Wild Card Round: Peters, Wesneski, McFarlane Among Players to Watch

A team-by-team roundup names one player to know on each Wild Card round club other than the Red Sox, from Chicago's Tristan Peters to Atlanta's Didier Fuentes.

Major League Baseball's Wild Card round is here, and a new Yahoo Sports roundup maps out one player worth knowing on every playoff team besides the Boston Red Sox. Written for a Red Sox audience, the piece observes that baseball's regional schedule leaves even dedicated fans with only scattered looks at the rest of the field.

The Chicago White Sox provide the season's biggest overachievement. FanGraphs pegged them for 67 wins; they finished with 84 and secured the final American League Wild Card berth. Center fielder Tristan Peters is among the breakout reasons, having batted .265 with 12 home runs and a low strikeout rate after the White Sox bought him for cash over the winter.

Peters took a winding route to Chicago: a 2021 stint with the Savannah Bananas, a draft selection by Milwaukee, and trades to San Francisco and Tampa Bay in 2022 before an 0-for-12 major league debut with the Rays late in 2025 and a subsequent designation for assignment. His glove now drives his value. The roundup calls him a Gold Glove candidate in center field if not for Boston's Ceddanne Rafaela, and credits him as a key piece of one of the league's better defensive teams.

Houston reached the postseason with the worst regular-season record ever for a playoff club, carried by an offense that ranked fourth in wRC+ behind familiar names such as Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña, Jose Altuve and Josh Hader. The report calls Hunter Brown the ace but points to Hayden Wesneski as the lesser-known arm: back in July after rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, he went 6-2 with a 3.25 ERA across 11 starts, pairing a 93 mph fastball with a sweeper that carries more than 20 inches of horizontal break and a well-commanded cutter.

Philadelphia nearly gave away its season, losing four of its final five games before beating the Rays on the last day to clinch and end Arizona's hopes. A second-half surge that produced the game's second-best team xERA backs the club, built on Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, with Jhoan Duran at the back of the bullpen. The under-the-radar arm is Alex McFarlane, who debuted in July and did not allow a run in 17 of 19 appearances while striking out 25 percent of the hitters he faced, riding a fastball that averages 99 mph and reaches 102 from a low release point. He is expected to handle significant spots against the Braves this week.

San Diego's entry is catcher Ethan Salas, the youngest player in the majors, who was at Petco Park for a Sept. 26 game against Arizona. His bat has topped modest expectations in a small sample, but the roundup centers on his throwing arm. Salas is 0-for-5 catching would-be base stealers in the majors, a total the author attributes more to the pitchers than the catcher.

The Chicago Cubs' selection is Alex Bregman, who returned to the lineup just days after a foul ball struck him in the face. He closed the regular season with two home runs against the Red Sox on the schedule's final day.

Atlanta arrives with one of baseball's best lineups — Ronald Acuña, Matt Olson, Michael Harris and Drake Baldwin are all back — along with a Chris Sale-fronted rotation, Rasiel Iglesis in the bullpen and a second-half offensive slump worth monitoring. The Braves' watch-list pick is Didier Fuentes, whom the roundup identifies as a name that has not been part of the mix this season.