It’s been fair for a long time to lament how tough the AL East is. Since Major League Baseball split each league into three divisions, the AL East has been, year in and year out, particularly challenging, featuring a Yankees dynasty, competitive Orioles teams (think Jeffrey Maier, think Manny Machado), a Red Sox surge, recent success from Tampa Bay, and intermittent runs in Toronto. But the current mountain the Orioles are faced with climbing is particularly challenging. The Yankees are moderately loaded. The Rays are ruthlessly efficient. The Blue Jays are young and rising. Even the Red Sox, whom the Orioles passed in 2020 for fourth in the division, have strong bats, Chris Sale returning in 2021, and the resources to make a run at free agents at pretty much any time.
And yet, over the long term, there’s some cause for optimism in Baltimore. The Orioles did pass the Red Sox this year. Chris Davis is coming off the books after 2022. Alex Cobb (who’s been fine, though not good) is coming off the books after 2021. Everyone else, per Roster Resource, is either arbitration-eligible or in the pre-arbitration phase, and with Adley Rutschman expected to debut this spring, the O’s have a budding core they can hope to build around. We’ll see how it goes, but all is not dark, and we might be only eighteen months away from a fun, young, up-and-coming Orioles team.
And an even tougher AL East.
