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The Opener: Wild Card Games, Chisholm, Nationals

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day:

1. Game 1 winners go for sweep in Wild Card Series:

The Tigers, Cubs, Red Sox, and Dodgers took home victories in Game 1 of their respective Wild Card series yesterday, and each of those clubs will be going for the sweep today. Casey Mize will kick things off at 1:08pm local time today for Detroit, while the Guardians will counter with Tanner Bibee with their season on the line. Two hours later (2:08pm local time), the Padres will hang the hopes of their season on Dylan Cease. The Cubs will counter with an opener in the form of right-hander Andrew Kittredge. Kittredge threw a scoreless inning for Chicago in Game 1 of the series yesterday and is likely to turn things over to lefty Shota Imanaga for the bulk of the game. Turning back to the AL, the Yankees will have to overcome Red Sox starter Brayan Bello with southpaw Carlos Rodon on the mound if they’re going to live to see Game 3, and the Reds’ last stand against the Dodgers will come with Zack Littell on the mound against Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

2. Frustration in the Bronx:

Infielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. was not in the lineup for yesterday’s first game of the Wild Card series against the Red Sox, and The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner relays that Chisholm made no secret of his displeasure about riding the pine following the game. Chisholm conducted his post-game interview with his back turned to reporters and said he had “not much” conversation with Aaron Boone about not playing. A 30-30 player worth more than four wins in 130 games this year according to either version of WAR, Chisholm is one of the league’s most talented second basemen. While his status as a left-handed hitter may not have made him the ideal choice to start against lefty Garrett Crochet, his .248/.322/.411 against southpaws is hardly a liability — though it does trail the production of both Amed Rosario (.302/.328/.491) and Jose Caballero (.250/.361/.452) versus left-handers.

3. Toboni to be introduced:

The Nationals are introducing newly minted president of baseball operations Paul Toboni at a press conference that kicked off about 15 minutes ago. Owners Mark Lerner, Ed Cohen, and Robert Tannenbaum are all on hand alongside Toboni. The decision to fire Mike Rizzo and hire Toboni, who had spent years working his way up the ladder in the Red Sox organization prior to being brought in to lead baseball operations in the nation’s capital, is the first change of leadership the Nationals have experienced since Rizzo’s hire all the way back in 2009. With a young team that lost 96 games this year despite steps forward from young players like James Wood and CJ Abrams, Nationals ownership and their new baseball operations leader will be providing further insight into the team’s direction and what lies ahead.

The Opener: Wild Card Series, DeLauter, Bloom

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Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:

1. Wild Card Series to begin:

Each of the four Wild Card matchups are scheduled to have their first game today. Things will kick off in Cleveland with Gavin Williams on the bump for the Guardians. He’ll be facing Tigers ace Tarik Skubal. The reigning AL Cy Young winner will be looking to redeem Detroit after their shocking slump, paired with Cleveland’s surge, caused the Tigers to fall out of the top spot in the AL Central. Two hours after first pitch in Ohio, the NL’s first game will start with Nick Pivetta on the mound for the Padres at Wrigley Field, where the Cubs and Matthew Boyd will be looking to secure the franchise’s first win in a playoff game since 2017. Three hours later, attention will turn to the east coast, where one of baseball’s most storied rivalries will add a new chapter when Garrett Crochet and the Red Sox take the mound in the Bronx against Max Fried and the Yankees. That battle of aces will be followed by another on the other side of the country, when the Reds and right-hander Hunter Greene visit the reigning champion Dodgers, who send southpaw Blake Snell to the mound for Game 1.

2. A potential MLB debut in the postseason?

Guardians outfield prospect Chase DeLauter has not yet appeared in an MLB game. That might change this week, as Zack Meisel of The Athletic writes that DeLauter is on the club’s taxi squad and participated in Cleveland’s workouts at Progressive Field yesterday. That leaves him at least potentially in the conversation to make the roster, and as a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport who hit .278/.383/.476 at Triple-A this year, it’s not hard to see why a Guardians team light on offense might be interested in seeing if the 23-year-old can provide a spark. Daniel Schneemann, George Valera, Johnathan Rodriguez, and Angel Martinez are all presently mixing and matching in the Guardians outfield alongside Steven Kwan, so there’s plenty of flexibility to fit DeLauter into the mix if the club so desires.

