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The end of Game 7 wasn’t so much an ending as it was the starter’s pistol for 2026. It’s already been a busy week! I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Welcome to The Windup!
Free Agency: Joining the free-agent ranks …
Think baseball takes a break just because there was a parade? Nah. This is the week when players and teams opt into — or out of — those option years on their contracts.
Now free agents:
The four biggest names: Pete Alonso, Alex Bregman, Cody Bellinger and Edwin Díaz. Johnny Flores has a bigger list from Monday of players with options.
In the most complicated situation, the Cubs declined to exercise their three-year option on 32-year-old starter Shota Imanaga, then he declined his one-year option. (They could still extend him a qualifying offer.)
The Astros placed OF Chas McCormick and SP Luis Garcia on outright waivers, while the Reds declined options on four players.
Staying put:
SP Jack Flaherty waived an opt-out to stay with Detroit at $20 million for 2026.
Surprisingly, SP Shane Bieber exercised a one-year option for $16 million to stay in Toronto, delaying free agency.
LHP Tim Hill and the Yankees will run it back next year.
The Phillies exercised their $9 million option on LHP José Alvarado.
C Salvador Pérez and the Royals agreed on a two-year extension.
The Red Sox and Jarren Duran avoided arbitration with a $7.7 million deal.
More free agents: Tim Britton’s annual projections are here, from Kyle Tucker to Josh Bell.
Ken’s Notebook: My top 5 World Series Game 7’s
Recency bias is a powerful thing. It’s tempting to call the 2025 World Series the best ever, or at least the best I’ve seen since I started covering baseball in 1987. But I’m not sure that’s true.
Here, in reverse order, are the top five Series I’ve covered, all of which went seven games. And no, I don’t have 2025 as No. 1.
5. 2011: St. Louis Cardinals over Texas Rangers: This series featured three one-run games, including the first two and a Game 6 that was one of the most memorable ever played. The Cardinals erased two-run deficits in both the ninth and 10th innings. Both times, the Rangers were one strike away. Both times, David Freese delivered a mammoth hit.
4. 2016: Chicago Cubs over Cleveland Indians: For sheer historical impact, this one was the most meaningful. The Cubs were trying to win their first series since 1908, Cleveland its first since 1945. The series included three one-run games, including Game 7, in which the Cubs completed their rally from a three-games-to-one deficit. The game included a 10th-inning rain delay during which Jason Heyward gathered his Cubs teammates in the weight room and delivered an inspiring pep talk. Heck, maybe I’m ranking this series too low!
3. 2025: Los Angeles Dodgers over Toronto Blue Jays: Two of the writers I trust most for historical perspective, Tyler Kepner and Jayson Stark, consider Game 7 the greatest World Series Game 7 ever played. That is one reason I ranked this series ahead of 2016 — dramatic as that Game 7 was, the Cubs never trailed. The ‘25 Series featured only one other one-run game, but oh, there were too many epic individual performances to count!
2. 2001: Arizona Diamondbacks over New York Yankees: This Series took place less than two months after 9/11 and involved a New York team, intensifying the emotions. After the D-Backs won the first two games, the Yankees won three straight one-run games in New York, two in extra innings, one featuring Derek Jeter becoming Mr. November. I remember the old Yankee Stadium literally shaking. Back in Arizona, Game 7 included Randy Johnson pitching the final 1 1/3 innings after starting Game 6, and of course, Luis Gonzalez’s walkoff hit off Mariano Rivera.
1. 1991: Minnesota Twins over Atlanta Braves: Every night, I couldn’t wait to get to the park. Five of the seven games were decided by one run, including Game 6, which ended on Kirby Puckett’s walkoff homer, and Game 7, a classic 1-0 duel between John Smoltz and Jack Morris. After Morris’ 10 scoreless innings, I asked Twins manager Tom Kelly what it would have taken to remove him: “A shotgun.”
Voting Time: Contemporary Era HOF Ballot announced
The side stage rarely gets more attention than the main attraction, but when Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens are in the same headline as the words “Hall of Fame,” it’s a big deal. They’re on this year’s Contemporary Baseball Era ballot.
By now, the battle lines have been clearly drawn for decades.
The case for: They were probably Hall of Famers before the years in question. And while anabolic steroids were illegal, MLB didn’t officially ban them until 2005. As Steve Buckley points out here, MLB’s lack of knowledge — or perhaps its willful ignorance — about steroids in the sport was one of Bud Selig’s biggest failures as commissioner. And he’s in the Hall … so.
The case against: They are cheating cheaters who cheated, putting substances in their body that basically allowed them to speed-run recovery. It was an unfair advantage, and their numbers are artificially inflated.
Each player also has some off-the-field history. In Bonds’ case: domestic violence. For Clemens, 2008 reports revealed he began a relationship with country music star Mindy McCready when he was 28 and she was 15.
Others on the contemporary era ballot this year: Carlos Delgado, Jeff Kent, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Valenzuela. C. Trent Rosecrans gives each the case for and against.
Meanwhile, the “normal” Hall of Fame vote is also underway — bookmark this tracker by Ryan Thibodaux to follow how that’s going.
More Hall of Fame Contemporary Ballot:
More steroid scandal: Victor Conte, the founder of the BALCO lab that was at the center of Barry Bonds’ steroid scandal, has died at 75.
Collectibles: Nachos, polygraph tests and a life-changing bit of luck
Ditching your nachos to dive into bushes and emerging with a ball worth potentially seven digits is a stroke of luck you simply can’t plan for.
Such was the case with Carlo Mendoza, who ended up with Shohei Ohtani’s second home run ball from the historic NLCS Game 4. This quote by SCP Auctions chief operating officer Mike Keys made me laugh.
“(Mendoza) scraped up his leg real bad. And in fact, nobody really around him realized what was going on until after he grabbed it. He dove, thinking that there would be a dog pile, and there just wasn’t.”
Honestly: Better to go too hard than to play it cool while Billy No-Chill swipes it from just under your fingertips.
There was one hitch, though. Because the ball went so far — 469 feet, to be exact — it left the MLB authenticators’ line of sight, meaning they could not, by policy, authenticate it. So Mendoza got a stamp from Dodger Stadium staff and had to take a polygraph test before it was determined the ball was legit.
One bizarre addendum buried at the bottom of this story: “SCP will also auction off two Dodgers home run balls from Los Angeles’ Game 7 World Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays, according to Cllct. Blue Jays fans John and Matthew Bains, father and son, hauled in Miguel Rojas’ ninth-inning homer and Will Smith’s 11th-inning shot in the left-field stands at Rogers Centre.”
Excuse me?!
More pricey ballpark freebies: A rare Dodgers / One Piece crossover giveaway card sold for $15k on eBay.
Handshakes and High Fives
The decline of Mike Trout is one of my least favorite recent stories. Britt Ghiroli has an in-depth story here, speaking to numerous Hall of Famers.
Jim Bowden checked in with all 30 teams to identify their needs and goals for 2026.
Apparently neither of the two finalists are getting the Rockies’ head of baseball operations job. In Miami, Gabe Kapler was promoted to GM, and Bruce Bochy is joining the Giants (as an advisor).
Is it time for a rebuild in The Bronx? LOL, it’s the Yankees. Of course not.
The Skaggs family/Angels civil suit continues. Recent testimony centered on whether Eric Kay’s drug use was known within the org, with a former clubbie testifying it was.
On the pods: You’ll probably recognize the guest on this week’s Starkville: It’s The Windup’s own Ken Rosenthal, discussing the World Series.
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: The top 10 moments to remember from Game 7.
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