Two years ago, the Texas Rangers entered the final weekend leading the AL West by 2 1/2 games. They proceeded to drop three of four in Seattle, losing the division to Houston on a tiebreaker, then flying cross-country to face Tampa Bay in the wild-card series, seemingly certain to be a quick out.
And of course, they won the World Series.
We offer that refresher on the Rangers in the hope of comforting fans infuriated by the topsy-turvy play of their favorite teams. Fans of sad-sack franchises fall into that category naturally. But in this wacky season, so do fans of pretty much every contender.
In writing this, I am channeling the spirit of my late father, Big Ed Rosenthal, who would shrug off any illness, surgery or other calamity my sister or I might endure by staring at us blankly and saying, “It could be worse.”
So, in these thumbnails of the various pretenders – er, contenders – I will attempt to show that no matter how bad your team looks, it could be worse. That fans of your most despised opponents might be just as exasperated as you are by what they are seeing from their favorite clubs.
Many of these teams seem capable of both winning the World Series and getting bounced in the first round. One of them will win the Series, trust me. Just don’t ask me which one. And just don’t ask me how.
Los Angeles Dodgers
Ah yes, let’s start with the Team That Is Ruining Baseball. The team that couldn’t win a game Saturday in which it no-hit its last-place opponent for 8 2/3 innings, increasing its win probability to 99.5 percent with a 3-0 lead. The team that is nine games under .500 since July 3, seemingly operating under the premise, “Just wait, we’ll turn it on at the right time.”
The right time might already have passed. The Dodgers trail the Phillies by 4 1/2 games in the race for the second bye in the National League. Good luck winning four series with a bullpen that leads the majors in blown saves. Heck, good luck getting out of the wild-card round.
New York Yankees
Give the Yankees credit. After doing what they do best, pummeling the dregs of the sport, they actually rose up and went 4-2 this week against two first-place clubs, Houston and Toronto. Of course, no Yankee fan can be too secure, knowing one of the team’s patented meltdowns is never far behind.
Manager Aaron Boone said the team has been working on “creative cuts” (cutoff plays) to help compensate for right fielder Aaron Judge’s forearm flexor strain. Maybe the Yankees shouldn’t be reinventing a game they often struggle to play at the most basic level?
New York Mets
In early June, when the Mets led the majors in rotation ERA, I wrote president of baseball operations David Stearns “might have it right” in his preference for short-term deals for veteran starting pitchers.
Spoke too soon.
Stearns’ plan certainly worked last season, but largely backfired this season. Now the Mets are going with three rookie starters – Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat. All three are intriguing, but leaning on them in the postseason would be a stretch.
Only two teams have used three rookie starters in a postseason series, according to STATS Perform – the Athletics in the 2012 DS (Jarrod Parker, A.J. Griffin, Tommy Milone) and the Atlanta Braves in the 2020 LCS (Ian Anderson, Bryse Wilson, Kyle Wright). Both clubs lost. (The Braves also used three rookies in the 2021 World Series, but Dylan Lee was an opener and Tucker Davidson a replacement for the injured Charlie Morton.)
Houston Astros
Yordan Alvarez is healthy. Jose Altuve remains a threat. Carlos Correa, Jesus Sánchez and Ramón Urías arrived at the trade deadline. But would you believe the Astros, before dropping 11 runs on the Rangers Saturday, ranked 25th in the majors – 25th! – in runs per game?
Only the Colorado Rockies chase at a higher rate. Only the Athletics see fewer pitches per plate appearance (but at least it serves them well). The Astros miss the patient, productive Isaac Paredes, out since July 19 with a right hamstring strain. But with the addition of Correa, they do not have an obvious spot for Paredes if he returns.
San Diego Padres
General manager A.J. Preller won another trade deadline, seemingly filling every one of his team’s holes, but the Padres are only 18-16 since. Their offense is enigmatic. Their starting pitching is problematic. Even their powerhouse bullpen is weaker following Jason Adam’s season-ending ruptured left quad tendon.
The Padres are 43-25 at Petco Park, the fifth-best home record in the majors. But unless they overtake the Dodgers, they could end up playing a wild-card series on the road. Maybe we should proclaim the Baltimore Orioles, 5-1 against the Dodgers and Padres this week, NL West champions.
Toronto Blue Jays
A year ago, I criticized the Jays as “paper tigers” for their propensity to underachieve.
This season, virtually every contender looks like a paper tiger. The Jays, with their high-contact offense, actually appear more solid than most.
Jeff Hoffman and the Blue Jays bullpen will need to tighten things up if they hope to have a long postseason run. (Mark Smith / Imagn Images)
Here’s what’s scary: Closer Jeff Hoffman has allowed 14 homers, tied for the major-league lead among relievers with Washington’s Jackson Rutledge and a pitcher the Jays released, Chad Green. But it’s not just Hoffman. The Blue Jays’ bullpen as a whole entered Sunday with the highest walk rate and fifth-worst ERA since the deadline – and that was with the additions of Seranthony Dominguez and Louis Varland.
Seattle Mariners
Let us recap the Mariners’ last three postseason pushes:
2023: On Sept. 2, they led the AL West by one game. They then went into an 8-15 slide, beat the Rangers in three of their last four and still missed the postseason by one game.
2024: On June 18, their division lead was 10 games, but from that point through Sept. 3, they went 25-39. Their 16-7 finish wasn’t enough. They again missed the postseason by one game.
2025: Starting July 31, the Mariners went 10-1, moving a half-game out of first before falling into a 6-15 rut that created a race for the third AL wild card where there was none before.
