Innholdsfortegnelse for 2021 Baseball i Athlon Sports Football Bundle

Let’s set the pandemic aside for a moment and celebrate what we still have. Baseball hasn’t gone away; in fact, it’s being played at a very high level, with all-time greats plying their trade and the analytics revolution allowing us to enjoy the game with a deeper intensity and understanding than ever before. Two of those all-time greats feature heavily in this year’s magazine. The Dodgers’ acquisition of Mookie Betts was the final piece of a championship puzzle, but it was more than that — L.A.’s successful pursuit of Betts was a seismic event that will impact the game for years to come. We dig deeper into that fascinating chapter in recent history in Matt Trueblood’s feature story “The Trade That Changed Everything.” Then there’s Mike Trout. Like Ted Williams…

Josh Bell, OF Pirates (Rd. 2)Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas Bell showed flashes of power in his first two full big-league seasons, but really he broke out in 2019, making the National League All-Star Team and hitting 37 homers, knocking in 116 and compiling a .936 OPS. Mookie Betts, SS Red Sox (Rd. 5) John Overton (Tenn.) HS There may have been better fifth-round picks in MLB history than Betts, but the list isn’t too long. The 2018 AL MVP is a four-time All-Star and has five Gold Gloves and four Silver Slugger awards. In February 2020, Boston traded him to the Dodgers, with whom he earned his second World Series title. Jackie Bradley Jr., OF Red Sox (Rd. 1 – Supplemental) South Carolina Bradley has been a fixture…

It is a very unusual year for ranking prospects. In 2020, Minor League Baseball canceled its season because of the coronavirus pandemic. Some prospects did get to participate in “summer camp,” the second spring training that preceded the MLB season. Others spent time at the alternate training sites, and many got some work at fall instructional leagues. But no one received the normal development that comes from playing a 140-game season in the minors. The shortened MLB season also meant that some players who likely would have graduated in a normal year remain Rookie of the Year eligible in 2021. 1. WANDER FRANCO, SS, RAYS S/R • 5-10 • 189 • Age: 20 Acquired: Signed out of the Dominican Republic, 2017 The canceled minor league season may have kept Franco…

After winning at least 100 games in consecutive seasons, the Yankees sputtered last year, going 21–21 to start the abbreviated season until a late sprint got them the fifth seed in the expanded playoff field. They need much more consistent starting pitching and better health from their injury-prone lineup to return to the top of the AL East and restore their status as strong World Series contenders. ROTATION The Yankees’ rotation let them down last year, with the standout exception of Gerrit Cole, who gave them everything they’d hoped for when he signed for $324 million, the most lucrative contract for a pitcher in major league history. Cole won seven of 12 starts, with a 2.84 ERA and 11.6 strikeouts per nine innings; in a full season, he should be…

The White Sox will not market this season as “World Series or Bust,” but that’s the between-the-lines message the team’s front office delivered during a stunning off season. You don’t recruit Tony La Russa, 76, back into the dugout after a decade away to replace a guy (Rick Renteria) who finished second in American League Manager of the Year voting unless you believe you have a team that can win the American League pennant. The Sox had the best record in the AL with 14 games to play last September but faded after clinching a playoff spot and then lost their opening playoff series to Oakland. La Russa, with his three World Series victories, was hired to give a young team more focus and discipline. A trade for Lance Lynn…

The Royals may not be legitimate contenders in 2021, not in a division with the White Sox and Twins, but don’t tell GM Dayton Moore and manager Mike Matheny. Kansas City enters the season expecting to challenge for the AL Central crown. Pitching is the division’s main currency. It’s also the strength of the Royals’ farm system, but the big names in the pipeline — Asa Lacy, Daniel Lynch and Jackson Kowar — aren’t likely to make an immediate impact this season. Instead, Kansas City has a solid, if unspectacular, lefthander-dominated rotation backed by a gas-throwing bullpen. Matheny’s lineup has some pop and speed with a quality defense, but the bench is thin. It may not be enough to run down the AL Central powers yet, but Kansas City’s comeback…

