We start with the wild-card round, where the Cincinnati Reds became the first team eliminated from postseason contention -- on the very first day of October, no less -- with a two-game series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. The next day, the Cleveland Guardians lost their series to the Detroit Tigers, the San Diego Padres fell to the Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox were knocked out by the New York Yankees in a trio of Game 3s.
The Red Sox ranked seventh in the majors this season in runs scored. But even with that encouraging ranking, it was evident that Boston's offense approach had some severe shortcomings - plenty of which reared their collective head in October. The return of Roman Anthony at the top of the lineup next spring will undoubtedly help a batting order that hit just .198 with six runs scored and a whopping 30 strikeouts over their three-game series against New York.
The Braves didn't make any rotation moves of note last winter. Atlanta's only significant offseason expenditure was the three-year Jurickson Profar signing. Anthopoulos pointed out that Grant Holmes pitched well before suffering a season-ending elbow injury. Atlanta entered the season with a strong top four of , Spencer Strider (once he completed his rehab from last year's elbow surgery), Spencer Schwellenbach and AJ Smith-Shawver. That would be a good group if everyone had stayed healthy, but that's obviously not how things played out.