Every MLB Team's Pride and Shame from the 2023 Regular Season
When Major League Baseball's 2023 season ends on Sunday, it will be with a veritable kaleidoscope of emotions that teams will look back on all that happened.
But for simplicity's sake, let's focus on what they can be proud and ashamed of.
In applying this two-sided coin, one thing that didn't come into consideration was teams' playoff fates. Do such things matter? You bet. But from the perspective of a baseball writer looking for interesting subjects to write about, they're one-inch putts.
Rather, this was about specific players or entire units that did or didn't let teams down, as well as certain moments and outcomes that hold some kind of sway in the grand scheme of things.
Let's proceed one team at a time and in alphabetical order.
Arizona Diamondbacks
1 of 30
Record: 84-74, 2nd in NL West
Pride: They Bet Right on Corbin Carroll
Carroll looked the part of a building block when he joined Arizona last August, especially by boggling minds with his speed. But since he appeared in just 32 games, it was with caution scattered to the wind that the team subsequently signed him to an eight-year extension.
It turns out the Diamondbacks knew who they were dealing with. Largely by way of a first-of-its-kind output of 25 home runs and 51 stolen bases, Carroll is the presumptive NL Rookie Year in addition to the best player on a likely playoff-bound team.
Shame: That Awful Run in July and August
A big reason the D-backs haven't yet clinched a playoff spot is because they suddenly got very bad between July 2 and Aug. 11. In going 7-25 in that span, they joined the A's, Royals and Rockies as the only teams to lose as many as 25 out of 32 this season.
Atlanta
2 of 30
Record: 102-56, 1st in NL East
Pride: Best. Offense. Ever.
It is, of course, debatable whether Atlanta truly has the best offense ever. Not to get too nerdy, but anyone who would dare note they have the same wRC+ as the 1927 Yankees had better be prepared to admit the latter had to let pitchers bat for themselves.
Yet even if Atlanta doesn't hit four more home runs to break the single-season record of 306, this is still the first offense in history to top 300 home runs and 100 stolen bases. They've even out-homered the next-closest team by 60, a feat that had previously been achieved only by two other teams.
Shame: Those Poor Pitchers
Atlanta's healthy pitchers have done just fine in putting up a respectable 4.08 ERA, but they're the lucky ones. According to Spotrac, the 1,341 days that Atlanta pitchers have lost to the injured list rank fourth in the league.
Baltimore Orioles
3 of 30
Record: 99-59, 1st in AL East
Pride: They Built This
The Orioles are about to cross the 100-win threshold for the first time since 1900, and they're going to do it with virtually no help from hired guns. Per Roster Resource, just three players on their 28-man roster joined the club as free agents.
Take a bow, general manager Mike Elias. This season is nothing if not a monument to his ingenuity with the draft (i.e., Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson) and trades (i.e., Kyle Bradish and Yennier Cano). Should his Orioles win the World Series, he should get to touch the trophy before any members of the tightfisted Angelos family.
Shame: Seriously, What Was That Trade Deadline?
This said, Elias should be dinged for only scoring Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami at the deadline. The O's didn't necessarily need more pitching than that, but they definitely needed better pitching.
Boston Red Sox
4 of 30
Record: 76-82, 5th in AL East
Pride: The Core Is Coming Together
The present? Yeah, that part is less than great for the Red Sox. But the future is to be looked at with optimism, if for no other reason than their lineup is built on a solid core. Only four teams have gotten a higher wRC+ from 26-and-under hitters.
Things are more suspect on the mound, but Brayan Bello has pitched better than his 4.24 ERA indicates and this year also saw Josh Winckowski emerge as one of the league's top multi-inning firemen. And this, of course, is to say nothing of the club's prospect wealth.
Shame: Pretty Much Everything Else
Lest anyone read the above as a defense of the recently fired Chaim Bloom, his job entailed more than accumulating young talent. It was also to build a functional baseball team, and pitching and defense are merely two areas where the 2023 Red Sox fall woefully short.
