It feels as though the MLB season has still only just begun and in many ways, that’s the truth. Every team still has over 110 games left to play, enough time for a player who hasn’t appeared in a game yet to qualify for statistical leaderboards by the end of the season. But for some teams, enough is enough already.
Just a few games into the season, we called our shot and picked five teams that had no hope of making it to the postseason, purely based on poor performance and bad vibes. Seven weeks later, we find that four of those five teams have the four worst records in the league and the fifth was the Oakland Athletics, who have lost four straight and look to be headed back to the bottom of the scrap heap.Now, it’s time to run it back. Several MLB teams in the time since the opening games of the season have had plenty of chances to show the potential for a playoff run, and it’s clear that just isn’t happening. Regardless of how high their hopes may have been, we’ve got to call it like we see it, and these four teams simply have no prayer of reaching the playoffs in 2024.
Perhaps no team in MLB has had more of a mood change from the start of the season until now than the Cincinnati Reds. Billed as a team on the rise with young stars galore, the Reds have been plagued by injuries and those that have remained healthy have woefully underperformed. And after plummeting to a last-place tie in the NL Central, angry Reds fans have begun to call for manager David Bell’s job.
With Matt McLain’s injury potentially costing him the entire season, Will Benson and Christian Encarnacion-Strand struggling and Noelvi Marte being suspended, the Cincinnati’s core of young position player talent has essentially whittled down to De La Cruz and Spencer Steer. That’s left them 24th in MLB with a team OPS at .657, which won’t fly anywhere, but especially not in the most hitter-friendly in the league.
To compound all those offensive woes, the Reds have a brutal time trying to hold leads. Their 4.88 team ERA in the seventh inning or later is the third-worst in baseball and the 19 home runs they’ve allowed in those situations is second-worst. In addition to not having a dominant bullpen staff, it goes to show that no lead is ever safe at Great American Ball Park and the Reds’ offense has to do a much better job of putting games out of reach.
St. Louis Cardinals
In a lot of ways, this section could be exactly the same as the one we just finished. The Cardinals are a team with a lot of young position players that are struggling to hit right now, they’re also tied for dead last in the NL Central and they also have a manager under heavy fire from the fan base. Heck, they even wear the same color.
It isn’t just the young guns struggling, though. The two most decorated, respected veterans on the team in Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado are having the worst seasons of their respective careers. Jordan Walker struggled so mightily he got sent back to AAA. And the Cardinals as a team are hitting .191 with runners in scoring position, worst in the league and one of only two teams under .200
