2019 MLB Preview:
Central: This is the Indians division to lose based on their
core talent of the left side of the infield in SS Francisco Lindor & 3B
Jose Ramirez and their rotation led by Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco and Trevor Bauer.
Their outfield and catchers are their weakness after trading Yan Gomes,
letting Michael Brantley & Lonnie Chisenhall(to name a few that left) and
their bullpen isn’t as good as used to be after losing both Cody Allen and Andrew
Miller(13 total players left Cleveland). The multi-team trade they made of
getting back Carlos Santana (with his contract) by trading away their best
hitting prospect Yandy Diaz, sending away DH Edwin Encarnacion (with his
contract) and getting a young 1B back in Jake Bauers which caused them to trade
1B Yonder Alonzo didn’t make much sense.
They could have played Diaz at 3B with
Ramirez at 2B and improving their outfield output with Jason Kipnis in LF since
they have 4 CFers who haven’t proven they can hit in the majors. This trade is
a swapping of contracts which doesn’t make sense since they didn’t want to pay
Santana the previous year when he was a free agent. Also Bauers playing the
outfield isn’t the best route just to play Hanley Ramirez (who they signed to a
minor league deal) at DH/Santana at 1B, it would be better to play OF Carlos Gonzalez in RF (who they signed to minor league deal) but winning the division is
their ceiling with losing in the 1st round.
The Twins start of a new era without Joe Mauer and with a new manager
in Rocco Balldeli with a chance for a
wild spot. They made improvements to their team by upgrading at 1B/2B/DH by
getting Nelson Cruz, Jonathan Schoop and CJ Cron but that means Miguel Sano has
to stay at 3B despite his defense/injury history suggesting he’s better off at
DH/1B. Again their strengths will be their position players like OFers Max Kepler, Eddie Rosario and new signing UTL Marwin Gonzalez but still haven’t
figured out their CF situation. Their rotation is thin after Jose Berrios and
Jake Odorizzi since their relying on Michael Pineda (missed all of last year)
and Martin Pérez both with injury concerns plus their bullpen again is the same
no name inexperienced crew like always except for Addison Reed. 
The next three
teams could finish in any order between the Royals,
Tigers and White Sox. Chicago tried to
get Manny Machado and failed so they are stuck with OF Jon Jay and 1B Yonder Alonso, meaning their best hitter 1B Jose Abreu would DH since Alonzo isn’t a
big time power guy, plus Jay takes away bats from other outfielders but he can
help the top of the order.
They improved at catcher and the bullpen by signing
James McCann and getting Kelvin Herrera and Alex Colome plus they finally
realized Yoan Moncada is best suited to play 3B not 2B. With these moves their
defense should improve exponentially which should help their rotation out which
is strong behind Reynaldo Lopez, Carlos Rodon and trading for Ivan Nova but is
weak at the backend if they have to rely on Lucas Giolito as your 4th starter
with bad options as your 5th starter so they hope Ervin Santana (who
they signed to a minor league deal) is healthy which he wasn’t last year to
fill that spot.
In Detroit they will again try to lose on purpose which is why
they didn’t do much to improve their team this offseason except fill the hole
at 2B by signing the signing the Pirates starting middle infield in Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer to replace Jose Iglesias. They signed Tyson Ross and Matt Moore for them to eat innings despite the rotation being mostly set last
year behind Matt Boyd, Michael Fulmer, Jordan Zimmermann and Daniel Norris but
two of those starters weren’t healthy last year.
Now that Victor Martinez is
retired it opened up the DH role for Miguel Cabrera to keep healthy over the
course of a season so they can get production out of him/him chase down
milestones. But again they are being dumb by playing Nick Castellanos in RF
again with Cabrera at 1B despite it benefiting everyone involved like better
defense, keeping people healthy, and giving another young outfielder a starting
spot.
Kansas City like Detroit isn’t trying either it’s in full rebuild mode by
starting their young guys at most spots like Raul Mondesi Jr getting the
starting SS job after losing the 2B job a few years ago and Hunter Dozier
starting at 3B. They did sign CF Billy Hamilton to replace Cain which is a
season too late since they had a hole at CF all last year but complicates the
matter of the rebuild with Brian Goodwin and Brett Phillips were going to fight
for that spot.
