The Dodgers finally got a closer in the form of Edwin Diaz after years of not having one, and less than a month in he's headed for surgery for "loose bodies" in his elbow.
Strangely, no one feels bad for the Dodgers or us fans. 😁
Many Blue Jays are hoping our "closer", Jeff Hoffman goes on the IL. It seems the only way the manager will stop sending him out there to blow a save or lose a game.
The Phillies closer, Jhoan Duran, is on the IL. But that has been a moot issue because the Phillies have not had a lead in the 9th inning for over a week. There has been no need for a closer. Rest up, Jhoan!
Boston cleaned house this weekend! The team fired the manager (Alex Cora) along with the team's hitting coach (Pete Fatse), third-base coach (Kyle Hudson), bench coach (Ramón Vázquez), assistant hitting coach (Dillon Lawson) and "Major League hitting strategy coach" (Joe Cronin). In addition "game planning and run prevention coach" (Jason Varitek) was reassigned to another unannounced job within the organization.
It is not unusual for a manger to be fired from a struggling team, but firing the manager plus FIVE other coaches all at the same time is unusual.
In other news, the Phillies and Mets are tied for Worst Record In Baseball, at 9-19. They are the only two teams not to have double digits in wins. Remarkably, 28 games into the seasons, the Phillies have still not won a game when the opponent's starting pitcher is a left-hander! (I am referring to legit starting pitchers---not "bullpen games" when a relief pitcher starts the game for only an inning or two.) And yet it is Boston that fired their manager and all their hitting coaches....
Perhaps not a surprise in light of my previous post, but Phillies manager Rob Thomson has just been fired,
I find the way the article written kind of interesting. The reporter (Todd Zolecki) describes Thomson as being the Phillies manager "with the highest winning percentage (.568) of any manager in franchise history in the Modern Era (since 1900). Thomson is only the second manager in Phillies history to guide the team to four consecutive postseason appearances..."
By contrast, in discussing Phillies' "president of baseball operations" Dave Dombrowski, Zolecki notes:
Dombrowski made a notable roster change on Thursday, when he released Taijuan Walker. The Phillies will pay him $15.3 million not to pitch. It was the second notable Dombrowski free-agent signing to be released this year. He released Nick Castellanos in February, paying him $19.2 million not to play.
Those snarky comments about Dombrowski's free-agent signings being cut for millions of dollars "not to play" makes me feel that Zolecki thinks that Thomson should have been kept and Dombrowski fired. Maybe I am reading too much into it...but I don't think so.
We are, more or less, at the quarter-mark of the season (41 games), so it is worth glancing at the current standings.
In 2025, the six division winners were: Toronto, Cleveland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and LA Dodgers.
At the quarter post in 2026, only Cleveland and LA Dodgers are repeating as division leaders. AL East has Tampa Bay in the lead; NL East has Atlanta; NL Central is led by the Chicago Cubs; and (this is a shocker to me) AL West is led by Sacramento!
Comments
Strangely, no one feels bad for the Dodgers or us fans. 😁
It is not unusual for a manger to be fired from a struggling team, but firing the manager plus FIVE other coaches all at the same time is unusual.
In other news, the Phillies and Mets are tied for Worst Record In Baseball, at 9-19. They are the only two teams not to have double digits in wins. Remarkably, 28 games into the seasons, the Phillies have still not won a game when the opponent's starting pitcher is a left-hander! (I am referring to legit starting pitchers---not "bullpen games" when a relief pitcher starts the game for only an inning or two.) And yet it is Boston that fired their manager and all their hitting coaches....
I find the way the article written kind of interesting. The reporter (Todd Zolecki) describes Thomson as being the Phillies manager "with the highest winning percentage (.568) of any manager in franchise history in the Modern Era (since 1900). Thomson is only the second manager in Phillies history to guide the team to four consecutive postseason appearances..."
By contrast, in discussing Phillies' "president of baseball operations" Dave Dombrowski, Zolecki notes:
Those snarky comments about Dombrowski's free-agent signings being cut for millions of dollars "not to play" makes me feel that Zolecki thinks that Thomson should have been kept and Dombrowski fired. Maybe I am reading too much into it...but I don't think so.
In 2025, the six division winners were: Toronto, Cleveland, Seattle, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and LA Dodgers.
At the quarter post in 2026, only Cleveland and LA Dodgers are repeating as division leaders. AL East has Tampa Bay in the lead; NL East has Atlanta; NL Central is led by the Chicago Cubs; and (this is a shocker to me) AL West is led by Sacramento!
I was at the Blue Jays - Tigers game!