9 questions for MLB season's final month: MVP awards, managers on the hot seat
It's Labor Day weekend, and while the playoff races are supposed to get real in September, they're all but over. Let's be honest, the 12 teams that are in playoff position now will be in the postseason beginning Sept. 29, barring epic collapses. Really, all that's left is seeding, and who gets the first-round byes. But as far as who gets into the dance, unless you believe theSeattle Marinerswill choke and be overtaken by the Kansas City Royals orCleveland Guardiansfor the final wild-card berth, everything is set. There are still division races that remain open like the NL West with theLos Angeles Dodgersleading theSan Diego Padres, the Houston Astros over the Mariners and theToronto Blue Jaysfightting off the New York Yankees andBoston Red Sox. But no matter who wins the divisions, they will all be in the playoffs. Even without the usual suspense, there's still a little drama, and here are the top nine questions entering the month of September: The MVP races are making up for the lack of pennant race drama. It's a two-man race between Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh in the American League and Shohei Ohtani and Kyle Schwarber in the National League. The Judge-Raleigh race is a virtual toss-up with a month to play. Ohtani is the clubhouse leader in the NL, but if he struggles down the stretch, and Schwarber winds up pushing 60 homers, the dynamics could swiftly change. While Raleigh has hit eight more homers with 11 more RBIs, Judge holds a decisive edge over Raleigh in batting average (.322-.243), slugging percentage (.663-.586) and OPS (1.105-.940) through Friday. Judge, in fact, could become just the third player since 2000 to lead the American League in all three categories. Raleigh is having one of the greatest seasons by a catcher in history. He has already hit the most home runs by a catcher, should pass Mickey Mantle for the most homers by a switch-hitter (54), and has a chance to break Judge's American League record of 62, all while playing Gold Glove defense. If it remains close, Raleigh's best shot at overcoming Judge – winner of two of the past three years – is for the Mariners to win the AL West. Certainly, Seattle needs to at least make the playoffs. Remember, it's the Most Valuable Player award, not the Best Player award, and helping your team to the postseason has proven to be a critical tiebreaker. In the NL, if Ohtani maintains his hitting pace and keeps pitching like he did in last outing – striking out nine batters in five innings – it's over and he wins his fourth MVP in five years. Schwarber has more homers (49-46) and RBIs (119-85), but Ohtani leads in batting average (.278-.249), slugging percentage (.607-.584) and OPS (.994-.955) and they are both DHs. Yet, Ohtani being a two-way player makes the award his to lose every single year, providing he stays healthy. Still, Schwarber, who tied a major-league record with four homers on Thursday, has certainly made this a legitimate race. PREDICTION: Judge and Ohtani will be MVPs once again. This could be a historic winter with perhaps one-third of all teams looking for managers this winter. We have already had four firings with Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies, Brandon Hyde of the Baltimore Orioles, Derek Shelton of thePittsburgh Piratesand Davey Martinez of the Washington Nationals. They were all replaced by internal candidates on an interim basis, with none of the four guaranteed to return, and several already aware the club will look outside. It could be the appetizer for what could be a frenzied offseason of the managerial carousel that could result in as many as 11 changes Brian Snitker, Atlanta: He is expected to retire after 49 years in the organization where he will go down as their second-greatest manager behind only Hall of Famer Bobby Cox. Bruce Bochy, Texas Rangers: Yet to decide whether he wants to return, but has nothing more to prove, is 70 years old, and his contract expires. Ron Washington, Los Angeles Angels: Washington, 73, underwent quadruple bypass heart surgery and has been sidelined since June 20. His contract expires after the season and the Angels have not determined whether they will pick up the club option. Aaron Boone, New York Yankees: You're always on the hot seat when you manage the Yankees. Yankees GM Brian Cashman doesn't hide his admiration and respect for Boone, but the Yankees certainly need to make the playoffs for Boone to retain his job. The big question is how deep in the playoffs they need to go for Boone's job to be secure? Bob Melvin,San Francisco Giants: When you invest $250 million in acquiring Rafael Devers, you don't expect to play like one of the worst teams in baseball for months. The Giants