Commissioner Rob Manfred said he was optimistic about the future of his sport – although there could be a slightly more difficult transition period ahead.
(Phoenix) It’s the beginning of a new era in Major League Baseball — and it could greatly benefit speed pushers like Trea Turner and Ronald Acuna Jr., and hurt the pace of veteran pitchers like Gerrit Cole and Yu Darvish.
The pads will be bigger and the rules for pinning a runner have changed. The clock to time each shot has finally arrived and special inside defenses have been banished.
Sorry, Shohei Ohtani, you took too long to complete your throw. Bryce Harper, return to the batting zone. Xander Bogaerts, you can’t stand by while Mookie Betts is in the hitting zone.
Only one thing will remain the same: everyone will try to defend themselves, hoping to take advantage of the drastic changes in Major League Baseball’s regulations.
“If there’s one thing we know about our industry, it’s that if there’s an aspect of the game we can take advantage of, each team will do everything they can to exploit it to the best advantage,” said Chris Antonetti, President of baseball operations for the Cleveland Guardians.
Much of the talk revolves around it this spring at Major League training camps, after a series of measures were passed last September in hopes of making the sport more attractive to young people – who complain mostly of a lack of action and of the slow progress of the matches.
As the players reported to their respective training camps in Florida and Arizona ahead of next season, Commissioner Rob Manfred said he was optimistic about the future of his sport – although there may be a slightly more difficult transition period ahead.
“I think you’ll see a sport that happens faster,” said Manfred. You’ll see more balls in play, you’ll be able to watch the players on the field playing in positions that we are used to in our youth. And I really believe that you will be able to see changes that will obviously improve the quality of the show. »
However, of all the amendments that have been passed, the one relating to downtime is likely to cause the most controversy. An illegal forgery will be called as soon as a player leaves the plate or tries to pin a runner for the third time, unless there is an exit, and this count will be reset to zero if a runner progresses on the tracks.
Pitchers’ time-out tendencies – who will be able to use it at the right moment, who will be willing to exploit regulation to the fullest and who will be willing to accept an illegal fake when trying to pin a rider on the trails – will come under scrutiny early on. of the season as the teams try to extract a competitive edge on the trails.
“It’s going to be very competitive,” admitted Chicago Cubs General Manager Carter Hawkins. We will therefore have to find the best way to deal with this. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of cat and mouse, and there are going to be a lot of pitchers on the mound with different game plans that we’re going to have to adapt to, just like runners elsewhere.
“It will be exciting to watch, and some changes could lead to competitive advantages.”
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
(Montreal) After a 32-year drought, the Toronto Blue Jays found themselves in the World Series and it’s safe to say that they thrilled baseball fans across the country, and even more: the Queen City team became, during the two weeks of the Major Baseball final series, a topic of discussion beyond the scope of the sport.
Here’s a look at last season in MLB.
Jays just short
On April 29, the Blue Jays had just suffered a 10-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox, their eighth loss in nine games, falling to 13-16, in fourth place in the American League East. Coach John Schneider’s name was one of the favorites among those who were likely to lose their jobs at the various sports betting sites. The same Schneider, with practically the same cast, changed the game.
The Jays won 81 of their next 133 games to finish the season at an American-best 94-68, atop the East, defeating the New York Yankees in a tiebreaker.
Led by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – imperial in the playoffs, with offensive averages of .397/.494/.795, five doubles, eight home runs, 15 RBIs and 20 walks, including six intentional ones, after signing a 14-season contract worth US$500 million – the Jays eliminated the Yankees in the division series and the Seattle Mariners in the championship series, where Vlad was also named the player par excellence.
PHOTO JON BLACKER, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
But in the World Series, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team fell short. Up 3-2 in the series and with the final two games played in Toronto, the Jays were unable to take the Commissioner’s Trophy north of the border.
It remains to be seen whether the team can have the same success in 2026, especially since, at the time of this writing, Bo Bichette and veteran Max Scherzer are free agents. The team, however, secured the services of starter Dylan Cease for the next seven years for 210 million and right-hander Cody Ponce, MVP of the Korean Baseball Organization, South Korea’s top league, for three years.
Title defense
The Dodgers successfully defended their title as World Series champions, becoming the first team since the Yankees dynasty at the end of the last century to achieve the feat.
If we expected Shohei Ohtani – far from disappointing with three home runs and five RBIs – it was another Japanese who stole the show, Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
PHOTO FRANK GUNN, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
The Los Angeles Dodgers were crowned World Series champions for the second consecutive season.
The right-hander mystified the Jays’ attack by recording three wins in two games in this World Series. He first pitched his second consecutive complete game in the playoffs before pitching six innings in Game No.the 6 and two and two thirds innings in relief in game nthe 7 to get victory.
Yamamoto was deservedly named World Series MVP, becoming only the second Japanese man to win the title, after Hideki Matsui of the Yankees in 2009.
However, the Jays led 4-2 with five outs left in this final meeting. Solo homers by Max Muncy, in the eighth, against young sensation Trey Yesavage, and by Miguel Rojas, after a strikeout in the ninth, against Jeff Hoffman, however, forced overtime.
At 11andWill Smith even gave the Rogers Center a cold shower, pushing the offer of Shane Bieber, a beautiful acquisition at the trade deadline, just to the left of the field to give the Californians the victory.