They lost catcher Salvador Perez for the season with Tommy John
Surgery but signed Martin Maldonado to replace him leaving Alex Gordon and
Danny Duffy as the only veteran Royal mainstay plus veteran Chris Owings who
they signed. Their rotation will be thin after Duffy, Ian Kennedy and if Homer Bailey who was the only starter they added stays healthy but their bullpen
could be good again by their signings of Jake Diekman, Drew Storen (who missed
all of last year) and Brad Boxberger.
The thing that doesn’t make sense is not
using Wily Peralta as a starter when your rotation is weak since he was the
opening day starter for the Brewers a few years ago but will be their closer
despite having two other good options.
East: The reigning World
Series champion Red Sox again will be
again competing for a World Series due to having their own killer B’s in Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Andrew Benintendi, and Xander Bogarts plus Rafael Devers and JD Martinez. They brought back Steve Pearce to platoon all season
with Mitch Moreland and 2B Dustin Pedroia looks healthy to start the season
making their team even stronger with Eduardo Nunez and Brock Holt coming off
the bench.
They also brought back Nathan Eovaldi to keep their starting staff
in tact with Chris Sale, Rick Porcello and David Price after they all came off
their best postseason appearance for those three but the rotation is thin due
to Eovaldi, Sale, Price and Eduardo Rodriguez’s inability to stay healthy all
season.
Losing Stephen Wright to an 80 game suspension doesn’t help matters nor
does losing their closer Craig Kimbrel and setup man Joe Kelly to free agency
leaving their bullpen as their biggest weakness. Matt Barnes is a good reliever
but not closer material they will need to resign Kimbrel or trade for a closer
in order to fix that hole not by signing Jenrry Meija who we all thought had a
lifetime ban or injured Zach Putnam to minor league deals.
The Yankees will again fight with Boston for
a division/a World Series berth due to their lineup as well but the difference
is their bullpen is by the far the best in baseball due to Aroldis Chapman,
Dellin Betances, Zach Britton, Adam Ottavino, and Tommy Kahnle to name some.
They will also get Miguel Andujar and Gleyber Torres for a full season to go with
Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez but took a hit with SS Didi Gregorius having Tommy John Surgery. They signed SS Troy Tulowitzki to fill that
hole and signed 2B DJ LeMahieu to be a utility player which screws many teams
that wanted a top two way player at 2B.
Their rotation is also like Boston
being thin because their whole rotation has an inability to stay healthy even
if they resigned CC Sabathia, JA Happ and traded for James Paxton to add to
Masahiro Tanaka and Luis Severino which means trading away Sonny Gray will come
back to bite them but lucked into Gio Gonzalez who didn't want to keep sitting out as he settled on a minor league deal.
We all thought the Rays
would finish in last place last year because they weren’t trying/always in
rebuild mode but they surprised everyone finishing 3rd/competing for
a wild card spot so this year they actually tried in the offseason so they will
finish in 3rd again. They improved at catcher by trading for Mike Zunino after a few years of Wilson Ramos not being fully healthy or consistent
like Jose Molina awhile back. Like always their pitching staff will be there
strength since they keep just developing pitcher after pitcher like last year’s
reigning CY Young award winner Blake Snell.
They added Jalen Beeks, Tyler Glasnow at the deadline after trading Chris Archer after years of they will or will
not, and signing Charlie Morton so no more “Openers” if they have five
starters. They stupidly let CJ Cron go after 30 hrs and traded away Jake Bauers
so they could use Yandy Diaz who they got from Cleveland to play 1B despite him
being a 3B and them having a crowded infield. They also added Avi Garcia
despite a crowded outfield that will get a full season of Tommy Pham and Austin Meadows to pair with Kevin Kiermaier so Garcia will most likely DH as well but
knowing them they will use Ji-Man Choi instead.