have been a colossal disappointment. Buster Posey, Giants president of baseball operations, declined to address Melvin's fate when asked this past week, but the Giants suddenly are starting to play their best baseball of the season, winning six consecutive games heading into Saturday. Rob Thomson,Philadelphia Phillies: The future is now in Philadelphia. This is a team with a payroll built for a World Series run. Simply making the postseason isn't good enough. If the Phillies have another early exit, it may not be his fault, but Thomson could be the one to pay the price. Rocco Baldelli, Minnesota Twins: It's certainly not Baldelli's fault the Twins had a firesale for the ages. Yet, if they were playing any better, it wouldn't have happened. The Twins are at least two years from contending again. Do they believe Baldelli is the right man to lead them back through the rebuild? PREDICTION: There will be at least six new managers hired this winter. TheNew York Metscertainly made life interesting in the NL East and a little uncomfortable for the Philadelphia Phillies, by clobbering them this past week in New York, making it 10 consecutive victories over the Phillies at Citi Field. This race would be over if only the Phillies didn't have to play the Mets. The Phillies are 75-50 excluding games against the Mets while the Mets are 65-60, a 10-game difference. These two teams have four remaining games against one another Sept. 8-11 in Philadelphia where the Phillies have a 12-5 record against them at Citizens Bank Park since 2023. The Mets are relying in their kiddie pitching corps to lead them to the playoffs while the Phillies, who may have been the team to beat just a few weeks ago, now will have to survive without ace Zack Wheeler. The Mets no longer can rely on Kodai Senga (who hasn't gone six innings since June 6) and Sean Manaea (who has yet to pitch six innings all season). They need rookies Nolan McLean and Jonah Tong to prove they belong. They put them right into the fire, and so far, so good. McLean went 3-0 with a 0.89 ERA in his first three starts – matched in Mets' history only by Tom Seaver. And Tong lived up to the hype in his debut Friday by pitching five innings, yielding 6 hits, 4 runs (1 earned) 0 walks and 6 strikeouts, joining Doc Gooden as the only Met's pitchers under the age of 23 to allow one or no runs in their big-league debut. It's also the first time in Mets' history that they had two starters win their major-league debut in the same season. If McLean and Tong are able to thrive, it could allow the Mets to bolster their bullpen by moving Clay Holmes – who has pitched 142 ⅓ innings, with 63 ⅔ innings his career high entering the season – back into a late-inning relief role. This would give them a rotation of David Peterson, Senga, McLean, Manaea and Tong down the stretch. The Mets believe they can win the NL East, but almost as important, they would love to at least grab that No. 1 wild-card berth for home-field advantage in the wild-card round. PREDICTION: The Phillies win the NL East, but Mets earn wild-card berth. Oh, for the days of Tony Gwynn. There was a 68-year stretch when no National League batting champion produced a lower batting average than Larry Doyle of the New York Giants, hitting .320 in 1915. Then along came Gwynn, the seven-time batting champion who won the batting title in 1988 with a .313 average, the lowest by a champion in National League history. Now, here we are, and Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman is the NL's lone .300 hitter. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Trea Turner (.297) is the only other NL hitter batting higher than .294. Gwynn, who had a career .338 batting average, never batted below .309 since his 1982 rookie season. He hit at least .353 in five consecutive seasons. And he was routinely facing pitchers in the heart of the steroid era. Sure, pitching is tough these days, with a batting average of .246, but it would be awfully embarrassing for the NL winner not to hit at least .300. The worst batting average by a batting champ was Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox when he hit .301 in 1968, leading the American League. Yet, that was '68, the year of the pitcher. It was the year Cardinals Hall of Famer Bob Gibson produced a 1.12 ERA, one of seven pitchers to finish with an ERA under 2.00. MLB responded by lowering the pitcher's mound from 15 inches to 10 inches. PREDICTION: The NL batting champion will be a .300 hitter, but it will set the all-time record for lowest batting average by an NL leader. Remember when the Tigers were considered the best team in baseball? They were 59-34 on the morning of July 9 with the best record in baseball. The same team proceeded to lose 12 of 13 games, later win nine of 10 