AL East Preview
The season has pleasantly snuck up on me this season. I’ve checked in on several of the Blue Jays games this pre-season and I feel like this team is as complete as they have ever been going into a season. The runs they score look repeatable and the pitchers have looked comfortable and ready for the season to get going. Not just the starters but the bullpen as well. I’m cautiously optimistic about what this season has in store. As this is sports, there is another team on the field trying just as hard to win so any optimism I have now is contained by the team in the other dugout and the teams in the AL East. Let’s take a look at what I’m thinking about when looking at the other teams in the AL East as we reach the beginning of the ‘23-’24 MLB season.
The Blue Jays season preview can be found here.
Baltimore Orioles
Young Bats: Many seasons of high draft picks have led to the Orioles fielding a handful of young talent. Players like Adley Rutschman, Gunner Henderson, and Kyle Stowers are the kind of players that set the level of play for the rest of the team. If they play with young player excitement, and get a hot streak going then the next thing you know, the whole team gets the hitting bug and then it’s a track meet. I don’t think it is a sustainable model over 162 games but it is enough of a wild card for this team to be in the wild card discussion at points during the season.
Pitching: The dismissal once given to the entire organization is now just on the starting staff. As the offseason signing period was active, the Orioles’ name never showed on the news wire. Clearly, this was a decision by the front office to not make a big move on the pitching staff and that’s fine, I guess, it’s a choice. As a fan, I can see how it would be easy to justify since the Orioles are not really in their World Series window. As a fan of a rival team, they do feel like they have two years of being a thorn in the side, then ‘25-’26 they are a real threat in the top half of the division. The question is, can the pitching keep up with the bats this season? I feel comfortable answering now and the answer is no. However, career years are a thing and the trade deadline exists for teams to try and get better if overperformance merits going for a big addition.
How will they win/lose games: This is a question for all the teams. I expect the Orioles’ wins to look like 9-7 type games and their losses to be 4-1 type games. The more hitters they can have hitting at the same time, the team will see some runs of more wins than losses. I feel like the starting staff is going to have more 2-3 records through five starts than they will have 3-2 records. A team worth following to gauge their player development progress.
Boston Red Sox
Where’s the Bats: Last year, I would see Xander Bogaerts, JD Martinez, and Rafael Devers come to the plate and I would be worried about a run being scored in some fashion. I don’t know where that fear comes from this year. Does Alex Verdugo or Masataka Yoshida fill in any of the gap left behind by the departure of Bogaerts and Martinez? I feel like Kevin McCallister walking out of his house yelling at the baddies “I’m not afraid anymore!”. Look it up kids.
Lean not so mean pitching machine: Corey Kluber and Chris Sale are at the top of the rotation with Tanner Houck in the middle. I look at this and wonder where the reliable innings are coming from this season. The bottom half of their rotation made of Crawford and Pivetta are tasked with proving themselves while trying to fill starter’s innings this season. This rotation is innocent until proven scary.
Jersey Magic: The one thing I am worried about is the jersey magic the Red Sox always have in their back pocket. The Sox have a way of making players better. Does making a man a knight make him a better fighter? The answer in the Kingdom of Heaven was yes. Does putting a man in a Boston uniform make him a better player? It certainly feels like it and until I’m convinced they won’t be a threat in the standings, the Red Sox are a threat to the standings, regardless of what is written above.
How will they win/lose games: I don’t know. What is the pitching staff going to do? Who is going to score runs? Do they win low-scoring games on good pitching days? I don’t feel like there are a lot of 8-10 run games in this lineup. I have no feel for the number of runs the team will give up. I just….don’t know.
New York Yankees
Scary Lineup: There are no breaks in this lineup. There isn’t a lot for me to say that fans of baseball don’t already know. Health and the performance of the opposing players on the mound are the biggest questions for this lineup. The Yankees will score runs, how often will they be contained? Can they be contained?
Pitching: The Yankees start the season with four starters on the injured list. Last year the Yankees got out to a great start and built a huge lead, felt like the race was over before it began. This year, with the starting staff in the condition it is in, can their offense keep the team from falling behind early? I think the length of the season will make the scary pitching situation less of a factor by the time we get to the trade deadline. That said, teams like the Blue Jays, Astros, Mariners, and Guardians need to bank some games in the win column if the Yankees do get out to a slow start.
How will they win/lose games: Lots of runs at the start of the season then not as many runs are required once the starting staff is rebuilt. The Yankees aren’t complicated this year. The sooner they get on the Yankee train rails, the longer this season is going to feel.
Tampa Bay Rays
Same story, different year: Can the pitching staff carry the team while the offense figures it out? The difference this year is the staff is missing Shane Baz for the entire season and Tyler Glasnow for some part of the season. The Rays have their own brand of uniform magic and it allows them to find solutions in players none of us have heard of and keeps them “around”, all the time. I’m sort of not scared of them this season but I hate every game the Jays have to play in the Trop and like the Red Sox, I won’t believe the Rays aren’t a problem until they prove for a solid two months, they are in fact not a problem.
Shifty Defense: This is ultra-specific but I will be paying a lot more attention this season and I want to know what the change in shift rules will do to the defensive prowess of the Rays. I think the Jays will have their own brand of things to deal with but the Rays are in the same boat and watching how these two teams manage this change in the rules will be fascinating.
How will they win/lose games: It’s all about the pitching. There will be a lot of 3-1 victories and 2-8 losses for this team. The question comes back to the performance on the mound for this team. Just like the Yankees, the Rays aren’t complicated. The difference is, the overall talent level on this roster does not support the same optimism the Yankees fanbase can carry around.
