The League Championship Series is underway, meaning we’re down to just four teams with a shot of winning the 2025 World Series. The Seattle Mariners have a 2-0 lead, and it’s really hard to bet against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but if we’re being honest, it’d be foolish to dismiss the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers, considering they were the No. 1 seed in their respective leagues.

While the four teams that are still alive couldn’t care less about what’s to come this winter, but for the other 26 MLB teams, the offseason has already begun. The latest MLB rumors cover important snippets involving teams that have already been eliminated.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB season.

Potential Padres’ Mike Shildt replacements revealed

Shocking San Diego Padres news broke on Monday as Mike Shildt, their manager, announced his sudden retirement. Perhaps this shouldn’t be seen as a huge shock, as Shildt is 57 years old and a baseball lifer, but there were no rumors revolving around his retirement and he was coming off back-to-back postseason appearances with San Diego. With Shildt out the door, a slew of potential replacements were revealed by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

The biggest name on this list is undoubtedly Bruce Bochy, a future Hall of Famer which included a stop with the Padres. It remains to be seen if he’s still interested in managing after parting ways with the Texas Rangers, but if he is, it’d be fairly surprising if he was interested and the Padres went in another direction.

As for the other candidates, they include former managers Phil Nevin and Scott Servais, and recent players Ryan Flaherty and A.J. Ellis. There are several quality candidates here, and with a talented team to field, the Padres might get whoever their first choice is to come aboard in Shildt’s place.

Phillies run it back with Rob Thomson

After yet another disappointing postseason exit, Philadelphia Phillies fans wanted change of some sort to be made. The easiest possible change would’ve been to fire manager Rob Thomson and get a new voice in the dugout. As it turns out, though, Philadelphia has decided to retain Thompson as its manager per Jon Heyman and Joel Sherman of the NY Post.

Objectively, it wasn’t Thomson’s fault that the Phillies were sent home in this year’s postseason and it hasn’t been Thomson’s fault that they’ve failed to win a World Series in his tenure – his star position players simply have to show up and have not – but it’s not as if he’s blame-free either. Just this season alone, from the controversial bunt decision with Bryson Stott to some questionable bullpen moves, Thomson was far from perfect.

It’s getting increasingly tougher to believe Thomson is the right man to get this team over the hump, but again, it’s hard to blame Thomson when guys like Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper do nothing repeatedly. Whether the decision to stick with him will prove to be the right one remains to be seen.

Kyle Tucker’s Cubs tenure sure appears to be over

The Chicago Cubs made a major blockbuster trade this past offseason, acquiring Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros. The deal was a bit risky given Tucker’s expiring contract status, but with a talented team around him, the risk appeared to be worthwhile. In hindsight, it’s hard to say that’s the case.

The Cubs made it to the postseason for the first time in a full season since 2017, but they lost to their arch-rivals, the Milwaukee Brewers, in the NLDS. Tucker did not perform to his superstar standards down the stretch and in the postseason. Now, shortly after their exit, based on what The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma had to say on the Foul Territory podcast, it sounds like the Tucker experiment is nearing its end in the Windy City.

Sharma believes it’s extremely unlikely that the Cubs are going to re-sign Tucker, and to make matters worse, he believes the Cubs looked at Tucker as a one-year thing all along. This is nothing but a slap in the face to loyal Cubs fans who pack Wrigley Field every night and just want to see their team win.

The Cubs play in one of the sport’s biggest markets and have virtually no money outside of Dansby Swanson’s deal locked up long-term, yet they don’t appear to be given a shot when it comes to re-signing a superstar in his prime. Getting outbid by a team like the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers would’ve been one thing, but giving up before free agency even begins, or really before Opening Day even happened, it such a bad look.

The Cubs will presumably hope top prospect Owen Caissie will fill Tucker’s shoes. Caissie has a ton of talent, but those are unfair expectations to set. Based on this rumor, though, all Cubs fans can do is hope he has what it takes to be a near-instant star.