Led by steady but unspectacular Kyle Gibson, and headlined by top prospect Grayson Rodriguez, the Orioles rotation has a collective 5.39 ERA this season, sixth-worst in the majors. The Orioles play a beautiful and chaotic brand of baseball, scurrying and stealing their way toward the top of this list and slightly obscuring an unfortunate truth: their rotation needs help. As for deGrom, we’re still in wait-and-see mode. The good news is this: Seager is set to begin a rehab assignment perhaps as soon as this week. To keep pace, the Rangers will need their stars on the lineup card. Texas is 20-13 but leads the next three teams in the division by three games or fewer. Their absence hasn’t slowed the Rangers all that much, but with elite talents like those, you’re going to notice the difference eventually. deGrom is out with a forearm injury, while Seager hasn’t played in nearly a month due to a hamstring strain. They are the team’s two priciest additions from the last two winters, and neither is on the field at the moment. Wish you were here: Jacob deGrom and Corey Seager 300 hitter? Of course, with their Dodgers devil magic, it hasn’t seemed to matter that much. Turner isn’t off to a roaring start either, but who would you bet on the rest of the way: the pair of Rojas and Taylor, or the career. Then Lux tore his ACL and was done for the season, putting Los Angeles in the position of leaning heavily on Chris Taylor and trade acquisition Miguel Rojas, both of whom have provided below-average offensive production. They had a plan to replace Turner, they said, although it sounded odd even then: play former top prospect Gavin Lux, a guy with a career OPS+ of 93, every day at short. as the Dodgers sat out the winter spending spree. Then the speedy star signed a monster deal with the Phillies in free agency - despite a willingness to return to L.A. Wish you were here: Trea Turner or Gavin Luxįor a season and a half, the Dodgers were spoiled with Turner at shortstop. He’s chasing less than ever and walking more, so if his power returns in the summer months at Wrigley, he could be on his way to an even better year than 2022. Meanwhile, Swanson has kept up the pace so far this season both offensively (.271/.382/.357 line with two homers and three steals) and defensively (93rd percentile Outs Above Average). Grissom was optioned to the minors Sunday, after struggling both at bat and in the field. Arcia is back from the injured list and still raking, but he’s historically been a glove-first guy. But Atlanta was stronger at shortstop when Swanson was there every day than they are now with a mix and match of Orlando Arcia, Vaughn Grissom, Ehire Adrianza and Braden Shewmake. Their record being what it is, the Braves are all right without Swanson, whom they let walk after a career year rather than compete with the Cubs’ seven-year, $177 million offer. The Rays currently have the starting depth to survive without Springs, even with former top prospect Shane Baz also out this offseason after Tommy John surgery, but they sure had something special brewing with him. And now he won’t pitch for the Rays until sometime next season. Springs, already cast off by the Rangers and Red Sox, emerged as a bona fide big-league starter and a Cy Young sleeper pick by putting up a 2.26 ERA in 151 innings from the start of the 2022 season through three superb starts in 2023. It’s been two weeks since Springs’ season ended and he underwent Tommy John surgery, but it’s not too late to lament the fact we should have, in very short order, seen a fully loaded Rays rotation that went Shane McClanahan, Tyler Glasnow, Springs, Drew Rasmussen and Zach Eflin, with Taj Bradley filling in any gaps. Pink Floyd made it work without Syd, but they were never the same… So here, in this week’s MLB Power Rankings, we present a “Wish You Were Here” edition to highlight somebody who is hurt or was traded away or signed elsewhere or something that is otherwise missing, some bit that each team could really use right now. It’s still early enough to hold out hope. And as we approach the quarter mark this season, we can see that teams have not yet learned to live without their missing links.
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