Spring Training is already here so this is the right time to take a quick look at the top three teams in the American League favored to win the World Series according to our lines.
New York Yankees (+425): This is a team that last year won 100 games before beating the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card game and losing to the Boston Red Sox in the A.L.D.S. so the Bronx Bombers were left with a sour taste in the mouth as they are always expected to go farther and win every year.
But the impressive thing is that they won 100 games despite several things went wrong last year, not because things went well. In retrospective, Luis Severino pitched like a Cy Young candidate in the first half of the season but fell back to earth in the second half.
Aaron Judge missed much of the season with a wrist fracture and Giancarlo Stanton was not as good as most fans expected (38 homers with the Yankees in 2018, 59 with the Mami Marlins in 2017) probably due to the fact that he was just getting used to playing in the American League.
The biggest surprise was the excellent play of rookie sensation Miguel Andujar, who had a phenomenal season and is poised to be one of the cornerstones of this team for years to come.
The thought that this team can be even better this year if things go well is scary. They are stacked with some of the best players in the league at almost every position and that makes them the favorites to win the World Series this season.
Boston Red Sox (+450): The 2018 World Series winners re-signed Nathan Eovaldi to a new four-year contract and Steve Pearce. Most of the line is intact from last year’s campaign and this is a group that is fully stacked on offense and has one of the best rotations in the league. Mookie Betts is the key player in the lineup, and he’s surrounded by a mix of young and veteran studs such as J.D Martinez, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Andrew Benintendi.
Chris Sale is arguably one of the best five pitchers in the game and him along with David Price and Eovaldi should anchor the team to a lot of win in 2019. The only real question of this team is the bullpen.
Since Craig Kimbrel is still unsigned and he isn’t likely to return to Boston, the team could choose instead to go with a closer by committee combo of Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, and Steven Wright. Relief duty would then be left to other less reliable and trusty pitchers such as Heath Hembree, Tyler Thornburg, Bobby Poyner, Colten Brewer, and Brandon Workman.
Houston Astros (+500): Although the team lost Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton to free agency the rotation is still pretty solid with both Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole leading the way.
The Astros signed Robinson Chirinos to replace the departed Brian McCann and the still unsigned and likely gone Martin Maldonado. The also acquired Michael Bradley to round out what should be one of the finest outfields in all of baseball this year playing along Josh Reddick and George Springer.
With an otherwise intact lineup, this is a group that includes Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, and Yuli Gurriel and should be expected to coast to a division title in the A.L West.
The biggest question mark for this team is the bullpen, but they did get an upgrade after trading for Roberto Osuna and this season are just a couple of pieces away from making it back to the World Series.
Despite some shortcoming when compared to the two other teams in this list, the Astros are expected to create a lot of noise in the American League as they should win over 96.5 games, and easily win their division. They could even make it back to the World Series if the Yankees and Red Sox underperform or are badly bitten by the injury bug.
