Opinion

When the Detroit Tigers gave Jordan Zimmermann a $110 million contract over the winter, they could have imagined his spearheading a charge into the postseason when September came around.

By the time the season's final month arrives, most MLB teams have little room for a September addition to push his way into a significant role.

However, there are always at least a few players among the wave of September call-ups who make a splash, whether it's a young player getting an extended look for a non-contender or a veteran serving as a needed upgrade on a playoff hopeful.

There was neither a red carpet nor a flourish of trumpets at Marlins Park on Friday night, but there might as well have been. For the mighty Clayton Kershaw had returned.     

... For three innings.

On Thursday morning, it was announced that Tim Tebow, the polarizing quarterback who hasn’t touched a football in any way that matters since 2012, signed with the New York Mets to play minor league baseball.

It's September, folks, and things are getting weird.

The New York Yankees sold at the trade deadline, and now they're postseason contenders.

The New York Mets gave an actual minor league contract to Tim Tebow, a 29-year-old ex-NFL quarterback who hasn't played baseball competitively since high school. 

In a vacuum, news that Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg has strained the flexor mass in his right elbow might seem like a gut punch to the team’s hopes of winning the World Series.

Strasburg is, after all, a former No. 1 overall pick who has looked every bit an ace through much of the 2016 season.

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Bryan Harper had just entered a tie game to start the ninth inning for the Double-A Harrisburg Senators, and he was now in a bind—loading the bases on two walks and a sharp single.

The next Portland Sea Dogs batter slammed a hard grounder up the middle for a short-to-second, inning-ending force out. A walk in the bottom half plated the run that made Harper a 2–1 winner.

Here come the New York Yankees.

Seriously, they're in this thing.     

That seemed like an absurd notion when the Yankees went into full-blown sell mode just before the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline, jettisoning veteran pieces such as relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller and outfielder Carlos Beltran. New York was building for the future, the narrative went, waving a white flag and restocking its farm system.

Just a Labor Day reminder that the return of football is far more of a downer than the annual exuberance baseball brings for this simple reason: The start of football means back to school (ugh). Baseball means summer is here (hum babe!). Though that still didn't stop me from being glued to the flat screen on what was a great opening weekend of college football….

When you share a lineup with Miguel Cabrera, it's easy to get overlooked. Two-time MVPs tend to cast long shadows.

So J.D. Martinez is probably used to toiling in relative anonymity.

He's having a monster month-plus, though, and has helped propel the Detroit Tigers into the thick of the American League playoff race.