The White Sox did many things this offseason to spark buzz around them being a playoff contender which is what their ceiling is if the starting rotation lives up to its potential. Lucas Giolito broke out last year, they added Dallas Keuchel and Gio Gonzalez plus they get back Carlos Rodon. That can be a dynamic rotation with either Dylan Cease or Reynaldo Lopez being your fifth starter.
They also added to their offense which has been their issue for a while by adding DH Edwin Encarnacion, C Yasmani Grandal and RF Nomar Mazara to their lineup, plus get a full season of LF Eloy Jimenez. They already had the AL batting champ in SS Tim Anderson, the AL RBI champ in 1B Jose Abreu, and 3B Yoan Moncada who broke out last year.
This might be one of the best lineups in baseball and that is without even adding two of the best prospects in baseball who can be dynamic as well in CF Luis Roberts and 2B Nick Madrigal. What will hold them back is the bullpen, the rotation being inconsistent/healthy as many have had TJ surgeries in their histories, and the incompetence of manager Rick Renteria not knowing what to do with a stacked lineup.
The Royals again will be a bad team in rebuild mode so expect another season close to 100 games lost due to having a bad pitching staff as a whole. Their best pitcher Danny Duffy has been unable to stay healthy the past few seasons and they have no real bullpen.
The only promising things on this team is them getting C Salvador Perez back for a full season, the improvements they got from INF Hunter Dozier , SS Adalberto Mondesi, and OF Jorge Soler. They again will play one of their best players out of position in Whit Merrifield and now Dozier both in the outfield with an aging LF Alex Gordon who they brought back. Look for them to be the worst defensive outfield in baseball.
AL East:
They still have one of the best bullpens in baseball to shorten games for their pitching staff with Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino and Tommy Kahnle to throw at you. That will help their weak rotation that lost Luis Severino for the season again to TJ surgery, CC Sabathia to retirement, Domingo German to suspension, and James Paxton to back surgery. They did sign the best pitcher on the market in Gerrit Cole but even he can’t make up for all these injuries especially because of the injury history of JA Happ and Masahiro Tanaka. You have to give credit to Aaron Boone who guided them to over 100 wins last year despite all of the injuries they had last year, so if their rotation and starting outfield miss time again he will be able to guide this team back to the playoffs.
The Rayshave won 90+ games back to back years but this year might be the year they will go further in the playoffs due to the strength of their rotation and their organizational depth. They made changes to their outfield depth by swapping right fielders this offseason by trading Tommy Pham for Hunter Renfroe, got two outfielders from the Cardinals including Jose Martinez, made a separate trade for another Padres outfielder in Manuel Margot, and signed Japanese All-Star outfielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugo to pair with Kevin Kiermaier and Austin Meadows.
They still have one of the deepest pitching staffs that run nine starters deep led by Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow (whom both missed time to due to injuries last year) and Charlie Morton. While their bullpen is unnamed you will learn their names this season as it is led by young flamethrowers Jose Alvarado and Diego Castillo. Besides from having a deep outfield/DH rotation their infield is also deep in having guys who can play all over the infield like with both Lowe brothers (Nate & Brandon), Yandy Diaz, Joey Wendle and their young staring shortstop Willy Adames.
The Red Sox again will be a competitive team that comes up short for the playoffs because they again shed more talent from their team like last year. They traded Mookie Betts, David Price away, let Brock Holt, Rick Porcello and Andrew Cashner leave in free agency and have lost Chris Sale for the season due to TJ surgery. Their rotation was very thin before the Sale news because Eduardo Rodriguez, Nathan Eovaldi and their offseason signings of Martin Perez and Collin McHugh have all battled injuries in their careers or TJ surgeries. Normally you would rely on your bullpen if your rotation is thin/fragile but again they did nothing to fix their bullpen and again will go without a real closer/any depth in their bullpen.
