Baltimore Orioles
Key Additions: Travis Snider
Key Losses: Nelson Cruz, Nick Markakis, Andrew Miller
2014 Record: 96-66
Playoffs: Lost ALCS to Royals, 4 games to 0
Season Outlook: Coming off a year in which they cruised to a division title (and were just two games shy of the best record in the game), the Orioles got comfortable and stood pat this offseason on both the trade and free agent markets. It's defensible, since the AL East is still mostly in shambles, putting Adam Jones and crew in good position to repeat as divisional champs. But with the meltdown of Ubaldo Jimenez and the losses of Cruz (who hit most homers in MLB last year with 40), Markakis and Miller, it'll be an uphill battle in Baltimore. They resigned Hardy before he officially reached free agency, a deal (3 years, $40 million with a 2018 option worth $14 million) that was lauded as one of the shrewdest and quickest of the offseason considering the thin shortstop market, but they'll miss the firepower Cruz brought to the lineup. Jones becomes the bat they'll rely upon the most (again), and he's a virtual lock to deliver around 30 homers while finally finding his groove defensively: 2014 was the first season wherein he posted positive DRS and UZR figures in centerfield. Erstwhile infielder Manny Machado went down with a horrific knee injury for the second straight season. If healthy, he may be able to reach for 40 doubles after challenging for the single season record in 2013. Backstop Matt Wieters finally enters his walk year, and he'll look to rebuild his value after a lost 2014 if he wants to command the kind of contract he and agent Scott Boras expect to receive on the free agent market. Chris Davis remains an enigma: will he hit 50 homers, or will he hit under .200? This Orioles team, like last year, has a lot of question marks. Still, with the division being the weakest its been in years, the smart money would be on the O's remaining in control of the East.
Biggest Need: They still don't have a starter that will inspire fear in opposing hitters' hearts. Chris Tillman, their Game 1 starter in both the ALDS and ALCS, is a number 1 pitcher in rotational order only. Kevin Gausman should get a longer look in 2015, and top prospect Dylan Bundy should solidify the starting 5 sometime in the near future.
Boston Red Sox
Key Additions: Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, Yoan Moncada, Justin Masterson, Anthony Varvaro
Key Losses: Yoenis Cespedes, Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, David Ross, Will Middlebrooks
2014 Record: 71-91
Playoffs: No
Season Outlook: Pulling off baseball's very first occurrence of a team going worst-to-first-to-worst, last year's defending champions (ugh) spent the majority of 2014 in the cellar (yay!). The BoSox revamped their entire rotation with the deals for Porcello (sending Cespedes to the Tigers) and Miley (shipping De La Rosa and Webster to the Diamondbacks) as well as the signing of Masterson. All of the newbies, as well as disappointing holdover Clay Buchholz, are noted groundball pitchers, something that should be of great interests to the infielder. While Mike Napoli isn't the best defensive first baseman, the rest of the infield provides surprisingly high defensive value. As much as I hate to say it, this marriage of grounder-inducing hurlers and finesse fielders should be quite successful (ugh again). They resigned Koji Uehara around the end of the World Series and later traded for Varvaro, both moves that will strengthen the bullpen. And of course, having Panda and HanRam adds a lot of power and versatility to a lineup with returning vets David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia. Ortiz, at 39 years old, still mashes baseballs with utter authority, and Pedroia no longer has anybody nipping at his heels with the move of prospect Mookie Betts to the crowded outfield. Ramirez will see most of his game action in the outfield, where he has never once played in his professional career, while Sandoval's arrival necessitated the removal of Middlebrooks from the organization. They even swooped in and snatched up Moncada, the cream of the Cuban crop this offseason, and while he probably won't see much time in Beantown next year, he clearly adds immense future potential to the club. This Boston team should be closer to the 2013 champs than the 2012 and 2014 losers, which makes my skin crawl.
Biggest Need: Even after trading Cespedes, they still have approximately 98 outfielders. Trading Shane Victorino or Allen Craig may alleviate the logjam, especially if they move those guys for infield depth or more pitching. Here's hoping they don't.
New York Yankees
Key Additions: Alex Rodriguez (yes, he technically counts as an addition), Andrew Miller, Didi Gregorius, Nathan Eovaldi, David Carpenter
Key Losses: Derek Jeter, Hiroki Kuroda, David Robertson, Brandon McCarthy, Ichiro Suzuki, Shane Greene, Martin Prado, Shawn Kelley
2014 Record: 84-78
Playoffs: No
Season Outlook: Although the Bombers notched a winning season, they fell well short of the postseason in Derek Jeter's final year. Since there was no drama as to whether or not the team would make the playoffs, the entire 2014 campaign felt like a farewell to The Captain mercilessly stretched out over 162 games, which had even the most hardcore Jeter fans (like myself) feeling a mighty hangover this offseason. Never content with baseball-free Octobers, the team took a slightly different approach to this offseason than they have in the previous 4 decades. Sure, they resigned Chase Headley to a deal (4 years, $52 million) that they'll live to regret, but they made some very creative trades to bring in Gregorius to replace Jeter at short (in a role reversal of sorts, as Didi is an excellent fielder while providing little value at the plate), Eovaldi to inject youth into/shore up a crumbling rotation, and Carpenter to join Miller for a nasty one-two punch out of the bullpen. The names in the loss column are big ones, but no one the team will truly miss other than McCarthy (whose time in pinstripes helped revitalize his cutter as well as his career) and Prado (who recorded a 2.1 WAR in just 37 games with the team). While it'd be foolish to ever count the Yanks out, it's hard to see how they could honestly expect to contend next year. The pitching still has a lot of questions, such as how CC Sabathia will rebound, how Michael Pineda will handle more responsibility, and how a MLB team can contend with invisible pitchers in the 4th and 5th slots. Oh, and A-Rod will get back to eliciting a shower of boos at a ballfield near you next year. Enjoy, America.
