How to Fix MLB's Biggest Dumpster Fires of the 2023 Season
It feels like there are more smoldering dumpster fires across Major League Baseball right now than in years past, with a number of teams that entered the year with lofty expectations destined to be watching the playoffs unfold from the comfort of their couch.
The New York Mets, New York Yankees and San Diego Padres have the three highest payrolls in baseball, and all three teams have a losing record and currently reside well outside the projected postseason field.
Meanwhile, things have gone from bad to worse for the Chicago White Sox, the Los Angeles Angels all-in move at the deadline has backfired, and the St. Louis Cardinals are headed for their first losing season since 2007.
Ahead, we've taken a quick look at how to fix baseball's biggest dumpster fires, focusing on how the fire started and what should be the next steps for those six teams to extinguish the blaze.
First, let's start with some teams we expected to be bad.
The Dumpster Fires We All Expected
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Colorado Rockies
It's been years since the Rockies front office had anything remotely resembling a long-term plan, so seeing them headed for a fifth straight losing season is anything but surprising.
Until they find a way to field a starting rotation that can do better than a 5.96 ERA, it's going to be more of the same year-in, year-out. With little pull in luring free agents to come pitch at altitude, that falls on the scouting and developmental teams to squeeze the most out of their in-house talent.
Kansas City Royals
The Royals appeared to be on the upswing during a 74-win season in 2021 that included a winning record after the All-Star break, but that was followed by a 97-loss campaign last year and being on pace for a franchise record 111 losses here in 2023.
Given the organization's financial constraints, they don't have much choice other than to be patient with their young talent and hope a handful of others emerge around rising star Bobby Witt Jr. to form a legitimate long-term core.
Oakland Athletics
It might legitimately be as simple as following through on the "Sell the team!" chants that have been echoing across Athletics games all season.
Moving the team to Las Vegas is not going to suddenly turn John Fisher into Steve Cohen. And after watching guys like Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Sean Murphy and countless others be shown the door simply to pinch pennies, it's time to turn the franchise over to someone who will actually prioritize the on-field product.
Chicago White Sox
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How The Current Dumpster Fire Started
When the White Sox won 93 games and claimed their first division title in 13 years during the 2021 season, they looked poised to be perennial contenders thanks to a stacked roster with a good mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars on both sides of the ball.
Instead, the culture eroded under the "leadership" of aging manager Tony La Russa and the team finished 81-81 last season. Things have gone from bad to worse this season, with an ugly 50-77 record on the field and multiple reports of a glaring lack of leadership in the clubhouse, including this gem from Tuesday night:
Team president Kenny Williams and general manager Rick Hahn were both fired on Tuesday, and more change could be coming this winter.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
It's almost unfathomable to think of how far this team has fallen in such a short period of time.
They did it the right way, building up the farm system and assembling a promising core of talent, but it's become increasingly clear that the glue holding this team together was José Abreu, and his departure created a vacuum in the clubhouse that was never filled.
Correcting the off-field issues needs to happen before they have any hope of fixing the on-field issues, and if that means declining a club option on Tim Anderson and trading away Eloy Jiménez, so be it.
The new front office still has a bona fide face of the franchise in Luis Robert Jr., who is controllable through the 2026 season. Everyone else should be made available this winter, including Dylan Cease, and the new front office needs to place an emphasis on intangibles and not just raw talent.
Los Angeles Angels
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How The Current Dumpster Fire Started
The Angels went 11-4 over their final 15 games in July, and that was enough momentum for the front office to push for a postseason berth to perhaps increase their chances of retaining Shohei Ohtani in free agency.
They then promptly lost seven straight to kick off August, and they have a 5-16 record with a minus-72 run differential so far this month as they have all but fallen out of the wild-card race at six games below .500.
After getting swept in a double-header against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday, it was announced that Ohtani has a torn UCL and won't pitch again in 2023.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
It was a valiant effort, and the right move by the front office, to try to ride that wave into August, and a tip of the cap to the Angels hierarchy for not gutting the farm system in the process.
Edgar Quero was blocked by Logan O'Hoppe, Ky Bush has boom-or-bust potential, and no other impact-level prospects were moved.
Assuming Ohtani leaves in free agency, a step backward next year seems inevitable, but there is more young talent on this roster than ever. Zach Neto, Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers, Mickey Moniak and 2023 first-round pick Nolan Schanuel all look like potential building blocks.
With the $30 million that Ohtani is making this year, they can add multiple players in free agency to try to bolster the roster. They can't afford to go into a full-scale rebuild with Mike Trout's prime years steadily ticking away, so expect another busy offseason on the free-agent market.
The Angels really don't have any other choice, unless they are going to seriously try to move Trout in a trade and start over from scratch.
