This baseball offseason had the makings of a Hollywood movie. The greatest player the game has seen in decades, perhaps ever, was a free agent, another generational star was traded, a new Japanese superstar looks to make his stamp on the game, and the reigning NL Cy Young winner was finally signed right before the season began. Hopefully, the 2024 season will live up to the hype. We are fresh off a fun World Series with two teams that we didn’t see coming and new stars are set to take over the game. Let’s dive into some divisional previews. Here’s our 2024 AL West preview.
What Happened in 2023:
For the first time in a long time, the Houston Astros had some competition at the top of the AL West as the big dollars in Arlington finally showed a result with the Rangers tying the ‘Stros with 90 wins a piece. It was a special year for the Rangers, led by first year head coach Bruce Bochy who got the Rangers to their first ever World Series win. Corey Seager proved yet again that he is a menace in the postseason and powered them to the victory over the Diamondbacks. The Mariners hung around with 88 wins as they continued to try to keep their momentum while the Angels disappointed in the biggest way, wasting another year of Mike Trout’s talent and Oakland acted as if they didn’t care whether they fielded a team.
Best Players to Watch:
Astros – Yordan Alvarez – He is one of the most dominant left-handed hitters in Major League Baseball and the ball takes no longer than 3 seconds to get out of the building off his bat.
Rangers – Wyatt Langford – He made the Opening Day roster and could be the Rangers next star, like what Josh Jung was a year ago. He was drafted 4th overall in 2023 and is already in the bigs.
Mariners – Julio Rodriguez – Is this the year that J-Rod wins an MVP? He blasted 32 home runs a year ago while batting.275. He seemingly has no ceiling, but he must tap into his full potential.
Athletics – Zack Gelof – He hit .267 with 14 home runs and wasn’t really supposed to contribute much. The A’s don’t have much but he is a promising young star.
Angels – Mike Trout – It’s sad to still type his name as it feels as if his career has been wasted in Anaheim. They couldn’t win with the greatest player of this generation, how are they going to win without him?
Biggest Addition and Subtraction:
Addition: Josh Hader coming to the Astros to shore up the back end of their bullpen and give them another legit option to close games is going to be a huge difference maker come October.
Subtraction: This one is easy. Shohei Ohtani is gone. The other teams not named the Angels are counting their blessings. He is the greatest player of this generation and their cheap owner wanted nothing to do with retaining his services.
Prediction:
The Rangers have one of the best managers in all of baseball, there is no denying that. Bruce Bochy is going to coach his guys to their max potential, and they have all the momentum coming off a great season. Division Winner: Rangers, 92-70