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MLB News & Moments You Should Know: 9/25/2025

The most climactic final week in recent memory? Can Cal get to 63?!

Asher Dratel
MLB Morning News 9/25/2025

Stay updated on everything baseball with our morning MLB News & Moments articles. We’ve got you covered to keep you in the know.

I want to thank you, dear reader, for another season of headlines and moments from the regular season. I’ve been writing this article in some form since 2000, back when we were picking our own featured images from whatever weirdness we managed to catch (I’m still pretty proud of a bunch of those, honestly), and it has really deepened my love for the sport and helped me to meet so many people over the years through all sorts of Pitcher List-related get togethers. And whew, what a final Wednesday of the regular season to cover! There’s something about big moments in Seattle that absolutely jump out at you. I still remember the total lunacy of game 161 back in 2021, which I was lucky enough to recap then, too. I’ve had serious trouble getting to bed these last few nights just because I’m so amped from watching a half dozen games every day with serious playoff implications and I’m going to miss it when suddenly there are no more games to watch.

But hey, there’s always next year!

Don’t forget to watch every game with the Pitcher List community on Playback!

 

Today’s Headlines

 

How The West Was Won

For the first time since 2021, the Seattle Mariners are your AL West Champs! The M’s continued to do what good teams are supposed to do against the Rockies (sorry) and trounced them Wednesday night by a score of 9-2, out-hitting them by a margin of 14 to 2. Luis Castillo picked up his 11th win of the season, throwing 7.1 innings of one-hit ball, giving up one run and walking nobody while striking out 10.

It’s been something of an uneven season for Castillo, but he is going to end the regular season with a 3.54 ERA, and a 2.86 ERA over the past month. It’s a good time for him to be heating up.

But we all know why you’re really here. DINGERS.

Bottom of the first, Cal Raleigh sends #59 on the season into what must be uncharted territory in T-Mobile:

StatCast has that one listed at 110.9 mph off the bat and a distance of 438 feet.

Two batters later, it was Julio Rodríguez‘ turn, launching his own solo shot, missing the upper deck by a few feet:

Two batters later, Jorge Polanco poked one out of RF:

The M’s added another five runs over the next five innings on non-home runs, including this bases-clearing double from Cal:

But then Eugenio Suárez got back into the swing of it and re-started the dinger train:

And of course the capstone for the night was Cal’s 60th of the year, in the eighth:

Big Dumper getting to 60 is obviously the headline homer of the night and the year (so far), but Seattle as a team has the third-most long balls in MLB this year, and Suárez is currently sitting at 48 homers on the year (although obviously the vast majority of those were hit when he was with Arizona.) They’re one of three teams with a trio of 30+ HR players, along with the Yankees and Athletics(!), which is a pretty great showing for a franchise that historically is known to be starved for power.

A 9-1 lead in the ninth is Luke Jackson’s lane, apparently. He gave up a run, but recorded the final out, and the party was on (again):

BIGGEST WIN DANCE CIRCLE WITH THORNTON IN THE MIDDLE OF

— Lookout Landing (@lookoutlanding.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T04:08:38.137Z

Cal’s 3-for-5 night with the pair of dingers makes him only the seventh player in MLB history to hit 60+ home runs in a season. To put that in some perspective, 22 different pitchers have thrown a perfect game. Absolutely elite company, and there are still four games to go!

Loud MVP chants for Cal Raleigh who says he's speechless

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T04:22:30.185Z

Cal Raleigh now has 11 multi-HR games this seasonThat’s tied for the MLB single-season record, with:2022 Aaron Judge 1998 Sammy Sosa1938 Hank Greenberg

— (@slangsonsports.bsky.social) 2025-09-25T03:57:19.970Z

So that’s a postseason clinch on Tuesday and the division locked up on Wednesday, and I think that means they’re also locked in for a bye at this point. They’re still a win behind New York and Toronto, but Detroit and Cleveland still trail. It’s clear that the M’s didn’t party too hard on Tuesday, but I think we can all forgive them if they look a little bleary for the series finale today. They don’t even actually have a starting pitcher listed as of 1AM on Wednesday!

All together now: #GOMS

The Perfect Storm

The West is the first AL division to get sorted out, while the East is just getting tighter. The Red Sox took down the Blue Jays 7-1, hanging four of those runs on Max Scherzer in five innings of work. In contrast to Mad Max’s bad day on the mound, Garrett Crochet was on:

His first of the six strikeouts also means he’s the first pitcher to 250 Ks on the season:

He leads Tarik Skubal by 14 punchouts, and when I was looking up that difference, I was shocked to see that the third-place pitcher for strikeouts this year is Logan Webb?!

