Mining the News (9/25/26)

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

American League

Royals

• Lucas Erceg’s fastball velocity is up since returning from the minors.

But by far the biggest development was Erceg’s scoreless eighth inning. It was the first high-leverage spot for the former Royals closer since his demotion to Triple-A Omaha earlier this season for performance issues. After working on his mentality, mechanics and plan on the mound, Erceg needed just nine pitches to keep Kansas City’s one-run lead. He also hit triple digits for the first time since the 2024 ALDS.

Before the demotion to AAA, his fastball averaged 97.1 mph. Since returning, it’s averaging 99.2 mph with a 1.87 botERA (2.77 xFIP). It was a 4.38 botERA (5.41 xFIP) before that.

Yankees

• Anthony Volpe could start games at third base.

Boone should get Anthony Volpe reps at third base in the next five games. Volpe has been a disappointing hitter as a big leaguer, but he has a career 101 wRC+ against lefties. The Yankees had Volpe play a handful of games at third in the minors this season to increase his positional versatility. It’s time to see if it can work in the majors. José Caballero should also see increased time at third base. Those two need to be given an opportunity to supplant McMahon at third base.

National League

Braves

• Ronald Acuña Jr. adjusted his stance in late August and hit better.

Acuña entered Tuesday night’s game against the Reds with MLB’s second-best OPS (1.119) going back to Aug. 28, the day he adjusted his stance. His surge has enhanced excitement about what he could do for the National League East champion Braves during the postseason.

Brewers

• Garrett Mitchell sits for some day games when his Type 1 diabetes “doesn’t cooperate”.

The durability challenge for Mitchell is amplified by his Type 1 diabetes, which can be a challenge on a day game following a series of night games. Mitchell has occasionally been scratched from the lineup in those instances when his body doesn’t cooperate, but he has worked with the team’s performance dietician, Adam Auer, who travels with the team and has helped Mitchell strategize his diet to avoid those instances.

Padres

• Manny Machado dealt with several injuries this season, including a finger injury.

Machado, the Padres’ oldest position player, has also spent the season playing through various injuries. Some, like a lingering bruise on his right index finger, have been difficult to hide. Others are less apparent but seem to have had an effect. At the plate, Machado experienced the worst two-month start of his life. He has never been a swift runner, but his average sprint speed represents another career low.

I’m not sure how much of his 2026 decline (.795 OPS to .709 OPS, 14 SB to 5 SB) was injury-related or Father Time-related. Most likely a combo job.  It will be tough for me to buy into a rebound next season in his age-34 season.

Reds

• Chase Burns plans to work on his sinker and changeup this offseason.

[Burns] says that he wants to work on his sinker as well as his changeup to give him more tools to go deeper into the game. He also wants to work on his slide step to better manage the running game.

The sinker news has been widely reported, but the focus on the changeup not really. Our STUPH models (45 botOvr, 78 Pitching+) and results (12% SwStr%) grade the pitch as below average.

• Andrew Abbott made a mechanical adjustment towards the season’s end.

“It gives you a good feeling going in that you ended on a high note,” Abbott said. “And it also kind of tells you what you were working on towards the end of the season, you continue to work on it in the offseason. I made some mechanical [adjustments]. We slid over on the rubber, little things like that — just playing around with old video and trying to figure things out and get it to where you at least feel comfortable, and then come back and hopefully it’s good.”

In his quote, he sounded like he made one adjustment and now everything is good. First, here is an image of his release over the season. The horizontal component moves by over a foot.

The problem is that he kept moving around with no way to know what is working. Here is his game-by-game horizontal release points.

Rockies

• Ezequiel Tovar plans to work on his swing decisions this offseason.

Gonzalez is signed to be the third-base coach for Santurce in the Puerto Rican Winter League. Tovar is not signed as an active player, but he plans to do full baseball workouts as if he’s preparing for games. Gonzalez said Tovar could see game-speed pitching, whether it’s standing in the batter’s box to track pitches during bullpen sessions or even facing pitchers during live batting practice.

The goal is to improve swing decisions that have seen Tovar rank, per Statcast:

First (40.4 percent) in swing rate at all low-and-away pitches out of the strike zone (min. 100 pitches).
First (46.4 percent) in swing rate at non-fastballs out of the strike zone among MLB players (min. 100 pitches).
Seventh (36.5 percent) in swinging out of the zone at the first pitch of a plate appearance (min.150 pitches).

At least he’s trying.