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MLB Off-Season: Early 2023 AL West Power Rankings

In the first edition of our 2023 Major League Baseball power rankings, we tackle the American League West. How do the Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Angels and Texas Rangers stack up on paper?

The MLB hot stove is beginning to cool off as teams configure their rosters for 2023. A new year calls for new power rankings.

I plan to provide power rankings on Fastball throughout the 2023 Major League Baseball season. Today, we will get started with new power rankings. As I unveil my power rankings for 2023, we will go one division at a time, and I will rank the teams in each division.

Keep in mind that these power rankings are not predictions. I am not projecting where teams will finish the season or how teams will perform, but rather ranking teams based on how strong they look on paper, following their moves from the off-season.

These are just the first edition of my power rankings, so expect more to come soon, before the start of the season.

Today, we begin with the American League West. First, let's take a look at how the division's teams finished last season:

1) Houston Astros 106-56

2) Seattle Mariners 90-72

3) Los Angeles Angels (73-94)

4) Texas Rangers (68-94)

5) Oakland Athletics (60-102)

Now, to the power rankings. We will go in reverse order.

5) Oakland Athletics — The A's had the second-lowest payroll in Major League Baseball a season ago at $48,443,900. They're currently projected to have the lowest payroll in baseball in 2023 at $25,500,00. They've done little to improve their roster, and longtime executive Billy Beane stepped away from his role as president of baseball operations. Oh, and they traded their best player to the Atlanta Braves.

4) Los Angeles Angels — On paper, the top four teams in this division all look really good. The Angels added Tyler Anderson, Brandon Drury, Hunter Renfroe and Gio Urshela, but I give the Texas Rangers a slight edge over the Angels, due to the improvements Texas made to its pitching staff.

3) Texas Rangers — The Rangers aren't messing around. After shelling out a combined $500 million to free agents Corey Seager and Marcus Semien a year ago, the Rangers entirely remade their pitching rotation, adding Jacob deGrom, Andrew Heaney and Nathan Eovaldi to join Martin Perez and Jon Gray. The Eovaldi signing may have been the best move any team made this off-season. The Rangers now have a legit pitching rotation, on paper, at least.

2) Seattle Mariners — The Mariners are closing the gap on the Astros. It's getting closer. Last fall, the Mariners presented the greatest challenge to Houston in the postseason, in the American League Division Series. The Mariners led in Game 1 and Game 2, and Game 3 went to 18 innings. With a young roster, the Mariners hope to be even better with another year of experience under their belts. Jerry Dipoto acquired Teoscar Hernandez and Kolten Wong, essentially replacing Jesse Winker and Adam Frazier with them. The Mariners have a legitimate shot at winning the AL West this year.

1) Houston Astros — The defending champs remain the AL West favorites on paper and on the field. The club may have lost 2022 AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, but its offense should be even stronger in 2023, as the club signed 2020 AL MVP Jose Abreu and re-signed Michael Brantley, who missed the entire 2022 postseason due to injury. Top prospect Hunter Brown could be electric either out of their rotation or bullpen.

Check out the latest episode of the Jack Vita Show for more MLB offseason analysis!

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