MOBILE VERSION
Season over for Jewish players
Top Stories (Oct. 7-12)
- The playoffs are heating up, but the five Jewish ballplayers who appeared on postseason rosters — LHP Max Fried (Yankees), 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), and Phillies teammates CF/LF Harrison Bader, RHP Max Lazar, and C Garrett Stubbs — play for teams that were eliminated in the A.L. and N.L. Division Series as of October 9 (10/12/2025)
- How’s this for awkward: CF Kevin Pillar, who retired from baseball in early 2025 but was a fan favorite during his seven seasons with the Blue Jays, threw out the first pitch at Rogers Centre stadium in Ontario on October 5. Minutes later, Toronto and the Yankees — including LHP Max Fried— faced off in Game 2 of their A.L. Division series. Fried went on to suffer arguably the worst loss of his nine-year MLB career, a 13-7 defeat (10/12/2025)
Playoff Results (Oct. 8-9)
- The Phillies (1-3) lose to the Dodgers (3-1) in Game 4 of their best-of-five A.L. Division Series, an extra-inning heartbreaker than ended in a 2-1 defeat. Harrison Bader, one of the Major Leagues’ best pinch-hitters during the 2025 regular season — he hit .444, with 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, 2 stolen bases, and a 1.657 in 11 plate appearances — entered the game as a pinch-hitter with the score tied 1-1 in the top of the 11th inning, a man on second base, and two outs on the scoreboard. Bader fought off Dodgers LHP Alex Vesia for nine pitches but struck out swinging on the 10th and final toss
- The Yankees (1-3) are out of the playoffs after losing 5-2 to the Blue Jays (3-1) in Game 4 of their A.L. Division Series on October 8. The loss marks the end of the 2025 season for LHP Max Fried, who started two games earlier in the postseason. Fried tossed 6.1 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the A.L. Wild Card Series but saw New York lose 3-1 to Alex Bregman‘s Red Sox. Five days later, in Game 1 of the A.L. Division Series, he survived Toronto’s bats for just 3 innings en route to a 13-7 defeat (10/9/2025)
- The Phillies (1-2) stay alive thanks to a decisive 8-2 win over the Dodgers (1-2) in Game 3 of their best-of-five A.L. Division Series on October 8. CF/LF Harrison Bader stays on the bench to nurse a groin injury he suffered in Game 1. RHP Max Lazar and C Garrett Stubbs, who have yet to get into Philadelphia’s lineup during the playoffs, hopefully will get an opportunity. Game 4 takes place October 9 (10/9/2025)
MLB News (Sep. 23-29)
- Five Jewish players are on teams that made the 2025 playoffs. Philadelphia, which will face either the Dodgers or the Reds in the best-of-five N.L. Division Series that commences October 4, boasts three of the five: CF Harrison Bader, RHP Max Lazar, and C Garrett Stubbs. The other two Jews, LHP Max Fried (Yankees) and 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), will face off in a best-of-three Wild Card series that begins today. LHP Colton Gordon came close but lost out when his Astros were eliminated from contention in Game #161 on Saturday (9/30/2025)
- Speaking of LHP Max Fried (Yankees) and 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), how will they fare against one another in the upcoming playoffs? If the past is a guide, things aren’t looking great for Fried. The first time the pair faced one another was in Game 2 of the 2021 World Series, when Houston’s Bregman hit a sacrifice fly off Atlanta’s Fried for a 1-0 lead, then went 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts over the rest of the Series. While playing with the same franchises in 2023 and 2024, Bregman got the best of Fried, going a combined 1-for-3 with 3 walks and an RBI single. The 10-year Major Leaguer performed even better in 2025 as a newly-minted Bostonian, going 4-for-6 with three singles and a solo HR on September 13 against new Yankees ace Fried. Thank you to JBN reader Ethel H. for the tip (9/30/2025)
- And still more on Max Fried: Yankees catcher Ben Rice served as Fried’s batterymate for the first time on September 24. Half an hour into the game, MLB.com tweeted a photo of the pair, along with the tagline “Fried Rice for the first time tonight.” Rice told reporters he made the same observation when he walked into the team’s pregame meeting. “It’s such a layup of a joke I had to say it right when we got in there” (9/30/2025)
- 1B Spencer Horwitz (Pirates) ended the 2025 season on a high note. In a 9-3 win over the Braves on September 26, the 27-year-old went 3-for-3 with 2 HRs, 2 walks, and 4 RBIs. His bat was pivotal against the Reds on September 24, putting Pittsburgh up 1-0 with a double and 2-0 with a single, and then stroking a game-winning double in the top of the 11th inning en route to a 4-3 victory. All told for the week of September 23-28, Horwitz ranked #2 among all Major League hitters with a .556 batting average (10-for-18) and .619 OBP, #3 with a 1.675 OPS and 0.7 WAR (tied), and tied for #5 with 7 RBI. Not bad, especially when you consider that a wrist injury kept him out of the lineup until May 17 (9/30/2025)