games, and now just became the first team to be swept by the Athletics in Sacramento. The Tigers still have a commanding lead in the AL Central, but flaws have been exposed on defense and the bullpen. They have Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal, who could shut down anyone, but there's a lot of uncertainty with Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize and Charlie Morton. Mize, who was yielding a 2.63 ERA in his first 15 starts, suddenly has a 7.20 ERA in his last eight starts. They also have a vulnerable bullpen with Will Vest, Kyle Finnegan and Tommy Kahnle as their anchors. PREDICTION: The Tigers still are as formidable as any team in the American League, but to get back to the World Series, they'll need Mize and Flaherty to step up their game. The Blue Jays, underachievers the last few years, finally are living up to expectations. They have opened the door of late for the surging Boston Red Sox and Yankees, going just 11-11 in August outside their three-game demolition of the Rockies. The Blue Jays' rotation is strong with newly-acquired Shane Bieber joining Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios, Chris Bassitt and Max Scherzer. Their offense is powerful led by first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., shortstop Bo Bichette and George Springer. Yet, their biggest question is their bullpen, which is yielding a 5.60 ERA since the All-Star break, second-worst behind only the Colorado Rockies. Closer Jeff Hoffman has seven blown saves, including three in August, with a 11.37 ERA in his last seven games. The Blue Jays acquired Twins reliever Louis Varland at the trade deadline, but he has been pummeled since joining the Blue Jays with a 6.97 ERA in his irst 12 games, allowing 19 baserunners in 10 ⅓ innings. Seranthony Dominguez has yielded a 4.22 ERA since his arrival, walking nine batters in 10 ⅔ innings. The sizzling Red Sox are the team to watch in the AL East, and have three games left against the Blue Jays in Toronto the final week of the season. Yet, those are the only games the Blue Jays will play against contenders the final 16 games of the season. PREDICTION: The Blue Jays, for the first time in 10 years, win the AL East. Let's put it this way, the Cubs are not going to catch them. The Brewers, who are an MLB-best 20-8 in August, will finish with the best record in the National League, if not all of baseball, and will have a first-round bye. They don't have a star or household name outside former MVP Christian Yelich, but they have a group of players who gets the job done, night after night. Let's see, they have a rookie in left field. A rookie at third base. Two rookies on the bench. A rookie in the rotation. Yet, they are the most complete, fundamentally strong team in baseball with a manager who has brilliantly handled them with Pat Murphy likely winning his second consecutive NL Manager of the Year award. They don't have a slugger but are second in the big leagues in runs scored behind only the Dodgers. They are second to the Rays in stolen bases. They rank third in ERA. They are fifth in Defensive Runs Saved. They don't have a menacing ace, but Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff and Jacob Misiorowski can shut down anyone, along with solid closer Trevor Megill, who is on the injured list with a right flexor strain. The odds tell you they don't match up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets, but the Brewers have defied the odds all season. Why stop now? Besides, how can you not love a team who's mutually hated by MLB owners for defying the theory that a salary cap is needed for a small market team, and also by the union, for proving you don't need to spend money to win. PREDICTION: Odds are stacked against them to win their first World Series title since 1982, but they're certainly due to ruin someone's season They've wasted their fabulous pitching the last two years with their woeful offense. This time, they decided to do something about it. They acquired the Arizona Diamondbacks corner infielders at the deadline in third baseman Eugenio Suarez and first baseman Josh Naylor, and led by MVP candidate Cal Raleigh, they finally have an offense to give their stud pitching a chance. The Mariners are dangerous. Really, they would be the scariest team in the postseason, a team no one wants to play. In a weak American League, they have as good a shot as anyone to be playing deep into October. Yet, there's one little obstacle. They have to find a way to win away from Seattle, going 5-12 since July 4 on the road compared to 19-6 at home. PREDICTION: The Mariners make the playoffs, but to play in the Fall Classic? "Wait til next year." Well, once again, it's those Dodgers. They're not invincible. They're not going to win