3. Bloom to be formally introduced:

In news not related to the postseason, the Cardinals are set to hold a press conference at 10am local time where, as relayed by Katie Woo of The Athletic, owner Bill DeWitt Jr. will introduce Chaim Bloom as the club’s new president of baseball operations. Both DeWitt and Bloom will discuss the future direction of the Cardinals. Bloom has already been in the Cardinals organization for a couple years, having joined the club as an advisor to the front office in 2023 before it was announced late last year that Bloom would be taking over for longtime baseball operations president John Mozeliak following the 2025 season. Now that Mozeliak has stepped aside, Bloom will now fully step into his new role and fans in St. Louis will have the opportunity to hear more of what this changing of the guard means for the franchise.

Francisco Alvarez To Undergo Thumb Surgery In Coming Days

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Francisco Alvarez has been known to be dealing with an thumb injury over the final six weeks of the season that he was capable of playing through but would eventually require him to go under the knife. That eventuality has now arrived, as Anthony DiComo of MLB.com relayed today that Alvarez is set to have surgery to repair the UCL in his right thumb “in the coming days.” 

An exact timeline for Alvarez’s return to regular baseball activities won’t be known until he undergoes the procedure, but the surgery should not be expected to impact his 2026 campaign. The typical timeline for recovery from the procedure is between six and seven weeks; Mike Trout famously underwent the procedure back in early June of 2017 and was back in the lineup when the Angels returned from the All-Star break. A similar timeline would put Alvarez in line to return to his regular offseason activities before the new year, assuming no setbacks.

Once he’s recovered from the procedure, Alvarez will prepare for a 2026 season where he’ll look to build on a brilliant second-half performance. After scuffling badly throughout the first half of the season, Alvarez was optioned to Triple-A in late June. Since being recalled near the end of July, however, he’s been one of the better hitters in baseball with an incredible .276/.360/.561 slash line. That tear came across a sample size of just 41 games and 139 plate appearances, but the hot stretch still inspires some confidence in the longtime top prospect’s bat after his first two years in the big leagues saw him post results that generally hovered around league average.

Once a consensus top-10 prospect in the sport and still just 23 years old, there’s plenty of reason for optimism about Alvarez’s future even as he receives mixed grades for his work behind the plate and has not yet found consistency with the bat. In both areas, Alvarez has shown flashes of greatness at times, such as his aforementioned hot streak in the second half of this year at the plate and his phenomenal defensive numbers in 108 games behind the plate back in 2023. If the youngster manages to find the consistency necessary to offer even a facsimile of that production over a full season, he’ll be on the shortlist for the very best catchers in baseball.

That would surely be a welcome development for the Mets, who relied on the well-regarded defender Luis Torrens behind the plate when Alvarez was in the minors or injured this year. Strong as Torrens is with the glove, he hit just .226/.284/.345 in 92 games this year. That won’t cut it for a primary catcher, especially for a team that figures to risk losing star slugger Pete Alonso in free agency this winter after his recent announcement that he’ll be opting out of his contract this November. Alvarez figures to be a core piece of the club as they look to get back into the postseason next year, and if all goes well it’s not impossible to imagine him joining Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto as a middle-of-the-order threat for the Mets next year.

Bruce Bochy Will Not Return As Rangers Manager Amid Financial Uncertainty

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The Rangers announced this evening that the club and Bruce Bochy have mutually agreed that Bochy will not continue in his role as manager of the club next year. The announcement adds that Bochy has been offered a front office role to remain with the organization in an advisory capacity. As relayed by Jeff Wilson of DLLS_Sports, president of baseball operations Chris Young told reporters on a call this evening that they plan to focus on youth amid financial uncertainty and the sides decided to part ways due to the lack of a clear picture for the 2026 season.

Bochy, 70, has 28 seasons of managerial experience under his belt at this point after getting his start with the Padres back in 1995. He won the NL Manager of the Year award in 1996 and led San Diego to a 98-win season and an NL pennant during the 1998 season, but the club generally struggled throughout the remainder of his tenure until he departed the organization during the 2006-07 offseason to join the division-rival Giants in San Francisco. Bochy rose to his current status as one of the most respected managers in the game during his tenure in the Bay Area, famously leading San Francisco to three World Series titles in five years from 2010 to 2014.

The Giants tried to recreate that even year magic by returning to the postseason in 2016, but fell to the eventual World Series champion Cubs in four games. Bochy’s final three years as the club’s skipper saw them fail to make the postseason with 98-, 89-, and 85-loss campaigns. Bochy stepped away from managing following the 2019 season, making way for Gabe Kapler to take over as manager in San Francisco. With three World Series rings and more than 2,000 wins as a manager in the majors, it seemed as though Bochy’s career in the dugout was coming to a close.

