Biden meets Texas Rangers and praises “resilience” of World Series champions
President Joe Biden hosted a reception at the White House in honor of the 2023 World Series champions, the Texas Rangers.
Maybe it’s just a false alarm and order will be restored soon. Maybe we feel embarrassed trying to gain interest from a playoff battle that is, for now, devoid of drama.
And yet, it doesn’t seem too early to sound the alarm, become completely fatalistic, and contemplate a National League postseason field without a few loyal players.
In short: Will the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers miss the playoffs?
That would certainly look odd. The Dodgers have qualified for the playoffs 11 years in a row, 10 of them as NL West winners. The Braves are six-time defending NL East champions and have faced the Dodgers in the 2013 and 2018 NL Division Series and the 2020 and 2021 NL Championship Series.
For most of 2024, it was assumed that these patterns would continue. With the newly signed Shohei Ohtani and the addition of a pitching staff, the Dodgers were practically gifted the West before the year even began. And while the Philadelphia Phillies overtook the field and opened up a big lead in the NL East, Atlanta was firmly entrenched in second place and had the first wild card spot firmly in hand.
Meanwhile, beneath them, a large, grey mass of playoff contenders has gathered, an octet of teams with a record of around 500 points that had playoff hopes but were in no danger of upsetting the hierarchy.
Well, things have changed in the last month.
The Braves are now out of a playoff position and are fourth in the wild-card standings as of Friday. The Dodgers are safer, but their lead in the division has shrunk to 2 ½ games. And if the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks pass them, LA would suddenly be at the mercy of the field – and there’s a risk that one or two teams will heat up and knock them out.
How did it come to this? Let’s take a look at the champions and disruptive upstarts at risk:
Braves: Everyone suffers
In reality, the Braves haven’t played well since late April, when they went from an 18-6 start to a 42-54 loss. The club immediately lost its star player, Spencer Strider, suffered from performance deficiencies and was then hit by a series of key injuries.
Ronald Acuña Jr. suffered another torn ACL. Ozzie Albies broke his wrist and All-Star pitchers Max Fried and Reynaldo Lopez had forearm problems. The outfield was also affected by Michael Harris II’s hamstring injury.
Faced with a bleak transfer market (thanks to the large pool of playoff contenders), GM Alex Anthopoulos was unable to replicate his 2021 deadline magic that earned him a World Series title. Instead, an inconsistent club will begin a 10-game road trip riding a five-game losing streak, the most recent of which was a 16-7 loss to Milwaukee on Thursday.
While Lopez and Harris could be back soon, Fried did not make it past the fourth inning in his first start off the IL. Charlie Morton, the reliable 40-year-old, allowed eight runs on Thursday.
And an offense that has ranked either first, second or third in runs and OPS over the past two years is ill-equipped to save them. Acuña is out for this year. All-Star cornermen Matt Olson (163 adjusted OPS in 2023) and Austin Riley (129) have seen those numbers drop to 99 and 119, respectively.
Never underestimate a champion, and so on. But right now the Braves are just a 60-54 team and out of the playoffs thanks to the Phillies and Padres and Diamondbacks and, of all things, the New York Mets.
Those initial funds are gone, as is the notion that the Braves could flip a switch. Now they’re just a flawed team trying to survive in a shark tank full of mistakes.
Dodgers: A dwindling advantage
It certainly looked like the Dodgers had assembled a strong enough and largely dominant pitching staff to pair with their biggest prize of the offseason, Ohtani. Now it looks like it was a bit too much wishful thinking.
That Tyler Glasnow would surpass his career high in innings and maintain his dominance (he definitely has). That Clayton Kershaw could recover with major shoulder surgery. That Walker Buehler’s extra-long recovery from Tommy John surgery would produce better results. And that Yoshinobu Yamamoto would justify the $325 million investment and transition seamlessly to the major leagues.
Most of that has gone wrong to some degree. After three starts, Kershaw is trying to get by on opponents with a 90 mph fastball and a .309 batting average. Buehler, on the IL with a hip injury, has made eight starts with a 5.84 ERA. And while Yamamoto has shined with a 2.92 ERA in 14 starts, he is just recovering from a triceps injury and hopes to return in September.
While River Ryans and Landon Knacks have helped out admirably at times, the pressure on the bullpen has been obvious. The signing of Jack Flaherty will help with that. Mookie Betts will soon return from a broken hand. Ohtani has played like an MVP.
And the world hopes that Freddie Freeman’s return will be permanent.
Still, the Dodgers are just 14-16 since July 1, their lead having shrunk from 8 ½ games to 2 ½ games. Yes, they should play better, and the returning stars will help them do that. But right now they are only a half-game ahead of the Brewers in second place in the division, making the humiliation of a wild-card series a real possibility.
And what’s more, they suddenly become vulnerable if one or two teams get going and stay that way.
Does this description apply to anyone?
Padres, D-backs: Finding their groove
LA almost got away with an 11th West title in 12 years with little opposition. But then the Padres had to trade Dylan Cease, pair him with Michael King, add Luis Arráez and became a problem.
The trade deadline brought another horror show for the rivals, with relievers Tanner Scott and Jason Adam giving San Diego a real power quartet at the end of games. Arráez leads a lineup that consists of six players, flanked by Jackson Merrill, who could knock off Paul Skenes for NL Rookie of the Year.
The result: A 14-3 winning streak since the All-Star break, including a sweep of wild-card rival Pittsburgh, and a 64-52 record that secures them the first wild-card spot through Thursday.
But just as San Diego residents chafe at the thought of “Zonies” invading their beaches every summer, the Padres also receive unwelcome visitors from the desert.
The Diamondbacks have overcome a relatively mild post-World Series hangover that threatened but did not destroy their hopes of defending their NL pennant. Most notably, Corbin Carroll has overcome his apparent sophomore slump that buried him with a .199 batting average and .582 OPS in his first 63 games.
In the 48 games since then, he has an OPS of .816 and 22 extra-base hits. And the D-backs have won 24 of 33 games, increasing their record to 63-52.
Their biggest deficit, a bullpen without a closer, was offset by the deadline signings of AJ Puk and Dylan Floro. And yes, there was one injury-related addition that was “almost as good as a trade”: Eduardo Rodriguez won his debut on Wednesday after being out for over four months with a shoulder injury. Merrill Kelly (shoulder) is not far behind.
And as if the Braves didn’t have enough reasons to stay up late watching West Coast games or the Dodgers to watch the scoreboard, the San Francisco Giants are above their record for the first time since May 29 and, with the health of Blake Snell and Robbie Ray, boast an impressive rotation that is deeper than most of their rivals.
They are now eight games behind the Dodgers and just three games away from a wild card spot.
They can significantly improve their chances on Monday when they host Atlanta for a four-game series. As if the Braves and Dodgers needed anything else to worry about.
