Every day, Pinstripe Alley offers updates on what the Yankees’ top American League opponents are up to through the Rivalry Roundup. The AL East is well-trodden ground there, but with the season’s final month halfway over, we’re going to take a peek around MLB as a whole and check in with each of the other five divisions. Who’s surprising? Who’s underwhelming? Who’s simply mediocre at the moment? Read on and find out.
(Note: Records and standings are up to date through games played on Sunday, September 14th.)
First Place: Detroit Tigers (85-65)
The Tigers just paid their annual visit to Yankee Stadium and looked mighty impressive, scoring double-digit runs in two of three games to take the series. In reality, Detroit has more or less tread water since the end of June, but they’re in great shape to take the division, leading by 6.5 games with 12 games left to play. Questions about how their offense would fare against other playoff-caliber teams seemed to be answered somewhat by those performances in the Bronx.
Additionally, Jack Flaherty and Casey Mize both looked good on the mound in those games. It’s become fairly clear that — especially with the absence of guys like Reese Olson and Jackson Jobe — last season’s “pitching chaos” strategy probably won’t work a second time. They’ll need some starters behind Tarik Skubal to win a series, and those two are A.J. Hinch’s clear second and third options. Good performances from them won’t be a luxury but a necessity for a deep playoff run in the Motor City.
Second Place: Cleveland Guardians (78-71)
Aw, snap. Here comes Cleveland. The streaky Guards have caught fire, rattling off 10 wins in their last 12 games to place themselves right back in the Wild Card hunt. As it stands they’re a half game behind the Rangers and two and a half back of Houston for the third and last Wild Card spot, but their recent surge makes it more than a remote possibility, even with many indicators that the Guards aren’t a playoff squad on a pure talent basis.
Manager Steven Vogt has turned to a six-man rotation in recent weeks, which has seemed to rejuvenate a pitching staff that has had to come together in the wake of Emmanuel Clase and Luis F. Ortiz’s gambling investigation-related absences. Six of the aforementioned 10 wins have been by a margin of one run or less, so the lineup hasn’t transformed overnight — they’re just doing the trademark Cleveland bit of dominating close contests. We’ll see if that pluckiness can deliver them back to the playoff fray for a second straight year.
Third Place: Kansas City Royals (75-75)
There’s a joke about Newtonian physics in there about the rise of Cleveland attending the fall of Kansas City that I’ll choose to leave unfinished. The Royals have tried their darndest to stay in the race with the players they have, but as the home stretch arrives, they seem to be running on empty. While Maikel Garcia has joined Bobby Witt Jr. as a capable running mate (literally and figuratively) in the lineup, they’ve struggled to find capable and consistent hitters behind their top three.
The Royals have been done no favors by the scheduling gods. They just dropped a series to Philadelphia and now must face the AL West-leading Mariners and the AL East-leading Blue Jays consecutively in order to keep their postseason dreams alive. It’ll take more than a few bombs from Vinnie Pasquantino and Salvador Perez to vault KC back into a Wild Card spot, but from the outside at least, I wouldn’t consider this season a failure. Getting a full-strength Cole Ragans back in the mix next year will be crucial for them.
Fourth Place: Minnesota Twins (65-84)
The Twins continue their nihilistic nosedive to finish off a very better-things-aren’t-possible kind of season. Byron Buxton and Joe Ryan are doing what they can to provide a sheen of respectability to a cynical mid-season tank job which was followed by their owners loudly declaring they will keep squatting on the team rather than sell. Evidently, the massive teardown was executed by the front office regardless of whether there would be an ownership change, which speaks volumes as to how the Twins see themselves as an organization.
Luke Keaschall represents the first green shoot after the proverbial wildfire, showing promise as a strong bat-to-ball hitter in the middle of the order. Additionally, journeyman Kody Clemens seems to have found a home in the Twin Cities as well. But Minnesota’s got plenty of work to do this upcoming offseason (and candidly, the next two or three afterward) to set this right. I think what they’ll quickly learn is that talented players like the ones they dealt away do not grow on trees, and they’ll need to search outside the organization for at least some answers to their biggest question marks.
I feel for Rocco Baldelli. From the Bomba Squad to the 2023 team which finally won a playoff series to this, with all kinds of melodrama in between. We’ll see if the Twins decide to move on from him as well when the closing bell rings.
Fifth Place: Chicago White Sox (57-93)
Well hey, at least they’re not gonna lose 121 games. This year’s Rockies would have to lose out the rest of the way to match that “record,” so unfortunately it doesn’t seem like they’re off the hook for greatest travesty in modern baseball. But at least with Will Venable on the bench it feels like there’s someone in charge.
Colson Montgomery, Kyle Teel, and Shane Smith have taken strong steps forward as representatives of perhaps the next good White Sox team sometime down the line. They’re still searching for a superstar-level talent: the consistently-inconsistent Luis Robert Jr.‘s time in the South Side would appear to be coming to an end. He represents one of the most compelling of several what-if stories with this team dating back to 2020. What if Rick Renteria stayed at manager? What if they at least tried to re-sign Carlos Rodón? What if Tim Anderson’s abilities didn’t completely deteriorate? Hypotheticals will drive you stark-raving mad. I’m sure that’s the feeling among White Sox fans as this chapter finally draws to a close.