The 2025 regular season is in the books. Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world in the final day before the playoffs:
1. Teams gear up for the postseason:
The 2025 playoff field is now set. The Reds squeaked into the NL’s final Wild Card spot over the Mets, while the Guardians’ late surge pushed Detroit out of the AL Central division title and the Astros out of the playoffs entirely. The Brewers, Phillies, Blue Jays, and Mariners get to enjoy a few days off to prepare for the start of the Division Series, but the rest of the playoff field now needs to focus on the Wild Card Series, which begins tomorrow. The Tigers, Padres, Red Sox, and Reds will need to travel to Cleveland, Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles respectively. All eight teams will be weighing who exactly will make the final cut of their Wild Card roster.
2. Which teams will see leadership changes?
The end of a season brings with it the winds of change around baseball for many of the league’s losing teams. The Nationals have already settled on Red Sox executive Paul Toboni as their new president of baseball operations, and that’s likely just the first of several notable changes. Interim managers in Washington, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Colorado could have the “interim” tag removed from their titles or be shown the door, and there’s additional managerial uncertainty in places like Anaheim, San Francisco, and Atlanta. Meanwhile, Houston GM Dana Brown told reporters yesterday that a “full assessment” of the Astros organization will be taken after the team’s playoff miss this year, and other teams facing disappointing ends to their season will undergo similar evaluation periods.
3. End-of-season press conferences:
Traditionally, most organizations will have the head of baseball operations hold a press conference or otherwise make comments to the media following the conclusion of their team’s season. These media sessions typically include the president/GM reflecting on that year’s campaign, indicating where the organization might be headed in the future, and discussing in broad strokes their short-term plans for the coming offseason. These comments often offer valuable insight into the organization, particular in the cases of executives who don’t talk to the media very often or newly-appointed leadership figures. Most of the 18 clubs that missed the postseason will hold a press conference or offer some sort of comments in the coming days.
That was the best Mets collapse in years. Well done boys.
If it weren’t for the recent playoffs format changes, the Tigers collapse would be an all-time one to remember for years or decades to come.
But the Tigers still live to play October baseball.
The Mets are already booking their early October rounds of golf.
But they wouldn’t be in years past
Soto says, “750 Mil at the 19th hole goes a long ways.”
@dewey
What about the Braves and Red Sox in 11 that was a pretty epic collapse.
1964 Phillies are the poster child for “collapse” in the last sixty years.
6 1/2 game lead with 12 games to play.
10 game losing streak and one game ended on a steal of home.
Eclipsed by the 1978 Red Sox, the 2007 Mets, and most of all the 2025 Mets.
philadelphiatale.wordpress.com/1964-the-collaspse/
I trust you’re as old as I am libertybell and have the painful memory still in your head. Mine is 1962.
Best of luck this year. Phillies are the team to beat I think.
1964 was 61 years ago.
While that’s true, in years past, the Mets would’ve also missed by a bunch more. The Mets had the best record at one point in July and had a good cushion. They missed both now and in the past format, where the tigers still made it.
Mets had the best record in the majors on June 12. Phillies took over the NL East lead 8 days later and never looked back.
Phillies were the only NL East team to not poo the bed.
The Mets played .408 baseball from that time on. That is astonishing. The only thing in recent memory like that is the Nationals the year they were supposed to win the division but it ended with Bryce Harper being choked by Jonathan Papelbon.
If “Ifs and buts” were candy and nuts….
I wish Nick had posted the days and times of the WC PO.
Tuesday
Det/Clev – 1:08pm EST
SD/Chi – 3:08pm EST
Bos/NYY – 6:08pm EST
Cin/LAD – 9:08pm EST
First pitch for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Game times on Thursday subject to change should some series end early.
Thanks, Canuckleball.
avenger65: Just go to mlb.com
Congratulations to the Reds. Those kids did it on their own and deserve all the credit for it. Tito pushed the right buttons with them as well. I think LA will have their work cut out for them, despite three times the payroll.
Go Reds!
Just be freaking happy your Reds made it.
You’ve spent so many comments yapping about the Reds being so bad and cheap and your fixation on the Dodgers payroll yet you still won’t stop at that.
