Led By The New York Yankees, The AL East Is A Place For Mediocrity Early On

The AL East once held the title of being the best division in baseball and would get referred as being a “beast”.

These days, it can lay a claim to being mediocre with each of the five teams showcasing their flaws for portions of the weekend.

After the first Sunday in May the combined record of the five teams is 82-89 and each team possesses some significant warts.

The Yankees are in first place for 26th straight day after winning the division with 94 wins last season en route to their first World Series pennant. Unlike last season when they survived the first 75 games while Gerrit Cole recovered from an elbow injury, they are struggling on the mound while the ace starts the lengthy rehab process from Tommy John surgery.

The Yankees hold an overall ERA of 3.62 due to strong bullpen work in most games but that figure climbs to 4.07 in the 170 1/3 innings by starting pitchers. It is a figure that includes Max Fried being 6-0 with a 1.01 ERA but throwing out the left-hander’s numbers, the Yankees are 12-15 when he does not pitch and 7-12 when he and Carlos Rodon are not starting.

The Yankees are struggling on the mound because injuries ate away some of the depth and they are patiently waiting for Luis Gil’s strained lat to heal so they can avoid using the likes of Carlos Carrasco.

Aaron Judge’s brilliance is helping them get the lead and his early pursuit of .400 is notable in an offense that drew national headlines for “torpedo bats”. Paul Goldschmidt is helping and the Yankees hold a .262 average that is the best in baseball even without getting much from Cody Bellinger and streakiness from others like Anthony Volpe, Austin Wells and Jasson Dominguez.

The Yankees hold a smallish lead on the Red Sox, who spent big for Walker Buehler and Alex Bregman while adding Garrett Crochet after six mostly mediocre seasons since their previous World Series title in 2018.

Bregman is paying off with a .317 average, so is Crochet with a 3.02 ERA and 56 strikeouts so far. Rafael Devers got off to a slow start after debate after him being a third baseman and youngster Kristian Campbell has impressed enough to get a lengthy contract early in his career.

Less impressive is the performance by a bullpen with a collective 4.22 ERA. The Red Sox blew another game Sunday, capping a week where it blew a three-run lead through six in Toronto on Wednesday, a one-run in the eighth on Thursday and a two-run lead through five against the Minnesota Twins on Sunday.

Those outings gave the Red Sox the lead in a category where no team ever wants to be ranked high – blown saves. Their eight blown saves are tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the most in baseball and the Red Sox are 4-9 in one-run games, which is similar to the Yankees being 3-7 in those games.

The Blue Jays have been facing criticism ever since their showing in the wild-card series two years ago in Minnesota and the carryover seemed to manifest into last season when they finished with 74 wins.

This season, the Blue Jays got to four games over .500 and are 6-10 since with an array of differing types of losses. They lost a game to the Yankees last week when Kevin Gausman threw 53 pitches in an inning, were one strike away Saturday before allowing a go-ahead grand slam against Cleveland.

The best thing to happen to the Blue Jays is ending the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. saga of being the most talked about pending free agent early. The Blue Jays signed him to a record-setting contract shortly after he heard cheers from fans during baseline introductions at Juan Soto’s home opener for the Mets on April 5.

Guerrero’s power has seen him hit four homers, so far and the Blue Jays’ 23 homers are the fewest in baseball after they were overtaken by the Royals hitting seven homers in Baltimore Sunday.

Baltimore’s problems as the division’s lone 20-loss team can be directed mostly as being caused by mound difficulties. Baltimore’s 5.43 ERA is the second-worst in baseball and the absences of several pitchers along with the inability to land a capable replacement for Corbin Burnes is appearing.

It is leading to discussion about manager Brandon Hyde’s status and while it is not being talked about as something imminent the chatter was enough for GM Mike Elias to recently express confidence in the manager that he plucked from the Cubs’ coaching staff to succeed Buck Showalter following a 115-loss 2018 season.

The Orioles still possess the young core that should be better than 13-20 but the pitching issues persist and it will be interesting to see if they improve as the schedule features opponents with similar records.

The Rays are the third team with a losing record as they struggle to win home games at George Steinbrenner Field instead of Tropicana Field. They are 7-1 in their past eight road games after a 16-hit showing Sunday in New York and also might possess the division’s most dynamic base stealer in Chandler Simpson, who stole three bases Saturday and scored on an infield single.

The Rays are up to 41 stolen bases after going 8-for-8 over the past two games but also face areas of massive struggle such as hitting against left-handed pitching. Their .188 mark against southpaws ranks as the second worst in baseball only ahead of the Orioles, who hit .253 off lefties all season.

The AL East does not appear to be the dominating force it once was and each team is establishing an early identity of things they do well and things they struggle with, resulting the early mediocrity.