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The 2026 schedule has been released! There will be baseball yet again next year!
Plus: The Mets are unstoppable*, the Rookie of the Year contenders are all surprises and I steal an excerpt from Tyler Kepner’s talk with Bobby Shantz. I’m Levi Weaver; Ken Rosenthal will be back later this week. Welcome to The Windup!
*vs. Philadelphia at home
Hope: 2026 schedule has been announced
Next year’s baseball schedule has been released. Thirty MLB rosters still have yet to be overhauled or tweaked via offseason trades and free agency. But while they don’t yet know who will be there, they know where they’ll be on any given day in the warm half of the calendar.
It always catches me off guard, this announcement. Every year, around the time my internal calendar tells me that baseball is beginning to wind down, the league drops a little reminder: Even when it ends, it’s not truly over. This trip around the sun is just another verse in a song that began before we arrived, and will continue long after my voice goes silent.
Maybe it’s because I forget to expect it; maybe that’s why this announcement reminds me of hope. It’s hard to manufacture those moments in life that remind you there is good still to come. They have to sneak up on you, put their hands over your eyes and say, “Guess who?”
It’s you, hope. I know your voice. I’ve held those hands. How have you been while we were apart?
Great. Always great. I mean, it’s hope, you know? How has hope been? It’s like greeting the sun by asking: How was your night?
This schedule announcement is the predecessor to Opening Day, the most hopeful date on the baseball calendar. Next year, that day will start with the Yankees and Giants, and it will begin on March 25 — earlier than ever before, assuming you don’t count one-offs like last year’s Tokyo Series.
The Yankees have been doing Opening Days since 1903, back when they were the New York Highlanders. The Giants have been at it even longer: 1883, when they were simply known as “New York” (the Giants moniker didn’t stick until two years later, following them across the country in 1958).
So yes, things change. They always do. But, so far as we have the capacity to know, there will be baseball next year. And that feels nice, just like every other year.
Reinforcements: Mets own Phillies in Queens (and more help is on the way)
The Phillies lead the NL East by five games, but that hasn’t helped them at Citi Field. After last night’s walk-off 6-5 win, the Mets have now beaten the Phillies in nine straight games at home, as they hold tightly to an NL wild-card spot.
And more help appears to be en route.
Less than two weeks after calling up pitching prospect Nolan McLean, the Mets are taking a second dip in the prospect pool: Jonah Tong is being promoted to make his MLB debut on Friday in Miami against the Marlins.
And why not? Tong, who turned 22 in June, has allowed zero runs in two Triple-A starts and boasts a 1.43 ERA in 113 2/3 minor-league innings this year, striking out 179 hitters and walking 47.
That line demands a look at the big-league level, particularly with some recent Mets rotation struggles. Kodai Senga hasn’t looked sharp of late. Neither had Sean Manaea before last night’s eight-strikeout, two-run start. Frankie Montas is out for the season.
So here come the reinforcements.
So far, so good for the 24-year-old McLean, who is 2-0 with a 1.46 ERA in two starts. If Tong — ranked No. 52 in Keith Law’s most recent top 60 prospects list — can provide similar production … it might not just be the Phillies who find Citi Field to be a hellscape.
More NL East: The Phillies are “hitting pause” on Jordan Romano’s season as part of a bullpen shakeup.
Fresh Faces: The rookies who have surprised us this year
This is why predictions are such a fool’s errand. Who would you have guessed to be the AL and NL Rookies of the Year, had you made a guess in March?
Roki Sasaki? Dylan Crews? Matt Shaw? Jasson Domínguez? You wouldn’t have been alone. Those were the safe bets as the season began. And then … well, then the season happened.
As Chad Jennings illustrates here, the best rookies have been guys who just about nobody expected. Nick Kurtz (A’s), Carlos Narváez (Red Sox) and Isaac Collins (Brewers) are leading the freshman class in bWAR.
There is, of course, one glaring exception to this rule: the guy whom Keith Law ranked No. 1 in his pre-season top 100 prospects list.
