{"id":562876,"date":"2026-02-09T20:02:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/562876\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T20:02:51","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T20:02:51","slug":"how-would-you-rank-the-al-east-teams-heading-into-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/562876\/","title":{"rendered":"How would you rank the AL East teams heading into 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">After finishing last in the AL East division in 2025, this offseason the Orioles have set to work re-building. They added power to the lineup in the form of Pete Alonso and Taylor Ward, a lockdown ninth inning in closer Ryan Helsley, and two starter signings, Shane Baz and Zach Eflin, to steady the rotation, although many feel they\u2019re still missing an ace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But how do these moves stack up with the rest of the competition? The AL East is always a behemoth, and several competitors have made noteworthy moves.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So where do the O\u2019s slot in in this group? I\u2019d say third feels about right to me\u2014good enough for a wild card push, but trailing the loaded Blue Jays and steady Yankees. Then again, maybe Alonso mashes 45 homers and the rotation exceeds expectations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What\u2019s your ranking, Camden Chat? Tell us in the comments.\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After finishing last in the AL East division in 2025, this offseason the Orioles have set to work&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562877,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,72999,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-562876","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimore-orioles-discussion","11":"tag-baltimoreorioles","12":"tag-baseball","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116042462551869382","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562876\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}