With just over a month until the earliest Opening Day in MLB history, a March 29th opener with games set up for all 30 clubs, we can finally start to look closer into what exactly the 116th Major League Baseball season will be like. The American League has done what it could in recent seasons to vanquish its reputation as the "Junior Circuit," and long its most competitive division, the East is primed for another good run.
Boston Red Sox:
The season is coming in hot, and the Red Sox have done almost nothing this offseason, that is, unless you call the signings of Ivan De Jesus, Daniel Butler, Steve Selsky, Oscar Hernandez, and William Cuevas "somethings." This is especially underwhelming considering that Boston went into the offseason as the favorite to land big-name free agents like Eric Hosmer and J.D. Martinez. Since Dave Dombrowski took over in 2015, the Red Sox have added a top free agent pitcher each year inking David Price in '15-'16 and Chris Sale in '16-'17, and with the rotation stabilized, they turned their attention to the piece they most lacked since David Ortiz called in quits after 2016, a bat. They lost out on Hosmer early in February, So Dombrowski and his staff dialed in on J.D. Martinez, the slugging outfielder who struggled with injuries while with the Astros, before returning to play a solid role with Detroit, slugging a combined 45 home runs last season splitting time between the Tigers and Diamondbacks. Martinez reportedly had second thoughts about playing in Boston, which has been increasingly infamous for being a tough place to play, especially as a visitor, and worked in a pair of opt-outs into his contract with Boston. In addition, after the agreement had been made, the Red Sox had second thoughts when reviewing the history of wear and tear on Martinez's knees, including a pair of surgeries. A week later, Dombrowski finally settled with mega-agent Scott Boras on a small injury clause, and Martinez put pen to paper. There is little doubt that Martinez's bat will round out a potentially dangerous Red Sox squad, but the big question remains: Does Martinez add enough to last year's roster to stay ahead of the moves made by the Red Sox bitter rivals...?
New York Yankees
It is certainly rare to see a team lose 4 of the top 50 free agents and trade away their 7th and 8th best hitters and still improve, yet that seems to be what Brian Cashman and the Yankees have done, on paper at least. The biggest and most obvious reason for that is that despite losing 58 home runs between Holliday, Castro, Frazier, and Headley, they added 59 home runs with the acquisition of Giancarlo Stanton, the reigning NL MVP. Stanton's otherworldly power (Aaron Judge is the only other inhabitant of that other world) added to the 58 hit by Sanchez and Gregorious, Judge's 52, the 48 that the rest of the returners blasted, and the 21 hit by the Yankee newcomers creates a team of power unlike any we've ever seen before. The pitching is above average, although it doesn't really need to be, as Brian Cashman tried but failed to bring in a final starter to round out the rotation. There were subtleties within the Bronx Bomber's aggressive offseason approach, too. The Yankees have the MLB's 4th best farm system on top of their already deadly squad, and selling off Headley and Castro while letting Frazier walk created holes in the lineup, which could actually be a good thing with the likes of Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar, and Tyler Wade waiting in the MiLB wings. And although Cashman was unable to rid the massive, no-trade-claused contract of platoon veteran Jacoby Ellsbury, and decided to take on the largest contract in baseball history in that of Stanton, Headley's trading cleared up $13M, Castro's $10M, and the letting go of Frazier, Pineda, Garcia, and Holliday over $25.5M, making up for plenty of the cap and bolstering their cap availability to add a Kevin Durant to the Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green that they already have by signing a Bryce Harper or Manny Machado in free agency next year.
Tampa Bay Rays
If you ask anyone to sum up the Rays' offseason in a few words, they would probably say "yard sale" or "dumpster fire" or something of the like. While this is partially true (ok, more than partially), GM Erik Neander saved massive amounts of money while adding solid pieces to build a strong foundation for a potentially massive rebuild. Before we give them too much credit, let us observe that of the top 11 Rays of 2017 according to WAR, 4 will return this year, Kiermaier, Smith, Hechavarria, and Faria. The Rays did not improve this offseason. However, they did a sensational job of following through on their plans to start a rebuild while still not letting go of a chance to make a run at a wild card spot. Their biggest need is pitching, with a solid young front rotation, but a back end consisting of a massive question mark in Nathan Eovaldi, who last pitched in mid-2016 for the Yankees, and Matt Andreise, a career reliever who's not even a lock to make the roster, so a potential midseason trade for a lefty like Drew Pomeranz or Gio Gonzalez could bring them onto a whole different level. The bats are there, as Cron, Miller, and Gomez supply the power, Kiermaier, Smith and Span bring an important element of speed, and if all goes well, Duffy, Ramos, and Hechavarria have shown promise as productive hitters in their careers. The Rays are a few steps away from being dead in the playoff hunt, and a solid farm system lurks behind the question marks of their 2018 lineup.
Toronto Blue Jays
The Blue Jays enter Spring Training looking as different as they have since 2008, and it starts with their right-field mainstay José Bautista, who has made it it clear that he will not be returning for his 10th full season with the team. They will be without slugger Edwin Encarnación, who spent 8 years with the team, for the second straight year, but the Jays aren't exactly coming in with the new. The average age of a Blue Jay coming into 2018 is 27.8 years, the fourth oldest in the league. García, Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera, Donaldson, Smoak, Tulowitzki, and Solarte are all at least 30, and Estrada, Happ, Oh, Martin, Granderson, Steve Pearce, and Morales are all between the ages of 34 and 36. In short, the Blue Jays "win now" approach has dug them into a hole, and at that, one that will be hard to climb out of with New York and Boston at the top of the top of the division. Toronto, however, is not completely dry of youth talent, as 23 year old outfielder Anthony Alford, the 47th best prospect in the MiLB, is expected to make the climb to the bigs this year, which has the Jays' front office very excited, and #3 and #13 prospects Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette, both still far from the big team, are shaping up to be stars. The Blue Jays' remaining 11 roster spots will be filled with players under 30, but they are built to make a run soon, but they'll need luck to escape their division or land a wild card spot.
Baltimore Orioles
Per usual, Baltimore has enough power bats to keep up with the rest of the division, but what they have in power, they lack in pitching. Once an ace and a Cy-Young candidate, Chris Tillman has since faded to a run-of-the-mill starter and former top-10 prospect Kevin Gausman has struggled with command, and Bundy too was highly touted and failed to pan out. Cornerstone Adam Jones is fading and it looks like moving superstar 3rd baseman Manny Machado to his original position of shortstop is a last-resort attempt to keep him from departing, potentially to division rival New York, in 2018. The band that not long ago won the division easily is falling apart, but youth is ready to cover them up. Vielma and Sisco each have promise at ages 21 and 23 respectively, and Ynoa has also shown flashes of a solid rotation piece at the age of 24. The problem in Baltimore, however, like in Toronto, is that while there is certainly something notable in the bats they have, their pitching is lackluster and even the power they do have is likely not enough to outdo the Red Sox or Yankees. The Orioles had a limited offseason, so they can't expect anything substantially better than the 75 win season they put together last year, and at this point it seems almost impossible for them to land a playoff spot when perhaps all four teams in the division appear better than them on paper.
