The dust has settled on the 2018 Major League Baseball season. We witnessed the Boston Red Sox win the World Series, yes, but we also witnessed a historically-great team. They won 108 games in the regular season and went 11-3 in the postseason. They never even came close to an elimination game. The worst shape they were ever in was either when it was 1-1 in a best-of-five series or when they trailed 1-0 in a best-of-seven. That, my friends, is a squad.
Now, we look to the offseason. It’s a big one. Two gigantic free agent names sit atop the list of things we’ll be watching.
Also of note: I feel like the disappointing ends to the seasons of the Yankees and Cubs will lead to those front offices being aggressive. The Phillies will absolutely be aggressive as well. The Braves surely would like to keep the momentum moving forward. Same with the Athletics, though we know they won’t spend huge.
Are the Red Sox satisfied? Surely at least a little, but they have some key free agents and won’t roll over. Same with the 2017 champion Astros.
And then, there are the Dodgers. Six straight division titles. Two straight NL pennants. Zero World Series titles. They won’t be reckless, but they can’t afford to sit idly by while other teams improve themselves.
An awful lot is going to go down this offseason. Probably a lot more than we’ve seen in recent memory.
Still, our task is to rank teams right now in order of the likelihood that they can win the 2019 World Series based upon what we know now. There’s plenty of unknown, so it’s a bit of an educated guessing game. Let’s rock.
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