Biggest Need: The entire staff of Mount Sinai Hospital on retainer. This team looks a lot younger than recent incarnations, but the lineup still reads like a list of reserves for the 2008 All-Star Game. Bouncebacks from Mark Teixeira, Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann will go a long way to buoy the Yankees' chances of contending.
Tampa Bay Rays
Key Additions: Kevin Cash (manager), Asdrubal Cabrera, John Jaso, Steven Souza
Key Losses: Joe Maddon (manager), Wil Myers, Ben Zobrist, Yunel Escobar, Ryan Hanigan
2014 Record: 77-85
Playoffs: No
Season Outlook: Nobody was a bigger disappointment in 2014 than the Rays. That's a loaded statement, but it's true: no team had higher expectations going into the season than the Tampa squad. David Price was leading the rotation, Evan Longoria was healthy, Myers looked like he was close to breaking out. A deep playoff run seemed like kismet. Even when burgeoning ace Matt Moore went down with Tommy John after just two starts, there didn't appear to be any reason to panic. Then, there were multiple reasons to panic. Price (in the middle of another stellar season) was dealt to the Tigers at the deadline, Longoria put up the worst numbers in a full season of his career, and Myers was traded to the Padres a couple of months ago for Souza and assorted others. Maddon took advantage of a contractual loophole triggered by former GM Andrew Friedman jumping ship for the Dodgers, left for the Cubs and was replaced by Cash. The versatile Zobrist and the troublesome Escobar were flipped to the Athletics, and Cabrera was signed to take their places, or at least one of them. Having Moore back near the middle of the season will help the team, and Alex Cobb is considered to be one of the top starters in the division now, although he admittedly has much weaker competition than usual. The Rays enter this new season in a familiar spot: a cellar-dwelling team that will likely serve as the league punching bag. But a rapid ascent to prominence isn't out of the question, and if any team could do it, wouldn't it be a team that's done it once already? While two of the biggest organizational cogs have left, this is still one of the more resourceful teams in the game. Don't expect that to change anytime soon.
Biggest Need: Patience. 2015 will be a tougher year than usual in Tampa, with the team clearly in rebuild mode. The prospects acquired from the Myers and Zobrist deals should pay dividends in the future, but for now, it seems like losing baseball has returned to Florida in full force.
Toronto Blue Jays
Key Additions: Russell Martin, Josh Donaldson, Marco Estrada, Michael Saunders, Devon Travis
Key Losses: Brett Lawrie, Adam Lind, Anthony Gose, J.A. Happ
2014 Record: 83-79
Playoffs: No
Season Outlook: You can say this about the Jays, they really keep chugging along in spite of everything. After another season-long waste of Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion's prime years, they looked at their roster (and, presumably, the state of the other teams on this list) and decided 2015 would be the perfect opportunity to push all of their chips to the middle of the table once again. After the blockbuster trades in the 2012-13 offseason flopped, the Jays surprised everybody by paying a huge premium to bring Russell Martin, the catching prize of the offseason, back to his home country. Considering how Martin led the charge to relevancy in Pittsburgh, the Blue Jays brass is hoping that his magnificent pitch framing abilities will help some of their younger hurlers like Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez find their stride, although it's incredibly unlikely that he replicates his .402 OBP from last year. Trading for Donaldson immediately improves the infield defense and the lineup's offense, and the MVP candidate only cost the Jays an oft-injured hothead in Lawrie and some low-end prospects. Talk about a steal. Saunders and Travis should provide a fair share of value at their respective positions, although Saunders will likely miss the first handful of games while recovering from a torn meniscus and Travis should start the season in Double-A, a level he has yet to outplay. Estrada should be serviceable as a starter or out of the pen, although with the team's relative surplus of strong relievers, it wouldn't be a shock to see him spend most of his time in the starting five. Jose Reyes had another solid season, and keeping him healthy at the top of the lineup is critical for the team's offensive juggernauts in Joey Bats and Encarnacion. The pieces are all there for the Blue Jays. The question remains, can they put them together to form a true contender?
Biggest Need: More reliable starting pitching couldn't hurt. Mark Buehrle is a workhorse and Stroman took large strides last season, but R.A. Dickey isn't aging as gracefully as other knucklers and the other rotation options (Drew Hutchinson and Daniel Norris) are uninspiring.
Projected 2015 Standings
Baltimore Orioles
Toronto Blue Jays
Boston Red Sox
New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays
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