Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:
1. Giolito’s 2026 option:
As the Red Sox gear up for the playoffs, veteran right-hander Lucas Giolito is going to be a key part of their October rotation. His turnaround has also made it all but certain that he’ll be a free agent this winter. Giolito is now just four innings shy of reaching 140 frames on the season, at which point his $14MM club option will convert into a $19MM mutual option. Given his impressive 3.31 ERA in 24 starts for Boston this year, Giolito is a virtual lock to decline his end of that option and head back to the open market. He’ll be one of the more prominent arms in a free agent class that also features Framber Valdez, Dylan Cease, Ranger Suarez, Michael King and Brandon Woodruff.
2. Raleigh surpasses Mantle, goes for more history:
Cal Raleigh’s sensational 2025 season continued last night when he slugged two more home runs against the Royals in Kansas City. That puts him at 56 total long balls on the year, breaking the legendary Mickey Mantle’s record for the most home runs by a switch-hitter in a single season. Mantle had previously owned the all-time mark with 54 round-trippers. Next on the list of milestones Raleigh hopes to reach is the Mariners’ franchise record for home runs, which he currently shares with Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey hit 56 homers in back-to-back seasons in 1997 and ’98, but if Raleigh can launch just one more ball over the fence before the end of the year, he’ll take sole possession of the record. He’ll look to do just that against Royals southpaw Cole Ragans in his return from the injured list tonight.
3. Cubs go for the clinch:
National League Rookie of the Year contender Cade Horton outdueled NL Cy Young favorite Paul Skenes yesterday to give the Cubs a 4-1 win over the Pirates and push Chicago to 87 wins on the season. That victory dropped the Cubs’ magic number down to one. Any Cubs win or Diamondbacks loss would guarantee that Chicago will still be playing in October. The Cubs will be wrapping up their series against Pittsburgh with Matthew Boyd (3.05 ERA) on the mound opposite Johan Oviedo (2.81 ERA in six starts). The D-backs will wrap up a three-game set against the visiting Giants when they send righty Brandon Pfaadt (5.31 ERA) to the mound against future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander (3.94 ERA).
Mantle hit 54 in 1961, his highest for one season.
Who’s that?
I think he mistyped, 55 homers by Cal breaks Mickey’s 54.
Or they just made a mistake.
Either way, you are correct. Mantle hit 54 in 1961, his best HR season, while chasing Maris for the record.
Mantle wasn’t chasing Maris. Mantle and Maris were chasing Ruth. And the always classy Yankees fans ruined it for Maris.
Cubs looking very good for that top wild card slot, too. Their magic number is 3 to guarantee no worse than WC2, and they’ve got a 5 loss cushion with the Padres (though it might really be a 4-loss cushion with the WC seeding tie-breakers) and the Padres with a much more difficult remaining schedule. Plus, Padres vs Mets for two more, so Cubs will see their situational WC-position magic number drop no matter what.
Haven’t been many seasons in my Cubs lifetime this stress-free monitoring things as the post-season approaches.
How dare you
63 alltime record is (shockingly) very possible
I have a new shirt and motion the Red Sox can use in conjunction with their turbulence theme… the shirt will show yoke of air craft with two big words underneath PULL UP!!! After a hit etc the player can mimic pulling back on YOKE!!! We’re beyond turbulence NOW!!!!!bleep bleep PULL UP!!!!!!
I bet the Sox go after Max Scherzer to replace Giolito. $25 million for a corpse that can’t get out of bed and throw a baseball more than 20 times a season seems up their alley.
“Oh if he wasn’t 58 years old and threw 8 mph harder, he really would have been something!” -Craig Breslow after the 2026 Season
58??? He was 57 in 2013 ALCS…..LOL….
No horse in the Breslow criticism, but by not prospect hugging, they go from being irrelevant this season to eyeing WC spot. That’s what an ace like Crochet brought for his starts and helping the BP be less taxed. Look at what the tanking genius in Balt did by contrast-lowball offers and a bleep show rotation that hurt them day in/day out right away.
prospecting hugging is such a silly term. One extreme or other doesn’t work but keeping the right players and trading for the rights ones usually leads to success.
