Many teams enter the spring of the season looking like certain champions. But many also fall short, sometimes in the World Series, sometimes before. But fans still remember them as among the best MLB teams that didn’t win the World Series. So, that’s something.
The teams in the list below probably fuel more conversations than the teams that actually won the championships that year. There’s something compelling about teams that have everything going for them, but can’t close the deal.
Some were pre-season favorites who stumbled along the way and didn’t reach the World Series. Others made it all the way to the series but fell short. In either case, they left their fans wondering about what could have been.
This list looks at five of the most recent best MBL teams that didn’t win the World Series. Ask any fan: there are many more. But these were particularly heartbreaking.
Yankees World Series Wins 1903 - Present
2017 Los Angeles Dodgers
The Dodgers, who won it all in 2020, had gone since the miracle win in 1988 against the behemoth Oakland Athletics without winning another title. But that’s the Dodgers for you. The Dodgers have had great teams since their inception as the Brooklyn Atlantics in 1884. But they lost in eight championship series (and tied in another) before finally winning it all in 1955.
In 2017, they lost a seven-game series against the Houston Astros, who later were revealed to have cheated that season. That’s an extra bitter pill for Dodgers fans, but the victory in 2020 certainly helped ease their pain.
2004 St. Louis Cardinals
This team featured three players who had Most Valuable Player-caliber seasons: Jim Edmunds, Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen. The Cardinals also picked up Larry Walker in a late summer trade. They had a pitching staff that featured Matt Morris, Jason Marquis and Chris Carpenter, all in their 20s.
But this club ended up being the one that lost to the Boston Red Sox in Boston’s first championship since 1918. And they didn’t just lose, but got swept. Of course, it’s hard to feel bad for a franchise with 11 championships.
Best Moments of Red Sox Baseball
2001 Seattle Mariners
This team has become the poster boy for unrealized potential and disappointed expectations. They came into 2001 as the favorites and won a record 116 games during the season. They were led by Bret Boone, John Olerud, Edgar Martinez and Ichiro Suzuki, who all hit over .300. Pitchers Freddie Garcia, Aaron Sele and Jamie Moyer each had one of the best seasons of their careers.
But the Mariners ran into a great New York Yankees club in the American League Championship Series, famously not reaching the World Series (they never have) and also not returning to the playoffs ever since (through the 2020 season).
Best Moments of Yankees Baseball
1994 Montreal Expos
On Aug. 12, when a players’ strike ended the 1994 season, the Expos were 74-40, the best record in baseball. Since June 1 of that year, they had gone 46-18. The team was loaded with future stars and Hall of Famers: Larry Walker, Moises Alou, Marquis Grissom, Wil Cordero, Pedro Martinez and John Wetteland. Unfortunately, the strike killed the chance to see how far that group could take an Expos team that had never even reached the World Series.
The 1994 Expos also rank among the greatest “what if” teams of all time. The team has so captured the imagination of baseball fans that the data-driven FiveThirtyEight blog once did a statistical analysis of what would have happened in 1994 had the season played out. Their conclusion: the Atlanta Braves would likely have beaten out the Expos for the National League pennant or the Yankees would likely have beaten them in the World Series.
Still, it would have been nice to see the games actually played. Déchirant!
Andruw Jones MLB Career and Early Life
1988 Oakland Athletics
This season featured a World Series where the Dodgers weren’t the favorite, but rather a pesky underdog, not unlike those Dodgers clubs that ran into the Yankees so many times in the 1940s and 1950s. The A’s, on the other hand, were loaded. They had the Bash Brothers with Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, as well as three guys who started at least 30 games and had sub-.4.00 ERAs: Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and Storm Davis. But after Kurt Gibson’s miracle home run to win Game 1, the series already felt over as the Dodgers went on to win it, 4-1.
These five clubs rank among that elite, if heartbreaking, group of best MLB teams that didn’t win the World Series. Some came back to redeem themselves (the A’s and Dodgers, for example) while others never got the chance (the Mariners) or became new teams (the Expos, now the Washington Nationals). Whatever the case, that year’s version of the team will go down in history – just not the way they wanted.
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