The Windup Newsletter ⚾ | This is The Athletic’s MLB newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Windup directly in your inbox.

It’s mid-August, and most of this past weekend’s games still had playoff implications?? Plus: Past and present players celebrated different milestones, and bad umpiring was on display. Also, Ken Rosenthal got the skinny on the Mike Trout … uh … what’s the opposite of “invitational?”

I’m Levi Weaver — welcome to The Windup!

Weekend Recap: Many teams remain in playoff race

I truly believe this has been the most entertaining regular season in recent memory. Not because every team is good (I’m familiar with the AL West), but it’s Aug. 10 … and 21 teams are either in or within 3.5 games of a playoff spot.

That’s 70 percent of the league’s teams — and thus fans — who still have something resembling hope. (I’m sure there’s a league-sponsored commercial coming soon to celebrate that parity.)

Anyway, here’s a quick ranking of every series this weekend featuring those 21 teams. Sorry, Reds-Nats and Mets-Pirates. (And here are the MLB standings, for reference.)

• Braves-Yankees: New York snapped Atlanta’s eight-game winning streak in 10 innings on Friday, then won again Saturday. Atlanta salvaged a win on Sunday, also in 10 innings. All three were one-run games.
• Guardians-White Sox: Cleveland won Friday when White Sox manager Will Venable made a first-inning blunder, but Chicago battled back to win the next two in a huge series, taking a 3.5-game lead in the division.
• Astros-Padres: A collision between two red-hot teams went San Diego’s way; it won two of three to climb to within a game of a wild-card spot.
• Orioles-Rangers: After losing the first two games, Pete Alonso’s two-homer Sunday helped Baltimore avoid a sweep, and kept Texas a half-game behind Houston.
• Blue Jays-Phillies: Toronto won two before Philadelphia’s thrilling 12-inning win on Sunday. Toronto’s not dead, at 3.5 games out in the AL. Philadelphia, in a rough stretch, is now tied for the second and third NL wild-card spots, because …
• Diamondbacks-Dodgers: Arizona (63-56) won two of three to pull even with Philadelphia. Meanwhile, L.A.’s malaise continues. The Dodgers are 1-7 in August.
• Rays-Mariners: Tampa Bay swept Seattle. The Mariners are now four games out in the division and 3.5 games out in the wild-card race, tied with Toronto.
• Twins-Brewers: Minnesota took the first game, but lost ground in the playoff chase (1.5 games out) when Milwaukee won the next two. Check out these two catches by Brewers OF Luis Lara.
• Athletics-Red Sox: Boston extended its winning streak to nine games on Friday with a 13-1 trouncing, but the A’s took the last two.
• Cubs-Royals: Chicago did what it’s supposed to do: win two of three on the road against a bad team.
• Angels-Marlins: The Marlins (60-59) refuse to die. They took two of three at home and are three games out in the NL.
• Tigers-Giants: Speaking of refusing to die, Detroit (58-60) hasn’t wilted after the deadline. It’s 4-2 since then (winning two of three this weekend) and is just one game out in the AL.
• Rockies-Cardinals: I thought the Cards (59-59) were toast, but they took two of three at home against Colorado and are 3.5 back in the NL.

More playoff race: Stephen Nesbitt and Chad Jennings pored over the schedules to see which playoff contenders have the toughest and easiest paths to the postseason.

Middle Relief: A trade deadline day like no other

Today, Ken Rosenthal tells us the story of how a team golf outing, orchestrated by Mike Trout, became a game of Angels trade deadline “Survivor.” Here’s an excerpt: 

It was Aug. 3, the day of baseball’s trade deadline, an off day on the East Coast before a series in Baltimore. About a dozen Angels were gathered near the first tee, ready to begin a long-awaited round of golf at the course that Tiger Woods designed for superstar Trout.

Little did the players realize, some of them would be former Angels very soon.

“It seemed like every four or five holes someone was getting the call,” said Trout, who watched his team bonding event turn into one big breakup.