Mike Trout made his big-league debut as a 19-year-old on July 8, 2011. In the years since, he has won a Rookie of the Year award and three Most Valuable Player awards and established himself as the best player of his generation, one who stacks up against the all-time greats. Since Trout’s debut, however, the Los Angeles Angels have gone 721–708 (a .505 winning percentage) during the regular season — and 0–3 in their only playoff appearance with Trout (an American League Division Series flop against the Kansas City Royals in 2014). Th ey’ve cycled through three managers in that time (Mike Scioscia, Brad Ausmus and Joe Maddon) and now three GMs (Jerry Dipoto, Billy Eppler and Perry Minasian). Eppler was able to resuscitate a moribund farm system during his…

An eight-game losing streak in mid-August sealed the Rangers’ fate for 2020, and, as it turns out, beyond. The Rangers decided to enter into a rebuild, a course that took them to the worst record in the American League and could keep them there for 2021. Things might not be much better in 2022. Veterans have been traded, benched or not re-signed. Rookies and prospects were given opportunities, and young players were acquired via trades or free agency. They will be the focus of the 2021 Rangers, not necessarily wins and losses, with the hopes of infusing veterans into the team over the off season ahead of 2022. ROTATION Only two starters from 2020 are still with the team, and neither Kyle Gibson nor Jordan Lyles, both righthanders, was particularly…

When Mets superfan Steve Cohen paid a record $2.475 billion to buy the franchise in November, it signaled a clear direction — win today, win tomorrow and spare no expense. Cohen said he would be disappointed not to win a World Series within five years, and his fellow Mets fans would surely agree. ROTATION Six years after they rode their young rotation to a World Series appearance, the Mets are still trying to get back there with Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz (Matt Harvey, alas, is long gone). Their stories have all unfolded differently: The sublime deGrom might be baseball’s best pitcher; the boom-or-bust Syndergaard is coming off Tommy John surgery; and the confounding Matz has never built off of his promising debut. Carlos Carrasco, new to the…

No team in baseball enters 2021 in as profound and difficult a period of transition as the Cubs. Key members of the team’s 2016 championship roster have moved on to new teams, as has president of baseball operations Theo Epstein. Longtime Epstein lieutenant Jed Hoyer has stepped into that role, and manager David Ross enters his second season with a talented roster and a division title under his belt, but the depth that made this team unbeatable a half-decade ago has given way to a roster with glaring holes. ROTATION While not imposing in figure or personality, Kyle Hendricks is as consistent as any starting pitcher in the NL Central. Despite not throwing hard, he’s developed the ability to work deep into games and minimize damage, using superb command of…

The Major League Baseball season was shortened to 60 games from 162 in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it still felt like an eternity for the Pittsburgh Pirates. ThePirates started 4–17 under first-year manager Derek Shelton and finished with the worst record in the major leagues at 19–41. That extrapolates to 51–111 in a normal year. Shelton, though, believes he was able to establish a new culture within both the clubhouse and organization. General manager Ben Cherington is still in player evaluation mode as he begins his second season on the job. He was the GM when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2013, which is something the Pirates have not done since 1979. ROTATION The good news for the rotation is that righthander Jameson…

The Rockies stumbled to a 26–34 record in pandemic-shortened 2020 and avoided last place in the NL West by one game. More offense is a must if the Rockies are to improve. They do have two elite players in third baseman Nolan Arenado and shortstop Trevor Story. Arenado was bothered by a left shoulder injured in the fifth game of the season, and that contributed to an off year. But he’s healthy and should be his usual slugging self. Story is already a star and at 28 should be entering his prime. The Rockies’ talented young rotation is a foundation necessary for success. But their bullpen was woeful last year and must become significantly better. Whatever unfolds on the field will do so against the backdrop of Arenado’s uncertain future.…

The Giants missed the postseason by the thinnest of margins in 2020, losing an arbitrary tiebreaker based on intra-divisional record to the Milwaukee Brewers. Despite their disappointment, the Giants were far more relevant than anyone had a right to expect, even in an abbreviated season, as manager Gabe Kapler moved pieces while squeezing the most out of a rebuilding roster. The Giants rescued themselves from an 8–16 start, and their most dramatic improvement came on the offensive side, where Mike Yastrzemski established himself as a star, and a reconfigured Oracle Park — the center field fence is 10 feet snugger, and wind cloth blocked breezes through the archways in right field — led to an entirely different experience in a ballpark that always played huge to anyone not named Barry…

TIER 1 1. FREDDIE FREEMAN, BRAVES After kicking COVID-19’s ass in the spring, Freeman promptly went off on everybody else last year. He crushed the ball six ways to Sunday, setting career bests in just about every last thing Statcast tracks and posting the best fantasy season in the NL. He’s still young enough to mash, the lineup context is a chef’s kiss and he’s again poised to be among the most valuable four-category performers in the game. 2. PETE ALONSO, METS A bunch of weak, up-the-middle, groundball contact early gave way to more yanked, crushed, high flyball contact late. The sum of the parts added up to an unsatisfying second act by the reigning Rookie of the Year, but the power is some of the best in the world,…

TIER 1 1. FERNANDO TATÍS JR., PADRES Tatito ran out of gas down the stretch, but across the first couple of months, he was the best player in fantasy. He led the league in exit velocity on the back of an insane hard-hit rate, and oh, by the way, his speed score is also top five in baseball. It’s tough to find a nit to pick, and he should be one of the first players off the board for many years to come. 2. TREA TURNER, NATIONALS A monster August-September pushed Turner to the top spot in all of fantasyland last year. We know about the steals, but what really stands out is how he managed to hold steady a solid batted-ball profile while putting significantly more balls in play.…

TIER 1 1. NELSON CRUZ, FREE AGENT Cruz’s batted-ball metrics finally took at least a small step back last year, mostly on account of a spike in ground ball rate. But we’re arguing over a margin of error in a short season, and it certainly didn’t impact his output. Like David Ortiz before him, he is an ageless wonder in the DH slot, and despite the nominal signs of slippage at age 40, he sure seems poised to reign on this list until he hangs ’em up. 2. J.D. MARTINEZ, RED SOX Martinez is a noted creature of habit and a vocal proponent of using ingame video to inform adjustments, and he had neither of those things going for him in 2020. Whatever the root cause, he suffered a huge…

TIER 1 1. LIAM HENDRIKS, FREE AGENT Hendriks has been the top reliever in baseball over the past two seasons, and it hasn’t been particularly close. His 96 mph fastball is one of the best in any bullpen, and while his eventual landing spot will have some say in the contextual factors, he’s going to get paid closer money to close. 2. JOSH HADER, BREWERS Hader’s topline numbers fell off due largely to another high HR rate and a spike in walks, though it’s worth noting that two-thirds of the dingers he allowed came in one outing, and he walked five guys in another. Dollars to donuts he’d have normalized both ratios over a longer season, and while he didn’t miss bats at quite the same obscene rate as years…

The COVID-19 pandemic shortened and distorted the 2020 MLB season, so drawing any overpowering, sweeping conclusions from it is a fool’s errand. On the other hand, as we head into the 14th season of the pitch-tracking era and the sixth year of the league’s increasingly ubiquitous Statcast system, smaller and smaller sample sizes are able to tell us more and more. Further, many of the trends we saw develop in 2020 reflected or extended ones we’d seen over the previous handful of seasons. The biggest theme of MLB, at this moment, is the extraordinary pace of change, and last year only magnified and accelerated that. In numerous ways, as the 2021 season dawns, pitching is an ultramodern art form built on the foundations of a recognizable but distinctly different one,…

There was no more fitting symbol of the 2020 MLB season than Justin Turner’s being pulled from the deciding game of the World Series after a positive COVID-19 test. Players have left important games with injuries before, but this was something that not even the most fertile imagination could have conjured. Turner left the game, even though he was asymptomatic, and there was an outcry when he returned to the field an hour after the game to get his picture taken with the Dodgers’ championship trophy The rest of the season was pretty weird, too, in ways that had nothing to do with a 60-game schedule, empty ballparks or team bubbles. We’re talking, of course, about the DH used in National League play, teams’ starting extra innings with runners on…

