MLB Division Watch: the NL East is the Most Exciting of Them all
There are four teams that could win the division, and lots of reasons for fans to follow the race
One of the problems with modern baseball is that there is a substantial list of teams that just aren’t interested in being good. The Miami Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Royals (to name a few) have no aspirations of a division victory this year. They (or more accurately, their owners) are satisfied with being well below average.
However, the NL East (with the exception of the Marlins), is the competitive antidote to major league complacency. The Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies, and New York Mets all have a realistic chance at winning it. And that makes this division the most interesting in baseball.
The Phillies, the team that has easily made the greatest effort at improvement this offseason, are (arguably) the frontrunner. Bryce Harper is now the biggest name on the team, but Philadelphia also landed other veterans like J.T. Realmuto and Andrew McCutchen. The end result of the team’s offseason is a projected first-place tie with the Nationals.
Atlanta is facing some uncertainty as well, despite easily winning the division last year. The Braves are projected to finish in fourth place by PECOTA, which would be extremely disappointing. But if Washington, Philadelphia, and New York are all projected to be much better than they were in 2018, that means every division win the Braves got last year will be much harder-earned this summer.
The Mets and Nationals round this list out, and they’re both interesting because they’re trying to rebound from disappointing seasons. Based on projections, these two teams each have a realistic chance of winning the division (FanGraphs even has Washington as the favorite right now). It’s impressive that the Nationals can still be a division-winning team after losing Harper, and the Met’s pitching staff is a perennial contender for the best in the league.
Regardless of who wins the division at the end of the season, it’s fun to take in the anticipation of a four-team race. Barring injury or serious under-performance, each one of these clubs should be within a few games of each other in August or September. In Major League Baseball, in 2019, that’s rare.
It’s possible that in mid September, the Phillies or Nationals have run away with the race. But even if that’s true, the rest of this crop of four teams will probably be competing for one of the two wild card sports, possible neck-and-neck with the St. Louis Cardinals or Chicago Cubs. The point is, even if one or more of these teams under-performs, there should still be enough talent in the division to keep these teams’ fates interesting.