Trout, 35, was eager to host his teammates near his hometown of Millville, N.J., at his private, invitation-only club, Trout National — The Reserve. But he planned the outing in the spring, without realizing the date’s significance on the baseball calendar. Nor could he know back then that the Angels, a team that rarely acts as sellers at the deadline, would tear it down.

Suffice it to say, no team ever experienced a deadline day like this.

Three players were traded while taking in the rolling hills of Trout National — reliever Brent Suter, outfielder Jo Adell and reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. A fourth, reliever Kirby Yates, learned he was dealt after the round was over while in a car heading back to Trout’s home.

“It was pretty wild watching everybody go,” said Yates, a 12-year veteran. “None of us have ever seen that many guys get traded at once.

“After somebody went, we just kept saying, ‘All right, who’s next?’”

A fifth Angel traded that day, right-hander José Soriano, wasn’t part of the group, which the previous night boarded a bus upon landing in Baltimore for the two-hour drive to Trout’s home in New Jersey.

Soriano, 27, doesn’t golf. He was asleep in his hotel room when he was awakened by a phone call the next morning informing him he was heading to the Blue Jays.

Everyone else — the dozen or so players who stayed overnight at Trout’s home, plus coaches and staffers who arrived on a bus from Baltimore the following morning — was at Trout National.

“I’m bummed I wasn’t invited,” Angels interim general manager John Mozeliak joked. “I was a little tied up that morning.”

Mozeliak, preoccupied with trade negotiations, did not know nearly half his team was golfing. Trout came to realize, as he organized the outing, that it might be an unusual day. The group, he said, had an idea that trades were coming.

Suter got the first call, right before the players teed off.

“Everyone was putting on a green,” Trout said. “We were all sitting there, all on the tee box.”

For the rest, click here.

Challenge: MLB’s Emil Jiménez problem

He doesn’t have the years under his belt to be a C.B. Bucknor or Angel Hernandez, but if umpire Emil Jiménez keeps this up, he’ll be a household name soon enough.

We introduced you to Jiménez in late June, noting that (among other things) he had perplexingly refused a timely challenge by Jasson Domínguez. Then in mid-July, Jiménez did it to Domínguez again.

And during Saturday night’s Tampa Bay-Seattle game, Jiménez was back at it. This challenge was ruled to have taken too long:

I pulled out my stopwatch. It’s about 2 seconds after the ball crosses the plate. But you can’t challenge a call that hasn’t been made, and Jiménez doesn’t start his punchout until the 1.5-second mark. By the time he finishes the motion, Julio Rodriguez is already tapping.

Mariners manager Dan Wilson was (predictably) livid and promptly ejected (you can see that video here). Then it got worse.

In the next half-inning, Jiménez flat-out ignored another challenge, this one by Jonathan Aranda of the Rays. This time, third-base umpire Doug Eddings had to walk in and override the situation, granting the challenge. As you can imagine, the Mariners and their fans were not thrilled.

Jiménez isn’t the only umpire who has done this, but it’s becoming a problem.

More umpiring: For the sake of space, I’ll just let Rob Friendman, known on X as “Pitching Ninja,” show you Dan Merzel’s “highlight” reel from Saturday. I don’t remember the last time I heard “He started it!” from anyone older than 6 years old.

On Sunday, Merzel kept it going, ejecting a still-upset Chris Sale before the game even began. Brendan Kuty has that story here.

Achievements: More big moments from the weekend

It was a big weekend for honoring past players and celebrating current ones. Here’s a rundown of who achieved what:

Honors:

Milestones:

Handshakes and High Fives

The A’s and GM David Forst have parted ways.

Reds reliever Tejay Antone is one of just three pitchers to return to the big leagues after a third Tommy John surgery. He has become one of manager Terry Francona’s most trusted arms.

One major shift in Pete Crow-Armstrong’s game? His performance against left-handed pitchers.

Astros’ setup man Bryan Abreu has flipped a switch. He credits … socks?

