2022 NL West Preview: Dodgers the best in baseball?

At this time just over a month ago, it didn’t look like we were going to make it to an early April start to the season. Fresh off the latest round of failed collective bargaining agreement negotiations, commissioner Rob Manfred announced MLB was cancelling the first two series of the season and pushing back Opening Day a week.

The more days that went by without the league and MLB Players Association reaching a deal, the more games that would be cancelled. Over the course of a few long days, it looked like no longer like a question of when we would get baseball in 2022, but if.

Then, somehow, someway, on the 99th day of the lockout, they figured things out. The season – all 162 games no less – was saved. And we couldn’t be happier.

With Opening Day just three days away, here is a team-by-team look at the National League West division, which could be home to the best team in baseball.

2021 Record: 52-110

Key Additions: INF Sergio Alcantara, OF Jordan Luplow, P Zach Davies, P Ian Kennedy, P Mark Melancon

Key Losses: OF Kole Calhoun, P Tyler Clippard

No team has lost more games than the Diamondbacks over the last two seasons. Both Arizona and the Baltimore Orioles are even with the worst cumulative records in 2020 and 2021 at 77-145. Almost comically, the D-Backs finished 55 games back of the first-place San Francisco Giants in 2021. That’s a lot of losing.

But credit needs to be given when it’s due.

The Diamondbacks took steps to improve a pitching staff that had the worst ERA in the NL last season (5.15), bringing in high-leverage bullpen arms Mark Melancon and Ian Kennedy in addition to starter Zach Davies, who struggled last season but has previously turned in impressive campaigns for the Milwaukee Brewers in the past.

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