When representatives of the Williamsport Crosscutters gathered on Zoom for a press conference in late November announcing the franchise’s new status as a member of the new MLB Draft League, there were good feelings and high praise all around. “This is an exciting day. A new day,” said team VP of marketing and public relations Gabe Sinicropi. After 25-plus years as a member of the venerable New York-Penn League, a Single-A “short season” rookie aggregation, Williamsport — known best as the home of the Little League World Series — had become a casualty of MLB’s decision to take over the operations of its minor league affiliates and excise 40 of the 160 teams from the ledger. Williamsport would now compete in a league for draft prospects, rather than as an…

The Orioles are entering the third year of a massive rebuilding project under a new front office regime that’s introducing the franchise to analytical data and the importance of international scouting. It’s a whole new world that likely will produce the same old results in 2021. The team isn’t ready to contend over a full season, especially in the unforgiving and unsympathetic AL East. The funneling of prospects onto the major league roster is the most important gain. More debuts are coming. But so is a pile of losses created by an undermanned and inexperienced roster and one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. ROTATION John Means can become a true ace if he stays healthy, which he didn’t do in 2020. He followed up his rookie campaign by posting…

The Rays do a lot of things differently. And that includes how they are defending their first American League championship since 2008. Since losing to the Dodgers in the World Series, the Rays have parted ways with two of their top three starting pitchers, Blake Snell and Charlie Morton, along with a few other players, while making only moderate additions. But while acknowledging the net loss of talent, they insist they still will be contending to win the championship in 2021. The roster-churning and rebuilding on the run are nothing new to the Rays. But this offseason felt different. Between the level of success they had, their narrative of being at the opening of a window of contention and the losses coming from an area of need, as three other…

The 2021 season will be the last one that the Indians play under the name that they’ve carried since 1915. It might also end their eight-year streak of winning seasons under manager Terry Francona and their run as a serious postseason contender in the American League. Over the last five years, the Indians have made the postseason four times, winning three straight division titles in the AL Central and reaching Game 7 of the World Series in 2016. Since 2018, though, they have undergone a serious talent drain through free agent departures and trades, while their projected payroll for 2021 could settle at less than $50 million — lowest in the league — after soaring to a franchise-record $135 million in 2018. The pandemic hit the Indians hard, just as…

The Twins have serious competition in the AL Central this season, but that’s been true in each of the last two seasons, and they’ve still won relatively handily. They are a model franchise of the modern game, with a creative and aggressive front office, state-of-the-art coaches and player development, and a deep roster. Th eir next challenge will be to successfully convert some of their solid core pieces into the stars they hoped they would be. ROTATION Acquiring Kenta Maeda in a trade with the Dodgers in February turned out to be the coup of the year for the Minnesota front office. Though it cost them a substantial price, the deal virtually secured the AL Central title. Maeda finished second in AL Cy Young voting, thanks to an increased willingness…

After a season that could have been special, the Oakland A’s will be hard-pressed to post the second-best record in the American League once again in 2021. The A’s are still in position to contend, even with two of their main guys, shortstop Marcus Semien and closer Liam Hendriks, elsewhere after a disappointing team stumble in the ALDS against the Astros, and with other holes for the team to fill. In the past, roster renovations like the ones that Oakland is undergoing would have meant a fallback to mediocrity for the A’s. The club’s overall depth, however, remains at a high level. The A’s rightfully see themselves in contention for a fourth consecutive postseason berth. Despite having major gaps to fill, Oakland didn’t take a deep plunge into free agency.…

Despite a starting rotation that felt like “Max Fried and Ian Anderson and maybe Max again in Game Three,” Atlanta managed the third-best record in the National League and a deep postseason run in 2020. Much of the same cast returns for a 2021 engagement with a little extra help for the rotation, and the sequel looks like it will be as good as the original. Atlanta is loaded with young, though sometimes unproven, talent to pair with what was the highest-octane offense in the league in 2020. The summer (and fall) in Atlanta looks like it will be a good one. ROTATION When righthander Mike Soroka went down for the season, all hope seemed lost, as Soroka had finally developed into the ace that Atlanta had been hoping to…

