Christian Yelich blasts three-run homer in victory

Chaparro’s excellent run sees him finish at .268/.364/.530 in 228 plate appearances. The Nationals never treated him as a regular during it, even though he was just as effective against righties as he was versus lefties. He’s still probably not a long-term regular, but he should be penciled in for a spot on next year’s roster as at least a platoon guy against lefties, and the Nationals will have to relent and treat him as an everyday guy if he’s nearly as good again.

Activated to make two very late starts for the Nationals, Herz ends up with a 10.29 ERA, but he did get to show he’s healthy against after Tommy John. He’ll probably get to compete for a rotation spot in spring training, but since he does have a couple of option years left, it’s pretty likely that he’ll open up in Triple-A.

He allowed one hit and one walk. Tolman, who just made his major league debut on Aug. 22, ends up with a 2.93 ERA in 15 1/3 innings for the Nationals. He did have three blown saves to go along with the five successes and two holds. He’s someone to root for, but given his control issues, he’s probably not going to be a shoo-in for the 2027 pen.

Manaea gave up two homers today, bringing his total to 25 in 150 2/3 innings for the year. That’s the main issue explaining his 4.78 ERA. He was a reliable innings eater after joining the Mets rotation in June, but unless he gets some velocity back, which probably isn’t happening at age 35, that’s his ceiling. He’ll finish out a three-year, $75 million contract next season.

He’s the fifth shortstop to reach 300 homers, joining Alex Rodríguez, Ernie Banks, Cal Ripken Jr. and Miguel Tejada (if we want to be strict about position, we can eliminate Banks and maybe Tejada). Lindor hit four homers in four games from Sept. 8-12, but he’d been stuck on 299 since, going 8-for-52 with one RBI in his previous 13 games. Now he has No. 300 out of the way at the conclusion of maybe his toughest season as a major leaguer. He ends the year at .225/.309/.423 with 21 homers and 49 RBI in 105 games. The .732 OPS is a career low, barely worse than his .734 mark from his first season with the Mets in 2021.

After five straight games on the bench, Mauricio hit three homers in his two starts this weekend, giving the Mets something to think about ahead during the offseason. Nothing much that happened prior to Saturday suggested he was going to be in their plans for 2027, when he’ll be out of options. His power remains intriguing, though. He finishes at .220/.258/.441 in 62 major league plate appearances this season.

Pasquantino capped off a disappointing campaign for the last-place Royals (69-93) by taking Guardians reliever Austin Peterson deep for a game-winning blast to open the eighth inning. It was his 17th round-tripper of the season. He finished 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. The 28-year-old first baseman qualifies as one of the most underwhelming fantasy contributors as injuries, including a hamate fracture, limited him to just 114 contests where he hit .249/.333/.428 with 54 runs scored, 17 homers, 63 RBI and five steals. His underlying batted ball metrics, including excellent plate skills, portend a return to mixed-league relevance next season, if he can stay healthy.

Erceg got the call to protect a one-run margin in Kansas City’s season finale and managed to work around a two-out single by Daniel Schneemann to slam the door. The 31-year-old righty converted just 13 of 19 saves this season as the Royals had four different relievers (Erceg, Alex Lange, Steven Cruz and Nate Pearson) record multiple saves after Carlos Estévez missed the entire season with shoulder issues.

It was encouraging to see Lynch bounce back after giving up nine runs over four innings against the White Sox earlier this week. He gave up seven hits, but all of the damage against him came on a pair of solo homers. He struck out two and didn’t hand out a free pass.

Messick put the finishing touches on a fabulous debut season that has him in conversation to wrestle the AL Rookie of the Year Award from frontrunner Kevin McGonigle. He gave up six hits, struck out two and only issued one walk. The 25-year-old southpaw will finish as a top-10 fantasy starter on the strength of a pristine 2.56 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and 193/49 K/BB ratio across 186 1/3 innings over 32 starts. He figures to take the ball to kick off Cleveland’s upcoming AL Division Series matchup next week.