25 things we learned from the 2023 MLB season

Regardless of whether he wins the NL MVP, Acuna had a historic 2023 season. Finally at full strength after suffering a torn ACL in 2021, Acuna flirted with the first-ever 40/70 season while leading the league in hits, runs scored and on-base percentage. His season at the plate was one for the ages.

Arraez was one of the best stories of 2023, as a throwback pure hitter adding offense to an anemic Marlins lineup. Acquired from Minnesota last offseason, Arraez is set to win his second consecutive Batting Title and flirted with hitting .400 until July. A second-half slump caused his batting average to plummet, but Arraez is the best pure hitter the game has to offer, with many hits ahead of him.

Baseball fans were spoiled by the great performance from Albert Pujols in his final season last year. This year's swan songs weren't quite as smooth, particularly from Miguel Cabrera and Adam Wainwright, with Joey Votto and Zack Greinke also potentially reaching the end.

Hired as the Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer in 2020, Chaim Bloom was given the impossible task of cutting costs at the MLB level, rebuilding the farm system and continuing to compete. He succeeded in two of those endeavors, but a failure to make the playoffs for the second consecutive year put Bloom on the chopping block. The Red Sox baseball ops head remains an attractive job, but perhaps one with unrealistic expectations.

Despite winning only one World Series in the 1990s, Atlanta's run is regarded as a dynasty with 14 division titles in 15 years. This current Braves squad could be on that same trajectory, with their sixth consecutive first-place finish and favored to win their second World Series in three seasons. The core of talent in Atlanta is as exciting as ever.

With the new rules in the 2023 season, several teams tried to improve team defense last offseason. Most of those teams were rewarded — including the Blue Jays, Cubs and Diamondbacks. Despite varying expectations, those squads were competitive well into September, with surprising performances from their pitching staffs.

Tampa Bay got off to a historic start to the 2023 season, going 20-3 to begin the year. The team looked like they would run away with the AL East, but multiple major injuries and Wander Franco's suspension set them back considerably. The tide turned in September as the young Orioles overtook Tampa Bay, showing that almost no division lead is insurmountable.

Over the last decade, elite championships have been crowned as a result of rebuilds from the Cubs, Astros, and Braves. The Orioles, Rays, Twins, Rangers, and Diamondbacks adopted similar models recently, flushing resources in drafting, international signings and player development. We saw the dividends this season from those teams, as multiple homegrown talents led to exciting and competitive seasons.

MLB expanded to a 12-team playoff last year. While several of the divisions were all but decided by the start of September, nearly two-thirds of the league still had a realistic shot of making the playoffs. Even going into the final week of the season, several divisions and Wild Card spots remained up for grabs, adding fuel to the fire for owners who advocated for the expanded playoff.

It seemed the Dodgers were headed for a rebuilding year in 2023, losing the likes of Trea Turner, Justin Turner, Cody Bellinger, Tyler Anderson, Andrew Heaney and Craig Kimbrel from the historic 2022 roster. The team had several major injuries and suspensions this season, but apparently didn't get the memo about a rebuilding year. L.A. easily claimed the NL West for the 10th time in 11 years, led by an elite offense with Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.

Braves fans still miss Freddie Freeman, but Olson has more than done his part since being acquired from Oakland last season. The All-Star first baseman led the NL in home runs, RBI, and slugging this season, tallying over 50 home runs for the first time in his career.

The new MLB rules adopted in 2023 were set to establish a more exciting game, and that was certainly the case with a nearly 50% increase in stolen bases compared to last season. The lack of the infield shift also put more stress on infield defense, and some of the teams that bought into those changes saw more success this season. In particular, teams like the Orioles, Blue Jays, Cubs and Diamondbacks took solid jumps after putting together more athletic rosters.

The infield shift was abolished by MLB in an attempt to raise batting averages. The jury is still out on the impact. The league batting average was .243 last year, and it increased only six points to .249 entering the final week of the 2023 regular season.

