We have reached the final month of the season. Remarkable, isn’t it? Feels like we just got started, and now we’re in the stretch run.
By the end of September, the Wild Card Series will be in full swing; some of them may, in fact, already be over. (They start on Sept. 29. That’s this month!) We will learn so much during September. And it will be over before you know it.
Here’s a look at the biggest storylines we’re watching this month.
1) Can Yordan secure the Triple Crown?
No player has led his league in batting average, home runs and RBIs in the same season since Miguel Cabrera in 2012. (Before him, Carl Yastrzemski was the last Triple Crown winner, in 1967.) History is sitting right there for Yordan Alvarez, but August did not actually help him much. He only hit two homers last month, which is why he entered September tied with the Rays’ Junior Caminero with 37 homers, with the Yankees’ Ben Rice just two behind them both.
Alvarez was also clinging to the RBI lead with 94, three up on the Orioles’ Pete Alonso, who gained 10 RBIs on him in August. Batting average is close, too, with Alvarez (.316) six points up on the Rays’ Chandler Simpson, who is coming off a .365 July and .383 August. If Alvarez repeats his August numbers in September, he may lose his lead in all three categories, but here’s guessing that’s unlikely.
2) Does anyone emerge in the AL West? For the AL Wild Card?
The AL West and AL Wild Card races have been so difficult to handicap this year, with so many teams hovering around the .500 mark. Even teams that have struggled for much of the season are right in the mix -- or even in playoff position.
As the only team above .500 in the AL West heading into September, the Astros have the upper hand over the Rangers, but what about Houston has felt reliable this year? (Other than Yordan, anyway.) And in the AL Wild Card chase, we came into the final month with four teams within four games of the final spot. The Yankees and Red Sox comfortably hold the top two slots, and the Guardians narrowly hold the third, but the Orioles, Rangers, Blue Jays and Twins are all packed together, even with the Mariners and Tigers fading of late.
Someone has to pull away in these races, right? Right?
3) Uh, is Shohei OK?
Shohei Ohtani has spent most of this season as the overwhelming favorite to win his fourth consecutive MVP Award and his fifth in six years. Not only is he not the favorite any longer -- and we’ll talk about the guy who is next -- Ohtani comes into September at the low point of his season, and perhaps his Dodgers career.
After Ohtani spent weeks working to get back on the mound for the first time since early July, the Dodgers shut him down over the weekend because of recurring soreness in his left knee, right biceps and “overall body.” (Same, Shohei, same.) Those injuries seem to be affecting him at the plate as well: He entered Tuesday in a 6-for-42 slump over his past 11 games and without a homer since Aug. 18.
Even if Ohtani isn’t able to pitch again in 2026, the Dodgers definitely need him to hit like the superstar we all know he is. Can he get healthy by the time the playoffs start?
4) Will PCA reach 10 WAR? 40-40?
At the beginning of August, we wondered if Pete Crow-Armstrong could give Ohtani any sort of challenge for the NL MVP Award. Now he has clearly passed him with a monster month that established him as perhaps the single most electric player in the sport right now. As he leads the Cubs toward the playoffs, PCA is looking at some potential historical markers for his 2026 season.
First off, he has a very real chance at a 10-WAR season (per FanGraphs’ version of WAR), something that has happened only four times this decade: Aaron Judge did it three times (2022, '24 and '25) and Bobby Witt Jr. once (2024). (Ohtani has never done it, even combining his pitching and batting value.) PCA is already at 9.3 -- more than well on his way.
And if you’re into more traditional numbers, PCA currently has 38 homers and 32 steals, which puts him two homers and eight steals away from joining the 40-40 club. That would make him only the seventh player to do that, and the first since Ohtani reached the unprecedented 50-50 mark in 2024. Add in PCA’s otherworldly center-field defense, and we’re looking at a true all-timer of a season.
5) Will there be an East division comeback?
The Rays and Braves have led their respective divisions for most of the season, and it’s not like either is collapsing down the stretch; the Braves, in fact, came into September one of the hottest teams in baseball. But they’ve still got to stave off some pretty serious challengers behind them.
In the NL East, the Phillies had the best record in baseball for August and have been doing just about everything right. They have a tough schedule in September, though, with only two series left against teams with losing records, plus matchups against the Rays and Brewers. But they do have seven games left with the Braves (four of them coming up this weekend), more than enough to make up their four-game deficit.
The Yankees, after winning their four-game series over the Red Sox, have crept within 4 1/2 games of the Rays and have five series left against teams with losing records, as well as a four-game set at Yankee Stadium against the Rays in the season’s final week. That race comes with an added bonus: Whoever wins the AL East is very likely to be the No. 1 overall seed in the American League.
6) Will the final NL Wild Card come down to the final weekend?
The last weekend of the season (Sept. 25-27) features some terrific series. The Cubs play at Fenway Park, and the Rays get a 2008 World Series rematch with the Phillies, among others. But the absolute biggest one might take place at Petco Park. The Padres and the Diamondbacks emerged in August as the most likely contenders for the final NL Wild Card spot, and unless the Marlins can go on a run, it seems it may well stay like that the rest of the way.
That makes that final weekend series massively critical, with the teams neck-and-neck in the race heading into September. Even more critical: They will come into that final weekend tied 5-5 in the season series, which means the winner will earn the tiebreaker. It may well come down to the final game. As it should.