The 8 most intriguing World Series matchups

Eight championship contenders remain in 2023, which means that as we wait for the four Division Series to begin on Saturday, 16 possible World Series matchups are still in play.

Each would offer interesting storylines. But of course, some possibilities jump off the page more than others.

With that in mind, we brought together four MLB.com writers to identify eight of the juiciest matchups still on the board -- at least one for each Division Series team. Here is what they picked and why.

Team: Orioles
Opponent: Braves
Past World Series: None

This may seem like a chalk pick, but we actually haven’t seen the teams with the best record in each league square off in the World Series all that often in recent history. During the Wild Card era (since 1995), it’s only happened four times: '95 (ATL vs. CLE), '99 (NYY vs. ATL), 2013 (BOS vs. STL) and '20 (LAD vs. TB).

With a homegrown core led by Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley, Spencer Strider and Max Fried and supplemented by trades for stars such as Matt Olson and Sean Murphy, the Braves have become a National League powerhouse, winning six straight division titles and a World Series crown in 2021. It’s a blueprint the current Orioles are trying to follow. The team has arrived ahead of schedule two years after losing 110 games as youngsters such as Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez have helped to change the culture in Baltimore in a hurry, much like Acuña, Albies and Co. did for the Braves in the late-2010s.

-- Thomas Harrigan

Team: Dodgers
Opponent: Astros
Past World Series: 2017 (HOU won, 4-3)

You might very well look at this matchup and groan, and to be honest, that’s fair. There’s no new blood here, after all. The Dodgers are in their 11th straight postseason, and this would be their fourth World Series since 2017. The Astros are looking for their seventh straight American League Championship Series berth, with a chance to make their fifth Fall Classic appearance and win their third ring in that span.

On the other hand, no other potential 2023 World Series confrontation carries with it this sort of narrative heft. Two franchises that have been juggernauts in recent years. Numerous star players and likely future Hall of Famers. High-profile managers. And oh yeah, there’s 2017 hanging over the whole thing. It’s true that few Astros are left from the team that outlasted the Dodgers in seven games in a hard-fought Fall Classic that year, only to have revelations of Houston’s illegal sign-stealing cloud the achievement. But if you think that would lower the temperature at Dodger Stadium for Game 1, then you haven’t been paying attention. Simply put, no potential World Series on this list would carry more tension or hard feelings, and that makes for riveting theater.

-- Andrew Simon

Team: Phillies
Opponent: Orioles
Past World Series: 1983 (BAL won, 4-1)

Imagine the vibes. On one side, you’d have a team of 30-year-old men who play with enough buttons undone that a restaurant has the right to refuse them service. On the other side you have a bunch of 20-somethings who celebrate like college students. It would be a World Series like we’ve never seen. Oh, and both teams finished with top-10 offenses, top-15 starting staffs and bullpens that were among the league’s best.

It seems like Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos were built for October, while the Orioles spent the entire regular season calling up young players who hit the ground running. Oh, and let's not forget that a mere 100 miles of I-95 separates these two ballparks, bringing some good old fashioned regional rivalry to every game.

-- Henry Palattella

Team: Braves
Opponent: Rangers
Past WS: None

You might call this the Ron Washington Series -- which would be a juicy angle, given that the Braves’ third-base coach won two pennants in his eight seasons managing the Rangers before finally winning his first ring with Atlanta in 2021 -- but at the end of the day, it’s the matchup with the highest offensive potential. Atlanta and Texas led their respective leagues in runs per game, hits, home runs, batting average, OPS -- you get the point.

­• Do Braves have the best first-inning offense ever?

No club’s offense is going to look great on paper against the Braves’ bats, and the Rangers stumbled big time down the stretch. But if you’re looking for a good matchup for Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson, Ozzie Albies and Sean Murphy -- among others -- you can't do too much better than Corey Seager, Adolis García, Marcus Semien and Jonah Heim (among others).

-- Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru

Team: Astros
Opponent: D-backs
Past World Series: None

The D-backs are a team built around youth, timely hitting, a staff led by two dynamic arms and a solid yet unspectacular bullpen. For Astros fans, that formula should sound familiar, as it’s the same makeup they had at the start of their contention window. While it’s not a one-to-one comparison, the similarities are there.

That’s not to say they look the same now, however. Last year the Astros reached the top of the mountain by getting as much as they could from veterans in the twilight of their careers while also getting some big hits from unproven players like Jeremy Peña. They’ll likely use that formula to try to solve the postseason equation this year, with a roster pretty similar to last year's. This is the equivalent of the cranky old neighbor telling their teenage neighbor to keep the noise down, and I’m ready for it.

-- Henry Palattella

Team: Twins
Opponent: Braves
Past World Series: 1991 (MIN won, 4-3)

With these two teams having squared off in the World Series more than 30 years ago, a Twins-Braves rematch would be oozing with early-'90s nostalgia, including copious references to Kirby Puckett’s Game 6 heroics and the epic Jack Morris-John Smoltz pitchers’ duel in Game 7. But there’s also plenty of intrigue here as far as the present-day matchup is concerned.

On one side, you have the high-powered Braves, who led the Majors in runs scored (947) and had four players hit more than 30 homers in 2023. On the other side, you have the Twins, whose leading home run hitter, Max Kepler, went deep only 24 times. It doesn’t exactly seem like a fair fight, but Minnesota’s pitching might have something to say about that. Only two teams allowed fewer runs (659) during the regular season than the Twins, who limited the Blue Jays to one run in their two-game Wild Card Series sweep.

-- Thomas Harrigan

Team: Rangers
Opponent: Dodgers
Past World Series: None

There are all sorts of interesting connections here. Rangers star shortstop Corey Seager was a longtime Dodger. When the Dodgers went on their championship run in 2020, capturing their first title since 1988, Seager was named MVP of both the NLCS and World Series -- both played at Texas’ Globe Life Field (a neutral site used during the Covid season). Then there’s noted Dodger and Dallas-area resident Clayton Kershaw, who in recent years has left the door open to pitching for his hometown team before he calls it quits. Oh, and don’t forget the potential for yet another postseason Will Smith vs. Will Smith battle between the Dodgers catcher and Rangers reliever (see also: 2020 and ‘21 NLCS).

But aside from all that, this could just be a flat-out spectacular baseball series. Both teams can smack the ball around the yard, featuring dynamic duos (Seager-Semien and Betts-Freeman) fronting a deep lineup. Both teams have talent -- but also plenty of injuries and question marks -- on the pitching side. Would the Rangers win their first World Series, or would the Dodgers add to their trophy case?

-- Andrew Simon

Team: D-backs
Opponent: Orioles
Past World Series: None

Fair warning, this would be stressful. In this field, both Arizona and Baltimore distinguish themselves with their baserunning and timely hitting. The Orioles led MLB in baserunning runs in 2023 (+14); the D-backs came in third with +8. Each has one of the regular season’s most valuable individual baserunners, with Gunnar Henderson leading the pack at +6 and Corbin Carroll tied for second with +5 (Carroll, notably, also stole 54 bases). It’s been a while since a World Series was settled on the basepaths, but this one could be.

If aggressive baserunning isn’t really your thing, there’s also that clutch gene. Baltimore tied for the most come-from-behind wins in baseball in the regular season (48, with Cincinnati); Arizona was fourth with 43. Both clubs also ranked in the top five in team OPS in high-leverage situations. Basically, this matchup has a pretty high likelihood of producing memorable nail-biters -- who are we to say no to that?

-- Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru