Central: This is the worst division in all of baseball so either one of the top three teams could win this division as all three are flawed and the bottom two aren’t trying to win. Cleveland had everything go right for them with 17 rookies making a contribution which was the record for a division winning team. They had career years from infielders Josh Naylor, Andres Gimenez, Amed Rosario and rookie outfielder Steven Kwan who almost won a batting title in his rookie season. It will be hard for all of them to repeat in back to back seasons. They also got healthy seasons from their rotation of Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale, Zach Plesac, Triston McKenzie and Cal Quantrill so that is their strength, plus All-Star closer Emmanuel Clase. However, the top three could miss significant time as they have before. They still have MVP caliber 3B Jose Ramirez as the cog of this team so they helped him out with protection in the lineup with DH Josh Bell, but still have a hole at catcher even with the signing of Mike Zunino as he missed all of last season maybe it is time for Bo Naylor to be given a shot at catcher.
The White Sox have the best roster on paper like they did last year but none of that will matter whomever is the manager. Whether it be Ricky Renteria, Miguel Cairo, Hall of Famer Tony La Russa or new manager Pedro Grifol because they didn’t play up to their the level of talent they have on this roster (I attended too many games so I saw it all) where they didn’t execute on all levels. Even with the departure of franchise stalwart Jose Abreu they still have Andrew Vaughn/Gavin Sheets at 1B which will solve one of the problems last year of playing too many guys out of position (infielders in the outfield). The other issue was health as outfielders Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, catcher Yasmani Grandal, infielders Jake Burger, Yoan Moncada and Tim Anderson, plus pitchers Michael Kopech and Lance Lynn all missed time. If all of the position players are healthy it is a top lineup and now they got the perfect #2 hitter/LF in Andrew Benintendi at the top with Anderson and the upcoming arrival of Oscar Colas as well. The issue will be pitching depth as Dylan Cease, Lucas Giolito cannot support the loss of the previously mentioned pitchers even with the signing of Mike Clevinger who is only two seasons removed from TJ surgery. Finally sending prayers and good health to closer Liam Hendriks who has cancer and they didn’t get a closer to replace him so a committee of Joe Kelly, Kendall Graveman, Jake Diekman and Reynaldo Lopez will have to do.
The Twins again will try out slug every team with the likes of Ofers Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, infielders Jose Miranda, Jorge Polanco, , Carlos Correa and newly signed Joey Gallo. The issue was that Buxton/Kirillof were mostly injured last year(which is why they got Michael Taylor), Gallo is coming off a bad season and they traded away their All-Star/batting champ infielder Luis Arraez for mid-rotation guy in Pablo Lopez. Their pitching staff as a whole is still what will hold them back like last season where they traded for at the deadline as they are relying on Kenta Maeda, Chris Paddack to comeback from their surgeries, injury prone Sonny Gray, Lopez and Tyler Mahle who is more of a back end guy. Their bullpen will be better for the full season since they got Jorge Lopez at last years’ deadline and they still have Emilio Pagan plus hard throwing Jhoan Duran. What really saved them from a lost season was the medical records of Correa not being good enough for two teams so he had to come back to them fill their SS hole and middle of the lineup.
The Royals in spite of them trading away Taylor, Alberto Mondesi and Ryan O’Hearn still have a better team than Detroit as they still have C Salvador Perez, INF Hunter Doizer, 1B Nick Pratto, 1B Vinny Pasquantino, rising star SS Bobby Witt Jr., and MJ Melendez offensively. Franchise stalwart Zack Greinke resigned to form a rotation with youngsters Brady Singer, Kris Bubic and they added veterans Ryan Yarbrough and Jordan Lyles, plus Aroldis Chapman to help Amir Garrett and Scott Barlow in the bullpen.
