Central:
This is the White Sox’s division to lose as they have the most talent in
this division with their offense, top of the rotation and bullpen. They added Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly to add to the core of CL Liam Hendricks, Aaron Bummer and Garrett Crochet.. Their offense again will carry them
as they still have 1B Jose Abreu, 3B Yoan Moncada, C Yasmani Grandal, SS Tim Anderson, LF Eloy Jimenez and CF Luis Robert. The question will be the production
out of 2B/RF as all they did was add the versatile Josh Harrison and AJ Pollack(who has never played rightfield). The top of
the rotation will not be a question with Lance Lynn, Lucas Giolito and Dylan Cease, but the backend will be an issue as they lost Carlos Rodon in free
agency and only added Vincent Velasquez.
The Twins always have a top
offense and this season will not be different as they made a bunch of trades
that resulted in getting C Gary Sanchez, 3B Gio Urshela and then signing SS
Carlos Correa after trading Josh Donaldson to allow them to afford these
players. Those moves help add to the core of 2B Jorge Polanco, INF Luis Arraez,
1B Miguel Sano, CF Byron Buxton and RF Max Kepler. They added three veterans to
their rotation in Sonny Gray, Dylan Bundy and Chris Archer to replace Michael
Pineda, Matt Shoemaker and Kenta Maeda(Tommy John surgery out for most of year),
but that’s them just shuffling the chairs on the Titanic and their bullpen will
hold them back from the playoffs. The Royals might have one of the best
lineups in baseball because of how talented their position players are offensively
and defensively. C Salvador Perez, 1B Carlos Santana, SS Adalberto Mondesi, 3B
Hunter Dozier, DH Ryan O’Hearn, UTL Whit Merrifield for their bats, and
defensively have two gold glovers in outfielders Michael A Taylor and Andrew Benintendi and gold glove caliber INF Nicky Lopez. Their rotation has two up
and coming pitchers in Brady Singer, Kris Bubic, and Zack Greinke there for a reunion
but not much after that, plus their bullpen only has one reliable pitcher in
Amir Garrett who they got for Mike Minor in a trade. The Tigers have in
back to back seasons signed veterans to help their team like this year signing
SS Javy Baez for six years to lead this infield that already has 2B Jonathan Schoop, 1B Miguel Cabrera, 3B Jeimer Candelario, and they traded for gold glove
catcher Tucker Barnhart. They even signed Eduardo Rodriguez for five years to
help this young rotation out that has Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal
and Spencer Turnbull, plus they added Michael Pineda. The questions will be is
how this outfield is aligned as they have five outfielders like Robbie Grossman and Akil Baddoo, plus outside of them picking up Andrew Chafin their bullpen is
led by Michael Fulmer who should be in the rotation not the bullpen. The Guardians of Cleveland are continuing the recent trend of their previous name where
they keep selling off pieces or don’t do much in the offseason to improve their
team. Teams were looking to trade for 3B Jose Ramirez so do not be surprised if
he and DH Franmil Reyes are traded as their outfield is not set with three
centerfielders and the other infield spots are also not set. They let long time
starting catcher Roberto Perez leave and only have backups to replace him, and
their rotation wasn’t the most healthy last season, so unless Shane Bieber,
Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale stay healthy it is going to be a long season. East:
The Rays are not a team you can count on not just making the playoffs
but winning their division as they won 100 games last year. There is some sort
of magic they have with pitching staffs with their openers, bulk guys, and
their magic with the bullpen. Two of their starters in Tyler Glasnow, Yonny Chirinos and their best reliever Nick Anderson will start the year on the
injured list, so they will turn to their pitching depth for both the rotation
and bullpen plus they signed two time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. They have a
great outfield/DH combo of Austin Meadows, Manuel Margot, Kevin Kiermaier and
reigning rookie of the year Randy Arozarena. Their infield has 2B Brandon Lowe,
Yandy Diaz, a rookie of the year runner up in SS Wander Franco, and Mike Zunino
behind the plate. The Blue Jays came to play this season after winning
91 games/just missing the playoffs as they traded for 3B Matt Chapman, OF
Raimel Tapia, signed pitchers Kevin Gausman, Yusei Kikuchi and Yimi Garcia.