The Blue Jays are in a weird position if they can rebuild but also have
too many veterans to be that bad but will not finish in last because of
Baltimore. They have a crowded outfield of Teoscar Hernandez, Billy McKinney,
Dalton Pompey and veterans Randal Grichuk and Kevin Pillar. Despite having to
trade Aledmys Diaz because of a crowded infield of Brandon Drury, Richard Urena,
Devon Travis, Lourdes Gurriel and not to mention Vlad Guerrero JR about to come
up this year, they signed Freddy Galvis to play SS. They also still have Justin Smoak and Kendrys Morales at 1B/DH as well so nowhere to slide Dury over.
Trading Russell Martin away leaves them without a good catcher and pieced together
a rotation around Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman with three veterans with a
past of not being healthy in Clay Buchholz, Clayton Richard and Matt Shoemaker.
Like their rotation they are piecing together their bullpen anchored by Ken Giles, Ryan Tepera and veteran signe Daniel Hudson plus the other veteran relievers on minor leagues like Bud Norris, John Axford and
Javy Guerra hoping they eat innings and be can be traded at the deadline.
The Orioles start the year off with a new GM
Mike Elias, a new manager in Brandon Hyde and a full year to rebuild but also a
new era without Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop.
They still have Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis but that is because they are stuck paying for them
still and outside of Trey Mancini in LF who should be at 1B and Jonathan Villar
they have turned their team to all the youngsters. Cedric Mullins and Joey Rickard taking first
crack in the outfield with a few others as well, Renato Nunez at 3B and a
combination of Chance Sisco and Austin Wynns at catcher.
Their rotation still
has Dylan Bundy, Alex Cobb and Andrew Cashner but outside of adding Nate Karns
to the rotation they only signed a few veterans to minor league deals for the
bullpen which used to be their strength but will be their greatest weakness.
West: Despite losing a good
amount of players in free agency like both catchers, DHs, two starters and a
core member of the team this is still the Astros
division to lose based on the core talent they still have in Carlos Correa,
Alex Bregman, Jose Altuve and George Springer leading their offense. They did
add LF Michael Brantley to their outfield which makes the lineup even more
formidable but it blocks top hitting prospect Kyle Tucker when maybe they
should have gotten a CF to put Springer in a corner spot.
They did replace
Marwin Gonzalez with Aledmys Diaz who has made an All Star team but didn’t
really replace the starting catcher position with the caliber of catching Brian
McCann/Martin Maldonado is by signing Robinson Chirinos who’s really a backup.
Losing both Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton to free agency hurts their
rotation depth but what hurts them more is losing Lance McCullers Jr for the
whole season to Tommy John Surgery leaving them with just Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole.
They have the luxury of taking Colin McHugh and Brad Peacock from
bullpen because they had too many starters last year and they signed Wade Miley. They get a full season of Roberto Osuna and Alex Pressly leading the
bullpen which will help the rotation that isn’t as good as last year.
The Athletics surprised everyone last year
by winning over 90 games/making the wild card but they will not surprise anyone
this year as they are a top 5 team in the AL who make the wild card game again.
They got weaker in the outfield, at catcher and in their pitching staff by
letting Matt Joyce, Jonathan Lucroy, Trevor Cahill, Jeurys Familia, Chris
Hatcher, Kendall Graveman and Edwin Jackson leave and not really replacing them.
They signed Robbie Grossman a defensive liability instead of letting one of
their young outfielders play and will continue to play Mark Cahana/Chad Pinder
in the outfield when one is a 1B and other is a middle infielder. The rotation
will be without their ace Sean Manaea, Jharel Cotton and Daniel Gossett because
all of them succumbed to surgery on their arms leaving the innings to Mike Fiers, Brett Anderson who they resigned and Marco Estrada who they signed.
They
will have to rely on their lineup of DH Kris Davis, RF Stephen Piscotty, 1B
Matt Olson, 3B Matt Chapman and newly acquired 2B Jurickson Profar who is there
to replace Jed Lowrie. Their bullpen will be key to help this thin rotation
with Blake Treinen, Joakim Soria, Fernando Rodney and Jerry Blevins.