Chicago Cubs
5 of 30
Record: 82-76, 2nd in NL Central
Pride: They Bet Right on Cody Bellinger
The Cubs' success can't really be drilled down to one player. They've gotten contributions from all over, be it from known quantities such as Dansby Swanson and Ian Happ to lesser-known quantities such as breakout left-hander Justin Steele.
But Bellinger has to be the best story on the Cubs, right? The 2019 NL MVP was at his lowest point after he had been non-tendered by the Dodgers, yet the Cubs made a $17.5 million bet on him anyway. The yield so far includes a .310 average, 26 homers, 20 steals and 4.3 rWAR.
Shame: Pick on Someone Your Own Size
The catch with this year's Cubs is that they're only good when they play bad teams. They're 33-45 against clubs with winning records, which will loom large if they end up on the outside looking in at the National League playoffs.
Chicago White Sox
6 of 30
Record: 60-98, 4th in AL Central
Pride: Luis Robert Jr.'s Stardom Has Arrived
In 2021 and 2022, all anyone could do was wonder what Robert might do if he could stay healthy. He showed a promising ceiling in posting an .830 OPS with 25 homers and 17 steals, but that was over just 166 games.
Well, now we know. Robert may be ending this year on the IL, but preceding this was a 145-game sample that saw him go off for an .857 OPS, 38 homers, 20 steals and 5.0 rWAR. He was, in every possible way, one of the American League's best players.
Shame: Things Fell Apart
When Robert debuted back in 2020, the plan was for him to be but one centerpiece on an annual contender. It, uh, hasn't worked out that way. And with the club's leadership in disarray and the farm system in merely decent shape, the future is murky at best.
Cincinnati Reds
7 of 30
Record: 81-78, 3rd in NL Central
Pride: They Beat Expectations in the Most Fun Way Possible
Want to know what the Reds' chances of making the playoffs at the start of 2023? Exactly 1.7 percent. That's according to FanGraphs, which gave just three teams lower odds of playing in October.
That the Reds are even close to qualifying this late in the season is worth a doff of the ol' cap, and the fact that they've thrived on a historic collection of rookies doesn't exactly cheapen the story. Indeed, it underscores that the story is only just beginning.
Shame: This Good Team Has Played Some Ugly Baseball
Not to diminish the fun stuff or anything, but...well, July is the only month that Reds hurlers haven't had an ERA in the 5.00 range and the defense has thus far authored an NL-low minus-35 Outs Above Average. Things to work on, to be sure.
Cleveland Guardians
8 of 30
Record: 75-84, 3rd in AL Central
Pride: The Pitching Machine Is Working Just Fine
Any story that goes "Franchise X Is Really Good at Thing Y" can be a case of printing the legend. Not so with the Guardians and their propensity for developing pitching. They've gotten more fWAR from 25-and-under hurlers than any other team over the last decade.
So has it gone this year, specifically thanks to Tanner Bibee, Gavin Williams and Logan Allen. The three rookies have made 65 starts for the Guardians and have produced a collective 3.35 ERA.
Shame: Literally Any Power Would Be Nice
Only the Tigers hit fewer home runs than the Guardians in 2022, yet they've responded accordingly by upping their total by 48 this year. The Guardians? Not so much. They've merely gone from 110 to 121 homers, which is easily the lowest total in MLB. It's not the reason they didn't make the playoffs, but it is certainly a reason.
Colorado Rockies
9 of 30
Record: 57-101, 5th in NL West
Pride: Don't Sleep on Nolan Jones
We'll get to the fundamental flaw of the 2023 Rockies in just a second, but for now just know that Jones has nothing to do with it.
The rookie has had a good year in general, playing in 102 games and posting a .922 OPS with 19 home runs. Even better? He's a legit barrel rate icon. Ever better-er? He's a rare Rockies hitter who actually has a higher OPS away from Coors Field.
Shame: Worst. Offense. Ever.
This is the first time in their 31 seasons that the Rockies have lost 100 games, and nobody can say they don't deserve it. It's especially egregious that their scoring average is a franchise-worst 0.25 runs worse than the MLB norm. Coors Field hasn't gone anywhere or lost any of its potency as a haven for hitters. This offense is simply that bad.
