Who Will Be the Toughest Spoiler Down the Stretch?

With six weeks remaining in the 2024 MLB regular season, the intensity of the playoff push is cranking up. Fans for sure, and if they were being honest players and baseball personnel as well, are checking the standings not just weekly now, but daily. Scoreboard watching is starting to really hit its stride.

Glancing ahead to upcoming schedules of not only your favorite team but that of the teams that they are in a race with is now common practice. Along those lines, there are some teams that no longer really find themselves in the postseason hunt. Not that they are mathematically eliminated quite yet – only the White Sox fit that category to date. But a quick glance at the ‘ol Magic 8 Ball would probably garner, “outlook not so good”.

These are the teams that can really upend a potential playoff contenders’ season. Not every team that is vying for a postseason spot will get in. For most of those teams that don’t make it, there will be some key games and series against other nonplayoff teams that cost them.

Who are those teams that could wreak havoc on the playoff picture? Some are up and comers, others are just plain disappointments for 2024. And still others find themselves in the middle. No matter which category a team falls into, the idea of impacting the playoff races by beating the best of the best is something that all competitors cherish.

Let’s take a look at the teams that can play the biggest spoiler roles at the end of this 2024 MLB season.

The First Two Teams to Play Spoiler

Cincinnati Reds

The Reds just got swept by the Kansas City Royals over the weekend. That wasn’t fun, but the worst part is that Cincinnati only scored three runs – one per game. Those results aren’t who this team is. Over the course of the season the Reds have a +33 run differential.

David Bell’s team has been in the thick of the playoff race up until recently and still are clinging to the hope that they can sneak their way in. But a more than likely outcome is that the Red’s play solid ball for the next six weeks and keep some others out of the postseason.

In a time when there are players like Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Witt Jr. and Aaron Judge, perhaps the most exciting MLB player to watch is Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz. Goodness, that kid can do amazing things on a baseball field.

Cincinnati isn’t overly dominate at anything, but they are a solid team that could create some drama for other clubs as the season progresses. They are somewhere between an up-and-coming team and a disappointment. After last season’s 82-80 showing, there were thoughts that this might be their year to get back to the playoffs.

As it is shaking out it probably isn’t their year, but they can still make some noise.

Detroit Tigers

The Tigers are already embracing the spoiler role. In their last four series, they have won three of them against the New York Yankees and two of them – one of which was a sweep – came against the Mariners.

The youth movement is alive and well in Detroit. With the baseball world watching on Sunday Night Baseball from Williamsport, the Tigers took down the Yankees in dramatic fashion. Down by one in the bottom of the ninth inning, 23-year-old Jace Jung drove in the game tying run off of Yankees closer Clay Holmes. Then in the bottom of the 10th, 24-year-old Parker Meadows knocked in the winning run. This team is young, talented, and wants to prove that they can play with anyone.

With a run differential at -3, the Tigers are a formidable opponent for sure. The most intimidating presence that they have on their roster is starting pitcher Tarik Skubal. The guy is straight up shoving this season, and nobody is touching him. In 25 starts and 155.1 innings pitched he is 14-4, has a 2.49 ERA, 2.66 FIP, 0.933 WHIP, 185 strikeouts, and only 33 walks. Can you say AL Cy Young winner?!

Detroit has won 17 of the 25 games that Skubal has started this season. Good luck to any contender needing a win and matching up against the dominate lefty.

Up-and-Coming Teams that Could Cause Havoc

Pittsburgh Pirates

After this weekends’ contests the Pittsburgh Pirates have a 2-14 record – that included a 10 game losing streak – over their last 16 games. How can we expect them to beat anybody down the stretch?

Well, six of those losses were the one run variety and two of them came in extra innings. Plus, they are fresh off of a series victory over Seattle this past weekend, so I guess they are already taking the spoiler role to heart. Pittsburgh plays teams tough and will not be an easy W for their opponent.