Their rotation already had Hyun Jin Ryu, Jose Berrios and Alek Manoah not to
mention Ross Stripling for starting options. By getting Chapman they can shift
Cavan Biggio to 2B where he is more comfortable to form a top infield with SS
Bo Bichette and 1B Vlad Guerrero Jr., plus have a good outfield of George Springer, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Teoscar Hernandez.The Red Sox still
have a great lineup in SS Xander Bogaerts, 3B Rafael Devers, DH JD Martinez, 1B
Bobby Dalbec, and they signed Trevor Story to play 2B. They still have Alex Verdugo, UTL Kike Hernandez, C Christian Vazquez and they brought back Jackie Bradley Jr. for defense. When this rotation is fully healthy it will have Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, James Paxton, Michael Wacha whom they both signed, and
Nick Pivetta plus two young pitchers they developed. Their bullpen will again
be led by Matt Barnes but this time they added a few veterans to help him in
Jake Diekman and Matt Strahm plus resigned Hansel Robles. The Yankees
also have a great lineup in outfielders Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Joey Gallo and Aaron Hicks; infielders Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu, resigning Anthony Rizzo, trading for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner Falefa. The issues that
comes up with who is not going to start with all of this talent and they traded
away Sanchez so they do not have a starting catcher. Their rotation if fully
healthy as well, has Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Jameson Taillon and Domingo German, but that is a big if. Plus that dominant bullpen isn’t what it used to
be with Zack Britton starting off the year hurt and with mostly journeymen
relievers/starters filling the pen alongside closer Aroldis Chapman. The Orioles despite losing over 100 games have some nice pieces on their roster in 1B Trey Mancini, DH Ryan Mountcastle, outfielders Anthony Santander, Cedric Mullins and Austin Hays plus a top prospect in all of baseball in C Adley Rutschman. Their
rotation still has John Means, Dean Kremer and signed Jordan Lyles who most
likely will be traded. Their bullpen, back end of the rotation and the fact they
do not know how their infield will lineup outside of 1B will hold them back to
be a bottom tier team as they only signed Rougned Odor to that infield. West:
This is the Astros division to lose as they have the most talent in this
division and are a proven winner as they keep making the World Series two of
the last three seasons as their offense is still intact with 3B Alex Bregman,
2B Jose Altuve, 1B Yuli Gurriel, DH Yordan Alvarez, outfielders Kyle Tucker and
Michael Brantley. They made some moves to bolster the bullpen by adding Phil Maton, Rafael Montero last year/this year Hector Neris to help Ryan Pressly,
Pedro Baez and Ryne Stanek but isn’t as good as their bullpen used to be. Their
rotation lost Zack Greinke but because of the recent health of this rotation as
Justin Verlander is coming off Tommy John surgery, Lance McCullers isn’t always
healthy they have young pitching depth to rely on in Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Christian Javier and Luis Garcia plus still have veteran Jake Odorizzi.
They still do not have a starting centerfielder after trading Myles Straw last
year and Carlos Correa leaving in free agency leaves a hole at SS because Aledmys Diaz and Niko Goodrum are really backups. 
Central:
The Brewers have one of the best trios at the top of their rotation in
Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and reigning Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and
have a top duo in the bullpen with Josh Hader and Devin Williams. They also
have Brent Suter and Brad Boxberger in the bullpen as well plus Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser are nice back end starters. Their offense is also talented with
outfielders Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, added Andrew McCutchen and Hunter Renfroe. The question will be how their infield is setup outside of Willy Adames at SS, Kolten Wong at 2B, while Luis Urias, Keston Hiura, Mike Brosseau
and Rowdy Tellez will split time at 3B/1B/DH(when Renfroe or McCutchen doesn’t
DH). Adding Pedro Severino to backup offensive catcher Omar Narvaez is good as
he is defensive specialist.