After committing over $700 million to free agents the previous three winters, the Phillies tightened the budget because of the pandemic this off season. There was still a chance they would change course and strike a deal with catcher J.T. Realmuto before Opening Day, but that’s just one of many holes new president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski inherits as he tries to snap the longest playoff drought in the National League. Dombrowski knows how to get the job done, and there is talent here — just not enough throughout the roster to instill confidence that the playoff drought will end in 2021. ROTATION If there’s a reason to believe the Phillies can at least make things interesting in the NL East, it’s that they have a strong 1-2 punch…

The Reds, last in the NL Central every year from 2015 to 2018, began pushing their chips to the middle of the table with the trade deadline acquisition of Trevor Bauer in 2019. After the 2019 season, they added free agent infielder Mike Moustakas, outfielder Nick Castellanos and Japanese import Shogo Akiyama. The moves resulted in the team’s first postseason appearance since 2013. Cincinnati exited the playoffs quietly, though, dropping two straight to the Braves, scoring a grand total of zero runs over 22 innings. The team hit the jackpot with Bauer, who led the league with a 1.73 ERA and 0.80 WHIP and won the NL Cy Young Award. The other big acquisitions were less impressive. Moustakas missed over a quarter of the season due to COVID-19. Castellanos had…

For an organization rooted in its past and expected to live up to that history, the Cardinals are caught in a modern bind — holding on to their present while reaching, waiting for the future. The 2020 Cardinals overcame an outbreak of COVID-19 and a prolonged quarantine to reach the playoffs for a second consecutive year and post a 13th consecutive winning season. The fallout from the shortened schedule came fast as reduced revenues crimped spending. With limited additions to fortify weaknesses, a team that forged success through run prevention risked subtractions from that strength — allowing Gold Glove winners Kolten Wong, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright all to become free agents. With a robust pitching staff, they intend to contend despite this precarious perch: not rebuilding, nor resetting, but…

Finally. The Dodgers’ 32-year wait for a championship had begun to define the franchise in recent years even as they dominated their division (eight consecutive division titles through 2020) and stamped themselves as perennial title contenders with the best record in baseball over the past five seasons and three NL pennants in the past four. All of that was finally validated with the most unique championship in baseball history, won in the quarantine “bubble” on the field at neutral-site Globe Life Field. The bold trade for Mookie Betts on the eve of spring training paid off in the only way it could. The Dodgers were the best team in baseball during its shortest season (43–17) and then won more postseason games than any World Series winner had ever been asked…

TIER 1 1. DJ LEMAHIEU, FREE AGENT (3B, 1B) Long one of the most difficult hitters in the game to defend against, LeMahieu proved last year that his mid-career development of situational power is legitimate. A potential move out of the Bronx, where he has hit .376 with 27 of his 36 homers over the past two seasons, is cause for some concern. But the raw hitting talent offers a high floor for the draft position. 2. OZZIE ALBIES, BRAVES A wrist injury derailed the start of his season, but a .338/.372/.581, 5-homer, 3-steal September is more emblematic of the true talent level. It’s tough to get a read on whether we can expect any improvements in approach, but even if there’s no next gear here, the present skill set…

TIER 1 1. MOOKIE BETTS, DODGERS There is just no better, fully actualized five-tool threat in the game right now than Betts. He was the top-earning outfielder in the NL last year after leading AL outfielders in each of the two seasons prior. He remains squarely in his prime and will again sit in the catbird seat of one of the best offenses in baseball. You can arrange this top four as you please, but Mookie’s got the highest five-category floor of anyone heading into 2020. 2. RONALD ACUÑA, JR., BRAVES Acuña’s whiff rate ballooned amid the fits and starts of nagging injuries, but he led all outfielders in HardHit% when he did make contact, and he still had plenty of opportunities to show off the most potent power-speed combo…

TIER 1 1. SHANE BIEBER, INDIANS Bieber added a new and positively nasty cutter into his already-stout pitch mix, and it took the whole thing to some kind of next level. There really aren’t any holes in his game now: He gets whiffs, he limits walks, the command and pitch design are cartoonishly good and he’s proven healthy and durable to date. If you’re looking for a nit to pick, his walk rate did creep, and he benefited from good luck stranding runners. That’s about the extent of it, though. Buy away. 2. JACOB DEGROM, METS It’s kind of nuts to suggest that a pitcher of deGrom’s caliber could actually get better, but there he went in 2020 adding two ticks to his already-elite fastball and jumping his strikeout rate…