It is an accurate term b/c if you are unwilling to trade what you and the seller both privately believe is the real deal headliner for it to be win-win, then you as the buyer don’t get the actual established starter or significant player made available. Any clown can offer lopsided deals that gets instantly rejected. “I’ll only trade prospects I’m pretty sure aren’t going to be all that good” is going to be seen same way from seller point of view….and click.
They already have Sandoval for next year. I could legit see them signing Montgomery to fill the reclaimination project spot for the year. I don’t think signing a guy like that next year is a good idea, they still need another top of the rotation arm but there aren’t many available.
I think Raleigh has surpassed Judge for AL MVP. As mostly a catcher what he is doing is incredible. The prolific power hitter also posseses a platinum glove.
Think about this: if you reduce Raleigh’s OPS by .180 points, then he is a league average player. If you reduce Judge’s by .180 points, he’s Cal Raleigh.
Think about this too. Cal Raleigh played MOST of the year at CATCHER which is more grueling than Judge.
@Raven Cal would also have 5 – 7 more HR’s if he played half of his games in the bandbox that is Yankee Stadium.
I think Raleigh is a lock. Can’t ignore the catcher narrative for voters and the voter fatigue for Judge.
Cal should get at this point, even more so if he ties Griffey’s record as a Mariner for homeruns, but Judge will get it since it’s the New York Yankees, which isn’t a swipe at Judge, he’s balling out.
Judge 8.8 fWAR
Raleigh 8.4 fWAR
Either is a fine choice
FPG and every Sox fan including myself.
If Eugenio Suarez had been obtained by the Sox and was performing as he is with Seattle ( .156 b.a. 35% k rate ) what would we be saying. The prospect(s) it would have cost us .. Tolle/ Early ,and or J.Garcia,Arias. Sometimes the best trades are the ones someone else makes. In 42 games with Seattle, Suarez has been brutal.
Agreed, but that will all be forgotten if he shines in the playoffs.
Almost no RS fans remember the bad ones. Last year, for 6 months, all I heard was ‘why didn’t we sign more pitching?’. Until someone pointed out that Montgomery and Snell were 13-10 with a 4.76 last. And a total of 17 wins in two years combined.
Every team has fans like that, but RS fans have the worst memories of all sports fans.
in fairness Suerez would not have cost Arias, Garcia, or Tolle but Early was a possibility. Regardless Suarez has struggled mightily in Seattle.
There isn’t enough roster spots on the major league team for all the prospects. Prospects rarely reach their potential. At some point, you need to trade prospects and make sure you hold onto the right ones.
We are seeing the Red Sox season slip away because they wanted to hold onto their prospects. I hope that the team is in position to compete in the future, but man we might be looking back at 2025 with a wide open AL and wish the Sox did more.
If a team makes a move to try to win and it doesn’t work out, it sucks but at least they tried. In the case of the Red Sox this year, I have no sympathy because it could have been avoided if they were actually trying to win a world series this year. Instead, they’re trying to compete next year. Always trying to compete next year.
We all know Suarez is a very streaky hitter. He has these spells, then he rebounds bigly and goes on a tear. Hoping he has one more rebound/hot streak in him before November. (But it’s not like the Mariners are in dire need of his offense; anything he can give them will be cherry on top.)
Not likely we re-sign Giolito if he is looking for a 3-4 year deal. Barring trade for Joe Ryan, 2026 rotation will be Crochet, Bello, Early, Tolle and Crawford or Sandoval. Harrison, Dobbins, Fitts, Criswell, Drohan as depth. Perales as the wild card.
They’ll add at least one established arm to the mix. I’d love to see them trade with the Twins for either Ryan or Lopez, or perhaps make a run at Bieber in free agency.
I like all 3 of those ideas.
