We’ve discussed this previously, and my suspicion is it will continue to be a source of conversation through the 2013 season.
The AL East: No longer baseball’s best division. Therefore giving the Yankees some room for error.
The Red Sox have signed Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli this week, on top of the Jonny Gomes acquisition earlier this offseason, and those, put together, are…sort of weird. It’s high dollars for reasonable years, which for sure is better than high dollars for high years, but the reason the years are reasonable are that Victorino and Napoli are both coming off down 2012 seasons (relative to their previous production) while Gomes’ ’12 with Oakland appears statistically unsustainable.
So the Red Sox look like a guy who endures an absolutely brutal divorce and then quickly gets remarried, justifying it by saying, “Hey, at least I spent a lot less on the wedding this time.”
Maybe it’ll work out. Maybe the departure of Bobby Valentine, some fresh faces, a few rebounds and whatever new pitching is still to come will catapult the Red Sox right back into the playoffs. We don’t want to cast final judgments on December 5. We just want to point out that, so far, it’s an odd-looking plan.
The Rays have utilized their typical “buy low” strategy to bring aboard first baseman James Loney (via free agency) and shortstop Yunel Escobar (via a trade with Miami), and the one thing we can do for sure at this juncture is confirm that the Rays are definitely buying low. Both Loney and Escobar are coming off absolutely dreadful ’12 seasons. Tampa Bay, having lost B.J. Upton to the Braves via free agency, could get its big offensive upgrade by trading James Shields, Jeremy Hellickson or even AL Cy Young Award winner David Price.
For now, though, the Rays, having been run so well for so long, get the benefit of the doubt on what they’ve done. They surely have some proprietary formulas that project Loney and Escobar, under the guidance of great manager Joe Maddon and his excellent coaching staff, to be much better.
The Blue Jays, we know about: High upside and obvious downside to the moves they’ve already made. The Orioles reportedly met with Nick Swisher’s agent yesterday, and on paper, he’d be a nice fit for a team that needs upgrades to live up to its statistically freaky 2012 season. What Swisher would need in Baltimore, though, is coverage from the likes of Adam Jones and Nick Markakis regarding both run production and public relations. Making Swisher the centerpiece of a team (like Seattle) probably wouldn’t end well.
The Yankees, meanwhile, focus on third base and rightfield, and also on catcher. They need work on all three positions. Given how the rest of the division is looking, though, they might not need as much work as we think.
–Have a great day.