CLEVELAND (AP) — Guardians starter Zach Plesac will pitch out of Cleveland's bullpen in the wild-card round against the Tampa Bay Rays.
The teams finalized their rosters two hours before Friday's scheduled first pitch for Game 1.
DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh and quality control coach Josh Paul won't be back with the team next season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter will offer live broadcast look-ins throughout Major League Baseball's postseason for the first time.
ESPN, Fox and other broadcasters of playoff games will be able to show the look-ins on their social media accounts, and live action will also be show on MLB's official account.
NEW YORK (AP) — Just over half of the 1,261 video review challenges made by teams in the major leagues were successful this season.
Major League Baseball said Monday that 633 calls challenged by clubs were overturned, which comes to 50.2%.
NEW YORK (AP) — For two teams that finished second fiddle in their divisions, the Padres and Mets bring an awful lot of star power into the playoffs.
Manny Machado, Juan Soto and Yu Darvish on the San Diego side.
NEW YORK (AP) — Fans have watched more than 11.5 billion minutes of game action on MLB.TV during the regular season, a record for the streaming package and a 9.8% increase over last year.
The five most-watched games on the 20-year-old streaming platform came this season, including the Red Sox-Yankees opener on April 8.
Even with homer chases by Aaron Judge and Albert Pujols, Major League Baseball wasn't able to coax fans to ballparks at pre-pandemic levels this season, though attendance did jump substantially from the COVID-19 affected campaign in 2021.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Mark Kotsay made a point to stay the course with a positive spirit in his first season managing the Oakland Athletics, setting an example for his young club by keeping his cool even as the losses piled up month after month.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels are going straight from another disappointing regular season into another incredibly uncertain offseason, only for a different reason than usual this time.
Major League Baseball’s postseason has a little more heft this season.
The playoffs are here, with the first games played on Friday. The postseason begins with a field of 12 teams — up from last year’s 10 — and includes a best-of-three format for the opening wild-card round.
TORONTO (AP) — There’s a whole lot riding on Alek Manoah’s first career playoff start, but the Toronto Blue Jays All-Star right-hander isn’t the least bit fazed about facing the Seattle Mariners in Friday’s wild-card opener.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — For Corey Seager, it was a weird feeling being at his locker in the Texas Rangers clubhouse after the regular-season finale knowing there were no more games to play.
CINCINNATI (AP) — In the midst of another heavy rebuilding process, the Cincinnati Reds were almost historically bad in 2022.
The 15-2 loss to the Chicago Cubs in Wednesday's finale was Cincinnati's 100th, making it the worst season for the Reds since they lost 101 in 1982.
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox want to re-sign Xander Bogaerts – and Rafael Devers, too – Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom insisted, saying things have improved since they bowed out of the bidding and traded away their last homegrown star: Mookie Betts.
NEW YORK (AP) — Boosted by Aaron Judge's pursuit of Roger Maris' American League home run record, Yankees games on the team's YES Network averaged 368,000 viewers in the New York market this year, up 27% from 2021 and the most in 11 seasons.
PHOENIX (AP) — The Arizona Diamondbacks were a dreadful baseball team in 2021, losing 110 games.
Fast forward one year later, and they were simply below average.
It doesn't seem like much, but that 22-win improvement represents a huge step forward for the D-backs, who just finished a 74-88 season on Wednesday but have many reasons for optimism.
MIAMI (AP) — For the 2022 Miami Marlins, all the surprises happened off the field.
The season began with Hall of Famer Derek Jeter stepping away as CEO and shareholder and ended with the departure of manager Don Mattingly.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Twins came quickly out of the gate after the lockout this spring by making three bold trades and becoming the surprise landing spot for star shortstop Carlos Correa.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — From a franchise-record 107 wins last season to out of contention this September, the San Francisco Giants were far from the dominant club they were when so much went right in 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — General manager Mike Rizzo knew this was going to be a tough season for the Washington Nationals. So did manager Dave Martinez. The players, too. And it was — to the tune of a majors-worst and Nationals-record 107 losses.