Haha! I’m not even a Reds fan and very possibly this is my second post about the Reds. The first was about how good a player De la Cruz was.
Some weirdos on these boards!
You hit the nail on the head. TITO is rhe difference this year.
The Reds may have backed into the playoffs, but now anything can happen. Better than backing up the moving van to your leases apartment which is happening in the Fluchinf area.
Good luck to those Reds!
Tito made the Mets collapse?
This is very much a trap series. If the Dodgers start thinking ahead to the Phils, they’ll get bounced early….
Trap series for sure. Pitching wins in the playoffs and CIN has been rolling out some great SP performances. LAD is ripe for an upset.
No, it’s the lineup that wins. The Reds really can’t hit, but yeah they could win two games if the Dodgers big bats don’t show again in those two games.
Reds
Big fan of Francona.. He will one day be enshrined in the H.o. F. as a great manager.
Anyone got money on an all Ohio W.S. ???
Cincy vs Cleveland. ..
Congrats to your Reds, Red!
Just be freaking happy the Reds made the postseason.
My God, you’ve commented so many times about how the Reds were bad and how Castellini is cheap and how baseball is dying in the midwest and you’re STILL btching about the Dodgers.
What will Minasian talk about? His failure in drafts? His inability to build pitching staffs? How great to be the leading the team to the last place in the division and an ability to select a dud in top ten though the team’s first round pick will be 12th or 13th? And what a great owner Arte Moreno is?
How proud he is to lead MLB in team strikeouts. How the team posted the 2nd most strikeouts in MLB history. How there are no bats on the farm to help solve the problem.
And every trade with the Braves was a FAILURE!
How about the revival and resurgence of Mike Trout back to health and back to being arguably the best player in MLB. According to exit velocity, clutch rate, zips-h, BABIP, and a slew of other metrics.
Not to mention Fish Man mentoring and teaching and encouraging Bryce and Bryce is arguably the fastest and best all around CF in MLB a lot thanks to him and it would be crazy not to keep Bryce long term thanks in a big way to Fish Man. The emergence and surge of Bryce is another thing for Perry to be proud of, not to mention the true arrival of Addell as well as some very bright spots in the pitching staff and Neto, etc. a lot to be proud of.
The Braves would be stupid to can Snitker.
Stupid like a fox. Snitker needs to go.
He won’t be fired but his contract is up and retirement (at least as manager) is a strong possibility.
As an astros fan, im glad the mets and to a lesser extent the tigers have captured most of the attention regarding collapsing in the last month.
We never forget about Trashtros. Don’t you worry about it!
aragon: Maybe you don’t, but lots of the rest of us have moved on.
Speak for yourself. You’re not “we.”
From afar, the Astros’ September didn’t really seem like a collapse. More like an overachieving team just running out of luck.
Rays need some new blood along with this new ownership group. Move on from Cash, Mottola, and Snyder, spend some $$$ on decent free agents, lock up youngsters like Caminero, and market the team.
Why should they move on from a front office and manager who have done so much over the years with so little?
@hank
If the rays get an owner that’s willing to spend and that fo, they would be a scary team for years
They’d be…the Dodgers
The staff is married to analytics. They are fine with a team that hits under .200 as long as defensive metrics say they are a superior fielder (i.e. Taylor Walls, Siri, Alex Jackson). Arozarena was hitting great in 2023, then screwed up his swing trying to win the HR derby, and it never got fixed until he was traded to Seattle. That is on Mottola. Snyder is married to spin rate, and that has cost surgeries on Glasnow, Snell, McKay, McClanahan, Springs, Rasmussen, and numerous others when they were on the Rays. They are cutting corners because of budget, but with an owner that will spend, a staff that will use good old fashioned baseball instinct along with (a nice amount less) analytics, this team could actually win a World Series instead of getting the owner the check for making the playoffs. They have done great with what they have had to work with, but if they wouldn’t rely on analytics 100% of the time, they could do so much more.
I still hate the ranking system to reward zip codes instead of wins.
Toronto & New York should have byes to the second round and then the WC matches should be Seattle vs. Detroit & Boston vs. Cleveland.