Mets owner Steve Cohen made headlines with an incredible offseason, signing Justin Verlander and re-signing Edwin Diaz and Brandon Nimmo, on top of his already huge investments in Francisco Lindor, Starling Marte and Max Scherzer. However, the most expensive team in the history of the league floundered and sold off Scherzer and Verlander at the trade deadline. Likewise, the Padres failed to make the playoffs after adding Xander Bogaerts to their expensive roster, while the Yankees regressed despite re-signing Aaron Judge and signing Carlos Rodon.

Even with the Rangers' late-season collapse, no team saw bigger improvement in 2023. The addition of future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy was a surprising move that drew headlines, but his impact was clear throughout the season.

To the chagrin of many baseball purists, it's now rare to see starting pitchers threw complete games or even make it into the seventh inning. Recent seasons have also brought trends like the opener, closer committees, and bulk relievers. The trend of lighter workloads continued in 2023, with teams leaning on analytics, and we're even starting to see staffs like the Giants lean more on bulk pitchers than traditional starters.

There was some fear the new pitch clock would lead to more pitcher injuries in 2023. It's unclear if the pitch clock is to blame, but we certainly saw our fair share of injuries this season. The trend of bigger, faster, stronger with higher velocities has also likely played a part, but regardless of the root cause, pitching depth is more important than ever.

Strider was a revelation for the Braves during his rookie season, posting a 2.67 ERA and an astronomical 13.8 K/9 over 131.2 innings last season. Some were skeptical he could keep up the dominance over a full season, but Strider proved up to the task with a similar strikeout rate over 30-plus starts. He might fall short of winning the NL Cy Young due to some bad luck with runners on base inflating his ERA, but there's no question Strider is the most dominant pitcher in the game.

The Reds saw a quick turnaround after losing 100 games last season, with great player development and trades paying off on the field. They seemed to promote one top prospect after another this year, with rookies like Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Will Benson, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Andrew Abbott and Brandon Williamson helping the team hover in playoff contention for the entire year. With one of the youngest rosters in the game, good things are ahead in Cincy.

The likely end to Ohtani's tenure with the Angels ended on a sad note, as he suffered an elbow injury that paused his season in September and will prevent him from pitching in 2024. Still, the pending free agent reestablished himself as the greatest player in the game, leading the AL in OPS while also pitching like a Cy Young candidate over 23 starts. We won't see the two-way Ohtani, but he should still be exciting next season as a hitter.

We saw encouraging improvement from several of last season's worst teams, but others weren't so fortunate. Oakland remained the worst team in the AL, while Washington, Kansas City, Boston and Colorado finished last place for at least the second consecutive season. The near future brings varying levels of optimism for that group of bottom feeders, but it was another discouraging showing this year.

The World Baseball Classic electrified the baseball world in March, all the way to the exciting final between Japan and the United States. However, we can't help but notice how poorly some of the participants started out of the gate during the MLB regular season, including Trea Turner, Juan Soto, Manny Machado, Lance Lynn, Adam Wainwright and Miles Mikolas. Whether it was the WBC or just a coincidence, the tournament could continue to have a tough time drawing some top players due to the perceived in-season impacts. 

Much of the blame for Chicago's underachievement over the last two seasons with placed on manager Tony La Russa. It's apparent that he wasn't the only issue, judging from a truly awful year on the South Side. The roster with high expectations approached 100 losses, with nearly the entire roster having down years. The White Sox fired front-office leaders Ken Williams and Rick Hahn as a result of their futility, but the effort to rebound could be painful with major changes clearly needed.

What a difference a year makes. New York was riding high with a 99-win season and sixth consecutive playoff berth last year. After spending big money to re-sign Aaron Judge and sign Carlos Rodon in the offseason, the team's fortunes took a big turn. New York was well out of the playoffs when the calendar rolled over to September, and their youth movement this season didn't pay off. The team enters the offseason with minimal salary relief in sight and big contracts for Rodon, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu looking like major hindrances.

Some MLB managers made headlines for the wrong reasons in 2023. Athletics owner John Fisher became public enemy number one in Oakland with his attempt to move the team, Orioles owner John Angelos drew wrath from fans for the suspension of announcer Kevin Brown, and owners from the likes of the Reds, Angels and White Sox also drew the ire of hometown fans.