Mining the News (10/2/26)

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Overall

• Lance Brozdowski discussing eight breakouts. Twenty-four minutes well spent.

American League

Astros

• Daulton Varsho had wrist surgery.

The Astros announced Wednesday that outfielder Daulton Varsho underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left wrist. He’d been plagued by a pair of cysts in that wrist, which had become increasingly uncomfortable as the final stretch of the season inched toward its conclusion.

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Blue Jays

• Jameson Taillon needed elbow surgery.

Reinvigorated by his brief stint with the Toronto Blue Jays, Jameson Taillon will undergo elbow surgery next week with an eye toward resuming his career once back to health.

The 34-year-old Canadian righty, who has already undergone two Tommy John surgeries, is scheduled for a flexor repair Monday and he said via text message Thursday that “there’s a good chance” Dr. Keith Meister “also does an internal brace of the ligament while in there.”

• According to the GM, Ernie Clement and Brett Bateman are not guaranteed to be everyday players.

The team, Atkins said, needs to “be cautious” about how much they put on Ernie Clement and Brett Bateman, suggesting they may not be everyday starters in 2027. On Clement, an All-Star this season, Atkins said he needs to “earn every bit” of a regular second base role.

I understand limiting Clement and his .649 OPS. Bateman was better (.826 OPS, .410 BABIP) in 181 PA, but the team may want to see if he can sustain it for an entire season.

• According to the GM, the rotation will be of Dylan Cease, José Soriano, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce and Spencer Arrighetti …

Atkins called Dylan Cease, Jose Soriano, Trey Yesavage, Cody Ponce and Spencer Arrighetti “a good start” in building out a 2027 rotation, “but we’ll look to add to it.”

… with José Berríos and Bowden Francis joining the rotation once healthy.

“A significant portion” of Toronto’s necessary pitching for 2027 is already in place, Atkins said. He specifically mentioned getting Cody Ponce, José Berríos and Bowden Francis back from injury to add more depth to a group that includes Dylan Cease, Trey Yesavage and Soriano.

• Anthony Santander still hasn’t regained his bat speed.

Santander’s attempt at a late-season comeback fell short, but his “bat speed is coming back” as he continues to rehab in Dunedin and “he still has all the physical attributes, all of the mental attributes,” added Atkins. “Hopefully there’s some benefit to some recovery time for his body, as well.”

• Ricky Tiedemann will likely be a reliever.

Lefty Ricky Tiedemann, on the other hand, is slated for the bullpen, with the Blue Jays “thinking of him as a reliever,” said Atkins.

Orioles

• To deal with his wrist pain, Gunnar Henderson needed to change bats during the season …

“I really don’t like making excuses, because everybody’s banged up at this point in the year. But yeah, I had a little [right] wrist issue going on,” Henderson said. “But I felt like bat knob changes helped that out. So it was just minor, getting that a little bit better. But like I said, everybody’s banged up at this point in the year. It just sucks that it happened. It is what it is.”

It makes sense that Henderson may not have been close to 100 percent for periods of this season. In fact, he said the wrist bothered him for “pretty much half the year.”

… to an axe-handle one.

“Gunnar and the training staff did a great job, and Gunnar also made an adjustment with his bat as well, where he had a regular knob bat pretty much the whole year … but towards the end of the season, he switched to an ax handle, and that helped a lot.

• Luis De León will move back to being a starter …

The Orioles decided the best way to introduce De León to the major leagues was to temporarily convert him to a reliever. After four relief appearances for Triple-A Norfolk, De León got his call to join the Orioles in Colorado on September 1st.

Next spring, he’ll be back as a starter, trying to make the team.

“He’s going to come into camp as a starter,” Albernaz said. “[Luis] did a great job. We talked about being thrust into the bullpen for two weeks in the minor leagues, and he did outstanding at the big league level in his first taste. It’s impressive how he handles himself, his demeanor, and obviously the stuff stands out. It’s elite stuff and, with his demeanor and that stuff, we’re going to give him every avenue to be a starter.”

… after seeing success with fewer pitches.

De León threw 99 innings for Norfolk and Double-A Chesapeake and walked 53 batters while striking out 121. He credited his improved control in the major leagues by reducing the number of pitches he threw from five as a starter to three as a reliever.

Royals

• Daniel Lynch IV will fight for a rotation spot to start next season.

Daniel Lynch IV is one of those two, transitioning into a starting role in August. Lynch made 10 starts in 2026, surrendering two earned runs or fewer in three of his final four starts. As a reliever, Lynch had a 1.96 ERA in 46 appearances.

“I think what we asked him to do is difficult to build up in the latter part of the season, especially coming out of a role where he was having a lot of success,” Picollo said. “He does believe he can start, and we think he did enough over the last two months to compete for a spot in the rotation.”

