Which Division Is The Toughest This Year?
With Spring Training games starting this week, it’s time to project the toughest division.
In 2015, the NL central had three teams to go to the postseason (St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Chicago Cubs). In 2016, the AL East had three teams reach the postseason (Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and Toronto Blue Jays). A commonality with those divisions is that none of these teams went to the World Series. For the past two years, teams in the toughest division haven’t won the pennant.
In 2015, the strongest division was the NL Central. The Cubs, Cardinals and the Pirates were in a fierce race to finish in first place. The Cubs finished 97–65, the Pirates were 98–64, and the Cardinals were 100–62. The Cardinals, Pirates, and Cubs accounted for three of the top four records in the majors. There has been only two different times in which three of the majors top four records came from a single division — the 1978 AL East and the 1983 AL East.
Between them, the Cardinals, Pirates, and the Cubs were a combined 295–191 in 2015, an amazing .607 winning percentage.
In 2016, the toughest division was the AL East. The AL East’s top 3 team reached the postseason. On paper, this may again be baseball’s most talented division given their offseason additions.
Facing the Red Sox, Orioles, and the Blue Jays opposing teams pitchers’ all sorts of problems. The AL East had the number one offense in baseball last year; the Red Sox led the MLB in run scored (184) and second in run differential. The Blue Jays were also ninth in runs scored (759).
So, now it’s time to decide the MLB toughest division in 2017–18 season. Just like in 2016, the AL East will once again be the strongest in 2017. Every team besides perhaps the Tampa Bay Rays has a chance to win this division, thus making it the best in baseball.
The defending AL East Champion Boston Red Sox added Chris Sale in the offseason to create a deeper and better rotation. They have the deepest team in the division. The only thing missing is the production and veteran leadership from Big Papi, who will be tough to replace.
The Yankees are a young team, they rebuilt last season and still have a great bullpen. They traded Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller for tons of near-MLB ready talent. They also signed Chapman back to the club in the offseason. The youngsters will help the team compete again like last year. The main problem for the Yankees is to make sure their rotation stays healthy. Overall, this young team needs to trust the management process to get them back into the postseason.
The Wild Card showdown between the Blue Jays and the Orioles in the 2016 postseason was memorable. The Orioles still have their young leader Manny Machado to help take the offensive load. Blue Jays might still be the team to hit third place this season in the division. Without their home run machine Edwin Encarnación it’s going to be hard for the Blue Jays to replace that power. The Blue Jays added Kendry Morales to attempt to fill the DH gap. Morales hit 30 home runs last year, but that was still 12 homers short from reaching Encarnación’s total.
There’s a possibility there will be four teams over .500 record next season in the AL East (Red Sox/Blue Jays/Orioles/Yankees). All four teams remained similar to last year’s rosters. The Red Sox added a Cy Young-candidate, Blue Jays re-signed José Bautista, Baltimore will still have their potent offense, and the Yankees will get a full season of Gary Sánchez. If all teams can progress from last year than we could see a similar record from all four, matching the performance from 2016’s best overall division.
