AL East1 of 6<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Rays: In a wide-open AL, they could win the franchise’s first World Series title.<\/p>\n
Why not the Rays? The team that was the least-discussed in their division entering the season has a chance to not only run away with the AL East, but the No. 1 seed in the junior-circuit playoff picture. <\/p>\n
Kevin Cash’s club needs both righty Griffin Jax (right elbow discomfort) and lefty Shane McClanahan (mid-back tightness) to be healthy when the postseason rolls around. <\/p>\n
If Jax and\/or McClanahan are healthy and Freddy Peralta is able to get back on track, the Rays could have a pretty formidable rotation this postseason when you also include Drew Rasmussen and Nick Martinez. <\/p>\n
New York Yankees: Will Aaron Judge return?<\/p>\n
The Yankees are almost certainly going to be a playoff team, probably as the top wild-card seed in the AL. <\/p>\n
Whether they can do damage in October will likely come down to whether three-time AL MVP Aaron Judge\u2014who has been sidelined since May 31 with a stress fracture in his right ribcage\u2014returns this season: <\/p>\n
Obviously, it would be a boon to Aaron Boone’s lineup (pun intended) to get Giancarlo Stanton, who hasn’t played since April, back before the season ends. Cody Bellinger returning from a left hamstring strain he sustained in late July close to 100 percent would also go a long way. <\/p>\n
But Judge had a .907 OPS in 59 games\u2014which actually was down from the otherworldly numbers he’s produced in recent seasons\u2014before going down. There’s just no way to replace that guy. <\/p>\n
Boston Red Sox: Can this magic continue through October?<\/p>\n
At the end of June, the Red Sox were 37-47. Aroldis Chapman, Willson Contreras and Sonny Gray all looked like trade candidates, and it appeared the interim manager Chad Tracy would only be on the job the rest of the season. <\/p>\n
Since then, the Red Sox are a staggering 27-8, putting them in control of the second wild-card spot in the AL. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow didn’t sell, Tracy seems likely to have the interim tag removed from his title and Boston will likely play in the postseason. <\/p>\n
If any of Garrett Crochet (shoulder inflammation), Roman Anthony (sprained right ring finger), Trevor Story (sports hernia) or Curtis Mead (fractured left wrist) is able to come back, that would only bolster the October odds for the Red Sox. But there’s a real magic that’s developed even with a crowded IL in Boston. <\/p>\n
Baltimore Orioles: Where do they go from here?<\/p>\n
One of the most aggressive teams this past offseason has been one of baseball’s most disappointing in 2026. <\/p>\n
They aren’t completely out of the AL playoff picture, but the fact that they traded Taylor Ward to the Seattle Mariners before the Aug. 3 trade deadline should give you an idea of how president of baseball operations Mike Elias feels about his team’s chances. <\/p>\n
The O’s once seem destined to be a force in the second half of the 2020s. But Adley Rutschman is now playing for a division-rival, Gunnar Henderson has had a disappointing season, Jordan Westburg had Tommy John surgery in May and both Jackson Holliday and Colton Cowser have failed to develop as expected. <\/p>\n
Owner David Rubenstein has been steadfast in his support for Elias, but there’s going to have to be some tough conversations about how the Orioles regroup following a second consecutive disappointing season. <\/p>\n
Toronto Blue Jays: The World Series hangover really lasted a whole season.<\/p>\n
Despite losing a heartbreaking Game 7 in the World Series last October, the Blue Jays appeared to be one of the five-best teams in baseball entering the 2026 season. Instead, it’s turned into a lost season, and getting things back on track won’t be as simple as hoping the 2025 version of the team resurfaces in 2027. <\/p>\n
Bo Bichette obviously left in free agency this past offseason. Kevin Gausman was traded to the Chicago Cubs before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, while Jeff Hoffman was dealt to the Minnesota Twins. George Springer will turn 37 in September, and is a free agent at the end of the season. This could be it<\/a> for 42-year-old Max Scherzer. It’s unclear if the Blue Jays will ever get anything out of Anthony Santander, who has played in just 54 games over the first two seasons of a five-year, $92.5 million contract. <\/p>\n Don’t get it twisted, the Blue Jays still have a really nice core with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Dylan Cease, Ernie Clement, Trey Yesavage and Louis Varland. But general manager Ross Atkins has some retooling to do in the offseason. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AL East1 of 6 Tampa Bay Rays: In a wide-open AL, they could win the franchise’s first World…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[5,2328,2304,4,2305,2303],"class_list":["post-777607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-postseason","tag-baseball","tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-playoffs","tag-mlb-postseason"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/117088176296670043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777607","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=777607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}