Over 200 blog posts so far and in its eighth season, Baseball Bench Coach’s last article of 2026 has arrived in your email. Looking back at my final posts of each season, the tradition has been to leave you with my thoughts on how the MLB playoffs might play out. So here’s the question that most prognosticators like to avoid, is there anyone in late October who actually goes back to the predictions? Certainly not me. This year I thought I would try something new and give insight into the secret recipe for playoff winning teams, the bullpens! So let’s take a look at bullpens, and most particularly playoff bullpens.

The bullpen is the area where pitchers warm up before and during the game. In the late 1800s if you arrived late to an MLB game, ballpark personnel would put you into standing room areas in foul territory. Since the fans were cordoned off and herded like cattle, the areas became known as “bullpens”. Fans weren’t too pleased with this, so ballparks began to use the areas for pitchers to warm up. Having bullpens in foul territory on the playing surface were commonplace well into the late 1900s.

Today’s bullpens are located beyond the outfield fence. Much of it is because of safety considerations, addressing fielders tripping over the mounds to catch foul balls and having pitchers and catchers exposed to wayward foul balls. In some ballparks, the bullpens are adjacent to each other while in others they are separated and located on the outfield side of the team’s dugout. Most often, pitchers warming up are visible to the fans and the managers in the dugout. Wrigley Field in 2017 was the last ballpark to move the bullpens from foul territory to underneath the bleachers, making them the first enclosed bullpens in a major league park. An added feature to the Wrigley bullpens is its one-way glass technology where players can see the game but can’t be seen by the fans.

The 2026 MLB bullpen overall ERA rankings are out and the top seven teams are in this order – Yankees (2.58 ERA); Brewers (3.22 ERA); Padres (3.28 ERA); Red Sox (3.32 ERA); Blue Jays (3.39 ERA); Braves (3.58 ERA); and Guardians (3.67 ERA). Do these teams sound familiar? You bet they do, since 6 of the 7 are in the playoffs this year. A clear trend in the playoffs over the past decade is that starting pitchers are playing a much lesser role, and in many cases bullpens are asked to get more outs than the starters. The days of two dominant starters carrying the team to the World Series championship are over. Bottom line, teams need to have a strong and deep bullpen to survive the rigors of playoff action.

On the AL side, most predict that the pennant-winner will come out of the Al East entrants – Rays, Yankees, and Red Sox. The craziest thing is that despite the efforts of its standout closer, Bryan Baker, the Tampa Bay bullpen is ranked #18 in the game with a 4.19 ERA. The Pinstripers though are at the top of the heap with its relief corps of Brent Headrick, Fernando Cruz, and crafty closer, David Bednar. Boston sports a flamethrowing crew of Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello, and the top fireballer over the last decade, Aroldis Chapman. Chapman’s resurgence this season has been a huge reason for the Red Sox surprising surge to the playoffs.

Turning to the NL, bullpen superiority is clearly pointed to the Brewers. The close-out Brew Crew features Abner Uribe in the seventh inning, lefty Aaron Ashby in the 8th, and closer Trevor McGill in the ninth. Along with fellow relievers Chad Patrick and DL Hall, Milwaukee’s relief corps fits the definition of “lights out”. San Diego’s bullpen (ranked #3 in baseball) and Atlanta’s (#6) are not far behind. Their closers, Mason Miller (Padres) and Raisel Iglesias (Braves) are dominant, with ERAs of 1.12 and 2.68, respectively. Will one of these three top bullpens be enough to carry its team to the NL flag in October? Tune in late to the playoff games and find out.

The city of Chicago is absolutely buzzing with its two entrants in the 2026 MLB playoff brackets. On the north side, the Cubs bullpen suffered some early setbacks with injuries to relievers Hunter Harvey, Phil Maton, and Hoby Milner. Jacob Webb was the “go to” reliever for much of the season but has struggled a bit recently. Webb leads the club with just nine saves. It marks the first time since 1971 that a Cubbies reliever hasn’t had double-digit saves. Chicago is hoping that Ryan Rolison, Ryan Zeferjahn, and WBC star Daniel Palencia can find the magic touch to lead it to World Series play.

On the south side, the White Sox have flourished in 2026 despite having a piecemealed starting staff. The Sox led MLB in relief innings this year and recorded the third most ever in MLB history. The pitching strength has been its bullpen depth with the likes of Grant Taylor, Sean Newcomb, and Bryan Hudson. In the last two months, Hagen Smith has been added to make the Chicago ‘pen top ten overall in baseball (ERA of 3.80). For the Southsiders to make any sort of run in the AL playoffs, their bullpen needs to lead the way.

It’s been a great 8th season for the blog. Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy playoff action. October is your Coach’s favorite time of year.

Until next season,

your Baseball Bench Coach