Key question: Can they get enough pitching?<\/p>\n
It sure feels like the A\u2019s have enough offense in their lineup to create plenty of headaches for opposing pitchers. Between rookie of the year Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, Tyler Soderstrom and the addition off Jeff McNeil from the Mets, there\u2019s a lot to like about the A\u2019s batting order and the potential for run production.<\/p>\n
The pitching staff … well, um … can they get anyone out? That will determine if the A\u2019s can vault themselves into the conversation with Houston and Texas as the teams trying to chase down the Mariners. The starting rotation is rather nondescript. The bullpen lost its biggest arm when Mason Miller was traded to San Diego in July. It\u2019s a pitching staff that\u2019s feels \u201cmeh\u201d on paper. If they can graduate beyond that, the A\u2019s might end up being decent.<\/p>\n
Prediction: I wasn\u2019t sure what to make of the A\u2019s chances this year, so I turned to an expert: my son, who lives and breathes baseball. To quote him, \u201cI think the A\u2019s and Astros finish within three games of each other. Sounds good to me. Here\u2019s guessing the A\u2019s barely leapfrog the Rangers and playoff fever (sarcasm font) takes over the Sacramento Valley as the A\u2019s chase a wild-card berth into September.<\/p>\n
Texas Rangers <\/p>\n
2025 record: 81-81, third in AL West.<\/p>\n
Key additions: OF Brandon Nimmo, C Danny Jansen, LHP MacKenzie Gore, RHP Jakob Junis, RHP Alexis Diaz, LHP Tyler Alexander.<\/p>\n
Key question: Will the bats wake up?<\/p>\n
For the longest time, pitching always felt like the issue with the Rangers. And then 2025 arrived and the bats were inexplicably silent. The Rangers ranked 26th in OPS and 22nd in runs per game. Losing Corey Seager to injury didn\u2019t help, but the issues at the plate went well beyond his absence and ruined a season where the Rangers had the best overall pitching ERA in baseball.<\/p>\n
Seager being healthy would definitely help. But the Rangers need something from the J\u2019s \u2014 Josh Smith, Josh Jung, Jake Burger and Joc Pederson \u2014 in the lineup and must make up for the trade of Marcus Semien to really get the offense going again.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and MacKenzie Gore are a really solid 1-2-3 at the top of the pitching rotation. The Rangers also remodeled their bullpen with a handful of new additions. But none of that matters unless Seager and the offense reverts back to the level of production from a few years ago. The Mariners of the past are proof that you still need some offense, even with good pitching.<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Angels <\/p>\n
2025 record: 72-90, fifth in AL West.<\/p>\n
Key additions: OF Josh Lowe, IF Vaughn Grissom, RHP Grayson Rodriguez, RHP Alek Manoah, LHP Drew Pomeranz, RHP Kirby Yates, RHP Jordan Romano.<\/p>\n
Key question: Why does Arte Moreno still own this team?<\/p>\n
If you take what Moreno said during spring training at face value, winning is not in the top five items of importance for Angels fans. The moves and decisions Moreno has made in recent seasons indicate he agrees that winning isn\u2019t high on the priority list in his role as the Angels owner. They are a hapless franchise, led by an owner who seems more concerned with getting fans through the turnstiles of a dilapidated stadium and creating entertainment than putting any semblance of a winning product on the field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key question: Can they get enough pitching? It sure feels like the A\u2019s have enough offense in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2392],"tags":[5,620,33675,4,619,65,3235],"class_list":{"0":"post-642375","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-mariners","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mariners","10":"tag-mariners-baseball","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-seattle","13":"tag-seattle-mariners","14":"tag-seattlemariners"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116289349306745795","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642375","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=642375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}