Their young talent will only get better as some are in their second seasons like infielders Vlad Guerrero Jr, Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Rowdy Tellez, C Danny Jansen, and other young players like Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Teoscar Hernandez. They do have a log jam in the infield which pushes Brandon Drury to the bench but that is why they let Freddy Galvis, Devon Travis, Justin Smoak and Richard Urena leave the team, but then they signed Travis Shaw to play 1B which only compounds the issue. That is why Gurriel Jr is in the outfield despite being a shortstop by trade but their outfield is also logged jam with four other outfielders who aren’t Randal Grichuk, who is the only guaranteed outfielder to play every day. They still have one of the best closers in Ken Giles who everyone was surprised that he wasn’t traded last deadline or this offseason but since they will not be a playoff team but look for him and other veterans to be offloaded to help this rebuild.
The Orioleswill again be one of the worst teams in baseball that will lose over 100 games due their lack of a pitching staff as a whole and many holes in their lineup too. They traded their only good starter in Dylan Bundy in the offseason and only added rejected starters in Wade LeBlanc, Tommy Milone to name some to their rotation of Alex Cobb and John Means, plus they have no bullpen outside of Mychal Givens who had an ERA of 4.50 last year which isn’t encouraging.
They still are planning on playing their best player Trey Mancini in RF again despite his being a 1B who was only playing LF before last year due to having Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis on the roster, but Trumbo last year missed the season and is no longer on the team.. They have five natural born outfielders on their roster with three capable of playing centerfield and Anthony Santandershowing promise who should be in RF as it is his natural position. They also have no set starting 3B, DH, or 2B but at least they took the SS position seriously as they signed Jose Iglesias when last year they have five guys lineup there. They are also wasting their time with career back catcher Pedro Severino instead of letting their young guys in Austin Wynns or Chance Siscoplay.
AL West:
The cheating scandal, losing Gerrit Cole, Will Harris, Colin McHugh, Hector Rondon, Robinson Chirinos, Jake Marisnick, their manager and general manager but those things will not stop the Astros from being the best team in the AL/one of the most talented teams in all of baseball. They still have Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, and the return of Lance McCullers from TJ surgery in their rotation and still have a good bullpen with Roberto Osuna, Ryan Presslyand Chris Devenski.
The Athletics again will be a wild card team due to their lineup that centers around their infield of Marcus Semien, Matt Olson and Matt Chapman. They also are going all in on their prospects at 2B and catcher after they ended the season with Sean Murphy as their starter at catcher while trading away Jurickson Profar after a failed season, and will go with Franklin Barreto which is what they should have done last year. They also are giving 1B Mark Canha the starting left field job after the dumb idea for seasons of him playing center field because of injury to get his bat in the lineup and playing others who cannot hit.
Their bullpen is also a strength with Liam Hendricks, Joakim Soria, Jake Diekman, TJ McFarland and Yusmeiro Petit which will help their weak rotation. Most of their rotation has battled injuries or TJ surgeries in Sean Manaea, Jesus Lazardo, AJ Puk, Daniel Gossett and Frankie Montas, plus Mike Fiers is no ace. The reason it didn’t hurt them last year when not having a good rotation/healthy was because of their offense. It was also their GM making trades for starters that was holding them back from advancing past the wild card round every year.
Their offense will not have to carry them this year like last year because of their improved pitching staff but they still have Joey Gallo, Rougned Odor, Shin-Soo Choo, brought in Todd Frazier and brought Robinson Chirinos back. With Delino DeShields and Nomar Mazara traded away it will give Willie Calhoun a full time job but I don’t get the Danny Santana in CF instead of trying Calhoun in CF for his bat. The hope is also no more Gallo in CF with him being the RF, but Choo is the actual natural born outfielder so I would swap or rotate them. They hope that the signings of Sam Travis, Greg Bird and Blake Swihart to minor league deals will push 1B Ronald Guzman, who has not lived up to his potential.
The Angels did it again, they signed the best position player on the market instead of signing the best pitcher or one of the best as they signed 3B Anthony Rendon for seven years to slide into the lineup between CF Mike Trout, DH Shohei Ohtani and 1B Albert Pujols. They did have a hole at 3B because of their playing Zack Cozart out of position the past few seasons where he missed most of that time. They technically had a hole there but their offense isn’t the issue even after they let RF Kole Calhoun leave in free agency. They have contingency plans in having a top prospect in Joe Adell ready to take over in RF plus have David Fletcher/Luis Rengifo who could have played 3B.