Detroit Tigers
10 of 30
Record: 74-83, 2nd in AL Central
Pride: They Were the Best Team in the AL Central*
There is something to be said about how much better the Tigers offense has been this year. They've scored 0.56 more runs per game than they did in 2023, for which much credit is owed to the breakouts of Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Kerry Carpenter.
An even cooler tidbit, though, is that the Tigers were the best of the AL Central...within the AL Central. They had a 31-16 record within the division and won their season series against each of the other four teams.
Shame: Javier Báez Is a Lost Cause
It was frustrating when Báez began his six-year, $140 million contract in 2022 by hitting just .238 with a .671 OPS. Now his situation is just plain sad. He's slipped to a .587 OPS with nary a peripheral to suggest that there's more hope for him than meets the eye.
Houston Astros
11 of 30
Record: 87-72, 2nd in AL West
Pride: They Still Have the Midas Touch
The Astros have gotten disappointing performances from all over this year, including from offseason signees José Abreu and Rafael Montero and 2022 postseason heroes Jeremy Peña and Cristian Javier.
Their contention window remains wide open, however, because they still have a knack for turning seemingly random guys into key players. For instance, who could have expected that Chas McCormick and Yainer Diaz would be among their best hitters or that Hector Neris would have a sub-2.00 ERA?
Shame: Come On, Stand Up for Yourselves
The 2023 Astros are nonetheless guilty of a certain listlessness, and it especially shows in how they've performed against home and against other winning teams. They should be better than a team that's 39-42 at the former and 37-42 versus the latter.
Kansas City Royals
12 of 30
Record: 54-103, 5th in AL Central
Pride: Bobby Witt Jr.'s Stardom Has Arrived
If one wanted to, one could conceivably calculate precisely how frequently the Royals have been watchable in 2023. It would merely involve isolating the time that Witt has spent making plays.
On one side of the ball, he's racked up 28 doubles, 10 triples, 29 homers and 48 stolen bases. On the other, he's the proud owner of 13 Outs Above Average. Though he's still only 23 years old, these are the markings of one of the most dynamic players in the sport.
Shame: Worst. Run Prevention. Ever.
After chastising the Rockies for their putrid bad offense, it's only fair to similarly chastise the Royals for their rotten run prevention. Kauffman Stadium still leans pitcher-friendly, yet the Royals are third in MLB in runs allowed and saddled with the fourth-worst ERA+ in their history.
Los Angeles Angels
13 of 30
Record: 71-88, 4th in AL West
Pride: At Least They Tried
No, really. Get that Bart Simpson meme out of my face. The Angels really went for it this year, using not just the offseason to shore up their depth but also the trade deadline to bring aboard Lucas Giolito and other pieces they sorely needed.
At no point were the Angels especially likely to make the playoffs, but they were basically a 50/50 bet at several points throughout the season. They were basically in "stranger things could happen" territory, which is good enough in this era of expanded playoffs.
Shame: It Didn't Work And Now They're Screwed
As commendable as it is that the Angels bet on themselves...oof. O-O-F. A 15-37 run since the deadline has doomed them to an eighth straight losing season, they have one of baseball's worst farm systems and they're all but certain to lose Shohei Ohtani this winter. I say again, "Oof."
Los Angeles Dodgers
14 of 30
Record: 98-60, 1st in AL West
Pride: They Sure Shut Up All the Padres Talk
Look, none of us can blame ourselves for buying into the Padres hype. They beat the Dodgers in last year's playoffs and promptly blew them out of the water in free-agent spending. So, of course they came into 2023 as the favorites to win the NL West.
But it's the Dodgers who are having the last laugh, and it's Jeff Goldblum-tier stuff. Beyond destroying the Padres in the race for the division title, they took it to them directly by winning nine of 13 matchups to build on a years-long pattern of ownage.
Shame: Starting Pitching *Used* To Be a Strength
On account of their record and, well, the fact that they're the Dodgers, it should be easy to see these Boys in Blue as legit World Series contenders. It's hard to do that, though, while they're stuck with arguably the worst starting pitching they've had this century.
Miami Marlins
15 of 30
Record: 82-76, 3rd in NL East
Pride: Not Giving Up Worked
The Marlins probably should have sold at the trade deadline. Even if they were still seven games over .500 going in, they had dropped 16 of 25 and their playoff odds were dwindling accordingly.