Ohtani and Judge
For the second year in a row, Ohtani and Aaron Judge were named the National and All-American MVPs – a third consecutive title for Ohtani and a third in four seasons for Judge.
PHOTO BRYNN ANDERSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES
Shohei Ohtani
Both players put up statistics that left no doubt about their selection, although the race in the American was tighter with the 60 home runs of Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
Ohtani maintained .282/.392/.622 averages with 55 home runs (second-highest total in the Nationals) and 102 RBIs. Judge, in turn, had the best slashline in the Majors at .331/.457/.688. His adjusted attendance/power average (OPS+) of 215 was the fourth-best in major league history for a right-handed hitter, after hitting his best (225) last season.
In Ohtani’s case, it’s his fourth MVP award: two with the Dodgers, two with the Los Angeles Angels. All four were obtained unanimously.
Mixed season for Quebecers
The last campaign was not easy for the Quebecers in Major Baseball, where only Otto Lopez, from the Miami Marlins, still holds a regular position.
And Lopez doesn’t appear to be about to lose his job after a breakout sophomore campaign with the Marlins. Used mainly as a shortstop in the 143 games he played, he maintained averages of .246/.305/.368. He also set personal bests in hits (134), home runs (15), RBIs (77) and runs scored (66) while maintaining a .977 save percentage.
On the other hand, both Édouard Julien, from Minnesota, and Abraham Toro, from Boston, failed to establish themselves definitively in the big leagues this season.
Julien was used in just 64 games for the Twins, and even though he has increased his averages (.220/.309/.324) from last year, it is questionable whether that will be enough for him to maintain his place on the 40-man Massachusetts team at the start of training camp.
Toro had a great training camp and when the Red Sox struggled with injuries, he was one of the first called up in early May. After a promising start, his production dropped and he ended his MLB stint in August with .239/.289/.371 averages in 77 games.
Women’s time!
Baseball followed in the footsteps of other major sports with the creation of the first professional women’s league, the Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL), where Quebecers are already in the spotlight.
The first four teams on the new circuit – Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco – recently held their first draft session, consisting of six rounds, during which each club drafted five players, totaling 20 per round and 120 overall.
Of that number, five are from Quebec, including the first Quebecer called up, first baseman Andréanne Leblanc, from Mont-Saint-Hilaire, 32 in total, for the San Francisco club. The others are Maïka Dumais (Boston), Ela Day-Bédard (San Francisco), Élodie Ciamarro (New York) and Sarah Beaulieu (New York).
Of the 30 players called up by the four clubs, 15 will get a contract to play in the inaugural season, which will be held over seven weeks, including playoffs, on a neutral field, at Robin-Roberts Stadium, in Springfield, Illinois. The season will begin in August 2026.
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
(Phoenix) Merrill Kelly is officially back with the Arizona Diamondbacks, finalizing a two-year, $40 million deal on Friday.
The 37-year-old right-hander spent the first six and a half seasons of his career with the D’Backs.
In July of this year, the team traded him to the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline.
His overall performance was 12-9 and a 3.52 ERA in 2025.
Kelly could become the Diamondbacks’ No. 1 starter.
Corbin Burnes is recovering from Tommy John surgery and free agent Zac Gallen is not expected to return.
A native of Scottsdale, Kelly played for Arizona State in the NCAA.
He played a key role in helping the D’Backs reach the World Series in 2023.
He earned his team’s only victory in that year’s fall classic, as Texas won in five games.
Relying mainly on a vast repertoire of six pitches, Kelly debuted in the MLB in 2019, at the age of 30. Before that, he played four seasons in South Korea.
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
(Washington) Ani Kilambi, just 31 years old, was named general manager of the Washington Nationals on Thursday.
The former Philadelphia Phillies member is the latest young talent to join Nationals president of baseball operations Paul Toboni in Washington.
Kilambi was an assistant general manager for the Phillies, where he has worked since 2021. Before that, he worked for more than five years with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kilambi thus obtains the position that was held for more than 15 years by Mike Rizzo, who became general manager of the Nationals in 2009, before adding the title of president of baseball operations in 2013.
Rizzo was fired in July as the Nationals headed toward their sixth straight losing season. Coach Dave Martinez was fired at the same time.
Rizzo and Martinez were at the helm in 2019 when the Nationals won the World Series, but the team hasn’t had a winning season since. The Nationals finished with a 66–96 record in 2025, placing 14thand of the 15 clubs in the National League.
Mike DeBartolo took over as interim general manager following Rizzo’s departure and oversaw the selection of 17-year-old infielder Eli Willits with the first pick in the Major League Amateur Draft in July.
Toboni, 35, was hired at the end of September to lead Nacional; He was previously assistant general manager of the Boston Red Sox. He brought with him Blake Butera, who, at 33, became the youngest major league manager since the 1970s.
There is a lot to do to turn things around for the Nationals, who need talent and depth to rebuild their Major League roster as well as their affiliates.
Toboni’s first move on the free agent market came Monday, when the Nats agreed to a one-year, $5.5 million pact with left-handed pitcher Foster Griffin, a deal conditional on a medical exam. Griffin has played in Japan the past three seasons.
Ralph Bean is a writer for Sportish. Ralph has written about sports news for the last two years, and is currently an author on the site. He enjoys writing about sports, and hopes to cover more stories in the future.