Their thin rotation is what held them back last year due to Matt Harvey, Trevor Cahill not working out, Otani being out for the year due to TJ surgery and they tragically lost Tyler Skaggs leaving them with only Andrew Heaney. They basically used the bargain bin for acquiring Julio Teheran, Matt Andriese and Dylan Bundy for their rotation, but did nothing to help the bullpen which is what will hold them back again this year. They did improve their catching situation though after cycling through five catchers last year, they signed a steady veteran in Jason Castro.
The Mariners are again going to be a last place team in rebuild mode but this time they actually know it heading into the season unlike last year where they it took them most of the season to realize it. They do not have an excess of veterans to unload that have no place on the roster like last year except Dee Gordon, so they are actually going to give some of their young players the chance to play. SS JP Crawford, 1B Evan White, 2B Shed Long, outfielders Kyle Lewis and Jake Farley will get a full season’s worth of at bats around DH Daniel Vogelbach, CF Mallex Smith, RF Mitch Haniger when he is healthy, and 3B Kyle Seager.
Their pitching staff again will not be something they can rely on as they used the bargain bin on getting Taijuan Walker, Kendall Graveman, Carl Edwards Jr, and Yoshihisa Hirano to fill holes. Their best pitcher might be Justus Sheffield one of their best pitching prospect but he had an almost six ERA last year which does not bode well but they need to let their young starters pitch instead of the rejects.
NL Central:
The thing that will hold them back will be their starting rotation because they traded away Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, let Gio Gonzalez, Junior Guerra and Jordan Lyles leave in free agency this offseason. All they did was bring in veteran Brett Anderson, signed Josh Lindblom who was overseas for three seasons after failing over here, and got Eric Lauer as a throw in to pair with Brandon Woodruff and other in-house candidates. The bullpen will have to carry the load which you do not want after Corey Knebel missed all of last year and you do not want to overwork Josh Hader too. Usually having a good catcher on defense/on the receiving end would help this bad rotation but they lost Yasmani Grandal to free agency and didn’t get a good catcher to replace him.
Their offense had to carry them the past few seasons but shouldn’t feel they need to carry the load this year even with the loss of outfielders Jose Martinez and Marcell Ozuna, they still have enough offense. They have a good core centered around 1B Paul Goldschmidt, 3B Matt Carpenter, C Yadier Molina and SS Paul DeJong leading the offense, plus they can give OF Tyler O’Neil a full chance to show what he can do offensively.
They lost Cole Hamels, Pedro Strop, Brandon Kintzler and Steve Cishek to their pitching staff but did not do anything to replace Hamels, they will just go back to Tyler Chatwood which is not good. They do at least have a real closer to start the season unlike last year before they locked up Craig Kimbrel and brought in Jeremy Jeffress and Ryan Tepera, so they at least tried to fill the holes in the bullpen.
The issue will be that they did add to their offense by signing Mike Moustakas to play 2B but he is not a second basemen and signed Nick Castellanos to play RF despite him not being an outfielder to pair with 3B Eugenio Suarez and 1B Joey Votto. The issue is that it blocks Nick Senzel from moving back to 2B because he is not an outfielder let alone a center fielder, also blocks RF Aristides Aquino who hit 19 homeruns in a short time last year and Japanese All-Star outfielder Shogo Akiyama. Sometimes making additions to improve your offense might come back to hurt you in the future not to mention they will be one of the worst defensive teams in all of baseball.
The Pirates again will be a last place who should be trying a full scale rebuild as they already traded their best player in CF Starling Marte and let outfielders Melky Cabrera and Corey Dickerson go in free agency. They do still have a log jam in the middle infield by having Kevin Kramer, Kevin Newman, Erik Gonzalez, Adam Frazier, Jose Ozuna, Cole Tucker and now JT Riddle who all could start for this team, plus their incumbent third basemen Colin Moran. They should have traded Moran so it would open a spot in the infield but someone will have to get time in the outfield which would cut into Bryan Reynolds playing time. If RF Gregory Polanco can stay healthy they could unload him for prospects and open up for playing time.
