The baseball industry, media and fans will be rightly obsessed with what happens in Wrigley Field and Miller Park Sunday, with what happens in Coors Field, with what happens with the Dodgers. For most baseball evaluators, however, the 2018 season is over. They have moved on to future questions.
Early last October, an executive with a team not participating in the postseason asked an honest question: "I've been in meetings all week -- what's going on in the playoffs?" Wrapped in the cocoon of future quests, he had no idea what had happened in the outside world.
For 10 teams, the dreams of a championship are still alive on this last day. For the rest, however, plans and decisions for 2019 (and beyond, in some cases) are already in the works. For example: The Giants let Bobby Evans go as their general manager last week and are theoretically early in their process of finding new front-office help, but according to rival executives, they have been evaluating alternatives for weeks.
Some key decisions ahead for some of the clubs that won't share in the postseason: