The Houston Astros are the 2022 champions, and they won in 2017 as you may recall. Dusty Baker has his second World Series ring, and this one has most certainly punched his ticket to Cooperstown.
As we heard over and over on the broadcasts, just five players are left from the 2017 team with their tainted title. Five pretty important players, mind you. But that's a pretty normal turnover, even for the best teams, five years on in the modern game.
Here's the 2017 post-season roster. If you're wondering why there was no backup infielder, it's because the backup infielder had become the regular left fielder once the Astros traded Nori Aoki (and Teoscar Hernandez) to Toronto for Francisco Liriano, who gave them 14.1 innings of slightly below average relief pitching.
C - Brian McCann (retired)
1b - Yuli Gurriel
2b - Jose Altuve
3b - Alex Bregman
ss - Carlos Correa (now with Minnesota)
lf - Marwin Gonzalez (now with NY Yankees)
cf - George Springer (Now with Toronto)
rf - Josh Reddick (now playing in Australia)
c - Juan Centeno (now with Arizona)
dh - Evan Gattis (retired)
of - Derek Fisher (free agent, last played with Milwaukee)
of - Cameron Maybin (retired)
dh - Carlos Beltran (retired)
sp - Justin Verlander
sp - Dallas Keuchel (free agent, last played with Texas)
sp - Charlie Morton (now with Atlanta)
sp - Lance McCullers jr
sp - Brad Peacock (now with Minnesota)
rp - Colin McHugh (now with Atlanta)
rp - Joe Musgrove (now with San Diego)
rp - Will Harris (now with Washington)
rp - CHris Devenski (now with Philadelphia)
rp - Ken Giles (free agent, last played with Seattle)
rp - Luke Gregerson (free agent, last played with St.Louis)
rp - Francisco Liriano (retired)
A.J. Hinch is now managing the Detroit Tigers. Jeff Luhnow is now an investor in a couple of soccer teams.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2022110609573368