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New York Mets
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How The Current Dumpster Fire Started
Billionaire Steve Cohen bought a baseball team, said a bunch of exciting things at his introductory press conference, spent a ton of money and helped prove once again that you can't simply buy a title in professional sports.
After winning 101 games last year only to lose in the Wild Card Series, expectations were sky-high following the addition of Justin Verlander, but a 7-19 month of June effectively ended their season.
And they waived the white flag in a big way at the deadline with the end results being a restocked farm system and money on the books for Verlander and Max Scherzer to play elsewhere in 2024.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
The trade deadline sell-off was a good first step, and trying to pivot back to buying and contending this offseason would be a huge mistake.
Trade Pete Alonso. Trade Jeff McNeil. Trade Edwin Díaz. Get younger and focus on building from the ground up around a core of Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Francisco Álvarez, Kodai Senga, Brett Baty and what promises to be a steady influx of young talent in the coming years.
Once the foundation is established and a clubhouse culture is built, then plug the remaining holes by spending in free agency.
The Chicago Cubs didn't sign Jon Lester to a big-money deal as another in a long list of veteran additions. They signed him to an exciting young core as one of the missing pieces in a title run.
Eat some crow and follow that blueprint, even if it means taking a step backward the next couple years.
New York Yankees
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How The Current Dumpster Fire Started
The Yankees were semi-successful in navigating injuries and roster holes for much of the season before completely forgetting how to play baseball a couple weeks ago.
Tuesday night's loss to the Washington Nationals ran their losing streak to nine games and dropped them to five games below .500 on the year before salvaging a win on Wednesday.
Next year, they have Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Carlos Rodón, Anthony Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu on the books for a combined $167.8 million, which is a tick above the league-average payroll for an entire roster this season.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
It's been 14 years since the Yankees last appeared in the World Series, and they have spent the better part of that time residing in good-not-great territory.
There is no clear path out from under the money they owe to an aging core, but perhaps they can attach some prospect talent to someone like Rizzo or LeMahieu to help offload their salaries and clear some space on the books.
If Judge can stay healthy, they find some level of consistency behind Cole in the starting rotation and they stop the revolving door in left field spinning, the Yankees could be right back to contending for the AL East title next year.
At a certain point, the front office needs to be held accountable for how it has allocated the second-highest payroll in baseball, but this team has been bit hard by the injury bug and could improve next year simply with some better in-house health.
San Diego Padres
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How The Current Dumpster Fire Started
The Padres reached the NLCS in 2022, and with a full season of deadline pickup Juan Soto, the return of Fernando Tatis Jr. and the addition of Xander Bogaerts in free agency, they were a popular pick to win the NL pennant entering the year.
However, the pieces simply haven't fallen into place, especially for what was expected to be a high-powered offense as they rank 17th in OPS (.732) and 23rd in runs per game (4.50).
An 8-5 stretch that included a sweep of the Texas Rangers convinced them to hold onto upcoming free agents Blake Snell and Josh Hader at the deadline, but an 8-12 showing in August has all but extinguished their postseason hopes.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
It's hard to envision the Padres paying to re-sign Snell or Hader given all the long-term deals they already have on the books, but this team has more than enough talent to still be a bona fide contender in 2024 even if they both walk.
With Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove both under contract the rotation can still be a strength even if they replace Snell with a mid-level starter, and the deadline deal to acquire Scott Barlow gave them a potential contingency plan to replace Hader.
In truth, their offense hasn't been bad on a player-by-player basis, they simply haven't put it all together at the same time. With a few secondary pieces this offseason, they could be right back in the thick of things in 2024.
St. Louis Cardinals
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How Current Dumpster Fire Started
The Cardinals did nothing to address a questionable starting rotation during the offseason, and it came back to bite them in the form of a 4.89 ERA that ranks 26th in the majors.
Outside of a brief 8-1 stretch in the middle of July, they have been an also-ran for the majority of the 2023 season, and they were sellers at the trade deadline for the first time in more than a decade.
How to Potentially Extinguish It
The Cardinals are at an interesting crossroad with Paul Goldschmidt headed for free agency after the 2024 season. Do they make one more push to contend with him in the middle of the lineup, or turn their attention to the future and shop him and star third baseman Nolan Areando this winter?
They have some promising starting pitching talent in the minors right now, with Tink Hence, Tekoah Roby, Gordon Graceffo, Cooper Hjerpe, Michael McGreevy, Sem Robberse and Max Rajcic all potentially on track to debut in the next two years.
Unclogging their logjam of young position players by trading one or two of them for immediate pitching help while continuing to wait on the development of those young arms might be their best short-term approach.
There's a lot to like about a potential offensive core of Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman and Lars Nootbaar, but it makes sense to make one field push with the superstar tandem before turning their focus to building around that group.
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