The World Series champion Chicago Cubs emerged from the National League Central. Runner-up Cleveland came out of the American League Central. But without doubt, the American League East is baseball’s toughest division, a relentless meat-grinder that is simply without peer.
In 2016, the AL East led the majors with a cumulative record of 423-387, with four of its five teams posting winning records and three of them advancing to the post-season. The NL Central was next best at 408-400 – mostly due to the Cubs going 103-58 – while the NL West brought up the rear at 390-420.
Only six of the 15 teams in the National League had winning records – two per division.
Division | Wins | Losses |
---|---|---|
AL East | 423 | 387 |
AL Central | 398 | 410 |
AL West | 408 | 402 |
NL East | 400 | 408 |
NL Central | 408 | 400 |
NL West | 390 | 420 |
That landscape is relevant during the off-season as teams makes moves for 2017 and beyond. To emerge from the AL East, a club needs a strong base of talent and a well of depth to overcome the looming attrition.
The defending AL East champion Boston Red Sox, who finished 93-69, are best positioned on that front with a young core, a strong farm system and a large payroll. They should be a force to be reckoned with for an extended period.
The Toronto Blue Jays and Baltimore Orioles both ended up four games back and met in the wild-card game, won on Edwin Encarnacion’s walk-off homer in the 11th inning. Each club faces its challenges this winter and lacks the prospect-base to cover off needs.
The New York Yankees finished fourth at 84-78 and are in the midst of trying to replenish their core without bottoming out the way the Cubs and Houston Astros, for example, have successfully done in recent years.
The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, finished 68-94 but have a depth of pitching that’s the envy of most teams, an asset that makes them impossible to write off. Predictive models suggest their record last year should have been 77-85 in spite of the injuries they sustained.
Really, there’s little reason to think the AL East won’t be similarly tight in 2017. Given how competitive the division remains, I asked executives from each club how much they factor where the other teams stand into their off-season plans.
Dave Dombrowski – President of Baseball Operations, Boston Red Sox
“You think about it because you have to think who you’re matching up against, but I don’t think it can be your sole determiner. Last year, we were cognizant that Baltimore and Toronto, we felt, were a little bit more susceptible to right-handed relief pitching because they had a lot of right-handed hitters. But if you just went with that basis, the Yankees had a lot more left-handed hitters. So, you can’t do all of it all the time. You have to try to cover as many different bases as you can, but I think you try to build your team to your own ballpark first, then you’re cognizant of who you play the most second. But you’re really trying to build the best overall club that you can at any point.”
Ross Atkins – General Manager, Toronto Blue Jays
“You walk through all of their needs, you try to understand what their positions are, you have interactions with them that in some cases are very clear (on) exactly what their goals are and how much flexibility they have. In other cases it’s not quite as clear, but you absolutely have to do that. It’s information.”
Dan Duquette – General Manager, Baltimore Orioles
“We spend a lot of our time and energy on our own club, trying to make that (we’re) as strong as we can so when we go into competition, we have the players and the talent to compete. But it’s tough. Toronto’s got good depth, the Yankees have good depth, the Red Sox, terrific talent, Tampa has a good pitching program. So it’s a tough division and because of the depth of the other clubs, they really wear you down. You end up playing these teams 19 times so you get to know them really well, and if you pick up one player in the season, that’s a real difference-maker. A lot of time that determines who advances to the playoffs.”
Brian Cashman – General Manager, New York Yankees
“We just try to collect as much talent as we can for our own benefit, whether it’s for trade or promotion eventually to the big-league level to help sustain success. What the rest of the division looks like isn’t relevant. It’s not irrelevant in terms of being able to compete. You see what Boston has collected over the years that’s now manifested itself as some serious young position-player talent that you respect and recognize and hope you’re able to match or exceed that. So you pay attention to what the other clubs are doing. If it’s Toronto, and the types of clubs they’ve put together to be knocking on the World Series door for two consecutive years, you can’t help but notice it. But your job is to collect as much for your arsenal as you possibly can so you can deploy it with success as you move forward.”
Erik Neander – General Manager, Tampa Bay Rays
“It’s a zero-sum game, we’ve got to take our wins from somebody else and the number of games you play in-division has to be some sort of factor in those calculations. Being cognizant of where the other teams in the division are with respect to their competitive windows, with respect to their situations and what they have going on is some sort of factor with respect to our planning. That said, the challenge in and of itself in trying to build a competitive team is so great that it’s probably a secondary factor to just getting your team and your unit as strong as you can.”