The Tigers still have some
of the worst hitters statistically in infielders Javy Baez, Jonathan Schoop,
Spencer Torkelson(also Jemier Candalrio who they cut) but let both Harold/Willi
Castro, Victor Reyes and Tucker Barnhart leave. They do not have a third
basemen, still only have backups at catcher, relying on Riley Greene to improve
his hitting after his rookie season,
Akil Baddoo to rebound, Austin Meadows to come back healthy mentally and
physically. They are also banking on their rotation to stay healthy when it is
not as Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal, Spencer Turnbull and Eduardo Rodriguez all
are coming off a season where they were injured or missed most of the season
plus Casey Mize is not going to be ready till the second half. Their two
offseason additions Michael Lorenzen and Matt Boyd both have been injured in
their career plus Boyd used to pitch for them but he was cut two seasons ago
because he was injured which spells trouble for a team without a good bullpen
too. They stupidly traded away their All-Star closer Gregory Soto for three
backups when they didn’t need to so just stay tuned for milestone watch for
Miguel Cabrera as it will be his last season.
East: The Yankees will still be on top of this division/the AL but will never win a World Series because they have all of their money tied up in too many position players like OF Giancarlo Stanton, 1B Anthony Rizzo, 3B Josh Donaldson and OF Aaron Judge(who is owed 360 Million) and SP Gerrit Cole. Their whole entire rotation outside of Cole like newly signed Carlos Rodon, Luis Severino, Frankie Montas, Domingo German and Nestor Cortes Jr. all are currently injured or have been injured in the past. Their bullpen hasn’t been what it used to be when they had two or more closers at once with journeymen Clay Holmes as the closer and converted starter Jonathan Loaisiga as their top two options which are not great. They have a natural born catcher IKF playing SS but not the two young shortstops they have who are playing LF, they have DJ LeMahieu a gold glove 2B playing 3B because Gleyber Torres a SS is at 2B, will probably play Stanton in RF which will push Judge to LF to get Donaldson in the lineup, and don’t have a starting catcher yes he won a gold glove but is a career backup who can’t hit but only fits on a team full of sluggers. The only positive position player for this team is Harrison Bader a gold glove CF who will prevent Judge from ever playing CF.
The Rays seem to pull pitching out of thin air every year with their no name pitching staff full of openers, bulk guys, middle relief, long relief and even using their closer in the most crucial situation not just the 9th inning but will not win it all without an ace since Tyler Glasnow is hurt again. What was interesting was they signed Zach Eflin to a three year deal to the highest amount they ever signed a pitcher when he has never been fully healthy but because they use no-name pitchers on the cheap as their strategy. They traded away Ji-Man Choi one of their only home run threats and let David Peralta go in free agency leaving 3B Yandy Diaz, OF Randy Arozarena, and two often injured infielders Brandon Lowe and Wander Franco as the only offensive threats. They will be relying on two backup catchers to platoon this year, no starting 3B and this will also be the first year without franchise stalwart Kevin Kiermier who has left leaving the job to Jose Siri/Manuel Margot.
The Blue Jays will try to keep being a postseason regular just to get past the first round and hope the return of their original ace Hyu Jin Ryu to bolster the rotation of Kevin Gausman, Alek Manoah, Jose Berrios, Yusei Kikuchi and the addition of Chris Bassitt will help. They also added Brandon Belt to the lineup to DH to help 1B Vlad Gurrero Jr, OF George Springer, 3B Matt Chapman and SS Bo Bichette in the middle, but more importantly they revamped their outfield alignment. They added gold glove CF Kevin Kiermaier to finally push Springer to RF as he never stays healthy, acquired Dalton Varsho to play LF (so no more CF for him) and in that shuffle they traded away Lourdes Gurriel and Teoscar Hernandez. They might actually also play Whit Merrifield at 2B his natural position instead of wasting time with him in the outfield but still have two starting catchers in Danny Jansen/Alejandro Kirk so they will probably split the playing time equally and still have Jordan Romano to close games out.