That the Marlins bought instead now looks like a season-saving maneuver. Even if they're only 25-26 since Aug. 1, that their playoff hopes are still alive has a lot to do with newcomers Jake Burger and Josh Bell. Put together, they have an .855 OPS and 20 homers as Marlins.
Shame: They May Have Burned Out Sandy Alcantara
Alcantara has pitched more innings than anyone else over the last two seasons, often racking them up in nine-inning bunches. He seemed superhuman...right up until he went on the IL with a UCL sprain on Sep. 3 and was unable to come back. Now the Marlins must hope none of this lingers into 2024.
Milwaukee Brewers
16 of 30
Record: 89-69, 1st in NL Central
Pride: Just Try and Score on Them
There's one reason above all that the Brewers are NL Central champs. The object of the game is to score runs, and they simply don't let their opponents do that.
The Brewers have the best pitching staff in either league by way of their 3.74 ERA and their defense likewise leads the NL in Defensive Runs Saved. In posting a league-leading 3.71 ERA against winning teams, they even keep it up against the toughest competition.
Shame: Now, If Only They Could Score Their Own Runs
Alas, the Brewers don't have much choice but to be good at preventing runs. Their hitters don't score them in bunches, and particularly not by way of slugging. If the Brewers make the World Series, they'll be the first to have done so after slugging under .400 in the regular season since 2014.
Minnesota Twins
17 of 30
Record: 85-73, 1st in AL Central
Pride: This Is the Nastiest Pitching Staff in Baseball
Winners of the AL Central though they may be, the Twins seem to be the one team that nobody is taking seriously as a World Series contender. There's at least one reason why that's a mistake.
Nasty pitching can go a long way in October, and the Twins are as nasty as they come. Beyond leading the league with 1,509 strikeouts, they also rank second in swinging-strike percentage. Clearly, opposing offenses should want no part of them.
Shame: Twins Pitchers Would Feast on Twins Hitters
Twins hitters also specialize in strikeouts, but in a bad way. They're easily the league leaders in both strikeouts and strikeout percentage. Call it a hunch or a hot take, but this might become a bigger problem when they're facing only the best pitching staffs in October.
New York Mets
18 of 30
Record: 72-86, 4th in NL East
Pride: They Weren't Afraid to Blow It Up
Some say the Titanic should have hit that iceberg head-on instead of changing course. The same logic arguably applies to the Mets. If not in 2023, their $350 million payroll might have reaped rewards in 2024, right?
Perhaps, but the first 105 games of this season certainly failed as a proof of concept. That their deadline sell-off shed tens of millions worth of salaries and dramatically improved the farm system makes for pretty good salvage from a season that was destined to be a wreck.
Shame: That It Came to That
Even if the ultimate tragedy was averted, the most expensive team in MLB history is also the greatest failure of 2023. It was as a top-five favorite for the World Series that the Mets came into the year, and as the single biggest winning percentage loser from 2022 that they're going to go out.
New York Yankees
19 of 30
Record: 81-77, 4th in AL East
Pride: They Didn't Give Up
It's about as hard to polish the Yankees' 2023 season as it to polish a you-know-what. They're about to finish in fourth place for only the second time since 1993 and they haven't yet clinched their 31st winning record in their last 31 tries.
Still, let's not forget that the Yankees were as far as six games under .500 as recently as Aug. 27. They're 19-9 since then and they should at least avoid finishing last for the first time since 1990. It's not much, but it's something to take away from 2023.
Shame: Thinking This Was Ever Going to Work
Of all the reasons the Yankees are where they are right now, the most damning is their own hubris. Even though they went 38-40 in the back half of 2022, they basically chose to run it back with the same roster plus a notoriously injury-prone pitcher.
Oakland Athletics
20 of 30
Record: 48-110, 5th in AL West
Pride: Zack Gelof Looks Like a Keeper
If nothing else, the A's can come away from this season feeling confident in some of their younger players. Speedster Esteury Ruiz and lefty Ken Waldichuk are among them, and then there's Gelof.