They cannot trade their best pitcher because they waited till August to have Jameson Taillon get TJ surgery right so he is out for the year. Their rotation has enough starters to last the season but none that stick out besides Joe Musgrove and their closer Keone Kela. They filled the CF hole with Jarrod Dyson and Guillermo Heredia but they did nothing to solve the hole at catcher.
NL East:
The Braves will again with this division because they are bringing back mostly the same team they had last year that made them a division winner expect for a few changes. Out is 3B Josh Donaldson, C Brian McCann who retired, OF Billy Hamilton, rotation stalwart Julio Teheran and SP Dallas Keuchel. In is LF Marcell Ozuna to replace Donaldson in the lineup, C Travis d’Arnaud, starter Cole Hamels. They get back CF Ender Inciarte to solidify the outfield defense and top of the order so OF Ronald Acuna can bat in the middle of the lineup between 1B Freddie Freeman and 2B Ozzie Albies/play RF, but they have to see who will be at 3B between youngsters Austin Riley or backup Johan Camargo.
Their pitching staff will again be a strength behind youngsters Mike Soroka and Max Freid who excelled in their first full seasons. They hope Mike Foltynewicz will be back to his 2018 play plus the veterans they got and their bullpen, which will have all of their best relievers for a full season in Mark Melancon, Will Smith, Chris Martin and Shane Greene.
They also let 2B Brian Dozier, OF Gerardo Parra and 1B Matt Adams leave but they brought in INF Starlin Castro, 1B-OF Eric Thames, resigned infielders Howie Kendrick, Asdrubal Cabreraand C Yan Gomes to solidify the team around OFers Juan Soto, Victor Robles, Adam Eaton and SS Trea Turner. The question real will be who physically replaces Rendon at 3B will it be Cabrera/Kendrick combo or can rookie SS Carter Kieboom take the starting role over and not look back?
OF Yoenis Cespedes and INF Jed Lowrie who didn’t play a single game say they will play this year but they are set again if they don’t because of the emergence of infielders Jeff McNeil and JD Davis, plus get a full season from OF Brandon Nimmo. Their lineup didn’t miss them either because it still has 2B Robinson Cano, RF Michael Conforto and the reigning NL Rookie of the Year in 1B Pete Alonso. It will be a tough task for rookie manager Luis Rojas despite his experience in the minors to figure out who is the final five starter is and to shuffle this lineup so everyone gets the right amount of playing time.
They added SS Didi Gregorius when they already had two shortstops in Scott Kingrey and Jean Segura but they will fill the other infield spots left open by Maikel Franco and César Hernandez who were let go. An issue will be their outfield alignment because when multiple outfielders got hurt last year like Andrew McCutchen they went out and got Jay Bruce who is limited to corner outfield but Bryce Harper is in RF/Rhys Hoskins is at 1B so it looks like McCutchen will still have to play CF. It will help new manager Joe Girardi that he has the best catcher in the NL in JT Realmuto to handle this staff.
They are at least letting their young pitchers start like an All-Star from last year in Sandy Alcantara, Jose Urena who should be back healthy and Caleb Smith to name some. One smart strategy their doing again is signing veteran relievers so they can flip like they did with Sergio Romo last year by signing Brandon Kintzler, Ryan Cook and Brad Boxbergerto help out Drew Steckenrider.
NL West:
The Dodgers got upset in the playoffs to disrupt their fourth straight year of winning the NL Pennant by the Nationals who went on to win it all, but the reason they keep getting so close to the title is they have the best roster in the whole NL. Their lineup still has the reigning MVP Cody Bellinger (his 2nd MVP) who should only play LF/RF because they also traded for former MVP Mookie Betts a good defensive CF, have AJ Pollock and Joc Pederson natural born centerfielders plus still have 3B Justin Turner, SS Corey Seager and Max Muncy.
