Two Years Ago, The Diamondbacks And Rangers Combined For 212 Losses. Now They're In The World Series
Shortly after I got hired by Barstool, I went to a series at Comerica Park between the Tigers and the Rangers. The Tigers, a 77-win team in 2021, swept a god-awful Texas Rangers team. I didn’t come away from that series of World Series aspirations, but I do remember thinking, “Hey, we’re a heck of a lot closer to competing than the fucking Rangers are.“
Yeah, about that.
Two years later, the Texas Rangers find themselves in the World Series going up against The Arizona Diamondbacks, a team that broke a major league record two years ago with 23 consecutive losses on the road. Those are nothing but distant memories now as they go forward to face each other in the Fall Classic. 
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Is this a bizarre anomaly? Yes and no. The expanded postseason format helps. Division championships mean less than they ever have. You want to avoid that extra round, but it is only three games max. It didn't seem to bother either one of these teams. But to me, these two teams playing each other in the World Series say two things. Number one is you need to have a good front office. That kind of goes without saying, and yet I feel like many organizations become very complacent with their guys at the top. It took Arizona a minute, but they got this thing going. It started with that solid one-two punch in the rotation, and the front office has kind of been hitting home runs over the last year.
The Gabriel Moreno trade was a total fleece that changed the seasons for both the Diamondbacks and the Blue Jays. Secondly, don’t be afraid to spend fucking money. There’s a fine line between spending and spending wisely. The Rangers have spent wisely. Remember that the Jacob deGrom contract looks like a disaster right now, but they’re not even thinking about that. The signings of Corey Seager and Marcus Semien following the shortstop arms race of the 2021 offseason changed the organization's trajectory.
If there's any good that comes out of these two teams playing in the World Series, it's that I hope it forces mediocre teams to realize that they aren't that far away. With the right moves, you can build a competitive product fast. I know I've made my bones complaining about the Detroit Tigers, but my complaints are very legitimate. They'll have gone ten years by next year without making the playoffs. We have seen teams do a full tear down and rebuild multiple times over in the time in which it's taken the Tigers just to be mildly competitive. I hope that a team like the Diamondbacks and Rangers is a lesson for teams wallowing in mediocrity. It's possible to do it, and it's possible to do it fast.