Hey, it's Zack.
For a lot of players August is the toughest month of the season. The adrenaline of April is gone. The excitement of the deadline has passed. Your body has been through five months of baseball. Let me give you some player perspective on August before we get into the standings.
THE ENTRANCE
Everything starts to accumulate. The travel, the heat, the late nights and the grind of playing every day without a real break. The energy that carried you through April is long gone.
I leaned into my recovery work harder in August than any other month. More time in the pool to take pressure off my joints, more hot and cold contrast and red light therapy. The gym routine stayed the same, but I added more maintenance work around it because my body was asking for it.
As a reliever, your appearances start to stack up and if you are pushing for a playoff spot, two or three days off is a luxury you do not always get. You have to manage yourself differently than you would in May.
The baseball side of it you can manage. It is everything else that sneaks up on you.
When the kids go back to school and your family heads home, the place gets quiet. No kids waking you up in the morning, which sounds nice until it is not. FaceTime becomes your main connection to home. You get maybe 20 minutes before their attention is somewhere else and you are left trying to piece together their day from whatever they are willing to share. Their life is moving forward and you know you are missing parts of it. But when you get to the stadium it is time to work and everything else goes to the back of your mind.
How teams handle this month often determines who is still playing in October.
THE DELIVERY
The White Sox are fading. They were one of the best stories in baseball all season. First place in the AL Central for most of the year with a young roster playing with genuine confidence. But they are 68 and 63 and the Guardians have closed to within two and a half games. The pitching has not held and this is exactly the kind of August that tests whether a team is built to last.
The Cubs are doing the opposite. Five and a half games back of the Brewers in the NL Central at 76 and 56, they went out and added multiple arms at the deadline. Pete Crow-Armstrong is putting together one of the best individual months anyone has had in baseball this season. The Cubs are coming, and Milwaukee knows it.
The AL West is a dead heat. The Rangers lead at 66 and 66 with the Astros half a game back. The Rangers could not reshape their roster at the deadline because of no trade clauses. The Astros went out and added pieces. Both teams are fighting for a division title and a playoff spot at the same time, with five weeks to go.
In the AL wild card the Yankees and Red Sox have created some breathing room at the top. The third spot is a coin flip between the Guardians and the Blue Jays, with Cleveland on a five game winning streak trying to hold on. Cleveland went out and added a few key pieces at the deadline. Texas could not move anyone. That difference could matter when September gets here.
In the NL the Cubs, Phillies and Padres hold the three wild card spots. The Phillies had won nine straight before dropping their most recent game. The Diamondbacks are two games back. The Marlins are four back. There is still a real race here with five weeks to go.
THE SAVE
I have been in both situations. Grinding toward a playoff spot and grinding through a lost season. They feel nothing like each other.
The 2014 Orioles had their biggest division lead in 17 years in August. We knew what we were playing for. When you have breathing room going into September you do not need a perfect August. You just need to survive it and not give everything back.
With the Yankees it was a different kind of August. We made the playoffs every year I was there. The expectation was never whether we were going to get in. It was what we were going to do once we got there. World Series or bust. That mentality meant the organization was more willing to give guys rest going into September. Getting to the playoffs was not the goal. It was just the starting point. With the Orioles we wanted a World Series just as much but a good playoff run meant something too. We had scratched and clawed to get there. With the Yankees making the playoffs was just the price of admission.
On the other end of it I played in Augusts where the season was effectively over and you were just going through the motions. The body feels the same. The travel is the same. The heat is the same. But the purpose is different and you feel that every day.
When races are this close players get a little extra motivation. We used to get excited about September roster expansion because it meant fresh arms in the bullpen and some relief for the guys who had been grinding all year. The rule has changed since then. Teams used to be able to call up their entire 40-man roster. Now you get two extra spots with a cap of 14 pitchers. The guys out there right now have to manage themselves through to the end.
The teams still in it know what August costs. The ones that get through it healthy and together are usually the ones you see in October.
Talk soon, Z
The Save is a personal newsletter based on my own experiences, opinions, and recollections. The opinions expressed here are mine alone and do not represent any team, organization, union or employer past or present. When discussing players, contracts or organizational decisions I am sharing my perspective as a former player — not making legal or financial claims. When I share stories involving others I am telling them from my point of view. When I share tips or lessons I am sharing what worked for me. Always do your own research and consult professionals when making important decisions.