Mike Axisa's Bold 2026 MLB Playoff Predictions: Uncharted Territory for Misiorowski

The regular season is over and the 2026 MLB postseason begins on Tuesday with the best-of-three Wild Card Series. A few division and wild-card races came down to the wire in Game 162, and we won't have to wait long for more high-stakes baseball.

This is Year 5 of the 12-team postseason format. Here is this year's playoff bracket:

American League

Bye:   Rays (No. 1) and Guardians (No. 2) Wild card:   White Sox (No. 6) at Astros (No. 3) (winner plays Guardians) Wild card: Red Sox (No. 5) at Yankees (No. 4) (winner plays Rays)

National League

Bye: Brewers (No. 1) and Dodgers (No. 2) Wild card:   Phillies (No. 6) at Braves (No. 3) (winner plays Dodgers) Wild card:   Cubs (No. 5) at Padres (No. 4) (winner plays Brewers)

The Phillies avoided an embarrassing collapse and clinched a postseason berth on the regular season's final day. The 81-81 Astros also clinched on the final day. They're the first ever full-season division winner without a winning record. The White Sox are the first team to reach the postseason after two consecutive 100-loss seasons, and they lost 100 games in three straight seasons.

My preseason bold predictions were terrible , but my motto is that if you get a lot of bold predictions correct, you weren't bold enough. Or at least that's what I tell myself to feel better. Anyway, let's do some postseason bold predictions, shall we? Let's get to it.

The Miz will hit 106

Honestly, he might hit 107 mph. Jacob Misiorowski is the hardest-throwing starting pitcher on record and most likely of all time. He's thrown the 105 fastest and 200 of the 202 fastest pitches thrown by a starter since pitch-tracking launched in 2008, all of them this season. Here are the fastest pitches since 2008:

- Aroldis Chapman : 105.8 mph (Sept. 24, 2010) - Aroldis Chapman: 105.7 mph (July 18, 2016) - Ben Joyce : 105.5 mph (Sept. 3, 2024) - Jacob Misiorowski: 105.5 mph (June 26, 2026) - Aroldis Chapman: 105.4 mph (July 18, 2016)

That 105.5 mph pitch is the only time Misiorowski cleared 105 mph. This first bold prediction says that, with the help of postseason adrenaline, the Brewers ace will become the first pitcher to ever hit 106 mph. I mean a legitimate 106 mph, too. Not 105.something rounded up. I'm not saying Misiorowski will hit 106 mph consistently. He just needs to do it once, and he will, I boldly predict.

"I definitely think its possible," Misiorowski said in June when asked whether he could hit 106 mph (via ESPN ). "Science says you can hit 108. Someone eventually is going to hit it. If that's me, cool. I don't think that's something I need to focus on. Speed is cool but if it doesn't win a ballgame it doesn't matter."

PCA will go 4-4

Cubs star and presumptive National League MVP Pete Crow-Armstrong finished the regular season with 45 home runs and 41 stolen bases, and became the seventh player in history with a 40-40 season. He's only the third player to hit 45 home runs as part of a 40-40 season. Add in best-in-class center field glovework, and PCA is baseball's premier power/speed/defense threat.

Crow-Armstrong's power and baserunner skills will again be on display in October, and our second bold prediction says he will follow his 40-40 regular season with a 4-4 postseason series. Not 4-4 for the entire postseason. Within one series. Only twice previously has a player hit four home runs and stolen four bases in a single postseason series.

Player Series HR SB

Lenny Dykstra, Phillies

1993 World Series

4

4

Carlos Beltrán, Astros

2004 NLCS

4

4

The NLCS went the full seven games in 2004. The 1993 World Series went six games. PCA and the Cubs have a ways to go to get to a best-of-seven series. They have to beat the Padres in the best-of-three Wild Card Series and then beat the Brewers in the best-of-five NLDS to get to the best-of-seven NLCS. The more games available, the better PCA's chances of a 4-4 series. It's science.

So, I suppose the sub-bold prediction of this bold prediction is the Cubs will win at least the Wild Card Series and advance to the NLDS. Going 4-4 in a best-of-five that goes the full five games will be awfully tough. Hit that many homers and you may not need the full five games to advance. Also, every homer equals fewer stolen base opportunities. If it were easy, it wouldn't be bold.

