The 2020 Houston Astros
This team had the worst year of all the Houston Astros’ teams and it’s pretty obvious why. A pandemic shortened season had them finish under .500 for the first time since 2014 at a 29-31 record, and they were still reeling from all the blow back after the initial revealings of the 2017 sign-stealing scandal came out.
They underperformed in the regular season at an astonishing rate, but when the playoffs came around, so did the team. Offensively this team could have done even more had they had a healthy Alvarez.
Pitching-wise if they had had the services of the reigning Cy Young in Verlander or their closer Roberto Osuna, it’s hard to imagine they couldn’t have gotten to and won another World Series.
The fact that they made it to within a game of another American League Pennant with basically an entire pitching staff of rookies sans Lance McCullers Jr. and Zack Greinke is truly impressive.
The pitching side of things especially is what puts this team at the back end talent-wise and why you would not want to roll them out opening day over the other four Astros teams coming up.