The AL East is off to a chaotic start
The American League East was initially considered the easiest division to figure out heading into the 2017 season.
From top to bottom it was quite clear where each team stood and what they’d reasonably be capable of this year. The Boston Red Sox had just completely reloaded and opened a massive championship window. The Toronto Blue Jays still had all the tools to make the playoffs and give opponents trouble. The Baltimore Orioles needed a few more pieces to be considered a true threat and the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees were each in the final stages of a rebuild.
When the BLS team prepared its season predictions, each writer had the Red Sox and Blue Jays finishing first and second, respectively, with Boston earning at least 90 wins and Toronto not far behind.
This was a clear cut division race. There shouldn’t have been any reason to expect major drama.
About that…
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After one week, the AL East looks like it could be more open than previously anticipated.
Here’s how the division looks following Sunday’s games:
Baltimore (4-1)
Tampa Bay (5-2)
Boston (3-2)
New York (2-4)
Toronto (1-5)
Now, this is only Week One. If we’re going to hit the panic button after every seven days, it’s going to be a very, very long season. Still, this one was a bit strange.
Things started to turn from Game 1 of the MLB season when Yankees’ ace Masahiro Tanaka was knocked out in the third inning by the Rays — who went on to win that series, 2-1, before taking three of four against the Blue Jays.
With Chris Archer and Jake Odorizzi leading the rotation up front, and Alex Colome shutting things down in the ninth (Colome is three-for-three in save opportunities already), plus viable hitting from Steven Souza Jr., Corey Dickerson and Logan Morrison, the Rays are looking beyond the “spoiler” label.
That’s to say nothing of Evan Longoria, who already has two home runs and an OPS of .805 in a slow start for the slugging third baseman.
Part of what’s helped Tampa Bay’s fast start is the snowballing setbacks for Toronto.
The Blue Jays dropped a two-game series to Baltimore before that disastrous trip to Tampa. Four of their five losses have come by two runs or less and they’ve yet to score more than five runs in a victory.
Making matters worse, Josh Donaldson left Sunday’s game at Tropicana Field with right calf tightness. He’s considered day-to-day.
Toronto’s stumble out of the gate made room for the Orioles to rush straight to the top of the division — and Baltimore is still getting healthier with ace Chris Tillman scheduled to come off the 10-day DL in the next week.
And the reason any of this is possible, the reason Baltimore and Tampa Bay are at the top of the division and everyone else is fighting below, is because Boston’s clubhouse is dealing with an outbreak of the flu.
Seriously.
Mookie Betts and Hanley Ramirez both suffered through it. Andrew Benintendi got sick during Saturday’s game. Even play-by-play man Dave O’Brien fell victim to it.
And still, the Red Sox are 3-2 with a bunch of help on the way.
Does any of this really mean anything? Probably not. Again, It’s the first week of the season and a good second or third week — heck, even a halfway decent month for some teams — can make all of this irrelevant.
But for a division that was supposed to offer little intrigue, we’ve already seen a fair share of storylines flying around.
This is truly April baseball at its finest.
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Blake Schuster is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Schustee