a record 120 games. They're not even going to win 100 games. But here they are, getting themselves together at the right time, leading MLB in runs scored and second in home runs. Blake Snell is back. Co-closers Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates are back. Mookie Betts has heated up. And the Dodgers are back to their winning ways, playing as well as they have all season. Prediction: The World Series still goes through LA, and it will be an upset if the Dodgers aren't back in the World Series trying to become the first NL team to repeat since the Big Red Machine in 1975-76. – Someone needs totell Donald Trumpthat neither MLB or the Baseball Writers' Association of America have any say in Rogers Clemens' Hall of Fame candidacy at this point. I voted for Clemens and Barry Bonds all 10 years they were on the BBWAA ballot – but their time ended. Clemens, along with Bonds, will be back on the contemporary era ballot for the first time in three years in November, and need at least 12 votes from the 16-member committee of Hall of Famer players, executives, writers and historians. Considering Clements and Bonds received fewer than four votes last time, he's not going to do it – no matter how often he plays golf with Trump. – If Rangers manager Bruce Bochy decides to retire after this season, the Giants could turn the 2027 Hall of Fame induction ceremony into their own personal reunion. Bochy, the four-time World Series champion, would be a lock joining former Giants manager Dusty Baker on the 2026 committee era ballot and be inducted in the summer of 2027. Former Giants catcher Buster Posey, the Giants president of baseball operations, will be on the 2026 BBAA ballot and almost certainly be be inducted after Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer was elected in his first ballot. And Brian Sabean, the architect of the Giants' three World Series champions, could also be on the same ballot as Baker and Bochy. It would be quite the orange-and-black celebration. – The Pirates placed infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa on waiver when he was just 81 plate appearances away from reaching a $250,000 bonus. And that was after getting rid of pitcher Andrew Heaney, who was 8⅔ innings away from reaching a $100,000 bonus. Not a good look for the thrifty Pirates. – The Cincinnati Reds, who badly need a power-hitting bat in the middle of the lineup, would be a natural fit to sign free-agent first baseman Pete Alonso if he leaves the Mets. – MLB executives find it unfathomable that the White Sox will pick up Luis Roberts' $20 million option after the season just so they can trade him next summer. Roberts is out for the season with a strained hamstring after yet another miserable year, and has missed 289 games the past five seasons. He will have virtually zero trade value this winter at $20 million. Do the White Sox really want to take the gamble he can stay healthy long enough next season to trade him, and eat most of his salary just to move him? – It's an easy decision for Atlanta to pick up second baseman Ozzie Albie's $7 million option considering it includes a $4 million buyout. That extra $3 million could be a steal, even coming off his his worst offensive season. – While Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story has an opt-out after this season, it's far-fetched to believe he'd turn his use it after having only one good half of a season since he signed his six-year, $140 million contract. He hit .232 with 21 homers and 29 steals while playing just 163 games his first three seasons, and was hitting .214 with a .582 OPS until June 7. He has been fabulous since, hitting.302 with an .875 OPS, including 13 homers and 13 steals. Yet, to opt out of the final two years and $55 million of his contract would be a financial blunder. – The Phillies would love to have a do-over in their free agent signings last winter. They signed outfielder Max Kepler (.214, .675 OPS) for $10 million, reliever Jordan Romano (8.23 ERA) for $8.5 million to be their closer and reliever Joe Ross (5.12 ERA) for $4 million. Ouch. – The Tampa Bay Rays can't afford to make mistakes in free agency, and certainly the signing of infielder Ha-Seong Kim to a two-year, $29 million contract has been a disaster the first year. Kim, who is expected to be activated Monday, has played in only 24 games all season, hitting .214 with a .612 OPS, and has struggled defensively. Kim has an opt-out in his contract, but considering his struggles, should take the $16 million owed to him in 2026. – MLB, which won't field expansion teams before 2031, will have a tentative expansion fee of about $2.1 billion. It's a considerable hike from the last time baseball expanded in 1998 with the Phoenix and Tampa Bay ownership groups paying