Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt and Albert Pujols were sent packing. Bo Bichette has plenty of time to play tennis. Tee time or tea time? Plenty of baseball’s greatest stars can make that choice after their teams failed to make it past wild-card weekend.
See, it’s often not the biggest names that prove most indispensable once Major League Baseball’s playoffs arrive. After all, anyone can be pitched to, or ignored altogether.
It’s often the performance of the less heralded that matter most, and as the four Division Series get underway Tuesday, USA TODAY Sports examines the eight players most important to their team’s chances:
Who could have imagined that a former Orioles and Rays castoff would emerge as the steadiest late-inning hand for the game’s most efficient machine?