Perhaps two straight routs of the Atlanta Braves will mark the end of the M’s misery. They’re headed home for six against the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels.
Boston Red Sox
They traded their best hitter, Rafael Devers, on June 15. They lost rookie Roman Anthony, their next great slugger, to a potentially season-ending oblique injury on Sept. 2. Without Anthony, they’re 1-3.
The Red Sox still could be a tough out in the postseason if Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito are in top form. They’re 42-29 since trading Devers, and their roster is more functional. But after a sluggish first six weeks with San Francisco, Devers, since Aug. 1, has been back to himself, producing a .991 OPS. The debate over the trade is not over yet.
Detroit Tigers
Good thing they play in the AL Central, baseball’s version of a protective bubble.
The Tigers, losers of nine of 12, including a home series against the Chicago White Sox over the weekend, are yawning their way to the end of the regular season.
Their hitters’ strikeout rate is too high. Their relievers’ strikeout rate is too low. And their rotation beyond AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal is an open question.
Still, the Tigers trail the Blue Jays by only half a game for the best record in the American League. Their current funk might be nothing more than a blip. But they’re sort of the Milwaukee Brewers of the AL, prompting skepticism about just how good they actually are.
Philadelphia Phillies
Losing Zack Wheeler was bad enough. Losing shortstop Trea Turner, who left Sunday’s game with a strained right hamstring, would be worse.
Turner ranks fourth in the majors in fWAR, behind only Judge, Cal Raleigh and Bobby Witt Jr. The good news is, the Phillies are all but locked into the second seed in the NL, giving Turner nearly a month to recover if he needs the time.
If Wheeler were healthy, the Phillies might be the favorite to win the World Series. Even with Aaron Nola struggling, they still might be the favorite, or at least one of them. But the chances of Walker Buehler breaking up the all-left-handed rotation of Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suarez and Jesús Luzardo would appear minimal, and such a setup is not ideal.
The newly formed platoons in the outfield corners should help the offense. The team overall is rounding into form, winning 21 of its last 33 games. And the veterans are particularly driven after losing to the Astros in the 2022 World Series, blowing a three-games-to-two lead at home to Arizona in the 2023 NLCS and getting humiliated by the Mets in the 2024 DS.
It all would look that much better if Wheeler was at the top of the rotation. But most teams would relish the Phillies’ problems.
Milwaukee Brewers
After sweeping Pittsburgh, the Crew remain on pace for their first 100-win season. That alone would be a shocking achievement from the team in the league’s smallest media market, but questions persist about how the Brewers will fare in the postseason.
Those questions revolve largely around the offense, which entered Sunday ranked 19th in homers. Well, the Brewers also ranked second in runs per game, not to mention second in ERA. They need Christian Yelich healthy, and some of their injured relievers to return. But their rotation options are plentiful. They own the best record in the majors by 5 1/2 games. And their fans, of all those in the majors, have the least reason to complain.
Chicago Cubs
It’s crazy how two years after taking the Milwaukee Brewers’ manager, Craig Counsell, the Cubs remain in the shadow of their small-market neighbors to the north.
Could a playoff showdown end up in the works for Cubs manager Craig Counsell’s current and former teams? (Ron Chenoy / Imagn Images)
The Cubs are not getting enough credit for a season in which they are carrying the third-best record in the NL. But forgive their fans for freaking out over a team that was second in the majors in runs per game before the All-Star break, but ranks only 26th after – with Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong facing injury concerns. The Cubs also might have lost their closer Sunday, when Daniel Palencia was removed with shoulder tightness.
A Cubs-Brewers DS or NLCS would be the Midwest version of Yankees-Red Sox and Dodgers-Padres – only for once, the bigger-market team might be the one with the inferiority complex.
Lucky to be included in the conversation
The following teams are within three games of a wild-card spot, so we’ll give each a brief mention. Three other clubs within four games –Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Cincinnati – do not warrant that much, not when they’re all only one game above or below .500.
Texas Rangers
David Murphy, the former outfielder who is now a Rangers TV analyst, dubbed them, “The Little Rascals.” Raise your hand if you’ve heard of Cody Freeman, Alejandro Osuna, Michael Helman and Dustin Harris. They are among the position players who have fueled the Rangers’ 11-4 run. Once Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia return to boost the offense, the Rangers’ pitching staff could turn this into 2023 all over again.
Kansas City Royals
It’s difficult to get excited about a team that ranks 28th in the majors in runs per game, ahead of only Colorado and Pittsburgh. But if the Royals can maintain their equilibrium on their upcoming trip to Cleveland and Philadelphia, they’ll get a crack at home against the team they’re chasing, Seattle. Bobby Witt Jr., who missed the last two games with back spasms, is needed back ASAP.
Cleveland Guardians
On Aug. 25, the Guards were in a 1-9 slide, six games behind Seattle for the final wild-card spot, with both Kansas City and Texas ahead of them. They still trail both those clubs, but with their current 8-4 roll, including three of four at Tampa Bay over the weekend, they’re only 2 1/2 out. At two games over .500, they’re not exactly imposing. But as they begin a seven-game homestand against Kansas City and the Chicago White Sox, they’re not out of it, either.
So there you have ’em, the Flawed 15, most gasping for air as they near the finish line. If you’re a fan of one of those clubs, take heart. The true embarrassment is not making this list under an expanded playoff system. Especially in a season in which even many of the best clubs make you want to cover your eyes.
(Top photo of a young Dodger fan: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)