The Red Sox cannot be as bad as they were last year as they improved the team by getting two closers in Kenley Jansen, Chris Martin, LHP Richard Bleier, Justin Turner to replace JD Martinez at DH, and signed Corey Kluber to their rotation to help Chris Sale, Nick Pivetta, Garrett Whitlock and James Paxton. They also brought in Japanese import Masataka Yoshida to play LF, but counteract that move by signing Adam Duvall to play CF when he is poor defensive 3B who is passable in the outfield instead of keeping Kike Hernandez in CF or shifting Alex Verdugo to CF. They lost SS Xander Bogarts in free agency but then Trevor Story who they signed last year to be his replacement had TJ surgery, so no timetable for his return so they traded for Adalberto Mondesi who hasn’t been healthy in years/will use a combination of Yu Chang/Hernandez/Christian Arroyo in the middle infield. They do not have a starting catcher after trading Christian Vazquez but will be turning over 1B full time over to Triston Casas essentially giving up on Bobby Delbec who will backup 3B Rafael Devers.
The Orioles
surprised everyone by winning 83 games and not finishing in last place but
will not repeat that. The positives are that Adley Rutschman in his rookie
season showed he is already a top catcher in baseball, added Adam Frazier so
they have an actual starter over there to form a good middle infield with Jorge Mateo and the potential of 3B Gunnar Henderson in his first full season. They also
have a good outfield of All-Star CF Cedric Mullins, Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander and still have1B Ryan Mountcastle.
Their rotation though is thin after Dean Kremer and the return of John Means from TJ surgery even with the addition of Kyle Gibson plus their bullpen
is weak as well.
West: The Astros are the defending World Series Champions and that might stay the same as they are the best team in the AL in spite of losing some key players because they seem to always find a way to fill in the missing talent from within or with a good signing/trade. Justin Verlander, Yuli Gurriel, Christian Vazquez, Will Smith and Jason Castro are gone but signed Jose Abreu to be their 1B and bat in the middle of the lineup. They already had a five man rotation in place with Lance McCullers, Framber Valdez, Jose Urquidy, Luis Garcia and Christian Javier so they will be able to overcome Verlander leaving despite him being the reigning Cy Young award winner. The lineup which now has Abreu still has 2B Jose Altuve, 3B Alex Bregman, DH Yordan Alvarez, OF Michael Brantley, OF Kyle Tucker and ALCS/WS MVP SS Jeremy Pena. They still have three guys in CF but no real option and the hitless Martin Maldonado behind the plate which only this team can get away with having two holes in the lineup and still have a good bullpen of Ryan Pressly, Hector Neris, Phil Maton, Rafael Montero and Ryne Stanek.
The Mariners finally broke the longest playoff drought due the arrival of rookie of the year superstar CF Julio Rodriguez and getting Luis Castillo to lead the rotation at the deadline. Castillo pushes everyone down a spot like Marco Gonzales, Robbie Ray and youngsters George Kirby and Logan Gilbert, but the bullpen is still an issue without a lockdown closer as it is filled with failed starters with only Diego Castillo being scary. They finally found their catcher as Cal Raleigh who had a breakout season with 27 hrs and 1B Ty France finally got to stay at one position as he made the All-Star team. They still have Eugenio Suarez in the middle, swapped out Jesse Winkler for Teoscar Hernandez and traded for Kolton Wong to fill the 2B hole/top of the lineup with SS JP Crawford. The issue is they let franchise stalwart Mitch Haniger leave and have a whole in LF that they will try with stable of guys who need to prove it like Jarred Kelenic, Taylor Trammel, Cooper Hummel(a catcher) utility guys Sam Haggerty/Dylan Moore and AJ Pollack.
The Rangers made a bunch of moves last year but flopped which resulted in the manager being fired, so fast forward to this offseason where they also made big moves like getting future hall of famer manager Bruce Bochy and signing real aces in Jacob DeGrom and Nathan Eovaldi. Those two add to Martin Perez, Jon Gray, Dane Dunning and they added Andrew Heaney and Jake Odorizzi as well to make a deep rotation. They even added two closers in Will Smith and Ian Kennedy to the bullpen. Last season they added both SS Corey Seager, 2B Marcus Semien so the middle infield is set and 1B Nate Lowe had a breakout season winning a silver slugger. They still have Adolis Garcia to solidify one outfield spot, Mitch Garver behind the plate and will get a full rookie season of their top prospect Josh Jung at 3B. Their issue will be the health of their rotation which is why they got so many guys so they can go nine deep; can Garver be healthy enough to catch plus can CF Leody Tavares stay healthy or will Garcia have to play CF plus LF/DH is wide open between youngster Bubba Thompson, utility guys/backups or Robbie Grossman?