Frank Robinson was a celebrated judge with the Orioles, complete with a white mophead that served as his wig. Mariano Rivera was a judge for the Yankees; so was Wade Boggs. Barry Larkin did it in Cincinnati wearing a robe and wielding a gavel. Those Hall of Famers all presided over a so-called “kangaroo court,” that time-honored baseball tradition with a purpose. They heard cases that ranged from throwing to the wrong base to bungling a rundown to wearing a fashion eyesore. They levied small fines for offenders and, at the same time, offered intel to rookies on how to thrive in a difficult game. Baseball’s kangaroo courts, proponents say, help build clubhouse camaraderie. It’s a great way to teach young players “what to do and wear and what not…

Here’s all you need to know about the 2020 Red Sox — it didn’t take world events to make their year miserable. From trading MVP Mookie Betts to (temporarily) parting ways with scandal-plagued manager Alex Cora to losing ace Chris Sale to Tommy John surgery to finishing with the fourth-worst record in baseball, the Red Sox gave their fans no shortage of reasons to change the channel. Now begins the process of winning them back. It won’t happen immediately because outside of some nice offensive weapons, the overall talent base just isn’t there. The Red Sox need massive upgrades to their rotation, help in the bullpen and depth at every level of the system. The good news is that chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom has already started remaking the farm…

A postseason berth in the shortened pandemic campaign of 2020 helped advance the Toronto Blue Jays’ timeline, and now they enter the new season as a team to watch in the American League. While it’s fair to wonder whether they would have made the playoffs under normal circumstances, and if the stat lines of certain players would have leveled off over a full marathon, there’s no debating that their base of talent is strong enough to again compete for the postseason. Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. remain the guts of the club, but Teoscar Hernández’s emergence as an MVP-caliber force will be closely watched for regression. The same can be said about the club’s depth of arms, leveraged creatively over the shortened season but…

Although the Tigers finished last in the AL Central in 2020 for the third time in four years, there was ample evidence of a corner slowly being turned — whether in the arrival of a quartet of prospects (pitchers Casey Mize and Tarik Skubal, infielder Isaac Paredes and outfielder Daz Cameron), the breakouts of Willi Castro and Jeimer Candelario or the drafting (with the No. 1 overall pick) of a generational slugging talent in Spencer Torkelson. The Tigers’ management surely recognized the progress, dismissing the affable Ron Gardenhire as manager and replacing him with the equally affable — but World Series title-winning — A.J. Hinch. It’s not as if 2021 suddenly becomes a go-for-broke year in Motown, but it is a year to expect a significant leap forward. ROTATION Th…

The Astros’ championship window is narrowing, not closing. But their days as a superteam will end in 2021, especially in the wake of Justin Verlander’s elbow injury and the departure of George Springer in free agency. Th eir stout position player core is still spearheaded by Alex Bregman, José Altuve and Carlos Correa, while the rotation will be fronted by Zack Greinke, Lance McCullers Jr. and Framber Valdez. Correa, McCullers and Greinke are free agents following 2021, inviting one to wonder whether this season may be Houston’s last best chance at a second World Series title. To win it, unproven players must fill outfield vacancies, and young pitchers who debuted last season must sustain their success. ROTATION Verlander’s elbow injury in July should have decimated the Astros’ hopes for a…

The Mariners enter Year Three of a rebuilding plan that general manager Jerry Dipoto labeled “a stepback.” But will the 60-game season in 2020 and the canceled minor league season slow or sidetrack the timeline to success? The Mariners’ plan to use last season as a developmental year with the actual winloss results secondary to the goal of getting MLB experience was hindered by the COVID-19 shutdown and the 60-game season. After finishing 27–33 in 2020, the Mariners go into this season with an increased focus on the daily game results over developmental growth. Both Dipoto and manager Scott Servais believe that given the young talent and athleticism, competing for a playoff spot, particularly if MLB uses an expanded playoff format again, should be an expectation. ROTATION The Mariners went with…

