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What lessons can MLB’s last four teams learn from how they got here?

What lessons can MLB’s last four teams learn from how they got here?

Back in March, before a new baseball season began, we conducted our preseason MLB Power Rankings. The Los Angeles Dodgers were second, behind the then-healthy Atlanta Braves, but you had to scroll for a while to find the three other teams still alive in the MLB playoffs: the New York Yankees (10th), New York Mets (17th) and Cleveland Guardians (tied for 20th).

There’s a lot we didn’t know six months ago, like the extent of Gerrit Cole’s elbow problems, the injuries the Dodgers are facing and the legend of Grimace.

Now, as the Yankees, Guardians, Dodgers and Mets compete in the ALCS and NLCS, let’s take a look at a lesson we can learn from how each team reached baseball’s Final Four in 2024.

Cleveland Guardians

The lesson: Maybe an elite bullpen Is enough

When it comes down to it, it wasn’t hard to sell the idea that the Guardians had the best bullpen in baseball. That season, they led all MLB bullpens in ERA (2.57), WHIP (1.05), holds (122) and opponent batting average (.203), all by a margin large enough to warrant a bullpen Car to drive through. Closer Emmanuel Clase built a Cy Young Award case around a 0.61 ERA, and his setup guys — Hunter Gaddis, Cade Smith and Tim Herrin — all had ERAs under 2.00.

Could a superpower really address the Guardians’ rotation concerns?

The answer is usually: yes. The Guardians’ relievers have thrown 63.4 percent of the team’s innings this postseason, the most of any team that reached the Division Series. As the Tigers learned in Game 5 of the ALDS — when the Guardians used eight pitchers and a powerful hit from Lane Thomas to take the series away from Tarik Skubal — sometimes They commit pitching chaosand sometimes there is pitching chaos.

To say that the Guardians’ helpers do the heavy lifting is an understatement. They almost do all the lifting. Alex Cobb recorded just eight outs in Game 1 of the ALCS, and Tanner Bibee was ejected after four outs in Game 2. Building an elite bullpen won’t prevent disaster if a starting pitcher collapses early. But in October, it’s difficult to have a bullpen capable of protecting the lead and keeping the score close enough for a comeback when down early.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The lesson: If you have an urgent need, address it forcefully

Still suffering from heartburn from the Dodgers’ bullpen game in Game 2 of the NLCS? Imagine how you would feel without Jack Flaherty!

There’s a world in which the Tigers held onto Flaherty at the trade deadline or traded him to the Baltimore Orioles, Milwaukee Brewers or (gasp) Guardians. But Andrew Friedman correctly assessed that the rotation was the limiting factor for the Dodgers, so he made a deal (at a good price) for Flaherty.

The Flaherty acquisition looks even smarter now than it did at the end of July. Flaherty has a 3.46 ERA in 12 starts since the trade and the Dodgers are 8-4 in those games. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto back to full health, Walker Buehler struggling, Landon Knack getting hit around Monday and seven other starters on the injured list, Flaherty taking the ball every fifth day is a big relief for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

So when you feel a need in July (and everyone knows that), skip the half-measures and go after it aggressively. The same goes if the Guardians trade Lane Thomas and the Yankees trade for Jazz Chisholm Jr. Take a big swing. You won’t regret it come October.

New York Mets

The lesson: In the playoffs, timeliness is more meaningful than reputation

I was completely wrong about the Mets pitching staff. When Chad Jennings and I evaluated each team’s postseason pitching core, we had the Yankees in sixth, the Dodgers in seventh, the Guardians in eighth and the Mets…in 13th. We felt like this squad, despite its winning streak, would falter once the postseason began and every matchup was best-on-best. It appeared that Kodai Senga would not pitch in the playoffs, and aside from Senga and Edwin Díaz, the Mets’ staff consisted of a group of pitchers that the baseball world had given up on as hitters.

The reputation is that Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana are good, but not great, lefties. Reputation said Luis Severino hasn’t been both healthy and effective since 2018. Reputation said Phil Maton, Reed Garrett and Ryne Stanek would be useful backups if you need someone to cover the sixth inning.

However, ranking by reputation rather than results – which means the Mets have had one of the best pitching staffs in the sport since June – makes you look silly when the bottom two teams, the Mets and Tigers, have had it for just as long or even last longer in October than the two best teams, the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres. Sure, the postseason is the best of the best. October brings a different atmosphere. But it’s not a different game. The Mets didn’t get by with smoke and mirrors this season. It wasn’t a trick that would stop working by the end of September.

New York Yankees

The lesson: Juan Soto is worth the purchase price

That’s that First Lesson anyway. After a few quiet offseasons, the Yankees made a splash in December by trimming their rotation depth — teaming up Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Jhony Brito and Drew Thorpe with catcher Kyle Higashioka — to get Soto and Trent Grisham. Soto seemed, on paper, to be the perfect hitter to slot in ahead of Aaron Judge in the Yankees’ lineup. In reality, that’s exactly what he was. Soto had an OBP of .419 in the regular season and an OPS of .989 while playing a Gold glove caliber (?!) right field.

But there’s another lesson here: don’t stop adding.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman only had a one-year guarantee on Soto and largely continued to mold the roster to make money this season. There were headline-grabbing moves like signing Marcus Stroman and moving to Chisholm and Alex Verdugo, and then there were many other (seemingly) smaller additions that made a big impact: Luke Weaver, Jake Cousins, Tim Hill. Once they put the pieces together, the Yankees put them together in a way that once would have looked strange – Weaver concludes? Chisholm at third base? Will Jon Berti start first in the postseason? – but it was a winning combination.

Ten of the players on the Yankees’ ALCS roster were not in the organization at this time last year. Soto was brilliant in the pinstripes, but the Yankees wouldn’t be here if other new guys didn’t play their roles.

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The athlete; Photos: Keith Birmingham / MediaNews Group / Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images; Patrick Smith, Nick Cammett, Alex Pantling; Getty Images)