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This division does know that the off-season started, right? Image courtesy of © Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports Royals The Royals have remained deadly quiet this off-season, not even venturing into “well, maybe he has some potential” waters like they’ve done so often in years past. They’ll likely sign a few low-tier players—they are seldom entirely stuck in neutral—but none of their moves will be of the impact variety. Zack Greinke is Kansas City’s lone free agent of note. The Royals are stuck in an endless rebuild, one that hasn’t seen a season above .500 since their small-ball 2015 team shockingly dominated MLB. They recently cleaned house in the front office; long-time executive and pornography hater Dayton Moore received the boot, and J.J. Piccolo took over the reins as GM in September. Bobby Witt Jr. spearheads a youth movement more promising than any of their previous engagements with young talent, but they are probably still years away from seriously competing for a division title. Tigers The Tigers, fresh off a disappointing 2022 season, have made a few periphery moves. The team reunited with their prodigal son, LHP Matthew Boyd, as this might be the season where his immense swing-and-miss stuff meets home run results that aren’t faint-worthy. The team also traded stalwart reliever Joe Jiménez to the Braves. The return was what you would expect for one year of a solid bullpen arm, perhaps illuminating that Detroit is unsure of its potential. The Tigers also cleaned house recently; Al Avila—the kind of guy to trade his own son—packed his bags, and the team handed control to Giants product Scott Harris. A.J. Hinch is still an excellent manager, but the team’s porous depth and perpetually underperforming farm system left the team out to dry when they needed help the most. As it turns out, Javier Báez and Eduardo Rodriguez are excellent complimentary pieces, not stand-out stars themselves. When there’s no one to compliment, you get the 2022 Tigers. It's unlikely that they will compete in 2023, but they did win a not-embarrassing total of 77 games in 2021, so maybe some potential exists for Detroit. White Sox Guardians Cleveland—the incumbent AL Central champions—have made the most substantial move of any team in the division, inking Josh Bell to a two-year contract worth $33 million. The Guardians aren’t hiding their philosophy; they’ll spend on an occasional luxury piece (Edwin Encarnación, anyone?) but will otherwise stick to internally developing the sickest pitchers you’ve ever seen while hitting just enough to win some ballgames. Michael Baumann covered Bell perfectly on Fangraphs, and I have nothing to add to his analysis, so read his piece if you want to learn more about that signing. The good news is that Cleveland is probably done with their off-season; it would be genuinely shocking if they made another move of a similar caliber, as quality-over-quantity tends to be their modus operandi. They rarely stray from that blueprint. The Twins have work to do—like signing a single free agent—but the rest of the division doesn’t offer much of a threat. The Guardians are the only real competitors, and while they’ve made a significant move, the Twins possess the talent to challenge their authority in 2023. View full article

Minnesota has made it through the AL East swing that was arguably their toughest stretch of the year. Despite winning two straight series, the Twins are now hotly contested by the Guardians who are clearly the Central’s second-best team. Chicago has had another week of turmoil and the bottom remains unchanged. The Standings: Minnesota 37-28 Cleveland 32-27 Chicago 30-31 Detroit 24-39 Kansas City 21-41 Although the Twins are still holding down first place in the AL Central, the lead has dwindled to just two games. Cleveland is among the best teams in baseball right now, and they’re making a hard charge towards the top. Minnesota and Cleveland get together for three games this week and a total of eight times before the end of the month. Some movement is coming when those two match up. The Stories: Health has begun to return for Minnesota. Welcoming back Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray while in Seattle was a massive boost to the starting rotation. Jorge Polanco is dealing with a nagging back issue, but both Josh Winder and Kyle Garlick could return to the active roster this week as well. It remains worth watching as to when the Twins will deem young slugger Alex Kirilloff fit for what they hope is a final promotion to the big leagues. Lance Lynn made his 2022 debut for the White Sox, and it wasn’t good. Being hit around some, the veteran wasn’t sharp but did enough to get Chicago the win. Not long after the White Sox did lose reliever Kyle Crick to right elbow inflammation. He’s been good out of the pen and that would be a disappointing loss should it become long term. Crick’s placement on the injured list came just a day after star closer Liam Hendriks suffered the same fate due to a forearm strain. It’s estimated that Hendriks will be down for three weeks. Tony La Russa’s club did reinforcements with Vince Velasquez rejoining the rotation and Joe Kelly being re-inserted into the bullpen. When things are going your way, they really go your way. Cleveland was in a tough spot against the Rockies this week and Steven Kwan made nothing short of a miraculous catch to preserve the lead. Rolling over their past ten, it’s been big spots like that where the Guardians have risen to the occasion. Slugger Franmil Reyes appears to be nearing a big league return. He’s currently rehabbing with Triple-A Columbus, but could be activated as early as Monday. A.J. Hinch isn’t used to losing, but the Detroit Tigers have done a ton of that this season. Expected to take a step forward, the club held a closed door meeting on Wednesday. Javier Baez was brought in as a flashy free agent signing, and a handful of young contributors were expected to step up. So far that hasn’t happened. This meeting followed a 13-0 drubbing by the Chicago White Sox, but at least Roger Clemens’ son Kody