In 64 games since he made his debut on July 14, the 23-year-old has put up an .848 OPS with 13 home runs and 14 stolen bases. As all this comes paired with solid batting metrics, he looks like the guy the A's should build around.
Shame: Only Being One of the Worst Teams in History
The 2023 A's are going to go down as one of the worst teams that MLB has ever known. Not just according to their record, but also to their minus-336 run differential. One could say it's not all one person's fault, but that wouldn't be true.
Philadelphia Phillies
21 of 30
Record: 89-69, 2nd in NL East
Pride: Their Bullpen Is Actually Good
It was a short year and everything, but the Phillies' bullpen was nonetheless an embarrassment of historic proportions as it racked up a 7.06 ERA in 2020. It was only marginally better in 2021 and 2022, posting a 4.44 ERA in total.
This year, though, Phillies relievers have crept into the top 10 of MLB with a 3.63 ERA. And this is even though their filthiest reliever might only have just arrived on Sep. 24. You know, just in case anyone was doubting they have another World Series run in them.
Shame: They Haven't Punched Above Their Weight
Bullpen aside, the Phillies have let themselves get pushed around this year. A team this good has no business having a worse record in the NL East than the Marlins, much less a mere 42-41 record against other winning teams.
Pittsburgh Pirates
22 of 30
Record: 74-84, 4th in NL Central
Pride: Those Are Some Nice Bookends
They say it's not how you start, but how you finish. Well, in the case of the Pirates, how about we agree to say that it's how you start and how you finish?
As they went 38-65 over 103 games, the middle of their season isn't much more than a puddle of fetid goo. But on either side of that puddle, they've gone 36-19. Meaningful? Nah. But at least with their 16-11 run since Aug. 28, they're going to leave their fans wanting more.
Shame: Rough Times for the Rooks
Things were only ever going to work out for the Bucs if, like the Reds, all the rookies they brought up broke out at the same time. This just hasn't happened, and it's especially disheartening that former No. 1 pick Henry Davis has been humbled to the tune of a .670 OPS.
San Diego Padres
23 of 30
Record: 79-80, 3rd in NL West
Pride: They Didn't Completely Waste the Extra Attention
Even if the Mets are the bigger failure, the Padres are arguably the bigger disappointment of 2023. To come into a season as the favorite to win your division and one of the favorites to win the World Series only to come away with nothing? Yikes.
But if the Padres can claim nothing else, it's that San Diegans wanted to watch them and that they gave them a good show. The club set a franchise record by drawing 3.2 million fans out to Petco Park, where they went a respectable 44-37.
Shame: They Led the League in WAR
No, no. Not Wins Above Replacement. We're talking about Wilting Above Replacement. It may be a made-up stat, but if it was real it would consider both the Padres' 7-23 record in one-run games and their 1-12 record in extra innings.
San Francisco Giants
24 of 30
Record: 78-81, 3rd in NL West
Pride: Their Starting Pitching Could Have Been a Lot Worse
The only surprise here is that at no point in 2023 did Gabe Kapler resort to picking fans out of the stands to start games. Of the 12 pitchers who started at least four games for the Giants, only Logan Webb and Alex Cobb were ever reliable.
Yet the Giants are somehow within the top 10 of MLB with the 4.12 ERA they've gotten out of their starters. That's slightly misleading since that's counting the contributions of openers such as Ryan Walker and John Brebbia, but it's a fact all the same.
Shame: Geez, What a Boring Team
The baseball business is ultimately show business, where the worst thing anyone can ever be is boring. And there can be no better word to describe the 2023 Giants. They just have no personality, least of all in an offense that lacks any sort of defining feature.
Seattle Mariners
25 of 30
Record: 85-73, 3rd in AL West
Pride: They Really Took It to the Astros
Even though the 2022 season marked the Mariners' return to October after 21 years away, they just couldn't get over the Astros. Houston took 12 of 19 head-to-head meetings in the regular season before sweeping Seattle out of the playoffs.
The Mariners' revenge will only be complete if they get another chance against the Astros in the playoffs, but for now they can feel satisfied. They only played Houston 13 times this year, but they still flipped the script in winning nine of those games.
