Houston Astros

Off-season Overview:

It only makes sense that the first team we start with is the reigning World Series Champion. They did not need to do much this off-season, but still did enough to remain a favorite heading into the 2023 MLB season. Houston had a couple notable losses in Justin Verlander, Trey Mancini, Christian Vazquez, Yuli Gurriel, and Will Smith. However, they could afford all of those losses. Verlander is, of course, the biggest piece that left. Even without him, Houston has one of the best starting five rotations in baseball with Frambar Valdez, Lance Mccullers, Christian Javier, Luis Garcia, and Jose Urquidy. They also have a young promising pitcher in Hunter Brown who will likely start in the bullpen until, inevitably, he moves into the rotation via injury or to give the staff a rest. Offensively, they got even better by losing Gurriel, who had a down year, and upgrading to Jose Abreu. Oh, and did I mention they also re-signed Michael Brantley who only played 64 games last season? Yes, I know he's getting up there in age, but I'd still bet on him hitting .280, being a reliable defensive asset, and contributing a lot to this already outstanding offense.

Ceiling:

Houston wins back to back World Series Championships. There are only eight or so teams that have a realistic chance of winning and, of course, the Astros are a favorite. They just won it last year and absolutely have the team to run it back!

Floor:

An exit in the Wild Card game. I don't see a possibility where the Astros don't make the playoffs because they are simply too good and too experienced. So the worst case is that an improved AL West division has a new division champ putting the Astros in the WC game and they get eliminated in a short series without a guy like Verlander to shut it down. The pitching staff is still too good to make this a realistic possibility.

My Prediction:

The Astros lose in the ALCS. They are an absolutely insane team. Winning back-to-back championships in any sport is incredibly difficult, however. Only the Tampa Bay Lightning (2020-2021), Golden State Warriors (2017-2018), Pittsburg Penguins (2016-2017) and the New England Patriots (2003-2004) have been able to do it in the last 20 years.

-- Cyrus Beermann