NEW YORK — Thanks to the Wild Card round and two extra spots in each league, more teams have a chance to make the MLB playoffs.
Last year, we saw the Seattle Mariners make the playoffs for the first time since 2001, the American League East had the three top teams in the division—the New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, and Tampa Bay Rays—all make it, and surprising teams like the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres made it to the NLCS.
And while it’s possible every team who made the playoffs in 2022 can make the playoffs again in 2023, it’s also possible we could see new entries into the fray.
We’ve come up with a list of five teams who could make the playoffs in 2023 after failing to do so in 2022. The first three teams had various issues, mainly injuries to key players—which prevented them from making the playoffs in 2022 and underperforming their expected outcomes, but the final two on the list are teams who would have to make a big leap in order to make the playoffs.
First up, the Chicago White Sox, perhaps one of the more disappointing teams in 2022, were projected by some baseball pundits to win as many as 93-96 games, but they finished a dispiriting 81-81 and missed the playoffs. The main culprit? Injuries to key players. Nearly every major contributor to the team both on the offensive and pitching side visited the IL.
They haven’t made any major changes to the roster other than signing free agent Andrew Benintendi to a five-year deal so if the White Sox can stay healthy, look for the Cleveland Guardians to have a little more competition in the AL Central.
Another disappointing team from 2022: The San Francisco Giants although that might be a bit of an over-exaggeration. The 2021 Giants overperformed and won 107 games when no one expected them to but the drop-off was so severe that falling to 81-81 in 2022 seemed like a collapse.
And after failing to land two major free agents in the offseason, Giants fans are a little weary heading into 2023. But they still have a solid roster and made some lesser key moves to improve so can they make a run in the tough AL West which is headlined by perennial playoff makers the Los Angeles Dodgers and the spending-more-than-nearly-everyone Padres? Anything is possible.
The White Sox weren’t the only disappointing team in the AL Central in 2022. The Minnesota Twins also failed to make the playoffs and finished the season 78-84. After the excitement of signing Carlos Correa the first time he was looking for a new deal, and the additions of Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela, it looked like the Twins had a solid team heading into the season but things didn’t work out as they had planned and because of a combination of underperforming offense and injuries, they missed the playoffs again.
Will 2023 be better and can they give the Guardians and White Sox some competition?
And here are the two dark horse entries who are both from American League West division. First, we have the Los Angeles Angels who have been a disappointment for the better part of the last decade while wasting the prime years of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
So why could they make the playoffs in 2023? Because it’s baseball and it’s unpredictable. Plus, most people are figuring it will be more of the same from the Angels: finishing in the middle or near the bottom of the division while the Houston Astros win out.
But wouldn’t it be fun if the unexpected happens and we finally see Shohei Ohtani competing in the playoffs while Mike Trout makes his triumphant return to playoff baseball after nearly nine years? We think so.
Finally, we have the team who would have to make the biggest leap in order to make the playoffs in 2023: The Texas Rangers. The Rangers haven’t made the playoffs since getting swept out of the first round by the Blue Jays in 2016 and they finished 2022 68-94.
But, they’ve made some moves of late that could see them get closer to the playoffs than they have been in recent years. The biggest new edition is Jacob deGrom and one of the knocks on the Rangers is that they never have good enough pitching to compete in the AL West.
Well, if deGrom stays healthy—and that’s always a big if—and if their two other free-agent pitching signings Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney contribute, it’s possible the Rangers could make things interesting in 2023.