With the Dodgers and Padres taking part in the two-game Seoul Collection in South Korea on Wednesday and Thursday, the 2024 MLB common season is formally upon us. (Full Opening Day motion is about for March 28). So at this time, we proceed our weekly collection of season previews, breaking down main storylines from the attitude of all six divisions.
We’ve been doing a ton of predictions on this collection, analyzing numerous gamers, groups and storylines, however in the long run, just one query hangs over each division: Who’s gonna win this factor?
Flags fly perpetually, in any case, and in case you can’t get the final word pennant — the one the Rangers will likely be waving over Globe Life Subject in a few weeks — a division title continues to be one thing you’re proud to have. And in lots of circumstances, it’s simply the beginning of one thing greater.
So let’s put pen to paper, pedal to steel, nostril to grindstone, and really decide some division winners. You could agree with a few of these, chances are you’ll disagree with others, however that is the decision, heading into Opening Day, as I see it. In case your crew isn’t picked, don’t sweat it: There are, in fact, all the time the Wild Card spots. Ask the 2 groups that made the World Collection final 12 months.
AL East: OriolesFanGraphs projections, in case you can imagine it, have the Orioles ending third within the AL East this 12 months, behind the Yankees and Rays. Far be it for me to danger antagonizing our Synthetic Intelligence overlords, however that’s loopy speak. Lest you overlook, the Orioles received 101 video games final 12 months — one thing they by no means did when Cal Ripken Jr. performed for them — they usually look, to those eyes, higher than the 2023 crew in practically each attainable means, save for possibly the bullpen.
All these younger gamers who carried them final 12 months are a 12 months older and extra skilled, they introduced within the ace they’ve been on the lookout for in Corbin Burnes whereas buying and selling nothing for him that they’ll instantly miss and, oh yeah, they’re about so as to add the No. 1 prospect in all of baseball (possibly essentially the most gifted man on this immensely gifted crew), who might find yourself being their signature famous person. Additionally lurking: Prospects ranked seventeenth (Samuel Basallo), nineteenth (Colton Cowser), thirtieth (Coby Mayo) and thirty second (Heston Kjerstad) on MLB Pipeline’s Prime 100. The Yankees look higher, the Rays look worse, the Jays look slightly higher and the Crimson Sox look slightly worse. However nobody’s within the Orioles’ ballpark. Third place? Frankly, placing the Orioles first seems like one of many best calls on the board.
AL Central: TigersYou’ve acquired to have one off-the-board, fairly wild upset decide in case you’re going to make some predictions like this, and this one is mine. Truthfully, I’m undecided anybody on this division must be thought of any form of main shock, as no crew has firmly established itself as an apparent frontrunner. The Twins are the defending division champs — and the favorites over the sphere, in accordance with FanGraphs — however they’re quick a Sonny Grey and didn’t add a lot to a crew that was hardly a juggernaut final 12 months. The one different crew within the division that made clear enhancements is the Royals and, nicely, let’s say they’re a 12 months (or two, or three) away.
So how about these Tigers? They’ve all you need in a stylish decide, together with younger hitters who’ve turned the nook (three of them: Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson and Kerry Carpenter), a younger potential No. 1 starter (Tarik Skubal was so significantly better than anybody realizes final 12 months), veteran rotation reinforcements (Jack Flaherty and, particularly, Kenta Maeda) and, maybe most significantly, the vibe of a company that senses a possibility to strike proper now. We’ll see about their bullpen, and whether or not Javier Báez can flip issues round; there are some holes and questions, little question. However you possibly can win this division with holes and questions; each crew in it has them, in any case. And jeez, if the Lions can do it, why can’t the Tigers?
