MLB: Ranking the Best Divisions in 2017
By Anthony Sosa
AL Central
The AL Central is going to be a one-team race in 2017. The Cleveland Indians will repeat as Central champs. The addition of Edwin Encarnacion is huge for their lineup. They’ll get Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco back to full health. Not to mention, they have the best reliever in the game in Andrew Miller. Not only are the Indians good, but the rest of the division isn’t good enough to compete with them.
The Twins showed last season that their successful 2015 season was a fluke. They continue to talk about dealing Brian Dozier before the 2017 season. The rest of the team is young and they are in the midst of a rebuild, as are the White Sox.
Give the White Sox a few years and they’ll be good again. But they just traded ace Chris Sale to the Red Sox and center fielder Adam Eaton to the Nationals. Who they received (Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and others) won’t help them win now, but they will in the near future.
The Royals regressed in 2016 after their magical 2014 and 2015 seasons. They still have most of their key players from those seasons, but this is it. A few of those guys hit free agency after next season. The need to win won’t help the Royals next season, as they’ll finish under .500.
The Tigers have the best shot at competing with the Indians in 2017. And much like last season, they won’t catch them. The Tigers tried to trade some of their veteran pieces during the Winter Meetings, but it was to no avail. They have a solid core of players, and they’ll definitely compete for the Wild Card spots, but they won’t win the division.