As we rank all 30 MLB teams in this final Stock Watch of the 2024 regular season, we can start to pen a few epilogues on a campaign that is nearly completed yet has so much left to tell us.
Like last year, we’re using the September edition to identify the biggest successes and failures for each team this season.
There is no set criteria for identifying these developments. They can be a team trait or statistical category, something revolving around a single player or a position group or even something off the field. They can be an expression of resounding success or thudding failure, or they can merely be a result of bucking expectation.
Biggest success: It’s obvious and undeniable: Shohei Ohtani was everything the Dodgers hoped for and more. Already baseball’s first 50/50 player, Ohtani has become a Dodgers icon in his first season at Chavez Ravine. And this is even before we start pondering him assuming the closer mantle at some point during a deep L.A. playoff run.
Biggest failure: Something has to change with how the Dodgers manage their starting pitchers. Maybe it’s increasing their emphasis on durability in how they choose pitchers. Maybe it’s figuring out whether the processes that help push pitchers to perform at higher tiers also push them to the IL. Whatever it is, the Dodgers simply have had too many good pitchers get hurt too often, and it’s not the first season in which this has happened.
Biggest success: Cristopher Sanchez’s rise has been a huge boost to this rotation. At 27, Sanchez has qualified for the ERA title for the first time in his career and done so with a 3.24 ERA/2.86 FIP that makes him a fine third option behind Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola. This has been especially important given the second-half struggles of Ranger Suarez, who looked like a Cy Young candidate during the first half. If Suarez rediscovers his footing by October, the Phillies’ playoff rotation, thanks to Sanchez, will be as good as anyone’s in the bracket.
Biggest failure: Dave Dombrowski’s focus is always on the 26-man big league roster. This season that has been shown in the form of lack of rookie production and a trade deadline that, despite the pickup of reliever Carlos Estevez, might have been better if the Phils had a deeper pool of prospects. If not for exceptional injury luck at the top of the roster, the lack of depth could have kneecapped the season. But, as often happens with Dombrowski teams, it did not.
