From Aaron Judge to Jarred Kelenic, 10 players to watch for in 2021 season
NEW YORK — With fingers crossed, baseball is slowly and carefully proceeding toward its goal of 162-games with full attendance normalcy for 2021 and for evaluation and prediction purposes you really have to throw out the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. This is a spring where everyone is truly starting anew, but we are going to take a bit of a forward leap here and single out the ten players that bear close watching because of their potential impact on their teams’ chances.
1. Aaron Judge, Yankees: Judge is still regarded as the main man but neither he nor the Yankees can afford another injury filled season. He’s had only one season of 500 plate appearances, which was 2017 when he led the AL with 52 homers and 120 runs, drove in 114 runs and finished second in the MVP voting.
2. Christian Yelich, Brewers: After agreeing to a nine-year/$215 million extension, Yelich suffered through a miserable 2020 season. Whether it was a matter of trying too hard to live up to the contract, or still feeling some after effects from the broken knee cap he suffered at the end of 2019, Yelich admitted last week: “I thought I was pretty much all around terrible.”
3. Nolan Arenado, Cardinals: The offensively-challenged Cardinals, who finished last in the majors in homers and 28th in runs scored last year, gave up five players to wrest Arenado and his mammoth contract away from the Rockies.
4. Shohei Ohtani, Angels: In the first two weeks of spring training, the big buzz coming out of the Angels camp was Ohtani hitting 100 mph throwing batting practice, indicating he is fully recovered from the post-Tommy John surgery elbow issue that ended his 2020 season in July.
5. Hyun-Jin Ryu, Blue Jays: The Blue Jays spent $189 million this winter in an effort to close the gap between themselves and the Rays and Yankees in the AL East but their starting rotation after Ryu remains an uncertain piecemeal among Steven Matz, Robbie Ray, Tanner Roarke, Ross Stripling, Julian Merryweather and the likely not-ready rookie Nate Pearson.
6. Zack Greinke, Astros: Greinke has plenty of personal incentive — he needs 311 more strikeouts for 3,000 (and a guaranteed ticket to Cooperstown) and with two more wins he’ll vault into the top 100 list with 210.
7. Randy Arozarena, Rays: If Arozarena is able to demonstrate over 150-plus games the kind of torrid hitting he did in last year’s postseason (10 homers, 14 RBI in 36 plate appearances), the Rays, for all their “Openers” with the starting
pitching, may yet be a force again.
8. Luis Robert, White Sox: On the south side of Chicago there is much optimism for the White Sox, and a key element for that happening is the 23-year-old fivetool center fielder who’s had the superstar label stamped on him the day the Sox signed him out of Cuba for a $25 million bonus in 2017.
9. Fernando Tatis Jr., Padres: In case you haven’t heard, the Padres and their over-aggressive GM A.J. Preller are paying no heed to the Dodgers and going for it all this year. In that regard, no player will be under more scrutiny this season than Tatis, whom Preller locked up for the next 14 years for $340 million.
10. Jarred Kelenic, Mariners: Upon arrival in spring training, Kelenic made his displeasure about his service time being manipulated with the M’s abundantly clear, and now with an obvious void in left field you wonder how GM Jerry Dipoto will be able to justify keeping Kelenic in the minors this year.