The Baseball Buffet for 11/4/2025

Issue #446

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

Yesterday I provided a comprehensive list of upcoming offseason dates of interest. Here is a reminder of just the three that on Friday this week:

• 11/6: Contract option decisions by clubs and players

• 11/6: Free agency truly begins, in that free agent players can now negotiate and sign with other teams.

• 11/6: Deadline to make qualifying offers. This is a a one-year contract worth the average of the top 125 salaries, or $22.025 million this offseason. To be eligible for the qualifying offer, a free agent must have spent the entire 2025 season with one team and have never received a QO previously.

On that third item, qualifying offers, Thomas Harrigan at MLB had a good article covering it a couple weeks ago. He noted that from the time the system was implemented in 2012, only 14 of the 144 players to receive a QO have accepted it. He then noted the top QO candidates this time around as being:

• PHI Kyle Schwarber

• CHC Kyle Tucker

• PHI Ranger Suárez

• HOU Framber Valdez

• TOR Bo Bichette

• SDP Dylan Cease

• NYY Trent Grisham

• DET Gleyber Torres

• DET Jack Flaherty

• NYM Edwin Díaz

• BOS Lucas Giolito

• SDP Robert Suárez

• MIL Brandon Woodruff

• NYY Devin Williams

• AZ Zac Gallen

• SDP Luis Arraez

• CHC Shota Imanaga

• SDP Michael King

There are many other big name free agents, such as NYM Pete Alonso, NYY Cody Bellinger, BOS Alex Bregman, and others, who aren’t eligible to receive a QO, either because they have previously received one, or because they weren’t continuously with just one organization during the 2025 season.

Today’s Trivia Question

As noted yesterday, Kansas City SS Bobby Witt Jr. and 3B Maikel Garcia both took home AL Gold Glove Awards this year. That was the first time in a dozen years that a 3B and SS from the same team won the awards—can you name the two who combined to do it in 2013?

Trivia answers are at the bottom of each newsletter.

Finalists announced for MVP, Cy Young, Rookie, and Manager of the Year Awards

The winners of the four major awards in each league will be announced next week. Keep in mind that the voting for all four awards took place at the end of the regular season, and before any postseason heroics or failures could be considered. To tease up the reveals next week, MLB has announced the finalists which are as follows (in alphabetical order by last name):

• NL MVP: LAD Shohei Ohtani, PHI Kyle Schwarber, NYM Juan Soto

• AL MVP: NYY Aaron Judge, SEA Cal Raleigh, CLE José Ramírez

• NL Cy Young: PHI Cristopher Sánchez, PIT Paul Skenes, LAD Yoshinobu Yamamoto

• AL Cy Young: HOU Hunter Brown, BOS Garrett Crochet, DET Tarik Skubal

• NL ROY: ATL Drake Baldwin, MIL Caleb Durbin, CHC Cade Horton

• AL ROY: BOS Roman Anthony, ATH Nick Kurtz, ATH Jacob Wilson

• NL Manager: CIN Terry Francona, MIL Pat Murphy, PHI Rob Thomson

• AL Manager: TOR John Schneider, CLE Stephen Vogt, SEA Dan Wilson

Hall of Fame unveils 8-player Contemporary Baseball Era Committee ballot

This committee’s ballot focuses on players whose primary contributions to the game came since 1980. Candidates must receive votes on 75% of the ballots cast by a 16-member committee. Results will be announced on the MLB Network on December 7th. Here are the eight candidates (in alphabetical order):

• Barry Bonds - Reached a high of 66% of the BBWAA vote in 2022

• Roger Clemens - Reached a high of 65% of the BBWAA vote in 2022

• Carlos Delgado - Only received 3.8% of the BBWAA vote in 2015, failing to get the 5% minimum to stay on the ballot

• Jeff Kent - Reached a high of 47% of the BBWAA vote in 2023

• Don Mattingly - Had a high of 28% of the BBWAA in his first year on the ballot in 2001, but never reached that level again. Had 50% of a veterans committee vote in 2023.

• Dale Murphy - Had a high of 23% of the BBWAA vote in 2000, his second year on the ballot, but never reached that level again. Had 37.5% of the veterans committee vote in 2023.

• Gary Sheffield - Reached a high of 64% of the BBWAA vote in 2024

• Fernando Valenzuela - Was only on the BBWAA ballot for two years, getting 6.2% of the vote in 2003 and 3.8% in 2004.

This is an interesting mix of players. To me, the most likely candidates are Murphy and Don Mattingly, in part because of their previous veteran committee vote results. I suppose Kent has an outside shot here as well.

It would be huge news if Bonds and/or Clemens were voted in—that would open the door for many other suspected or known PED users in the future (e.g., Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Sammy Sosa, etc.)

Gary Sheffield is an interesting case, as he just came off the BBWAA ballot at 64%, and while he has mentioned in the Mitchell report and implicated in the BALCO scandal, he has always maintained that he did not knowingly take any illegal PEDs.

I think the two least likely candidates are Delgado and Valenzuela. Delgado was a great power hitter, but was only an All-star twice and is just too similar to many other non-HOF players of his era. And notwithstanding Fernando-mania in 1981 and other outstanding achievements, many would argue that several other Valenzuela pitching contemporaries are more deserving of the Hall.