The Angels will finish their in 3rd
place since they aren’t good enough to make the playoffs but not bad enough to
be worse in Brad Ausmus’ first year. They still have a good outfield of Justin Upton, Kole Calhoun and Mike Trout, the best defensive shortstop in AL
Andrelton Simmons and Albert Pujols.
They had no catchers for the 2nd
half of the season after trading both Martin Maldonado and Rene Rivera so they
signed Jonathan Lucroy and claimed Kevan Smith of waivers. They also signed Cody Allen
to fill the closer hole who might be their best closer since Hudson Street plus
got Luis Garcia to improve this bullpen. Their
biggest issue is their rotation which has had talent these past few years but hasn’t
been the healthiest so they signed Trevor Cahill and Matt Harvey to replace
Garrett Richards and Matt Shoemaker but still are relying on Tyler Skaggs and
Andrew Heaney to stay healthy when leading this rotation.
The dumbest thing
they are doing is keeping the Zack Cozart at 3B plan which failed when he had
season ending surgery but only played there because they had Ian Kinsler and
Simmons in the middle infield, but Kinsler isn’t there so Cosart should be at
2B which could have let them sign a veteran 3B. Plus they signed Justin Bour to
play 1B/DH but have Pujols and Shohei Otani who can’t pitch this year but is
going to DH.
The Rangers due to their
offseason moves should not be a last place team but also because they still
have good players like Nomar Mazara, Joey Gallo, Elvis Andrus, Rougned Odor and
Shin-Soo Choo in their lineup.
Adrian Beltre retired but instead of playing
Gallo at 3B they signed Asdrubal Cabrera to start and Logan Forsythe plus Matt Davison to pitch and
hit. They also improved at catcher with Jeff Mathis who’s good at handling
pitching staffs since this is a rotation of castoffs in Mike Minor, Lance Lynn(signed this year), Drew Smyly(traded for), Edinson Volquez(signed last when
hurt), and Shelby Miller(signed this year). It will be a tough task for first year manager Chris Woodward to figure
out his starting rotation, how he will handle LF,3B, DH and 1B with Gallo,
Cabrera, Choo, Ronald Guzman, and Willie Calhoun or if Hunter Pence and
Davidson make the team off league deals.
Their bullpen will be anchored by
youngster Jose Leclerc at closer, resigned Jesse Chavez, brought in Shawn Kelly, and Jeanmar Gomez to balance out the veterans with
youngsters.
It looks like the Mariners
are trying to lose but also look like they don’t know what they are doing at
the same time based on their offseason moves. They lost SS Jean Segura, C Mike
Zunino, DH Nelson Cruz, 2B Robinson Cano, CL Edwin Diaz, RP Alex Colome, OF
Denard Span, OF Cameron Maybin, SP James Paxton, RP Adam Warren, RP Juan
Nicasio, RP Zach Duke, OF Ben Gamel, C Chris Hermann, OF Guillermo Heredia,
INFers Gordon Beckham and Andrew Romine. You would think they are rebuilding by
getting young players back which they did like OF Mallex Smith, SS JP Crawford
and C Omar Nevarez to name some but then they do stupid things like get OF
Domingo Santana, SS Tim Beckham, OF Jay Bruce and DH Edwin Encarnacion with
their huge contracts back despite not needing them.
Those four players take away
playing time from youngsters like Crawford, INF Ryon Healy and 1B Dan Vogelbach
to name some plus the point of trading Diaz was to get out of Cano’s huge
contract not two get two more huge contracts plus are still paying their best player 3B Kyle Seager. Felix Hernandez isn’t the same
pitcher he used to be so he can’t carry this weak rotation that has rejects
like Mike Leake and Wade LeBlanc plus they lost both closers and a few good
middle relievers so only adding Hunter Strickland and Anthony Swarzak will not
make up for it.
Central: This is the Brewers division to lose since they have
such a stacked lineup that is centered around reigning MVP OF Christian Yelich,
OF Lorenzo Cain, 3B Travis Shaw, OF Ryan Braun and 1B Jesus Aguilar plus they
just added C Yasmani Grandal one of the best offensive catchers along with
resigning Mike Moustakas which doesn’t even include Eric Thames in it every
day.