DENVER (AP) — Fifteen years ago, “Rocktober” was in full swing, with Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and the rest of the Colorado Rockies marching toward their one and only World Series appearance.
Since then, Colorado's made only three postseason appearances, and none over the last four years.
BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Orioles surprised their own general manager with their progress in 2022.
Now they enter the offseason feeling like future contenders.
“I feel like this team is officially in the fight in the American League East," GM Mike Elias said Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The average time of a nine-inning major league game dropped for the first time since 2018, likely helped by the introduction of the PitchCom electronic device to signal pitches.
The average this season was 3 hours, 3 minutes, 44 seconds, the commissioner's office said Monday.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — New president of baseball operations J.J. Picollo wasted no time putting his thumb print on the Kansas City Royals, firing manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred just hours after the end of another dismal season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Higher velocity and increased shifts led to the major league batting average dropping to .243, its lowest since 1968.
Defensive shifts and 100 mph pitches set records this season, contributing to the worrisome offensive decline Major League Baseball is trying to address.
Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch walked around the visitors' clubhouse in Seattle after his team's season mercifully ended and shared a message with the players.
CHICAGO (AP) — Nico Hoerner had a solid all-around season. Christopher Morel made a successful big league debut. Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson had breakthrough performances on the mound.
At the end of another long year, the Chicago Cubs felt they were moving in the right direction.
NEW YORK (AP) — Ted Barrett, Alfonso Márquez, Jerry Meals and Jeff Nelson will be the crew chiefs for baseball’s new wild-card series that start Friday, and Mark Carlson, Marvin Hudson, Dan Iassogna and Bill Miller will be crew chiefs for the Division Series next week.
CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago White Sox began the year thinking they were primed to make a deep playoff run after two early exits and maybe reach the World Series for the first time since the 2005 team captured the biggest prize of all.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — After racing to their best 50-game start ever, the Milwaukee Brewers believed they could win their first pennant since 1982 and perhaps earn the World Series title that’s eluded them.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The pepper in Derek Shelton's salt-and-pepper hair is almost gone. Three years of losing will do that, even if it’s primarily by design.
“It can make you gray like it's done to me a little bit,” Shelton said.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Before stepping into the batter's box, rookie outfielder Steven Kwan squats for a moment, much the way his idol, Ichiro Suzuki, did.
The ritual centers Kwan, allowing Cleveland's pesky leadoff hitter to move on to what’s next — getting on base or in a pitcher's head.
NEW YORK (AP) — The last time Buck Showalter managed a playoff game, he ended up on the hot seat after an agonizing loss for Baltimore.
Six years later, a shot at redemption begins Friday with the New York Mets.
The owner of a sports memorabilia auction house says he has offered $2 million to the fan who caught Aaron Judge's American League-record 62nd home run.
NEW YORK (AP) — Minnesota’s Luis Arraez got a Louis Vuitton roller bag from Carlos Correa. The New York Mets' Jeff McNeil is being gifted a car by Francisco Lindor.
Winning batting titles on the final day of the season was rewarding.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jeff McNeil stayed on top without taking a swing.
Nursing a four-point lead in the big league batting race, McNeil was not in the New York Mets' lineup Wednesday for their regular-season finale against Washington.
NEW YORK (AP) — After wrapping up a 101-win season with an easy romp, the New York Mets know their next challenge will be much tougher.
Francisco Lindor and the Mets geared up for the playoffs with a 9-2 rout of the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, completing a fantastic regular season with the second-most victories in franchise history.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Manager Mike Matheny and pitching coach Cal Eldred were fired by the Kansas Cty Royals on Wednesday night, shortly after the struggling franchise finished the season 65-97 with a listless 9-2 loss to the Cleveland Guardians.