomorrow, so the relievers don’t need to be sealed in bubble wrap, but it makes sense for the club to focus on their workloads and make sure they’re all fresh for Tuesday.

De León is out of options and may end up getting bumped off the roster shortly. It’s been suggested by some members of the Boston media that the club may want to have Sánchez on the postseason roster as a third catcher, which would free up manager Alex Cora to be more aggressive in removing his catchers for pinch-hitters or pinch-runners. Since De León is likely up for a one-day mop-up assignment, he may end up the sacrificial lamb for that move.

Photo courtesy of Jonathan Dyer, Imagn Images

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