The Cardinals went on a historic run to make
the playoffs last year winning seventeen straight but they will not have to do
that as they have top outfield of Tyler O’Neil, Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson,
added Corey Dickerson and Albert Pujols to DH. Their infield still has Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Paul DeJong, Tommy Edman and Yadier Molina is still
the catcher. Their pitching staff will again be the issue as they will have to
repeat last year’s deadline by getting a few starters because despite having
Jake Flaherty, Miles Mikolas, Adam Wainwright at the top and adding Steven Matzto replace Carlos Martinez the common theme is health as Flahtery, Mikolas,
Matz and Dakota Hudson are coming off injured seasons. Their bullpen is also
taking a hit as their closer Alex Reyes who could also be in the rotation will
start the year on the injured list, Andrew Miller retired and Jordan Hicks is
coming off an injured season as well. The Cubs decided to try to be
competitive this year after trading away all of their core stars from that
World Series team last year by adding Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly, Wade Miley,
Daniel Norris, Mychal Givens, Chris Martin, David Robertson, Jesse Chavez, Robert Gsellman and Steven Brault to the pitching staff. On offense they added C Yan Gomes, INF Jonathan Villar, SS Andrelton Simmons, OF Clint Frazier and Japanese
All-Star outfielder Seiya Suzuki. They still got C Willson Contreras, Ian Happ,
OF Jason Heyward and Kyle Hendricks too but manager David Ross has a hard job
ahead of him on figuring out who is going to play where and who is starting or
relieving. The Reds decided that being close to the playoffs wasn’t good
enough by being in the middle so they had a fire sale of players in Sunny Gray,
Amir Garrett, Wade Miley, OF Jesse Winkler, C Tucker Barnhart, 3B Eugenio
Suarez and let Mychal Givens, Michael Lorenzen, Brad Brach, Sean Doolittle and
Nick Castellanos leave in free agency. Positives are without Suarez, Mike Moustakas can slide over to 3B his actual position, with a DH keep Joey Votto
fresh, still have rookie of the year Jonathan India, added Tommy Pham, Colin Moran, Hunter Strickland and Mike Minor. The biggest issues are they still do
not have a SS, a real centerfielder as Nick Senzel is still an infielder
playing outfield, know who is actually playing RF and is Tyler Stephenson good
enough to be a starting catcher plus pitching depth in the rotation/bullpen.The Pirates are one of the worst teams in baseball as they finally said
goodbye to OF Gregory Polanco signaling the end of that talented outfield of
him, McCutchen and Marte. They do not know is going to be in the outfield
besides Bryan Reynolds whose bad experiment in the centerfield is going on, traded
away their gold glove catcher Jacob Stallings, Moran left and still haven’t
figured out who is the shortstop between Kevin Newman and Cole Tucker. They do
have third base locked up with Ke’Bryan Hayes, two good 1B/DH gap filling
options in Yoshi Tsutsugo and Daniel Vogelbach. They only have two good starters
in Mitch Keller and Jose Quintana who will probably be traded with veteran
relievers Heath Hembree and Duane Underwood Jr.East:
The defending World Series champions Braves did say goodbye to franchise
stalwart 1B Freddie Freeman but traded for and extended Matt Olson for eight
seasons and signed closer Kenley Jansen away from the Dodgers. Their lineup is
still stacked with 3B Austin Riley, C Travis d’Arnaud, 2B Ozzie Albies,
outfielders Adam Duvall, Eddie Rosario, Marcell Ozuna, and the return of Ronald Acuna. The issue will be is they do not have a true centerfielder as all of
their good outfielders are corner guys, so with the new DH rule one of them
will be the DH. They still got a good rotation of Max Fried, Charlie Morton,
Ian Anderson, recently signed Collin McHugh and the return of Mike Soroka.
Outside of Jensen they still got Will Smith, added Tyler Thornburg, Brad Brach,
Darren O’Day, Nick Vincent and the return of Kirby Yates. The Mets have
always spent money on free agents and this offseason wasn’t any different as
they added Max Scherzer, Chris Bassitt through trade, Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Eduardo Escobar, Adam Ottavino, Alex Claudio and Mike Montgomery. The
biggest difference is the last three managers had no experience managing in the
big leagues (Mickey Calloway, Carlos Beltran and Luis Rojas) and Buck Showalter has help built four teams in playoff teams(Rangers, Diamondbacks, Yankees and
Orioles). They will still have a top rotation even with the departure of
Syndergaard because Jacob DeGrom, Scherzer, Carlos Carrasco, Taijaun Walker and
Bassitt give them a top five rotation. Their offense will also be good because
of the DH so Dominic Smith can DH because Pete Alonso is at 1B, Canha/Marte
can flank Brandon Nimmo, but they also can rotate the DH so Jeff McNeil,
Robinson Cano and JD Davis can get at bats. The issue besides where to play
everyone is the bullpen as Edwin Diaz hasn’t been as dominate as he was before,
Trevor May had a down season last year and the rest of bullpen will be former