- Having discussed Spencer Horwitz’s hitting prowess, let’s not ignore recent developments involving his defense. In a September 28 article, Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly revealed plans to move the first baseman around the infield in order to get good-hitting teammates some at-bats, even to shortstop or third base. Kelly demonstrated the experiment by starting Horwitz at second base in a September 28 game against the Braves, his first time at the position since joining the Pirates (9/30/2025)
- It was more pinch-hit heroics for Rowdy Tellez (Rangers) on September 28. With 2 men on in the top of the 10th inning and Texas and Cleveland tied 5-5, manager Bruce Bochy sent Tellez in to pinch-hit for Jake Burger, and the 6’4″ first baseman literally rose to the occasion by sending a 79.8-mph curveball into the right-field stands. (Joc Pederson’s pinch-hit opportunity in the 9th inning, by contrast, ended in a groundout.) Alas, the Guardians came up with 4 runs in the bottom of the inning to prevail 9-8, but that did not take away from Tellez’s status as a pinch-hit savant in 2025. The 30-year-old hit .348 (8-for-23) in a pinch and led the Majors in HRs (3) and RBIs (11) — all while hitting just .216 as a position player (9/30/2025)
- RHP Dean Kremer’s final start of the season was his finest. In a September 23 game against the Rays, the Israeli-American allowed just 2 baserunners, a single and a hit batsman, over 6.1 scoreless innings en route to a 6-0 triumph. Kremer — who went 2-0 in September with a 1.10 ERA and held opposing batters to a .091 average — has bedeviled Tampa Bay his entire career. In 11 starts against the Rays, he is 5-1 with a 1.64 ERA (9/30/2025)
- Leadoff batter Joc Pederson (Rangers) smashed the second pitch of the game 411 feet at 109.2-mph against the Twins on September 23, but it proved Texas’ only run in a 4-1 defeat (9/30/2025)
- Stu Sternberg, who served 20 years as the Tampa Bay Rays’ majority owner before selling the franchise earlier this month, was not a fan favorite by the end of his tenure in St. Petersburg. Maybe it’s because, as the New York Times recently noted, he put winning ahead of player loyalty, regularly trading “emerging stars for low-salaried prospects.” Maybe it’s because he never became a full-time local resident, regularly butted heads with local lawmakers, and bailed on a hail-mary deal designed to keep the team in St. Pete by sharing the cost of a new stadium. But local columnist Marc Topkin painted a different picture in a September 24 eulogy, revealing a humble and honorable man who treated his employees with kindness and generosity (9/30/2025)
Minor-League Bulletin (Sep. 23-29)
- The 2025 minor-league playoffs ended September 27, but not before a trio of Triple-A relievers on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees) got a chance to strut their postseason stuff. All three men — Harrison Cohen, and MLB veterans Jake Bird and Scott Effross — appeared in Game 2 of the International League Championship Series on September 24. Bird tossed 1.1 perfect innings and struck out two, Scott Effross pitched a scoreless inning on just 8 pitches, and Cohen gave up one earned run in a one-inning stint. The RailRiders ended up losing to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) by a 6-4 score. Jacksonville went on to win Game 3 and advance to the Triple-A National Championship game, which it lost to the Pacific Coast League champs, Oakland’s Las Vegas Aviators (9/30/2025)
- Although minor-league teams won’t resume play until March 2026, you can watch RHP Jacob Steinmetz (Diamondbacks/High-A) compete in Arizona Fall League, which opens October 6. He will compete for the Salt River Rafters (9/30/2025)
Season Stats
Transactions
- Athletics call up LHP Jared Shuster from Triple-A (9/29/2025)
- Cardinals reassign 3B Noah Mendlinger to Double-A (9/21/2025)
- Athletics place 2B Zack Gelof on injured list with left-shoulder dislocation (9/20/2025)
This Date in History
Visit Jewish Baseball Museum to see highlights from today’s date
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DESKTOP VERSION
Season over for Jewish players
Minor-League Bulletin (Sep. 23-29)