The Angels have two generational players in DH/P Shohei Ohtani and CF Mike Trout but two players can’t win you it all which has been the issue all along for them. Instead of investing in the pitching staff to ease the burn of Ohtani all they did was sign a journeymen pitcher in Tyler Anderson to the rotation and have no closer- that is a bad sign. They are still paying 3B Anthony Rendon and INF David Fletcher a lot of money when both have not been so healthy, so they added INF Brandon Drury and INF Gio Urshela as insurance but both could see time at SS since Luis Rengifo who had a breakout season only has 50+ games at SS, so it’s a mess. Their 1B Jared Walsh had a underwhelming season after a breakout season and Tyler Ward a catcher who had a good 1st half but cooled off and missed time with injury is their LF. With Kurt Suzuki retired they have no catcher and instead of giving Mickey Moniak/Jo Adell opportunities they traded for OF Hunter Renfoe who is an underrated outfielder when it comes to throwing runners out and hits 25-30 homeruns a year.
The A’s are one of the teams who are not trying to win as they traded their franchise catcher Sean Murphy to the Braves, traded Lou Trevino/Frankie Montas at the deadline last year to the Yankees, traded AJ Puk, Stephen Vogt retired and Chad Pinder and Stephen Piscotty are gone. They have two quality starters in James Kaprielian and Paul Blackburn but they will probably be gone this season, one veteran reliever in Trevor May who also should get traded, added 1B Jesus Aguilar, INF Aledmys Diaz, UTL Jace Peterson and INF Tyler Wade for the infield but all could be traded too. They have an outfield of Seth Brown and Ramon Laureano plus will start one of the best prospects in baseball fulltime at catcher in Shea Langeliers with professional backup Manny Pina.
Central: The Cardinals seem to pull players out of their hat either through the minor leagues or free agency/trade to fill in the holes they have which is what they do all the time. They did this again by signing Willson Contreras away from the Cubs to fill the catching hole for five years after Yadi Molina retired. Contreras joins a good lineup that as the reigning NL MVP 1B Paul Goldschmidt and third place finisher 3B Nolan Arenado to form one of the best two-way corner infields plus OF Tyler O’Neil who is looking to rebound after a down year. The issue is they traded away their gold glove CF in Harrison Bader and started shifting O’Neil to CF instead of Dylan Carlson who has filled in there with more career innings which would allow O’Neil to rebound without thinking about defense. Youngsters Lars Nootbaar, Brendan Donovan, Nolan Gorman and Juan Yepez will fill in the holes between RF, 2B and DH to fill out this lineup. Other defensive issues will be who is at SS as Paul DeJong forgot how to hit and Tommy Edman who is great at the top of the lineup is better suited for 2B. Their rotation is the biggest question mark because of how fragile it is with Jack Flaherty not being fully healthy in a few years, same goes for Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz, Adam Wainwright at age 41, so the Bader traded helped in them getting Jordan Montgomery as he has been a good surprise. Lastly their bullpen lost Alex Reyes and unsure what is going on with Jordan Hicks/Dakota Hudson who both have been starters and relievers as a Genesis Cabrera/Ryan Helsley/Giovanny Gallegos as a bullpen doesn’t scare anyone.