The Twins promoted Kaelen Culpepper, and the 23-year-old infielder homered in his MLB debut.

Hunter Greene’s season is over in Cincinnati. He’ll undergo elbow surgery next week on a partially torn ligament.

Most-clicked in our last Windup: Luis Arraez jumping over a tag before realizing it was all over.

📫 Love The Windup? Check out The Athletic’s other newsletters.

If you have read much of the fantasy football content at The Athletic (and of course you have, for you are a connoisseur), then you know that during the season I write a weekly column here — “Drops.”

It’s a weekly look at the players who are dead weight, dragging fantasy managers into the murky depths of Davey Jones’ Locker. That column will return in 2026 —the “why” escapes me as well if it makes you feel any better, but apparently there’s a market for snark meets marginally competent fantasy football analysis.

In any event, this year I have decided to get a head start on being wrong (it’s never too early to swing wildly at pitches like Mark Reynolds in 2009) by highlighting some draft-day drops. These aren’t players who should be let go — these guys should never be rostered in the first place, at least not at cost.

So, as you prepare for the biggest day on the fantasy calendar, keep these players in mind. Because if you draft these season-sinkers in 2026, you’ll wind up On Stranger Tides — and Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Those last two Pirates of the Caribbean movies had writing almost as bad as, well, this.

Almost.

QB: Josh Allen, Buffalo (ADP: 27)

To be clear, Allen is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL and a valuable fantasy asset. He was the highest-scoring fantasy quarterback in 2025 and has finished in that spot three times over the past five seasons.

But taking the first quarterback on draft day is almost always a terrible idea — and taking Allen at his ADP, over two full rounds ahead of the No. 2 quarterback (Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson) is just lunacy.

For Allen to return value in 2026, he doesn’t just have to finish as the top signal-caller in fantasy points again — he has to obliterate the competition ala Jackson in 2019 or Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes the year before. That’s not likely from a quarterback whose last 4,000-yard season came in 2023. Allen’s last 30-touchdown season throwing the ball was 2022. If his gaudy rushing numbers drop, look out.

Let someone else break the seal at quarterback. The value on draft day lies toward the back of fantasy QB1 territory with players like Jacksonville’s Trevor Lawrence and Dak Prescott of the Cowboys.

RB1: Christian McCaffrey, San Francisco (ADP: 6)

This writer has beaten this drum so much this summer that Peter Criss sent me a cease-and-desist letter. But Criss also chose “The Catman” for his KISS persona, so he can pound sand.

I shall not be deterred!

McCaffrey was fantasy’s highest-scoring running back last year by a wide margin — the third time in his career the 30-year-old has surpassed 2,000 total yards in a season. But he isn’t going to sniff those numbers this season.

McCaffrey’s 413 regular-season touches were the most of his career, and the most touches a running back has amassed in at least a decade. He’s well past the age where running backs start to decline. Backs who top 2,000 total yards in a season usually experience a substantial decline in production the next year.

The first two times that McCaffrey topped 2,000 yards, his legs fell off the following years. Thirteen missed games in 2020. Thirteen missed games in 2024.

He’s fantasy football’s biggest bust in 2026 — full stop.

RB2: Bucky Irving, Tampa Bay (ADP: 50)

Two years ago, Irving was quite the find for the Buccaneers and fantasy managers — the fourth-round rookie who topped 1,500 total yards, averaged over 5 yards per carry and finished the year as a top-15 running back in PPR points.

The problem is that it isn’t 2024 anymore. And 2025 happened.

During that 2024 campaign, Irving was sixth in the league in yards per carry (5.4) and fourth in the league in yards after contact per attempt (2.7) — ahead of Jonathan Taylor in both categories. Last year, Irving missed seven games with a shoulder injury that required offseason surgery and was dead last among qualifying backs in yards per carry (3.4) and 43rd in YAC/A (1.6). Irving also had exactly as many carries inside the 5-yard line in 2025 as I did.

