Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers both defy history
Only once has a World Series featured two teams who made larger two-season improvements to get there.
By Bill Felber
A 2023 World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks? You couldn’t have seen that coming two years ago.
As recently as 2021, the current AL and NL champions were both in last place in their divisions and were both 100-loss teams. The concurrent turnarounds challenge baseball historians to find a precedent.
In fact, if measured by the combined 62-game upgrade (Arizona has improved by 32 wins since 2021, Texas by 30), there is only one precedent in all of World Series history. And that precedent is more than a half century old.
Diamondbacks, Rangers channel New York Mets vibes for World Series
In 1969, the New York Mets — a 100-win team that had won just 61 games two seasons earlier — played the Baltimore Orioles, who with 109 victories were 33 games better than the 76 they won two seasons earlier.
That combined 72-game stepup is the only time that a World Series featured two teams who made a larger combined improvement than the Diamondbacks and Rangers in just two seasons.
Considered individually, both teams’ sudden turnarounds are almost as historically significant.
The Rangers’ rise from a 60-win team in 2021 to a 90-win team this season equals the fifth greatest two-season improvement by an American League World Series representative in history.
Here are the five largest two-season improvements on the AL side. Shown are the win totals from their championship season, from two seasons earlier, and thee difference.
- 1927 New York Yankees 110 69 +41
2. 2008 Tampa Bay Rays 97 61 +36
3. 1910 Philadelphia Athletics 102 68 +34
4. 1969 Baltimore Orioles 109 76 +33
5. 2023 Texas Rangers 90 60 +30
5. 1967 Boston Red Sox 92 62 +30
On the National League side, the Diamondbacks’ 32-game turnaround since 2021 also stands as the fifth-largest by a World Series representative in league history. Here are the five largest improvements by NL World Series teams.
1. 1914 Boston Braves 94 52 +42
2. 1939 Cincinnati Reds 97 56 +41
3. 1969 New York Mets 100 61 +39
4. 1992 Atlanta Braves 98 65 +33
5. 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks 84 52 +32
The fact that both World Series entrants have made such huge strides in such a short span also guarantees something of a storybook champion. Considering only World Series champions, here are the five largest two-season improvements in history.
1. 1914 Boston Braves 94 52 +42
2. 1927 New York Yankees 110 69 +41
3. 1969 New York Mets 100 61 +39
4. 1910 Philadelphia Athletics 102 68 +34
5. 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks or Texas Rangers
If the Diamondbacks win the Series, they will stand alone at No. 5 on this list. If the Rangers win, their 30-game improvement will tie the 1961 New York Yankees and 2016 Chicago Cubs, both of whom made 30-win improvements from two years previous to their championship seasons.
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