New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: With the high likelihood the Yankees will be in the Wild Card Series next week (they’ve already clinched a playoff spot after last night’s walk-off theatrics), manager
Aaron Boone tapped Carlos Rodón to start Thursday’s series finale, which would line him up to start Game 2 of the Wild Card set on extra rest. The club also pushed back Will Warren’s next start to Friday against Baltimore, but haven’t tipped their hand on who would get the ball for a do-or-die Game 3 — the rookie Warren, fellow newbie Cam Schlittler, or reigning Rookie of the Year Luis Gil.
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Whether the Yankees play in the Wild Card round or go straight to the ALDS, the guy on the hill for the first game will be Max Fried. The lefty has recovered from a tough stretch around the All-Star break and will finish the season as one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball, largely driven by the amount of preparation and analysis he does on his own. Hoch takes us behind the scenes in the maintenance of an ace, and it’s easy to see why Fried’s been talked about as an extra pitching coach in his time with New York.
The Athletic | Evan Drellich ($): As you probably know by now, MLB approved the implementation of automated ball-strike challenges for regular season play in 2026. It wasn’t unanimous, but the committee approvied it by a 9-2 vote. Jeff outlined this yesterday, but each team will get two challenges that they will retain if they challenge correctly, and those can only be initiated by the pitcher, catcher or batter immediately after a pitch. Suffice to say, it’s entirely possible we haven’t yet seen the best of Aaron Judge given how often the game’s best player is dinged on low strikes.
In real time, the challenge system will look like this (h/t CBS Sports):
New York Post | Greg Joyce: It’s been a coming-out party for righ-thander Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz, who was named the Yankees’ Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America. The 22-year-old, traded from Boston for catcher Carlos Narváez over last winter, ran a 2.58 ERA with 176 strikeouts in 150 innings across three levels, ending the season with Triple-A Scranton for one final start on Saturday. He will likely be assigned to Scranton to start 2026, but we’ve seen rookies be called upon to fill rotation slots before and there’s a good chance we may see him in Yankee pinstripes next year.