Not sure I understand all the Breslow criticism. I mean he’s kept all the prospects in house and added some excellent pieces. Sure he’s whiffed on a couple of guys but FA is always a crap shoot and that’s why it should be avoided if possible. You usually end up paying more for less but the Red Sox still seem to have a bright future. I mean that is still the best division in baseball and who saw the Orioles tank and Toronto running away with it. I know I didn’t. I’d give Breslow a couple more years before asking for his head.
During the off-season, it was generally accepted that the Sox needed two top of the rotation arms to compete. They traded for Crochet, cool. They cheaped out on Buehler and he was DFA’d.
They needed a SP, 1B and BP help at this deadline and Breslow whiffed mightily.
They needed a SP, 1B, and BP last deadline and he whiffed mightily again.
I give Breslow a ton of credit for actually trying to fix the pitching issues with the team. But how can they get Bregman on essentially a 1 year deal, have crochet healthy and shoving, and not address the roster needs at the deadline?
Just this year we have seen how injuries can derail these young, talented teams – BAL, ARI, etc.
Next year the Sox could easily resemble Baltimore. If Bregman walks, there’s no good 3B options. If Crochet gets hurt, there’s no one to fill that void.
I don’t see why everyone is worried about Bregman leaving. I mean even if he opts out I would still put the Red Sox at the top of the list to re sign him. Like you said there’s nobody to really play 3B so he can play his natural position and it’s not like Fenway is a horrible place to hit and they should have money to spend. I really haven’t looked at their money status for next year but Breslow will probably be fine there with all the cheap prospects he has access to. Just my opinion though. Plus I thought Buehler was a reasonable gamble.
Buehler pitched horribly in the 2024 regular season and the Dodgers didn’t extend a QO to him. If the team that knows him best won’t spend the 20MM on him, why should another team? The Dodgers have pitchers living on the IL and can use all the good depth there.
I honestly don’t care for Bregman, he’s getting paid 40MM for a 3.4 bWAR season. You overpay guys on a short term deal so that you get better production out of them. He’s also supposed to be this great leader, but the team is playing like they need someone in that leadership role. I am more concerned with their plans for if he leaves. He’s not worth 40MM/year. I said that right after they signed him, and I’ll keep saying it.
Hitters making that kind of money: Ohtani, Soto, Judge, Vlad Jr. Bregman is clearly a step below.
We can agree there that I don’t think Bregman is a 40 million dollar a year guy and neither is Kyle Tucker who all the sheep here keep crowing about. But Buehler pitched well at the end of last year and especially in the Playoffs and was going to have a completely normal off season so I thought it was a reasonable expectation of improvement. Yeah it didn’t work out but I didn’t think it was as horrible as what Jed gave up for Tucker. Thankfully, I think Hoyer would be dumb enough to give it to him 400 million, But I doubt Ricketts will give him the opportunity. I’d lighten up on Craig for a bit. Plus we have no idea what Sox ownership is telling him they want.
We are frustrated because the AL has been wide open this year. Was this team as built ever going to push for a WS, no way, but they could have at least done something to shore up key spots of weakness to ensure there would be enough talent on hand to hang on to a wild card spot.
They chose to do next to nothing (I do not consider trading for a guy who was pitching horribly for another team and then unsurprisingly continued to pitch horribly in Boston as “trying”, but Matz has been solid) and now we have gone from solidly in the driver’s seat of the wild card picture to clinging on for dear life to the 3rd spot. Probably going to blow it because Cleveland and Texas won’t go away and both have favorable schedules to ours the rest of the way.
No one was asking them to mortgage the future for this team, but I find it hard to believe they couldn’t have found some kind of “middle ground” sort of acquisitions that would’ve saved them from having to count on guys like Tolle or Nick Sogard in big spots down the stretch in September like they’ve had to.
So to clarify you wanted Breslow to trade top prospects to what? What guy would the trade of major prospects have brought in? Breslow seemed to do the right thing by keeping the top prospects in house and playing the long game. I think it was the smart play but again it’s just my opinion. By the way it’s just his first year so he’s probably still getting a handle on just exactly what he does have. I’d give him a chance but I am a fan of his. If Hoyer would have made him the GM instead of that clown Hawkins he’d still be in Chicago but Jed doesn’t want people who are smarter than him around. Same with Scott Harris.
