The 2023 season has almost two months left to go, which means it’s too early to talk with any confidence about the final standings. But it does appear that a few long-standing streaks could come to an end in the first week of October.
These are the teams involved:
The New York Yankees were 11 games above .500 as recently as June 4, but they’ve slipped since then. They have an outside possibility of finishing with more losses than wins for the first time since 1992. Their current 30-year streak of winning percentages of .500 or better is easily the longest for any franchise. The Yanks also are in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
The St. Louis Cardinals won the National League Central in 2022, and many pundits chose them to repeat in ’23. That now appears to be an absurd fantasy. The Cards last were as high as break-even on April 1, when their record was 1-1. Their 15-year streak on the sunny side of .500 is the second-longest in the majors — trailing only the Yankees — though it faces a serious likelihood of termination. The same goes for St. Louis’s four-year playoff run.
The news is happier for the Texas Rangers, who fell below .500 every season from 2017 through 2022. That six-year stretch of losing baseball — surpassed only by the Los Angeles Angels — will almost certainly end this season, with the resurgent Rangers seemingly ticketed for the playoffs.
The Baltimore Orioles were excluded from the postseason the past six years, three times losing at least 108 games during that hopeless stretch. But a happier era has dawned in Maryland, and the O’s have a real shot at ending one of the five longest playoff droughts in the majors today.
The Los Angeles Angels, on the other hand, remain a conundrum. They appear — on paper, at least — to be one of the most talented clubs in the big leagues. Yet they have been unable to convert promise into reality.
The Angels spent the past seven years below .500, the worst streak of consecutive losing records for any major-league club. And they missed the playoffs in each of the past eight seasons, tying the Detroit Tigers for the worst postseason dry spell. Can they reverse both of these unhappy trends in 2023? We await the answer.
Look below to see Major League Baseball’s longest current streaks in four categories. Every club with at least two consecutive seasons is included on the appropriate list.
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Consecutive seasons at or above .500
1. Yankees (1993-2022), 30
2. Cardinals (2008-2022), 15
3. Dodgers (2011-2022), 12
4. Braves (2018-2022), 5
4. Rays (2018-2022), 5
6. Blue Jays (2020-2022), 3
6. White Sox (2020-2022), 3
8. Astros (2021-2022), 2
8. Brewers (2021-2022), 2
8. Giants (2021-2022), 2
8. Mariners (2021-2022), 2
8. Phillies (2021-2022), 2
Consecutive seasons below .500
1. Angels (2016-2022), 7
2. Rangers (2017-2022), 6
2. Royals (2017-2022), 6
2. Tigers (2017-2022), 6
5. Pirates (2019-2022), 4
5. Rockies (2019-2022), 4
7. Diamondbacks (2020-2022), 3
7. Nationals (2020-2022), 3
9. Cubs (2021-2022), 2
9. Marlins (2021-2022), 2
9. Twins (2021-2022), 2
Consecutive seasons in playoffs
1. Dodgers (2013-2022), 10
2. Astros (2017-2022), 6
2. Yankees (2017-2022), 6
4. Braves (2018-2022), 5
5. Cardinals (2019-2022), 4
5. Rays (2019-2022), 4
Consecutive seasons out of playoffs
1. Angels (2015-2022), 8
1. Tigers (2015-2022), 8
3. Pirates (2016-2022), 7
3. Royals (2016-2022), 7
5. Orioles (2017-2022), 6
5. Rangers (2017-2022), 6
7. Diamondbacks (2018-2022), 5
8. Rockies (2019-2022), 4
9. Nationals (2020-2022), 3
10. Athletics (2021-2022), 2
10. Cubs (2021-2022), 2
10. Marlins (2021-2022), 2
10. Reds (2021-2022), 2
10. Twins (2021-2022), 2