That changed during the 2022-23 offseason, when the Rangers coaxed Bochy out of retirement to take over the helm of their franchise. Texas had signed Corey Seager and Marcus Semien to hefty contracts the prior offseason, but a 94-loss season did not see the club reap the rewards of those superstar signings. Ownership clearly felt new leadership was needed, as Young was installed as president of baseball operations while Chris Woodward was fired during his fourth season as manager. That new leadership turned out to be Bochy, and his first year with the club saw him lead them to greatness. The 90-win 2023 Rangers followed in the footsteps of the 2014 Giants as they failed to secure a division title but went on to achieve something far greater when they were crowned World Series champions.

Unfortunately, that championship was not the start of a period of sustained success. The Rangers has hovered around .500 in each of the past two years, with a 159-165 record in that time. They finished with an 81-81 record this year, six games out of a playoff spot despite the club’s decision to push forward and buy at the trade deadline despite the fact that the decision would push them over the luxury tax, which was known to be something the Rangers were hoping to avoid dating back to October of last year.

Given that the team has failed to make the postseason in each of the past two years and very clearly went over budget this year, it’s not exactly shocking that the Rangers would be looking to take a step back of sorts. Texas has around $131MM in guaranteed contracts on the books for next season according to RosterResource, and that number will jump to around $150MM once Joc Pederson picks up his $18.5MM player option for the 2026 season after a campaign marred by injuries and ineffectiveness.

The vast majority of that money is tied up in just four players: Seager, Semien, Jacob deGrom, and Nathan Eovaldi. While those expenditures weren’t too onerous for a team that was spending in the $240MM range annually, as the Rangers have since the start of the 2023 season, a pullback in terms of payroll would leave less room to maneuver around those hefty contracts. It’s unclear just how much payroll is expected to go down at this point, but the club’s previous high-water mark prior to the past three seasons (according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts) was in the $175MM range. With $150MM on the books already for 2026 before considering arbitration raises for players like Jonah Heim and Josh Smith, it’s at least possible that Young and the front office will be facing a significant budget crunch this winter.

Scaling back payroll doesn’t necessarily have to mean a full rebuild, and Young explicitly emphasized that the club is not intending to embark on a rebuild. That makes sense, given that exciting young talents like Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter, Jack Leiter, and Kumar Rocker are already in the majors with MLB Pipeline’s #4 prospect Sebastian Walcott potentially on the radar to make his big league debut as soon as next season. Good health from stars like deGrom and Seager in conjunction with steps forward from those young players could easily be enough to lift this Rangers team to the postseason next year even with only minimal additions, though it goes without saying that a lot would have to go right for an 81-81 team to substantially scale back payroll while simultaneously improving enough to make it back to October the following year.

From that perspective, the mutual parting of ways between Bochy and the Rangers makes plenty of sense. Bochy’s already stepped away from managing once and may only want to manage a club with genuine expectations at this stage of his career, if he isn’t considering retiring altogether. The Rangers, meanwhile, could perhaps benefit from a younger, more long-term voice in the dugout as their young players reach and develop in the majors. Young told reporters (including Wilson) that he expects the next manager of the Rangers to have roots in player development before adding that Skip Schumaker is a candidate for the job.

That Schumaker would be in the conversation to take over for Bochy is hardly a surprise. Will Venable had served under Bochy as associate manager during his first two years with the Rangers and seemed likely to be the veteran skipper’s successor at some point, though any such plans were dashed when Venable took over as manager of the White Sox last winter. Once Venable exited the organization, the Rangers brought Schumaker in as a senior advisor to the baseball operations department. While Schumaker’s role was not that of a member of the coaching staff like Venable, his well-regarded tenure as manager of the Marlins makes him a somewhat obvious choice to take over for Bochy as far as internal candidates go.

White Sox Making Multiple Coaching Changes

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The White Sox announced today that manager Will Venable’s coaching staff will be overhauled this winter. Specifically, the club announced that they will not be renewing the contracts of pitching coach Ethan Katz, hitting coach Marcus Thames, first base coach Jason Bourgeois, and catching coach Drew Butera. James Fegan of Sox Machine adds that Sergio Santos, who manages the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte, will also not have his contract renewed. Chicago’s announcement goes on to note that offensive coordinator (and former interim manager) Grady Sizemore will be offered a role within the organization for 2026, although USA Today’s Bob Nightengale clarifies that he’ll be reassigned if he decides to remain with the team.