- The 2025 minor-league playoffs ended September 27, but not before a trio of Triple-A relievers on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Yankees) got a chance to strut their postseason stuff. All three men — Harrison Cohen, and MLB veterans Jake Bird and Scott Effross — appeared in Game 2 of the International League Championship Series on September 24. Bird tossed 1.1 perfect innings and struck out two, Scott Effross pitched a scoreless inning on just 8 pitches, and Cohen gave up one earned run in a one-inning stint. The RailRiders ended up losing to the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (Marlins) by a 6-4 score. Jacksonville went on to win Game 3 and advance to the Triple-A National Championship game, which it lost to the Pacific Coast League champs, Oakland’s Las Vegas Aviators (9/30/2025)
- Although minor-league teams won’t resume play until March 2026, you can watch RHP Jacob Steinmetz (Diamondbacks/High-A) compete in Arizona Fall League, which opens October 6. He will compete for the Salt River Rafters (9/30/2025)
Israel
- Israel finished 7th among the 16 teams that entered the 2025 European Baseball Championship this month. As we reported last week, Israel lost its first game 8-4 to #13 France on September 20, crushed #6 Great Britain 16-1 on September 21, and lost 9-1 to #1 Netherlands — which finished the tournament 6-0 — on September 22. Israel’s September 24 game against #11 Switzerland went much better: Justin Alintoff tossed a one-run complete game, 1B Chase Englehard went 4-for-5 with 3 RBIs, and SS Nadav Machlin, a Sabra and IDF elite athlete, drove in 2 runs to launch Israel into the quarterfinals. Israel valiantly lost 4-3 to the #3 Czech Republic on September 25 after scoring 3 runs in the 9th inning, built a 7-2 lead over #5 Germany on September 26 before falling 10-9 on a walk-off fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 9th inning, and beat #8 Croatia 11-5 in its tournament final, with 46-year-old Shlomo Lipetz earning the victory (9/30/2025)
Season Stats
Top Stories (Oct. 7-12)
- The playoffs are heating up, but the five Jewish ballplayers who appeared on postseason rosters — LHP Max Fried (Yankees), 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), and Phillies teammates CF/LF Harrison Bader, RHP Max Lazar, and C Garrett Stubbs — play for teams that were eliminated in the A.L. and N.L. Division Series as of October 9 (10/12/2025)
- How’s this for awkward: CF Kevin Pillar, who retired from baseball in early 2025 but was a fan favorite during his seven seasons with the Blue Jays, threw out the first pitch at Rogers Centre stadium in Ontario on October 5. Minutes later, Toronto and the Yankees — including LHP Max Fried— faced off in Game 2 of their A.L. Division series. Fried went on to suffer arguably the worst loss of his nine-year MLB career, a 13-7 defeat (10/12/2025)
Playoff Results (Oct. 8-9)
- The Phillies (1-3) lose to the Dodgers (3-1) in Game 4 of their best-of-five A.L. Division Series, an extra-inning heartbreaker than ended in a 2-1 defeat. Harrison Bader, one of the Major Leagues’ best pinch-hitters during the 2025 regular season — he hit .444, with 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, 2 stolen bases, and a 1.657 in 11 plate appearances — entered the game as a pinch-hitter with the score tied 1-1 in the top of the 11th inning, a man on second base, and two outs on the scoreboard. Bader fought off Dodgers LHP Alex Vesia for nine pitches but struck out swinging on the 10th and final toss
- The Yankees (1-3) are out of the playoffs after losing 5-2 to the Blue Jays (3-1) in Game 4 of their A.L. Division Series on October 8. The loss marks the end of the 2025 season for LHP Max Fried, who started two games earlier in the postseason. Fried tossed 6.1 scoreless innings in Game 1 of the A.L. Wild Card Series but saw New York lose 3-1 to Alex Bregman‘s Red Sox. Five days later, in Game 1 of the A.L. Division Series, he survived Toronto’s bats for just 3 innings en route to a 13-7 defeat (10/9/2025)
- The Phillies (1-2) stay alive thanks to a decisive 8-2 win over the Dodgers (1-2) in Game 3 of their best-of-five A.L. Division Series on October 8. CF/LF Harrison Bader stays on the bench to nurse a groin injury he suffered in Game 1. RHP Max Lazar and C Garrett Stubbs, who have yet to get into Philadelphia’s lineup during the playoffs, hopefully will get an opportunity. Game 4 takes place October 9 (10/9/2025)
Transactions
- Athletics call up LHP Jared Shuster from Triple-A (9/29/2025)
- Cardinals reassign 3B Noah Mendlinger to Double-A (9/21/2025)
- Athletics place 2B Zack Gelof on injured list with left-shoulder dislocation (9/20/2025)
This Date in History
Visit Jewish Baseball Museum to see highlights from today’s date
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MLB News (Sep. 23-29)
- Five Jewish players are on teams that made the 2025 playoffs. Philadelphia, which will face either the Dodgers or the Reds in the best-of-five N.L. Division Series that commences October 4, boasts three of the five: CF Harrison Bader, RHP Max Lazar, and C Garrett Stubbs. The other two Jews, LHP Max Fried (Yankees) and 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), will face off in a best-of-three Wild Card series that begins today. LHP Colton Gordon came close but lost out when his Astros were eliminated from contention in Game #161 on Saturday (9/30/2025)