In keeping with the dinger highlight reel theme, I would be remiss if I didn’t show you Masataka Yoshida’s solo shot in the fifth:

And Carlos Narváez‘ three-run shot in the eighth (off of newly minted reliever José Berríos)

Meanwhile, several hours south, the Yankees were busy beating the White Sox 8-1. Max Fried got off to a rocky start, giving up a run in the top of the second inning on a pair of singles from Miguel Vargas and Colson Montgomery, and then a sac fly from Lenyn Sosa. Corey Julks reached safely on a patented Yankees Infield Messaround before Fried got Brooks Baldwin to fly out and Michael A. Taylor to strike out. From there, he buckled down, throwing seven innings and limiting Chicago to just the one run. He gave up four hits in total, walked two, and struck out seven. He had a streak of middling starts there around a blister issue, but overall, Fried’s first regular season with New York went about as well as they could have hoped:

But much like with Seattle, I know what you really came for. MORE MVP CANDIDATE DINGERS!

Aaron Judge made it to a nice round number benchmark, hitting number 50 on the year in the second inning and putting three runs on the board:

In the eighth, Trent Grisham added another dinger to his career high, launching his 34th of the season into the home bullpen:

And was immediately followed by Judge going yard for the second time in the game, going oppo and tying Mickey Mantle for the second most multi-homer games in Yankee franchise history.

That combo of a Yankee win and Blue Jays loss means that they are tied atop the AL East standings, although Toronto holds the tiebreaker. Boston, meanwhile, has a two-game lead over current third WC Detroit, who in turn are only a game up on Houston. We’re still looking at a photo finish.

Central Shakeup

Cleveland has won their series with Detroit and will go for the sweep on Thursday, looking to increase their current one-game lead over the Tigers for the AL Central. The same Tigers that had a 15.5 game lead in July. Cleveland was still 11 games back as recently as September 5th! They won at home yesterday by a 5-1 score behind a solid start from Tanner Bibee:

I can only show you one dinger for this divisional face-off, from George Valera, who put the Guards up 2-1 in the third inning:

Once today’s game is settled, Cleveland gets to host the Rangers for their final series, while Detroit gets to fly to Boston and face off against the Red Sox. Those are potentially two very different roads to 162 games, and the Tigers are only one game up on Houston in the third WC slot as of Wednesday. Certainly not the final week they were hoping for at the beginning of the month. Cleveland, meanwhile, looks to win the AL Central for the second year in a row.

Nats Name New POBO

In completely unrelated news to any division races or playoff implications, the Nationals have named a new President Of Baseball Operations, hiring Paul Toboni from Boston, where he was the AGM for the Red Sox.

As reported by Ken Rosenthal and Brittany Ghiroli in The Athletic:

The Nationals wanted to settle on a new leader for their front office by the end of the regular season. After firing Mike Rizzo on July 6, they left open the possibility of naming a president of baseball operations to replace him and a GM to work as the No. 2 person in the organization.

It isn’t immediately clear if interim general manager Mike DeBartolo will stay in the organization in some capacity after being passed over for the permanent gig.

It’s expected that Toboni will be hiring a GM to work under him, although the article doesn’t have any names that may be filling the vacancy. Prior to working as the AGM in Boston, Toboni was running their amateur scouting department, overseeing the drafts of Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, Hunter Dobbins, Connelly Early, and Chase Meidroth and Kyle Teel, who were traded for Crochet. With that recent run of draft success, it’s not hard to see why the Nats would be interested.

 

Best Moments From Yesterday

 

Working 9 To 3

I guess for Toronto fans, this might be one of the worst moments from yesterday, so sorry about that, but it’s really one of those “You see something new every time you watch baseball” moments. To put whatever the opposite of a cherry  is on top of their game on Wednesday, the Jays made the final out when Alejandro Kirk hit into a 9-3 putout:

Nathaniel Lowe’s face is pretty priceless.

Taking The Bat Out Of His Hands

I’ve seen guys foul a ball off the knob of their bat before, but I don’t know if I’ve seen the bat get shot out of a guy’s hands by a pitch like what happened to José Ramírez yesterday:

View post on imgur.com

How about a slo-mo replay?

View post on imgur.com

I can say I’ve definitely never seen a bat vibrate perfectly vertically into a catcher’s face before, that’s for sure.

 

Injuries and Other Moves

 

⚾ Twins rookie phenom Luke Keaschall may need thumb surgery. He had an MRI on Wednesday and will see a specialist soon.

⚾ The Astros will be without Luis Garcia for the entire 2026 season due to elbow surgery. What kind of surgery? Not specified.

⚾ LA’s bullpen woes continue to compound as they placed Kirby Yates on the IL with a hamstring strain.

⚾ Ramón Laureano is going to miss at least the first round of the playoffs due to a fracture in his right index finger.

⚾ San Francisco is shutting down Robbie Ray for the year now that they’re out of playoff contention, and JT Brubaker will start in his place.

 

Articles You Should Read

 

You’ve got to be kidding?! Get a load of these bonkers stats from 2025 – Anthony Castrovince, MLB.com

Rob Manfred’s Two Jobs – Marc Normandin, Baseball Prospectus (sub req’d)

 

Fantasy Baseball Coverage

 

Starting Pitcher Roundup

Hitter Performances

Waiver Wire Picks

Starting Pitcher Streamers

 

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Asher Dratel

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Asher hails from Brooklyn, wears a 2008 Joba Chamberlain jersey to every Yankees game he attends, and pronounces BABIP funny. Appreciator of Beefy Lad dingers and beers. @asherd.xyz on Bluesky.

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