Call to the pen
Fansided

Six potential surprise MLB teams of 2023

By Bill Felber

Oct 18, 2022; Bronx, New York, USA; The New York Yankees celebrate after their win against the Cleveland Guardians in game five of the ALDS for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 18, 2022; Bronx, New York, USA; The New York Yankees celebrate after their win against the Cleveland Guardians in game five of the ALDS for the 2022 MLB Playoffs at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
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Adley Rutschman (left)  is a key to Baltimore’s contention hopes in 2023. Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports
Adley Rutschman (left)  is a key to Baltimore’s contention hopes in 2023. Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports /

AL East

If there’s to be a surprise team challenging the Yankees, Rays, and Blue Jays in the AL East, it almost has to be the Baltimore Orioles. Fortunately, a good case can be made.

Begin with the fact that this is a young team on the rise. Almost all of the Orioles’ core talent will be between age 25 and 29 entering 2023, meaning this is a team in its physical prime.

Adley Rutschman is 25 and a rising All Star. Ryan Mountcastle and Kyle Bradish will be 26, Dean Kremer and Austin Hays 27, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander 28, and Jorge Mateo and Ramon Urias 29.

Gunnar Henderson, a 2019 draftee projected to take over at third base, is rated as MLB’s No. 2 prospect entering the season. He’ll be just 21 when he takes the diamond this year.

What do the Orioles need? Continued growth, obviously.

It’s asking too much of them to match the 2022 improvement, which amounted to 31 games. The Orioles were 83-79 in 2022, the franchise’s first winning season since 2016.

But even a four or five-game improvement would project Baltimore as a postseason contender in the AL East, which sent three teams into the playoffs last year. The Orioles had a legit chance, missing out by just three games to Tampa Bay.

Normal growth from such players as Rutschman, Mountcastle, Mullins, and Kremer could account for those needed three games, and probably more.

Have they improved enough to overtake the Yankees, who won 99 games in 2022? That’s a big ask. But if some of the Yanks’ core pieces – Anthony Rizzo, D J LeMahieu – begin to show their age, and if injuries become a factor, anything is possible.

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