The Brewers were one of the most disappointing teams last year as they had a division lead and blew it where they missed the playoffs in spite of having one of the best rotations in baseball led by Brandon Woodruff, former CY Young award winner Corbin Burnes, and Freddy Peralta, plus they added Wade Miley one of the best back end starters for a rotation that goes 7 deep. Their bullpen isn’t as deep as it was with the trade of Josh Hader at the deadline but Devin Williams is more than capable of being the closer just not much after him. They improved at the catching position as they acquired William Contreras coming off an All-Star year plus have Victor Caratani as one of the backups. The biggest question is what happened to former MVP/gold glover/silver slugger/batting champ OF Christian Yelich. He has been missing for a few seasons and his supporting cast in the outfield isn’t spectacular as Tyrone Taylor cannot hit, Garrett Mitchell is an unknown, Jesse Winker who they got in a trade is more of a DH, and Brian Anderson has no business playing the outfield like he did in Miami -let the man play 3B. They got worse by trading away Kolton Wong and replacing him with Luis Urias who hasn’t been super healthy/lived up to his potential, plus Abraham Toro isn’t a 2B and still got Keston Hiura wasting space on the roster. On paper their lineup has a good middle with Yelich, Winker, Anderson and Rowdy Tellez, but they also kept batting Yelich leadoff when Willy Adames has been good at the top.
The Cubs again will be in the middle as the top two teams are good and the bottom two teams are not trying to win. The Cubs at least are trying to win. This offseason they added starter Jameson Taillon, relivers Brad Boxberger, Michael Fulmer, C Tucker Barnhart, 1Bs Eric Hosmer, Trey Mancini, SS Dansby Swanson, and OF Cody Bellinger to their team. Their rotation has improved in recent years with Taillon, Marcus Stroman, Drew Smyly last year, and Kyle Hendricks is still there. Having Fulmer, Boxberger as the veterans in the bullpen make it competent but not great as most of the experience is on MILB deals. All-Star Ian Happ leads this lineup with Seiya Suzuki but Bellinger has never been a real CF but also he hasn’t been good in years, and adding Hosmer/Mancini shores up 1B/DH which adds some veteran presence to the team. Signing Swanson who was the star player they got pushed Nico Hoerner to 2B which leaves three guys to be on the bench instead since they also got another former Dodger in Edwin Rios to play 3B- a real 3B unlike the last few years.
The Reds last year tore down most of their team which resulted in them finishing in a tie for last place but this year they will be better as their rotation is a young up and coming staff led by Hunter Greene, with Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, Justin Dunn, Luis Cessa, and signed Luke Weaver who will be on a team that will actually start him but the bullpen is questionable. The lineup still has franchise stalwart 1B Joey Votto, former rookie of the year 2B Jonathan India, brought in Wil Myers to play RF or DH but should just DH, and still are playing talented Nick Senzel in CF when he cannot stay healthy/isn’t an outfielder when he could just play 3B or LF. They don’t have a set guy at 3B, between utility guys like and young player Spencer Steer, the rest of the outfield is all backups who can field their position but haven’t hit in the majors so one of them should be in CF. The best news is they finally realized that playing non shortstops at SS is a bad idea so they traded for their divisional rival’s former SS Kevin Newman and will have him compete with Jose Barrero.
The Pirates still don’t
seem to be trying as they should have already traded their All-Star outfielder
Bryan Reynolds who doesn’t want to be there plus it’s been proven he is not a
CF when they could play Jack Suwinski or four other guys there. They went and
got three 1B(Carlos Santana, Ji-Man Choi and Connor Joe) which doesn’t make
sense because only one can play at 1B so another will DH and looks like another
in LF. They brought back former franchise stalwart Andrew McCutchen to play RF
when he should DH. They have one of the best young duos on the left side in
Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz but do not have a clear starter at 2B or at
catcher. They thought adding Vincent Velazquez who lost his spot last season
and Rich Hill who is 43 years old would help out Mitch Keller which isn’t going to do much except
potentially give them trade options but have breakout reliever David Bednar who
made the All-Star team, but still are wasting time with Wil Crowe in the
bullpen not the rotation.
