The Major League Baseball trade deadline dust has settled and it’s time to switch focus to the playoff chase.
With two months to go and no team holding more than a two-game lead for any one of the three divisions, there are still plenty of questions to consider as American League teams jockey for playoff seeding and spots.
With that in mind, we figured it prudent to flag a handful of things to keep an eye on in August and September as we sort out which teams will be playing October baseball.
Can the underperforming Blue Jays bats come alive?
If there was one element of the Jays you could count on the past couple years, it’s been the explosive offence. In 2021 Toronto finished third in MLB with 5.22 runs-per-game and last season the Jays ranked fourth (4.78). Fast forward to 2023 and, entering Thursday’s series finale with the American League East-leading Baltimore Orioles, the Jays sit 15th in runs-per-game with 4.50.
Obviously, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his sub-.800 OPS is the first player you’ll highlight to underscore the underwhelming results. George Springer got his first hit since July 22 in Wednesday night’s win over the O’s, but his enormous struggles at the plate this season have been well documented. Springer’s .316 on-base percentage is the worst of his 10-year career. First-year Jay Daulton Varsho clubbed 27 homers for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year; he’ll do well to get to 20 this season.
Toronto opted for arms and defence at the deadline, so nobody is parachuting in to help this scuffling offence. That said, there’s still plenty of season to go for the struggling Jays to find their stroke.
Which Texas team picked up the right old-man pitcher?
By most accounts, it doesn’t sound like 40-year-old Justin Verlander and 39-year-old Max Scherzer are exactly thick as thieves when they share a club house. The pair, of course, spent a lot of time together wearing the uniform of the Detroit Tigers and were re-united this season when Verlander joined the New York Mets on a monster free agent deal. Then we started playing games, the free-spending Mets cratered and Scherzer wound up on the Texas Rangers before the Mets dealt Verlander back to the Houston Astros squad he’s won two World Series with.
That upped the ante on a delicious intra-state AL West pennant race, as the Rangers currently hold a half-game advantage on the Astros. You have to admire the former’s all-in mentality, as Texas — upon losing another former Mets hurler, Jacob deGrom, for the season — went out and blew more powder on Scherzer. Houston, meanwhile, is obviously getting a known quantity in Verlander, who started slow in Queens but had an earned-run average of 1.94 in his past nine starts with New York.
As for Scherzer, he has allowed more loud contact this year than previous seasons and if you scrub the bizarre, pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, his 1.19 WHIP is higher than he’s finished any year at since 2012.
Can Julio Rodriguez cue a Mariners rise?
The 2022 AL rookie of the year has been dinged by a sophomore slump in 2023, but there are signs Julio Rodriguez is coming to life. Seattle’s star centre fielder is currently riding an 11-game hitting streak and has walloped four home runs during that stretch.
Seattle, meanwhile, is 17-10 since July 1 and just took two of three from the Boston Red Sox team directly in front of it in the wild card race. The Mariners now sit 3.5 games back of Toronto for the final post-season berth.
Will the Angels’ about-face pay off?
For a while, we all dreamed about a Shohei Ohtani trade that would rock the deadline. With Ohtani bound for free agency and the Angels very much on the fringe of the wild card race, we assumed they might raise the white flag in Orange County and sell — among other pieces — the singular talent in the middle of their lineup and top of their pitching staff.
But even with the spectre of Ohtani leaving this coming winter, Anaheim declared its buying intentions a few days ahead of the deadline and spent not-insignificant prospect capital to acquire pitchers Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez from the Chicago White Sox, as well as first baseman C.J. Cron and outfielder Randal Grichuk from the Colorado Rockies.
Mike Trout — who had wrist surgery in early July — should return some time in the back half of August.
Still, the Angels currently sit four games back of the Jays for the final wild card spot and would have to jump four teams — including Toronto — to get that coveted last berth.
Is good health really enough for the stand-pat Red Sox?
At the beginning of July, it seemed plausible the Red Sox would be deadline sellers. But Boston went 16-5 from June 30 to July 28 to become buyers — or so one might have assumed. The Sox basically stayed quiet at the deadline despite being the team closest to the Jays in the wild card chase. And while some fans have their pitch forks out, the rationale of the baseball operations staff is clearly that Boston will get a boost from the return of important players presently on the injured list.
The Sox have more or less been going with a three-man rotation for a month now, but that will change when Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck return to the rotation at some point in August. (Of course, how long the oft-injured Sale stays healthy is another question all together).
Meanwhile, shortstop Trevor Story — who has not played a Major League game this season after elbow surgery in the off-season — is nearing the end of a rehab assignment and should bolster the middle of the infield and maybe even the middle of the lineup, too, if he can get his timing down.
Does anyone want to win the AL Central?
It’s not every day you see a club within striking distance of a division title dispatch one of its best starters — especially one with three years to go before hitting free agency — and an everyday first baseman at the deadline. And yet, that’s exactly what the Cleveland Guardians did when they shipped out Aaron Civale and Josh Bell despite sitting just two games back of the Minnesota Twins for the Central lead.
The Twins, meanwhile, were begging for a bat that could help them scratch out some more runs. And while, by all accounts, they kicked tires pretty hard on some righties, Minnesota will have to make due with an offence that ranks 19th in runs-per-game at 4.37.
A basement in the Bronx?
From 1987 through 1992, the Yankees never finished any higher than fourth in the AL East. In the 30-plus years since, they’ve never finished last in the division and finished second-last just once.
So here we sit, with the brittle, lumbering Pinstripes still in the playoff chase, but also in the East cellar and, at 56-52, within range of their first losing season since their 76-86 campaign in ’92.