- Speaking of LHP Max Fried (Yankees) and 3B Alex Bregman (Red Sox), how will they fare against one another in the upcoming playoffs? If the past is a guide, things aren’t looking great for Fried. The first time the pair faced one another was in Game 2 of the 2021 World Series, when Houston’s Bregman hit a sacrifice fly off Atlanta’s Fried for a 1-0 lead, then went 0-for-4 with 2 strikeouts over the rest of the Series. While playing with the same franchises in 2023 and 2024, Bregman got the best of Fried, going a combined 1-for-3 with 3 walks and an RBI single. The 10-year Major Leaguer performed even better in 2025 as a newly-minted Bostonian, going 4-for-6 with three singles and a solo HR on September 13 against new Yankees ace Fried. Thank you to JBN reader Ethel H. for the tip (9/30/2025)
- And still more on Max Fried: Yankees catcher Ben Rice served as Fried’s batterymate for the first time on September 24. Half an hour into the game, MLB.com tweeted a photo of the pair, along with the tagline “Fried Rice for the first time tonight.” Rice told reporters he made the same observation when he walked into the team’s pregame meeting. “It’s such a layup of a joke I had to say it right when we got in there” (9/30/2025)
- 1B Spencer Horwitz (Pirates) ended the 2025 season on a high note. In a 9-3 win over the Braves on September 26, the 27-year-old went 3-for-3 with 2 HRs, 2 walks, and 4 RBIs. His bat was pivotal against the Reds on September 24, putting Pittsburgh up 1-0 with a double and 2-0 with a single, and then stroking a game-winning double in the top of the 11th inning en route to a 4-3 victory. All told for the week of September 23-28, Horwitz ranked #2 among all Major League hitters with a .556 batting average (10-for-18) and .619 OBP, #3 with a 1.675 OPS and 0.7 WAR (tied), and tied for #5 with 7 RBI. Not bad, especially when you consider that a wrist injury kept him out of the lineup until May 17 (9/30/2025)
- Having discussed Spencer Horwitz’s hitting prowess, let’s not ignore recent developments involving his defense. In a September 28 article, Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly revealed plans to move the first baseman around the infield in order to get good-hitting teammates some at-bats, even to shortstop or third base. Kelly demonstrated the experiment by starting Horwitz at second base in a September 28 game against the Braves, his first time at the position since joining the Pirates (9/30/2025)
- It was more pinch-hit heroics for Rowdy Tellez (Rangers) on September 28. With 2 men on in the top of the 10th inning and Texas and Cleveland tied 5-5, manager Bruce Bochy sent Tellez in to pinch-hit for Jake Burger, and the 6’4″ first baseman literally rose to the occasion by sending a 79.8-mph curveball into the right-field stands. (Joc Pederson’s pinch-hit opportunity in the 9th inning, by contrast, ended in a groundout.) Alas, the Guardians came up with 4 runs in the bottom of the inning to prevail 9-8, but that did not take away from Tellez’s status as a pinch-hit savant in 2025. The 30-year-old hit .348 (8-for-23) in a pinch and led the Majors in HRs (3) and RBIs (11) — all while hitting just .216 as a position player (9/30/2025)
- RHP Dean Kremer’s final start of the season was his finest. In a September 23 game against the Rays, the Israeli-American allowed just 2 baserunners, a single and a hit batsman, over 6.1 scoreless innings en route to a 6-0 triumph. Kremer — who went 2-0 in September with a 1.10 ERA and held opposing batters to a .091 average — has bedeviled Tampa Bay his entire career. In 11 starts against the Rays, he is 5-1 with a 1.64 ERA (9/30/2025)
- Leadoff batter Joc Pederson (Rangers) smashed the second pitch of the game 411 feet at 109.2-mph against the Twins on September 23, but it proved Texas’ only run in a 4-1 defeat (9/30/2025)
- Stu Sternberg, who served 20 years as the Tampa Bay Rays’ majority owner before selling the franchise earlier this month, was not a fan favorite by the end of his tenure in St. Petersburg. Maybe it’s because, as the New York Times recently noted, he put winning ahead of player loyalty, regularly trading “emerging stars for low-salaried prospects.” Maybe it’s because he never became a full-time local resident, regularly butted heads with local lawmakers, and bailed on a hail-mary deal designed to keep the team in St. Pete by sharing the cost of a new stadium. But local columnist Marc Topkin painted a different picture in a September 24 eulogy, revealing a humble and honorable man who treated his employees with kindness and generosity (9/30/2025)
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