just $130 million in expansion fees. – There have been only two seasons in history in which four players hit 50 or more homers in a season: 1998 and 2001 in the heart of the steroid era. This year could potentially set the record with five players entering the month with more than 40 homers Cal Raleigh: 50 (through Saturday) Kyle Schwarber: 49 Shohei Ohtani: 45 Eugenio Suarez: 42 Aaron Judge 42 – You know the Diamondbacks' bullpen has been in disarray all season when they use a franchise-record 16 different pitchers to close games for them this season. – There were only three players who have hit four homers in a game from 2004-2024: Josh Hamilton in 2012, Scooter Gennett in 2017 and JD Martinez in 2017. This year alone, we've already matched that with Kyle Schwarber joining Eugenio Suarez and Nick Kurtz, the most in a single season. There have been 21 players who have hit four homers in a game, and Atlanta has been involved in seven of them, coughing up four homers to Diamondbacks third baseman Eugenio Suarez and Schwarber this year. – Some of the best trades are the ones you don't make, right? Remember when the Mets were willing to trade Mark Vientos at the trade deadline. Well, since the deadline, Vientos is hitting .292 with seven homers, 19 RBI, 13 extra-base hits and a .996 OPS. – Paul Skenes: 51 career starts, 2.01 ERA. Really. – Former Yankees World Series champion first baseman Mark Teixeira, who kept his political views to himself during his career, announced himself as an ally of Donald Trump, and announced Thursday that he is running for a congressional seat in Texas. "As a lifelong conservative who loves this country, I'm running for Congress to fight for the principles that make Texas and America great," Teixeira wrote in a social media post announcing his candidacy. "It takes teamwork to win_I'm ready to help defend President Trump's America First agenda, Texas families, and individual liberty." Teixeira, 45, is seeking to represent Texas' 21st Congressional District. – Two winters ago, the Yankees were were forced to take on Trent Grisham and his $5.5 million in the Juan Soto trade. Now, Grisham is having a monster season and is a primary reason the Yankees are sitting in the playoff hunt with his career-high 28 homers, including seven in the last 10 games entering Saturday. – Rays infielder Junior Caminero, the star the Cleveland Guardians gave away in 2021 for Rays pitcher Tobias Myers, was ecstatic to learn that his 37 home runs tied future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols for the most homers by a Dominican player in their age 21 season. Pujols has been a valuable mentor to Caminero. "What he's done this year and who he's passing and who he's putting his name next to," Rays manager Kevin Cash told reporters, "you're talking Albert Pujols, arguably the best right-handed hitter in baseball. I know he's at the top of the list, and I'm happy for Cami. "I'm happy for their relationship. I know that they have communicated from spring training and throughout the course of this season. Cami really values him as a person, as a friend, as a leader, mentor. And I appreciate Albert Pujols' relationship with Cami." – Don't be surprised if Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada is given a vacation the next time they face the Dodgers, perhaps in the postseason. Estrada has been fabulous this year against every hitter not wearing a Dodger uniform. He is yielding a 1.36 ERA and has permitted three homers in 53 innings. But, against the Dodgers, it has been ugly: 6 ⅓ innings, five homers and a 18.47 ERA. "A bunch of goofy [stuff] happens in baseball, doesn't it?" Estrada told reporters. "They might even know what color underwear I'm wearing. I mean, I don't even know what the heck it is. … It's a hard game, man. Sometimes it could get to you." _It's embarrassing that teams have used position players to pitch in games for five consecutive days this past week, and six of the last seven. Javier Sanoja of the Marlins has pitched in three of those games. There were actually five games on Wednesday in which a position player pitched. That is a disgrace. – Power outage: Fernando Tatis went 32 days, 27 games and 132 plate appearances between home runs. He hit 12 home runs in his first 44 games in 192 plate appearances, and then has produced only six homers in the 85 games and 344 plate appearances since his torrid start. – Pardon the San Francisco Giants if they petition to move to the NL Central. They went 9-3 against the NL Central powers Milwaukee and Chicago. – The Rays asked MLB to delay the start of their 2026 home schedule and MLB obliged with a nine-game, 11-day road trip in St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minnesota to open the season. It's not quite what the