MLB Offseason 2012: American League Contenders

The AL Landscape Just Got a Bit Crowded; Thanks Prince.

By: Marvin Gutierrez

This has been quite an offseason for the contenders in the American League. From both teams out West, to the Old Rivals playing coy and waiting things out, now come the guys from Mo-Town making a splash on an already crowded scene in the Junior Circuit. Every team this offseason in the American League has gotten better, and a full-fledged World Series race is brewing. Who would've known that the battle between these teams wouldn't end the last day of the season on the diamond. Instead, it has carried out into January, and with a little less than a month till Spring Training, fans can't wait.  

The Rangers, Angels, Yankees, Rays, Red Sox and Tigers are the top dogs in the American League with the best chances to get to a World Series. Sorry O's, Jays, A's, M's, Royals, Twinkies, White Sox, and Indians fans but we all know who will be there fighting at the end of September to get into the postseason. Not to mention, if that second wild card team comes into play this year, there will be possibly two great teams heading home early. It's looking like we may be in for consecutive memorable finales to the regular season, but before getting ahead of ourselves, lets review these six contenders and their offseason moves. 

Texas Rangers: 

     The defending American League champions may have lost a starter in C.J. Wilson, but they gained one in Yu Darvish. Along with this acquisition, they will move their star closer Neftali Feliz to the starting rotation to go along with Word Series star Derek Holland, Colby Lewis, and Matt Harrison. They signed closer Joe Nathan to an already loaded pen. Last but not least, Texas has the same offensive core in tact that has taken them to consecutive World Series. 

     Sure, the loss of Wilson will hurt the Rangers—he put up solid numbers in a great hitters' ball park, and he handled the No. 1 spot in the rotation well in his first season as an ace. Yet, the Texas Rangers should be fine because of the depth they have. They still have Alexi Ogando as a long man or if need be a starter, and they have a bullpen bolstered with Mike Adams and Koji Uehara to fill in if Joe Nathan proves to not be the answer at the back end. 

Along with their deep pitching staff, they may arguably have the best line up in the American League. Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, Mike Napoli and Adrian Beltre may be the best middle of the line up in the league, and the speed up top with Andrus and Kinsler proves that the Rangers certainly have plans to make it back to the top of the American League and finish off a job started in 2010. 

Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 

For the past couple of seasons, the Angels have been looking up at the Texas Rangers, and it's not something they're used to. Before the recent dominance of the Western division by the Rangers, the Angels had won 3 straight division titles, and made the playoffs six out of eight years going back to their 2002 championship season. Missing out on Adrian Beltre to the Rangers last offseason, and then having their often maligned catcher Mike Napoli get traded due to his offense-first mentality come back and put up a career year for those very same Texas Rangers has left a salty taste in the Angels' mouth. They also missed out on Carl Crawford after being the front runners for the outfielder and were left with nothing last offseason. 

Well this offseason, the Angels certainly made up for their previous failures in recent Decembers. General manager Jerry Dipoto pulled the steal of the decade by signing Albert Pujols as the supposed "mystery team" to a staggering $240 million  deal over ten years. Pujols, 32, will be in halo red till the age of 42, but what matters  most to the Angels is seasons one through five, where they look to bring in another World Series crown. Rumors around were that they were done after the Pujols deal, only to find out about a move that arguably may be even more important than the Pujols deal. The Angels swooped in and took away the ace of their biggest rival, giving C.J Wilson a five year, $77.5 million deal. With those two deals, the $330 million given out in the matter of a few hours put the Angels back in the driver's seat of the AL West. 

The Angels may have the best rotation outside of Philadelphia with Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, C.J Wilson and Ervin Santana. That rotation will be vital to compete against the offenses of the Rangers, Yankees and Tigers in a short playoff series, and may be what puts the Angels over the top aside from having the Machine in the line up. 

New York Yankees: 

The New York Yankees spent most of the offseason being an uncharacteristically frugal, thrifty, penny pinching bunch. Known for almost always being the top spenders during the offseason, the Yankees were keeping quiet claiming they just didn't like anyone out there and were heading into 2012 with the same team who was eliminated in the ALDS. Brian Cashman held onto to his prized possessions in the Minor Leagues and kept stating they were going into the season with Ivan Nova as their number two, and the "terrific threesome" of Burnett, Hughes, and Garcia would round out the rotation. That was until Brian Cashman worked his magic and traded the guy who was supposed to land New York Cliff Lee a couple of years ago. In return for Jesus Montero (the second coming of Miguel Cabrera to some) the Yankees got Michael Pineda. A 23-year-old pitcher who throws gas, and measures at 6'7. Not being quite done, to go along with his offensive line of C.C and Pineda as the 1-2 starters,  Cashman signed Hiroki Kuroda to a one year deal at a "bargain" $10 million dollars.  

There is a lot to like about the Yankees offseason moves. First of all they have a younger pitcher with a lot of upside and promise under team control for the next five years or so. This is great for the Yankees due to the crippling long term contracts they have on the team. Also adding Kuroda may prove to be a great deal. A pitcher who has pitched in the NL West in a pitcher's park may make Yankee fans a bit skeptical but he is durable having pitched over 180 innings in three of the last four years. He also doesn't come with the injury problems that say Roy Oswalt comes with, so there's no need to worry about injuries plaguing him in his one year stay. 

