AL West: Grading each team's 2022 season

Here is a synopsis and grade for every AL West team:

Houston Astros: (1st | 106-56) Grade: A+

The Astros not only won a league-high 106 games, but they finished second in the AL in home runs (214), third in RBI (715), and first in ERA (2.90).

Led by 2B Jose Altuve (28 HR, .300 BA) and OF/DH Yordan Alvarez (37 HR, .306 BA) on offense and a lethal staff of LHP Framber Valdez (2.82 ERA, 194 SO), RHP Cristian Javier (2.54 ERA, 194 SO) and RHP Justin Verlander (1.75 ERA, 185 SO), the Astros seemed a lock all along to win it all.

MORE: AL: East | West | Central | NL: East | West | Central

Seattle Mariners: (2nd | 90-72) Grade: A

One of the bigger feel-good stories of the year, the Mariners snapped a 21-season postseason drought, sneaking into the wild-card round and advancing to the ALDS. The club was then swept out of contention by the Astros.

There's a lot to be excited about. OF Julio Rodríguez (28 HR, .284 BA), infielder Ty France (20 HR, .274 BA), and 3B Eugenio Suarez (31 HR, .236 BA) will return to the heart of the lineup along with an impressive pitching staff (3.59 ERA, eighth in MLB).

Los Angeles Angels: (3rd | 73-89) Grade: C-

It's difficult to hand a team that has OF Mike Trout (40 HR, .283 BA) and DH/SP Shohei Ohtani (34 HR, .273 BA, 15-9, 2.33 ERA) a C-minus, but the Angels are seemingly stuck in mediocre mode. 

Outside of Trout and Ohtani, the Angels have virtually nothing to be excited about. OF Taylor Ward (23 HR, .281 BA) came out of the gate with the hottest bat in the league, but he came back to Earth.

The Angels finished 11th in the majors in home runs (190), which is not horrible, but they scored only 623 runs, 12th of 15 teams in the American League.

Texas Rangers: (4th | 68-94) Grade: D-

From a managerial firing to a below-average offense and pitching staff, the Rangers had a disappointing season.

Texas will always hit home runs. The club finished fourth in the AL in the category (198) but didn't hit for average (.239) and struck out too much (1,446), finishing behind only the Angels in the AL. The pitching staff had a 4.22 ERA and the second-most walks allowed (581) in the AL, behind only the Royals.

Oakland Athletics: (5th | 60-102) Grade: F

The A's entered the season with low expectations and another fire sale was always on the table. When the firesale came, RHPs Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino were shipped out of town for a package of prospects who did not contribute at any level.

The A's had an MLB-worst .216 batting average and the fewest hits (1,147) in the big leagues. Oakland finished second to last in the majors in runs (568), ahead of only the Tigers.

The pitching staff (4.52 ERA) ranked ahead of only the Red Sox and Royals in team ERA in the AL. In ERA+, a stat used to measure pitching stats based off of league average while taking home ballparks into account, the A's managed an 83, the lowest figure in the league.