Rays had in mind. – Little wonder Bochy says this this season is the most challenging of his Hall of Fame career. The Rangers just had eight players go on the injured list in a span of 10 days, including season-ending injuries to Nathan Eovaldi, Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, Evan Carter and Jon Gray. – Fabulous seeing Angels manager Ron Washington back in uniform last week for the first time since he underwent heart surgery, announcing that he has changed his lifestyle after believing he died on the operating table during his heart surgery. "I remember being in the hospital, and actually I thought I was dead," Washington told reporters, "because I was laying some place where they had put me for a few days. And I said, 'I didn't make it. "So, I started pulling stuff off, and the guy saw me doing it, and he came running in, and he grabbed my hand. He said, 'What's going on?' I say, 'Am I dead?' He said, 'No, you're here.'" – The Arizona Diamondbacks received virtually zero interest in starter Zac Gallen at the trade deadline, with contenders believing he simply couldn't help them get to the postseason. He's 3-1 with a 2.57 ERA since the trade deadline, and yes, he's a free agent this winter. – The Padres sustained a huge blow when veteran shortstop Xander Bogaerts broke a bone in his left foot when fouling off a pitch, but the Padres believe he be back just before the postseason. Bogaerts, who had played in all but three games, was hitting .303 with an .835 OPS since June 19. The plan is for reserve infielder Jose Iglesias to take over the everyday job until Bogaerts returns, with Jake Cronenworth occasionally sliding to short. They insist there is no plan to move former shortstops Fernando Tatis Jr. or Jackson Merrill from outfield to shortstop. – Remember when folks thought that Dodgers three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw was returning for his swan song, and after recording 3,000 strikeouts, could be departing into the night? Well, he just went 5-0 with a 1.88 ERA in August, and is 9-2 with a 3.06 ERA this season. He's been invaluable to the Dodgers this season. – The Mets are scrambling to fix reliever Ryan Helsley, the Cardinals closer who was acquired at the trade deadline, only to blow four saves and yield a 10.38 ERA in his first 11 games. "We've got to look back and see what we're missing here," Mets manager Carlos Mendoza says, "because for teams to have comfortable at-bats like that, something's going on here." – That wasn't Miami, that actually St. Louis where a paid crowd of only 17,675 showed up at Busch Stadium, the first time they drew fewer than 20,000 fans since 1997. – Do you realize we still have not had a no-hitter this year? The last time it happened was 2005. – The Guardians still haven't had a player hit 40 homers runs in a season since Travis Hafner in 2006. That streak will continue this year. – Attention schedule makers: The Yankees and Red Sox are playing only three games against one another after the month of June next season. Come on. – Ben Cherington, now GM of the Pittsburgh Pirates, ventured back to Fenway Park on Friday for the first time since he was fired by the Red Sox in 2015. He was a Red Sox executive from 1999-2015, including the last four years as their GM. – The greatest move at the trade deadline was the Padres' acquisition of outfielder Ramon Laureano. Laureano is hitting .316 with six home runs, 20 RBI and a .968 OPS since leaving Baltimore. _The Cubs are keeping a close eye on All-Star starter Matthew Boyd. Boyd has already thrown a team-leading 153 ⅓ innings, the most in a season since 2019. He threw just 51 ⅓ innings last season, and a combined total of 146 innings the past three years. Boyd could be showing fatigue with a 2.34 ERA the first half, earning an All-Star berth, and a 4.10 ERA the second half. – Kudos to Cincinnati Reds ace Hunter Greene for being a mentor to prized high school prospect Savion Sims, who's expected to be a top five pick in next summer's amateur draft. "He's obviously a great talent and I'm looking forward to seeing him continue to climb and put himself in a good position,'' Greene said. "I'm going to help him in that process as much as I can.'' – Congratulations to Dusty Baker, Cito Gaston, Willie Randolph, and Jerry Manuel, who will be honored in October by the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, along with MLB executive Tony Reagins, who'll receive the inaugural JL Wilkinson "Innovator" Award. Follow Nightengale on X:@Bnightengale This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:MLB season's final month: 9 top questions for standings, MVP races
9 questions for MLB season's final month: MVP awards, managers on the hot seat It's Labor Day weekend, and while the playoff races a...
