Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2022 Astros land in this spot?
The Astros were an extraordinary story of … well, worst to first doesn’t begin to cover it, considering the depths of their struggles at the start of the decade. The reputation of that team was marred somewhat by the sign-stealing scandal that rocked MLB in 2020 — the Astros’ organization was punished, and multiple executives lost their jobs.
The 2022 season, then, was something of a redemption story for the club: some familiar faces from 2017 were still on the roster, yes, like Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Justin Verlander, but the core of the next Astros club was also in place, and the beloved Dusty Baker was now the manager. Yordan Alvarez, 25, led the team in wins above replacement, while Jeremy Pena, 24, ranked fourth among position players. Kyle Tucker, in his age-25 season, was second in homers with 30. Alvarez won a Silver Slugger, Tucker picked up a Gold Glove and some down-ballot MVP votes while, Pena finished fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year race and snagged a Gold Glove, too. No Carlos Correa, no George Springer, no Yuli Gurriel? No problem.
The rotation had depth, with Cristian Javier throwing 148.2 innings with a 2.54 ERA, Framber Valdez building on a very promising 2021 with an AL-leading 201.1 innings with a 2.82 ERA, and of course the ageless Verlander. The righty had one of the greatest seasons a 39-year-old starting pitcher has ever managed, but that context also does his 2022 a disservice: it was one of Verlander’s greatest seasons, too, one in which he led the majors in ERA (1.75), park- and league-adjusted ERA+ (218), led the AL in Wins (18) and winning percentage (.818) and won the AL Cy Young. He didn’t have the sheer innings volume of his younger days, but otherwise, this was as good as any season he ever had. Verlander is a future Hall of Famer — that’s quite the year. Combine that with closer Ryne Stanek’s 1.15 ERA, and it’s no wonder the Astros were a machine.
Houston won 106 games in the regular season, looking nigh unstoppable for lengthy stretches. They won 11 games in a row at one point, and at another late in the year had an 18-game lead, a season-high, over the second-place Mariners. Seattle would end up winning 90 games — they still finished 16 back of Houston. The Astros went 12-7 against the Mariners and Athletics, 13-6 against the Angels and 14-5 against the Rangers — taking care of business in their division is how they climbed as high as they did. They weren’t just at 106 wins because of that, however, as their AL opponents in the postseason learned when Houston swept both the Mariners and 99-win Yankees. The Phillies beat them twice in the Fall Classic, in two of the first three contests, but the Astros could not be stopped: they won Game 4, 5 and 6 by a combined score of 12-3.
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