Their bullpen is still stacked despite losing a few relievers since they
still have all stars Jeremy Jeffress, Corey Knebel, and Josh Hader as a three
headed monster to close games. The trio of Zach Davies, Chase Anderson and
Jimmy Nelson is what they are relying on this year to lead the rotation despite
all three spending time on the DL last year which is why they traded for
starters last year for the playoffs which might happen again.
They will have one of their three younger
starters compete for the last spot. What didn’t make sense was not getting a
real 2B, one of those utility players or resigning Jonathan Schoop after you
played Shaw at 2B last year sometimes when they got Moustakas originally but
Shaw is staying at 3B with Moustakas playing 2B; Moose is barely a 3B he is
more of a DH/1B let alone a second basemen.
The Cubs will of course be a wildcard/division contender because of
their lineup just like their rivals since they still have 3B Kris Bryant,
INFers Javy Baez, Ben Zobrist, 1B Anthony Rizzo, C Wilson Contreras and LF Kyle Schwarber.
Their rotation is also very thin since they are relying on Yu Darvish to stay healthy, two 35 year olds in Jon Lester and Cole Hamels to lead
them but if anything happens to them they would have to use Tyler Chatwood which they don’t want to. Their bullpen is also a strength this year because
they added relievers like Brad Brach, Xavier Cedeno, and Tony Barnette to the
core of Pedro Strop, Steve Cishek, and Brandon Kintzler to
help till Brandon Morrow comes off the DL. The also signed INF Daniel Descalso
to replace Tommy LaStella and Addison Russell being suspended for the 1st
half of the season.
The minor league deals they made for pitching depth like
Kendall Graveman, George Kontos and Colin Rea to name some will not be enough to
win the division or go far in the playoffs they will have to add another
starter by trading one of their many position players who they don’t have
enough at bats for.
The Cardinals will
always be in contention because their organization continues to keep developing
young and upcoming players to use for themselves or trade for better players
which is what they did by getting 1B Paul Goldschmidt this offseason.
Their
lineup was already their strength like the rest of their division before they
made this trade because they have INF Matt Carpenter, OF Marcell Ozuna, OF Dexter Fowler, SS Paul De Jong, INF Jedd Gyorko and C Yadier Molina. Their
rotation that is still led by Adam Wainwright, Michael Wacha and Carlos Martinez but they all have a problem with staying healthy which is why trading
away Luke Weaver for Goldschmidt wasn’t the best for a thin rotation when they
didn’t need Goldy since he is just a luxury to have.
They added Andrew Miller
to the bullpen but wasn’t that healthy last year but combining him with
youngsters Jordan Hicks and Dakota Hudson plus veterans Brett Cecil and Luke Gregerson makes it a good bullpen to shoulder the load of the thin rotation.
Matt Wieters isn’t as good as he used to be but as a backup he instantly
becomes a top backup and can keep Molina fresh all season unlike the past few
seasons of bad backup catchers.
Their starting infield of the last few years both became free agents so they
added Erik Gonzalez who was a backup they got from Cleveland but it cost them
two of their players despite having internal options and their backup Adam Frazier
finally gets a chance to start. They added Lonnie Chisenhall which makes no
sense since they have a set outfield and a set corner infield with Josh Bell and Colin Moran plus Jung-Ho Kang is back. Their rotation isn’t set in stone
after ace Jameson Taillon and Chris Archer because they have too many young
pitchers in Steven Brault, Nick Kingham, Trevor Williams, Chad Kuhl and Jose Musgrove who
they haven’t figured out who to start and they all haven’t pulled away from the
rest of the pack.
Which is why they added veterans in Jordan Lyles and
Francisco Liriano but they traded away Ivan Nova who had been the consistent
veteran for them. They have one of the best closers in baseball in Felipe Vazquez (formerly Rivero), and set up man Keone Kela but outside of that it
looks like mostly the starters who don’t secure a spot in the rotation.
