Central: The Tigers and Guardians both made the playoffs last season but it will be the Tigers who win this division. Any time a team has the reigning CY Young award winner in Tarik Skubal who has won it back-back, Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, and they brought back franchise legend Justin Verlander, have a good chance.
Cleveland got lucky Detroit blew the lead but they got better so it will be tougher for them since they still have holes on their team. Outside of LF Steven Kwan at the top and 3B Jose Ramirez with Kyle Manzardo/David Fry at 1B/DH their lineup isn’t good. Their middle infield is good on defense but cannot hit, two-thirds of their outfield is questionable and their catching duo is Bo Naylor who is supposed to hit and Austin Hedges who is good on defense but this combo hasn’t produced.
The Royals were supposed to be a playoff team competing for the championship due to their rotation and young players but injuries and underperforming led them to barely over 500. That should be the reason they compete since their rotation is still Cole Ragans, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha, Kris Bubic and Noah Cameron. Their bullpen is still Carlos Estevez, Lucas Erceg, and they brought back Matt Strahm.
The Twins are lucky they are in the same division as the White Sox or they would have been in last place since they had a fire sale at the deadline essentially trading everyone but CF Byron Buxton, INF Royce Lewis and SPs Pablo Lopez and Joe Ryan.
The White Sox still lost over 100 games but decided to go back to what made them successful which is pitching and defense. Their rotation is led by Shane Smith (All-Star), Sean Burke with Davis Martin who will have another full healthy season, Anthony Kay who is back stateside, and brought back Erick Fedde who was good last time he was there. Also, they are hopefully getting Drew Thorpe and Ky Bush back from injuries. They also decided to get veteran relievers instead of letting inexperienced guys go out there and blow leads; signing Seranthony Dominguez to close, Sean Newcomb, and trading for Jordan Hicks lets Grant Taylor/Jordan Leasure be put in less pressure situations.
East: The Blue Jays went from last place to winning the American League Pennant and they only got better. Their rotation is still top tier as they have Kevin Gausman, Shane Bieber, and Jose Berrios, Max Scherzer, and signed Dylan Cease long term plus Cody Ponce who was overseas/a full season of Trey Yesavage.
The Yankees will try again to live up to their payroll with a stacked lineup of outfielders
Aaron Judge, bringing back Cody Bellinger and Trent Grisham, DH Giancarlo Stanton, infielders Jazz Chizholm Jr, Ryan McMahon, Ben Rice and re-signed Paul Goldschmidt, plus C Austin Wells.
The Red Sox decided to double down on being a playoff team by upgrading their rotation instead of waiting for all the injured pitchers to come back; they signed Ranger Suarez, traded for Sonny Gray/Johan Oviedo to help out All-Star ace Garrett Crochet and Brayan Bello. They extended closer Aroldis Chapman and still have Garrett Whitlock but could improve their bullpen.
Well the Orioles fell to last place leading to their manager being fired and them retooling this team. They signed 1B Pete Alonso, traded for OF Taylor Ward and gave a massive long-term extension to their prospect C Samuel Basallo; traded for Shane Baz, signed Chris Bassitt, Ryan Helsley and re-signed Zach Eflin.
The Rays may finally bottom out as they also trade off valuable assets and don’t do much to fix their talent at the MLB level. They traded away Brandon Lowe, Josh Lowe, Shane Baz and let Peter Fairbanks, Adrian Houser, Christopher Morel leave in free agency.
West: The Mariners almost made the World Series and this year will be no different thanks to their rotation of Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo, George Kirby, Luis Castillo and Bryce Miller plus closer Andres Munoz. Their lineup still boasts C Cal Raleigh who should have won MVP, 1B Josh Naylor, outfielders Julio Rodriguez and Randy Arozarena, and they traded for Brendan Donovan.
The Astros surprisingly missed the playoffs but they were one of the most injured teams in all of baseball. They did lose both Framber Valdez and Luis Garcia to free agency so it will be on Hunter Brown, Christian Javier and Lance McCullers Jr. to shoulder the load but also new pitcher Tatsuya Imai. Their bullpen is still great with Josh Hader and Bryan Abreu.
The Rangers can have a top tier rotation if it stays healthy with Jacob DeGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker plus they trade for MacKenzie Gore. Their bullpen doesn’t have a reliever with much closer experience except Alexis Diaz who hasn’t been good in years.
The A’s keep improving little by little each season by not unloading their best players but instead are locking them up long-term. The core of their lineup is DH Brent Rooker, OF Lawrence Butler, SS Jacob Wilson, 1B Nick Kurtz, 1B/DH/LF Tyler Soderstrom and C Shea Langeliers.
Well the Angels go as OF Mike Trout does and he has not been healthy in a few seasons and now he is moving back to CF where the durability question will come up again.
