Which Team Had The Most Disappointing Offseason Ahead Of 2023?
Image credit: Carlos Rodon (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
This is one of eight burning questions comprising Baseball America’s 2023 MLB Season Preview. To see the full preview, click here.
Carlos Collazo—Orioles. Baltimore should be the most exciting and buzzy team in baseball this offseason thanks to an excellent young core led by Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, as well as a compelling 2022 season. Instead John Angelos made a stunning number of PR gaffes throughout the winter—which included lying to local media about opening the team’s books and effusing praise on teams that don’t spend money—which put a damper on what is otherwise an exciting organization.
Matt Eddy—Orioles. The Orioles fortified their rotation by adding veterans, but they weren’t the types of veterans who project to vault Baltimore up the standings after a surprising 83-win season in 2022. Free agent signee Kyle Gibson and trade acquisition Cole Irvin are solid starters to round out a postseason rotation, but with the Orioles, they slot in at Nos. 1 and 2. That feels like an opportunity lost, because this was the offseason for Baltimore to add a workhorse rotation anchor to complement young starters Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez and a rock-solid bullpen.
Josh Norris—Red Sox. Letting Xander Bogaerts slip away to the Padres wasn’t great, and the near-instant revulsion from outside evaluators after the signing of Masataka Yoshida were two signs of an offseason that should have been much better considering the resources of the team’s ownership group.
Kyle Glaser—Giants. The Giants at least tried by going after Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa, but after both pursuits fell through, they still find themselves critically short on above-average players in their lineup. Add in the loss of Carlos Rodon in free agency, and the Giants are once again fielding an underwhelming team despite having the resources to do better.
Ben Badler—Red Sox. Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Nathan Eovaldi left in free agency. Trevor Story had elbow surgery in January that’s going to cost him a big chunk of the 2023 season. A team that won 78 games last year looks like a longshot to make the playoffs, which would mark four times in the last five seasons that the Red Sox wouldn’t make the postseason.
Chris Trenkle—Red Sox. For me this pick came down to two AL East teams—the Red Sox and the Orioles. The Red Sox allowed Xander Bogaerts and Nathan Eovaldi to walk in free agency and spent far too much money on Masataka Yoshida.
Geoff Pontes—Dodgers. It feels like blasphemy to criticize an organization that’s operated at such a high level over the last decade, but the Dodgers lineup, rotation and bullpen don’t look quite as fearsome as they have in years past. They allowed two franchise shortstops to walk in consecutive years and lost Gavin Lux, the de facto shortstop, in the opening week of spring training games. The additions of J.D. Martinez, David Peralta, Miguel Rojas and Noah Syndergaard aren’t the type of splashes we’re used to seeing from the Dodgers.
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