Clemens made an appearance on the bump for Detroit. The Royals have seen Rookie of the Year candidate Bobby Witt Jr. start to turn it on. He’s now got a 108 OPS+ on the season after starting incredibly slow. Andrew Benintendi has cooled some at the plate but his average remains a strong .301. Right now, and most of the season, not much is going right for Kansas City but there are small glimmers of hope for the future. The Week Ahead: Before heading home to welcome the Guardians and Rockies, Minnesota takes a quick trip out west to face the Diamondbacks for three games. That series is sandwiched in between off days. Before getting the bottom-feeding Orioles at home a week from now, Chicago will travel to Houston and then return home for a three-game set against the Toronto Blue Jays. Cleveland can’t afford to look ahead as they’ll face the Dodgers in Los Angeles before coming to Minnesota. The goal would be to keep the deficit close in the Central so the series at Target Field has heightened intrigue. Needing to turn things around, Detroit gets a series against the Rangers at home. They’ll then travel to Boston on Monday, and picking up wins against Texas should be a much more likely opportunity. The Red Sox are currently one of the hottest teams in baseball. The Royals continue their west coast trip as they spend the weekend across the bay in Oakland before heading to Los Angeles for a series against the Angels. What are you looking forward to this week? Can the Twins grab some distance ahead of Cleveland? View full article

The AL Central was expected to be among the weaker divisions in baseball and so far that’s been accurate. With Minnesota the current favorite and Chicago trying to hold serve, everyone else has gone backwards. Only the top two teams have a winning record across their last ten games. The Standings: Minnesota 27-18 Chicago 22-22 Cleveland 18-23 Detroit 16-28 Kansas City 15-28 This week we saw the Tigers rip off a few wins and they’ve jumped the Royals to get out of the cellar in the division. Chicago is still treading water despite adding consistently to their negative run differential. Although the Twins have a lead in the division, they’ve dropped back-to-back games against Detroit and Kansas City rather than adding on. The Stories: Chicago signed reliever Joe Kelly this offseason to help bolster their relief corps. They moved on from Craig Kimbrel and having another high leverage arm to pair with Liam Hendriks sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, he’s been injured and on Thursday Chicago placed him back on the IL with a left hamstring strain. Dallas Keuchel was brutalized against the Red Sox this week, and with an ERA over 7.00, it’s worth wondering how long they’ll continue to trot him out there. Tim Anderson had another consistent week at the dish and again looks zeroed in on a batting title. Obviously, there were disappointing storylines this week involving Anderson and former Twins third basemen Josh Donaldson. The Yankees' third baseman uttered disrespectful comments in what he called an inside joke, but no one seemed to get it but him. After dealing with Covid issues last week the Guardians were happy to have manager Terry Francona back in the dugout. Their coaching staff had been riddled with the virus having only pitching coach Carl Willis available to the team. On Thursday the club placed slugger Franmil Reyes on the injured list with right hamstring tightness. It’s unfortunate to see Cleveland struggle so mightily with much of it coming on the mound. Shane Bieber has regressed, Cal Quantrill looks uninspiring, and Triston McKenzie is spotty at best. Although things are bleak at the big league level, top prospect George Valera has been on a tear in May. He’s still at Double-A, but there’s no reason to rule out a 2022 debut. The Tigers are beginning to look at bit better and while Miguel Cabrera is once again batting .300, Javier Baez continues to provide little of substance. Manager A.J. Hinch was hoping to see big performances from his young players, and rookie Spencer Torkelson is starting to turn a corner. Going 7-for-22 during a recent road trip, Torkelson contributed three doubles and a homer. The batting average isn’t where you’d like to see it, but there are definitely positives to be seen here. Tarik Skubal continues to be the best arm in Detroit and his latest outing has his ERA sitting at a shiny 2.44. There’s a real reason to believe he could make the All-Star team this year, and his emergence as a staff ace is exciting for Tigers fans. Mike Matheny has seen his club trend backward the past week. They’ve gone just 3-7 over their last ten and the ugliest outing was giving up a six-run lead to the divisional rival Twins. Brewer Hicklen, a 7th-round pick from UAB, made his Major League debut on Thursday night against Minnesota. Top prospect M.J. Melendez had a nice game earlier in the week against Arizona and continues to fill in nicely for Salvador Perez. Regarded as Kansas City’s top prospect, his bat has played very well. Similar to Detroit, Kansas City is heavily reliant on youth right now and they’re going to take their lumps. Although Bobby Witt Jr. still isn’t hitting exceptionally well, he made an outstanding diving play at shortstop against the Twins on Thursday night. The Week Ahead: Minnesota continues to play through the AL Central for the rest of the month and during the first week of June. Three games remain at home against the Royals before heading to Detroit. The Twins play the Tigers five times in four days. The scheduled doubleheader was originally set to take place after the All-Star game but is now slated for Tuesday to close out the month. With a pair of off-days sprinkled in, Chicago gets a crosstown series with the Cubs before going north of the border to play the Blue Jays. They’ll eventually get an easier swing playing some of the Central opposition, but the beginning of June is brutal for them with matchups against the Rays and Dodgers. Cleveland flip flops with Minnesota as they finish playing in Detroit over the weekend and then welcome Kansas City for a three-game tilt next week. View full article