With a team ERA of 3.98 which slots them in at 16th in MLB they have the arms to keep them in games. Speaking of arms. They have some of the best young talented starting pitching in the game. Paul Skenes has been out of this world. Mitch Keller has been rocked his last two starts – San Diego and the Dodgers – but he still has a 3.95 ERA. Before those two outings he was sitting at 3.20 ERA in 22 starts.

Jared Jones looked good in another rehab start this past Wednesday and could join the club as soon as this week. Pittsburgh is not only a fun team to watch right now, but they are one that is poised to contend as early as next season.

Washington Nationals

Over the past five years, the Washington Nationals have gone from World Series champions to a shell of their former self. And while Davey Martinez has been able to stay around as manager, most of the top guys have been traded.

The process has been hard to watch, but the Nationals are starting to come around. With all of the top prospects that they have received from trading the likes of Max Scherzer, Trea Turner, and Juan Soto the future for baseball is bright in D.C.

Just Baseball’s former #1 prospect, James Wood is not disappointing in the bigs. The 6-foot-7 outfielder has an .831 OPS in his 42 games with the Nationals this season. Did I mention that he is 21-years old? Well, he is. He came over to the Nationals from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade.

Another member of that trade happens to be starting shortstop CJ Abrams. He is much older than Wood though. He is a whopping 23 years old. Abrams made his first All-Star Game this year and is truly a star in the game.

With a young starting rotation that features Jake Irvin, MacKenzie Gore and Mitchell Parker, Washington will be running out some quality starters down the stretch. This team is still a year or so away from competing in the NL East again, but they can win some big games as they look to prove that they are on the comeback trail.

Oakland A’s

Anyone that writes about baseball, I would encourage you to write something about the Oakland A’s as soon as possible as they won’t be in Oakland much longer. That is still a hard pill to swallow for many. Especially from such a storied franchise.

This season was never going to be a good one for the A’s. When you don’t spend money on your team it is hard to expect that they will be competitive. Hats off to the young players on this roster, because out of all of the teams listed in this piece, Oakland might just be the team that contenders want to face the least.

It’s not that the A’s have a great overall record or that they have a great run differential – theirs is currently at -68. But boy they are playing some good baseball as of late. In July and August, Oakland has a shocking 24-14 record. Talk about the hot hand. This young group has found their groove and hasn’t bought into the fact that they should be losing all the time.

Disappointing Teams that Could Impact Playoff Picture

Toronto Blue Jays

After losing three of the last four years in the Wild Card Series, there were expectations that this would be the season that the Blue Jays would not just get to the playoffs but would make some noise when they got there. Unfortunately for Jays fans everywhere, 2024 is not the year they had hoped for.

Instead of buying at the trade deadline to make their push, Toronto found themselves in sell mode. What they did get done was gaining some solid young players that can help the team finish the season on a high note before making another run next season.

With seven of their last 12 series coming against playoff hopefuls, the Blue Jays can really have an impact on the playoff races across MLB as a major spoiler. The way that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has been smashing the ball, he is liable to win some of those games nearly single handedly. He is slashing .317/.389/.552, has 26 home runs, scored 73 runs, has 81 RBI, and a 165 OPS+.

Texas Rangers

Repeating as World Series champions is hard. Heck, even making the playoffs the year after a title is tough. Barring a comeback for the ages, this will mark the 11th time in the last 21 years that the World Series champions have missed the postseason the following year.

And while it has been a disappointing season for the Rangers, there is nobody that is going to want to have them on their schedule down the stretch. Their pitching is adequate even at the moment and that is before they get Jacob deGrom back in a few weeks.

But for the Rangers it has been all about the lack of offense this season. With that said, Texas’ lineup has guys top to bottom that can put up crooked numbers at any point in time. Any playoff contender that catches this team in the midst of a hot streak is going to regret it.

The Rangers team is full of veterans that aren’t going to lay down and give an opponent a game. There are also several guys that are going to be reaching free agency at the end of the season and want to finish strong. Mix in some of the young guys looking to prove that they belong in Arlington long term, and the Texas Rangers have a chance to play spoiler as the season wraps up.