Maybe the biggest surprise about Roman Anthony’s season is that it took the Red Sox until June 9 to let him debut. Since then, he’s hitting .287 (.850 OPS) as Boston has climbed back into a wild-card position.
Full disclosure: I have an AL Rookie of the Year vote this year, so I am discouraged from talking about which direction I’m leaning. But since I’m not voting on the NL award, I can tell you that Collins — who leads all NL rookies with 2.7 fWAR — has been one of my favorite stories of the year.
Read This: Kepner on Bobby Shantz, the oldest living MVP
With Ken out for a few days, I’m handing over his space to my favorite story this week. Tyler Kepner spoke with Bobby Shantz, who turns 100 years old next month. Here’s an excerpt:
AMBLER, Pa. — They are boldface names with swagger to spare. An October titan with his own candy bar. A high-kicking lefty with his first name on his back. A mustachioed closer who pointed at his victims. Depression-era champions. Steroid-era sluggers. A base-stealing savant who called himself the greatest of all time.
Reggie, Vida, Eck. Grove and Foxx. Canseco, Giambi, Tejada. Rickey. All of them played for the Athletics and won the American League Most Valuable Player award. All of them, and one more.
You will find him in his living-room easy chair in the Philadelphia suburbs, right where he’s lived for seven decades. Bobby Shantz turns 100 years old on Sept. 26. He is trim and tan with a shock of light blond hair, a bad hip, achy knees and a sense of wonder at the heights that a 5-foot-6 dreamer from Pottstown, Pa., could reach.
“Boy, I tell you, I really don’t know,” said Shantz, who was 24-7 with a 2.48 ERA for the Philadelphia A’s in 1952, when he beat out a trio of Yankees — Allie Reynolds, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra — for the MVP.
“When I was growing up, I never thought I ever had a chance to be a big-league baseball pitcher. I thought I might have a chance in the minor leagues, maybe, but I didn’t realize that I had enough stuff to be in the big leagues.“But it turned out awful nice, I’ll tell you that — 16 years. You know, I lasted more than I thought I would. Boy, what a life. I really enjoyed every minute of it. Even when I was horses—, I still liked it.”
…
“It’s hard to believe, but back in those early days when I was playing with Bobby (Richardson), there were no helmets in baseball and we were still traveling on the train. And we had some good times. The food on the train was tremendous — a dining car between two Pullmans. Not everybody liked it, but I just loved riding along after ball games, looking out at the farms.”
Richardson was religious, Shantz recalled with a laugh, and would gently remind him not to cuss so much on the mound. He hated to upset Richardson, whom he called his favorite teammate, but, well, Shantz couldn’t help himself.
“As a pitcher, you better start cussing,” he said. “Because sometimes you really need it.”
You can read the full story here.
Handshakes and High Fives
After last week’s comments by the commissioner reignited expansion talk, Stephen Nesbitt touched base with his sources and has an update on how the plans are coming for Austin, Nashville, Orlando, Portland, Raleigh and Salt Lake City.
An update on Willson Contreras, after Monday night’s meltdown: He has been given a six-game suspension, but has appealed it.
The Astros lost 6-1 to the Rockies last night, souring the good vibes from the return of Yordan Alvarez, who had been out since May 2 with a fracture in his hand.
A few years ago, Yu Darvish thought his career might be nearing an end. Dennis Lin tells us how the Padres’ elder statesman of the rotation has maintained his efficacy at 39, even as he has battled injury.
Jim Bowden lists one big concern for six contending teams.
The Twins say their pitching should be a strength next year. Are they right?
On the pods: This week’s “Starkville” features “Coach RAC” of the Savannah Bananas. Yes, there are backflips, trick plays and fun rules. But RAC is also pretty insightful about what MLB can — and also what they shouldn’t — learn from Bananaball.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Katie Woo’s story on Willson Contreras’ heated episode versus the Pirates.
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(Photo: Bob Kupbens / Imagn Images)