AL East has elite talents
Our top 10 shows Sox not division’s lone home to stars
Before declaring the Red Sox the best American League team on paper, remember what happened in 2015, when some of the players felt as if the team was overhyped in spring training.
Most preseason projections pointed to how good the Sox roster was after they signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez on the same day the previous November.
“We were expected to be the best team in the baseball,” Shane Victorino said in June 2015, when the Sox were a disappointing 30-40. “We were down here (at a low point in 2014) and all of a sudden we made some moves and we got put on a pedestal.”
Victorino’s point was that while the veteran players should’ve known how to deal with the pressure, rookies expected to contribute, such as Mookie Betts and Blake Swihart, were feeling the weight of the expectations.
“I said, ‘ Guys, you have to understand that it gets harder,’ ” Victorino said. “‘It’s harder for you guys to go out and learn the process, make mistakes and use that as a learning process.’ ”
At least this time around, the Red Sox are expected to have just one rookie on the Opening Day roster, Andrew Benintendi, who will be surrounded by a handful of veterans and a young core, including Betts and Swihart, that has already learned the hard way how to handle the pressure.
The expectations haven’t gone away.
FanGraphs standings projections for 2017 have the Red Sox winning 92 games, the most of any team
in the American League, while decimating their AL East foes and winning the division by an astounding nine games. The Blue Jays and Rays are listed at 83 wins, the Yankees at 82 and the Orioles at 79.
With the Sox pitchers and catchers reporting to Fort Myers in eight days, here’s our take on the 10 most important players in the AL East in 2017:
• 10. Hanley Ramirez, 1B/ DH, R ed So x: His importance is based on whom he is replacing. The Sox were the best offense in baseball last year, at one point on pace to score more runs than all but three teams since 1950. But without David Ortiz, Ramirez will need a season at least as good as his 30-homer, .866OPS campaign in 2016. Opposing pitchers will have no reason to throw Betts anything around the plate unless Ramirez can pose a legitimate threat from the on-deck circle.
• 9. Chris Ar cher, SP , Rays: Despite the FanGraphs projections, few are expecting big things from the Rays. Their offense barely scored four runs per game last year while Archer had his worst career season, allowing 30 homers with a league-worst 19 losses to go with a 4.02 ERA. A better season from the charismatic ace could be a start, but without big additions this winter, the Rays shouldn’t expect much. If they’re out of contention by July they may once again consider trading Archer out of the division.
• 8. Chris D avis, 1B, Orioles:
Few players can tickle a fanbase the way Davis does in Baltimore, where he signed a seven-year deal paying him $23 million a year beginning last season. But after his 7.0 WAR season in 2013 in which he hit 53 bombs with a .286 average, he’s bounced back and forth, hitting .196 with 26 homers in 2014, .262 with 47 homers in 2015 and .221 with 38 homers last year. The Orioles’ starting pitching isn’t good enough to win them a division. They’ll need their bats. And they’ll need Davis to be at his best.
• 7. Aar on Sanche z, SP , Blue Jay s: Despite replacing Edwin Encarnacion with Kendrys Morales at designated hitter, the Jays will likely have another potent offense to help support a formidable starting rotation. Marcus Stroman was once thought to be the leader of that staff, but after Sanchez posted a 15-2 record with a 3.00 ERA last season, that onus could be on the 24-year-old to quiet opposing lineups in 2017.
• 6. Masahir o T anaka, SP, Y ankees: As amazing as it is that Tanaka’s elbow has survived while enduring only a small surgery to remove a bone spur, the Yankees may only have one year left to watch Tanaka’s splitter fool opponents. After going 39-16 with a 3.12 ERA in his first three seasons in New York, the 28-year-old native of Japan will have the ability to opt out of his contract after the 2017 season. With only Luis Severino and Michael Pineda providing upside behind him, the Yankees will likely be searching for a new ace next season.
• 5. Gary Sanchez, C, Yankees: If 200 at-bats was all it took to qualify for league awards, Sanchez would have beaten Ortiz for the best OPS in baseball last year. The rookie hit .299 with 20 homers and a 1.032 OPS in 53 games after the Yankees called him up from Triple-A Columbus. A career .275 hitter with a .799 OPS in the minors, Sanchez will now have a chance to prove himself as either a one-hit wonder or a forceful weapon that could be driving the Yankees offense for years.
• 4.Manny Machado, 3B, Orioles: It’s hard to believe Machado is only 24 years old. Already a two-time Gold Glove Award winner at third base, he also played 45 games at shortstop last year and handled himself adequately at the position. He’s combined to hit 72 doubles and 70 homers with a .290 average and .869 OPS over the last two seasons. With one more year of evolution toward becoming a superstar,
Machado could help propel the Orioles into AL East contenders.
• 3. Josh Donaldson, 3B, Blue Jay s: The Red Sox worked around Donaldson last year and held him to a .257 average with an .861 OPS and only four homers in 18 games against them. But he continued to overpower the rest of the league on his way to 37 homers with a .404 onbase percentage and career.953 OPS overall, all while playing through a hip injury. The Blue Jays offense will continue to be dangerous as long as Donaldson remains in the lineup.
• 2. Chris Sale, SP , R ed Sox: Of all American League pitchers to accumulate at least 1,000 innings over the last five years, Sale is the leader in ERA (3.04) and strikeouts (1,133), while lagging behind only NL pitchers Clayton Kershaw and Madison Bumgarner
in ERA during that time. For a Red Sox team that ranked No. 1 in offense in 2016 while ranking No. 8 in pitching during a 93-win season, adding a starter of his caliber makes them even scarier. That is, if Sale can handle the very Fenway Park mound that others have failed to master during their first seasons in Boston.
• 1. Mookie Betts, OF, Red So x: Somewhat of a perfectionist, Betts felt lost at the plate at various points in 2016. And yet he still batted .318 with 42 doubles, five triples, 31 homers and 26 stolen bases while saving the Red Sox 32 runs in right field and narrowly missing out on the AL MVP award, won by the Angels’ Mike Trout. A repeat performance by the 24-year-old might be all the Red Sox need next season. Just imagine if he gets even better.