East: You have the reigning NL pennant winners in the Phillies, the 2021 World Series champion Braves, and the Mets who 101 games last year just like the Braves so anyone of these teams could win this division. The Mets keep spending money with current owner Steven Cohen this time resigning CF/leadoff hitter Brandon Nimmo, closer Edwin Diaz, Adam Ottavino, signed the reigning CY Young winner Justin Verlander, other pitchers Jose Quintana, Japanese import Kodai Senga, reliever David Robertson, OF Tommy Pham and catcher Omar Narvaez. They still have an impressive lineup with Nimmo at the top, reigning batting champ 2B Jeff McNeil, 1B Pete Alonso, OFers Mark Canha, Starling Marte, DH Daniel Vogelbach, and eventually youngsters Mark Vientos and Brett Baty. Verlander, Quintana, Senga join Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco to form a good rotation but all are a question mark due to their injury past. With Diaz hurting his knee in the WBC it is a good thing they brought back Ottavino, Tommy Hunter, and bringing in Robertson who used to be a top closer because they are going to need someone to step up.
The Braves are still a top team due to their lineup of RF Ronald Acuna, 3B Austin Riley, 2B Ozzie Albies, 1B Matt Olson, LF Eddie Rosario, DH Marcell Ozuna, and reigning rookie of the year CF Michael Harris. Their biggest off season addition was at catcher in spite of both of their catchers Travis d’Arnaud/William Contreras both making the All-Star team they traded for A’s catcher Sean Murphy but it cost them their #1 and #16 prospect. Their pitching staff still has Max Fried, Charlie Morton, 21-game winner Kyle Wright, and rookie of the year runner up Spencer Strider, plus got Raisel Iglesias at last year’s trade deadline and Kirby Yates to lead the bullpen. They did lose Dansby Swanson in free agency so they will turn that position over to youngster Vaughn Grissom so that will be their only question mark.
The Phillies can only do so much to improve on last year’s result on losing in the World Series but decided they could do better by signing SS Trea Turner for 11 years to fill the SS hole plus be their leadoff hitter. The lineup will have to have to manage until RF Bryce Harper comes back in the second half due to elbow surgery so the pressure will be on Ofers Nick Castellanos, Kyle Schwarber, infielders Alec Bohm, Rhys Hoskins, and the best catcher in baseball in JT Realmuto plus Turner. Their pitching staff still has Aaron Nola, Zach Wheeler, Ranger Suarez, but lost three of their starters and only added Taijuan Walker, but at least tried to fix their bullpen which has been an issue for years. They signed Matt Strahm, Craig Kimbrel, and traded for Gregory Soto to pair with Jose Alvarado and Seranthony Dominguez.
The Marlins are lucky that Washington is worse than them so they don’t have to finish in last place for awhile as they have a good lineup centered around All-Stars Jazz Chisholm, 1B Garrett Cooper, newly acquired INF Luis Arraez, OFers Avi Garcia and Jorge Soler. They still have the reigning CY Young award winner in Sandy Alcantara leading this rotation but traded away Pablo Lopez to get Arraez but still have Trevor Rogers, youngsters Jesus Luzardo, Sixto Sanchez, and brought in veteran Johnny Cuteo, but their bullpen is a work in progress as swapping in Matt Barnes for Richard Bleier when he hasn’t been good in years is a downgrade. New manager Skip Schumaker is going to have a lot on his plate with them getting INF Jean Segura and Arraez because instead of having Chisholm play his natural position SS or 2B he will play CF which benches young players/ makes a horrible outfield of Soler/Garcia in corners with him in CF. Also instead of Segura playing SS he is playing 3B, Arraez is playing 2B even though he isn’t good defensively and glorified utility player Joey Wendle at SS when he isn’t one plus they traded Miguel Rojas because of too many people for only a few spots.
The
Nationals have fallen on hard times
since they won the World Series in 2019, Harper/Rendon/Turner/Scherzer/Soto all
have left this franchise for example but Stephen Strasburg is still there but
seems to never be healthy again, and still have Patrick Corbin who also hasn’t
been so healthy. Their infield is all young in CJ Abrams(from the Padres) and
Luis Garcia but have a hole at 3B which is why it could be Jeter Downs, Jeimer Candelario, or Carter Kieboom, but have a young stud behind the plate in
Keibert Ruiz (from the Dodgers) locked up for awhile. Their outfield is a mess
with glove first Victor Robles in CF, with either inexperienced or backup
outfielders. They signed veterans OF Corey Dickerson and 1B Dominic Smith to give the
lineup some power to help 1B Joey Meneses. Their pitching staff is a mess because
of Starsburg/Cobin not being healthy with Cade Cavalli going to have TJ surgery
and only brought in veteran Trevor Williams, plus the bullpen is bad unless
veterans Alex Colome, Sean Doolittle and Wily Peralta make the team.
