With a new CBA probably on the way, sometime after a settlement that will take far too long to be reached, there's always murmurs about a divisional realignment, which Rob Manfred wants to do but I don't think anybody else does. He always goes on like 'well, with the universal DH, the NL and AL are meaningless, and since all 30 teams play each other once a season, the divisional matchups mean less, so we can just put the Mets and Yankees in the same division because it's way easier that way', like...listen to yourself. You're tearing down things that work, and have worked, just to save time and money, and you're forgetting WHY they work. The Yankees and Mets being in separate divisions works because the rare times they do play each other feel special. That's also why an actual divisional matchup like Yanks-Sox can happen a ton of times per season, because it doesn't need to feel unique. Yanks-Sox is just normal stuff. Of course they're playing each other again, it's been a few weeks anyhow.
But the one argument in favor of divisional realignment is that some divisions are simply built better than others. The AL East this year, much like in other recent years, have three teams that have a better record than literally every other team in the AL. Nobody in the Central or West has a better record than the third place team in the AL East, and the last place team in the AL East has the same amount of wins has two teams fighting for a playoff spot in the AL Central. Conventional wisdom says you need to reshuffle. I don't necessarily agree, as I like that some divisions are better than others, but if you're a Red Sox fan you probably need things to change. Since the Yankees and Red Sox play each other less now, both teams can be good without one or the other suffering record-wise.
And so, while the Sox are still looking at a playoff spot, they've got this long road for something that should be more inevitable than it actually is. They've got more pieces than a lot of the great teams in other divisions, and have one of the best hitting performances in the game this season coming from Willson Contreras and his .927 OPS. But they still have to get through a wild card round that stopped them last year, despite a pretty decent team. And they've gotta do it with the possibility of there being no Masataka Yoshida, no Roman Anthony, no Trevor Story and no Garrett Crochet.
Thankfully, Crochet's absence has not broken this team as much as you'd think, as they've survived well enough using their immediate starting options. Patrick Sandoval is the shakiest of everybody, he's got a 5 ERA in 7 starts, but he's not even that bad. Jake Bennett's improving, has a 1.066 WHIP and a 3.50 ERA. Ranger Suarez is sort of doing his usual thing, low ERA, not a lot of runs scored, same as in Philly. Sonny Gray's having a comeback season for the ages, with a league-leading 15 wins, a 2.65 ERA and 117 Ks. And then you've got Payton Tolle, a 23-year-old schtarker with the arsenal to fool everybody, who currently has a 3 ERA, 134 Ks and a 1.083 WHIP. He's not the fanciest pitcher here, but he works hard, gets people out and keeps things clean. I think the lack of a Crochet type will be obvious if he's out for the postseason run, but someone like Tolle will definitely help. Which is weird, because of him and Connelly Early I assumed Early would be the guy going forward, but evidently the Sox figured they didn't need him. Anyway, Curtis Mead's still injured.
On that note, kinda weird that Jahmai Jones is more productive than any of the Sox's postseason pickups, including Adley Rutschman.
The Sox have a surprisingly nice core, have used Andruw Monasterio, Anthony Seigler and Mickey Gasper in huge roles despite being replacement level, have gotten terrific seasons out of Contreras, Durbin, Rafaela and Abreu, and are keeping the momentum going for the most part despite a very precarious path to postseason glory. I think they could figure it out more than last year's team, but if they get the Yanks again it'll be another war of attrition, and I'm not wild about that.
Coming Tomorrow- Meanwhile, on the team they traded Early to, the league's base-stealing king gets a new everyday gig.
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