Throughout the offseason, the CBS Sports MLB experts will bring you a weekly Batting Around roundtable breaking down pretty much anything. The latest news, a historical question, thoughts about the future of baseball, all sorts of stuff. Last week we discussed the ABS challenge system. This week we’re going to tackle the American League’s best team following Gerrit Cole’s injury.
Now that Cole’s hurt, who is the best team in the AL?
Matt Snyder: I’m gonna keep pushing the Rangers here, just as I’ve done in a few installments of Power Rankings. The offense was so much worse last season than its potential. There were explanations all over the place, such as Marcus Semien’s World Series hangover (he never misses games and when you tack on the extra month of a playoff run, of course he was compromised in 2024), Adolis Garcia’s disaster of a season, the early injury to Josh Jung, Wyatt Langford and Evan Carter getting exposed due to inexperience, etc. There will be internal growth there while the additions of Joc Pederson and Jake Burger beef up the lineup as well. I love the rotation, too, with Jacob deGrom and Tyler Mahle both fully recovered from Tommy John surgery and youngster Cody Bradford ready to take another step forward. The bullpen has been retooled and might need more in front of the deadline, but I’m a huge believer in this squad.
R.J. Anderson: I’ll go with the Orioles. They certainly have some issues of their own, like how Grayson Rodriguez’s injury impacts their rotation depth and Gunnar Henderson’s status for Opening Day, but I think they have the best chance of any American League team to win 90-plus games. That isn’t to suggest they’re without competition; this is as wide open as I can remember the top of a league being heading into the season. To wit, PECOTA has seven AL teams between 85 and 91 wins; ZiPS has 11 AL teams between 81 and 85 wins. That’s absurd, and suggests we should be in for an entertaining summer.
Mike Axisa: I lean Orioles over Rangers and Astros, and I don’t think the Yankees are too far behind them even with Cole missing the season. FanGraphs projections still have the Yankees as the best team in the AL, albeit by fractions of a win now rather 3-4 wins as with a healthy Cole. I don’t love Baltimore’s rotation, especially now that Rodriguez’s triceps/elbow is acting up, but their position player talent is so good and so high upside. I think there’s more upside to the O’s roster than most. The Rangers are really good, though Tyler Mahle’s forearm is barking, and it’s hard to count on Jacob deGrom making 25 starts. The Astros lost some star power and some ceiling. Still a good team overall though. Let’s not sleep on the Red Sox either, though they’ve had plenty of pitching injuries themselves this spring (Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, now Lucas Giolito), so they’re taken their hits like the Yankees. To answer the question, I think it’s the Orioles narrowly over the two Texas teams, then the Yankees and Red Sox not too far behind them.
Dayn Perry: The AL in general looks pretty weak this season, at least to the extent you can say such things about an entire league. I’ll still say the Yankees are tops, and that in part reflects my expectation that they’ll do something to address their rotation holes, either soon or leading up to the trade deadline. Max Fried is a perfectly credible No. 1 starter and honestly might be better than a healthy Cole at this stage of respective careers. I also think Cody Bellinger and his pulled-fly-ball tendencies are in for a big year at Yankee Stadium. Broadly, I still see the Yankees as capable of a win total in the low 90s, and that might be enough to top seed in the junior circuit this year.
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