Their rotation did lose Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kenta Maeda but still have Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler plus they brought in Jimmy Nelson and Alex Wood to compete for the fifth spot. They could afford to lose three starters because of the depth of young starters waiting in the wings for a spot like Julio Urias and Ross Stripling to name some. Last year they got Joe Kelly to help out their closer Kenley Jansen but Jansen had a bad year so hopefully he rebounds and they added a few more options to help out in Blake Treinen, AJ Ramos and Adam Kolarek.
The Diamondbacks shed so much talent from the 2018 roster going into the 2019 it was a surprise they finished second with a winning record and they only improved their team this offseason. After trading their ace Zack Greinke away mid-season they signed one of the best starting pitchers on the market in Madison Bumgarner to lead this rotation that still has Robbie Ray and
Luke Weaver They also decided to stop signing overpriced veterans to be their closer and watch it implode quickly by just letting Archie Bradley be the closer all year and signed Hector Rondon to be their setup man.
2B Ketel Marte their best player spent time going back and forth between centerfield and second base because they didn’t have a real answer for AJ Pollock leaving last year so they solidified it by trading for CF Starling Marte. They also signed Kole Calhoun to solidify the hole in RF to form a top starting outfield and signed Stephen Vogt to split time at catcher.
The Giants in manager Bruce Bochy’s last year finished eight games back from 2nd place/4 games below .500 so they will just be average this year because they did lose their ace, their starting centerfielder, their backup catcher and four of their key relievers from last year. They are going with a patch work rotation that includes Jeff Samardzija, a full season of Johnny Cueto after TJ surgery, rejects Drew Smyly, Trevor Cahill and
Kevin Gausman.
They also will go with another patch work outfield that consists of Billy Hamilton, Hunter Pence returning but was a DH last year, Alex Dickerson, Mike Yastrzemski, Steven Duggar and Joey Rickard. They still have a good infield of C Buster Posey, 3B Evan Longoria, SS Brandon Crawford and 1B Brandon Belt but 2B is the question mark. They will try Mauricio Dubon, Wilmer Flores, Yolmer Sanchez and Donovan Solano at 2B. Their bullpen will be patchwork after losing all of those important guys the only guy left is Tony Watson that people heard of.
The Padres have finished two years in a row in last place but last year it was a difference of one game and they actually have a future with this roster that has 3B Manny Machado, SS Fernando Tatis, 1B Eric Hosmer, RF Wil Myers and newly acquired outfielder Tommy Pham. They traded Franmil Reyes at the deadline last year, they traded both Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot to the Rays away which means by getting Pham he could fill the hole they had in CF or it could be Francy Cordeo’s opportunity as the last man left standing but really it means no dumb idea of Myers in CF. They traded away Luis Urias who is a young up and coming player to go with their offseason acquisition of Jurickson Profar to fill second base after the failed Ian Kinsler experiment last year.
Their strength again will be their bullpen because of Kirby Yates who led the NL in saves last year, they resigned Craig Stammen and brought in Drew Pomeranz who is now a good reliever. The rotation again will be a question mark because of the inexperience of most of their starters and the health of Garrett Richardswho is coming off TJ surgery and Zach Davies.
There is really no way to gauge the Rockies who made the playoffs two straight years but almost finished in last place last season and wanted to trade their best player after signing him to a huge extension. 3B Nolan Arenado is still there to lead this team on both sides along with SS Trevor Story and OF Charlie Blackmon but again their outfield alignment is going to be out of whack. Blackmon the former CF will again play RF like last year but last year they had Ian Desmond in CF then scrapped the idea mid-season and will play David Dahl in CF where he shouldn’t be that’s where Raimel Tapiashould be or Blackmon. They also still haven’t figured out who is going to play second base after having a revolving door last year that should have been filled by Daniel Murphy who is at 1B and after cutting their longest tenured catcher in their history in Chris Iannetta they did nothing to fix it either.
Their rotation is still thin even if they have six or more potential starters but none really stick out besides Jon Gray who has been disappointing or German Marquez. Their bullpen will again have to carry them because they still have Wade Davis, Jack McGee, Bryan Shaw and Scott Oberg.