Now, the Buccaneers have added Kenneth Gainwell as a replacement for Rachaad White. Youngster Sean Tucker lurks as a goal-line vulture after seven scores on the ground last year.

Gainwell will out-point Irving in 2026. Watch.

WR1: Rashee Rice, Kansas City (ADP: 26)

Seriously, folks, what are we doing here?

Rice has shown flashes of elite fantasy upside in the past. Over the past two years, the 26-year-old averaged 6.4 catches, 71.6 receiving yards and .67 touchdowns per game — numbers that would land Rice a 109/1,217/11 stat line and fifth-place fantasy finish in PPR points. He’s far and away the best wideout on Kansas City’s roster.

But in what universe can we reasonably expect Rice to play a full season?

Between a combination of injuries and a six-game personal conduct suspension, Rice has played all of 12 games over that two-year span. He has missed time in all three professional seasons — an average of almost eight DNPs a year. This offseason, Rice has already spent a month in jail for a probation violation and had a cleanup procedure on his surgically-repaired knee.

Rice is wildly talented. Injury prone. And flatly refuses to get out of his own way.

Oh, and Mahomes is coming off an ACL tear.  It feels like that’s worth mentioning.

WR2: Tee Higgins, Cincinnati (ADP: 37)

This is rather becoming an annual thing with Higgins.

To be clear, Higgins is a very good wide receiver — one of the best “Robin” receivers in the league. The 27-year-old has hauled in 21 touchdown passes over the past two years, ranking as the WR14 in PPR points in 2025 and WR17 two years ago.

But, at cost, there’s no upside with Higgins. His ceiling is where he’s being drafted on average. Higgins has missed time in all six of his professional seasons and has never caught 75 passes in a season, posted 1,100 receiving yards in a season or been targeted more than 110 times in a season.

Barring an injury to Ja’Marr Chase, there isn’t going to be some massive spike in Higgins’ production. When the Batmobile rolls out of the Batcave, Chase is most assuredly driving.

Overpaying for a low-ceiling sidekick isn’t winning any championships.

WR3: Mike Evans, San Francisco (ADP: 58)

There was time not that long ago when I was actually in on Evans in his first season with the 49ers. Sadly, that day has passed.

The optimistic view with Evans is to write off last year’s down season to injury. But you name the stat — yards per reception, receptions per game, receiving yards per game, PPR yards per game — and Evans was already headed toward the worst season of his career before the injury.

There’s also the matter of Evans’ age. He’ll be 33 years old when the 2026 season begins. Per ESPN’s Mike Clay, only two age-33 wide receivers (Julian Edelman and Larry Fitzgerald) have cracked the top-25 fantasy receivers in the past 10 years, and that duo averaged 104.5 receptions in those seasons.

The last time Evans had even 80 catches in a season was back in 2018.

TE: Harold Fannin, Cleveland (ADP: 80)

Fannin was a thunderbolt for fantasy managers last year — the late-round pick or waiver-wire add who came from nowhere to lead the Browns in every receiving category as a rookie on the way to finishing sixth in PPR points among tight ends.

And yet, despite all that success in his first NFL season, fantasy managers should want no part of Fannin at ADP this year. None. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Nol. Sifir. Null.

It’s not Fannin. It’s the vortex of suck in Cleveland from which no hope, joy or fantasy upside can ever hope to escape.

The Browns just spent two picks in the top-40 overall in the 2026 draft on wide receivers in KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston. There’s a new coaching staff and offense. And for reasons that can be best explained with the highly technical term “Because Cleveland,” the Browns will probably be rolling out Deshaun Watson under center against the Jaguars in Week 1.

Fannin won’t get 107 targets again, and even if he does, a depressing percentage of them will either be over his head or at his feet.

Fannin isn’t a top-10 fantasy TE option in 2026.

Gary Davenport is a two-time Fantasy Sports Writers Association Football Writer of the Year. Follow Gary on X at @IDPGodfather.