{"id":653432,"date":"2026-03-30T23:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653432\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:33:16","slug":"espn-analyst-calls-yankees-team-to-beat-over-red-sox-in-al-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/653432\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN Analyst Calls Yankees ‘Team To Beat’ Over Red Sox In AL East"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN Analyst Calls Yankees ‘Team To Beat’ Over Red Sox In AL East<\/a> originally appeared on NESN<\/a>. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox<\/a> are expected to face stout competition in a stacked American League East this season. An analyst identified the New York Yankees as early favorites because of one player.<\/p>\n

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ESPN’s David Schoenfield labeled the Yankees the “team to beat”<\/a> in the division following Cam Schlittler’s superb season debut. The starting pitcher overpowered the San Francisco Giants in a 3-0 win on Friday.<\/p>\n

“Heading into the season, it felt like an important key for the\u00a0New York Yankees\u00a0in a dominant-looking American League East was to stay close in April until they got\u00a0Carlos Rodon\u00a0and\u00a0Gerrit Cole\u00a0back in the rotation,” Schoenfield wrote. “But the rotation might be just fine in the meantime, thank you very much.”<\/p>\n

Even with two aces sidelined, the Yankees held the Giants to one run throughout a three-game sweep. Schlittler helped by blanking San Francisco over 5 1\/3 frames, allowing one hit and tallying eight strikeouts in just 68 pitches.<\/p>\n

The Yankees also received a Max Fried gem on Opening Night, and Will Warren delivered a solid showing on Sunday. Yet the Evil Empire will be particularly dangerous if Schlittler morphs into a front-line starter.<\/p>\n

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The Red Sox may have experienced that transformation first-hand last fall when the rookie silenced them across eight scoreless innings in a memorable playoff performance. Postseason included, Schlittler has a 2.53 ERA in 17 career big league starts.<\/p>\n

“As long as he throws enough strikes, he’s going to be a powerhouse, even with minimal usage of his off-speed pitches,” Schoenfield wrote. “Schlittler had a 2.96 ERA in 14 starts last season, so it’s not like this is coming out of nowhere.”<\/p>\n

Oddsmakers agree with Schoenfield, as the Yankees are +150 favorites to win the AL East on FanDuel Sportsbook<\/a>\u00a0over the Toronto Blue Jays (+280) and Red Sox (+340). New York also has the shortest odds to win the AL pennant (+440).<\/p>\n

Boston won’t play a division opponent until hosting a three-game series against the Yankees from April 21-23.<\/p>\n

More Red Sox:\u00a0MLB All-Star Names Fenway Park As Favorite Place To Play<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN Analyst Calls Yankees ‘Team To Beat’ Over Red Sox In AL East originally appeared on NESN. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1820,5,48,20455,2004,28384,2281,108,4,62,378,66,1415,70,772],"class_list":{"0":"post-653432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-american-league-east","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-cam-schlittler","12":"tag-carlos-rodon","13":"tag-david-schoenfield","14":"tag-gerrit-cole","15":"tag-max-fried","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-new-york-yankees","18":"tag-san-francisco","19":"tag-san-francisco-giants","20":"tag-season-debut","21":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","22":"tag-will-warren"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116320745016421191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653432","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=653432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}