{"id":564000,"date":"2026-02-10T11:31:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/564000\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:31:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:31:26","slug":"who-is-the-yankees-most-dangerous-rival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/564000\/","title":{"rendered":"Who is the Yankees\u2019 most dangerous rival?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Year after year, the Yankees contend with the AL East, the division that consistently outstrips its peers across the sport. This offseason was no different; while there were a number of teams across the league that put the \u201coff\u201d in offseason, none of them were in the AL East, as all five clubs have been active. The Red Sox swung a number of major trades, the Blue Jays flashed the cash in signing Dylan Cease, Kazuma Okamoto, and Cody Ponce, and even the Orioles spent some money, signing Pete Alonso while also trading for Taylor Ward and Shane Baz.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">It all adds up to a division that appears to be the most competitive in baseball once again. The Yankees, for their part, look strong on paper, currently ranking third in MLB in total projected <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fangraphs.com\/depthcharts.aspx?position=ALL&amp;teamid=2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WAR per FanGraphs<\/a>. But the Blue Jays slide in just ahead of them in second, while the Orioles and Red Sox are both not far behind, comfortably in the top ten of these projections.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">So, leaving the Yankees themselves aside, which of their division rivals do you view as most dangerous? Toronto has a pretty straightforward case, with perhaps the most complete roster in the American League at this moment. They\u2019re the reigning AL East champs, the reigning AL champs, and came within inches of winning the World Series. It\u2019s not hard to envision<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But can a case be made for one of the Yankees\u2019 other direct foes? The Red Sox in particular feel as though they could be a sleeping giant. They already surprised last year, winning 89 games before bowing out in the playoffs against the Yankees. Boston has gone on to add Sonny Gray, Willson Contreras, Ranger Suarez, and now former Baby Bomber Caleb Durbin, all while holding what\u2019s still considered a strong farm system. Though they probably trail the Yankees and Blue Jays in terms of pure talent right now, it wouldn\u2019t be surprising to see some of their young talent coalesce, or for them to cash in some of their prospects to make another trade that puts them over the top.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">What do you think? Are the Blue Jays still the Yankees\u2019 most dangerous rival? Or will Boston, Baltimore, or even Tampa Bay rise up and pose the biggest threat in 2026?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Today on the site, Nolan will continue on with his State of the System series, this time with a look at the organizational depth at starting pitcher. Also, Nick remembers the signing of Andrew Miller, one of the great Yankee signings of the 2010\u2019s, and Jeff moves our preview series along with a look at the newly acquired Angel Chivilli.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Year after year, the Yankees contend with the AL East, the division that consistently outstrips its peers across&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564001,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2378],"tags":[5,377,2554,4,7660,282,70,2553],"class_list":{"0":"post-564000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-blue-jays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-bluejays","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-pinstripe-alley-discussions","13":"tag-toronto","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","15":"tag-torontobluejays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116046114983946851","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564000","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=564000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}