Yank rivals filling in gap
After Bombers’ big winter, rest of AL East has ground to make up
Once the Yankees re-established themselves as the Evil Empire with their $324 million signing of Gerrit Cole, it left us wondering how the rest of the American League East would respond to what is now seemingly an insurmountable gulf between them and the defending division champions.
The answer has been slow in coming, but judging by their off-season moves so far, the Rays and Blue Jays have elected to at least try to compete, while the Red Sox remain intent on shedding payroll and the moribund Orioles remain in all-out tank mode. In that respect, maybe the real gulf is between fourth-place and last place where the Orioles are pretty much guaranteed to be the worst team in baseball.
One of the reasons the Rays were able to win 96 games last year was because the rest of the AL East, after the Yankees, was not competitive. The Rays have made three significant moves this off-season: 1) Letting Travis d’Arnaud leave for the Braves for two-years, $16M was a significant loss; 2) Trading Tommy Pham, one of their clubhouse leaders. to the Padres for Hunter Renfroe and infield prospect Xavier Edwards was a wash at best; 3) Last Thursday’s deal of their top pitching prospect, lefty Matthew Liberatore, to the Cardinals for righty slugger Jose Martinez and Cuban outfielder Randy Arozarena was a huge plus for now, but could be a potential embarrassment 2-3 years down the road.
In Renfroe, the Rays added a potential 30-plus home runs to their lineup, but with it comes 150 strikeouts. Combined with the 150 strikeouts Mike Zunino figures to have now that the Rays are turning fulltime catching duties back over to him, those are two huge rally killers in their lineup. But while they may regret sacrificing Liberatore – the Rays rarely trade top prospects – they desperately needed a right-handed bat to balance their lineup and Martinez is a beast against left-handed pitching. Sum up: There’s no reason to think the Rays can’t win 90-plus games again, especially if they have full seasons from their top two starters, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow. And knowing the Rays and their penchant for picking other team’s pockets for players with previously untapped talent, we’ll be keeping an eye on what Edwards and Arozarena contribute to the cause this season. In any case, shedding Pham, who was due to make a projected $8.6M in arbitration (as opposed to the combined $5.4M they’ll be paying Renfroe and Martinez) owner Stuart Sternberg’s design to keep the payroll in line with the industry-low $62M it was last year.
All has been quiet in Boston this winter save for the collective yelps from the Red Sox’s high command over Mookie Betts’ record $27M arbitration deal. This will not help new GM Chaim Bloom’s stated objective of getting the Red Sox under the 2020 luxury tax threshold. To that, he needs to trim nearly $30M from the payroll, which means David Price (owed $36M for the next three years) and Jackie Bradley Jr. (owed $11M for 2020) are almost certain to be traded between now and the start of the season. Otherwise, between the fragile state of their two other starters, Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi, and the uncertain status of their manager, Alex Cora, who is at the center of two separate cheating investigations by MLB, it is looking like a very dark season at Fenway Park in 2020.
In contrast to the Red Sox, no team has been busier in the AL East this winter than the Blue Jays, who have nearly totally revamped their starting rotation, investing $80M in Hyun-Jin Ryu, $24M in Tanner Roarke, acquiring Chase Anderson in a trade with the Brewers, and also signing Travis Shaw to replace Justin Smoak at first base. It is the Blue Jays’ hope the new faces will supplement their developing young core, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and top starting pitching prospect, Nate Pierson, and make for a vast improvement over last year’s 67-95 club. Even though the Yankees are still way out of reach, the Jays needed to be aggressive this winter after suffering the largest attendance decrease (575,137) in the majors last year. They still need a center fielder – bringing back Kevin Pillar wouldn’t be a bad idea - but they’re no longer pushovers.
As for the Orioles, MLB should be ashamed about what’s happened to this once proud franchise. After losing 108 games last year, GM Mike Elias’ response was to fire more scouts – the O’s now have zero pro scouts – and to announce he would be following the tanking plan of his previous organization, the Astros. First move was to give away the Orioles’ best player last year, switch-hitting Jonathan Villar, who stole 40 bags and hit 27 homers but was up for a raise to $8.2M in arbitration, to the Marlins for a marginal pitching prospect. According to Elias, the trade was made for “strategic objectives which is prioritize the future right now” – which was analytics gobbledygook for stripping the roster down to the bare bones and making Camden Yards, once the jewel ballpark in baseball, even more of a graveyard this year. The Angelos family desperately needs to sell this team.