The 2023 season will be remembered for the Colorado Rockies’ 119‑loss campaign, while the Chicago White Sox endured a 121‑game skid in 2024, marking some of the most dismal performances in modern baseball history.
Yet the narrative is shifting in 2026. The Rockies, along with the Los Angeles Angels, the Oakland Athletics and the Kansas City Royals, are all on pace to finish above the dreaded 100‑loss threshold, a feat that seemed almost inevitable just a few years ago.
A Rebuild Revisited
The Houston Astros’ recent dominance, built on an aggressive rebuild that yielded World Series titles in 2017 and 2022, has become an outlier. Their ability to bounce back after three consecutive 100‑loss seasons set a benchmark that few teams now dare to emulate.
The Baltimore Orioles illustrate both the promise and perils of a rebuild. After leveraging high draft picks from 2018 to 2021, the club traded its former No. 1 overall pick Adley Rutschman to the Boston Red Sox at the 2026 trade deadline, underscoring a strategy still in flux. Former manager Earl Weaver, known for his fiery temperament, was ejected twice in a 1975 doubleheader for arguing with umpires—a rare episode that still surfaces in team lore.
MVP Race Heats Up
Amid these roster moves, the National League MVP race has narrowed to a compelling duel between Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Pete Crow‑Armstrong of the Chicago Cubs. Crow‑Armstrong currently holds a slight edge, posting a .286/.388/.544 line with 26 homers, 71 RBIs and 30 stolen bases, translating to a 7.4 WAR this season.
Ohtani, meanwhile, continues to excel both at the plate and on the mound, batting .292/.395/.542 while posting an 8‑2 record and a 1.79 ERA despite lingering left‑knee soreness. His anticipated return to pitching in September could swing the MVP conversation, as his dual‑role brilliance remains a decisive factor.
The emerging trend suggests that even the league’s historically weakest clubs are finding ways to compete, driven by smarter player development and a willingness to embrace analytics. Whether this signals a permanent shift or a temporary blip will become clearer as the season unfolds.