We finally know the four teams that will occupy each of our league championship series. We have the Phillies, a loud, brash and joyful team with a home crowd that matches their unique charisma and noise. We have the D-Backs, the most unlikely team to have done it yet and one that, it has to be said, has yet to lose this postseason. We have the Rangers, a team who are also yet to taste defeat this October and who have some of their key players returning from injury just when they need it most. And we have the Astros, the defending champions, trying to do something that hasn’t been done this century: win two World Series in a row.
Each of these teams has their own dramas, storylines, and narratives, but they’re most fascinating when you put these teams together in theoretical World Series matchups. As the ALCS prepares to kick off on Sunday night (and the NLCS on Monday), here’s a look at the main theme of each of the four possible World Series matchups. One of these will actually happen. Here’s what we’ll talk about if that’s the case.
Phillies-Rangers: Free agency is working! series
Every Hot Stove season you hear it from the efficiency experts: signing players to mega-contracts is a risky strategy! These are players entering the decline phase with contracts that are destined to end badly! Well, the Phillies and the Rangers would be two extremely prominent refutations of that notion.
In many ways, these teams were built with free agency. The Phillies spent a lot of money to bring in all of their stars: Bryce Harper, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos, Zack Wheeler and even Craig Kimbrel. And the Rangers relied even more on free agents. That franchise announced its insistence on breaking out of the AL West cellar by paying big money to Corey Seager and Marcus Semien (as well as Jon Gray) before 2022, and then followed it up a year later with Jacob deGrom (who, of course, won’t be here) and Nathan Eovaldi. The next time a team manager tries to argue that they shouldn’t spend money in the offseason, in this case you just have to point to the World Series. They got here through spending.
D-backs-Rangers: The Quick Rebuild Series
We’ve already found out how the Rangers turned themselves around – expenses! – but we didn’t really look closely at how quickly they did it. The Rangers lost 102 games just two seasons ago with a team that regularly provided offense to players like David Dahl, Eli White, DJ Peters and Brock Holt. (This team had Mike Foltynewicz’s 24 starts!) It’s not like last year was much better: They lost 94 starts in 2022.
But that’s still a better overall record than the D-backs have had in the last two seasons. They lost an impressive 110 games in 2021, a year in which Zac Gallen went 4-10. (It’s hard to imagine Zac Gallen going 4-10.) They weren’t quite as bad last year, losing 88 games, but this certainly wasn’t a team that was going to give anyone a ticket to the World Series any time soon. But Corbin Carroll – the front-runner for NL Rookie of the Year – gave the team a real superstar. Ketel Marte got healthy and played like an All-Star. Christian Walker continued to show that he is one of the better late bloomers in recent history. Oh, and Gallen was a Cy Young contender. Voila, you have a contender.
If your team is struggling, even if it has been struggling for a while, these two teams are proof that a turnaround is imminent for you.
Astros-D-Backs: The David vs. Goliath Series
In a league with only 30 teams and in a sport where the last-place teams consistently win series over the first-place teams, it’s difficult to find a truly big underdog. But this one is as close as you can get, right? The Astros just reached their seventh straight ALCS and are trying to reach the World Series for the fifth time in seven years. They are also trying to become the first team to win two straight World Series since the Yankees in 1998-2000. That was a long time ago. It’s been so long since the D-Backs – in their last World Series appearance – were the team to end that streak. The D-Backs won only 84 games in the regular season and were considered by some to be the worst team that postseason. And they would be standing in front of the juggernaut, the team that wants to make history. It would be difficult to find a bigger underdog. And everyone loves an underdog.
Phillies-Astros: The Rematch Series
You’d think World Series rematches would happen a lot more often than they do. The Braves and Yankees basically dominated the ’90s, but they never met two seasons in a row (and only twice overall, in 1996 and 1999); The same goes for the Astros and Dodgers over the last decade, and they only met once (2017) in the Fall Classic. But if the Phillies and Astros can win their LCS, it will be the first World Series rematch since…1978.
That was the Reggie Jackson and Billy Martin Yankees, who defeated the Dodgers in six games in back-to-back World Series. Before that we hadn’t had one since 1958. (You can see the full history of the World Series rematches here.) Last year’s World Series was fun, but with franchises like the Astros and Phillies, there’s a lot more drama here to me. If these two teams meet again, there’s every reason to believe this one will be even better.