starters/guys on minor league deals outside of Ottavino. The Phillies are
trying to finally make the playoffs this year after not making it for ten
seasons as they added Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos to play LF/DH to help RF Bryce Harper, 3B Alec Bohm, 1B Rhys Hoskins, C JT Realmtuo, SS Didi Gregorius
and 2B Jean Segura in the lineup. Their rotation still has Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin and Kyle Gibson, but after having one of the worst bullpens
last year they hope by adding Brad Hand, Corey Knebel, Jeurys Familia, Ryan Sherriff to Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez it will make a difference. The
other issue will be who is in CF between Odbuell Herrera who they brought back,
Mickey Moniak and Matt Vierling. The Nationals have fallen on rough
times since their World Series championship in 2019 but they still have Stephen Strasburg, Patrick Corbin, Joe Ross in their rotation, got Josiah Gray in a
trade(last season), added both Anibal and Aaron Sanchez to minor league deals, but the
question will be the health in this rotation. Their bullpen also has been issue
for years but still have Will Harris, brought back Sean Doolittle, signed Steve Cishek and Carl Edwards Jr. to help out. They still got one of the best
offensive players in Juan Soto. The experiment in RF was bad idea, which they
are still going to do without any real reason unlike last season when they had
Schwarber pushing him as they have no set outfield outside of him. Outside of
Josh Bell at 1B, Nelson Cruz at DH they do not have a set infield or catching
situation. They got two top prospects from other teams at catcher, so how are
you going to know who is better when they both need at bats. Maikel Franco, Alcides Escobar and Cesar Hernandez are not the best starting options in the infield. The Marlins saw their CEO/minority owner Derek Jeter leave the franchise
because he didn’t think they wanted to spend money to be competitive. The only
major moves they made were signing Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler to corner
outfielders/DH when they have two first basemen/DH guys already. They did trade
for C Jacob Stallings to replace Jorge Alfro, and Joey Wendle to help out in
the infield despite a set infield of Brian Anderson, Miguel Rojas and Jazz Chisholm. They have some nice young pieces in this rotation with Sandy Alcantara, Pablo Lopez, Sixto Sanchez and Jesus Luzardo, but nothing impactful
in the bullpen and no centerfielder. West:
The Dodgers still have a stacked team even with the losses of Corey Seger,
Kenley Jansen, Max Scherzer, Joe Kelly, Corey Knebel and Matt Beaty because
they signed 1B Freddie Freeman for six seasons, UTL Hanser Alberto, Daniel Hudson, Tyler Anderson and OF Kevin Pillar. Their rotation of Walker Buehler,
Julio Urias, Clayton Kershaw coming back, David Price and Trevor Bauer (whenever
he can play after a suspension that is coming), is one of the best plus Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May(coming off surgery), Andrew Heaney, Danny Duffy, Jimmy Nelson and Anderson as other options. The lineup with the addition of Freeman
make it probably the best in baseball with 3B Justin Turner, Max Muncy, C Will Smith, SS Trea Turner, 2B Gavin Lux, outfielders Cody Bellinger and
Mookie Betts. The only issue which they can solve with some trades is the
bullpen with who will close the games out as only Blake Treinen, Hudson
and Tommy Kahnle coming off surgery have closer experience so they traded away AJ Pollack to get Craig Kimbrel so they have a closer.
The Rockies did lose Jon Gray in free
agency along with SS Trevor Story but still have a rotation of German Marquez,
Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela at the top of the rotation, with Peter Lambert, Austin Gomber and Chad Kuhl as back end guys. They did add Alex Colome to close games hoping it will go better than previous free agent reliever
signings to push Daniel Bard and Carlos Estevez to set up roles. Their lineup
is still stacked as they added Kris Bryant for seven years to anchor the lineup
of 1B CJ Cron, OF Charlie Blackmon, 3B Ryan McMahon, traded for OF Randal Grichuk and added Jose Iglesias to play SS. They do not have a starting
catcher, the signing of Bryant makes the alignment of who goes where difficult
as who is at DH/1B/3B/LF and how bad their outfield defense will be then.
The Diamondbacks will finish in last place for a third straight season as they do not know who
will play 3B/CF/RF as they have two catchers/two first basemen as one will DH
but meaning the other will play the outfield alongside David Peralta. They have
solid players in 2B in Ketel Marte and C Carson Kelly plus SS Nick Ahmed is a gold
glove SS, but outside of those three and Peralta the lineup doesn’t offer much.
Now the rotation still has Madison Bumgarner, Luke Weaver, Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly and they added Zach Davies so they will be in games because of the
rotation and the bullpen also improved. They added Mark Melancon to close, Ian Kennedy, Keone Kela, Kenyan Middleton and Oliver Perez to help out Chris Devenski.
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