More than any other team sport, the baseball season is a marathon. The dynamics of each major league roster are in constant flux as organizations deal with surges, slumps, injuries and disappointments throughout the 162-game campaign. When the dust settles, the front office in each city begins the process of analyzing successes and failures and building plans to get things right in the future. After all, every year, 29 of 30 teams fall short of reaching the ultimate goal.
As the 2024 MLB season begins to wind down, we will dive deep on each organization as they are eliminated from postseason contention or lose a postseason series, with an examination of what happened in the concluding campaign and a forecast of what’s ahead in the offseason. At the end of it all, we will conclude this series with an article reflecting on the season that was for the 2024 World Series champions.
Let’s dig in.
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Even the most optimistic fans would have trouble finding things that went right for a team that might finish with the worst winning percentage in the past century. But amid the rubble, Garrett Crochet stood out as a bright spot. The lanky lefty was terrific on Opening Day and arrived at the All-Star Game as the MLB leader in strikeouts. Unfortunately, an innings-management strategy made the 25-year-old much more mortal in the second half, as was evidenced by the 6.75 ERA he logged in his six post-break starts.
The Rockies don’t have much pitching talent, but they have four innings-eaters under contract for 2025 in Cal Quantrill, Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner. Still, pitching remains the team’s biggest need by a wide margin, in both the rotation and the bullpen. Convincing high-end free agents to make half their appearances at Coors Field is always a challenge, which means Rockies management might have to settle for lesser names on the open market or explore trade options.
A starting rotation that was supposed to be the team’s strength was ravaged by injuries. The downfall started when Eury Pérez was sidelined during spring training and wound up requiring Tommy John surgery. By the end of June, joining Pérez on the IL were Braxton Garrett, Jesús Luzardo and Ryan Weathers, who were all ticketed for major roles but will finish the season with fewer than 100 innings. Add 2022 Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, who is recovering from 2023 Tommy John surgery, and the Marlins have a full rotation of talented starters on the injured list.
As has been the case in many recent seasons, the list of things that went wrong starts with the health of Mike Trout. The 33-year-old opened the season with 10 homers in 29 games before requiring surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee. He appeared in just one rehab game in July before he was shut down again and sent for a second surgery. The 29 contests logged by Trout marked a career low, and he’ll finish 2024 having played in just 41% of Angels games across the past four seasons.
