No division winner in baseball finished with fewer wins than the 92 the Cleveland Guardians posted in 2022, and no second-place team finished with fewer wins than the 81 wins the Chicago White Sox managed. That’s the AL Central, folks. The good news for Cleveland is that no re-alignment happened over the winter and they still play in the AL Central. Even more good news: somehow, I think that division is actually worse heading into 2023 than it was last season, so the path is once again wide-open for Cleveland’s division title run.
The Guardians, and I will call them the Indians at some point today, even if just in my head, are always a team looking to exist, and sometimes excel, on the margins.