The Yankees weakness three weeks ago has become their strength. They have incredible pitching depth, and there can never be enough pitching. To go along with their deep pen, and their murderer's row of a line up, the Yankees are prepping for a deep run into October. Yankee fans wouldn't have it any other way. With that being said the Yankees still need a left handed hitter to platoon at DH, and come off the bench. Some are speaking of a reunion with Hideki Matsui, or Johnny Damon, but regardless of whether they make a move, they are still a great bet to make it back to the postseason for the 17th time in 18 years. 

Boston Red Sox: 

Red Sox Nation has been in full blown panic mode since the end of last season. After their monumental collapse to the Rays, and the fried chicken scandal, the Nation can't wait for 2012 to begin and 2011 to be far gone in the rearview. The problem with that is that the Red Sox haven't done enough to let the fans forget about last year. They have made small moves here and there, such as trading for Andrew Bailey by sending Josh Reddick to Oakland. They also traded Jed Lowrie for Mark Melancon and then traded Marco Scutaro and his $6 million contract to the Colorado Rockies for journeyman Clay Mortensen. The Scutaro trade seems to be a salary dump for the second richest franchise in baseball and supposably is to make room in the budget to sign Roy Oswalt. I like the Andrew Bailey trade, because they are moving Daniel Bard to the starting rotation, and he proved to be an all star caliber closer. Yet the trades of your starting shortstop and his back up, don't make much sense to me. Jed Lowrie had some pop in his bat, but if you're going to trade him it would make sense to keep Scutaro. Now going into the season, the Sox have a platoon of Mike Aviles and Nick Punto at short. That may prove to be a problem, but the rest of the starting lineup has plenty of talent that they should be able to move without a beat. Besides, Scutaro had a really good year last year and at 36 you would assume a bit of a drop off. With all that being said there are more question marks with the Bo-Sox then any other AL contender. They were favored to win it all last year, maybe with all the question marks this year they will flourish, who knows? 

Tampa Bay Rays: 

The defending American League Wild Card champs are always playing with house money. They come into this season with a young, cost effective team, still expecting to compete but if not they'll trade some parts and plug in the holes with their superb farm system. With that being said, they may have the best offense they've had in Tampa in a long time, maybe ever. First basemen Carlos Pena has signed a one year deal to return to Tampa. The economical Rays also signed Luke Scott to a one year deal with an option in 2013 to be their DH. The Rays now have a whole year of Desmond Jennings and some pop at the corner positions with Pena,  Evan Longoria, Jennings, and Matt Joyce.

As always the Rays have a young top of the line rotation. With David Price at the top and James Shields coming off a career year, the Rays are set up nicely with plenty of depth at the starting rotation. They have Rookie of the Year Jeremy Hellickson looking to continue off of an impression first season, Wade Davis, Jeff Niemann, and prized possession Matt Moore, who dazzled in the playoffs last year. Matt Moore could be the X-factor as they have the option of starting the year with him. He may be what puts them over the top this year in the three team race in the AL East.  

Detroit Tigers:

That finally brings up to the Detroit Tigers. The AL Central champs came off a great season with Justin Verlander winning the MVP and the Cy Young. They came into this offseason looking to spend some bucks, but basically having the same team in tact. With MVP candidate Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez headlining the offense, the Tigers looked prime to continue their dominance in the AL Central. Yet things took a grim turn when Victor Martinez tore his ACL and was declared out for the whole season. Before the injury, the Tigers were looking at making minor moves. Rumors were the team was interested in Roy Oswalt and Yoenis Cespedes, the highly touted Cuban defector who plans on playing in the Majors this year. The loss of Martinez left a huge hole in the Tigers line up; it left the possibility of maybe a sleeper team in the AL Central (Sorry Royals). That was until the Tigers shook the baseball world by signing Prince Fielder to the fourth highest contract in the history of baseball. A nine year $214 million deal is putting the hefty first basemen in the same uniform his daddy wore back in the 90's, and it's making Detroit a scary team with the best 1-2 punch we've seen since Manny and Papi back in '04. 

The Tigers may end up regretting that contract towards the end of the deal, but like the Angels with Pujols, they are really concentrating on years one through five looking to bring home a title with a stacked line up featuring Cabrera and Fielder in the middle. Of course this move makes the Tigers the huge favorites to win the Central but there are some issues with this move even now. Miguel Cabrera has said he plans on moving to 3rd base to make room for Prince. Cabrera last played third base when he was with the Florida Marlins. I don't think it's necessarily a good idea to have a guy who hasn't played third base in nearly five years return to that position, especially when he's about 80 pounds heavier—just ask the Boston Red Sox about that. Surely it will cost them some runs on the field, yet Detroit's just thinking that Prince's big bat will make up for that. 

It is definitely going to be a hell of a season. I personally can't wait for it. Having checked out of football season a couple weeks ago, April can't get here soon enough. With that being said, with all the surprises that have happened this offseason, there is still about a month left in it and there may be more to come. 

Article Written By Marvin Gutierrez