Shame: They've Just About Blown It
The Mariners were trending nowhere but up for a while there, going 38-15 in July and August to grab a share of first place in the AL West. Yet their 9-16 record in September could have consequences, specifically them missing out on the playoffs altogether.
St. Louis Cardinals
26 of 30
Record: 69-89, 5th in NL Central
Pride: Jordan Walker (Eventually) Lived Up to the Hype
If this season was good for anything for the Cardinals, it was as on-the-job training for their younger hitters. Only six teams granted more plate appearances to 25-and-under batsmen.
Of those, Walker had the most encouraging season. It was an odd move when the Cardinals sent him down less than a month after putting him on their Opening Day roster, but the 21-year-old has recovered just fine to post an .803 OPS in 93 games since returning on June 2.
Shame: This Was a Good Team for Exactly 1 Day
The Cardinals were over .500 at exactly one point this season, and it was when they were 2-1 after three games. They spent the rest of the year at or below .500 to write a pitiful turn for what had been one of the most successful franchises of the 21st century.
Tampa Bay Rays
27 of 30
Record: 97-62, 2nd in AL East
Pride: This Might Be the Best Offense They've Ever Had
Through all the ups and downs the Rays have had this season, their offense has been a constant. It's produced 5.26 runs per game, putting it just barely south of the 2021 Rays for the highest output in the franchise's history.
Still, one would be inclined to take the 2023 Rays if given the choice. They have as much power (225 vs. 222 HR) as the 2021 Rays, but with more frequent hits (.259 vs. .243 AVG) and a whole lot more speed (158 vs. 88 SB).
Shame: That Historic Start Was a Tease
The Rays made history by winning each of their first 13 games and 29 out their first 36. Since then, though, they've been more good than great in going 68-55. No matter what happens next, this is ammo for those who would warn others never to trust what happens in April.
Texas Rangers
28 of 30
Record: 89-69, 1st in AL West
Pride: No Team Has Improved As Much As They Have
Spending a whole bunch of money prior to the 2022 season didn't work, as the Rangers never really got going en route to 94 losses. As such, watching them pursue the same strategy last winter got one thinking about the classic definition of insanity.
Only this time, the same thing has indeed yielded different results. The season isn't over yet, but right now the Rangers have upped their winning percentage from last season more than any other team.
Shame: Their Gamble on Veteran Pitchers Hasn't Paid Off
Of the top nine starters the Rangers have used this season, six are between 31 and 39 years of age. That's starting to look like a fatal mistake, as Jacob deGrom and (possibly) Max Scherzer are done for the year and Nathan Eovaldi has burned out after a hot start.
Toronto Blue Jays
29 of 30
Record: 87-71, 3rd in AL East
Pride: They're Getting It Done with Pitching
Only two teams hit more home runs than the Blue Jays across 2021 and 2022, and many of the same guys who made that outpouring of long balls possible are still around. It's therefore only natural that the team is thriving...wait, it says "Pitching" here.
It's indeed the Blue Jays who lead the AL in ERA at 3.75. More than one guy can claim credit for that, but special kudos are reserved for four starters who've all been better than average over 30-plus starts: Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt and Yusei Kikuchi.
Shame: They Rarely Failed to Disappoint
The Blue Jays should be better than a team that's 19-29 against the AL East and 40-46 against other winning teams. And after all that happened in '21 and '22, what the heck are they doing below the league average with 180 home runs?
Washington Nationals
30 of 30
Record: 69-90, 5th in NL East
Pride: The Core Is Coming Together
The Nationals are only two and a half years into a rebuild that began in earnest in the summer of 2021, but what they're building is already coming into focus.
Right-hander Josiah Gray was an All-Star this year and hurler MacKenzie Gore has also had his moments. Offensively, Lane Thomas and Keibert Ruiz have both had solid seasons and CJ Abrams is quietly on an outstanding run with 11 homers and 35 steals since July 1.
Shame: Stephen Strasburg Deserves Better
To plan a retirement ceremony for Strasburg, who understandably feels like he can't pitch anymore, only to cancel it because of a disagreement over money? Nobody deserves that, least of all a franchise icon who helped deliver said franchise's only championship.
Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.
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