The 2020 Miami Marlins were easily Major League Baseball’s surprise team. Now it’s time to see how they follow it up. After losing 105 games and finishing last in the National League East in 2019, Miami turned the corner in Year Three of the rebuild in a shortened 60-game season by going 31–29. Extrapolated to a 162-game season, that translates to an 84-win year. Despite a COVID-19 outbreak that sidelined 18 players, the Marlins flaunted their organizational depth en route to making the postseason for the first time since 2003. Once there, they swept the Chicago Cubs in the NL Wild Card Series before bowing out to the Atlanta Braves in the NL Division Series. As expected, the Marlins rode their talented young starting pitching. Top prospects like Sixto Sánchez…

Like so many defending World Series champions before them, the 2020 Nationals found tough sledding in the Year After. The reasons may sound familiar: the failure to adequately replace a departed free agent (Anthony Rendon), a lack of progress for key youngsters (Carter Kieboom, Víctor Robles) and a series of setbacks and injuries to a veteran-heavy pitching staff that was overtaxed the prior fall. The Nats’ resulting fourth-place finish (tied with the Mets at 26–34) — coupled with a quiet winter, a dearth of top-end prospects and the steady progress of some division rivals — is enough to make one wonder if the team’s championship window, open for the better part of the last decade, is now closing. ROTATION After pitching to the brink of November in 2019, the Nats’…

Considering the unprecedented nature of the 2020 season, perhaps it was fitting that the Milwaukee Brewers accomplished a couple of notable firsts — they advanced to the playoffs for the third consecutive year (a franchise record) and did so despite finishing with a losing record at 29–31 (joining the 2020 Houston Astros as the only teams in MLB history to do so). Can the Brewers make it four straight postseasons in 2021? Not unless they improve their offense significantly, beginning with Christian Yelich. The 2018 NL MVP and 2019 runner-up completely collapsed at the plate after signing a nineyear, $215 million contract extension in spring training, and the rest of the unit followed suit. Now 29, Yelich is in his physical prime, and the pressure will be on him to…

Amiserable start in the miserable year of 2020 led to another trade deadline selloff, and the moves committed the D-backs to a retooling around core building blocks Ketel Marte, Zac Gallen and Madison Bumgarner. If the starting pitching stays healthy and the young arms take another step forward, the Diamondbacks could compete for a playoff spot, but they will need a rebound from virtually every member of their offense — and a big one from Bumgarner. ROTATION Bumgarner’s struggles typified those of the Diamondbacks last year. After signing a five-year, $85 million free agent contract in the winter, Bumgarner made four starts before landing on the injured list for only the third time in his 12-year career with a mid-back strain, perhaps contributing to the fact that he gave up…

Baseball is fun again in “Slam Diego,” thanks to Fernando Tatís Jr., Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth. And that was before the addition of Blake Snell, Yu Darvish and Korean slugger Ha-seong Kim in a stunning late-December spree by general manager A.J. Preller. The Padres will be aiming to make the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2006. Last season, in ending a 13-year playoff drought, the Padres played with a swagger, set records and brought a badly needed sense of joy to a city that has had its sports psyche beaten down for years. The excitement starts with the 22-year-old Tatís, who has established himself as a superstar after just two seasons. The son of a former major league infielder, Tatís was named All-MLB First Team…

TIER 1 1. JOSÉ RAMÍREZ, INDIANS Any questions about Ramírez’s down 2019 got laid to rest right quick, as he got right back to doing the things he does and never stopped in the abbreviated campaign. His whiff rate jumped again, which is something to keep an eye on, but he pulled a whole bunch of high fly balls and jumped his HR/FB rate to a supported and sustainable career high. His 25-steal speed at a plodding position is a huge bonus, and he is the premier five-category producer at the hot corner. 2. NOLAN ARENADO, ROCKIES A big ol’ wash of a season for Arenado, who battled a shoulder injury before succumbing to it in September and missing the final couple weeks. He remains one of the most talented…