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On November 4…

• 1950: Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander dies at age 63.

• 1955: Hall of Fame pitcher Cy Young dies at age 88.

• 1959: Ernie Banks wins his second consecutive NL MVP Award. "Ernie Banks wins his second National League MVP Award in a row on the strength of his 45 home runs and 143 RBI for the Chicago Cubs. Eddie Mathews finishes second."

• 1980: Steve Carlton wins his third Cy Young Award. "Steve Carlton of the Philadelphia Phillies joins Sandy Koufax, Tom Seaver and Jim Palmer, as pitchers with three Cy Young Awards. Carlton garners all but one of the 24 first-place votes to take National League honors. He posted a 24-9 record with a 2.34 ERA and a league-leading 286 strikeouts."

• 1987: Benito Santiago is unanimous Rookie of the Year. "San Diego Padres catcher Benito Santiago, who ended the season with a rookie-record 34-game hitting streak, is a unanimous selection as the National League Rookie of the Year."

• 1996: Derek Jeter is unanimous Rookie of the Year. "New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter is the unanimous choice as American League Rookie of the Year. Jeter becomes the eighth Yankees player to win the award and the fifth unanimous selection in American League history."

• 1997: Scott Rolen is unanimous Rookie of the Year. "Third baseman Scott Rolen is the unanimous choice for the 1997 National League Rookie of the Year Award and becomes the first Philadelphia Phillies player to win the award since Dick Allen in 1964. Rolen led all NL rookies in batting average (.283), home runs (21), runs batted in (92), runs (93), hits (159), doubles (35), total bases (263), on-base percentage (.377) and slugging average (.469). He barely qualified as a rookie, logging exactly 130 at bats in 1996 before breaking his wrist on September 7th when he was hit by a pitch. One more at bat would have disqualified him for the award this year."

• 2001: The Diamondbacks win the World Series in only their fourth season. "In Game 7 of a classic World Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks rally for two runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to defeat the New York Yankees and their usually unbeatable closer, Mariano Rivera, 3 - 2. Tony Womack doubles in Midre Cummings to tie it and Luis Gonzalez singles in Jay Bell with the winner. The four-year-old Diamondbacks, the youngest franchise to win a Fall Classic, end New York's string of three consecutive World Championships. Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling share the Series MVP honors. The Arizona pitchers are the first multiple winners since the Los Angeles Dodgers trio of Ron Cey, Pedro Guerrero and Steve Yeager shared the award in the 1981 World Series. Following the 2010 season, a panel of experts at the MLB Network will vote this game the ninth greatest game of the past fifty years."

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Bobby Wallace (1873)

• Hall of Famer

• 25-year major league career, spanning from 1894-1918, mostly with the St. Louis Browns and St. Louis Cardinals

• In 1897 had career highs of 21 triples, 99 runs, 112 RBI, and a .335 average

• Had 15+ SB six times

• Was frequently amongst the league leaders in SS defensive statistics

• Overall had 201 SB, 1,057 runs, 1,121 RBI, a .268/.332/.358 slash line, and a 105 OPS+

Tommy Leach (1877)

• 19-year major league career, spanning from 1898-1918, mostly with the Pirates

• Played mostly 3B for the first half of his career, then switched to CF

• In 1902 led the NL with 22 triples and a modest 6 HR

• Led the NL with 126 runs in 1909, and 99 runs in 1913

• Had 20+ SB ten times, including a high of 43 SB in 1907

• Overall had 172 triples, 361 SB, 1,355 runs, a .269/.340/.370 slash line, and a 109 OPS+

Dick Groat (1930)

• 14-year major league career, spanning from 1952-1967, missing 1953-1954 for military service

• Played SS for the Pirates for nine seasons, then the remainder with the Cardinals, Phillies, and Giants

• All-Star in five seasons, including in 1960 when he won the NL MVP Award after leading the league with a .325 average and playing great defense

• Came in second in the NL MVP vote in 1963 with the Cardinals after hitting .319 with 11 triples, 201 hits, and an NL-leading 43 doubles

• Was a .290 career hitter, but didn't have much power or speed on the bases, with only 39 HR and 14 SB in 8,180 plate appearances

Carlos Baerga (1968)

• 14-year major league career, spanning from 1990-2005, spending eight years with the Indians, and the rest spread across five other clubs

• Played mostly 2B, but saw some action at the other three infield positions

• Three-time All-Star, including in 1992 and 1993 when he posted 20+ HR, 200+ hits, .310+ average, and 100+ RBI each year

• Overall had 134 HR, a .291/.332/.423 slash line, and an even 100 OPS+

Eric Karros (1967)

• 14-year major league career, spanning from 1991-2004, as a 1B mostly with the Dodgers

• Won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1992 after hitting 20 HR with 88 RBI

• Had five seasons with both 30+ HR and 100+ RBI

• Overall had 284 HR, 1,027 RBI, a .268/.325/.454 slash line, and a 107 OPS+

Currently active players who were born on November 4 include CLE Johnathan Rodríguez, LAA Chad Wallach, MIA Jack Winkler, and CHC Gavin Hollowell.

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today! ⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

In 2013, Orioles 3B Manny Machado and SS J.J. Hardy won AL Gold Glove Awards.

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• All of the 2025-2026 free agents, position by position, by MLB writers, 11/3/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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