Drafting the Ultimate 2026 Postseason Pitching Staff

We had two of our baseball writers each draft a five-man pitching staff from this year’s playoff participants. Who was the better GM?

Chris Sale logged the longest playoff start of his career (6 1/3 innings) on Tuesday against the Phillies. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Editor’s note: The following conversation occurred Monday on the Sports Illustrated MLB Playoffs Preview Show and has been lightly edited for clarity.

Will Laws: They always say pitching wins in the postseason. But it’s not just about workhorse starting pitchers anymore. We’ve seen bullpens become more important over the last decade. So we’re going to have you two draft your ideal pitching staffs out of guys who are participating in this postseason. You each get three starters and two relievers; you can draft those slots in any order you’d like. We’ll start with Tom and then go to Ryan, then back and forth—no snake draft.

Tom Verducci: My top pick will be Jacob Misiorowski. It's not a shock, I know. But you talk about making yourself known on a national stage. We didn’t really see the best of him in the postseason last year. He added 25 pounds in the offseason, and I think he’s now built to have an all-time great postseason.

Ryan Phillips: I’m gonna have to go with Cam Schlittler. Again, no surprise, we’re going with the two likely Cy Young winners. He showed it last postseason and has taken another step to be outstanding this year. Other than Miz, I think he’s been the best pitcher in baseball this year. By the way, we could’ve done a coin flip to go first! Of course, Tom gets Misiorowski.

WL: Sorry, I went with staff seniority there!

RP: I’m willing to concede. But I think those are the two best guys, and it’s obvious they go 1–2. But it should get interesting now, so I’ll cede to Tom for his next pick.

TV: This may surprise you. It won’t surprise you it’s from the Dodgers, but I’m gonna go with Blake Snell. This guy, in the postseason, is an absolute beast. The way he threw the ball down the stretch, it’s as good as I’ve seen Blake Snell throw. Obviously he’s primed for it. They treated him carefully throughout the season. So there's plenty of gas in the tank. Just going by the way he's throwing the baseball down the stretch, I'm going with Blake Snell.

RP: I mean when he's locked in, he's on a level that very few can get to. I'm gonna go with Mason Miller. I'll take the best closer in baseball as my second pick. He was on pace to have a historic season before he crossed his career innings limit, and he's been a little shaky lately, just with his location down the stretch. But still, there's nobody I would rather have out there in a key situation for one inning or two innings than Mason Miller. I love that the guy throws 104, but his best pitch is a slider. And it's unhittable when he's locating it. So I’ll take that top closer, because in the postseason you really need to lock down those late innings, and I think he's a worthy of going in that top four.

Padres closer Mason Miller recorded a 1.67 ERA with 129 strikeouts in 70 innings this year, making him the deserved first reliever off the board in our draft. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

TV: That’s a great pick, and you’ve convinced me now, I better get a closer now. This may surprise you, maybe not. I'm going Cade Smith of the Guardians. It's hard to compare anybody to Mariano Rivera, but I will say in terms of efficiency, he does remind me of Mariano. He can get a five-out save, come back the next day and get another five-out save. He's just a premier strike thrower with swing-and-miss stuff. I think down the stretch here is the best I've ever seen him. He's got velocity, he's got the wipe out split. He goes right after people. Stephen Vogt is quick to go to him, and I don’t blame him. If there's a jam in the eighth inning, he's not gonna hope somebody else gets him to Cade Smith. He's gonna get Cade Smith in the game. So I think he's going to impact games before the ninth inning as well as in the ninth inning.

RP: I will go with a lefty who kills lefties, and that’s Chris Sale. He’s got a World Series, he's been fantastic. He's been waiting for another postseason start for quite some time. I think he's going to come out this post season and be phenomenal. And he's a guy who if you have a lefty heavy lineup, you're done. I love what he can do at age 37. He's still going to get it done.

WL: We’re six pitchers deep, but still some big names out there for these last four spots. Who you got, Tom?

TV: Yeah, I can't wait any longer. I’ve got to take Yashinobu Yamamoto. I mean, he's the best clutch pitcher of this generation. He proves it time and time again. Game 7 last year was just amazing. So we know he loves the big moments. He is a true pitcher. The pitchability, the sequencing, the mixing—he's so well prepared for every game. He can hold the ball deep into a game, third time around [the lineup], not an issue for him. The track record speaks for itself. In a big game facing elimination, wanting to clinch, there's probably nobody else I'd want to take based on the résumé—not just pure stuff, but based on the résumé—than Yamamoto.

RP: I’m gonna go with another Dodger, we’re just loading up on their rotation. I’ll go with Tarik Skubal. He wasn't quite the same down the stretch as he was at his peak in Detroit before his injury, but I just bank on the stuff with that guy. And I think that given his first chance at a real, deep postseason run, I think that he's the guy I would lean on heavily.

WL: One more reliever slot for each of you to wrap things up here.

Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal lasted until the No. 8 pick in our postseason pitcher draft. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

TV: I’m gonna be judicious here and say I need a setup guy. I’m gonna take Adrian Morejon of the Padres. I mean he’s the hardest-throwing lefty out of the pen throwing 100. As long as he throws strikes, he can shut a game down. You don't worry about where you are in the lineup, whether it's right-handed or left-handed. He’s got a chance to make a lot of money being on the free agent market after this season. With the Padres, you're going to get a lot of opportunities pitching in close games and for multiple innings. I can trust him to get six outs in a playoff atmosphere really well. He kind of takes me back to someone, who has different kind of stuff, but in terms of variability and length out of the pen, to an Andrew Miller type who could really dominate a series. You can look back on a series and say, Man, the key moments weren't the ninth inning or the first inning, it was those sixth and seventh innings when rallies just absolutely died. I think he could have that kind of impact.

RP: Yeah well, you took my pick. I was trying to frantically trade up there. But since I already have the righty in the bullpen, I’ll go with a lefty in Aroldis Chapman. He’s had another vintage season this year. His xBA was .180. Guys just don’t hit him. He’s not striking out guys in the way he used to, necessarily, but he is still lights out when he comes in. It’s been great for Boston to get him back into that bullpen. I’d walk into any game with him and Mason Miller in the back of my bullpen, so I like how that turned out.

Team Verducci	Team Phillips
1. Jacob Misiorowski, SP (Brewers)	1. Cam Schlittler, SP (Yankees)
2. Blake Snell, SP (Dodgers)	2. Mason Miller, RP (Padres)
3. Cade Smith, RP (Guardians)	3. Chris Sale, SP (Braves)
4. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, SP (Dodgers)	4. Tarik Skubal, SP (Dodgers)
5. Adrian Morejon, RP (Padres)	5. Aroldis Chapman, RP (Red Sox)

WL: I’m not even going to declare a winner between those two teams. We can let the audience decide that.

RP: They should make us GMs, Tom. We nailed that.

TV: I think the winner of those two teams is the Los Angeles Dodgers.

WL: I was wondering when Skubal was gonna go. I think that’s probably the guy we have to say slid the most in the draft, to No. 8 overall. But with the format, I understand why that happened.

---