D-backs option Philip Abner to Triple-A

The AL Central is still up for grabs with the White Sox 82-77 and the Guardians 82-76 ahead of Thursday night’s game, but both teams are in. Teel’s homer today was his fifth. He’s batting just .196 in 136 plate appearances, but his OBP is a solid .333 with his 19 walks and four HBPs.

The White Sox prevailed 9-1 today, making this the most competitive of Sandlin’s three wins; the previous victories were 15-2 against the Twins in May and 22-1 against the Royals in June. It’s left a rather odd situation in which the White Sox have gone 3-5 in Sandlin’s outings despite outscoring the opposition 68-44. Sandlin ends the year with a 5.58 ERA, though his 40/13 K/BB in 40 1/3 innings isn’t too bad. He should have a chance to compete for a rotation spot next spring, but he’ll probably end up back in Triple-A for a spell.

That’s a tough way to end a comeback campaign for Dobnak, but he still has a fine 3.51 ERA in 13 starts and two relief appearances. He’ll be a weird arbitration case after finishing his five-year contract with the Twins in 2025 and playing 2026 on a deal at the minimum, but the Royals will probably be able to keep him for $2 million-$3 million or maybe even less. That’d seem to be worth doing even if the plan might be to use him in middle relief initially.

Montgomery’s strikeout today moved him past Adam Dunn’s White Sox record, set in 2012, and into a tie with Mark Reynolds’s 2009 major league record. The White Sox have clinched a postseason spot, so Montgomery could do some sitting this weekend. However, there’s no way he’ll sit out all three games in an attempt to avoid breaking the record. It’s just not that big of a deal, especially for a 24-year-old with 31 homers and 87 RBI as a shortstop and third baseman for a playoff team,

Perez gets his 10th 20-homer in spite of his struggles. Still to be determined is whether he’ll reach 50 runs scored for the 10th time; the homer today put him at 49 in 616 plate appearances. Because of a bad elbow, Perez last caught on Aug. 12, leaving him to finish out the season as a well below average DH and first baseman. That hasn’t really mattered on a Royals team destined for failure this season, but it might be a problem next year as he enters his age-37 season.

With Brock Rodden (knee) landing on the injured list, Rivas gets another shot to show the M’s what he can do over the final four days of the 2026 season. The 28-year-old infielder has hit .147/.270/.190 with no homers and nine RBI in 139 plate appearances with the M’s this season. He can continue to be ignored for fantasy purposes.

That will obviously end Rodden’s 2026 campaign. The 26-year-old slashed just .197/.306/.279 with zero homers, four RBI and a 24/10 K/BB ratio in 72 plate appearances with the Mariners in his first exposure to MLB pitching. Leo Rivas was recalled from Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding move on Thursday.

It’s been obscured by his injuries, but Cruz has a very impressive .280/.367/.489 line in his 95 games this season. That’s a big step up from his career line of .233/.309/.425. He’ll probably try for at least one more steal this weekend, as he currently has 29 of those to go along with his 20 homers.

The lone run came on Alec Burleson’s homer in the first. Skenes would have been done after six innings and 90 pitches today, but he was at 199 strikeouts. He returned for the seventh and immediately got No. 200, with Leo Bernal somehow just watching two fastballs down the middle go right by him for strikes two and three. Skenes was then lifted from the 1-1 game, keeping him 10-11 with a 3.82 ERA for the season. He has some adjustments to make next year, assuming the 1.5 mph he lost on his fastball isn’t coming back, but it’d be a bad idea to count him out. The poor defensive support he received accounted for much of his decline this year.

Montgomery has won some fantasy leagues with his 10 saves and a victory in his 11 appearances this month. Today’s outing put him at 102 strikeouts in 67 innings.