The news nearly entirely eliminates holdovers from former manager Pedro Grifol’s coaching staff, which led the White Sox to a season that saw them post the season with the most losses in modern MLB history. Bench coach Walker McKinven and assistant hitting coach Joel McKeithan were both hired by Venable last winter. Third base/infield coach Justin Jirschele was hired shortly after Grifol was dismissed in August 2024, meaning that the only remaining member of Grifol’s staff if Sizemore departs the organization or is reassigned into a non-coaching role would be assistant pitching coach Matt Wise.

While virtually any team would look good next to the 2024 White Sox, the 2025 iteration of the club was still among the worst teams in baseball. Their 60-102 record gave them the second-worst record in the sport, behind only the Rockies’s disastrous 119-loss season. While there were some positive signs, such as strong showings from rookies Kyle Teel and Colson Montgomery as well as the emergence of Rule 5 pick Shane Smith, it’s impossible to deny that there was more bad than good for Chicago this year. Outside of Teel and Montgomery, their best hitter was 34-year-old Mike Tauchman, who was non-tendered last offseason and will be a free agent after the 2026 campaign. Andrew Benintendi may have rebounded to post league average offensive production this year, but that’s not likely to help them clear the $32.2MM remaining on his contract off their books.

With young players emerging from the minors to take significant roles on the team and a .333 winning percentage over the past three seasons, it’s understandable that White Sox brass would feel it’s time for a larger-scale change. That’s particularly true for Venable, who will be able to hand-pick the replacements for these coaches who had been in the organization prior to his arrival last offseason. A new coaching staff for 2026 should provide both Venable and the club as a whole a fresh start headed into 2026, which will be the first full season both Montgomery and Teel spend in the majors as well as an opportunity for fellow youngsters like Chase Meidroth and Edgar Quero to take a step forward after getting their feet wet in the big leagues this year.

Ben Cherington To Remain Pirates GM In 2026

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Pirates GM Ben Cherington told reporters (including Alex Stumpf of MLB.com) earlier this afternoon that he has “received assurance” that he’ll remain in his current role with the club going forward. Cherington’s contract with the club runs through the 2027 campaign, as was reported last week.

The news that Cherington is remaining in the organization doesn’t register as a massive surprise after news broke earlier today that the Pirates were signing manager Don Kelly to a contract extension after he took over for Derek Shelton back in May. While Pittsburgh’s 71-91 record this year is impossible to view as anything other than a major disappointment, the team went 59-65 under Kelly. That’s still six games below .500, but the club’s .476 winning percentage under Kelly would be their best since 2018 if carried across a full season.

That stat makes it easy enough to understand why Pirates ownership would think it worthwhile to see how a full season of the partnership between Kelly and Cherington would look, but it also highlights the fact that the team’s issues run deeper than leadership in the front office or dugout. Cherington will begin his sixth year at the helm of Pittsburgh’s baseball operations department in November, and while the team hasn’t had much success during his time at the helm those struggles must be viewed through the lens of the budget he’s had to work with throughout his tenure.

RosterResource estimates the club’s payroll at $87MM this year, more or less identical to the club’s 2024 payroll. While the organization ran payrolls between $90MM and $100MM from 2015 to 2017 according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, they began steadily dropping in 2018 before the trend line started to reverse in 2023. Even if the team’s payroll got back up to the $100MM range, however, that would still leave them as a bottom-five team in the sport by payroll (according to RosterResource). That would be a modest improvement over their current bottom-three status, but wouldn’t change the organization’s reputation as a financial bottom-feeder.

Of course, it should be noted that even getting out of that bottom-three range and back into the territory of around $100MM does not seem likely at this juncture. Noah Hiles of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that the team’s payroll isn’t expected to go up much in 2026, if it does at all, and that it might even wind up lower than it was in 2025 after attendance dropped this year relative to last season.

Fortunately, that still leaves some room to maneuver given that the team has just $31MM on the books for next year between the contracts Bryan Reynolds and Mitch Keller are currently signed to. That doesn’t include arbitration raises for players like Johan Oviedo and Joey Bart, not to mention Oneil Cruz’s first arbitration-level salary, however. It also doesn’t include the roughly $19MM the club would be spending even if the roster is filled out with players on the major league minimum. That could leave Cherington’s front office with around $25MM or less to work with as they try to build an offensive nucleus that can support Paul Skenes and the rest of the team’s young pitchers.

