Top offseason question for each MLB team eliminated from playoffs

This year's MLB playoff format will include the largest field ever for a full season, with 12 of the 30 teams (40%) retaining title hopes. For the other 60%, the start of the 2022 postseason means the start of the offseason.

For these 18 clubs, the focus is now on 2023 and beyond. And as they chart a course that they hope will get them into the top 40%, it begins with one key question. It's one of many to be asked, of course, but all journeys must begin with the choosing of a direction.

Here is the key question each non-playoff team will be — or at least should be — asking in the days to come. (Note: Our initial list has 15 teams on it; we'll add more as they are officially eliminated.)

Maybe Arizona needs another season as a proof of concept, but under new pitching coach Brent Strom, the formerly pitching-deprived Diamondbacks seem to have miraculously become a potential run-prevention juggernaut. They aren't there yet, to be sure, but the development of Merrill Kelly and Zac Gallen into an elite one-two rotation punch is a great foundation on which to build. The team defense was outstanding as well. How much of all this was real, and how much was a blip? If it was real, the Diamondbacks would appear to be one or two big hitters away from making a run at a wild-card spot next season. We'll get a solid indication of how Arizona views its run-prevention gains by the way it approaches this winter on the hitting side.

Boston GM Chaim Bloom has already said the Red Sox are ready to spend big, claiming that now they have the minor league depth to make that kind of strategy plausible. The thinking is the Red Sox can take on some big contracts now, while filling the gaps on the roster with talented young players who won't eat