AL West: AstrosThe Rangers simply received the World Collection, you may need heard, and one in all these years, the Mariners are lastly, lastly going to take cost. However this outdated man remembers having the ability to see a double characteristic on the Roxy with a few bobbysoxers for a nickel extra vividly than he remembers a time when the Astros didn’t dominate this division. (They didn’t win it within the truncated 2020 season, however, nicely, that was 2020 and the Astros went forward and made the ALCS that 12 months anyway.)
Positive, they’re older, they’ve a brand new supervisor, and there are actually some inquiries to be answered within the years forward for this franchise. However that is nonetheless a crew on a jaw-dropping seven-year ALCS streak, a crew with a lineup that encompasses a high 4 that’s the envy of everybody else in baseball and a rotation headed by Framber Valdez and (finally) Justin Verlander, adopted by a lot of thrilling pitchers nonetheless of their 20s. The Rangers have the latest World Collection ring. The Mariners have Julio Rodríguez. However the Astros are nonetheless the category of this division till somebody definitively proves in any other case, and in my thoughts, possibly not even then.
NL East: BravesCan you think about how heated it could be getting in Braves Nation proper now if the crew hadn’t received the World Collection in 2021? That magical run — bear in mind Joc Pederson’s pearls? Bear in mind how Ronald Acuña Jr. wasn’t even part of it? — was as riveting and unforgettable because it was shocking, and it set the tone for a stretch of Braves success that certain seems prone to proceed this 12 months.
However think about if that they had not received that 12 months, and these Braves groups, so dominant, so well-rounded, so locked in, have been nonetheless on the lookout for their elusive first title since 1995? It might be all anybody would be capable of discuss. Are the Braves simply not constructed for October? Is that this the ‘90s Braves another time? Why can’t Brian Snitker win the massive one? As an alternative, with that World Collection ring of their pocket, the Braves can simply go about doing what they do: Flattening the NL East and possibly clinching the division not lengthy after Labor Day.
NL Central: CubsIt feels prefer it has been a very long time since a crew completed in final place one season after which was favored by FanGraphs — by a full two video games! — to win the division the subsequent 12 months. However that’s the place the Cardinals are heading into 2024. That’s placing quite a lot of religion within the barely rebuilt (with very outdated pitchers) rotation, to not point out the accidents they’ve been coping with of their outfield, with each Tommy Edman and Lars Nootbaar prone to miss Opening Day. That’s an excessive amount of to beat for a last-place crew to make such a leap.
The Cubs, although, appear like a transparent favourite. They introduced again Cody Bellinger, they added a sleeper Rookie of the 12 months candidate in Shota Imanaga, they’ve Michael Busch prepared to interrupt out at first base they usually have the most effective defenses in baseball, led by Dansby Swanson, who might find yourself happening as the perfect free-agent shortstop pickup from final offseason. Additionally they introduced in new supervisor Craig Counsell, who’s already altering the entire tenor of the group and can also be lots much less prone to oversee a late-season collapse just like the Cubs endured final 12 months. The Brewers haven’t vanished, the Reds are stacked with younger expertise and the Pirates are feistier than they’re usually perceived. However the Cubs are in the perfect place, and I’m undecided it’s as shut as many projections methods appear to be implying.
NL West: DodgersContrary to in style perception, the Dodgers didn’t usher in each participant in the marketplace this offseason: It solely felt that means. However there’s no query that the Dodgers — after a “down” 12 months wherein they solely received 100 video games — entered the Scorching Range as if that they had been fired out of a cannon. The outcome: Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow and Teoscar Hernández and likewise did I point out Shohei Ohtani?
And that’s to not point out their two former MVPs in Mookie Betts (now at shortstop; in some unspecified time in the future they’re simply going to let him play each place directly) and Freddie Freeman. Plus there’s a great deal of younger expertise right here, and don’t overlook about Max Muncy and Will Smith. They’ll additionally go get whoever they should throughout the season, so yeah, this isn’t a tough decide. The postseason is its personal factor, because the Dodgers nicely know. However the common season? The common season belongs to the Dodgers. Once more. As all the time.