It’s not a lot to work with in a market where the majority of above-average regulars command eight figure salaries. With those constraints, it seems likely that Cherington will have to lean on the club’s highly-rated farm system to execute trades and bring in big league talent without having to dip into free agency in a substantial way. That’s how the club acquired its top bat of 2025, as Spencer Horwitz came to the Pirates in a trade where they surrendered right-hander Luis Ortiz and posted a strong 119 wRC+ in 108 games as the team’s everyday first baseman. Another successful trade or two like that could go a long way to creating the offense needed to get the Pirates back into playoff contention, though that of course will surely be easier said than done.

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.

The Opener: Postseason, Leadership Changes, End-Of-Season Pressers

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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.

Ron Washington Discusses Surgery Rehab, Future With Angels

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The Angels have been without manager Ron Washington since late June after he went on medical leave away from the team, and he revealed to reporters last month that he was recovering from quadruple bypass surgery. Even in spite of that recovery from major surgery, however, the 73-year-old still hopes to manage the Angels in 2026. Washington reaffirmed that desire in a conversation with Sam Blum of The Athletic, who reports to today that Washington has not yet spoken to Halos owner Arte Moreno about his future but hopes to do so in the next few days.

“I just want to sit down and talk baseball with him,” Washington told Blum of Moreno. “I’ll let them decide if I’m the guy to lead the club.”

Washington added that he also hasn’t spoken to club GM Perry Minasian about his future with the club. The Halos hold a club option on Washington’s services for the 2026 season, while Blum notes Minasian himself has one year left on his contract with Anaheim. According to Blum, much of the club’s leadership is facing uncertainty headed into the final days of the regular season, as interim manager Ray Montgomery has also expressed uncertainty about his future in the organization but remains in the mix to manage the team in 2026.

There’s a number of factors at play that could be weighing on Moreno’s mind as he decides what direction to take the club moving forward. The most obvious, perhaps, is the team’s lengthy playoff drought and disappointing results in recent years. The Angels have 88 losses with two games left to go in the 2025 season, and that performance comes on the heels of last year’s 99-loss campaign and back-to-back 89-loss seasons in 2022 and ’23. For years, the Angels have hung their hopes on the idea that a healthy season for Mike Trout could help them get back to October, but Trout has played in 128 games this year and turned in results that are less than stellar by his lofty standards even as he remains an above average bat overall.

Perhaps Trout can build on this year and turn in a season more like his vintage, MVP-caliber performances of a decade ago in 2026. Failing that, however, the Angels will need to change at least somewhat if they’re going to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2014. It’s hardly unthinkable that Moreno could look see the uncertain contract situations of Washington, Montgomery, and Minasian over the next year as an opportunity to shake up the organization and bring in new voices. With that being said, there are some factors at play that create an argument for sticking with the status quo.

Notably, the team was doing better than this record would suggest when Washington was actually at the helm of the club. He took medical leave when the club had a 40-40 record and sat just one game back of an AL Wild Card spot. It’s difficult to argue that the team’s poor record this year lies at Washington’s feet when he was away from the organization for their 25-39 stumble after the All-Star break. What’s more, Blum suggests that Moreno may not be interested in bringing in new leaders for the organization on multi-year agreements with a likely lockout on the horizon following the 2026 season.

That could be due to financial reasons, as a lockout that bleeds into the season would result in cancelled games and lost revenue, but another factor could be the uncertainty surrounding the landscape of the game when the dust settles on the next round of collective bargaining. If a salary cap is put into place, as whispers around baseball have indicated MLB is hoping to accomplish, that would surely have significant repercussions about how teams all around the league conduct their business. Knowing what sort of financial system MLB will be operating under for the foreseeable future would surely be helpful when deciding who is best suited to lead the organization for what could wind up being the rest of the decade or longer.

Another factor, Blum writes, figures to be Washington’s health. Washington is already the oldest manager in the majors by a few years. 70-year-old Rangers skipper Bruce Bochy is the only other septuagenarian leading a dugout at the moment, though Brian Snitker of Atlanta will celebrate his 70th birthday in October and has not yet made a decision about his future beyond the 2025 campaign. Between Washington’s age and him coming off major heart surgery, there’s risk for both him and the club in bringing him back into the dugout next year and hanging him a stressful job with a difficult schedule and plenty of responsibility like that of a big league manager.

