MLB Power Rankings: 12 teams with the most to panic about
By Tim Boyle
8) MLB Power Rankings: Los Angeles Dodgers
This might be one of the weaker Los Angeles Dodgers teams in recent years. It’s something that hasn’t caught too many people off guard. They had a low-key offseason where they settled on veterans like David Peralta, Jason Heyward, and Noah Syndergaard. The belief that this can help them nab Shohei Ohtani in the future does little to help the panic meter right now.
The Dodgers are still in the upper echelon of the National League. We can thank Clayton Kershaw and his continued dominance on the mound for this even when he probably should be slowing down. The Dodgers are a good club but not a guaranteed playoff team this season. Much like some of the other teams in this week’s MLB Power Rankings, they need to realize there are new competitors.
The division hasn’t been lost and the Dodgers have a talented enough roster to make up ground at any point. Something about them, though, feels incomplete. After getting bounced by the San Diego Padres quite easily in last year’s postseason, expectations for this weaker team in 2023 are definitely lower.
7) MLB Power Rankings: Kansas City Royals
What do the Kansas City Royals have to panic about? It’s a little different than some of the other ball clubs on this list.
The Royals aren’t a very good ball club and that’s an evergreen statement for many seasons throughout the last 30+ years. The panic for this team is how long the ongoing rebuild will take. They have a lot of young players. None are giving fans all that much confidence that they’re on their way to building anything special.
Not so much panic-inducing but more frustrating is how Jordan Lyles and Zack Greinke have combined to go 0-9 with almost identical ERAs of 6.11 and 6.10. At this point, the Royals should just hand those innings over to younger players in or even outside of the division. Take a flier on a guy and see if he can turn into something special. Stop wasting time.