The big MLB free agents continue to come off the board and the NL West made another splash on Tuesday night. This time it was the Giants landing Carlos Correa after missing out on Aaron Judge.
The Dodgers still have a huge payroll in the NL West and the Padres added Xander Bogaerts to their stable of stars alongside Juan Soto, Manny Machado, and Fernando Tatis Jr. The NL West has to be the best division in baseball now, right?
Well, not so fast. The offseason has become an arms race in a few different divisions.
WEEI’s Rob Bradford of the Audacy Original Podcast “Baseball Isn’t Boring” debated which division is the best in baseball with a few strong arguments.
“But which is the best division?” Bradford said (19:30 in player above). “You could make the argument, well let’s look at the National League East. The Mets, they’re spending as much as anyone. Then you have the Phillies. You have those two teams and then you have the Braves. So you have those three teams.”
The NL East may be leading the way with the trio at the top, but there is also the “soft underbelly” of the Nationals and Marlins. That’s usually the case in most divisions, though.
Moving to the NL Central, it takes a bit of a step down.
“We’ll see what the Cubs do, but Cardinals, Cubs, Brewers,” Bradford said. “Solid but unspectacular.”
It ramps back up moving out to the NL West.
“Then you have the West: Padres, Giants, Dodgers. Which is better? Which group would you want?”
The top three in each of the NL East and NL West are competitive. You have the Phillies, Mets, and Braves in the East and the Dodgers, Padres, and Giants in the West. But that’s just the National League.
The AL West has also made some key moves.
“We know what the Rangers did. They got deGrom and they already paid the money last year,” Bradford said. “You have the Houston Astros, who I don’t know if you know this they won the World Series and they’re a really good team and they added Jose Abreu. So you have those two teams. You have the always intriguing Angels. You have the A’s. So you have those teams – you have the Mariners. So let’s take the top three there. I think that you look at the Astros, you look at the Mariners, and you look at the Rangers.”
There is a bit of uncertainty in the AL West after the Astros, however, so it may not quite match up with the NL West or NL East.
The AL Central is similar to the NL Central in that they have the Guardians at the top, the Twins looking to replace Correa, and the White Sox making a push. But those three don’t come close to the big dogs in the NL East and West.
The division that puts up a fight is the AL East.
“You have the Yankees – we know what they’re about. The Blue Jays, man, once again they just got another pitcher, Bassitt, they are a really, really talented team. The Rays, the magic of the Rays. They figure out a way. And I would love to say they’re not up to the level of the other teams, but they win. Who knows, it seems like the Rays will do something along the lines that will actually improve them.
“The Orioles, out of nowhere, right? It’s not like they’re going around throwing around a lot of money … but you can’t discount what they did in terms of last year winning and losing. And then you have the Red Sox. The Red Sox, who everybody is waiting on, when will they make their big move? They lose Bogaerts, they have the press conference on Tuesday for Kenley Jansen. I don’t think anybody’s going to say ‘Well that’s going to put them over the top.’”
The AL East might be the best division from top to bottom – they were last season with the fifth-place Red Sox finishing just three games below .500.
But which is the best of the best?
“Everyone immediately jumps to the West because of all of the money being spent, but I can’t discount the National League East,” Bradford said. “I can’t discount the grouping of the Mets, the Phillies, and the Braves. I can’t.”
There are a few different ways to look at it and a few different arguments that can be made. The NL East had three playoff teams last season and those squads are only getting better, but then there are the Nationals and Marlins. If you look at the division as a whole, the AL East may have a higher floor.
The MLB offseason has been a busy one so far and there are still plenty of moves to be made. We’ll see how it all shakes out.
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