We
should all give the Reds credit for
making moves this offseason like hiring a new manager in David Bell but it will
not matter since they will still finish in last place because lots of the
players they got teams didn’t want or need anymore.
They improved their
rotation of Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani by adding Alex Wood, Tanner Roark, and Sonny Gray to their rotation but none of them are top line starters
and it pushed out their four of their young starters who should be given starts
since the team isn’t going anywhere. They also got former All-Star outfielders in Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig to replace Billy Hamilton who left but it pushes
Scott Schebler to CF when he is not a CF and Jesse Winkler to the bench since
they have no DH spot. Adding those guys make it easier on 1B Joey Votto, 3B
Eugenio Suarez and 2B Scott Gennett but Puig has never truly figured it out and
Kemp can’t stay healthy.
The bullpen added Zach Duke to a good core of David Hernandez,
Jared Hughes, Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias but most of their bullpen
will be the starters that are not going to start or have already been converted
to relievers.
NL East: They did lose OF
Bryce Harper to their division rival but the Nationals had the best off season of any team in this division
which will propel them to winning this division. They added Patrick Corbin,
Anibal Sanchez and resigned Jeremy Helickson to form one of the best rotations
with co-aces Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer and even fixed their bullpen by
adding Kyle Barraclough, Tony Sipp and Trevor Rosenthal to set up for Sean Doolittle.
Their lineup is still stacked with OFers Juan Soto, Adam Eaton, SS Trea Turner,
3B Anthony Rendon and 1B Ryan Zimmerman but it got even better by signing 2B
Brian Dozier who can actually also field his position unlike the previous 2B
Daniel Murphy and traded for C Yan Gomez who can hit more than offensively declining
C Matt Wieters. To make sure they are set at catcher and 1B they brought back
Kurt Suzuki and Matt Adams as insurance.
The only question will be who plays
centerfield top prospect Victor Robles or Michael Taylor but it will be nice to
see Howie Kendrick back from rupturing his Achilles tendon which ended his
season so I hope they keep him in the infield not in the outfield.
The Braves will have a hard time repeating
as division champion based on the moves the other three teams made as they will
have to rely on their young core and veteran core talent of OF Ronald Acuna, 2B
Ozzie Albies, CF Ender Inciarte, 1B Freddie Freeman and RF Nick Markakis who
they resigned. They also added 3B Josh Donaldson on a 1 year deal hoping he can
regain his MVP form to strength the lineup and brought back C Brian McCann to
pair with C Tyler Flowers.
Their pitching staff will be the issue that holds
them back as they are thin once you get pass Julio Teheran and Mike Foltynewicz because they are relying on Sean Newcomb, Kevin Gausman and Touki Toussaint who
each have their own limits plus by trading for Adam Duvall at the deadline last
year they gave up two of their young pitchers for him to be a backup.
Once you
get past Arodys Vizcaino who himself missed a huge chunk of the season which is
why they had to trade for relievers last deadline only Jonny Venters (who has
had Tommy John surgery three and half times) who they got back last year and
Darren O’Day who was hurt when they got him last year can be considered
reliable meaning both parts of their pitching staff will be thin all year.
The Phillies will definitely be a
division/wild card contender because they made some of the flashiest moves by
getting OFers Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, SS Jean Segura, C JT Realmuto and
closer David Robertson. They did not need to get those two outfielders because
they had a nice core of Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams flanking Odubel Herrera
but now they have to look to trade one of the corner guys.
They never really
never gave JP Crawford a real chance because of their loyalty to Freddy Galvis
or Sean Kingrey but Segura is an upgrade no matter what and they also had a
nice young catcher in Jorge Alfaro who they barely gave a chance to because
they traded for Wilson Ramos at the deadline to start but they both will get a
chance with their new teams. Their rotation is still the same from last year
despite having the reigning CY Young winner/a former one in Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta as they will rely on some combination of young pitchers they have. This
is why they added to their bullpen to cover the shortcomings with their
acquiring Robertson to close, and Juan Nicasio to their core of Tommy Hunter,
Pat Neshek and Hector Neris.