Twins

• Byron Buxton will be rehabbing until at least Christmas.

His rehabilitation program is already underway, Twins general manager Jeremy Zoll said, and the plan calls for Buxton to rehab his hip until Christmas, when he’ll begin to ramp up preparation for the 2027 season.

“Byron Buxton is going to be a very productive player,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said at Tuesday’s end-of-year press conference. “Let the rehab process take its course.”

Buxton, who turns 33 in December, is optimistic too.

When he divulged the plan to undergo surgery in mid-September, Buxton said doctors “reassured me that I’ll be fine the rest of my career going forward.”

• Walker Jenkins needed to have elbow surgery.

Walker Jenkins had right elbow debridement surgery Wednesday. Dr. Chris Camp performed the surgery, which included a debridement of the joint, bone chip and spur removal. The Twins say there were no issues and he’s expected to be healthy entering next spring.

— Bobby Nightengale (@nightengalejr.bsky.social) 2026-10-01T17:27:41.118Z

National League

Cardinals

• Jordan Walker played through a hip injury to end the season.

Walker’s breakout season ended with a whimper. He hit just .172 with a bloated 36.8% strikeout rate in September. It seems an injury is to blame for the poor month. Bloom said Walker was playing through a hip issue over the final weeks of the year. The injury stemmed from a mounting workload and a stance change. Walker easily set a career high with 158 games played. He had 200+ more plate appearances than his previous high watermark.

Marlins

• Jakob Marsee played through several injuries this season.

Marsee didn’t match the heights of his 55-game rookie breakout in 2025, but he established himself as Miami’s everyday center fielder while hitting .231/.348/.359 with 11 homers and 23 steals over 616 plate appearances. Marsee posted an .862 OPS in the second half after struggling to a .615 OPS in 389 PA before the All-Star break, and this late surge is all the more impressive since Marsee was apparently battling multiple injuries.

“Credit to Jakob, he was banged up all season with a lot of different things,” Bendix said. “Not just the elbow, a lot of things, [and] never went on the IL. Continued to play through, and not only that, but had an incredible stretch at the end of the season.”

• Agustín Ramírez will likely be a platoon DH and will no longer catch.

Mets

• Kodai Senga wants to start, but the team is not committed to him.

Well, a different role, for starters. Through it all, Senga has “been really good expressing to us that his passion resides in the rotation,” as manager Andy Green put it. That’s something Mets officials intend to take into account as they draw up their 2027 roster plans.

But ultimately, the decision resides with the team, not the player. Given how many young starters have emerged for the Mets this season, Senga is highly unlikely to report to Spring Training as one of the team’s top five starters. The Mets’ rotation should include some combination of Nolan McLean, Christian Scott, Zac Thornton, Jonah Tong, Sean Manaea and/or one or more external additions.

While the Mets could decide that Senga is more valuable to them as a rotation depth piece than as a one-inning reliever, that decision could require him to consent to more time at Triple-A Syracuse — something Senga may not be willing to do. Or, the Mets could keep Senga in the bullpen, hoping he can become a dynamic bridge to Williams, who’s under contract for two more seasons.
…
As a reliever, though, Senga has finally developed into the type of pitcher Mets coaches have long implored him to be. Since moving to the bullpen full-time at the start of August, Senga’s four-seam fastball and forkball usage has spiked, while his reliance on his five other pitches — all of which rank well below-average in terms of the Stuff+ metric — has dropped.

• The team is not committed to Marcus Semien playing second base.

David Stearns says he "won't commit to what second base looks like" for the Mets in 2027 pic.twitter.com/tGvcRB0Ht3

— SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) September 28, 2026

• Jared Young is still having problems with bright lights and doesn’t have all his hearing back.

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Young, for the first time, publicly discussed the concussion and related injuries that ended his season. Almost two weeks removed from his collision with McLean, Young is home in Phoenix, recouping but enjoying bits of normalcy. He goes for walks, stretches his muscles, practices yoga. Before the Mets’ season ended, Young spent his days reading books or doing crossword puzzles outside. Screen time was tolerable only in small doses, so Young tried to avoid his phone and save his allotment until the evening, when he would watch the Mets play.
…
The collision with McLean, which both players called unavoidable, left Young with a concussion, a stiff neck due to whiplash, and some lingering hearing issues, all of which he believes will dissipate soon. Several days after the accident, Young returned to Arizona, where he began regularly seeing concussion, neck and hearing specialists. When he’s not shuttling to and from appointments, Young rests as much as possible.

Reds

• Dane Myers needed shoulder surgery.

“Dane Myers had a cleanup of his AC joint in the left shoulder…”

• The team said that Andrew Abbott was out of shape and needs to improve.

Andrew Abbott “needs to get in better shape”