Playing Fact or Fiction with All of MLB's Hottest Week 26 Buzz, Rumors

A week from now, only eight of MLB's 30 teams will still be playing meaningful baseball, with the bulk of the sport spread across the globe and awaiting what promises to be another busy offseason of player movement and organizational upheaval, both in the dugout and front office.

While much of the chatter on the rumor mill revolves around what's to come when baseball's offseason truly gets underway in early November, there are still questions requiring answers as division winners and wild-card contenders look to make one final push before the playoffs begin.

Is a living legend about to make his triumphant return to the big leagues? Can one of the game's elite starters defy the odds a second time? Will a player many believed would spend his entire career with one team be changing allegiances this winter?

We'll tackle all of that and more in this week's edition of "Fact or Fiction."

Fact: Ian Desmond Will Wind Up in San Diego

Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press

After the Padres spent big last winter and still delivered disappointing results on the field, nobody would be surprised if San Diego took a far more conservative approach to improving its roster this time around.

While that may ultimately be the case, we should be careful not to interpret that to mean the Padres won't be active. There are those in the organization who like soon-to-be free agent Ian Desmond, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune's Dennis Lin.

San Diego has been searching for an upgrade at shortstop for a while, and Desmond would most certainly represent that, even as he's coming off the least productive season of his seven-year career.

With no reinforcements coming from the farm system and a weak crop of free-agent shortstops after Desmond this winter (and an even weaker class of free-agent shortstops coming next winter), the time for the Padres to address the situation is now.

Considering that nearly all the big-market clubs are already set at the position, the bidding for Desmond's services shouldn't reach absurd levels.

That's not to say the 30-year-old won't be paid handsomely—he will. But the absence of teams such as the Dodgers, Red Sox and Yankees from the process makes it far easier to see him taking his talents to San Diego than it normally would be.

Fiction: Boston Will Consider Trading Dustin Pedroia This Winter

Charles Krupa/Associated Press

When you remove emotion from the equation, as the Boston Globe's Chad Finn recently did in an article he penned for Boston.com, the idea of Boston parting ways with longtime second baseman Dustin Pedroia after the season isn't as outrageous as it seems:

"

He's a spectacular second baseman – but second basemen take a beating and tend to decline rapidly and prematurely. His most similar career statistical comps include the likes of Jose Vidro and Carlos Baerga, both of whom were done as productive players in their early 30s. His fearless, occasionally reckless, play isn't going to lead to a prolonged career. Go ask Kevin Youkilis about that.

"

With six years and roughly $84 million left on the eight-year, $110 million extension he signed in July 2013—which includes limited no-trade protection—and his still high level of play, both at the plate and in the field despite recent injury woes, chances are the Red Sox could find an interested trade partner.

The team's new president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, has no emotional ties to Pedroia, and with a handful of younger, less expensive in-house options at the keystone, including Mookie Betts and Brock Holt, trading Pedroia starts to feel like it could be the right move for the Red Sox to make.

But it's not going to happen.

Even the most casual of Red Sox fans can tell you Pedroia is more valuable to Boston than he would be to another team, and very little of that value lies in the numbers or advanced metrics we tend to use as the primary (and oftentimes only) basis for player evaluation.

He may not have a big "C" on his chest as Jason Varitek once did, but nobody would argue against the notion that Pedroia is Boston's captain and unquestioned leader. He knows what it takes to win—and survive—under the microscope in Beantown.

You can't get that kind of value back in a trade, no matter how lucrative a package another team is willing to part with. And it's why Dombrowski won't seriously consider shipping Pedroia out of town this winter.

Fact: New Leadership Is Needed in Washington

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

Matt Williams can defend himself all he wants, but nothing Washington's current manager does or says between now and the end of the regular season is going to keep him from joining the likes of Davey Johnson and Jim Riggleman on the list of former Nationals managers.

Correction: Make that former Nationals managers appointed to the position by general manager Mike Rizzo over his six full seasons on the job. Riggleman and Williams will have lasted two years on the job; Johnson had two-and-a-half years after replacing Riggleman halfway through the 2011 season.

The Nationals have posted a winning record (509-458) in Rizzo's six full seasons as GM, a testament to his eye for and ability to accumulate talent. But there's a difference between having a talented group of players and a talented team, and Rizzo has failed at building the latter on more than one occasion.

As Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reminds us, "This is the fourth straight year that the Nats' season will end in disappointment even though in two of those seasons they won 96 and 98 games." Once Williams is fired, Rizzo will have gone through three managers in six years.

Last I checked, baseball is still a game where three strikes equals an out. The time has come for the Nationals to give someone else a chance to swing the bat as the team's chief decision-maker.

Fiction: Cal Ripken Jr. Will Be Baltimore's New Manager

DG/Associated Press

Baltimore already has one of baseball's best managers in Buck Showalter, but that hasn't stopped rumors about his immediate future—and potential successor—from making the rounds.

Per Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the latest chatter envisions a scenario where Showalter leaves the dugout for the front office, wresting control of baseball operations from general manager Dan Duquette, while Orioles legend and Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken Jr. would replace him as manager.

Ripken's spokesman, John Maroon, told Sherman that while he's "intrigued" by returning to the big leagues in an official capacity, he has not spoken with anyone in any organization about a possible role since interviewing for the Washington managerial job before the 2014 season.

While the relationship between Duquette and Showalter is strained, the finances involved in the above scenario's actually playing out all but guarantee that it's not going to happen. Both Duquette and Showalter are under contract through 2018, and Orioles owner Peter Angelos isn't about to add another multimillion-dollar salary to his list of operating expenses.

Additionally, an Orioles employee told Sherman that Angelos might be wary of hiring Ripken due to his popularity—the owner would take a beating from fans and media alike if he were to fire him down the road, even if the move was justified due to poor results.

One day, Ripken will return to the Orioles in some official capacity. But that day isn't coming anytime soon.

Fiction: Adam Wainwright Definitely Won't Start a Playoff Game for St. Louis

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Adam Wainwright was supposed to be watching his St. Louis Cardinals make their postseason push from the sidelines as he recovered from a torn left Achilles tendon. Instead, Wednesday found him trotting out of the bullpen and tossing an inning of relief in the team's first game of a doubleheader against Pittsburgh.

"It felt amazing to be back out there," Wainwright said after the game, per MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. "There was a lot of work that went into me getting back out there. … It was just a great feeling. I have been telling y'all I was going to pitch this year, and when y'all asked, I tried to be truthful. And I did."

The plan going forward, according to Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, is for Wainwright to continue pitching out of the bullpen, possibly twice in the team's upcoming series versus the Atlanta Braves, including a high-leverage appearance.

Considering how much time he's missed and the team's rotation depth (even with the loss of Carlos Martinez), the Cardinals figure to use Wainwright exclusively out of the bullpen once the playoffs roll around.

But the Associated Press (via USA Today) has a different take on the situation: "St. Louis manager Mike Matheny expects to use Wainwright in a high-leverage situation in Atlanta this weekend before penciling Wainwright back into the rotation for the postseason."

Maybe that's an inadvertent error in reporting, or maybe that's actually the plan Matheny has in mind. Either way, we can't completely rule out Wainwright taking the ball from Matheny to start a playoff game.

After all, Wainwright has already beaten the odds once this season. Only a fool would think he couldn't possibly do it a second time.

Unless otherwise noted, all statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs and are current through September 30. All contract information courtesy of Cot's Contracts (via Baseball Prospectus).

Hit me up on Twitter to talk all things baseball: @RickWeinerBR