With less than two weeks until Spring training, MLB pitchers and catchers will begin reporting within the next week and position players not long after. The 2023 campaign begins in just under 50 days. In this week’s Let’s Talk MLB, I’ll give you one sentence for how I’m feeling about every American League team’s 2023 campaign. 

Before I begin, let me make you aware of some biases I have within MLB. As a Chicago White Sox fan, I have little to no hope for this season, yet that does not mean you will not see my dislike for some teams within the AL Central. However, I will try to keep the biases to a minimum.

Let’s begin.

AL East

Toronto Blue Jays 

“Win the season series vs. the Yankees.” 

• Last season the Blue Jays went 8-11 against the Yankees, and finished seven games back in the AL East standings. While they made the playoffs, the Blue Jays could benefit from not having to play in the Wild Card. 

Baltimore Orioles 

“Be better than average and keep improving.”

• The 2022 Orioles were within the 14-22 range for many of the main statistical categories, including batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs, ERA and WHIP.

Tampa Bay Rays 

“Get a full season from Wander Franco.” 

• The Rays were 45-39 when Wander Franco suffered a hamate fracture on July 9. Franco batted .277 last year and had a .328 on-base percentage while not injured. 

Boston Red Sox 

“Don’t just rely on Devers.”

• Rafael Devers can’t do it all and most likely won’t. The pitching staff needs to be better. A rotational ERA of 4.56 last season should be lowered with lefty Chris Sale back this season. 

New York Yankees

“Get to the World Series.”

• Aaron Judge most likely will not break the AL home run record again, so you can have your college football back in September. This team is filled with players to root for in Anthony Rizzo, Carlos Rodón and Harrison Bader; but then again they have Josh Donaldson and Gerrit Cole. 

AL Central

Cleveland Guardians

“Grit wins games…again.”

• The Guardians had four more wins than they should have last year according to Baseball Reference. Those extra wins come from the grit led by Josh Naylor, Myles Straw and Steven Kwan. 

Kansas City Royals 

“Let the young guys shine.”

• Last year’s group of graduated prospects are led by Bobby Witt Jr., MJ Melendez, Kyle Isbel and Vinnie Pasquantino. Combine the hitters with the young pitchers led by 6-time all-star Zack Greinke and this team should improve in all facets of the game. 

Detroit Tigers 

“Farewell Miggy.”

• Miguel Cabrera confirmed that 2023 will be his last season, but he does not want to leave baseball completely. Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene are the cornerstones of the future but they will not create the 27 more wins they needed last season to win the division. 

Minnesota Twins 

“Is Correa too much and can they win a playoff game?”

• Carlos Correa may have returned but he tried to find another team to sign him before he did. Will the offseason fiasco of Correa affect the Twins this year? Their second obstacle is making the playoffs and then winning a playoff game for the first time in over 6700 days.

Chicago White Sox

“Let the derailments come and fight through them.”

• There’s a good chance that this Chicago White Sox team will experience injury after injury, most likely from running down the first base line. With a new manager, these derailments need to be expertly navigated by Pedro Grifol. A few derailments have already happened with Mike Clevinger and all-star closer Liam Hendriks’ Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. 

AL West

Los Angeles Angels 

“One more chance to make the playoffs.”

• Mike Trout will be 32-years-old by the end of the 2023 season and has 12 playoff at-bats. Although Trout is signed through 2030, Shohei Ohtani is entering his final year of his contract, and there were already talks to make a trade at last year’s deadline. For me, the front office has to consider blowing up the core if the Angels have another bad start to their season. 

Houston Astros

“Win it again.”

• What more can you say for the team that has been the most dominant team in the league the last 10 years. The addition of José Abreu is interesting. The Astros have a chance to repeat and get a ring for a guy who really deserves it.

Oakland Athletics 

“Average 25% capacity this season.”

• The average attendance at an A’s game last year was 9,973 attendees. That’s just 21% of the capacity when the Coliseum tarps the upper decks, or 17.6% when the full stadium is open. The team may not be good and ownership is horrendous, but having fans show up is important.

Seattle Mariners

“J-Rod for MVP? And Kelenic Back?”

• Julio Rodriguez hit .284 last year with 28 home runs. The Mariners will look for him to improve on last season, where he posted a 6.2 wins-above-replacement. Jarred Kelenic is undoubtedly a talented baseball player, but he has not figured it out in MLB. Kelenic took a 40 point drop last season in batting average. 

Texas Rangers

“Jacob deGrom leads the rotation.”

• The Rangers rotation clocked in at 12th in rankings, led by deGrom this rotation will make some noise in AL West. Marcus Semien and Corey Seager up the middle with a host of young players everywhere else, the Rangers may surprise us. 

That is it for the American League, look out for the National League next week.