Fingers crossed that the 2021 MLB season would start on time, and that this year we will be able to see some live baseball at the stadium.
While we wait, Buster Olney concludes his annual ranking of the top 10 players in each position for next season, based on feedback from industry evaluators, with a look at the full squads. When there are still more moves to make, which team is number 1 (and 2 … and 3 …) on paper right now?
Equipment
Many of baseball’s traditional rivalries are latent. The Red Sox are re-equipping and the Yankees, without pressure from Boston, have yet to make any aggressive moves this winter. The Puppies cut their payroll and changed their best starter, Yu Darvish, and the Cardinals ’most significant decision was to decline the option of Gold Glove second baseman Kolten Wong. The Giants are at least a couple of years away from challenging the Dodgers. The Astros and Athletics are experiencing the departure of some of their best players: Oakland looks set to lose Liam Hendriks, while George Springer looks set to leave the Astros.
In that gap, we now have the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, clubs that live in the same division, play 125-mile stands and have the best talent collections, and here’s the advantage: when they’re on the field , at least, these two teams don’t seem to like each other very much. The Dodgers have won the Western National League in eight straight seasons, and the Padres, after catching Darvish and Blake Snell, point directly to LA San Diego wanting what the Dodgers have possessed.
As a senior official said the other day, the Dodgers are clearly the best baseball team, but the Padres are second. Their games will be a must for next year.
The top ten baseball teams: