With the end of the regular baseball season, I began to reflect on how the campaign went—the surprises, the disappointments, the winners, the losers, the expectations met and unmet.

Let’s start with a review of a few low points in the season.

The Chicago White Sox were the epitome of futility. They broke the New York Mets’ record for number of losses in a season, which was established in the Mets’ first season 62 years ago. Just four years ago, the White Sox won the AL Central Division.

The Oakland A’s played their final game in the Oakland Coliseum. After owner John Fisher failed to secure local funding for a new stadium from the city of Oakland, he decided to abandon the fans of the Bay Area and relocate the team to Sacramento. The A’s will play there for three years until a stadium can be built in Las Vegas, where the A’s ultimately plan to call home. The A’s had been in Oakland since 1968. I feel sorry for those fans.

Extensive player injuries were a common theme for many clubs.

• ·    Atlanta Braves’ players were the poster children for a season riddled with injuries. They lost their best offensive player Ronald Acuna Jr. (last year’s NL MVP) at the end of May, and their best pitcher Spencer Strider (fourth-place finish for Cy Young Award in 2023) missed the entire season. Two other key players, Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies, also missed considerable time.

• ·    After featuring one of the best starting pitcher staffs last year, the Astros’ pitching corps was decimated by injuries this season. They lost Cristian Javier, JP France, Jose Urquidy, and Justin Verlander (for a good part of the season). Lance McCullers Jr. missed his second straight season with a tendon injury.

• ·    The Los Angeles Dodgers shored up its pitching staff last winter with the addition of Tyler Glasnow and highly sought after Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, only to have them with limited availability during the season. On top of that, former mainstays Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw spent significant time on the injured list. Relative newcomers to the starting staff, Gavin Stone and Bobby Miller, ended the season on the injured list.

• ·    Cleveland Guardians ace Shane Bieber pitched only two games before being lost for the season due to an elbow injury.

New Orleans native Ron Washington suffered a long season in his first year as manager of the Los Angeles Angels. Angels fans were hoping Washington could bring some of the magic he had experienced as manager of the Texas Rangers. But the Halos finished dead last in the AL West Division. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise since the Angels lost Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani to the Dodgers and Mike Trout missed all but 29 games due to injury.

After capturing their first World Series championship last year, the Texas Rangers returned to their former status as a sub-.500 team. Manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t able to overcome having the second-worst pitching staff in the AL. Former Cy Young Award winners Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom barely played all season.

However, the injury woes experienced by numerous teams didn’t put a damper on the entire season. We saw some of the best individual performances in recent history and a few surprising team finishes.

Shohei Ohtani broke all kinds of records in his first season with the Dodgers. He is the first player in 50-50 club for home runs and stolen bases. He delivered the most extra-base hits since 2001. He surpassed Ichiro for the most stolen bases by a Japanese player. He holds the Dodgers record for most home runs in a season. In what many believe is the greatest hitting performance in a single game, Ohtani went 6-for-6, hit three home runs, and stole two bases.

In the American League, the season’s best story included New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge. He had another Ruthian season, putting up 58 home runs, averaging one for every 10 at-bats. He led the AL in seven other key offensive metrics which contributed to his 11.7 Offensive WAR.

When the Yankees landed Juan Soto over the winter, they expected the kind of season he ended up delivering. He hit a career-high 41 home runs and led the AL in runs scored. He and Judge were reminiscent of the legendary Yankees combos Ruth/Gehrig and Mantle/Maris.

Pittsburgh Pirates flamethrower Paul Skenes was everything we thought he would be. His 1.96 ERA is the second-lowest for a rookie with at least 20 starts since 1913. He finished with 170 strikeouts and only 32 walks. In games Skenes started, the Pirates had a 15-8 record. He’s one of the top two contenders for NL Rookie of the Year, along with Jackson Merrill. With the way Skenes pushes 99-100 mph on practically every pitch, let’s just hope he doesn’t flame out.

Jarren Duran quietly emerged as an offensive force with the Boston Red Sox. The outfielder led the American League in doubles and triples, to go along with 34 stolen bases. He reminds me of former Red Sox outfielders Johnny Damon and Jacob Ellsbury. But if Duran follows their history, he will eventually wind up as a Yankee.

Stolen bases returned as a major offensive threat, perhaps because of the larger base sizes. I guess the Moneyball strategy that de-emphasized stealing has been thrown out the window. Remember when all-time stolen base leader Rickey Henderson could get a rally going by just drawing a walk and then stealing second? Now we have Cincinnati Reds speedster Elly De La Cruz revving up crowds with his legs (when he doesn’t strike out—he leads the NL with 216 punchouts).

How about those Guardians, Tigers, and Royals? When was the last time the AL Central Division had three teams in the playoffs? How about NEVER! Was it because the division’s teams got better, or did other teams in the league get worse? It was not too long ago that we used to ridicule the AL Central as the worst in baseball.