Glad you asked!
Remember James Tibbs, the guy we got back from the Devers trade and is now considered a top 10 Dodgers prospect with how hard he’s raking in Tulsa?
They gave him away for Dustin May, whose ERA with LA was pushing 5, and with Boston has been closer to 6.
How about just about literally any other pitcher who was moved at the deadline? The only bigger mess than May that I am aware of is Ryan Helsley in Queens,
We don’t even have to get into hypotheticals of who would’ve wanted what guy that Breslow preferred to hang on to which is why certain trades rumored to be in the works never actually transpired. We know based on what he actually already gave away for nothing that we should’ve been able to acquire something akin to Shane Bieber, David Bednar, or Griffin Jax.
Not to mention that at first base we had been enduring Toro putting up numbers well below the Mendoza line for two months and they chose to do nothing about it until Nathaniel Lowe was waived in mid-August. Considering Josh Naylor was moved for two non-elite prospects, yeah, there’s another move that would’ve been a drastic upgrade at a price within reach without mortgaging essential building blocks for the future.
But we didn’t, because our front office likes to be unserious and putz around with moves that have a 1% probability of working out so they can save a few bucks and try to look like the smartest guys in the room.
Well if you’re still ranting about the Devers trade I still don’t think you can evaluate that until you see what they do with the 30 million or so they save by moving that horrible contract. The fact that he was even able to unload that albatross should be at least 3 points in his favor. Most of the FA 1B people who were available were horrible also. Casas should be back next year and if not they can surely spend some of that Devers money to get someone else. I don’t think things are that bleak. But again it’s my opinion from afar.
To be fair, opinions aren’t facts of the matter.
Tibbs isn’t a consensus top 10 prospect for the Dodgers (BA has him at 26th). Regardless I still thought it was a stupid trade for the Red Sox and stand by that..
What? Who is “ranting about the Devers trade”? Did you even read my comment? I am “ranting” about how they turned around and gave away the only prospect they got in the Devers trade for a guy who was so bad they had to come up with one of their classic phantom injury stints to keep him away from the team the rest of the season. Pretty big difference there, bud.
MLB.com has him at #8, Dodgers Digest has him at #10, and Fangraphs has him at #13. I don’t pay for BA but tried to look for a non-paywalled source and couldn’t find anything more recent than June which would not account for his rise in the last 2 months or so. Between that and factoring in a couple guys graduating or falling off, doesn’t seem like a stretch at all to call him a top 10 Dodgers prospect right now.
Sorry bud so maybe ranting was a bit over the top but it does seem most of the posts I’ve read about Devers has trading him as a mistake. So ease off the bow planes a bit I meant no offense. I just think losing Devers was addition by subtraction. But like I said, It depends on what they do with the 30 million a year or so they save every year. Didn’t mean any harm.
Those ratings services are so far apart in their ratings it’s not funny. But the one that’s farthest off is Callis and his weird friends at MLB.Com. They’re so far of on the Cubs it’s basically comical. But I watch a lot of Minor League Baseball with my MLB.com package which is a big reason I get it every year.
The best pitcher in all of baseball is Sk….
Skubalenes!
Skubaleneshorton!
Giancarlo Stanton hit more than 40 one time. Barry Bonds hit more than 50 one time.
Getting hot at the right time and 100% healthy, the Mariners are sitting pretty with positive forward momentum heading towards the playoffs. Winners of 10 in a row, and before last night the bullpen had given up one ER in its last 32 innings. Hopefully they can keep this hot streak going a bit longer.
The Astros are also gonna miss Yordan Alvarez.
YBC…would you concur generally with the following assertions?
Healthiest rosters going into the postseason (so far; currently speaking)
AL. Seattle , Toronto, Detroit, New York
NL. Milwaukee, Mets, Dodgers, Cubs