This lineup that now has Rhys Hoskins playing 1B
not the OF after trading Carlos Santana will have to be the reason they make
the playoffs since they added lots of firepower to it because their rotation
will not carry them.
The Mets don’t have the best rotation
anymore in this division but it’s very close when you have Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Steven Matz, Zach Wheeler but it will come down to Jason Vargas
since he had a poor season last year but their rotation is different because it
is younger but it will all hinge on health.
The issues last year were the
bullpen and the inconsistent lineup that really did them in when every time a
starter pitched well it was blown by the bullpen or not enough run support.
They improved the bullpen by trading for Edwin Diaz, bringing back Jeurys Familia, signing Justin Wilson and the minor league deals of Hector Santiago and Luis Avilan. With the offense they traded Jay Bruce away to swap contracts
of 2B Robinson Cano and if he is healthy he as consistent as they come but he
blocks Jeff McNeil’s development/path in the infield and pushes Jed Lowrie who
they signed to 3B which pushed Todd Frazier to 1B. It also pushed Dominic Smith’s chances at 1B to trying for the OF but the outfield is still crowded
despite Bruce being traded because their outfield should be set with Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes with Juan Lagares backing them up.
The other issue is that they traded for OF Keon Broxton, JD Davis who is
another infielder by trade, signed C Wilson Ramos, kept Travis d’Arnaud who
they might want to play at 1B/OF and signed four veteran outfielders to minor
league deals. Mickey Calloway was hired to manage the pitchers but it is going
to be about how he handles the position players if they succeed or if it will
all blow up.
The Marlins did it again
they traded away their best player and let other core players go in trading JT
Realmuto to their rival, cutting Derek Dietrich and trading Kyle Barraclough.
They got Jorge Alfaro back so they should be set at catcher, CF in Lewis Brinson, and SS in JT Riddle but the
rest of the team is out of whack since they still have to pay for Martin Prado who could play 2B or 1B since they announced Brian Anderson will start at 3B
but still have Starlin Castro at 2B.
They also signed Neil Walker to play some
1B/2B as well but have Pete O’Brien at 1B so he then takes playing time from a
few of their younger outfielders if he plays in RF but also signing Curtis Granderson does the same thing when you should
be playing your young guys when you’re in rebuild mode.
Their rotation is still
weak after Jose Urena and veteran Wei-Yin Chen who could
be traded this year plus their bullpen has only has one reliable pitcher in
Sergio Romo who also could be traded.
NL West: This will again be
the Dodgers division to lose despite losing
a good amount of talent and the only major additions were a talented but injury
prone CF in AJ Pollock, bringing C Russell Martin back and setup man Joe Kelly.
As always their rotation will be what holds them back after Clayton Kershaw even if he stays healthy because their whole rotation have all battled injuries
in their career or consistency as the only thing they did was bring back
Hyun-Jin Ryu. Their lineup is still strong despite losing 2B Brian Dozier, C
Yasmani Grandal, SS Manny Machado and outfielders Matt Kemp and Yasiel Puig
because of Cody Bellinger, 3B Justin Turner, OF Joc Pederson and the return of
SS Corey Seager plus adding Pollack and Martin. They didn’t fix the hole at 2B
and still think Bellinger is an outfielder when he is a 1B who learned the
outfield to make the big leagues so they resigned David Freese to platoon with
Max Muncy.
Despite having Kenley Jansen as your closer and adding Kelly to
setup they still have a weak bullpen with only having Tony Cingrani as a
reliable reliever maybe putting back Ross Stripling in the bullpen is the best
course of action despite a thin rotation that traded away Alex Wood too.
The Rockies again will compete for a wild
card spot because of their lineup despite letting OFers, Gerardo Parra, Carlos
Gonzalez and 2B DJ LaMiehu go because they still have 3B Nolan Arenado, SS
Trevor Story, OF Charlie Blackmon, OF Ian Desmond who they are now playing in
CF, OF David Dahl who finally gets a real chance to start and INF Daniel Murphy who they signed to play 1B not 2B.