Ben Rice will have a series-changing moment ...

... with an ABS challenge. This is the first postseason of the ABS era, and at some point, there will be a massive, game-changing challenge. Two on with two out, down a run in the ninth, a 2-2 count gets flipped to a 3-1 count, then the game-winning hit follows. Something like that. There were more ABS challenges as the season progressed . Will there be even more in October?

With Aaron Judge injured and/or compromised at the plate, 41-homer man Ben Rice is the Yankees' biggest offensive threat this postseason, and it's hard to see how New York makes a deep run without Rice having a big October. Especially in the Wild Card Series against the Red Sox. Rice coming through in a left-on-left situation could swing a game and that series.

For this bold prediction, we'll say Rice indeed has a big postseason with several key left-on-left hits, including one that comes after an ABS challenge swings the count in his favor. Rice wasn't anything special with ABS during the regular season. He went 13 for 26 on his challenges, or exactly 50%, though it was 2 for 7 in April and May and 11 for 19 thereafter. That's a positive trend.

By Statcast's run value added , only two of the top six and four of the top 10 teams in ABS challenges during the regular season are in the postseason. It's one of those things that, over the long haul 162-game season, may not have a huge impact. But, in the moment, it could completely change a game. I boldly predict it will happen this postseason with Rice in the box.

Josue De Paula will start more games than Kyle Tucker

Needing an offensive spark late in the season, the Dodgers summoned top prospect Josue De Paula , who showed precocious plate discipline and impressed in so many ways in his 11 games: 10 for 31 (.323) with one home run and more than twice as many walks (11) as strikeouts (five). For at least 11 games, De Paula lived up to the Yordan Alvarez comparisons.

Unfortunately, the Yordan comps extend to defense. De Paula is a poor defender who played nine of his 11 games at DH, and a total of six innings in left field in the other two games. When Shohei Ohtani returned last week, De Paula was sent to the minors, where he continued to mash during the Oklahoma City Comets' run to the Triple-A Championship.

Although he was demoted to the minors last week, there is a chance De Paula makes the postseason roster over Dalton Rushing , who is nursing an elbow injury and can only hit, not catch (because he can't throw). Rushing has six plate appearances in the last two months and he's struck out four times. He looks rusty and compromised, which is completely understandable.

"To be quite frank, it's going to be tougher for Dalton, given the time that he's missed," manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic last week. "... It's not a knock on him. He's been great for us. But it's still tough, given that also you're talking about the consistency of at-bats recently from Josue."

This bold prediction says De Paula will be on the NLDS roster over Rushing and will force his way into the starting lineup after a few key pinch-hits. Teoscar Hernández is more likely to lose playing time than Kyle Tucker given their contracts, but a) Hernández finished the season well, b) has a better postseason track record, and c) is important righty balance for a lefty-heavy lineup.

The crux of this bold prediction is De Paula will start more games than Tucker, not that Tucker will be outright benched. There are scenarios in which De Paula and Tucker start in the same game. Defensively, the Dodgers will have to live with De Paula's glove for at least a few innings, but the bet here is the bat makes it worth it, and it comes mostly at Tucker's expense.

San Diego's bullpen will put up a 0.00 ERA

Even in the tiniest of sample sizes, this is rare. Only five times since the Division Series arrived in 1995 has a bullpen authored a 0.00 ERA in the postseason. The 1997 Braves top those five teams with 13 ⅔ innings. The other four teams (1998 Rangers , 2012 Braves, 2013 Cleveland, 2015 Pirates ) all asked their bullpen for no more than five innings that October. (Those 2012, 2013, and 2015 teams were one-and-done in the Wild Card Game.)

Our final bold prediction says this Padres bullpen, which is anchored by Mason Miller and Adrian Morejon (and Bradgley Rodriguez !), will join the 0.00 ERA in the postseason club, and they'll exceed the 13 ⅔ innings thrown by that 1997 Braves relief crew. Maybe unearned runs will be allowed and maybe inherited runners will score, but earned runs charged to relievers? Not for this bullpen.

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_Originally reported by [CBS Sports](https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/2026-mlb-playoff-bold-predictions-jacob-misiorowski-pca/)._