MLB Insiders Vote Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Manny Machado Among Hot-Seat Candidates

Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge and Manny Machado are among the notable players on teams that people within MLB believe are facing the most pressure entering the 2026 season.

In a survey of 36 current and former league executives, managers, coaches and scouts conducted by The Athletic's Jayson Stark, Harper and the core group of Philadelphia Phillies players received the most votes in response to being asked who is feeling the most heat going into the season.

The Phillies group received 18 votes, followed by New York Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns and manager Carlos Mendoza(13), Judge/New York Yankees players (10) and Machado/San Diego Padres players (eight).

Sentiment around the Phillies from those who responded was about the age of their roster, particularly the star players. They had the sixth-oldest opening day roster in MLB last year with an average age of 30.17.

The only change to the main starting lineup of position players in the offseason was swapping out Nick Castellanos for Adolis Garcia, who will turn 33 on March 2. Harper, Garcia, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, J.T. Realmuto, Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker are all over the age of 32.

Even though the Phillies have been incredibly successful and increased their win total every season since 2021, their postseason results have gone backward. They reached the World Series in 2022, lost in the NLCS in '23 and lost in the NLDS in '24 and '25.

"You hate to say they're trending like the Tigers in Dave's last year there," one executive told Stark, referencing Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and his previous stint with the Detroit Tigers. "But it feels more and more like it."

Judge and the Yankees players made the list, as one executive put it, because they are on it every year by virtue of being the Yankees and the pressure that comes with it:

"I'm saying the Yankees, just because they're on this list every year. They're pretty much always the answer to this question, and they bring it on themselves. Those 27 (championship) flags will bring it out on you every time. It's been so long since they won, that pretty soon, those Red Sox fans are going to start chanting, '2009,' the way the Yankees fans used to chant, '1918,' at them."

While it's ridiculous to compare an 86-year title drought that featured some of the most devastating postseason losses in MLB history to a now 16-year title drought, there is a growing concern that the Yankees might not be fully taking advantage of Judge's rare talent.

Judge has more 10-WAR seasons (three) in the last four years than Mike Trout (two) and Shohei Ohtani (zero) have in their careers combined.

The Yankees have been in the playoffs eight times in the past nine years, but their only World Series appearance was in 2024 when they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.

New York didn't really take steps to add to the roster, though Cody Bellinger did return by agreeing to a five-year, $162.5 million contract in free agency. Instead, the team will be relying on injured stars coming back to provide a boost, including Gerrit Cole after he missed all of 2025 due to Tommy John surgery.

Like the Phillies, though, the Yankees' core isn't exactly a young group. Judge will turn 34 on April 26. Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton are both over 30 with long injury histories, though Bellinger has played at least 130 games in each of the past four years. Cole is 35. Carlos Rodón is 33 and had elbow surgery to remove a bone spur in October.

The Padres organization received a lot of votes. Machado and the players specifically got eight, but general manager A.J. Preller and the front office were in a separate category with 12 votes.

"Big future commitments, top-heavy roster and lesser depth make the future now," one AL executive told Stark about the state of the Padres.

Preller is not shy about making deals, as evidenced by his decision to give up top prospect Leodalis De Vries as part of the trade package to acquire Mason Miller from the Athletics last summer.

If you go back to the Padres' top prospects list entering the 2024 season from The Athletic's Keith Law, Ethan Salas and Jackson Merrill are the only players in the top 10 who are still with the organization.

Preller's aggressive wheeling and dealing did help the Padres get to the NLCS in 2022, but they have just one playoff series win in the three years since.

Machado, himself, is no longer a frontline MVP candidate. He is still a good player and has finished 16th in NL MVP voting in each of the past two years, but he has had a sub-.800 OPS every season since 2023.

That's probably of particular concern for the Padres since Machado is under contract through the 2033 season.