Despite signing Murphy they will go with
Ryan McMahon at 2B despite him being a 3B who was their opening day 1B last
year so no real replacement at 2B and brought back Mark Reynolds. Their
rotation is talented but young without much track record outside of Jon Gray and Chad Bettis so they will rely on their bullpen that is still strong despite
losing Adam Ottavino because they still have Wade Davis, Mike Dunn, Jake McGee,
Bryan Shaw and Seung Hwan Oh.
The
Diamondbacks made so many moves that it looks like a full on rebuild mode
with 17 players gone but then added players that also look like they are
competing for a wild card spot like trading away their franchise player 1B Paul
Goldschmidt or signing RP Greg Holland and OF Adam Jones. They let two of their
starters go in Patrick Corbin and Shelby Miller plus Taijuan Walker is coming
off Tommy John surgery but didn’t do much to help Zack Greinke and Robbie Ray
except get Luke Weaver back in the Goldschmidt trade which will prevent from
being better then 3rd place when they have three holes not one.
As I
stated earlier Holland is piece you add to your bullpen to help Archie Bradley
after you lose six relievers and having Jones replace AJ Pollock so you don’t
have to play a rotating cast of people there if you’re trying to compete but
this team got worse really quickly compared to last season. They are also
starting two utility players in the infield and pushed Jake Lamb to 1B despite
having actual options at those positions and are not using Matt Andriese in the
rotation despite it being weak.
Their only strength will be their outfield of David Peralta, Jones, Steven Souza and Jarrod Dyson backing them up which
doesn’t make you a playoff team.
The Giants
in their final season of Bruce Bochy as manager have a good chance to finish in
third place due to their own talent but due to the other teams taking a step
back. Their rotation is still led by ace Madison Bumgarner but after that it is
all question marks due to inexperience/proven track record of Dereck Rodriguez among the three they have or injury concerns to their veterans like Johnny Cueto missing the season due to Tommy John surgery and Jeff Samardzija staying
healthy.
They only improvements were by resigning Derek Holland adding Drew Pomeranz who has his own injury concerns. Their lineup will be the reason they
are competitive because it still has C Buster Posey, 1B Brandon Belt, SS
Brandon Crawford, 3B Evan Longoria and 2B Joe Panik.
They no longer have Hunter
Pence or Gorkys Hernandez and Gregor Blanco in their outfield as it is all
young guys in Steven Duggar, Austin Slater, and Mac Williamson to name some
but have insurance in OF Gerardo Parra who they hope have
good spring to risk taking people off the 40 man roster to add him. Despite losing Hunter Strickland they still have a strong bullpen that they
hope stays healthy unlike last year in Mark Melancon, Will Smith, Sam Dyson and
Tony Watson to help the rotation with many questions.
The Padres did it again by signing arguably the best all-around player
on the free agent market despite not having a clear need for them in SS Manny Machado. And like their signing 1B Eric Hosmer last year but will still make
them a last place team. Their #1 prospect is SS Fernando Tatis so Machado would
block him and didn’t use that money to fix the pitching staff or the 3B
situation on a cheaper option like Mike Moustakas but hope he will accept
playing 3B despite wanting to be a SS. The only positive thing is it prevents
them from being dumb enough to play Wil Myers at 3B again as he will stay in
LF to form a good outfield of Manuel Margot in CF and Hunter Renfroe in RF.
The
move that actually made the most sense was signing Ian Kinsler for your infield
defense and solve the top of the order issues since they haven’t had a good 2B
in years or playing a guy out of position. Till Tatis comes up they will play
Luis Urias or Greg Garcia which sounds like a good plan but both of them are
natural 2B. Having one of the best defensive catchers in baseball in Austin Hedges will help because this rotation is the biggest mess since it’s full of
no name youngsters like Jacob Nix and relievers like Craig Stammen they are trying to start which means they
might as well start Adam Warren if they’re just trying anything because the
only addition was Garrett Richards who will most likely not pitch all year
after coming off Tommy John surgery. 