New-look NL East suddenly baseball’s deepest division
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — For years, the NL East has been soft as a bunt single.
Not anymore.
Even before Bryce Harper decided to stay inside the division, four of the five teams spent this off-season swinging for the fences. In addition to defending champion Atlanta, the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals all have enough firepower to potentially contend for the playoffs.
“This is probably going to be the stiffest competition in a division race in my career,” Nationals ace Max Scherzer said at spring training.
It’s certainly a noticeable transformation.
In the past eight seasons, the NL East has won a grand total of two playoff series and produced one pennant winner — with the 2015 Mets responsible for the entirety of that October success. Two years ago, Washington finished a whopping 20 games in front, and no other team in the division was better than 77-85.
Last season, Atlanta rolled to a surprise title at 90-72, the fewest wins of any post-season participant. No other NL East squad did better than two games above .500.
Miami has endured nine straight losing seasons. Philadelphia hasn’t been a winner since 2011. New York’s last 10 years, two winning records. But now, an influx of talent and a cavalcade of new faces have the division shaping up as a force for years to come.
By the looks of it, the NL least is suddenly a beast.
“I don’t think there’s another division harder right now. Every team is pretty much loaded,” Phillies outfielder Nick Williams said. This winter alone:
Atlanta signed third baseman Josh Donaldson, the 2015 AL MVP.
New York acquired five recent All-Stars in Robinson Cano, Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia, Jed Lowrie and Wilson Ramos.
Washington spent US$140 million to plug Patrick Corbin into an imposing rotation that already featured Scherzer and Stephen Strasburg.
And the Phillies plucked away two big stars from division rivals, trading with Miami for catcher J.T. Realmuto and luring Harper from the Nationals with a record $330 million contract.
“It’s almost like the AL East — great pitching, great lineups 1 through 9. But that’s what you live for. You want to face the best,” Braves All-Star pitcher Mike Foltynewicz said.
“People took us a little lightly last year and now we’re the ones kind of getting chased. But no panic button or anything. We made great moves before everyone started going haywire,” he added. “It’s kind of cool to see that we might have stirred it up for these guys.”