A look into the future: 2023 MLB playoff prediction Part 1 (American League)
It is finally May, which means that the Major League Baseball (MLB) season is one month in, and fans everywhere are making ridiculous claims about where their teams, and everyone else’s, will be come playoff time–despite there being 130 games left. We’re going to do the same, but without the bias, taking a look into what the MLB landscape will be like come Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023; the first day of this year’s playoffs.
Starting in the American League (A.L.), the East is the most competitive division in baseball, per usual, this year. The Rays are off to a torrent start and look far better than any other team in the A.L., but they’ll face some challenges come summer and will finish second in the division. The Blue Jays will continue the regular season successes they have had in the past few seasons, and will break away from the pack to take the division towards the end of Aug. With their starters coming back, the Yankees will turn around their disastrous start to the season to come away with a Wild Card spot and another chance to disappoint us all in the playoffs as the third playoff team out of the East.
In the Central division, there is not much to report. This selection of teams could quite possibly result in the worst combined record for a division in the history of baseball. The Twins, however, look like they will be the sole lucky team to come out of the Central division as they have a solid team all around. We expect them to hold the three-seed, as the worst of the division winners, in Oct.
It's sort of a unique time in the West division with the Astros uncharacteristically sitting in second place a few weeks into the campaign. That will change, though, as no one expects anyone else to claim the division’s title this year. The rest of the squads there, other than the abysmal Athletics, look like they have a real chance of making it out of the regular season, but it will only be two. This will be the year that center fielder Mike Trout, pitcher Shohei Ohtani, and the Los Angeles Angels finally make it back to the playoffs. So much has already been written about this, but to have arguably the two best players in the world on one team and not make the playoffs during their entire tenure together would be terrible for the game. Expect the Angels to become the five-seed while the Seattle Mariners make a late-season push to make the playoffs in back-to-back years in the A.L.’s final spot.
In a preview of the playoff results, the Yankees and Angels will face off in the Wild Card round. As much as fans of the game would enjoy seeing the Ohtani-Trout combination win a playoff series, the Yankees will come out on top to face Houston in the Divisional Round. New York will finally beat their rivals after years upon years of continued playoff failure to move onto the American League Championship Series.
Continuing down the bracket, the Rays and Mariners will fight in the other Wild Card matchup with Tampa Bay moving on to face the Blue Jays in a true divisional clash in the second round. The Rays won't have what it takes to take down this year’s Blue Jays squad, as Toronto will move on to face the Yankees in the final American League playoff series of the year.
In a hard-fought contest between rivals within the East, Toronto will finally overcome the hurdle and will make their way to the World Series after six games for the first time since 1993 when they defeated the Phillies. This Blue Jays core of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in the batter’s box and pitchers Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman on the mound will have a real shot of taking down the winner of the National League and bringing the World Series trophy north of the border for the first time in three decades.