The American League East is no toss-up as the first half of the season approaches. The Yankees are the cream, and the rest are the curd. The Boston Red Sox linger around .500, which won't cut it.
The Red Sox have staggered along in 2025, reminiscent of 2024, as the baseball calendar slowly dampens spirits with a hearty dose of reality. With baseball, the critical item is to get into the playoffs. In the season of all Red Sox seasons — 2004, of course — they finished second with 98 wins, and the rest is delightful history.
In 2004, the AL East earned the moniker "The Beast of the East," and rightfully so. Each participant was more than capable of inflicting baseball misery on outsiders. Woolworths, nickel coffee, and the Chevy Monte Carlo are long gone, and so is the Beast label. Second place in the current AL East sends you to the golf course.
Handicapping the AL East, we'll start with the bad news first after a nice jolt of Malox. That segues right into the New York Yankees being on track to win the division. After 64 games, the Noo Yawkers are first in hitting and sixth in pitching in the AL — disgusting.
Giving the devil his due, New York bagged lefty Max Fried, in whom the Red Sox had an interest this offseason. New York won or lost by not signing Juan Soto and brought in Paul Goldschmidt. The former MVP is a typical old-school Yankees move, and quicker than you can say Johnny Mize, Goldschmidt has delivered.
The Yankees were not done bulking up the offense and signed another MVP, Cody Bellinger, to replace Alex Verdugo. Ben Rice has put together a solid season. Aaron Judge, the baseball answer to The Terminator, is their offense's centerpiece.
The pitching has been so solid that even the uber-disappointing Marcus Stroman and Devin Williams have not slowed the Yankees down. Regarding pitching, the first encounter with Boston saw the staff look rather Boston-like, and the Red Sox escaped with a series win.
The O's have vanished. They are playing as a team like former Orioles Chris Davis did the last several years as a player — awful squared. To paraphrase their former manager Earl Weaver: "It all started around that little bump in the middle of the diamond. Long noted as a pitching Mecca, the Birds are 14th in the AL, tossing that little white orb.
Injuries have affected Baltimore's rotation, but former Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes' departure for the Arizona desert was the coup de grace for the staff. But hey, the inning-eating Burnes has gone full Tommy John, so the Birds caught a break. The tune in Birdland is revolutionary, as the suddenly enthusiastic fan base feels like a jilted lover, and the boo birds are multiplying. Naturally, management responded by firing the manager.
Tampa Bay Rays have long been the little engine that could, but those days may have passed, along with the roof over Tropicana Field. Back in the day, Tampa managed to scrounge around the waiver wire and find a nugget or two, and will that continue?
Do the Red Sox have the stuff to finish high in the 2025 American League East?
The Rays' issue is coin as they have $90 million invested in salaries. Payroll like this does not get you an Alex Bregman, but it will get you a Danny Jansen and 14th out of 15th in AL home attendance.
Despite that negativity, the Rays are a feisty outfit and always have been. A few seasons ago (2021), they nailed 100 wins; in 2023, it was 99 wins. Now, a slide is starting, attendance is down, they play in a minor league park, and the strong point is their manager. Former Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash gets the absolute value out of this team, and every series has the potential to be a trap series.
Tampa will hang around, be a pest, grab unexpected wins, and find a player on the scrap heap that will help. I have a garden and woodchucks; no matter what I do, they survive and consider the garden a buffet. The Rays are the woodchucks of the AL East.
Why doesn't Toronto win? They have the star of stars in recently extended Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who the Red Sox had a supposed interest in. The Jays are not reluctant to spend and have the fifth-highest payroll in MLB. So it is not money.
Offensively, the Jays rank third in the AL and 11th in pitching. So the Oomph department (hitting) is solid, but the pitching is now the Puff department. The Jays are my selection to instill pain in the rest of the AL East. As the saying goes, they have not jelled yet, but they're starting to figure it out, and have won 13 of their last 15 games.
The Red Sox are a team in flux. They are the model of inconsistency and should be at a higher performance level. They have depth and speed but are fundamentally weak on defense. BSI supplies good and bad news daily that eerily balance out to null. This Red Sox is reminiscent of the Doctor Doolittle character Pushmi-Pullyu, who resembles a double-sided llama, and you had no idea which way it was going.
The bright spot for Boston is that the gang is all here regarding the prospect influx. This may be a remembering time, as the 1966 Red Sox team had an influx of young players, and we know how that turned out in 1967.
As the halfway point of the season approaches, the Yankees are expected to cruise and Boston and Toronto will give a futile chase. The Red Sox can be Hulk Hogan or Pee Wee Herman, but Craig Breslow can ensure they survive with an active approach before the trade deadline.