In the NL, it seemed to work out properly just by chance, though.
You’d make baseball like the NBA, depriving us all of another epic Yankees-Red Sox postseason series.
@ChuckyNJ
Yankees-Red Sox hasn’t been relevant since the early 2000s. Watching it now it’s like watching paint dry. I’d rather watch Marlins vs. Rockies play a game in death valley.
As far as the Rays are concerned, Cash and Snyder are staying (IMO) and they should. They should move on from Josh Lowe, Walls and Fairbanks.
Pirates need to clean house. If you want another last place finish bring back Cherington and Kelly. Kelly better than Shelton but that is not saying much since he was the worse. Cherington/Shelton to start the year was a disaster waiting to happen.
Kelly did a nice job with that roster full of AAA loser bats.
Too expensive to clean house. Need to buy a bat not a front office.
Trent or Cody, either or, would propel them into contention. If they signed both of them, almost automatic wild card berth at the minimum.
As usual, message-boarder rantings of Mike Trout’s “decline” were grossly dishonest, exaggerated, premature, panicked, and detached from reality. He banged his 400th HR 450 feet and he banged another HR yesterday, 4 HR this weekend alone and still arguably the best player in MLB when exit velocity, zips-x, expected outcomes, clutch rates, BABIP, etc are taken into account.
Fish Man still great. Fish Man still the the best player in baseball.
Trout is not even the best player on his team.
The Mets knew since last winter they needed more pitching. Holmes and Montas weren’t definitely not the ace they desperately needed. Did the Mets even consider Crochet? To make matters worse, they refused to get an ace at the deadline. Bieber at the deadline could have been an upgrade, too. No excuses. Alonso coming back is inevitable. Mets probably sign Bellinger or Grisham for CF. However, what pitchers will make the difference?? Do they get Michael King? Do they get Cease? Who’s available via trade? Would they consider DeGrom? Getting DeGrom back at the deadline probably gets them in the playoffs, considering he beat them when Texas came back to New York. What if this and what if that happens. Every game in April needs to have a sense of urgency.
Jacob deGrom used to be a favorite of Brodie Van Wagenen. How did that work out?
Teodosio: I couldn’t agree with you more.
Tf
It’s a shame the world has yet to witness the greatness of Mike Trout in a WS. Only 3 playoff games in 2014 as a 22 year old. At some point I hope he gets the chance to perform deep into October with all of MLB watching.
Trout is like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr., powerful hitters that wasted their careers on mediocre teams.
Indianfan: How long will it take for you to become something other than an ignorant troll? Never is too long.
Blue Baron: how long will it take for you to become something other than a snarky jerk? Never is too long.
I would like the Angels to get a new manager. Washington has had a great career, but this is a stressful job and it takes its toll. I would rather him stay healthy and happy with family. That said, I don’t know who they should go after. You have some good young hitters, Trout if healthy is still good. As always the pitching is always brutal. Who would be the best person to jump into this role?
The season began with many fans wondering out loud if the big spending teams, one in particular, were ruining the competitive balance of the sport. How could small market teams compete with the financial might of these baseball behemoths? Some feared the worst.
That’s why I want to personally thank Steve Cohen, David Stearns, Carlos Mendoza, Juan Soto, Francisco Lindor & the entire #lolmets crew for being a complete embarrassment to the sport, their fans & elitists world wide. I salute you
Soto and Lindor, along with Alonso, were the best players on the team. How is that an embarrassment?
Being the ‘best’, highest profile, most compensated players on a miserably underachieving team makes those guys the most responsible for said underachievement.
Thank you for your non contribution to this dialog.
The players most responsible for said underachievement are in the rotation and pen.
It’s not
Thinking those guys are to blame should be embarrassing, but most people who think like that wear it with pride
How long will it take you people to stop blaming the Mets’ best player for their problems? And to stop thinking that leadership is so important in baseball? It isn’t. OPS trumps leadership.
Lloyd Emerson: Did that sound better in your head?
But seriously, you have your entire life to be a jerk. Why not take today off?
Because I want to be just like you, jerk.