West: The Dodgers continue to be a top tier team with the farm system and the money to spend for a long time as they are led by OF Mookie Betts, 1B Freddie Freeman, C Will Smith, 3B Max Muncy, and they signed OF David Peralta and DH JD Martinez for this lineup. Clayton Kershaw resigned to lead the rotation of Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May who is coming back from injury, and signed Noah Syndergaard, plus they will get back Walker Buehler at some point during the season. The bullpen will be a question for them like always as Daniel Hudson is always injured, same for Blake Treinen who is out for awhile, and they did sign Alex Reyes but he missed all of last season from shoulder surgery so will have to make a trade at the deadline again. They lost both Turners (Trea & Justin), Cody Bellinger in free agency, and INF Gavin Lux tore his ACL in spring training as he is out for the year, so the middle infield will be INF Miguel Rojas who they traded for and UTL Chris Taylor.
The Padres appear to be assembling a super team, last year when they got OF Juan Soto at the deadline and this offseason signing SS Xander Bogaerts to an 11 year deal plus extended Manny Machado for 11 years as well. Now Fernando Tatis Jr who is coming back from suspension/injury will have to play the outfield which they tried before because he is under contract for another 12 years. The lineup is stacked with Soto, Tatis Jr, Machado, Bogarts, INF Jake Cronenworth who is now playing 1B, INF Ha-Seong Kim, and their new DH Nelson Cruz. Their rotation is still solid with Yu Darvish who they also locked up for awhile, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell, but the backend is the question with Michael Wacha/Seth Lugo/Nick Martinez/Ryan Weathers. They even have an All-Star closer on this team as they traded for Josh Hader at the deadline last year where he will have a healthy Drew Pomeranz to set up for him.
Well the Giants fell back to earth after a 100 win season as they finished .500 with their roster largely the same with Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Anthony DeSclafani and Alex Wood still in the rotation. They did add Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling to beef up the backend of the rotation and signed Tyler Rodgers to pair with his identical twin Taylor Rogers to close out games. SS Brandon Crawford is still around as Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt left in free agency, and added OFers Mitch Hangier and Michael Conforto to the lineup so that Joc Pederson can DH full time. The issue will be who plays the corner infield between Wilmer Flores, JD Davis, David Villar and OF LaMonte Wade Jr.
The Diamondbacks still have a strong rotation of Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Madison Bumgarner and resigned Zach Davies, plus their bullpen is still led by Mark Melancon, Joe Mantiply and brought Andrew Chafin in for a reunion. The lineup will be different this season as they brought in 3B Evan Longoria, OF Lourdes Gurriel Jr, OF Kyle Lewis to help out 2B Ketel Marte, 1B Chrisitan Walker, C Carson Kelly and 1B Pavin Smith. They also get a full season from young OFers Alek Thomas and Corbin Carroll (who they locked up for awhile) in the outfield plus get back gold glove SS Nick Ahmed from injury.
The Rockies will
always be a good team offensively with the likes of 1B CJ Cron, OFers Kris Bryant,
Randal Grichuk, Charlie Blackmon and 3B Ryan McMahon, plus they signed INF Mike Moustakas to MILB deal. The question will always be pitching as it is still
German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela at the top but the latter is coming off an
ACL tear, and the rest of the rotation isn’t that reliable as it is mostly
other team’s retreads or their own inconsistent ones like Kyle Freeland or Jose Urena. Their bullpen still has Daniel Bard closing games and signed Brad Hand,
but the big pickup was getting Brent Sutter from the Brewers as he has been a
good setup man. The other issues are they don’t have a catcher, don’t have a
SS, and let Garrett Hampson leave in free agency. It also looks like 2B Brendan Rogers might miss the whole season so there is a hole at 2B and Yonathan Daza
isn’t a starting outfielder in this league.
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