They say that the postseason is when legacies are made or broken. But if we're being honest, the same is also true of bank accounts: With the entire baseball world watching during the month of October — including and especially general managers — this is the time of year when free agents-to-be can either go on a run that boosts their market or fall into a slump that craters it.
And so far during these playoffs, we've seen a little bit of both. You can learn a lot about a player by how he performs when the lights are brightest, and here are five players who have either met that moment or shrunk from it in ways that will reverberate into the offseason.
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JT Realmuto is showing he still has plenty left in the tank
Realmuto has long been one of the game's most dynamic all-around catchers, but as he got deeper into his mid-30s, it was hard to avoid the conclusion that Father Time was beginning to take its toll: His OPS dipped from .820 in 2022 to .762 in 2023 and .750 in 2024, and it fell even further to just .700 during the 2025 regular season. In the final year of his contract in Philly, his days as a big-money player seemed over.
Not so fast, my friend. Realmuto has gone 3-for-8 across the first two games of the Phillies' NLDS matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers, including a double and a triple. He's been one of the few bright spots in Philly's struggling lineup, and he's done it all while playing his typically excellent defense behind the plate. He won't come anywhere near the five-year, $115 million deal he signed with the Phils back in 2021, but he still looks like a quality starting catcher, and there aren't too many of those around on the market.
Kyle Tucker isn't quieting the doubts about his playoff struggles
Injury or not, Tucker was downright dreadful over the second half of the season, so much so that — despite his long track record of elite production — some Cubs fans began to wonder whether he was really worth crossing the $400 million threshold for in free agency. After his first few postseason games, those calls will get even louder.
Tucker entered 2025 with plenty to prove as a playoff performer, carrying a .667 lifetime OPS in the month of October. Instead, he's made that number even worse, with just three hits (all singles) in 17 at-bats across Chicago's first five postseason games. The power remains MIA, and he continues to roll over grounders on an alarmingly regular basis. Tucker's body of work still speaks for itself, and some team will still pay through the nose for a 30/30 outfielder who's not even 29 yet. But Tucker could've really ignited a bidding war by finally putting his playoff demons to bed rather than exacerbating them.
Dylan Cease proved that an unlucky regular season was just a fluke
On the surface, Cease seems to have slogged through the worst contract year imaginable. He posted an ugly 4.55 ERA across 32 starts in the regular season for the San Diego Padres, struggling to go deep into games as shaky command led to lots of walks and high pitch counts.
Under the hood, though, the picture was far rosier. Cease still missed bats at an elite level (95th percentile whiff rate), he still threw very hard and his 3.47 expected ERA and 3.56 FIP suggests that this was more a matter of bad luck than a bad pitcher. Cease is still who he always was, one of the game's most durable starters whose inconsistencies might leave him something short of an ace but who's capable of looking an awful lot like one for long stretches at a time.
That's the sort of pitcher we saw in his one postseason outing for San Diego, where he struck out five batters in 3.2 scoreless innings in the Padres' Game 2 Wild Card win over the Cubs. He got pulled early as Mike Shildt aggressively utilized his all-world bullpen, but it was a reassuring sign that Cease is ready to be a buy-low candidate this winter.
Trent Grisham picked the worst possible time for his magic to wear off
Grisham, meanwhile, is something of the opposite. Not even a starter in the Yankees outfield when the season began, he proceeded to put up a career year, clubbing 34 homers with an .811 OPS while serving as New York's everyday center fielder. Talk about rebuilding your value after three straight lost seasons at the plate.
Unfortunately, Grisham has spent October looking much more like the hitter we saw in 2022-2024. He remains ensconced atop the Yankees lineup, but he's been a drag on New York's offense, hitting .154 across his first six postseason games. Teams already faced a tricky decision as they tried to sort out how much to trust Grisham's outlier numbers this season; a bad playoff performance will make that decision all too easy.
Gleyber Torres is set to finally get the big contract he missed last winter
Torres was on the wrong side of this line just 12 months ago, when a mistake-filled World Series (both at the plate and in the field) helped end his time with the Yankees and force him to settle for a one-year deal with the Tigers in free agency. Now, though, the tables have turned: Not only was Gleyber rock-solid for Detroit during the regular season, posting a 108 OPS+, but he's also shown up in October, with four hits over the last two days and a huge homer in the Tigers' Game 4 win over the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday.
Gleyber Torres gets in on the home run party 😤 pic.twitter.com/RjVdUUmduB
— MLB (@MLB) October 8, 2025
Torres needed to prove to MLB teams that he could be a stabilizing presence, and he's done that both at the plate and in the field this year. A nice postseason performance just further proves that he's a starter teams can plan around, and should guarantee him a solid multi-year deal.