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Texas Rangers: Their Offense Went the Same Way as Atlanta’s
Granted, the offense the Rangers had in 2023 wasn’t quite as good as Atlanta’s. But it was still scary, going off for 233 home runs even before they used the dinger to cut a path through October to World Series glory.
The Rangers are nonetheless the AL’s answer to Atlanta’s offensive decline. And nobody has fallen off more than Adolis GarcÃa, who’s gone from an .836 OPS and 39 homers to a .678 OPS and 24 homers.
Toronto Blue Jays: A Totally Lost Year for Bo Bichette
The Blue Jays were only ever going to contend in 2024 if everything went right, up to and including Bichette recovering from an injury-marred second half in 2023.
The opposite happened, of course. The two-time All-Star shortstop is going to end up playing only half a season because of injuries, and he’s otherwise one of the five biggest offensive decliners from 2023 to 2024.
Washington Nationals: The Year They Won the Juan Soto Trade
It’s never fun to trade a franchise player, and doing so carries the risk of the move aging poorly. Just ask the Red Sox, who reaped next to nothing from their trade of Mookie Betts.
Mercifully, the 2022 trade of Soto has gone the other way for the Nationals. Of the many pieces in that deal, this year saw CJ Abrams become an All-Star, James Wood enjoy a rookie breakout and lefty MacKenzie Gore strike out 172 batters in 160.1 innings.