Despite those possible concerns, Blum notes that Washington has no interest in moving into a front office role at this point. He called himself a “hands-on guy” who prefers to work directly with the players in conversation with Blum, and noted that he was confident he would be working for one of the league’s organizations next year in that sort of role, whether that’s a managerial job or a different role. Outside of his stints managing the Rangers and Angels, Washington spent seven years as third base coach of the Braves and won a World Series with the organization in 2021.

The Opener: Playoff Races, Morton, Manoah

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Here are three things to keep an eye on headed into the final weekend of the regular season:

1. Playoff races still up for grabs:

Eight teams (the Blue Jays, Yankees, Mariners, Phillies, Brewers, Cubs, Dodgers, and Padres) have punched their tickets to October already. That leaves four spots up for grabs headed into the final weekend of the regular season. Here’s a quick overview of the teams still fighting for a spot, with playoff odds courtesy of FanGraphs:

  • The Red Sox have a 98.7% chance to make playoffs with a magic number of one. Their final regular season series is against the Tigers and is expected to feature starts from Kyle Harrison (3.58 ERA in ten appearances), Connelly Early (1.88 ERA in three starts), and an unnamed third starter.
  • The Guardians have an 88.6% chance to make the playoffs with a magic number of two. Their final regular season series is against the Rangers and is expected to feature starts from Slade Cecconi (4.15 ERA in 22 starts) and two unnamed starters.
  • The Tigers have an 84.1% chance to make the playoffs with a magic number of two. Their final regular season series is against the Red Sox and is expected to feature starts from Casey Mize (3.91 ERA in 27 starts) and two unnamed starters.
  • The Mets have a 77.8% chance to make the playoffs with a magic number of three. Their final regular season series is against the Marlins and will feature starts from Brandon Sproat (3.94 ERA in three starts) and two unnamed starters.
  • The Astros have a 28.6% chance to make the playoffs and sit one game back of a playoff spot. Their final regular season series is against the Angels and will feature starts from Jason Alexander (4.83 ERA in 17 appearances) and two unnamed starters.
  • The Reds have a 20.2% chance to make the playoffs and sit one game back of a playoff spot. Their final regular season series is against the Brewers and will feature starts from Zack Littell (3.86 ERA in 31 starts), Andrew Abbott (2.80 ERA in 28 starts), and Brady Singer (3.95 ERA in 31 starts).
  • The Diamondbacks have a 2% chance to make the playoffs and sit two games back of a playoff spot. Their final regular season series is against the Padres and will feature starts from Zac Gallen (4.70 ERA in 32 starts), Eduardo Rodriguez (4.91 ERA in 28 starts), and Brandon Pfaadt (5.00 ERA in 32 starts).

2. Morton to suit up for Braves one last time:

It’s been a rough year for veteran right-hander Charlie Morton, who posted a 5.89 ERA in 32 appearances with the Orioles and Tigers and recently signed on with the Braves after being designated for assignment and released by Detroit. Morton has hinted at retirement repeatedly over the years, and some have suggested that his latest deal is an opportunity to retire as a member of the club that originally drafted him back in 2002 and the club with which he won a World Series in 2021. Morton has a 3.87 ERA with Atlanta across 124 starts, and his 125th start of his Braves career is scheduled for the club’s final game of the regular season against the Pirates on Sunday. He’ll pitch opposite Johan Oviedo, who has a 3.57 ERA in eight starts this year for Pittsburgh.

3. Will Manoah get claimed?

The Blue Jays made the decision to cut ties with right-hander Alek Manoah earlier this week, and now that he’s been designated for assignment, he’s available to the league’s other 29 clubs for nothing but the remainder of his salary. Of course, a claiming club would have to be willing to pay him his arbitration-level salary for the 2026 season as well. Manoah’s 2025 salary was $2.2MM, and he figures to make the same amount for 2026 if tendered a contract.

The upside Manoah offers is obvious, as he finished third in AL Cy Young voting during the 2022 season off the back of a 2.24 ERA in 196 1/3 innings of work. He struggled badly in 2023 with a 5.87 ERA and 6.01 FIP in 19 starts, however, and he’s made just five starts since then due to Tommy John surgery. Manoah is still just 27 years old and will hardly break the bank, making him one of the more intriguing late-season waiver possibilities in recent memory.

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